“JOHN WESLEY.” (Reply.) “REVEREND AND DEAR SIR,--I beg to lay before you Mr. Mather’s account, sent me by letter of the 18th past, of the gross value of your books, taken in February and March, 1773; viz.:-- £ _s._ _d._ “In London, etc. 3754 4 0 Bristol 4253 4 8 Country 2716 1 8 Cash 183 2 1 Debts 23 2 1 -------------- 10929 15 4 Stock in February, 1772 8833 0 7 -------------- £2096 14 9 -------------- “Supposed to be owing in March last to printers, binders, etc., £500. “I am, reverend sir, your most obedient and dutiful servant, “THOMAS BALL. “Examined 21st September, 1773:--THOMAS MARRIOTT, RICHARD KEMP.”[197] According to the above statement, Wesley was in debt to printers and binders to the amount of £500; but, at the same time, he was possessed of books whose gross value was nearly £11,000. How to reconcile the discrepancy we hardly know. The facts are furnished as we find them. One thing is certain, there was something wrong. Some have supposed that Wesley’s wife had, by means of false keys, obtained access to the book steward’s cash, and helped herself;[198] but of that there is no conclusive proof; and it is certainly neither generous nor just to assert the thing without proving it. All that we know further is, that poor Samuel Franks, the book steward, a man of great uprightness and earnest piety,[199] but naturally of a sensitive disposition, within a fortnight, fell into a fit of insanity, and hanged himself.[200] Without mentioning this, Wesley writes: “October 6--The rest of the week I made what inquiry I could into the state of my accounts. Some confusion had arisen from the sudden death of my bookkeeper; but it was less than might have been expected.” Here we must leave the matter. On the supposition that Wesley considered his stock of books not his own, but merely held in trust for the general good, it was quite correct, that, as the result of his literary labours, he was in debt to the amount, as he himself says, “of five or six hundred pounds.” In one respect, he was the possessor of a large amount of property; in another, he was actually in debt.