with my salary for conducting the Magazine? I will here explain how that debt was in a measure contracted. From the first, Mr. Phillips and myself were regularly in the habit of giving away copies of the Sailor's Magazine, where we thought they would be essentially useful. This plan we adopted, 1st. To do good generally. 2d. To get the Magazine into circulation. 3d. To communicate information. 4th. To induce more persons to pray for Sailors. 5th. To excite greater liberality and zeal for the cause. 6th. To stir up others to work for sailors. Thus we gave them to vessels going abroad-we sent them abroad-we gave them to Clergymen, Noblemen, Ministers, and Gentlemen, in all parts of London and the country. Mr. Phillips generally carried Magazines about with him every day, and when I was travelling he was always most zealous and attentive to get large parcels sent off to meet me wherever I went. This opened the way for many new Societies; brought in hundreds of pounds that we never should have had otherwise, and did immense good throughout the kingdom and the world.

Mr. Phillips and myself joined heart and hand in this work; so that whenever a word was said in the committee about a debt on the Magazine, we immediately gave it as our opinion, that the Magazine was the most essential means of promoting the objects and interests of the Society, and that the Magazine was the most honourable mode of expenditure we had; that it was the reading of this Magazine that brought in almost all our fives, tens, twenty, and thirty pounds from various parts monthly. The Magazine was our machine; its paper and letter-press were the raw material; the multiplied donations continually flowing in were the successful returns for our goods exported:but to take all those returns and pocket them, and to pay for the raw material, but to say to the workmen in the manufactory that the machine is in debt, and therefore, although we have made thousands by your labour, we cannot pay for that labour, nor ought we, because the machine is in debt,-what a mode of arguing! What must the public think of Dr. Styles's

B 3

logic, when he has an object to serve? I am not saying this now with a view to get the money. No; I have given it up as a bad debt, and I will apply for it no more. I should not have urged it upon Dr. Styles's committee at all that they owed me 100l. and more than one year's interest of that sum, if I had not been pressed by the Trustees of Mr. Westley, sen. of Stationers' Court, for a bill of 1171. for books, that a bookseller had foolishly ordered on my account. An attorney threatened me, and I was near being arrested. I certainly did think I had a right to look for money of a public religious society, where it was due; but a most respectable naval officer, dreading the consequences if I pressed the demand, offered me, to pay for Westley's bill, 50l. if I would not. This I could only accept as a loan, to be repaid this generous and noble-minded officer, whenever I am able. He advanced the money, and a few weeks since Mr. Wakefield paid it to Mr. Westley's attorney. I had reduced the demand down to about 70l., and for the other 201. I had more threats lately, so that I was obliged to write the present Messrs. Westley and Davis, begging them to press for delay, until I could spare the balance from my family. I feel this hard, while I know and can prove to any man that the Port of London Society owes me much money (I say, until I could examine their books or a friend for me, 1007.) and that they will not pay me one shilling: but I have done with repining about it, I yield it up, I must lose it. Mr. Thompson has disarmed all the warmth of my feelings; I shall not contend about it any more; they may keep it, although I cannot believe that God will bless them with it. Others may apply for it if they chuse, but I never shall; and if ever it were paid, 50l. of the money would immediately be repaid to the worthy officer who advanced that sum to prevent the Port of London Society and ours coming into public contact.

The wisdom, the integrity, and the policy of Dr. Styles's public mode of getting rid of this difficulty at the City of London Tavern, will now be evident to all. I had resolved not to notice this, until so many friends,

both in London and the country, said, "why, Dr. Styles says he has examined the books, and the Society owes you nothing, and that you left the Magazine 5001. in debt."

I must write in the defensive, and I say now our Society at present owes a debt to this amount, on the New Magazine, but God forbid that we should make this an argument to deprive any family of their rights. Were any champion to offer his services to prove, on the platform of the City of London Tavern, that we would not pay an agent his salary because the Magazine owed 500l. we should reject him from our presence with horror. Blessed be God we have learnt, and no one shall prove to us the contrary, that honesty, after all, is the best policy. The Lord will provide. We are doing the work, and we have no fear but he will find ample means. We have no friend to whom we can apply to advance anything, but the Lord sends it from day to day, and sometimes even by ravens; so that although we have immense demands every week, and not one week's allowance in store, yet we will not be guilty of mean dirty actions to keep a store. We

66

will pay every one as we can, and the Lord will enable us to go through with honour and credit. We have lately paid a demand that we consider partially unrighteous, but we did it rather than quarrel and fight, and have the cause injured. Why do ye not rather suffer wrong?" This is our plan, and we shall see which will hold out longest with God and the public,the Port of London Society in withholding where it is obviously due, or the British and Foreign Seamen's Friend Society, in paying even more than is really due, rather than endure the rage and fury of a sort of madman who would greatly injure the cause. "There

is that withholdeth and it cometh to poverty." 66 There is that scattereth and yet increaseth." I have thus been led considerably wide from the thread of my narrative, but I shall now resume it, and look again to the state of things with the Bethel Union Society, when I arrived in London in the summer of 1825.

I found that all the books and cash accounts had

fallen into the hands of Mr. C. Allen, of Camberwell, and he had therefore a sort of chief management of the concern. He would have done very well as third or fourth, but as prime minister he was the most utterly incompetent of any man I ever knew. He had not an atom of enterprize about him. With the spirit of a miser and the iron grasp of a penurious governor, he dreaded every thing and spoiled every thing. He found many debts, he was anxious to get them paid; this was all very well, but this made him oppose every step to enlarge the sphere of the Society, or to adopt the most suitable and efficient plans.

In fact, to me, who wanted to rouse up the dormant energies of the Society, he became the greatest plague I ever had. Mr. Phillips he did not trouble so much; there he could have a good dinner, a comfortable cup of tea, a refreshing supper, a cigar, and all the hospitality of a most hospitable family. This I saw would sooner or later separate Mr. Phillips and me; for although Mr. Phillips's hospitality was of the utmost importance to me, yet I determined not to hesitate for one moment between hospitality and duty. Mr. Allen had at his beck Mr. Brown, of South Ockenden, and Messrs. Norris, Clark, and others at Camberwell; and I saw every day that it would be scarcely possible for man to resist the poison so many would pour into his ear. I was now Mr. Phillips's guest, but during the past winter our correspondence had been nearly quarrelsome. I felt righteously hurt, and am now at a "Mark" who deserted me, (God knows, though, I have long since forgiven him and prayed for him.) He upheld and defended that Mark-this produced a coolness; and although when I came to London his house and his heart was still open to me, yet I soon saw that his countenance towards me was not as aforetime. I augured no good from Allen's frequent visits; and by numerous hints I found the Camberwells were getting bolder and bolder in their attacks on the citadel of my friend Phillips, as they found he slackened his fire, and seemed rather inclined that eargate should be open to a parley as to what they had to say against his friend

Smith. Just at this time Allen made the best use he possibly could of that dreadful affair the Scilly Islands. "Certainly it was a most shocking thing; the whole city rang of it,-go where you would you were sure to hear it. He had the highest respect for Mr. Smith, but would it not be much better for him to retire from the Society? Mr. John Clayton had already refused his guinea on Mr. Smith's account, and things were really getting worse and worse. By and by there would be no money to be had, and then what should we do with the debts? for his part he should soon give up the books if something was not done shortly; but it was evident to all that nothing would prosper while Mr. Smith was among them. Poor dear man, it was a pity; he had done much good, but so it was, and he knew not how to help it." Here was the poison of the serpent; and armed with this he could dine in one place, drink tea in another, and drop the venom as he went, leaving it to operate at committee meetings, and every other meeting for business. I suspected this, but knew it not to its full extent until the man threw off the disguise and appeared for months in his true character. In the meantime, I was every evening with Mr. Phillips, asking him questions, giving my opinion, and suggesting what I thought ought to be done. I constantly gave him cautions against the men I saw gathering round him; and frequently was so disgusted at their appearances of friendship, which I knew to be hollow and profitless, that I retired to rest when they appeared after the prayer-meetings, on a Tuesday or Friday night, in the Upper Pool. Circumstances soon proved to me that they were gaining ground in the mind of my friend Phillips, and that we must shortly separate. I loved him

as a man of God, and a Christian, and a companion, above any man in the whole world; I enjoyed his society, I could not be so happy or so comfortable in any house in the kingdom. His amiable and affectionate wife and all his dear children did every thing they could to make me comfortable as a minister of God, and my tears and prayers in secret often implored