MET 
people, in the Wesleyan connection of Me- 
thodists, at the close of the sixty-third an- 
Bual conference, held in August 1806 : 
In Great Britain 110,803 
In Ireland 23,773 
Gibraltar 40 
Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, ? 
and Newfoundland S ’ 4 
West India — Whites 1,775 ) 
Coloured people, &c, 13,105 i ’ 
United States — Whites 95,628 ) . 
Total 270,918 
In adviition to these may be added about 
109,000 adult hearers — Methodists in re- 
Ugioiis sentiment ; though, from various 
causes, prevented from formally joining the 
societies. To these still further may be 
added about 218,000 more, composed of tire 
younger brandies of families, and those 
generally influenced by the Methodist doc- 
trines. About 6,000 more may be added, 
from Methodists who, from some slight dif- 
ference as to discipline, &c. have formed 
themselves into independent societies in 
various parts of the United Kingdoms: not 
now to reckon the Methodists of the New 
Connection. It appears from the report of 
the last conference, held at Liverpool, in 
July 1807, that an increase of 8,492 mem- 
bers had then been made to the society in 
these kingdoms since the preceding con- 
ference. At the conference held by the 
Methodists of the New Connection, in 
May 1807, their number was 6,428. They 
have had au increase, we understand, of 
about 700 since that period. It appears, 
therefore, that the total number of Arini- 
nian Methodists amount to about 619,538. 
Tire Calvinian Methodists are doubtless 
equally numeroiis. The local and travel- 
ling preachers, belonging to the different 
Methodist societies, amount to about 1,650. 
For a very impartial and minute history of 
the rise and present state of this sect, see 
the Rev. J. Nightingale’s “ Portraiture of 
Methodism.” Two pamphlets on the subject 
of Methodim have also been lately publish- 
ed, which have excited considerable interest, 
and deserve to be generally circulated, en- 
titled, “ Hints to the Public and the Legis- 
lature, on the Nature and Effects of Evange- 
lical Preaching.” By a Barrister. Replies 
to the first of these pamphlets have been 
published by Dr.Hawker and others. The 
periodical publications conducted by the 
Methodists are numerous, and have an asto- 
MEZ 
nishing circulation. Of the MethodistMaga- 
zine about twenty thousand copies are sold 
monthly; of the Evangelical Magazine about 
twenty-two thousand. The sale of the 
Eclectic Review, in the same interest, ap- 
pears, by a circular letter lately printed, 
signed by several preachers both of the 
Arminian and Calvinian Methodists, to be 
very limited. The Methodists have also in 
their interest a weekly newspaper, called 
“ The Instructor.” The number of small 
tracts and pamphlets sold and given away 
by the Methodists is incredible ; and they 
are indefatigable in their attempts to con- 
vert the Mahometans and the Heathen to 
their way of thinking. 
METRE, in poetry, a system of feet of 
a just length. 
The different metres in poetry are the 
different manners of ordering and combin- 
ing the quantities, or the long and short 
syllables; thus hexameter, pentameter, iam- 
bic, sapphic verses, &c. consist of difi'erent 
metres ormeasutes. 
In English verses, the metres are ex- 
tremely various and Arbitrary, every poet 
being at liberty to introduce any new form 
that lie pleases. The most usual are the 
heroic, generally consisting of five long and 
five short syllables, and verses of four feet, 
and of three feet, and a cassura, or single syl- 
lable. 
The ancients, by variously combining 
and transposing their quantities, made a 
vast variety of different measures, by form- 
ing spondees, &c. of different feet. See 
Foot. 
METROSIDEROS, in botany, a genus 
of the Icosandria Monogynia class and or- 
der. Natural order of Myrti. Essential 
character: calyx five-cleft, half superior; 
petals five; stamina very long, standing 
out; stigma simple; capsule three-celled. 
There are thirteen species, of which M. his. 
pida is a very magnificent plant, easily dis- 
tinguished by its broad sessile leaves, and 
hispid branches; the flowers are yellow, 
with wide spreading stamens growing in um- 
bels, many of which unite to form a large 
terminating corymb, rough, with red-brown 
hairs. This planf is common in most col- 
lections about London: it has not yet 
flowered. It was found at Port Jackson, in 
New South Wales, by Mr. White. 
MEZZOTINTO, a particular manner of 
representing figures on copper, so as to 
form prints in imitation of painting in In, 
dian ink.' 
The manner of making mezzotintos 
