1896.] Mr. Augustine Birrell on John Wesley. 233 



WEEKLY EVENING MEETING, 



Friday, May 29, 1896. 



The Right Hon. Lord Halsbury, M.A. D.C.L. F.R.S. Manager, 

 in the Chair. 



Augustine Birrell, Esq. Q.C. M.P. 



John Wesley : Some Aspects of the Eighteenth Century. 

 (Abstract.) 



The lecturer said that when he thought of the eighteenth century as 

 it was lived in England in town and country, he found it difficult to 

 reconcile all that he read about it with any sweeping description, 

 condemnation or dominant note. It was a century of violent con- 

 trasts. It was a brutal age, for the press-gang, the whipping-post, 

 gaol fever, all the horrors of the criminal code were among its 

 characteristics. It was an ignorant age, for a great part of the popu- 

 lation gave itself up to drunkenness and cock-fighting ; a corrupt 

 age, when offices were bought and sold and every man was supposed to 

 have his price. Brutal, ignorant and corrupt, the eighteenth century 

 was all these — was it not written in the storied page of Hogarth? 

 And yet, too, there was plenty of evidence of enthusiasm, learning 

 and probity. The life of John Wesley, who was born in 1703 and 

 died in 1791, covered practically the whole of the eighteenth century, 

 of which he was one of the most remarkable and strenuous figures, 

 and his Journal was the most amazing record of human exertion ever 

 penned by man. Those who had ever contested a Parliamentary elec- 

 tion would know how exhausting was the experience ; yet John Wesley 

 contested the three kingdoms in the cause of Christ, and during that 

 contest, which lasted forty-four years, he paid more turnpike toll than 

 any man who ever lived. His usual record of travel was 8000 miles 

 a year, and even when he was an old man it seldom fell below 5000 

 miles. The number of sermons he preached had been estimated at 

 40,500. Throughout it all he never knew what was meant by de- 

 pression of spirits. Wesley was not popular with historians ; he put 

 the historian out of conceit with himself. It might be said that 

 Wesley's personal character lacked charm, but it was not easy to 

 define charm ; nobody ever had defined it, and nobody who was wise 

 ever would try to do so. But, charm or no charm, Wesley was a 

 great bit of the eighteenth century, and was therefore a great 

 revealing record of the century. He received a good classical educa- 

 tion, and remained all his life very much of the scholar and the 



