Here he again began expounding, chiefly in the mornings, “that compendium of all the Holy Scriptures, the first epistle of St. John.” Now, for the first time in his life, he saw the chapel at Snowsfields full. He opened a new chapel at Dorking, and another in the parish of Bromley. He visited the sick Methodists in London, and “was surprised that they were so few.” And on December 31 he wrote: “Being greatly embarrassed by the necessities of the poor, we spread all our wants before God in solemn prayer; believing that He would sooner ‘make windows in heaven’ than suffer His truth to fail.” This reference to the poor requires further notice. The long continued war, a succession of inferior harvests, and other unfavourable events, had raised the price of provisions to such an extent, that the distress of the nation had become alarming. In the month of November, the court of common council of London agreed to petition parliament to open the ports of the kingdom for the free importation of all kinds of grain; and one of the members proposed that, in order to prevent the unnecessary consumption of flour, the making of starch should be prohibited. Long letters on the starved condition of the country were published in the newspapers and magazines. Some of them entered into elaborate calculations, showing that, in London only, during the six winter months, twenty thousand sheep and two thousand oxen were used in making soup for taverns, and the tables of the great. When the king opened parliament, on November 26, he referred in his speech to the dearness of corn, and recommended “my lords and gentlemen” to consider a scheme “for alleviating the distresses of the poor.” This was done, and bills were passed, which substantially permitted the importation of foreign grown grain duty free. In the midst of all this, Wesley was far from being an indifferent spectator; and, among the many letters which appeared in the periodicals of the day, one written by himself was not the least important. This letter, published, either by himself or others, in _Lloyd’s Evening Post_, for December 21, and in the _Leeds Mercury_ for December 29, and in other newspapers and magazines, is altogether too curious and characteristic to be omitted or abridged. It is as follows. “_To the Editor of ‘Lloyd’s Evening Post._’ “SIR,--Many excellent things have been lately published concerning the _present scarcity of provisions_. And many causes have been assigned for it; but is not something wanting in most of those publications? One writer assigns one cause, another one or two more, and strongly insists upon them. But who has assigned all the causes that manifestly concur to produce this melancholy effect? at the same time pointing out, how each particular cause affects the price of each particular sort of provision?