cared not. He did preach next day, in another field, to six thousand people; "but saw no constables to molest or attend" him.

The reports of this affair spread in all forms; alarming his friends for his safety, and preparing his enemies for his approach. At Basingstoke, the mayor (a butcher) sent him a warning by the hands of a constable. This led to an amusing correspondence, as well as to interviews, between the parties; in which the mayor boasted of what he would do, "although he was a butcher;" and Whitefield told him what he ought to do as a magistrate.

It was the time of a revel at Basingstoke, and many of the people were riotous. Whitefield, however, preached in a field, although he was unprotected, and even told that he would not come out alive. Indeed, it was confessed, some days after, by one of the ringleaders, that a party were pledged to "give him a secret blow, and prevent his disturbances." He was, however, only grossly insulted.

The fact is, the magistrates and the booth-keepers were afraid that he would spoil the revel: and he evidently intended to preach at the fair, although he did not exactly say so; for he repeatedly urged the mayor to prevent the scenes of cudgelling and wrestling which were going forward. Failing in this, he set out to go to London; but when he saw the stage for the cudgellers and wrestlers, he could not proceed.

The following account of his "mad prank," is too characteristic of him to be suppressed, although he himself erased it from his journals. "As I passed by on horseback, I saw a stage; and as I rode further, I met divers coming to the revel; which affected me so much, that I had no rest in my spirit. And therefore having asked counsel of God, and perceiving an unusual warmth and power enter my soul,—though I was gone above a mile,-I could not bear to see so many dear souls, for whom Christ had died, ready to perish, and no minister or magistrate interpose. Upon this I told my dear fellow-travellers, that I was resolved to follow the example of Howel Harris in Wales, (he had just come from a tour with him in Wales,) and to bear my testimony against such lying vanities, let the consequences, as to my own private person, be what they would. They immediately consenting, I rode back to town, got upon the stage erected for the wrestlers, and began to show them the error of their ways. Many seemed ready to hear what I had to say; but one more zeal

ous than the rest for his master, and fearing conviction every time I attempted to speak, set the boys on repeating their huzzahs.

My soul, I perceived, was in a sweet frame, willing to be offered up, so that I might save some of those to whom I was about to speak: but all in vain! While I was on the stage, one struck me with his cudgel, which I received with the utmost love. At last, finding the devil would not permit them to give me audience, I got off, and after much pushing and thronging me I got on my horse, with unspeakable satisfaction within myself, that I had now begun to attack the devil in his strongest holds, and had borne my testimony against the detestable diversions of this generation." Original Journals.

The reason why Whitefield excluded this event from his revised journals, was, perhaps, the tremendous severity of the following reflections. "Ye masters in Israel, what are ye doing? Ye magistrates, that are gods in Scripture, why sleep ye? Why do ye bear the sword in vain? Why count ye me a troubler in Israel, and why say ye, I teach people to be idle, when ye connive at, if not subscribe to, such hellish meetings as these, which not only draw people from their bodily work, but directly tend to destroy their precious and immortal souls? Surely I shall appear against you at the Judgment-seat of Christ; for these diversions keep people from true Christianity, as much as paganism itself. And I doubt not, but it will require as much courage and power to divert people from these things, as the apostles had to exert in converting the heathen from dumb idols. However, in the strength of my Master, I will now enter the lists, and begin an offensive war with Satan and all his host. If I perish, I perish! I shall have the testimony of a good conscience: I shall be free from the blood of all men." It is easier to find fault with the severity of this invective, than to prove that any lower tone of feeling could have sustained any man, in grappling with such national enormities. Whitefield struck the first blow at them, and thus led the way to their abandonment; an issue which may well excuse even the wild fire of his zeal.

Such was his position in London and the country, when he sailed for America the second time. He then left enough for the nation to think about until his return.

CHAPTER VI.

WHITEFIELD IN WALES.

THE following singular account of the commencement of methodism and dissent in Wales, is translated from the " "Trysorva," by Johnes. "In the reign of James I. a clergyman of the name of Wroth was vicar of Llanvaches, in Monmouthshire. Being of a joyous temper, and like most of his countrymen, passionately fond of music, he was sometimes carried beyond the bounds of propriety by this enthusiasm. On one occasion, a gentleman with whom he was on terms of intimacy, having presented him with a new harp, fixed a day on which, in company with some friends, he would visit him, and hear him perform upon it. The day appointed came, and Wroth was anxiously expecting his visitor, when a messenger appeared to inform him that his friend was no more! This incident affected him so deeply, that, repenting the levity of his youth, from a gay clerical troubadour he became all at once a sad but zealous divine. With these impressions, he determined to commence preaching to his congregation, a practice then almost unknown in the churches of the principality. As a preacher, he soon distinguished himself so much, that the Welsh peasantry flocked from all the neighbouring counties to hear him. His audience, being frequently too numerous for his church to contain-on such occasions he was in the habit of addressing them in the church-yard. It is said that Sir Lewis Mansel, of Margam, a man illustrious for his exalted religious and patriotic zeal, was often one of his congregation.

"The irregularity alluded to at last exposed him to the censure of his diocesan, who, on one occasion, asked him, in anger, how he could vindicate his infringement of the rules of the church? To this reprimand Wroth replied, by appealing, with tears in his eyes, to the religious ignorance which prevailed throughout the country, and to the necessity of employ

ing every means to dissipate it: by which answer, the bishop is said to have been deeply affected. Eventually, however, by refusing to read the Book of Sports,' and by the general tenor of his conduct, he rendered himself so obnoxious to the dignitaries of the church, that he was deprived of his benefice. After his expulsion, he continued to preach in secret to his old followers, and at last he formed, from amongst them, a regular dissenting congregation, on the independent model. From Llanvaches, the opinions of its pastor soon spread themselves into the remotest corner of Wales: during his life, this village was regarded as the rallying point of the Welch non-conformists. Wroth, nevertheless, seems to have cherished to the last some feeling of affection towards the church, of which he had once been a minister; for, on his death, which occurred in 1640, he was buried, at his own request, under the threshold of the church of Llanvaches. During the civil wars, which broke out soon afterwards, the independents were not only tolerated, but predominant. In Cromwell's time, an attempt was made to get rid of every thing like an establishment, and to substitute a few itinerant ministers in its place. The modicum of preachers proposed to be given by this plan of economical piety was six to a county; it was lost in the House of Commons by a majority of two voices. It was felt, however, that the bright thought was too precious to be discarded without an experiment; and, accordingly, it was partly carried into effect in Wales, under Hugh Peters and Vavasor Powel, and a confiscation of church property in that country ensued, to an enormous amount; for, unhappily, under all the various forms of civil and ecclesiastical polity which have prevailed in England, the Welch church has been treated as a fair field for experiments, no less injurious to the general cause of religion than to Wales.

"In the times of the Stuarts, dissent from the episcopal church became once more an object of persecution; but the ministers of the Welch non-conformists still continued to traverse the wild hills of the principality, braving all dangers for the sake of their few and scattered followers. Their congregations still occasionally met, but it was in fear and trembling, generally at midnight, or in woods and caverns, amid the gloomy recesses of the mountains.

"At the revolution, these dissenters exhausted their strength by controversies amongst themselves on the rite of baptism:

on which subject a difference of opinion had long existed amongst them, though persecution had prevented them from making it a ground of disunion. Till the breaking out of methodism, their cause continued to decline.

"In the year 1736, there were only six dissenting chapels in all North Wales. In this year an incident occurred which forms an interesting link between the history of the early Welch dissenters (the followers of Wroth) and that of the methodists, connecting together the darkening prospects of the former and the first symptoms of that more powerful impulse which was communicated by the latter. One Sunday, Mr. Lewis Rees, a dissenting minister from South Wales, and father of the celebrated author of the Cyclopædia, visited Pwllheli, a town in the promontory of Lleyn, in Caernarvonshire, and one of the few places in which the independents still possessed a chapel. After the service, the congregation, collecting around him, complained bitterly, that their numbers were rapidly diminishing, that the few who yet remained were for the most part poor, and that every thing looked gloomy to their cause. To which the minister replied, "The dawn of true religion is again breaking in South Wales,-a great man, named Howel Harris, has recently risen up, who goes about instructing the people in the truths of the gospel.' Nor was he mistaken, either in his anticipation that dissent was on the eve of bursting forth with tenfold vigour in Wales, nor in the man from whom he expected this result: the first elements of methodism were already at work; Howel Harris was its founder, and one of its most distinguished champions. Properly speaking, the history of methodism is the history of dis sent in Wales: before entering, however, upon this interesting subject, it will be necessary to give a cursory view of the state of the church in Wales at the time of its origin, as hardly a doubt can be entertained that the predisposing causes to methodism were to be found in the inefficiency of the establishment.

"The following is a translation of an Account of the State of Religion in Wales about the middle of the Eighteenth Century.' It was taken from the mouth of a very old Welch methodist, and published in 1799, in the Trysorva,' a Welch periodical, edited by the Rev. Thomas Charles, of Bala; and I have high authority for asserting that the descriptions it af fords are in no respect exaggerated." Johnes.

"In those days,' says the narrator, the land was dark in