“1778. Tuesday, August 4.--Our conference began: so large a number of preachers never met at a conference before. I preached morning and evening, till Thursday night; then my voice began to fail; so I desired two of our preachers to supply my place the next day. On Saturday the conference ended.” Mr. Benson writes: “Our conference is just ended, the best I was ever at. Mr. Wesley has been in a sweet spirit, has preached some excellent sermons, has had extraordinary congregations, and has dealt closely and plainly with the preachers, setting two aside for misdemeanours.”[306] Thomas Taylor, in his manuscript diary, remarks: “August 5.--To-day, we permitted all sorts to come into the conference, so that we had a large company. The forenoon was occupied in speaking upon preaching houses. In the afternoon, the sending of missionaries to Africa was considered. The call seems doubtful. Afterwards, the committee met, and we were an hour and a half in speaking what might have been done in five minutes. We are vastly tedious, and have many long speeches to little purpose.” “August 6.--This day has been employed chiefly in stationing the preachers. “August 7.--We were engaged in conference till after one o’clock; and then the sacrament began, at which, I think, two thousand were present.” Three things are noticeable here. 1. Others, beside itinerant preachers, were admitted to Wesley’s conference in 1778. 2. Long and tedious conferential speeches are not a novelty; but were inflicted upon impatient and unwilling listeners in former days as they are sometimes inflicted now. 3. The conference had an immense sacrament such as Methodist conferences and Methodist congregations now never witness. Stationing preachers was then a difficulty as it is at present, one of the four days being chiefly occupied with this. Some modern Methodists seem to think, that Wesley, in this, acted as he pleased; but that is hardly true. The people then, to say nothing about the preachers, liked to have a voice in their appointments; and then, as now, not unfrequently made worse selections than others would have made for them. In the spring of the present year, Wesley significantly wrote, while at Bristol: “March 9--On this and the following days I visited the society, and found a good increase. This year, I myself (_which I have seldom done_) chose the preachers for Bristol; and these were _plain_ men, and likely to do more good than had been done in one year, for these twenty years.” It is a curious fact, that, as this was the first conference in whose minutes the name of Thomas Coke appeared, so also it was a conference remarkable for its discussion of the great question of Christian missions, to which Coke, soon after, devoted his unwearied life. The mission to Africa has been mentioned. Mr. Benson writes: