Wesley Corpus

To his Brother Charles LONDON, November 3, 1775. DEAR BROTHER,--The Proposals and Preface will be sent on Monday. In the Preface to the new edition of the Address (which I will send with the Proposals) there is, I think, a sufficient answer to Mr. Evan's letter. But Mr. Raikes is right: if it bears no name, it has no title to any answer. No man is a good judge in his own cause. I believe I am tolerably impartial; but you are not (at least, was not some time since) with regard to King Charles I. Come and see what I say. If the worst comes, we can agree to disagree. The History has been some time in the press. The first volume is nearly printed. The paper is good; so is the type; and, what is stranger, the execution too. So much for your first letter. Still I know not whom you mean by Dr. Smyth; unless it be the young clergyman in Ireland, who is a poet, but not of the first magnitude. 'Why were they not taxed for an hundred and fifty years ' How shockingly ignorant of the law are our lawyers! yea, and the whole body of the Lords and Commons into the bargain! to let Lord Chatham, Mr. Burke, &c. &c., so long triumph in this argumentum palmarium! Why, it is a blunder from top to bottom. They have been taxed over and over since the Restoration, by King Charles, King William, Queen Anne, and George II. I can now point out chapter and verse. I think Mr. Madan grows more and more loving. Res ipsa jam reduxit in gratiam. I shall be right glad to see him. I hear nothing from Cornwall; and no news, you know, is good news. Pray tell Brother Southcote I like his treatise well. I am writing something nearly on the subject. I am desired to preach at Bethnal Green Church on Sunday se'nnight, and purpose to print my sermon. You may guess a little of the tenor of it by the text: ' Lo, I have sinned and done wickedly; but these sheep, what have they done ' I hope Sally is better. Peace be with you all! Adieu! To James Rouquet [28] LONDON, November 8, 1775.