till their final removal from it. Notwithstanding however the peculiarity and, as he thought, the purity of his system, he met with many difficulties and reverses in his first attempts to place it on a permanent foundation.

We may pass over the circumstances of his unfortunate marriage, which ended, after a few months of discord and vexation, in a hasty, but final separation. His wife, after proving herself his foulest slanderer and bitterest enemy, presently deserted him. "Non eam reliqui (says Wesley)—non dimisi -non revocabo." I have not left her-I have not put her away-I will not recal her." The same calmness of temper and perfect self-possession, which so remarkably distinguished him in his public proceedings, seem not to have abandoned him even in the more pressing severity of his domestic trials.

Neither have we space to notice the controversies which he carried on with two of the most eminent divines of his time, bishops Lavington and Warburton; since Wesley, though engaged in dispute with the prelates of the Church, and very frequent and bitter in the reproaches which he cast against its ministers, still adhered to its communion, and had yet committed no act declaratory of absolute independence. But later in life he advanced farther towards schism. First of all, as he did not assume for his lay-preachers the power of administering the sacrament, he caused several to be ordained by one Erasmus, a Greek Bishop of Arcadia-thus evading the spiritual authority, which he could not contest, and which he did not yet venture to dispense with. But this was a feeble resource, unworthy of his courage, and unavailing to his purposes. A stronger measure followed. His disciples were very numerous in America, and it was desirable to send out to them a head, invested with the highest spiritual authority.

preparing the raw material. Men's minds had been turned to this object for some time. The operation of carding, whether wool or cotton, was at first done with hand-cards of small size. The first improvement was the invention of stock-cards, one of which was fixed, and the other held in the hand, or afterwards suspended from above, so that the workman could manage a much larger card, and prepare more cotton in a given time. The next and main improvement was placing cards lengthways upon a cylinder, which worked within a concave half cylinder of the same diameter. This process was patented by Paul in 1748. But he derived no profit from this, any more than from his former patent; and it was not until after the improvements in spinning that the method of carding by cylinders was brought into use. Arkwright was not the first to revive it, but he had a great share in perfecting the carding machinery when it had been revived. The raw cotton being carded, an extension, or rather a new application, of the principle of spinning by rollers converted the cardings into rovings, which again were made into yarn fit for the loom by the waterframe, or, as it is now called in an improved form, the throstle. Arkwright took out his second patent, December 16, 1775; this included the carding machine, drawing-frame, and roving-frame, a series of engines by which the cotton, from its raw state, was rendered fit for the last process of spinning. We shall not attempt to explain the construction of these elaborate machines, which can hardly be rendered intelligible even by the help of numerous plates.

The process of turning cotton-wool into thread by machinery was thus completed. Before we follow its effects upon Arkwright's fortunes, it is proper to say a few words concerning other improvements.

About, or somewhat earlier than, the time when Arkwright's attention was first turned to spinning, a weaver named James Hargreaves, of Stand Hill, near Blackburn, invented a machine by which, according to the terms of the patent, sixteen or more threads might be spun by one person at the same time. This is the machine so well known under the name of the spinning-jenny. Hargreaves' patent was invaded, and invalidated on technical grounds; so that his machine came rapidly into general use, and for spinning the weft was preferred to Arkwright's water-frame, from which it was entirely different in principle. Samuel Crompton, an ingenious weaver resident near Bolton, between the years 1774 and 1779, tried to unite the principles of both, nd produced a machine which, on that account, he lled a mule. This, under different improved ms, is the machine now generally used in sping; but the water-frame, or throstle, is still found nswer best for some kinds of work*. But to to the fortunes of Arkwright: the series of nes which he invented or improved gave an g impulse to the cotton trade. "Weavers ow obtain an unlimited quantity of yarn at a le price; manufacturers could use warps of hich were much cheaper than the linen nerly used. Cotton fabrics could be sold had ever before been known. The deem consequently increased. The shuttle sh energy, and the weavers earned imgh wages. Spinning-mills were erected requsite quantity of yarn. The fame

has been mentioned as the inventor both of the jenny g, Thomas Highs, of Leigh, above-mentioned, whose to more courteous notice than they have met with in iew. There is nothing unreasonable in supposing Arkwright may have heard of Wyatt's method of hich was practised in two factories, one erected at rat Nottingham,

Dr. Coke, an "evangelical" clergyman, was selected for that office, and Wesley took upon himself to invest him with the requisite dignity. These letters of ordination are dated September 2, 1784, and announce, in substance, that Wesley thought himself providentially called, at that time, to set apart some persons for the work of the ministry in America; and therefore, under the protection of Almighty God, and with a single eye to his glory, had that day set apart, as a superintendent, by the imposition of his hands and prayer, Thomas Coke, a doctor of civil law, and a presbyter of the Church of England.

In this affair, it was weak in Wesley to plead (as he did) a seasonable conviction, that in the true primitive Church the order of bishop and presbyter were one and the same-for if Wesley exercised as presbyter episcopal authority, so, under the same plea, might Dr. Coke have exercised it, without any imposition of Wesley's hands. This was a shallow pretence, which could scarcely have deceived himself. The fact was, that Wesley, now acting as the sole head of a separate religious party, assumed the prerogatives of the highest ecclesiastical dignity; and resolved that all the privileges of his ministers should emanate from himself. This is properly considered as a second important epoch in the history of methodism.

Wesley was then eighty-one years old, and he lived for seven years longer, in the perfect enjoyment of his health and exercise of his faculties, almost to the very end. He died March 2, 1791: leaving no property, except the copywright and current editions of his works, which he bequeathed for the use of the connexion. The whole number of his followers, at the time of his decease, is stated at about 135,000, of whom more than 57,600 were Americans. In the United Kingdoms, his principal success had been

in some of the large towns in England and in Ireland. But he complains of the coldness with which his preaching was, for the most part, received by the agricultural classes generally, and by the entire Scotch nation-facts which may however be accounted for, without supposing any religious obduracy either in the one or the other.

[Monument to Wesley in the Chapel in the City Road.]

Thus did Wesley live to fix and consolidate, by the calmer deliberation of his later years, the effects, which might otherwise have been transient, of his early enthusiasm. It required many talents, as well as many virtues, to accomplish this-and Wesley was abundantly endowed with both. The natural ardour and eagerness of his character was moderated