Wesley Corpus

‘That on February 28, as she was going out of her lodgings, she was met by Butler and his mob: that Butler, without any manner of provocation, immediately fell upon her, striking her with both his fists on the side of the head, which knocked her head against the wall: that she endeavored to escape from him; but he pursued her and struck her several times in the face: that she ran into the schoolyard for shelter; but he followed, and caught hold of her, saying, “You whore, you stand on consecrated ground,’ and threw her with such force across the lane that she was driven against the opposite wall: that, when she had recovered herself a little, she made the best of her way to her lodging; but Butler still pursued, and overtook her as she was going up the stairs: that he struck her with his fist on the stomach, which stroke knocked her down backwards: that, falling with the small of her back against the edge of one of the stairs, she was not able to rise again: that her pains immediately came upon her, and about two in the morning she miscarried.’ 16. These, with several more depositions to the same effect, were in April laid before the Grand Jury. Yet they did not find any of these bills. But they found one against Daniel Sullivan the younger (no preacher, but an hearer of the people called Methodists), who, when Butler and his mob were discharging a shower of stones upon him, fired a pistol without any ball over their heads. If any man has wrote this story to England in a quite different manner, and fixed it on a young Methodist preacher, let him be ashamed in the presence of God and man, unless shame and he have shook hands and parted. 17. Several of the persons presented as vagabonds in autumn appeared at the Lent Assizes. But, none appearing against them, they were discharged, with honor to themselves and shame to their prosecutors; who, by bringing the matter to a judicial determination, plainly showed there is a law even for Methodists; and gave His Majesty's Judge a full occasion to declare the utter illegality of all riots, and the inexcusableness of tolerating (much more causing) them on any pretence whatsoever.