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The old hostility between himself and government was many years ago succeeded by a perfect reconciliation. He had the happiness of seeing many of the reforms which he had so ardently advocated in his youth quietly prevailing in his later years. He saw as much to admire in his queen as he had seen to detest in some of her remote relatives. Several of his beautiful poems are laden with compliments for her whom he calls

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For the last ten years of his life the good-will of government was manifested toward him in the bestowment of a pension of two hundred pounds per annum.

Leigh Hunt died in August last, a loved and honored old man. For many years his house was a place of pilgrimage to friends and admirers from his own and other lands. A multitude of writers had grown up without the prejudices and animosities of some of their predecessors. These gathered affectionately and reverently around the genial patriarch of literature, and for many years scarcely a word has been written to his injury. He was eminently the friend of poets. Had he written nothing himself his name would long live enshrined in the writings of his brother poets. Keats wrote a beautiful poem in commemoration of the day of Hunt's release from prison. The last poem Shelley ever wrote was one welcoming his friend to Italy. It was a fitting and coincident return that the last words Leigh Hunt wrote for the public were to vindicate his friend from what he regarded as a misapprehension.

ART. V.-WESLEY AS A MAN OF LITERATURE.

[THIRD ARTICLE.]

VII. Our next department of review presents Mr. Wesley's character as a commentator.

The New Testament text of Mr. Wesley does not keep his name in remembrance or support his fame, but the Notes, the short, pithy, spirited, practical notes on the text. As a commentator or annotator he is not altogether original, acknowledging that he is indebted to Dr. Heylin, Dr. Guise, and Dr. Doddridge; but mostly to the learned German divine, Bengel or Bengelius, who became prelate of Wurtemburg, and died two years before the issue of the Explanatory Notes. The notes on the Revelation are chiefly from Bengel.

With the notes another advantage is given, namely, an analysis of each book, showing clearly the method and contents of the writing of the inspired authors. The Notes are not only intrinsically useful, and sufficient for their own preservation from generation to generation, but they are useful to the Methodist connection as a standard of doctrine. No man has a right to preach in a Methodist church unless he "preach no other doctrine than is contained in Mr. Wesley's Notes upon the New Testament." (Larger Minutes.) The Notes, then, are destined to live so long as the Methodist organizations continue, perhaps to the end of the world.

He did not confine his attention to the New Testament, but began to collect and arrange matter for "Explanatory Notes on the Old Testament," which work was published in three quarto volumes ten years after. The preface says that he had no wish to undertake such a work, but importunity prevailed over him; and yet it seemed incredible to himself that he should be "entering upon a work of this kind when," says he, "I am entering into the sixty-third year of my age." Yet the new commentary was mostly made up of old ones. He set about shortening Mr. Henry's large commentary of six folios, making it plainer to common readers, cheaper to poor ones, more conformable to the doctrine of universal redemption, and fuller in various important places. After he had gone through Genesis he began to use Mr. Pool's "Annotations on the Bible," and as freely, or more so, than Henry's work. His desire and aim was "to give the direct literal meaning of every verse, of every sentence, and, as far as I am able, of every word, in the oracles of God." A most excellent design for a commentator! But commentators are very fond of giving profuse explanation and remark on plain passages, and passing over, with little or no observation, the dark and intricate texts. The Old Testament notes seem never to have attained a great circulation. Had the work been in one quarto volume instead of three, the circulation would doubtless have been much greater. But a mere compilation from other authors was never likely to be very popular, even with a respectable name and useful alterations. I do not find that the work ever went into a second edition. At the present the commentary is seldom seen, and is regarded mostly as a curiosity. A copy was lately presented to the Wesleyan College, in Coburg, Canada, by a gentleman of Montreal.

VIII. We pass by the commentator and view him next in the very different path of a POLITICAL WRITER. Private and secluded men often feel deeply interested in public affairs, but public men FOURTH SERIES, VOL. XII.-17

generally much more so. The two Wesleys were men of this sort, deeply interested not only in the moral and religious, but in the civil · and political state of the English nation. In the war with France and Spain, involving a European war, from 1742 to 1748, England was in a very unsettled state, and great fears were entertained that the Pretender would supplant George II. on the English throne. Both Wesleys used all their influence for the reigning, the Protestant prince. Charles wrote hymns for these "times of trouble." The energetic and loyal hymns beginning:

and also,

"Sovereign of all, whose will ordains,"
"Lord, thou hast bid thy people pray,"

"Sinners, the call obey,"

were prompted by these times, and exhibit the feelings of the poet and the state of the nation.

Among the remaining writings of Mr. Wesley are some tracts on political economy and public affairs. His "Free Thoughts on the Present State of Public Affairs, in a Letter to a Friend," were written in 1768, and profess to answer the question, "What do you think is the direct and principal cause of the present public commotions, of the amazing ferment among the people, the general discontent of the nation?" Is the king the cause? In reply he ingeniously defends George III. as a wise and good prince, "whose whole conduct, both in public and private, ever since he began his reign, has been worthy, of an Englishman, worthy of a Christian, and worthy of a king." Was the ministry the cause? Two troublesome questions were before the government, namely, the taxation of the American colonies and the expulsion of Mr. Wilkes from the House of Commons. Still he did not consider the present ministry any worse than others. Is the Parliament the cause? No. What then? He believed French gold was the principal cause, in feeing Wilkes, feeing writers of addresses, petitions, remonstrances, pamphlets, magazines, and newspapers. Other causes were covetousness, hungering after lucre and lucrative employments, ambition after honor and honorable positions, pride and envy, and resentment through disappointment and preferences. Another of the subordinate causes was the popular letters of Junius, increasing the discontent and complaining of the people. The "Free Thoughts" were penned in a very disinterested manner, and doubtless were useful to all readers but intemperate partisans.

About the same time, and when the ferment of the nation was up from the Letters of Junius and the successful election of Wilkes, he wrote and published his "Thoughts upon Liberty." The popu

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lar cry was for liberty! liberty! "And who can deny," says the writer, "but the whole kingdom is panting for liberty?"

"Is it not for the sake of this that the name of our great patriot is more celebrated than that of any private man has been in England for these thousand years; that his very picture is so joyfully received in every part of England and Ireland; that we stamp his (I had almost said adored) name on our handkerchiefs, on the cheerful bowl, yea, and on our vessels of various kinds, as well as upon our hearts? Why is all this but because of the inseparable connection between Wilkes and liberty; liberty that came down, if not fell, from heaven, whom all England and the world worshipeth?"

In this piece of quiet irony is seen the wonderful popularity of the cause of Wilkes, the "great patriot!" with a popularity not to be equaled "for these thousand years!" But, calmly asks the writer, "might it not be advisable to consider, What is liberty?" Do the patriots mean the liberty of savages, to kill all they are displeased with? The liberty of the old and free natives of Scotland and Ireland, to make excursions and take away the cattle and property of their neighbors? The liberty of the soldiery to take the wives and daughters of the foe in time of war? The liberty of calling a disobedient king to account, as King John and Charles I.? No. Is it religious liberty to choose our own religion? "In the name of wonder, what religious liberty can you desire, or even conceive, which you have not already?" [The Dissenters might have answered that they had religious liberty, but not religious equality.] “Is it civil liberty? a liberty to enjoy our lives and fortunes in our own way; to use our property, which is legally our own, according to our own choice? We have it. What then is the matter? What is it you are making all this pother about?" He accounts for the outcry to the infatuation of the people caused by erring and wicked men, as Wilkes and the writer Junius. He advises a "leasingmaking" law, to punish "such willful lies as tended to breed dissension between the king and his subjects."

Another of his political tracts was "On the Origin of Power." He means "supreme power, the power over life and death, liberty and property, and all things of an inferior nature." In the treatise he combats the popular theory that the supreme power is from the people. In the winter of 1773 there was a great want of food in England, so that thousands of the people were starving in every part of the nation. "The fact I know," says Mr. Wesley; "I have seen it with my eyes in every corner of the land. He published a tract on the subject, entitled, "On the Present Scarcity of Provisions."

In 1774 he published "Thoughts upon Slavery." The slavetrade was now going on prosperously; a large part of the English commercial navy was in the trade; and a hundred thousand

negroes, at least, were yearly carried from the coast of Africa, and poured into the American colonies. The writer did not design this tract for the public, nor for the Parliament, as a hopeless object; but to operate on the minds of captains and seamen, the slave merchants of England, and the American planters. He gives them, 1. A short history of the African slave-trade. 2. A description of the fine country and the simple manners of the negroes. account of the manner in which the negroes are procured, carried to, and treated in the colonies. 4. A challenge for a defense of the trade; and denies that, on the principles of honesty, justice, and. mercy, any excuse or justification can be offered. Next he applies the observations to seamen, merchants, and planters. He regards. the latter as the worst of the three:

"Now it is your money that pays the merchant, and through him the captain and the African butchers. You therefore are guilty, principally guilty of all these frauds, robberies, and murders. You are the spring that puts all the rest in motion; they would not stir a step without you; therefore the blood of all these wretches who die before their time, whether in their own country or elsewhere, lies upon your head. The blood of thy brother (for whether thou wilt believe it or no, such he is in the sight of Him that made him) crieth against thee from the earth, from the ship, and from the waters. O whatever it costs, put a stop to its cry before it be too late; instantly, at any price, were it the half of your goods, deliver thyself from blood-guiltiness! Thy hands, thy bed, thy furniture, thy house, thy lands are at present stained with blood! Surely it is enough: accumulate no more guilt; spill no more the blood of the innocent."

But the planter replies, "I do not buy any negroes. I only use those left me by my father." He answers:

"So far is well; but is it enough to satisfy your own conscience? Had your father, have you, has any man living, a right to use another as a slave? It cannot be, even setting revelation aside. It cannot be that either war or contract can give any man such a property in another as he has in his sheep and oxen. Much less is it possible that any child of man should ever be born a slave. Liberty is the right of every human creature as soon as he breathes the vital air, and no human law can deprive him of that right which he derives from the law of nature."

Thus did this benevolent man lift up his voice to man for the oppressed, and thus he pleaded with Heaven:

"O thou God of love, thou who art loving to every man, and whose mercy is over all thy works; thou who art the Father of the spirits of all flesh, and who art rich in mercy unto all; thou who hast mingled of one blood all the nations upon earth, have compassion upon these outcasts of men, who are trodden down as dung upon the earth! Arise and help these that have no helper, whose blood is spilt upon the earth like water! Are not these also the work of thine own hands, the purchase of thy Son's blood! Stir them up to cry unto thee, even in the land of their captivity; and let their complaint come up before thee; let it enter into thy ears! Make even those that lead them away captive to pity them, and turn their captivity as the rivers in the south. O burst thou all their chains in sunder; more especially the chains of their sins! Thou Saviour of all, make them free that they may be free indeed !”

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