with fond attention to the "old man garrulous" he honoured so entirely.
"Qualities and faculties, my dear Meersbrook, descend in races not less than features and stature, and what is most to the purpose, longevity both of mind and body. That the elder Wesleys, of whom I speak, were extraordinary men, no one now disputes. The labours of John as a preacher, writer, and traveller, may be compared with the man of a hundred battles, and thousands of letters, the deep thinker, the contriver, the consolidator. Lord Mornington was a
the "highways and hedges" of society, to "seek and save that which was lost." With a personal courage never exceeded, and a patient endurance rarely equalled, he laboured amongst the ignorant and the wicked, until he had called order out of chaos, and gained the suffrages of the good, for his benefits to the bad. He not only purified the dregs of society, but reformed the church to which he belonged, whilst he built up another. At least a million of Christians are called by his name, and although the writer is herself episcopalian, she firmly believes his followers to be the most consistent body of religious persons in existence. The duke's army, when most perfect, of course, had some bad men in it, and there may be some blots in the Wesleyan government as conducted in America, notwithstanding which the Methodists are to the United States the "salt of the earth."
May the duke be enabled, like his prototype, to labour in behalf of his country as effectively as we are sure he will conscientiously and wisely, and when his latest hour arrives, may he also enjoy intellectual strength to the verge of existence, and "nobly" give, not yield, his soul to death," in "sure and certain hope!"—Ed. note.
