Strangely enough, Fletcher's next essay was into the arena of _political_ strife--or, as he terms it, "Christian politics"-- being led thereto by a pamphlet of Wesley's upon the American War of Independence then raging. He thoroughly prepared himself, not unnecessarily, for the storm which was to follow; for the minds of men were divided, and political speech has ever tended to undue licence and heat. The Government of George III., however, considered that Fletcher had uttered words as valuable as they were timely. The Secretary of State for the Colonies introduced the tract to the Lord Chancellor, and he to the King. It was not long before Fletcher was asked if he would entertain the idea of any preferment in the Church; was there aught which the Lord Chancellor might do for him in this way? His reply chimed with every act of his life. "I want nothing," answered the saintly man; "nothing but more grace." It was at this time that Fletcher's health showed grievous signs of failure. His arduous toil, long journeys, close writing, and insufficient food, had told all too surely upon a delicately-organised frame. A violent cough beset him, with slight but frequent hæmorrhage. John Wesley advised an open-air cure, pressing him to spend some months on horse-back, touring with him through parts of England and Scotland. They set out together in the early spring, and travelled 1,100 or 1,200 miles in this way (not, however, into Scotland), taking such journeys as were suited to the invalid's strength. So greatly did he profit by some weeks in the saddle that Wesley declared if he would only have continued it for a few months longer he would have become a strong man once more. In May, 1776, however, we find him at Bristol Hot Wells, debarred from his parochial work. Wesley suggested more saddle-cure, proposing a five-hundred mile tour to Cornwall, but Fletcher had by that time resigned himself to the hands of a physician who forbade the exertion, being out of sympathy with a remedy so far in advance of the times. This medical adviser, however, mistook his case, reducing him to great weakness. A specialist who then undertook him restored his strength somewhat by more generous diet, although the relapse which followed was so serious that his friends thought him to be dying, and his congregation sang an intercessory hymn composed for the occasion. From his multiplicity of remedies and advisers, however, Wesley rescued him once more, put him in the saddle, and led him through Oxfordshire, Northampton, and Norfolk, bringing him home greatly benefited for the open air.