At the beginning of the month of February, he hurried off to Bristol, to quiet some of the society, who were in danger of becoming disaffected towards government; and preached from, “Put them in mind to be subject to principalities and powers.” Finding that there had been repeated attempts to fire the city, he preached again, taking as his text, “Is there any evil in the city, and the Lord hath not done it?” He also wrote and published, “A Calm Address to the Inhabitants of England”: 12mo, 23 pages. He states, that a year and a half ago, from fifty to a hundred thousand copies of his “Calm Address to the American Colonies” had been dispersed, and the effect had exceeded his most sanguine hopes. This encouraged him now to address “the inhabitants of _Old England_.” He then gives an account of the rise and progress of the American rebellion, tracing it back as far as the year 1737. He proceeds to state that, after bawling for liberty, no liberty was left in the confederate provinces of America; the liberty of the press, religious liberty, and civil liberty were nonentities. The lords of the congress were as absolute as the emperor of Morocco; whereas, in England, the fullest liberty was enjoyed, “both as to religion, life, body, and goods.” He tells the Methodists that, though many, who go under that name, hate the king and all his ministers, only less than they hate an Arminian, he would no more continue in fellowship with those that were connected with him, if they did this, than he would continue in fellowship “with whoremongers, or sabbath breakers, or thieves, or drunkards, or common swearers.” The whole tract is written in his most pungent style; and, whatever may be thought of the wisdom of Wesley’s politics, all must admire his devoted loyalty. Of course, like his “Calm Address to the American Colonies,” it stirred a nest of hornets. Almost immediately, there was published, in the _Gospel Magazine_, a poem reviling him in unmeasured terms. He is represented as “spitting venom, spite, and rage”; “Father Johnny” is accused of telling “barefaced lies,” and is thus admonished in the last two lines: “O think of this, thou grey haired sinner, Ere Satan pick thy bones for dinner.”