Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 60.djvu/318

 politics of dissent. Johnson, the arguments of whose ‘Taxation no Tyranny’ he embodied in his own ‘A Calm Address to our American Colonies’ (1775, 4to), wrote to express his satisfaction at having ‘gained such a mind as yours’ (6 Feb. 1776). On the same subject Wesley added ‘A Calm Address to the Inhabitants of England’ (1777) and ‘A Serious Address’ (1778). In this connection it should be noted that he was the earliest religious leader of the first rank to join the protest against slavery. He lost no popularity by his protest (21 Jan. 1780) against toleration of Roman catholics; this brought him into controversy with Arthur O'Leary [q. v.], whom he met on friendly terms in 1787. At the same time he denounced the mischievous folly of the Irish penal laws against Roman catholics.

After 1787 he published nothing except in the ‘Arminian Magazine,’ but to the last continued to travel. He is said to have preached forty thousand sermons and travelled 250,000 miles. He suffered from various ailments, including hereditary gout (of which his mother died), had undergone a surgical operation (1774), and was attacked by diabetes in 1789. His last entry in his account-book is dated 16 July 1790; his last sermon (at Leatherhead) was preached on 23 Feb. 1791; his last letter (to Wilberforce) was written the following day. John Whitehead (1740?–1804) [q. v.] attended him from 25 Feb.; he declined further medical advice. On 2 March 1791 he died at the chapel-house in City Road. His body was visited by vast crowds, both at the house and (8 March) in the chapel. At the early hour of five on the morning of 9 March he was buried in a vault to the rear of the chapel, Richardson, his assistant, reading the burial service (substituting ‘father’ for ‘brother’). Whitehead preached the funeral sermon. The body was recoffined in 1828. In addition to the inscribed tomb, there is a marble tablet within the chapel, and a statue in front of the building. Of other monumental memorials the most notable is the tablet (1871) in Westminster Abbey with profile likenesses of John and Charles Wesley. His will (dated 20 Feb. 1789; codicil 25 Feb.) is printed by Whitehead and other biographers.

Like all the Wesleys, he was of short stature; his person was slim and his countenance fresh-coloured. His eye was ‘the brightest and most piercing that can be conceived’ (, iii. 167). From early life he wore his (originally auburn) hair in long locks reaching to his shoulders. For a story of the cropping of his hair by a virago at Savannah, see ‘Gentleman's Magazine,’ 1792, i. 24; on the question whether he ever wore a wig, see ‘Notes and Queries,’ 28 Dec. 1867 p. 519, 18 Jan. 1868 p. 65; on his very numerous portraits, see ‘Notes and Queries,’ 4 Feb. 1865 p. 103, 1 April 1865 p. 256. He himself preferred the paintings by J. Williams (1741; engraved 1742) and by Romney (1789; engraved 1790). The National Portrait Gallery has his portrait by Nathaniel Hone (1766), and another by William Hamilton (1789); also a marble bust, of unknown date. In January 1774 he sat for his effigy in wax for Mrs. Wright's museum in New York. No likeness gives a better idea of his person than the etching (1790) by John Kay (1742–1826) [q. v.], which shows him walking between James Hamilton, M.D. (1740–1827), and Joseph Cole (d. 1826). A very impressive profile sketch, taken after death, was engraved in 1791. His punctual habits and even temper gave him happiness in a life severely laborious. ‘It was impossible to be long in his company without partaking his hilarity’ (, iii. 178). He was a good swimmer, in early life a great walker; on horseback he read as he rode, holding up the book to his eyes owing to near sight; only in late life did he take to a chaise. He early learned to sleep on the floor. In 1742 he left off tea. At seventy-one he thought preaching at five in the morning ‘one of the most healthy exercises in the world;’ at seventy-seven he recommended fasting on Fridays as a remedy for nervous disorders, and affirmed that he had not ‘felt lowness of spirits for one quarter of an hour’ since he was born; at eighty-five he had ‘never once lost a night's sleep.’ Of his preaching there are interesting notices by Horace Walpole (10 Oct. 1766), who thought him ‘as evidently an actor as Garrick;’ by Sir Walter Scott, who heard him in 1782, and speaks of his sermons as ‘vastly too colloquial,’ but with ‘many excellent stories;’ and by Henry Crabb Robinson [q. v.], who draws an impressive picture of his preaching at Colchester (October 1790), held up in the pulpit by two ministers. In his ordinary services he rarely preached more than twenty minutes, taking his text from the gospel or epistle for the day; his matter, according to Henry Moore's personal testimony, was very unequal (unpublished letter;, iii. 169). To his conversational powers Johnson (who introduced him to Boswell, thinking ‘worthy and religious men should be acquainted’) bears testimony, lamenting that he was ‘never at leisure.’ He said himself, ‘though I am always in haste, I am never in a hurry’ (10 Dec. 1777), in this resembling Priestley, with whom he