lping themselves by suitable employment. The
families who live in the neighborhood of Minden, mostly on small parcels
of land, have until now got on with a tolerable degree of comfort, by
cultivating their land in summer and spinning yarn in winter; but now the
depression is so great that if they could be put into the way of earning
threepence a day, they would embrace it with thankfulness. I have been
very diffident in proponing any plan for their assistance, knowing that
some former proposals have failed of accomplishing the end. But I have
consulted with those who are best acquainted with their situation, and we
think it safest for them to continue their own employment of spinning
yarn, and endeavor to mend their trade by placing it on this footing. They
must spin such an article as I can make use of in sending it, with what I
buy from other people, to my friends in the linen business in England. I
am to give them a little higher price than they can elsewhere obtain, and
those who have no flax of their own must have a little money advanced to
purchase some, which they must repay in yarn. When the yarn is disposed
of in England, and a profit on the same can be obtained, it must be
distributed among them as a premium to encourage industry and good
management in producing a good article. If this does not answer, I cannot
see any thing at present that will.

How far this scheme was put in practice we are unable to say, but we
believe it was not accompanied by any successful result.

In the next entry he speaks of the advantage which he derived from keeping
a diary.

11 _mo_. 17.--I was this evening accidentally induced to read over a
few of my former memorandums; and it humbled my spirit to retrace the
dealings of my merciful Father with me. I am glad that I have from time to
time penned down a few remarks by way of diary, although it has been done
interruptedly and very imperfectly. It proves a means of enabling me to
see a wonderful concurrence in the ways of Divine Wisdom which has led me
in a way that I knew not, and hitherto preserved me through the mercies of
his love: praise be to his Name now and for ever. Amen.

After his return from Minden he accompanied John and William Seebohm, who
were going on a journey of business to Leipzig. They went by way of
Brunswick and Halberstadt, and returned by Nordhausen and Eimbeck. In this
tour through the heart of Germany, John Yeardley made many observations on
the