Robert Hall, Leicester, to Jabez Bunting, Wesleyan Missionary House, No. 77 Hatton Garden, London, 23 February 1818.

Rev and dear Sir

          I feel myself highly honored by the invitation you have transmitted to me to preach one of the sermons at the approaching anniversary of the methodist missionary society. The respect I have long entertained for yourself and the highly esteemed body in whose names you write render me very reluctant to decline any proposal issuing from such a quarter. But permit me to say that reasons of great moment impel me however reluctantly to take that step on the present occasion. I could not visit the Metropolis this summer without materially changing plans and engagements, already formed. Add to this that I am convinced from painful experience of my total inability to render myself audible to such assemblies as are accustomed to convene on such occasions, in consequence of which my engaging would obstruct rather than aid the design of the anniversary. I had the mortification to find that when I officiated on a similar occasion in behalf of the baptist mission, I was not heard by one half of the audience. I must therefore be permitted decidedly to decline the honour intended me, in which I can say with the utmost truth that I am so far from being influenced by a feeling of party-spirit, that on the contrary few things would please me more than a proper opportunity of evincing my cordial esteem of my methodist brethren; to whose exertions in the cause of religion, both foreign and domestic, the Public, are in my humble opinion, indebted to an incalculable degree. That this success may be still more extended, and your invaluable labours among them may be crowned with a blessing commensurate to your largest wishes is, dear Sir the prayer of your obliged friend & brother

                                                                                                      R. Hall

Leicester. 23 Feb.y 1818

Text: Timothy Whelan, Baptist Autographs in the John Rylands University Library of Manchester, 1741-1845 (Macon: Mercer University Press, 2009), p. 183 (annotated version); also MAM. PLP. 48.25.5, John Rylands University Library of Manchester. Jabez Bunting (1779-1858) was a Methodist leader who helped form the Methodist Missionary Society in 1813.