Wesley Corpus

great a work God has wrought among them. I found exceeding little to reprove ; but much to praiseGod 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 onewho has latelymade amore 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, concerningthe inhabitants of Redcliff. Now, if at four in ahouse, 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, fourteen thousand persons. I believe, there are now full twenty thousand. And these are nothing near a quarter of the present inhabitants of Bristol. Wed. 11. I preached about one at Bath ; and about six, in ameadow, near the preaching-house, in Frome, besought a listen- ing multitude " not to receive the grace ofGod in vain." Thur. 12. I spent about two hours in Mr. Hoare's gardens, at Stourton. I have seen the most celebrated gardens in Eng- land; but these far exceed them all: 1. In the situation ; being laid out on the sloping sides of a semicircular mountain : 2. In the vast basin of water inclosed between them, covering, I sup- pose, sixty acres of ground: 3. In the delightful interchange of shady groves and sunny glades, curiously mixed together.