of the difpofition of the agent, that it is impoffible to mistake them.

"The power, for which Mr. Wefley contended, was abfolute. It was a power to receive or exclude preachers or people; to call a conference, to appoint the preachers, who should attend it, and, in general, to do what he pleafed, by his own proper authority. There is no trace of fuch a power in the first minutes of conference, in 1744. By thofe minutes, equal liberty was eftablished, as a fundamental article: and, in a fubfequent conference, -Mr. Wefley and the preachers mutually "figned an agreement, not to act independently of each other." As the minute, we have juft mentioned, is remarkable for it's good fenfe and liberality, we tranfcribe the paffage.

"Queftion. How far does each agree to fubmit to the judgment of the majority?

"Anfwer. In fpeculative things, each can only fubmit fo far as his judgment fhall be convinced: in every practical point, each will fubmit fo far as he can, without wounding his confcience.

"Queftion. Can a chriftian fubmit any farther than this, to any man, or number of men upon earth?

"Answer. It is plain he cannot, either to bishop, or convocation, or general council. And this is that grand principle of private judgment, on which all the reformers proceeded: "Every man muft judge for himfelf; becaufe every man muft give an account of himfelf unto God."

"In this quotation, which we call the original compact between the preachers and Mr. Wefley, it is remarkable, that the firft queftion fuppofes the fubmiffion of every preacher, and that only fo far as is

confiftent with a good confcience, not to him individually, but to the majority. Moft of the ex poft facto laws, which he established, or en deavoured to establish in the fequel, were fo many violations of this com pact. It was violated by his introduction of his notes on the New Teftament and his volumes of fermons into the deeds of the preaching-houfes, as the test of found doc❤ trine, and the rule, on their conformity to which, fhould depend the admiffion or continuance of preachers in the connexion. It was vio lated by the requifition, that the preachers fhould promise to serve him as fons in the gofpel," and that they fhould read fuch books only as he recommended. It was ftill farther violated, by his making it a rule, that they should print no books without his permiffion: and laftly, by the arbitrary selection of one hundred preachers as the only members of conference, and by the razure of the compact itself, from the minutes of conference, on their republication in 1780.

"Against this last act, one preacher having remonftrated, was anfwered; I have not made fo bad a ufe of my power, as to render this claufe neceffary:" to which it was very properly returned, "I had ra "ther hold my liberties by the law, "than by the favour of any man." A motion was made, that the minute concerning the right of private judg ment fhould be reinferted in its proper place. It was voted in, without one diffentient voice; but he took care not to infert it, to the day of his death. To this it may be added, that, at the conference in 783, Dr. Coke attempted, in his namie, to introduce a minute, fignifying the concurrence of conference, to Mr. Wefley's giving abfolute power to a felect committee, to con

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duct the affairs of the focieties, after his decease; and another, to call for the deeds of the feveral preachinghouses, out of the hands of the trustees, and to lodge them in an iron fafe, under the New Chapel, City Road; of which fafe, the doc. tor kept the key! In both thefe, he was out-voted by a very large majority.

"Such are the principles, on which we ground the affertion, that Mr. Welley was fond of power, and that his temper was defpotic. When any man attempts the fubverfion of cuftoms and regulations, as much diftinguished by their excellence as their antiquity, it is a natural conclufion, that he is fond of abfolute rule, and would fubftitute others in ftead of them, lefs excellent and un exceptionable; and in this cafe, whoever that man may be, he ought to be oppofed in the attempt. In fuch a conteft, he may, if he pleafes brand oppofition with the name of rebellion but we fay, it is virtue.

:

"On the authority of the above facts, (and if more were neceffary, we can easily produce them) as well as upon the fanction of fome perfonal knowledge of the man, we muft in

:

fift, that Mr. Wefley was, during the last ten or fifteen years of his fupremacy, the most abfolute of monarchs. His will was the law. If he ever receded from a resolution, or refcinded a favourite measure, it was not choice, but neceffity. If he retreated, it was only for the mo ment. He never thought his authority fecure, but when exerted to the utmost and therefore, if ever furprised into a conceffion, he took the first opportunity of measuring his fteps back again; and, by frequently returning to the attack, he was fure, fooner or later, to carry his point. In a word, the love of power was the chief mifery of his life; the fource of infinite difgufts; and the most frequent caufe of the defe&ions of his friends. Had not his virtues been fullied by this and fome other defects, he had avoided many errors and inconfiftencies, into which he has fallen; and we should have given him, without deduction or referve, the praife, to which his piety, his labours, his learning, and his general ability in the manage ment of his people, had fo juftly ens titled him,"

MAN

fents. In fact, they were too fenfible to be proud of empty founds, but juftly imagined, that thofe ridiculous titles would ferve as marks of diftinction, and by attracting notice, procure for them fomething fubftantial. The only men of real confequence in the island, whom we faw before we landed, were the governor Abdullah, fecond coufin to the king, and his brother Alwi, with their feveral fons; all of whom will again be particularly mentioned: they understood Arabic, feemed zealots in the Mohammedan faith, and admired my copies of the Alkoran; fome verfes of which they read, whilft Alwi perused the opening of another Arabian manufcript, and explained it in English more accurately than could have been expected.

"The next morning showed us the ifland in all its beauty; and the fcene was fo diverfified, that a diftinct view of it could hardly have been exhibited by the beft pencil: you muft, therefore, be fatisfied with a mere defcription, written on the very fpot, and compared attentively with the natural landfcape. We were at anchor in a fine bay, and before us was a vaft amphitheatre, of which you may form a general notion, by picturing in your minds a multitude of hills infinitely varied in fize and figure, and then fuppofing them to be thrown together, with a kind of artlefs fymmetry, in all imaginable pofitions. The back ground was a series of mountains, one of which is pointed, near half a mile perpendicularly high from the level of the fea, and little more than three from the fhore: all of them were richly clothed with wood, chiefly fruit-trees, of an exquifite verdure. I had feen many a moun tain of a ftupendous height in Wales and Swifferland, but never faw one

before, round the bosom of which the clouds were almost continually rolling, while its green fummit rofe flourishing above them, and received from them an additional brightness. Next to this diftant range of hills was another tier, part of which appeared charmingly verdant, and part rather barren; but the contrast of colours changed even this nakednefs into a beauty: nearer ftill were innumerable mountains, or rather cliffs, which brought down their verdure and fertility quite to the beach; fo that every fhade of green, the sweetest of colours, was difplayed at one view by land and by wa ter. But nothing conduced more to the variety of this enchanting profpect, than the many rows of palm-trees, efpecially the tall and graceful areca's, on the fhores, in the valleys, and on the ridges of the hills, where one might almoft fuppofe them to have been planted regularly by defign. A more beautiful ap pearance can fcarce be conceived, than fuch a number of elegant palms in fuch a fituation, with luxuriant tops, like verdant plumes, placed at juft intervals, and fhow, ing between them part of the remoter landfcape, while they left the reft to be fupplied by the beholder's imagination. The town of Matfamudó lay on our left, remarkable at a diftance for the tower of the principal mofque, which was built by Halimah, a queen of the ifland, from whom the prefent king is defcended: a little on our right was a fmall town, called Bantáni. Neither the territory of Nice, which its olives, date-trees, and cypresses, nor the ifles of Hieres, with their delightful orange-groves, appeared fo charming, to me, as the view from the road of Hinzùán; which, neverthelefs, is far furpaffed, as the captain of the Crocodile affured

us, by many of the iflands in the 1outhern ocean. If life were not too fhort for the complete discharge of all our refpective duties, publick and private, and for the acquifition even of neceffary knowledge in any degree of perfection, with how much pleafure and improvement might a great part of it be spent in admiring the beauties of this wonderful orb, and contemplating the nature of man in all its varieties!

"We haftened to tread on firm land, to which we had been fo long difufed, and went on fhore, after breakfast, to fee the town, and return the governor's vifit. As we walked, attended by a crowd of natives, I furprized them by reading aloud an Arabic infcription over the gate of a mofque, and ftill more, when I entered it, by explaining four fentences, which were written very diftinctly on the wall, fignify, ing," that the world was given us "for our own edification, not for the purpose of railing fumptuous "buildings; life, for the difcharge "of moral and religious duties, not for pleafurable indulgences; wealth, to be liberally beftowed, not avaritiously hoarded; and "learning, to produce good actions, "not empty difputes." We could not but refpect the temple even of a falfe prophet, in which we found fuch excellent morality: we faw nothing better among the Romish trumpery in the church at Madera. When we came to Abdullah's house, we were conducted through a small court-yard into an open room, on each fide of which was a large and convenient fofa, and above it a high bed-place in a dark recefs, over which a chintz counterpane hung down from the ceiling: this is the general form of the beft rooms in the ifland; and most of the tolerable houses have a fimilar apartment

on the oppofite fide of the court, that there may be at all hours a place in the fhade for dinner or for repofe. We were entertained with ripe dates from Yemen, and the milk of cocoa-nuts; but the heat of the room, which feemed acceffible to all, who chofe to enter it, and the fcent of mufk or civet, with which it was perfumed, foon made us defirous of breathing a purer air; nor could I be detained long by the Arabick manufcripts, which the governor produced, but which appeared of little ufe, and confequently of no value, except to fuch as love mere curiofities: one of them, indeed, relating to the penal law of the Mohammedans, I would gladly have purchased at a juft price but he knew not what to afk; and 1,knew that better books on that fübject might be procured in Bengal. He then offered me a black boy for one of my Alkorans, and preffed me to barter an Indian dress, which he had feen on board the fhip, for a cow, and calf: the golden flippers attracted him moft, fince his wife, he faid, would like to wear them; and, for that reafon, I made him a prefent of them; but had deftined the book and the robe for his fuperior. No high opinion could be formed of Sayyad Abdullah, who feemed very eager for gain, and very fervile where he expected it.

"Our next vifit was to Shaikh Sàlim, the king's eldest fon; and, it we had feen him firft, the ftate of civilization in Hinzuán would have appeared at its loweft ebb: the worft English hackney, in the worst ftable, is better lodged, and looks more princely than this heir apparent; but, though his mien and apparel were extremely favage, yet allowance fhould have been made for his illness; which, as we afterwards