kennels, and even pregnant women outraged, to the imminent danger of their lives, and the disgrace of humanity. The mob said they would make a law, and that all the Methodists should set their hands to it; and they nearly murdered those who would not sign a paper of recantation. When they had had the law in their own hands for four or five months, (such in those days was the state of the police!) Wesley came to Birmingham on his way to Newcastle; and hearing of the state of things at Wednesbury, went there, like a man whose maxim it was always to look danger in the face. He preached in mid-day, and in the middle of the town, to a large assembly of people, without the slightest molestation either going or coming, or while he was on the ground. But in the evening the mob beset the house in which he was lodged: they were in great strength, and their cry was, "Bring out the minister! we will have the minister!" Wesley, who never, on any occasion, lost his calmness or his self-possession, desired one of his friends to take the captain of the mob by the hand, and lead him into the house. The fellow was either soothed or awed by Wesley's appearance and serenity. He was desired to bring in one or two of the most angry of his companions; they were appeased in the same manner, and made way for the man whom, five minutes before, they would fain have pulled to pieces, that he might go out to the people. Wesley then called for a chair, got upon it, and demanded of the multitude what they wanted with him? Some of them made answer, they wanted him to go with them to the justice. He replied, with all his heart; and added a few sentences, which had such an effect, that a cry arose, "The gentleman is an honest gentleman, and we will spill our blood in his defence." But when he asked whether they should go to the justice immediately, or in the morning, (for it was in the month of October, and evening was closing in,) most of them cried, "To-night, to-night!" Accordingly they set out for the nearest magistrate's, Mr. Lane, of Bentley-Hall. His house was about two miles distant; night came on before they had walked half the way; it began to rain heavily; the greater part of the senseless multitude dispersed, but two or three hundred still kept together; and as they approached the house, some of them ran forward to tell Mr. Lane they had brought Mr. Wesley before his worship. "What have I to do with Mr. Wesley ?" was the reply; "go and carry him back again." By this time the main body came up, and knocked at the door. They were told that Mr. Lane was not to be spoken with; but the son of that gentleman came out, and inquired what was the matter. “ Why, a'nt please you," said the spokesman, "they sing psalms all day; nay, and make folks rise at five in the morning. And what would your worship advise us to do?” "To go home," said Mr. Lane, and be quiet.'

Upon this they were at a stand, till some one advised that they should go to Justice Persehouse, at Walsal. To Walsal therefore they went it was about seven when they arrived, and the magistrate sent out word that he was in bed, and could not be spoken with. Here they were at a stand again; at last they thought the wisest thing they could do would be to make the best of their way home; and about fifty undertook to escort Mr. Wesley; not as their prisoner, but for the purpose of protecting him, so much had he won upon

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them by his commanding and yet conciliating manner. had arisen in Walsal that Wesley was there and a fresh fierce rabble rushed out in pursuit of their victim. They presently came up with him. His escort stood manfully in his defence; and a woman,; who was one of their leaders, knocked down three or four Walsal men, before she was knocked down herself, and very nearly murdered. His friends were presently overpowered, and he was left in the hands of a rabble too much infuriated to hear him speak. "Indeed," he says, "it was in vain to attempt it, for the noise on every side was like the roaring of the sea. The entrance to the town was down a steep hill, and the path was slippery, because of the rain. Some of the ruffians endeavoured to throw him down, and, if they had accomplished their purpose, it was not likely that he would ever have risen again: but he kept his feet. Part of his clotheswas torn off; blows were aimed at him with a bludgeon, which, had they taken effect, would have fractured his skuli; and one cowardly. villain gave him a blow on the mouth which made the blood gush out. With such outrages they dragged him into the town. Seeing the door of a large house open, he attempted to go in, but was caught by the hair, and pulled back into the middle of the crowd. They hauled him toward the end of the main street, and there he made toward a shop door, which was half open, and would bave gone in, but the shopkeeper would not let him, saying, that, if he did they would pull the house down to the ground. He made a stand, however, at the door, and asked if they would hear him speak? Many cried out, No, no knock his brains out! down with him! kill him at once!" A more atrocious exclamation was uttered by one or two wretches. I almost tremble," says Wesley, late it! Crucify the dog! crucify him!" " Others insisted that he should be heard. Even in mobs that opinion will prevail which has the show of justice on its side, if it be supported boldly. He obtained a hearing, and began by asking, "What evil have I done? which of you all have I wronged in word or deed?" His powerful and persuasive voice, his ready utterance, and his perfect self command, stood him on this perilous emergency in good stead. A cry was raised, "Bring him away! bring him away!" When it ceased, he then broke out into prayer; and the very man who had just before headed the rabble, turned and said, "Sir, I will spend my life for you! follow me, and not one soul here shall touch a hair of your head!" This man had been a prize-fighter at a bear-garden; his declaration, therefore, carried authority with it; and when one man declares himself on the right side, others will second him who might have wanted courage to take the lead. A feeling in Wesley's favour was now manifested, and the shopkeeper, who happened to be the mayor of the town, ventured to cry out, "For shame! for shame ! let him go;" having, perhaps, some sense of humanity, and of shame for his own conduct. The man who took his part conducted him through the mob, and brought him, about ten o'clock, back to Wednesbury in safety, with no other injury than some slight bruises. The populace seemed to have spent their fury in this explosion; and when, on the following morning, he rode through the town on his departure, some kindness was expressed by all whom he met. A few days afterwards, the very magistrates who had refused to see

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him when he was in the hands of the rabble, issued a curious warrant, commanding diligent search to be made after certain "disorderly persons, styling themselves Methodist preachers, who were going about raising routs and riots, to the great damage of His Majesty's liege people, and against the peace of our Sovereign Lord the King."

It was only at Wednesbury that advantage was taken of the popu lar cry against the Methodists to break open their doors and plunder their houses; but greater personal barbarities were exercised in other places. Some of the preachers received serious injury; others were held under water till they were nearly dead; and of the women who attended them, some were so treated by the cowardly and brutal populace, that they never thoroughly recovered. In some places they daubed the preacher all over with paint. In others they pelted the people in the meetings with egg-shell, which which they had filled with blood and stopt with pitch. The progress of methodism was rather furthered than impeded by this kind of persecution, for it rendered the Methodists objects of curiosity and compassion; and in every instance the preachers displayed that fearlessness which enthusiasm inspires, and which, when the madness of the moment was over, made even their enemies respect them. These things were sufficiently disgraceful to the nation; but the conduct of many of the provincial magistrates was far more so, for they suffered themselves to be so far influenced by passion and popular feeling, as to commit acts of abominable oppression under the colour of law. The vicar of Bristol, which was John Nelson's home and head-quarters, thought it justifiable to rid the parish by any means of a man who preached with more zeal and more effect than himself; and he readily consented to a proposal from the alehouse-keepers that John should be pressed for a soldier; for, as fast as he made converts, they lost customers. He was pressed accordingly, and taken before the commissioners at Halifax, where the vicar was one of the bench, and though persons enough attended to speak to his character, the commissioners said they had heard enough of him from the minister of his parish, and could hear nothing more. "So, gentlemen," said John, "I see there is neither law nor justice for a man that is called a Methodist ;" and addressing the vicar by his name, he said, "What do you know of me that is evil? Whom have I defrauded? or where have I contracted a debt that I cannot pay ?"-" You have no visible way of getting your living," was the reply. He answered, "I am as able to get my living with my hands as any man of my trade in England is, and you know it." But all remonstrances were in vain, he was marched off to Bradford, and there, by order of the commissioners, put in the

*The most harmless mode of annoyance was practised at Bedford. The meeting room was over a place where pigs were kept. An alderman of the town was one of the society; and his dutiful nephew took care that the pigs should always be fed during the time of preaching, that the alderman might have the full enjoyment of their music as well as their odour Wesley says, in one of his Journals, "the stench from the swine under the room was scarce supportable. Was ever a preaching place over a hog-stye before? Surely they love the gospel who come to hear it in such a place."

When John Leach was pelted near Rochdale in those riotons days, and saw his brother Wounded in the forehead by a stone, he was mad enough to tell the rable that not one of them Could hit him, if he were to stand preaching there till midnight. Just then the mob hegan to quarrel among themselves, and therefore left off pelting. But the anecdote has been related by his brethren for his praise!

dungeon the filth and blood from the shambles ran into the place, and the only accommodation afforded him there was some stinking straw, for there was not even a stone to sit on.

John Nelson had as high a spirit and as brave a heart as ever Englishman was blessed with; and he was encouraged by the good offices of many zealous friends, and the sympathy of some to whom he was a stranger. A soldier had offered to be surety for him, and an inhabitant of Bradford, though an enemy to the Methodists, had, from mere feelings of humanity, offered to give security for him if he might be allowed to lie in a bed. His friends brought him candles, and meat and water, which they put through a hole in the door, and they sang hymns till a late hour in the night, they without and he within. A poor fellow was with him in this miserable place, who might have been starved if Nelson's friends had not brought food for him also. When they lay down upon their straw, this man asked him, "Pray, sir, are all these your kinsfolk, that they love you so well? I think they are the most loving people that ever I saw in my life." At four in the morning his wife came and spake to him through the hole in the door; and John, who was now well read in his Bible, said that Jeremiah's lot was fallen upon him. The wife had profited well by her husband's lessons. Instead of bewailing for him and for herself, (though she was to be left with two children, and big with another,) she said to him, "Fear not; the cause is God's for which you are here, and he will plead it himself; therefore be not concerned about me and the children; for he that feeds

the young ravens will be mindful of us. He will give you strength for your day; and after we have suffered a while, he will perfect that which is lacking in our souls, and then bring us where the wicked cease from troubling, and where the weary are at rest. Early in the morning he was marched, under a guard, to Leeds; the other pressed men were ordered to the alehouse, but he was sent to prison; and there he thought of the poor pilgrims who were arrested in their progress; for the people came in crowds, and looked at him through the iron grate. Some said it was a shame to send a man for a soldier for speaking the truth, when they who followed the Methodists, and till that time had been as wicked as any in the town, were become like new creatures, and never an ill word was heard from their lips. Others wished that all the Methodists were hanged out of the way. They make people go mad," said they; " and we cannot get drunk or swear, but every fool must correct us, as if we were to be taught by them. And this is one of the worst of them.” Here, however, he met with some kindness. The jailer admitted his friends to see him, and a bed was sent him by some compassionate person, when he must otherwise have slept upon stinking straw. On the following day he was marched to York, and taken before some officers. Instead of remonstrating with them upon the illegal manner in which he had been seized, and claiming his discharge, he began to reprove them for swearing; and when they told him he was not to preach there, for he was delivered to them as a soldier, and must not talk in that manner to his officers, he answered, that there was but one way to prevent him, which was by not swearing in his hearing. John Nelson's reputation was well known in York, and the popular prejudice against the Methodists was just at its height.

"We were guarded through the city," says he, "but it was as if hell were moved beneath to meet me at my coming. The streets and windows were filled with people, who shouted and huzzaed, as if I had been one that had laid waste the nation. But the Lord made my brow like brass, so that I could look on them as grasshoppers, and pass through the city as if there had been none in it but God and myself." Lots were cast for him at the guardhouse; and when it was thus determined which captain should have him, he was offered money, which he refused to take, and for this they bade the servant hand-cuff him, and send him to prison. The hand-cuffs were not put on; but he was kept three days in prison, where he preached to the poor reprobates among whom he was "thrown, and, wretches as they were, ignorant of all that was good, and abandoned to all that was evil, the intrepidity of the man who reproved them for their blasphemies, and the sound reason which appeared amidst all the enthusiasm of his discourse, was not without effect. Strangers brought him food; his wife also followed him here, and encouraged him to go on and suffer every thing bravely for conscience sake. On the third day a court-martial was held, and he was guarded to it by a file of musqueteers, with their bayonets fixed. When the court asked, “ What is this man's crime?" the answer was, "This is the Methodist preacher, and he refuses to take money;" upon which they turned to him and said, "sir, you need not find fault with us, for we must obey our orders, which are to > make you act as a soldier; you are delivered to us; and if you have not justice done you, we cannot help it." John Nelson plainly told them he would not fight, because it was against his way of thinking; and when he again refused the money which by their bidding was offered him, they told him, that, if he ran away, he would be just as liable to suffer as if he had taken it. He replied, "If I cannot be discharged lawfully, I shall not run away. If I do, punish me as you please.' He was then sent to his quarters, where his arms and accoutrements were brought him and put on. Why do you gird me,' said he, "with these warlike habiliments? I am a man averse to war, and shall not fight, but under the Prince of Peace, the Captain of my salvation; the weapons he gives me are not carnal, like these." must bear those, they told him, till he could get his discharge. To this he made answer, that he would bear them as a cross, and use them as far as he could without defiling his conscience, which he would not do for any man on earth.

He

There was a spirit in all this which, when it had ceased to excite ridicule from his comrades, obtained respect. He had as good opportunities of exhorting and preaching as he could desire: he distributed also the little books which Wesley had printed to explain and vindicate the tenets of the Methodists, and was as actively employed in the cause to which he had devoted himself, as if he had been his own master.-At last the ensign of his company sent for him, and accosted him with an execration, swore he would have no preaching nor praying in the regiment. "Then," said John," Sir, you ought to have no swearing or cursing neither; for surely I have as much right to pray and preach, as you have to curse and swear. Upon this the brutal ensign swore he should be damnably flogged for what