When Fletcher was about to leave them the grateful people pressed him to accept a sum of money in payment of his expenses. This he entirely refused to accept, until being pressed in such a manner that further refusal seemed impossible, he consented to receive it on condition that he might dispose of it as he pleased. To this they readily agreed, and every penny of it was given to their own poor people before Fletcher and his wife left Dublin. A letter warmly thanking them for "your labour of love in crossing the sea to visit us, and your spending body and soul for our profit while among us," was signed by one hundred and fifty-one members of the Dublin Methodist society, and sent after them to Madeley. The passage from Dublin to Holyhead was a stormy one, but they reached their home at last in peace.
Fletcher attended one more Conference with Wesley and his preachers. It was held in Leeds in July, 1784. The great Methodist leader was now in his eighty-second year. He wrote to a friend: "When I was young I had weak eyes, trembling hands, and abundance of infirmities. But, by the blessing of God, I have outlived them all." He laboured as hard as ever. In one respect only he spared himself; instead of riding on horseback he now made use of a travelling carriage. He still considered preaching at five o'clock in the morning the healthiest exercise in the world. He was able to preach three times a day, and address large crowds out of doors, and, when making his way to Inverness, could trudge through heavy rain twelve miles on foot. In every part of England, and very widely in Ireland and Scotland, he was better known than any other public man, and, with few exceptions, universally respected and loved. The nation had come to be proud of him. His appearance was venerable and beautiful in the extreme. The people flocked to see, as well as to hear him. He was saluted in the streets as he passed along, and children would run and kneel before him to receive his blessing.
Wesley had particular reasons for inviting Fletcher to attend the Conference. It was an anxious time with him. He had recently executed an important deed--known as the Deed of Declaration,--in which he had named one hundred of his preachers to constitute the legal Conference after his death. In this body of preachers, which had power to fill up all vacancies in its number, was vested all legal authority requisite for the admission and expulsion of preachers, the appointment of preachers to their stations; and, in various other respects, the Conference was invested with the powers hitherto possessed and exercised by Wesley himself. This deed has proved a firm foundation for the polity of the Methodists to this day. It underlies and sustains the various developments that have since taken place. It has been called Methodism's Magna Charta. Wesley himself deemed it "a foundation likely to stand as long as the sun and moon endure."