(3) Tavistock.
A NCVEMBER CONFERENCH
give the answer of the Conference to the question, ' How many Circuits are there now?'
A. Nine.
1. Lonpon: including (1) London itself, (2) Kent and Surrey, (3) Essex, (4) Brentford, (5) Windsor, (6) Wycombe, (7) Oxford,
(8) Reading, (9) Shaburn, (10) Blewberry.
2. BRISTOL:
including (1) Bristol itself, (2) Kingswood, (3) Bath, (4) Bearfield, (5) Seend, (6) The Devizes, (7) Salisbury, (8) Road, (9)
Coleford, (10) Oakhill, (11) Shepton, (12) Dorsetshire, (13) Middlesey, (14) Beercrocomb, (15) Taunton, (16) Collumpton.
3. CORNWALL:
including (1) Cornwall itself, (2) Plymouth Dock, (3) Tavistock.
4. IRELAND.
5. WALES.
6. STAFFORDSHIRE:
including (1) Stroud, (2) Cirencester, (3) Stanley, (4) Evesham, (5) Wednesbury, (6) Leominster, (7) Shrewsbury, (8) Nottingham.
7. CHESHIRE:
including (1) Cheshire itself, (2) Derbyshire, (3) Lancashire, (4) Sheffield.
8. YORKSHIRE AND LINCOLNSHIRE.
9g. NEWCASTLE:
including (1) Newcastle itself, (2) the county of Durham, (3) Cumberland, (4) Northumberland, (5) Berwick.
If we compare this list with that which appears in the Minutes of 1746 we shall be impressed by the remarkable progress that had been made in so short a time.
This prosperity made it impossible for John Wesley to give careful and constant attention to the Societies in each circuit.
Once more urgent necessity suggested the importance of a division of labour.
Without jeopardizing his position as the final authority he saw it was possible to devolve much of his work on men who should be selected by the Conference to take special charge of the Societies which were grouped together in the widely-extended circuits.
We have seen that a distinction had already arisen between ' Helpers' and ' Assistants'; but, up to the Conference of 1749, that distinction is rather difficult to follow.
The Minutes give a definition of the position and duties of an ' Assistant '' which ends our uncertainty.
The Conference, after discussing the question of 'a general union' of the Societies throughout England, and coming to the conclusions we have recorded to make some advances towards that union, made a step in the right direction by 1See John Wesley and the Methodist Societies, 324.