SELINA, COUNTESS OF HUNTINGDON, Chevalier " over the water ;" and at last he was summoned before the magistrate at Wakefield, for praying that " God's banished ones might be re- stored," which he somewhat hastily interpreted as referring to the exiled Stuarts. The Countess did not escape the calumnies directed against her friends, and indeed so excited did the populace become in some places, that they called out in the streets for her, threatening to tear her to pieces if they could seize her person. Manyof her itinerant preachers were grossly ill-treated, and she was obliged to use all her influence at Court to obtain a pledge from the King that the Methodists should not be molested. Addressing a remonstrance to Lord Carteret, one of the principal Secretaries of State, she had the satisfaction of learning from him that the Government was determined to suffer no persecution on account of religion. A Welsh magistrate, even after this, chose to fine some persons for attending the services of the Methodists ; when the Countess laid the matter before the Government, and compelled him to restore all the fines he had extorted. The insults of the mob continuing, the Methodists at length classed them- selves with Dissenters, and took refuge under the TolerationAct, registering their chapels and licensing their ministers according to the provisions of that statute. Lord Huntingdon expired from apoplexy at his residence in Downing Street, Westminster, in
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