"Down with the mass-houses," they cry ;
And Walworth's* successor stands by.
The city's meek administrator,
A tame, not unconcern'd, spectator,
Quakes as the conflagration rages,
And pays the devil's slaves their wages,
With, "Come, my lads, enough is done;
Take this, and quietly be gone!"
The Aldermen in corners hide,
And wisely for themselves provide ;
The Shrieves an awful distance keep,
Or-sometimes-venture at a peep!
The Justices with dread look on,
Till their own houses are pull'd down,
Content the mob should burn their hives,
If they will only spare their lives.

He thus personates the mob, in their indiscriminate attacks upon life and property. Mr. Romaine, it appears, had refused to join the Association, and was therefore an object of popular vengeance.

The chapels were a good beginning,
A hint to signify our meaning;
But Protestants or Papists all
Shall now without distinction fall:
Whether of high or low condition,
Whoever sign'd not the petition:
The foreigners by labour fed,
Who rob the people of their bread,
Bishops, and Lords, and gentlemen,
Who proudly o'er the people reign,
And all the men on gain intent,
And all the tools of Government;
The Government o'erturn'd shall be,
And mourn its sad catastrophe.

But O what death doth he require,
Who cast our names into the fire,
Repulsed and treated us with scorn?
He, and his house and church, shall burn.
That rogue Romaine, we soon shall have him ;
Nor Mence's t tuneful voice shall save him;

• Walworth was the bold and loyal Lord Mayor of London, who, with one blow of his sword, laid the incendiary Wat Tyler dead at his feet. His "sucwas Kennet, whose cowardice the poet describes.

cessor

The Rev. Benjamin Mence, supposed to be the finest counter-tenor in
He was Minor Canon at St. Paul's.-Manuscript note by Miss

England.

Wesley.

(Who would not the Associates join,
Ör list beneath a madman's sign,)
Old Wesley too, to Papists kind,
Who wrote against them for a blind,
Himself a Papist still in heart,
He and his followers shall smart.
Not one of his fraternity

We here beneath our standard see,

To which whole regiments resort

Both from the Lock* and Tottenham-court.†

Very different were the feelings with which Mr. Charles Wesley contemplated the fate of the innocent sufferers. Hence he published "Hymns written in the Time of the Tumults, June, 1780;" commending the persecuted Romanists to the merciful protection of God; praying for the King and royal family; for the suppression of anarchy, and the revival of law; and that the guilty contrivers of the evil might be brought to justice. Two specimens of this remarkable tract are subjoined :

Thou most compasionate High Priest,
In answer to our joint request,

United to thy own,

With pity's softest eye behold

The sheep which are not of this fold,
The church in Babylon.

The ignorant who miss their way,
Nor wilfully, but weakly, stray;
O let thy bowels move

To these, by furious hate pursued,
And from the frantic multitude
Conceal their lives above.

As sheep appointed to be slain,
By cruel, persecuting men,

By fierce fanatic zeal ;

By Christian wolves, reform'd in name,
Whose dire atrocious deeds proclaim
The synagogue of hell.

The Lock Hospital was Mr. Madan's place of worship.

The Tottenham-court chapel was built by Mr. Whitefield, and belonged to

the Calvinistic Methodists.

Our arm of flesh entirely fails,
The many-headed beast prevails;
Conspiracy the State o'erturns,
Gallia exults, and London burns!

Arm of the Lord, awake, put on
Thy strength, and cast Apollyon down;
Jesus, against the murderers rise,
And blast them with thy flaming eyes.

Forbid the flood our land to' o'erflow,
Tell it, "Thou shalt no farther go;
My will be done, my word obey'd,

And here let thy proud waves be stay'd!"

These troubles in the State were connected with uneasiness in the church. The difference of opinion and feeling which had long subsisted between Mr. John and Charles Wesley, with respect to the established Church, was at this period undiminished. John witnessed the spread of religion with the liveliest gratitude to God, and was full of hope and confidence in regard of the future. Charles thought there was in many of the Preachers and societies a strong bias in favour of separation, from which he apprehended a calamity no less terrible than the breaking up of the Methodists into innumerable Dissenting sects. The only means of preventing this evil, which he thought would entirely destroy the good that had been done, he deemed a strict union with the Church of England. John beheld almost everywhere the societies enlarged, by the accession of persons who were really turned from sin to holiness; and this he felt to be a benefit of the most substantial kind. He did not as yet see how the Preachers and people could be kept together when he was no more; but he was assured that the work was the Lord's, and in his hands it might be safely left. Permanent evil, he knew, could not result from the spread of vital religion, the love of God and man, springing from a lively faith in the world's Redeemer. Unless the Preachers declared themselves to be decided Churchmen, Charles eyed them with alarm. If they were zealous for God, and laboured with all their might for the conversion of sinners, John loved them, and encouraged them in their work. He resolved to do what he could to prevent them and the societies from leaving the Church; but

their continuance in it was with him a subordinate object.
His great concern was, to save souls from sin and hell.

+

Mr. Charles Wesley attended the Conference of 1780, which was held in Bristol. He saw, or thought he saw, in that annual assembly the working of principles unfavourable to that strict Churchmanship which he believed to be essential to the continuance of that revival of religion which had long been in progress; and hence he poured forth the feelings of his mind in the following stanzas. They are said to have been "written after the Conference in August, 1780: Ro.. the last/which the writer was present at." t." It will be to were. observed that he attended about as many "last Conferences" as the good Richard Baxter uttered and published "last words."

400, un

им

Why should I longer, Lord, contend,
My last important moments spend
In buffeting the air?

In warning those who will not see,
But rest in blind security,

And rush into the snare?

Prophet of ills why should I live,
Or by my sad forebodings grieve
Whom I can serve no more?
I only can their loss bewail,
Till life's exhausted sorrows fail,
And the last pang is o'er.

Here then I quietly resign
Into those gracious hands divine,
Whom I received from thee,
My brethren and companions dear,
And finish with a parting tear
My useless ministry.

Detach'd from every creature now,
I humbly at thy footstool bow,

Accepting my release ;

If thou the promised grace bestow,
Salvation to thy servant show,

And bid me die in peace.

To this tone of sadness and despondency the cheerful buoyancy of Mr. John Wesley formed a perfect and beautiful contrast. Speaking in his Journal of this Conference, he