AN 
 
 APPEAL 
 
 TO THE . 
 
 Wesleyan Methodist Societies 
 
 THROUGHOUT THE KINGDOM, 
 
 AGAINST 
 
 ACTS OF INJUSTICE AND OPPRESSION, 
 
 CALCULATEDTO EXTINGUISH 
 
 A REVIVAL OF THE WORK OF GOD 
 
 IN THE 
 
 Ston&mt WBtZt etrcutt 
 
 A DEFENCE OF REVIVALS IN GENERAL, 
 
 . AND OF THAT REVIVAL IN PARTICULAR: 
 
 WITH 
 
 OBSERVATIONS ON THE 
 
 ALARMING DIVISION AND RENT IN IRELAND, 
 
 WHERE SIX AND TWENTY CHAPELS HAVE BEEN CLOSED AGAINST , 
 
 THE TRAVELLING PREACHERS. 
 
 A LETTER 
 
 
 JOSEPH BUTTERWORTH, Esq. MP. 
 
 One iff the Committee for guarding tke Privileges of ifoe Methobisis 
 
 By J. P. FESENMEYER. 
 
 " Believe evil of no one, unless fully proved : take heed how you credit it." 
 
 Conference to the Preachers. — See Large Minutes, 
 
 "I" i ; MJttS. - ':'.*'' '' '■"'"' . " ' ' ' ' ' 
 
 GOD AN^&J MY RIGHT. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 Sold by J. P. Fssinmeyer, No. 183, Fleet Street / and by all Booksellers 
 in Town and Country, 
 
 Price One Shilling, 
 

 
 
 ,& 
 
 

 SIR, 
 
 1 O you it cannot be matter of surprise, that, in calling 
 the attention of the Methodist Body to a case of unparalleled 
 injustice and oppression, I should, for that purpose, select, from 
 among the Committee appointed by the Methodist Conference to 
 guard their privileges, one Who not only is well known by the 
 whole pi that body, but who, from having a seat in the British 
 Senate, must be considered to be more feelingly alive to a right 
 dispensation of justice, than persons who have not had committed 
 to them that sacred deposit — the care of public liberty, and the 
 duty of legislation. _,■ 
 
 The Trust Deed of Great Queen Street Chapel differs from the 
 Trust Deeds of those chapels which are settled on the Conference 
 Plan ; and that chapel, therefore, never can be claimed by the 
 Conference: the Conference has nothing to do with the chapel 
 in question ; it belongs solely to the Trustees, Men.-leaders, and 
 Stewards ; as you will presently perceive, by the extracts from the 
 Trust Deed, which I beg to lay before you. 
 
 That persons should ever act as Trustees, without being in 
 possession of a copy of the Deed under which they act, is to be 
 lamented; this occasions much misunderstanding, and leads, not 
 unfrequently, to results the most painful and distressing. 
 
 Thefrst clause, to which I beg leave to call your attention, 
 is that which provides against a Travelling Methodist Preacher 
 being stationed a third year to preach in Great Queen Street 
 Chapel. It runs thus : " Provided also, and it is hereby declared 
 and agreed, by and between the said parties to these presents, 
 that no person, so to be appointed by the said Conference to 
 preach in the said chapel, shall remain, or continue to preach or 
 officiate therein, for any more or longer term or time than two 
 years successively, without the consent of the said Trustees, Men- 
 leaders, and Stewards, or the major part of them, for the 
 time being, first had and obtained." 
 
 Now, Sir, this proviso has been most religiously acted upon. 
 In the case of Mr. Moore, when the Conference appointed him 
 for a third year, a meeting was called of the Trustees, Men- 
 
leaders, and Stewards, to ascertain their opinion on the subject. 
 It is true, that the Leaders, when sitting there, were not aware 
 that they had a right to sit in that meeting, on that question j 
 for they were told that the Trustees wished only to consult tha 
 Leaders, and to ascertain what they thought on the subject* 
 Such was also the case with Mr. Entwisle, when his stay was 
 proposed for a third year : it was agitated in the Leaders* 
 Meeting, on the ground that his presence would be necessary 
 another year, as the society were engaged in building a new 
 chapel ; — not a word about the right of, the Leaders on that 
 question. 
 
 The clause on page 7- o( the Trustees' printed Extracts from 
 the Trust Deed,' gives power to' the Trustees to let or demise the 
 coach-house, and other buildings attached to the chapel, at or 
 ; for the best rents that can be had or gotten for the same. 
 
 At page 9. of the same copy^ is a clause which directs that 
 all the iri-comings of the chapel and premises are to be ap- 
 plied in discharging ground-rent, taxes, annuities, interest, &c. 
 and in ' keeping the premises in good- and sufficient repair:— 
 .-" And, from and after payment and discharge of all such debts 
 as aforesaid, to lay out, give, and dispose bf the surplus of the 
 said rents, issues, and profits, if any there shall be, unto and for 
 the support and furtherance of the Gospel, in the London 
 Circuit, and among such poor persons of the said Society of 
 Methodists, as the-' said Trustees, Men-KJlass-leaders, and 
 'Stewards for the time being, or the major part of them, shall 
 think proper." 
 ' At page 10. is another important clause : 
 
 " And it is further declared and agreed, by and between the 
 said parties to these presents, that in case, at any time, the 
 Society of Methodists in London should be dissolved, or become 
 extinct ; or in case the Trustees, \Men--Cldss-leaders, and 
 Stewards, or the major part of them for the time being, shall be 
 of opinion x that a larger or more convenient chapel shall be 
 necessary^ then, in either of the said cases or events, it shall 
 and may be lawful to ami for the 'Trustees, or the major part o{ 
 them for the time being, either by public sale or private contract, 
 to sell and dispose of the said chapel, messuages or dwelling- 
 houses, erections,' buildings, and premises, and such other 
 erections' and buildings as shall be then standing and being 
 upon the said ground, or any of them, or any part thereof, either 
 together, or in parcels, fdr the most money and best price and 
 prices that can be reasonably had or gotten for the same. 
 
 u And that all and every sum and sums of money to arise and 
 be received from such sale or sales (if any shall be made,' in case 
 the Society in London should be dissolved, or become f&tinct,). 
 
I 
 
 ihall be laid oUt and be disposed of, as the said Trustees, Men- 
 leaders, and Stetvardsf or the major part of them for the time 
 being, shall think proper and fit. And in case of building a larger 
 place of worship, the money to arise by selling the premises to be 
 laid out and applied in the purchase or building of another more 
 suitable and . convenient chapel, in the same manner, and for 
 the same purposes, as, the said chapel hereinbefore mentioned is, 
 under the Trusts hereby declared, thereof meant and intended to 
 be used and occupied." 
 
 . The very appellation of Trustee proclaims that the property 
 invested in him is not his own ; but that he holds it only in trust, 
 and is ultimately accountable, in some shape or other, to the 
 parties who have placed that property in his hands. 
 
 The Society at Great Queen Street having increased to nearly 
 one thousand members, and the chapel being capable of seating 
 0nty somewhat above five hundred, it was thought highly necessary 
 by the Leaders that a larger and more commodious chapel should 
 be erected, instead of it.. A petition was introduced into the 
 Leaders' Meeting, addressed to the Trustees, humbly requesting 
 them to accede to their wishes. This petition was drawn up by 
 a Trustee; and when it was urged in. the Leaders' Meeting that 
 the language was really grovelling, and unfit to be addressed 
 from one respectable body of Christians to another, it was 
 answered by a Trustee, who was. also a. Leader, that unless it was 
 signed, the Leaders would not be able to accomplish their wishes* 
 With a trifling alteration or two, the form was agreed to. The 
 generality of the Leaders, together with myself, had not the 
 smallest idea that they had a right to be consulted on the 
 matter; they were n$t aware of a clause in. the Trust Deed 
 which rendered their consent absolutely necessary ; on the 
 contrary, we had all been taught to believe, that the Trustees 
 could do what they pleased, and were not accountable, in any 
 shape, to the Leaders' Meeting. 
 
 . The chapel was at length ordered to be pulled down: and 
 although our Society ,was accommodated, partially, with places in 
 the afternoon and evening of the Sabbath, yet they were destitute 
 of a place for morning service ; except what was offered them by 
 the Committee of Wild Court Charity School, who accom- 
 modated the Society, for their morning and also evening worship, 
 with their school-rooms, which would hold about two hundred 
 persons. r . . . , - . . 
 
 The Trustees, agreeably to the power of sale in the Trust Deed, 
 advertized the old materials, ornaments, chandeliers, &c. of 
 the chapel to be sold ; and the Secretary of the Charity School 
 waited upon the Treasurer of the Trustees, and begged him to 
 request that the Trustees would put up a few of the brass can- 
 
dtesticks, which were advertised for sale^ in the School-house, for 
 the accommodation of Such of the Society as might attend the 
 evening worship on the Sabbath, and other evenings in the week, 
 at the School-house. The Secretary of the School was ac- 
 quainted by the Treasurer of the Trustees, that the Trustees had 
 given him leave to take as many as he judged proper : and a dozen 
 being found sufficient, he took them, and had them fixed up in 
 the School- room. 
 
 It having been judged necessary by a few persons residing at 
 Kentish Town to erect a chapel there, Mr. John Mathison, who was 
 Treasurer of the Great Queen Street Chapel, and a Trustee of the 
 Kentish Town Chapel; together with Mr. Joseph Bradley, a Trustee 
 of the same chapel ; petitioned the Great Queen Street Trustees to 
 give them, for the use of their chapel, the brass candlesticks Jixed 
 up in the School-room, and placed there for the accommodation of 
 the society for which they were Trustees: to this petition the 
 Trustees of Great Queen Street consented. 
 
 Application was now made to the Master of the School for 
 the candlesticks ; who declined giving them up, unless he had 
 authority from the Secretary of the School, into whose hands 
 they were originally given, and who was ever considered the 
 acting responsible person for all proceedings regarding the 
 school, between the intervals of the School Committee Meetings. 
 
 The Secretary of the School, on application being made to 
 him by the Secretary of the Queen Street Trustees, objected to 
 give them up, until he had applied to the Trustee Meeting of 
 Great Queen' Street Chapel ; all whose acts, by the Trust Deed, 
 require confirmation at the next meeting, before they are legal, or 
 can properly be acted upon. Upon this being declared to be his 
 intention, he was answered, by the Secretary to the Queen Street 
 Trustees, that no meeting would be held for a month. The 
 Secretary of the School replied, that then he would detain them 
 until the pleasure of the Leaders' Meeting should be known 
 upon the subject, which would sit on the following Wednesday. 
 Here the Secretary of the Trustees denied the authority of the 
 Leaders' Meeting to interfere on the business. 
 
 The Secretary of the School, well knowing the power of the 
 Leaders' Meeting, and the right they had to interpose in the 
 disposition of any of the materials of the old chapel, now felt it 
 to be his duty to take the brass candlesticks out of the sockets 
 every evening after service, and to lock them up in a closet or 
 place leading to a loft on the school premises, in order to abide 
 the decision of the Leaders' Meeting. On Friday the 14th of 
 March, Mr. Mathison, the Treasurer of the Great Queen 
 Street Trustees, applied to the Secretary of the School for the 
 candlesticks j - but he again declined giving them up, until the 
 
Leaders' Meeting^ should decide, whether their own society 
 should be insulted by stripping the place of the brass candlesticks 
 which had been paid for by them, and be obliged to use some old 
 tin ones that had been cast aside by the Saffron Hill Society : 
 but, at the same time, he endeavoured to urge on the consider*- 
 ation of Mr. Mathison, the impropriety of his conduct, and 
 then offered to give him a pound note out of his own pocket, 
 towards buying new candlesticks for Kentish Town chapel, if they 
 would give up the candlesticks, and not hurt the minds of the 
 people by the proposed change. 
 
 No attention was paid to this: but on the 'following morning, 
 Saturday the 15th of March, Mr. John Elsworth, who is Secret 
 tary to the Kentish Town Trustees, and also a visitor of the 
 school; Mr. William Kent, the Secretary to the Great Queen Street 
 Trustees, who is a subscriber to the school, and also a Leader ; arid 
 Mr. Handisyde, who is a Trustee of Great Queen Street Chapel, -a 
 member of the- Committee of the School, and also a Leader J 
 entered the school-room, without any authority from the Leaders'. 
 Meeting, or any other sufficient authority, and broke open the. 
 lock under which the Secretary of the school had placed the 
 brass candlesticks, and took them away; and fixed up, in their 
 stead, the tin ones before alluded to. . -j " 
 
 The Secretary of the School, on being apprized of what he 
 calls a most-dariug outrage on all decency, sent a constable' id 
 apprize the parties concerned, that unless the candlesticks were 
 returned by ten o'clock on Monday morning, that he should 
 require their attendance at Marlborough Street on the Monday 
 afternoon. " 
 
 Mr. White, a Leader in the Queen Street Society, hearing of 
 the affair, applied the next day to the Secretary of the school, 
 immediately after the morning preaching, and urged him to drop 
 the matter. I, happening to be in the school-room talking with 
 a friend, and hearing a noise, turned round, and discovered Mr. 
 White talking in a most authoritative tone ; and seeing also the 
 wife of my friend, the Secretary of the School, whose situation 
 was such as to call for some attention, I immediately stepped 
 forward into the Schoolmaster's parlour, and, addressing my 
 friend, "said, <( Pray do not hold' any conversation with him.'*-*- 1 
 Mr. White immediately replied, " I desire, Sir, you will not 
 interfere in a private conversation.'' — I added, ff This ; cannot be 
 a private conversation in the presence of- six or eight people; and 
 I have aright to advise -my friend; and my advice to him is, not 
 to answer a word, for the manner in which- you behave.'' — After 
 some little time, however, it was agreedj that if the candlesticks 
 were placed in the hands of a third party, to abide the decision of 
 the Leaders" Meeting/ my" friend would consent to drop all 
 
1 
 
 6 
 
 further proceedings.: — An answer was to be brought to him by 
 five o'clock in the afternoon. 
 
 After having walked home with my friend, I saw no more of 
 him till the next day ; when he informed me that he had settled 
 the matter. — I told him frankly, that I very much lamented that 
 he had not a third person with him at the time he had concluded 
 the arrangement, as I had no faith in it. 
 
 What passed at the time of making the arrangement, I shall 
 give you, Sir, from my friend's own hand-writing : it is as 
 follows: — 
 
 . " On Sunday, March the 16th, Mr. White called on me: 
 " there were present only my wife, Mr. White, and myself* 
 " Mr. White said he was a, friend to loth parties, and came to 
 "settle the matter in dispute, if possible; (and from my having 
 " been waited on by him in the morning, and he being the 
 "bearer of an answer to a proposition to the other patties 
 " concerned, I considered he came with full powers to settle 
 "the matter in dispute.) After Mr. White had entered into 
 " the subject, and said many things, he added, that if the matter 
 " was brought into a public office, it would get into all the news- 
 " papers, and be a very serious stab to the cause of religion ; and 
 " on next Tuesday or Sunday we should see placards at all cor- 
 " ners of the streets, with ' Fracas between the Methodists/ and the 
 " names attached of the parties concerned. He further said, that 
 ¥■ if I went a step further in the business than I had done, it 
 " would be an act of which 1 1 should have cause to repent, for it 
 " would lead to my expulsion from the society; but if I let the 
 " matter drop, I might do it with honour, and nothing move 
 "would' be said about it. Mr. White then urged the matter 
 " again and again, in similar words* My reply was, These men 
 " have committed an outrageous and unjustifiable act against 
 " me; and they ought to know that they had done wrong: that 
 " I always moved in what {considered the path of duty, and was 
 " not to be deterred by the fear of consequences ; and the only 
 " thing that had any weight with me, that Mr. White had urged, 
 " was, lest being brought before the world, it should injure 
 "the cause of Christ, which was the farthest thing from my 
 " heart. Mr. White took up the Bible,' and read to me, l Dare 
 " any man, having a matter against another, go to law before 
 " the unjust ?' &c. He then asked my wife, what she thought 
 " of the matter, whether she was not for peace : she replied, 
 ** ( Ves, I wish it was settled.' Mr. White then, putting his hand 
 " on the Bible, said, f Here is God, your wife, and your friend, 
 " for peace ! surely you'll give me your hand, and let the 
 " matter drop.' In the course of further conversation, I said, 
 " 'As the taking these brethren before the public, and exposing 
 
" their conduct, would be a serious injury to the connexion, on 
 
 " that consideration, and with an understanding that the busi- 
 
 ** ness should not be brought before the Leaders-' Meeting, and 
 
 " that no advantage should be taken of my leniency in that way, 
 
 " "I would drop the mfctter.' — He immediately promised it should 
 
 " not be brought into the Leaders' Meeting ; and, in the most- 
 
 " firm and unequivocal manner, pledged himself if the matter 
 
 " was mentioned in that meeting, he would oppose it with -all 
 
 " his might. - I told him, on those conditions, and on those 
 
 " only, would I agree to drop the matter. Mr. White, on part- 
 
 " ing with me, said, * Now I have spent my day well, to the 
 
 u gl° r y °f God.'— I heard nothing further till Wednesday, On 
 
 w Wednesday forenoon, Mr. Wood, the superintendant of the 
 
 " circuit, called upon me ; and, after expatiating on the impro-' 
 
 " priety of my conduct, asked me to make him a mediator with 
 
 " the three brethren. : I told him that it was settled, that every 1 
 
 " thing was made up, and that nothing more was to be said 
 
 t( about it. He replied, that it should not be settled in any such 
 
 " way ; and that if those three brethren did not bring it forward 
 
 u immediately, he should feel it to be his duty to do it; and 
 
 H urged me to make him my mediator, and authorize him tosay> 
 
 "to them, that I only had done wrong, and was very- sorry 
 
 " for it. I replied, that I would say we had all done wrong/ 
 
 "would meet them hblf-way, and make as ample an apology as 
 
 " they did, and shake -hands with them ; but that I would not 1 
 
 " go beyond this. On parting, he again pressed me to bend r 
 
 " and make the apology ; and said, c Brother, you remember the 
 
 "fable of the Wolves and the Lamb: the lamb laid down,. and 
 
 "'suffered tftie wolves to ; run over him : I advise you to do the 
 
 " same.' I promised to turn it over in my mind, and let him know. 
 
 " I called at his house about four o'clock that day, and found-he 
 
 "' had gone out. About five 'o'clock that evening I received a pote 
 
 " from Mr. Kent, to attend the Leaders' - Meeting that night t on 
 
 " the unpleasant business. I now went to Mr. White, and shewed 
 
 "him the note i; and expressed my surpris* at receiving such a 
 
 " thing. He said he had' done all he .could to prevent it j- and* 
 
 " that I should find he" had done as much for me as he could ibr 
 
 " an own brother. I reminded him of his pledge to oppose it:- 
 
 " He told me he would; and that if he could not lift up his hand 
 
 "for me, he would not lift up his hand against me !"— So fan my 
 
 friend. ' ■ ■ ' 
 
 Being unwilling to break the thread of my friend's own mar-) 
 rative, I beg leave to introduce here, that on Tuesday mornhigy 
 Mr. White, who professed himself the mediator and; friend of 
 the parties, called at Mr; Bradley's shop: myself and - another 
 
8 . 
 
 person being present. He said that he had succeeded in hushing 
 up the business between my friend and two of the other parties; 
 but as Mr. Kent had not been placed under arrest, there was 
 no necessity for going to him on the matter. Believing that I 
 had discovered a loop-hole, I observed that he had better see 
 him : he said he would, and left the shop. 
 
 My friend, on Wednesday evening, attended the Leaders' Meet- 
 ing; and some time was spent in a warm debate between myself, 
 the Chairman, and this voluntary mediator, in order to prevent 
 his becoming the accuser of my friend. I insisted that the 
 person who had given him notice that the business would be 
 brought forward, should accuse : it was objected by the Chair, 
 that I ought not to interrupt, until I had heard this mediator 
 out. Tasked, "Am I to wait for half an hour, until he has 
 finished his speech, in order to discover the drift of it?" — He was* 
 ordered to proceed ; and I again protested against it. 'The sense 
 of the meeting being against him, he was obliged to sit down. 
 
 Mr. Kent now rose, and finished the charge ; and closed it 
 by urging upon the Meeting the baseness of the transaction, as 
 far as regarded himself; he having been arrested on the Sabbath 
 day', just as he was sitting down to dinner with his family ! 
 
 You will recollect, Sir, that I stated, just above, that Mr. 
 White said that Mr. Kent had not been arrested. I, sitting in a 
 judicial capacity, now put this question to Mr. Kent. Did you 
 not send for the constable on Sunday P His answer was, " No, 
 I did not." 
 
 Mr. White now rose, and most energetically laboured to force 
 upon the consideration of the meeting the heinousness of the 
 crime charged upon my friend ; but added, (with a view of 
 charging me) "He has had an adviser;" — and, in order to ex«* 
 tract a confession of it from my friend, he pretended to plead for 
 a light sentence ; and, treating him like a school-boy, said to 
 him, " Had you not an adviser in this business?" My friend 
 immediately replied, " It is not a fair question." The Chairman 
 said, " Let it have the same effect as if he had answered it." 
 "Well, then," added Mr. White, " I will put the question very 
 direct;" and addressing me, while sitting in a judicial capacity, 
 asked, " Brother Fesenmeyer, are not you his adviser ?" De>» 
 spising such a sinister attempt to wrest judgment, I replied, " I 
 shall not tell you, Sir." " You can," observed the Chairman, 
 charge him with being, the adviser, and prove it next Wednes- 
 day evening." " I charge, then," added he, " Brother 
 Fesenmeyer with being the life, the soul, the core of the whole 
 business ; and I will prove it next Wednesday evening." " Very 
 well," I replied, " I shall hold you to your charge." 
 
The business proceeded. Mr. Elswortk now rose, to add hh 
 testimony against my friend : I asked him whether he had not 
 been to a constable, before he broke open the closet. He replied 
 he had ; but that it was to a religious constable ; and that he was 
 from home, and therefore they broke it open without him ! 
 
 Passing over many things of minor importance, we arrive at, 
 the defence of the accused. Here he stated the rights of the 
 Leaders ; the sacred obligation which rested on every person to 
 regard property placed under a lock ; and which obligation was 
 peculiarly binding among Christians. He insisted that Mr. Kent y 
 who had summoned him to the meeting, would not have been 
 arrested on the Sunday, had he himself not sent for the constable, 
 Mr. Kent again denied it. I observed, that I had been told by 
 the constable himself that he had sent for him : he denied it the 
 third time. 
 
 Now, Sir, Mr. Kent was strictly correct : he did not send for 
 him ; for on inquiring particularly of the constable, it turns out 
 that he himself, Don Quixote like, seeking for adventures, went 
 to the constable, and left word that his name was Kent, and 
 desired the constable to call upon him in an hour : the constable 
 went ; it was, I believe, about his dinner-time ; and he promised 
 to be forthcoming the next day. I hope, Sir, you will allow 
 me to add, by way of Nota Bene, that this happened about an 
 hour after Mr. White had had h\s> first interview with my friend. 
 
 My friend, having gone through his defence, was ordered to 
 withdraw. The propriety of those of his accusers staying- in the 
 meeting, who were members of it, was discussed ; and the Chair- 
 man ruled, that as they were accusers, it altered the question : so 
 they stayed. 
 
 Mr. White, the . professed mediator, now penned a motion 
 declaratory of the accused's unchristian-like and improper con- 
 duct towards the accusers ; but that such conduct was principally; 
 to be attributed to the lad advice that had been given to him. 
 
 Perceiving it to be the intention of Mr. White to procure, by 
 this motion, a resolution of indirect censure upon me, I opposed 
 it; and the Rev. Mr. Taylor, the chairman, recommended 
 Mr. White to make the latter part of it the subject of a separate 
 motion: he did so, and it then stood declaratory only of the 
 accused's unchristian-like and improper conduct. 
 
 Having considered the whole proceedings as disgraceful to all 
 the parties, I rose and moved an amendment, to the following 
 effect : That all the parties concerned in the disgraceful business 
 then before the meeting, had acted contrary to Scripture, and the 
 rules and laws of Methodism ; and that it was the judgment of 
 the meeting that the whole of them should ask pardon of the 
 church for their misconduct. This was objected to, in very 
 strong language. Apprehending,, from the temper of the majority 
 
10 
 
 in the meeting, that to persevere in the amendment would only 
 injure the accused,, I withdrew itj and Mr. .White's motion was 
 carried. , . 
 
 The Chairman now called for Mr. White's second rriotion j 
 . which was, That the unchristian-like and improper conduct of the 
 accused was to be attributed to the bad advice that had been 
 given to him. I appealed to the meeting, and asked, " Has any' 
 thing transpired this evening, in this meeting, to Warrant such a 
 motidn?" The reply was, <<- No ! there has not !'*'' The motion ' 
 was lost. 
 
 The sentence , passed on the accused was, that he should l)e 
 suspended from the social means of.grace, for three months. 
 
 But before the original motion was softened, which went to 
 entire expulsion, a ruse de guerre was played off by Mr. White: 
 he accused the Chairman of partiality towards the accused, and of 
 not being sufficiently attentive to the character of the accusers. 
 The Chairman, after the sentence of suspension had passed, recol- 
 lected this ; -and observed, that he was at a loss to express his' 
 feelings; and wished himself out of the chair, that he might' 
 disburden his heart. He was requested to leave it, and to walk 
 into the middle of the room : this was done ; and he observed, 
 that he thought the accused ought to have been suspended for six" 
 months. Mr. Kent now rose, and Urged that their characters' 
 had not received a due reparation ; for he was sure, that as the 
 Chairman had been that evening preaching from tp.e text, 
 " Brethren, if- a man be overtaken in a fault, let'such as are" 
 spiritual restore such a one in the spirit of meekness/' the con- 
 gregation strongly suspected that he and the other two had been 
 turned out of the Society, and that a way was being paved for' 
 their return : and he then moved, That the sentence against the 
 accused should be read to the congregation at Wild Court'on the 
 following Saturday evening ; and "to the Society, oh the following 
 Sunday evening, at New Court Chapel. It was seconded, and 
 carried. .■-;'•' 
 
 The mediator now recollecting his pious engagements, turned 
 round to Mr. Kent, and said, (i I told him (meaning my friend) 
 that I. would not lift up my hand against him !" And when my 
 friend was called into the room, and had been acquainted with 
 his sentence, the- mediator took him by the hand, and said, •" If 
 you had followed my advice^ you would have cut the strings of 
 this opposition." This advice was given to my friend at five 
 o'clock that evening ; when he went to Mr. White, on his 
 receiving Mr. Kent's letter, acquainting him that he would bring 
 the business before the Leaders' Meeting : the advice was, to give' 
 Brother Fesenmeyer up, as the adviser iij this business j assuring 
 him that if he did, my friend should be forgiven ! ! 
 On the following Sunday, " a special Leaders' Meeting*' was 
 
11 
 
 Summoned from' the '.pulpit, to attend on Wednesday evening ; 
 and on the Monday morning, about ten o'clock, I received the 
 following note from the Stewards of Queen Street Society ; viz. f 
 
 " Dear Brother, — You are particularly requested to attend 
 the next Leaders' Meeting, at/New Court Chapel, on Wednesday 
 -March 26, 1817, at eight o'clock; as it is the intention of one or 
 more of the members of that meeting to charge you with having 
 advised and assisted in the unchristian-like and improper treat* 
 ment shown to Brothers Kent, Handisyde, Elsworth, &c. 
 " March 24, 1817. \ " We are yours, &c. 
 
 169, High Hoi born./ " J. Manning. 
 
 " To Mr. Fesenmeyer." Jx>s. West." 
 
 To which I replied : 
 
 " Dear Sir,— I have this moment received your note, acquaint- 
 ing me that it is the intention of one or more of the members of 
 the Leaders' Meeting to charge me with having advised and 
 assisted in the unchristian-like and improper treatment shown to 
 Brothers Kent, Handisyde, Elsworth, &c. 
 
 " Mr. White charged me with advising Mr. Oats, and said he 
 would prove it at the next Leaders' Meeting ; to this charge I 
 intend to hold him : but as you now say that I am to be charged 
 by one or more of the members of the Meeting; I cannot consent 
 to attend that meeting, to answer any such charge, until I know 
 the names of my intended accusers; and, also, until I know 
 whether I am to consider the charge, written by you, to be that 
 which is to be preferred, namely, for * having advised and assisted 
 in the unchristian-like and improper-treatment shown to Brothers 
 Kent, Handisyde, Elsworth, &e.' and the meaning that V 
 am to attach to the character e &c/ after the name of Brother 
 Elsworth, You will perceive the propriety of this application. 
 
 " I am, Dear Sir, yours, &c. . 
 
 " J. P. Fesenmeyeiu 
 
 " P.S. I presume you have the authority of the Superintend 
 tiant for summoning me." 
 
 « March 24, 1817. ' 
 " To Mr. Manning." 
 
 In the evening I received the following note, in reply. 
 
 " Dear Sir, — In answer to a note I have just received from you, 
 I would say, 1 have the authority of the Superintendent. With 
 respect to the ' one or more,' which you refer to, is meant those 
 eniy 'who are connected in the business of the charge named ; 
 and the i &c.' can only be what may possibly arise from the 
 discussion. 
 
 " Should youL think this not clear or satisfactory to you,; I 
 
12 
 
 would refer you to Mr. Wood (but I 'find he will not be at home 
 till late this evening). Of myself, I know not how to explain 
 further. > "I am, &c. 
 
 . " To Mr. Fesenmeyer." v " J. Manning." 
 
 I immediately answered him as follows : 
 
 ci Dear Sir, — I am sorry to give you so much trouble ; but you 
 must really give me the names of the parties charging me, and 
 the words of the charge to be brought, without any ambiguity. 
 How am. I to defend myself ? The law of God, and .of 
 Methodism, knows nothing about c et-cceteras.' You must not 
 imagine that^Lwish to blink the question, or shrink from inquiry. 
 I wish to have all my wounds in the front, and not to be assailed in 
 a party way. I therefore repeat, what I have before said in sub- 
 stance, that Twill not answer any complaint in that Leaders' 
 Meeting, unless I am furnished with a written charge exactly, 
 without any l et-cceleras,' or other nonsensical appendages; and 
 with the names of my accusers : and permit me to say, that you 
 have no right to summon me to meet any charge, but upon the 
 above conditions. I repeat, that I am ready to hold Mr. White to 
 his charge: let him bring his evidence; he has avowed himself: I 
 will know my accusers and my charge, or Twill not defend myself: 
 if it is meant to be Messrs. Kent, Handyside, and Elsworth, say 
 so; if any others, say so; then all will be even. What am I to 
 understand by ' those only who are connected in the lusiness of 
 the charge ?' "I am, Dear Sir, yours, &c. 
 
 " J. P. Fesenmbyer." 
 
 " P. S. You have referred me to Mr. Wood : — you must ex- 
 cuse me, I cannot do that.* 
 
 " To Mr. Manning." 
 
 About half past 10 o'clock that evening, I received the fol- 
 lowing. 
 
 " Sir, — According to my view of the subject, agreeable to my 
 first note, I imagine I have discharged my duty. 
 " Monday evening, \ " I am.; &c. 
 
 March 24. J "J. Manning." 
 
 Not being able to bring the Society Steward (who is one of the 
 Queen Street Trustees that voted away the candlesticks) to a 
 proper sense of his duty, as laid down in his presence in the mat- 
 ter of Mr. J s, when it was insisted that he should receive a 
 
 * The Rev. "Mr. Wood, the Superintendant of the Circuit, was Chairman- 
 of the Trustee Meeting that, gave the candtesticki to the v Keatish Town 
 
 Trustees. 
 
13 
 
 specific charge in writing, together with the names of ;Kis accusers! 
 and I having understood that a plan of operations had been 
 agreed on, at a supper, which bore every character- of a conspi- 
 racy;. I caused the following letter to be sent by my Solicitor to 
 the Stewards, the next morning j viz. 
 
 "March 25, 1817. 
 J "Gentlemen, — lam directed by Mr. J. P. Fesenmeyer, of Cook's 
 Court, Carey Street, to give you notice, that unless you, as the 
 Stewards of the Methodist Society of Great Queen Street, fur- 
 nish him with the charge in writing, without any ambiguity ©r 
 evasive matter, which you have acquainted him, by your note of 
 yesterday, is to be exhibited against him on Wednesday next^ and 
 also the name or names of the person or persons intending to ex- 
 hibit the same, and which it appears is your duty as Society 
 Stewards as aforesaid to do,— and that if, in consequence of your 
 refusal to accede to such his demand made by him yesterday, he 
 shall refuse either to attend the Leaders' Meeting, or when there 
 shall refuse to enter on his defence, and that Meeting shall adopt 
 any hostile proceedings against him in consequence, — he the said 
 J. P. Fesenmeyer will direct me immediately to institute proceed- 
 ings at law against you and each of you, and against all and 
 every the other parties concerned therein." 
 " To Messrs. West and Manning, -\ 
 
 Stewards of Great Queen Street > 
 
 Society." J 
 
 This was immediately followed by a letter from me to Mr. 
 Wood, the Superintendant of the Circuit, requesting him to use 
 his authority to procure the attendance of Messrs. Kent, Handi* 
 syde, Elsworth, and White, at the Leaders' Meeting on the Wed- 
 nesday evening, that I might have an opportunity of examining 
 them. On Tuesday I received his answer, acquainting me that 
 he would request them to attend, and expressed a wish to see 
 me at. the Local Preachers' Meeting, the next afternoon. 
 
 In the Local Preachers' Meeting, Mr. Wood said, that there 
 was a charge of an unpleasant nature against Brother Fesenmeyer : 
 it was, that I had sent an attorney's letter to Brother Manning, 
 and that it was contrary to the rules of Methodism for brother to 
 go to law with brother. I observed to him, that it stood closely 
 connected with the charge that Mr. White was engaged in that 
 evening with me ; and that 1 could not enter upon a defence, be- 
 fore theLocEd Preachers' Meeting, of my conduct and motives for 
 sending the letter, without injuring the question about to be dis- 
 cussed that evening in the Leaders' Meeting. I however requested 
 that the letters which had passed on the subject between me and 
 the Stewards might be read : this was done j and Mr, Turner, one 
 
rinf an/lonf «i/«tl* 
 
 14 
 
 of the Brethren, liow rose, and said to the Super intendant, with 
 apparent solicitation for ray situation, " But pray, ;Sir, is this 
 really a lawyer's letter ?" Willing to make him all the amends \ 
 could, for his pious intention, I replied that it certainly was. 
 
 He is one of the Candlestick Trustees : and the use made of 
 this avowal of mine, Sir, shall appear presently. 
 % This letter was again urged on the Meeting. I now rosti, atwl 
 observed> that if the sending a lawyer's letter was a crime so 
 heinous in itself as not to admit of an explanation on the quan* 
 turn of provocation, then they had only to strike my name from 
 the Local Preachers' Plan: if, on the other hand, the provocation 
 claimed any share of their attention, then, if they persisted to 
 urge the business further, I must, in order to protect the subject 
 that was t* come into the Leaders' Meeting, that evening* be 
 obliged to make my bow and retire. The Rev. Mr. Bunting 
 Urged, that no consideration under Heaven— no, not where life 
 was concerned, could justify the sending a lawyer's letter ! ! ! The 
 Local Preachers' Meeting was then adjourned, in order to take the 
 matter into consideration until the following Sunday morning 
 at eight o'clock. 
 
 ... Having to prepare for the business of the Leaders' Meeting 
 regarding Mr. White, and also on this new charge which I found 
 was to be brought forward, and it being now between five ancrsix 
 o'clock, I withdrew, notwithstanding the pressing solicitation of 
 Mr. Wood to stay to tea ; and, as I quitted the rOom, I uttered 
 the words " I have really so much to do, Sir, that I cannot stay." 
 . ft Who can this one or more be, that I am to be accused by? 
 {thought l.y There is something very strange about it." — I rea» 
 soned it over and over again : " How is it, (I asked myself,) that 
 the Superintendant has not interfered, and ordered the Stewards to 
 acquaint me ?" " I cannot .tell/' -said I.-— "Don't you think it is 
 the Superintendant. himself?" "I declare Lthink it is," I replied. 
 - At length, Sir, I entered the meeting. Itookmyseat. TheSupej- 
 intendant was in the chair, supported by his colleagues, the Kev. 
 Messrs. Taylor and Needham. He rose, and, addressing the meet- 
 ing, said, " Brother Fesenmeyer is charged with having assisted 
 and advised Mr. Oats in the late unchristianlike and improper 
 conduct exercised towards Brothers Kent, Handisyde, and Els- 
 worth. — Are you guilty or not guilty?" 
 
 ; Now, Sir, you and I are Methodists : and although this would 
 do Very well before Lord Ellenborough, when sitting on a criminal 
 matter, yet this is strictly abominable and wicked in the Church of 
 Christ. 
 
 If a man was as high in the favour of God Almighty as Ga- 
 briel himself, and he told a lie, he falls instantly, and carmot 
 find rest for the sole of his foot, but ou repentance, and a resto- 
 
15 
 ration into the favour of God, So that if ' I had been guilty, ■ I 
 had no alternative, but to deny it ; and then I -must have forfeited 
 my peace and joy, my present interest in the blood of Christ, 
 and have become a wanderer from my God; or I must have re- 
 fused to answer the question,' when judgment would then have 
 been pronounced against me, for contempt of court. 
 
 However, Sir, -knowing my innocence, I replied, it is all false 
 together; and T call upon Mr. White to prove his charge.- One 
 of the Members of the Meeting, and a Trustee of Queen Street 
 Chapel, desired that the minutes of the last meeting might be 
 read. " : . 
 
 It is proper to observe here, for a short moment, that this per- 
 son had not been at the preceding Leaders' Meeting ; and it has 
 therefore exceedingly puzzled me, to find out how he- could possi- 
 bly know that there was any thing in those Minutes that could 
 apply to the charge against me: they were however read, and 
 contained a statement, that, on the trial of my friend, I ac- 
 knowledged that I had advised him to go td an attorney on the 
 subject of the Trustees having broken open the closet, and that I 
 had been his adviser. I said, " This is all true ; but I- call upon 
 .Mr. White to prove why I went to the attorney; and what ad- 
 vice I gave." The extreme wickedness of my going to a, lawyer, at 
 all, under any circumstances, was urged by the Superintendant. 
 I again summoned Mr; White to his proof; but the same Mem- 
 ber of the Meeting who moved that the Minutes should" be read, 
 again rose, and observed, that the business had no need to take 
 more than ten minutes; that I had acknowledged going to the 
 lawyer, and that therefore the Meeting had- nothing more to do 
 than to pass sentence on me; and said that they could not stay 
 there all night; he understood that the Meeting had been kept till 
 eleven o'clock on the subject the preceding week. I rose and said, 
 that I had now been a Member of the Methodist Society for sixteen 
 years, and maintained an unblemished character ; and did not feel 
 disposed to lose it in ten minutes; and recommended him-to with- 
 draw -if he could not st&v,' and assured him that -lie would find 
 that I should not consent to be* thrust out of the Methodist 
 Society so easHy as he imagined, . t 
 
 Mr. Bunting and Mr. Jenkins now entered the Meeting* The 
 point in discussion, between me and the Superintendant> was^ Whe- 
 ther I had a right to hold Mr. White to his proof that I was the 
 life, the soul, the core of the whole business; or whether sentence 
 should pass 'upon me, I having said that I had been at. the law- 
 yer's with my friend. Mr. Bunting addressed the Chair; he 
 said, " Sir, you are too late in insisting upon Brother Fesenmeyer's 
 receiving the judgment of the Meeting on his own admission ;— 
 you have-summoned him here to answer a charge' to be preferred 
 against him, and I think that Mr. .White should charge him. 
 
16 
 
 therefore advise Mr. White to say that I charge Brother Fesen- 
 meyer with having advised and assisted in the late business, for 
 I heard him say that he had been with him to the lawyer!!" 
 
 I now rose. " I said, " I will put you on your guard in this 
 'business. You should recollect, that it does not follow, because 
 a man goesj or even advises another person to go, to a lawyer, 
 that therefore he advised him to do an act which^ the Church 
 may disapprove. My friend is in the chapel, waiting to be called 
 in ; and he will make my character shine like the light ; he 
 vvill tell you why I advised him to go to the lawyer and what 
 advice I gave him." 
 
 Once more I called on Mr. White to prove his charge. 
 
 Mr. Bunting again rose, and said, " I move that the sense of 
 the Meeting be taken, whether judgment shall pass upon Brother 
 Fesenmeyer, on his own admission to-night, of his having gone 
 to the lawyer ; or whether the Meeting should hear Brother 
 White charge him, by saying ( I heard Brother Fesenmeyer say 
 that he went with him to the lawyer.' 
 
 Recollecting that arrangements had been made, over a supper •, 
 I rose, and said, " I protest against the Trustees of Great Queen 
 Street Chapel (who voted away the candlesticks),' and against the 
 Trustees of Kentish Town Chapel (who solicited, and received 
 them), from voting on this business/' — "That won't do," 
 was the reply. " Then," said I, " I shall not stay in the Meet- 
 ing any longer ;" and attempted to step over the form. 1 — Mr. 
 Bunting endeavoured to prevent my leaving the room ; but con- 
 sidering their conduct to be a gross violation of justice, a bold 
 abandonment of fair appearances, and reptignant to even the 
 form of acting uprightly, I was determined, and left the room. 
 
 After I had withdrawn, I understand that Mr-. Bunting pro- 
 fessed to " stand in my shoes ;" that he was " Brother Fesen- 
 meyer ;" and defended himself against the charge exhibited by 
 the Superintendant. However, it seems that all his eloquence 
 was lost; for I was found guilty. 
 
 A second charge was then brought forward against me, in my 
 absence; namely,* the lawyer's letter that I had sent to the 
 Stewards. On this I was also found guilty ; and my acknow- 
 ledgment, in the Local Preachers' Meeting, that it was a lawyer's 
 letter, was given in evidence against me. 
 
 The next morning, about eight o'clock, I received the following 
 note from Mr. Manning : — 
 
 " Sir, — I am desired to inform you, by the Leaders' Meeting of 
 last night, that a deputation, consisting of the Preachers and 
 others, are appointed to call upon you this morning, at ten 
 o'clock precisely. * " Yours, &c. 
 
 "J. Manning. 
 " N.B. It i$ hoped you will be disengaged." 
 
17 
 
 I immediately wrote the following reply, and sent it by ( ray 
 son: — 
 
 " Sir, — I have just received your note, saying that you were 
 desired by the Leaders' Meeting of last night to inform me, that 
 a deputation, consisting of the Preachers and others, were ap- 
 pointed to call upon me this morning, at 10 o'clock precisely. 
 
 l( In answer, I have only to observe, that, from what occurred 
 last night, I cannot consent to receive any deputation from that 
 meeting. I want to be heard in defence of my Christian cha- 
 racter, which is more dear to me than my life : till then, I will not 
 receive any deputation. " 1 am, Sir, &c. 
 
 " J P. FeSENMEYER. 
 
 " P.S. I shall most likely be from home. 1 have no doubt of it. 
 "To Mr. Manning." 
 
 On my son's return, he informed me that Mr. Manning would 
 not be at home till 12 o'clock. I immediately sent him back, 
 and with instruction to leave the letter at the Superintendant's 
 house: he did so. I left home: but at 10 o'clock the four 
 Preachers arrived, accompanied by Mr. Chapman, a Leader: 
 they were answered that I was not at home : they asked for my 
 wife, and were told that she was confined to her room, having 
 lain-in only a fortnight, and could not see any one : after some 
 consultation, they went away. 
 
 Not having been made acquainted with the sentence of the 
 Leaders' Meeting, I went on the evening of this day, as usual, to 
 meet my Thursday's Class. I found the Superintendant, with 
 Mr. Tyrer, a Leader, and Mr. Manning, in the room. The Su- 
 perintendant, after prayer, turned towards me, and said, " The 
 Leaders' Meeting have directed Brother Tyrer and Brother Clarke 
 to lead your classes for a few weeks; and not being sure that 
 they would be here, I came to see after the class." I replied, that 
 I would not part with my Class papers, but with my life. He 
 led the class, and proceeded about half way ; when, on questioning 
 a woman as 'bo her state, he. first was made acquainted with the 
 feelings of the class on the conduct of the Leaders' Meeting to- 
 wards me. 
 
 The meeting closed, and I asked him if I was expelled for 
 goingto a lawyer with my friend : he replied, " yes, and for sending 
 a lawyer's letter to Mr. Manning." I again asked, " Then it is 
 not for any immoral act ?" He answered in the negative; and the 
 business closed by a general expression of disapprobation by the 
 class, of the proceedings, and a determination not to meet with 
 any other person. 
 
 It will not be matter of surprise to you, Sir, that seventy per- 
 sons, the number placed under my care, should feel some anxiety 
 about their Leader, and the manner in which he was disposed 
 
of: they apprehended that they saw their own case displayed 
 on a future day ; and, conceiving that they had a right to be 
 made acquainted with the proceedings of that Leaders' Meeting, 
 they sent a letter to the Superintendant, requesting him to meet 
 the two classes on the following Tuesday, and explain the cause 
 of my expulsion from the Society. 
 
 The Superintendant and Mr. Needham came : t attended 
 likewise ; and, after prayer, he read the requisition, and added, 
 that the best explanation he could give would be to read to them 
 the extract taken from the Leaders' Meeting Minute-book, which 
 he read; — to the following effect : 
 
 ( That Brother Fesenmeyer was charged with having advised 
 and assisted Mr. Oats in his unchristian-like and improper 
 conduct towards Brothers Kent, Handisyde, and Elsworth ; 
 and also with sending Brother Manning a lawyer's letter : 
 and that Brother Fesenmeyer having withdrawn himself 
 from the meeting, he had thereby excluded himself from 
 the Society, and he is hereby excluded accordingly : and 
 it is the judgment of this meeting, that he shall not be 
 received again into the Society, but upon his having re- 
 pented, and until he shall have given evidence of his con- 
 trition.' 
 
 I wished, Sir, to have laid before you an official copy of this 
 curious instrument, which says, that I excluded 'rnyielf; and 
 I applied to the Leaders' Meeting for it, but could not obtain it. 
 
 Mr. Wood folded it up, and put it into his pocket-book, with- 
 out attempting to make any comment upon it, or to give any 
 farther explanation. I now asked him when that minute was 
 drawn up. He replied, that he could not tell. I observed, that 
 I believed it was not until after he had received the requisition 
 to explain the business. His answer was, that the proceedings 
 had been taken upon loose pieces of paper ; and that it Was 
 drawn out from them. 
 
 I now found it necessary to read to the classes fch'e statement of 
 the candlestick transaction, and the correspondence^ between me 
 arid Mr. Manning. 
 
 The statement having made a deep impression on the minds of 
 the people, Mr. Needham observed, that I had no' business there j 
 a remark which, perhaps, had better not been made. 
 
 I addressed the classes, and said, " You will perceive, by the 
 statement, of this evening, that, the whole business was settled 
 agreeably to the word of God. Mr. Oats had agreed to say no 
 more on the subject, but to shake hands with Messrs. Kent, 
 "Handisyde, and Elsworth: they had acquiesced: but can you 
 believe that the Superintendant preacher of this circuit, a mini- 
 ster of Christ, one who has the care of the church, pushed aside 
 
19 
 
 the law 6f Christ, and said that it should not be settled in any 
 such manner; and that he went to Mr. Oats, and insisted oh his 
 apologising, or that he the Superintendant would bring it into 
 the Leaders' Meeting?" 
 
 "Mr. Wood denied the whole of this statement ; and on my 
 sending for Mr. Oats to verify what I here advanced, Mr. Need- 
 ham insisted on leaving the room, and took away Mr. Wood with 
 him. 
 
 The members of the two classes declared that they would not 
 leave me, and begged that I would meet them as usual. I told them, 
 that I had uniformly given them the best advice that lay in my 
 power ; that I had endeavoured to be faithful to the trust that 
 God had reposed in me ; and, therefore, begged that they would 
 listen to my last advice: and I counselled them to join themselves 
 to such other classes as they should find would be most comfort- 
 able to their own views and feelings ; adding, that as I was 
 expelled for righteousness* sake, (which will be» brought before 
 you presently,) God Almighty had promised to keep me : and I 
 declined meeting them. 
 
 We all knelt down together, and spent nearly an hour in 
 prayer. God was with us; the floor was literally wet with 
 tears ; and we now quitted the spot, where we had often taken 
 sweet counsel together, where we had been often blessed, and had 
 often rejoiced in the presence of our God. 
 
 Suffer me, Sir, to take a review of the proceedings, and to bring 
 before you a connected outline of the facts which have been stated, 
 with their natural inferences : 
 
 I. That the Trust Deed limits the power of the Trustees, and 
 confers on the Leaders a right to interfere, in certain cases : 
 and therefore, if I, as a Leader, had, in the' interval of a 
 Leaders' Meeting, given Mr. Oats, or any other person, the 
 advice stated to have been given by me, under the circum- 
 stances of an incorrect diversion of the property of the 
 Church, I was strictly correct. 
 
 II. That the demands of the laws of God and of Method- 
 ism had been fully met, before the determination was 
 formed of defeating the reconciliation then in progress, 
 and of bringing Mr. Oats to trial. 
 
 III. That as Messrs. Kent, Handisyde, and Elsworth, were the 
 jirst to apply to a constable, it argues, either, That they in- 
 tended to take the Secretary of the School into custody, if he 
 had opposed them ; or,|That they were aware that they were 
 about to do an act which required the presence of an officer, 
 to make it lawful ; but that they did it without that lawful 
 authority. In either of these views, they had no claim at 
 the Leaders' Meeting for redress ; as, in the Jirst case, they 
 
20 
 
 had trampled upon what they hold to be the laws of God 
 and of the Church ; and in the second case, they violated 
 
 t the law of the land ; — and for doing which, no bye-laws of 
 any Church can or ought to afford shelter to a man ; and 
 therefore the whole body, seeking redress from the Church, 
 ought to have been driven out of it. 
 
 IV. That as the Leaders' Meeting, on the trial of Mr. Oats, 
 had declared, in positive language, by their vote which 
 rejected Mr. White's motion against me, " that nothing had 
 transpired that night, in the meeting, to attach blame to 
 me," the Steward had no right to enter upon the Minutes 
 of that meeting any matter which tended to criminate me ; 
 and that, if he had entered any thing at all regarding the 
 business, it should have been accompanied by what was the 
 sense of the meeting on it : and much less had any indi- 
 vidual member of that meeting, who was not there that 
 evening, a fight to presume that an entry of that description 
 was made; and cause notice to be given to me, that I was to 
 be charged by one or more of the members of that meeting; 
 and thenj when I sat down in my place, to cause me to be 
 charged on that entry, and that entry declared to be my 
 indictment! - 
 
 V. That the protest which I made against such of the Members 
 of that meeting who were Trustees of Great Queen Street 
 Chapel (and who gave away the candlesticks), and such 
 of them as were Trustees of Kentish Town Chapel (who 
 received them), sitting in judgment on me, ought to have 
 been received, as just and equitable ; and that to proceed 
 with the business after such protest, was a dereliction of 
 duty on the part of the Superintendant and his colleagues, 
 who ought to have dissolved the meeting ; a shameful 
 violation, by the Leaders' Meeting, ' of the divine law of 
 
 . -righteousness ; and an abandonment of the boasted principle 
 of British jurisprudence, which .prohibits any party from 
 sitting in judgment on a case where the question in the 
 smallest degree affects them* 
 
 VI. That to have continued in the meeting, after such protest, 
 would have been, on my part, an abandonment of the reasons 
 which urged my protest ; and would have amounted to an 
 acquiescence in the proceedings of that meeting. 
 
 VII. That as, after I had withdrawn from that meeting, it was 
 agreed that neither of those persons who had committed 
 the violence should speak or vote on the question, the 
 principle for which. I contended was fully recognised and 
 established ; and as, on the rejection of that principle, I 
 was obliged to withdraw, to prevent a constructive acqui- 
 escence in the proceedings of that meeting, the declaration 
 
21 
 
 of the Leaders' Meeting, which says, that, by my having 
 withdrawn from that meeting, I had excluded myself, has 
 no support from or foundation whatever in reason or in fact. 
 VIII, That having been obliged to withdraw from the Leaders' 
 Meeting, to avoid a constructive acquiescence in the pro- 
 ceedings of that Meeting, they could not enter into the 
 charge^of my having sent the lawyer's letter to the Stewards ; 
 inasmuch as such withdrawing was not a contempt of the 
 whole Leaders' Meeting, but only applied to a part of it, 
 as being incompetent to sit in judgment on the question 
 then pending before them. 
 I am not at all surprised, after such a developement of facts 
 andcircumstances, that you should ask, Why such a combination 
 against you? What evl have you done ? — Truly, Sir, I have done 
 no evil whatever ; and the very wording of my sentence proves 
 that they were very hard put to it to assign a reason for their 
 proceedings : but since you ask the cause^ allow me to- proceed. 
 
 Like yourself, I have, from my infancy, been taught to believe 
 the promises of God ; and therefore always availed -myself of 
 every opportunity which presented itself, to testify my wish for the 
 spreading of the Gospel of Christ. I have been constrained to 
 cry out and say, " I wish Thee good luck in Thine honour." I 
 ever thought the Methodist preachers were honest in their pro- 
 fessions, and that they wished, earnestly wished, for the exten- 
 sion of Christ's kingdom. I imagined, that when they cried out 
 ts Let Him, as He listeth, come !" they meant what they said ; 
 and therefore, with others, I joined in the catholic cry. My soul 
 burnt with desire for the outpouring of the Spirit of God ; -and 
 when I read of the work of God in Cornwall, and in other parts, 
 I was glad, and yet restless, till London should be visited. 
 
 Queen Street Chapel having been pulled down, and the new 
 one rebuilding, we held our Saturday-evening prayer-meetings in 
 Wild Court School House : here, at length, the Lord Almighty 
 visited us, about the 10th of last November, and several souls 
 were converted to God. It pleased the Lord to enlist me into His 
 service on this occasion, and I was soon pointed out as the prin- 
 cipal actor in it. You may perhaps smile, Sir, at the epithet 
 <( actor," but this was the term. I am not aware that you ever 
 were in what is termed a " revival meeting," and I shall therefore 
 endeavour to lay before you some few particulars regarding it. 
 
 Foreseeing the inquiry, " How can these things be?" when 
 the prophet cried out, ." Unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son 
 is given," and of his kingdom and government there was to 
 be no end ; the Holy Ghost said, i( The zeal of the Lord of 
 Hosts will perform this !" — Now, Sir, unless we keep one thing 
 
22 
 
 continually in view, we shall lose our way : it is this,— that th« 
 real of the Lord of Hosts caused Him to lay down his life for 
 sinners j and that, therefore, He will suffer nothing to come 
 between Him and the salvation of a sinner, but the sinner's own 
 impenitence ; and that, to alarm his conscience, He will afflict 
 his family, blast his expectations in life, fill his bones with strong 
 pain, uncover the pit of hell to his conscience, and force him to 
 cry out and say, " Verily there is a God that judgeth the earth." 
 
 Whole nations have been swept away for attempting to with- 
 stand the power of God. 
 
 The old world felt the weight of His indignation : the imperfect 
 "generation of its inhabitants was an insult to Heaven, and op-* 
 posed the preaching of Enoch, who foretold of the coming of 
 The Holy One. The cities of the Plain were salted with fire, for 
 preaching unrighteousness. The Israelites were scattered oyer 
 the face of the globe, for endeavouring v to render the zeal of the 
 Lord of none effect. And modern nations have drunk deep 
 of the cup of His indignation, for attempting to stretch forth the 
 sceptre of power, and divert the course of his chariot-wheels. 
 
 " He giveth account to none, of his matters." He will not be 
 controlled : the salvation of sinners lies near His heart, and hence 
 the extensiveness of His pardon. "He willeth that all men 
 should come to the knowledge of the truth, and be saved," 
 
 Now, Sir, there is a declaration on record, thajt you and I, 
 and, in fact, every one that loves the Lord Jesus Christ, is 
 anxiously looking forward to : " The earth shall be filled with 
 the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the 
 sea." 
 
 But how is this to be? Why, look at our Sunday Schools !— look 
 at the Bible Associations! — at our National Schools — our Mis- 
 sionary exertions ! These are all very good — blessed signs; but look 
 also at the thousand millions of souls that are passing into eternity ! 
 Can the Bible Associations, the Sunday and National Schools, 
 together with all the Missionary exertions which we can bring for- 
 ward, perform an immediate operation to effect the salvation of these 
 perishing millions ? — No, Sir, all these are a work of time ; and 
 therefore the cry of every Christian should be, " Come, Lord Jesus ! 
 come quickly !" 
 
 Having premised this, let us enter into a meeting where the 
 Lord is powerfully present to heal souls. — There is a person close 
 by where you stand, cut to the heart, crying for mercy; two or 
 three persons endeavouring to comfort him, by praying with him, 
 and instructing him in the use and meaning of the promises ; urg- 
 ing upon his mind the willingness of Christ to save sinners. A 
 little farther on is a backslider, crying out, that " His mercy is 
 clean gone for ever ;" that he has sinned against light ; — and all that 
 the friends near him can say or do appears to be of no use. On one 
 
23 
 
 side is a young person shouting out " Glory ! glory ! glory l be to 
 God for ever and ever ! He has pardoned aU my sins: I can rejoice 
 in His salvation." 
 
 None of these persons, Sir, inconvenience each other : you and 
 I, who are looking on, we are seriously incommoded ; and unless we 
 kneel down and join in prayer and supplication, and worship that 
 God who is so eminently present, we shall not only not be blessed, 
 but we shall leave the place hardened, and, most probably, speak 
 evil of the work of God. 
 
 This was precisely the nature of the work that broke out at Wild 
 Court : some evenings, six, ten, eighteen, and even twenty-five, 
 were cut to the heart, and were saved into the liberty of God's 
 children. 
 
 In these meetings, those who were engaged in praying with, and 
 in encouraging sinners, were all fire, all zeal, all love ; they had 
 strong and clear views of the willingness of God to save sinners ; 
 the Lord fitted them for every species of the work that there was 
 to do : and as soon as a soul was convinced of sin, and cried out 
 for mercy, that moment was he, and those who prayed with him, 
 locked up, as it were, by the Lord; the sinner with his sins full in 
 his view, and the others with as powerful an assurance of the efficacy 
 of the atonement — all shut out from any other persons in the same 
 room engaged in a similar way. 
 
 But you ask whether these sudden conversions will stand fast. 
 
 You will recollect, Sir, that the Scripture speaks of the dog turn- 
 ing to his vomit again ; and the sow that was washed, to her wal- 
 lowing in the mire ; — and we, as Methodists, believe that a man may 
 fall, both foully and finally. 
 
 Now let us try the work logically, by the rules of Methodism : 
 The Methodists believe that a man, after having been soundly 
 
 converted to God, may fall foully and J?wa% .• 
 Therefore, if a man profess to have been soundly converted to 
 God, whether suddenly, or after having been seven or eight 
 years in the Methodist Society, and shall fall into sin within! 
 a fortnight, or a month afterwards, this is no proof that he 
 • never was converted to God. 
 
 So that, speaking as men, their standing fast will, under God, deV 
 pend upon circumstances — circumstances that will be detailed 
 shortly : and the question to be asked here should not be, whether 
 those persons that are suddenly converted are likely to stand fast, 
 but whether there are any sudden conversions at all. Let us insti- 
 tute an inquiry. 
 
 To the real conversion of a sinner, conviction for sin and repent- 
 ance are absolutely and indispensably necessary. , 
 
 Is it asked, what depth of conviction, and what quantum of re* 
 pentance, are necessary before a man can come to the Lord Jesus 
 Christ. 
 
 Jesus Christ has himself fixed it : " Come unto me, all ye that 
 are. weary and heavy laden" 
 
 Then it follows, that as soon as a man feels himself weary and 
 
24 
 
 heavy laden, he may go to Christ : yes, that mdment ! But, however 
 to be lamented, he does not always go to- Christ when he feels 
 weary and heavy laden: by the advice of the Devil, he too fre- 
 quently turns to his own righteousness; and, wrapping this about 
 his guilty heart, he walks amidst the golden candlesticks in Zion, and 
 is styled a ■seeker,, or rather, in the fashionable phraseology of the 
 day, a " Member of the Society." 
 
 Now, Sir, if we are to measure the depth of conviction, and the 
 quantum of repentance necessary to meet the demands of the 
 law of- Christ, by the conviction and repentance and walk of this 
 man, we shall greatly err. Is he seeking God with all his heart ? 
 Certainly not.- The Lord says, ~ ■"■ And -ye shall seek me, and find 
 me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart." Mark the 
 promise, Sir: it does not say, " After you have sought me ten 
 minutes, or ten years, with all your heart, then shall you find me ;" 
 but, Wh j n you seek— yes, the very moment your heart speaks — then 
 wili I, the Lord your God, answer; for " before they call, I will 
 answer ; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear/' 
 
 To a right investigation of the question proposed, Whether God 
 can convince and convert a number of people at the same time, 
 and in the same place ? it will be necessary to inquire into the 
 nature of conviction and repentance* Conviction differs, in its na- 
 ture, with different people; some feel a hardness of heart, a con- 
 sciousness of a hardness that refuses to receive and retain divine 
 impressions. Others see the enormky of particular sins : some are 
 gingukrly unhappy, an horror indescribable envelopes the mind: 
 and others, again, have the pit of -hell uncovered to their view. But 
 all, however varied their convictions may be, arrive at this point, — 
 a conviction of- their unfitness for God and glory. 
 
 Now, as to repentance. If, on a conviction for sin, the man does 
 not bring forth fruits meet for repentance, then repentance has no 
 place in him. 
 
 But what are the fruits meet for repentance ; or the fruks that a 
 man should produce, or bring forth, while in a penitent state ? 
 
 This is a very general inquiry, by half-hearted professors* in all 
 revivals of the work of .God; and therefore we shall be very par- 
 ticular. 
 
 When John preached the baptism of repentance for the re- 
 mission of sinsj he exhorted his . auditors to bring forth fruits 
 meet for repentance. What shall we do then ? said some of them 
 who were covetous.- u He that -hath two* coats, let him impart to 
 him that, hath none ; and he that hath meat, let him do likewise." 
 To the publicans he said, " Exact no more than that which is ap- 
 pointed you-," and to the soldiers, " Do violence to no man, neither 
 accuse, any falsely, and be content with your wages." 
 
 New here is fruit called for, under the common dispensation of 
 the. Gospel — ordinary preaching. 
 
 But can any one expect this sort of fruit from a man who never 
 heard of Jesus Christ, till he came upon his death-bed? " Do 
 violence to no man-, and be content with your wages!" This sort 
 
25 
 
 of fruit is not to be looked for there; — sighs, groans, tears, ex- 
 pressions of sorrow for a sinful life, is all we ought to look for or 
 expect from a death-bed repentance. 
 
 So in a revival : — Among Methodists, conversion-work is supposed 
 to be continually going on, more or less, in the classes ; but revival- 
 work., properly so, is a revival of the Pentecostal Work — a cutting 
 of sinners to the heart — an instantaneous cutting of the sinner so 
 powerfully, that he immediately cries aloud for mercy. Now, Sir; 
 what fruit must we, or rather ought we, to look for ? Why, sighs, 
 groans, tears, expressions of sorrow for a sinful life, and courage to 
 kneel down in public, and cry aloud for mercy. 
 
 Having cleared the way <■, and having arrived fully and fairly at the 
 question, Can God convert several sinners at the same time, and 
 in the same place ? — we will consider it* 
 
 One difficulty among professing Christians, in allowing the 
 genuineness of such a work, appears to arise from the consideration, 
 that it is indispensably necessary that some length of time should 
 elapse between the periods of conviction and conversion. 
 
 That a length of time is requisite, depends on one of two reasons ; 
 first, that it is essentially necessary to the sound conversion of a 
 sinner, that professing Christians should be satisfied that he is really 
 convinced, and that such conviction has really produced repent^ 
 ance, and that a certain quantum of fruit meet for repentance has 
 been also produced ; — or, secondly, that the Lord himself requires 
 some time to ascertain that the sinner is not playing the hypocrite. 
 
 I believe -we shall not find a professing body of men, anywhere, 
 that will arrogate to themselves the divine right of shutting the" 
 kingdom of heaven against a soul, on the ground of the quantum of 
 repentance not coming up to the measure of their judgment ; for 
 what may satisfy one man, may not satisfy another: thus there 
 might be a schism in the body, and the man die and perish before 
 they could be brought to decide on the point. 
 
 And I am persuaded, that no one will attempt to impeach the 
 Omniscience of God, and prescribe bounds to his judgment and 
 penetration. He acts, a* he ever acted, like a God ; He forgives, 
 as he ever hath forgiven, like a God. — Here Is the sinner, although 
 taken in the very act, brought to judgment. What was the fruit of 
 her repentance? She had, doubtless, heard of the Messiah, who 
 was to come with ten thousand of his saints; — conscious shame 
 bowed her head. " Go, and sin no more!" was the sentence of 
 Him who tries the hearts and reins of the children of men ; and 
 who has declared, that if we regard iniquity in our hearts, he will 
 not hear us. 
 
 The question of the reality of sudden conversion appears to 
 disentangle itself, as we proceed;, from the objections which have 
 hitherto encumbered it ; and, if we succeed in dissipating another 
 objection that seems* to press itself upon our attention with no 
 little force, namely, that although the Pentecostal work, and the 
 subsequent outpouring of the Spirit in the primitive day% was 
 necessary for that period ; yet, that as there is not that blind pre- 
 
26 
 
 jttdice against the work .of God in our days, as existed then, that 
 therefore it is uncalled for ; — I say, if we shall succeed in dissi- 
 pating this, objection also, we shall establish the point, not only 
 that there are sudden or instantaneous conversions, but that they 
 are absolutely necessary, and cannot be dispensed with, in our day 
 of boasted light and religion. 
 
 The Jews expected the Messiah. He came. ■" If ye believe not 
 me, yet believe me for the work's-sake," said our Lord ; — but they 
 would not believe; they would not examine into the evidences 
 which His work afforded. They continued obstinate; they ever 
 insisted that they were the temple of the Lord, and that salvation 
 must proceed from them to the Gentiles. 
 
 This was all true : Salvation did proceed from them to the 
 Gentiles, at the expense of their glory : and the Lord poured out 
 His spirit, in the miraculous gift of tongues, on the Apostles ; and 
 when the sound of the mighty rushing wind had alarmed the Jews, 
 and when those dwellers at Jerusalem, who had arrived from almost 
 every nation under heaven, were gathered together, Peter preached 
 the Gospel to them, and 3000 were convinced and converted to 
 God under that sermon. 
 
 This gift of tongues enabled the Apostles to proceed to any part 
 of the world ; but when they essayed to go into other parts, where 
 the people would not receive them, the Spirit suffered them not : 
 He withdrew the gift. 
 
 And do we indeed differ from the Jews ? are we not looking 
 put for the latter-day glor"y — an out-pouring of the Spirit — 
 something beyond the day of Pentecost — something, compared 
 to which, the day of Pentecost was as the small drop of the bucket ? 
 Why then all those Missionary exertions — those Sunday- School 
 Institutions— those Bible Associations ? Why those Anniversary 
 Sermons, to stir up the people to exertion? All, all these, 
 proclaim the universal expectation of Christians for something 
 great and glorious — something, that has not yet been given — 
 a mighty rushing wind ; a rending of the heavens ; an outpouring 
 from God — rsomething, that shall throw to an immeasurable dist- 
 ance all boasting ; that shall proclaim that it is God I 
 
 The British and Foreign Bible Society is an admirable Institu- 
 tion; and is good, very good, as far as it goes: but when we 
 observe how few persons who have the Bible are really converted 
 to God, we cannot help crying out, "Awake! Awake! put on 
 strength, O arm of the Lord ! awake, as in the ancient days, in the 
 generation of old!" The endeavour to christianize the Jews is 
 a work which must be approved of God : all these combined 
 efforts beget a solicitude for the extension of the kingdom of Christ ; 
 the holy fire burns within them; and there is a restlessness of 
 spirit, which will give God no rest, until he make Jerusalem a 
 praise in the earth; until he pour out of his spirit on Jew and 
 Gentile ; — and, perhaps, the instantaneous conversion of sinners will, 
 be the means by which the Jews will eventually be convinced, and 
 brought to Christ ; for as the Egyptians knew when the finger of God. 
 
27 , . 
 
 operated, so will the Jews be able to discover and ascertain the imme- 
 \iate power of God, and will no doubt glorify Him. — -May it be soon ! 
 There "is a very great danger of professors, in our day, resting in 
 round of duties, and in external performances. If a professor does 
 ot belong to a Bible Association, or some like institution, he had 
 imost better not have been born ; whereas all these are only pre- 
 airsors to something greater, but in fact lost sight of— a willing- 
 tess of the people, testified by them, in this great day of His powex\ 
 I think, in order to shew the necessity of some extraordinary 
 nterposition of the Almighty, I need go no further, than call your 
 Mention to the splendid professions of modern Christians : they 
 >lace as much reliance in their various institutions, the parapher- 
 talia of their respective churches, as Rome ever did. 
 
 The cries of persons in distress in Wild Court Meeting, and. the 
 
 houts of glory to God, gave great offence to several persons in the 
 
 ihurch, and it was called confusion ; but r Sir, the only confusion 
 
 hat existed, was the confusion which was made by those mrmbers 
 
 )f the church, and Leaders, who came into the prayer-meetings, 
 
 md pointed with their fingers, and talked aloud ! these were the 
 
 ;roublers of Israel. The preachers now interfered, and seemed to 
 
 vish for a genteel sort of a revival ; for they said, that if more than 
 
 >ne person prayed at a time in the room, we should offend some of 
 
 >ur lest friends. 
 
 The Superintendant expressed a wish to me, at the Local Preach- 
 
 rs' Breakfast Meeting, to meet those persons who were actively 
 
 engaged in the work, in order to give some advice, and to " regulate 
 
 things." But time passed away, and he forgot to meet them. 
 
 It was at length given out, one Saturday evening, that Mr. Wood, 
 the Superintendant, would meet the young converts on the next 
 morning. About forty persons, I think, attended ; and there were 
 only three out of them who could not give a clear testimony : two of 
 these had mistaken the nature of the invitation, and supposed that 
 it had been intended for those who wished to meet in class. 
 
 On the Monday evening, Mr. Wood attended at Wild Court, 
 at seven o'clock, and, as was usual, gave an exhortation, and left 
 the meeting. The prayer-meeting then commenced, and several 
 persons were in deep distress. At ten o'clock, Mr. Wood entered 
 the meeting, in a very abrupt manner ; and although there were 
 then three persons in deep distress, one of whom had been upon 
 her knees for two hours, crying for mercy, he, without inquiring 
 into the state of the persons in distress, said that he would not suffer 
 the meeting to continue any longer ; and insisted upon our quit- 
 ting the room. The poor woman was too miserable to listen to 
 him ; but, notwithstanding her cries for mercy, and the prayers of 
 others engaged, he prayed, and gave the blessing, and ordered us 
 to depart. I now stepped forward to him, and told him, that as 
 God had committed a dispensation to us, we felt determined that 
 no preacher under heaven should stop the work; and that we 
 would hire a place of our own, and worship God according to our 
 coBsciencee. The Sunerintendant retired, and went into the School.- 
 
28 
 
 master's parlour. In about five minutes, the Lord broke into 
 heart of the poor woman, and set her at full liberty. The pe 
 immediately sang, " Praise God, from whom all blessing's flo 
 &c. ; and this blessed woman was clapping her hands, and shouti 
 "Glory! Glory! Glory!" for full ten minutes. The Superin 
 dant now came out again ; and he walked upon the benches towai 
 the woman. I said to him, " For God's sake, Sir, don't suffer an) 
 man whatever to influence you, to stop the work of God." How 
 ever, he walked on, and ordered the woman away. She took his 
 by the hand, and begged him to listen to her, while she related t< 
 him how the Lord had met with her. We then left the Meeting. 
 
 We went on as before, till a short time after this notice w: 
 given from the pulpits of New Court, Lambeth, Hinde Street,Chels 
 &c. for the Leaders and Stewards of the Societies, and also for tl 
 persons who had been actively engaged in the work, to meet 
 George- Yard School- house, to enter into some regulations f< 
 perpetuating this work. You will be surprised, Sir, to learn, tha 
 some of the Stewards in our chapels are unconverted men, — tha 
 some of the Prayer Leaders are unconverted men ; — and yet thes# 
 with others who were avowed enemies to this work, who bat 
 roundly declared that it was the work of the Devil, all these wew 
 called upon to meet those who had been labouring in this gloriouii 
 work! I declined attending : others did the same. 
 
 A Leader called upon me on the afternoon of that day, with t 
 message from the Superintendant, desiring my attendance. I tolt 
 him, that as it -was such a strange meeting, I had laid the matte) 
 before the Lord, and that He refused to let me go to it. He urge* 
 upon me the probability of my being deceived; but being certaii 
 that I was not, he failed in his attempt to prevail on me. 
 
 He faithfully delivered my sentiments ; and Mr, Bunting rose up 
 and said, that God could not falsify his own word ; for that he hac 
 said, " Obey them that have the rule over you ;" and that I hac 
 sent woid to that meeting, that the Lord would not let me come 
 That this was a glaring inconsistency ; and that, from henceforth, 
 he would oppose me in all places, at all times, and on all occasions, 
 as a schismatic! 
 
 A word or two, Sir, upon consulting the Lord. You know that 
 nothing is more common with our preachers, than to advise the lay. 
 ing a matter before the Lord. This implies, first, that God wilJ 
 hear us ; and secondly, that we shall know what answer he gives us- 
 Now, I will meet Mr. Bunting on two grounds; — first, on the 
 ground of common sense ; and secondly, on the ground that the 
 answer I said that I had received, was not repugnant to the word 
 of God. 
 
 Was it contrary to common sense, for a man, who had been en- 
 gaged in the revival, to refrain from being present at a meetin* 
 called for the purpose of regulating those meetings where God had 
 evidently been at work ; and to which meeting persons were in* 
 vited who denied the work to be of God? — Could any good come 
 out of it ? — Was it not likely to gender strife ? — I say, Sir, ia thii 
 
29 
 
 duction contrary to common sense?— You say, Certainly not. 
 len, on tlje ground of common sense, I did right to stay away. 
 ^Secondly, that the answer I said I had received from God, was 
 it repugnant to the Word of God. " Obey them that have the 
 le over you :" Very well. Does Mr. Bunting contend for the 
 fallibility of the Superintendant ? If he does, there is an end to 
 e search for higher directions : if he does not, let us look to the 
 eeting. This meeting was called, ostensibly, to promote the glory 
 God, by endeavouring to perpetuate the work which was begun; 
 id which, some of the persons present said, ivas of the Devil! 
 Well ; but," says Mr. Bunting, " the Superintendant did not know 
 is !" This is exactly what I contend for. I say that God knew it ; 
 id therefore I asked him, and he refused to let me go. I say that 
 e Lord knew that the Superintendant had committed an error 
 judgment, and He refused to let me go. 
 
 The work of God proceeded till the Superintendant and Mr.. 
 anting left town, last February, for Yorkshire, to make theCollec- 
 »tt ordered by Conference to aid the finances of the circuit. The 
 eaders' Meeting of Great Queen Street took into consideration the ' 
 ■eat expense that the Trustees were put to for candles (being 
 ►out 4£lbs. per week) at Wild Court, where the work of God had 
 sen carried on ; and in order to provide for it, a collection was 
 dered to be made at Wild Court, on the first Sunday morning 
 the vionth, and on the third Monday evening in the month. 
 However necessary collections might be in aid of the Church, 
 3t the idea of going round, at a prayer-meeting, to a congrega- 
 tm, with a plate, to solicit money, after ten or twelve souls had 
 Sen set at liberty, was too monstrous and unfeeling to be admitted, 
 andles were immediately subscribed for, by the Prayer Leaders ; 
 at the Leaders' Meeting, having altered the plan to once in six 
 eeks, and that the collection should be made on the Sabbath-day 
 %ly, after the preaching, the subscriptions were discontinued. 
 
 This direction to collect money, on the Monday evenings, from 
 le people at Wild Court, was considered as a first step of the 
 »eaders' Meeting to bring the Wild-Court meetings into disrepute; 
 nd, therefore, when the persons who usually assembled at Wild 
 Jaurt learned that the candlesticks were about to be removed, 
 hey felt persuaded that enmity to that meeting was manifesting 
 tself in every possible way. * 
 
 The result of removing the candlesticks has been before ; you so 
 hat I have no occasion to trouble you upon the subject here. 
 
 You will recollect, Sir, I stated that the affair between Mr. Oats 
 md the other parties was settled, according to the law of Christ, 
 radof our Church : the parties were brought to forgive each other. 
 ' If thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his 
 ' fault, between thee and him alone : if he shall hear thee, thou 
 : ' hast gained thy brother ; but if he will not hear thee, then 
 : ' take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two 
 " or three witnesses every word maybe established; and if he shall 
 " neglect to hear them, tell it unto the, Church ; but if he neglect 
 
30 
 
 " the Church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a puij-' ' 
 " lican." Mr. Oats listened to the messenger of peace ; and he 
 agreed to shake hands with the other parties.— But why did the 
 Superintendant interfere? What right had he to push aside the 
 rule laid down by Christ for the government of his Church ? " Let 
 " me advise you to make me a mediator in this business, and tell ; 
 '.* these Brethren that you have done wrong, and that you are sorry for 
 it!" Why, he had had one mediator already. — You perceive, Sir, 
 the Superintendant presumed that an acknowledgment was sufficient ■■ 
 to satisfy the other parties : if they were satisfied without such an " 
 acknowledgment, he ought to have been thankful that peace and 
 harmony were re-established ; his interference was necessary only as 
 a last resource. But the Superintendant of the Circuit, the Chair- 
 man of the London District, forgetting his duty to God and to the 
 Methodist Conference, presumed to disturb the repose of the par- 
 ties; and fanned up a flame, that all -his ingenuity will never be able 
 to extinguish. 
 
 I will now consider the charge brought against me on th« 
 lawyer's letter to the Stewards. 
 
 Mr. Manning was a Trustee of Great Queen Street Chapel, and 
 was in the meeting that voted the candlesticks to Kentish Town. 
 I have shewn before, that Mr. White, in fact, was to have been 
 tried; for I came to hold him to his proof; and if he had failed in 
 it, he must have been expelled the meeting. It is a common thing, 
 on prosecutions for assault, to include in the indictment a person 
 or two whose evidence it is apprehended will go against -the party 
 indicting : by this means the party committing the assault loses the 
 benefit of his evidence, because his witness, by this manoeuvre, is 
 made a principal in the charge. This was precisely the case here : 
 and I was assailed in this way by Mr. White, while sitting in judg- 
 ment ; and therefore, Sir, I had a> right to expect, that, on his 
 failing to prove his point, he would, for such outrageous conduct, 
 have been expelled the meeting. 
 
 But it has been said, that I ought to have applied to the Church, 
 regarding the conduct of Mr. Manning. 
 
 You will, no doubt, say,That if I had applied (from what I have laic 
 before you), that I should have had no chance of succeeding at all: 
 so I am persuaded. Mr. Manning's last note did not reach me till 
 after ten o'clock on Monday night, and my affair came on the 
 Wednesday following: there was no Leaders' Meeting until the 
 Wednesday. The Church, the Leaders' Meeting, rejected my 
 offer to shew the reason why I went to the lawyer ; they permittee 
 the parties interested in the Subject to sit in judgment on me. 
 
 In fact, Sir, it was not going to law ; it was a letter, advising th< 
 Stewards, (when every attempt to bring them to a proper sense o 
 their duty failed), that if they persisted in their parly-making busi 
 ness, they must abide the consequences — that 1 would gWi 
 instructions to proceed against them and their partisans. It was 
 case of emergency; there were not eight and forty hours betwee 
 Mr. Manning's last letter and the time of my trial ; and I contenc 
 
SI 
 
 that I Was right, according to the usage of Methodism, in extreme 
 Cases* . 
 
 But it has been contended, that it brings a disgrace on the cause 
 of Christ, For brother to go to law with brother. I ask, Who knew 
 that I had sent a lawyer's letter ? Did the Lord Chief Justice? or 
 the Lord Chancellor? or any persons out of the Church? No, 
 Sir. But when the Preachers themselves chose to go to law with 
 the Trustees of the City-Road Chapel, the Lord Chancellor knew 
 it — every Judge in the kingdom knew it — all England knew it! Hour 
 does that alter the case ? Turn to the doctrine laid down above- 
 that it is a disgrace to the cause of Christ. Why, Sir, according 
 to the doctrine of Mr. Bunting, who says, " that no case on earth, 
 not even where life is concerned, can justify a man going to a 
 lawyer," they ought to have gone out again into the highways and 
 hedges, and preached until they had got other chapels, and not 
 have proclaimed their folly in Gath : and no excuse, according to 
 Mr. Bunting, can warrant the principle upon which they acted in 
 the City-Road business. 
 
 But there is another case, Sir, only of yesterday. I -presume 
 that it has reached your ears, N that there is a division in Ireland ; 
 and that Mr. Taylor, only two or three weeks before the candle- 
 Sticks were taken away from Wild Court, introduced into the 
 Queen-Street Leaders' Meeting a printed Circular, stating, that the 
 Trustees in Ireland had oppressed the Preachers, and had encou- 
 raged the people to go to the Established Church, to receive 
 the Sacrament, instead of encouraging them to receive it at the 
 hands of those who, administered the Word to them; in conse- 
 quence of which, a division had taken place, and the Trustees had 
 shut up twenty-six chapels against the Travelling Preachers ; and 
 that the preaching had been carried on there by the Local 
 Preachers only : and he added, that the reason for introducing 
 that Circular into the Meeting was, that if any person found that 
 they had half-a-guinea to spare, the Preachers would be very glad 
 to receive it, in order to enable them to go to law, to recover 
 those chapels from their proud oppressors !! ! — I observed (which 
 observation' filled the cup of my iniquity to the brim), " This is 
 precisely what I thought would happen : the Preachers are very 
 fond of Camel-hunting', if they see a rich man, they will have him, 
 at all events; and by and bye he breaks their net, and laughs at 
 them.'! 
 
 Now, Sir, to make a collection, to enable them to go to law! 
 What, will nobody hear of it besides the Methodists ? — Is the 
 Judge to be a Methodist?— the Jury to be Methodists? — the 
 Counsel to be Methodists? — all, all to be Methodists?— and is the 
 matter to be tried in a Leaders' Meeting only?- It was ruled by 
 Mr. Taylor, who presided on the trial of Mr. Oats, that as his 
 accusers had applied to a religious constable, they had done right ! 
 Now, it so happens, Sir, that my friend applied to a religious 
 lawyer (at least to a lawyer that had promised to subscribe^ to our 
 "cfaapeb), therefore he must 'have done right also: and if 1 can 
 
32 
 
 prove that my lawyer is a religious lawyer, which I can do, I am 
 right also. 
 
 But if it shall be said, that I carry the matter too far, I reply, 
 that, in my business, the Preachers have strained at a gnat, and 
 swallowed a camel. In the Irish business, it is their duty to be 
 silent ; it is their duty to keep it quiet ; it is their duty to cover, 
 from the Government of this country, the reason assigned for the 
 division in Ireland. Let them go out into the highways and hedges; 
 let them " break up new ground;" let them die; — but do not let 
 them proclaim their shame. 
 
 If the Conference, Sir, shall say that the Irish Preachers have done 
 right; if it shall absolve them from all blame; if they shall justify 
 the measure of going to law to recover their chapels in Ireland; 
 then, Sir, let them blush for the cause. Let it be proclaimed, that, 
 with all their boasted respect for the Government of the country, 
 they preferred a division, to their stooping to meet half-way the 
 prejudices of their people who were in favour of a communion with 
 the Established Church. Let them boast again of their affectionate 
 regard to it ; and then let them afterwards, if they dare, solicit 
 your name on their Committee, to guard their privileges, and urge 
 you to pledge your word and honour, in the House of Commons, for 
 their unshaken attachment to Church and Slate. 
 
 But this, they say, is the Irish Connexion. Sir, this Irish flame 
 was first kindled by a spark from this side the water ; and was, 
 according to report, blown up into its present rage bj r a person 
 who presided at a late Conference of theirs, and whose name I shall 
 not mention here. Here is destruction with a vengeance ! — here 
 is a treading down the people without mercy ! 
 
 You cannot think that I have gone too far, Sir. It is not possible 
 that you should have forgotten your own feelings, when your zeal 
 for the Missions tempted you, and some of your friends, to make 
 special inquiries of persons residing where the Missionaries were 
 stationed: the matter was taken out of your hands by the 
 Preachers ; and you have, I believe, ever since evinced your disap- 
 probation of their conduct. 
 
 We have, in our Connexion, about 800 Travelling Preachers, and 
 between 3 and 4000 Local Preachers, all engaged. We raise, in 
 the London West Circuit, I believe, from 1000/. to about 1200/. 
 per annum, for the support of our four Preachers. Now, suppose 
 that we make an average allowance to each of the Travelling 
 Preachers and their families, throughout the Connexion, of about 
 150/. per annum ; this will give a claim upon the Connexion, of 
 about 120,000/. per annum, independent of the Preachers' Schools, 
 and the money which passes through Conference. Now, Sir, the 
 annual average increase of Members, in late years, has not been 
 more than 10,000 persons. 
 
 Let us turn to the New Connexion. They have about eighty 
 Travelling Preachers, and about 120 Local Preachers. Allowing 
 their Travelling Preachers the same as 1 have given to ours, namely, 
 150/. each, about 12,000/. will be th» claim on the Connexion 
 
33 
 
 for one year, independent of other expenses. Their increase of 
 Members, last year, was something short of 5000. Here is a great 
 disparity. Let us try it by the Rule of Three : If 12,000/. give 5000 
 Members, what ought 120,000/. to give ?-— Answer, 50,000 ! But 
 if we leave out of the account the gracious visits from God in 
 Cornwall and other parts, we shall have a very great disparity indeed. 
 You ask the reason : — 
 
 Most of the Circuits are pretty comfortable ; and therefore, if 
 both ends will meet, as the saying is, no great exertions are neces- 
 sary. If there should be any Leader who is active and zealous,— 
 ** very well, Brother ; you are laying up a good foundation against 
 the day to come !" — and if he is not actually opposed, they leave 
 him to himself. In fact, Sir, there is such an apathy, such a lassi- 
 tude, pervading almost the whole Methodist Connexion, in the 
 clerical department, except when any opportunity offers for 
 speaking at Missionary Meetings, Bible Associations, Sunday- 
 School Meetings, &c. that were it not for the visits of the 
 Almighty, in a very special manner — which, in fact, is saying, 
 " How shall I give you up?" — we should have nothing but decrease 
 upon decrease. 
 
 I observed that the Methodist system is weakened ; that it 
 wants re-organizing. The Superintendants of Circuits have too 
 much power : if one of the other Preachers outstrips him in use- 
 fulness, he may, probably, be sent, when his removal is to take 
 place, 200 miles from the spot where he was last stationed. 
 
 I found it necessary, the last Conference, to exercise my right of 
 petitioning the^Conference. Mypetition was not cordially received. 
 I, unfortunately, with my petition, sent a letter, addressed to a 
 Preaeher there : he had been put down as Superintendant for a very 
 comfortable Circuit, having two ether Preachers under him. His 
 appointment ofBishop was immediately changed for that of Rural 
 Dean ; and he is now his own superintendant in a spot conside- 
 rably distant from his first appointment. This system must be 
 reformed and changed, or you may be unsafe, and be liable to be 
 thrust out of the Church in a moment ; unless, indeed, your time 
 and property were spent in influencing the Preachers to nominate 
 Leaders, who shall be so attached to you, as to form around you 
 a line of circumvallation. 
 
 The Irish business proclaims the folly of all concerned in it, and 
 has established a precedent which promises a new era in Metho- 
 dism — the Local Preachers alone carrying on the preaching of the 
 Gospel, and the people passing on to the Established Church to 
 the Sacraments! If the 120,000/. above alluded to, were laid out 
 annually in opening new places, under the preaching of those 
 zealous well-informed men, the Local Preachers; instead of having 
 an increase only of 10,000 souls a year, we should have 100,000 ; 
 and this will, sooner or later, b,e the case : for if the Lord hegins to 
 pour out his Spirit, except under a Travelling Preacher, they 
 oppose it, and, like a certain Preacher, after I had left the Local 
 Preachers' Meeting, cry out, *J Let us rise as one man, and 
 srush the work!" 
 
34 
 
 Perhaps, Sir, you will think that I have given you trouble 
 eaough with my Epistle. 1 hope you will do something to prevent 
 a recurrence of such injustice and oppression; and that you will 
 make such a representation, in the proper place, as shall induce 
 an adoption of measures calculated to secure the situation of every 
 member in the Church, until he is found worthy of bonds. 
 
 But you reply, and ask, " Where have you asserted your inno- 
 cence ? You have argued certain points, and made certain deduc- 
 tions ; where is your innocence stated, in unequivocal language ?" 
 
 You will recollect, Sir, I stated, that when Mr. Bunting moved 
 to take the sense of the Meeting on the question, whether it should 
 pass sentence on me, on my own admission that I went to the 
 lawyer, or that Mr- White should say "I charge Brother Fesen- 
 meyer with assisting and advising, &c. for I heard him say that 
 he had been to the lawyer," &c. I cautioned them, and said that 
 Mr. Oats was in the chapel, and would make my character shine 
 like the sun. It has, however, been since argued, that the proper 
 time had not come to hear him ! But had I waited, Sir, till they 
 had decided that sentence should immediately pass upon me, you 
 will agree with- me that the proper time had passed by. 
 
 Take the declaration of my innocence, Su-j from Mr. Oats's own 
 hand-writing, now before me, and which has been laid before the 
 Rev. R. Reece, the President of the last Conference ; viz. " With 
 regard to Mr. Fesenmeyer, he did go to the attorney with me, it is 
 true ; but the advice he gave me was this : " Let them alone — 
 never mind them : I'll go and collect money, and we'll have new 
 branches." 
 
 And I now beg leave to add, that although I went to the lawyer 
 with him, yet the constable had leen with one of the parties 
 upwards of two hours before I saw the lawyer ; so that I was not 
 " the life, the soul, the core of the business." . 
 
 " It is a pity (you say) that the Leaders' Meeting and the 
 Preachers did not take time to inquire into these facts ; and parti- 
 cularly as you put them on their guard, and offered to call in 
 Mr. Oats." Precisely so, Sir ; and when I remind you, that, on my* 
 saying to Mr. Wood, as I quitted the Local Preachers' Meeting, 
 that I could not stay to tea, as I had so much to do (referring to 
 the business of the Leaders' Meeting), Mr. Bunting replied, as I 
 shut the door, " So much to do ! -it would be well if you did less, 
 and prayed more ;" — you will say, " Fesenmeyer, Fesenmeyer ! it 
 was owing to your not praying enough that Mr. Bunting's elo- 
 quence, when he personated you, on your trial, in your absence, 
 failed to make an impression on the minds of the Leaders." 
 
 Sir, his eloquence had weight with the meeting ; for one of the 
 Leaders declared, that he never saw a fairer trial in all his life. 
 But I rather think that Mr. Bunting's arguments fell before a 
 declaration made by a Member of the Meeting, who said, that if 
 Fesenmeyer was ever allowed to come again to that Meeting, he 
 would give up his Class Paper. 
 i In fact, Sir, it was the revival, and the revival only, that was my 
 crime, and the only crime with which their consciences charged 
 
35 
 
 me ; for Mr. Kent/ the Secretary to the Trustees, said publickly, 
 " Fesenmeyer is a'thorn in the flesh to us, and he might as well go 
 out for that as for any thing else." 
 
 But you may say, that there was a way open to me by which I 
 might obtain redress, namely, the District Meeting. 
 
 After my expulsion from the Society, the friends at Wild Court 
 insisted on my praying among them, as usual. Ldid so ; till, one 
 evening, Messrs. Kent, Handisyde, Manning, and others, came into 
 the Meeting, and said, " Is there no way of stopping that fellow ?" 
 It was afterwards given out in the meeting, that the Prayer Meet- 
 ings would continue till nine o'clock, the curfew of the London 
 Circuits on this revival occasion ; and also that a Trial Sermon 
 was to be preached in the room on the Sabbath Morning follow- 
 ing. — A Meeting, in consequence, was called by several of the 
 friends who had been actively engaged in the work ; and the fol- 
 lowing Resolutions were entered into; viz. 
 
 " At a Meeting, held on Monday Evening, March 31, 1817> of the 
 Prayer Leaders, and other Persons who have been actively 
 employed in the Revival of the Work of God at Wild 
 Court, Lincoln s~ Inn- Fields, it was Unanimously Resolved : 
 
 " That the Work which has been, and is still carrying on, in 
 Wild Court, Lincoln's-Inn-Fields, is the Work of God. 
 
 " That it is our duty, as Men and as Christians, to carry on 
 and further that Work, by every means in our power. 
 
 " That, on account of the smallness of the place, and the ob- 
 structions which have, from time to time, been thrown in 
 the way, a larger and more commodious place be imme- 
 diately procured, where the Work will not be exposed to 
 the like inconveniences. 
 
 " That the place about to be procured be appx*opriated solely 
 to the purpose of Prayer Meetings. 
 
 "That it is quite foreign to the intention of any of the Persons 
 composing this Meeting to cause a division ; or to sepa- 
 rate, in any respect whatever, from the General Me- 
 
 . thodist Society. 
 
 -" In pursuance of the above Resolutions, the Friends have en- 
 gaged a large and commodious Room, known by the name of The 
 Wellington Bazaar, 218, Holborn, four doors from Little Queen 
 Street ; which will be opened, for the first time, on Monday Even- 
 ing next, April 7, at Seven o'clock." 
 
 We of course quitted Wild Court, and the Work of God con* 
 ■ tinued to go on among us at the Bazaar. 
 
 On Sunday the 14th of April, Mr. Wood met the Society in 
 New Court Chapel ; and told the Society, that although at first 
 he believed the work to be the work of God, yet, from what he had 
 since heard, he was convinced it was not, On this I addressed him 
 as follows ; - 
 
36 
 
 " April 16, 1817. 
 
 " Rev. Sir, — I am very sorry, that, on Sunday evening, at New 
 Court, you gave the statement you did of the work of God at 
 Wild Court. You believed the beginning of it to be the work of 
 God ; but, from what you have heard, you were persuaded that, 
 recently > there was no religion at all in it. Now, Sir, if you had 
 acted latterly as you did at first, you would have known whether 
 it was the work of God or not; and would not have staked your 
 character as a preacher on hearsay evidence, in a matter of such 
 magnitude as is the business which you have been lately engaged 
 in. Not a Sermon has been preached to the young converts, to 
 help them ; no more examinations to ascertain the correctness of 
 the work ; but you have made an attempt to sweep away the whole, 
 by a broad assertion, founded on hearsay evidence. 
 
 *i Indeed, obstacles only have been laid before the persons who 
 obtained the pardon of their sins in the late revival : however, 
 Sir, God can reckon with every one who has so done. I have 
 troubled you with this, in the way of assigning a reason for our 
 intention to hold a Love-feast at the Bazaar on Sunday next, for 
 the benefit and encouragement of the young converts, and to 
 endeavour to reclaim those who may have fallen, and in order that 
 you may know the true reason for holding it, and not be led away 
 by any hearsay story, *< J am, Rev. Sir, &c." 
 
 , At this Love-feast, about fifteen persons were set at liberty. 
 Nothing particular occurred till May ; when Mr. Wood, on meeting 
 the Society, said, that if any person had any thing against the 
 Preachers, the District Meeting was the place to appeal to. 
 
 As Mr. Wood was Chairman of the District, the Members of 
 my Class turned their attention to Mr. Reece, the President of the 
 Conference, who was in town ; and handed to him Mr, Oats's 
 written statement of the case, and accompanied it with the follow? 
 ing letter : 
 
 " May 3, 1817. 
 
 " Rev. Sir, — We the Undersigned, in behalf of ourselves, and th$ 
 other Members of Mn. Fesenmeyer's Classes, beg to call your 
 attention to the situation of the London West Circuit, occasioned 
 by the unjust conduct of the Queen Street Leaders' Meeting, 
 towards him and Brother Oats ; the former of whom they, with the 
 assistance and influence of the four Circuit Preachers, have ex- 
 pelled : the latter they have suspended. 
 
 « « Under ordinary circumstances, it would nothave been considered 
 matter of serious inquiry ; but when you learn, that with it is con- 
 nected the revival of the work of God in this circuit, and probably 
 in London ; involving a point of a most nice and delicate nature j 
 the President of the Conference cannot, we are persuaded, refuse 
 to call upon the Preachers, for an explanation of their conduct in 
 the affair. 
 
 " It is true, that the Superintendant of the Circuit has declared, 
 that he is willing to leave the Circuit; this is hut poor compeu* 
 
37 
 
 teftion for injuring the work of God, and trampling upon judg- 
 ment and justice. None of us are safe ; and may, like Mr. Fesen- 
 meyer, after having spent sixteen years in the Society, be driven 
 from it, for endeavouring to be useful* 
 
 " It is impossible tor us to detail to you the whole of the matter 
 connected with this business ; We are not acquainted with it 
 sufficiently : it courts your inquiry, and we do not doubt but you 
 will be able to arrive at the facts. 
 
 " The Minute read to us by Mr. Wood, according to the best 
 of our recollection, ran thus : 
 
 1 That Brother Fesenmeyer was charged with advising and 
 assisting Brother Oats, in his unchristian-like and improper 
 conduct towards Messrs. Kent, Handisyde, and Elsworth ; 
 and also with sending Brother Manning a Lawyer's Letter ; 
 and that Brother Fesenmeyer having withdrawn hjmself from 
 the Meeting, had thereby excluded himself from the 
 Society ; and that therefore he is excluded accordingly ; and 
 that he shall not be received again into the Society, but upon 
 his having repented, and until he shall have given evident 
 marks of his eontritioni' 
 *' We understand that Mr. Fesenmeyer offered to prove that the 
 advice he had given to Brother Oats would have made his cha- 
 racter shine like the light; but this was rejected. That when 
 he found the meeting were determined to proceed to judgment, 
 on the bare fact of his having gone with Mr. Oats to the lawyer, 
 without entering into the reason for so doing, Mr. Fesenmeyer 
 protested against the Trustees of Great Queen Street (who had 
 voted away the candlesticks) and the Trustees of Kentish Town 
 (who had received them) giving a vote On the question ; and that 
 on Mr. Bunting and Mr. Jenkins, and others of the meeting, 
 crying • That won't do !' he immediately »aid, ' I shall leave the 
 meeting :' and he immediately withdrew. 
 
 " What passed there we cannot tell ; but, from the Minute read by 
 Mr. Wood, it appears, that after Mr. Fesenmeyer had left the 
 meeting, he was charged with having sent an Attorney's Letter to 
 Mr. Manning ; and that, finally, he was expelled the Methodist 
 Society, for having withdrawn himself, on the meeting refusing to 
 allow the validity of his protest. We do not presume to be 
 acquainted with the niceties of the law : we, however, cannot but 
 think, that as he attended the summons, and as he withdrew only 
 on the meeting disallowing the validity of his protest, all that that 
 meeting could do, was to pass the sentence which was due to the 
 offence with which he was charged ; supposing that he had been 
 allowed to have produced evidence of his innocency. 
 
 "Regarding the second charge, which was brought against him 
 in his absence, of this we shall say nothing. If the offence with 
 which he was charged did not call for a sentence sufficiently 
 heavy to meet the wishes of his accusers, we beg to say, that a 
 second summons, on a new charge, appears to us to have been the 
 most christian-like and proper way: perhaps Mr. Fesenmeyer 
 
38 
 
 might have been able to vindicate his conduct : in his absence, we 
 are persuaded he never could. And it would be challenging, Sir, 
 your penetration and judgment, to offer any thing upon the sen- 
 tence founded on Mr. Fesenmeyer's having withdrawn himself from 
 the meeting ; the meeting having refused to receive his pro- 
 test on a principle acknowledged on the trial of persons, in this 
 country, who stand charged of crimes which degrade the human 
 character; 
 
 " With the way in which Mr. Fesenmeyer intends to defend his 
 character, we have nothing to do: how far he considers, 
 the business connected with the revival in this circuit, wherein 
 about 600 persons have been set at liberty since November, 
 we leave him to explain : we know nothing about it — we want 
 security for ourselves — we tremble for our own situations in the 
 Church ; and apprehend, that if the principles of judgment and 
 justice are not deeply sown in the bosoms of our preachers, and 
 preachers ,so highly honoured by the stations that have been 
 assigned to two of them — Secretary to the Conference and Chair- 
 man of the London. District, we are left, indeed, without hope ; 
 and that the church, which we have been endeavouring to foster 
 and strengthen, must one day fall a victim to anarchy and party 
 spirit. 
 
 " We have taken the liberty to inclose with this, a statement of 
 the principal facts of Mr. Oats's case, being the foundation of the 
 whole business : it is the only copy which we could obtain ; and we i 
 most respecfully beg you will cause it to be returned to -one of 
 us, after you have given it the consideration you shall think it 
 calls for. 
 
 " We are, Rev. Sir, with great respect and affection, 
 
 " Yours in the best of bonds, 
 
 " John Vincent, 
 "To the Rev. Mr. Reece,-} Philip Whitehead. . 
 
 President of the Methodist V- 
 Conferencer J 
 
 This letter, with the Case, was left at Mr. Marsden's, where Mr. 
 Reece then was, on the Sunday morning immediately preceding 
 the Tuesday on which the District Meeting usually met. Neither. 
 Mr. Whitehead nor Mr. Vincent heard any thing from Mr. Reece till 
 the following Friday; when the post brought back the Case, inclosed 
 in the same wrapper in which it had been forwarded to him, without 
 a single line or communication of any sort. i 
 
 It was now discovered that Mr. Wood, the Chairman of the District, 
 who, from the pulpit, courted inquiry into the conduct of the 
 Preachers at the District Meeting, had called the District Meeting 
 together a week earlier than usual, without giving notice of it; and 
 that, when application was made to Mr. Reece, the Meeting had 
 been dissolved three days ! 
 
 Several other persons, notmembers of my class, now took, up the 
 
39 ' 
 
 business: a remonstrance was drawn up, and signed by 138 persons, 
 and forwarded to Mr. Reece, of which the following is a copy : — 
 
 " The respectful Information, Complaint,, and Remonstrance, 
 of the undersigned persons, Members of the Great Queen, 
 Street Society, in the London West Circuit. 
 
 if SHEWETH, 
 
 " That a misunderstanding has unhappily arisen in this Circuit, 
 founded in an opposition to a revival of the work of God, which 
 broke out in the month of November last, in which not less than 
 600 persons professed to have found peace. 
 
 " That this misunderstanding having continued down to March 
 last, a dispute accidentally occurred between Mr. Oats and the 
 Trustees of Great Queen Street Chapel, and the Trustees of Kentish 
 Town Chapel ; when occasion was seized to' involve Mr. Fesenmeyer 
 in the business, and to charge him with being the principal and 
 adviser in it ; and that, finally, the Great Queen Street Leaders* 
 with the assistance and influence of the four Preachers of the 
 Circuit, improperly and unjustly expelled him from the Society, 
 and suspended Mr. Oats for three months. 
 
 "That from the various attempts made by the Preachers at the 
 Local Preachers' Meeting, and at other meetings, to stop the work ; 
 and from Mr. Fesenmeyer, who was a very active and principal 
 person in such revival, having been expelled the Society, upon 
 principles contrary to Methodism and the law of the land, and in 
 a manner disgraceful to Ministers of the Gospel ; the people have 
 been driven to open a place where they may worship God in a 
 proper way, and supplicate heaven, unmolested by threat or im- 
 proper interposition, for a continuance of the outpouring of ,the 
 Spirit of God. 
 
 " That from accounts having reached this country of the alarming 
 division and rent in Ireland, where six-and-twenty chapels have 
 been closed against the Travelling Preachers, your Complainants 
 are fearful that the spirit which fanned the flame in that country 
 has been busying itself in the present matter, to carry into effect 
 a project destructive of the whole Methodist body. 
 
 " That if the President of the Methodist Conference shall refuse 
 or decline to make the proper and necessary inquiries into the con- 
 duct of the Preachers, in this disgraceful affair ; and shall omit to 
 use all his authority to counteract the mischief that is likely to re- 
 sult from the misconduct of the Preachers in the business ; the con- 
 sequence of such refusal and neglect must lie upon him ; and for 
 which they respectfully beg leave to remind him, that he is respon- 
 sible to the Conference. (Signed by 138 persons.) 
 "TotheRev.Mr.Reece,^ 
 President of the Methodist K. 
 Conference.'' J r 
 
 This was accompanied with the following Letter : — 
 
 "London, May 14, 181 7. 
 " Rev. Sir, — I feel very sorry that the -manner in which you re- 
 turned Mr. Oats' s statement of the transaction which took place in 
 
40 
 
 the Queen-Street Society has produced a measure which .compels 
 me, a second time, to address you on that unpleasant business. 
 
 " I beg leave to call your attention to a clause in the Large Mi- 
 nutes of Conference ; and in doing this, I trust I shall stand ac- 
 quitted of any thing like disrespect towards you. 
 
 " * And he [the President of the Conference] shall have a right 
 ' (if written to by any who are concerned) to visit, any Circuit, and 
 
 * to inquire into their aifairs, with respect to Methodism ; and, in 
 
 * union with the District Committee, redress any grievance/ 
 
 " We wrote to you, Sir, agreeably to our right, as Methodists; and 
 if the District Committee was not sitting at the time you received 
 our information, we conceive that it was your duty to have sum- 
 moned it, — particularly as most of its members were then on the 
 spot. 
 
 " It is my duty to acquaint you, that it was intended that not one 
 member of Mr. Fesenmeyer's classes should sign the instrument now 
 transmitted to you ; and but very few of them have been able to 
 elude the vigilance of the friends who had the care of it. 
 
 " Should you ask if the names of those who have signed the remon- 
 strance comprise the total number of the persons who are dissatis- 
 fied with the proceedings of the Preachers, I reply, that they by no 
 means approach to such a conclusion ; and I am persuaded, Sir, that 
 that you would not wish to see a larger number attached to an 
 instrument of so unpleasant a nature. 
 
 " In whatever way you shall determine to proceed in the business, 
 I hope you will do those persons, who signed the instrument) the 
 favour to apprize me of such determination. 
 
 " I am, Rev. Sir, yours very respectfully, 
 
 {t To the Rev. Mr. Reece,'} "John Vincent. 
 
 President of the Methodist > 
 Conference" j 
 
 Mr, Reece sent the following Reply . — 
 
 u . Dear Sir, — I was sorry that, owing to the constant occupations 
 which engaged my attention during the short time I was in London, 
 I was obliged to return Mr. O 's statement without a line. 
 
 '*' Your proper methodistical course of proceeding was, to have 
 stated your case to the District Meeting ; [and if you were not satisfied 
 with the decision of that meeting, then your appeal to the Confe- 
 rence would have been orderly. 
 
 " It appears to me a little singular, that your Preachers should be 
 represented as * opposing a^ revival of the work of God,' — men, 
 whose labours, whose time, and whose Jives are devoted to promote 
 such revival, and one of which ^Preachers has been doing this for 
 the last forty years. I would advise you to review the case, and 
 inquire whether the spirit and conduct of the complainants has been 
 scriptural and methodistical. If it have, your complaint will be 
 heard by the. Conference. If it have not, I hope you will do all 
 you can to bring those who have erred to a right state of mind, th3t 
 the $••• ■■ may be healed, and peace restored. 
 
41 
 
 •'. I shall write to your Superintendant, and send him a copy of 
 this letter. Wishing you all good, I shall present your Remonstrance, 
 &c. to the Conference, if you have not arranged your differences 
 before that time. 
 
 " I am your affectionate brother, 
 
 " R. Rkece." 
 Mr. Vincent again wrote Mr. Reece, as follows : — 
 
 May 23,1817. 
 " Rev. Sir, — I have to acknowledge ths receipt of your letter with- 
 out date, which came to hand yesterday. It should seem, by your 
 promising to lay before the Conference the Remonstrance, &c. ad- 
 dressed to" you in your capacity of President of the Conference, and 
 which' calls upon you, in that capacity," to inquire into a case of 
 oppression and injustice which has" involved the characters of all 
 the Preachers on the Circuit, that the persons who have signed that 
 instrument have widely mistaken their way. 
 
 " You have, Sir, pointed out to us the proper methodistical way 
 that should have marked our proceedings; by that of first applying to 
 the District Meeting; and then, if we were dissatisfied, Conference 
 would have been open to us. 
 
 " This we were well aware of; and when it is recollected that the 
 Superintendant of this Circuit is Chairman of the District, and that 
 he had, without giving notice in our chapel, called the District 
 Meeting a week earlier than usual, and at a time when the attention 
 of the Methodists in our District was taken up with their Missionary 
 Meetings, we are persuaded that the Conference will not push aside 
 any appeal that the people shall feel themselves warranted in making, 
 because they were not aware of the change ; but, were, in fact, pur- 
 suing, as they supposed, the precise plan which you have pointed 
 out in your letter, but which was rendered abortive by circumstances 
 which they could not controul. 
 
 " The application was made to you, Sir, on the Sunday morning, 
 on the idea that the District Meeting would not be held till the fol- 
 lowing Tuesday. We could not apply to thejChairman of the Dis- 
 trict. You had ' a right,' according to the laws of Conference, to 
 take the chair at that Meeting, on the question submitted to yout 
 attention ; and as we were pursuing a just and honourable path of* 
 inquiry, we hoped that you would not have left town until the 
 matter had been inquired into. And our hopes on this point were 
 strengthened, by the circumstance of your having been with Mr. 
 Elsworth, one of the parties concerned ; which afforded us ground 
 for supposing that you were making the most rigid and solemn, 
 inquiry ; and gathering from hence, that the business would receive, 
 if not a decision in form, yet one, of that kind, and just, and af- 
 fectionately attentive nature, which could not fail to heal any wound 
 that a momentary forgetfulness might have caused. 
 
 " I said, Sir, that it seems, by your promising to lay before the Con- 
 ference the Remonstrance addressed to yourself,that the Remonstrants 
 had missed their way. The design, I believe, is not that that in- 
 strument should find its way to the Conference ; but that it should 
 induce you, as the father of the Methodist family, for the present 
 
42 
 
 year, to interpose your paternal authority, and hush every thing into, 
 peace and quietness. 
 
 " If your interposition should fail of producing the desired ef- 
 fect, proper notices of the intention to exhibit a complaint will be 
 promptly forwarded to every member of the Conference so con- 
 stituted by deed, before they leave the Circuits 3 ar^d a printed copy 
 of the instrument, which is to be forwarded to Conference, and 
 which contains a statement of the whole matter, will be put into 
 the hand of every Preacher who shall attend the Conference. 
 
 " You advise us, Sir, to review the case. I, for one, who was pre- 
 sent when Mr.* Wood and Mr. Needham met Mr. Fesenmeyei's 
 Classes, to explain the reasons of his expulsion, confess to you that I 
 dare notj and I heartily wish I never heard of it. • 
 
 " You think it singular, that our Preachers should be represented 
 as ' opposing a revival of the work of God — men whose labours, 
 whose time, and whose lives are devoted to promote such revival, 
 &c.' It does not follow, Sir, that, because they have so devoted 
 themselves for a length of time, that therefore they may not err. If 
 
 it were stated to you, that Mr. got up in the Local Preachers' 
 
 Meeting,. and said, ' Let us rise up as one man, and crush the work 
 at once,' would you not say, .' Stop,, brother! You know not what 
 manner of spirit you are of: try the spirits first, and see whether 
 they be of God ?' 
 
 " Our first application to you stated, that the matter courted your 
 inquiry: we expected you to make it. If our Preachers will not 
 hear our complaints ; if they refuse to heal our sorrows ; if they 
 shall think lightly of our misfortunes, and refuse to pour the oil and 
 wine of consolation into our wounds ; they must not be dissatisfied 
 at our people expressing surprise and astonishment, in a way which 
 reflects very little credit on the labours , of our Preachers, and less on 
 the feelings of their, hearts j and much less can ungenerous epithets, 
 and expressions from them be justified towards us, for having been 
 driven, by them, to hire a place to worship God in, where we may 
 fiot be molested. 
 
 " lam, &c. 
 
 '* John Vincent." 
 
 To this Mr. Vincent received the following letter : 
 
 " Dear Sir, — I received your last letter, and am a little surprised 
 that you should again mention the subject of my not having taken 
 official notice of your first application to me when I was in London. 
 
 " You should remember, that that application was not stated 
 to be official, and only bore the signatures of two men totally 
 unknown to me. 
 
 " Secondly, You should remember, the pa,per never came to my 
 hand till some days after the District Meeting had closed, and the 
 Preachers had returned to their circuits. 
 
 " And you should also remember, that the Preachers, according to 
 your own statement, have acted in concert with the Leaders' Meet- 
 ing, as the rule requires \ 
 
43 
 
 u I have written again to Mr. Wood, and have enclosed your last 
 letter : I can do no more under present circumstances. 
 
 " May 27, 1817. " I am your affectionate brother, 
 
 " R. Reece." 
 
 Is it possible that the President of the Conference should forget, 
 that in the week in which the District Meeting was held, all our 
 Missionary Meetings were held for the district ? that the day he 
 received the statement, was the day appointed for the collections to 
 be made in all our chapels ? that in the following week was the 
 meeting of the British and Foreign Bible Society, when many scores 
 of our Preachers were there? 
 
 Our prayer-meetings still continued, the Almighty still crowning our 
 endeavours, until the latter end of May ; when the Preachers in our 
 circuit began to visit those friends whom they considered as counte- 
 nancing me, in order to induce them to withdraw from our'meetings. 
 Messages were sent to others, offering to make them Class-leaders if 
 they would return to Wild Court; and to one was actually offered, by 
 the Preachers themselves, the honour of opening Wild Court School-- 
 house, which had been white-washed, &c. if they would leave me to 
 myself. " What is to become of Fesenmeyer then ?" was the ques- 
 tion. " Oh, let him alone: if he comes to Wild Court, he is not to be 
 permitted to pray !" 
 
 The friends, on this, felt alarmed; and met on the 1st of June, when 
 the following Resolutions were entered into; viz. 
 
 " At a Meeting at the Rooms in George Yard, Little Queen Street, 
 Lincoln's Inn Fields, on the 1st day of June, 1817, 
 
 " It was Resolved, — That a glorious revival of the work of God 
 began in November last, and continued up to the following March, in; 
 which about 600 souls were set a liberty ; when occasion was seized, 
 by the Preachers and Leaders, to involve Mr. Fesenmeyer as a princi- 
 pal in a dispute which Mr. Oats had with the Trustees of Great 
 €lueen Street Chapel, and which led to his expulsion from the 
 Society. 
 
 '* That Mr. Fesenmeyer's expulsion from the Society was ever con- 
 sidered by the persons comprising this Meeting as having its founda- 
 tion in an opposition to the above-mentioned revival of the work of 
 God. 
 
 '* That the Preachers of this Circuit having endeavoured to put a stop 
 to such a work of God, and " to crush it," by appointing Trial Ser- 
 mons to be preached in the place where' the prayer-meetings were 
 carried on in Wild Court, and by other means j another place wa$ 
 hired in Holborn, and subsequently the place of the present Meeting ; 
 in both which places the Lord has been graciously pleased to con- 
 tinue his work, up to the present day. 
 
 " That the dislike of the Preachers to the revival of the work .of 
 God among us still continues ; and the Superintendant of the Circuit 
 has lately declared it a delusive system ; although he has held only 
 one examination at the beginning of the revival of the work of God .; 
 when it appeared, that out of about forty-six persons, who were so ex- 
 amined, three only were objected to by him, as not being able to 
 
44 
 
 giv^'a*. clear testimony of their accepfance with God ; and of those > 
 two had mistaken the object of the examination, and never professed 
 to Have found peace; — ■ 
 
 ** That it being represented to this Meeting that several of the 
 Preachers had called yesterday upon some of the members of the 
 present meeting; to invite and induce them to leave the place now oc- 
 cupied by ihtem in George Yard, and to return to Wild Court, and to 
 ieave Mr. Fesenmeyer and all connection and brotherly intercourse 
 ivith him in the work of God, and stating that he was not to be 
 allowed to come to Wild Court,— 
 
 " It is Resolved, — That such an invitation, made under the cir- 
 cumstances of Mr. Fesenmeyer's Unjust expulsion from the society, 
 is highly improper and indecorous ; and this Meeting is at a loss in 
 what way to express their surprise and astonishment at such an at- 
 tempt; 
 
 if That & great number of the persons who had experienced the 
 pardon of their sins in the present revival, haVe, through the negli- 
 gence or dislike of some of the Leaders to the work itself, or from 
 their inexperience or inability as Leaders, suffered loss, and have been 
 left to themselves; and have backslidden from God ; and that un- 
 less measures are immediately taken to recover them, they are in 
 danger* of perishing for ever; and that such Leaders have testified a 
 Sort of pleasure or triumph in the misfortunes of such unfortunate 
 persons. 
 
 ** That in order tb fulfil the Christian calling of the persons com- 
 posing this Meeting, and to protect those^ who may be committed to 
 their fcare by the great Head of the Church ; and that they may be 
 enabled to do it as effectually as possible; this Meeting will, from 
 henceforth^ consider it their duty to take the sole care of all the persons 
 who shall be brought to a saving acquaintance with God among them, 
 and place them Under the guidance and care of proper persons, who 
 shall watch over them, in all respects; according to the rules of the 
 Wesieyan Methodist Society. 
 
 *'That it is nbt the intentiohof this Meeting to make any rent in 
 the Methodist Society, by inviting any of the members already in the 
 Society to join them ; but they do nevertheless feel themselves called 
 hpon to use- all the means in their power to save souls, by every pos* 
 sible way which may be open to them'; and to raise money to defray 
 the expenses of all places that may feel disposed to carry on such 
 work, in suchway and manner as they shall from time to time think 
 proper; 
 
 "That theycannoti and will not; accept of any invitation to go 
 to Wild Court. 
 
 *' That in order to give the best possible effect to the present mea- 
 sures; no person that publickly exercises at the Prayer- meetings 
 under the direction of this Meeting shall be permitted to exer- 
 cise at any of *the meetings belonging to the Great Queen Street 
 Society." 
 
 A copy of these Resolutions was sent, to Mr. Reece, accompanied 
 by the following L«tter : 
 
45 
 
 10th June,. } 81 ?. 
 ff Reverend Sir, — I am much concerned that our endeavours to call 
 your attention to the situation of the Great Queen Street Society shpuljj 
 have produced none other result than the Resolutions, a copy of 
 which accompanies this. 
 
 " With regard to the view which you have taken of our applica- 
 tion to you as President of the Conference, as to its being official pr 
 non-official, we must look to the ensuing Conference to determine it. 
 " J am directed likewise to lay a Copy of the same Resolutions ber 
 fore Jthe Superintendant of this circuit. 
 
 -" I am, Rev. Sir, yours, very respectfully, 
 
 *' John Vincent.'* 
 Thus stood matters :— with regard to myself, expelled from the 
 the Society ;rr—with regard to my friends who were determined to, 
 support the work of God, they were driven, in order to protect 
 the work itself, to separate from Great Queen Street Society ;_ — with 
 regard to the conduct of the Preachers, the matter was travelling 
 into Conference, in a way and manner approved of by the Presir 
 jdetn. of the Conference. 
 
 The visitation of the Classes for the June Quarter now comr 
 mencedj and the Superintendant, furnished with a list of the names 
 .of the persons who had "signed the Remonstrance, called upon Mr. 
 Bradley, one of the Leaders, about half an hour before he was to 
 meet his class, for their Society Tickets j and pulling out the list, 
 asked him if any of those persons met in his class : he pointed out 
 two or three, and the Superintendant immediately left him. 
 
 Mr. Wood, on calling over the names in the Class paper, came t» 
 the name of a young man, then absent, who had signed the Remon- 
 strance : he asked for him : his father excused his absence, by 
 saying j that he believed he was then at our prayer-meeting j and 
 although he had met his class the preceding Sunday, the Superin- 
 tendant struck his name out. 
 
 He now came to the name of another person, who was present. 
 ff Pray did you not sign that Remonstrance?", " Yes,l did," was 
 the reply.—" And do you not repent of what you have done ?" 
 ■•* By no means." — " In what was I an hindrance to the work of 
 God?" asked Mr. Wood. " In this respect, Sir; to my own knowr 
 iedge, several of the Charity-School children got good under Mr. 
 Fesenmeyer ; and I requested you to place a proper person to see after 
 them, and you neglected to do it." Mr. Wood refused him his 
 ticket, and struck his name out of the Class paper. 
 
 There is a clause in the Large Minutes of Conference which runs 
 *hus:— 
 
 " If it appears, on just grounds, to any Superintendant, that the 
 Chairman of the District has been guilty of any crime, or that he 
 has neglected to call the District, when there was sufficient reasons 
 for calling it, such Superintendant shall have authority, in that case, 
 to call a meeting of the District, and to fix the time and place fpr meet- 
 ing, The District thus assembled shall have power, if they judge 
 necessary, to try the Chairman ; and if found guHty, to suspend him 
 from, being a Travelling Preacher till the ne$.t Conference j or, to 
 

 46 
 
 remove him from the office of Superintendant, or depose him from 
 the chair, and to elect another in his place. Minutes shall be taken 
 of their proceedings, which shall be laid before the next Con- 
 ference." 
 
 The person whose name was last struck out of the Class paper 
 appealed to the Rev. Joseph SutclifFe, Superintendent of the Dept- 
 ford Circuit, and gave hjm a statement of his case. Mr. SutclifFe 
 called upon him, and said that it would cost 100/. to call the Dis- 
 trict Meeting. " I cannot help it, Sir," was the reply, f Let Mr. 
 Wood look to it : he should not have' broken the laws of the 
 Methodist Society." " But," added Mr. SutclifFe, " you will in- 
 jure yourself in your lusiness-, if you proceed in this manner \ t \ ! " 
 
 The Conference, on reviewing the laws of Methodism, say — 
 " The Members of our Societies are delivered from any appre- 
 hension of clandestine expulsions ; as that Superintendant would be 
 bold indeed, who would act with partiality or {.injustice in the pre- 
 sence of the whole Meeting of Leaders. Such Superintendant, we 
 trust, we have not among us : and if such there ever should be, we 
 should be ready to do all possible justice to our injured brethren." 
 
 If the Superintendant of a Circuit, Sir, is to trample with impunity 
 on the laws of Methodism ; if he is to be allowed to join in party- 
 making schemes, and to expel without -trial any member of society ; 
 if no court of inquiry can be held on his conduct, on account of the 
 expense attending it ; and if the President of the Conference shall 
 himself shuffle, and decline to interfere in a business, because he is 
 himself inimical to revivals, and because such interference must have 
 produced, if not the expulsion of all the four Preachers from the 
 Connection, yet a heavy and richly-deserved censure from the Con- 
 ference j — if, in fact, all the laws of Methodism are only visionary, 
 and not to be relied on ; — then, then, Sir, it is high time for every 
 upright member of the Methodist Society to demand a revision and 
 re-organization of their laws; and to place things on afooting which 
 shall give stability to the Methodist fabric. 
 
 You perceive, Sir, by the President's letter, of the 27th of May, that 
 he urges on the consideration of Mr. Vincent, that the- Preachers 
 acted in concert with the Leaders' Meeting, as a palliative for their 
 conduct ; but Mr. Wood thrusts out, without the Leaders ! 
 
 Whatever may be the situation of other Circuits, we have the 
 authority of several Preachers that the London West Circuit needed 
 a revival, a rending of the Heavens — something to awaken and arouse 
 them to diligence. Mr. Wood, on meeting one of the Societies, 
 stated the situation of Methodism in the Circuit to be such 
 as to require something out of the common way to give it vigour 
 and tone, and that a revival was much needed. Mr. Needham, 
 on the 16th of March, I think, preached at Hinde-street : in the 
 course of his sermon, he made some remarks on the " people 
 called Methodists," and said, that he must really tell them all 
 that was upon his mind; that if they did not put away from 
 them envy, evil- speaking, and pride, and live in love, that the 
 spirit of the Lord would be withdrawn, and that the Lord would raise 
 up another people; and that they would haye the glory taken from 
 
47 
 
 them, as it was withdrawn from the children of Israel j and, pointing 
 to Jthe pulpit, he said, " Ichahod will be written on this pulpit — 
 Ichalod on the chapel— Ichabod on your houses." Another Preacher's 
 view of the London West Circuit is such, that, I understand, his 
 prayer is, that he may be saved from hell, and also from the London 
 West Circuit. 
 
 To review the business : — 
 
 The Trustees o£ Great Queen Street Society did what they had 
 no right to do. 
 
 I was perfectly innocent of being the life, the soul, the core of 
 the opposition against them. 
 
 The Leaders' Meeting and Preachers refused to enter into an 
 examination of my innocence. 
 
 I challenged part of the jury, on the ground that the decision of that 
 meeting involved the interest of the Trustees in a question of right. 
 
 On their refusing to allow the principle contended for, and which 
 is' recognised at the Old Bailey on the trial of every common thief 
 and villain, I left their Meeting. 
 
 My expulsion followed. 
 
 The business was put into a train for Conference ; when Mr. Wood 
 clandestinely expelled a member who was urging the matter to Con- 
 ference, and thus diverted the course of justice. 
 
 The inference was, that this act, coupled with his calling fheDis-> 
 trict Meeting a week earlier than usual, stamped the conduct of the 
 Superintendant, as leading to a determination to prevent an inquiry 
 into his proceedings. 
 
 The consequence is, Sir, that, with such authorities before us, 
 regarding the state of the London West Circuit, and in consequence 
 of such injustice and oppression, and wanton opposition to a revival 
 of the work of God, myself and others have determined never more 
 to trust our characters with such Preachers and Leaders. A Jinal 
 separation has taken place ; and we have fitted up a Chapel at the 
 bottom of Newton Street, Holborn, capable of accommodating about 
 1000 persons, besides a large Sunday School ; and we are also estab- 
 lishing Societies in other places. The Lord continues to visit us with 
 his salvation ; and I trust that the place we have fitted up will shortly 
 be too strait for us. ' 
 
 I have no doubt, Sir, had you been so unfortunate as to meet with 
 such treatment, that you would have acted in the same way. If the 
 Conference shall think that I have gone too far, let them call their 
 Secretary and the other Preachers to an acconnt. My children have 
 a right to demand of me an explanation why I am disgraced by 
 the Church : they claim that right ; they ask the cause ; they feel dis- 
 . graced with me : and I will tell them, Sir, I will tell them, that my 
 sixteen years' character in the Church of Christ remains untarnished, 
 untouched ; that God Almighty had made use of me in the present 
 revival of the work of God, in London — in which about 600 souls had 
 been brought into liberty in about five months j and that this is my 
 crime, my only delinquency. 
 
 • I have the honour to be, Sir, 
 
 Your Most Obedient Servant, 
 8tkAugustj 181 7. John Philip Fesenmeybk. 
 
i 
 
 SUcpherson, Printer, RuSsel Court, Drury Lane. 
 
■M