From Adam Clarke in London, to [George] Marsden in Bristol. It was only on coming to town that Clarke heard that Marsden had been appointed President of Conference. May God help Marsden in his work.
Clarke does not know if he [Clarke] is eligible to work in any of the London Circuits. He has no wish at present to be a supernumary.
He charges Marsden to take care of the Methodists in the Shetland Islands, to send proper people there - men of piety, zeal and good sense. [Much of this passage is hard to read because of the shakiness of the writing]. There is general agreement that [unreadable name] is doing no good there, although he may do well in England or Scotland.
Clarke understands that there is a proposal for the preachers to join the Temperance Societies. His view of this development is that the Methodists have their own rules and as long as these are adhered to, they have no need of any others. For Methodist preachers to join such societies would, in Clarke's eyes, convict the Methodists of dereliction of duty in that they would be accusing themselves of wrongdoing in the past. In any case, will temperance rules convert people? Such conversions would not be founded in conviction of sin, contrition for sin and conversion from sin. He has heard of people who subscribed to temperance rules and even swore oaths on the Bible and not one of them was a true convert. Clarke has also known hundreds, he may even say thousands of sinners, who were thorough drunkards and who were saved and cured by the preaching of the Methodists
[The handwriting on this letter is difficult to read]