Bj fjtciUEBt (1874) from £VAJV WILHELM EVANS M. A. |9vntfBS[it ill tfK Knttrrsits Cornell University Library DA 722.R32 Miscellaneous papers on sublects relatin 3 1924 028 053 373 The original of tliis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924028053373 MISCELLANEOUS PAP. SUBJECTS EELATING TO WALES. THOMAS UEES, D.D. LONDOF: JOHN SNOW & Co., 2, IVY LANE, PATEENOSTlfiKi SWANSEA: E. QEIPFITHS, 11, HieH-STEEET. 1867. ■! I ^ \ f ?" #"■■'! »"•» - ""•■ %.ili >''& f\ V H. 0. WILLS, ESQUIEE, OF PARK HOUSE, GOTHAM, BRISTOL, A CHEISTIAir GBSriLEMAir or EXEMPLAET, LIBEEALITT, PTTBLIC SPIBIT, AND I«!TOl;BDirESS, AND A MTTirrPICfElIT STJPPOKTEB OP TAEIGTTS SCHEMES FOE THE PEOMOTION O! BELIQION AND EDUCATION IN ■WALES, ^h moth IS MOST EESPECTPIJIiLT AND AFEECTIONATEIT DEDICATED, BY HIS SINCEEE AND OBLIGED FEIEND, THE AUTHO]|J*i PEEFACE. Most of tl^ Papers in this coUection have appeared at different times, within the last fifteen years, in the Metropolitan or local N'e'wspapers. The attention which some of them attracted when delivered as lectures or read at public meetings, and the constant applications for copies of the papers containing them, or inforpiation on the subjects of which they treat, which the author receives from friends who feel an interest in "Wales and its affairs, have induced him to publish them in this collected forih, ■ "Wales, commercially, politically, and religiously, is becom- ing more important year after year. In the beginning of the present century it was only an insignificant and comparatively unknown comer of Great Britain. Since then its population has more than doubled, and its manufactories and trade have more than quintupled ; and as its exhaustless resources are as yet only beginning to be developed, no one need be endowed with the gift of prophecy to see that a future of unparalleled greatness is in reserve for it. Correct information conceraing such a country and its people cannot fail to be highly interest- ing and useful to the public. Several works on "Wales and the "Welsh* people are already accessible to English readers, Vi. , PEEFACB. Buch as "The character of the Welsh as a nation," by the Eev. W. Jones, Yicar of Nevin; "Wales," by Sir Thomas Phillips; "Facts, Figures, and Statements," and the "Dissent and MoraHty of "Wales," by the late Eev. Evan Jones (leuan Gwynedd); "History of Nonconformity in Wales," by the author of these papers ; and last, but not least, the admirably written, comprehensive, and telling letters of the |^v. Henry Eichard, on " The Social and Political condition of Wales." As aU these works, with the exception bf Mr. Eichard's letters, are either large and expensive, or scarce, the publi- cation of these papers may not be deemed superfluous, and more especially as they will be found to contain statements of several interesting facts not referred to in any of the fore- named works. Were an apology necessary for the multiplication of works in the English language on, Wales and its inhabitants, it might be found in the glaring ignorance which educated Eng- lishmen, even editors of newspapers, popular authors, and prominent members of Parliament, too often betray when writing or speaking on the subject. The author would be happy to find these unpretending papers had created a greater interest among Englishmen in the condition of his country. ^WASSEA, Makch 28, 1867. CONTENTS. FAOS, The Besources ofWales 1 The Working Classes of Wales . . . . « 14 The Working Classes of Wales and Eeligioua Institutions . . . . 2i The alleged Unchastity of Wales 29 Education in Wales 36 Welsh Literature 40 The Church Establishment in Wales in relation to the Welsh people 61 Welsh Dissent : a Letter to the Bishop of Llaudaff, with his Lord- ship's reply 60 The Congregational Churches of Wales . . 70 The Congregational Churches and the English population of Wales. . 83 The great EeTival in South Wales in 1849 93 The Irish and Welsh KeTivals in 1859 96 Page 47, line 10, instead of "Psedio Baptists" and "inti-paedio Baptists," read " Psedobaptists " and " Aati-psedobaptists." MISCELLANEOUS- PAPERS, &c. TKE EESOTJRCES OF WALES. A lECTTIItE BELIVEEED AT THE EOTAI, INSTITirTIOK' OF SOtTTH TTAXES, SWANSEA, JANTJAET THE 29tH, 1866. "Wales, though but a comparatively small portion of Great Britain, its area, including Monmouthshire, being only 5,102,858 statute acres, is, owing to its exhaustless stores of those material resources upon which the greatness of England chiefly depends, incomparably more important than any other district of the island of equal extent. The scenery of the Principality is remarkable for grandeur, variety, and beauty. Any one with an eye and a heart to ■ admire the wondrous works of the Creator, would be well remunerated for the time and expense of a leisurely tour through Wales. Setting out from Chepstow, and following the coast through all its curves and windings by Ifewport, Cardiff, Swansea, Kidwelly, Laughame, Tenby, ■ Pembroke, Milford, St. David's, Cardigan, Aberystwyth, Barmouth, Carnarvon, Holyhead, Amlwch, and Beaumaris to Flint : the tourist will then turn to view the interior of the country, when of course he wiU not be able to resist the temptation to ascend the highest peaks of Snowdon, Camedd Llewellyn, Carnedd Dafydd, Cadair Idris, Aranfawddwy, Plinlimmon, the Brecon and Carmarthenshire Beacons, the Erenny-fawr and Pencwm- cerwyn. Descending from those high elevations, he wUl naturally wish to traverse the Vale of Glamorgan — "the. Garden of Wales ; " the ever-green fields and meadows along the banks of the TJsk, the Wye, the Severn, the Towy, and the Teivi ; to have a full sight of the celebrated Vale of Clwyd from Cprwen to Ehyl,- and to notice with care every interest- ing object in the picturesque valleys of Aeron, Ystwyth, Eheidol, Meivod, Llangollen, Llanrwst, and Maentwrog. At 2 JfflSCELIAB'EOTrs PAPEES, &C. several of these places, barren mountains, high cliffs, and fertile fields are to be seen at one view. If such a sight ■would not fiU the coldest and the dullest mind with lively and sublime poetical ideas, nothing else could. The surface of "Wales has some things still more substantial and valuable than grand and varied scenery to please the eye and enliven the mind. The rich soil of its sheltered valleys produces luxuriant crops and feeds multitudes of cattle ; thou- sands of acres of the declivities of its hiUs and the sides of its narrow dingles — too steep for cultivation, are adorned by millions of valuable oak, ash, alder, and other useful trees ; higher up on the mountains, where no tree will grow, hun- dreds of beautiful ponies are bred, and myriads of sheep, which supply our markets with the most delicious Welsh mutton, and the shops of our wooUeh-drapers with the finest Welsh flannel; whilst the numerous rivers and streams abound with the finest salmon, trout, and almost every other variety of fresh-water fish. Hilly, barren, and worthless as many districts of our country may appear, there is scarcely a spot from the top of its bleakest mountains to the rocky beds of its most rapid rivulets, which does not produce something or other for the comfort and sustenance of man. An enumeration of those good things for which Wales is noted would be incomplete without a reference to the remarkable salubrity of its air, and the superior quality of its abundant supply of water. Neither should we omit to mention its celebrated medicinal waters at Taff's Well, Llanwrtyd, Llangamaroh, Builth, Llandrindod, Holywell, and Trefriw. Thousands of invalids and afflicted persons resort to these places every year, and now, having been made more accessible by railways, still larger numbers from aU parts of the United Kingdom will be able to avail themselves of these provisions of our beneficent Creator for the alleviation of human suffering. Our neigh- bours, the English, are proverbially partial to everything Welsh, and sharp-sighted tradesmen turn that partiality to the best account. One could hardly pass through any street in London, and other English cities, without seeing on signs and in shop- windows, in bold, legible characters, "Excellent Welsh mutton, superior Welsh flannel, genuine Welsh ale pure Welsh bread," &c. Keen and business-like as English- men generally are, yet it is highly probable that they are often imposed upon, and that they consume vast quantities of pretended Wdsh commodities which never came from Wales. MISCEMLANEOTIS PAPEES, &C. 3 Notwithstanding all the attractions of its scenery, the salubrity of its air and water, together with the variety and value of the productions of its soil, "Wales would have re- mained for ever a comparatively unknown and unimportant district of Great Britain, had it not heen for its boundless store of valuable minerals of every description. It, is that which constitutes its incalculable importance ; which opens before it a glorious prospect ; and which wiU make it for centuries to come, as far as material resources are concerned, the main pillar upon which the superiority of England among the nations of the world is to rest. It is not probablfe that any tract of country, oif equal extent, in any part of the known "World, contains such a quantity and variety of minerals as Wales. In an enumeration of these hidden treasures of our rocks, our coal demands the first pla%e, for without this, essen- tial article every other mineral would have been of little use. The great coal-fleld of South "Wales is said to be the largest in Europe, and with the exception of that of Kova Scotia, to contain a greater vertical thickness of strata than any coal-field in the world. It extends from Pontypool, in Monmouthshire, on the east, to St. Bride's Bay, in Pembrokeshire, on the west, a distance of aboufaninety miles. Its average breadth is from twelve to thirteen miles. The area is calculated by Mr. Joshua Eichardson, of Neath, at 1,055 square miles; and by Mr. Edward Hull, author of "the Coal-fields of Great Britain," at 1,094. This immense field contains no less than sixty-four seams of coal, varying in thickness from one foot to eighteen, and even twenty feet. The aggregate thickness of all these seams is 190 feet and 10 inches ; but as several of the veins do not extend through the whole field, it is impossible to say what is the precise average thickness of the coal. Mr. Martin, whose paper on the South "Wales coal-field is the authority generally referred to, estimates the average thickness of the workable coal throughout the whole area at 95 feet, and he calculates that each square mile, after deducting one third for waste ground and loft in working, will produce 64,000,000 of tons. According to this estimate the produce of the whole field would amount to the enormous quantity of seventy thousand millions of tons. Mr. Hussey Vivian's estimate does not exceed thirty-six thousand millions, while that of Mr. Edward Hull is as low as twenty-six thousand millions. But even according to the lowest of these estimates, the South "Wales field alone would supply the whole kingdom with coal 4 MISCELIiAlJEOTTS PAPEES, &C. at the rate of one hundred millions of tons a-year for above two hundred and sixty years. The produce of our coal-field, in the year 1864, was eleven millions of tons. If our own con- sumption and export trade were doubled, our resources are amply sufficient to supply our need for nearly a thousand years, according to Mr. Hull's estimate; and for three thousand years according to Mr. Martin's estimate. The South Wales coal-field is celebrated not only on account of the vast quantity of coal which it contains, but also on account of its variety and superior quality. The coals of this field are divided into five different classes : the bituminous, the semi-bituminous, the partially-bituminous, the anthraci- tous, and the anthracite. These different kinds of coal have their respective uses, and add to the value of the field which supplies the markets of the world with them. The number of collieries in South Wales and Monmouthshire is 418. South Wales is not the only coal-producing district of the Principality. There are three coal fields in North Wales, in the counties of Denbigh, Flint, and Anglesea, whose area is one hundred and eleven square miles. The coal raised in North Wales last year (1864), amounted to nearly two niillions of tons (1,987,060). The numbef of collieries is 81. Mr. Hull says that the Flintshire coal field will be exhausted in about forty or fifty years at the present rate of consumption ; but he estimates the workable coal in the Denbighshire field at nine hundred and three millions of tons; — a sufficient quantity to last for above three centuries, were the consumption of the North Wales district to rise one-third above its present rate, exclusive of what remains in the coal fields of Flintshire and Anglesea, which probably amounts to twenty-seven or thirty millions of tons. The mineral which ranks next to coal in point of practical value is iron ore, and happily Wales is richly stored with it. The argillaceous or clay iron stone, which has hitherto been chiefly used in the iron works of Wales, is found in regular beds or veins interstratified with the toal measures. The aggregate thickness of the veins in the lower series of the coal strata, is about five feet, and the carbonaceous ore, or " black band," which is found chiefly in the upper coal series is from eighteen to thirty-six inches thick. It is calculated that each square mile of the coal field contains eleven millions of tons of argillaceous and carbonaceous iron ore. Several beds of calcareous haematite ore are to be found in the carboniferous HISCELLAITEOTTS PAPEBS, &C. 5 limestone on the south anticlinal line of the coal field from lontypool to Lydstep Point, in Pembrokeshire. These valu- able ores are at present but very partially examined, but further search will probably lead to new discoveries. The red haematite of the Permian series is also found in several districts outside the southern extremity of the coal field. It is now largely worked at Llantrisant, Wenvoe, and other places in Glamorganshire. The authors of the " Memoirs of the geological survey of Great Britain" remark "that the iron ores of South "Wales are not yet developed so rapidly as to satisfy the requirement^ of the trade. Nearly 400,000 tons per annum of iron orefs are imported from the Lancashire and Whitehaven districts in the north of England, and also large supplies are obtained from the south and west of England, Spain, Elba, and other foreign ports. The superior quality of tiie coal for smelting ptirposes seems to give this district an advantage which compensates for the want of very cheap iron ores. The iron ores in the South "Wales district are not yet fiiUy understood and developed ; but the stubborn fact remains that with 25 cwt. of raw coal they Can, and do when properly used, make a ton of pig-iron." The quantity of iron ore raised in South "Wales in 1864 was 468,355 tons and 5 cwts., of the value of £185,360 17s. Id. The average yield of the argillaceous ore is about 36 per cent, of iron,' and that of the haematite from 47 to 49 per cent. There are also in the coal districts of North Wales and their vicinities several beds of argillaceous and haematite ores ; 29,127 tons were raised there in 1864, valued at £9,835 12s. 6d. There are exhaustless beds of lead and silver ores in almost every county of the Principality. The lead mines of Cardigan- shire have been worked from the time of Henry VIII. to the present day. As early as the seventeenth century they yielded enormous profits to their proprietors. Sir "Hugh Middleton, who worked them for some years, realised a nett profit of £20,000 a-year, which, in his time, was six or seven times the value of such a sum in this age. The produce of the Cardiganshire mines in the year 1864 amounted to 7464 tons of ore of the value of £106,362. Lead and silver mines are also extensively worked in the counties of Hint, Denbigh, and Montgomery, and on a smaller scale in Pembrokeshire) Carmarthenshire, Breconshire, Merionethshire, ahd, Carnar- vonshire. When the railways which are now in coxirse of formation in each of these counties are completed, the vast 6 MISCELIASrEOtrS PAPEBB, &C. mineral resources of the country will soon be greatly devel- oped, -whicli is but very partially the case at present. There are now in Wales no less than 300 mines, in which lead, silver, and other ores are worked. The lead ore produce of these mines last year was 27,146 tons, which yielded 19,509' tons of lead, and 136,885 ounces of silver. Parys Mountain, in Anglesea, has been for ages celebrated for its copper ore. The produce of that mountain last year was 7857 tons of ore. Small quantities of copper are also raised in the counties of Carnarvon, Merioneth, Montgomery, Cardigan, and Brecknock. The total produce of the copper mines of Wales in the year 1864 was 9533 tons, estimated to- contain 613 tons of pure copper, of the value of £61,300. The various mines of the counties of Cardigan, Carmarthen, Denbigh, Hint, and Carnarvon, have produced 4238 tons of zinc ore in the year 1864, or nearly one-third of the entire- produce of the United Kingdom in that year. The value of this ore amounts to £16,177. The mines of Forth Wales have also in 1864 produced 1976 tons of sulphur ore, of the- value of £1,264 ; 2,153 tons of ochre of the value of £2,045, and 833 tons of blue stone — a valuable mineral, containing copper, zinc, lead, and silver — were raised in the Anglesea; copper mines last year. The rocks of Wales contain not only coal, iron, lead, copper, zinc, and silver, but also gold. Gold mining in Wales is as yet in its infancy. It was only about six years ago that the first attempt to open a gold mine was made ; but such is the attraction of the precious metal that now we find in a limited district of Merionethshire no less than twenty-one mines opened. Mr. Read win, of Manchester, in a paper read before the British Association for the Advancement of Science, at Birm i ngham, last September, gives us the most cheering account of the prospects of Welsh gold mining. " Gold mining in Wales," he remarks, "has gone now very far beyond experimental trials. More than seven thousand tons of quartz have been operated upon, and more than thirteen thousand ounces of gold obtained therefrom, worth say £50)000, averaging more than 36 dwts. to the ton. With half a ton of gold as the result, I challenge the boldest objector to gold mining in Wales, as a branch of industry, to prove that it cost one;half of £50,000 to obtain it. After several years of experimental effort to work the gold minerals of Merioneth at a profit, I am more fixed in my opinion than ever, notwith- &c. 7 standing _ the equivocal position the suhject holds aa a commercial pursuit, that gold mining can and wiU he made remunerative, if certain essential and natural conditions prevails at the respective mines : — rirstly, there must he a large and continuous quantity of the auriferous mineral, cheaply ohtainahle by means of adits and tramways ; secondly, there must be efficient water-power available on the spot; thirdly, there must be no more cats about the premises than wiU catch mice. Under such circumstances, provided 40 or 50 tons of minerals can be raised per diem, a fuarter of an ounce of gold to the ton ought to pay all costs of reduction, and I think it would ! " The workmen at these mines, while searching for gold, have discovered very rich lead, silver, copper, and zinc ores. These may ultimately prove much more remunerative than the gold itself. Wales abounds with immense beds of the finest building and paving stone in the world, which outcrop on the declivi- ties of the hills through the length and breadth of the country, and might be quarried at a comparatively trifling expense. These useful materials were not created in vain. The time will come when they shaU. be turned to some good account. Thousands of tons of the hard blue stone of Penmaenmawr and Nevin, in Carnarvonshire, are annually conveyed to England and several foreign countries j the fine flags of South "Wales, which are capable of being cut into blocks of any dimensions, will some time or other attract the attention of the world. Neither should we omit to mention that exhaust- less quantities of the finest fire-clay are to be found in almost every district of the Principality, especially the mining districts. The last mineral I shall name, for which Wales is so celebra- ted, andjjv^hich ranks next to coal and iron ore as an important marketaHe commodity and a source of wealth to the commu- nity, is slate. The mountains of Carnarvonshire, Merioneth- shire, and some districts of the counties of Denbigh, Mont- gomery, Carmarthen, and Pembroke abound with immense beds of the finest slate rocks ia the world. Formerly slates were only used for covering the roofs of houses, but now they are brought into an almost endless variety of purposes, such as cisterns, chimney-pieces, paving, and all sorts of fancy ornaments. It is said that the utility of the Carnarvonshire slates was discovered as early as the time of Queen Elizabeth, but it does not seem that any use had been made of them ■ farther than for roofing a few houses in the immediate neigh- 8 MISCELIASE0U9 PAPEES, &C. boTirhoods of the quarries, till the early p&rt of the last century. A young woman named Elizabeth Griffiths drove a pony, which carried the first load of slates for shipment to the port of Bangor, in the year 1715. Notwithstanding the decided superiority of slate to every other material as a neat, light, and durable covering for the roofs of buildings, a con- siderable number of years elapsed before the public, who usually cling with stupid tenacity to old customs, would allow it to replace unsightly and combustible thatch and clumsy tiles. As lafe as the year 1772 the clear annual profit of the Penrhyn quarry, almost the only slate quarry then worked in Wales, was only £40, but at present that quarry, which is certainly the largest in the world, is said to yield to its pro- prietor the princely income of £120,000 a year. The Llan- beris quarries rank next to the Penrhyn, and are said to be yielding the annual profits of £70,000. The annual income of the late Lord Palmerston's quarries at Festiniog is from £30,000 to £40,000. Besides these gigantic works there are forty or fifty other slate quarries in Wales, chiefly in the counties of Carnarvon and Merioneth, where thousands of workmen are employed. About 14,000 men are employed in the slate quarries of the Principality, exclusive of carriers, ■■ railway men, and hundreds of labourers at the different ports where the slates are shipped, and it is calculated that not less than 600,000 tons of slates are sent to the market every year, which at the present average price of fifty shillings per ton amount to one million and a half sterling. This important branch of Welsh industry is as yet only in its infancy. The end- less quantity of slate veins which our mountains contain, the superiority of Welsh slate to every other material of the same nature yet discovered in any part of the world, *he ever increasing demand, which more than doubles the supply, together with the enormous profits which the owners of Welsh slate quarries derive from them, will most certainly soon induce capitalists to join practical Welsh quarrymen to open- new works and enlarge existing ones. The probability is that the markets of the world will be supplied twenty years hence with treble the present quantity of slate, and what a source of wealth will that be to the landed proprietors, the working classes, and the community at large ? The Principality is not only famous for its mineral wealth but equally so also on account of the facilities which its geographical position furnish for the easy transit of its mineral, MISQBLIANEOTJS PAPEBS, &C. 9 and all other productions to the market. The bulk of its minerals is found within fifteen or twenty miles of one or the ether of our convenient seaports, and the numerous valleys which stretch out in different directions from the extremities of the mining districts to the ports, show that the Creator has adapted this country to be the scene of unparalleled manufac- turing and commercial greatness. The time cannot be very distant when it wUl be seen that it was a glaring mistake to select the plains of Lancashire, with their dirty and stagnant waters, as the head quarters of British manufactories, with the dangerous port of Liverpool as the outlet, when nature had pointed South "Wales with its hundreds- of ever-running crystal streams, its endless supply of coal and iron, and all in the vicinity of Milford Haven, the finest, the safest, and the most capacious port in Europe, as the proper home of British industry. The enormous capital laid out in Lancashire may for some time stand in the way of the commercial progress of Wales, and the erection of cotton mills and other manufactories in the inviting vaUeys of the Teivi, the Towy, the Cothi, &&, but neither art, wealth, nor prejudice can fojg ever compete with nature. Here the manufaeturer would have his choice of water or steam power to work fcis maehineriesj and would ftot at any time of the year be in want of the one or the other, provided his mills were built in the right places. The mineral resources of the country have brought into existence manufactories of gigantic magnitude for the smelting and the manufacturing of the different metals which our mines produce. The Iron ."Works of South "Wales are carried on on a very extensive scale. It is evident that the Romans when they invaded the island, constructed furnaces for smelting iron in South "Wales, and it is very probable that iron smelting was carried on here to some extent during the middle ages. In the reign of Queen Elizabeth some of the Sussex iron masters established iron works in the counties of Monmouth and GMmorgan, but charcoal was the only fuel used for smelting the ore until late in the last century. The make of iron was consequently very limited. Dr. Thomas Llewellyn, in a book published in the year 1768, says that the iron manufactured then in "Wales was scarcely sufficient to make ploughshares and shoes for the horses. "When coke came into general use instead of charcoal, and steam instead of water power to famish blast for the famaoes, an impetus was given to iron 10 MISCELLAITEOIJS PAPEES, &C. smelting, and it has ever since rapidly progressed. "We find that the entire produce of all the furnaces of Glamorganshire in the year 1796 was only 16,304 tons of pig-iron ; in 1820 it amounted to 49,980 tons; in 1830 to 81,258 tons; in 1840 to 132,002 tons; in 1846 to 243,616 tons; and in 1864 to 481,822 tons. The progress of the -works in the adjoining counties during the same period was somewhat similar. There are at present in the Principality 52 iron worts with 211 furnaces, 141 of which are in blast, and their total produce of pig-iron in the year 1864 was 988,729 tons; connected with these works there are 39. forges and mills, containing 1,413 puddling furnaces, and 164 rolling mills. More than four- fifths of the total quantity of rails annually exported from Great Britain are manufactured in South "Wales, and shipped at Newport, Cardiff, Swansea, and Llanelly; lare quantities of rails and other descriptions of manufactured iron are also sent by rail from "Wales to Liverpool for shipment. Another branch of" British industry, of which "Wales has almost the entire monopoly, is copper smelting. Our respected townsman, M«jor Francis, has shown that copper smelting was commenced at Neath as early as the year 1584. This like iron smelting has progressed from age to age until it has attained the present gigantic scale on which it is carried onf 7,000 tons was the estimated annual amount of copper smelted in this country from British and foreign orea about the com- mencement of the present century. The annual production amounted to 28,000 tons in the year 1848. In that year the heavy and restrictive duty imposed upon copper ores was removed. In Consequence of that the copper trade extended rapidly. The present annual production in the "United King- dom is about 50,000 tons, 43,000 of which are smelted in Swansea and the surrounding district, from Port Talbot on the east, to Pembrey on the west. The copper trade has always been less fluctuating than the iron trade, and conse- quently the populations dependent upon it are less exposed to privations and unfavourable changes than those of the iron districts. "Wales has nearly monopolized the manufacture of tin-platea as well as the smelting of copper. The most extensive manufactories in the world are situate in the counties of Glamorgan, Monmouth, and Carmarthen. There are in these three counties no less than 27 tin-plate works, containing 81 mills, and the estimated weekly make is 27,000 boxes, or MrsCEELAlTEOTTS PAPEES, &e. 11 1 ,404,000 animally. Above 300,000 tons of coal and charcoal are annually consumed at these works- Lead and silver smelting is also carrried on very extensively at Bagillt in Flintshire, and in the Swansea district. I have not been able to ascertain what proportion of the lead and silver produce of the United Kingdom is smelted in "Wales, but it is highly probable that it greatly exceeds one-half of the whole. It would be too tedious to give a minute account of all the small works where zinc and other metals are smelted and manufacturedit These establishments, though ^significant in- comparison to the iron, copper, and tin-plate works, fur- nish employment and profit to hundreds of people, and their existence in Wales is owing to the abundant supply of coal with which our highly favoured country is so richly stored. The development of the mineral resources of the Princi- pality has progressed with astonishing rapidity since the com- mencement of the present century, especially within the last thirty years, and lie probability is that it will progress with still greater rapidity within the next thirty years. The extension of the coal and iron trade about the close of the last century necessitated the formation of canals for the transit of the productions of the mining and manufacturing districts into the ports. These were afterwards supplemented by tramroads, but both in the course of a few years proved in- adequate to the requirements .of the rapidly growing trade. In tJie year 1840 the Taff Vale Eailway — the first railway in Wales, was opened. Since the opening of the Taff Vale other railways have been formed throughout South and North Vales. • At present we have no less than 800 miles of railway in the Principality, and three or four hundred miles more wiU be opened in the course of the next five years. The capital invested in the railways already opened amounts at least to twenty millions. Docks, harbours, and other conveniences of shipping have also been constructed at every port in the Bristol Channel from Newport to Pembrey, at an enormous outlay. The aggregate of the capital invested in South Wales within the last seventy years in mines, manufactories, canals, tramroads, railways, docks, and all the other requirements of a gigantic trade, is almost beyond computation, but the ample resources of the district are such as to secure to every investor profitable returns wherever the capital is wisely invested and 12 mSCELLAITEOirS PAPESS, &C. honestly managed. Tlie present annual value of tte mineral productions of Wales may be thus estimated :: — Coal exported and sent ty rail to England £3,000,000 Iron 6,000,000 Copper* 4,300,000 Tin-plates 1,750,000 Slates 1,500,000 Lead, silver, gold, zinc, &o 600,000 £17,050,000 After deducting from the above, say three millions and fifty thousand pounds for the copper-ore, the iron-ore, and the block-tin imported from England, the Colonies, and foreign countries, we have the noble sum of fourteen mUlions as the annual income of the mineral resources of "Wales. This vast amount is distributed among the workmen, the tradesmen, the owners of lands, mines, manufacbories, and the railway, canal, and dock companies of the district. In reviewing the foregoing statements, it cannot fail to strike the mind of every thoughtful person that the work- ing men of Wales are doomed to hard labour — ^to danger- ous and exhaustive employments in mining, smelting, and preparing the metals, while the lighter and more remunerative labour of converting those metals into an endless variety of marketable articles, is monopolized by the skilful artisans and mechanics of England. We iind in the census returns that 12 per cent, of the adult male population of England are artisans and mechanics, whUe hardly five per cent of the male popula- tion of Wales are so described. This is not as it should be. There is no reason in the world w hy the poor Welsh workman, more than others, should expose himself to fatal explosions and accidents in mines, or roast himself at the smelting furnace, to prepare materials for the comparatively light and remunerative employments of cutlers, gold, silver, and copper smiths, in Eng- land. Some, of course, must perform the hard and dangerous work, but light and heavy work should be carried on in the same localities, and divided, as far as possible, among the members of the same families. How, then, is this inequality to be rectified ? Not, of course, by Acts of Parliament, nor by any scheme set on foot by the employers of labour, but by the workmen themselves. Toung men, if you wish to rise in the world, to be the honour of your families and country, and to have light work and high wages, you must abstain from those UISCELLAKEOirs FAfBSS, &0, 13 gross and grovelling pleasures which the heershop offers you, and also froto the effeminate and time-killing amusements of concerts, theatres, and frivolous parties, and apply yourselves with diligence and determination to the study of tiie arts and the sciences, and the cultivation of a refined taste in mechanics. Drudgery and heavy labour are proper punishments for those who have talent for higher employments, but neglect to cultivate it. No country under the sun holds out a better prospect than Wales for those who have talent and taste for the employments of mining districts. , Poor farmers, who groan under high rents and heavy taxes, and cannot pay their way, could not do better for themselves and their famiUes than emigrate to the United States, or one of the Colonies ; but the able miner who emigrates from his native country to follow the same occupa- tion elsewhere, acts the part of a madman. It would be no exaggeration to say that sober, industrious, and prudent young men could rise from the ranks of the working-class to wealth and social respectability, and even to be miUidnaires, without crossing the borders of Wales. It would be difficult thoughtfully to contemplate the future of "Wales without a mixed feeling of joy and serious apprehen- sion. It is evident to every one that observes the signs of the times, that the population and the trade of the mining districts of Wales will increase probably four fold before the close of the present century. And what effect wiU this sudden and rapid increase have on the social, the moral, and the religious condition of the community ? Are our educational, charitable, and religious institutions in so flourishing and efficient a state, and capable of such immediate extension as to supply the wants, not only of the present population, but also of thousands more to be soon added to them, and those not of the most cultivated and Inoral iiom the lower classes of England and Ireland? I fear this question cannot be answered in the affirmative. Is it not too true that the religious organizations of all sects do not but to a very limited extent beneficially influence the masses, and are not our schools too few in number, and in many instances glaringly inefficient ? Ministers of religion, landed proprietors, employers of labour, and. phi- lanthrcf ists universally should prepare themselves for more energetic efforts than ever for the promotion of the intellectual, morS, and religious improvement of the working classes, otherwise the extension of our trade and the increase of our 14 SnSCELLAl^OTJS PAP£BS, &V. population instead of being a blessing, wiU turn out to_ be an awful curse to our .beloved Wales. May God forbid tbat carelessness, covetousness, oir religious exclusiveness and bigotry should be permitted to prerent our hearty and united co-operation for the moral and religious welfare of our country. THE WOEKINa CLASSES OF WALES. A LECnmE DELITEEED AT THE EOTAI HTSTITUTION OP 80TJTH WAXES, SWANSEA, PEBEUAKT THE IST, 1864. The working classes of Wales, like every other class of the great human family, have their peculiarities. Owing to the great influx of English, Scotch, and Irish labourers to the coal and iron districts of the counties of Glamorgan, Monmouth, Denbigh, and Flint, within the last forty years, the peculiar characteristics of the Welsh labourer are to a great extent, obliterated in those counties. We must therefore turn to the agricultural districts and the neighbourhoods of the slate quarries of North Wales in order to find communities of Welsh workmen in their' genuine native character. The labouriug classes of Wales, wherever they are to be found without any admixture of foreign elements and habits, are characterised by several very commendable qualities. As a class of people they are remarkable for their loyalty and sub- mission to their superiors. Ever since the incorporation of Wales with England, the loyalty of the Welsh nation to their Saxon rulers has been perfectly unswerving, notwithstanding the occasional effusions , of frenzied poets and hot-headed orators against the Saxon invaders. Who has ever heard, from the days of Henry YIII. to the present hour, of secret clubs anditraitorous plots in Wales to upset the Government, such as have from time to time disgraced Ireland ? Whatever view may be entertained of the unhappy conflicts between Charles I. and the Parliament, the Welsh, alnjost to a man,, sided with the Xing until they were forced to sub- mission by the victorious arms of the Parliament. If their adherence to the Eoyal cause does not prove their attachment to MISCEIIAlTEOirS PAPEBffy &C. i 15 Protestantism and religious liberty, it proves, to say the least, their determined loydty. And the various and important political, social, and religious changes of the last two bundled and forty years have not in any sense lessened, but vastly increased the loyalty of the "Welsh people. Queen Victoria has not in any part of he^ wide dominion a miUion of more attached and loyal people than her warm-hearted "Welsh subjects. This remark is quite as applicable to the working classes as to the middle and the upper classes. The lower classes in Wales are so far from conducting themselves with rudeness and disrespect . towards their superiors, that they almost run to the opposite extreme of idolizing them. No landowner, proprietor of works, nor any other member of the upper class in the Principality, has cause to fear the dagger of the assassin, the fire of the incendiary, or the rude assaults of an infuriated mob. The very rare instances lof misimderstanding between small tenant farmers and their landlords, or workmen and their employers, w4ich occur now and then, are almost invariably to be traced to the insolence and tyranny of agents, rather than to a spirit of insubordination in the people. "Whatever may be the defects of the "Welsh peasantry, the most ungrudging and cheerful submission to their superiors forms a prominent feature of their character. Even one of the Education Commissioners, in spite of all his inveterate prejudice against the "VS^^sh people* was forced to acknowledge " that there is in the miners of South "Wales but little of that dogged, desperate, wrong-headed courage which distinguishes the English miner." The work- ing classes of "Wales, including the smaU tenant farmers, who are generally worse off than the generality of our labourers, are exemplary for their industry, frugality, and quiet endurance of the most distressing poverty. I have no wish to conceal the fact that we have among our labouring classes numerous and sad examples of extravagance, improvidence, and inexcu- sable carelessness ; but these, numerous as they are, are the exceptions, not the rule. The bulk of our working population are economical, industrious, and eommendably provident, I know a man, who, for the last thirty years, has cultivated a Bmall farm of about thirty-five acres, in the most bleak and mountainous district of this country, for which he pays the high rent of £35 a year. On that barren spot he has brought up thirteen healthy children without any other means of supporting his large family than the scanty produce, of his 16 MiacEiiAirEous papkbb, &c. small barren farm. Of course it was quite out of the question for iim to pay for the education of his children, as he had to tax all his ingenuity to find them the bare necessaries of life, but in a neighbouring Sunday-school they were taught gra- tuitously to read their Bibles, and they have aU grown up to be virtuouS' young men and women, worthy of their industrious parents. This is only one instance out of hundreds of similar ones which are to be found in different parts of the Princi- pality. As a further illustration of the rigid economy which the lower classes in "Wales are compelled to observe, I beg leave to introduce the foUowing .incident : — The late Sir Kobert Yaughan, of Nannau, Merionethshire, some years ago, accom- panied by two or three gentlemen, went to the mountains to shoot grouse. Having gone further than they at first intended, and when at a distance of eight or ten miles from any place where they might get refreshment, they turned to the first house they could come to, which happened to be a small farm-house, or rather a hut, on the mountain side, to get something to eat, as they felt very hungry. There they found a girl of about thirteen years of age, and a boy of eleven years, with a number of younger children, the parents having gone from home that day. They asked for some food, and the girl, having not the remotest idea who the strangers were, brought to the table a jugful of buttermilk and "a loaf of barley-bread, as black as the peat they used for fuel. One of the strangers enquired whether th«y had any butter in the house. • "Tes," was the reply, "we have, but we are not allowed to take it, except on Sundays.". When they insisted on having some butter with the bread, the boy, in the most heroic manner, ran out and brought in a spade, threatening, to the no small amusement of the geptlemen, to strike the first of them who would dare to touch their butter; "for,'.' ' said he, "we must keep and sell it all to get money to pay the rent to Sir Eobert Yaughan." It is said that Sir Robert, the foUowing day, ordered his agent to reduce the rent of that small farm 40 or 60 per cent. Hundreds of our sober and frugal workmen in the manufacturing, and some in the agiicultural districts, are the owners of their own snug little cottages, and many more might be, were it not for their carelessness and intemperance. It is not probable that there is a community of working^ men to be found in any district of the United Eingdom equiit to the working men of Wales fw: MISCELIASlEOirs PAPEKS, &C. 17 economy, industry, and the observance of those personal and social virtues which are essential to domestic happiness and the •well-being of society at large, though the wages of workmen are, on an average, from eight to ten per cent, lower in Wales than in England and Scotland. Our working cl(eses are also decidedly superior in their morality to the . corresponding classes in England and other parts of the kingdom. Prejudiced parties have repeatedly represented the people of Wales as deeply sunk in immorality, and as destitute of any sense of moral obligation. I do not stand here as a special pleader for . my countrymen, and God forbid that I should utter a word of apology for any kind of immorality. The morality of Wales, when compared with the requirements of the Divine Law, is deplorably low, but when compared with the morality of England, Scotland, and Ireland, it stands very high. According to the Judicial Statistics for the year en^ng September 29, 1860, the number of all the persons committed for different crimes in the twelve Welsh counties, was 3,774, or about one to every 294 of the population; while 112,508 were committed in England, or one to every 168 of the population. The number of prisoners convicted in Wales was 410, or one to every 2,711 of the popidation, while the number of convicts in England amounted to 11,668, or about one to every 1,628 of the population. The judicial' Statistics also record another fact, which tells greatly in favour of the natives of Wales. Of the 3,774 committed in the PrinciMUty, 791 were natives of England, 612 were Irishmen, Sap-ere Scotchmen, 32 were natives of the Colonies, 110 were foreigners, and 47 were persons whose hirthplaces had not been ascertained. These facts speak for themselves. The proportion of criminals to the population in Wales is full 40 per cent, less than in England; and of those criminals who disgrace the Principality, nearly one-half are not natives, while the proportion of the natives to the other inhabitants is at least nine to one. Out of every thousand persons committed in England and Wales for the year 1860, only twenty-five were natives of the Principality, which is one-half less, in proportion to the population, than the average for the whole of England and Wales. We thus see that the people of Wales are, in their morals, as far as criminal statis- tics prove the point, twice as good as the people of England. But, after, all, the great question is, not whether we are better than, other people,, but whether we are what we should be. 18 MISCEILAlfEOTJS PAPEBS, &C. Eather than indulge in a vainglorious boasting of our superi^ •ority to others, let us all unite, heart and hand, to Tripe off all the foul spots which still disgrace the character of the nation. The crowning glory of the working classes of "Wales, and the source of all their other commendable qualities, is their regard for religion. "WTiile I cannot say Ijiat anything like a majority of our working population are decidedly pious, I can safely state that five-sixths of them are frequent attendants at places of religious worship. Swansea, Cardiff, with some smaller towns and villages on the borders of the English counties, may furnish exceptions to this almost universal rule. The population of the iron and coal districts of "Wales, mixed and anglicised as it is, forms a glorious contrast to the cor- responding districts in the counties of "Warwick, Stafford, Lancaster, York, and Durham. In the "Welsh districts, a stranger would see through the smoke and dust large and conspicuous places of worship overtowering the workmen's cottages, and on Sundays he might observe thousands of decently clad people flocking to their respective sanctuaries, while in the English districts the most prominent buildings are the gin palaces ; the spire of a church is to be seen here and there, and a few "Wesleyan and Primitive Methodist chapels are to be found, but generally in obscure comers. These houses of prayer are chiefly attended by the middle class, while the bulk of the working class are to be see'h by the hundreds on a summer Sunday morning, half dressed and unwashed, lounging about the doorsof their cottages reading a Sunday newspaper, or standing ii«|;roups at the corners of ' the streets waiting the hour for th^eer-shops to be opened. I never felt more thankful to God for the prevalence of religion among the working classes of "Wales than I did some four years ago, during a tour through the English iron and coal districts, when I had an opportunity of observing the remarkable contrast between the two districts. The working classes of Wales are, happily, neither the dupes of infidel pedants, like too many in the corresponding classes in England, nor priest-ridden and grossly superstitious like the Irish ; but the bulk of them are respectably well-informed Protestants. Still, it is a matter of deep regret that a considerable number of them — ^probably one-sixth — seldom or never attend any place of religious worship, while a lamentably large proportion of those who are regular attendants and intelligent men are far firom conforming in principle and practice to the &0. 19 rules of that religion -whicli teaoheth us to deny ungodliness^ and worldly lust, and to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present -vrorld. Our working classes, whatever may be their excellencies, are also characterised by some glaring faults, and honesty requires that they shoxild be pointed out. One very prominent fault of our working men is their readiness 'to allow them- selves to be made the dupes of cunning and designing men. Several instances of this have occurred in the counties of Monmouth and Glamorgan within the last thirty-five, years. About the year 1833, a cunning Englishman named Twist/ who pretended to be a most sincere friend of the working classes, visited Merthyr and other places on the HiUs, where he induced thousands of the people to form themselves into a kind of "Workingmen's Union for the professed purposes of defending their rights against the tyranny of the masters, and raise the price of labour by refusing to instruct any workmen from the agricultural districts in mining operations. The designing originator of the Union gained his object by securing to himself large sums of money from his dupes, but his plausible scheme led to nothing better than the horrid nocturnal doings of the Scotch cattle, and a series of ruinous strikes which brought hundreds of families to the very brink of starvation. The chartist movement in the year 1839 origin- ated in a similar manner. A number of mob orators came down from England, who, by their thundering declamation against the oppression and injustice of the aristocracy, and fair promises of a perfect earthly paradise to the working classes as soon as the points of the charter would become the law of the land, soon gathered around their standard hundreds of confident expectants of the best things on earth. But, in the course of a few months , all their high expectations ended in a disgraceful riot, poverty, imprisonment, and death. It is also by desigiiing characters that our working men are invariably led to imite in strikes. The promoters of strikes are not industrious workmen, but dissatisfied idlers, who seldom settle for any length of time under the same employer. They are very fluent and great talkers, pretending to be thoroughly accomplished politicians, and well versed in all ■ the mysteries of trade. By describing in strong terms the injustice and the hardships to which the if oor workman is subjected, the certainty of an advance of wages after a deter- mined stnke, and the glorious good times which would follow, 20 MISCEILANEOTJS PAPEES, &C. they entice a number of silly men to their nets ; the plan is formed, and those who may feel reluctant to join are frightened to acquiescence. The strike commences, families soon begin to be in want, the originators of the evil, having no character to lose, nor any property to tie them to the locality, abscond, leaving their dupes in the lurch. All the unhappy strikes ■which have taken place in Wales from time to time origiuated in this manner. We trust that our working population are, from year to year, becoming wiser, and that babbling idlers and designing characters shall not have as much influence over them in the future as they had in the past. We should not omit to mention another defect which charac- terises the Welsh working classes, viz., a want of refined taste and a commendable aim to execute every work with neatness. The English workman, as a rule, greatly excels the Welshman in this respect. This does not arise from any want of skUl in the Welshman, for there are many Welshmen as skilful and tasty as any Englishman in every branch of work, from the most ordinary farming operation to the most ingenious engineering, achievement, but it is rather to be attributed to a nq£n which has been, and which is still, we fear, too prevalenmhrough- out the nation, that to devote time and labour to the^B'cution of any work with good taste and neatness, is an unfccessary waste. We are accustomed to remark when we see ^ny tool, article of furniture, or building, of a more clumsy con^ruotion or make than usual, "Why, this must be the work of a Welshman." We trust, however, that this wrong notion is gradually losing its hold on the national mind, and that our working classes wiH not in future allow their English brethren to excel them in anything which is praiseworthy. Our working classes are also very backward in general knowledge. In religious knowledge they are incomparably superior to the working classes in England, but in secular education the English are far ahead of the Welsh. In the last report of the Eegistrar General we find that out of every hundred persons married in the Northern counties of England, from 70 to 80 could write their names on the register, while only from 60 to 65 could do it in Wales. Our day schools are increasing in number and efficiency, but not by any means in proportion to the wants of the country and the increase of the population, -v^iich is at the rate of ten thousand a-year. Without qualifying anything I have advanced in favour of the morality of our working classes, still it must be confessed that MISCEIiASEOTJS JPAPEES, ftC. 21 ■vice in its various odious forms prevails to an alarming extent among them, especially the destructive habit of immoderate drinking. This is the root of almost all the ignorance, poverty, irrejigion, and dishonesty in dealing, of which trades- men constantly Complain. Were our working men persuaded to desert the beer-shops, they would be well able to support efficient schools for the education of their children, maintain the aged and the orphan, satisfy the demands of the shop- keepers, and thousands who never enter the door of a church . or chapel, woald be constant attendants on the ordinances of reKgion. TM subject has been urged on the attention of our working men times without number with over-powering eloq[uence, but stUl thousands cUng to their filthy and disgust- ing habits with the obstinacy of madmen. Still we are not to give them up as hopeless. Many have been reclaimed, and ■we may expect greater results from the prevalence of religion and education, the establishment of Provident Societies, and other useful and philanthropic schemes, which tend to improve the taste and elevate the feelings of the multitude. What is to be done to improve the character and ameliorate the condition of our working popy^fetion? This is a most important question. Before attempting to answer it, permit me to observe that neither schemes proposed, aided, or enforced by the legislature, nor all the labours of the ministers of religion, the promoters of education, and our active philanthropists,' wUl be of any avail unless they strive in earnest to reform themselves. But wise and benevolent schemes are useful and necessary as inducements to the mul- titude to aim at self-reformation. Employers, and all other persons of influence, should use every available means, con- sistent with the personal liberty of the working man, to remove out of his way every temptation to imtemperanoe,- and every inducement to carelessness and improvidence. Our wealthiest and most respectable proprietors of works now generally prohibit the opening of beer-shops in the iramediate neighbourhoods of their works, and the- employment of beer- house keepers as agents, but this is not the case everywhere. The managers of many ooUieries , and other- works are also publicans, and the consequences are generally disastrous to the morality of the workmen. Whenever, on the other hand, proprietors and their agents set their faces against drinking, sobriety and morality in general are the inyaiiable con- sequences. 22 laSCELLlITEOTJS PAFMtS, &C. The truck system may be ranked next to the drinking system as most injurious to the comfort and the ^morality of the working man. In former years the keepers of truck-shops used to buy inferior goods, such as no other shopkeeper could have disposed of, and sell them to the workmen at seven or ten per cent, above the market prices. Such flagrant injustice is now, I believe, generally done away with, and good articles may be had at the truck-shops at the same prices as at other shops ; but after all, the truck system, howevter fair it may be carried on, has a direct tendency to foster extovagance and improvidence in the working classes. "Whe^the working man has the bUls of his grocer, draper, tailor, shoemaker, and others, to meet, he endeavours to study economy, but when he has a running account at the "company's shop," where he can get every thing he needs for food and clothing, he becomes careless, and having worked under the same employer for ten or twenty years, if he finds himself .after all penniless or deep in debt, he loses his self-respect, becomes reckless, and closes his miserable career in poverty and disgrace. It would be a very rare occurrence to find a workman, employed where the truck system is in operation, saving money or becoming a house proprietor. The truck system also afiects the interest of the working class most injuriously by depriving them of the advan- tage of associating with the middle class. Eespectable tradesmen do not reside in the neighbourhoods of those iron and coal works where the truck system is enforced. The workmen in such localities are separated from the society of people better educated than themselves, and who would beneficially affect their manners and habits. Employers would do incalculable good to their workmen were they everywhere to exert all their influence to suppress immorality and everything which has a tendency to debase and impoverish them. On the other hand, employers and persons of influence might greatly improve the condition and the moral character of the working classes, by promoting the establishment of provident and building societies, and by urging all, over whom they have influence, to deposit every shilling they could spare in such societies or Savings Banks. In doing so, they would not only benefit their work- men, but themselves as well. There is a "Welsh proverb, "A poor master, woe unto the servant." This proverb reversed would be equally true, "A poor servant, woe unto the master." We would never hear of strikes and riots were the MISCEHAUEOTTS PAPEES, &0. 23 bulk of our working men the proprietors of their own cottages, or depositors in the Savings Banks. Employers of labour have too often entertained the absurd notion that indigent and uneducated workmen are more easily managed than the thrifty and enlightened. "W^ can never expect our working population to be what they should and might be until they are bfetter educated. Education would open wide fields of usefulness and happiness before them, from which they are, in their present uneducated condition, excluded. Of late years we have had a vast deal of talk about educating the working classes, but very little «5omparatively is actually" done to accomplish it. Some attribute the backward state of education in "Wales to the existence of the Welsh language, but that is very doubtful. Those districts where the "Welsh language once prevailed, and is now almost extinct, are the most imperfectly educated. Monmouthshire, as we can prove by statistics, where hardly one-fourth of the population speak "Welsh, is as far behind the six counties of South. "Wales, in point of education, as those counties are behind the best educated EngUsh counties. The principal impediments to the progress of education in "Wales are the religious jealousies and bigotry which are so prevalent throughout the nation. "We are divided into four large parties, exclusive of minor sects. Neither of these parties can educate the nation without the co-operation of the others, and at present we have but a very faint prospect that that desirable co-operation wiU. ever be secured. Is it not a matter of deep regret that religious disputes should be permitted to interfere with and hinder the education of the masses ? No protestant party would object to the reading of the Bible and the inculcation of its morality in a day school. "Why should any one insist for more ? "What are the ministers of religion, religious parents, and our numerous host of Sunday School teachers good for, if the teachers of day schools are expected to indoctrinate young chUdren in aU those nice points of divinity which divide one religious party from another ? May that happy day soon dawn when all parties shall lay aside their narrowmindedness and bigotry, and unite as one man ■ in promoting the mental and moral elevation of the working classes of Wales. 24 MISCElLASBOirS PAPKES, &C. TKE WORKING CLASSES OF WAXES AM) EELIGIOUS DESTITUTIONS. fSe-pHntedfrom the Nonconformist, for December 28, 1866.^ "While it appears that tte bulk of tlie ■working classes of England never attend the means of grace, and that a large proportion of them are avowed infidels, fully ninety per cent, of the cfrresponding classes in Wales regularly attend public worship, except in the large towns and the most Anglicised districts, and even in those localities at least seventy-five per cent, of the Welsh-speaking masses are frequent or constant attendants at one or the other of our places of worship. A century ago our working classes were quite as irreligious as those classes are now in England, and imcomparably more ignorant, but in the present day they are under the influence of religion to a far greater extent than the other classes of the community. As you are now endeavouring in England to solve the problem, how the working classes are to be won to religion, which has long ago been happily solved in Wales, it cannot fail to be interesting to you to know by what means we have attained the object which you wish to compass. Among the means which have proved so successful in the evangelisation of the masses in Wales, effective preaching claims the first place. No nation in Christendom has, within the last two centuries, been blessed with a succession of abler and more efficient preachers than the Welsh, and their preach- ing, from age to age, has been eminently characterised by the following essential qualifications of successful and popular preaching : — 1. Sound doctrine. The total depravity of man by the fall ; • the atoning sacrifice of Christ as the sinner's sole ground of hope ; the necessity of the Holy Spirit's work to change the depraved heart, with a holy conduct as the evidence of that inward work; the eternal condemnation of all the impenitent, and the eternal salvation of every believer, have invariably been the themes upon which aU our successful preachers MISCELLANEOUS PAPEfiS, &0. 25 dwelt; Attempts have occasionally been made by men of talent and. reputed piety, to win certain classes by ignoring or explaining away such doctrines of revealed religion as were deemed most unpalatable to the carnal mind, but every attempt of the kind, however well meant, has always turned out a most glaring failure. The working classes of Wales liave been evangelised by a faithful preaching of the Gospel, the whole Gospel, and nothing but the Gospel. 2. Richness of thought. Several of ifcr great preachers, especially in former ages, might be justly charged with the want of that refinement and delicacy of expression which becomes the Christian pulpit, but not one of them could be charged with . tantalising their crowded congregations with showy wordy nothings under the name of sermons, or with an endless repetition of stereotyped phrases and threadbare ideas. The bulky volumes of Owen, Manton, Charnock, Goodwin, Howe, and other divines of the same stamp, have found their way to the humble cottages of most of our Welsh preachers, and they faithfully embody in their sermons all the rich thoughts with which those valuable works abound. The practice of itinerant preaching which was so general in the Pxincipality in past ages, and is kept up to a great extent even in the present day, has enabled preachers of the most ordinary talents to treat their hearers, on their occasional visits, to sermons loaded with sterling thoughts, which they could not possibly have done had they been obliged to address the same hearers every Sabbath throughout the year. Ex- perience has taught us that the most ignorant and uncultivated hearers, as well as the educated and most refined, will not be attracted by sermons or rehgious addresses devoid of striking ideas and telling illustrations. 3, Perspicuous style. Welsh congregations, as well as congregations in other countries, have too often had to undergo the infliction of listening to abstruse reasoning and metaphy- sicald isquisitions, clothed in terms unintelligible to nine-tenths of the people; but' the ministers who have been imprudent enough to adopt such a" style of preaching, have invariably ,_ in a short tim.e; either preached themselves out of their pulpits, or the people out of their pews. Those preachers whose instrumentality have made Wales what it is religiously, have always been distinguished for the perspecuity of their style. . They have happily succeeded in bringing down the great truths of the Bible to the capacities of the humblest and most ZO irrSCELLAITEOTJS PATJSilB, The success of evangelistic work among the working classes of '\^es is, in a great measure, to be attributed to the fact that the Dissenting churches have always kept clear of the imprudence, or rather the sin, of making any invidious dis- tinction between one class and another in connection with religion. We readily recognise the usual distinction of classes in our daily intercourse and secular transactions, but the moment we cross the threshold of the sanctuary, or meet to hold a religious service anywhere, our social distinctions are entirely forgotten.^ The clergy of the Establishment, in many- parts of the Principality, have emptied their churches by not paying due attention to this point. In several parishes, the most convenient part of the Sabbath is chosen by the rector to preach to the Mite of the parish, while an inconveniently early or late hour is allotted to the common people to hear a- sermon from the curate. Some clergymen also administer the Lord's Supper to the gentry and the lower classes at different hours. Such arrangements have driven away almost every respectable working man from those churches, leaving only mendicants to attend them for the sake of the loaves and fishes. Separate services, free sittings, and a distinct class of teachers for the working classes, would never have succeeded to win them in Wales, and they will never succeed anywhere else. The Welsh churches do not raise their ministers'. MISCELLAJSTEOOT PAPEES, &C. 29 salaries by pew-rents, and therefore ttey can afford to let the sittings at siich a moderate rate, -which every working man who is not a pauper can pay, and working men always had rather pay than occupy a free sitting. Our churches do not consider a lay preacher or a town missionary qualified to stand up as a preacher anywhere if he cannot occasionally deliTer an. acceptable discourse from the pulpit of the minister under whose auspices he exercises his gifts elsewhere^ The men. sent out to teach the working classes, if not deemed worthy to appear as occasional supplies in any pulpit in the locality where they labour, are not likely to do much good to the classes to whom they are sent. THE ALLEGED TJFCHASTITT OF WALES. A PAPEE BEAD AT ONE OP THE SOCIAI. SCIENCE MEETINGS OP THE NATIONAI, EISIEDDPOD HELD AT SWANSEA, IN SEPT., 1863, It is an unquestionable fact, strange and unaccountable as it is, that the condition of Wales and the elements of the Welsh character are but very imperfectly understood by our English neighbours. They seem to be much better acquainted with everything pertaining to the nations of the Continent than they are with the affairs of their Welsl^ fellow subjects. Hence their readiness to beHeve every incredible and ridiculous report respecting us. About seventeen years ago the Grovernment sent down three Commissioners to inquire into the state of Education in Wales. Unhappily these gentlemen found their way into the society of a number of hypochondriac and misanthropic Welshmen, who gave them a most gloomy and unfavourable account of the moral character of the nation. The depositions of these persons, together with the evident predetermination of the Commissioners themselves to make out a case against us, led them to present reports to Parliament containing the foulest defamation of our character as a nation. We are represented as semi-barbarians. Petty thefts, lying, cozening, every species of chicanery, drunkenness, and idleness, are said to 80 jaSCEILANEOTJS FAPEES, &C. prevail amongst ns, and our -women are accused of being almost universally unchaste. The vice of unchastity is stated to be flagrant throughout JS'orth Wales, remain unchecked by. any instruments of civilization, and to have obtained for so long a time as the peculiar vice af the Principality, that its existence has almost ceased to be considered as an evil. These wholesale calumniations, as might have been expect- ed, excited at the time a considerable degree of indignation against our calumniators throughout the nation. Poets, orators, the conductors of our periodical literature, and other talented patriots, came forth as a mighty and well armed host in our defence; but among our able defenders the foremost place is due to our excellent and able countrjrman. Sir Thomas Phillips, and the lamented leuan Gwynedd, who have immor- talised their names by their unanswerable replies to the calumnies of the reports. Yet, able and convincing as these replies are, it does not appear that they have succeeded in removing the false impression left on the English mind by the reports of the Commissioners. The belief still prevails to a great extent in England that the charges of the reports - against us are aU true. It is not my intention in this brief paper to refer to aU the charges preferred against us. I shall only notice the charge of almost universal unchastity. It would be preposterous to deny that the sin of unchastity exists ia "Wales, as weU as in other countries, but the sweep- ing assertion that it is a vice peculiar to the Principality, or even that it is as prevalent in Wales as it is in England, ia utterly unfounde(|. Prostitution — ^the most degrading vice of corrupt humanity — is almost unknown in the Principality, except in a few of the largest seaport towns, and the most populous localities of the manufacturing districts. There are whole counties iu South and North Wales in which hardly a single public prostitute can be found ; and in those towns of the counties of Monmouth and Glamorgan, where this vice chiefly prevails, only a small proportion of the abandoned characters are Welsh girls. The Welsh are decidedly as free as any civilized nation on the face of the earth from unchastity under the disgusting garb of prostitution. Conjugal inidelity is also of comparatively rare occurrence in the Principality. Many large districts of the country might be named in which not one instance of known adultery had been found during a whole generation. The sacreduesa MISCEtLAITEOIJS PAPEES, &C. 81 of the marriage covenant, and the enormity of the sia of adultery, are, Happily, regarded and felt throughout the nation. "Wales, in this respect, can advantageously bear comparison with England. The number of illegitimate children bom in any district is, of itself, by no means a correct test of the chastity or the unchastity of the people, for it is a fact that in proportion to the prevalence of prostitution the number of illegitimate births diminishes. It would, therefore, be unfair and absurd to infer from the fact that the pfer centage of bastards in "Wales is higher than in London and other large English towns, that unchastity is more prevalent in the Principality than in those sinks of uncleanness. In the Twenty-fourth Eeport of the Eegistrar-General (and the former reports give us similar results) we find that the number of children bom out of wedlock in the year 1861 was rather more than six to every hundred births throughout the whole of England and "Wales, while the average for Mon- mouthshire and South "Wales is rather less than six per cent., and that for North "Wales above seven per cent. By compar- ing the agricultural and the manufacturing districts of Wales with En^sh districts of the same 'description, the result ia decidedly in favour of "Wales. The following table shows the proportion of Ulegitimate births to every hundred births in "Wales, and those English counties whose inhabitants most resem'ble those of "Wales in social positions and occupations : — The -vrliole of England and "Wales 6.3 Momnouthsliire , ■ . 6.6 South "Wales 6.2 North "Wales 7.4 Suffolk *. 8.1 Herefordshire 8.6 North Hiding of Yorkshire 9.2 Shropshire 9.8 Kdttinghamshire 9.9 Norfolk '. 10.3 "Westmoreland 10.6 Cumberland 11.2 It wiiyihus appear that unchastity is not a vice peculiar to the PriiMlpality, but that under its various odious forms of prostitution, adultery, , and illegitimacy, it is much more prevalent in England than in "W^les. The Welsh are, beyond question, in point of chasEtyiar superior to the English ; and 82 MISCELItiHEOTTS JAPEES, &C. their tmcliastity, as far as it prevails, wears a much less disgusting form than the same vice in Engl&nd. The illicit intercourse of young people previous to marriage — or vrhere a solemn promise of marriage is made — the almost only form of unchastity in Wales, culpable and sinful as it is, is not for a moment to be compared in enormity with the aggravated crimes of adultery and systematic prostitution, the most prevalent forms of unchastity in English towns. Still, con- sidering that the bulk of the middle and the lower classes" in Wales are either professors of religion or regular attendants at places of religious worship, which is not the case to nearly the same extent with the corresponding classes in England, the degree to which unchastity prevails among us is painful and most disgraceful. In the year 1861 the illegitimate childrea born in the thirteen Welsh counties amounted to the enormous number of 2,795. To these might be added a considerable number of young women who enter the married state in an unbecoming condition. This state of things is certainly most unworthy of a people so highly privileged as the Welsh are. The comparative prevalence of illicit intercourse betweeix the sexes in Wales has been attributed to different causes. One of the Education Commissioners had the audacity to attribute it to a total want of mental cultivation and the means of moral training ! ! If so, how are we to account for the fact that in Scotland — ^the most thoroughly educated portion of the United Kingdom — ^the per centage of illegitimate births is one-third higher than in Wales ? The disgusting revelations of the Divorce Court also prove that members of the most cultivated and highest classes of English society are incomparably more depraved than the most uneducated of the Welsh peasants. Neither should we forget the glaring, fact that a large proportion of the seducers of our poor Welsh girlg belong to the most cultivated class in the community. Do not these facts demonstrate that mental cultivation, however valuable it may be, is not sufficient without something superior with it, to secure moral purity ? Others have referred to the want of convenient and separate bedrooms for the different sexes in the dwellings of the work- ing classes and the small farmers as a special cause of unchastity. It is, to say the least, most indloent for unmarried men and women to sleep in the same room, and must be anything but favourable to the cultivation of modesty and chastity. Happily, this unbecoming custom is being 83 gradually done away with, by the erection of more commodious farmhouses, and better dwellings for the poor. Tet, in spite of the unfavourable and tempting circumstances under which a large number of the "Welsh peasantry are placed, the number of illegitimate births in the counties of Hereford and Salop, where convenient dwellings are provided for the lower classes, is nearly one-third higher than in the Principality. The natural inference to be drawn from this fact is that the inhabitants of "Wales, under all their disadvantages, are more virtuous than their better conditioned neighbours in the adjoining English counties. The first and the real cause of unchastity, as well as of every other sin, is the corruption of human nature, and the want of the fear of God as the governing principle of the heart; but many secondary causes might be named which may differ in different countries. The secondary causes of unchastity in "Wales, and some of which may be peculiar to the Principalityi appear to be : 1. Premature Courtship. — Children at the early age of from thirteen to fifteen often begin courting, and before finishing their education or learning any trade, they talk earnestly of getting married. Should poverty, the opposition of their pa- rents, or other circumstances, prevent their immediate entrance into the married state, they will become a prey to their youth- ful lusts. The consequence will be either a bastard chUd, or a foolish and disgraceful marriage. 2. Courting at improper hours and places. — It is useless to attempt to conceal the disgraceful fact that young people almost universally throughout the agricultural districts of "Wales meet stealthily in the depth of night in bams, haylofts, the kitchens of farmhouses, and even in bedrooms, to court. And this tempting and unbecoming practice is rather en- couraged than chegted by the middle and the lower classes. The general opinion is that decency requires courtship to be carried on with the utmost secrecy untU within a few weeks of the marriage. Should a young couple venture to sit or walk together in the day time, the remark would at once be made, " See how impudent those creatures are." Considering the improper hours and places which our youth are, in a sense, compelled by public opinion to use for purposes of courtship, it is astonishing that the instances of unchastity which come to light are not ten times more numerous than they are. 3. The use of obscene sonffs undimmodest language.-'^Tiheie 34 MISCElLANEQirS PAPEES, &C. is not a language probably in the whole world whose literature is purer than the Welsh. We feel thankful to God that we can state that there is not a single infidel or immoral work of any note in our language ; . still it must be confessed that some of our poets, especially in former ages, have prostituted their talents to compose songs and verses which are not adapted to answer any purposes but to corrupt the minds of those who read and repeat them. It is true that but a few of these impure compositions have ever appeared m print, but there is hardly any district of the country in which obscene songs and stanzas are not often repeated and sung by the most dissolute of the people. The use of immodest language in common conversation is, there is reason to fear, very prevalent among our working classes. If one, of course, but the most abandoned characters are in the habit of cursing and swearing, and blaspheming the name of God; while thousands, who would shudder at the idea of uttering oaths and curses, do not hesitate to use obscene language. God only knows to what extent the minds of our young people are corrupted by the ■immodest conversation of their seniors. 4. The large Juirs which are held in every town and village throughout the country, to which crowds of young men and women resort, have a direct tendency to corrupt their morals. — Farmers' sons and servants in "Wales seldom taste intoxica- ting drinks except at the fairs, three or four times a year. On these occasions some of them use it rather too freely. Detained at the fairs to a late hour by company, amusements, and other temptations, many half intoxicated young men on their return home venture to take such liberties with their female companions as their consciences and sense of propriety would not have permitted them to take at other times. The fairs have proved occassions of disgrace and ruin to thousands of our young people. In order to remedy this evil, parents and masters, whose children or servants may be of marriageable age, should ' ■ungrudgingly grant them convenient and proper time for courting— say three or four hours weekly. They should also insist that their courtship should not be carried on clandestinely, and at improper hours and places. Young people wiU court whether permitted or not, and if convenient time be not granted them for it, they will meet at those hours when all honest men should be in the fond embraces of sleep. Let lieads of families, the ministers of religion, and every friend of MISCEHANEOTTS PAPEES, &C. 35 moral purity, use all their influence to put down the disgrace- ful and dangerous habit of night courting^ and to impress upon the minds of our youth that it is the eye of the adulterer that waiteth for the twilight, whUe every chaste man and woman should not he ashamed to keep company with the future com'- panion of his or her life " in the face of the sun and the eye of light." As long as the erroneous idea clings to the mind of the community, that concealed is more decent than uncon- coneealed courtship, unchastity will continue to trouble and disgrace us, however perfect and efficient the means of our mental cultivation and religious privileges may be. Open courtship, whUe it would, to a considerable extent at least, check the prevalence of unchastity, would also prove an effectual barrier to many premature and unwise marriages, ^e whole country from .Cardiff to Holyhead should be so agitated on this subject by means of the press and public meetings, as to convince every householder of his imperative duty not to tolerate nocturnal courtship on his premises, and to inspire every young man and woman with a deep sense of the disgraoeftd character and baneful effects of the practice. Special efforts should also be made to impress upon the minds of the people a deeper sense of the enormity of the sin of unchastity. %, must be confessed that public opinion in "Wales does not stamp on this vice that infamy which it deserves. The poor seduced women with us, as well as in England, lose caste when they fall ; but the men, their diabolical seducers, almost universally escape the curses of public opinion. It seems quite unaccountable why the community to a man should agree to shun the company of thieves and swindlers, while the miners of our innocent girls are freely admitted to decent society. The burglar who enters a man's house to rob him of his money, is a most venial offender in comparison with the consummate villain who robs his wife, daughter, or sister, of her virtue. It is to be feared that parents take more pains to impress the minds of their children with the importance of honesty, industry, and other virtues, than they do to teach them the importance of chastity. TTnchastity is too generally regarded among us as a weakness rather than a crime of the deepest dye. The pulpit too — the most powerful instrument to affect the Welsh •mind — does not denounce this sin with that power and unsparing severity with which other sins are denounced. The supposed difflculty of treating this subject with such plainness and force as to be effective, and at the 36 MISCELtiSfEOTrS PAPEKS, &C. same time -vritli ttat delicacy wliich becomes the pulpit, probably deters li'ost ministers from attempting to do more than refer to it incidentally. This is not as it should be. "While the sin prevails in the community, no sense of delicacy should deter the ministers of Godfrom lifting up their voices like trumpets to denounce it. If the "Welsh are not. so deeply sunk in this sin as the surrounding nations, still we have no ground for boasting. ""We are verily guilty;" the national character is stained, and nothing less than national repentenoe and reformation can wipe ofi the stain. Let us all — ^parents and children, minis- ters and people, rich and poor, old and young — humble ourselves before God ; unite heart and soul to suppress every national custom that fosters impurity, and use every available means to elevate the moral sentiment of the people, so that that abhorent vice which has from age to age disgraced our religious profession, destroyed the happiness of numberless families, and blighted the prospects of thousands of our sons and daughters for time and eternity, may henceforth be not so much as named among us. EDTJCATION IN "WALES. Mr. Bowstead, Her Majesty's Inspector of Schools, having stated in his report for the years 1854 — 5, that imsectariau Schools were the only kind of Schools adapted for South "Wales, the Bishop of St. David's, in his charge to his Clergy some years after, flatly contradicted liat statement, and asserted that Nonconformists had no objection to National or Church Schools. Mr. Bowstead, by way of self-defence, .addressed a circular to several Nonconformist ministers and laymen in "Wales, asking for their views on .the point at issue between him ' and the Bishop. He received 122 replies, which he printed for private circulation. The foUowing letter is the third in that coUeotion. Beaufort, December 29, 1860. Dear Sir, I have read the remarks of the Bishop of St David's in his last Charge to the Clergy of his diocese, on your report of 1864 — 5 on the condition and prospects of popular education in South "Wales, with a large measure of astonishment. That &0. 37 a person of Dr, ThirlwaE's learning and reputed liberality of sentiment, should become the avowed advocate of a system of education for the ■working classes of his diocese ■which involves all the elements of sectarianism, injustice, oppression, and persecution, is certainly most surprising. His Lordship ■well knows, or ought to know, that full nine-tenths of the popular tion of South Wales are Dissenters, and that of the compar- atively small minority who are Churchmen, the largest pro- portion belong to the upper and middle classes, whose children are not educated at either National or British Schools. Enor- mous sums have already been granted by Government towards the establishment and support of exclusive Church Schools in South Wales, while of the chUdren expected to attend ^hose schools scarcely one-twentieth are the children of Churchmen. Grants to Church Schools in such a population can therefore be viewed in no other light than grants for Church extension. To apply for those grants under such circumstances, appears to me most unfair and underhanded. The educational grants are annually voted by the House of Commons for the specific . purpose of educating the children of the working classes, not for advancing the interest of any church or religious denomi- nation as such. In order, therefore, to secure portions of those grants for the support of Church Schools in most districts of South Vales, the spirit of the regulations by ■which the Committee of Council on Education ^stribute them must be ■violated, if not their letter also. It can hardly be consistent ■with those regulations to aid denominational schools in districts where scarcely a dozen children belonging to such denomi- nations could be found ; but consistent or not, such has been the case in the establishment of most National Schools in South "Wales. The consequence is, that coercion, bribery, and other unfair means are used to force or induce dissenting ptirents to send their children to those schools. As far as I understand the views and feelings of the Dissenters of South Wales, and it would be no presumption to say that I understand them quite as well as his Lordship, you have correctly represented them in the report upon which he animadverts. British Schools are the only schools adapted for Wales. There may be exceptions in some of the largest towns, where both Church and Dissenting Schools might prove efficient, but even there, popular education would, most certainly, be better promoted by well conducted unsectarian schools. If Churchmen have nothing more in 38 MISCELLAIfEOtrS PATEES, &C. view in the establishment of day schools than the elevation of the masses, by furnishing them with the means of education on Christian principles, it is difficult to conceive what objection they can have to join their dissenting neighbours in establishing and supporting British Schools. Dissenters have insuperable objections to National Schools on account of their exclusive and sectarian character, but what objection can be raised by Churchmen against British Schools? Is there a sentence in favour of dissent and against the Established Church in any of the publications of the British and Foreign School Society, or any other books used in these Schools? "Where in "W^d;es are British Schools so managed as to furnish the most rigid Churchman with the least shadow of reason for not supporting them ? The fact is, as long as the grants of the Committee of Council are made to denominational Schools, especially in the rural districts of South "Wales, whether they be church or dissenting schools, it will only be a waste of the public money ; for such schools will never prosper nor secure the confidence of the community. Why should not all parties meet on the broad and unobjectionable platform of the British ■ and Foreign School Society ? And Why should the progress of popular education be retarded by forcing the peculiar dogmas of sects into day schools, while we have the Sunday schools, the pulpits, the press, and numberless other means and opportunities for indoctrinating our people in the pecu- liarities of our different creeds ? If the schoolmaster is expected to do more than furnish his pupils with correct ideas of the fundamental truths of natural and revealed religion, the leading facts of Scripture history, and the pure morality of the New Testament, what is left for the Christian minister to do ? I wonder how his Lordship ventures to contradict your self-evident statement "that dissenting parents hold the Catechism and other formularies of the Church in a sort of abhorence." "What parent, with the least sense of morality, would not abhor a kind of teaching which would lead his child to utter a downright falsehood ? How can the children of Dissenters repeat the Church Catechism without uttering what is not true? The children of the Antipoedo-Baptists are not baptized, and the children of all other dissenting parents have neither godfathers nor godmothers when baptized. But there is a stiU more serious objection to the Church Catechism. As understood by aU the dissenting bodies, and even as explained by the highest authorities in the Church, raSCELIANEOrS PATEBS, &c. 39 it plainly teaches the doctrine of Baptismal Regeneration, and that doctrine, whether true or false, is held by the Dissenters of Wales universally in as much abhorence as the most detestable dogmas of thei Church of Kome. Until his Lordship therefore can disprove these facts, your statement will stand for an undeniable truth and not an " absurd exaggeration." To say that many dissentiag parents send their children to the National Schools proves nothing more than that many working men are compelled to do so by unfair means ; that several poor parents are tempted by the charities placed at the , disposal of the Clergy to betray their principles ; that many having no other school in their neighbouohood to which. they oan send their children, send them to the National School, trusting to the influence of home instruction, the Sunday -schools, and the dissecting ministry, to counteract what they deem erroneous in the religious teaching of the day school; and that the Managers of National Schools in those localities where they have to compete with British Schools generally dispense with everything objectionable to Dissenters. The Dissenters of "Wales cannot help looking upon the present extraordinary zeal of Churchmen to educate the people, with a considerable degree of suspicion, for two reasons : 1. They are scarcely anywhere willing to co-operate with them in the support of schools, ou purely unsectarian principles, in which all parties might have confidence. 2. This zeal of theirs is something of a very modem date. In former ages, Churchmen, with a few honourable exceptions, were mortally opposed to the education of the people. Let the following facts serve as proofs of this statement : of ten editions of the sacred Sraiptures published in the "Welsh language from 1641 to 1690, only one folio edition for the parish churches was published by Churchmen. Thomas Gouge and Stephen Hughes, in the latter part of the seventeenth century, were most barbarous^ persecuted by the Clergy and gentry for their self-denying efforts to establish schools, and disseminate the word of God in the Principality. The apostolic Griffith Jones, Vicar of Llanddowror, in the eighteenth century, had to encounter the most virulent opposition from the Bishops and the generality of the Clergy, in his laudable endeavours to establish "Welsh circulating schools; and even a bishop employed an unprincipled clergyman to defame him in one of the most scurrilous and vulgar pamphlets ever issued by the British press, and that for no other crime than his disinterested 40 raSCEELAlTEOIJS PAPEBS, &C. efforts to educate his benighted countrymen ; for which same offence he was harassed for nearly twenty years in the Ecclesiastical Court. If this account should appear to his Lordship of St., David's as an "absurd exaggeration," he will find it is not so, if he wUl take the trouble of searching the records of his own court from 1730 to 1750. The labours of Mr. Charles, of Bala, and Dr. Edward "Williams, of Oswestry, at a later period of the same century, were not better encour- aged. I merely mention these facts to show that Dissenters have grounds to suspect that the present zeal of Churchmen to promote education does not arise from a simple desire to instruct the people. If, differing from their forefathers, they sincerely aim to elevate the people by promoting popular education, why do they refuse to join their dissenting brethren on neutral grounds, which would be the only way to do the, work efB-ciently ? Government grants to any amount |br the support of National Schools wiU never promote popular education in "Wales, nor even secure the object, which many Churchmen have evidently in view in establishing Church Schools — the crushing of Dissent. If they can ever attain that object, they must attain it, not by means of day schools, bijt by excelling dissenting ministers in piety, ministerial efS.ciency, and •Christian charity. Should they ever secure what they aim at by those means, heaven and earth will rejoice in their success. Expecting that you will triumphantly vindicate yourself and the cause of popular unseotarian education in "Wales against his Lordship's imbecUe attack, I am, &c., Thomas Eees. WELSH LITERATTJEE. A LECIUEE DELIVEEED AT THE EOTAL INSTlTUTIOlir OF SOUTH WALES, SWANSEA, EEBETJAET THE I8IH, 1867. It is not probable that any living language, understood and spoken by less than a million of people, has sufih a vast store of literature as the "Welsh. MISCEIiAlTEOTIS yAPEES, &C. 41 Immense quantities of Welsh MSS. have been transmitted from the middle ages, and are still pi'eserved at the British Museum, and other public and private libraries, consisting of poetry, statutes, national proverbs, triads, histories, legends, and superstitious fables. Those who wish to have a fuU account of these remains of ancient lore, may find it in the Myvyr- ian Archaiology, the publications of the Welsh MSS. Society, and Stephens' Literature of the- Eymry. The fact that such a number of the literary productions of the tenth, and the five following centuries, should have escaped the ravages of time, and the incessant wars ia which the Welsh nation were engaged during those centuries, demonstrates that our fore- fa&ers, considering the almost universal ignorance which characterised their times, were an eminently learned, people, 9,nd not such rude uncultivated barbarians as they have too often been represented by prejudiced historians. At the very dawn of the Protestant Eeformation, in the sixteenth century, the light of a superior kind of Mnowledge to that cultivated in the dark ages, began to shine in Wales, and it has ever since continued to scatter its rays with increasing splendour year after year, until the whole land is now so filled with the means of useful knowledge, that no monoglott Welshman can find any valid excuse for being ignorant. In the year 1717, the Eev. Moses Williams, Vicar of Devynock, Breconshire, published a catalogue of as many printed Welsh books as were then in existence, or as many of them as had come under his notice, with interesting notices of several of their authors, translators, or publishers. That valuable list was incomplete; but the industrious author in his preface promises a supplement or a new edition of his work at some future time. That promise was never I fulfilled, probably owing to the removal of the author to Bridgewater, in England, where he diediin the year 1742. In 1840 a new list, embodying the whole of Williams' list, with numerous additions and a continuation to the close of the eighteenth century, was published in the Gwladgarwr, a Welsh periodical. That list contains the titles of six hundjred and twenty Welsh books, including a few English and Latia works on subjects relating to Wales, printed from the year 1 531 to 1799. Astill more complete catalogue, prepared by the late Kev. William Eowlands, a Wesleyan Methodist minister, appeared in the Traethodydd, another Welsh periodical, in the 42 MISCEIIAHEOTJS PAPEES, &C. years 1852 and 1853. This list contains the names of no lesa than thirteen hundred and fifty books issued by- the Welsh press from 1531 to 1799. FuU as this catalogue was, the careful and painstaking compiler soon found that it was far from being a complete list of all the "Welsh publications issued during that period. He continued to the close of his indus- trious life to find out books not included in his printed- list, and carefuUy copied their titles. His revised and greatly extended catalogue, containing matter enough to fill a large closely printed octavo volume^ was nearly ready for the press when death put a period to his useful and patriotic labours. It is expected that his manuscript will soon be published under the superintendence of a competent editor. The number of books printed in the Welsh language, including repeated editions of the productions of a few papular authors, from the middle of the sixteenth to the close of the eighteenth century, amounts to nearly two thousand distinct works ; but large as this number is, it is very insignificant when compared with the number published since the commencement of the present century. The rapid extension of trade, the increase of the population, and the establishment of Sunday and day schools through the length and breadth of the Principality within the last seventy years, have created an unprecedented demand for books, and the supply has been fully equal to the demand. No attempt has been made to compile a catalogue of all the Welsh publications of the last sixty-six years ; but it would be no exaggeration to say that their number, reckoning every production from the folio family Bible to the penny pamphlet, exceeds eight thousand. The first printed book in the Welsh language was published in 1531. It was a kind of a school book, entitled Primer, and consisted of twenty-one leaves. The author was one ofl the Salesburies— fe name which figures conspicuously in the annals of early Welsh literature, and the printer was Eobert Copeland, a person who had been in the service of William Caxton, the first English printer. In 1535 another book, entitled Saleshtery's Primer, was published, which was pro- bably a second edition of the first Primer. After the lapse of eleven years, a third Welsh book made its appearance in 1546. It bore the high-sounding title, The Bible. It was only a small pamphlettontaining the Welsh alphabet, a calendar, a translation of the ten commandments, the Lord's prayer, and MISCEIXAlfEOTJS PAPEES, &C. 43 the apostles' creed, with some remarks on what was called The seven Yirtues of the Church, probably the seven sacra- ments of the Church of Rome; and something concerning the national ganies of the Welsh. Sir John Price, of Brecon, is the reputed author of this book. In 1547 an English- Welsh Dictionary, compiled by William Salesbury, the cele- brated translator of the New Testament, was published ; and in the following year a second edition of -the same work appeared. In 1550, Salesbury published "A brief and plain introduction, teaching how to pronounce the letters in ,the British Tongue," together with an octavo volume entitled, " Dj/mehweliad allor uchel y Pah," i.e., "The overthrow of the Pope's high altar." The industrious Salesbury again in 1551 published a third edition of his Dictionary, and a tran- slation of the Psalms, the Gospels, and the Epistles, as read in the Churches at the celebration of the communion, and on Sundays and fast days. Erom 1551 to 1565 no additional Welsh book was pub- lished. The death of King Edward, the accession of Queen Mary, the re-establishment of Eoman Catholicism, and the persecutions ,which followed, together with the national com- motions connected with the repeated ecclesiastical and political changes of the times, may partly account for this inactivity of the Welsh press for so many years; but the chief cause evidently was, that adequate encouragement was not rendered to the cultivators of our national literature in the prosecution of their patriotic, but difficult and expensive work. The leading men of those times, in both Church and State, would have preferred seeing the Welsh language die away, rather than do anything to perpetuate it. It was the general impression then in England that the Welsh would never become loyal to the English throne, until they would give up their own language, and adopt that of their conquerors. No impression has been more groundless, as our history for the last three centuries testifies. In 1 565 a translation of the Litany was published. But the year 1567 is the most memorable in the early history of Welsh literature. Three works of national importance were carried through the press in that year — the New Testament^ the Book of Common Prayer, and a Grammar of the Welsh language. William Salesbury, assisted by Bishop Richard Davies, and the Eev. Thomas Huet, was the translator of both the New Testament and the Prayer Book. Dr. Griffith 44 mSOEDLAITEOTJS PAPEES, &C. Eoberts, a Physician, and a Eoman Catholic in religion, ■was the author of the Grammar, and his work was printed at Milan, in Italy. The period from 1567 to 1588 forms another wide gap in the annals of our literature. During these twenty-one years only two smaU works on practical theology, a second edition of the Prayer Book, and an Essay on Ehetoric, by W. Sales- bury, were the- productions of the "Welsh press ; but the publication of a complete edition of the whole Bible in the "Welsh language in 1588, makes ample amends for the bar- renness of the previous twenty-one years. The translator and publisher of this first edition of the Welsh Bible, was Dr. "Wm. Morgan, Vicar of Llanrhaiadr yn Mochnant, and afterwards successively bishop of LlandaiF and St. Asaph. Dr. Morgan's translation has been pronounced by competent judges to be remarkable for its elegance, perspicuity, idiomatic purity, and above all, as a faithful version of the original languages of the sacred Scriptures. This translation, with some unimport- ant alterations by Bishop Parry, has been the basis of all subsequent editions of the "Welsh Bible. The total number of "Welsh books, including different editions of the) same works, published from the year 1531 to the end of the sixteenth century, was twenty-three. These works consisted of the Bible, or portions of it, the Prayer Book, Primers, Dictionaries, Grammars, and works on doc- trinal and practical divinity. If the number of the works was but small, they were aU useful books, and adapted to the wants of the nation. No worthless literary trash is named among them. Of the twenty-three Welsh books and editions published in the sixteenth century, no less than thirteen, probably more, were written or published by the Salesburies, ' ,the originators and principal cultivators of early Welsh liter- ature. These patriotic and learned men were members of a respectable Denbighshire family. William Salesbury, the translator of the New Testament and the Prayer Book, and author of the English- Welsh Dictionary, and several other works, was the second son of Eoulk Salesbury, Esquire, of Plasisaf, Llanrwst. He was bom early in the sixteenth century, and was educated at Oxford. He had studied for the legal profession, but it does not appear that he ever did anything in his profession, having devoted his life to literary pursuits. He was a zealous protestant, and was exposed to imminent dangers during the reign of Queen Mary. William ' UTSCETLAirEOrS FAPEBS, &0. 45 Salesbury \ras one of the most learned men of the age. Henry Perry, the editor of his posthumous -work on Ehetoric, says that he was master of nine languages besides "Welsh and English, viz. : — The Hebrew, Chaldee, Syriac, Arabic, Greek, Latin, French, Italian, and Spanish. The time and place of his death are unknown. Henry Salesbury was bom at DolbeHder, in Denbighshire, in 15pl. He received his University education at Oxford, where he studied for the medical profession, which he after- wards practised at Denbigh, In 1598 he published a Welsh Grammar, and left in manuscript a "Welsh and Latin Diction- ary, which was never published. John Salesbury, Eishop of Sodor and Man, who died in 1573, is mentioned as a promoter of "Welsh literature ; but I have»not been able to find out that he was the author of any "Welsh book. • Thomas Salesbury was a "Welsh poet and critic, who flour- ished from about 1580 to 1620. It appears that he was a London publisher. In 1603 he published Captain Middleton's metrical version of the Psalms. He also was the publisher of IL Salesbury' s Grammar. One John Salesbury was a London printer, who began on the 10th of May, 1644, to issue a "Whig Newspaper entitled. The Flying Post. Dutton, one of his contemporaries, and possibly his political opponent, gives him the strange title of a desperate Hypergergonio Welshman. Sir John Salesbury is also mentioned as a liberal contributor towards the expense of printing "Welsh books. Salesbury is a name which will live in tibe affections of "Welshmen as long as the Scriptures are read in the Welsh language. It would be impracticable within the limits of a lecture to name, much less to describe, one out of every hundred of the issues of the "Welsh press from the beginning of the seven- teenth century to the present time. To give a short account of the general character of our literajture is all I can attempt at present. "We have no standard scientific works in the "Welsh language, and they have never been considered neces- sary, as every "Welshman who wishes to acquire a correct professional knowledge of the arts and sciences, is presumed to be acquainted with the English and other languages. "While our literature supplies common readers with a few manuals and popular essays on almost every conceivable branch of general knowledge, the great bulk of our books are confined to divinity,' history, poetry, and "Welsh philology. 46 MISCELIAB'EOirS PAPEES, &C. Our Grammars and Dictionaries are numerous. Dr. Oweni Pugh's "Welsh-Englist Dictionary is without a rival in the annals of lexicography. The first edition, which was pub- lished in 1793 — 1803, in two quarto volumes, contains above one hundred thousand words, with twelve thousand quotations from standard Welsh authors, ancient and modern. The second edition, published in 1832, in two royal octavo volumes, contains many thousands more words than th§ first* The English- Welsh Dictionaries of the Eev. D. Sylvan Evans, and the Eev. D. Hughes, B.A., also deserve to be respectfully mentioned as lasting monuments of the industry, judgment, and learning of their able compilers. They contain Welsh words for every word in the latest editions of Webster's, and other modem English Dictionaries. Of original poetry we have scores of volumes, and hundreds of pamphlets of different sizes, beetles translations of the principal works of Milton, Gray, and other celebrated English poets. Not being a poet myself, I am not competent ta pronounce a judgment on the merits or demerits of the compositions of our hosts of poets, but it must be apparent to every ordinary reader that a vast deal of souUess rhymes have- been published, under the name of poetry, which no one but their imbecile composers would ever have deemed worthy of any place but the fire ; yet this remark is quite applicable to the poetry of other nations as to that of the Welsh. On the other hand, it is unquestionable that there are such gems to be met vrith, in our poetical literature, which can advan- tageously bear to be compared with the sublimest composition* of the best poets of any nation. Welsh readers are tolerably well-fumished with historical ■works, such as a history of the World; history of Great Britain ; three or four histories of Wales ; three Ecclesiastical histories ; history of religion in Wales ; history of the Mar- tyrs ; histories of the Welsh Baptists, Methodists, and Inde- pendents ; history of the Jews ; and several smaller works on the history of different nations, localities, and events. But of all subjects no one has been so thoroughly discussed and illustrated in the literature of Wales as theology. Books- on every conceivable point of doctrinal, practical, devotional, and controversial theology are accessible to monoglott Welsh readers. There are in the Welsh language nine commentaries- on the whole Bible, exclusive of- several family Bibles^ with practical and devotional notes, for family reading ; nine on the- ' MISCELIAlrEOTrS PAPEES, &0, 47 'Eew Testament separately ; several on particular books of tie Bible, -witli a large number of works on (ftiental customs, Biblical antiquities, natural history, and geography. "We have eight Biblical and theologiced Dictionaries ; seven or eight systems of theology, and works without number on practical and devotional subjects. Our works on controversial eubjects are by far too numerous. Yolumes and hundreds of pamphlets have been published from time to time on the, points at issue between Churchmen and Dissenters ; Trinitarians and "Unitarians ; Psedio Baptists and Anti-psedio Baptists ; Calvin- ists and Arminians ; and upon almost every nice distinction which divides one religious party from another. Some of our controversial works are most ably written ; but our contro- versies have seldom been carried on in a spirit worthy of the professed followers of the Prince of peace. Our periodical literature demands a brief notice. Four attempts were made in the eighteenth century to establish periodacal literature in the "Welsh language, and they all failed for want of support. The Eev. Josiah Eees, of GreUionen, in this county, started a fortnightly magazine, on the 3rd of March, 1770, and the last number appeared on the 16th of September, in the same year. The Eev. Morgan John Eees, of Pontypool, an able Baptist minister, published five numbers of a quarterly magazine in 1793-4, which, like its predecessor, had to be discontinued. A third unsuccessful attempt was made in. 1796, by the Eev. David Davies, Independent minister at Holywell, Flintshire. The Eev. Thomas Charles, *of Bala, was the fourth to make the experiment, and he was somewhat more successful than the others, for his periodical prolonged its existence for more than two years. The Welsh "W"esleyans, the youngest and the weakest religious body then in "Whales, were'the first party that succeeded in establishing a permanent monthly magazine. Their Eurgrawn Wesleyaidd was started in 1809, and has been published regularly every month ever since. The Eev. Joseph Harries, of Swansea, assisted by a few friends, commenced the publication of a weekly news- paper entitled Seren Gomer, January 1, 1814. It came out weekly until September 9, 1816, when, for want of adequate support, it had to be discontinued. January 1, 1818, Mr. Harries commenced publishing his Seren Gomer &gain in the form of a monthly unsectarian magazine,^ and his second attempt proved more successful than the first. That periodical soon became a power in "Wales, and was for nearly twenty years 48 MISCEIIAKEOTTS TAPEES, &0. ' regarded as the national magazine. Every religious body in tie Principality has long sinte established its periodicals. At the present time twenty-nine monthly and quarterly maga- zines in the Welsh language are in circulation. There are also eight -weekly papers, published, and the aggregate circulation of the magazines and papers amount to 120,000. There are several important serials now in course of publi- cation. Seventy numbers of a "Welsh Encyclopedia, to be completed in twelve large volumes, are already issued; a superb Family Bible, with extensive comments, from the press of Eullarton & Co., and a costly edition of a translation of '; Goldsmith's Animated Ifature," published by the same house, are also coming out. To these might be added a Gazetteer, two Biographical Dictionaries, a complete edition of the prose and poetical works of "Williams of Pantycelyn, &o., &c. Some people prophesy the extinction of the "Welsh language in a short time. "Whether that prophecy will be fulfilled or not, one thing is certain, that the "Welsh press l^aa never been so active as it is at present. There are more books published now in one year than there were in ten years l^y -• years ago. The circulation of "Welsh books is necessarily limited, f It is calculated that not above eight hundred and fifty thousand, or two-thirds of the inhabitants of the Principality, understand . the "Welsh language ; and of that number nearly one-half understand the English as weU as the "Welsh, and most of those, f(Jr various reasons, prefer and confine themselves to English literature. "Welsh books and newspapers are chiefly circulated among not above half a million of people, mostly of the poorer classes in the community. Notwithstanding the comparatively small number of our monoglott Welsh popula- tion, they are supplied with enormous quantities of books. The British and Foreign Bible Society has sold seventy thou- sand copies of the Scriptures in Wales and Monmouthshire last year, and that Society since its formation in 1804, has circulated upwards of a million of copies. Large numbers of the Bibles issued by the Society for promoting Christian Knowledge are also annually circulated in Wales, and within the last sixty years above twenty editions of Welsh Family Bibles with'Notes have been issued by Welsh, English, , and Scotch publishers. Where, except in Wales, is to be found a community of half a million of people, consisting of artizans, miners, small farmers, and agricultural labourers, among whom, such numbers of books are circulated ? MISCEEiAHEOXJS PAPBES, &C. 49 "Welsh literature is remarkable for its religious character and high moral tone. The bulk of our books, as I have already noticed, are on religious subjects, and those works which professedly treat secular subjects, are all written in a religious spirit. We have no infidel or irreligious books within the whole compass of our literature, and were it not for the bitterness with which our controversies are too often carried on, the prodiictions of the Welsh press would be everything which the most devout mind could wish them to be. Works of an immoral tendency, with the exception of a few ballads, and the compositions of a small number of disre- putable characters among our poets, chiefly of past ages, have not found their way into our literature. Novels, the disgrace of English literature, and the curse of multitudes of English readers, do not take with Welsh readers. Our hard working men find that Hfe is a spber reality and not a fiction, and they prefer feeding their minds with substantial truths rather than with the empty creations of the brains of novel writers. JThere is one defect connected with Welsh literature which every Welshman should regret and endeavour to supply — ^the want of a national library, containing a copy of every Welsh book ever printed, every work in the English, and other languages, on subjects relating to Wales, and a complete collection of all the Welsh MSS. which are now scattered here and there throughout the country, and inaccessible to those who would wish to consult them for literary purposes. Hundreds of MSS. and old printed books, will in a short time be irrecoverably lost, if not deposited in a carefuUy kept public library. It is astonishing why some zealous and patriotic literary Welshman, should not have moved the whole nation on this important subject long ago. The establishment of a national library, is quite practicable. If three or four gentle- men of influence were to move in the matter, the object might be easily attained. What an honour such an Institution would be to the Welsh nation, and what a boon to antiquarians, literary inquirers, and the public at large? No nation in Europe, except the Welsh, possessing such a store of literary treasures, is destitute of public libraries, where the writings of its learned men are deposited and kept with scrupulous care. How long will our nation, contenting itself with mere empty adulations of its great men in grandiloquent orations at the Eisteddfodau, leave the precious productions of their powerful 50 MISOELLANEOirs PAPEES, &C. and active minds, to rot in damp rooms or. thrown into the fire as waste papers ? Cartloads of valuable manuscripts and old books have been thus destroyed in Wales within the last fifty years. As Swansea has for centuries occupied a very prominent place in the annals of Welsh literature, a short account of what has been done here, from time to time, to promote its cultivation, may not be deemed inappropriate at the close of this lecture. In the seventeenth century the Eev. Stephen Hughes, an eminent Ifonconformist minister, who resided in this town for the last twenty-six years of his life, and whose mortal remains rest in St. John's Churchyard, published upwards of twenty Welsh books. The Eev. David Jones, another learned Nonconformist minister, who resided here for some years, published in 1690 an edition of ten thousand copies of the Welsh Bible. He also published several other Welsh books. The Eev. David Davies, minister of Ebenezer Chapel, who died in 1816, was about completing the publication of a splendid edition of the Bible, with explanatory notes, when called to his reward. Early in the present century, as we have already seen, the Eev. Joseph Harries started here the first Newspaper ever printed in iiie Welsh language, and afterwards for years edited and pub- lished an able and influential monthly Magazine. Mr. Harries, probably, did more than any of his contemporaries to make Welsh literature a power in the community. Neither should we omit to mention the name of one of our living fellow-townsmen, the Eev. Evan Griflths, of High-street. No living Welshman has done more than our respected friend to supply his countrymen with the means of religious and general knowledge. He has accomplished the herciSean task of translating, printing, and publishing, the voluminous Com- mentary of Matthew Henry on the Bible — a task sufiiciently heavy to paralize the energies of any man of ordinary courage and application.* After completing that great work, Mr. * Two unsucoeBsful attempts to accomplisli this task had been made previously to his undertaking it. The first at Dolgelley, North "Wales ; hut after the Pentateuch was carried through the press, the puhlisher failed. After the lapse of about three years it was resumed by a publisher at Swansea (Mr. Harries's successor) ; but, unfortunately, after publishing a few numbers, he also failed. At that time, Mr. G., who had been engaged in translating it, was urged to take the whole charge upon MISCEIiAITEOirS PAPEES, &C. 51 Griffiths' busy pen could not rest. He has since pnh- lished a convenient Welsh-English Dictionay, a collection of Welsh Hjannss and translated Burder's Oriental Customsj Doddridge's B.ise and Progress, Brooks' Mute Christian, James' Church Member's Guide, Finney's Lectures on Revi- vals of Eeligion, Finney's Sermons, and published from twenty to thirty smaller 'works, some of which are translations, but the majority are original compositions, and among them there is an admirable compendium' of the Ecclesiastical history of England and Wales for the last three centuries, in the catechetical form. The name of Evan Griffiths, of Swansea, is destined to live as long as the Welsh language. Since the inhabitants of Swansea have, from age to age, ■taken such a prominent part in the culti'vation of Welsh, literature, would it be too much to expect a few of them again to unite, in one determined effort, to enlarge and improve the library of the Eoyal Institution of South Wales, and make its collection of Welsh books and manuscripts so com- plete, that it may with propriety be denominated The Welsh NATicarAi Libeaet? THE CHURCH ESTABLISHMENT IF WALES IS EELATION TO THE WELSH PEOPLE. A PAPEE EEAD AT THE CONPEBENCB OE THE IIBEEATIOIT SOCIEIT, HELD AT SWAITSEA, SEPIEMBEK 23, 1863. THE ESTABLISHED CHCmCH NEVBE THE CHTTECH OE THE PEOPLE. Ie, by a National Church, we are to understand a religious Establishment which the bulk of a nation would look upon as their sole and authoritative guide in spiritual matters, the Welsh people have not, and never had, a National Church Wmself. It -was -with great reluctance lie did so, kno-wing that the public, by this time, had but little confidence it could ever be completed. Ho-wever, by perseverance and, indefatigable exertion, he had the great happiness of completing it. The fiist parts had to be reprinted. 62 mSCELLAlfEOTrS PAPBES, &C. since the overthro'w of Eoman Catholicism in the reign of Henry YIII. There was no nation in Europe more attached' to the Church of Eome in the beginning qf the sixteenth . century than the Welsh, and the ecclesiastical changes forced upon them by their Sovereigns and their Parliaments in the reigns of Henry VIII., Edward YI., and Elizabeth, _ were nothing more than mere political revolutions: the religious element.had hardly anything to do with them, save only in name. The "Welsh Clergy of that age, among whom there was a small number of earnest Papists, and a still smaller number of half-hearted Protestants, were, as a body, an un- principled class of men, who cared for nothing but their livings. Hence we find them, during that eventful period from 1534 to 1568, turning to and fro from Popery to Protestantism and from Protestantism to Popery without the least apparent scruple of conscience; and those few among them who were Protestants, were not men of such brilliancy of talent, energy of character, and ardent piety, as to deserve to be classed with the least eminent of the English, Scotch, or continental Eeformers of the sixteenth century. The sudden enforcement of a new form of religion upon a Popish nation by Acts of Parliament, when no able and energetic teachers of that religion arose in the nation itself, soon effected what might have been expected — a transition from superstition to irreHgion. In the preamble of an Act of Parliament passed in the fifth year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, we are informed that "her Majesty's most loving and obedient subjects, inhabiting within her Highness' s dominion and Country of Wales, are utterly destitute of God's Holy Word, and do remain in the Hke, or rather more, darkness and ignorance than they were in the time of Papistry." Notwithstanding, however, the spiritual destitution of the people, no edition of the Welsh Bible made its appearance tiU after the lapse of twenty-five years from the date of this Act. The edition then published was a huge folio, intended exclusively for the pulpit of the parish churches. A second folio edition, for the same purpose, was published thirty-two years after the first. It does not appear that any efforts were made during the whole of this period to provide copies of the Word of God for the use of families: and only a few persecuted Puritans attempted to preach it effectively in the churches. ■ Those earnest ministers were expelled from the pulpits of the Establishment in the year 1633, and the following years, for refusing to read the HISOELLAirEOTTS FAFBBS, &C. 63 "Book of Sports." They soon alter began to traverse thfi country as Nonconforming preachers, and, as might be sup- posed, found the people as deeply sunk in igaorauce, and more irreligious, when a nominally Protestant and well-paid hierarchy was set up as their spiritual instructress, than they were a hundred years before. We are often told that the Welsh people have been seduced from the Church by Dissenting teachers. That cannot be true ; for they never were found in the churches. The Nonconformists of the seventeenth, the Methodists of the eighteenth, and the Dissenting teachers of the present century, gathered the masses to their folds, not from the parish churches, but from wakes, taverns, Sunday sports, and other irreligious amusements. The glaring failure of the Established Church to evangelise the nation, during a whole century when she had the country entirely to herself, without a single Nonconforming teacher to attract tl^^eople from her- clergy, naturally leads us to conclude that '^^es in the present day would have been as dark as the most unenlightened districts of Ireland, had not Protestant Nonconformity done for it what the Establishment was either unable or unadapted to accomplish. The laudable efforts of a few clergymen in former ages, and several in the present age, to promote religion and education among the middle and lower classes, have often been adduced as proofs of the utility and adaptation of the Established Church to do good. But does not the fact that she . had been almost utterly useless and inactive during the first century of her existence, and comparatively so during the second, amount to a presumptive proof -that she would have been to this day as useless as ever, had she not been compelled, by the activity of rival Nonconforming sects, to do something to save herself from utter extinction? The Established Church of this country, for aught we know, is as well adapted to answer the purposes of a religious establishment as that of any other country ; but where is there, or has there been, a Protestant State-Chui-ch which has effected any extensive permanent good in any nation, where no Dissenting sect existed to goad her to activity ? eecbkS achvett of the CHtmcH. — ^eise oe nottcostoemiit. As a further proof that the present life and activity of the Church are to be attributed to the existence and influence of Dissent, we may refer to the fact that the parish churches are 54 MIBCEIiANEOrS PAPEES, &C. much better attended in those districts where Dissent is most prevalent, than they are in the localities where Dissent is too feeble to exert any influence on the population. We are not able to multiply instances to illustrate this fact, as those districts in "Wales where Dissent is unpopular are very few. The following instance may be sufficient to establish it. In the district of Ifewcastle Emlyn, where the mass of the people attend Dissenting chapels, we find that ten per cent, of the population were present at the services of the parish churches on the morning of the Census Sunday, March 30th, 1851, while on the same morning, in the district of Ehayader, Eadnorshire, where the Dissenting congregations are few and small, the attendance at the parish churches was less than six per cent, of the population. "We leave this fact to speak for itself. Dissent originated and progressed in the Principality under the most unfavourable aiBadverse circumstances. Its founders in the seventeenth century, and its leading supporters in succeeding ages, have, from time to time, been subjected to untold obloquies, spoliations, incarcerations, and personal abuse. Tet, under the bitterest frowns of the Government, the upper classes, and an ignorant and irreligious populacej generally incited to acts of violence by persecuting elergymeri, they clung to their principles with the firmness of martyrs, and propagated them throughout every nook and corner o^the land with apostolic zeal. Their labours were ultimately crowned with success. The thick darkness which once covered the people gave way before the light of the Gospel of Christ ; the land was filled with commodious houses of prayer, and the means of religious knowledge were made accessible to every individual throughout the whole nation. Early in the present century, when Dissent had gained such strength as to become a felt po,wer in the Principality, the friends of the Establishment began to bestir themselves in order to prevent the ingathering of the whole nation to the fold of l^onconformity. Within the last fifty years some hundreds of churches have been erected, and a large number of Church schools established throughout the country. The Church has certainly gained a vast deal of ground since the commencement of this century j but very little in proportion to the increase of the population, andstiU less in proportion to the growth of Dissent, which, during the same period, has more than quintupled its places of worship, members, iiifluence, and social respectability. MISCEIXAUEOTIS PAPEES, &C. 55 , ECCLESIASTICAl, STATISTICS.* The present ■position of the Clmrch and the Dissenting sects in the Principality, as far as -we have heen able to ascertain it, is as follows. The Church has about 1,150 places of worship, with sittings for 26 per cent, of the population ; but as many of the old parish churches are situated in remote and thinly- populated districts, they are comparatively useless. The accommodation provided by the Church in the large towns and populous manufacturiag districts is less than sufficient for 20 per cent, of the population, and in some localities it is much below that proportion. For instance, in the district of Neath the Establishment has accommodation for no more than 1 3 per cent, of the popidation, and in the district of Merthyr Tydvil, including Aberdare, for no more than 6 per cent. It is impossible to ascertain with perfect accuracy what proportion of those who attend jdaces of worship in "Wales belong to the Establishment. According to the census of religious worship taken on Sunday, March, 30, 1851, we find that the aggregate number of attendants at all the places of worship in the Principality, including Monmouthshire, amount- ed to 968,505, and that out of that number, 174,947, or little more than one-sixth of the whole, attended the service of the Church at one part or other of the day. But from the number of attendants at the service of the Church we should deduct at least 25 per cent, for Dissenting children attending Church schools on week days, together with many of the domestics and dependants of the gentry, who, though professed Dissenters, are compelled to attend the Church occasionally. This was particularly the case on the Census Sunday, when, as is well known, special efforts were made to muster a larger attendance than usual. The proportion of Churchmen to Dissenters throughout the Principality may be put down as one to eight, but in many of the rural and manufacturing districts the preponderance of Dissenters is much greater. The total number of Dissenting places of worship is about 3,000. There may be a dozen less, or as many more. These places furnish accommodation for 60 per cent, of the population. As * These statistics are for the Welsh counties proper only, and are based on Table C of the Census. The statistics usually quoted for "Wales include several parishes in England, which are situated in Welsh Eegistration Districta. Hence the error of the -wiiters -vrho have attached these figures. 66 MISCELIAITEOTIS PAPERS, &C. no more than 58 per cent, of a population can, it is calculated, attend places of worship at the same houi^ the Voluntary- Churches of "Wales have thus supplied the deficiency of the Established Church, by providing ample accommodation, at their own expense, for every man, woman, and chUd, from Cardiff to Holyhead. EEVEHTIES OP IHE ESTA3IJSHBD CmjECH. The almost entire failure of the Established Church to answer th^ professed purpose of her existence in "Wales, is now a universally acknowledged fact, though different parties may not agree respecting the cause or causes of this failure. The opposition of the upper classes is not the cause, as has often been the case in Ireland. There, a large number of the gentry, as well as the populace, are staunch Catholics, and the determined opponents of Protestantism, under every name; but the gentry of "Wales, almost without exception, have, in every age, been the firm and zealous supporters of the Estab- lished Church. If either is this faUure to be attributed to the want of adequate pecuniary support, considering that the expense of living in Wales is at least twenty per cent, less than it is in England, the funds available for the support of the ministry and the various auxiliary institutions of the Church are, and have always been, comparatively enormous. The following statement, derived from various documents, such as the reports of the Ecclesiastical and Charity Com- missions and the Committee of Privy Council on Education, the " Clergy List " and Parliamentary papers, wiU furnish a tolerably correct idea of the sums annually expended on the Establishment in "Wales : — Incomes of the four bishops , £17,100 Deans and canons 10,000 1,060 parochial benefices, aTeraging £220 each 231,000 Charities under the management of the clergy for the support of schools, &o ; 23,931 Annual grants from the Committee of Council on Edu- cation to Church schools, about 10,000 Church rates and voluntaiy contributions in aid of Church-rates, according to parliamentary paper, No.4,1859 24,648 Burial and other fees, value of glebe houses, salaries of the archdeacons; chaplains in the prisons, union workhouses, &o., may be estimated at 21,000 Total £337,679 MISCEUANEOUS PAPEES, &C. 67 If to tbese sums be added the voluntary contributions raised towards the erection of churches, the support of schools, and various other Church institutions, the grand total would not be found much, if any, iinder four hundred thousand pounds a-yeat. SEASONS FOE THE CHTJECh's FAILUEE. The' foregoiog statement, it is presumed, is sufficient to convince every unprejudiced mind that had money the power to make converts to a religious party, the Welsh people would have been long since a nation of devout and zealous Church- men. Different classes of Churchmen assign different reasons for the non-success of the Establishment in Wales. One class asserts that the entire exclusion of native Welshmen from the Episcopate, for the last hundred an fifty years, is the chief cause of the unpopularity of the Church among the Welsh people. The advocates of this opinion have taxed their imagination and their descriptive powers to the utmost in describing days of uncommon prosperity, which the Church enjoyed when the episcopal chairs were filled by Welshmen, but we have not been able to find that the Church was ia any degree more prosperous then than since. The following fact does not speak very highly in favour of Welsh bishops. Dr. William Hughes, Bishop of St. Asaph, was accused, in the year 1587, of misgoverning his diocese, and of tolerating the most disgraceful abuses. When the case was inquired into, it was found that the bishop himself held sixteen rich livings in commendam; that most of the great livings Were ia the possession of persons who lived out of the country ; that one person who held two of the greatest livings in the diocese, boarded in an alehouse, and that only three clergymen in the ■whole diocese resided upon their livings. It is hardly credible that any English prelate ever treated a Welsh diocese worse than this Welshman did. The period from 1640 to 1690 forms a considerable portion of the days of Welsh bishops. In that half century Churchmen published only one edition pf the Word of God in the Welsh language — a large folio of 1,000 copies for the pulpits of the churches ; while, during the same period, the persecuted and plundered Nonconformists pub- lished nine editions, consisting of about 30,000 copies of the whole Bible, and above 40,000 copies of the Ifew Testament separately. From these facts we infer that it matters little whether the bishops be Welshmen or Englishmen. The 58 HISCELLAJTEOirS PAPEES, &C. Establishment has proved equally uselesB to the people of Wales under prelates of both nations. The abuse of patronage, which in every age has been most disgraceful, is giyen as another reason for the low state of the Establishment in "Wales, while the expulsion of the Noteon- formists and the Methodists from its pulpits, in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, is considered by some of the Evan- gelical clergy as the chief cause of it. "We freely admit that these, and other things which might be named, may be con- sidered as secondary causes ; but the grand cause evidently is, the unadaptedness of State Churches to convert people to real and earnest Christianity. PEESENT POSITION or THE ftlTESTION. Ear be it from us to deny that there have been, and that there stUl are, a number of earnest, pious, and able ministers of the Gospel among the Welsh clergy; but the successful labours of such ministers have, almost invariably, proved more beneficial to the interests of Dissent than to those of their own church. For a proof of this assertion we need only refer to the cases of the vicars of Llandovery and Llanddowror in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, whose numerous con- verts, immediately after the deaths of the vicars, joined Dissenting churches. What the celebrated John Berridge, vicar of Everton, says in a letter to the Countess of Hunting- don, may partly account for this : — " But you say," he. remarks, " the Lord is sending many Gospel labourers into the Church. True, with a view, I think, of calling his people out of it. Because when such ministers are removed by death, or transported to another vineyard, I see no fresh Gospel labourer succeed them, which obliges the forsaken flocks to fly to a meeting. And what else can they ? If they have tasted of manna, and hunger for it, they cannot feed on heathen chaff, nor yet on legal crusts, though backed by some starch Pharisee quite up to perfection." However startling the sentiment may be to some people, it is unquestionably true, that whatever tends to enlighten and make people earnestly pious, tends also to weaken and destroy the influence of State Churches, which are upheld by worldly policies and compromises. It is acknowledged by Churchmen generally, that the mass of the Welsh people are estranged from the Establishment. Judge Johns, in his able essay on the causes of Dissent in Wales, says that '^before the rise of Methodism MISCELIAinEOTrS PAPEES, &c. 69 in "Wales the churches were as little attended by the great mass of the people as now, and that indifference to aU religion prevailed as widely then, as Dissent in the present day." In a recent article which appeared in the Record newspaper, we find the following statement: — "It is a lamentable fact, which we record with sorl'ow,. that the great bulk of the "Welsh people are alienated from the Churh of their fathers." Both the Bishop of Bangor and the CbanceUer of the Ex- chequer, at a meeting lately held at Dwygyfylohi, Carnarvon- shire, gave expression to the same sentiment. But it is needless to multiply testimonies to establish a well-known and uniYersally admitted fact. The name by which the Established Church is known in "Wales is " The Church- of England," and as far as the "Welsh people are concerned it is to aU intents and purposes the Church of England. Her bishops, most of her dignitaries, and the incumbents of her richest livings, are Englishmen. The service in many "Welsh parishes is conducted exclusively in the English language ; and in those parishes where both "Welsh and English services are held, the most convenient hour of the day is generally given for the English service. The bulk, of the congregations is made up of English residents in the Principality, and Anglicised Welshmen. The vast majority of the Welsh population look upon the Church as the Church of the English and not theirs. "When the Established Church in "Wales, after an experiment of three hundred years, finds herself not the Church of the nation, but the Church of a very small minority of it, it is high time for her friends to consider whether her union with the State is an ordinance of God or a device of ,man. ' "We, as Dissenters, labour for the separation of the Church from the State, not from the remotest wish to destroy and scatter the Episcopal community — God forbid that we should ever desire such a thing ! — ^but from a conviction forced upon us by the history of our own, as weU as other State Churches, that the connection of any form of religion with the State, is contrary to the genius of Christianity, incompatible- with tmrestricted liberty of conscience, — which is the birth- right of every man — and tends to obstruct rather than to. hasten the conversion of the world. 60 jaSCELLAITEOrS TAPEES, &C. ■WELSH DISSENT. A IiETIEE 10 THE IiOED BISHOP 01" liAHDAIT, WITH HIS LOEDSHIP'S ■ EEPIT. fZepHntedfrmn the Star of Guimt, 8»pt. 5, and Sept. 26, 1857 v/ To tlie EiSHT Eet. The Loed Bishop of Llawbait. Mr Loed Bishop, — As public men are in some respects public property, it is natural to expect that a yigilant public -would watch their movements and criticise their words and actions, and if fairly criticised, in a Christian and gentle- manly spirit, they have no reason to complain. Considering this, I am persuaded that I shall not violate any rule of propriety by offering a few remarks on some sentences uttered by your Lordship on the 18th instant, at the consecration of the district church at Penmain, Monmouth- shire. You are reported in the Star of Gwent as having said " that you believed the system of Dissent was nearly worn out in the Welsh districts ; that you feared that W"elsh Dissent had now heeome too much of a political organization ; and that you had little doubt, if the clergy acted up to the spirit of their commission, that the delusion of Dissent would soon disappear from amongst them." It appears to me very strange that a gentleman of your Lordship's reputed keenness of obsei-vation and general inform- ation, should be so credulous as to believe that Dissent is nearly worn out in the Welsh districts. Permit me to call your Lordship's attention to a few facts which wiU at once show the groundlessness of your belief. Let us take four of the most populous parishes in the "Welsh districts of youi diocese as instances. The parish of Aberystruth has /oMr churches and seventeen Dissenting chapels, and the attendants at one of the chapels greatly outnumber the attendants at the four churches. Is Dissent nearly worn out here ? The parish of Bedwellty has Jive churches and foriy-twa UIBCXU1U7E0US PA7XBS, &C. 61 Dissenting chapels. Supposing the five church congKgation^ to be as large as any five of the forty-two Dissentii^congre- gations, which is all that can be supposed, will it follow Qiat the statistics of this parish famish a proof that Dissent is nearly worn out ? . In the parish of Merthyr Tydvil there are six churches and forty-four Dissenting chapels. Supposing again that the six church congregations are as large as any six of the Dissenting congregations, which I hardly think can be the fact, there are no grounds here also for your LordiShip to believe that Dissent is nearly worn out. In the parish of Aberdare there are six churches and thirty- . four Dissenting chapels, and the proportion of Churchmen to Dissenters is about the same here as in the other three parishes. It is worthy of notice that of the 137 Dissenting chapels in these four parishes, 75 were built within the last twenty years, and that 25 of the others were rebuilt and greatly enlarged within the "same period. The statistics of the other large parishes of the Welsh districts of the diocese, , such as Trevethin, Mynyddislwyn, Eisca, Eglwysilan, Pen- tyrch, Llanwono, Llantrisaht, Llangynwyd, Abetavon, St. Michael's, Neath, &c., wUl not furnish your Lordship with «ny better grounds for your belief. Dissent nea;rly worn out ! Not so, my Lord ; it is ia the bloom and vigour of its youth, and ten times stronger than it was twenty years ago. If, by being nearly worn out, your Lordship means that Dissfflit is in a state oi spiritual declension, I beg leave to oflfer a few remarks, but with caution, as the subject is a most delicate one. Tour Lordship, I presume, wiU agree with me that the spirituality of individuals or communities is to be tested, not. fey certain bodily gestures at public worship, the minute observance of human ceremonies, and the unscrupulous use of any and every means to promote the interest of sects, but by holiness of conduct, heavenly mindedness, amiableness of temper, self-denial, and devotedness to the service of God. It must be confessed, with sorrow, that the spiritual state of the Dissenting churches generally, is far from being what it should be, and what every pious man wishes it to be. Tet no one acquainted with our history will venture to assert that . our spiritual state is not at the present time as encouraging as at any former period since the origin of Dissent, with the exception of those happy seasons of revivals, with which we have been repeatedly blessed in this and fonaer ages. The 62 , MISCELLAIfEOtTS PAPEES, &C. Bpiritu^ty of the Dissenting ministers and their congregations,, if teste^by the forementioned standard, can bear t« be comf pared with advantage with the spirituality of the Established clergy and their congregations; and, therefore, to say that Dissent, in this sense, is nearly worn out, is equivalent to asserting that Christianity itself is nearly worn out. Tour Lordship fears that "Welsh Dissent is now become too much of a political organization. This fear, my lord, I am happy to teE. you, is as groundless as your belief that Dissent is nearly worn out ia the Velsh Districts. There are at least four thousand sermons delivered every Lord's day in the Dis- senting pulpits of the Principality, and nearly as many on week days, and I can safely challenge any man to prove that the least reference to political matters is introduced into one in a thousand of these sermons from one end of the year to the other. Hundreds of the Dissenting ministers, of Wales are surrounded every Sabbath by congregations of eight or ten hundred immortal souls, a large proportion of whom are, we fear, in an unconverted state, and with all our deficiencies, we are not yet so indifferent to the eternal welfare of our feUow- men, as to feel inclined to divert their attention from their dangerous state as lost sinners, by introducing political ques- tions into our sermons, or any of our religions meetings. We- feel, and oh ! that we felt it more intensely, that our mission is to warn sinners to flee from the wrath to come, and ta endeavour to make people zealous, enlightened, and scriptural Christians, not hot-headed politicians. My lord, I aslfert it boldly, and without fear of contradiction, that the Dissenting ministers of Wales, as a body, and their congregations, are not behind any on the bench of bishops, or among the Established clergy and their congregations, in loyalty and sincere devoted- ness to the person of our most excellent and dearly beloved Sovereign, and in cheerful obedience to tbe laws of our country. Tour lordship cannot be ignorant of the fact that to accuse religious people of political designs has ever been, and still is, a common artifice of persecutors, in order to justify their own cruel deeds, and to blacken the character and destroy the influence of their victims. Was not the Saviour of the world himself put to death under the false charge of being a political disturber ? Were not the apostles and the primitive Christ- ians most cruelly butchered by the heathen, under the pretence that they formed political organizatipns to subvert goTemments ? Were not the Waldenses and the Albigenses,. mscELUiiEons papers, &c. 63 from time immemorial, treated with all manner of cruelty as falsely aoffiised political offenders? Were not the dark prisons of England in the seventeenth century crowded by thousands of Puritans and Ifonconformists, "men of whom the world was not worthy," under the groundless and libellous charge of forming political organizations? Are not the Protestants of France, and especially of Italy, at this very day annoyedl', persecuted, and imprisoned under the same false accusation ? And does the Bishop of Llandaff tread in the footsteps of these ancient and, modem slanderers of the people of God ? If a Dissenter had said that the Established Church is loo much of a political organization, he might have justified his statement with the very conclusive reason that twenty-sLs of her chief ministers are ex-officio members of the legislature, and that nearly half the time of our representatives in the Souse of Commons is taken up in discussing and ordering her affairs. " The delusion of Dissent ; " and what does your Lordship mean by this ? Do you mean the doctrines which we believe and preach? We believe and -preach the sufficiency of the Holy Scriptures as a rule of faith and practice in all matters pertaining to religion, to the exclusion of aU human injunc- tions and ceremonies. Is this the delusion of Dissent ? "We believe and preach the total depravation and ruin»of mankind by the fall of the first Adam, and the incarnation, the atoning death, and intercession -of the second Adam, as the only means of their recovery. Is this the delusion of Dissent ? We be- lieve and preach the necessity of Divine influence to convert sinners, and that man is justified by faith without the works of the law. Is this the delusion of Dissent ? We beUev© and preach that true religion is neither pharisaical sanctimoni- ousness nor antinomian licentiousness, but a pious principle evincing itself in a holy life. Is this the delusion of Dissent ? We do not believe nor preach baptismal regeneration. We neither believe nor preach apostolical succession by virtue of. Episcopal ordination. Is this the delusion of Dissent ? We' consider all those who believe and practice the doctrines and pre(*pt8 of the Apostles, and who devote themselves with apostolic zeal to disseminate the truth, and to convert sinners from the error of their way, the true successors of the Apostles,' whether Episcopally ordained or not. Is this the delusion of ^Di^nt ? ^Ke attach no importance whatever to the ceremonies of cdRorating buildings for the living to worship God, and spots 64 jascEfLMmovs vas^srs, &c> of ground for the dead to be buried. "When that celebrated evangelist, Jones of Llangan, was summoned to appear befere one of your Lordship's predecessors — Dr. Watson, to answer to the charge brought against him by two clergymen, of preaching in unoonseorated places, his defence was that he beHeved that the incarnate son of God, the moment he set his foot on our earth, had consecrated every inch of it for preaching his gospel. This is the very belief of all the Dissenters of Wales in the present day. Is this the delusion of Dissent ? If by " the delusion of Dissent " your Lordship means all or ^y of these liings, we glory in our delusion, and mean to live and die in it. A very great change has taken place in the character of the "Welsh clergy within the last thirty years. Tour Lordship and others may possibly be looking upon it as a change for the better, but a large number of good people within as well as without the pale of the Establishment, consider it a change, decidedly for the worse. Amongst the clergy of former ages there were a number of pious men, thoroughly devoted to the, duties of their sacred office, while the others, who were merely men of the world, were generally kind-hearted, philanthropic, and good neighbours. The clergy of the present day, with several honourable exceptions, are exclu- sive, bigotoi, and most bitterly sectarian in their spirit, treating their dissenting brethren, not as feUow-labourers in the service of the same great Master, but as enemies and an- tagonists. My lord, the "deluded" Dissenters of Wales have always been accustomed to consider sectarian exclusiveness and the religion of the Wew Testament, as two very different and diametrically opposed things, and to look upon the pre- valence of the one as anjrthing but an indication of the success of the other. With these views, they cannot but feel truly sorry that a gentleman of your Lordship's age, exalted posi- tion, eminent learning, and vast influence, should have said or done anything to foster such a bad and unchristian spirit in •your clergy. If the lay members of the church were haK as bigoted and exclusive fes some of the clergy are, we could not have fiites for our places of worship, nor a foot of ground to bury our dead, and most probably the cruel treatment of Dissenters in the days of Queen Elizabeth and Charles II. would again be repeated in our days. But, through mercy, the gentry of these pMts, though members of the Church, are gentlemen of^k-' panded views, perfectly free from sectarian exclusiveness,'^Md lUSCELLAlfEOXrs PAPEES, &C' 65 always ■willing to aid and encourage the efforts of Dissenters as well as Chuiclinien, to promote the interests* of religion, education, and morality. Sir Thomas Phillips, on the occasion on which your Lord- ship gave utterance to the objectionable sentiments I am com- menting upon, instead of misrepresenting and rasulting the Dissenters, expressed his wish, in giving the toast, "the Church and the Queen," that the word "church" should be understood in such a wide sense as would evidently include Dissenters as well as Churchmen. This liberality was in every way worthy of that gifted, philanthropic, and liberal gentle- man. It would be well for the clergy to receive some lessons on Christian charity from the lay members of their church. If your Lordship thinks that Dissenters look upon the efforts of Churchmen to do good with a jealous and an envious eye, you will excuse me when I say that you are sadly mistaken. "While we deeply regret to witness the growth of sectarian exclusivenessinthe Church, we cannot envy it. If "deluded," we are not quite so devoid of love to the Saviour and the souls of men, as not to be able to pray for and rejoice in the success of all pious efforts to save sinners, within the Establishment as well as amongst ourselves. If many of us desire to see the Church separated from the State, we do not desire it from any wish for the destruction of the Episcopal Church, nor the least expectation that that would be the result of the separation ; but simply because we consider the connection as unjust and impolitic in its principle, as tending to impede rather than to accelerate the progress of pure rehgion, and as the means of perpetuating an invidious distinction between one section of the Church of Christ and the other. If the tree is known by its fruits, Dissent is not such a bad thing as to justify your Lordship's wish for its speedy annihi- lation. "WTiat has it done in your diocese ? It has erected above six hundred houses of prayer ; it has established about nine hundred or a thousand Sabbath schools to teach the children of the poor gratuitously to read the "Word of God ; it has attracted multitudes from taverns, dances, and sinful amusements : not from the parish churches, for they were not to be found there. It has been the means of making tens of thousands of the colliers, miners, mechanics, and labourers of the mining and- agricftltural districts of the counties of Monmouth and Glamorgan not only decent^ and moral, but eminently pious and weU-informed in the highest of all the K 66 MISCEILAJSEOTS PAPFES, &C. sciences. If Dissent be of God, and its firaits naturally lead us to infer that it is, all efforts to destroy it will merely be labour thrown away. If your Lordsbip desires the speedy extinction of Dissent from a wish to see the Church of Christ more united, the piety of your desire cannot be too highly commended, but its wisdom may be doubted. Tou well know, my lord, that unity and uniformity are not convertible terms. There may be the most rigid uniformity where there is nothing like Christian unity, and there may be the most sincere, evangelical, and heavenly unity, where there is not uniformity. Does not the history of pious people in every age and country prove this? My lord, is it not evident that Churchmen and Dissenters eould be better employed than in slandering, misrepresenting, and quarrelling with one another? Are there not tens of thousands still, after the labours of all parties, of our feUow- men in our large towns and among the teeming population of the mining districts, living and dying in heathen ignorance and sin, at the very thresholds of our churches and chapels ? "Will it not be soon enough for your Lordship to urge your clergy to make an onslaught on "the delusion of Dissent," after they shall have gathered into the fold of Christ the myriads of drunkards. Sabbath breakers, and careless sinners throughout the diocese, who never enter a place of worship ? "Wliy should we not agree to discuss the points on which we differ in a friendly and Christian spirit, and unite our efforts in holy attempts to overthrow the strongholds of sin and Satan ? If I have in the foregoing remarks unfairly commented upon your Lordship's expressions, or made use of any disre- spectful words, I can assure you that I did it unintentionally, because I am directed in the Book of my religion to " render honour to whom honour is due," and the instincts of my nature prompt me to be careful not to say or do anything calculated to wound the feelings of any one unnecessarily. I never expect, my lord, to meet you in this world, but I hope, notwithstanding our present differences, to meet you in heaven, where all the true followers of the Saviour are united in perfect love, and where all their denominational prejudices on earth are eternally forgotten. I am, my Lord Bishop, yours, most respectfully, 1'homas Eees, Beaufort, Monmouthshire, Independent Minister. August 31, 1857. JUSCELLANEOXrS PAPEBS, &c. 67 SiE, — ^Tou -mil oblige me, and possibly serve the cause of truth, and Christian charity, by inserting in the forthcoming number of your paper the following letters, with which I have been favoured by lus Lordship the Bishop of Llandaff : — "At Heading, Septemter 14, 1867. " Sir,'— Your letter to myself, reprinted from ike Stae of Gwent, has been received by' me at this place. Though the circumstance which has brought me hither may perhaps justify me in postponing my acknow- ledgD|ent of it, I feel imwiUing to do so, not merely on account of the subject to which it refers, but also because I am anxious at once, so far as I can, to put myself right, and to thank you for the kind and Christian spirit in which you have been pleased to address me. " My speech at Penmain was entirely unpremeditated. I had no idea that I should be called upon. Whateyer I said, therefore, was strictly speaking, the utterance of the moment. This, of course, would be no excuse for my saying, if I did say, anything untrue, but might possibly account for some expressions not having been weighed as under other cireumstanoes they might have been. I have seen no report of my speech. Any report, if a faithful one, must, I am sure, have contained qualifying sentences, which would go a great way towards removing the impression that I entertained false views of Welsh Bissent, or that I wished to mis- represent it. That I consider the divisions in the body of Christ which exist among us, a very great evil and a powerful instrument, amongst others, in preventing the growth of spiritual religion, I have never denied, and so long as I read my Bible I believe that I never shall.- But I have never been backward in acknowledging that Welsh Dissent originated in a religious spirit, at a time when the Church was not doing its duty, and that if it had not been for ita instrumentality, nnder the peculiar circum- stances of our district, with our immensely increased population ^dthe insufficient endowments of the Church, many persons must have practi- cally remained in a condition of heathenism. This might be admitted, with a full conviction at the same time that there might have been ' a better way.' In the speech upon which you comment I remember distinctly that I expressed a wish that I might not be misunderstood, and said that I fuUy beUeved that there were hundreds and thousands of pious Christians at this day among the Dissenters of Wales. " With regard to the particular passage that you quote from the Star OP GwBNT, I beg to say that I entertain a very strong conviction, amount- ing almost to a certainty that I never used the wards ' the delusion of dissent.' The phrase is one which I am never in the habit of using, and I do not believe that, even imder the circumstance^ above referred to, it would have escaped my Kps. If I said, as reported, that I feared that Welsh Dissent had now become too mitch of a political orgamiaation — ^though I do not believe I did say it — my meaning was incorrectly expressed. _ *' Dissent, as I am of course aware, is a religious and not a political organization. If I expressed my fears that, having been originally organized for the exclusive purpose of promoting religion, it now employed its power very much for political purposes, I must acknowledge that my words only conveyed an opinion which, however unwillingly, I have been led by circumstances to form, and which is certainly very extensively entertained. It is a great satisfaction to me to be informed, by a person 68 MISCELLAUEOUS PAPEES, &C. BO intimately acquainted as yourself with Welsh Dissent, that poKtioal matters occupy so little of its attention. That it may continue 'to -warn sinners to flee from the wrath to come,' and to endeavour to make people ' zealous, enlightened, and scriptural Christians,' and to inculcate those doctrines which you <-}iiTi1r I may possibly mean by 'the delusion of Dissent,' is my best wish on its behalf.' " 'Though I think that religion would prosper more amongst us did we coiistitute one body, than it can so long as there are ' dirisions amongst us,' Dissent will certainly not be spoken of by me in other than respectful terms so long as it confines itself to these matters. Neither do I ^fhink that my brethren the clergy will disagree with me. " As I never see the Star or Gwent, I was not aware, until I received your pamphlet, that you had addressed a letter to me in reference to the meeting at Penmain. It was not, therefore, in my power to take an earlier opportunity of disclaiming or explaining the expressions imputed to me. " I remain, Sir, your obedient servant, "A. LUINDAIT. "P.S. — ^My remarks have been confined to the expressions which you have printed in italics as being, I conclude, in your judgment, the most objectionable. With respect to the first sentence quoted by you as to ' the system of Dissent,' I believe that my observation in whatever words it was conveyed, for that I do not recollect, was not upon the ' system,'' but 'the spirit' of Welsh Dissent, by which I meant the religious spirit from which it took its rise, and this remark was qualified by the statement to which I before referred. " ilev. T. Eees, Independent Minister, Beaufort, Monmouthshire." On the receipt of the foregoing letter I ■wrote to his Lordship to ask his permission to publish it, enclosing the report of his speech at Penmain, together with the letter of yoxu" anonymous correspondent, "AEesident of the Diocese of St. David's." The following is his Lordship's reply : — "At Eeading, September, 17, 1857. " Sm, — I beg to say that I have no objection to my letter to yourself being published. The report of my speech which you have been so good as to send me quite confirms my own impressions. The words ' liere were hundreds and thousands of Dissenters at the present time, but he believed,' fe., are sufficient to prove my veracity as to what I informed you in my last letter that I really did say ; but are not sufficient to give the reader of the paper any idea of the qualification with which I accom- panied my observations as to the present condition of Welsh Dissent. They are enough to prove how unsafe it is to rely upon a newspaper report of words. Whatever be my opinions upon the commission of tiie clergy — a subject upon which I have no need now to enter — I^m perfectly certain that i never said ' who themselves had received the seal of the divine commission,' though I have no doubt that I used the words 'if they acted up to the spirit of their commission.' MISCEILANEorS JAPEES, &C. 69 " The anonymous letter which you have heen so good as to send me will, so far as I am concerned, remain unanswered. " I am, Sir, your obedient servant, "A. Llanbapp. " P.S. — ^If you think fit to print this, it may accompany the former letter. " Rev. T. Eeea, Independent Minister, Beaufort, Men." These explanations will, I am certain, be perfectly satisfactory to all parties, and ■will remove at once the unpleasant impres- sion -which the report of his Lordship's speech has left on the minds of many good people. While as Dissenters we disagree, of course, with his Lordship's views in regard to the Estab- lishment as " a better way " than Dissent, yet we cannot help admiring his most courteous and eminently Christian spirit. May aU his clergy and the ministers of all the Dissenting denominations largely imbibe his conciliatory and amicable temper. • A little more mutual understanding between Church- tnen and Dissenters would remove the cold, suspicious, and unM^dly feeHng which they entertain towards each other, and lead them more to unite th^ir efforts in the promotion of the interests of our common Christianity, |(which they could easily do without compromising their peculiar principles. TTiH Lordship, and all other respectable Churchmen, I trust Willi soon feel perfectiy convinced that Dissenters, as religious bodies, do not and have never been in the habit of meddling with any political questions, excepting those which immediately affect their religious privileges and liberties. As individual members of the Commonwealth, no one can ^object to their using their political rights according to their convictions, Kfce other men, I am happy to be able to inform his Lordship that the flame of that ardent piety in which "Welsh Dissent originated is not yet extinguished amongst us, and if I rightly understand his Lordship's character, he wojild be one of the last to wish that it should be extinguished, untU he could ascertain that it had been re-Mndled with equal or greater strength in his own church. The letters of your anonymous correspondents shall pass unnoticed by me. Christian men should not write a line to which they would be ashamed to append their names. I am, Sir, yours respectfully, Thomas E.ees, Beaufort, Sept. 21, 1857. Independent Minister. 70 MtabEHUTEOtrs fapees, &o. THE COFGEEGATIONAL CHUECHES OF WALES. A PAPEE BEAD AT THE ATTTUlOrAI MEETIK-e OF THE CONGEE- GATIONAL XmiOS OE ENGLAND AND WAIES, HELD AT HALIFAX, OCTOBEE, 1858. CoNGEEGATioNALisM was tie earKest form of Dissent in Wales, and Congregationalism is still the prevailing form. A Con- gregational cturcli was formed at Llanvaoh.es, in Monmonth- shire, as early as the month of November, 1639, and this was the first Dissenting church in the Principality. A second was soon after formed at Mynyddislwyn, in the same county, and a third at Cardifif, in Glamorganshire. H John Penry, the pilgrim martyr, who sacrificed his life through his efforts to promote the evangelization of "Wales, never settled as a minister in his native country ; and there- fore the honour of being the father of Welsh JTonconformity belongs to the Eev. WiUiam Wroth, B.A., minister of the church at Llanvaches. He was bom in Monmouthshire, in the year 1570, was educated at Jesus College, Oxford, and was appointed rector of the parish of Llanvaches in the year 1600, or possibly two or three years earlier. He began to preach the Gospel with great earnestness about the year 1603. His fame soon spread around, and vast numbers of serious people, from six or seven of the adjoining counties of England and Wales, attended his ministry at Llanvaches. In the summer months he was obliged to preach in the churchyard, as the church could not contain only a small proportion of the multitudes who flocked to hear him. During the primacy of Archbishop Abbot, this zealous Puritan, amongst many others, was permitted unmolested to enjoy his benefice as minister of the Established church, but, directly after the elevation of Laud to the see of Canterbury, he was proceeded against, in the Court of High Commission, as "a noted schismatic." His crimes were, preaching the Gospel with Puritan earnestness, and refusing to read the " Book of Sports." Immediately after his ejectment from the Establishment, he formed a Dissenting church, "according to MIBCEIXAirEOTJB PAPEES, &0. 71 the model of the Independents ; " and this afterwards, as an old historian remarks, "was, like Antioch, the mother-church in that Gentile country, being very famous for her o£B.cers, members, order, and gifts." Mr. "Wroth's ministry was blessed to the conversion of many young men, who, during and after his time, became eminent evangelists in Wales, such as William Erbury, "Walter Cradock, Bichard Symonds, Henry Walter, Ambrose Mostyn, Yavasor Powell, and others. Shortly before the civil wars, Mr. Wroth, according to his desire, was removed to a better world. Soon after, the nonconforming ministers of Wales, and most of the male members of their churches, fled into England, to avoid being pressed into the King's army by the Commission of Array, leaving behind them only elderly men, women, and children. These poor and defenceless people were most crueUy treated by the Bang's party, but they stood unswervingly to their principles. When Walter Cradock returned to Wales, in the year 1646, he found that the few persecuted people, whom he had left four years before, had been going diligently from house to house, amidst the ravages of the civil wars, and without the aid of any ordained minister, to proclaim the truths of the Gospel to their benighted countrymen ; and that they had been the means of converting eight hundred souls around the then thinly-inhabited mountains on the borders of the counties of Monmouth and Brecknock. Previous to the civil wars all the Nonconformists of Wales were Congregational Psedobaptists, but during the wars some of the Welsh refugees in England were converted to Anti- paedobaptist views, and these, when they returned to their native counti'y, after the subjugation of the Eoyalists, propa- gated their new views, and succeeded in setting up a second Dissenting denomination; but it does not appear that they were remarkably numerous, nor that they had any men of eminence amongst them until the year 1655, when they were joined by the celebrated Vavasor Powell. Ever since that time the Anti-psedobaptists in Wales have gradually gained strength, and at the present day they are, next to the Congre- gationalists, the largest and most flourishing Dissenting body in South Wales. During the interregnum, the Gospel was preached with remarkable power and glorious effect through the length and breadth of the Principality. Owing to the scarcity of qualified ministers able to preach in the Welsh language, a number of 72 MISCELIJJrEOTTS PAPEES, &C. pious and talented la3Tnen were sent out as itinerant preachers. About twenty of the members of the Congregational churches at Llanvaohes and Mynyddislwyn were employed in this service. ITotwithstanding the sneers and contempt with which prejudiced Church historians treat the names and labours of Walter Cradock, Vavasor Powell, their feUow- labourers and assistants, the effects of their work demonstrate that they did immeasurably more to evangelize "Wales, during this brief period, than all the Episcopal clergy did'during the previous hundred years. When the reading of the "Book of Sports" was enforced by Charles I. in 1633, there were only three clergymen in the whole of Wales who had the courage and the piety to disobey the King's impious command ; those were William Wroth, WiUiam Erbury, and Walter Cradock ; but, when Charles II. enforced the Act of Uniformity in 1662, we find one hundred and sis Welsh ministers ejected from their livings for refusing to acknowledge the King's authority over their consciences. To what are we to attribute this change in the character of the Welsh clergy, in the short period of twenty-nine years, if not to the pious labours of the Welsh evangelists during the time of the Long Parliament and the Protectorate of Cromwell ? The ministers ejected in Wales by the Act of Uniformity, were men of ardent piety, courageous spirits, and unwearied perseverance. They traversed almost every district of the Principality during the persecuting reigns of Charles II. and James II. preaching in forests, caves, barns, farnj-houses, and even in prisons. Their self-denying labours were not in vain in the Lord. Thousands were converted through their ministry, and when the Act of Toleration came into force, several chapels were erected, hundreds of dwelling houses recorded for preaching, and the cause of evangelical religion silently but steadily progressed. Dissent in Wales has generally been represented as fast dying away previous to the rise of Calvinistic Methodism, but this representation is far from being correct. It will be readily conceded that the Dissenting churches in Wales, as weU. as in England, at that time were not so active and energetic as the circumstances of the time required ; but to say that they were feeble, decaying, and dying away, is untrue. Calvinistic Methodism in Wales is as much an offshoot from the existing Dissenting churches as from the Established church. The clerical leaders of the movement were members MISCEILANEOTJS PAPEES, &C. 73 of the Establisiment ; but the first " exhorters," or lay preachers, maiay of whom were equal to the clergy in preach- ing talents, were almost all trained up under Congregational ministers, and were members of Congregational churches. The Dissenting churches of those times, if they had no Sab- bath schools in the modern form, had Bible classes and stated meetings for catechising young people ; and they were par- ticularly careful to instruct their youth in the principles of religion. Such was their care, in this respect, that the Meth- odists represented them as having nothing but intellectual religion, whfle they, on the other hand, represented the Methodists as ignorant enthusiasts, insisting only upon experi- mental religion, to the entire neglect of the intellect. Both parties, it seems, ran somewhat to extremes on these points. The clerical Methodists would never have been able to establish the Calvinistic Methodist Connexion in "Wales, had it not been for the hundreds of well-instructed members of Pissenting churches who joined them at the outset, to form the nucleus of their first societies. It was not in North "Wales, where Dissent was feeble and uninfluetitial, and where the mass of the population remained in Popish ignorance, that Calvinistic Methodism made its first . appearance, but in South "Wales, where the Dissenting Churches were comparatively numerous, strong, and efficient. Howell Harries, the first Methodist preacher in "Wales, was bom, bred, and began his ministry in Breconshire, where, in a population not exceeding 15,000, there were above 3,000 avowed Dissenters, and three large Dissenting churches within two or three miles of the place of his birth. Daniel Rowlands, the first Methodistic clergyman in the Principality, began his ministry in Cardi' ganshire, in the immediate neighbourhood of five Congrega- tional churches, with nearly 1,000 communicants, and presided over by three learned, pious, and efficient ministers. "William "Williams, "the "Welsh "Watts," another clerical Methodist, was brought up in a Congregational church, of which his parents were members, and was educated at the Congrega- tional seminary at Llwynllwyd, in Radnorshire. The Cour gregational churches of "Wales, including a few Presbyterian eongregations, and exclusive of the Anti-psedobaptist churches, in the year inT.Vere sixty-seven in number, with sixty-four jninisters, and 16,000 hearers. Considering that the popula- tion of the Principality at that time was less than one-fifth of its present amount, 16,000 was not by any means a con- 74 MJSCEILANEOirS PAPEKS, &C. temptibly small number. Our churches in 1742 -were eighty- eight in number. I mention theSe facts, not with the least desire to rob Calvinistic Methodism of a single gem rightly belonging to its crown, but to show that the original Dissent- ing churches did more to evaUgeUze the Principality than they are generally represented to have done. The novelty of the Methodist movement, and the encourage- ment given by its. clerical leaders to laymen to excercise their gifts as preachers — a practice blameably discouraged by the Congregational ministers of that age — naturally induced a large number of the most active members of our churches to join the new denomination. The zeal of all the friends of evangelical truth for the peculiar doctrines of grace was also rekindled by the Calvinistic Methodist revival, and haid the effect of driving a few congregations and ministers, who were nominally Presbyterian, and who had previously embraced Arminianism, to Arianism, and ultimately to Fnitarianism. These things for a time retarded the progress of our churches, but in the course of a few years they recovered from the effects of these reverses, and began with renewed strength to gain ground. The number of the "Welsh Congregational churches in 1773 amounted to 101. About the close of the eighteenth century a considerable number of young men entered the ministry. Many of these exhibited a happy combination of the fire of the Methodist and the learning of the Dissenter. Among these worthies the most noted was the late David Davies of Swansea, who was not as a preacher in any respect inferior to George Whitfield, in the estimation of competent judges who frequently heard both. The powerful ministry of this eloquent man and his celebrated contemporaries, aroused the whole country. New interests were formed, and new chapels erected in every direction ; and a wide-spread revival, which commenced in the year 1807, and lasted for two or three years, vastly increased the membership of the churches. Our denomination was very feeble and scarcely known in most parts of North Wales until the beginning of this century^ when through the labours of the learned Dr. George Lewis, the pious John Eoberts of Llanbrynmair, the seraphic "Williams of "Wern, the talented David Morgan of Llanfyllin, and some others, the few old churches planted by the ejected ministers were revived, and several additional congregations ' were gathered ; but as the Calvinistic Methodists had the whole of MrSCEII.A]!rEOTJS PAPEES, &c. 75 the northern part of the Principality almost entirely to them- selves for above fifty years, they are stiU. m||e than double our number there. The number and strength of the churches of our denomipa- tion were more than trebled during the general and most powerful revivals which occurred in the years 1828, 1839, and 1849. In the last of these blessed visitations about ten thousand members were added to them, in parts of four counties of South Wales. The present number of the Welsh Congregational churches, including- eighteen in England, is 740, and of the ministers and. preachers 612. The oommuni- eants are about 75,000 ; and the regular attendants who are not church members, may be estimated at about 130,000.* The Calvinistio Methodists are justly entitled to the honour of having taken the lead in the establishment of Sabbath eehools in the modern form in Wales. They did more in promoting this good work, in the close of the last and the beginning of this century, than all the other denominations united ; but ours, and the other religious bodies, soon copied their good example. At present, aU our churches have their Sabbath schools, and they are as numerously attended and as efficiently conducted as those of any denomination, excepting the Calyinistic Methodists, who hitherto maintain a pre- eminent position as promoters of Sabbath-school instruction: All the members of our churches, both young and old, are expected to attend the Sabbath school, and few, if any, who are esteemed good and active Christians, neglect to do so. We have no paid teachers, and it would be as repugnant to the feelings of our people to pay persons for teaching classes in the Sabbath school, as it would be to pay them for attend- ing the prayer-meeting or the Lord's Supper. There may be cases where paid teachers are essential to the very existence of Sabbath schools, but such cases are not known in Wales, at least within the circles of the Dissenting communities.. There ace some things which I presume are peculiar to our * Our churolies have greatly increased in number and strength since . the above statement was written. Their statistics at the close of the year 1866 were as follows :— chapels, 877 ; churches, 808 ; members, 90,534; hearers, 118,546; total of members and hearers, 209,080; Sunday School scholars, 96,4f0; teachers, 11,960; annual contributions, £59,616; ordained ministers, 449; students and lay preachers, 396; county and borough voters, 9,319. 76 JCCSCEILAlfEOrS PAPEES, &c. ehurclies in the Principality, a notice of which may not he uninteresting ^our English brethren. One of these peculi- arities is our itinerant preaching. Any recognised minister of our denomination could send at any time to the ministers or the deacons of all our churches, from Cardiff to Holyhead, to ask them to announce him to preach ia their pulpits on the days and the hours he might naae, and no one would consider him an intruder by so doing. Of course, as Inde- pendents, we have no law to bind the churches in this matter; but this is the custom, and the universal understanding amongst us. All our popular ministers throughout the Prin- cipality spend, on an average, a month or six weeks every year in visiting the churches as itinerant preachers. We generally go out, like the seventy disciples, "two and two," preachingj especially in rural districts, two or three times every day. Every church has its separate fund, for what we call the occasional ministry, out of which the travelling expenses of the itinerants are paid. Our churches are so far from feeling this custom to be burdensome, that they would consider its entire discontinuance a great calamity. ■ The opinion is generally entertained amongst us that this itinerant preaching is highly beneficial in different ways-^that it improves the preaching talents of the ministers themselves, that it revives and cheers the churches which they visit, and that it keeps both ministers and churches from that cold isolation and estrangedness, which are anything but consistent with the loving and sociable spirit of Christianity. This, like every other good custom, is not without its abuses. Some persons, whose preaching talents, and conversation in the families where they are entertained, are by no means edifying, avail themselves of this liberty to visit the churches, to whom, of course, they are not welcome visitors ; but these characters are not numerous, and our people, rather than forego the privilege^ of hearing popular ministers, quietly tolerate this inconvenience. It The Society meeting is another peculiarity. Every church has a meeting of this kind held once or twice weekly. None but the members of the church and the candidates for mem- bership attend it. These meetings are similar to the Wesleyan classes, with this difference, that the minister always presides, and that all the members, and not a select number, are expected to attend them. The pastor, after delivering a short opening address, invites the deacons and other elderly persons, &c. 77 to state their religious experience, or to give appropriate exhortations to different classes, such as heads of families, the aged, the young, masters, servants, the poor or the afficted. Occasionally, the memhers are addressed personally, in the pre- sence of the whole Society, and encouraged, warned, or direct- ed, according to their different characters. These meetings are considered by all evangelical Dissenting denominations in "Wales as the most important and useM of our religious services. Those churches who practically neglect them are the least spiritual and efficient, and those members of our churches who seldom or never frequent them, are generally the most inactive and worthless professors we have. Such is the high estimation in which we hold the Society meeting, that we would look upon its discontinuance in any church as a certain sign of the decay, and a prelude of the ultimate ruin of that church. "W-e have also our quarterly and annual Associations. A meeting is held every three months, in each county, which continues for two days. The ministers and the delegates of the churches hold a conference for two or three hours on the morning of the first day, when aU subjects connected with the general welfare of the denomination in the county are discussed. The remainder of the first day, and the whole of the second, are devoted to preaching. Two, and sometimes three short sermons are delivered at each service. The chapels are always crowded on such occasions. We have also our annual Associations, nine of which are held every year in the different counties of South and North Wales. These, like the quarterly meetings, are continued for two days. At a conference, on the first morning, all the ministers present are expected to give some account of the spiritual state of their churches, and of their increase or decrease during the past year. Two services for preaching are held the first day, and four on the second. At each service two or three sermons are delivered. AU the services, when the weather permits, are held in the open air. The preachers stand on a platform, erected on a field for the occasion. These meetings, especially in the western counties of South Wales, are attended by immehse numbers of people. We have often witnessed ten, twelve, and even fifteen thousand assembled on such occasions, and we have not unfrequently found that to spea,k so as to make aU in such vast crowds to hear, was not a slight exercise for ttie lungs. Our general opinion is, that these meetings, 78 MISCEILAlTEOTrS PAIEKS, &C. like our itinerant preacHng, are calculated to do much good to both, ministers and people. That these peculiarities of ours have done wonders in the promotion of evangelical religion in 'Wales is unquestion- able; but I am not competent to decide whether similar methods would suit other countries, where the state of society and the habits of the people are different. "Whatever may be the opinions entertained of our plans of furnishing our coun- trymen with the means of religious knowledge, we have the satisfaction to find that our humble efforts, through the Divine blessing, have succeeded in bringing the great mass of the middle and labouring classes throughout the whole Princi- pality under the influence of the Gospel. The number of those who never attend the means of grace, scarcely amounts to ten per cent, of the "Welsh population. "We have, amongst the Congregational ministers of "Wales, some of the most striking instances of ministerial activity and success. I shall specify two or three. "When the Eev. David Eees was ordained at Llanelly, Carmarthenshire, in the year 1828, the only Congregational chapel in the town was small and inelegant ; and the church, consisting only of the labour- ing 'class, had not above 140 members. Mr. Eees has since twice enlarged his chapel, and at present it is one of the most elegant Dissenting chapels in the Principality, containiug 1,000 sittings. This indefatigable minister has also built four additional chapels in and within two miles of the town. Our denomination has now, at Llanelly, five chapels, with 3,500 sittings. The communicEints exceed 1,200. The spacious chapels are crowded by attentive hearers, and four ministers are comfortably supported, where, in 1828, scarcely one could be supported. All this has been accomplished within thirty years, in a town whose population does not exceed 12,000. The Eev. "WUliam Ambrose was ordained at Portmadoc, Carnarvonshire, twenty-two years ago. Both the chapel and congregation were very small at that time. The congregation soon increased, and the chapel was rebuilt and greatly enlarged. That neat edifice has again become too small, and is forthwith to be re-enlarged. Mr. Ambrose has also erected four ad- ditional chapels in different districts of the neighbouifliood, which are well attended. The Eev. John Davies settled atAberaman, Glamorganshire, four years ago. During the first year of his pastorate, the chapel was enlarged to nearly double its former size ; in the • ' MISCEIIAirEOITS PAIEES, &C. 79 second year lie built' a new chapel, in an adjoining populons district, where there is now an increasing self-supporting church, and this year he has formed a third church in another part of the neighbourhood. These are only a few out of many similar instances which might be specified. • "Wales is more indebted, under God, to the activity and disinterestedness of ministers, for the general, spread of religion through the land, than to dl other things combined ; but the fact /should not be concealed, that our denomination has also lost ground in many important districts, through the selfishness and inactivity of ministers. The ministers of our denomination have contributed their full share to the literature of "Wales. They have furnished unabridged translations of Henry on the Bible, and of Guyse, Burkitt, and Barnes on the 'New Testament; two original CcMnmentaries, of considerable value, on the New Testament ; two Biblical Dictionaries, two Theological Dictionaries, a valuable Ecclesiastical History, the only one in the language, with small volumes, single sermons, and pamphlets on different theological and general subjects without number. "We have five denominational Periodicals, with a monthly circulation of 16,000. Some thousands of the "Evangelical Magazine," the " Christian "Witness," and other English Periodicals, are also circulated monthly amongst our people. Two of our ministers are editors of weekly "Welsh newspapers. The "Welsh nation, from time immemorial, have been very proud of their poets. "We have, at the present time, six or seven poets of national fame, and four of these are Congregational ministers. One of our ministers is the author of the only oratorio ever published in "Wales, and several of the members of our churches are known throughout the nation ag masters in the science of sacred music. I am happy to be able to state that we have no such thing as Infidel literature in our language. Ministerial education has received the particular attention of our churches from a very early period in the history of our denomination. The first seminary in Wales was established at BrynUwarch, in Glamorganshire, under the learned Samuel Jones, A.M., sqog after the memorable year 1662. Two or three similar institutions were opened in other parts of the Principality by learned Congregational ministers, before the close of the seventeenth century. The college at Carmarthen was established in the beginning of the eighteenth century, and was jointly support^ &r fifty years by the London 80 MISCEIIAUEOTJS PAPERS, &e. Congregational and Presbyterian Boards. That venerable institution, for some generations, has been under the exclusive control of the Unitarians, but they have liberally allowed the theological chair to' be filled for the last seventy years by Congregational ministers, and the majority of the students from time to time have been Congregationalists. The Inde- pendent College at Brecon, which was established at Aber- gavenny in the year 1753, is most efficiently conducted.* A very useful preparatory institution was also opened at Bala, in Worth "Wales, some years ago. Ours, including a small number of Presbyterian churches, which could scarcely be considered a distinct body, was the only Dissenting denomi- nation in "Wales which had any thing to do with ministerial education in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In the present century, the Anti-psedobaptists and the Calvinistic Methodists have followed our example. "We have been blessed with a succession of tutors equally eminent for learning and piety ; such as Samuel Jones, A.M., Eees, Prytherch, "William Evans, James Owen, Vavasor Griffiths, Evan Davies, Thomas Perrot, David Peter, and Drs. Benjamin Davies, Edward "Williams, George Lewis, Jenkin Lewis, &c. Our people are rapidly improving in their liberality. The incomes of ministers have been greatly advanced of late years, and though still unreasonably low, not averaging above £60 a-year, yet if the churches will improve in their liberality in the ensuing twenty years, at the same rate as they have done in the last twenty, we shall not have much cause to complain. Our people have contributed, during the last twenty years, at least £15,000 annually towards the erection of chapels. Our missionary contributions last year amounted to £2,300, and our collections towards the colleges to above £1,200. These sums may appear small when compared with the number of the churches, but it should be understood that we have no princely merchants, nor a single extensive landed proprietor, amongst us ; that our congregations are made up exclusively of the middle and working classes ; and that we support above 700 distinct interests, in a population nearly 200,000 less than * The Congregational Fund Board, Loudon, after withdra-wing its assistance from the college at Carmarthen, in 1753, annually voted liberal sums to support the Independent College, -which is now at Brecon ; and that Institution derives still ahove a third part of its entire income firom this source. No "Welshman should be ignorant of this fact. MISCEIlANEOirS PAPEES, &0. . 81 that of the "West Eiding of Yorkshire, or the Southern division. of Lancashire. The spiritual state of the churches is at the present time, upon the whole, highly encouraging. We have no powerful revivals, hut all our Societies are peaceful, and most of them on the increase. The Gospel is preached in its purity every- where amongst us. There is not, to my knowledge, one individual amongst our 612 recognised ministers and preachers whose orthodoxy is suspected. This does not arise from our entire ignorance of unsound German, English, and American literature. Many of us have read the productions of most of ■ the leading infidel and rationalistic writers of the age, but we have not yet met with a suflB.cient reason for renouncing those blessed Gtospel doctrines, by the preaching of which the Welsh were raised from the depths of Popish superstition to be one of the most enlightened Protestant nations in Christendom. "Whatever may be our excellencies, we are not without our blemishes and deficiences, and honesty demands that they should be noticed. One of our most glaring defects is our apathy and want of energetic co-operation in the establisment of efficient day schools. We have many good British and Denominational schools in the Principality, but not one-tenth of what is necessary. We are disagreed amongst ourselves on the subject of Government education; and while we are dis- cussing the matter, without establishing a sufficient number of voluntary schools, nor accepting Government aid, the Established Church comes forward, devouring the Grants of Government, by the tens of thousands, for establishing Church -fichools in the mi^st of Dissenting populations. "We have also been very backward in using our political rights properly. Our ministers are often branded by bigoted Churchmen as political firebrands, and our churches as politi- cal clubs ; but the simple fact that aU our representatives are Churchmen^ most of them Conservatives of the old school, while three-fourths of the electors are Dissenters, is a suffi- cient refutation of this base slander. The truth is, we have culpably neglected to assert our political rights, leaving our brethren in England to fight the battles of religious liberty unaided by us. In some cases we have multiplied chapels unnecessarily. "When churches happened to quarrel with their ministers or amongst themselves, additional chapels were erected in thinly populated districts, by which our cause has been weakened 82 MISCELLANEOUS PAPEE8, &C. and disgraced. There may be twenty or thirty cases of this description in South and North "Wales, but nothing of the kind has occurred lately ; and may it never occur again. I have one point more to advert to, and a point of the greatest interest. In many districts of the Principality the state of society is just now passing through an important change, by the rapid increase of the English population, and the consequent prevalence of the English language. Nothing will prevent the utter extinction of our interests in those dis- tricts but the immediate establishment of efficient English preaching. We have been taught by experience that English and "Welsh services in the same chapels will never answer. The necessary brevity of this paper will not permit me to enter into details respecting the places where English preach- ing is most wanted, and the best ways of supplying them. I shall merely take the liberty of suggesting that the most efficient plan which occurs to me would be the appointment of a Special Committee, to be composed of an equal number of English and Welsh brethren, acting under the sanction of the Congregational Union, to take the case of the BngUsh popula- tion of "Wales under consideration. We have no need of a new society for this purpose, as the Home Missionary and the English Congregational Chapel-Building Societies are well adapted to meet the case, if their operations were directed by a Special Committee. I repeat it most emphatically, that something must be done, and done immediately, in this mat- ter, otherwise the interest of our denomination in Wales, and even the cause of evangelical religion, will inevitably suffer. The Welsh churches have been considere*^ from the form- ation of the Congregational Union, as an integral part of it ; but their affairs have not hitherto had that prominence in its proceedings which their importance deserves. We Welshmen have none to blame for this but ourselves. We have always found our EngUsh brethen kind, sociable, and ready to em- brace us, whenever we expressed a desire to associate with them ; but we have kept ourselves too much aloof from their society. May our mutual intercourse and intimacy in future be closer than ever. Beloved English brethren, we may learn many important lessons by associating with you, and you may learn something of us. With aU our defects, 'we have no ground to suspect that you are ashamed to own us. Back- ward as we have been in aiding your laudable efforts to proniote the cause of perfect religious liberty, we have MISCELLANEOUS PAPEES, &C. 83 ftimislied you with a triumpliant argument to confute ttose ■who assert, in and out of Parliament, that the expenses of religious worship cannot be met in rural districts without compulsory rates. Tou can safely direct those gentlemen to 'Vales, where they wUl find the poorest and most rural districts in the kingdom, and challenge them to point out a single nook, comer, dingle, hiU, or vale, from Cardiff to Holyhead, and from St. David's to Eadnor^ where there is not a place of worship suitable to the locality, built and kept in repair without any compulsory rate. If we are not able to support your noble institutions for the evangelization of the nations, with our tens of thousands annually, we are willing to cast our mites into the treasury ; and tens of thousands of our sincere and earnest prayers meet yours daily at the throne of heaven, for the advancement and final tiiumph of the Eedeemer's kingdom throughout the world. TKE COJTGEEGATIOlSrAL CHUECHES AND THE ENGLISH POPULATION OF WALES. A PAPEB T?Ti!AT> BEFOEB THE CONGEEQATIOlirAL ITNIOS' AT BEISIOL, OCIOBEB THE 24lH, 1865. NoNCONEOEMiTT in Vales, and in the city of Bristol, rose about the same time, and partly through the instrumentality of the same ministers. The apostolic "William Wroth, of Llanvaches, near Chepstow, the first Nonconformist minister in Wales, and his younger fellow-labourers, if not the actual founders of Nonconformity in Bristol, were, to say the least, its principal nursing fathers in its very infancy. The writer of "The Broadmead Eecords," referring to the period from the year 1600 to 1640 says, "There were raised up divers holy and powerful ministers and preachers, in and about that time, in this nation; whereof in these parts was one Mr, Wroth, in Monmouthshire, not far from this city of Bristol, who for the powerfulness and efficaciousness of his preaching, with the exemplary holiness of his life, was called the Apostle of Wales ; for the Papists, and all sorts almost, honoured him 84 MISCEILASEOirs PAPERS, &C. for a holy man. By his ministry it pleased the Lord to eon- vert many, so that they left their sinful courses in. the world ; after which he caused them to separate from the worship of the world, and gathered them into the Gospel order of Church- government, which light of theirs hegan to shine very much in this part of the land." Again, referring to the death of Mr. Teamans, a Puritan Minister of Bristol, the same writer says, "The goodj)eople were at a great loss, and, like sheep without a shepherd, were scattered, and knew not where to hear. But sometimes Mr. Wroth, before mentioned, would come over, who lodged, when in Bristol, at the house of WiUiam Listtm ; and sometimes others of the reforming minis- ters of South Wales, as Mr. Symonds, Mr. Cradoek, Mr. Henry Walter, Mr. Mostyn, and others, would come. But when they came to town, the professors would run after them, as hungry souls for food ; and sometimes some of the profes- sors of Bristol would go over to Wales, to hear Mr. Wroth and the good ministers there, so lively were they in those times, so that the Lord by one and by another built, and increased them still. Reformation in separation went on." The month of November in the year 1639, is memorable in the annaJs of Welsh Nonconformity, as the time when Mr. Wroth, then ejected from Ihis living as Vicar of Llanvachos, formed a large number of persons, converted under his ministry, into a Congregational church, which was the first Nonconforming church in the Principality. Prom that time to the present, Nonconformity in Wales has had to pass through many a fiery ordeal and various changes, some of which were favourable and some otherwise. Tet,' in spite of all adverse circumstances, the oppositions of its enemies, and some glaring mistakes of its friends, it has from age to age so steadily gained ground as to become long since emphatically the national form of religion. In reviewing the history of the Congregational body in the Principality from the formation of Mr. Wroth's church in 1639 to the present time, we are inevitably led to the con- clusion, that want of zeal, a keen discernment of the signs of the times, and readiness to adopt measures suited to the ever- changing state of things, on the part of its leading ministers and laymen, have proved beyond comparison more disastrous to its interests, from time to time, than the most violent opposition of ,its bitterest enemies. Soon after the Noncon- formists obtained liberty of worship under the Act of Toler- KtSCELIAITBO-O-S PAPEES, &C. 85 ation, our forefathers directed their attention almost exclu- sively to ministerial education, neglecting the stUl more urgent ■work of evangelizing the ignorant and perishing masses around them. Zeal for a learned ministry became quite a mania with them at that time. "We find in some old chapel trust-deeds a provision that none but regularly trained men would be eligible for the pastorate. Piety, activity, eloquence, and respectable natural talent, were regarded as almost worthless, in the absence of a regular training at a theological academy. This extrava- gant zeal for what was good and desirable in its proper place produced the most disastrous effects. It made the churches proud, apathetic, and non-aggressive, and the ministers cold, formal, and mose anxious to maintain their professional *re- spectabiUty than to save souls. In many cases the minister, in order to please one or two genteel families who might be members of his congregation, would conduct the service in the English language, while the bulk of the people understood only the "Welsh language. Such was the general state of things in the Congregational churches of "Wales from the year 1690 to 1735 ; and, had it not been for the self-denying labours of « few zealous ministers, who were regarded by their formal brethren as irregular enthusiasts, and the timely out- break of the great Methodist revival, our body in the Princi- pality, after nobly surviving the persecuting reigns of the Stuarts, would have been ridden to death by a cold formality and a lifeless learned ministry. At the later periods of the eighteenth century, when new measures were introduced for the advancement of religion, such as lay and itinerant preach- ing, Sabbath-schools, societies, or experience meetings, annual associations, quarterly and monthly meetings of ministers, &o., many of the leading men in the Congregational body either opposed them, or adopted them with such reluctance and slowness, as gave to other denominations opportunities to occupy the ground which they might and ought to have pos- sessed, as the oldest and strongest Dissenting body in the country. Let these mistakes of our forefathers be a warning to us, their descendants. "We have not had much cause to complain of denominational apathy and inactivity since the beginning of the present century. The Congregationalists of Wales have worked well during the last sixty years. They have not allowed themselves to be behind any other religious body for zeal, activity, and promptitude to adapt their modes of action to the requirements of flie times. 86 MISCELIANEOTTS PAPEES, &C. Dissent has now become so prevalent in Wales that no denomination has much more new ground to gain, as far as the Welsh population is concerned, unless we should con- descend as religious parties to imitate the Pharisees of old, by going to compass sea and land to make proselyt«s from one another; for every town, village, and hamlet has places of worship connected with one or other of the leading denomi- nations. Ifo Welsh-speaking inhabitant of the Principality can excuse his ignorance of religion under the plea that the means of grace are not within his reach. Yet, far be it from us to dream that our work is done when we have thus fiUed the whole land with Welsh chapelsj Wdsh ministers, and Sabbath-schools, and that we have nothing more to do but to rest and be thankful. We have still an important, difficult, and expensive work to accomplish, and the accomplishment of which will require nearly as much earnestness, perseverance, self-denial, and energy as our fore- fathers had to exercise in performing the arduous duties of their times. That great work is to provide an efficient Eng- lish ministry, attractive places of worship, schools and other means of religious instruction throughout aU. those districts where the English language prevails. Such is the momentous importance of this work that, unless it be carried on with vigour, earnestness, and promptitude. Congregational Dissent in the most populous, wealthy, and cultivated parts of the country wUl, in less than thirty years, either die out or be- come so feeble and obscure, as not to be felt and seen as a power for good in the community. The country is in a state of transition. Englishmen, English capital and enterprise, English customs, and, unhappily, English vices, with very little English virtue and religion, are rushing in upon us, like mighty irresistible torrents, carrying away before them our ancient language, social habits, and even our religious customs and influence over the masses. Our seaport and manufacturing towns have more than doubled their popula- tions within the last twenty years. Quiet localities and secluded valleys where, ten years ago, nothing was to be heard from sunrise to sunset, but the bleating of sheep, -the barking of the shepherd's dog, the song of a ploughman here and there, or the melodious notes of the girls singing their morning and evening hymns while milking the cows, have now their quiet disturbed day and night by the ceaseless noise of machineries, coal trains, and thousands of mechanics and JHSCELIANEOTTS PAIEBS, &C. 87 labourers toiling for their daily bread. The exhaustless mineral 'and other resources of our mountains tod valleys are as yet only beginning to be developed. The increase of our ^ade, -wealth, and population -within the next twenty years, ■will, beyond question, far exceed the expectations of the most sanguine. Capitalists, railway companies, merchants, and tradesmen ■understand the signs of the times, are busily making their calculations, and coijtri-ving ho-^ they may secure to them- selves a good share of the immense -wealth of the country. Would God that -we as a religious body -were as wise in our generation as the children of this -world! A fe-w of our ministers and laymen, have, for years, felt the need of earnest and combined action for the establishment of English congre- gations in Wales. Mr. Thomas Thompson, now of Bath, met the Welsh ministers of Monmouthshire, at Beaufort, in the year 1853, -where a conference on the subject -was held, at ■which Mr. Thompson generously proposed to give £150 a year for two or three years to assist the infant English interests at Brynmawr, Ebbw-vale, and Beaufort. Conferences were afterwards repeatedly held at Merthyr, Swansea, Cardiflf, and Newport ; at some of -which Mr. Samuel Morley, Mr. Charles Jtipe, Mr. John Crossley, Mr. H, 0. WiUs, and our deeply lamented friend Mr. W. D. Wills, honoured us -with their presence, and encouraged us -with their most liberal contribu- tions. At a Conference held at Cardiff, about five years ago, a society was formed to po-operate with the Home Missionary and the English Chapel-building Societies, in the support of an English ministry and the erection of Chapels in South Wales and Monmouthshire. That Society, with an annual incomp of less than £300, has already done wonders, but not one-tenth of what it would have done had it been adequately supported. Fourteen newly-formed or weak churches have been more or less assisted by it within the last four years. Only a very small number of the Welsh ministers and churches, have as yet entered into this movenient with that hearty earnestness which its inipo'rtanoe deserves and demands, but the few who have joined it have acted their part well. It requires not a small amount of the grace of self-denial for a , minister to persuade a dozen or twenty of the most intelligent, respectable, and wealthy members of his church to separate and form the nucleus of an English cause in the neighbour- hoodi and afterwards to urge his people to contribute annually 88 MTSCELIAUEOirS PAPEES, &0. to raise the salary of tte English minister to £80 or £90 a year, while his own may be ten or twenty pounds under that sum. Nor are the sacriflces which the people make in follow- ing their minister's advice less commendable. In becoming the founders of a new interest, they more than treble the expense of their worship, while to a Welshman, accustomed from his infancy to hear the Gospel in his own euphonious, strong, and expressive language, to sit under an English ministry is anything but agreeable. I have not stated an . imaginary case, but what has repeatedly taken place in Wales of late years. The Rev. "William WiUiams, of Hirwaen, and his good people, have furnished us with an instance of such disinterestedness as late as last year. We are confident that the earnestness of the friends of this movement, together with repeated appeals to the consciences of those Welsh brethren, who have hitherto stood merely as idle spectators, will ere long draw them out to take part with us in the great work of the age. The interests aided or originated by our Society are all, with two or three exceptions, in vUlages and the populous vicinities of the iron and coal works, where none but the working classes are to be expected to make up the congrega- tions. The want of funds has hitherto deterred us from attempting to do anything in the large towns ; but unless we can establish ourselves in those centres of wealth and influ- ence, our means and power to do good to the working classes of the villages and manufacturing districts, will soon be at an end. If Congregationalism in Wales is to have its fair share of the wealth, the intelligence, and the social respectability of the community, we must forthwith secure for ourselves pro- minent positions in the large towns, which is the case but very partially at present. Swansea and its suburbs, with nearly 60,000 inhabitants, two-thirds of whom speak the English language, have only one English congregation, while we have nine Welsh congregations for the remaining one-third of the population. Cardiff, with a population of more than 40,000, has only one respectable English Church, when it ought to have three or four. £8,000 should at once be laid out in chapel-building in these towns, — a large sum, certainly, but it would be profitably invested ; for most probably it would be repaid with interest in fifteen or twenty years, in the assistance which the congregations there woidd render to establish religious interests elsewhere. &c. 89 We appeal to you, English friends, for help to carry on our great work. You can help us ; you ought to help us, and we are confident that you wiU help us when our case is fully and fairly laid before you. There are several ways in which you can render us assistance. "We need your pecuniary assistance. Besides the sums which we require for chapel-building, our Society, before it will be in efficient working order, must have an annual income of £1,000. It is certain that the "Welsh churches will soon be awakened to such a sense of their duty as to raise £500 a year of that sum. WiU you meet us with the other £500 ? If fifty of your wealthiest churches wiU not subscribe ten pounds each, are there not as many generous ladies and gentlemen throughout England that wiU respond to our appeal ? Ton may also very materially help us by using all your influence as ministers and deacons, with such members of your churches as may be lead by their professions or occupations to settle in Wales, to persuade them to be faithful to their prin^ oiples as Ifonconformists. Ifumbers of educated persons of the middle class come, year after year, from England to occupy positions of respectability and influence in the Princi- pality. We find that many of these gentlemen were members of Congregational churches in England, but on their arrival in Wales, they, almost without exception, renounce their Non- conformity. After reaching the places of their destination, for a few Sabbaths they wiU go about and visit the Indepen- dent, the Baptist, and the Wesleyan chapels; but, finding neither chapels, ministers, nor congregations, up to their mark in point of respectability, they make their home at the parish church, where the presence of a few country squires, lawyers, and surgeons, wiU feed their pride. Would' that you supplied us with men of better principles ! We want men of a differ- ent stamp, — ^men of decided piety and untiring activity, who wiU not hesitate to use the influence of their position in society, to raise smaU and obscure churches into prominence, strength, and efficiency; men who would consider it an honour rather than a degradation to attend a prayer-meeting with a handful of working men, or to teach a class of poor children at a Sabbath-school; men who wiU stand to their principles as Nonconformists with the firmness of martyrs. Send us a few scores of such men, and then you shall not be annoyed any more with applications for money from us. We look chiefly to the laymen for pecuniary help, but we so inscELi,ANEoxrs papehs, &c. look to you, Tninisters, for the spiritual help which we greatly need, and which you could render us with advantage to your- selves as well as to us. Fifty and sixty years ago, when, three-fourths of the "Welsh people were lying in ignorance and irreligion, David Davies, of Swansea ; Christmas Evans ; John Elias; William Williams, of Wern; Ebenezer Morris, and other ministers of national fame, were accustomed to make frequent preaching excursions through the length and breadth of the Principality. These visits of the great preacher^ aroused the whole country. The spirits of the ministers were fired, the churches were revived, and multitudes who, never attended a place of worship were attracted by the fame of the preachers to go and hear them, and were so affected that they afterwards became regular heeirers and church members. Th^ universal prevalence of Dissent in Wales is principally to be ascribed, under God, to the repeated excitements and the religioiis interest awakened by the itinerant preaching of our great preachers. Wliy should not a plan which has worked so well with the Welsh in Wales, be not tried again with the English there ? English brethren, we urgently and affectionately ask you to make the experiment. If ten or twelve of the very best preachers among you, were to come down to Wales every Summer, and go two and two through different districts, preaching twice a day for a month or five weeks, you would create a most salutary stirring up of religious emotion among the English population, and the day of judgment only would reveal what amount of good you might be the means of doing. Such work would be a very agreeable exercise for you, during your holidays. We Welsh ministers do it every year, with great advantage to both our bodily and mental health. Tour visits would cheer the hearts of the ministers of our infant Jlnglish churches, would greatly encourage those Welshmen who, amidst many discouragements, labour to promote English preaching ; and might possibly be the means of restoring some of those Englishmen in Wales, who have deserted the ranks of Nonconformity. We commend these suggestions, dear brethren, to your prayerful consideration. Tou sharp-sighted and enterprising Saxons, have found out that our barren mountains contain exhaustless treasures of slate, coal, iron, lead, copper, sUver, and gold, and in your preparations to get at them, you are throwing our hithertQ quiet Wales into a state of commotion, transition, and. even MISCELXAlfEOIJS PAPEES, &C. 91' social and religious revolution. We do not begrudge you the tidden treasures of our soil. Take away and welcome, every slate, every lump of coal, every pound of iron, lead, and copper, every ounce of silver, and every grain of gold, wMch our rocks contain, and while they are being worked out, we wiU endeavour to get our fair share of the rich spoil ; but we conjure you not to take away our free religious institutions, by the introduction of your language and customs into our community, but rather to help us to rescue them from des- , traction in the transition through which the country begins to pass. If the day is to come — may it be very distant, when the "Welsh language shall be no more spoken in the vaUeys and on the hills of Wales ! May that dark day never be seen when evangeHoal E"onoonformity shall cease to be the religion of the majority of its people ! However repugnant to our feelings as Welshmen, would be the annihilation of our language and national customs, and however painful to us all, both Welsh and English, the probability that our Congregationalism shall be weakened, if not destroyed, in the present commotion of society, yet the suposition that a country more thoroughly brought under the influence of evangelical religion than any other country under the sun, may, in passing through a critical change, be convert- ed into a very nest of corruption and irreligion, is incalculably more unbearable. Far be it from us to imagine that English- men, Scotchmen, and Irishmen are naturally worse than Welshmen. We are all of us the children of Adam, and toa closely bear his corrupt image ; but it is a well-known fact that only those districts of the Principality where large num- bers of the natives of England and Ireland reside, are notorious for crime and immorality. That fact is easily accounted for. When numbers of people from different parts meet in a coun- try whose languf ge they do not understand, separated from their friends and acquaintances, and the. salutary restraints of home, and without any strong religious influence to bear upon them, what can be expected but that they should become cor- rupt, and the corrupters of all who associate with them ? In the year 1860, when the natives of England and Ireland then residing in Wales, could not have been above one-eighth of the population, according to the criminal statistics for that year, they made up 1,651 of our criminals, or nearly one half of the whole .number committed throughout the twelve counties. The following facts may serve to Ulustrale the striking 92 MISCEIXAHEOTTS PAPERS, &C. difference in point of morality between the Anglicised and the purely Welsh districts of Wales. At Cardiff, where the Eng- . lish element pervades nearly the whole of the people, no less than 2,402 were taken up by the police for various offences during the year ending September, 1866, or nearly one out of every sixteen of the entire population. The number of pros- titutes there amounts to 538, and, of course, thieveS' and drunkards are correspondingly numerous. A sad state of things for a town of little more than forty thousand inhabit- ants. The morality of Swansea is scarcely, if any better. Bangor; a seaport town in JS'orth Wales, supplies us with a happy contrast to this dark picture. Notoriously wicked characters are almost unknown there, and the bulk of the people are more or less under the influence of religion. A few weeks ago the Calvinistie Methodists held their great association in that city, when fleld-preaching was carried on for two whole days. Knding that most of the business of the town and the work at the neighbouring slate quarries, were to be suspended during the days of the associatidn, a company of BtrolUng players engaged a field to set up a circus, expecting that they would be able to compete with the preachers and get a good share of the people. The religious friends, not being without their fears that that would have b^n the case, offered them £25 for going away the day before the associa- tion, but the offer was rejected with scorn. The following morning the preachers in one field and the players in the other began to proceed with their different employments; but, to the lasting credit of the people of Bangor and the neighbour- hood, they all attended the association, leaving the circus men with only a handful of ragged children gazing at their antics. The discouraged players left early the day after, in search of a place where they might be better encouraged. What was done at Bangor would have been done in%ny other Welsh district of the Principality. Now, dear brethren, what is to become of Wales ? Shall its most religiously pervaded districts be reduced to the morally degraded state of Cardiff, Newport, and Swansea, and similar places ? or are we prepared at once, with our combined efforts and earnest prayers, to stand between the, dead and the living and try to stay the plague ? May the Lord baptize all his ministers and churches throughout Wales and England with a double portion of the spirit of Whitfield, Wesley, Howell Harries, Daniel Eowlands, David Davies, Christmas laSCELLAITEOTTS PAFEBB, &C. 93 Evans, John Elias, and "William "Williams, — men'who were enabled to take the strongholdB of Satan by storm, and to pray and preach down the sinful customs of their times ! "Were we flUed with the spirit that moved these men, we could triumphantly lead "Wales through her present serious crisis with all her religious institutions not only uninjured, but decidedly improved. THE GEEAT EE"VTV"AL IN SOUTH "WALES IN 1849, TO THE EDITOE OP THE CHBISTIAIf WITNESS. SiRj — ^In your remarks on the general dearth of revivals of religion in the United Kingdom, on the wrapper of the Wii- NESS for this month, you intimate that no such thing as a revival has been heard of even in "Wales during the last twelve years. It affords me the highest gratification to be now able to inform you that powerful awakenings were felt in North "Wales in the years 1839 and 1840, and in South "Wales in 1841, 1842, and 1843. The circulation of a translation of Mr. Finney's "Lectures," by Mr. Griffiths, of Swansea, was eminently instrumental, in the hand of God, in promoting that ever-memorable reviv^. The intervening period from the end of the year 1843 to the summer of last year was a season of almost universal spiritual declension ; but last year most of the churches in the counties of Monmouth and Glamorgan, and many in those of Brecon and Carmarthen, were blessed with a most powerful revival. Some months ago, on the suggestion of my excellent friend, Mr. Joseph Maybery, of LlaneUy, I wrote to the ministers of those churches which were most signally .blessed with these awakenings, for the numbers added to their churches during the year, intimating my intention of publishing the account in one of the periodicals. The following is a list of as many of the churches as furnished me with the numbers added to them. If you will insert it in the Cheistian Witness, it will undoubtedly be pondered over with gratification by thousands of your pious readers, and will also be transmitted to future generations as a memorial of the gracious dealings of God with our highly-privileged nation : — 94 MISCELIAITEOTrS PAPEKS, &e. ' I a . § i i I • 5 > o! fl t- osa S a i>i-j'i-ito>i^SwnW 53 2 2 i I ^'f4 eoot^ovooM o >o o o o iot-ooooc. CO CD WS «3 COOOCOpCD<©CO*^iOC^»-fii;2h^t2;^■f4B^h^^fl■t£Ki^?p4ppw■fil^p&^■St2 rsoS *S0SO'OOO©OOOOC0OOC0'OC0MSt!«C0OOOOoOO00C001«D»O gi-(OOa>OOOOlO«3t-OTOC