“I am glad to hear that you have frequent opportunities of preaching among the great. If you can gain them to a good and exemplary life, wonderful changes will follow in the manners of the lower ranks; for _ad exemplum regis_, etc. On this principle, Confucius, the famous eastern reformer, proceeded. When he saw his country sunk in vice, and wickedness of all kinds triumphant, he applied himself first to the grandees; and, having, by his doctrine, won them to the cause of virtue, the commons followed in multitudes. The mode has a wonderful influence on mankind; and there are numbers, who, perhaps, fear less the being in hell, than out of the fashion. Our more western reformations began with the ignorant mob; and, when numbers of them were gained, interest and party-views drew in the wise and great. Where both methods can be used, reformations are likely to be more speedy. O that some method could be found to make them lasting! He who discovers that, will, in my opinion, deserve more, ten thousand times, than the inventor of the longitude. “My wife and family join in the most cordial salutations to you and good Mrs. Whitefield. “I am, dear sir, your very affectionate friend, and most obliged humble servant, “BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.”[242] Such was the moralizing of the famous Franklin concerning the marvellous movement of his friend Whitefield. It was about this time that Whitefield’s ministry was blessed to the conversion of a youth, who, afterwards, rose to great eminence. Robert Robinson had recently been apprenticed to a hair-dresser, in Crutched Friars, London. The apprentice was attracted to hear Whitefield at the Tabernacle, and, ever after, called him his spiritual father.[243] In 1761, at the age of twenty-six, Robert Robinson became the pastor of a small Dissenting congregation, at Cambridge, whose members could scarcely afford him £20 a year. His ministry, however, was so successful, that, in the course of a few years, his church included above two hundred highly respectable families. Upon Robinson’s subsequent popularity as a preacher; his ability as an author; and his embracing, a few years before his death, the Unitarian creed, there is no necessity to dwell. These are well-known facts. Having spent a few days in London, Whitefield returned, towards the end of July, to Lady Huntingdon, at Bristol,[244] where “many in high life” attended his ministry.[245] Here he had another battle with a bishop. Whitefield was told that the Bishop of W―――― had accused him of perjury; and wrote to his lordship to be informed upon what fact or facts his charge was founded. The bishop’s answer is not published, but its nature and substance may be inferred from the reply of Whitefield. “BRISTOL, _August 7, 1749_.