issued January 3, 1783, he lucidly discloses the evils which must arise from allowing such powers to trustees.

When the trustees in

"Itinerant preaching is no more. any place have found and fixed a preacher they like, the rotation of preachers is at an end; at least, till they are tired of their favorite preacher, and so turned him out. While he stays, is not the bridle in his mouth? How dares he speak the full and the whole truth, since, whenever he displeases the trustees, he is liable to lose his bread? How much less. will he dare to put a trustee, though ever so ungodly, out of the society! I am not pleading my own cause.

. . I am pleading for Mr. Taylor, Mr. Bradburn, Mr. Benson, and for every other traveling preacher, that you may be as free, after I am gone hence, as you are now I am at your head; that you may never be liable to be turned out of any or all of our houses without any reason given, but that so is the pleasure of twenty or thirty men.

I insist upon that point, and let everything else go. No Methodist trustees, if I can help it, shall, after my death, any more than while I live, have the power of placing and displacing the preachers.'

The final result of this agitation was that a new deed was made, "giving the Conference power to appoint the preachers; and this serious hubbub, pro tem., subsided."† Dr. Coke had actually purchased ground for the site of a new chapel, according to the direction of the Conference, and one reason why the trustees had claimed extraordinary powers was because of a debt of £350 on their new chapel, which they had advanced the money to pay. Wesley of fered to relieve them of their debt and to present them with the ground Coke had bought, if they would make a satisfactory deed, which, according to the opinion of Mr. Maddocks, an eminent attorney, they were competent to do. Mr. Joseph Charlesworth, one of the trustees, in finally accepting Mr. Wesley's offer on behalf of his brethren, naïvely wrote: *Wesley's Works, VII. 328.

†Tyerman, III. 382. See the whole account, III. 373–382.

& COR

"We cannot but acknowledge your goodness in promising the land, and the money towards paying our debt, which will be two very convenient articles at this place, as we are in great want of both.”

But this Birstal trouble of 1782 led to a critical inquiry into the merits of the model deed itself, which had, hitherto, been adjudged sufficient. Was the "Yearly Conference of the People called Methodists" such a body as possessed a legal existence? Could it be legally described and legally identified? Of what followed Dr. Coke himself tells us in his "Address to the Methodist Society in Great Britain and Ireland on the settlement of the Preaching houses":

"In the Conference held in the year 1782 several complaints were made in respect to the danger in which we were situated from the want of specifying, in distinct and legal terms, what was meant by the term, The Conference of the People called Methodists.' Indeed, the preachers seemed universally alarmed, and many expressed their fears Ahat divisions would take place among us after the death of Mr. Wesley on this account; and the whole body of preachers present seemed to wish that some methods might be taken to remove this danger, which appeared to be pregnant with evils of the first magnitude.

"In consequence of this (the subject lying heavy on my heart), I desired Mr. Clulow, of Chancery Lane, London, to draw up such a case as I judged sufficient, and then to present it to that very eminent counselor, Mr. Maddocks, for his opinion. This was accordingly done, and Mr. Maddocks informed us, in his answer, that the deeds of our preaching houses were in the situation we dreaded; that the law would not recognize the Conference in the state in which it stood at that time, and, consequently, that there was no central point which might preserve the connection from splitting into a thousand pieces after the death of Mr. Wesley. To prevent this, he observed that Mr. Wesley should enroll a deed in chancery, which deed should specify the persons by name who composed the Conference, to

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gether with the mode of succession for its perpetuity; and at the same time such regulations be established by the deed as Mr. Wesley would wish the Conference should be gov erned by, after his death.

"This opinion of Mr. Maddocks I read in the Conference of 1783. The whole Conference seemed grateful to me for procuring the opinion, and expressed their wishes that such a deed might be drawn up and executed by Mr. Wesley as should agree with the advice of that great lawyer, as soon as possible.

"Soon after the Conference was ended, Mr. Wesley authorized me to draw up, with the assistance of Mr. Clulow, all the leading parts of a deed which should answer the above mentioned purposes. This we did with much care, and as to myself I can truly say with fear and trembling, receiving Mr. Maddocks' advice in respect to every step we took, and laying the whole ultimately at Mr. Wesley's feet for his approbation; there remained now nothing but to insert the names of those who were to constitute the Conference. Mr. Wesley then declared that he would limit the number to one hundred. This was indeed contrary to my very humble opinion, which was, that every preacher, in full connection, should be a member of the Conference; and that admission into full connection should be looked upon as admission into membership with the Conference; and I still believe it will be most for the glory of God, and the peace of our Zion, that the members of the Conference admit the other preachers who are in full connection, and are present at the Conference from time to time, to a full vote on all occasions. However, of course, I submitted to the superior judgment and authority of Mr. Wesley."

*

This was the origin of, and this Dr. Coke's agency in procuring, the Magna Charta of English Methodism, the famous Deed of Declaration, dated Feb. 28, 1784: the further consideration of which, with the temporary troubles and lasting blessings which grew out of it, we defer to our account

*Drew, Life of Coke, pp. 47, 48.

of "the grand climacteric year." The Deed has stood the test of litigation, and the strain and stress of changing times and conditions: it remains to this day the sufficient instrument which has conserved and prospered the best interests of English Methodism. For no act of his life, perhaps, was Mr. Wesley more severely or more generally maligned: no single deed of his has, indeed, proved more signally beneficial to his British followers. Time and experience have brought a complete vindication of the wisdom of the independent course which he pursued.

BOOK II. .

AMERICAN METHODISM TO 1784.

I. BEGINNINGS of MethodISM IN AMERICA.
II. THE FIRST AMERICAN CONFERENCE.

III. THE ANNUAL CONFERENCES TO THE CLOSE OF RAN

KIN'S ADMINISTRATION, 1777.

IV. DISCORD AND DISUNION: 1778–1780.

V. PEACE AND PROSPERITY: 1781-1784.

VI. THE DOCTRINAL STANDARDS OF ECUMENICAL METH

ODISM.

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