Wesley Corpus

I was surprised to find the simplicity with which one and all spoke, both of their temporal and spiritual state. Nor could I easily have known, by any other means, how great a work God has wrought among them. I found exceeding little to reprove; but much to praise God for. And I observed one thing which I did not expect:-In visiting all the families, without Lawford-Gate, by far the poorest about the city, I did not find so much as one person who was out of work. Another circumstance I critically inquired into, What is the real number of the people? Dr. Price says, (doubtless to encourage our good friends, the French and Spaniards,) “The people of England are between four and five millions; supposing them to be four, or four and a half, on an average, in one house.” I found, in the families which I visited, about six in a house. Sept. 1776.]- JOURNAL, 87 But one who has lately made a more general inquiry, informs me, there are, without Lawford-Gate, seven in a house. The same information I received, from one who has lately made the inquiry, concerning the inhabitants of Redcliff. Now, if at four in a house, we are four millions, must we not, at seven in a house, be seven millions? But even this is far short of the truth; for a plain reason, the houses are miscomputed. To give one instance:--The houses without Lawford-Gate are computed to be a thousand. Now, at the sitting of the Justices, some years since, there were two hundred public-houses. Was then one house in five a public-house? No, surely; one in ten at the utmost. If so, there were two thousand houses; and, consequently, four teen thousand persons. I believe, there are now full twenty thousand. And these are nothing near a quarter of the present inhabitants of Bristol. Wed. 1].-I preached about one at Bath; and about six, in a meadow, near the preaching-house, in Frome, besought a listening multitude “not to receive the grace of God in vain.” Thur. 12.-I spent about two hours in Mr. Hoare's gar dens, at Stourton. I have seen the most celebrated gardens in England; but these far exceed them all: 1. In the situa tion; being laid out on the sloping sides of a semicircular moun tain: 2.