"At St. Margaret's, Westminster, there is a _Society_ Evening Lecture; and when the Reader came, he found in the _churchyard_, at the _west door_, a number of people singing psalms. When he got into the _church_, he was affronted by some unknown persons as he passed through a great crowd to the vestry. As soon as the clergyman appointed to _preach_ came, he was _solicited_ (if an _overbearing importunity_ may be so called) to resign the pulpit to Mr. Whitefield, who (as is supposed by his not appearing at the _prayers_) was waiting at some neighbouring house to know the issue of their application. But the _preacher_ continuing as determined to do his duty as Mr. Whitefield was to do it for him, they at last effected that by _force_ which they could not gain by _treaty_. So the _preacher_ was safely confined in his _pew_, which was locked (the sexton being appointed by the _Society_, and in Mr. Whitefield's interest), and guarded by several lusty fellows; while another party conveyed the _unlicensed intruder_ triumphantly up into the pulpit, and kept sentry on the stairs for fear he should be taken down in as forcible a manner as he got up." Mr. Venn, the writer of this account, then adds:-- "There are many instances of these _unauthorised_ teachers using _fraudulent_ and _unfair_ means of getting into pulpits against the inclination of the _proper minister_ or _appointed preacher_. Sometimes they ask the pulpit for a _friend_, and then send Mr. Whitefield or some other _Methodist_. Another method has been by slipping up into the pulpit as soon as the prayers are over, without asking any leave at all. And all these _disorders_, _irregularities_, and _artifices_ are practised by persons who have no _warrant_, but _their pretended call from heaven_, to preach in _any_ church in the diocese." The reader has thus before him the two conflicting statements. A fortnight afterwards, in the same newspaper, Mr. Bennett, one of the stewards of the Society, whose evening lecture at St. Margaret's had caused so much uproar, declared that the simple facts were these:--