gaolar admitted his friends to see him, and a bed was sent to him by some compassionate person, when he must otherwise have slept upon damp straw.

"On the following day he was marched to York:

We were guarded through the city, (he says,) but it was as if hell were moved from 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 upon 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 guard-house, 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 serjeant handcuff him and send him to prison. The handcuffs 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 were 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 musketeers 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.' When 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 to 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 to 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.' He must bear these, 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.

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 Mr. 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, accosting him with an execration, swore he would have no preaching nor praying in the regiment. Then, sir,' said John, you ought to have no swearing nor cursing either, for sure I have as much right to pray and preach as you have to curse and swear.' Upon this the brutal ensign swore that he should be flogged for what he had done. Let God look to that,' was the resolute man's reply; the cause is his; but if you do not leave off cursing and swearing it will be worse with you than with me.' The ensign then bade the corporal put that fellow in prison directly, and when the corporal said he must not carry a man to prison unless he gave in his crime with him, he told him it was for disobeying orders. To prison, therefore, Nelson was taken, to his heart's content, and after eight-and-forty hours' confinement was brought before the major, who asked him what he had been put in confinement for. For warning people to flee from the wrath to come,' he replied; and if that be a crime I shall commit it again, unless you cut my tongue out; for it is better to die than disobey God.' The major told him, if that were all it was no crime; when he had done his duty he might preach as much as he liked, but he must make no mobs. And then, wishing all men were like him, he dismissed him to his quarters.

'Lady Huntingdon exerted all her influence to obtain his discharge. By means of her acquaintance with Judith, Dowager Countess of Sunderland, she obtained an interview with her step-son, Charles, fourth Earl of Sunderland, afterwards Duke of Marlborough, who had a short time before been promoted to the rank of brigadier-general of his Majesty's forces. On a faithful representation of the case, his lordship assured Lady Huntingdon that those for whom she had interested herself should be set at liberty in a few days. This intelligence was communicated to Nelson by Mr. Charles Wesley, while her ladyship wrote to inform Mr. Ingham, who had taken an active part in procuring his enlargement, of the success of her application.

On the 28th of July, John Nelson was set at liberty, and the day after his release from captivity he preached at Newcastle. His companion, Thomas Beard, who had been pressed for the same reason, would probably have been discharged also, but the consequence of his cruel and illegal impressment had cost him his life. He was seized with a fever, the effect of fatigue and agitation of mind; after venisection ill performed, the lancet wound in his arm festered and mortified; the limb was amputated, and he died soon after the operation!' -Ib. pp. 255-259.

The Welsh magistrates exceeded even those of England in the bitterness of their proceedings against the Methodists. The 'gentlemen in part of Brecknockshire and Carmarthenshire,' says Howell Harris, 'hunt us like partridges; but still the work pros'pers.' The old spirit of the cavalier faction was now as rife as ever, and found a befitting and thorough-going disciple in Sir Watkin Williams Wynn. The intemperate conduct of this magistrate was at length represented to the government, and he was ordered to return the fines he had exacted from his poorer

gaolar admitted his friends to see him, and a bed was sent to him by some compassionate person, when he must otherwise have slept upon damp straw.

On the following day he was marched to York:

We were guarded through the city, (he says,) but it was as if hell were moved from 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 upon 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 guard-house, 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 serjeant handcuff him and send him to prison. The handcuffs 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 were 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 musketeers 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.' When 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 to 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 to 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.' He must bear these, 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.

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 Mr. 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, accosting him with an execration, swore he would have no preaching nor praying in the regiment. Then, sir,' said John, you ought to have no swearing nor cursing either, for sure I have as much right to pray and preach as you have to curse and swear.' Upon this the brutal ensign swore that he should be flogged for what he had done. 'Let God look to that,' was the resolute man's reply; the cause is his; but if you do not leave off cursing and swearing it will be worse with you than with me.' The ensign then bade the corporal put that fellow in prison. directly, and when the corporal said he must not carry a man to prison unless he gave in his crime with him, he told him it was for disobeying orders. To prison, therefore, Nelson was taken, to his heart's content, and after eight-and-forty hours' confinement was brought before the major, who asked him what he had been put in confinement for. For warning people to flee from the wrath to come,' he replied; and if that be a crime I shall commit it again, unless you cut my tongue out; for it is better to die than disobey God.' The major told him, if that were all it was no crime; when he had done his duty he might preach as much as he liked, but he must make no mobs. And then, wishing all men were like him, he dismissed him to his quarters.

'Lady Huntingdon exerted all her influence to obtain his discharge. By means of her acquaintance with Judith, Dowager Countess of Sunderland, she obtained an interview with her step-son, Charles, fourth Earl of Sunderland, afterwards Duke of Marlborough, who had a short time before been promoted to the rank of brigadier-general of his Majesty's forces. On a faithful representation of the case, his lordship assured Lady Huntingdon that those for whom she had interested herself should be set at liberty in a few days. This intelligence was communicated to Nelson by Mr. Charles Wesley, while her ladyship wrote to inform Mr. Ingham, who had taken an active part in procuring his enlargement, of the success of her application.

On the 28th of July, John Nelson was set at liberty, and the day after his release from captivity he preached at Newcastle. His companion, Thomas Beard, who had been pressed for the same reason, would probably have been discharged also, but the consequence of his cruel and illegal impressment had cost him his life. He was seized with a fever, the effect of fatigue and agitation of mind; after venisection ill performed, the lancet wound in his arm festered and mortified; the limb was amputated, and he died soon after the operation!' -Ib. pp.

255-259.

The Welsh magistrates exceeded even those of England in the bitterness of their proceedings against the Methodists. The 'gentlemen in part of Brecknockshire and Carmarthenshire,' says Howell Harris, 'hunt us like partridges; but still the work pros'pers.' The old spirit of the cavalier faction was now as rife as ever, and found a befitting and thorough-going disciple in Sir Watkin Williams Wynn. The intemperate conduct of this magistrate was at length represented to the government, and he was ordered to return the fines he had exacted from his poorer

but more religious neighbours. The following brief extract furnishes a pleasing instance of an ingenuous mind, rising superior to the prejudices of its class.

All the Welsh magistrates, however, were not alike culpable. Howell Harris being once expected near Garth, in Breconshire, the residence of Marmaduke Gwynne, Esq., that gentleman, alarmed at the reports he had heard respecting him, determined, as a magistrate, to put an end to his proceedings. Regarding him as an incendiary in Church and State, Mr. Gwynne prepared himself for an open attack, but said to his lady, on going out, I'll hear the man myself, before I commit him.' Accordingly, he made one of the congregation, eagerly waiting to lay hold of any thing that might be construed into a charge against the preacher. He had also the Riot Act in his pocket, which he was prepared to read, and thus disperse the people. ~Mr. Harris's sermon, however, was so truly evangelical, so calculated to arouse the careless, to alarm the wicked, and to encourage the penitent, and his manner so zealous and affectionate, that Mr. Gwynne thought he resembled one of the apostles. He was so convinced of the purity of his doctrines, and of the benevolence of his motives, that, at the end of the discourse, he went up to him, shook him by the hand, told him how much he had been misled by slanderous reports, avowed the intention he had formed of committing him, asked his pardon, and, to the amazement of the assembly, entreated him to accompany him back to Garth to supper.

The authority and countenance of Mr. Gwynne and his family now became highly important to the cause of religion. Regardless of public and private censure, he openly stood up in Mr. Harris's defence, and made use of his extensive influence in promoting the spread of the gospel. One of his daughters was soon after married to Mr. Charles Wesley.'-Ib. pp. 110, 111.

6

By the death of the Earl of Huntingdon, October 13, 1746, the means of the countess were rather enlarged than otherwise. The entire management of her children and their fortunes was devolved on her by the will of his lordship, and she faithfully discharged the trust. Her solicitude, however, was not restricted to her social duties, but embraced a much wider range, and was uniformly regulated by a devout reference to the divine honor. Become her own mistress,' remarks her biographer, by the demise of his lordship, she resolved to devote her'self wholly to the service of Christ, and to the souls redeemed by his blood.' To this resolution she steadily adhered with an untiring zeal and catholicity of spirit seldom equalled. Firmly attached to the Church of England, she was yet in habits of intimacy with various members of the Dissenting body, and encouraged their labors to the utmost extent of her means. 'Her generous heart never confined truth and goodness to one particular sect, nor in any other respect