J 
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 LETTEES AND ESSAYS ON WALES.
 
 ON 
 
 WALES. 
 
 BY 
 
 HENRY RICHARD, M.P. 
 
 3L0nti0n: 
 JAMES CLARKE & CO., 13 & 14, FLEET STEEET. 
 
 1884
 
 X>A 
 736 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 I HAVE been urged to reprint some of the papers I have 
 written from time to time on the subject of Wales. It 
 has fallen to my lot to be in some humble measure an 
 interpreter between Wales and England. For though I 
 have lived in London for fifty-three years, I have re- 
 tained my attachment to, and my interest in, my native 
 land, have kept up my acquaintance with its language 
 and literature, and, through them, with its social, political, 
 and religious condition. At the commencement of the 
 period to which I have referred, little was accurately 
 known in England about the Principality. Eailways 
 did not exist. Travelling was difficult, and still compa- 
 ratively rare ; while the difference of language was a 
 formidable impediment to free social intercourse. Hence 
 there arose misconception, prejudice, and, to some 
 extent, mutual repulsion. With all the admirable quali- 
 ties of the Anglo-Saxon race, an aptitude for under- 
 standing, appreciating, and assimilating other races, is 
 not one of its most marked endowments. What tended 
 very much to aggravate the alienation was the known 
 prevalence of Dissent in Wales, which in those days, 
 more perhaps than in these, was regarded in some 
 English circles as almost a crime. And so it came to 
 
 A 2 
 
 518792
 
 VI INTRODUCTION. 
 
 pass that the state of things in Wales was misunder- 
 stood, and consequently misrepresented. I did my best 
 to stand in the breach, to defend the character of my 
 countrymen against severe assaults made on their intel- 
 ligence and morality the offspring partly of ignorance, 
 and partly of ecclesiastical prejudice and especially to 
 direct the attention and enlist the interest of English Non- 
 conformists towards their brethren in the Principality. 
 In 1844, I was appointed, in conjunction with the Eev. 
 John Blackburn, to visit the Congregational Churches of 
 Wales, as a deputation from the Congregational Union. 
 On my return, I prepared two reports one on the reli- 
 gious state of the Principality, which was presented to 
 the Union at its autumnal meeting at Norwich in that 
 year, and which, I think, did something to bring the Non- 
 conformists of England and Wales into nearer relations, 
 and into closer sympathy with each other ; the other, 
 on the state of education in Wales, was presented to 
 the Congregational Board of Education. On my sug- 
 gestion, that body called a Conference on Education at 
 Llandovery, in which they were joined by the Wesleyan 
 Committee on Education. It was a large and represen- 
 tative gathering. A " South Wales Committee on Edu- 
 cation " was formed, which led to the institution of a 
 Normal School for Training Teachers, first at Brecon and 
 then at Swansea, and directly or indirectly to the estab- 
 lishment of a large number of day-schools in the various 
 counties of South Wales. 
 
 In 1847, I had an opportunity of rendering, if I may 
 presume to say so, another service of some importance 
 to my countrymen. Just before that the Commissioners
 
 INTRODUCTION. Vll 
 
 appointed to inquire into the state of education in Wales 
 had published their report. I dare say they meant to 
 report honestly, but they were singularly disqualified for 
 their work : they had no knowledge of the language, 
 they had no sympathy with the people, and they fell 
 into bad hands. The consequence was a picture of the 
 condition of the country which astounded the whole 
 nation, and certainly no part of it more so than the 
 Principality itself. What the character of that picture 
 was may be learnt from the impression it produced on 
 the English Press. The Morning Chronicle of that day 
 declared that " Wales was fast settling down into the 
 most savage barbarism.'' The Examiner, on its autho- 
 rity, stated that the Welsh people "were sunk in the 
 depths of ignorance, and in the slough of sensuality, 
 and that their habits were those of animals, and would 
 not bear description." Other papers expressed them- 
 selves in language quite as strong. Stung by a sense of 
 intolerable insult and wrong, a universal cry of indigna- 
 tion arose from every part of Wales. There were, of 
 course, many vehement protests. Mine was made in 
 the form of a .lecture delivered at Crosby Hall, in the 
 City of London, to a crowded audience, who for two 
 hours and a-half listened with unflagging interest to my 
 exposure of the gross character of that base libel on the 
 Welsh nation. It was published in a paper called the 
 British Banner, which had then a large circulation 
 among Nonconformists, and afterwards in a volume 
 entitled " The Crosby Hall Lectures." 
 
 I once thought of reprinting that lecture in this 
 volume ; but on reading it I find that the names of many
 
 Vlll INTRODUCTION. 
 
 persons are mentioned, some of whom are dead, and 
 others of whom I hope and believe have repented them 
 of the evil they did to my poor countrymen. And so, 
 perhaps, it is better to let it rest. I need not say 
 that this effort was received with exuberant gratitude 
 by my warm-hearted countrymen. The lecture was 
 thought of sufficient importance to call forth a pam- 
 phlet in reply from one of the Commissioners in the 
 form of a letter, addressed, if I remember aright, to 
 Lord John Russell. 
 
 Later on, in the year 1866, I had an opportunity, 
 through the columns of the Morning and Evening Star, 
 to publish a series of Letters on the Social and Political 
 Condition of Wales, which are here reprinted. After the 
 election of 1868, when the Welsh people, for the first 
 time, boldly asserted their own independence, the Con- 
 servative press in London was made the vehicle for a 
 series of fierce attacks by means of anonymous letters 
 on Welsh Dissent, and especially Welsh Dissenting 
 Ministers. They were charged with being " supporters of 
 anarchy and plunder," with " actively teaching the 
 people to commit arson and murder," and with " scarcely 
 preaching a sermon that was not full of sedition." The 
 editor of the Daily News permitted me the use of his 
 columns to repel these false and foul aspersions, and my 
 letter was after wards published as a small pamphlet with 
 the title of "Calumnies on Welsh Dissent." In 1871 
 I wrote an article on " The Established Church in 
 Wales," which was subsequently issued as a separate 
 pamphlet, and which is also reproduced here. In 1882, 
 at the invitation of the Committee of the Congregational
 
 INTBODUCTION. IX 
 
 Union, I delivered a lecture at the Memorial Hall in 
 Farringdon Street, on " Nonconformity in Wales," 
 which appeared first in the Nonconformist newspaper, 
 and afterwards among the " Jubilee Lectures," which 
 have been published in two goodly volumes by the Com- 
 mittee of the Union. I have not thought it necessary 
 to include that in the present volume, as it passes in part 
 over the same ground traversed in the former publications 
 mentioned. 
 
 In the year 1882 there appeared an article in the 
 Church Quarterly Review, taking as its text the Eeport of 
 the Departmental Committee on Intermediate and Higher 
 Education in Wales, of which I had the honour to be a 
 member. This production was a vehement attack upon 
 myself for the part I had taken on that Committee, 
 and, through my sides, on Welsh Nonconformity and the 
 people of Wales generally. My friend Dr. Allon offered 
 me the pages of the British Quarterly Review for a reply, 
 of which I was glad to avail myself, and my article ap- 
 peared in that periodical in April, 1883. It was published 
 anonymously ; but though it is partly in self defence, I 
 know no good reason why I should now hesitate to avow 
 the authorship. 
 
 I have said that I have attempted to act as a sort of 
 interpreter of Wales to England. As a proof that my 
 efforts have not been altogether in vain, I venture to 
 cite the following kind and generous words spoken by 
 Mr. Gladstone at a Welsh National Eisteddfod at Mold, 
 in August, 1873, words which he substantially repeated 
 on another occasion : "I will frankly own to you that 
 I have shared at a former time, and before I had thus
 
 X INTRODUCTION. 
 
 acquainted myself with the subject, the prejudices 
 which prevail to some extent in England and among 
 Englishmen with respect to the Welsh language and 
 antiquity ; and I come here to tell you how and why I 
 have changed my opinion. It is only fair that I should 
 say that a countryman of yours, a most excellent Welsh- 
 man, Mr. Eichard, M.P., did a great deal to open my 
 eyes to the true state of the facts by a series of letters 
 which some years ago he addressed to a morning journal, 
 and which he subsequently published in a small volume, 
 that I recommend to the attention of all persons who 
 may be interested in the subject." 
 
 I am afraid the reader will find some repetitions in this 
 collection of articles, which it was not very easy to avoid 
 while dealing with substantially the same topics at con- 
 siderable intervals of time. 
 
 22, BOLTON GABDENS, 
 December, 1883.
 
 PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION 
 
 OF THE 
 
 LETTERS ON THE SOCIAL AND POLITICAL 
 CONDITION OF WALES. 
 
 THE following letters first appeared in the Morning and 
 Evening Star from February to May last. It is in 
 compliance with an earnest desire expressed by many 
 who read them in that journal that-they are now repub- 
 lished in the present form. 
 
 In dealing with such questions as are discussed here, 
 it was not possible to avoid provoking some antagonism. 
 But there has been much less of it than the author had 
 anticipated, while the general interest which these letters 
 have excited in Wales, and the cordial welcome with 
 which they have been greeted by, he may fairly say, the 
 great majority of his countrymen, prove at least the 
 warmth of their hearts and their readiness to recognise 
 and appreciate any honest attempt to serve their interests. 
 The letters have been reproduced in extenso in several 
 English papers in Wales, and have been translated for 
 at least three of those published in the Welsh language.
 
 Xll PREFACE. 
 
 They have been also the subject of approving resolutions 
 in a large number of meetings both in Wales and among 
 the Welsh in England. The author ventures to insert in 
 an appendix some of those passed by important reli- 
 gious associations. He does this, not for the gratifica- 
 tion of personal vanity, though it would be mere 
 affectation to deny that it has been gratifying to him in 
 a high degree to receive so many spontaneous and 
 generous expressions of approval from such honoured and 
 influential bodies ; but they are inserted here because 
 they ratify, by the testimony of numerous and most 
 competent witnesses, the substantial accuracy of the 
 statements and representations given in the letters. 
 
 October, 1866.
 
 LETTERS 
 
 ON THE 
 
 SOCIAL AND POLITICAL CONDITION OF 
 THE PRINCIPALITY OF WALES. 
 
 LETTEE I. 
 
 PAST RELIGIOUS AND MOKAL CONDITION OF WALES. 
 
 IT is surprising how little accurate knowledge there 
 exists in England as to the state of the Principality of 
 Wales. There are plenty of Englishmen, of course, who 
 are familiar enough with the physical aspects and re- 
 sources of the country. They know that some parts 
 abound in romantic and picturesque scenery, the delight 
 of tourists and sketchers, and other parts in varied 
 mineral treasures, which pour a rich stream of wealth 
 into the lap of their fortunate possessors. But of the 
 state of society there ; of the condition, the character, 
 and feelings of the people, there prevail only the vaguest 
 and cloudiest conceptions. The general impression is 
 that they are a simple, warm-hearted, good-natured race, 
 who talk a strange guttural jargon, and whom John Bull 
 rather likes condescendingly to patronise. But they are 
 deemed greatly behind their Saxon neighbours, very un- 
 instructed, and only half-civilised for there is a lurking 
 conviction at the bottom of most Englishmen's hearts, 
 that no people can be really civilised who don't talk 
 English. What is known by many beyond this is only 
 mis-known, having been drawn from sources wholly 
 
 B
 
 X LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 untrustworthy. Some seventeen or eighteen years ago 
 the Government appointed a commission to inquire into 
 the state of education in the Principality of Wales. It 
 consisted of three young barristers, who went about their 
 work in utter ignorance of the language, the character, 
 and all the social and religious peculiarities of the people. 
 While groping about in the dark for some means of ac- 
 quiring the information they were in search of, they fell 
 into the hands of one class, who hoodwinked and mis- 
 guided them in every possible way. The result of their 
 labours was presented to the public in the form of three 
 enormous blue-books, containing a picture of the people, 
 as respects their intelligence, morality, and religion, 
 which was unhesitatingly, and with singular unanimity, 
 pronounced by all who had any real acquaintance with 
 the country, to be a gross and hideous caricature. Un- 
 happily, however, coming from men who in some sense 
 represented the Government, it was widely accepted in 
 England as a true representation, and some traditionary 
 echo from those huge official libels still lingers in many 
 minds. 
 
 I gladly avail myself, therefore, Mr. Editor, of the 
 opportunity you have kindly offered me to write to you a 
 few letters on the social and political condition of the 
 Principality of Wales. But as the social and political 
 condition of the country is closely connected with its re- 
 ligious condition, it is necessary that I should first call 
 your readers' attention to the latter. 
 
 It may be stated in general terms that the Welsh are 
 now a nation of Nonconformists. They became so, in 
 the first instance, not by the force of abstract reasoning 
 against Establishments, or in favour of the principles of 
 Dissent, but simply because they were compelled to look 
 beyond the pale of the Endowed Church for the means of 
 spiritual instruction which were denied them within its
 
 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 3 
 
 pale. I must ask permission to illustrate this point at 
 some length. That is necessary in order to explain 
 much that is peculiar in the present attitude and feelings 
 of the Welsh people. Besides, the story itself is singu- 
 larly instructive, and serves to throw no little light upon 
 several practical questions that are coming more and 
 more into discussion among ourselves. 
 
 For nearly a century after the settlement of the Pro- 
 testant Eeformation in this country, Nonconformity had 
 scarcely any existence in Wales. For a few pious clergy- 
 men who, towards the close of that period, were silenced 
 or driven out of their livings for their uncanonical excess 
 of zeal can scarcely be called Nonconformists. Never, 
 therefore, had any Church a fairer opportunity to show 
 what it could do to civilise and Christianise a people than 
 the Established Church had in those days in the Princi- 
 pality. It had the field wholly to itself, and could pursue 
 its labours undistracted by what it has so often since 
 pleaded in excuse of its want of success the impertinent 
 intrusion of schismatic interlopers. And how did it 
 employ that golden interval ? It is scarcely possible to 
 draw a darker picture than has been drawn by the pens 
 of Churchmen themselves of the state of their Church at 
 that period, and for a long time after. Simony, nepotism, 
 non-residence, pluralism, every form of ecclesiastical 
 abuse, ran riot in the Welsh Church. The great body of 
 the clergy were ignorant, irreligious, immoral, in every 
 way utterly incompetent to fulfil the duties of their office. 
 And, indeed, many of them did not even attempt to fulfil 
 their primary duty as instructors of the people. A chain 
 of testimonies extending over two centuries and a half is 
 at hand to sustain this charge. My space will admit of 
 my citing only a few. In the year 1560 Dr. Meyrick, 
 Bishop of Bangor, states that he had only two preachers 
 in all his diocese. Strype, in his life of Archbishop 
 
 B 2
 
 4 LETTEBS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 Parker, says of the same see in 1565 that there was " no 
 preaching used, and pensionary concubinacy was openly 
 continued, that is allowance of concubines to the clergy 
 by paying a pension, notwithstanding the liberty of 
 marriage granted." In investigating a charge of mis- 
 governing his diocese, brought against Dr. William 
 Hughes, Bishop of Bangor, in 1587, it came out that the 
 bishop himself held sixteen rich livings in commendam ; 
 that most of the other great livings were in possession of 
 persons who lived out of the country ; and that only three 
 preachers resided on their livings. Nor was this state of 
 things much changed for the better during the next 
 eighty or ninety years. The Eev. John Edwards, one of 
 the clergy ejected by the Parliamentary Commission for 
 Scandalous Ministers, appointed under the Common- 
 wealth, and whose testimony must therefore be held 
 unimpeachable on this point, acknowledges that, at that 
 time, not one in fifteen of his clerical contemporaries 
 could read or write the Welsh language. In 1677 a pious 
 clergyman addressing his brethren says, " There are to be 
 found in each of the Welsh dioceses from forty to sixty 
 churches without a sermon on Sundays," and that at a 
 time, be it remembered, when preaching was the only 
 means of religious instruction that was open to the 
 people.* The biographer of the Eev. Thomas Charles of 
 Bala, a clergyman who became one of the founders of 
 Methodism towards the latter half of the last century, 
 speaking of the condition of North Wales before that 
 excellent man began his apostolic labours, says : 
 
 The Church ministers were in a most degenerate state, both as 
 to principles and practice, while the gentry used no influence in 
 favour of religion or good morals, but themselves gave example 
 of many kinds of wickedness. 
 
 * For more evidence on the subject relating to this and other 
 periods see " The History of Nonconformity in Wales," by Thomas 
 Bees, D.D., a work of great labour and research, as well as of 
 conscientious accuracy.
 
 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 5 
 
 Sir Thomas Phillips, in his very able work on Wales, 
 published in 1849, in a chapter designed to show " the 
 various influences by which the Church in Wales has been 
 weakened," draws such a picture, from facts coming down 
 almost to our own day, of lay official delinquency, of 
 episcopal rapacity and nepotism, of misuse of patronage, 
 of clerical incompetence, and, in general, of utter and 
 contemptuous neglect of the moral and spiritual interests 
 of the people, as forms a terrible indictment against the 
 Church, of which he was, nevertheless, the fervid admirer, 
 and into whose bosom he would fain have won back again 
 all his schismatic countrymen. I can only find room for 
 one sentence out of a long passage in which he summa- 
 rises the contents of that chapter : 
 
 We have found (he says) the ecclesiastical rulers of this clergy 
 and chief pastors of the people, as well as many other holders of 
 valuable Church preferment, to consist often of strangers to the 
 country, ignorant alike of the language and character of the 
 inhabitants, by many of whom they are regarded with distrust 
 and dislike-; unable to instruct the flock committed to their 
 charge, or to teach and exhort with wholesome doctrine, or to- 
 preach the word, or to withstand and convince gainsayers in the 
 language familiar to the common people of the land. 
 
 It is hardly necessary to ask what was the moral and 
 religious condition of a people left to the tender mercies 
 of such a Church. It would be difficult indeed to find 
 language too strong to describe the utter moral desolation 
 into which the whole land had fallen. The Kev. Bees. 
 Pritchard, of Llandovery a name still held in deep 
 veneration throughout the Principality a pious, eloquent, 
 devoted clergyman, the only one of his class in that age, 
 so far as we know, to whom such a description could 
 apply, who flourished between the years 1602 and 1646, 
 has left a most deplorable picture of the state of the 
 country in his time. He states that not one in a hundred 
 of his countrymen could read ; that no copy of the 
 Scriptures was found even in the mansions of many of
 
 b LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 the gentry ; that the clergy were asleep, leaving the 
 people to wallow in their sins, unwarned and unrebuked ; 
 that the upper classes, with rare exceptions, were totally 
 regardless of religion, and the common people ignorant 
 and unwilling to receive instruction. 
 
 Licentiousness (he says), drunkenness, dishonesty, falsehood, 
 and infidelity are rampant through the Principality. Judges 
 and juries sympathise with drunken murderers, and permit 
 ertortioners to rob widows and orphans. Sheriffs and their 
 deputies plunder innocent people by virtue of their offices. The 
 Lord's Day is a day for drunkenness, dancing, idleness, games, 
 and wanton lewdness among the Welsh. 
 
 There was considerable improvement during the next 
 century. But this was owing almost entirely to the 
 exertions of the Nonconformists, who began at that time 
 to establish themselves in Wales. Though they were the 
 victims of incessant annoyance and outrage, not merely 
 from legal persecutions, but from mob violence, often 
 instigated by the upper classes, they laboured hard, and 
 not without effect principally, however, in South Wales 
 in the cause of knowledge, virtue, and religion. But 
 they were still comparatively few in number and limited 
 in influence, and the country, as a whole, remained vir- 
 tually in possession of the Church during the whole of 
 that period. The change by which the great bulk of the 
 people passed over to the ranks of Dissent took place at 
 the rise of Methodism, about the middle of the last cen- 
 tury, which gave a wonderful impulse to all bodies of 
 Nonconformists. But what was the state of the country 
 before and up to that epoch ? It would be easy to mul- 
 tiply testimonies on this point. But let one or two 
 suffice. Take, first, that of the Eev. Thomas Charles, to 
 whom I have previously referred, a man who did ines- 
 timable service in the cause of education and religion in 
 Wales. The description, however, must be understood 
 as applying principally to North Wales. But then that 
 was precisely the part of the country where the reign of
 
 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. / 
 
 the Church was all but undisputed. Keferring to the 
 middle of the 18th century, Mr. Charles says : 
 
 In those days the land was dark indeed ; hardly any of the lower 
 ranks could read at all. The morals of the country were very 
 corrupt, and in this respect there was no difference between 
 gentle and simple, laymen and clergymen. Gluttony, drunken- 
 ness, and licentiousness prevailed throughout the whole country. 
 
 And speaking 'of a stiil later period, about 1785, he 
 says : 
 
 In my journeys through many parts of North Wales I found 
 that the condition of the people was so low with regard to reli- 
 gious instruction that there was scarcely one in twenty in many 
 places who could read the Bible, and in some places, after special 
 inquiry, it was difficult to find even one who had been taught to 
 read. 
 
 Mr. A. J. Johnes, an able and accomplished man, him- 
 self a member of the Church of England, in an essay 
 which he published in 1832, " On the Causes of Dissent 
 in Wales," states the following as "the conclusions to 
 which he was irresistibly led " by the whole course of his 
 inquiry conclusions which very effectually dispose of 
 the complaint sometimes made that the Dissenters have 
 seduced the people from the Church : 
 
 1. That before the rise of Methodism in Wales the churches 
 were as little attended by the great mass of the people as now. 
 
 2. That indifference to all religion prevailed as widely then as 
 Dissent in the present day. 
 
 , It thus apears that the Established Church has, so far 
 as Wales is concerned, utterly failed in her mission. At 
 no period of her history, from the Reformation to this 
 day, has she fulfilled in anything approaching to an effi- 
 cient and adequate manner her professed function as the 
 instructress of the people. So long as they were left to 
 her care they were abandoned to ignorance, superstition, 
 and gross immorality, while the great bulk of the clergy 
 cared for nothing but the emoluments of their office. 
 In closing this too long letter, I have only one remark
 
 8 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 to add namely, that all the testimonies I have cited as 
 to the character and influence of the Church in Wales 
 are from Churchmen themselves ; I believe there is not a 
 single Dissenter among them. 
 
 LETTEE II. 
 
 PERSECUTION OF NONCONFORMISTS AND METHODISTS. 
 
 IN my former letter I showed, by a series of testimonies 
 taken from Churchmen themselves, how utterly the 
 Church of England had failed in her duty as the moral 
 and spiritual instructor of the Welsh nation. But to say 
 that she failed in her duty is to state only half the truth. 
 She has habitually and strenuously resisted the efforts 
 made by others to supply her own lack of service. The 
 ecclesiastical authorities ever were in the Principality the 
 most active obstructors and persecutors, first of the 
 Puritans, then of the Nonconformists, and finally of the 
 Methodists, in their attempts to diffuse religious know- 
 ledge, and to improve the morals of the people. This is 
 susceptible of proof by a chain of historical evidence 
 coming down from the earliest times to the present. 
 
 In the reign of Queen Elizabeth, when, according to 
 the preamble of an Act of Parliament authorising th 
 translation of the Bible into the Welsh language, which 
 however, was not done till thirty years after, " Her 
 Majesty's most loving and obedient subjects, inhabiting 
 within her Highness's dominion and country of Wales, 
 being no small part of this realm, are utterly destitute of 
 God's Holy Word, and do remain in the like, or rather 
 more, darkness and ignorance than they were in the time 
 of Papistry," there arose as an advocate for the Welsh
 
 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 people a very remarkable man in the person of John 
 Penry, a native of Breconshire. He was a young clergy- 
 man, who had been educated at Oxford, and is described 
 as having been a " famous preacher in the University." 
 He was a man of culture and learning, as well as of a 
 most earnest and heroic spirit. By his writings, and by 
 his petitions to the Queen and Parliament, he strove hard 
 to call the attention of the Government and bishops of 
 that day to the lamentable condition of the Principality. 
 Nothing can be more powerful and pathetic than his 
 appeals on behalf of his "dear and native country." 
 And what was the result ? The result was that he was 
 persecuted and imprisoned for his pains ; and eventually, 
 after a trial which, as Sir Thomas Phillips truly says, 
 " disgraces the name of English justice," was hung like 
 a felon on the prosecution of Archbishop Whitgift.* 
 
 When, in the reign of Charles I., some leaven of the 
 Puritan element, so powerful in England, began to spread 
 among the clergy in Wales, prompting them to certain 
 "irregular" efforts for the instruction of the utterly be- 
 nighted and neglected people, the bishops of the several 
 Welsh dioceses, at the instigation of Archbishop Laud, 
 set themselves by a ruthless system of persecution to 
 root out all such refractory spirits. There is still extant 
 among the Lambeth MSS. a document which Laud ad- 
 dressed to the King, in which he boasts of the vigorous 
 proceedings by which the Welsh prelates had driven out 
 of the Church those who "preached schismatically and 
 dangerously to the people," and had put down every 
 species of " Inconformity."f And yet in one part of the 
 same document the archbishop, while commemorating 
 
 * See " Life of John Penry," by Eev. Dr. Waddington. 
 
 t " Inconformity " did not mean " Nonconformity," but simply 
 a refusal to read " The Book of Sports," and other similar obliga- 
 tions, which that imbecile fanatic, Laud, laid on the consciences 
 of his clergy.
 
 10 LETTEES AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 exultingly the complete success with which the Bishop 
 of St. David's had silenced, on the sweeping charge of 
 " Inconformity," some of the zealous men who were 
 really able and anxious to preach, adds with the greatest 
 ndivete, " He complains much, and surely with cause 
 enough, that there are few ministers in those poor and 
 remote places that are able to preach and instruct the 
 people." No less significant is the language of mingled 
 triumph and lamentation in which the Bishop of St. 
 Asaph writes to his bigoted primate, that in his diocese 
 " they were not anywhere troubled with Inconformity, 
 but that he heartily wished that they might as well be 
 acquitted of superstition and profaneness." 
 
 In like manner the early Nonconformists were inces- 
 santly harassed and hunted from place to place " as one 
 doth hunt a partridge on the mountains." " In the 
 times of the Stuarts," says Mr. Johnes in his essay " On 
 the Causes of Dissent in Wales," " dissent from the Epis- 
 copal Church became once more an object of persecu- 
 tion ; but the ministers of the Welsh Nonconformists 
 still continued to traverse the wild hills of the Princi- 
 pality, braving all dangers for the sake of their few and 
 scattered followers. Their congregations still occasion- 
 ally met, but it was in fear and trembling, generally at 
 midnight, or in woods and caverns, among the gloomy 
 recesses of the mountains." The Nonconformists in 
 England suffered much in those days. But it may be 
 easily imagined how in a remote district like Wales, at 
 that time far more completely separated from England 
 than at present, the persecutor wantoned in cruel abuse 
 of power. 
 
 And, in truth, the imperfect records which still remain 
 prove that the severities practised on the Welsh Noncon- 
 formists, if not so sanguinary, were hardly less wearing 
 and grinding than those to which the Covenanters in
 
 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 11 
 
 Scotland were exposed. Their goods were plundered, 
 their houses were burnt down, their women were grossly 
 insulted, many of the men were beaten within an inch of 
 their lives. The prisons were crowded with them, and 
 that at a time when prisons were hardly fit to be dens 
 for wild beasts. There were several men whose names 
 are still embalmed in the grateful remembrance of their 
 countrymen Vavasor Powell, Stephen Hughes, &c., 
 who, during this period, laboured most bravely, by 
 preaching and the publication of good books, to supply 
 the spiritual destitution of Wales. But their names are 
 also imperishably associated in the people's hearts with 
 the idea of ecclesiastical and clerical persecution. For 
 just in proportion to the zeal and success with which 
 they toiled for the good of their people was the bitter- 
 ness of hatred with which they were pursued by those in 
 power. Vavasor Powell was imprisoned no less than 
 thirteen times, and at length died in prison, to which he 
 had been committed by the zeal of a clerical informer. 
 Stephen Hughes, though a man of most inoffensive 
 character as well as of unbounded benevolence, fell 
 under the displeasure, as Dr. Calamy says, of " the con- 
 servators of the sacred keys, who passed the censures of 
 the Church upon him, and delivered him to the secular 
 power, who confined him to a close prison in Carmarthen, 
 to the prejudice of his health and hazard of his life." 
 And so with the others. 
 
 In the early part of the eighteenth century there arose 
 in the Church in Wales a most excellent man, the Eev. 
 Griffith Jones, of Llanddowror. He did incalculable 
 service to his country by his eloquent preaching, by his 
 various publications in the Welsh language, but especially 
 by the establishment of his remarkable system of Welsh 
 Circulating Schools. Yet though he never left the Church, 
 it is understood that from none of the Welsh bishops, and
 
 12 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 from very few of the clergy, did he receive the slightest 
 encouragement in his admirable labours. Nay, indeed, 
 be was constantly obstructed and defamed by his clerical 
 brethren, and suffered a persecution for twenty years in 
 the Ecclesiastical Court, because he dared to preach out 
 of his own parish and in unconsecrated places. And it 
 is confidently affirmed that it was a bishop who moved 
 another clergyman to assail him in what is described as 
 " one of the most scurrilous, vulgar, and obscene pam- 
 phlets ever issued from the British press."* 
 
 So also when the Methodists began their labours, 
 about the middle of the last century, though most of 
 their leaders were at first members, and even ministers, 
 of the Establishment, they were met with the most 
 determined hostility by the clergy. Driven out of the 
 Church to which they were devotedly attached, and in 
 whose service they would gladly have lived and died, had 
 they only been permitted scope for the zeal with which 
 they were consumed on behalf of the multitudes whom 
 they saw sunk in ignorance and irreligion around them, 
 no sooner did they begin to exercise their ministry out- 
 side her pale than they were exposed to every species of 
 indignity and annoyance. This was less conspicuously 
 the case in South Wales, because the elder Noncon- 
 formists had there to a considerable extent already 
 leavened the mind of the people with religious know- 
 ledge, and so prepared them to rally around and protect 
 the zealous clergymen, whose appearance they gladly 
 hailed as a reinforcement of their own ranks. But in 
 North Wales the persecution was terrible, and every- 
 where the clergy were the leaders. There was a Eev. 
 John Owen in particular, chancellor of Bangor, who dis- 
 
 * " A portion of the clergy zealously opposed Mr. Jones, many of 
 the higher classes were systematically opposed to the education of 
 the poor, while the bishops of Wales did not even countenance his 
 measures." Johnes's Essay.
 
 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 13 
 
 tinguished himself as a sort t>f petty Bonner throughout 
 that district. The doings of this man and his associates, 
 as well as the sufferings generally of the early Metho- 
 dists, have been commemorated in a singularly interesting 
 volume, entitled, " Drych yr Amseroedd" (" The Mirror 
 of the Times "), written some fifty years ago by an old 
 Methodist preacher, partly from his own recollections, 
 and partly from the conversations of older people with 
 whom he had been acquainted. His account has been 
 well summarised by Dr. Kees in the following passage of 
 his history : 
 
 This Owen being a person of considerable talents, a fluent 
 speaker, and a dignitary of the Church, he succeeded in exciting 
 the clergy, and through them the populace throughout the diocese, 
 into a persecuting rage. It was his practice, in which the clergy 
 generally followed his example, to lead a mob to every place 
 where he found that the Nonconformists or Methodists intended 
 to hold a meeting. The inoffensive worshippers were abused, 
 most mercilessly pelted with stones, wounded with knives, shot 
 at ; men, and even women, were stripped naked in the presence 
 of the crowd ; able-bodied men were pressed for the army or 
 navy, and driven away from their friends and families like cattle, 
 to different parts of England. A full account of the sufferings 
 of the Nonconformists and Methodists in North Wales in the 
 eighteenth century would fill a large volume.* 
 
 And, in truth, these persecutions have hardly yet 
 ceased, only that they are now obliged to take another 
 form. It is, if I remember aright, scarcely more than 
 ten years ago since a lady, possessed of a considerable 
 estate in the neighbourhood of Aberystwith, acting 
 notoriously under clerical instigation, served notice upon 
 her tenants, nearly all of whom were Dissenters, that 
 they must either quit their houses and farms or turn 
 Churchmen. And this decree was ruthlessly carried out. 
 Those who refused obedience, though some of them were 
 old people who had occupied their holdings all their lives, 
 and were honoured by the whole neighbourhood for their 
 
 * History of Nonconformity in Wales, p. 399.
 
 14 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 simple piety and blameless character, were ejected with- 
 out mercy, while those who succumbed to the menace 
 did so at such a sacrifice of self-respect and reputation as 
 to make them far greater objects of pity than the others 
 who preferred conscience to interest, though they had to 
 suffer so severely for the preference. There are many 
 other humiliations and annoyances to which the Non- 
 conformists of Wales are still frequently exposed, espe- 
 cially as respects sites for their chapels and schools, and 
 the free exercise of the political franchise. To some of 
 these I shall have occasion to advert more at large in my 
 subsequent letters. 
 
 I have given this rather lengthened narrative of the 
 past in order to show the reasons why the Welsh have 
 become Dissenters, and why they are likely to continue 
 so. For it is amusing to observe the innocent surprise 
 which some worthy Churchmen still express at their not 
 returning, to use their own favourite phrase, into " the 
 bosom of their spiritual mother." But they forget, or 
 are not aware, that she has never been to them anything 
 but a step mother, who, by her neglect and cruelty drove 
 them to seek a home elsewhere. Nothing can be more 
 explicit on this point than the testimony of the Rev. 
 Griffith Jones, the admirable clergyman to whom I have 
 already referred : 
 
 I must also (he says) do justice to the Dissenters in Wales, and 
 will appeal for the truth of it to all competent witnesses, and to 
 all those themselves who separate from us, that it was not any 
 scruple of conscience about the principles or orders of the Esta- 
 blished Church that gave occasion to scarce one in ten of the 
 Dissenters in this country to separate from us at first, whatever 
 objections they may afterwards imbibe against conforming. No, 
 Sir ; they generally dissent at first for no other reason than for 
 want of plain, practical pressing, and zealous preaching, in a lan- 
 guage and dialect they are able to understand, and freedom of 
 friendly access to advice about their spiritual state. . . . The 
 people will not believe that there is anything in reason, law, or 
 Gospel that should oblige them to starve their souls to death for 
 the sake of conforming, if their pastor (whose voice, perhaps, they
 
 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 15 
 
 do not know, or who resides a great way from them) will not 
 vouchsafe to deal out unto them the bread of life.* 
 
 On the fact alleged in this extract, which is perfectly 
 true, that the Welsh Nonconformists, especially the Me- 
 thodists, did not in the first instance dissent from "any 
 scruple of conscience about the principles or orders of 
 the Established Church," an attempt was founded some 
 twenty or thirty years ago to coquet a little with, by 
 flattering, the Calvinistic Methodists, a very powerful 
 body in Wales, in hope of luring them back to the fold 
 from which they had wandered. But the promoters of 
 this attempt overlooked the fact that this is the history 
 of nearly all dissent that the dissidents at first with- 
 draw, not from any objection of principle, but from some 
 abuse or defect in the Church they leave, which has 
 grown intolerable, but that when once outside they 
 become aware of other graver and more radical objec- 
 tions which near proximity, or the blindness of filial 
 affection, had before concealed from their eyes. This has 
 been the process in Wales as elsewhere. The Metho- 
 dists, who long hankered after the communion they had 
 left, have now become as thoroughly convinced as any 
 class of Dissenters in the Principality, that the grievous 
 evils which then: fathers suffered in and out of the 
 Church were not local and temporary accidents, but 
 sprang largely from the very constitution and character 
 of an Establishment. And few things are less likely 
 than that they will ever again seek their religious 
 nourishment from the somewhat withered breasts of 
 their old stepmother. 
 
 * Welsh Piety for 1741, pp. 12, 13.
 
 16 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 LETTER III. 
 
 COMPAKATIVE STRENGTH OF THE CHURCH AND NONCON- 
 FORMITY IN WALES. 
 
 IN my former letters I have endeavoured to explain 
 the causes which have led to the alienation of the Welsh 
 people from the Established Church, and compelled them 
 to seek refuge in the ranks of Dissent. I will now show 
 the extent to which this has taken place, so as to make 
 good the allegation in my first letter that the Welsh may 
 now, in general termp, be described as a nation of Non- 
 conformists. Our Church friends in the Principality 
 long angrily denied the truth of this allegation, and not 
 without effect in England, though the facts were too noto- 
 rious and patent to every eye in Wales to admit of a 
 moment's doubt. At length came facts from an authori- 
 tative and official source which effectually silenced 
 controversy. Mr. Horace Mann's Report on the Census 
 of Religious Worship, founded on the returns of the 
 Registrar- General for 1851, is so elaborate and exhaus- 
 tive as to leave little to desire down to the period to 
 which it reaches. Some attempts were made by the 
 Bishop of Oxford and others when it was first published 
 to impeach its accuracy. But as those attempts rested 
 upon nothing but ipse dixit, and utterly unsupported, 
 assertions, they met with very indifferent success. Their 
 effect, indeed, was rather to confirm and ratify the 
 authenticity of the return. For they led, among other 
 things, to a question being asked of the Government by 
 Mr. Apsley Pellatt, in the House of Commons, to the 
 following effect :
 
 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 17 
 
 Whether any recent inquiry had been made into the accuracy 
 of the returns of the Registrar-General, and whether in conse- 
 quence any doubt existed as to their fairness ; also, whether 
 there was any reason for suspecting that the Dissenting returns 
 had been exaggerated, so that the number of attendants at the 
 Established Church on the census Sunday had been made to 
 appear comparatively below the truth. 
 
 To which Lord Palmerston, who was then Home 
 Secretary, made the following very explicit reply : 
 
 I have made inquiries on the subject, and I entertain no doubt 
 as to the accuracy of the returns with regard to all the facts to 
 which they refer. Of course, I speak generally, because in 
 returns collected from such a large number of places and fur- 
 nished by such a variety of persons there may have been inaccu- 
 racies one way or the other, which must, to a certain extent, affect 
 those results. My belief is, however, that those inaccuracies 
 could have no sensible effect upon the general results from the 
 facts stated in the returns. I repose sure confidence in the 
 general accuracy of the returns, and in the diligence and care of 
 those under whose arrangements they had been made, by whom I 
 believe every means were taken to render their statements as 
 accurate as possible. 
 
 How does the case stand, then, as between the Church 
 and Nonconformity in the Principality as illustrated by 
 these unimpeachable returns ? I am indebted for the 
 following analysis to a most able and accurate statis- 
 tician : 
 
 STATISTICS OF CHTJKCH AND DISSENT IN WALES (1851). 
 
 The population of Wales, including Monmouthshire, in 1851, 
 was 1,118,914. The total number of places of worship was 4,000. 
 Census, Table B., p. cxciv. : 
 
 PLACES OF WORSHIP. 
 Of the places of worship 
 
 The Established Church furnished 1,180 
 
 Nonconformists 2,826 
 
 Total 4,006 
 
 SITTINGS. 
 
 Of the sittings (including estimates for defective returns) 
 Established Church furnished . 301,897 or 30 per cent. 
 Nonconformists 692,339 or 70 per cent. 
 
 Total 994,236
 
 18 LETTEES AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 SITTINGS AND POPULATION. 
 
 Assuming, as Mr. Horace Mann assumes, that there should be 
 church accommodation for 58 per cent, of the population, or for 
 689,569 persons in Wales, the above figures show the following 
 results : 
 
 Sittings. 
 
 The Church falls short of this demand by . . 387,672 
 Nonconformists exceed the demand by ... 2,770 
 
 The Church, that is to say, has provided sittings for only 25 
 per cent, of the population, while the Nonconformists have pro- 
 vided sittings for nearly 59 per cent. Voluntaryism, therefore, 
 has alone furnished all the accommodation for religious worship 
 that the whole population of Wales requires. The Established 
 Church has not furnished half the accommodation that the people 
 require. 
 
 WORSHIPPING POPULATION. 
 
 On March 31st, 1851, the worshipping population of Wales was 
 as follows : * 
 
 Church 138,719 or 22 per cent. 
 
 Nonconformist 473,102 or 78 per cent. 
 
 Total 611,821 
 
 These figures are confirmed by the table (N. p. ccc.) of the 
 number of persons present at the most numerously attended 
 services on the Census Sunday. They were 
 
 Churchmen 134,940 or 21 per cent. 
 
 Nonconformist 490,543 or 79 per cent. 
 
 But, in truth, the above showing very considerably un- 
 derstates the comparative numerical superiority of the 
 Dissenters. At that time, for reasons which I shall here- 
 after explain, a large number of the children of Dissenters 
 attended Church schools on week days. All of these, 
 together with many of the domestics and dependents of 
 the gentry who were Dissenters, were 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 
 
 * These figures are obtained on the principle adopted by Mr. 
 Mann, in Table 22 of the Census, and explained by him as 
 follows : That one-half of those attending in the afternoon, and 
 one-third of those attending in the evening, are new attendants 
 (p. civ.).
 
 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 19 
 
 than usual. In the opinion of a gentleman than whom 
 few men are better acquainted with Wales, that would 
 have made a difference of nearly 25 per cent, to the Dis- 
 senting returns. " The proportion of Dissenters to 
 Churchmen throughout the Principality," says the same 
 authority, " may be put down as one to eight ; but in 
 many of the rural and manufacturing districts the pre- 
 ponderance of Dissenters is much greater." 
 
 But another accomplished statistician, the late Mr. 
 Flint, of Leeds, has dealt with the returns in a different 
 manner, with a view to show the comparative progress of 
 Church and Dissent in the Principality. I must, how- 
 ever, premise, in order to explain any discrepancy that 
 may appear between the two sets of figures, that Mr. 
 Plint does not include Monmouthshire in his analysis, as 
 is done in that which I have just cited. His object is to 
 show the comparative state of the Church and Dissent in 
 1801 and in 1851. 
 
 North Wales, in 1801, stood thus as to religious 
 accommodation : 
 
 Proportion to all 
 Sittings. Sittings. 
 
 Church of England. . . . 99,216 . . 75'2 
 AU others . 32,664 . . 24'8 
 
 Total .... 131,880 . . 100 
 
 In the fifty years following the population increased 
 from 252,765 to 412,114, or 63 per cent. To have kept 
 up the ratio of sittings to population by each of these 
 sections of religionists the former should have supplied 
 62,505 sittings, and it did supply 16,614. The latter 
 ought to have supplied 20,576, and it did supply 217,928. 
 The Church of England fell short of its duty 73'5 per 
 cent., and all other denominations exceeded it 960 per 
 cent. The ratio of sittings to population, which, in 1801 
 was 52-1 per cent. (5-9 less than the proper standard 
 
 C 2
 
 20 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 according to Mr. Horace Mann), was in 1851, 88-9 that 
 is, 30 per cent, above it. 
 
 South Wales, in 1801, stood thus : 
 
 Proportion to all 
 Sittings. Sittings. 
 
 Church of England . . . 133,514 . . 61-8 
 All others 82,443 . . 38-2 
 
 Total . . . 215,957 . . 100 
 
 i 
 
 The population increased from 288,892 to 593,607, or 
 105-5 per cent. The quota of sittings required of the 
 Church was 140,854 ; it did provide 15,204. The other 
 denominations ought to have provided 86,975 ; they did 
 provide 270,510. The Church 'of England fell short of 
 its duty 89 per cent.; the other denominations exceeded 
 it 211 per cent. The ratio of sittings to population in 
 1801 was 74-7 per cent., and in 1851, 84-5. Can the 
 force of antithesis go further ? * 
 
 I have not the materials for showing how the propor- 
 tion stands at the present time. It is well known that at 
 the last census, Churchmen strenuously and successfully 
 resisted the proposal to have the statistics of religious 
 worship taken on the same principle as in 1851. But it 
 may be very confidently affirmed that the proportion of 
 Churchmen and Dissenters has not, in Wales, at least, 
 altered during that interval to the disadvantage of the 
 latter. I find that in the course of the fifteen years that 
 have since elapsed, the Nonconformists have added 281 
 to the number of their chapels, while many others have 
 been greatly enlarged. I have endeavoured to find the 
 number of churches added, but I regret to say, without 
 success. We may, however, fairly assume from our 
 knowledge of the past that the increase falls very far 
 below that of the chapels as given above. 
 
 * 'Voluntaryism in England and Wales; or the Census of 
 1S51 " pp 62-3 London : Simpkin, Marshall and Co.
 
 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 21 
 
 At the present time (1866) the number of Nonconformist 
 places of worship in Wales, including Monmouthshire, is 
 as follows. The figures in the first three lines are cited 
 from the Year Books of the respective denominations to 
 which they relate, where every chapel is specified by 
 name. For the statistics of the different Wesleyan 
 bodies I am indebted to a very able paper on the state of 
 Wales, published two or three years ago in a volume of 
 " Essays and Lectures " by the Eev. John Thomas of 
 Liverpool : 
 
 Calvinistic Methodists . . 975 
 
 Independents .... 839 
 
 Baptists 589 
 
 Wesleyan Methodists (Old Body) 510 
 
 Primitive Wesleyan Methodists 100 
 
 Minor Weslpyan Bodies . . 45 
 
 Unitarians .... 30 
 
 Society of Friends ... 7 
 Koman Catholics ... . 12 
 
 Total . . . . 3,107 
 
 To which must be added that the Welsh have at this 
 time 120 chapels in England, for so great is their attach- 
 ment to their ancient language, and so deep their solici- 
 tude for the religious instruction of themselves and thei r 
 children, that as soon as any considerable number of 
 them settle in any town or district, their first care is to 
 erect a place for worship and religious instruction in their 
 native tongue. 
 
 It would be easy, were it necessary, to add much con- 
 firmatory evidence of an incidental kind as to the enor- 
 mous preponderance of Nonconformists over Churchmen 
 in Wales. The reports presented by the inspectors of 
 schools to the Committee of Council on Education abound 
 with such evidence. Take the testimony of Mr. J. 
 Bowstead, inspector of British Schools, in his report for 
 1855. After stating that the proportion of Churchmen
 
 22 LETTEKS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 among the trading and working classes in South Wales 
 certainly does not exceed one to every five, he adds 
 
 Even this proportion, however near the truth, as an average 
 for the whole district, is much too high for many populous 
 localities. I have myself incidentally become acquainted with 
 the result of a minute examination, made in one of the valleys in 
 Monmouthshire, from which it appeared that whilst the Church 
 claimed 20 families within a given area, the Protestant Dissenters 
 claimed 300.* 
 
 Still more striking is the testimony of the Eev. H. 
 Longueville Jones, inspector of Church of England 
 schools in Wales. Speaking of the difficulty he had in 
 examining the children in National schools on religious 
 subjects, he says : 
 
 The number of children in Welsh schools, whose parents belong 
 to the Church, is so very small, that it requires great expe- 
 rience and delicacy of feeling to treat their young minds as they 
 should be.f 
 
 He gives the statistics of one school in the neighbour- 
 hood of Merthyr, which, as it is the only example he 
 cites, he wishes, I presume, to be regarded as an illustra- 
 tion of his meaning. In this school, out of 107 children, 
 only five were of parents belonging to the Church. And 
 when he brings forward the same school in the following 
 year, the table shows the number of children at 144, of 
 whom two only were of Church-going parents. Further 
 to illustrate the progress of Nonconformity in Wales, I 
 subjoin the following short tabular statement, showing 
 the number of congregations at five different periods : 
 
 1742. 1775. 1816. 1861. 1866. 
 
 110 171 993 2,927 3,107 
 
 Now these facts are of very pregnant significance in their 
 bearing upon one of the most important controversies 
 of our day namely, the comparative efficiency of an 
 
 * Minutes of Council 1855-6, p. 638. 
 t Minutes of Council 1854-5, p. 602.
 
 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 23 
 
 endowed and a voluntary Christianity. It cannot be 
 denied that the experiment has been made in Wales 
 under circumstances which give it all the force of an 
 experijnentum crucls. The people for the most part were 
 poor and scattered. They had to contend with the dead 
 weight, or rather, indeed, with the active and in many 
 instances virulent hostility, of a well-dowered Esta- 
 blished Church. From those who might be regarded as 
 their natural leaders, the local gentry, they have had 
 little help and much hindrance. Owing to distance of 
 place and difference of language they were until quite 
 recently shut out to a large extent from the knowledge 
 and sympathy of then: wealthier Nonconformist brethren 
 in England and Scotland. And yet in the face of all this 
 behold the result. 
 
 The advocates of religious establishments are wont to 
 say that the voluntary principle may work very well 
 under certain favourable circumstances, but that in cer- 
 tain other circumstances it must and will entirely fail. 
 There are two kinds of population especially with whose 
 necessities, they are wont to allege, it is quite unfitted to 
 cope. The first is, that in mining and manufacturing 
 districts, where the rate of increase is so rapid, that it 
 can be overtaken only by the resources and machinery of 
 a State-endowed Church. Well, we have just such a 
 district in that part of the country of which we are now 
 speaking. Monmouthshire and Glamorganshire are the 
 two counties which, of all those in England and Wales, 
 have made the most rapid strides in population since the 
 beginning of the present century. In each of these the 
 number of inhabitants has very much more than tripled 
 within the period named. In the former the increase of 
 population between 1801 and 1851 was at the rate of 
 244, and in the latter at the rate of 231 per cent., the 
 average rate of increase for the whole of Great Britain ill
 
 24 LETTERS AND ESSAYS OX WALES. 
 
 the same time being 93^ per cent. Let us see, then, 
 how the voluntary principle and " the resources and 
 machinery of an Establishment " have respectively coped 
 with this population. 
 
 I take from the census of 1851 the registration districts 
 of Merthyr Tydvil, Bridgend, Neath, and Swansea, 
 having an aggregate population of 193,504, in the very 
 thickest part of that mining and manufacturing country ; 
 and I find that the total number of sittings provided by 
 all religious bodies in this district was 68 per cent, on the 
 population, which is 10 per cent, more than the number 
 required according to the calculations of Mr. Horace 
 Mann. But of this number the Church of England pro- 
 vided 14-5, and the Dissenters 53-5 per cent. I take 
 again the districts of Abergavenny and Pontypool, which, 
 I suppose, is the densest part of Monmouthshire, with a 
 population of 87,222. The total number of sittings pro- 
 vided in this district was 75-9 per cent, on the popula- 
 tion, of which the Church of England supplied 19'4, and 
 the Dissenters 56'5. Your readers may conceive what 
 would have been the moral and religious condition of the 
 people in those districts if they had been left to ' ' the 
 resources and machinery " of the Establishment. 
 
 But there is another kind of population for which, our 
 Church friends declare yet more confidently, the volun- 
 tary principle is wholly unadapted namely, that in 
 rural districts, where the inhabitants are few, scattered, 
 and poor. Nothing, we are assured, but the parochial 
 system, where the State provides a building and a teacher 
 for the people, will meet such a case. 
 
 Well, here again Wales supplies us with sample dis- 
 tricts of unexceptionable character. I take the registra- 
 tion districts of Cardigan, Newcastle-Emlyn, Lampeter, 
 Aberayron, Aberystwyth, and Tregaron, comprising, I 
 believe, the whole of my native county of Cardiganshire,
 
 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 25 
 
 with an aggregate population of 97,614. In this district 
 the number of sittings provided was 97'8 per cent, on the 
 population, of which the Church of England supplied 
 27-4, and the Dissenters 70-4 per cent. 
 
 I will take another part of the country, which may be 
 regarded as of a somewhat mixed character namely, 
 Carnarvonshire ; for though it is mainly agricultural, 
 there is among the large slate-quarries a considerable 
 population that may be called mining and manufacturing. 
 And how do matters stand there ? Why, thus : Taking 
 the registration districts of Pwllheli, Carnarvon, Bangor, 
 and Conway, with a population of 94,674, the total 
 number of sittings provided was 95' 1 per cent, on the 
 population, of which the Church of England supplied 
 28'2, and the Dissenters 66'9 per cent. 
 
 From these facts there are some inferences that are 
 obvious and irresistible. They prove First, that the 
 Church of England is not the Church of Wales ; secondly, 
 that, but for the exertions of the Nonconformists, Wales 
 would have been at this time, as regards its spiritual 
 interests, in a most pitiable plight. A most estimable 
 clergyman, a native of Wales, whose name is still vene- 
 rated by many in this metropolis, the Eev. William 
 Howels, of Long Acre, once said that, but for the Metho- 
 dists and Dissenters, the devil might long ere this have 
 claimed the Principality as his own special diocese. 
 Thirdly, that the voluntary principle, when fairly worked, 
 is sufficient to supply the spiritual wants of a nation, 
 seeing that the Welsh, amid poverty, isolation, and dis- 
 couragement, have provided themselves with more ample 
 means of religious worship and instruction than can be 
 found, perhaps, among any people under the face of 
 heaven.
 
 26 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 LETTEE IV. 
 
 AGENCIES IN THE EVANGELISATION OF WALES. 
 
 IN my last letter I showed the rapidity and complete- 
 ness with which the inhabitants of Wales have provided 
 themselves with the means of religious worship and in- 
 struction. And surely the phenomenon is sufficiently 
 noteworthy to deserve being examined a little, which 
 thus shows a poor and secluded people, after having been 
 so long neglected by those who had professedly taken 
 charge of their spiritual interests, suddenly quickened 
 into a new life, rising to the work *of providing for their 
 own wants, and from very scanty resources, in less than 
 a century, covering the whole face of the country with an 
 array of 3,000 places of worship, where they sustain a 
 religious apparatus as extensive, and, for its purposes, I 
 venture to say, as effective as can be found in any part of 
 the kingdom, or, perhaps, of the world. I hope to make 
 it clear in my future letters, from facts which none can 
 dispute, that this has been attended with the most bene- 
 ficent influence on the character of the entire nation, 
 changing a people who were before deplorably ignorant, 
 superstitious, and depraved, into a community in a high 
 degree enlightened, moral, and pious. It may be worth 
 while, therefore, to inquire a little into the means by 
 which this transformation has been effected ; and as the 
 inquiry will help to throw great light upon some of the 
 most characteristic qualities and habits of the people, it 
 cannot but be regarded as germane to the object of these 
 letters. 
 
 There were three things, I conceive, which mainly 
 contributed to the remarkable results which I have
 
 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 27 
 
 indicated. First, the surpassing power of the Welsh 
 pulpit ; secondly, the influence of the " Private Society," 
 as it is called, a peculiar institution, the offspring of 
 Methodism, which I shall endeavour to explain ; thirdly, 
 the system of Sunday-schools, which is also of a peculiar 
 character, differing widely in many respects from that 
 which prevails in establishments of the same name in 
 England. 
 
 From the rise of Methodism at the latter end of the 
 last century, Wales has been supplied with a succession 
 of preachers of rare qualifications for the work given 
 them to do. The first generation of these had passed 
 away before my time. But it was my happiness to be 
 brought up in intimate acquaintance with some of their 
 successors of the next generation. My judgment may, 
 no doubt, be coloured by national partiality. Nor am I 
 unmindful of the delusive halo which imagination throws 
 around the scenes and memories of early life, 
 
 Clothing the palpable and the familiar 
 With golden exhalations of the dawn. 
 
 But after making large allowance for all this, I think I 
 cannot be mistaken in saying that the great Welsh 
 preachers whom I was constantly hearing in my boy- 
 hood and the race is by no means extinct yet were 
 unrivalled masters of sacred eloquence. I have listened 
 to most of the popular preachers that have adorned the 
 English and Scotch pulpits within the last thirty years, 
 and, while cordially acknowledging the eminent merits of 
 some of them, I must still say that none of them have 
 appeared to me even to approach the men I refer to, in 
 their power to move and thrill and subdue a mixed 
 popular audience. They had in an eminent degree that 
 first requisite of all great oratorical success, especially in 
 the pulpit intense earnestness. Their life was so
 
 28 LETTEKS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 laborious, self-denying, and devoted, that not a moment's 
 doubt could rest on the minds of their hearers of the 
 lofty impulse by which they were moved, and the perfect 
 simplicity of purpose with which they were seeking, not 
 theirs, but them. But they had, moreover, rare natural 
 advantages for their office. Many of them were men of 
 stately and commanding personal presence, and were 
 endowed with voices of great compass and melody, which 
 by constant use they had learnt so to rule as to express, 
 with the nicest modulation, all the varying moods of an 
 orator's mind. No greater mistake could be committed 
 than to imagine that their preaching consisted of mere 
 loud and incoherent rant, such as is sometimes associated 
 with the idea of Methodist preaching in England. Their 
 sermons were carefully prepared, and often, by frequent 
 repetition, elaborated to a high degree of oratorical per- 
 fection, while in their mode of delivery they were distin- 
 guished by nothing so much as their absolute self- 
 ossession, the mastery they retained over themselves 
 in the very torrent, tempest, and (as I may say) whirl- 
 wind of their passion." It is true that they claimed and 
 exercised unbounded liberty in their methods of exhibit- 
 ing the truth they believed. They were not restrained 
 by that mortal fear of transgressing " the decencies " 
 which fetters an English preacher, and renders it all but 
 impossible for him to be oratorically effective. They 
 abandoned themselves freely to the swaying impulses of 
 their own inspiration. They used without hesitation or 
 stint all forms of speech that were at their command 
 trope, metaphor, allegory, graphic pictorial description, 
 bold prosopopoeia, solemn invocation, impassioned appeal, 
 dramatic dialogue and action. They did this, not of set 
 purpose, for they might not even know the names that 
 rhetoricians had given to those figures of speech, but 
 because following the dictates of their own natural
 
 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 29 
 
 genius for oratory such were the means that seemed 
 best adapted to produce the impression they desired. 
 
 The outward accessories, also, which often surrounded 
 them, no doubt contributed largely to the effect of their 
 eloquence. First from necessity, and afterwards from 
 habit, religious meetings were and are in Wales fre- 
 quently held in the open air. On such occasions the 
 whole population of a district for many miles round, 
 suspending all business and labour, will flock together 
 bodily. I have a vivid remembrance of many of these 
 remarkable gatherings. Sometimes the platform was 
 pitched not far from the sea-shore, the softened murmur 
 of the ocean mingling with, as if it bore burden to, the 
 sound of sacred song that from the assembled multitude 
 
 Eose like a stream of rich-distilled perfume 
 And stole upon the air. 
 
 Sometimes it was in an open glade, amid rich woodland 
 scenery, a spot being usually chosen where the green- 
 sward sloped up gradually from the stage on which the 
 ministers stood, forming a sort of ascending natural 
 gallery, and as the surrounding trees, gently swayed by 
 the wind, bent and rustled, it might almost seem, amid 
 the solemn associations of the scene, to the excited 
 feelings of the people, 
 
 As if the forest leaves were stirred with prayer. 
 A preacher of known eloquence standing up on those 
 occasions, when " all impulses of soul and sense " com- 
 bined to render every heart accessible to impression, 
 found his work already half-done to his hands. He saw 
 a dense mass of human beings in serried array before 
 him, each upturned countenance flushed with that eager 
 and friendly expectation so favourable to a speaker. As 
 he proceeded with his discourse a deep hum of approval 
 probably inherited from Puritanic times indicated to
 
 30 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 him the quick appreciation of his hearers for any skill in 
 argument or felicity of illustration which he might 
 display. 
 
 But when the preacher became more animated, his 
 delivery would often pass into a kind of wild recitative, 
 which had an inexpressible charm to the ear, while at 
 the same time it was so free and elastic as to adapt its 
 musical undulations to all forms of solemn warning, 
 awful denunciation, or pathetic appeal, which an im- 
 passioned oratory requires. As the excitement gathered 
 and grew the effect was indescribable. Wave after wave 
 of emotion would pass over and thrill through the vast 
 congregation, until it was seen to move and sway to and 
 fro, "as the trees of the wood are moved with the 
 wind." Of the thousands of eyes riveted upon him, the 
 . preacher would now see many swimming in tears, while 
 loud sobs and passionate responses from hundreds of 
 voices echoed back his appeals. This again would react 
 upon himself, rousing him to yet greater fervour of elo- 
 quence. For, as it has been well remarked, "the man 
 accustomed to these expressions, and habitually looking 
 for them among the ' outward and visible signs ' of the 
 effect of his preaching, and who could not preach under 
 their influence with incalculably augmented power, must 
 have been utterly destitute of the oratorical temperament, 
 and never could have been intended by Nature to sway a 
 promiscuous assembly."* It was such preaching as this 
 that roused Wales from its spiritual torpor, and was 
 partly the cause and partly the effect of those remarkable 
 periodical visitations known as religious revivals, a species 
 
 * For a fuller description of the characteristics of Welsh 
 preaching, I may refer the reader to a very able essay on the sub- 
 ject by the Eev. J. Kilsby Jones, appended to the "Life of the 
 Rev. William Williams/' and to the " Memoir of Christmas 
 Evans," by the Kev. D. M. Evans, a volume of singular interest 
 and beauty.
 
 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 31 
 
 of phenomena which it is much more easy to sneer at 
 than to explain or wisely appreciate. With some serious 
 drawbacks, no one acquainted with the inner life of 
 the country can doubt that they have been of incalculable 
 value to Wales. 
 
 Connected with these, and intended to give form, 
 and permanence to the effect they produced, were the 
 " Private Societies " of which I have previously spoken. 
 Like most other institutions that are really useful and 
 well adapted for their purpose, they were neither formally 
 established nor imported, but grew naturally out of the 
 circumstances in which the ministers and the people 
 found themselves. One can readily understand how 
 much bewildered, ignorant, and superstitious minds 
 would feel at the sudden rush upon them of such new 
 thoughts and emotions as would accompany their first 
 vivid apprehension of religious truth. If not wisely 
 handled such a state of mind w-as quite capable either of 
 subsiding into deeper hardihood of impiety than before, 
 or of passing into the excesses of a wild and dangerous 
 fanaticism. To meet this emergency the founders of 
 Methodism and this practice has been borrowed from 
 them by every other denomination in Wales, not except- 
 ing the Church of England were wont to gather their 
 converts into societies, or classes, in order to instruct 
 them more perfectly in the principles of Christianity. 
 Fully aware of the crude condition in which many of 
 their disciples were at the time, the old preachers laid 
 great stress upon this process of " indoctrinating," as 
 they called it, or " egwyddori " as the expressive and 
 untranslatable Welsh word has it. But they did more 
 than this, and that, perhaps, constituted the most power- 
 ful attraction of the private societies. They encouraged 
 the members to speak in presence of the sympathising 
 brotherhood, and, in such stammering accents as they
 
 32 LETTEKS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 could command, of their own experience of the newly- 
 awakened spiritual life within them, the doubts which 
 assailed them, the hopes which cheered them the alter- 
 nations of joy and sorrow, of temptation and triumph, 
 through which they passed. It must be remembered 
 that those who were at the head of the religious move- 
 ment of which I am now speaking in Wales, were not 
 ignorant men. The first of them were dissident clergy- 
 men, the very pick for genius and piety of the ministers 
 of the Establishment. And those who followed them 
 were persons not only of uncommonly vigorous natural 
 faculties, but of very considerable cultivation. Among 
 them were some eminently skilled in spiritual diagnosis, 
 who knew how to guide their neophites with infinite 
 tenderness and skill through the dangers of their early 
 religious career. 
 
 No doubt the institutions I have been describing were 
 adapted only for a very primitive state of society, and an 
 uneducated and unsophisticated people. Persons of 
 culture and refinement acquire more reticence on such 
 matters, and shrink from disclosing to the general gaze 
 their innermost and most sacred feelings. There may 
 have been, also, something of national idiosyncrasy in the 
 success of these societies in Wales. The Anglo-Saxon, 
 less imaginative and emotional, and more self-contained 
 and self-sufficing, seems able to dispense with those out- 
 ward auxiliaries which the impulsive Celtic nature 
 requires. Among the reasons assigned by the Kev. 
 Griffith Jones, the excellent clergyman whose words I 
 quoted in a former letter, for the spread of Dissent in 
 Wales, this was one that the people when they became 
 religiously impressed, found in the Church "none to un- 
 bosom their grief to, none that would patiently hear their 
 complaints and deal tenderly by their souls and dress 
 their wounds ; they, therefore, fled to other people for
 
 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 33 
 
 relief, as dispossessed demoniacs will no longer frequent 
 the tombs of the dead." Be that as it may, it cannot be 
 doubted that these institutions were admirably adapted 
 to the condition of the people in the Principality at this 
 time, adding to their faith virtue, and to virtue know- 
 ledge ; giving the fixedness of conviction and habit to 
 what was often at first mere emotion, and saving 
 them in a remarkable degree from the mischiefs which 
 sometimes attend uncontrolled religious excitement. 
 But like many other things, the day of their usefulness 
 is obviously past.* 
 
 To the influences I have already specified must be 
 added that of the Sunday-schools. These, like many 
 other good things in Wales, owe their origin to the 
 Rev. Thomas Charles, of Bala. There were, however, 
 two men the Rev. Owen Jones, in North Wales, and 
 the Rev. Ebenezer Richard, in South Wales a name 
 very dear to the writer of these letters who gave 
 themselves with indefatigable zeal and labour to the 
 development and organisation of the system which Mr. 
 Charles had began. And now they have become spread 
 over the whole face of the country, so as to cover it 
 like a web. 
 
 One peculiarity of the Sunday-schools in W'ales is 
 this, that they comprise not the children of the country 
 merely, but a large proportion of the adults. It is a 
 matter of constant lamentation among the promoters of 
 Sunday-schools in England that the elder scholars, 
 when they have acquired a tolerable proficiency in 
 reading, leave the school, and are withdrawn from the 
 salutary influence which might be otherwise exercised 
 
 * When I speak of their " usefulness " as " past," I refer to 
 the old method of conducting them, rather than to the institu- 
 tions themselves. The " societies," wisely adapted to modern 
 requirements, still are, and long may be, eminently useful. 
 
 D
 
 34 LETTEKS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 over them by their teachers at the most critical period of 
 their life. But in Wales, however perfectly the young 
 people may learn to read, they do not dream of quitting 
 the school. On the contrary, when that acquisition is 
 made, they frequent it with far more interest than before, 
 for they then form themselves into classes, under the 
 guidance of older and more experienced men, for studying 
 the Bible, bringing into the common stock whatever 
 means of illustration they can command to throw light 
 over the history, geography, antiquities, and doctrines of 
 the Book. By this means the people almost univer- 
 sally, not only learn to read with an understanding 
 mind, but acquire very considerable stores of sound 
 Scriptural and theological knowledge, which, among 
 other -things, prepare and qualify them to be intelli- 
 gent and appreciative hearers of their ministers' public 
 teaching. 
 
 Another marked feature of the Welsh Sunday-schools 
 is the extent to which they employ catechetical instruc- 
 tion. By this, however, we must not understand the 
 mere learning and perpetual repetition of any one form of 
 catechism, than which few things are more adapted to 
 deaden the mind. Far from it. The catechisms in 
 Wales are innumerable, though in truth the word " cate- 
 chism " is by no means an adequate equivalent for the 
 Welsh "Pwnc." The method adopted is this. Some 
 particular topic is selected for instruction or impression. 
 At one time it may be some piece of Scripture, history, 
 or biography ; at another, a leading Christian doctrine ; 
 a,t a third, some important moral duty. Let us take as 
 an example " The Duty of Truthfulness." All arguments 
 and considerations tending to show the value and sacred- 
 ness of truth, and the folly and wickedness of falsehood, 
 are put into the form of questions and answers, which 
 are sustained by Scripture authority and illustrated by
 
 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 35 
 
 Scripture example. This is learnt by the entire school and 
 recited sometimes in the presence of the whole congrega- 
 tion. But when the catechist examines them publicly, 
 he by no means confines himself to the questions written 
 before him, for which the answers are prepared. He 
 asks many other extempore questions bearing on the topic 
 in hand, which are intended either to test the Scripture 
 knowledge of the catechumens, or to impress more deeply 
 upon their mind the truths to which the catechism relates. 
 Sometimes the schools of a district, to the number of six 
 or eight, will meet in one place to recite their catechisms, 
 when there is a good deal of emulation as to which shall 
 acquit themselves best, especially in giving quick and 
 satisfactory answers to the extempore questions that may 
 be asked by the ministerial catechists. All this has a 
 marvellous tendency to keep the minds of the people alive, 
 and to enlarge their knowledge in at least one department 
 that of Scripture and theology, in respect to which kind 
 of knowledge I doubt whether they are surpassed by any 
 nation in the \vorld. 
 
 LETTEK V. 
 
 THE INTELLECTUAL CONDITION OF WALES. 
 
 WHILE, in my former letters, I have been portraying 
 the rapid progress which the people of Wales have made 
 in providing for themselves the means of religious worship 
 and instruction by the multiplication of chapels, Sunday- 
 schools, etc., I have anticipated that such questions as 
 the following would arise in the minds of many of my 
 readers : Well, and what is the practical result ? What 
 effect has all this produced on the character of the people 
 
 D 2
 
 36 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 as respects their intelligence and morality ? These are 
 questions which I shall endeavour to answer in this and 
 one or two subsequent letters. And it is the more neces- 
 sary to do this as an attempt has been made to discredit 
 the cause of Nonconformity by blackening the character 
 of the Welsh. 
 
 When the Commissioners on Education went down to 
 Wales eighteen years ago (now thirty-five years ago), 
 some of the local clergy only a small number, I am 
 happy to say unable to disguise from their visitors the 
 fact that the great bulk of the inhabitants had forsaken 
 their ministrations, tried to find some consolation for 
 their self-love by slandering their neighbours. They first 
 represented the people as grossly ignorant, depraved, and 
 brutal, in order that they might then have the satisfac- 
 tion of ascribing this their evil case, as some of them 
 did totidem verbis, to "the immoral teaching of Dis- 
 sent." It may be readily imagined that this did not 
 much mend the chances of the reverend gentlemen to 
 recover their lost influence over their countrymen. But 
 such a representation was grossly at variance with fact. 
 There is in Wales, as everywhere else, plenty of evil to 
 be deplored and remedied. But, taken as a whole, and 
 comparing class with class, I doubt whether there is a 
 population on the face of the earth more enlightened and 
 moral, more loyal to the Throne, more obedient to the 
 laws, more exemplary in all the relations of life, than the 
 inhabitants of Wales. These assertions I will try to 
 make good to the satisfaction of your readers. 
 
 And first let me say a few words as to the state of 
 education and intelligence among them. I believe that 
 at no period in their history had the people of Wales 
 sunk into that utter mental torpidity which marks if I 
 may say so without offence some portions of the English 
 peasantry. Grossly ignorant and superstitious multitudes
 
 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 37 
 
 of them undoubtedly were, through the long ages of 
 neglect of which I have already spoken. But there were 
 always influences at work which saved them from abso- 
 lute stagnation of intellect. The traditions of their 
 national history not less fascinating because surrounded 
 with a nimbus of poetic myth telling of their ancient 
 kings, druids, and bards, of Arthur and Merlin, of Lly- 
 warch Hen and Taliesin, of Howell the Good, and 
 Llewelyn " ein llyw olaf " (our last prince), as he is still 
 fondly called were cherished with great tenacity by the 
 popular mind. A passionate, and, I fear I must add, a 
 fierce and vindictive patriotism, as the patriotism of the 
 past was wont to be, was constantly fed by stories, half 
 fact and half fable, transmitted from father to son, of the 
 cruelty and perfidy of their Saxon and Norman op- 
 pressors, and of the victories and defeats which had 
 marked their long struggle for independence, while fight- 
 ing under the banner of the Bed Dragon stories of the 
 slaughter of the learned monks of Bangor ; of the Alleluia 
 victory; of "Brad y Cyllill Hirion; "* of the massacre 
 of the bards, and others of similar import, which or at 
 least the evil feelings accompanying them have happily 
 faded, or are fast fading out of the popular mind. Frag- 
 ments of poetry and music, coming down from immemo- 
 rial times, were always floating plentifully in the air. 
 The very superstitions, some fantastic and some terrible, 
 with which the country abounded, acted as a powerful 
 
 * "The Treason of the Long Knives," a story of the remote 
 past widely current in Wales in my boyhood, and probably so 
 still. It told how the Saxon invaders, unable to defeat the Britons 
 in fair fight, under the guise of friendship invited all the Welsh 
 princes to a great banquet, and, as a further mark of fraternity, 
 proposed that the Britons and Saxons should sit at table 
 alternately ; but, at a signal from their chief, each treacherous 
 Saxon drew his long knife and plunged it into the heart of his 
 neighbour. I am not antiquarian enough to say whether this 
 story is purely legendary, or has any foundation in fact.
 
 38 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 stimulant, at least, to the imagination the belief in 
 magic and witchcraft the vision of the " Tylwyth Teg," 
 or the " Beautiful Family," as the fairies were called, 
 
 who 
 
 Met on hill, in dale, forest or mead, 
 
 By paved fountain or by rushy brook, 
 
 Or on the bleached margent of the sea, 
 
 To dance their ringlets to the whistling wind ; 
 
 the " Corpse Bird," which came at night napping its 
 ominous wings against the windows of the sick man's 
 chamber; the " Corpse Candle," a small blue light seen 
 near a house where a death was soon to take place, and 
 going thence straight to the churchyard; the " teulu," a 
 spectral funeral procession, marching in ghastly silence 
 all over the road along which the doomed person, whose 
 decease it foreshadowed, would soon be carried to his 
 grave. In the worst times, also, the popular merry- 
 makings were never without some intellectual element 
 which saved them from degenerating into mere sensual 
 orgies ; for the harp was there, and " pennillion " singing 
 an improvisation in verse accompanying the harp, and in 
 some parts of the country, a sort of broad farces, or 
 dramatic pasquinades, under the name of "interludes," 
 acted by the peasantry. And there were better tilings 
 than these ; for sometimes the people's natural genius for 
 minstrelsy and song would seem suddenly to blossom 
 with even an exuberant fertility. If any one doubts this, 
 he has but to consult the collection of old melodies, and 
 the words to which they were sung, taken down from the 
 lips of the peasants in the vales of Neath and Glamorgan 
 by Miss Jane Williams of Aberpergwm, herself accord- 
 ing to the testimony of Mr. Chorley "the most ex- 
 quisite amateur singer he had ever heard." My friend, 
 Dr. Davis, of Swansea, and there are few more compe- 
 tent judges, says of these compositions, " I consider 
 them without exception the finest pastorals I know, and
 
 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 30 
 
 may be backed against the world for poetry, music, and 
 purity of sentiment." And those published by Miss 
 Williams are only a small selection from hundreds which 
 she noted down from the singing of the country people, 
 all of which are supposed to have sprung into existence 
 from about 1680 to 1780. 
 
 But while all these things contributed to stir and agi- 
 tate the popular mind, and save it from subsiding into 
 that brutish stolidity which is the most fatal of all condi- 
 tions, the real awakening of the soul of the nation must 
 be traced to the great religious revival under the Metho- 
 dists about the middle of the 18th century, for which, 
 how r ever, there had been long and patient preparation, 
 not always sufficiently acknowledged, in the quiet 
 labours, for a century and a half before, of other bodies 
 of Nonconformists. Still, that, certainly, was the move- 
 ment which to the country at large was as life from the 
 dead, and lifted the great mass of the people for the first 
 time into the enjoyment of something like a moral and 
 spiritual education ; and from that time light and know- 
 ledge have gone on steadily diffusing themselves in a?i 
 ever- widening circle. Mr. Johnes, in his essay on " The 
 Causes of Dissent in Wales," alluding to certain explana- 
 tions of the phenomenon with which some of his brother 
 Churchmen attempted to comfort themselves, candidly 
 rernarks, " Nothing can be more unsatisfactory than to 
 rank ignorance and individual eccentricity as in them- 
 selves causes of Dissent in Wales ; " for the fact is, he 
 adds, that " Dissent has increased with knowledge, and 
 not with ignorance." 
 
 And what, then, is the present condition of Wales as 
 respects the intelligence and mental activity of its people ? 
 I know of no better test of this in reference to any people 
 than the quantity of literature they consume. The oddest 
 misconceptions prevail in England as to the state of the
 
 40 BETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 Principality in this matter. I have met with people who 
 imagined that the Welsh language is only a sort of pro- 
 vincial dialect of English, like that which prevails in 
 Scotland. Others think that, though it be, indeed, a 
 separate language, it is one of the rudest and most ele- 
 mentary description, with little or no regular grammatical 
 construction, living only as oral speech on the lips of the 
 most ignorant of the people, and rapidly disappearing 
 from the face of the earth. As to the large stores of 
 ancient literature existing in the Welsh language, I may 
 refer your readers to an article in a recent number of 
 the Cornhill Magazine, from the pen of Mr. Matthew 
 Arnold, who, in a slightly patronising, but not ungenerous 
 spirit, while recommending the Welsh quite coolly to give 
 up their language, does justice to the extent and value of 
 the old literary treasures it contains. But very few 
 Englishmen seem to know that the Welsh have a large 
 living literature, and that at no time has the Welsh press 
 been so active as it is at this moment. 
 
 And, first, as to its periodical literature. I have a 
 list before me, as accurate as I could make, though I 
 am afraid not quite complete, of the periodicals issued 
 in the Welsh language. Among them I find 5 quar- 
 terlies, 25 monthlies, 8 weeklies. All these have an 
 aggregate circulation of not less than 120,000 copies. I 
 next come to translations from the English language. 
 Among commentators on the Bible, the following have 
 been translated into Welsh : Matthew Henry, Thomas 
 Scott, Dr. Gill, Dr. Coke, Guise, Burkitt, Brown (of 
 Haddington), Campbell, Barnes, and Kitto. Among 
 English and other authors, some of whose works are 
 found in Welsh, may be mentioned Calvin, Grotius 
 Baxter, Owen, Howe, Charnock, Goodwin, Bishop Hall, 
 Fisher, Brooks, Bunyan, Gurnal, Boston, Watson, Flavel, 
 Fleetwood, Poole, Colquhoun, Samuel Clarke, Mason,
 
 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 41 
 
 Harvey, Doddridge, Watts, Jonathan Edwards, Cole, 
 Fawcett, Maclean, Keach, Burder ("Eastern Customs,"), 
 Wesley, Eobert Hall, Dr. Chalmers, Abbot, Finney, 
 Angel James, Wardlaw, Gurney, Jenkyn, Dr. King, Dr. 
 M'Cosh, Baptist Noel, Dr. Angus, Walker, Hodge, 
 together with many of the works of the Christian Know- 
 ledge Society, and the Eeligious Tract Society. It will 
 be seen that these are all, or nearly all, religious and 
 theological writers, and the prevailing tendency of the 
 national mind is unquestionably towards that species of 
 literature ; not, however, exclusively. There are at least 
 two translations of " Paradise Lost," and portions of the 
 works of Gray, Young, Cowper, Blair, and other English 
 poets, have been rendered into Welsh, and recently one 
 of the plays of Shakspeare " Hamlet," I believe. So 
 have Bacon's essays, some of the late Dr. Dick of Scot- 
 land's works on science, all Josephus's writings, and at 
 the present time a costly edition of Goldsmith's " Ani- 
 mated Nature " is coming out in parts, with a large 
 circulation. Of original works in the Welsh language it 
 would be vain here to attempt any enumeration. I w r ill 
 only advert to a few serials that are now in course of 
 publication. First, there is a cyclopaedia, which will 
 extend to many large volumes, dealing, like other cyclo- 
 paedias, with the whole circle of human knowledge ; and 
 it appears to me, from the specimens I have seen, to be 
 conducted and written with very great ability. There is 
 a Dictionary of the Bible, to be completed in three large 
 royal octavo volumes. There are two biographical 
 dictionaries now appearing simultaneously. There is a 
 geographical dictionary, illustrated by many excellent 
 maps. There is a work on music, of which twenty- seven 
 shilling parts have already appeared. But the taste of 
 the people runs principally, as already intimated, on 
 Biblical and theological subjects. Perhaps no nation in
 
 42 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 the world has been so amply supplied with copies of the 
 Scriptures. The Bible Society alone, since its establish- 
 ment in 1804, has circulated upwards of a million 
 copies in the Principality ; and the demand is still un- 
 abated, for last year (1865) nearly 70,000 copies were taken 
 in Wales and Monmouthshire. Of commentaries and 
 other works illustrating the Bible the number and variety 
 is surprising some of them very elaborate and costly, 
 and all, without exception, securing a large circulation. 
 And there is a lingering prejudice still in many minds, in 
 spite of modern illumination, that there may be worse 
 things for a people than to be thoroughly saturated with 
 the history, poetry, and morality of the Bible. It is 
 rather a striking illustration of the demand for Welsh 
 literature that several enterprising English or Scotch 
 publishing firms, such as Mackenzie and Fullerton, have 
 found it worth their while to issue books in the Welsh 
 language from their presses, and some of them of a very 
 expensive nature. 
 
 Your readers must not, however, imagine that the 
 Welsh language is destitute of books on other than 
 Biblical and theological subjects. For works of poetry 
 and music there is an insatiable demand. One publica- 
 tion on congregational psalmody has had a circulation of 
 more than 20,000 copies. In one bookseller's list before 
 me I find no fewer than fourteen works on music pub- 
 lished within a few years. There are works also on 
 grammar, arithmetic, geography, chronology, botany, 
 logic, rhetoric, natural philosophy, etc. ; and a series of 
 essays by the Eev. Dr. Edwards, of Bala, in which 
 various literary questions are discussed in a broad spirit, 
 and with eminent ability, is now being issued from Mr. 
 Hughes's press at Wrexham. The W T elsh are further 
 pretty well furnished with histories, for among the works 
 on this subject I find a history of the world, a history of
 
 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 43 
 
 Great Britain, a history of Wales, a history of religion in 
 Wales, a history of the Christian Church, a history of 
 the Calvinistic Methodists, a history of the Independents, 
 a history, of the Baptists, etc. And of biographies of 
 their own worthies they have great abundance. "The 
 only books," says one of the principal publishers in 
 Wales, in a letter to me, "that absolutely fail in Welsh 
 are novels." 
 
 Now, to estimate rightly the significance of these facts 
 we must bear in remembrance the number and character 
 of the population for which this supply is provided. At 
 the last census the population of Wales, including Mon- 
 mouthshire, was 1,286,495. Sir Thomas Phillips, and 
 others who have studied the question, divide this into 
 three parts as respects language. N One-third are English- 
 men who have settled in Wales, or Welshmen who have 
 become Anglicized, and speak the English language only. 
 Another third are competently acquainted with both lan- 
 guages ; while the last third use the Welsh language 
 exclusively, and know very little English or none. The 
 whole, therefore, of that body of literature which I have 
 described must be consumed by the two-thirds that know 
 Welsh or about 850,000 people. But from this must 
 be deducted a very considerable portion of the second 
 class, who, though they may be well acquainted with 
 Welsh, prefer, and pretty much confine themselves to, 
 English literature. Indeed, it may be confidently 
 affirmed that by far the greater part of the issues from 
 the Welsh press are taken by the working classes 
 miners, workers in slate-quarries, artisans, small farmers, 
 and agricultural labourers. 
 
 After the facts I have stated, I think I may fairly ask 
 whether there is any population of the same class in the 
 kingdom among whom the taste for solid reading, and 
 the intelligence and mental activity it indicates, are more
 
 44 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 conspicuous ? But it would be a great mistake to 
 imagine that it is Welsh only that is read in the Princi- 
 pality. There are upwards of thirty English newspapers 
 published in Wales, some of them conducted with great 
 ability and having a large circulation. Of the quantity 
 of English literature circulated in Wales I have failed to 
 procure any very definite statistics. I have only received 
 as the result of my enquiries the impression that it must 
 be very considerable, and is rapidly increasing. One 
 Welsh publisher (Mr. Evans, of Holy well), to whom I 
 wrote on the subject, says : "I can only say in regard to 
 this little town, of about 6,000 inhabitants, that I, who 
 am only one of five booksellers in the town, sell of 
 English papers and periodicals, 90 dailies, 520 weeklies, 
 serials, and periodicals, and 150 monthlies. 
 
 LETTEE VI. 
 
 INFLUENCE OF THE EISTEDDFODAU AND SIMILAR INSTITU- 
 TIONS IN WALES. 
 
 IN my last letter I endeavoured to illustrate the amount 
 of intelligence and mental activity which prevail among 
 the people of Wales, by giving some idea of the nature 
 and extent of the literature that circulates among them. 
 To those of your readers who did me the honour to 
 examine my statements, it would be apparent, from the 
 predominantly Biblical and theological character of the 
 books which find most acceptance in the country, that 
 the main element in Welsh civilisation is a religious 
 element. There is, however, one other source whence 
 the national mind has received a powerful impulse. I
 
 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 45 
 
 allude to that class of institutions for the cultivation of 
 literature, eloquence, poetry, and music, which are now 
 spread over the whole face of the Principality, and of 
 which the national Eisteddfod is the most conspicuous 
 representative. The meetings of the Eisteddfod have of 
 late years attracted considerable attention in England. 
 But, for some reason or other, the English Press has 
 generally thought fit to take them in high dudgeon. It 
 might have been thought that the spectacle of the 
 remnant of an ancient race, "the great Celtic race 
 which," as Professor Goldwin Smith says, "once covered 
 all Britain as well as Gaul, and probably Spain, and 
 whose sword, at one moment cast into the scale of fate, 
 nearly outweighed the destiny of Eome " after having 
 for so many centuries bravely guarded their language and 
 national traditions among the mountain fastnesses to 
 which they hd,d been driven by the foot of the invader, 
 meeting, in these modern times, not for any purpose of 
 violence or sedition, but to promote the study of litera- 
 ture and the arts, to preserve from extinction the stores 
 of poetry and music which they had derived from 
 ancestral times, and to diffuse among their people 
 generally a love for such pursuits, would have inspired 
 some feelings of interest and respect in the bosom of 
 every man of liberal taste and generous sympathies. 
 And, in truth, such is the feeling that it has and does 
 inspire among those whom a large and scholarly culture 
 has lifted out of what has been well called the provincial 
 habit of mind men like Eobert Southey, Augustin 
 Thierry, the Chevalier Bunsen, the Bishop of St. 
 David's, and Mr. Matthew Arnold, from whose recent 
 article in the Cornhill Magazine I must allow myself 
 the gratification of citing one sentence. "An Eisteddfod 
 is, 110 doubt," he says, " a kind of Olympic meeting; and 
 that the common people of Wales should care for such
 
 46 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 a thing shows something Greek in them, something 
 spiritual, something humane, something (I am afraid one 
 must add) which in the English common people is not to 
 be found." 
 
 But writers of the " own correspondent " class find 
 nothing in these assemblages but materials for disdain 
 and derision. And although, no doubt, some of the old 
 bardic forms and symbols may be regarded, amid modern 
 surroundings, as being rather practical anachronisms 
 which had better be omitted, it is difficult to read the 
 flippancies with which even these are assailed without 
 applying to the writers the rebuke, slightly altered, 
 which Gower addressed to ancient Pistol for flouting 
 another old Welsh custom, " Will you mock at an ancient 
 tradition begun upon an honourable respect, and worn as 
 a memorable trophy of pre-deceased genius?" Indeed, 
 I cannot account for the extreme bitterness of contempt 
 in which some of the English papers have indulged 
 respecting these, to say the least, very harmless demon- 
 strations, unless it be on the assumption that, taking too 
 much au pied de la lettre certain over-fervid oratorical 
 effusions, they imagine that in the assertion of Welsh 
 nationality, customary, and surely not very unnatural 
 or unpardonable on such occasions, there is some lurking 
 disaffection to Saxon rule. And few things are more 
 amusing than the charming unconsciousness with which 
 John Bull betrays his inconsistencies on this matter. For 
 while his sympathy for nationalities oppressed, or com- 
 pressed, or suppressed by any foreign Power, effervesces 
 so fiercely, that his rulers can with difficulty restrain 
 him from flying at the throat of the greatest military 
 monarchies of Europe in the excess of his zeal on their 
 behalf, yet when any one of the nationalities he has 
 suppressed and nobody on earth has suppressed so 
 many dares to " peep, or mutter, or move the wing,"
 
 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 47 
 
 were it only in so purely sentimental and innocent a way 
 as is done at a Welsh Eisteddfod, John's jealousy is 
 aroused, and he becomes straightway as stern, merciless, 
 inexorable as the Czar Nicholas, when warning the 
 Polish nobles at Warsaw not to cherish vain illusions. 
 All I can say is, if such a suspicion ever does cross the 
 minds of the writers in question, in connection with 
 Wales, that a more groundless and absurd fantasy never 
 troubled any man's brain. I venture to assert that there 
 is not in the whole extent of the British dominions, from 
 the Hebrides to the Punjaub, a community more loyal to 
 the throne of Queen Victoria than the inhabitants of 
 Wales. 
 
 The fact is that the English papers do not understand, 
 and do not care to take much trouble to try to under- 
 stand, the significance of the Eisteddfodau. Their object 
 is not to foment the feeling of nationality in the political 
 sense at all. Nor is it to perpetuate the existence of the 
 Welsh language, for if its existence depended upon these 
 meetings its fate would soon be sealed. The best security 
 for the duration of the Welsh language is the passionate 
 attachment of the people to it as the vehicle of religious 
 worship and instruction. 
 
 The true reason why the Eisteddfodau are held is to be 
 found, partly in the reverence which the common people 
 of Wales cherish for old customs, and partly in the 
 genuine delight they take in such intellectual excite- 
 ments as are afforded them there, in exercises of oratory, 
 and competitions in poetry and music, just as the common 
 people of England take delight in horse-racing and fox- 
 hunting and pugilism. " It is a most remarkable feature," 
 said the late Bishop of St. David's, Dr. Thirwall, " in the 
 history of any people, and such as could be said of no other 
 than the Welsh, that they have centred their national 
 recreation in literature and musical competitions."
 
 48 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 And beyond doubt these institutions have exercised a 
 great and salutary influence in stimulating the intellectual 
 and literary activities of the nation. Many works of 
 sterling merit in prose and verse have been called forth in 
 the Welsh language by the prizes they have offered. And 
 some productions, whose name and fame have travelled 
 beyond the circle of mere Welsh celebrity, owe their 
 existence to them such as Miss Williams's collection of 
 old Welsh melodies, mentioned in my last letter ; Mr. 
 John Thomas's cantata of " Llewellyn," produced for the 
 Swansea Eisteddfod ; Schultz's " Essay on the influence 
 of Welsh Tradition upon the Literature of Germany, 
 France, and Scandinavia " ; and Stephens's work on 
 "The Literature of the Kymry," an admirable volume f 
 distinguished alike by sound judgment and solid learning. 
 But more valuable still are the indirect effects they have 
 produced, in diffusing through the whole country a spirit 
 of literary and artistic emulation, which has acted as a 
 powerful inducement to study and mental cultivation ; 
 for every town, and village, or neighbourhood has its own 
 miniature Eisteddfod, where prizes are offered for the best 
 essays and poems, the best singing and musical composi- 
 tions. I dare say many of the productions offered on 
 such occasions are crude and valueless enough ; but the 
 habit of application and research and the effort in com- 
 position, however bungling and inexpert, are very far 
 from being valueless. 
 
 In nothing, however, has the influence of the Eis- 
 teddfodau been so powerful as in the impulse they have 
 given to the study of music. The love of music has 
 always been a passion with the Welsh people, and one 
 of the pleasantest features in the rural life of the country, 
 is the way in which the peasantry accompany their 
 labour with singing. During harvest time especially the 
 fields often ring with the sound of song and psalm, to
 
 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 49 
 
 which is sometimes added a beautiful custom, to my 
 feeling the voice of prayer lifted in thanksgiving to the 
 great Giver, while the workers stand or kneel amid the 
 fragrant hay-swaths they have just cut, or under the 
 golden sheaves of corn they have bound and stacked. 
 
 A century ago, from about 1750 to 1790, there came a 
 period of decay as respects instrumental and vocal music 
 in Wales. And as this synchronises pretty closely with 
 the rise of Methodism, I have no doubt there was a con- 
 siderable connection between the two things. Not that 
 the leaders of that movement discouraged or ignored 
 music. On the contrary, with great wisdom and skill, 
 they pressed it into the service of religion, and nothing 
 probably helped more to spread the sacred fire they had 
 kindled than the hymns of the Eev. William Williams, of 
 Pantycelin, one of the seceding clergymen who left the 
 Church at that time, who was endowed with a rare 
 genius for devotional poetry, and has produced some of 
 the noblest hymns to be found in any language. But 
 unhappily, in the dark days that preceded that era the 
 sweet sounds of the mountain harp had been far too 
 much associated with scenes of profane and riotous 
 mirth, from which it became the aim, as it was the duty, 
 of the religious reformers to wean the people. About 
 this time, also, some of the most celebrated of the old 
 minstrels and harpers such as Edward Jones, Blind 
 Parry, Will Hopkin, &c. disappeared from the stage, 
 leaving no immediate successors. And thus it happened 
 that the cultivation of the old national music at least, 
 of the secular kind fell into desuetude. Within the last 
 forty years, however, the taste for music has revived and 
 spread with wonderful rapidity, until it has overrun the 
 whole face of the country, almost verifying the poetic 
 hyperbole of one enthusiastic bard, who says 
 
 M6r o g&n yw Cymru i gyd, 
 
 E
 
 50 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 That is, 
 
 All Wales is now one sea of song. 
 
 Among the quarrymen of the North Wales slate dis- 
 tricts, n the neighbourhood of Llanidloes and Aberyst- 
 with, and among the ironworks of Glamorganshire and 
 Monmouthshire, chorus-singing has reached a point of 
 excellence hardly credible to those who only knew Wales 
 twenty -five years ago. The singing of some of the choirs 
 at Merthyr, Aberdare, Dowlais, Swansea, and Cardiff, 
 may without discredit be brought into comparison with 
 the best in London excepting always Mr. Henry 
 Leslie's in point of delicacy, finish, and execution. 
 This applies especially to the singing of the hill districts 
 of South Wales. In that part of the country there are 
 frequent performances of the " Messiah," " Creation," 
 " Judas Maccabseus," etc. ; and I understand that Costa's 
 " Naaman " is now (1866) in active rehearsal, and will be 
 produced this spring. 
 
 Mr. Chorley, whose competency and honesty as a 
 musical critic no one will call in question, and who has 
 the reputation of being rather chary of his praises, heard 
 some of these choirs at the Eisteddfod in Swansea in 
 1863. In an article from his pen which appeared in All 
 the Year Bound for October of the same year, he thus 
 speaks of them : 
 
 " The singing of the chorus was a great pleasure and 
 astonishment. The power and the pleasure of co- 
 operation have got hold of the men who come up from 
 the mines or ride home from the forge" on a grimy 
 waggon along a tramway, in the midst of scoria or 
 cinders, or work at trade in town, or at husbandry in 
 country. The folk of Cornwall and Northumberland, 
 so far as I know, are far less tuneful ; and I do not 
 fancy that the farm labourers of Kent or Warwickshire 
 would trudge so far, or work so heartily, to get to a
 
 LETTEKS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 51 
 
 singing practice. The spirit of melody lies deep in the 
 hearts of the Welsh. Their women have, as a race, very 
 sweet, if not very strong, voices ; and recollecting as I 
 do the far more experienced trebles of Bradford, Man- 
 chester, Norwich, and those we hear in London, I can 
 credit these maids and matrons of Glamorganshire with 
 admirable and prepossessing natural gifts. It is impos- 
 sible to recall anything much more real and attractive 
 than the sweet, zealous concord of the chorus in the 
 charming old tunes which have been so well harmonised 
 by Mr. John Thomas. One could swallow a column of 
 titles as fantastic, &c., &c., for the sake of anything so 
 real, so peculiar. Never could melodies, never chorus, 
 have been more heartily relished." 
 
 But the noteworthy fact in respect to the choral 
 societies of Wales is, that not only the members of 
 the choir, but the chorus-masters are, without exception, 
 amateurs, and nearly all working men, who have re- 
 ceived no professional instruction whatever. The prac- 
 tices also have to be carried on without accompaniment 
 of any kind.* 
 
 The fame of the musical genius of Wales has of late 
 years spread far beyond the Principality. Welshmen 
 are proud to claim as their countrymen such men as 
 Mr. Brinley Eichards and Mr. John Thomas. " The 
 delicious national singing," as Mr. Chorley describes it, 
 " of Miss Edith Wynne," is now well known in most 
 parts of England. And Miss Edmonds, whom many 
 of your readers have no doubt lately heard in London, 
 was quietly taking her part in a choir at Swansea, 
 
 * For much of the information contained in this letter on the 
 musical proficiency of the Welsh I am indebted to Dr. Evan 
 Davies, of Swansea, a gentleman who in various ways has done 
 more, perhaps, than any man living to promote a higher order of 
 education among the working and middle classes of his country- 
 men. 
 
 E 2
 
 52 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 within twelve months of the day on which she made 
 her appearance at Exeter Hall as first soprano in Mr. 
 Costa's " Naaman," on its first performance in London, 
 taking the part written originally for Patti, and sung by 
 her afterwards, but not to the absolute discredit, in 
 the comparison, of the little Welsh girl. It is not 
 every Welsh singer, however, that is directed by Pro- 
 vidence to such accomplished teachers as Mr. and Mrs. 
 Sims Beeves. 
 
 There is an&ther young Welshwoman, Miss Watts, 
 who, if she has her health, and is placed under wise 
 guidance, bids fair to reach a high place in the fore- 
 most ranks of the profession. She has already won 
 the 50 prize of the Royal Academy of Music. And 
 it is a remarkable illustration of the patriotic and 
 musical enthusiasm of the Welsh that last year a sum 
 of more than 500 was raised by concerts, to enable 
 her to pursue her musical education, by much the 
 larger part of which was contributed, not by ihe 
 wealthy, but by the working people of her native 
 district. 
 
 LETTEE VII. 
 
 FEEEDOM FEOM CRIME IN WALES. 
 
 IN one of my former letters I stated that, since the fact 
 became established beyond the possibility of further dis- 
 pute, that the great bulk of the inhabitants of Wales are 
 Dissenters, " an attempt had been made to discredit 
 the cause of Nonconformity by blackening the character 
 of the Welsh." When this was done, thirty-five years 
 ago, through the means of the Commissioners on Educa-
 
 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 53 
 
 tion, I had the honour of standing up in this metropolis 
 to repel the aspersions that were then cast upon my 
 countrymen. There were many able writers and speakers 
 in Wales, of whom I may mention especially the late 
 Rev. Evan Jones, of Tredegar, an admirable man and a 
 true patriot, who rallied to the defence. But certainly 
 no more earnest and competent champion appeared in the 
 field than Sir Thomas Phillips. I have all the more 
 pleasure in acknowledging the great services by which, 
 on that occasion, this gentleman endeared himself to the 
 hearts of his compatriots, from the fact that he was a 
 zealous Churchman and, I believe, a Conservative. But 
 he was too genuine a lover of truth and of the land that 
 gave him birth, to connive at an attempt to snatch an 
 unfair advantage to his Church by the wholesale slander 
 of his countrymen if, indeed, it is conceivable that any 
 Christian Church can derive advantage from representing 
 the people of whom it has had charge for three centuries, 
 as being utterly ignorant and depraved. Sir Thomas, in 
 his work entitled " Wales; the Language, Social Condi- 
 tion, and Religious Opinions of the People," proved, by 
 an array of facts and of statistics derived from official 
 sources, that was absolutely overwhelming, and which no 
 one has ever refuted or, so far as I know, attempted to 
 refute that the morality of Wales, so far from being 
 lower, was very much higher than the average morality 
 of England. 
 
 When penning the sentence I have cited at the begin- 
 ning of this letter, I did not expect that an attempt would 
 be made so soon again to revive the old exploded calumny. 
 But so it is. Mr. Bright having, in the debate on church- 
 rates, quoted some of the statistics given in one of my 
 former letters, as to the relative numbers of Churchmen 
 and Dissenters in the Principality, Mr. Gathorne Hardy 
 discreetly, however, qualifying his statement with the 

 
 54 LETTEKS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 remark, " if I am rightly informed " took upon himself 
 to say that " much of the money employed for the erec- 
 tion of chapels in Wales is not given, but is lent on the 
 mortgage of the pew-rents in those chapels. That is cer- 
 tainly a totally different thing from voluntary contribu- 
 tions for Church purposes. In the one case the money 
 employed is derived from free and absolute gifts ; in the 
 other, it is regarded purely as an investment ; and so pro- 
 fitable are these investments, yielding oftentimes as much 
 as 7 per cent., that I am informed those who have lent 
 their money are no sooner paid off than they transfer 
 their capital to other and similar purposes." 
 
 Mr. Hardy was, of course, speaking according to his 
 brief. Knowing nothing of Wales himself, he was only 
 repeating what had been, probably, whispered in his ear 
 by some ignorant Welsh member, of which class there are 
 too many ignorant, at least, of that which it most con- 
 cerns them to know the real habits and feelings of the 
 people whom they profess to represent. But, most cer- 
 tainly, he was not " rightly informed." For, excepting 
 the fact that in Wales, as in England, chapels, and, I 
 suppose, churches too, are sometimes mortgaged when a 
 sufficient sum cannot be raised at the time of building to 
 defray the whole cost of erection, the above statement is 
 a pure fiction. I will venture to say that no chapels have 
 ever been built in Wales merely as a matter of profitable 
 investment. They are built by the free contributions of 
 the people, as they are needed, to supply the means of 
 spiritual instruction. And as those requiring them are 
 often a poor and never a wealthy population, they may 
 be obliged to borrow a part of the money on the security 
 of the building, and in some instances, for aught I know, 
 if they fall into extortionate hands, to pay a high rate of 
 interest upon it. But the chapel is always their own, 
 vested in trust for their use, or for the use of the religious
 
 LETTEKS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 55 
 
 body to which, they belong ; nor do they rest satisfied 
 until from their hard-earned savings they can pay off the 
 mortgage, and leave no encumbrance on the house of 
 their God. 
 
 But it evidently occurred in some more keen-eyed 
 champion of the Church to reflect that, even assuming the 
 case to be as Mr. Hardy represented it, such a showing 
 did not much mend the matter, so far as the Church is 
 concerned. For if, in addition to the maintenance of 
 their ministers and schools, the current expenses of 
 worship, and the repairs of the fabric, the people of 
 Wales are willing to pay 7 per cent, on the money 
 invested in the building, when they might use the parish 
 church for nothing, surely this does not detract from the 
 fervour of their Nonconformity, or the extent of the 
 sacrifices they are willing to make for its sake. It would 
 never do, therefore, to let the matter rest so. Accord- 
 ingly, a writer in the Press, of the 10th of March, taking 
 as his text Mr. Hardy's statement, itself utterly incorrect, 
 develops and illustrates it in the following astonishing 
 fashion After referring to Mr. Bright's figures, he 
 adds : 
 
 Mr. Bright did not stay to inquire into the particulars or the 
 dimensions of these numerous edifices, nor to investigate the in- 
 fluences under which they are constructed. If he had done so, he 
 would have revealed the workings of a system which he must have 
 condemned as more oppressive and more inimical to true religious 
 liberty than the infliction of church rates. Many of these build- 
 ings, it is well known, are built by the employers of labour in the 
 various crowded localities and mining districts of Wales, or are 
 held in mortgage by them for sums advanced for their construc- 
 tion ; and consequently pains and penalties in many instances 
 await those who refuse to frequent or encourage these chapels. 
 Like the tally-shops, so long the curse of the manufacturing dis- 
 tricts, these edifices are the properties of the masters, and a 
 secret but sure tyranny is frequently exercised in promoting their 
 support. There is another phase of the question suggested by 
 these statistics worthy of the consideration of Mr. Bright. Let 
 it be granted, to the fullest extent of his statement, that 75 per 
 cent, of the population of Wales is placed for spiritual purposes
 
 56 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 under dissent. Then a fair argument arises that the fruits of the 
 system are reflected in the character of the Welsh population. 
 But is not the Principality notoriously inferior in morality ? Are 
 not infanticide, illegitimate births, and affiliation cases in excess 
 of the average of any other portion of the United Kingdom ? 
 
 Here it will be seen that the old calumny as to the 
 immorality of the Welsh is revived. But before noticing 
 that, let me advert for a moment to the former part of 
 the statement relating to the influences under which, it is 
 alleged, the chapels are constructed and filled ; and let 
 me say at once, and with the utmost emphasis, that there 
 is absolutely not one word of truth in the whole of the 
 above tirade. Not only is it not true, but it is so gro- 
 tesquely unlike the truth, that one is astounded at the 
 ignorance or the audacity of the man who could venture 
 to perpetrate so outrageous a canard. It certainly will 
 be news to the people of Wales when they learn from the 
 revelations of this oracle that they are Nonconformists, 
 not from choice, but because they are driven, under 
 heavy pains and penalties, into the chapels built for them 
 by their masters. Why, Sir, "the masters," whether 
 that term is employed in reference to the employers of 
 labour in the mining districts, or to the landowners in 
 the agricultural districts, are almost without exception 
 Churchmen and many of them very bigoted Church- 
 men, too who vex their righteous souls not a little, not 
 with the unlawful deeds, but with the Nonconformist 
 proclivities of the people. They would no more think of 
 building a Dissenting chapel than they would of building 
 a synagogue for Satan. Nay, more, some of them, at 
 least, as I may have occasion to show hereafter, taking 
 advantage of their position as owners of property, do all 
 in their power to embarrass and obstruct the people in 
 their effort to build schools and places of worship for 
 themselves. There is, indeed, much pressure used by 
 the " masters " in Wales, but most assuredly that
 
 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 57 
 
 pressure is not in favour of the chapel. In short, the 
 facts are as nearly as possible the precise converse in 
 every respect of what the Press states. 
 
 On the other point the alleged immorality of the 
 people of Wales I accept the challenge of this writer. 
 And, first of all, I will deal with the question of crime in 
 the Principality. I have the " Judicial Statistics " of 
 1864 before me, from which I learn that the whole 
 number of persons committed in England during that 
 year was 122,589, or one to every 155 of the population. 
 The number committed in Wales was 4,417, or 1 to 
 every 252 of the population. But then, of the 4,417 
 committed in Wales, there were : 
 
 Natives of England . . . . . . 1,006 
 
 Ireland 846 
 
 Scotland 78 
 
 The Colonies and East Indies. . 135 
 
 Persons whose birthplace was unknown . 4 29 
 
 2,094 
 
 Thus it will be seen that the proportion of criminals to 
 the population in Wales is 44 per cent, less than in 
 England, while of those criminals who disgrace the 
 Principality nearly one-half are not natives. 
 
 Still more remarkable is the result when we come to 
 look to the number of persons committed for trial on 
 some of the more serious order of offences. Thus, those 
 committed on a charge of murder were in England, 67, 
 or 1 to every 282,902 of the population; in Wales, 3, 
 or 1 to every 370,902. Those committed on the charge 
 of attempts at murder were in England, 34 ; in Wales, 
 none. Those committed on the charge of manslaughter 
 were in England, 217, or 1 to every 87,347 of the popu- 
 lation ; in Whales, 6, or 1 to every 186,963. 
 
 So, when we examine the number of convictions, the 
 same, or nearly the same, disproportion exists. I cannot
 
 58 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 tell the editor of the Press how many persons were con- 
 victed of infanticide in Wales in 1864, because that class 
 of crime is not entered separately, but comes, I suppose, 
 under the general designation of " murder." But I can 
 tell him how many were convicted of murder in Wales 
 in 1864 namely, one, a number which, I hope, he will 
 admit could not include very many cases of infanticide. 
 
 But even these statistics, striking as they are, give but 
 an imperfect idea of the paucity of serious crimes in 
 Wales. The editor of one of the Welsh periodicals 
 stated a few months ago that, but for the foreign tramps 
 that infested the country, the gaols in some of the 
 counties in Wales might really be almost shut up. I 
 wrote to ask him how he substantiated so startling an 
 allegation. He answered by sending me the following 
 summary taken from the North Wales Chronicle of all the 
 criminal business done at the Midsummer assizes of 
 1865, in four out of the six counties of North Wales : 
 
 MONTGOMERYSHIRE. Setting fire to a stack, Henry 
 Johnson (an Englishman) ; stealing a pair of boots, 
 William Griffith; obtaining goods under false pretences, 
 Edward Beedle (an Englishman) ; forgery, Henry John- 
 son (an Englishman). 
 
 MERIONETHSHIRE. Stealing a pair of boots, Edward 
 Haynes (an Englishman) and John Harris Haynes 
 acquitted, Harris sentenced to three months ; rape, 
 Edward Evans charge dismissed. 
 
 CARNARVONSHIRE. Stealing 12s. 6d., William Smith 
 (an Englishman) ; John Jones, assault on a girl charge 
 dismissed. 
 
 ANGLESEY. Lord Chief Justice Cockburn thus ad- 
 dressed the grand jury : " Gentlemen of the grand jury, 
 I must express my congratulations to you that the Prin- 
 cipality of Wales, and especially the county of Anglesey, 
 represent this year again the purity of conduct, the good
 
 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 59 
 
 morals, and the honesty of purpose that have so long 
 distinguished the inhabitants of the Principality, and I 
 have the pleasure to inform you that there is not a single 
 prisoner for trial at these assizes, or, as far as I am 
 aware, any presentments for the grand jury to make. 
 This is a happy state of things, which has existed for 
 some time in your Principality, and we all trust that the 
 freedom from crime which has so long distinguished 
 Welshmen may continue to do so for a long time to 
 come. Gentlemen, if you have no presentment of your 
 own to make, I shall have great pleasure in discharging 
 you on this occasion, with the thanks of the county for 
 your services." The grand jury retired, and immediately 
 returned into the court, when the foreman said, '"I am 
 happy to say we have no presentments to make." After 
 they were discharged, the High Sheriff, addressing his 
 lordship, said, " My lord, as high sheriff of this county, 
 there being not a single prisoner for trial, I have very 
 great pleasure, in accordance with ancient custom, in 
 presenting you with a pair of white gloves." His lord- 
 ship returned thanks, and said " they were all aware and 
 rejoiced in the purity of the morals of the people of this 
 country." 
 
 My informant adds that he had not the particulars of 
 the Denbighshire assizes at hand, but that there were 
 only three or four petty cases, of no importance what- 
 ever. I have ascertained that at Carmarthen there were 
 at that assize only three prisoners for trial. 
 
 At the same assize Mr. Justice Shee thus addressed 
 the grand jury at Cardiff: 
 
 " I am happy to be the bearer of the Queen's com- 
 mission to this prosperous and well-ordered country, and 
 I thank you for your numerous attendance. I have now 
 been in the discharge of the duty of my office for two 
 years in the Principality; and as yet, though I have
 
 60 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 visited three counties, only six persons have been con- 
 victed before me, so that, if my experience were to go no 
 further, I should be in the condition to say that the in- 
 habitants of the Principality of Wales set a most excel- 
 lent example to the rest of her Majesty's subjects." 
 
 And while I am writing this, a Welsh paper comes to 
 hand stating that Mr. Justice Blackburn has just held 
 the Spring assizes at Cardigan. In charging the grand 
 jury, he said : 
 
 " At this assize I may almost congratulate you upon 
 having nothing to do. It is, in fact, the case, that the 
 county itself has furnished no business for these assizes." 
 
 There was only one case to be tried that of two 
 English tramps for stealing from a dwelling-house, who 
 were sentenced to eight months' imprisonment. I hope 
 these testimonies of her Majesty's judges will be of some 
 account in the estimation of the Press. 
 
 These learned gentlemen, the judges, coming down 
 from England to preside at the assizes in Wales, struck 
 with this surprising absence of crime, and from their in- 
 acquaintance with the inner life of the country, being 
 unable to account for it in any other way, have usually 
 betaken themselves to complimenting the grand jury, 
 assuring them that the virtue of the people was, no 
 doubt, owing to their having a resident gentry among 
 them. I should think the gentlemen thus complimented 
 must find it rather difficult not to laugh in each other's 
 faces while listening to these eulogies, so perfectly must 
 they be aware how little any influence of theirs has to do 
 with the matter. It is quite certain that, if the gentry 
 lived altogether, as many of them do half their time, in 
 Bath, or Cheltenham, or London, or on the Continent, it 
 would not make the slightest difference in the conduct of 
 the Welsh people. The influence which has made them 
 so orderly, moral, and law-abiding, must be sought else-
 
 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 61 
 
 where than in the abodes of the gentry. It must be 
 sought in the four or five thousand chapels and churches, 
 where a pure Gospel is preached every Sunday round the 
 year. It must be sought in the Sunday-schools spread 
 throughout the country, with their 40,000 voluntary 
 teachers, where the mass of the people have their minds 
 and hearts permeated with the great principles of 
 Christian doctrine and morality. I had intended to have 
 discussed in this letter the other question referred to in 
 the extract from the Press that of illegitimacy in Wales. 
 But I have already occupied so much of your space, that 
 I must defer it till next week. 
 
 LETTEE VIII. 
 
 THE CHARGE OF EXCESS IN ILLEGITIMACY BROUGHT 
 AGAINST WALES. 
 
 THERE is an animal haunting some of the less inhabited 
 parts of North America bearing a name as unsavoury as 
 its nature, which has the power of emitting a fluid of 
 such intolerable fcetor that it nearly suffocates man and 
 beast that come within its range. And, what is still 
 worse, this noisome stench is all but indelible. Once it 
 taints a piece of furniture or a garment it is next to im- 
 possible to be rid of it while a splinter or a shred of the 
 article remains. No amount of washing or scrubbing, or 
 exposure to the air can cleanse, nor can all the perfumes 
 of Arabia sweeten, the thing it has touched. Calumny 
 seems to have the same tenacious quality of clinging for 
 ever to any object that has once been polluted by its 
 obscene breath.
 
 62 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 We have a striking illustration of this in the pertinacity 
 with which the charge of immorality, especially as respects 
 the relation of the sexes, has been and is reiterated 
 against the Welsh people. How it originated it is diffi- 
 cult to say, but it is certain that the reports of the Com- 
 missioners on Education, in 1847-8, served to give it 
 more weight, and a wider currency than it ever had 
 before. It is a cruel thing that persons clothed with 
 official prestige should, through ignorance, rashness, and 
 credulity, have the power to brand with lasting infamy 
 the character of a whole people. It is impossible to 
 exaggerate the wrong which those Blue-books have done 
 to the reputation of the Principality ; for, as documents 
 promulgated under the sanction of the Government, they 
 are still referred to with unquestioning faith by writers 
 who have no means of knowing that their correctness 
 and credibility have ever been called in question. All 
 Welshmen who have crossed the border are well aware 
 how, through their means, a notion is still widely pre- 
 valent in England that the Principality is, especially as 
 respects the sin of unchastity, in a grossly and excep- 
 tionally depraved condition. It is alleged that the habits 
 of the peasantry are on this point worse than in any part 
 of the kingdom that, in the language of one of the 
 witnesses cited by the Commissioners, though he, I am 
 convinced, erred from ignorance and not from malice, 
 "the number of illegitimate children, when compared 
 with England, is astounding " ; or in the words of the 
 Press, cited in my last letter, that " the Principality is 
 notoriously inferior in morality, and that infanticide, 
 illegitimate births, and affiliation cases are in excess of 
 the average of any other portion of the United Kingdom." 
 These imputations have been again and again refuted by 
 facts and statistics of unimpeachable authenticity and 
 accuracy. But there are people who seem to take a
 
 LETTEKS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 63 
 
 prurient delight in dwelling on such unclean exaggera- 
 tions, and to surrender the belief in them with the 
 greatest possible reluctance. I must, therefore, once 
 more lay the evidence before your readers to prove that 
 this impeachment of the character of my countrymen 
 and countrywomen is, in the grossly exaggerated sense 
 in which it is usually made, without foundation. I do 
 not deny that unchastity exists in Wales. I do not deny 
 that it exists there in a measure that grieves and dis- 
 tresses all true lovers of their country. But I do very 
 confidently deny that it exists there in such form and 
 degree as to make it as was alleged by the Commis- 
 sioners, and is confidently repeated by the slavish 
 retailers of their scandal " the peculiar vice of the 
 Principality." Nay, I believe I can show that, though 
 falling lamentably below the standard of the Divine law, 
 it has the right to claim credit for superior purity as 
 compared with most other parts of the kingdom. 
 
 In investigating such a charge as this, it is only fair 
 to remember that there are other forms of unchastity 
 besides that which expresses itself by illegitimacy, such 
 as prostitution, adultery, concubinage, cohabitation with- 
 out marriage, and others of a still more occult though 
 not less deadly nature. And communities in which these 
 notoriously abound have small right to lift their eyes to 
 Heaven in sanctimonious disgust, and to thank God they 
 are not like other men, even though it could be proved 
 that the former evil happens to be less rife among them. 
 Now, it is only on the first count of this indictment that 
 anybody pretends to arraign the Welsh people as being 
 specially guilty, while all who have any acquaintance 
 with the country declare with one accord that, as respects 
 the other forms of the evil enunciated above, they are a 
 singularly exemplary community. 
 
 Let us see, however, how the matter stands in reference
 
 64 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 even to that particular point to which the accusa- 
 tion more emphatically applies. It is a curious thing 
 that men should have hazarded such wild assertions as 
 they have done as to the extent of illegitimacy in Wales, 
 when the means were at hand from which they might 
 have obtained the most accurate and precise information 
 in the " Annual Reports " of the Registrar- General. 
 As an example of the reckless manner in which the fair 
 fame of a whole country has been trifled with, take the 
 following statement made by one of the Commissioners 
 to whom I have so often referred namely, " That the 
 proportion of illegitimate children in North Wales shows 
 an excess of 12-3 per cent, on the calculated average of 
 all England and Wales in the year 1842 upon the like 
 number of registered births," the fact being, as the 
 official documents show, that the average of North 
 Wales for that very year was only 7-5 per cent. 
 altogether ! 
 
 But to return from this digression, I take the Registrar- 
 General's Report for 1863. The whole country, exclusive 
 of the metropolis, is divided, for the purposes of the 
 Registration Act, into ten districts. Of these Wales and 
 Monmouthshire form one. The proportion of illegitimate 
 children for every 100 children born in all these dis- 
 tricts is as follows, to which I have added those of 
 Scotland : 
 
 Scotland (in 1862) . v . . . 9'7 
 
 Northern District 8'7 
 
 North Midland District . , . . 8'3 
 Yorkshire 8'2 
 
 Eastern 
 North Western 
 West Midland 
 WELSH 
 
 South Midland 
 South Western 
 South Eastern 
 
 8-2 
 
 7-2 
 
 7-1 
 
 6-9 
 
 6-5 
 
 6-08 
 
 5-6 
 
 From which it will appear that Wales, so far from being
 
 LETTERS AND ESSAYS OX WALES. 
 
 65 
 
 at the top of the list, is the lowest but three of all the 
 divisions. But there is another way of showing this 
 matter, suggested by the Eegistrar-General in his Four- 
 teenth Annual Keport. " It must not be immediately 
 assumed," he says, " as has been sometimes done, in 
 comparing the counties of England and Wales, that the 
 relative morality of the population is expressed by these 
 numbers." He then points out the child-bearing ages of 
 women as being between fifteen and fifty-five, and prin- 
 cipally between twenty and forty, and shows in a table 
 the number of women married and unmarried in each 
 county at the two divisions of ages, as ascertained by the 
 last census then preceding, and the births of children 
 in each class, and the proportional number of children 
 to women. The following extract is given from that 
 table : 
 
 Registration Divisions. 
 
 Proportions of 
 Births in Wedlock 
 to 100 Married 
 Women. 
 
 Proportions of 
 Births out of Wed- 
 lock to 100 Unmarr.ed 
 Women and Widows. 
 
 Under the 
 Age of 40. 
 
 Under the 
 Age of 55. 
 
 Of the Age 
 of 2840. 
 
 Of the Age 
 of 1555. 
 
 England . . . 
 
 35-197 
 
 22-470 
 
 3-365 
 
 1-715 
 
 821 
 1-860 
 1-944 
 2-462 
 1-396 
 
 1-855 
 2-213 
 1-936 
 2-018 
 2-036 
 
 1-791 
 
 30-657 
 35-023 
 35-701 
 34-572 
 36-677 
 35-531 
 35-978 
 36-123 
 36-608 
 37781 
 
 36- 143 
 
 20-420 
 21-920 
 22-400 
 21-463 
 22-020 
 
 22-597 
 22-298 
 23-903 
 23-742 
 24-510 
 
 22-344 
 
 1-500 
 3-064 
 3-946 
 4-934 
 2-735 
 
 3-707 
 4-494 
 3-757 
 4-101 
 4-254 
 
 3-517 
 
 South Eastern counties 
 South Midland counties 
 Eastern counties . 
 South Western counties 
 
 West Midland counties 
 North Midland counties 
 North West counties . 
 Yorkshire .... 
 Northern counties 
 
 Monmouthshire and Wales . 
 
 Upon this the Eegistrar-General remarks : 
 
 Excluding London from view, as the returns are probably im- 
 perfect, it may be inferred that, generally, the unmarried wo nen 
 in the counties south of the Thames, comprising the old Saxon 
 
 P
 
 66 
 
 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 population, have few illegitimate children ; Wales stands next in 
 the scale. The West Midland, the North Western, and the South 
 Midland counties, covering the area of the ancient Mercia, present 
 less favourable results ; while in Yorkshire, the Northern counties, 
 the North Midland counties, and particularly the Eastern 
 counties, covering the area of the ancient Danish population, the 
 number of illegitimate children is exceedingly great. 
 
 But when we come to compare Wales with many of the 
 separate counties in England, the falsity of the Press's 
 assertion that, as respects illegitimate births, the Princi- 
 pality is in " excess of the average of any other portion 
 of the United Kingdom," becomes still more strikingly 
 apparent. This will be seen by the following table : 
 
 Wales . . 
 Bedfordshire 
 Oxfordshire 
 Suffolk 
 
 Herefordshire . 
 Lincolnshire 
 Nottinghamshire 
 Westmoreland . 
 North Riding . 
 Shropshire 
 Norfolk . 
 Cumberland 
 
 6-9 
 
 7-1 
 
 7-3 
 
 7-9 
 
 8-7 
 
 8-9 
 
 9-1 
 
 9-2 
 
 9-6 
 
 10-1 
 
 11-3 
 
 12-0 
 
 But the amount of bastardy is no accurate measure of 
 the chastity, far less of the general morality, of a people. 
 No stronger evidence of this can be desired than is 
 afforded by the fact that the per-centage of illegitimacy 
 is smaller in London than in any part of the kingdom, 
 and that it is smallest of all in those districts of London 
 that are notoriously the lowest in reputation. Thus we 
 find that while the proportion of illegitimate births in all 
 London is 4-4 per cent., in Whitechapel it is only 3-3 ; 
 in Poplar, 3'1 ; in Bethnal Green, 2-6 ; in St. Luke's, 
 2-1. No one will imagine that this paucity of illegi- 
 timate children is owing to superior purity of the dis- 
 tricts named. It is owing, unhappily, to a far less 
 creditable cause, to the prevalence of the various other
 
 LETTERS AXD ESSAYS ON WALES. 67 
 
 forms of incontinence previously referred to ; and in 
 regard to those I believe the Welsh people will compare 
 favourably with any community in the world. " Con- 
 jugal infidelity," says Dr. Eees, of Swansea, in an able 
 paper on this subject, which he read at one of the Social 
 Science meetings of the Eisteddfod held in that town in 
 1861, " is of comparatively rare occurrence in the Prin- 
 cipality. Many large districts of the country might be 
 named in which not one instance of adultery has been 
 found during a whole generation. The sacredness of 
 the marriage covenant and the enormity of the sin of 
 adultery are happily regarded and felt throughout the 
 nation." 
 
 On the subject of prostitution, we have the means of 
 making an approximate comparison. Under the head of 
 "Police, "in the "Judicial Statistics," there is a return 
 of the number of prostitutes in the various counties of 
 England and Wales. It is obviously imperfect, and 
 imperfect in a way that must be greatly to the dis- 
 advantage of the more scattered population. For while 
 in the small towns and villages every person whose 
 character is at all even suspected must be perfectly well 
 known to the police, in the dense population of large 
 towns, bike London and Liverpool, many such must of 
 necessity escape observation. But let us take these 
 returns as they are. I must, however, premise one 
 explanation. It must be remembered that the charge I 
 am rebutting is brought against the Welsh people, the 
 inhabitants of what may be called Wales Proper, and 
 more emphatically against those residing in the agricul- 
 tural districts. It is of North Wales, which is almost 
 wholly of that character, that the Commissioners say, 
 " There is one vice (unchastity) which is flagrant 
 throughout North Wales, and remains unchecked by 
 any instrument of civilisation." It is of the "peasantry " 
 
 P a
 
 68 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 of Cardiganshire, Breconshire, Carmarthenshire, &c., 
 that the same authorities allege that " they are almost 
 universally unchaste." When on the subject of prosti- 
 tution, therefore, it is with these districts of the country 
 that the comparison must be made. Not but that it is 
 sufficiently favourable to Wales, even if the whole 
 country were taken indiscriminately. But the large 
 towns of Glamorganshire, such as Cardiff, Swansea, 
 Merthyr, &c., have long ceased to be distinctively Welsh. 
 " There," says Sir Thomas Phillips, who lived in or near 
 that district, " are found large numbers of Englishmen 
 and Irishmen, many of them driven by crime or want, 
 and characterised by much that is lawless and unre- 
 strained." Indeed, in the great ports of the above 
 county there is a singularly promiscuous population, 
 including persons, especially of the sailor class, not only 
 from England and Ireland, but from almost every nation 
 under heaven. A striking proof of this is afforded by 
 the fact, that out of all the committals in Glamorgan- 
 shire, in 1864, considerably more than one-half were 
 foreigners, that is, not natives of the Principality. It 
 would be obviously absurd, therefore, to include this 
 mixed multitude under the designation of " the Welsh 
 people." 
 
 Confining myself, therefore, to Wales Proper, but 
 omitting Glamorganshire, I find the result of the returns 
 respecting prostitution is this, that while in England 
 prostitutes bear the proportion of 1 to every 364 women, 
 being -27 per cent, on the whole female population, in 
 Wales they bear the proportion of 1 to every 1,548 
 women, or -064 per cent, of the female population. There 
 is another significant fact that may be mentioned in con- 
 nection with this subject. In the " Judicial Statistics " 
 there is a return of " Brothels and Houses of 111 Fame," 
 of which there are 7,092 in England and Wales. But
 
 LETTEES AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 69 
 
 the portion allotted to Wales, omitting Glamorganshire, 
 is as follows : Anglesey, not one ; Cardiganshire, not 
 one ; Merionethshire, not one ; Eadnorshire, not one ; 
 Flintshire, 1 ; Breconshire, 3 ; Denbighshire, 4 ; Mont- 
 gomeryshire, 7 ; Carnarvonshire, 10 ; Carmarthenshire, 
 11 ; Pembrokeshire, I am sorry to say, 45. But it is a 
 very noteworthy fact, of which those must make what 
 they can who maintain that the salvation of Wales 
 depends on its forgetting Welsh and adopting the English 
 language, that every one of those houses of ill fame in 
 Pembrokeshire are in the purely English part of the 
 county Pembroke, Tenby, and Haverfordwest. 
 
 As to the attempt to connect the alleged immorality of 
 Wales with the prevalence of Dissent, I have one or two 
 words of not unfriendly caution to give to our Church 
 friends. They will find this a most dangerous and 
 double-edged weapon to wield. For if the fact that in 
 Wales, where Nonconformity predominates, 6-9 per cent, 
 of the births are illegitimate proves that Dissenting 
 teaching is immoral, then, of course, by perfect parity of 
 reasoning, the fact that in Cumberland, where the 
 Church of England predominates, 12-0 per cent, of the 
 births are illegitimate, proves that the teaching of the 
 Church is nearly twice as immoral as that of Dissent. 
 But there is another much more serious aspect of the 
 imputation. Those who make it know well enough, or 
 might know if they chose to inquire, that the Dissenters 
 in Wales, as in England, teach and preach nothing but 
 the doctrines and duties of Christianity. The only book 
 that is taught by their 30,000 or 40,000 Sunday-school 
 teachers is the Bible. There is not one, I will venture 
 to say, of the upwards of 3,000 Dissenting pulpits in 
 Wales where the pure and lofty morality of the Gospel 
 is not habitually and earnestly enforced. Nay, more, as 
 I can bear witness from frequent observation, it is
 
 70 HETTEBS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 brought to bear upon the current vices of society, and 
 emphatically upon the particular vice of which I have 
 been treating in this letter, with a plainness of applica- 
 tion and a directness and solemnity of appeal which 
 would throw half the fashionable congregations of 
 London into hysterics. If, therefore, teaching of this 
 sort produces an immoral people, it is clear that the 
 indictment lies, not against Dissent, but against 
 Christianity. 
 
 LETTER IX. 
 
 LIBEEALITY OF THE WELSH PEOPLE. 
 
 IN my last two letters I endeavoured, not unsuccessfully, 
 I hope, to vindicate the Welsh people from certain impu- 
 tations that have been cast upon their character on 
 matters of personal and social morality. But something 
 more than this should be done. It is not enough to 
 prove that they are not worse than many, probably better 
 than most, of their fellow-subjects in other parts of the 
 kingdom as respects their freedom from the grosser forms 
 ot crime and vice. A community whose religious privi- 
 leges and professions are so ample ought to be able to 
 show some fruits of positive and practical virtue. But it 
 is not easy to find any tangible test of this. You cannot 
 formulise into a schedule the quiet household virtues of 
 a people. 
 
 The charities that soothe, and heal, and bless, 
 Are scattered at the feet of men like flowers ; 
 
 and their silent beauty and fragrance can only be dis- 
 cerned by those who move familiarly among the scenes
 
 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 71 
 
 where they flourish and bloom. I do sincerely believe 
 that these may be found, in no stinted measure, to adorn 
 the humble homes of multitudes of my countrymen. 
 But they are things that cannot be represented by 
 statistical calculations and averages. 
 
 There is, however, one standard by which we may 
 pretty fairly appraise the practical influence which a 
 people's faith has produced on their character, that is, 
 the degree in which they are ready to make exertions 
 and sacrifices for purposes of religion and charity. -And 
 I think the inhabitants of the Principality need not 
 shrink from being brought to this standard. I have 
 already referred, in a former letter, to the more than 
 3,000 chapels, most of them built or rebuilt within the 
 last fifty years, which attest the extent of then- liberality. 
 Many of these are, no doubt, very plain structures, but 
 not so as to be at all out of harmony with the abodes of 
 those for whose use they are intended. On the contrary, 
 plain as the chapel often is, it is usually the most 
 capacious and stately building in the neighbourhood. It 
 is not easy to form an estimate of what these places of 
 worship have cost, for a large proportion of the contribu- 
 tions are, in many places, given in kind. For instance, 
 the proprietor of a quarry will allow the stones necessary 
 for the building to be taken without charge. The farmers 
 will send their horses and carts to carry the materials 
 without charge. And sometimes working men will, by 
 working extra hours, give their labour for nothing, or at 
 a reduced rate. The amount of actual money, therefore, 
 required is frequently not large. But if we assume them 
 to have cost no more than 500 each on an average, this 
 will give more than a million and a half expended in 
 about fifty years. And while on this point I must be 
 allowed to quote a few sentences f/oru a letter just 
 written to me by a gentleman at Dolgelley, which will
 
 72 LETTEBS AKD ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 throw some light upon what appears to have puzzled 
 Mr. Gathorne Hardy and others : 
 
 As for Mr. Hardy's remark (he says), that chapels are built for 
 the sake of the excessive interest which the money invested in 
 them brings to speculators, I can only say that, in this part of the 
 country, at least, it is so far otherwise, that money advanced on 
 chapels is usually without any interest at all. In the district of 
 the Festiniog Quarries (the quarries in which Lord Palmerston 
 was so large a shareholder) the people manage matters in this 
 way. When it is determined to build a new chapel in any neigh- 
 bourhood, to cost, say, .2,000, the members of the church and 
 congregation form themselves into a society, and agree to sub- 
 scribe monthly, while the building is in course of erection, a sum 
 varying from Is. to 5, according to their ability and inclination, 
 as a building fund, which is lent upon the chapel without interest. 
 When the building is opened, they then contribute smaller sums 
 monthly towards the gradual extinction of the debt, which is not 
 very long in being cancelled altogether. 
 
 It is difficult to ascertain with precise accuracy what 
 is the amount which the Nonconformists in Wales raise 
 annually for the various objects of a religious and 
 benevolent character in which they are interested. I 
 have two estimates, from two gentlemen who have paid 
 considerable attention to the subject. One says : " The 
 Nonconformists of Wales contribute for all purposes 
 including schools about a quarter of a million of pounds 
 annually." The other says: "I have often attempted 
 to make a calculation of the aggregate sum raised for all 
 religious objects by the Dissenters of Wales, and my 
 impression is that, including the extra efforts made for 
 the erection of chapels and schools, it amounts to at 
 bast 300,000 a year." 
 
 To understand the full significance of this fact, it must 
 be borne in mind that the gentry, and, as a rule, the 
 wealthy classes generally, are Churchmen ; so that these 
 sums are derived almost entirely from the middle and 
 working classes. It must be also remembered that all 
 this is paid by way of voluntary offering, in addition to 
 what is extracted from them by compulsory exaction for
 
 t 
 
 LETTERS AXD ESSAYS ON WALES. 73 
 
 the support of the Establishment. The revenues of the 
 Established Church in Wales have been thus estimated : 
 
 Incomes of the four bishops JE17,100 
 
 Deans and canons 10,000 
 
 1,050 parochial benefices, averaging .220 each . . 231,000 
 Charities under the management of the clergy for the 
 
 support of schools, &c 23,931 
 
 Church-rates and voluntary 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, &c., may be estimated at ... 21,000 
 
 Total , , . . , . .327,679 
 
 So that the annual amount raised by the Welsh Noncon- 
 formists of their own free will does not fall far short of 
 all the revenues of the Church imposed upon them by 
 authority, but whose services they decline to accept. 
 
 I may mention some other facts illustrating the vigour 
 and fruitfulness of the voluntary principle in Wales. It 
 is now, I think, about twenty-five years since the Cal- 
 vinistic Methodists of South Wales re-opened, as an 
 institution for training young men for the ministry, Lady 
 Huntingdon's College at Trevecca. But before doing so 
 they raised a sum of 10,000 for repairing the building 
 and providing funds for the institution, which is now 
 about to be augmented by an addition of 20,000 to be 
 raised during the next four years. Within the last five 
 years the same body in North Wales have subscribed no 
 less a sum than 35,000 for the erection and endowment 
 of a college for the same purpose at Bala. 
 
 About thirty years ago the Welsh Independents deter- 
 mined by a concerted effort to clear their chapels of the 
 debts by which they were at that time encumbered. And 
 in a short time, with some help from England, they raised 
 some 25,000 for the purpose. In the year 1862 the same 
 denomination, by way of commemorating the Noncon-
 
 /4 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 formist ejection two centuries before, started a fund to 
 spread over five years for building a new college at 
 Brecon, and for erecting chapels in destitute localities, or 
 aiding in liquidating the debts upon those previously 
 erected, and from the progress already made it is confi- 
 dently anticipated that before the end of 1867 it will 
 amount to 30,000. On the same occasion the Baptist 
 body, not so numerous nor so wealthy, began a fund for 
 somewhat similar purposes. At the outset they modestly 
 limited their aim to 4,000 or 5,000. But already 
 nearly 14,000 has been promised, and it is believed that 
 before the end of the prescribed period the sum will con- 
 siderably exceed that. There are no fewer than seven 
 Nonconformist colleges supported in the Principality, two 
 by the Calvinistic Methodists, three by the Indepen- 
 dents (one of them partially aided from the Presbyterian 
 Fund Board in London), and three by the Baptists. 
 
 But while thus attending to their own requirements, 
 the Welsh people by no means neglect the claims of 
 others. They contribute more bountifully to the Bible 
 Society than any part of the kingdom, according to the 
 number of the population. In the last report of that 
 excellent institution (1865) the committee say : 
 
 It is with feelings of peculiar interest that the committee turn 
 to Wales, and observe that there is no diminution in the substan- 
 tial proofs so long afforded of hearty attachment to the society. 
 The liberality evinced in the annual remittance of large free con- 
 tributions from the auxiliaries is truly surprising, when the\ 
 limited amount of the population and other circumstances are 
 concerned, and the same scale of liberality practised in England 
 would replenish the resources of the society to an extent far in 
 advance of any point hitherto reached. 
 
 The Calvinistic Methodists have a Foreign Missionary 
 . Society of their own, and support missions in India and 
 in Brittany, the latter field of labour having been selected 
 for the very natural reason that the Bretons are the near 
 kindred of the Welsh, a colony driven from their island 
 home to seek refuge in France when the people of Wales
 
 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 75 
 
 were sorely pressed by the Saxon invaders, it is supposed, 
 about the fifth or sixth century. The Episcopalians, the 
 Independents, the Baptists, and the Wesleyan Methodists 
 remit their contributions for the same purpose to the 
 societies which represent their repective bodies in London. 
 Towards most of the other objects which engage the 
 attention and sympathies of Christians in England, such 
 as the diffusion of the Gospel on the Continent and in the 
 Colonies, the conversion of the Jews, the religious instruc- 
 tion of sailors, &c., the Welsh Nonconformists contribute 
 their quota. 
 
 I must now say a few words on the question of popular 
 education in Wales. About thirty years ago the friends 
 of the Church in Wales, evidently in despair of luring 
 back the adult population within the ecclesiastical fold 
 whence they had strayed, betoo^ themselves very zeal- 
 ously to the work of day-school education, with the 
 avowed object of using it as an instrument of prose- 
 lytism. When the Committee of Council began to 
 make grants for the erection of schools, many of the 
 Dissenters in Wales had strong scruples, not without 
 good reason in my judgment, against applying for a 
 share of those grants. But our Church friends are 
 never troubled with much scruple when public money 
 is to be obtained, and in the Principality there 
 was a perfect rush of claimants among the clergy 
 and gentry for aid to build national schools. For 
 several years this was accorded with lavish profusion, 
 and with very little inquiry beyond the bare allegations 
 of the applicants. No one, perhaps, could have found 
 much fault with Churchmen for so eagerly seizing the 
 advantage placed within their reach by the Government, 
 even though their zeal for education was prompted by no 
 higher a motive than the wish to pervert the children of 
 Dissenters from the faith of their fathers if only they 
 had used their advantage with anything like fairness.
 
 76 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 But they used it with the utmost unfairness. Large 
 grants were obtained from the Committee of Council for 
 the erection of church schools in districts where there 
 were absolutely no children, or next to none, but those 
 of Dissenting parents ; and in these schools, built in 
 great part with money drawn from the general taxation 
 of the country, the learning of the Church Catechism, 
 and attendance on Church services, were rigidly en- 
 forced. The hardship of this was all the greater, as 
 there are no people in the world who have a stronger 
 repugnance than the Welsh Nonconformists to the doc- 
 trine of baptismal regeneration so emphatically taught in 
 the Church Catechism. A very striking illustration of 
 this was afforded some fourteen or fifteen years ago. Mr. 
 J. Bowstead, one of her Majesty's Inspectors of Schools, 
 on visiting South Wale,s for the purposes of his office, 
 was very much struck with the practical anomaly of 
 National Schools of the strictest order planted in the 
 midst of exclusively Dissenting populations. And having 
 soon ascertained the feelings of the people on the subject, 
 he had the courage to put a paragraph in his report, in 
 which he stated that such schools were ill-adapted for 
 the Principality, inasmuch as the parents cherished the 
 painful belief that in them their children " ran the risk 
 of being imbued with catechisms and formularies which 
 they themselves hold in a sort of abhorrence." Six years 
 after the appearance of this report the Bishop of St. 
 David's (Dr. Thirl wall) , in one of his charges, peremptorily 
 denied the correctness of Mr. Bowstead's statements, and 
 characterised them as " absurd exaggerations." No one 
 doubted for an instant that the Bishop spoke in perfect 
 good faith, but it is the misfortune of men in his high 
 position that they have little opportunity of coming into 
 direct contact with the mass of the people among whom 
 they dwell. Nor must it be denied that there were
 
 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 77 
 
 appearances which lent considerable plausibility to the 
 opinion he expressed as to the indifference with which 
 Dissenting parents saw their children taught the Church 
 Catechism. But when Mr. Bowstead found his state- 
 ment challenged from such a quarter, he felt that he was 
 bound to make it good by the adduction of adequate 
 evidence. He accordingly addressed a circular, briefly 
 stating the case, to nearly three hundred persons in 
 South Wales and Monmouthshire, including persons of 
 every religious denomination and of every grade in life, 
 asking them if he had misrepresented the feelings of the 
 Welsh Dissenters as respects the teaching of the Cate- 
 chism to their children. The response, as anyone who 
 had the slightest acquaintance with the country might 
 have anticipated, was overwhelming in the unanimity 
 and emphasis with which it ratified Mr. Bowstead's 
 opinion. This assuredly arose from no prejudice against 
 the Bishop of St. David's personally, who is respected 
 and honoured by all classes in the Principality, Dis- 
 senters as well as Churchmen. 
 
 It may be asked if such were the feelings of Dissenting 
 parents in Wales, how came it to pass that they sent 
 their children to such schools? The answer is, that 
 there exists among the Welsh people an extreme eager- 
 ness for education ; and as the National school was 
 often the only one to be found in a neighbourhood, 
 rather than forfeit altogether the advantages of the 
 general instruction afforded there, they suffered then- 
 children to swallow the obnoxious formulary, hoping by 
 antidotes applied at home to counteract what they 
 deemed the dangerous errors it inculcated. But what 
 shall we say to their tempters ? Must it not be a matter 
 of endless astonishment that honourable and religious 
 men can reconcile it to their consciences to seduce, and 
 sometimes coerce, little children into repeating, day by
 
 78 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 day, what they must know perfectly well is on their lips 
 a deliberate falsehood ; and that not on a point of trivial 
 import, but on one which many of the catechists them- 
 selves acknowledge, and even emphatically maintain, lies 
 at the basis of their Church's whole system of teaching ? 
 The case was so forcibly put in an article which appeared 
 a few weeks ago in the Times, probably from the pen of 
 one who has had personal experience of this matter, that 
 I must ask permission to insert a short extract here. It 
 was written a propos of a debate in Convocation on the 
 " Conscience Clause " : 
 
 There is found everywhere a tradition of some fanatical sect 
 once a year sacrificing a child, with circumstances and rites more 
 or less horrible. On Wednesday the victim was brought into the 
 Lower House of Convocation, in the form of an imaginary boy or 
 girl, of Dissenting parents, asking admission to the village school, 
 with its neighbours and playfellows. Its parents are Baptists, 
 and its baptism has accordingly been deferred till it could under- 
 stand something of the matter. Of course, it is not in a condition 
 to say that its name was given to it by its godfathers and god- 
 mother, for it has none ; and as the whole of the Catechism has been 
 ingeniously constructed to hang on that one reply, the child can have 
 nothing to say to it. In other respects it cannot fall into the 
 usual routine of the Church of England education, though it may 
 easily know more of the Bible than its school-fellows. To admit 
 the child, and to compel it, or even to encourage it, to join in a 
 course of instruction, vitiated in its case by a fundamental 
 untruth, is an hypocrisy, a fraud, and an oppression. In the 
 slack old times many clergy and many parents tolerated such a 
 practice, thinking it mattered little one way or the other, and the 
 child got an education. But conscientious, reflecting parents did 
 not like it, and even if they would have borne it themselves, or 
 were not strong enough to fight their own battles, their religious 
 teachers put them up to resist ; and there was a resistance. The 
 Dissenters made common cause, and claimed the benefit of the 
 village school, assisted by public money, without being compelled 
 to take the Church Catechism into the bargain. Hence the 
 " Conscience Clause," or rather the system of indulgence expressed 
 in the phrase, and of which it is the type. 
 
 But in Wales the promoters of the illiberal system of 
 education have in the main failed of their purpose. This 
 is acknowledged in a very lugubrious pamphlet, published
 
 LETTERS AXD ESSAYS ON WALES. 79 
 
 some years ago, by the Rev. Canon Williams, of Bangor, 
 in the form of a letter to the bishop of that diocese, 
 wherein he says that " there are few subjects of regret 
 more generally alluded to, in Wales at least, than the 
 failure of the National schools as a means of attaching 
 the pupils, in after life, to the Church." Meanwhile, the 
 Dissenters have not been idle in the matter of day-school 
 education. More than twenty years ago I had the 
 pleasure, in conjunction with many abler and more in- 
 fluential men, of taking part in an educational movement 
 which led to very considerable results, especially in South 
 Wales. A normal school was established at Brecon, and 
 thence transferred to Swansea, which for several years 
 was conducted with admirable efficiency. Owing to a 
 combination of untoward circumstances, it has now 
 ceased to exist ; but it lived long enough to give a most 
 valuable impulse to the cause of education in the Princi- 
 pality. Dr. Davies, who was at its head, has said 
 recently, " During the last twenty years I may say that 
 probably between 300 and 400 really good schools have 
 been started in South Wales, which is the part I know 
 most intimately, where the ordinary subjects, such as 
 English grammar and arithmetic, are very well taught." 
 It is not at all meant to be implied that these are all 
 Dissenting schools, though I have no doubt a large pro- 
 portion of them owe their existence, directly or indirectly, 
 to the influence of the movement alluded to. 
 
 In North Wales, also, the work of promoting a liberal 
 system of education has, within the last few years, been 
 carried on with remarkable vigour and success. A 
 normal college has been opened at Bangor, towards the 
 establishment of which the Welsh people have contri- 
 buted nearly 12,000, which is now in full and efficient 
 operation. A gentleman, who has himself been a main 
 agent in this good work, says, in a letter to me :
 
 80 LETTEES AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 We have now 215 British schools in Wales, all of which have 
 been established within the last twenty years, and that by the 
 exertions of what is called " the people," with little, very little, 
 assistance from the gentry. There are, indeed, a few honourable 
 exceptions. The same fact is also true as regards the mainten- 
 ance of these institutions. The contributions of the public 
 towards the building fund of Bangor College amounted to 
 1 1,600, by far the largest portion of which came out of plebeian 
 pockets. 
 
 LETTEE X. 
 
 POLITICAL CONDITION OF WALES STATE OF THE 
 REPRESENTATION. 
 
 HAVING dwelt at some length on the religious, moral, 
 and social condition of Wales, I propose in my two or 
 three remaining letters to say something as to its political 
 condition. 
 
 It is now more than three centuries since Wales 
 became politically incorporated with England by being 
 admitted to share in its system of Parliamentary re- 
 presentation. Up to that time the English Government 
 had attempted to subdue the Welsh by force of arms and 
 by oppressive penal legislation. But this masterful 
 policy failed utterly and ignominiously, as it richly de- 
 served to fail. " An old and haughty nation, proud in 
 arms," as Milton describes them, the inhabitants of 
 " gwyllt Walia " continued among their mountain fast- 
 nesses fierce, unconquerable, defiant. But what vio- 
 lence could not do, justice and conciliation speedily 
 accomplished. Burke in his great speech on " Concilia- 
 tion with America," cites the case of Wales as a cardinal 
 example of the folly and impotence of the one system of 
 rule, and the wisdom and virtue of the other. After
 
 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 81 
 
 describing the various measures taken " to subdue the 
 fierce spirit of the Welsh by all sorts of rigorous laws," 
 he adds : 
 
 But all this while Wales rid this country like an incubus ; it 
 was an unprofitable and oppressive burthen ; and an Englishman 
 travelling in that country could not go six yards from the high 
 road without being murdered. It was not until after two hundred 
 years discovered that, by an eternal law, Providence had decreed 
 vexation to violence, and poverty to rapine. Our ancestors did, 
 however, at length open their eyes to the ill husbandry of 
 injustice. Accordingly, in the 27th year of Henry VIII. the 
 course was entirely altered. With a preamble stating the entire 
 and perfect rights of the Crown of England, it gave to the Welsh 
 all the rights and privileges of English subjects. . . . But 
 that a nation should have a right to English liberties, and yet no 
 share at all in the fundamental security of those liberties the 
 grant of their own property seemed a thing so incongruous that, 
 eight years after, a complete and not ill-proportioned representa- 
 tion by counties and boroughs was bestowed upon all Wales by 
 Act of Parliament. From that moment, as by a charm, the 
 tumult subsided ; obedience was restored ; peace, order, and 
 civilisation followed in the train of liberty. 
 
 This, it must be admitted, is a rather highly-coloured 
 representation. Thus far, at any rate, it is true that 
 from that time to this the Welsh people have been 
 unswervingly loyal to the English Government. During 
 the civil wars they, for the most part, passionately 
 espoused the cause of the King. For the last hundred 
 or hundred and fifty years there is probably no part 
 of the United Kingdom that has given the authori- 
 ties so little trouble or anxiety. Anything like sedi- 
 tion, tumult, or riot is very rare in the Principality. 
 There have been only two considerable exceptions to 
 this rule, and these are more apparent than real. The 
 first was the Chartist outbreak in Newport in 1839. 
 But this was almost entirely of English inspiration, 
 and spread over only one corner of Wales, that occupied 
 by the mixed and half -Anglicised population of Mon- 
 mouthshire and the other adjacent coal and iron dis- 
 tricts. The great bulk of the Welsh people had no 
 
 G
 
 82 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 share whatever in the movement; but looked upon it 
 with undisguised repugnance and horror. The Eebecca 
 disturbances of 1843 undoubtedly differed widely in this 
 respect, that they broke out in the very heart of the 
 purely Welsh population. But the character of these 
 also has, I believe, been greatly misunderstood in Eng- 
 land. They had no political significance whatever, and 
 implied no disaffection to the Government. They 
 were merely uprisings, to which men were driven, or 
 imagined themselves driven, by the pressure of a griev- 
 ance that had become intolerable, and against which 
 they had long in vain protested and appealed. The 
 thing came to pass on this' wise. The small farmers of 
 Cardiganshire and Carmarthenshire were accustomed to 
 use a great deal of lime as manure. As there were no 
 railroads in those days, they had to send their carts for 
 the article to the lime-kilns, a distance of twenty, thirty, 
 and even forty miles. But so ingeniously had the local 
 magnates who had the administration of the turnpike 
 trusts in their hands, contrived by the multiplication of 
 turnpike-gates at every few miles interval along the whole 
 line they had to traverse, to erect obstacles in the way of 
 these efforts of their own tenants to improve the land 
 that, as the farmers have told me themselves, the prices 
 which they paid for the load of lime at the mouth of the 
 kiln, was sometimes more than doubled by the time they 
 got it home by these ever recurring highway imposts. At 
 length some of the younger men, partly in resentment 
 and partly in frolic, determined to take the matter into 
 their own hands. Forming themselves into companies, 
 under the guidance of a mythical female leader called 
 Eebecca, they sallied forth at night, pulled down the 
 obnoxious gates, and threw the broken timber into the 
 nearest river. That was the whole origin and mean- 
 ing of what has been called the Kebecca Eiots. No
 
 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 83 
 
 doubt, as the thing went on, there were symptoms 
 that a few evil-minded persons were disposed to turn 
 the agitation to account for other and more serious 
 purposes. 
 
 But the normal condition of the Principality is one of 
 profound calm, rarely ruffled even by a breath of popular 
 discontent. There is no part of the country probably 
 where the hand of authority is so little seen and so little 
 needed. After the Eebecca disturbances, the magistrates, 
 taking advantage of the sort of panic felt in England 
 rather than in Wales, succeeded in getting a county 
 police established. I will venture to say that the men 
 in that service are the most perfect sinecurists in the 
 kingdom. It is really almost painful to see the worthy 
 men and it is no fault of theirs that they have nothing 
 to do parading about the small towns and villages 
 airing their canes, for that seems the favourite symbol 
 and instrument of office, looking in vain for some small 
 job wherewith to relieve the tedium mice,. But nothing 
 comes in their way for months together, not even 
 an emeute of small boys. Except when they are 
 perverted from the right purpose of their office to 
 become game-watchers for the gentry, their principal 
 use, so far as I can see, is to touch their hats to the 
 magistrates. 
 
 Now, surely a people thus loyal, peaceable, and 
 orderly, may be assumed to be both qualified and entitled 
 to have a pretty free voice in the election of those who 
 should represent them in Parliament. And what is the 
 present state of the Parliamentary representation of 
 Wales ? If by that term we understand that those who 
 go to the House of Commons are supposed to represent 
 the principles, the convictions, the interests, and the 
 aspirations of the community in whose name they sit 
 then it must be pronounced that the representation of 
 
 G 2
 
 84 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 the Principality is in many respects utterly anomalous 
 and unsatisfactory. Nay, indeed, as regards some parts 
 of the country at least, it is a mere burlesque upon the 
 very idea of representation. Let me remind the reader 
 of a statement I made in the third of this series of 
 letters, that according to Table N (p. ccc.) of Mr. Horace 
 Mann's Eeport on the Census of Eeligious Worship, the 
 number of persons present at the most numerously 
 attended services on the census Sunday in 1851 in Wales, 
 was thus distributed : 
 
 Churchmen . . 134,940 or 21 per cent. 
 Nonconformists . 490,543 or 79 per cent. 
 
 But when we come to look at the representation we 
 find, first, that among those sent to Parliament, there 
 is not a single Nonconformist ; secondly, that of the 
 thirty-two members which the Principality returns, 
 fourteen are Conservatives, some of them of the 
 extremest class ; and thirdly, that a considerable 
 number of such as are nominally Liberal, are so 
 from family tradition and political convenience, far 
 more than from any real interest in or sympathy 
 with the popular cause. Of the Tories, three repre- 
 sent boroughs and eleven counties. Of the Liberals, 
 twelve represent boroughs and six counties. I need 
 not say that consistent Dissenters are, and must be, 
 from the nature of their principles and the necessity 
 of their position, Liberals in politics. And such they 
 have always proved to be, in fact. Such, also, be- 
 yond all doubt, are the great bulk of the Welsh Dis- 
 senters in principle and conviction. But without going 
 into general politics, no one, at any rate, will doubt that 
 as respects those measures which immediately affect 
 their own interests and rights they would earnestly take 
 the Liberal side. Let us see, then, how have they been
 
 LETTEKS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 85 
 
 served in regard even to these by the men who represent 
 them in Parliament. Within the last ten or twelve 
 years there have been several questions of this nature 
 frequently before the Legislature such as the question 
 of the Irish Church, the various University Eeform Bills, 
 Mr. Hadfield's Qualification for Offices Bill, the Burials 
 Bill, Mr. Dillwyn's Endowed Schools Bill, and the 
 Church-rates Bill. And how have the Welsh members 
 voted on these questions, so full of interest to their Non- 
 conformist constituents? When in 1856 Mr. Miall 
 brought forward his motion on the Irish Church, an 
 institution in respect to which there has been a more 
 general and emphatic verdict of condemnation pro- 
 nounced than on almost any one of the unreformed 
 abuses of the age, out of his 121 supporters there were 
 only two Welsh votes. When Mr. Heywood brought 
 forward his Oxford University Reform Bill in 1854, 
 which gave Dissenters the right to matriculate and 
 take degrees at the University, on every one of the 
 divisions that took place there was a majority of 
 Welsh votes against the measure. Again, when in 
 1856 the Cambridge Eeform Bill was before the House, 
 and it was proposed to give Dissenters who have 
 taken degrees a right to sit and vote in the senate 
 of the university, how many Welsh members sup- 
 ported the proposal ? Only one ! And when the 
 proposal was afterwards modified by the restriction, 
 that none but Episcopalians should vote on Ecclesias- 
 tical questions, there were only three Welsh votes in 
 its favour. So that it has been truly said that, so far 
 was Wales from having helped to pass these measures, 
 it would have been better at that time for the 
 course of Liberal legislation, in regard to the uni- 
 versities, if Wales had been without a single repre- 
 sentative in Parliament.
 
 86 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 But to come down to later years. It is well known 
 that Mr. Hadfield has repeatedly brought forward a 
 measure for abolishing an offensive declaration required 
 of town councillors and other functionaries, which even 
 Lord Derby admitted is " not worth the paper on which 
 it was written," but which, nevertheless, is maintained 
 by the friends of the Church merely, to use Lord 
 Chelmsford's words, " as a bridle upon the consciences 
 of her opponents." Yet in 1861 he was supported 
 by only four, and in 1862 by only three, and this 
 year by only two Welsh votes ! When Sir Morton 
 Peto introduced a Bill giving the right to Dissenting 
 ministers to officiate in parochial churchyards, as 
 has already been done in Scotland, Ireland, and most 
 of our colonies, there were eight Welsh votes in its 
 favour, and twelve against it. It fared somewhat 
 better with Mr. Dillwyn's Endowed Schools Bill, which 
 in 1861 was supported by ten Welsh members, and 
 opposed by nine. 
 
 As respects Church-rates, eight years ago only twelve 
 Welsh members voted for their abolition. But on this 
 question there has been a gradual and progressive im- 
 provement, since, on the last division, that which has 
 lately taken place, there were sixteen for and only six 
 against it. But the marvel is, that with the immense 
 majority of the population holding such views as they do, 
 any of the members for Wales should vote for the old 
 ideas of ecclesiastical exclusiveness and ascendancy. In 
 order to bring into bolder relief the flagrant anomalies of 
 Welsh representation in this respect, let me ask the 
 reader's attention to the following tabular statement, in 
 which he will find presented in detail the general result 
 already given as to the proportionate numbers of wor- 
 shippers in Churches and Dissenting chapels on the 
 census Sunday :
 
 LETTEKS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 87 
 
 Counties. 
 
 Number of attendants at the most 
 numerously attended Service 
 on the Census Sunday. 
 
 Church. 
 
 Nonconformist. 
 
 Anglesea 
 Brecknock , 
 Cardigan . '. ... 
 Carmarthen 
 
 2,374 
 6,234 
 10,517 
 8,685 
 7,328 
 9,138 
 4,931 
 11,997 
 2,360 
 16,026 
 8,370 
 8,989 
 4,259 
 
 16,604 
 19,375 
 34,571 
 31,918 
 41,781 
 29,153 
 13,046 
 81,141 
 20,168 
 48,201 
 22,441 
 21,839 
 3,958 
 
 Denbigh 
 Flint 
 Glamorgan 
 Merioneth 
 
 Montgomery 
 Pembroke 
 Radnor 
 
 Here it will be seen that in every one of the Welsh 
 counties, except Radnorshire, not only do the Dissenters 
 preponderate, but they do so in so enormous a degree as 
 to make the comparison almost ridiculous. And yet 
 eleven out of the seventeen men representing these 
 counties are Tories. Take, as an illustration, two 
 examples, one from North and one from South Wales. 
 In Carnarvonshire the Churchmen are to Dissenters as 
 7,328 to 41,781; in Carmarthenshire they are as 8,685 to 
 31,918. And yet Colonel Pennant and Mr. David Jones 
 vote doggedly against every measure introduced into 
 Parliament for the relief of Dissenters. They vote in 
 favour of imposing for ever upon the immense majority 
 of their constituents an impost for supporting the 
 churches of the minority, although they must know that 
 the former maintain, at their own proper cost, scores, if 
 not hundreds, of places of worship from which, as they 
 must also perfectly well know, flow the influences that 
 have done so much to enlighten, and civilise, and refine 
 the people. They vote for excluding the children of 
 three-fourths of those whom they profess to represent
 
 88 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 from all share in the education given at the national 
 universities. They vote against giving even so small a 
 relief to the consciences of their Nonconformist con- 
 stituents as is involved in abolishing a declaration which, 
 it is openly admitted, has no value whatever except as a 
 means of humiliating and affronting them. They vote 
 against granting permission to bereaved and mourning 
 families, while their wounds are yet green from the 
 stroke of death, to have the satisfaction of listening to a 
 few words of consolation and prayer over the grave of 
 the beloved from the lips of their own ministers. They 
 vote in support of perpetuating a monopoly as respects 
 endowed grammar schools, the effect of which is, among 
 Other things, to brand every individual among the tens of 
 thousands of Dissenters whom they pretend to represent 
 as a person who cannot be deemed in law an "honest 
 and discreet man." Said I not well, then, when I 
 declared that the representation of some parts of Wales 
 is a mere burlesque upon the name of representation ? 
 Take, again, the case of Denbighshire, where Church- 
 men are to Dissenters as 9,130 to 29,153; and yet 
 the gentleman who nominally represents this county 
 is a Tory of the " straitest sect." He and his family 
 have pertinaciously opposed every one of the great 
 reforms that have taken place in this country for the last 
 forty years. And ever since he has been in Parliament 
 he has resisted even the smallest concession to the claiiiis 
 and the feelings of the class who constitute the over- 
 whelming majority of the people in whose name he pro- 
 fesses to sit in that assembly. I ask again, is not this a 
 mere burlesque of representation ? Sir Watkin Williams 
 Wynn may represent the broad acres of which, by the 
 accident of birth, he is the fortunate possessor ; but that 
 he represents the people of Denbighshire, their real con- 
 victions, interests, desires, and aims, it would be simply 
 preposterous to believe.
 
 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 89 
 
 I may be asked, If this be the state of things as 
 respects the representation of the Principality, why is it 
 so ? Why do not the people send other and different 
 men to Parliament ? These are the questions which I 
 shall try to the best of my ability to answer in my next 
 letters. 
 
 LETTEE XI. 
 
 CAUSES OF THE ANOMALIES IN POLITICAL REPRESENTA- 
 TION SLOW GROWTH OF INTEREST IN POLITICS. 
 
 IN my last letter I [anticipated that, in connection with 
 the view I had given of the Parliamentary representation 
 of the Principality as anomalous and unsatisfactory, 
 questions like these might occur to the reader: Why 
 does such a state of things prevail ? If Dissenters out- 
 number Churchmen in the proportion stated, how 
 comes it to pass that the representation of the country 
 should be exclusively in the hands of Churchmen, many 
 of them persons of the very narrowest views on all 
 political and ecclesiastical questions ? These are inquiries 
 which I shall now endeavour to answer. 
 
 And, in the first place, it must be confessed, that it is 
 only within a comparatively late period that the Welsh 
 people have begun to take an intelligent and earnest in- 
 terest in politics. Not but that the Principality before 
 that was sometimes as violently agitated as other parts of 
 the country by electioneering excitements ; but usually 
 the conflict turned much more upon persons than princi- 
 ples. Certain great families, who by tradition or accident, 
 rather than from conviction, had come to espouse one side 
 or the other in politics, held it a matter of hereditary 
 honour to contest the representation with each other, far
 
 90 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 less as a means of giving effect to any particular views of 
 State policy, than of asserting and maintaining their own 
 family consequence against rival claimants in a county or 
 neighbourhood. In times preceding the religious revival 
 of last century the bulk of the people were content to 
 leave the question of political principle, if indeed any 
 such were involved,. in the hands of these local magnates, 
 enlisting under the banners they unfurled with unques- 
 tioning faith and devotion. Whatever of enthusiasm, 
 therefore, they felt in electioneering struggles was less 
 that of citizens contending for their rights than of clans- 
 men vehemently battling for their respective chieftains. 
 But the movement to which I have referred laid the foun- 
 dation for a change in all this, the operation of which, 
 though not immediate and obvious, was ultimately sure 
 and inevitable. You cannot vivify a nation's life with 
 new and earnest religious convictions without influencing 
 its character in other directions than those which are ex- 
 pressly religious. When the light which Christianity 
 sheds upon our spiritual nature and relations dawns upon 
 the mind of a man, however profound may be the abase- 
 ment which, on the one hand, it may lead him to feel, as 
 in the presence of the Supreme, it cannot fail, on the 
 other, to awaken withim him some perceptions of the 
 essential and indestructible dignity and worth of the in- 
 dividual human soul, as illustrated by facts of awful and 
 mysterious import, in comparison with which the con- 
 ventional distinctions of rank and wealth that prevail in 
 society pale into utter insignificance. He who in the 
 light of those facts has learnt to fear God is less likely 
 thenceforward to be stricken with any servile or paralysing 
 fear of man, even though that man were a squire or a 
 landlord. Besides which it is not in the nature of things 
 that those who have been driven to assert their inde- 
 pendence in matters of religion should long continue to
 
 LETTEBS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 91 
 
 be slaves in matters of politics. And the same law acts, 
 though more slowly, on the character of communities as 
 of individuals. The whole history of the past proves 
 that, at a longer or shorter interval, the one result 
 invariably follows the other. Nowhere has this fact 
 received a more signal illustration than in our own 
 national history. Who does not know that the political 
 struggle which secured the liberties of Englishmen was 
 largely the effect of the new spiritual life which the 
 Eeformation had infused into the heart of the nation ? 
 And so, according to the judgment of a most competent 
 witness, has it been everywhere else. " Almost every 
 effort," says De Tocqueville, " made by the moderns to- 
 wards liberty has been occasioned by the desire to mani- 
 fest or to defend their religious convictions." 
 
 Such, also, has been the result of the renewal of reli- 
 gious life in the Principality of Wales, though certain 
 causes have been at work there which have considerably 
 retarded its natural development. During the actual 
 period of the revival itself the national mind and heart 
 were pre-occupied with that, and the responsibilities and 
 duties which sprung out of it. That time, when they 
 were passing from death to life, was a very solemn time 
 with the Welsh people ; a time of intense and absorbing 
 emotion, which left them little leisure or thought for 
 secular politics. It was not possible at such a moment 
 to combine the two things in their regard, and since it 
 was necessary to choose between the two, no one can 
 question that they chose wisely. Spiritual life first, and 
 political rights and privileges afterwards. I, for one, 
 cannot, therefore, profess to grudge the time lost by the 
 Welsh people as respects political action, when I know 
 how that time was employed, in carrying light into the 
 dark parts of the country, in gathering churches, building 
 chapels, establishing and organising Sunday-schools, and
 
 92 LETTEB9 AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 extending and perfecting that apparatus of evangelical 
 agency which has been of such incalculable service to 
 the moral and religious life of the nation. 
 
 And even after the first stress of this work was over, 
 many of the leaders of that movement had a strong re- 
 pugnance to see their disciples mixing in the strife of 
 politics, and that from a feeling for which it is impossible 
 not to cherish a large measure of respect. Having, with 
 infinite labour and travail of soul, rescued many of these 
 novices from a state of the lowest ignorance and degra- 
 dation, they were apprehensive, and not without reason, 
 that if drawn, while their religious character was yet 
 immature, into the vortex of electioneering excitement 
 as elections are unhappily too often conducted they 
 might fall back into the evil habits from which they had 
 been with so much difficulty reclaimed. But there was 
 another sentiment far less defensible at the bottom of 
 the antipathy which some of these good men felt for 
 politics, traces of which may be still found lingering in 
 many minds. They seemed to consider politics them- 
 selves as something common and unclean, unworthy the 
 regard of those who aspired to a saintly profession. It 
 is difficult to know how such a feeling could have 
 originated among men who theologically were very much 
 the heirs of the Puritans. But however it originated, it 
 cannot be too strongly repudiated, as utterly false in 
 principle, and of most disastrous practical consequence. 
 Very admirable seem to me the remarks of De Tocque- 
 ville on the subject. Speaking of ministers of religion 
 he says : 
 
 I do not ask them to make those whom they educate or influence 
 Republicans or Royalists ; but I wish they would more frequently 
 tell them that, while Christians, they also belong to one of the 
 great human societies which God has formed, apparently in order 
 to show more clearly the ties by which individuals ought to be 
 mutually attached societies which are called nations, inhabiting
 
 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 93 
 
 a territory which they call their country. I wish them to instil 
 into their very souls, that every one belongs much more to this 
 collective Being than he does to himself, that towards this Being 
 no one ought to be indifferent, much less, by treating such indif- 
 ference as a sort of languid virtue, to enervate many of our 
 noblest instincts ; that everyone is responsible for the fortunes of 
 this collective Being ; that everyone is bound to work out its 
 prosperity, and to watch that it be not governed except by 
 respectable, beneficent, and legitimate authorities. . . . With- 
 out doubt Christianity can exist under every Government. This 
 is an evidence of its truth. It never has been bound, and never 
 will be bound, to any form of government, or to the grandeur of 
 any single nation. It can reign in the worst Governments, and 
 extracts from the calamities which they inflict the occasion for 
 admirable virtues ; but it does not follow that it ought to render us 
 insensible or even indifferent to those calamities, or that it does not 
 impose on every citizen the duty of boldly striving to abate them 
 by all the means which his conscience indicates and approves. 
 
 Well, owing to the operation of the various causes I 
 have indicated, there came upon Wales a season of great 
 political apathy. It was a period of transition. The 
 time for the politics of blind partisanship was gone. The 
 time for the politics of intelligent conviction had not yet 
 come. One formidable obstacle in the way of this was 
 the difference of language, which cut the people off from 
 the political literature of England. At first, their own 
 periodical literature, being, like almost everything else 
 that was good among them, the offspring of the religious 
 revival, took its character from the cause whence it had 
 arisen. It was almost exclusively religious. I remember 
 when I Was a boy that all the politics of the magazine 
 received in my father's house were compressed into about 
 half a page of most insipid summary at the end. It 
 is scarcely more than twenty years since the Welsh 
 began to have anything like apolitical literature. Much, 
 indeed, had been done before that, through the medium 
 of the monthly periodicals, to awaken something like a 
 public spirit in the nation. There were two men 
 especially who deserve most honourable mention in 
 connection with this department of service, namely, the
 
 91 LETTEES AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 Eev. Joseph Harris, of Swansea, and the Eev. David 
 Eses, of Llanelly. As editors of two of the principal 
 monthly serials, which they conducted with eminent 
 ability and earnestness, they did much to stimulate 
 popular intelligence on other than mere religious ques- 
 tions, and to prepare men for taking up the active duties 
 of citizenship. 
 
 The Welsh newspaper press has a history of its own 
 not without interest and instruction. The first news- 
 paper in the Welsh language that was successfully 
 established began to be published at Liverpool in the 
 year 1843, under the name of Yr Amserau, or The Times; 
 for though several attempts of a similar nature had been 
 previously made, they had uniformly failed. This paper 
 appeared at first fortnightly, and afterwards weekly, 
 and owes its success almost entirely to the patriotic 
 and disinterested devotion of one man the Eev. 
 William Eees, of Liverpool, now Dr. Eees,* of Chester, 
 a gentleman of high character, rare abilities, and in- 
 vincible energy, all of which he ungrudgingly dedi- 
 cated, without fee or reward, to the service of his 
 countrymen. For nearly ten years Mr. Eees bore the 
 whole burden of editorship ; and to edit a Welsh weekly 
 paper is a very different thing from editing an English 
 weekly. In the former case there can be none of the 
 paste and scissors work in which the latter saves so large 
 a portion of labour. Owing to the difference of language, 
 every scrap of general intelligence, foreign news, extracts 
 from Parliamentary debates, reports of English public 
 meetings, records of remarkable events, etc., have to pass 
 through the editor's pen, by being either translated or 
 re- written. Most of this enormous labour Mr. Eees 
 underwent, in addition to furnishing all the leading 
 
 * While this book is passing through the press, this admirable 
 and distinguished man has departed from us, full of years and 
 honours, amid the universal lamentations of the people whom 
 he so long and so well served.
 
 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 95 
 
 articles and other original contributions, which were 
 written with admirable intelligence and vigour, assisted 
 in some of the minor duties of editorship, and that for 
 only a portion of the time, by the successive publishers 
 of the paper, Mr. Jones and Mr. Lloyd, who also made 
 no small sacrifices, personal and pecuniary, in sustaining 
 the enterprise. I feel pleasure in paying my tribute of 
 admiration and respect to these men, to whom, and em- 
 phatically to Mr. Bees, the Welsh people owe so much 
 in connection with their political literature. It may be 
 readily imagined that the odious imposts, justly called 
 " taxes on knowledge," in the form of stamp, advertise- 
 ment, and paper duty, which, at that time, so fettered 
 the action of the press, weighed cruelly upon a paper 
 struggling with so many peculiar difficulties. To escape 
 from a part of this pressure, the publisher at one time 
 took the paper to be printed at Douglas, in the Isle of 
 Man, that island being exempt from some of those exac- 
 tions. And then occurred an incident which I record 
 with indignation and shame. Might it not have been 
 expected that the professed leaders of the people, the 
 gentry and clergy of Wales, would have sympathised 
 with the efforts of the brave men who, at such sacrifice 
 of time, labour and money, were thus endeavouring to 
 promote the political instruction of their countrymen ? 
 Instead of which, what did they do ? Why, the gentry 
 and clergy of North Wales held a meeting in the city 
 of Bangor, and adopted a memorial to the Govern- 
 ment, calling attention to the fact that this solitary, 
 struggling Welsh newspaper mentioning it by name 
 was being published in the Isle of Man, and sug- 
 gesting that it was not lawful to take a British 
 paper to be published there. Surely it is not easy to 
 conceive of anything more utterly mean, paltry, and 
 despicable, than this act of the parsons and landowners 
 of the country assembling in solemn conclave to use their
 
 96 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 combined influence to try to extinguish, by means of a 
 legal technicality, the only publication through which 
 their countrymen could at that time receive any regular 
 supply of political intelligence, merely because it advo- 
 cated opinions different from theirs. It was, never- 
 theless, an act rich in significance. Those associated in it 
 paid unwittingly the highest compliment they could have 
 paid to Mr. Kees and his coadjutors. By a sagacious 
 though selfish instinct, they felt with unerring certainty 
 that the light which was being let in on the minds of the 
 people could not fail to prove damaging to their preten- 
 sions and practices. That light, therefore, must, if possi- 
 ble, be shut out at any expense, even at the expense of 
 obliging the collective chivalry and spirituality of the 
 Tory party in North Wales to stoop to so shabby a pro- 
 ceeding as the one I have described. Happily for them, 
 there was a Conservative Government in power at the 
 time, who responded without delay to the generous 
 appeal, declared that the publication of a Welsh news- 
 paper in the Isle of Man was illegal, and must be desisted 
 from forthwith. The promoters of the memorial were 
 jubilant at the success of their intrigue, thinking that 
 they had now beyond doubt crushed the obnoxious sheet. 
 I am happy to say they were mistaken. The" paper 
 survived their onslaught, and lived to grow what it is at 
 the present moment, a thriving and prosperous concern, 
 the father of a long line of such, for there are now at 
 least eight newspapers published in the Welsh language. 
 But this little episode is one which the people of Wales 
 will do well not speedily to forget. 
 
 It will thus be seen that if the Nonconformists of the 
 Principality have not yet contributed so large a share of 
 influence in support of the Liberal cause as, from their 
 numbers and intelligence, we had a right to expect, much 
 may be said to explain and extenuate the default. They
 
 LETTEES AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 97 
 
 had much other and most momentous work to do. Their 
 political education had only recently began, and is yet 
 comparatively imperfect. Still, great progress has been 
 made. The schoolmaster is unmistakably abroad. The 
 leaven of independent thought is spreading rapidly 
 through society, and if my countrymen will only display 
 in vindication of their political freedom one half the firm- 
 ness in encountering persecutions and enduring sacrifices 
 which their fathers did in vindication of their religious 
 freedom, the day of their emancipation is not far distant. 
 How real and how severe those persecutions and sacri- 
 fices still are it will be my business to show in my next 
 letter. 
 
 LETTEE XII. 
 
 CAUSES OP ANOMALIES' IN THE POLITICAL REPRESENTA- 
 TION INFLUENCE OF THE CLERGY. 
 
 I REMARKED in my last letter that the comparative poli- 
 tical apathy into which, for reasons I attempted to 
 explain, the Welsh people had fallen during. the last 
 three-quarters of a century or more, had for several 
 years past been gradually disappearing. In the Prin- 
 cipality, as elsewhere, the cheap newspaper press has 
 been doing its work. It is not in vain that so much 
 stirring intelligence and discussion have percolated 
 through the public mind. I might refer to many 
 pregnant indications of the awakening of political life 
 among my countrymen. Even so far back as 1842 there 
 was a conference of Welsh ministers, principally of the 
 independent and Baptist denominations, held at Car- 
 narvon, to promote the abolition of the Corn Laws. Mr. 
 Prentice, the historian of the League, says of that 
 
 H
 
 98 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 meeting " that the proceedings were distinguished 
 throughout by talent, fervour, and unanimity." Four 
 or five years ago there was a more general conference 
 held at Swansea, when a standing committee was 
 appointed to watch over the political interests of the 
 Dissenting community in South Wales. Some incidents 
 connected with the last election, also, were full of signifi- 
 cance as to the change which is, by degrees, being wrought 
 in the popular feeling on this subject. But in proportion 
 as these signs of activity and independence multiply, 
 will the efforts to quash them be redoubled, on the part 
 of those classes who seem to imagine that they have by 
 prescription the right to possess a monopoly of political 
 power. Past experience proves that they are ready to 
 have recourse to very unscrupulous means to accomplish 
 their object. As I have previously intimated, the people 
 must stand prepared to make great sacrifices if they 
 would have their Parliamentary representation a reality 
 and not a pretence. If I am asked what kind of sacri- 
 fice, I answer every kind of sacrifice involved in 
 resisting those influences and measures put in force to 
 suppress or to punish the free expression of political 
 opinion, with which we are familiar enough in England, 
 but which are employed in Wales in more severe and 
 summary forms, and with a more open and daring 
 defiance of justice and decency. The ruin of tradesmen 
 by withdrawal of custom; the expulsion of some 
 tenants from their holdings ; the exaction from others 
 of increased and extortionate rents ; the worrying out 
 of the lives of others by long-suspended threats of some 
 terrible retribution that is coming upon them ; the with- 
 holding from religious bodies of sites on which to build 
 schools and places of worship ; and, in some instances, 
 the actual confiscation and sale of chapels built with 
 public money these, and such as these, are the prac-
 
 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 99 
 
 tiees to which Welsh landlords do not scruple to have 
 recourse, in order to coerce the consciences of their 
 neighbours. 
 
 But, before furnishing some illustrations of these state- 
 ments, let me try to explain how the population of Wales 
 is divided as regards politics. I am confident that no 
 one competently acquainted with the country will deny 
 that a large numerical majority of the constituents are 
 Liberals of a very decided character. For in Wales, as 
 in this country, it is not the Dissenters merely that are 
 Liberal, but a considerable proportion also of the 
 members of the Church of England. And, if there were 
 perfect freedom of voting, I doubt if a single Tory would 
 be returned for any part of the Principality. But there 
 are certain classes who, from position, concert, and 
 audacity, have hitherto contrived to impose the 
 opinions of the minority upon not a few of the Welsh 
 constituencies. 
 
 These classes are mainly three first, the clergy; 
 secondly, the gentry ; and, thirdly, a class of agents, or 
 stewards, generally of the legal profession, who act as 
 a sort of middlemen between the gentry and the people. 
 And, first, as to the clergy. I have no wish to say any- 
 teing disrespectful or unkind of the ministers of the 
 Establishment in the Principality. There are among 
 them men of piety, learning, and eloquence, who would 
 do honour to any church. From their body also have 
 come some most valuable contributions to the works 
 serving to illustrate the language and literature of their 
 country. The names of the Eev. Edward Davies, 
 author of " The Celtic Eesearches," and " The Myth- 
 ology of the British Druids ; " the Eev. Evan Evans, 
 author of " Dissertatio de Bardis ; " the Eev. Thomas 
 Price, the historian of Wales ; the Eev. D. Sylvan 
 Evans, who shares with Dr. Owen Pugh the honour of 
 
 H 2
 
 100 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 being its lexicographer, and others I could mention, can 
 never be repeated without respect and gratitude by every 
 Welsh scholar and patriot. The Welsh clergy, more- 
 over, are entitled to the credit no small one, surely, in 
 these days of having kept to the via media of a sober, 
 Evangelical Christianity, without rushing to either 
 extreme of Puseyism or Colensoism, between which the 
 teaching of their Church seems now oscillating like a 
 pendulum. Of late years, indeed, I believe that a very 
 small number of them have somewhat inclined in the 
 former direction, so far, at least, as to repeat some of the 
 inexpressibly silly twaddle in which none but the silliest 
 of the High Church party in England think it wise to 
 indulge against Dissenters, by representing them as 
 followers of Korah, Dathan, Abiram, whom the earth, 
 I suppose, if it were at all properly alive to its duty, 
 and not so perversely schismatical in its sympathies, 
 ought long ere this to have swallowed up alive. 
 It is only fair, however, to say that the most vio- 
 lent specimens of this class in Wales are renegade 
 Dissenters, who are trying, apparently, to purge them- 
 selves of the taint of ancient schism still hanging round 
 them, and to curry favour with those who probably look 
 upon their accession as a very equivocal honour, by vulgar 
 and violent abuse of their former associates. But as is 
 generally the case with men of that order, they only 
 succeed in being as cordially despised by those whom 
 they have joined, as by those whom they have left. I 
 am far from including in this description all the modern 
 conformists. Among them, as among the general body 
 of the clergy, there are catholic-minded and kind-hearted 
 gentlemen, who live on pleasant terms with their Dis- 
 senting neighbours, and do not disdain sometimes to join 
 in their religious services. And if there be a much larger 
 number of a different spirit, that is owing, no doubt, in a
 
 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 101 
 
 great measure, to the fact, that as the ministers of a 
 Church imposed by the State, but repudiated by the 
 people, they are placed in an utterly false, and I should 
 think most painful, position. Indeed, I hardly know of 
 any class I say it not sarcastically but quite sincerely 
 more to be pitied than are many of the Welsh clergy. 
 While hypothetically according to the theory of the 
 parochial system they are the spiritual teachers and 
 leaders of the whole parish, practically they find their 
 ministerial and pastoral guidance renounced by a large 
 majority of the people, who look upon them, I fear, with 
 feelings the reverse of reverence, as men who are receiv- 
 ing hire for labour, the greater part of which is done by 
 others. Or, where high personal character triumphs 
 over this kind of prejudice, "it is a very common re- 
 mark," as Mr. Johnes says in his " Essay on the Causes 
 of Dissent," " that when the clergyman is beloved it is 
 rather as a benevolent layman than as a clergyman, and 
 that even then the people chiefly confide in the Dissent- 
 ing ministers for guidance and consolation." They are 
 thus cut off from that pleasant fellowship in intercourse 
 and effort with the mass of their parishioners in which a 
 a good clergyman finds his congenial sphere of activity 
 and enjoyment. As they are for the most part men of 
 the people, the gentry, though attending their churches, 
 and accessible to their influence, do not very much court 
 their society, or if they do, it is in a patronising and half- 
 contemptuous spirit, which, as high-minded men, they 
 cannot but feel and resent. Thus isolated to a great 
 extent in their own parishes, they are driven very much 
 to consort with each other, so that their minds, as it 
 were, breed inwards, a process not favourable to Liberal 
 thought and generous feeling. While compelled to bear 
 so anomalous a character pastors without a flock see- 
 ing the chapels crowded with fervid worshippers and
 
 102 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 active workers, while their own churches are compara- 
 tively deserted and lifeless, it is not in human nature but 
 that they should feel bitterly mortified, a feeling which 
 some of the weakest among them poorly attempt to dis- 
 guise by assuming towards Dissenters in general, and 
 towards Dissenting ministers in particular, an air of great 
 hauteur and superiority, which, under the circumstances, 
 is sufficiently ludicrous. But when the time of election 
 comes they are avenged. I hardly need say that, with 
 exceptions as rare as black swans, they are, politically, 
 Tories of the rankest description. Their own direct in- 
 fluence is often very inconsiderable, except in the rare 
 cases where they are landowners as well as clergymen. 
 But their influence indirectly is very great. Scattered as 
 they are all over the country, and living among the 
 people, though apart from them, they form collectively a 
 sort of huge Dionysius' ear for their party, to gather and 
 convey to the landlords every whisper of disaffection 
 against the political despotism which the latter are dis- 
 posed to exercise over their tenants and dependents. It 
 is to be feared, also, that such reports lose nothing in 
 rancour by thus filtrating through minds soured by 
 sectarian and professional jealousy. And when the 
 actual time of conflict comes, it is, of course, an immense 
 advantage to a Conservative candidate to have in every 
 parish an amateur electioneering agent, who is spurred 
 to vigilance and activity quite as much by personal feel- 
 ing as by public principle, and finds, perhaps, a not 
 ungrateful compensation for years of humiliation and 
 neglect by seeing the Dissenting schismatics who forsake 
 his guidance and slight his eloquence in favour of the 
 conventicle, writhing under the harrow of an arrogant 
 and tyrannical landlordism. And the general belief is 
 I sincerely hope that in this respect they are wronged 
 that when any of the people dare to assert their own
 
 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 103 
 
 manhood by voting in harmony with their political con- 
 victions, and against the wishes of their landlords, they 
 are the foremost to counsel and instigate severe measures 
 of retribution against the recalcitrants. 
 
 No one has a right to doubt the perfect sincerity with 
 which the Welsh clergy take their side in politics. Nay, 
 indeed, it must be admitted that in resisting all Liberal 
 measures in defending all ancient abuses in setting 
 themselves to oppose, tooth and nail, every step in the 
 direction of freedom, whether civil, religious, commercial, 
 or literary they are only abiding faithful to the tra- 
 ditions of their Church. Such, if we may trust the 
 testimony of two great writers, both of them, I believe, 
 members of her communion, has been the policy of that 
 Church from its foundation. But the word "Church" in 
 this case can certainly only apply to the clergy, as it 
 would be most ungrateful to forget that among the lay 
 members of the Church of England there always have 
 been and still are as genuine and dauntless friends of 
 freedom as among any religious body whatever. But, 
 with this qualification, I am afraid, the words of the 
 writers to whom I have referred cannot be impeached. 
 "The Church of England," says Lord Macaulay, "has 
 continued to be for more than one hundred and fifty 
 years the steady enemy of public liberty. The divine 
 right of kings and the duty of passively obeying all their 
 commands were her favourite tenets. She held these 
 tenets firmly through times of oppression, persecution, 
 and licentiousness while law was trampled down, while 
 judgment was perverted, while the people were eaten as 
 though they were bread. Once, and but once for a 
 moment, and but for a moment when her own dignity 
 and property were touched she forgot to practise the 
 submission she had taught." No less emphatic is 
 the language of Mr. Lecky in his great work on " The
 
 104 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 Progress of Eationalism." " No other Church," he says, 
 " has so uniformly betrayed and trampled on the liberties 
 of her country. In all those fiery trials through which 
 English liberty has passed since the Eeformation she 
 invariably cast her influence into the scale of tyranny, 
 supported and eulogised every attempt to violate the 
 Constitution, and wrote the fearful sentence of eternal 
 condemnation upon the tombs of the martyrs of 
 freedom."* 
 
 I am bound, therefore, to vindicate the perfect con- 
 sistency of my clerical compatriots in espousing that 
 party in politics which resists all progress and reform. 
 But however strictly they may continue in the line of 
 political orthodoxy according to the tenets of their 
 Church, it is none the less true that they are in direct 
 antagonism to the convictions and wishes of the great 
 bulk of their countrymen. And surely the reflection 
 must sometimes force itself upon the more thoughtful of 
 them, that it is a most unhappy relation to exist between 
 any body of Christian ministers and the people among 
 whom they dwell, when they are regarded, not as friends 
 and counsellors sympathising with their views and aiding 
 in the attainment of their objects, but as spies and 
 informers, who watch their proceedings only to betray 
 them, who are always strenuously opposed to them on 
 all public questions, conspiring for their defeat, exulting 
 in their humiliation, and lending themselves as willing 
 accomplices, if not instruments, in the oppressions prac- 
 tised upon them for the free exercise of their political 
 rights. Is it thus they hope to command the respect 
 and win back the alienated affections of their flocks? 
 When an established Church has so lost the confidence 
 of the inhabitants of a country that it comes to be looked 
 upon, not as a sanctuary' for rest or refuge, but as a 
 * Vol. IT., p. 193.
 
 LETTEBS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 105 
 
 hostile garrison from which the population receives only 
 provocation and annoyance, instead of protection and 
 succour, it will be impossible long to prevent awkward 
 questions arising in many minds as to how far, even on 
 mere principles of political expediency, it is consonant 
 with justice and reason to perpetuate such an institution. 
 
 LETTEE XIII. 
 
 POLITICAL INFLUENCE OF THE GENTRY. 
 
 IN my last letter I explained the position which the 
 clergy occupy in Wales, and the influence they exercise 
 in political affairs. I pass on now to the gentry. The 
 great majority of this class are Tories of the purest 
 water, who have clung through evil report and through 
 good report to the dismal creed which makes the safety 
 of society depend upon putting the utmost restriction 
 upon every form of liberty, whether liberty of speech, or 
 conscience, or worship, or trade, or voting. There are a 
 few great houses who have always championed the 
 Liberal cause as a sort of family heirloom. But there 
 have been some ugly indications of late that, whatever 
 may have been the case with their ancestors, the present 
 race would far sooner sacrifice their professed political 
 principles than see any part of the representation of the 
 country passing out of the hands of their own class. 
 
 There is, thus, I fear, a wide separation in conviction 
 and sympathy between the great bulk of the people and 
 those who assume to be their leaders. I cannot honestly 
 say that I consider the blame to rest with the former. 
 Lack of loyalty is not the failing of any branch of the
 
 106 LETTEBS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 Celtic race. Indeed, an exaggerated tendency in the 
 opposite direction, expressing itself by a too enthusiastic 
 and indiscriminate devotion to their chief, is regarded by 
 many as the sin which doth most easily beset them. 
 Nay, some philosophical historians, who love to indulge 
 in large generalisations, have professed to find in this, the 
 characteristic distinction between the Celt and the 
 Teuton, that the former loves the rule of persons and the 
 latter of institutions. Be that as it may, it is very 
 certain that there was no indisposition on the part of the 
 Welsh people to trust and to follow as their natural 
 leaders those, at least, of the gentry who are, or who pro- 
 fess to be, the descendants of their own ancient princes. 
 It is one of the current delusions which prevail in Eng- 
 land about Wales, which had its origin, no doubt, in what 
 was at one time something like a reality, that there are 
 certain great families in the Principality whom all Welsh- 
 men regard with an almost servile and superstitious 
 veneration. That may have been the case formerly, 
 though not to the absurd excess which our English 
 friends imagine, and it might have been the case still 
 had those great families taken the smallest pains to 
 cultivate or even to retain the confidence and affection of 
 the people, by keeping themselves in any degree within 
 the sphere of their sympathies. But they have not 
 done this. They have done the very reverse of 
 this. They have acted in reference to matters which 
 their countrymen have come to regard as dearer to them 
 than their heart's blood, as if they wished and intended 
 to alienate their hearts from them. I can bear witness 
 to the fact for there is a great difference in this 
 respect even since the days of my childhood that 
 my countrymen did, with a very touching fidelity, try 
 hard and long to believe in their old ancestral gentry, 
 and it is not their fault, I repeat, if the spell of
 
 LETTEBS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 107 
 
 allegiance is now almost completely broken. You 
 cannot, with the best intentions, long venerate what is 
 not venerable. 
 
 I am far from wishing to include all the class in the 
 same condemnation. Among the Welsh gentry there 
 are some most estimable gentlemen, affable neighbours, 
 kind landlords, large-hearted and liberal-minded men, 
 who, though Churchmen themselves, are not only fair 
 but generous in their treatment of Dissenters. As land- 
 lords they are perhaps more careless than might be 
 desired, content with a very slovenly cultivation of their 
 lands and not much given to encourage improvements. 
 But they are forbearing and indulgent to their tenants, 
 exacting very moderate rents, letting their farms remain 
 in occupation of the same families for generations, when, 
 no doubt, they might obtain from others higher 
 rents, and a more enterprising tillage. And these are 
 rewarded by the respect and attachment of the whole 
 community, which they may long retain if they are wise 
 enough not to strain those feelings by attempting to 
 exercise a coercive influence in matters that lie quite 
 beyond the relations between landlords and tenants. 
 
 But there is another section whose conduct even as 
 landlords shows that there exists almost as urgent a 
 necessity for a Tenant Eight law for some parts of Wales 
 as for Ireland. There lies before me now a pamphlet, 
 published some ten years ago, called " Diosg Farm: a 
 Sketch of its History." It was written by a man known 
 and honoured throughout the Principality, whose veracity 
 is beyond impeachment or suspicion. It narrates the 
 story of the occupation, first by his father and then by 
 his widowed mother, of the above farm on the estate of 
 one of the greatest landowners in North Wales. The 
 substance of it may be stated in a few sentences. John 
 .Roberts was an Independent minister, labouring among
 
 108 LETTEBS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 a poor and scattered population, in a remote mountain 
 district of Merionethshire. To eke out the scanty pittance 
 with which alone the poor mountaineers could reward his 
 pious labours, he kept a school, by which he did an in- 
 estimable service to the cause of education in the district. 
 He was a man of singular excellence of character, peace- 
 ful, and a peacemaker, gentle, unworldly, and long- 
 suffering almost to a fault. After he had been settled 
 about ten years in the above neighbourhood, Diosg Farm 
 became vacant. " It was a wet, cold, stony, bramble- 
 bush, north-aspect farm on the sunless side of a very 
 steep hill. It was then in a much worse condition than 
 it could have been in any wilderness state. The old 
 rush-thatched house and barn were in rotten ruins." It 
 remained long unoccupied. No one dared touch so bank- 
 rupt and hopeless a concern. Least of all did it enter 
 the mind of John Eoberts to meddle with it. But an 
 overture was made to him by the representatives of the 
 landlord urging him to take the farm, with the assurance 
 that if he would consent to undergo some privations and 
 make some sacrifices for a few years, the kind-hearted, 
 noble-minded lord of that farm would be " sure to let 
 him have compound interest for his labour and capital." 
 Seduced -by these promises, in an evil hour, and, after 
 long hesitation, he took the farm. John Eoberts was 
 one of those men who carried his conscience into every- 
 thing, even into the cultivation of the soil. He did so 
 in this case. He entered upon the work of reclaiming 
 this miserable holding with a quiet energy and persever- 
 ance that were characteristic of the man. He drained, 
 and sub-soiled, and manured, made roads and fences, 
 and helped largely by money and labour to rebuild the 
 house and out -buildings. And then, after he had been 
 engaged on this work for not quite seven years, having 
 expended 700, the savings of his whole life, and the
 
 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 109 
 
 modest dowry of his wife, and while he was so imper- 
 fectly even beginning to reap the reward of his toils, that 
 he was still obliged to buy bread for his farm servants, 
 then the very men, stewards of this great landed pro- 
 prietor, who had tempted him to take the farm, and 
 cheered him on in the laborious and costly improvements 
 he was making, by repeated promises of a liberal com- 
 pensation hereafter, suddenly brought a land-surveyor on 
 the farm, who, without making any inquiry whatever as 
 to what John Eoberts had done, advanced his rent at 
 once full fifty per cent. He appealed against this 
 decision, pointed out how much he had invested in the 
 land, but the only answer to his remonstrances was a 
 peremptory declaration that if he did not choose to pay 
 the advanced rent the farm would be let for the same 
 rent to another ; that is to say, the new comer was to 
 have it for the same rent as was demanded of the man 
 whose 700 was fast buried in its drains and roads, and 
 fences and buildings. This, I am afraid, is only a speci- 
 men of what often takes place, the only difference being 
 that in this case the son of John Roberts, being a man 
 of education and spirit, and wielding a very incisive pen, 
 has been able to drag the matter into light. 
 
 The mania for game-preserving is also carried to a 
 most absurd and ruinous extent on some estates in Wales. 
 The land swarms with wild animals, who feed on the 
 farmer's crops, and are kept by the landlord not for sport 
 but profit, regular supplies being sent weekly to the 
 market at J-jiverpool or elsewhere, while the unfortunate 
 cultivator of the soil has no right to claim any compen- 
 sation for the havoc committed on his property. Such 
 things as these, it will be readily imagined, do not breed 
 love and reverence towards the owners of the soil. 
 
 Other circumstances also serve to widen the chasm 
 between the gentry and the people. Many of the former
 
 110 LETTEKS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 are ignorant of the language of the country, and are 
 rather proud of their ignorance, while others, who have 
 acquired a little smattering of colloquial Welsh, make no 
 attempt to acquaint themselves with the current periodical 
 literature, through which, in Wales as everywhere else, 
 the national mind and heart and will find expression. 
 This is not a sentimental, but a very real and serious 
 grievance ; for the people among whom? they dwell 
 remain unknown to the upper classes, or rather, what is 
 far worse, they are misknown, the impressions of them 
 which they receive being conveyed through a false medium 
 the medium of minds coloured and distorted by interest 
 or prejudice. To the same influence I suppose we must 
 ascribe the fact that many of them tease and worry the 
 people by petty persecutions about their chapels and 
 schools. Some landlords positively refuse to grant sites 
 on any terms on which Dissenters can build schoolrooms 
 and places of worship. I have several recent cases of 
 that kind mentioned in a letter now before me, in which 
 the names of all the parties concerned are given very 
 explicitly, with full liberty to publish them on the 
 authority of the writer. But as I wish to avoid all 
 appearance of personality I shall not reveal the names 
 unless I am challenged to do so. Other landlords, while 
 reluctantly and most ungraciously granting a site, after 
 sometimes keeping ministers and congregations dancing 
 attendance upon them, cap in hand, it may be for months 
 or even years, will on no consideration give them even a 
 Isase ; and thus they oblige the people either to go with- 
 out the means of worshipping God according to their 
 consciences, or to put down buildings costing many 
 hundreds of pounds, on the land of men whom they know 
 to be hostile or prejudiced, without any security whatever 
 but the honour or caprice of the proprietor. And when 
 the time of election comes advantage is occasionally taken
 
 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. Ill 
 
 of this in the meanest spirit, by holding threats over the 
 heads of congregations, threats which, in some instances, 
 have been actually carried into effect, of ejecting them 
 from their chapels or of selling the building over their 
 heads. 
 
 This kind of petty sectarian spite which refuses sites 
 for building Dissenting chapels and schools is familiarly 
 enough known in England. But there are two things 
 which serve greatly to aggravate the hardship in Wales. 
 The first is, that it is not a small minority, but the great 
 bulk of the population, who are Dissenters, for whom, 
 even if they were disposed to go to the parish church, 
 there would in many cases be no accommodation, and in 
 some no instruction in the only language they can under- 
 stand. The second is, that, as the estates of these gentle- 
 men bigots often extend over a whole county, there is 
 no chance for the poor people of finding any other spot 
 on which to put down the ark of the covenant of their 
 God. 
 
 Surely every one must feel that all this is a cruel and 
 tyrannous abuse of the rights of property, which, if per- 
 severingly and extensively practised, may give rise to 
 questions the discussion of which it will be best not to 
 provoke. When the Free Church secession took place in 
 Scotland, some of the great Scotch landlords showed a 
 disposition to try to crush that young and vigorous com- 
 munity by having recourse to similar tactics. They drove 
 the people assembling to worship off their lands, and 
 obliged them to seek refuge on board ships on the sea or 
 on the lakes. But by degrees there came a very dangerous 
 gleam into the eyes of the children of the Covenanters 
 before which those territorial potentates thought it wise 
 to recoil in time. The Welsh gentry also will^find it to 
 their own honour and comfort not to pursue that policy 
 too far. No one wants to call in question the rights of
 
 112 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 property, but there is one other species of rights which is 
 still more sacred, namely, the rights of conscience. 
 
 What renders this course more utterly indefensible is 
 the fact, which is known, or ought to be known, to these 
 gentlemen, that to the Dissenting chapels and Sunday 
 schools which they are so anxious to banish from their 
 domains, they owe that enlightening and civilising 
 influence on the minds and character of the people, 
 which confers such absolute security on their own 
 persons and possessions, and adds incalculably even to 
 the mere pecuniary value of their estates. There are 
 great capabilities of crime, not of the mean, but of the 
 violent order, in the Celtic character, as is unhappily too 
 abundantly proved by the history of Ireland. But, as 
 my friend Dr. Eees, of Swansea, says, in one of his able 
 papers, " In Wales no landowner, proprietor of works, 
 or any other member of the upper classes, has cause to 
 be afraid of the dagger of the assassin, the fire of the in- 
 cendiary, or the rude assaults of the infuriated mob." 
 And does it never occur to these gentlemen to inquire 
 the reason why ? It is not always, they may be assured, 
 from either fear or love of them. 
 
 The writer of a vigorous article, which appeared in 
 one of the Welsh quarterlies, called Y Traethodydd 
 ("The Essayist"), on certain incidents connected with 
 the last election, has some admirable remarks on this 
 subject. He is referring to the pretension that had been 
 put forward by, or on behalf of, some of the candidates, 
 that Dissenters ought implicitly to vote for them because 
 they had granted leases on which to build chapels. 
 
 We know (says the writer), through the testimony of pious 
 clergymen who lived in those days, what was the social, educa- 
 tional, and religious condition of the Principality before the 
 appearance of Nonconformity, and we know what it is at present, 
 after Nonconformity has been the means, among its other achieve- 
 ments, of reforming the Established Church itself, and bringing 
 it to emulate its own efforts, and so to co-operate in the improve-
 
 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 113 
 
 ment in every respect of the population of Wales. But we unhesi- 
 tatingly affirm that the landowners of Wales are under far greater 
 obligations to the Nonconformists of Wales than the Noncon- 
 formists are to them. And while it is becoming that we should 
 approach the owners of the soil as gentlemen, it is utterly 
 unworthy of our ancestry and of our history that we should 
 crouch before them like spaniels. Is it not in our sanctuaries 
 that the people are taught to fear God and to honour their rulers, 
 to pay honour to whom honour is due, and tribute to whom 
 tribute, and to do good to all men, even to our enemies ? Are 
 not our Sunday School teachers the unpaid police of the Princi- 
 pality ? Is it not the piety of the members of our churches that 
 has saved many an oppressor from being shot from behind a 
 hedge, as has often been done to obnoxious landlords in Ireland ? 
 It is the fear of God in the hearts of those thousands of our 
 people, whom some graceless and ungrateful sprigs of gentility 
 are wont to call " canting Methodists," that protects the person, 
 the palaces, and the possessions of those who have sometimes 
 sorely persecuted them, and treated them as if they were evil- 
 doers. 
 
 LETTEE XIV. 
 
 POLITICAL LANDLORDISM IN WALES. 
 
 CAN any one explain what there is in the relation 
 between a tenant farmer and his landlord so essentially 
 different from the hundred other forms of commercial 
 relation existing between men in civil society, as to 
 entitle the latter, in addition to receiving his legal dues 
 from the former, to claim the right, moreover, of holding 
 his will and conscience in pawn ? To ordinary ob- 
 servers it looks like a mutually beneficial arrangement 
 under which, on well-defined terms, the one lets and the 
 other hires a certain piece of land, because each deems 
 it his interest so to do. Whence, then, comes the notion 
 that, besides properly cultivating the soil, and punctually 
 paying his rent, and duly fulfilling all the other condi- 
 tions of his contract, the tenant is under an obligation, 
 whenever required so to do, to sell his soul to the devil, 
 
 I
 
 114 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 by belying his own most solemn convictions on matters, 
 it may be, of vital moment to the State, in order to sub- 
 serve the political interests, or, more frequently, the 
 mere prejudices or caprices of his landlord ? And why 
 should such an obligation, if it exist, be assumed always 
 to lie on one side ? I suppose that if a farmer were to 
 say to a landed proprietor whose land he rents, " I hire 
 this farm of you, I bestow upon it good husbandly, I pay 
 you a liberal rent for it, and I expect that at the coming 
 election you will vote for the man whom I shall choose 
 to recommend to you" it would be regarded either as 
 an impertinent jest or a piece of audacious and insuffer- 
 able arrogance. But why should the converse of this be 
 less an impertinence, or less a piece of insufferable arro- 
 gance? I am as far as possible from saying that the 
 only tie which should bind men to each other in society 
 is that of a money relation. I can perfectly well under- 
 stand how a benevolent landlord, dwelling on his estates, 
 bestowing manifold courtesies and kindnesses on those 
 around him, should be so respected and beloved by his 
 tenants as to exercise a large and most legitimate influ- 
 ence over their political opinions. But the assumed 
 right of which I speak is a totally different tiling from 
 this species of influence. It is claimed by men who are 
 neither respected nor beloved, whom their tenants know 
 in no other capacity than as rent-receivers and game- 
 preservers ; and it is exercised, not by means of superior 
 intelligence, kindly persuasion and weight of character, 
 but by means of mere brute menace, terror, and coercion. 
 I am afraid many of the Welsh gentry are very bigoted 
 believers in this sort of divine right of landlordism as 
 respects political matters. And this is the more unrea- 
 sonable on their part as they have in most other respects 
 left the people to shift pretty much for themselves. 
 Almost everything that has been done in past times for
 
 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 115 
 
 the improvement and elevation of society in Wales has 
 been done by the people, through their own exertions, 
 and from their own resources, with very little help from 
 the upper classes. I say this with no unfiiendly animus 
 to the latter ; I state it as a simple historical fact, neces- 
 sary to be known in order to understand their relation to 
 the rest of the community. Some of the smaller gentry 
 joined the early Methodists, and by their countenance and 
 support rendered to the cause of religious revival a con- 
 siderable service, which I gladly and gratefully acknow- 
 ledge. Others of them have of late years taken some 
 interest in popular education ; but this has been, in many 
 cases, so obviously subordinated to purposes of prose- 
 lytism, that their very benevolence has been poisoned to 
 the people by the infusion into it of this bitter sectarian 
 element. With these exceptions, and looking back over 
 the last century and a half in the history of the Prin- 
 cipality, I am bound to say that the gentry as a class 
 have not been the leaders of the Welsh nation in* religion 
 or morality, in education or literature, in any form of 
 civilisation or social progress. I do not scruple to say 
 that the heroes of Welsh civilisation must be sought, not 
 in their ranks, but among Methodist and Dissenting 
 ministers, giving the foremost place to that admirable 
 body of clergymen Daniel Rowlands, William Williams, 
 Peter Williams, Thomas Charles/David Jones, and others, 
 who were driven out of ^the Establishment by the 
 excess of their zeal for the well-being of their country- 
 men. But the gentry as a class never understood or 
 appreciated the full significance and value of that won- 
 derful religious and moral revolution that was taking 
 place around them. To this day they have not given to 
 it more than a grudging and half-disdainful recognition, 
 though no class, as I said in my last letter, hfive more 
 profited by its social results. 
 
 I 2
 
 116 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 And yet, while thus living apart from the real life of 
 the nation, they have persuaded themselves somehow 
 that in political matters they have a right to be absolute 
 dictators, to prescribe to their countrymen what views 
 they shall hold, what measures they shall support or 
 reject, what candidates they shall choose to represent 
 them in Parliament, or rather to do all this for them, and, 
 in short, to treat them as mere serfs of the soil, who have 
 indeed nominally the right of the suffrage, but which 
 must never be exercised except for their purposes, and 
 under their dictation. 
 
 And when this arrogant pretension is resisted they 
 have shown a disposition and the conflict, for reasons I 
 have already explained, is only beginning to employ 
 very summary measures indeed to crush this rebellion 
 against their will. I will take as an illustration of this 
 the case of Merionethshire, because there the two an- 
 tagonist forces of a liberal Dissenting constituency and a 
 rampant and ruthless landlordism have been brought 
 face to face, in a more direct manner than, perhaps, in 
 any other part of Wales. All honour to this brave little 
 county for the efforts it has repeatedly, though as yet 
 unsuccessfully, made to cast off the ignoble incubus 
 which sits astride on the heart of the Principality. It is 
 well known that Sir Watkin Williams Wynn has large 
 landed estates in North Wales. The residential seat of 
 this family is in Denbighshire. For nearly two hundred 
 years they have, almost unopposed, represented that 
 county in Parliament. For, though the Liberals have 
 often, and sometimes successfully, contested the second 
 seat, conferred upon the constituency by the Eeform 
 Bill of 1832, it has always been understood, I believe, 
 that the opposition is never against the representative of 
 the house of Wynnstay, but against the other Tory can- 
 didate, brought forward as his associate and nominee.
 
 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 117 
 
 Though no sort of political sympathy can exist between 
 them and the great bulk of the inhabitants of Denbigh- 
 shire, the prescriptive right of one of the Wynns to sit in 
 Parliament has been hitherto tacitly admitted. But, not 
 satisfied with this, Sir Watkin thinks himself entitled to 
 impose his will in electoral matters upon the two neigh- 
 bouring counties of Montgomery and Merioneth, whom 
 he expects always to return some relative or creature of 
 his. Well, at the election of 1859 the people of 
 Merionethshire determined to make a stand against this 
 dictatorial influence. A Liberal candidate was brought 
 forward in the person of Mr. David Williams. The 
 battle was fought with energy and spirit, and the Wynns 
 triumphed. Hardly any other issue was to be expected 
 at the first onset of the popular party, when we take into 
 account the sort of traditional reverence long felt for the 
 great house opposed to them, and the enormous influence 
 of every kind, legitimate and illegitimate, which its 
 partisans could, and very unscrupulously did, exercise. 
 It might have been thought, however, that they would 
 have been content with their victory. Far from it. It 
 would appear that during the contest a few Dissenting 
 electors tenants of Sir Watkin and another Tory gentle- 
 man in the neighbourhood of Bala, Mr. Price, of Ehiwlas 
 had ventured to follow their convictions by voting for 
 the Liberal candidate, while a considerable number more 
 had abstained from voting, unwilling to go counter to 
 their landlords' wishes, and unable conscientiously to 
 support their protege. So dangerous an innovation must 
 not be tolerated for an instant. For, just think of it. 
 Here were men little Welsh farmers who actually 
 dared to believe that their souls were their own, and not 
 the property of the landlords, and that they owed a 
 higher allegiance to the lord of conscience than to the 
 lord of Wynnstay. A strong blow must, therefore, be
 
 118 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 struck at once to convince them of the atrocious folly of 
 cherishing so revolutionary and blasphemous a sentiment. 
 What happened then ? I cannot answer the question 
 better than by giving the following extract from a letter 
 that was published a year or two after the events 
 described in the pages of a periodical called The Elector. 
 The writer is the Eev. Michael D. Jones, one of the pro- 
 fessors at the Independent College, Bala. He had been 
 invited, apparently, to attend some conference on the 
 question of the ballot, and replies thus : 
 
 The people of Merionethshire have been brought to feel the 
 necessity of secret voting, as the landlords, after the late election, 
 have made those electors who refused to become their tools to 
 smart in their material interests. The late Mr. Price, of Rhiwlas, 
 made several tenants the object of his wrath, by turning them 
 out of their farms. Sir Watkin in the same way, raised the rents 
 of eleven of his tenants who had remained neutral, and ejected 
 five that voted against the candidate he aided. Two of Mr. 
 Price's tenants have died in consequence of this persecution, 
 namely, Mr. Koberts, of Frongoch, the father of six children, one 
 of which was born since his death, and his sister, who was also- 
 the head of a family. The ill-feeling that followed the election 
 no doubt affected the health of Mr. Price, so that he also is dead. 
 I was no elector at the time ; but I did my best to support the 
 Liberal candidate by public speaking, canvassing, &c. My 
 mother, aged seventy-six, was a tenant of Sir Watkin, and she 
 lost her farm, and in January, 1861, she died. I had a chapel 
 built upon a common, which common Sir Watkin bought of the 
 Crown, and then sold my chapel to the highest bidder. 
 
 These facts have been frequently proclaimed in the 
 most open manner through the Press and at public 
 meetings, and their correctness, so far as I know, has 
 not been questioned. There was one public meeting 
 especially, held at Bala soon after the election, of a 
 very significant character. It was attended and ad- 
 dressed by gentlemen who possess the highest reputa- 
 tion throughout Wales (for Bala is the seat of two of the 
 principal Dissenting colleges), some of them men not at 
 all addicted to political agitation, but called forth, on 
 that occasion, by what they no doubt felt to be the
 
 LETTERS AXD ESSAYS ON WALES. 119 
 
 gravity of the crisis. I was greatly struck by the tone of 
 that meeting. There was great earnestness, but no 
 violent denunciation or abuse. On the contrary, the 
 landlords whose conduct was called into question, 
 especially Mr. Price, of Ehiwlas who appears, indeed, 
 before that access of political violence seized him, to 
 have been a gentleman, greatly honoured and esteemed 
 by all his neighbours were treated, not, indeed, with 
 servility, but with singular, I might almost say, a sort 
 of yearning tenderness. I could not help thinking 
 while reading the report of the speeches strange that 
 the gentry should prefer the terrorist power they acquire 
 by the exercise of petty despotism, which is often more a 
 matter of pride than of any very earnest political convic- 
 tion, to possessing the respect, confidence, and affection 
 of men like these. 
 
 I have dwelt at some length on these incidents, as 
 they may, perhaps, be regarded as typical of much 
 that is coming. Political life, as I have said more than 
 once, is only beginning to stir in Wales. That it will go 
 on into fuller development I have no doubt. Whether 
 its action shall be peaceable and prosperous will depend 
 upon the course taken by the gentry. As I have 
 already intimated, they may become the leaders of a 
 loyal and enthusiastic people, if they only try to bring 
 themselves into sympathy with their sentiments and 
 convictions. But if they choose to adopt the high- 
 handed policy of exacting of the people a slavish and 
 unreasoning subjection to their will, I am convinced 
 they are committing themselves to a conflict which is 
 certain to be followed either by defeat or by a victory 
 which will be to them at once ignoble and ruinous. It is 
 vain to try to import the ideas and habits of feudalism 
 into the light and freedom and stirring intellectual 
 excitement of the nineteenth century. They are no-
 
 120 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 longer lords over serfs of the soil, or chiefs over their 
 clansmen, but simply men among men men, indeed, 
 with certain advantages of station, wealth, and superior 
 education (presumably at least), but surrounded by an 
 intelligent, inquiring, reading, and reasoning popula- 
 tion. There is an old Welsh proverb, the meaning of 
 which they ought to learn if they understood no other 
 scrap of the language. Trech gwlad nag arghcydd , 
 which may be rendered, " A country is stronger than a 
 lord." 
 
 There are some things, no doubt, which they may do 
 by the course I deprecate. They may render them- 
 selves odious and contemptible to a people otherwise 
 well disposed to look upon them with a respectful and 
 honourable regard. Some of them have already had a 
 taste of what may come in this respect. Sir W. W. 
 Wynn, if he is not blind to the signs of the times, must 
 have been somewhat startled when, at the last Election, 
 in those towns of North Wales where the appearance of 
 a member of his family was wont to be greeted by the 
 waving of banners and the pealing of bells and other 
 signs of welcome and rejoicing, he found his ears saluted 
 by a sound to which the Wynns have been little accus- 
 tomed in those regions 
 
 A universal hiss, the voice of public scorn. 
 Or they may drive more, as some of them have already 
 driven many, of the best tenants on their estates 
 honest, conscientious, God-fearing men to seek a refuge 
 from oppressions and humiliations which they deemed 
 intolerable in the United States, or Canada, or Aus- 
 tralia, or Patagonia, and replace them by men of more 
 supple and accommodating consciences. But they will 
 not gain by such a substitution. They cannot expect 
 the virtues of freemen among those who are content to 
 be treated as slaves.
 
 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 121 
 
 I believe I know my countrymen pretty well, and I 
 tliink I could give the Welsh gentry some advice, if they 
 could pardon the boldness of so humble an individual 
 presuming to advise them at all, which they may with 
 advantage lay to heart. In the first place, it would be 
 well for them to try to acquiesce in the fact, as a fait 
 accompli, that the great majority of the Welsh people 
 are Dissenters, no longer from accident and tradition, 
 but from deep and deliberate conviction, and to admit 
 that it is really no business of theirs to interfere with 
 their religious preferences. Unhappily, however, there 
 are some of them, especially the ladies of their families 
 most amiable and benevolent ladies, I have no doubt, but 
 in this matter utterly mistaking their proper role who 
 seem afflicted with the monomania, that it is their right 
 and duty to choose a religion for the people, and are 
 disposed angrily to resent the pertinacity with which 
 they persist upon choosing one for themselves, though I 
 have no doubt three-fourths of them are quite as com- 
 petent to give an intelligent reason for the hope that is in 
 them as those worthy lady-patronesses, who would fain 
 have them in their leading-strings. This ceaseless 
 meddling with the faith of the people and that of their 
 children is doing infinite harm. It well may, and does, 
 irritate their temper and estrange their affections ; but it 
 does not, and will not, convert them to the Church. In 
 the second place, it would be well for the gentry to come 
 more directly and personally into contact with the people 
 themselves. It is impossible to exaggerate the mischief 
 that has been done by their being content to receive 
 their impressions of the character, institutions, and 
 habits of their neighbours through the medium of those 
 who are little in sympathy with them clergymen, 
 lawyers, and stewards. And in passing I must say a 
 word of this last class. It is never safe or just to direct
 
 122 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 against any body of persons a sweeping and indiscriminat- 
 ing censure. No doubt among stewards in Wales and 
 elsewhere there is a great variety of character. There 
 are some who, in fulfilling the duties of an office always, 
 perhaps, a little delicate and invidious, do their spiriting 
 gently, who mediate wisely and generously between their 
 employer and his tenants, and, while protecting the 
 interests of the former, treat the latter in a kindly and 
 considerate spirit. But there must be others of a very 
 different description ; for there is no class upon whom 
 the curses of the Welsh people lie so heavily " curses 
 not loud, but deep." In the popular satirical poetry of 
 former days they are never mentioned but with a 
 vehemence of denunciation which proves how intense 
 was the indignation and abhorrence felt towards them by 
 the popular heart. They are represented as unscrupu- 
 lous, arrogant, overbearing, merciless, intercepting all 
 rays of favour from their landlords to their tenants, and 
 perpetrating in the name of the former, and under 
 shelter of their authority, mean and cruel acts which 
 so, at least, the people fondly believe i the landlords 
 themselves would never have countenanced had they 
 known. How far this description may apply to any of 
 the present race I do not presume to say ; but certainly 
 they are not in favour, and popular instinct is rarely at 
 fault in such matters. 
 
 But in any case I am confident it would be a great 
 advantage if the gentry were to come into more frequent 
 and direct communication with the people themselves. 
 It would do them no harm to cultivate some acquaint- 
 ance with current Welsh literature. There are those 
 who have an interest in abusing their ears, who tell them 
 that Dissenting periodicals are filled with a fierce and 
 rabid Radicalism. It is utterly false. I have no fear as 
 to the impression that would be produced on the mind of
 
 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 123 
 
 any candid man among them by reading these publica- 
 tions. They might, and no doubt would, find much with 
 which they could not agree ; but I am greatly mistaken 
 if they would not rise from their perusal with unfeigned 
 respect for the intelligence, sobriety, and earnestness 
 with which religious and political questions are dis- 
 cussed. 
 
 And I have a word or two to say to my countrymen 
 the people, and especially the Nonconformists, of Wales. 
 If, after all, the system of terrorism and coercion is the 
 one that shall be adopted towards them, why then they 
 must gird their loins for the struggle. It is not possible 
 that they should remain passive and neutral amidst the 
 conflict of great principles, in the issue of which they 
 and their children are so vitally interested. They may 
 have to suffer, and if so I say it not lightly, but very 
 solemnly they must be prepared to suffer. It may be 
 as much their duty to suffer for political as it was their 
 fathers' duty to suffer for religious freedom. And it 
 cannot last long, nor can the result be doubtful. If 
 they only combine in this matter as earnestly as 
 they have done in other matters, the force opposed 
 to them, if so we must regard it, will prove far less 
 formidable than it seems. I say again, Trcch gwlad 
 nag arglwydd. 
 
 And here I must end this long series of letters. There 
 is much more I could have said, and would like to have 
 said ; but I have already trespassed largely on your 
 indulgence and the patience of your readers. 
 
 It only remains for me, in conclusion, to thank you, 
 Mr. Editor, on my own behalf and on behalf of my 
 countrymen, for affording me this opportunity of repre- 
 senting them fairly to the English public. They have 
 suffered grievous wrong in the estimation of their neigh- 
 bours through ignorance and calumny. I have done my
 
 124 LETTEBS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 best to set them right. I love that old land that gave me 
 
 birth, 
 
 Land of brown heath and shaggy wood, 
 Land of the mountain and the flood, 
 
 hallowed to me by so many tender and sacred memories, 
 the home of my childhood's joys and the place of my 
 fathers' sepulchres. May God bless it, and make its 
 children virtuous, prosperous, and happy. 
 
 POSTSCRIPT IN 1883. 
 
 IT will be seen that in one of the closing paragraphs of 
 this letter, I made an earnest appeal to my countrymen 
 manfully to assert their political rights, even though, as 
 was possible and probable, they might have to suffer 
 severely for their boldness. Very nobly did they respond 
 to that appeal in the Election of 1868. Nor did the pre- 
 dicted suffering fail to overtake them. Many scores of 
 them were evicted from their farms and houses, and 
 otherwise annoyed and tormented, for daring to vote 
 according to their consciences. I had the satisfaction, 
 however, of dragging their persecutors before the House 
 of Commons and the country, and, in conjunction with 
 others, of raising a considerable fund to relieve their 
 sufferings. The election of 1880 completed the Liberal 
 triumph began in 1868, and very little now remains to 
 be done in Wales, except to maintain the position 
 already won.
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 RESOLUTIONS OP PUBLIC BODIES RESPECTING THE LETTERS ON 
 WALES. 
 
 AT the Session of the Merionethshire Monthly Meeting of the 
 Calvinistic Methodists, held at Llandderfel, Feb. 27th and 28th, 
 the following resolution was moved by the Rev. Dr. EDWARDS, of 
 Bala, and seconded by the Rev. E. MORGAN, of Dyffrin, and carried 
 unanimously : " That the Monthly Meeting here assembled desire 
 to express their sense of the importance of the letters on the condi- 
 tion of Wales, which are now being published in the Morning Star, 
 written by Mr. Henry Richard, and their warm thanks to him for 
 the service thereby done to the Principality." 
 
 (Signed) JOHN PARRY, Chairman. 
 
 AT the Quarterly Meeting of the Welsh Congregational Associa- 
 tion of Monmouthshire, held at Berea Chapel, Blaena, on April 2. 
 the Rev. D. Williams, the minister of the place, in the chair, the 
 following resolution was unanimously adopted : " That this Con- 
 ference desires to place ;on record its most grateful thanks to Mr. 
 Henry Richard, of London, for his able letters now in course 
 of publication in the Star, on the ' Social and Political Condition 
 of Wales,' in which, with admirable truthfulness and fidelity, he 
 describes Welsh Evangelical Nonconformity in its origin and pro- 
 gress, and its relation to the moral character and religious life of 
 the Welsh nation, thus completely disproving the ignorant and 
 unjust charges that have repeatedly been urged against the Protes- 
 tant Dissenters of the Principality. This Conference, also, deeming 
 Mr. Richard's letters to be an invaluable means for refuting the 
 ungenerous attacks to which the cause of Dissent in Wales is fre- 
 quently subjected, begs to express its earnest hope that the excel- 
 lent author will place them before the public in a separate volume." 
 Signed on behalf of the Conference, by 
 
 D. WILLIAMS, Chairman. 
 W. P. DAVIES, Secretary. 
 
 THE GLAMORGANSHIRE EASTERN ASSOCIATION OP CONGREGA- 
 TIONAL CHURCHES. The Ministers and Delegates of the above 
 churches having met in their Quarterly Meeting at Aberdare, on 
 April 3rd and 4th, it was moved by the Rev. JOHN DAVIES, of Car- 
 diff, seconded by D. E. WILLIAMS, Esq., Hirwain, and carried 
 unanimously : " That this meeting begs to express its high appre- 
 ciation of the series of letters published in the Star by Mr. 
 Henry Richard, and avails itself of the present opportunity to 
 convey to Mr. Richard its own thanks as well as that of the entire 
 denomination for his able exposition and advocacy of the religion 
 and morality of the country." 
 
 AT the Quarterly Association of the Calvinistic Methodists in 
 North Wales representing 630 churches, 60,000 church mem- 
 bers, and 100,000 members of Sunday-schools held at Ruthin,
 
 126 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 Denbighshire, April llth, 12th, and 13th of 1866, it was unanimously 
 resolved: "That this Association presents its unfeigned thanks 
 to Mr. Henry Richard for his comprehensive and excellent 
 letters now in course of publication in the Morning Star, which at 
 a timely moment give a full and accurate description of the reli- 
 gious and social condition of Wales, and so afford to our English 
 neighbours the advantage of learning the truth respecting us as a 
 nation." (Signed) JOHN PARRY, President. 
 
 BOGER EDWARDS, Secretary. 
 
 AT a Monthly Meeting of the Calvinistic Methodists in Cardigan- 
 shire, held at Blaenplwyf on the 4th and 5th of May, it was pro- 
 posed by JOHN MATTHEWS, Esq., of Aberystwith, and seconded by 
 the Rev, JOHN JONES, of New Quay, and carried unanimously : 
 " That this meeting desires to present its warmest thanks to Mr. 
 Henry Richard for the able and excellent letters he is pub- 
 lishing in the Star on the 'Social and Political Condition of 
 Wales,' and earnestly entreats him to publish them in two 
 volumes, one in English and the other in Welsh, and so secure for 
 them a still wider and more lasting usefulness." 
 
 AT a Meeting of the Congregational Churches of Caernarvon- 
 shire, it was resolved : " That the ministers and delegates of the 
 Congregational Churches of the northern district of Caernarvon- 
 shire, assembled at a Quarterly Meeting held at Penter, near 
 Bangor, on the 18th of April, having read with much interest the 
 series of articles on 'The Social and Political Condition of 
 Wales/ inserted in the Morning Star, from the able pen of their 
 worthy countryman, Mr. Henry Richard, feel much pleasure 
 to testify to their correctness and faithfulness, and that they bid 
 fair to present the position of the Principality in its proper light to 
 all English readers : and that they further beg to express thanks 
 to the talented and indefatigable author for his noble defence of 
 the nation's character, and to the publishers of the said journal 
 for its circulation; with a desire to see the articles translated and 
 published in Welsh in a collected form." 
 
 DAVID GRIFFITH, Chairman. 
 
 AT a Meeting of the Quarterly Association of the Calvinistic 
 Methodists, held at Llandovery, Carmarthenshire, 011 April 25th, 
 1866, it was proposed and carried with great unanimity : " That 
 this association presents its unfeigned thanks to Mr. Henry 
 Richard, for his able letters on the Social and Political Condition 
 of Wales, which he has been publishing weekly in the Morning 
 Star." 
 
 AT the Quarterly Meeting of the Ministers and Delegates of the 
 Baptist Denomination in Anglesea, held at Gaerwen, on the 1st 
 and 2nd of May, John Lewis, Esq., Vroii Deg, Holyhead, in the 
 chair, it was moved by the Rev. D. JONES, seconded by J. OWEN,
 
 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 127 
 
 Esq., Llangoed, and unanimously passed : " That this meeting 
 presents its unfeigned thanks to Mr. Henry Richard for his 
 unbiassed and excellent letters now in course of publication in the 
 Morning Star, which are, to our personal knowledge of Wales, an 
 accurate index to the present religious and social condition of the 
 Principality. We therefore beg to express our approbation of Mr. 
 Richard's faithful delineation and manly exposition of the religion 
 and morality of our country." Signed on behalf of the meeting, 
 
 JOHN LEWIS, Chairman. 
 
 JOHN PALMEK, Secretary. 
 
 AT a Quarterly Meeting of the Ministers and Delegates of the 
 Congregational Churches of Anglesey, held at Bodfford, on Monday, 
 the 14th May, it was unanimously resolved : " That the cordial 
 thanks of the meeting be tendered to Mr. Henry Richard, for 
 his very able letters in the Morning Star on the condition of 
 Wales." W. JONES, Chairman. 
 
 AT the Quarterly Meeting of the Ministers and Delegates of the 
 Independent denomination of the county of Cardigan, held at Pen- 
 cae on the 22nd and 23rd ult., the Kev. Mr. Rees, Maenygroes in 
 the chair, it was proposed by the Eev. J. M. PRYTHERCH, Llanarth, 
 and seconded by the Rev. Mr. EVANS, Aberayron, and unanimously 
 agreed : " That we, the Independent ministers of this connection 
 and others, from our knowledge of this part of the Principality, 
 feel justified in endorsing in general the sentiments of Mr. H. 
 Richard, of London, as stated in his letters in the Morning Star 
 on the ' Social and Political Condition of Wales,' and gladly avail 
 ourselves of this opportunity of expressing our sincere and heartfelt 
 gratitude to the rev. gentleman for the 'noble manner he has 
 espoused the cause of his countrymen in proving the utter fallacy 
 of -the calumnies which some, from whom better things could have 
 been expected, have thought fit to libel their morals, and hope his 
 letters will be republished in another form, both in Welsh and Eng- 
 lish, so that at last justice may be awarded to a nation which has 
 been grossly misrepresented." T. REES, Chairman. 
 
 J. M. PRYTHERCH, Secretary. 
 
 THE South Wales Committee of the Liberation Society, having 
 met at Crane-street Chapel, Pontypool, on Thursday, May 17th, 
 I860, J. Carvell Williams, Esq., London, in the chair, it was unani- 
 mously resolved : " 1. That this meeting begs to express its 
 thorough conviction, a conviction arising from personal knowledge 
 of the correctness of the facts and figures, stated by Mr. H. 
 Richard in his able letters to the Morning Star, bearing on the 
 morality and religion of Wales, records its high appreciation of the 
 valuable and costly but spontaneous services which he has ren- 
 dered to his mr.c i misreprese ited country, and tenders him its 
 warmest thanks ; 2. That this meeting suggests the desirableness 
 of publishing Mr. Richard's 1 tters in the Welsh and English 
 languages."
 
 128 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 THE Glamorganshire Association of Independent Churches 
 having assembled in its annual meeting at Maesteg, May 23rd and 
 24th, unanimously passed the following resolution, requesting its 
 secretary, the Rev. John Davies, of Cardiff, to forward it to Mr. 
 Richard : " That the wannest thanks of this Association be 
 presented to Mr. Henry Richard for his 8,ble and exceedingly 
 interesting letters in the Morning Star on the ' Social and Political 
 Condition of Wales,' and that it deems it highly desirable to re- 
 publish them in a separate form for extensive circulation through 
 the length and breadth of the United Kingdom." 
 
 AT the Monmouthshire Welsh Baptist Association, held at 
 Bassally, May 30th, 1866, it was unanimously resolved : " That 
 the warmest and most hearty thanks of this meeting be presented 
 to the generous and patriotic Welshman, Mr. H. Richard, for 
 the able and timely letters contributed by him to the Morning 
 Star upon 'The Social and Political Condition of Wales,' in which 
 letters the true and real condition of our country was set forth 
 before the English public." 
 
 AT the Annual Assembly of the Congregational Churches in the 
 counties of Denbigh and Flint, North Wales, held at Wem, June 
 5th and 6th, 1866, the following resolution wa? moved by the Rev. 
 J. THOMAS, Liverpool, seconded by the Rev. J. THOMAS, Wem, and 
 unanimously adopted : " That this Conference desires to express 
 its unfeigned gratitude to Mr. Henry Richard for the lucid, 
 impartial, judicious, and comprehensive letters on the ' Social and 
 Political Condition of Wales,' which appeared in the Morning Star. 
 and for future reference and wider perusal urgently requests the 
 patriotic writer to publish the same in a collected form in Welsh 
 and English." WILLIAM REES, Chairman. 
 
 OWEN EVANS, Wrexham, Secretary. 
 
 AT an Association of Independents held at Llanidloes, June 13th 
 and 14th, the Rev. H. Jones in the chair, it was unanimously re- 
 solved : " That the warmest thanks of this association be presented 
 to Mr. H. Richard for his able letters in the Morning Star on 
 the ' Social and Political Condition of Wales,' with an earnest 
 desire that the author should republish them in a volume, to 
 secure their permanence, and for facility of reference in time 
 to come." 
 
 AT an Association of Baptists, held at Glynceinig, June 20th and 
 21st, the Rev. E. Roberts in the chair, the following resolution was 
 passed : " That we desire to express our gratitude to Henry 
 Richard, Esq., for his able and timely letters in the Morning Star 
 on the ' Social and Political Condition of Wales,' and our hope that 
 he will complete his act of kindness to the Principality by collect- 
 ing and publishing them in a book in a cheap form that they may 
 have a gemral circulation among the people."
 
 THE ESTABLISHED CHURCH IN 
 WALES.* 
 
 THE Act for the Disestablishment and Disendowment of 
 the Irish Church was one of great importance for what 
 it did, but of still greater importance for what it implied ; 
 for in that measure there was distinct legislative recogni- 
 tion of certain general principles, which are susceptible 
 of far wider application than to the particular case they 
 were invoked to sustain. It disposed, once for all, of the 
 fond fantasy that the State is bound in its collective 
 capacity to have a conscience, and in obedience to the 
 dictates of that conscience, to impose its own creed upon 
 the community, as the established faith of the country, 
 to be supported by the authority, and enforced by the 
 sanction of law. It acknowledged the principle that 
 where an established Church never has been, or has 
 ceased to be the Church of the nation, and fails, there- 
 fore, in its professed function as the religious instructor 
 of the people, it has no longer any raison d'etre, and 
 ought to be swept away as an anomaly and incuin- 
 brance. It recognised the fact, if not for the first time, 
 at least with more distinctness and emphasis than was 
 ever done before, that ecclesiastical property is national 
 property, which the nation has a perfect right through 
 
 * Reprinted from the British Quarterly Review for January, 1S71. 
 
 K
 
 130 LETTEES AND ESSAYS ON' WALES. 
 
 its legitimate organ, the legislature, to apply to any pur- 
 pose it may think fit, whether sacred or secular. 
 
 We need not wonder that when the Irish Establish- 
 ment was abolished, men's minds should turn almost 
 instinctively to the sister institution in Wales, as furnish- 
 ing a case in many respects parallel, but in other respects 
 still less admitting of justification. The discussion of 
 this subject in Parliament last session, on the motion of 
 Mr. Watkin Williams, did not take place, perhaps, under 
 the most favourable auspices. But it was, at least, 
 attended with this advantage, that it obliged those who 
 oppose the Disestablishment of the Welsh Church to 
 show their hand. As Mr. Gladstone, in addition to his 
 many other merits as an orator, is. the most accomplished 
 debater in the House of Commons, we may safely 
 assume that whatever could be said in defence of the 
 Church in Wales, and in deprecation of its proposed 
 severance from the State, was said by him with the 
 utmost degree of plausibility and point. But certainly, 
 on a calm review of the arguments he used on that 
 occasion, they do not appear to be very formidable. 
 
 It may be said, indeed, that the Prime Minister made 
 no attempt to defend the Welsh Church. He abandoned 
 it to the strongest condemnation pronounced upon it by 
 its adversaries, for the "gross neglect, corruption, 
 nepotism, plunder," to use his own words, by w r hich it 
 has been marked ; and only tried to account for these 
 evils by laying them all to the charge of " Anglicising 
 prelates." He admitted that, even granting what 
 Churchmen claimed, namely, about one-fourth of the 
 population as belonging to the Establishment a claim, 
 let us say, in passing, which in the face of notorious facts 
 is wholly untenable " the disproportion is very remark- 
 able in the case of a Church purporting to be the Church 
 of the nation." He admitted, moreover, as a circum-
 
 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 131 
 
 stance seriously militating against the Welsh Church, 
 that " so large a proportion of her members belong to 
 the upper classes of the community, the classes who are 
 most able to provide themselves with the ministrations 
 of religion, and, therefore, in whose special and peculiar 
 interest it is most difficult to make any effectual appeal 
 for public resources and support." But while acknow- 
 ledging all this, he resists the proposal for its disestab- 
 lishment. On what grounds ? First, on this ground 
 that there is no hostility in Wales to the Church 
 Establishment, and that its existence does not, as in 
 Ireland, produce alienation or bitterness of feeling 
 between different classes of the community. But this 
 argument, if it were well founded in fact, which, un- 
 happily, it is as far as possible from being, does not 
 address itself in the least to the reason or justice of the 
 case. Even if the Welsh people were so devoid of spirit 
 and selfrrespect as to feel it no grievance to have a costly 
 Church Establishment, which exists almost exclusively 
 for the benefit of the rich, saddled upon their necks, 
 surely that is no proof that it is right to perpetuate the 
 privileges of a body, whose history for generations has 
 been marked by " gross neglect, corruption, and 
 nepotism," and which, purporting to be the Church of a 
 nation, does not pretend, even according to the claims of 
 its most audacious advocates, to number among its 
 adherents more than one-fourth of the nation. But Mr. 
 Gladstone is wholly misinformed as to the fact. 
 Because the Nonconformists of Wales are an eminently 
 peaceable, loyal, and orderly people, and do not proclaim 
 their grievances with clamour and menace, it is imagined 
 that they do not feel the gross injustice and indignity of 
 the position they occupy. They do feel it deeply, and 
 they are made to feel it, by events continually occurring 
 in their social and political life, which all spring from 
 
 K 2
 
 132 
 
 LETTEKS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 this one root of bitterness. We need only refer in 
 illustration of what we mean to the circumstances which 
 attended and followed the last general election. Every 
 form of unfair pressure was brought to bear upon the 
 people to induce them to vote against their convictions, 
 and many of those w r ho had the courage to resist were 
 mercilessly evicted from their holdings, or otherwise 
 injured and persecuted. All this sprang from the 
 existence of the Established Church, as is evidenced by 
 the fact that in every instance we believe without a 
 single exception the oppressors w T ere Churchmen and 
 the sufferers Nonconformists. 
 
 The other, and the only other, argument of Mr. Glad- 
 stone is this that, except for conventional purposes, 
 there is really no Church in Wales, that the Welsh 
 Church is only a part of the Church of England, and 
 cannot therefore be dealt with separately. We confess 
 we are not very much dismayed by this difficulty ; for we 
 can remember the time when the same reason was urged 
 to show the impossibility of touching the Irish Church. 
 Properly speaking, we were told, there was no Church of 
 Ireland, but only the United Church of England and 
 Ireland the two Churches having, at the time of the 
 Union, been joined together by a compact so solemn and 
 binding that Her Majesty the Queen could not give her 
 consent to any measure for dissolving that compact with- 
 out incurring the danger of committing perjury, and 
 bringing her crown into jeopardy. And as for providing 
 legislation for Ireland distinct from that of England, the 
 suggestion was scouted as an absurdity. Ireland was as 
 much a part of the United Kingdom as Yorkshire or 
 Lancashire, and must be governed by the same laws. 
 The sense of justice, however, and the urgent necessities 
 of the case, triumphed over these forsgone conclusions. 
 
 There -is. one fact that gives a sort of sinister unity to
 
 LETTERS AXD ESSAYS ON WALES. 133 
 
 the religious history of Wales through all its vicissitudes. 
 It is this : that the influence of its relations with Eng- 
 land, whether they were hostile or friendly, whether 
 under Saxon or Norman rule, whether in Catholic or 
 Protestant times, has been, in this respect, uniformly 
 disastrous. We can only glance very briefly at the proofs 
 of this allegation. Without raising again the con- 
 troversial dust which envelopes the discussion as to the 
 time and manner of the first introduction of Christianity 
 into this island, we may at least assume it as an admitted 
 historical fact that early in the second century the 
 Gospel had been planted here, and that long before the 
 Saxon invasion there was a flourishing Christian Church 
 in Britain. In the records of the first three or four 
 hundred years of its existence, we find that many large 
 collegiate establishments were formed and dedicated 
 to religion and literature. From these institutions 
 went forth men thoroughly instructed in the learning of 
 their times, some of them bearing the fame of their 
 country's piety and erudition to the uttermost parts of 
 Europe. In the oecumenical councils summoned under 
 Constantine the Great and his sons, in the third and 
 fourth centuries, at Aries, at Nice, and at Sardica, to 
 decide the great Donatist and Arian controversies that 
 disturbed the unity of the Catholic faith, we are told that; 
 the British Churches were represented by men who bore 
 an honourable part in the defence of souad doctrine ; for 
 Athanasius himself testifies that bishops from Britain 
 joined in condemnation of the heresy of Arius, and in 
 vindication of himself. But when, in the sixth century, 
 the Pope sent the celebrated Augustin, as a missionary, to 
 convert the pagan Anglo-Saxon inhabitants of this island 
 to Christianity, there came on the British Church a time 
 of terrible persecution. Having resolutely refused to 
 recognise the papal authority, Augustin and his
 
 134 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 successors, in accordance with the policy of that per- 
 secuting Church which they represented, incited their 
 Saxon converts to make war upon the British recusants, 
 exasperating the national animosities, already sufficiently 
 bitter between the two races, by adding to it the fanatical 
 frenzy of religious bigotry. For many ages, therefore, 
 the Britons were liable to frequent incursions from their 
 Saxon neighbours, who, instigated by the counsels of 
 Eome, invaded their country, destroying their churches, 
 burning their monasteries, and putting to death the 
 pious and learned monks, who, in the seclusion of 
 those establishments, were pursuing the peaceable 
 occupations of literature and religion.* The struggle 
 between the ancient British Church, on the one side, 
 and that of Eome, backed by the Saxon sword, on 
 the other, continued for centuries. And when the 
 Saxon conquerors had in their turn to succumb to 
 the Norman invaders, that struggle was renewed 
 with greater fierceness than ever. Eeligion was again 
 unscrupulously used as an instrument of State, the 
 Norman princes forcing ecclesiastics of their own race 
 into all the higher offices of the Church in Wales, not 
 from any regard for the spiritual interests of the people, 
 but that they might aid in extinguishing the national 
 spirit of the Cymri, and in subjugating the country to 
 the Norman yoke. This policy, of course, failed, as it 
 richly deserved^to fail. The bishops and other dignitaries 
 thus intruded upon the country were only safe when 
 surrounded by bodies of armed retainers, and whenever 
 the Cymric arms won a victory in the field, the inter- 
 lopers had to flee to England to save themselves from 
 popular indignation. About the end of the twelfth 
 century, the Welsh princes appealed to the Pope for a 
 redress of these intolerable wrongs. A petition couched 
 
 * Thierry's " History of the Norman Conquest," Book I.
 
 LETTEKS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 135 
 
 in eloquent language was presented to his Holiness from 
 Llywelyn, Prince of Gwynedd ; Gwenwynwyn and 
 Madoc, Princes of Powys ; Gruffydd, Maelgwn, Ehys, 
 &nd Meredith, sons of Khys, Prince of South Wales. It 
 is curious, in reading this document, to observe that 
 some of the ecclesiastical grievances of which the British 
 princes complain are precisely those which the friends of 
 the Church in Wales are still reiterating in our own day : 
 
 And first, the Archbishop of Canterbury, as a matter of course, 
 sends us English bishops, ignorant of the manners and language 
 of our land, who cannot preach the Word of God to the people, 
 nor receive their confessions but through interpreters. 
 
 Aid besides, these bishops that they send us from England, 
 as they neither love us nor our land, but rather persecute and 
 oppress us with an innate and deep-rooted hatred, seek not the 
 welfare of our souls ; .their ambition is to rule over us, and not to 
 beneit us ; and on this account they do not but very rarely fulfil 
 the duties of their pastoral office among us. 
 
 And whatever they can lay their hands upon or get from us, 
 whetker by right or wrong, they carry into England, and waste 
 and consume the whole of the profits obtained from us, in abbeys 
 and lands given them by the king of England. And like the 
 Parthians, who shoot backwards from afar as they retreat, so do 
 they from England excommunicate us as often as they are 
 ordered so to do. . . . 
 
 Besides these things, when the Saxons (English) rush into 
 Wales, the Archbishop of Canterbury puts the whole land under 
 an interdict, and because we and our people defend our country 
 agairst the Saxons and other enemies, he places us and our 
 people under judgment of excommunication, and causes those 
 bishops whom he sent among us to proclaim this judgment, which 
 they are ready to do on all occasions. The consequence is, that 
 every one of our people who falls on the field of blood, in defence 
 of the liberty of his country, dies under the curse of excommuni- 
 cation. 
 
 When the Reformation came, the influence of the 
 connection with England was, if possible, still more 
 disastrous on the religious interests of Wales. "The 
 robbery in times of peace," says Mr. Johnes, "proved 
 worse than the spoliation in the times of war, and the 
 rapacity of the Reformation was added to the rapacity 
 of Popery." He then describes, in language of eloquent
 
 136 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 indignation, how the ecclesiastical endowments of the 
 Principality were pitilessly plundered by being bestowed 
 upon laymen, the descendants of the Norman invaders, 
 or by being alienated from the Church of Wales to endow 
 English bishoprics and colleges ! For the last century 
 and a half, again, the policy of the civil and ecclesiastical 
 authorities in dealing with the Welsh Church has, it 
 would seem, been steadily directed to the extinction of 
 the Welsh language and nationality by the appointment 
 of Englishmen to bishoprics, canonries, deaneries, and 
 most of the richest livings in Wales, in utter contempt 
 of all decency. And now when, by the legitimate opera- 
 tion of a State Establishment of religion, nearly the 
 whole nation has been alienated from the Church, so chat 
 it has become a mere encumbrance in the land, we are 
 told that Wales is so inseparably united with England 
 that it cannot expect to be rid of the incubus until 
 England has made up its mind to deal with its own 
 Church Establishment. 
 
 But what we have to do 'with most especially at pre- 
 sent is the Protestant Church Establishment in Wales, 
 and our indictment against it is this, that at no period of 
 its history has it fulfilled, in anything approaching to a 
 satisfactory manner, its proper function as the religious 
 instructor of the Welsh people. We have a chain of 
 testimonies in support of this allegation that are unim- 
 peachable as to their quality, and of overwhelming force 
 in their concurrence and cumulation of evidence. We 
 are anxious to make this point clear, because the line of 
 defence that has been lately taken by the friends of the 
 Church of England in Wales is to this effect. It is true, 
 they say, that towards the middle of the last century the 
 Church had fallen into a deep sleep, and so afforded 
 occasion, and to some degree excuse, for the rise of 
 Nonconformity, which was previously almost unknown
 
 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 137 
 
 in Wales. And then they point, in vague and sounding 
 phrases, to a golden age that preceded that period of 
 spiritual torpor, when the Church, alive to her high 
 mission, ruled by native bishops, who understood the 
 language and commanded the confidence and veneration 
 of the country, comprehended and cared for within her 
 ample fold the whole population of the Principality. 
 Dissent, we are assured, is in Wales an exotic of quite 
 modern growth, which, it is further implied, will prove 
 to have a very ephemeral life, like Jonah's gourd, which 
 came up in a night and perished in a night. Now all 
 this is pure fiction. Dissent is not a thing of modern 
 growth in Wales. It has existed more or less for more 
 than 200 years, and whatever of vital religion has pre- 
 vailed there during the whole of that period, has been 
 owing far more to its influence than to that of the Estab- 
 lished Church. It is not correct to say that the Church 
 "fell asleep " in the last century, simply because it had 
 never been awake. 
 
 And to begin with what must surely be considered as the 
 first and most solemn duty of a Protestant Church, that 
 of supplying the people of whom it professes to take 
 charge with the Word of God in their own language, 
 how does the account stand with the Welsh Established 
 Church in this respect? Dr. Llewellyn, the learned 
 author of the " Historical Account of the Welsh Versions 
 of the Bible," states 
 
 That for upwards of seventy years from the settlement of the 
 Reformation by Queen Elizabeth, for near one hundred years 
 from Britain's separation from the Church of Rome, there were 
 no Bibles in Wales, but only in the cathedrals or parish churches 
 and chapels. There was no provision made for the country or the 
 people in general ; as if they had nothing to do with the Word of 
 God, at least no further than they might hear it in their attend- 
 ance on public worship once in the week. 
 
 But how did the ecclesiastical authorities act in reference
 
 138 LETTEHS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 to the translation of the Scriptures into the Welsh 
 language, even for use in the churches? In the year 
 1563, an Act of Parliament (5 Eliz. c. 28) was passed, 
 ordering this work to be done. In the preamble it is 
 recited 
 
 That Her Majesty's most loving and obedient subjects inhabit- 
 ing within Her Majesty's dominion and country of Wales, being 
 no small part of this realm, are utterly destitute of God's Holy 
 Word, and do remain in the like or rather more darkness and igno- 
 rance than they were in the time of Papistry. 
 
 It was therefore enacted that the Bible, consisting of the 
 New Testament and the Old, together with the Book of 
 Common Prayer and the Administration of the Sacra- 
 ments, should be translated into the British or Welsh 
 tongue . The duty of seeing this done was devolved upon the 
 Bishops of St. Asaph, Bangor, St. David's, Llandaff, and 
 Hereford, and they were subjected to a penalty of 40 
 each if the work were not accomplished by March, 1566. 
 The New Testament was translated within the given 
 period, principally by William Salesbury, a lay gentle- 
 man, with some help from the Bishop and Precentor of 
 St. David's ; but there was no version of the Old Testa- 
 ment for twenty years later, and that was done, not by 
 the initiative or at the instigation of the bishops, but by 
 the spontaneous piety and patriotism of one individual, 
 Dr. William Morgan, vicar of Llanshaidr-yn-Mochnant, 
 Denbighshire, whose name ought to be held in ever- 
 lasting veneration by all Welshmen. This was pub- 
 lished in 1588. He acknowledges, indeed, that he 
 received some encouragement and help from the Bishops 
 of St. Asaph and Bangor. Ingenious apologies have 
 been urged for the gross neglect of the bishops in 
 fulfilling their commission. But Dr. Morgan, in the 
 Latin dedication of his Bible to Queen Elizabeth, 
 ascribes it to what, no doubt, was the true cause,
 
 LETTEltS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 139 
 
 mere " idleness and sloth."* There was no other edition 
 of the Welsh Bible for thirty-two years. But in the 
 year 1620, Dr. Parry, Bishop of St. Asaph, brought out 
 a new issue. This also seems to have been the result of 
 individual zeal, for in his preface Dr. Parry says, that the 
 former edition having been exhausted, and many or most 
 of the churches being either without any or with only 
 worn-out and imperfect copies, and nobody, so far as he 
 could learn, even thinking of a republication, he was moved 
 to undertake the work.f This, likewise, was exclusively 
 for use in the churches. The first edition of the Bible 
 for popular use was published in an octavo form in 1630, 
 but does not seem to have originated with the Church in 
 any way. " The honour," says Dr. Llew T ellyn, " of pro- 
 viding for the first time a supply of this kind for the 
 inhabitants of Wales, is due to one or more citizens of 
 London " namely, Mr. Alderman Heylin, " sprung 
 from Wales," and Sir Thomas Myddelton, also a native 
 of the Principality, and an alderman of London. J For 
 the next half-century there was only one edition of the 
 Scriptures in Welsh published by Churchmen, a large 
 folio of 1,000 copies, for the pulpits of the churches. 
 But during the same period the persecuted Noncon- 
 formists Walter Cradock, Vavasor Powell, Stephen 
 Hughes, Thomas Gouge, and David Jones published 
 nine editions, consisting of about 30,000 copies of the 
 whole Bible, and above 40,000 of the New Testament 
 
 * Quod idem nostrum ignaviam et segnitiem simul prodit, quod 
 nee tain gravi necessitate moveri ; nee tain commoda lege cogi 
 potuerimus ; quin tain dies rex tant (qua majoris esse momenti 
 nihil unquain potuerit ) iutacta pene remanserit. 
 
 t Biblius in plurisque apud nos Ecclesiis, aut deficientibus aut 
 tritis ; et nemine, quantum ego audire potui, de excudendis novis 
 cogitante ; id pro irriti conatus sum in Britannica Biblioruin ver- 
 sione, quod foeliciter fuetum est in Anglicana. 
 
 X Nephew of Sir Hugh Myddelton, who brought the New Kiver 
 to London.
 
 140 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 separately. During the subsequent half-century (from 
 1718 to 1769) we acknowledge with cordial gratitude 
 that several large editions were issued by the Society for 
 Promoting Christian Knowledge, [two of them at the 
 instigation of the Rev. Griffith Jones, and one at the 
 instigation of Dr. Llewellyn, a Dissenting minister. But 
 let it be observed that the former period, from the 
 accession of Queen Elizabeth to the beginning of the 
 eighteenth century, synchronises as nearly as possible 
 with the golden age which some members of the Welsh 
 Church fondly believe to have existed in the history 
 of that institution. 
 
 But let us now inquire how, in other respects, the 
 Established Church in Wales discharged its duties as the 
 teacher of the people. In the absence of the Bible, there 
 was, of course, all the more need for personal earnest- 
 ness and activity on the part of its ministers in preaching 
 the word and catechising, and the regular and solemn 
 administration of all religious ordinances. But how was 
 it in this respect during the beatific period, when, as 
 some of the modern advocates of the Church exultingly 
 declare, there was "no dissent in Wales?" We will 
 begin our inquiries with the reign of Queen Elizabeth. 
 In the year 1560, Dr. Meyric, Bishop of Bangor, writes 
 that he had only two preachers in his diocese. Strype, 
 in his " Life of Archbishop Parker," describes the condi- 
 tion of the bishoprics of Llandaff and Bangor, one in the 
 South and the other in North Wales, about the year 
 1563, as follows. The former had been two or three 
 years, in effect, void, and wanted a vigilant bishop to 
 manage that diocese. But the great dilapidations had so 
 impoverished that see, that few who were honest and 
 able would be persuaded to meddle with it. 
 
 As for Bangor (he continues) the diocese was also much out of 
 order, there being no preaching used, and pensionary concubinacy
 
 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 141 
 
 openly continued, which was, allowance of concubines to the 
 clergy, by paying a pension, notwithstanding the liberty of mar- 
 riage granted. ... So that Wales being in an evil condition 
 as to religion, the inhabitants remaining still greatly ignorant 
 and superstitious, the Queen left it particularly to the care of the 
 Archbishop to recommend fit persons for those two sees now to be 
 disposed of. 
 
 In 1588, John Penry published his " Exhortation unto 
 the People and Governors of Her Majesty's Country of 
 Wales," every line of which was aflame with the fire of 
 a righteous and eloquent indignation at the negligent 
 bishops and " unpreaching ministers," to whose tender 
 mercies his " poor country of Wales " was abandoned. 
 We need not quote at large from the melancholy picture 
 he gives in this and his other pamphlets of the state of 
 the Principality in that day, as his writings have been 
 rendered familiar to many of our readers by Dr. Wad- 
 dington's " Life of Penry," and Dr. Eees's " History of 
 Nonconformity in Wales." We will, therefore, cite only 
 one or two pregnant sentences : 
 
 This I dare affirm and stand to, that if a view of all the regis- 
 tries of Wales be taken, the name of that shire, that town, or of 
 that parish, cannot be found, where, for the space of six years 
 together, within these twenty-nine years, a godly and learned 
 minister hath executed the duty of teacher, and approved his 
 ministry in any mean sort. ... If I utter an untruth, let 
 me be reproved, and suffer as a slanderer ; if a truth, why should 
 not I be allowed ? 
 
 The Eev. Henry T. Edwards, the author of a 
 very able and vigorous pamphlet, recently published,* 
 has permitted himself, in an evil moment, and in 
 stress of argument and information, in defence of the 
 Welsh Church of those days, to describe this noble- 
 minded and devoted Christian and patiiot in very oppro- 
 brious terms, as " a sour-minded Puritan, recognising no 
 truth save in his own interpretation of the w r ritten 
 
 * The Church of the Cymry. A Letter to the Eight Hon. W. 
 E. Gladstone, M.P.
 
 142 LETTEKS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 Word," &c., &c. But Strype, at least, cannot be called 
 " a sour-minded Puritan." Let us, then, revert to his 
 testimony in reference to precisely the same period. In 
 his "Annals of the Eeformation "* he makes the follow- 
 ing statement. We borrow Dr. Eees's summary : 
 
 Dr. Williams Hughes, Bishop of St. Asaph, Avas accused, in the 
 year 1587, the year before the publication of Penry's " Exhorta- 
 tion," of misgoverning his diocese and of tolerating the most dis- 
 graceful 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 in 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 preachers resided upon their livings, viz., Dr. David 
 Powell, of Ruabon ; Dr. William Morgan, of Llanrhaidr-yn- 
 Mochnant, the translator of the Bible ; and the parson of Llan- 
 vechan, an aged man, about eighty years old. 
 
 We will now follow the history of the Welsh Church 
 into the reign of James I. At that time there lived and 
 laboured in Wales a very remarkable man, the Eev. 
 Eees Pritchard, Vicar of Llandovery, in Carmarthen- 
 shire, the author of a work which has had a larger 
 circulation in the Principality than any book except the 
 Bible. It is entitled " Canwyll y Cymry," or, "the 
 Welshman's Candle," a series of moral and religious 
 poems, most simple in their language, and even slovenly 
 in their metrical composition, but full of poetry and 
 feeling, and thoroughly saturated with evangelical truth. 
 He flourished between the years 1616 and 1644. John 
 Penry, in his most vehement remonstrances, does not 
 employ stronger language to portray the utter ignorance, 
 irreligion and immorality in which the people were sunk, 
 than does this excellent clergyman. But what we have 
 specially to do with now is the testimony he bears as to 
 the condition of the Church, a testimony all the more 
 unimpeachable as he continued through life a member 
 * Vol. iv., pp. 293, 291 ; and Appendix to vol. iv., p. C3.
 
 LETTERS AXD ESSAYS ON WALES. 143 
 
 and a minister of that Church. In one of his poems, 
 after describing all classes as wholly given up to every 
 species of depravity, he adds that the clergy were asleep, 
 leaving the people to wallow in their sins, and to live as 
 they liked, unwarned and unrebuked.* In another 
 poem, he puts the clergy at the head of various classes, 
 whom he enumerates, who were " contending with each 
 other, which of them should most daringly affront the 
 Most High." There is evidence still more conclusive, if 
 possible, in the reports presented to the King by Arch- 
 bishop Laud, between the years 1633 and 1638, which 
 are still extant among the Lambeth MSS. This bigoted 
 prelate had, it seems, in those years, been specially insti- 
 gating the Bishops of St. David's and Llandaff to perse- 
 cute without mercy those in their dioceses who were 
 guilty of ' ' inconformity ; " that is, who refused to read 
 "The Book of Sports," and other similar obligations 
 which were laid on the consciences of the clergy. After 
 commemorating the success with which the Bishop of 
 St. David's had silenced ons Eoberts, a lecturer, for in- 
 conformity, and reduced three or four others to submis- 
 sion, he adds : " He complains much, and surely with 
 cause enough, that there are few ministers in those poor 
 and remote places that are able to preach and instruct 
 the people." And the Bishop of St. Asaph tells Laud 
 that " they were not anywhere troubled with incon- 
 formity ; but that he heartily wished that they might as 
 well be acquitted of superstition and profaneness." 
 
 In relation to about the same period there is still 
 extant an authentic and very pregnant piece of evidence, 
 in the form of a report by Dr. Lewis Baily, Bishop of 
 Bangor, as to the state of the different parishes in his 
 
 * Mae dy ffeiriaid hwyntau'n cysgu, 
 Ac yn gado'r bobol bechu 
 Ac i fyw y modd y mynnon 
 Heb na cherydd na chynghorion.
 
 144 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 diocese in the year 1623. There was an episcopal visi- 
 tation in that year, and his description of the condition 
 of things he found still exists in a fragmentary and 
 mutilated form, from which extracts were published in 
 the " Archaeologia Cambrensis " (Third Series, Vol. IX., 
 p. 283). A few extracts from this document will suffice 
 as a sample : 
 
 Llanfairpwllgwyngyll and Llandyssillo. There had been only 
 two sermons in these places for the last twelve months, which 
 were delivered by the rector, Sir John Cadwalader.* 
 
 Penmon. No sermon preached there five or six years last past. 
 
 Llanddona. No service here but every other Sunday. 
 
 Llangwyllog. No sermons at all. 
 
 Llanddeussant and Llanfairynhornwy. The curate here is pr- 
 sented for not reading service in due time, for not reading of 
 homilies, and for not registering christenings, weddings, and 
 funerals. They had but three sermons since last Whitsuntidi 
 twelvemonth. He spent his time in taverns, was a public 
 drunkard and brawler, quarrelling with his parishioners and 
 others. 
 
 Llanfwrog and Llanfaethlu. But two sermons here these 
 twelvemonths. 
 
 And so through other counties of North Wales Carnarvon- 
 shire, Merionethshire, Montgomeryshire. Of place after place it 
 is reported, " There is never any preaching here," or, " There 
 have been only two or three sermons in a twelvemonth." Of 
 the clergyman at Aberdaron, in Carnarvonshire, it is complained 
 that he neglected to bury a dead child, which lay in the church 
 from Saturday to Sunday, and thafc when he came to the church 
 he was drunk, and went straight from the service to the tavern. 
 
 In the year 1651, there was published a translation in 
 the Welsh language of the once celebrated " Marrow of 
 Modern Divinity." This translation was by the Rev. 
 John Edwards, one of the clergy ejected by the Parlia- 
 mentary Commission appointed under the Common- 
 wealth. In the Preface, he deplores the neglect into 
 which the Welsh language had fallen, and declares that, 
 "among the Church clergy (y Dyscawdwyr Eglwysig), 
 scarcely one in fifteen knew how to read and write 
 
 *,In those days " Sir" seems to have been the titular distins- 
 tioa of a clergyman, just as " Rev. " is now.
 
 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 145 
 
 Welsh." The reader will observe that we are following 
 our chain of evidence link by link. In 1677, a work was 
 published in Welsh entitled " Carwr y Cymry," that is, 
 "T\he Welshman's Friend; an Exhortation to his dear 
 countrymen for the sake of Christ and their own souls, to 
 search the Scriptures according to Christ's command, 
 John v. 39." This is supposed to have been written by 
 a clergyman of the name of Oliver Thomas. The intro- 
 duction is in the form of an earnest and affectionate 
 address to " Welsh Churchmen." In this he says : 
 
 Often does sorrow strike my heart in observing and reflecting 
 upon the great deficiency and the utter neglect which prevail 
 among us Welsh Churchmen, in taking pains to teach our 
 flocks conscientiously, through our not giving ourselves with full 
 purpose of heart to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. We 
 are ourselves, many of us, unskilful in the word of righteous- 
 ness, and therefore incompetent to direct others. . . . Yea, 
 my dear brethren, give me permission to say, what it pains me to 
 be obliged to say, that in each of the Welsh bishoprics forty or 
 sixty churches may be found without anyone in them on Sundays, 
 even in the middle of summer, when the roads are driest, and the 
 weather finest.* 
 
 We have brought our chain of testimonies down to 
 near the end of the seventeenth century. But from that 
 time to our own they are still more abundant. 
 
 In 1721 was published, " A View of the State of Eeli- 
 gion in the Diocese of St. David's, about the beginning of 
 the Eighteenth Century," by Dr. Erasmus Saunders. 
 It contains a most deplorable picture of the condition of 
 the Church, as regards both its material and spiritual 
 interests. He describes some churches as totally 
 decayed ; they 
 
 Do only serve for the solitary habitations of owls and jackdaws ; 
 such are St. Daniel's, Castelhan, Kilvawyr, Mountain, Capel 
 Colman, and others in Pembrokeshire ; Mount Llechryd, in Car- 
 diganshire ; Aberllynog, in Breconshire ; Nelso, in Gower, Gla- 
 
 * " Llyfryddiaeth y Cymry," p. 211.
 
 146 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 morganshire ; and others in Carmarthenshire. And it is not to 
 be doubted, but as there are districts of land, so there were 
 originally just endowment of tithes that did belong to all those 
 several churches ; but whatever they were, they are now alien- 
 ated, the churches, most of them, demolished, the use for which 
 they were intended almost forgotten, unless it be at Llanybrec, 
 where, I am told, the impropriator or his tenant has let that 
 church unto the neighbouring Dissenters, who are very free to 
 rent it for the desirable opportunity and pleasure of turning a 
 church into a conventicle (pp. 23, 24). 
 
 As the Christian service is thus totally disused in some places, 
 there are other some that may be said to be but half served, there 
 being several churches where we are but rarely, if at all, to meet 
 with preaching, catechising, or administering of the Holy Com- 
 munion. In others, the service of the prayers is but partly read, 
 and that, perhaps, but once a month, or once in a quarter of a 
 year. . . . The stipends are so small, that a poor curate must 
 sometimes submit to serve three or four clmrches for ,10 or ,12 
 a year. 
 
 He then refers, though with great forbearance and 
 tenderness, to the low type of character which such a 
 state of things produced among the clergy ; and then 
 exclaims, sorrowfully, " Such is the faint shadow that 
 remains among us of the public service of religion ! " 
 
 And now (continues the author), what Christian knowledge, 
 what sense of piety, what value for religion are we reasonably to 
 hope for in a country thus abandoned, and either destitute of 
 churches to go to, or of ministers to supply them, or both ? Or 
 how can it well consist with equity and conscience to complain of 
 the ignorance and errors of an unhappy people in such circum- 
 stances ? They are squeezed to the utmost to pay their tithes 
 and what is called the Church dues (though, God knows, the 
 Church is to expect little from it), and, at the same time, most 
 miserably deprived of those benefits of religion which the pay- 
 ment of them was intended to support, and delivered up to igno- 
 rance and barbarity, which must be the certain consequence of 
 driving away the ministers of religion, or of depressing or incapa- 
 citating them from their duty (p. 26). 
 
 To aggravate the evils of all kinds already suffi- 
 ciently rife in the Welsh Church, the English Govern- 
 ment, about the beginning of the eighteenth century, 
 adopted the practice, which it has continued ever 
 since, of appointing Englishmen utterly ignorant of the
 
 LETTEKS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 147 
 
 Welsh language to Welsh bishoprics.* And the bishops, 
 following the example thus set by those acting for the 
 head of the Church, inundated the Principality with 
 English clergymen, their own relatives and connec- 
 tions, to whom all the highest dignities and the 
 richest livings were, almost without exception, as- 
 signed. A more monstrous abuse than this it is diffi- 
 cult to conceive, and yet it has been persevered in for 
 150 years in the face of all complaint and remon- 
 strance, and in the teeth of the express judgment of 
 the Church itself, which declares in its 26th Article 
 that "it is a thing plainly repugnant to the Word of 
 God, and to the custom of the primitive Church, to 
 have public prayer in the church, or to minister the 
 sacraments in a tongue not understanded of the 
 people." We need not wonder, therefore, that great 
 prominence should be henceforth given by the friends 
 of the Church to this, as one of the causes, if not, 
 indeed, the sole cause, of its inefficiency and decay. 
 How far they are justified in attaching such supreme 
 importance to it we shall consider hereafter. But we 
 shall for the present resume our series of testimonies 
 to the matter of fact. Most of our readers will doubt- 
 less have heard of the Eev. Griffith Jones, of Lland- 
 dowror, the founder of the remarkable circulating 
 schools, which, during the latter half of the eighteenth 
 century, rendered such inestimable service to the people 
 of the Principality. We cannot here enter upon the 
 history of the life and labours of this admirable clergy- 
 man. If one man could have saved the Church in 
 Wales, he would have saved it. But as Mr. Johnes 
 has remarked with great sagacity though he does not 
 
 * Mr. Gladstone, to his great honour, had the courage to break 
 through this practice, by his appointment of a thorough Welsh- 
 man to the diocese of St. Asaph. 
 
 L 2
 
 148 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 appear to see the inevitable inference to be drawn from 
 the remark " It is a truth but too well sanctioned by 
 experience, that a few pious ministers are the weak- 
 ness, and not the strength, of an establishment, when 
 the majority of its ministers are sunk in indifference to 
 their sacred duties." Our object now, however, is 
 merely to cite the Eev. Griffith Jones as a witness to 
 the condition of the Church about the middle of the 
 eighteenth century. In the year 1749 he published a 
 letter in Welsh, on the " Duty of Catechising Ignorant 
 Children and People." In that letter he observes that the 
 
 Peasantry cannot understand from sentences of deep learning in 
 sermons the Articles of Faith without being catechised in them, 
 which, at present, is more necessary, because there is among us 
 such monstrosity (anferthwch) and such evil and barefaced craft 
 in some places, as the frequent preaching of English to the Welsh 
 people, not one jot more edifying or less ridiculous than the 
 Latin service of the Papists in France. One author states that 
 he could not help rebuking such clergymen, in spite of the spleen 
 and wrath it was likely to bring upon him, viz., the lazy vicars 
 and rectors, who have led a careless life from their youth, and 
 have set their mind on keeping company, and going unsteadily 
 from tavern to tavern, and not minding their books ; in con- 
 sequence of which they are as ignorant of their mother tongue as 
 they are of Greek and Hebrew, and therefore read the service 
 and preach in English, without sense of shame, in the most purely 
 Welsh assemblies throughout the country. Not much better, if 
 any, are those who patch up a sermon of mixed language and 
 jargon sounds, inconsonant, dark, and unintelligible, to the great 
 scandal and disgrace of the ministry, and to the grief, damage, 
 and weariness of the congregation. 
 
 There is one other eminent Welsh clergyman whom we 
 must add to this cloud of witnesses before we speak of 
 the rise of Methodism in Wales. The Eev. Evan Evans, 
 better known, perhaps, by his Bardic name, leuan 
 Brydydd Hir, was a man of learning and genius, a friend 
 and correspondent of Bishop Percy and other literati of 
 that age. He was especially well versed in ancient 
 British literature, and published a Latin essay, Dissertatio 
 de Bardis, containing Latin translations from the poems
 
 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 149 
 
 of Aneurin, Taliesin, and Llywarch Hen. In 1776, he 
 published two volumes of Welsh sermons. To the first 
 volume he prefixed a dedication to Sir W. W. Wynn in 
 English, and an address to the reader in Welsh, in both 
 of which he describes in bold and burning language the 
 miserable state of the Church in Wales at that time. 
 Here is one out of many extracts we might have given. 
 After complaining that most of the gentry had " thrown 
 away all regard for religion and morality," and that " the 
 ignorance and immorality of the lower class of the people 
 was pitiful, owing to the slothfulness and neglect of many 
 of the clergy," he thus proceeds : 
 
 As for the clergy, such of them as still enjoy the remaining 
 emoluments of the Church might do some good in their genera- 
 tion if they were so disposed. But, alas ! so little has been done 
 by the clergy of the Established Church in this way, that there is 
 hardly a book or a sermon left behind by any of them to testify 
 their fidelity in their vocation, for almost a hundred years past. 
 It is a pity they should not do something to convince the world 
 that they are ministers of the Gospel. And it is a great pity 
 that most of them are so scandalously ignorant of the language in 
 which they are to do the duties of their function, that they can 
 do very little to the edification of their flocks. Those who enjoy 
 the richest benefices in the Church are most deficient in this 
 respect, copying herein the Church of Rome very faithfully, and 
 leaving their sheep to perish. And I am afraid that upon this 
 and other accounts, many sincere Christians abhor the sacrifice of 
 the Lord, who were well disposed to the Church established. 
 And such abominations, if continued, will make it desolate ! 
 
 Now, the question is what a faithful minister of the Gospel 
 ought to do in such dangerous times. I am very sure that some 
 conscientious ministers of the Gospel have suffered severely of 
 late years under these lordly and tyrannic prelates. The number 
 of such disinterested persons, it must be owned, was small, and 
 every art and method have been used to discountenance them. 
 If what I here aver be doubted, I appeal to the writings of the 
 late pious and truly reverend Mr. Griffith Jones, of Llanddowror, 
 who underwent the scurrilities of a venal priest hired by the 
 bishops to bespatter him, though he was, by the special grace of 
 God, without any stain or spot. By far the greater number of the 
 clergy, like Gehazi, run after preferments, and have left the 
 daughter of Zion to shift for herself. And his doom, in a spiri- 
 tual sense, is likely to follow them and their successors.
 
 150 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 It is well known that the man who may be called the 
 father of Welsh Methodism was Mr. Howell Harris. He 
 was, and continued to the day of his death, a dutiful son 
 of the Church. He applied for ordination but was refused. 
 He pressed his request for six years, but to no purpose. 
 " Wherever he went," we quote again the language of a 
 Welsh clergyman, " as a simple and unoffending preacher 
 of the Gospel, either in the South pr the North, he was 
 denounced by the clergy from their pulpits, he was 
 arrested by the magistrates, and persecuted by the 
 rabble."* Now let us hear his own account of the 
 reasons which induced him to commence and continue 
 preaching to his countrymen. He describes his being 
 taken before the magistrates at Monrnouth, for the word 
 of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ, and then 
 continues 
 
 After this, I was more satisfied than ever that my mission was 
 from God, especially as I had so often applied for holy orders, 
 and was rejected for no other reason than my preaching as a lay- 
 man. I saw both from Scripture and the practice of the Church 
 that the preaching of laymen was proper in times of necessity ; 
 and I thought that time of greater necessity could hardly be than 
 the present, when the whole country lay in a lukewarm and life- 
 less condition. In many churches there was no sermon for months 
 together; in some places nothing but a learned English discourse to 
 an illiterate Welsh congregation ; and where an intelligible sermon 
 was preached, it was generally so legal, and so much in the spirit 
 of the old covenant, that should any give heed to it, they could 
 never be led thereby to Christ, the only way to God. Seeing- 
 these things, and feeling the love of Christ in my heart, I could 
 not refrain from going about to propagate the Gospel of my dear 
 Redeemer.f 
 
 The second great name in connection with the rise of 
 Methodism in Wales, was the Eev. Daniel Eowlands, of 
 Llangeitho, a man whose powers as a preacher are 
 described by those who knew both, to have surpassed 
 
 * " Justice to Wales : Eeport of the Association of Welsk 
 Clergy in the West Riding of the County of York," p. 8. 
 t Morgan's "Life and Times of H. Harris," p. 41.
 
 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 15l 
 
 even those of Whitfield. The effect of his eloquence 
 among his countrymen was extraordinary. It ran like a 
 stream of electricity through the nation, kindling into 
 life thousands who had been previously wrapped in 
 spiritual torpor. Like Ho well Harris, he was not merely 
 content, but anxious, to continue his ministrations in the 
 Church. " But he was cast out of the Church of 
 England," says one of his biographers the Eev. J. C. 
 Eyle * "for no other fault than excess of zeal." And 
 what was the condition of the Church from which this 
 over- zealous man was expelled by episcopal judgment ? 
 Mr. Eyle shall answer. " This ejection took place at a 
 time when scores of Welsh clergymen were shamefully 
 neglecting their duties, and too often were drunkards, 
 gamblers, and sportsmen, if not worse." f 
 
 The inference from all this has already been drawn for 
 us by a candid Churchman. Mr. Johnes, in his " Essay 
 on the Causes of Dissent in Wales," says that he is irre- 
 sistibly led to the conclusion " that before the rise of 
 Methodism in Wales the churches were as little attended 
 by the great mass of people as they are now ; and that 
 indifference to all religion prevailed as widely then as 
 Dissent in the present day." Of the early Methodists 
 in Wales, as, indeed, of the early Nonconformists, it 
 may be said most truly that they did not leave the 
 Church of their own accord. Most of them clung to ifc 
 with a most touching fidelity, in spite of incessant 
 persecution and obloquy from those within its pale, and 
 were at last thrust out of it, for no offence but the excess 
 of their zeal for the moral and spiritual improvement of 
 their countrymen. It is not necessary now to put in any 
 defence for these men ; for it has become the fashion of 
 
 * Now Bishop of Liverpool. 
 
 t " The Christian Leaders of the Last Century," by the Rev. 
 J. C. Kyle, p. 192.
 
 152 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 late among our Church friends in Wales, while denounc- 
 ing modern Nonconformity as schismatic, turbulent, self- 
 seeking, and other choice epithets with which we are so 
 familiar in this connection, to speak with great tender- 
 ness and respect of the founders of Welsh Dissent, and 
 especially the early Methodists. Eetaining, of course, 
 that de haut en has air of extreme candour and con- 
 descension which any Churchman, however small, thinks 
 it right to assume when referring to any Dissenter, how- 
 ever illustrious for capacity and service, they do, never- 
 theless, admit that the men in question were admirable 
 men, full of genuine zeal for evangelical truth and the 
 salvation of souls. Nor do they scruple to deplore and 
 censure the perverse policy which persecuted such men 
 and drove them from the Church. Nay, in some cases 
 clergymen have even become their admiring and eulo- 
 gistic biographers. But this is the old thing over again. 
 " Ye build the tombs of the prophets and garnish the 
 sepulchres of the righteous, and say, If we had been in 
 the days of our fathers, we would not have been 
 partakers with them in the blood of the prophets." But 
 then, unhappily, by displaying the same spirit towards 
 the successors of these men, and branding them with 
 the same epithets of contumely and reproach as then- 
 fathers applied to their fathers, and that for doing pre- 
 cisely the same work, they are witnesses unto themselves 
 that they are the genuine children of them which perse- 
 cuted the prophets. 
 
 Having brought our review down to the great revival 
 of religion about the middle of the last century, let us 
 now inquire what the Church has done since that time 
 to make up for centuries of gross neglect or perfunctory 
 service. It might have been thought that this stirring of 
 spiritual life in the country, through other agencies than 
 its own, would have roused it, were it from no better
 
 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 153 
 
 motive than that of jealous emulation, to make some 
 effort to retain or recover its influence over the popula- 
 tion. And this, indeed, has been the case to some 
 extent within the last quarter of a century. But for 
 nearly a hundred years after the appearance of Harris 
 and Rowlands, during which all bodies of Dissenters 
 were labouring incessantly for the evangelisation of the 
 Principality, the Church was settled on her lees. Her 
 rulers not only winked at for their own profit, but 
 actively maintained and promoted the existence of 
 abuses as audacious and monstrous as ever dishonoured 
 a Christian Church. Her clergy, wholly abandoned to 
 themselves, with little or no episcopal supervision or 
 stimulus, were content with en joying 'their temporalities 
 while they neglected their duties, leading lives of mere 
 worldly ease, and sometimes much worse lives than that. 
 If any reader should imagine we are indulging in exag- 
 geration, we can refer him for exuberance of proof to 
 Mr. Johnes' most able and admirable work, which we 
 have already mentioned. It was published in 1832, and 
 describes the state of things then in actual existence. 
 The sole object of most of the alien bishops who had 
 been and were in occupation of the Welsh sees, seemed 
 to have been to provide for themselves and those of their 
 own households. Never was episcopal nepotism carried 
 to so daring an excess, with this peculiar and enormous 
 aggravation, that " in Wales every relation of a bishop 
 is in language a foreigner ; and his uncouth attempts to 
 officiate in his church in a tongue unintelligible to him- 
 self, can be felt by his congregation as nothing better 
 than a profanation of the worship of God."* As a 
 specimen of how the chief pastors of the Welsh Church 
 acted in this matter, we subjoin an extract from a speech 
 delivered in the House of Commons, in 1836, by Mr. 
 * " Johnes," p. 63.
 
 154: LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 Benjamin Hall, afterwards Lord Llanover, a gentleman 
 whose name and memory ought to be held in grateful 
 and honourable remembrance in the Principality, for the 
 strenuous efforts he made in and out of Parliament to 
 remedy many flagrant abuses in the educational and 
 ecclesiastical institutions of the country, and to procure 
 something like justice for Wales : 
 
 What he complained of most was the unbounded spirit of 
 nepotism which seemed to take possession of some of these 
 English bishops the moment they took up this episcopal power in 
 the Principality. He found that in the diocese of St. Asaph a 
 relation of the late bishop held the following preferments : He 
 was dean and chancellor of the diocese, with the deanery house, 
 worth about ,40 a-year ; parish of Heullan, .1,500 ; St. Asaph, 
 426; Llan Nevydd, .300; Llanvair, 220 ; Darowain, .120; 
 Chancellorship, from fees, .400 ; making 3,000. Besides all 
 this, he was lessee of Llandegle and Llanasaph, worth 000, 
 and this all exclusive of the rectory of Cradley, in the diocese of 
 Hereford, 1,200 ; vicarage of Broniyard, 500 : prebend of 
 Hereford, 50 ; portion of Bromyard, 50 at present, but it is 
 expected, on the death of an old life, that this preferment will be 
 worth 1,400. Thus he had no less than eleven sources of emolu- 
 ment, producing between six and seven thousand a-year. It 
 appears also that his brother had about . 3,000 a-year, and the 
 total enjoyed by relations of the late bishop of the diocese alone 
 amounts to between seven and eight thousand. But it appeared, 
 moreover, that the amount enjoyed by the bishop, and the rela- 
 tions of the former bishops alone, amounts to 23,079, and exceeds 
 the whole amount enjoyed by all the other resident and native clergy 
 put together ! 
 
 To what unseemly consequences the appointment of 
 English clergymen to Welsh incumbencies must have 
 led, our readers may conceive by imagining a number of 
 Frenchmen installed in livings in England, and attempt- 
 ing to perform the service in the English language. 
 Here are a few examples of the ludicrous scenes often 
 witnessed in Welsh churches. They are taken from a 
 speech delivered in 1852 by the Eev. Joseph Hughes, a, 
 very able clergyman, a native of the Principality, but 
 residing then at Meltham : 
 
 The mistakes (he says) that are made by Anglo- Welsh clergy-
 
 LETTERS AND ESSAYS OX WALES. 155 
 
 men, both in the reading-desk and pulpit, are nearly as many as 
 the words in a Welsh glossary. Some of these mistakes are of an 
 absurd and revolting character, and subversive of that due solem- 
 nity which should be observed in the house of God. Yea, the 
 meaning of different words and sentences of Scripture is often 
 painfully associated in the minds of the people with those 
 mistakes. 
 
 Before reciting these specimens, we may premise that 
 if any of our readers should be acquainted with the 
 Welsh language, they will immediately perceive how 
 probable it is that the blunders described should have 
 been committed by an Englishman trying to read Welsh, 
 or, rather, how next to impossible it is that he should not 
 have committed some of them. 
 
 Bishop Burgess, in pronouncing the blessing in Welsh, used to 
 say, " The peace of God which passeth all vengeance." " Tang- 
 nefedd Duw yr hwn sydd uwchlaw pob dial." 
 
 A clergyman of the name of Lewis preached at Chapel Colnian, 
 and, while speaking of man's depravity, said, "Every man is 
 exceedingly tall by nature." " Y mae pob dyn yn dal iawn wrth 
 natur." He meant to say blind yn ddall. The little men in the 
 congregation looked at each other with great astonishment, and 
 seemed to question the truth of the statement. I was present at 
 the time, and heard this as well as other mistakes. 
 
 The same clergyman, while officiating at Llandygwydd, com- 
 mitted the following blunder : He made " Hail, King of the 
 Jews," to mean " An old cow of straw, King of Ireland." " Hen 
 fuwch wellt, Brenhin yr Ywerddon." 
 
 Another, reading the words, " These things are good and profit- 
 able unto men," gave them this meaning, " These graves are good 
 and worldly to men." " I beddau hin si da a bydol i dinion." 
 
 Another Anglo-Welsh clergyman, in his sermon quoting the 
 words, " but the righteous into life eternal," gave them the fol- 
 lowing sense, " but to some chickens the food of the geese " 
 " ond i rai cy wion fwyd y gwyddau." 
 
 A. B., officiating at , and reading the words, " let us here 
 
 make three tabernacles," was understood to say, "let us here 
 make three pans, one for thee, one for Moses, and one for Elias." 
 " Gwnawn yma dair padell." 
 
 A clergyman in the county of Pembroke, while reading the 
 funeral service, made it to say, "it is sown the body of a beast." 
 " Efe a hoir yn gorph anifail." 
 
 A late dean in North Wales, in repeating the following beau- 
 tiful lines, 
 
 " Ymddyrcha o Dduw'r nef uwch ben, 
 Daear ac wybren hefyd,"
 
 156 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 " Be thou exalted, O God of heaven, above the earth and firma- 
 ment," gave them the following interpretation : 
 
 " Arise, God, above the head 
 
 Of two hens and the crows egg also." 
 
 " Ymddyrcha o Dduw'r nef uwch ban 
 Dwy iar ac wy bran hefyd." 
 
 Another dean, addressing his work-people at their drinkings, 
 said, " pori yr ydych etto," "you are still grazing." His work- 
 people, not perceiving that the blunder was unintentional, 
 thought their master treated them as brute beasts, and were 
 much offended. 
 
 Another clergyman, reading that part of the " Venite," " In 
 his hand are all the corners of the earth," said, " In his hand are 
 all the afflictions of the earth," " gorthrymderau'r ddaear." 
 
 A clergyman, reading " The whole head is sick, and the whole 
 heart faint," was understood to say, " the back parts are sick, and 
 the middle of the back faint." " Y pen ol sy glwyfus a'r hoi ganol 
 yn lesg." 
 
 Another, reading "The crooked shall be made straight, 
 and the rough places plain," "A'r gwyrgeimion a wneir yn 
 uniawn, a'r geirwon yn ffyrdd gwastad," read it thus : " The 
 crooked men shall be made straight, and the rnugh men smooth 
 ways ; " leaving the women, I suppose, still crooked and rough. 
 
 But while admitting, as who could hesitate to admit, 
 that the practice so long followed of appointing English- 
 men to all the higher ecclesiastical offices in Wales, 
 could not fail to affect most injuriously the interests of 
 the Welsh Church, we must utterly demur, as we have 
 already intimated, to the exaggerated influence ascribed 
 by the modern defenders of the Church to this circum- 
 stance, as though it were the sole cause of its inefficiency. 
 For let us look a little more closely into the matter. 
 The period to which the advocates of this theory are 
 fond of reverting, as constituting the ideal era of the 
 Established Church in Wales, when it was governed 
 principally by native prelates is, speaking in general 
 terms, the interval between the accession of Queen 
 Elizabeth and the reign of William and Mary, or to take 
 the precise dates, adopted by those among them who 
 have most carefully investigated the subject, from the
 
 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 157 
 
 years 1558 to 1715. They specify the names of twenty- 
 four Welshmen elevated to Welsh sees during these 
 157 years. But what was done by these Cymric bishops 
 for the spiritual good of the Principality ? Mr. Johnes, 
 whose work is the great repertory of information on all 
 matters connected with this subject, mentions three out 
 of the whole number who seem to have distinguished 
 themselves by some service rendered to their country. 
 First, Bishop Morgan, who translated the Bible into the 
 Welsh language ; but he did this not as bishop, but as 
 the vicar of a small country parish in Denbighshire, and 
 he undertook the work precisely because it had been 
 neglected by the Welsh prelates to whom it had been 
 entrusted. Second, Bishop Parry, who brought out a 
 new edition of the Bible for use in the churches. Third, 
 Bishop Owen, who succeeded to the diocese of St. Asaph 
 in 1629, and of whom we are told that " he began first 
 by his order and decrees, to establish preaching in Welsh 
 in St. Asaph parish church, and, as it is supposed, in 
 other parish churches in his diocese. He repaired his 
 cathedral at his own cost, and set up a new organ in it ; " 
 expressions which seem evidently to imply, that these 
 very simple and obvious duties had been neglected by his 
 predecessors, though they also were native prelates. We 
 have, also, seen a general statement that some of the 
 others established and endowed schools in particular 
 localities in Wales. Of most of the rest we know no- 
 thing, but of some of them we know something. We 
 know of Bishop Hughes, of St. Asaph, that he held six- 
 teen rich livings in commendam, and left his diocese in 
 the disgraceful condition already described in the early 
 part of this article. We know that under Bishop 
 Meyrick, of Bangor, there were, by his own acknowledg- 
 ment, only two preachers in his diocese ; and that, 
 according to the testimony of Strype, the grossest
 
 158 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 scandals were openly practised by the clergy. We know 
 that the four native bishops, who by the Act of Eliza- 
 beth, of 1563, were charged with translating the "Scrip- 
 tures into Welsh, so neglected their duty as that even 
 the churches were left without Welsh Bibles for twenty- 
 five years after that date. We know that for seventy 
 years after the settlement of the Eeformation, not a single 
 edition of the Bible in the Welsh language was issued for 
 the use of the people. We know that from 1640 to 1690, 
 which forms a considerable portion of the vaunted era of 
 Welsh bishops, Churchmen published only one edition of 
 the Scriptures a large folio, for use in the churches 
 while during the same interval the Nonconformists pub- 
 lished nine editions. We know that the contributions 
 of the " native bishops " to the moral and religious 
 literature of the Cymry are conspicuous by their 
 absence. We have examined with some care Eow- 
 land's "Cambrian Bibliography " (" Llyfryddiaeth y 
 Cymry"}, containing an account of all books pub- 
 lished in the Welsh language from 1546 to 1800, and, 
 between the years 1558 and 1715, the era of Welsh 
 bishops, we have failed to discover a single work written 
 in Welsh or translated into Welsh by any one of these 
 prelates, except " A Letter to the Welsh," by Bishop 
 Davies, introducing Salesbury's translation of the New 
 Testament. Nor is there any proof that they helped or 
 promoted in any important degree the publication of reli- 
 gious books in the Welsh language, while the Noncon- 
 formists of that age laboured indefatigably to enlighten the 
 people through the press. Even Vicar Pritchard's work, 
 "The Welshman's Candle," left by him in manuscript, and 
 which, next to the Bible, had the greatest influence on the 
 religious character of the country, was published by the 
 care and at the expense of Mr. Stephen Hughes, a Non- 
 conformist minister. But above all, we know what was
 
 LETTEKS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 159 
 
 the state of the Church and the country during, and at the 
 end of, the reign of this long dynasty of Welsh bishops. 
 It is described in the language already cited of Strype, and 
 Penry, and Pritchard, and Edwards, and Thomas, and Dr. 
 Baily, and Erasmus Saunders, and Griffith Jones, and 
 Howell Harris. And we beg our readers specially to 
 observe, that all the witnesses we have summoned to 
 depose to the character and condition of the Welsh Church 
 during three centuries of its history, have been members of 
 the Church itself. If there is one exception, it is that of 
 John Penry. But he also was born in the Church, and 
 baptized in the Church, and ordained in the Church, for 
 we are told that he was " a famous preacher of the 
 University ; " and he had, moreover, the honour of being 
 persecuted, imprisoned, and hung by the Church. With 
 that one doubtful exception, all the rest lived and died 
 within its pale. We might, of course, have added a 
 large number of witnesses from the ranks of Noncon- 
 formity, whose testimony, we believe, would have been 
 quite as trustworthy. But we have preferred omitting 
 whatever might be thought open even to the suspicion of 
 sectarian prejudice. Let us remember, that some of 
 the " native bishops " lived several years into the begin- 
 ning of the eighteenth century, and if they had exercised 
 so blessed an influence on the Church and the country as 
 it is now the fashion to affirm, that influence could not 
 have suddenly vanished immediately after their death. 
 Nemo repente fitit turpissimus is surely as applicable to a 
 community as to an individual. And yet we know by 
 the confession of all candid Churchmen, that when 
 Griffith Jones and Howell Harris began their labours 
 the former in 1730, and the latter in 1735 the Welsh 
 Church was in a most lamentable state of inefficiency 
 and corruption. 
 The simple truth is, that the history of the Welsh
 
 160 LETTEBS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 Church is only a crucial illustration of the invariable and 
 inevitable evils that attend State establishments of reli- 
 gion. It is true that in its case these evils appear in a 
 somewhat aggravated form, from the attempt made by 
 the English Government to treat Wales as a conquered 
 country, and to employ the Church as an agent in the 
 extinction of its language and nationality. But when 
 the life of a Christian Church is made to depend not on 
 the faith, love, and liberality of its own members, and 
 the presence and blessing of its Divine Master, but upon 
 the protection and patronage of the civil government, 
 and when, as a necessary consequence, the administra- 
 tion of its affairs falls into the hands of worldly poli- 
 ticians, who use it as an instrument of State, what can 
 be expected but what always has ensued, that its spiritual 
 life should wither, until those who seek real religious 
 nourishment from its breasts are driven in sheer despera- 
 tion to seek it elsewhere ? 
 
 Indeed, it is curious that the friends of the Welsh 
 Church, while enumerating the secondary causes which 
 have led to her ruin, do not find their way, which they 
 may do by a single step, to the right conclusion as to the 
 primary cause from which all the others spring. Our 
 Church, they say, has suffered grievous injustice from 
 the alienation of her revenues, from the appointment of 
 unqualified persons to all her highest offices, from the 
 most flagrantly corrupt use of patronage, from the neglect 
 of native talent, from laxity of godly discipline. But 
 who has alienated her revenues ? The State. Who has 
 made those unfitting appointments ? The State. Who 
 has exercised patronage so corruptly? The State and 
 its nominees, the bishops. Who has overlooked native 
 talent ? Again, the State and its nominees. Who has 
 neglected to enforce godly discipline ? Still, the State and 
 its nominees. Yet, when it is proposed to strike away
 
 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 161 
 
 the fetters which bind them to the power that has thus 
 maltreated and oppressed them, they hug their chains 
 with frantic vehemence, and even use them as weapons 
 with which to assail those who would fain assist in their 
 liberation. 
 
 But le" t us now inquire into the condition of the Church 
 in our own day. And in the phrase " our own day," we 
 suppose we may include a period of twenty-five years. 
 We have previously observed that, for a long time after 
 the revival of religion which stimulated the Dissenters 
 in Wales to such extraordinary activity in providing the 
 means of religious instruction for the people, the Church 
 continued sunk in utter apathy. It is impossible to find 
 a more conclusive illustration of this than is afforded by 
 the following statement of the comparative progress 
 made in church and chapel accommodation during the 
 first half of the present century. It is founded on the 
 Census Eeturns of 1851, and appears in Mr. Kichard's 
 " Letters on the Social and Political Condition of Wales," 
 where it is cited on the authority of a very accomplished 
 statistician, the late Mr. Flint, of Leeds. North Wales, 
 in 1801, stood thus as to religious accommodation : 
 
 a-4-*-. Proportion to all 
 Sittings. ^tings. 
 
 Church of England . . 99,216 . . 75-2 
 All others .... 32,664 . . 24-8 
 
 Total . . . 131,880 lOO'O 
 
 In the fifty years following, the population increased 
 from 252,765 to 412,114, or 63 per cent. To have kept 
 up the ratio of sittings to population by each of these 
 sections of religionists, the former should have supplied 
 62,505 sittings, and it did supply 16,614. The latter 
 ought to have supplied 20,576, and it did supply 217,928. 
 The Church of England fell short of its duty 73-5 per 
 cent., and all other denominations exceeded it 960 per 
 
 M 
 

 
 162 LETTEES AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 cent. The ratio of sittings to population, which, in 
 1801, was 52-1 per cent. (5-9 less than the proper 
 standard, according to Mr. Horace Mann), was, in 1851 > 
 88 -9 that is, 30 per cent, above it. 
 South Wales in 1801 stood thus : 
 
 Sittings. ft-gjjj^ 
 
 Church of England . . 133,514 . . 61'8 
 All others .... 82,443 . . 38'2 
 
 Total . . . 215,957 . . lOO'O 
 The population increased from 288,892 to 593,607, or 
 105-5 per cent. The quota of sittings required of the 
 Church was 140,854 ; it did provide 15,204. The other 
 denominations ought to have provided 86,975 ; they did 
 provide 270,510. The Church of England fell short of 
 its duty 89 per cent. ; the other denominations exceeded 
 it 211 per cent. The ratio of sittings to population in 
 1801 was 74-7 per cent., and in 1851, 84-5. Can the 
 force of antithesis go further ? * 
 
 But we must descend a little more into detail, and 
 furnish some practical illustrations, still taken from the 
 testimony of Churchmen themselves, as to the condition 
 of their Church in Wales in these modern times. In 
 1851, Sir Benjamin Hall made a speech in the House of 
 Commons, in which he described the state of things at 
 that time, especially in the diocese of St. David's. He 
 spoke of the total neglect of archidiaconal visitations, of 
 the small number of services performed in the diocese, 
 and of the ruinous and deserted state of the churches. 
 Here are a few extracts from his statements, taken, 
 in part, from the Eeport of the Commissioners on Edu- 
 cation and in part from that of a private Commissioner 
 employed by himself to make personal investigation : 
 
 No. 1. Kemys Hundred. In the whole country between Fish- 
 guard on the north, and the Precelly mountain on the south, there 
 
 * This calculation does not include Monmouthshire.
 
 LETTEBS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 163 
 
 is no day-school, and the state of the church exemplifies the 
 neglect in which the population of the parishes are left. The 
 churches of Llandeilo and Maenchlogag are in ruins. In that of 
 Morfyl the panes of the chancel window were all out, the inside 
 of the church wet as if just rinsed with water indeed it had 
 been, for the afternoon was raining. 
 
 No. 2. Hasguard. School held in the church, where the master 
 and four little children were ensconced in the chancel, amidst 
 lumber, round a three-legged grate full of burning sticks, without 
 funnel or chimney for the smoke to escape ; how they bore it I 
 cannot tell. There had been no churchwarden in the parish for 
 the last ten years, nor, it is believed, for a much longer period. 
 
 No. 3. Llanafan Fechan. Mr. Rees, farmer, who lives close to 
 the church, informed me that divine service was very seldom per- 
 formed here, unless there are banns to publish, a wedding, or a 
 funeral. 
 
 No. 4. Llandulais. This church is a barn-like building with 
 large holes in the roof, evincing every symptom of neglect and dis- 
 comfort. 
 
 No. 5. Llanfihangel Abergwessin. No service performed in this 
 church five out of six Sundays for want of a congregation. 
 
 No. 6. Llanfihangel Bryn Pabuan. Divine service not often 
 performed here, except a wedding or funeral takes place. The 
 vicar rides by on a Sunday afternoon, but seldom has occasion to 
 alight and do duty, from the want of a congregation. 
 
 No. 7. Llanfair tref Helygon. The parish church was in ruins 
 many years ago ; the oldest inhabitant does not remember it 
 standing. 
 
 No. 8. Llandegley. The clergyman is forbidden to have his 
 horses in the churchyard, but he puts in two calves. The school 
 is held in the church, into which the belfry opens, which is open 
 to the churchyard. Calves are still turned into the churchyard, 
 and, I was told, still sleep in the belfry. 
 
 No. 9. Llangybi, four miles from Llanbedr College, has neither 
 doors nor windows. The sacrament has not been administered for 
 ten years. Service seldom performed at all. Cows and horses 
 walk into the church and out at pleasure. 
 
 No. 10. Llanfihangel Ar Arth, also near Llanbedr. Here there 
 was once a chapel of ease ; the stones of its ruins have now dis- 
 appeared, though a yew-tree marks the spot ; and the baptismal 
 font was lately seen used as a pig- trough. Yet the Dissenters 
 have five chapels, and congregations amounting to 1,200. 
 
 No. 11. Llandeilo Abercywyn. The incumbent is occasionally 
 obliged to ring the church beU himself ; but sometimes the con- 
 gregation amounts to two or three persons. 
 
 No. 12. In another parish, the vicar has been in the Insolvent 
 Court ; and was also suspended for three years for immorality, 
 but allowed to return. He has only a congregation of about fifty, 
 whilst the Dissenters have four chapels, with congregations of 
 about 1,300. 
 
 M 2
 
 164 LETTERS AND ESSAYS OX WALES. 
 
 No. 13. Llandeilo Fach. No service here for about ten years. 
 The roof has fallen down for several years ; but, fortunately, there 
 is a dissenting chapel, with a congregation of about 300. 
 
 No. 15. Llanddowror. This parish is a frightful demonstration 
 of the destruction of the Church in Wales by the present system. 
 About eighty years ago this parish was under the pastoral care of 
 a native Welshman, the excellent and eminent Griffith Jones, 
 renowned for his piety, abilities, and qualifications. This church 
 had then 500 communicants, and people came many miles to 
 attend the service. But this church has now no roof to its chancel, 
 of which it has been destitute several years. The churchyard has 
 neither wall nor fence ; sheep were seen standing on the church 
 tower some months ago. In one parish the curate has only of late 
 been suspended, of whom the parishioners said he was " so bad the 
 devil would soon be ashamed of him." The vicar has not preached 
 in this parish for ten years, and lives twenty miles off. He has 
 had the care of the parish since 1812, which is now reduced to the 
 above deplorable state, though formerly, when in other hands, it 
 was quoted as the model parish of Wales. 
 
 Such was the aspect of the Church in the diocese of 
 St. David's only twenty years ago ; * and we have no doubt 
 there were scores of other parishes in Wales in little better 
 condition than those specified in the above extracts. 
 
 Let us now turn to look at another diocese. In the 
 year 1850 a vigorous effort was made to promote church 
 extension in the diocese of Llandaff. An appeal was 
 issued in the form of a letter from the Archdeacon of 
 Llandaff to the Bishop. The population in thirty-four 
 districts of the diocese was 173,139. There was church- 
 accommodation for only 17,440. Let our readers specially 
 ramark this fact. After having been in possession of the 
 country for three hundred years, the Established Church 
 in that part of Wales did not pretend to have made pro- 
 viSion, in the year of grace 1850, for the religious instruc- 
 tion of more than one-tenth of the vast population com- 
 mitted to her care. But, did the people avail themselves 
 of her ministrations even to that extent ? The answer 
 is at hand. Among others to whom the appeal for help 
 in building new churches, founded on the above showing, 
 was sent, was Sir Benjamin Hall. Before responding to 
 
 * This was written in 1871.
 
 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 165 
 
 that appeal, Sir Benjamin, who was intimately con- 
 versant with that part of the country, and who had his 
 doubts whether more church-accommodation, scanty as 
 it was, was really needed for the district, instructed 
 competent persons to count the actual numbers who 
 attended the churches and the dissenting chapels in 
 forty of the parishes of the diocese on a given Sunday. 
 He published the result in a pamphlet, in the form of a 
 letter to the Bishop, from which it appeared that, while 
 the sittings provided in the churches were 17,440, the 
 total number of actual attendants at the most nume- 
 rously-attended service on Sunday, October 13th, " the 
 weather being particularly fine," was 7,229; while the 
 number which attended the 227 chapels provided by the 
 Nonconformists, in the same district, amounted, on the 
 same day, to 80,270. " From the above it appears," says 
 the writer of the pamphlet, " that so far from the churches 
 being too small to hold the remnant of Churchmen 
 which the zeal and activity of the Dissenters have not 
 wrested from us, there is, at present, room for 9,591 
 persons in addition to those who now attend the divine 
 service of the Established Church." 
 
 If we turn to one of the North Wales dioceses, that of 
 Bangor, it would seem that even now, notwithstanding 
 the energetic efforts which the present Bishop is known 
 to have made to infuse some life into the Church, its con- 
 dition, according to the acknowledgment of its own 
 friends, is sufficiently discouraging. At a meeting held 
 in Bangor last year, the Bishop in the chair, a lay 
 Churchman said that Anglesey has seventy-nine parishes, 
 fifty-two of which have no parsonages. The seventy- 
 nine parishes are held by forty rectors; two of them 
 possess four livings each, eight of them possess three 
 livings each, and seventeen two each. He said that the 
 desirable thing for Anglesey was the residence of the
 
 166 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 clergyman among his parishioners. He declared that 
 the church there was now " empty." Another of the 
 speakers, Lord Penrhyn, acknowledged that Dissent had 
 prevented Wales from becoming a heathen country. At 
 a clerical conference held in the same city in August, 
 1868, also under the presidency of the Bishop, the Eev. 
 P. C. Ellis, Llanfairfechan, in the course, we are told, of 
 "a very earnest address," made these remarks: "He 
 believed if the Church of Ireland were disestablished it 
 would be a just judgment upon the clergy of that Church 
 for their shortcomings, and he was convinced that inves- 
 tigation would show that the clergy of the Church in this 
 country had fallen as far short of their duty as their 
 brethren in Ireland. He trembled to think what the 
 report of the state of the Church in Wales would dis- 
 close, as -he believed its position was worse than that of 
 the Church in Ireland. If the Church in Ireland were 
 to go down, the Church in Wales must surely follow." 
 
 With regard to the number of persons still attached to 
 the Church in Wales, there is great discrepancy of opinion. 
 Without pronouncing dogmatically on the subject, we 
 propose to furnish our readers with certain data, which 
 may assist them in drawing their own conclusions. So 
 far as w r e know, the first, and we believe the most 
 careful attempt that was ever made to procure a 
 return of the ecclesiastical statistics of Wales, was in 
 1846, by Mr. Hugh Owen, Honorary Secretary of the 
 Cambrian Educational Society, a gentleman to whom the 
 Principality is indebted for many valuable services. What 
 provoked that inquiry was this. About that time the 
 National Society was making a strenuous effort to cover 
 Wales with day-schools, wherein, according to the 
 fundamental regulations of that Society, " the children 
 were to be instructed in the Holy Scriptures, and the 
 liturgy and catechism of the Church of England, such
 
 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 167 
 
 instruction to be subject to the superintendence of the 
 parochial clergyman ; " " the children to be assembled for 
 the purpose of attending service in the parish church ; " 
 " the masters and mistresses to be members of the 
 Church of England," &c. A special appeal was issued 
 on behalf of Wales by Archdeacon Sinclair, with a view 
 " to raise a large fund " to establish schools on the above 
 principles. In this appeal, the suggestion " to adopt a 
 broad basis in which all sects could unite," was sternly 
 rejected. No system " from 'which the characteristic 
 doctrines of the Church of England were expunged" 
 could be tolerated for an instant. To show how utterly 
 unsuited to the country schools of this description must 
 prove to be, the inquiry of which we speak was 
 instituted. Having obtained, through means of the 
 relieving officers, the names and addresses of trustworthy 
 persons in about three-fourths of the parishes in Wales, 
 Mr. Owen addressed a circular to each of those persons, 
 requesting a return of 1. The name of every place 'ol 
 worship in his district. 2. The name of the denomina- 
 tion to which it belonged. 3. The exact number of the 
 congregation at each place of worship on the first 
 Sunday after the receipt of the circular, in the morning, 
 afternoon, and evening. 4. The exact number attending 
 the Sunday-school at each place, morning and after- 
 noon.* Eeturns were received from 392 parishes, thirty 
 of which were in Anglesey, fifty-nine in Carnarvonshire, 
 
 * The instructions given as to the mode of collecting the 
 returns are these : " In order to fill this schedule correctly, it 
 will be necessary to appoint persons in whom confidence can be 
 placed, to count every congregation and school in the parish, and 
 that on the same Sunday ; not taking one place on one Sunday 
 and another place on another Sunday. Care should be taken not 
 to give account of any place in the schedule that is not within 
 the limits of the parish. On the other side of the schedule let all 
 the persons who have been engaged in counting write their 
 names, as an attestation of the correctness of the returns."
 
 168 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 fifty-three in Denbighshire, seventeen in Flintshire, 
 twenty-three in Merionethshire, twenty-eight in Mont- 
 gomeryshire, twenty-seven in Breconshire, fifty-four in 
 Cardiganshire, forty in Carmarthenshire, eighteen in 
 Glamorganshire, forty-three in Pembrokeshire, and ten 
 in Eadnorshire. The population of these 392 parishes 
 amounted to 431,000. As the total population of Wales, 
 not including Monmouthshire, was then only 911,603, 
 that of the returned parishes contained nearly one-half 
 of the whole population of the country. The result is 
 thus summarised in a pamphlet published soon after : 
 
 From the returns it appeared that the number attending the 
 morning services of Dissenters were 79,694, the morning service of 
 the Church only 18,128, being more than four Dissenters to one 
 Churchman. The afternoon services of Dissenters were attended 
 by 63,379, those of the Church by 9,710, or about seven Dissenters 
 to one Churchman. The evening services of the Church were 
 attended by 5,889, and those of Dissenters by 128,216, or twenty- 
 two Dissenters to one Churchman. The average attendance on 
 the Sunday was 
 
 Churchmen . . . . . . 11,242 
 
 Dissenters . 90,415 
 
 Total average attendance . . 101,657 
 
 Hence the average attendance of Dissenters as compared with 
 Churchmen was as eight to one. 
 
 The actual morning attendance at dissenting Sunday-schools 
 was 40,641, at the Church schools 3,396, or in the proportion of 
 twelve to one. In the afternoon, the Dissenters' schools were 
 attended by 57,243, the Church schools by 6,002, or more than 
 nine to one, giving an average proportion of eleven to one in 
 favour of Dissenting schools. 
 
 It may be objected that as there were probably many 
 churches in which only one service was held, the deduc- 
 tion, from the average of three services, may be unfair. 
 Well, let it be noticed that the maximum number 
 attending the churches is in the morning, when it 
 amounts to 18,128 ; and that the maximum number 
 attending the dissenting chapels is in the evening, when 
 it amounts to 128,216 ; hence the ratio of the maximum
 
 LETTEES AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 169 
 
 attendance at dissenting chapels (evening service) to the 
 maximum attendance at the churches (morning service) 
 is seven to one. But leaving out of account for the 
 moment the relative proportions of Church and Dissent, 
 as indicated by these returns, what do they tell us of the 
 absolute number of persons attached to the Church, as 
 compared with the population ? Instead of taking the 
 average attendance at three services, we will, as before, 
 take the number present at the most numerously- 
 attended namely, the morning service ; and if we add 
 to that number one-fourth to represent absentees, we 
 shall have a total of 22,660 souls. This, in a population 
 of 431,000, would amount to rather more than one in 
 nineteen of church-goers. 
 
 But let us now turn to the official census of 1851. We 
 have not the slightest wish to impeach the general 
 accuracy of the facts and figures given in Mr. Horace 
 Mann's masterly report. But the condition of Wales is 
 very peculiar, and the general rules laid down by that 
 eminent statistician for classifying and formulating the 
 immense mass of figures with which he had to deal, 
 while fair enough, no doubt, to the normal state of society 
 in England, may not have been equally applicable to a 
 country in so exceptional a state as Wales. 
 
 That a serious error has crept somewhere into the 
 returns, as respects the Principality, is obvious from this 
 one fact. The number of sittings provided by the Church 
 of England is stated to be 301,897, and the number of 
 the worshipping population of the same Church on the 
 31st of March, 1851, is stated to be 138,719. Now Mr. 
 Mann shows that the proportion per cent, of attendants 
 to sittings in the Established Church, throughout all 
 England and Wales, is only thirty-three ; whereas by the 
 above showing, the proportion of attendants to sittings 
 in Wales alone is 40 per cent. We venture to say, that
 
 170 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 no man competently acquainted with Wales, knowing, as 
 every such man must know, the miserably meagre 
 attendance at hundreds of churches in that country, 
 would for an instant believe that the churches are occu- 
 pied in the proportion of 40 per cent, of attendants to 
 sittings. Let us, however, take the figures given to us 
 in the census. The population of Wales, including Mon- 
 mouthshire, in 1851, was 1,188,914. The total number of 
 places of worship was 4,006, which were distributed 
 thus : 
 
 PLACES OF WOKSHIP. 
 
 Of the places of worship 
 
 The Established Church furnished . . 1,180 
 Nonconformists .... , 2,826 
 
 Total ....;... 4,006 
 SITTINGS. 
 
 Of the sittings (including estimates for defective 
 returns) 
 
 Established Church furnished 301,897, or 30 per cent. 
 Nonconformists 692,239, or 70 per cent. 
 
 It appears thus, that the Church had provided sittings 
 for only 25 per cent, of the population, while the Non- 
 conformists had provided sittings for nearly 59 per cent. 
 
 But how about attendance ? According to Table B of 
 the Census of Eeligious Worship, the greatest number by 
 very far of attendants at the services of the Established 
 Church on the Census ^Sunday was in the morning. The 
 number was 100,953. If we add one-fourth to this 
 number for the absentees, we have 126,191, which repre- 
 sents 10'6 per cent., not quite one in nine of the popula- 
 tion. 
 
 But these facts, sufficiently remarkable as they are in 
 themselves, give really but an imperfect impression of 
 the real magnitude of the anomaly which exists in Wales. 
 An Established Church is presumably a national Church,
 
 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 171 
 
 and rests its claim to being established on the ground of 
 its being national. Above all, it ought to be par excel- 
 lence the poor man's Church, as some of the friends of 
 the English Establishment are wont to allege, with what 
 truth we pause not now to inquire, that theirs is. But 
 in Wales the Church is not only not national, but it is 
 anti-national ; and the whole policy of its rulers for at 
 least a hundred and fifty years has been inspired by a 
 prejudice as stupid as it was mean, against the Welsh 
 nationality and language. At present, of the .small 
 remnant of the population which still remains within its 
 pale, by far the larger part are either English immigrants 
 into Wales, or that portion of the Welsh people which 
 have become Anglicised in their feelings and tastes ; and 
 instead of being the poor man's Church, that of Wales 
 is emphatically and almost exclusively the rich man's 
 Church. There are scores, we might safely say hundreds 
 of churches, in which, if the clergyman's family and the 
 squire's family, and their few dependents and parasites 
 were removed, there would be absolutely no congregation 
 at all. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone lamented, as members of the Welsh 
 Church also sometimes profess to lament, the want of 
 accurate and trustworthy information as to the real facts 
 of the case as regards the several religious opinions in 
 Wales. But whose fault is that ? There would be no 
 difficulty whatever, in a small country like Wales, in 
 obtaining perfectly accurate information as to the number 
 of adherents to the Church, if that body were to follow 
 the example of the principal Nonconformist denomina- 
 tions in the Principality, who collect and publish 
 periodically statistical returns of the members of their 
 churches, and the attendants at public worship. But 
 the clergy of the Establishment, clinging tenaciously in 
 the face of notorious facts to the fond fancy that theirs
 
 172 LETTEKS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 is the national Church, however small a fragment of the 
 nation really belongs to it, decline to give us the number 
 either of their communicants or of those who habitually 
 frequent their churches. We are driven therefore to 
 look for such incidental indications of the real state of 
 the case as may come within our reach. Some of these, 
 however, are very significant. In the National Society's 
 report for 1866-7 there is a return given of the number of 
 persons attending Church Sunday-schools in Wales. They 
 amounted to 49,358, or 4 per cent, of the population. 
 The number found in dissenting Sunday-schools, ac- 
 cording to the printed year-books of the various denomi- 
 nations on the same year, was 351,128, or 29 per cent, 
 of the population, thus showing the Church Sunday - 
 scholars to be one-eighth of the entire number. These 
 returns are all the more valuable, because in Wales it 
 is not the children merely that attend the Sunday- 
 schools, but a very large proportion of the adult 
 population also. 
 
 Very striking revelations have been made, likewise, in 
 conection with day schools in Wales, tending to throw 
 much light on the actual and comparative strength of the 
 Church. When the Committee of Council on Education 
 began to make grants for the erection of schools, there 
 was a great rush of applicants from the friends of the 
 Established Church in Wales. They had many advan- 
 tages in their favour for undertaking the work of esta- 
 blishing day-schools. They had nearly the whole land 
 and a great proportion of the wealth, of the country in 
 their possession. As they drew the means for the sup- 
 port of their clergy, the fabrics of the Church, and public 
 worship which the Dissenters had to provide out of 
 their own pockets from the national endowments, they 
 had all their resources at liberty to devote to the work 
 of education. The administrators of the national fund
 
 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 173 
 
 were their partial friends, and dispensed it with a lavish 
 profusion, with little or no inquiry into the fitness of 
 those who applied, to direct and control the education of 
 such a population as that of Wales. The National 
 Society, as already shown, made an appeal, which was 
 liberally responded to, for a special fund in which the co- 
 operation of England was solicited, to promote " the 
 education of our fellow-countrymen throughout Wales in 
 the principles of our common Church." Our friends of 
 the Establishment, moreover, were restrained by no 
 scruple whatever from receiving public money to any 
 extent for teaching their own peculiar tenets in day 
 schools, while the Dissenters conscientiously refused the 
 proffered grants of Government aid for religious instruc- 
 tion. This sudden access of educational zeal sprang 
 avowedly in great part from proselyting motives. The 
 late Bishop of St. David's, in one of his early charges, ad- 
 verting to the peculiar condition of the Principality, con- 
 fessed that the existing generation was hopelessly alien- 
 ated from the Church, but that the next could and must 
 be recovered by attending to the education of the young. 
 The result of this effort was that State-aided Church 
 schools sprang up in all the larger towns and villages, 
 and in many remote hamlets, and that often in places 
 where there were not half-a-dozen Church children.* In 
 these schools the principles of the National Society were 
 rigidly enforced. All the children were taught the 
 Church Catechism, and obliged to attend church on Sun- 
 days. But State-aided schools were liable to inspection, 
 and the inspectors had to present their reports to the 
 Committee of Council, and these were laid before Par- 
 liament and the public. It was not possible, therefore, 
 
 * Of late years, however, the Nonconformists have taken up 
 the question of day-school education very strenuously and suc- 
 cessfully, so that there are at this time (1871) more than 400 
 British or neutral schools in Wales.
 
 174 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 in reporting on the state of education in Wales, wholly 
 to conceal the fact, that jan enormous majority of the 
 people held religious views different from those held by 
 the class who in many places had undertaken to direct 
 theh" education. This has often come out in the reports 
 of even Church of England Inspectors. Thus the Eev. 
 Longueville Jones, who was inspector of Church schools 
 in Wales in 1854, says: "The number of children in 
 Welsh schools whose parents belong to the Church is so 
 very small, that it requires great experience and delicacy 
 of feeling to treat their young minds as they should be."* 
 As an illustration of the difficulty with which this gen- 
 tleman had to contend, it is only necessary to refer to 
 the statistics he gives of one school under his in- 
 spection, in which out of 107 children, only five 
 were of parents belonging to the Church, whilst in 
 the following year the same school contained 144 
 children, of whom two only were of church -going 
 parents. To come down to a later period, in the report 
 of the Eev. S. Pryce, Inspector of Church of England 
 Schools for Mid- Wales, for 1868, we find the following 
 admission: "The number of children attending the 
 Welsh country schools I visit, is great beyond all pro- 
 portion when compared with the number of persons 
 attending church." f 
 
 Among the inspectors of British Schools in Wales 
 was Mr. J. Bowstead. We believe that Mr. Bowstead 
 was himself a Churchman. But he was a liberal and 
 candid Churchman. When, therefore, in the discharge 
 of his office, he began to visit the country, some 
 eighteen or twenty years ago, he was forcibly struck 
 with the singular anomaly he found to exist, of a 
 
 * Minutes of Council, 1854^5, p. 602. 
 
 t Report of the Committee of Council on Education, 1S63-9, 
 p. 179.
 
 LETTEES AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 175 
 
 large number of Church schools in some cases libe- 
 rally subsidised from the public funds, and in others 
 supported by deductions from workmen's wages, planted 
 among a population of Dissenters, who felt the strongest 
 repugnance to much of the religious teaching forced on 
 their children in such schools. He had the courage in his 
 reports to expose this injustice, for which he be- 
 came the bete noire of the Welsh bishops and clergy, who 
 often assailed him with great acrimony and conspicuous 
 unfairness. But, on the other hand, he had the satis- 
 faction of knowing that he had won the enthusiastic 
 gratitude of a whole nation, who owe to him, in a main 
 degree, the exposure of a flagrant wrong from which they 
 had been long suffering, with little hope of deliverance. 
 Well, Mr. Bowstead, after extensive and careful inquiry, 
 in order to show the aggravated character of the anomaly 
 of which he complained, ventured to say that nine-tenths 
 of the common people in Wales were Nonconformists. A 
 writer in the Quarterly Review assailed him very angrily, 
 and accused him of " asserting without a shadow of proof 
 that nine-tenths of tJie Welsh people are Nonconform- 
 ists." In a pamphlet issued for private circulation, Mr. 
 Bowstead with just severity first rebuked his assail- 
 ant for perverting his words, and then showed how 
 little foundation there was for the charge of his having 
 asserted without " a shadow of proof," what alone 
 he did assert, that nine-tenths of the common people 
 of Wales, of such people as use elementary schools, 
 are Nonconformists. Now for the proof of this allega- 
 tion. When Sir John Pakington's Committee was sit- 
 ting in 1865-6, Mr. Bowstead was one of the wit- 
 nesses summoned to give evidence. He had been asked 
 to procure the best information he could, as to the com- 
 parative numbers of children of Church people and 
 children of Dissenters in the schools he visited. He had
 
 176 LETTEKS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 no difficulty in getting at this from the school register, 
 because the name of the Sunday-school which each child 
 attends is entered in a column provided for the purpose, 
 a very satisfactory index of the denomination to which 
 its parents belong. And what was the result ? He 
 received returns from thirty schools, " which were the 
 only elementary schools in their respective localities." 
 These thirty schools had an aggregate of 6,799 children 
 under instruction, and of these 756 were returned as 
 belonging to the Church. The children of parents 
 attached to the Church formed, therefore, about 11 per 
 cent, of the whole, and the children of Nonconformists 
 constituted the remaining 89 per cent. But Mr. Bowstead 
 supplies us with more recent evidence, which we give in 
 his own words : 
 
 I have not on this occasion attempted to obtain returns from so 
 wide an area as in 1866 ; but I have secured very complete and 
 reliable returns, upon a considerable scale, from a locality which 
 embraces some 20,000 inhabitants, all of whom are brought 
 together by the industrial operations of one large company, and 
 all of whose children, so far as they belong to the working classes, 
 receive their education in schools promoted by that company. 
 The locality is Dowlais, which in the matter of education is the 
 Prussia of South Wales. It has an admirable system of schools, 
 embracing not only unsectarian Protestant schools for the bulk of 
 the community, but also Roman Catholic schools for the Irish. 
 Nearly one-sixth, of the whole population may be found on the 
 registers of these schools at any moment, and I should think 
 there is scarcely a child in the place that does not receive some 
 amount of schooling, while those of them who stay long enough 
 at school secure a very thorough elementary English education, 
 together with some instruction in the French language and 
 in drawing. I know of no place where the schools reproduce so 
 complete a picture of the population around them, or where the 
 free play of all the social forces presents so true a type of the 
 characteristic features of the working men of the district. 
 
 Mr. Bowstead then subjoins a table showing the 
 number of children belonging to each denomination, in 
 attendance at the Dowlais schools : out of a total of 
 2,933, those belonging to the Established Church are
 
 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 177 
 
 266. " The Church children, therefore, would be almost 
 7'7 per cent., or one-thirteenth of the whole, and the 
 Nonconformists would claim the remaining twelve- 
 thirteenths. This gives a larger proportion to the 
 Nonconformists than any former return." Accom-* 
 panying this return there is a letter from Mr. G. T. 
 Olark, the Managing Trustee of the Dowlais Works, 
 containing some remarks which are of great significance 
 -and value. In sending the tabular statement just 
 referred to, Mr. Clark remarks: "The proportion of 
 the several sects may, I think, be taken as typical of the 
 manufacturing population of South Wales and Mon- 
 mouthshire." We must quote two or three other 
 sentences from Mr. Clark's letter : 
 
 I see a great deal is said about the disposition of the Welsh 
 Dissenters to allow their children to attend Church schools. We 
 have both Church and neutral schools in this district, and I be- 
 lieve the Church schools of my friend and neighbour, the Rector 
 of Gelligaer, to be as good as any semi-rural schools in Wales, 
 And they are largely attended by the children of Dissenters. But 
 this is not from love of the Church, but because they desire 
 education, and the district has no other schools. The Welsh in 
 this respect, like the Scotch, have a craving to get on, and they 
 will make a sacrifice to educate their children ; and if the only 
 accessible school be a Church school, to it they will apply. They 
 trust, and safely trust, to the domestic example, and to the 
 Sunday teaching in the chapel and chapel school, to keep thi 
 children in the special faith of their parents. . . . Those who 
 say that the South Wales manufacturing population have a 
 regard for the Church of England speak in utter ignorance of the 
 matter. Their dislike to the Church, as an Establishment, is very 
 strong, and is yearly becoming stronger. 
 
 It would be difficult to find a more competent and 
 trustworthy witness. Mr. Clark is himself an attached 
 member of the Church of England. He is a gentleman 
 of rare intelligence, who has for many years been at the 
 head of one of the largest and best conducted of the 
 great iron works of South Wales. His knowledge of the 
 population of the whole district is extensive and accurate. 
 
 N
 
 178 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 His testimony, therefore, as to the comparative number 
 of Churchmen and Dissenters, and the feelings of the 
 Nonconformists towards the Establishment, must be 
 held to be unimpeachable. 
 
 But what is the comparative progress in accommoda- 
 tion for worship made by the Church and the Noncon- 
 formists since the Census of 1851 ? We have the 
 materials for an approximate estimate. The Bishop 
 of Llandaff, in his charge, delivered in August, 1869, 
 states that, since 1849, the number of new churches 
 erected in his diocese is thirty-nine, not quite two 
 churches in the year ; and the number of churches re- 
 built on the same site, but whether enlarged is not 
 stated, is thirty-six, making a total of seventy-five. 
 Against this we have to place the following return, 
 furnished to us in detail, but of which we can here give 
 only a summary, of what has been done in the same 
 diocese by three Nonconformist bodies since 1850 : 
 
 Number of new chapels built by the Independents . . 68 
 Number of ditto rebuilt and enlarged .... 46 
 
 114 
 
 Number of new chapels built by the Baptists . . 66 
 
 Number of ditto rebuilt and enlarged . . . .39 
 
 105 
 Number of new chapels built by Calvinistic Methodists . 52 
 
 Number of ditto rebuilt and enlarged . . . .42 
 
 94 
 
 Total . . . . .313 
 
 Let it be observed that this showing includes only the 
 three principal Nonconformist denominations, as we have 
 failed to procure returns of the different bodies of 
 Wesleyan Methodists and other minor sects, which 
 would make undoubtedly a considerable addition to the 
 total increase of dissenting accommodation. And yet 
 how does the comparison stand even with such incom- 
 plete elements as we possess ? We find that the Noncon-
 
 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 179 
 
 formists have built 186 new places of worship against 
 thirty-nine built by the Church, and have rebuilt and 
 enlarged 127 more against thirty-six rebuilt by the 
 Church. 
 
 With regard to the whole of Wales, our information as 
 respects what the Church has done during the last 
 twenty years, is not so perfect as we could wish. The 
 number of new churches built in the four dioceses 
 appears, as nearly as we can calculate from the data 
 within our reach, to be about 110. But there is more 
 difficulty in getting at those rebuilt and enlarged, as in 
 one of the returns (that of St. Asaph) we find churches 
 " restored " and " improved " words implying merely 
 repairs of existing fabrics without any additional accom- 
 modation mixed up with those which have been " re- 
 built and enlarged." We have the precise number 
 rebuilt, and we are willing to presume somewhat en- 
 larged, in Llandaff, which is thirty-six, and in Bangor, 
 which is thirty-one. We think it would be a liberal 
 allowance from the statistical report before us to assign 
 thirty-five "enlarged" churches to St. Asaph, and, 
 judging by the number of new churches built in St. 
 David's, we presume that thirty " enlarged " churches 
 would cover all that has been done in that diocese, 
 making a total rebuilt and enlarged of 132. Let us now 
 turn to the Nonconformists. The following are facts on 
 the substantial accuracy of which our readers may rely. 
 Since 1850, the Calvinistic Methodists have built 321 
 new chapels, and have rebuilt and enlarged 435 more, 
 providing additional accommodation in all for 123,881 
 worshippers, at a cost of 366,000. The Independents, 
 during the same period, have built 118 new chapels, and 
 have rebuilt and enlarged 200 more, furnishing additional 
 accommodation for 130,000 at a cost of 294,000. The 
 Baptists have built 142 new chapels, and rebuilt and 
 
 N 2
 
 180 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 enlarged ninety-nine more, furnishing additional accom- 
 modation for 81,800, at a cost of 163,000. Thus, these 
 three denominations alone have in twenty years built 
 581 new chapels, and rebuilt and enlarged 734 more, 
 providing accommodation for 308,681 persons, at a cost 
 of 823,000. 
 
 But it must be further observed, that it is not merely 
 in the matter of religious instruction that the Noncon- 
 formists have become almost exclusively the leaders of 
 the Welsh people. As respects literature and science, 
 and all important social and political movements, it is 
 the same. The literature of Wales, and not its religious 
 literature merely, is almost wholly Nonconformist. 
 There are about thirty periodicals, quarterly, monthly, 
 and weekly, at present published in the Welsh language. 
 Of these all but three are owned and edited by Dis- 
 senters. There are nine commentaries on the whole 
 Bible, and nine besides on the New Testament . alone, 
 some original and some translated from English, and 
 only two of these were done by Churchmen, and even 
 they were Dissenters when they began their work. 
 There are eight Biblical and Theological Dictionaries, 
 and as many bodies of divinity or systems of theology, 
 and no Churchman, we believe, has had a hand in the 
 production of any one of them. There is a History of 
 the World, a History of Great Britain, a History of 
 Christianity, a History of the Church, a History of the 
 Welsh Nation, a History of Keligion in Wales, all by 
 Dissenters, besides elaborate denominational Histories of 
 the Calvinistic Methodists, the Independents, the Bap- 
 tists, &c. Indeed, all the ecclesiastical histories in the 
 language are Nonconformist, and all the general histories 
 except the History of Wales, by the Eev. Thomas Price, 
 and a small work called the " Mirror of the Principal 
 Ages," There is a valuable work, illustrated by many
 
 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 181 
 
 excellent maps and diagrams, entitled " The History of 
 Heaven and Earth," treating of geography and astro- 
 nomy, by the Eev. J. T. Jones, of Aberdare, formerly a 
 Nonconformist minister. There is another large geo- 
 graphical dictionary in course of publication by a Dis- 
 senting minister. There are two copious Biographical 
 Dictionaries edited and principally written by Dissenters. 
 There is now, and has been for several years, in course of 
 publication an Encyclopaedia in the Welsh language 
 (Encyclopaedia Cambrensis), dealing, as such works do, 
 with the entire circle of human knowledge. It was 
 described by the late Archdeacon Williams, who had 
 seen the earlier volumes, as " a work of great promise, 
 as sound in doctrine as it is unsectarian in principle." 
 It is studiously free from denominational taint, and was 
 intended to be a great national undertaking, the con- 
 tributors being indiscriminately selected from the ablest 
 writers of all denominations, the combined learning and 
 talent of Wales being thus engaged in its preparation. 
 The enterprising publisher at the outset addressed a 
 letter to all those among his countrymen, of whatever 
 Church or creed, who had distinguished themselves in 
 any way by their literary acquirements and productions, 
 inviting their co-operation. We have now before us a 
 list of the contributors, amounting to ninety names, and 
 out of these ninety, there are certainly not more than 
 nine Churchmen. 
 
 The English public has of late years become partially 
 acquainted with a remarkable institution existing in 
 Wales, which has come down from very ancient times, 
 called Yr Eisteddfod, or the Session, meaning in its 
 primitive signification the Session of the Bards. Its 
 object is to encourage the cultivation of literature, 
 poetry, and music. Prizes ranging from 1 to 100 are 
 offered for the best compositions in poetry, prose, and
 
 182 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 music. The highest honour bestowed by the Eisteddfod 
 is the Bardic chair, and the productions entitling the 
 successful candidates to this distinction are supposed to 
 possess rare merit. There are now living nine chaired 
 bards, of whom one is a clergyman, seven are Noncon- 
 formist ministers, and one a Nonconformist layman. In 
 musical compositions the proportion would be about the 
 same. And certainly the Welsh clergy of the present day 
 have not, any more than their predecessors, distinguished 
 themselves as authors. A catalogue of Welsh books pub- 
 lished within the last twenty years would show a very 
 " beggarly account " standing to the credit of the official 
 instructors of the Welsh people. 
 
 Such are the past history and the present condition of 
 the Established Church in Wales. Surely no legislature 
 with any sense of justice can long refuse to deal with so 
 anomalous an institution as that we have described. A 
 Church which has wholly failed, and is still failing, to 
 accomplish the only object for which it pretends to exist, 
 from which and that entirely owing to its own criminal 
 neglect the great body of the people are hopelessly 
 alienated, and which has no vital relation with the 
 religious, political, social, or literary life of the nation, 
 is not merely a theoretical anomaly. It is an in- 
 tolerable practical grievance, .and is becoming more and 
 more so every day. For its friends, numbering as they 
 do nearly all the landowners and wealthy classes, 
 galvanised, of late years, into a sort of spasmodic zeal, 
 which is far more political than religious, are making 
 frantic efforts to regain for their Church the ascendancy 
 it has so righteously lost, by a very unscrupulous use of 
 their wealth; their social position, and their control over 
 the land. The advocates of the Church, especially in 
 the English Press, are trying to wreak their vengeance 
 on a nation of Dissenters, by traducing the character of
 
 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 183 
 
 the people and ridiculing their language, their literature, 
 -and their religious institutions; and this they are not 
 deterred from doing by their utter ignorance of all three. 
 Some of the Welsh clergy, also, exasperated by seeing 
 their pretensions contemned and their ministrations for- 
 saken, are propagating the most monstrous calumnies 
 .against their successful rivals, the dissenting ministers. 
 One Conservative journal in London has especially dis- 
 tinguished itself by throwing its columns open to these 
 anonymous slanderers. Here are some of the flowers of 
 speech that have been plentifully scattered in its pages 
 on the Welsh Nonconformists. "The Welsh language 
 is made the instrument of evil by preachers and other 
 supporters of anarchy and plunder." " The people are 
 actively taught to commit arson and murder ; they are 
 regularly drilled into Fenianisrn." " Dissenting mini- 
 sters are the curse of Wales ; there is scarcely a sermon 
 or lecture they deliver that is not full of sedition." 
 
 And yet the country whose population is thus syste- 
 matically trained to sedition and murder is more free 
 from serious crime than any part of the United King- 
 dom ; so free, indeed, that in many of the counties the 
 annual visit of Her Majesty's judges is almost a work of 
 supererogation. Take as an example the county of Car- 
 digan, which was the scene of the most extensive and 
 cruel political persecutions after the last Election, where 
 many tenants were evicted from their holdings, or other- 
 wise injured, some of them under circumstances of a 
 singularly exasperating character. And yet at the 
 Assizes, that were held immediately after, there was not 
 a single prisoner to be tried. Mr. Justice Hannen, n 
 charging the grand jury, said " that a perfectly clear 
 calendar was a circumstance he had never before met 
 with since he had been on the bench, and he under- 
 stood from his brother judges that only in the Princi-
 
 184 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 pality of Wales was such a thing known, and that 
 there it was frequent. Whether it was attributable to- 
 race or to the influence of religious teaching, he could 
 not say, but he felt deeply interested in the matter, and 
 whatever might be the cause, there was the indisputable 
 fact, one of which the county of Cardigan might well be 
 proud." 
 
 These insane efforts to drive or to drag the people back 
 into the Church by coercion and calumny produce, of 
 course, precisely the opposite effect. Indeed, the Con- 
 servatives, in then- treatment of Wales, are triumphantly 
 vindicating their right to the title bestowed upon them 
 by Mr. Stuart Mill, as " the stupid party." Unhappily , 
 however, they do succeed in embittering the heart of the 
 people, and in introducing alienation and anger into their 
 relations with the classes who are thus tempted to- 
 tamper with their religious and political rights. And 
 all this is owing to the existence of an Established 
 Church.
 
 WELSH EDUCATION 
 
 AND THE 
 
 ESTABLISHED CHURCH IN WALES.* 
 
 SOME time ago a gentleman, connected with a college in 
 Wales, wrote to a Welsh Member of Parliament to ask if 
 it were not possible to obtain a set of all Parliamentary 
 Papers relating to Wales for the library of the institution 
 in which he was interested. The answer, after due 
 inquiry, was that there were no Parliamentary Papers 
 relating to Wales. There would be no difficulty, it was 
 said, in furnishing a vast and voluminous collection of 
 Blue Books about Ireland, or Afghanistan, or Turkey, or 
 South Africa, or Egypt, or Syria, or wherever tumult 
 and disorder prevailed. But Wales was conspicuous by 
 its absence from the roll of these ponderous documents. 
 Some one has said, " Happy is the nation that has no 
 history." But that saying proceeds on the old assump- 
 tion that history consists, to use the words of Carlyle, 
 " of a series of intrigues and butcheries and battles;" 
 and these are the things that for the most part find their 
 way to diplomatic and Parliamentary records. But in 
 all healthy communities there are developments of 
 national life continually going on, of a far more important 
 and lasting character than any inscribed on the pages of 
 " drum and trumpet history." So has it been with the 
 Principality of Wales. Though, happily, for several 
 * From The British Quarterly Review for April, 1883.
 
 186 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 centuries it has had little of blood and glory to chronicle 
 in its annals, it has not been without a modest history of 
 its own, though not of a nature to find its way into Blue 
 Books, or to figure much in Parliamentary debates. For 
 a century and a half it has been quietly working out its 
 own destinies, material and moral, in the seclusion of its 
 picturesque valleys, and under the shadow of its everlast- 
 ing hills, diligently cultivating its soil, rearing its thou- 
 sands of cattle and horses, and its myriads of sheep to 
 help in feeding and clothing its more luxurious neigh- 
 bours ; extracting from its exhaustless mineral treasures 
 the coal and iron and lead and silver with which it has 
 so largely enriched the nation ; excavating whole moun- 
 tains into slate and stone quarries, whose produce has 
 .gone forth into all the markets of the world ; and con- 
 structing docks, harbours, railways, tramroads, and 
 canals to convey these resources of its soil and fruits of 
 its industry into almost all quarters of the globe. During 
 the same period it has not neglected its inner and higher 
 life, but has built thousands of houses dedicated to the 
 service of God, within whose walls a larger proportion of 
 its people are habitually gathered for purposes of religious 
 instruction and worship than perhaps can be found in 
 any part of the kingdom. 
 
 It has done much, also, for the education of its people ; 
 first by a system of Sunday-schools, the most perfect 
 that ever existed in any country, and then by such rapid 
 multiplication of the means of elementary education as 
 to have provided, according to the last report of the 
 Committee of Council, no fewer than 1,705 schools and 
 departments of schools, besides colleges of various kinds, 
 -on which, within thirty years, at least 150,000 have 
 been expended. Nor has it been wanting in intellectual 
 activity, for it has created a large living literature, com- 
 prising works of sterling value in history, biography,
 
 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 187 
 
 poetry, music, science, natural history, natural and 
 moral philosophy, oesides calling into existence and 
 into extensive circulation a copious assortment of 
 periodicals in the form of reviews, magazines, and 
 newspapers in both languages.* To which 'must be 
 added that it has in a humble way cared not a little for 
 the aesthetic culture of its people ; for by its Esteddfodau 
 and Cymmrodorion societies, it has diffused through the 
 whole country a passionate love of poetry and music, 
 and has brought, and is bringing, to light the treasures 
 of bardic and legendary lore which had been stored up 
 in its ancient language and literature. 
 
 At last, however, Wales has an entire Blue Book of 
 more than a thousand pages all to itself, to the no little 
 gratification of its simple-minded people, who have been 
 inclined to bewail, and almost to resent, the previous 
 absence of themselves and their country from these 
 pretentious official records. 
 
 O fortunatos nimium sua si bona norint ! 
 
 * In a very able and exhaustive paper on " The Literature of 
 Wales/' read at the Church Congress in Swansea, in 1879, by the 
 Rev. David Williams, the following statement was made : " Wales 
 has 62 newspapers and 22 periodicals in the proportions of 32 
 Welsh to 52 English. Deducting the metropolis with its 4,000,000 
 inhabitants, and 505 newspapers and 619 periodicals, England, 
 with a population fourteen times as large as Wales, had only 
 thirteen times as many newspapers, viz., 1,162, and hardly seven 
 times as many periodicals. Ireland, with four times the popula- 
 tion, has only a little more than twice the number of newspapers, 
 viz., 148 to our 62 ; while the 174 of Scotland make the two 
 countries proportionately equal. In periodicals Wales stands at 
 the top of the ladder ; Scotland has 41 ; Ireland, 29 ; England, 
 14S ; Wales, 22. Thus in proportion to population Wales has 
 twice as many as England, one and a-half as many as Scotland, 
 and four times as many as Ireland." Mr. Williams adds, with 
 honourable candour, " The native press is almost entirely in the 
 hands of the Dissenters. The adherents of the Church of England 
 in Wales stand in the same proportion to the population as her 
 publications do to those of Nonconformity. Out of 32 Welsh 
 periodicals the Church claims the significant number of four." 
 (" Report of Church Congress," pp. 557, 558.)
 
 188 LETTEBS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 In August, 1880, the Government appointed a Com- 
 mission, or Departmental Committee, as it was called, 
 " to inquire into the present condition of Intermediate 
 and Higher Education in Wales, and to recommend the 
 measures which they may think advisable for improving 
 and supplementing the provision that is now, or might 
 be made, available for such education in the Principality." 
 This committee consisted of Lord Aberdare, as chair- 
 man, Viscount Emlyn, M.P., the Eev. Prebendary 
 Robinson, H. Eichard, Esq., M.P., Professor Rhys, 
 and Lewis Morris, Esq. It is important to note the 
 constitution of this body. Five of its members were 
 Churchmen, of whom one was a dignitary of the Estab- 
 lished Church and a high official in the Charity Com- 
 mission, and another was a Conservative member of 
 Parliament and heir to a peerage. There was only one 
 Nonconformist. When we consider that this was a body 
 appointed to inquire into the educational condition and 
 requirements of a community the overwhelming majority 
 of whom are Nonconformists, it must be admitted that it 
 was not unduly in favour of the latter. It is under- 
 stood that while the project was yet in a state of incuba- 
 tion, and the list of names was privately circulated 
 about, a respectful representation was made to the 
 Government on this point, with a view to a more 
 equitable distribution of parts. But little heed is evsr 
 paid to the wishes and remonstrances of Nonconformists, 
 whatever party is in power. 
 
 The inquiry appears to have been elaborate and exhaus- 
 tive, the Committee sitting to receive evidence in many 
 of the principal towns of Wales and Monmouthshire, 
 beginning with Holy head and ending with Newport. 
 No one can charge, or has charged them, so far as we 
 know, with showing any partiality to Nonconformists in 
 the selection of witnesses. So far otherwise, that the
 
 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 189 
 
 number of Churchmen called was far in excess of the 
 proportion which the adherents of the Church bears to the 
 population of the country. If, therefore, there was any 
 primd facie ground for jealousy, it would surely lie with 
 the majority, who might have thought themselves insuf- 
 ficiently represented on the Committee and in the witness- 
 box. Happily, however, the gentlemen to whom the work 
 was entrusted were men of an eminently honourable 
 temper, who kept their minds open to evidence and to 
 the conviction which evidence produces, and who prose- 
 cuted their work with a candour and a conscientiousness 
 which merit grateful acknowledgment. And none 
 deserve this tribute of admiration and gratitude more 
 than the Eev. Prebendary Eobinson, whose death, 
 hastened, we fear, by the laborious part he took in this 
 inquiry, is a serious and almost irreparable loss to the 
 party of liberal thought and generous sympathies in the 
 Church of England. 
 
 The Eeport of the Committee has been favourably 
 appreciated by the Government, which has already acted 
 upon several of its recommendations, and intends, it is 
 understood, to propose other measures very much in 
 accordance with its remaining suggestions. It has also 
 been received with general satisfaction and approval 
 throughout the Principality. The only exception has 
 been a certain class of the clergy, who seem to have been 
 sorely troubled by the presence of the one Nonconformist 
 on the Committee, and the part he took in the inquiry. 
 In the last number of TJie Church Quarterly Review 
 vent is given to the feelings of that class in a singular, 
 and certainly not a very saintly, fashion. We must 
 explain to our readers the grounds of the grievance 
 which these poor, persecuted people urge against the 
 delinquent Commissioner. Mr. Kichard appears to have 
 entered upon his duty by assuming, what at first sight
 
 190 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 does not look a very irrational principle, namely, that in 
 providing a scheme of education for Wales or any other 
 country, it is important that it not only should be suffi- 
 cient in quantity and efficient in quality, but that it 
 should be of such a character as to command the confi- 
 dence of the great body of the people for whom it is 
 intended. Now, in Wales, as in England, the great 
 bulk of the educational endowments, especially of 
 grammar-schools, whatever may have been the condi- 
 tions of the original trust, have fallen into the hands of 
 the Church of England ; for, according to the interpre- 
 tation of the Court of Chancery, it was made a pre- 
 sumption of law that when no explicit direction was 
 given in reference to religious matters in the will of the 
 testator, the religious instruction was to be according to 
 the principles of the Church of England. So Noncon- 
 formists were almost cut off from all share in this great 
 inheritance of the past. The Endowed Schools Act of 
 1869 was partly intended as a remedy for this wrong. 
 By the 17th section of that Act it was provided that, in 
 future schemes for endowed schools (excepting those 
 where by the express terms of the foundation directions 
 for instruction of a denominational character are im- 
 posed), religious opinions and attendance or non-attend- 
 ance at any form of religious worship shall not in any 
 way affect the qualification of any person to be a mem- 
 ber of the governing body. But Nonconformists have 
 found nearly everywhere that this provision, with an 
 appearance of great liberality, is, in its practical working, 
 almost wholly illusory. For the schemes are so mani- 
 pulated, that what with feoffees and nominated and co- 
 optative Governors and other contrivances, the enormous 
 preponderance is always secured to Churchmen on the 
 governing bodies, and they, of course, elect the masters 
 and decide the character of the schools. That was
 
 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 191 
 
 found to be the case in Wales. With two, or possibly 
 three exceptions, they all come ostensibly under the 
 operation of the 17th section of the Endowed Schools 
 Act already referred to. To quote the words of the 
 Committee in their Report : 
 
 It may, therefore, be fairly assumed that the Welsh grammar 
 schools "are generally, so far as regards their legal status, unde- 
 nominational. But while legally and nominally undenomina- 
 tional, they are, with few exceptions, practically in the hands of 
 one religious body, which constitutes what is comparatively a 
 small minority of the population. We found during the time of 
 our inquiry that in several instances the whole of the governing 
 body were members of the Church of England. That was the 
 case at Euthin, Cowbridge, Monmouth, and the two endowed 
 schools for girls at Llandaff and Denbigh ; and even in those 
 cases where Nonconformists are represented on the governing 
 body, the overwhelming majority generally belonged to the Esta- 
 blished Church. Thus at Bangor, out of twenty governors, only 
 four are Nonconformists ; to which must be added that the head- 
 master and most of the other masters are almost always members 
 of the Church of England. 
 
 A very flagrant instance was given in the evidence of 
 Mr. Richard Davies, the Member for Anglesea. In 
 Beaumaris there is a grammar-school with a large 
 endowment, one of the richest foundations in Wales. 
 Mr. Davies had taken pains to ascertain the religious 
 profession of the population of Anglesea, when he found 
 that there were 35,000 adherents of the Nonconformist 
 Bodies out of a total population of 49,000. How many 
 of the remaining 14,000 belong to the Church of England 
 there are, so far as we know, no data to determine. In 
 any case the disparity of numbers was sufficiently strik- 
 ing. But in such a population as the above there was 
 not a single Nonconformist on the governing body of the 
 endowed school. 
 
 Now, is it natural, is it credible, that the Noncon- 
 formists of Wales should be satisfied with such a condi- 
 tion of things, satisfied, that is to say, that, in order to 
 secure for their children any share of the benefits
 
 192 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 accruing from the educational endowments of their 
 country, they must send them to schools governed by 
 Churchmen, taught by clergymen, and surrounded by an 
 ecclesiastical atmosphere calculated to alienate them 
 from the faith of their fathers ? They were not satisfied 
 with such a condition of things. The evidence on this 
 point was absolute and overwhelming. The words of the 
 Commissioners are : 
 
 It was the unanimous contention of Nonconformist witnesses 
 that the fact of the governing body and the teaching body 
 belonging to one religious denomination gives a denominational 
 character to the school. ... It appears to us that this con- 
 tention has some foundation in fact, and that a preponderance of 
 Churchmen, for instance, on the governing body of any school 
 might, for anything by way of safeguard to be found in the 
 scheme, lead to the conversion of the school into what would 
 practically be a Church institution. 
 
 There were some of the older witnesses who explained 
 and justified this " watchful jealousy " on the part of the 
 Nonconformists, by referring to the deliberate and deter- 
 mined attempt made some thirty or forty years ago in 
 Wales to seduce the children of Dissenters into the 
 Church, by imposing on the country the National school 
 system of elementary education in its most drastic form 
 of ecclesiastical bigotry, including compulsory learning 
 of the catechism and compulsory attendance at Church 
 services and Sunday schools. And they further em- 
 phasised their objection by alluding to the " divers and 
 strange doctrines," especially those tending to under- 
 mine Protestant principles, now current in the Church, 
 with which they did not want their children's minds to 
 be contaminated. 
 
 Now, the indictment against the Nonconformist member 
 of the Committee is, that he asked questions calculated 
 to bring out these facts and opinions, instead of allowing 
 them to remain in the shade, and that so he disturbed 
 the comfortable status quo. But was it open to Mr.
 
 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 193 
 
 Richard to take any other course without betraying his 
 trust? He was bound by a twofold obligation one to 
 his Nonconformist countrymen to see that their views 
 and wishes were fairly represented to the Committee, and 
 another to the Government, to take care, so far as he 
 could, that they should not be left under misapprehen- 
 sion on a matter of such vital importance to the efficiency 
 of any scheme they might hereafter propose for advanc- 
 ing intermediate education in Wales. 
 
 It is important in this connection to specify some of 
 the facts which were brought to light in course of the 
 inquiry. According to a very moderate estimate, there 
 are 15,700 boys in Wales and Monmouthshire requiring 
 an education higher than elementary. It was found 
 that to meet this want there are twenty-seven endowed 
 grammar-schools, with aggregate endowments of 12,788. 
 It was found that the whole number of boys attending 
 these schools was only 1,540. It was found that the 
 accommodation was largely in excess of the number in 
 attendance. It was found, to quote the words of the 
 report, " that whereas three-fourths of the population, 
 according to some estimates, and a larger proportion 
 according to others, are Nonconformists, the returns 
 showed that two-thirds of the scholars attending the 
 grammar-schools were members of the Church of 
 England." It was found that the explanation offered 
 by some witnesses to account for this namely, that 
 among the upper classes in Wales Churchmen largely 
 predominate does not meet the case, seeing, as the 
 report again says, " that the upper classes in Wales do 
 not, as a rule, send their sons to the provincial grammar- 
 schools, and that the majority of the scholars were the 
 children of smaller professional men, farmers, and trades- 
 men, classes that are understood to be largely Noncon- 
 formist." It was found further that Nonconformist 
 
 O
 
 194 LETTEKS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 parents often send their children to schools at a distance r 
 and at a probably greater expense, rather than send them 
 to the endowed grammar-schools in their own immediate 
 neighbourhood . 
 
 Now here is a series of rather curious facts that surely 
 require some elucidation. And if Mr. Eichard asked 
 questions which served to throw light upon them, was he 
 not rendering a real service to the object for which the 
 inquiry was instituted ? One of the points expressly 
 indicated in the letter of instructions constituting the 
 committee, which was addressed by the Noble President 
 of the Council to Lord Aberdare, as requiring special 
 attention, was this, that " it had been represented to Her 
 Majesty's Government that, at the very best, the exist- 
 ing educational institutions [in Wales] of a class above 
 elementary schools, are not only insufficient in number, 
 but so inconveniently situated, and in some cases so 
 fettered by denominational restrictions as to be at once in- 
 adequate to meet the wants of the Principality, and 
 unsuitable to the character of the population." But if it is 
 meant to insinuate that the feeling of the Nonconformists 
 in this matter was elicited only by " leading questions" 
 from Mr. Eichard nothing can be further from the 
 truth. As soon as the appointment of the Com- 
 mittee became known, conferences and, meetings 
 were held in various parts of Wales, and resolutions 
 were passed and ordered to be laid before the 
 Committee, in which the question of the unsectarian 
 character of the education required for the country was 
 put in the forefront as of the most cardinal importance. 
 Thus a deputation appeared at Aberystwith, to present a 
 series of resolutions adopted at a Nonconformist confer- 
 ence held in that town which, they stated, was " largely 
 attended by people from all parts of Wales," where " all 
 the Nonconformist denominations were represented, and
 
 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 195 
 
 might be taken as fairly representing the Nonconformist 
 opinion throughout the Principality." The first of those 
 resolutions was this : " That all existing endowed 
 grammar schools in Wales and Monmouthshire should 
 be made perfectly free from all religious restrictions in 
 their governments, appointments, scholarships, and ex- 
 hibitions." Resolutions from other representative meet- 
 ings were also presented to the same effect. And cer- 
 tainly the only Nonconformist member of the Com- 
 mittee would have been guilty of a gross dereliction of 
 duty if he had failed to bring into prominence a point of 
 such vital moment as this. 
 
 But some of the clergy are hardy enough to contend, 
 against the emphatic testimony of the Nonconformist 
 witnesses and the unanimous opinion of the Commis- 
 sioners, that it is no grievance that Dissenters should 
 have to send their children to what are practically Church 
 schools ; that they do not feel it to be a grievance, or, if 
 they do, it is because they are ignorant or bigoted or 
 priest-ridden. There is something sufficiently ridiculous 
 in finding a class who are officially and socially separated 
 from the great body of the people, thus pronouncing 
 ex cathedra against the explicit declarations of the people 
 themselves, speaking through their most intelligent and 
 trusted representatives. We have heard a story of a 
 gentleman going into a shoemaker's shop to buy a pair of 
 boots, and having, after infinite straining and pulling, got 
 his feet into one pair where they were held as in a vice, 
 inflicting upon him the acutest agony, he begged the shoe- 
 maker to pull them off at once. But the conceited votary 
 of St. Crispin, instead of doing that, assured him with a 
 smiling face that it was a beautiful fit, that it was a great 
 mistake to imagine that they hurt him, or, if they did, he 
 was only to wait a little while and it would be all right. 
 The unfortunate victim, limping and grimacing about 
 
 O 2
 
 196 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 the shop, and appealing in vain for relief, was so ex- 
 asperated with the man's pertinacity and grinning 
 self-conceit, that in the extremity of pain and passion he 
 knocked his tormentor down. We do not advise our 
 Welsh Nonconformist friends to do that. But we do say 
 that they have a right to know and to declare for them- 
 selves where the shoe pinches. " We have not heard 
 these complaints," exclaim these clerical oracles. But 
 does it never occur to them to reflect that the Noncon- 
 formists are not likely to make them their confidants in a 
 matter of this sort, that the Welsh farmer or tradesman 
 or dissenting minister would hardly choose to whisper 
 his grievances into the ears of the Bishop of Llandaff or 
 the Dean of Bangor, still less into those of the clerical 
 masters at the head of the endowed grammar-schools. 
 And is it not curious that religious teachers, who ought 
 to understand and even to encourage a certain scrupulous 
 sensitiveness of conscience on matters of religion, should 
 expect from others concessions on questions of conscience, 
 which it is very certain they would indignantly repel if 
 exacted of themselves ? We observe that the audacious 
 Dissenting Commissioner ventured occasionally to put to 
 some of the clerical witnesses a question on this point, in 
 the form of an argumentum ad homitiem. Thus, referring 
 to the scruples of Dissenters as to sending their children 
 to Church schools, he asks one dignitary of the Church : 
 
 You do not consider that that feeling is altogether an unreason- 
 able one ; or, to put it in this way : If we could suppose the con- 
 ditions entirely reversed, and if in all the grammar schools of 
 Wales the head master was almost always a Dissenting minister, 
 and always a Dissenter, and all the other masters were Dis- 
 senters, and the majority of the boys were on a Sunday marched 
 to a Dissenting chapel, and the head master conducted family 
 worship as a Dissenter, you, as an earnest clergyman of the 
 Church of England, would not strongly recommend Churchmen 
 to send their children to such a school, would you ? 
 
 Of course, when the question was put in that form the
 
 LETTEKS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 197 
 
 worthy clerics were a good deal embarrassed. The 
 simple truth is that our Church friends have been so long 
 accustomed to ecclesiastical and social ascendency that 
 they seem stricken with an absolute incapacity to con- 
 ceive why Nonconformists should feel just as Churchmen 
 would feel under similar circumstances. That they would 
 deem it a great oppression to conscience, if they were 
 obliged to have their children educated by dissenting 
 ministers and under dissenting influence, is most certain. 
 But, then, it is a mere piece of impertinence for Noncon- 
 formists to indulge themselves in the luxury of keeping 
 a conscience, as respects the education of their children. 
 
 But besides asking inconvenient questions, there are 
 two other things by which Mr. Eichard has given deadly 
 affront to the Church Quarterly Eeviewer. One of 
 them is this. His colleagues had recommended that 
 in the reorganisation of old, or in the establishment of 
 new intermediate schools, " any provision made for 
 religious instruction shall be confined to the reading 
 and explanation of Holy Scripture, and shall not 
 include instruction in the formularies of any Church, sect, 
 or denomination." Differing from them on this point, 
 and on this point only, Mr. Eichard proposed as a sub- 
 stitute for the paragraph just cited, these words 
 
 In view of the objection of principle felt by many to the appli- 
 cation of public money to the support of religious teaching of any 
 kind, and the extreme difficulty of finding any form of Scriptural 
 teaching which would have much religious value, out of which 
 everything must be excluded that would offend, not only members 
 of the Church of England and the various bodies of Nonconfor- 
 mists, but Roman Catholics, Jews, &c., we are inclined to recom- 
 mend that in schools receiving grants from public sources the 
 instruction should be confined to secular elements, the duty and 
 responsibility for the religious training of the children being left 
 to the parents and to the ministers of the different denominations 
 to which the parents belong, care being taken that in school 
 arrangements sufficient opportunities and facilities should be 
 afforded for that purpose. In a country where the doctrines and 
 observances of religion are held in such high and universal
 
 198 LETTEBS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 estimation as they are in Wales, there would be no danger that 
 the religious instruction of children would be neglected if it were 
 left to the care of the parents and pastors. This plan would also 
 be attended with the advantage that ths Conscience Clause, with 
 all the humiliations and heart-burnings to which it gives rise, 
 would be altogether dispensed with. 
 
 In a Memorandum attached to the Eeport, Mr. Eichard 
 develops his views more fully by pointing out how " the 
 religious difficulty," which has been found perplexing 
 enough in connection with elementary education where 
 all public aid is restricted to day shcools, would be very 
 seriously aggravated if similar aid were given to boarding 
 schools. He therefore suggests that intermediate schools 
 that are to receive grants from public funds should be 
 day schools, as is universally the case in the United 
 States. Or, if boarding schools are to be subsidised, it 
 should be either, as is done in Ireland, by a system of 
 prizes, exhibitions, and certificates to students, on exami- 
 nations out of which all religious subjects are excluded, 
 or, as previously indicated, by confining the instruction 
 to be given to secular elements. 
 
 I hope it is not necessary for me to say (adds Mr. Eichard) that 
 I make this suggestion not because I am hostile or indifferent to 
 religious instruction as a part of education. No one can have a 
 deeper sense than I have of its paramount importance. But I 
 have a sincere conviction that the plan I recommend will best 
 subserve the interests not only of religious equality but of reli- 
 gious education. I have very little faith in the efficacy of a reli- 
 gious teaching out of which everything definite and positive has 
 been eliminated, in deference to conscientious denominational 
 susceptibilities. If the proposed " explanation of Holy Scrip- 
 ture " be of such a nature as not to offend the conscience of any 
 body of religionists, it will be so minimised and attenuated, so 
 deprived of all significance and vitality, that it can be of no great 
 value to impress the intellect, the affections, or the conscience of 
 a child. And thus parents may be deluded into the belief that 
 the children are being religiously educated, when, in fact, they are 
 only fed on the husks of vague and jejune generalities little adapted 
 to exercise a deep and lasting influence on life and character. 
 
 It is curious enough that at a diocesan meeting of 
 Churchmen held in the chapter-room of Bangor Cathedral,
 
 LETTEBS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 199 
 
 with the bishop in the chair, a resolution was passed 
 formally approving and endorsing " the judgment of the 
 senior member for Merthyr Tydvil," as to the expediency 
 of making, as regards all new colleges, first grade and 
 second grade schools, the " common ground of the college 
 and school purely secular." And in a public meeting 
 held in the same city, the venerable bishop of the diocese, 
 quoting the latter words of Mr. Richard, adds, " I per- 
 fectly agree with Mr. Richard in what he has thus laid 
 down." 
 
 But what exasperates the writer in the Church 
 Quarterly is Mr. Richard's allegation, that the doctrines 
 and observances of religion are held in high and general 
 estimation in Wales, and that therefore the people are 
 not likely to neglect the religious instruction of their 
 children, if that were not given in day schools. When 
 you find a poor and scattered people like the Welsh, pro- 
 viding out of their poverty the means of religious instruc- 
 tion and worship for themselves as they have done ; 
 when you find that within a hundred years they have 
 built at least 3,500 places of worship,* the support of 
 which, and of those who minister in them, is supplied by 
 their willing contributions ; when you find them raising 
 annually for these and similar purposes some 400,000, 
 surely that may be taken as a tolerably fair presumption 
 that they are a people who hold the doctrines and 
 
 * My honoured friend, Eev. Dr. Eees, of Swansea, who is more 
 thoroughly acquainted with Nonconformist matters in Wales 
 than any man living, writing to me in regard to this statement, 
 says : " Your statement that the people of Wales have built 
 within a hundred years 3,500 places of worship is greatly below 
 the mark. There are now no less than 4,233 Dissenting places of 
 worship in Wales. About 400 of these may be only schoolrooms, 
 where, however, regular services are held ; but 90 per cent, of the 
 existing chapels have been entirely rebuilt within the last fifty 
 years, and several of them built for the third time. You would 
 not have exaggerated if you had stated that 6,000 chapels had 
 been built in the last hundred years."
 
 200 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 observances of religion in high and general estimation. 
 And has it never occurred to this writer to inquire or to 
 reflect what would have been the present condition of the 
 Principality, grossly neglected as it has been for several 
 centuries by Church and State, if there had not existed 
 among the people a general regard for the doctrines and 
 observances of religion ? But the writer before us will 
 admit no such inferences to be drawn. On the contrary, 
 Mr. Eichard has again outraged his delicate sensibilities 
 in this very matter. 
 
 In a lecture on " Nonconformity in Wales," which he 
 delivered at the Memorial Hall, he referred, as one would 
 think it was not very unnatural he should on such an 
 occasion, to the number of chapels that had been built by 
 the voluntary liberality of the people, as some evidence 
 of their religious earnestness and zeal. The Commis- 
 sioners also in their Eeport refer to this in terms of 
 kindly recognition. 
 
 It is indisputable (they say) that Nonconformity in Wales is 
 the outward expression of deep-seated religious convictions 
 among the people. The Welsh, turning aside from the ecclesi- 
 astical system recognised by the State, have created their own 
 and maintain it at a large annual cost voluntarily incurred. They 
 have reared their chapels everywhere, on the lonely hill-side no 
 less than in the populous town, and by this means and through 
 their Sunday-schools, which seem to keep a life-long hold over a 
 large part of the population, an. almost universal interest in 
 religious questions is maintained. 
 
 But this is intolerable to the Eeviewer. Of course he 
 cannot dispute the fact as to the multiplication of chapels. 
 He cannot annihilate the hard material fabrics which 
 stand up sturdily before his eyes in solid bricks and 
 mortar, or more frequently in granite or limestone, and 
 obstinately refuse to disappear. But what the Eeviewer 
 will do, or try to do, is this. He will show, as he says, 
 from the testimony of Nonconformists themselves, first, 
 that the chapels are frequently built from unworthy
 
 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 201 
 
 motives, and are sometimes left heavily burdened with 
 debt ; and, secondly, that the influence of the chapels 
 and Sunday-schools, so far from having produced the 
 salutary moral and religious effects ascribed to it by Mr. 
 Bichard and the Commissioners, has on the contrary 
 generated spiritual torpor, religious dissipation, and 
 general immorality ! 
 
 How does he make this good on the testimony of Non- 
 conformists themselves ? We will explain to our readers 
 how. He has ransacked, or got some one to ransack for 
 him, the pages of dissenting religious periodicals for the 
 last thirty or forty years for the materials out of which 
 to construct this indictment of self-condemnation. And 
 what is the character of the materials thus discovered ? 
 Well, thirty years ago for nearly all the quotations are 
 of that date there were some good men " jealous with 
 a godly jealousy " for the spiritual interests of the 
 churches, and writing with the perfervidum ingenium of 
 their race, who directed attention, in perhaps not very 
 measured language, to certain dangers which they appre- 
 hended were appearing among them. Chapels were 
 sometimes unduly multiplied under the influence of 
 sectarian zeal or personal ambition, without due regard 
 to the heavy debts left upon them. There might be too 
 great a fondness for the mere hearing of sermons, lectures, 
 and speeches, the excitement attending which might be 
 mistaken for genuine religious emotion. Early and 
 constant familiarity with the words and doctrines of 
 Scripture might lead men to lose a due sense of their 
 Divine authority. It was complained that at the period 
 referred to, that is, thirty years ago, there was much 
 spiritual torpor, out of which it behoved the churches to 
 rouse themselves in order to contend against the encroach- 
 ments of Popery and Mormonism, in regard to which 
 there was a temporary panic in Wales, arising as respects
 
 202 LETTEES AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 the former from what was thought the alarming spread 
 of Popish doctrine in the Church of England. Sincere 
 and salutary warnings like these, such as may be found 
 in the religious literature of any Church at any time in 
 the history of Christianity, from apostolic days down- 
 wards, are heaped together as proofs of the deplorable 
 condition of Welsh Nonconformity, and capped with the 
 triumphant exclamation from the writer, " Such is the 
 testimony of Dissent itself." The wonder is that the 
 treasure-trove which rewarded his charitable quest 
 amounts to so little. 
 
 But that is not all. From the same, and from some 
 other sources, there is a second series of extracts referring 
 to certain evils, which, in spite of the exertions of all 
 religious bodies, still existed in the country to an extent 
 that deeply grieved all true Christians and patriots. At 
 the time in question, that is, about thirty years ago, the 
 Temperance reformation was being prosecuted in Wales 
 with great force and fervour. As was very natural, the 
 promoters of that movement dwelt, with no doubt some- 
 what exaggerated emphasis, upon the magnitude and 
 extent of the evil against which they were contending. 
 As the agitation was taken up almost exclusively by the 
 dissenting bodies, the periodicals of the Nonconformists 
 denounced the sin of drunkenness, and bewailed its pre- 
 valence in the country in language of great vigour and 
 vehemence, and with an unguarded latitude of expression 
 which was then the besetting sin of our worthy teetotal 
 friends. About that particular period also great promi- 
 nence had been given to another form of evil, which, 
 owing to certain reprehensible traditional customs exist- 
 ing in the country, was supposed to be specially pre- 
 valent in Wales that arising out of the relation of the 
 two sexes. The Eeport of the Commissioners on Educa- 
 tion, published in 1847-48, which, instead of a faithful
 
 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 203 
 
 picture, was a hideous caricature of the state of the 
 country, had dwelt upon this with most unfair exaggera- 
 tion in order to make good then* favourite allegation, that 
 unchastity was " the peculiar vice of the Principality." 
 There are facts enough to prove that it was not, and is 
 not so. But the accusation had the effect of arousing 
 all the religious bodies to additional intensity in 
 denouncing the evil, which they did with an earnest- 
 ness amounting almost to agony. " Let ministers of 
 the Word," so runs one of the quotations, "deacons of 
 churches, the whole body of religious members of every 
 denomination, teachers of Sunday schools and children, 
 heads of families, one and all, awake, and then this 
 plague will be driven away from the country." Well, 
 the Eeviewer has diligently picked out all the tit-bits 
 he could find bearing on these matters from Noncon- 
 formist publications of thirty years ago. 
 
 But what will our readers say to this, that the writer 
 in the Church Quarterly actually ascribes the evils, so 
 solemnly bewailed, and so vehemently denounced in the 
 dissenting periodicals, to the influence and operations of 
 Nonconformity ? We are willing to hope that it was 
 done inadvertently, without his being fully aware of the 
 significance of his own language. But that such is the 
 only construction that his language bears is undeniable. 
 In introducing his quotations, he uses these words 
 
 We will proceed to cite from the " Drysorfa," the " Dywy- 
 giwr," and the " Seren Gromer," which are respectively connected 
 with the Calvinistic Methodists, the Congregationalists, and 
 Baptists the three leading denominations in Wales a few of 
 many of their own statements. ... in order that oitr readers miy 
 be enabled to judge for themselves what was the real influence of 
 Welsh Dissent a few years ago, and unless the contrary can be 
 proved, may be presumed to be its condition at present also. We 
 would not say its results, probable or necessary, for that is 
 beyond the scope of our inquiry. 
 
 And at the end of his quotations, the latter part of which
 
 204 LETTEKS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 relates exclusively to the drunkenness and incontinence 
 which the writer insinuates though, we believe, most 
 untruly to exist in an aggravated form in Wales, 
 and referring to the statement made by Mr. Eichard, 
 in his lecture at the Memorial Hall, as to the remark- 
 able multiplication of chapels in Wales from 993 in 
 1816 to 2,826 in 1851, the Eeviewer writes, putting his 
 words for greater emphasis in italics, " yes, there 
 were 2,826 chapels at the very time when these revela- 
 tions of the inner workings of Dissent were made by dis- 
 senting writers." 
 
 The most necessary and most painful part of our 
 task, therefore, remains; that is, to vindicate the 
 character of Welsh Nonconformists, and of the Welsh 
 people generally, from the cruel imputations and in- 
 sinuations of their assailant. It is unfortunate for the 
 members of the Church of England in Wales that they 
 seem to think it necessary for their case to blacken 
 the reputation of their countrymen to extenuate their 
 virtues and to exaggerate their vices as much as pos- 
 sible. The reason of this is not far to seek. For a 
 long time they attempted to deny, or conceal the fact, 
 that the great bulk of the Welsh people had forsaken 
 their Church and become Nonconformists. But, unable 
 to resist the cumulative evidence as to the fact, they 
 think the next best thing is to assure their English 
 friends that Nonconformity, so far from having been a 
 blessing, has been a bane to the country, since those 
 who live under its influence are an ignorant, depraved, 
 and degraded community. There is something cowardly 
 as well as cruel in the means taken to effect their pur- 
 pose. It is not done in Wales and through the 
 medium of the Welsh language, for the facts are there 
 too well known, so that the calumny would soon be 
 smothered by an overwhelming refutation ; but it is
 
 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 205 
 
 proclaimed in the pages of English newspapers and 
 periodicals, and thus the poison percolates into channels 
 where it is scarcely possible that the antidote can 
 reach. The mode of attack adopted by these accusers 
 of the brethren is also singularly disingenuous. They 
 fasten upon some general statement, as to the mar- 
 vellous progress that has been made in the Principality 
 in intelligence, religion, and morality within the last 
 hundred years, progress which it would be gross ingrati- 
 tude to God and man not thankfully to recognise, and 
 they affect to believe that this is intended to claim 
 absolute immaculacy or perfection for its social condi- 
 tion. They know well enough that no such claim is 
 made. But it is convenient to assume it, and then they 
 set themselves to rummage among all the garbage 
 of crime and vice which exist in every country, 
 and, dragging these to the surface, they exclaim trium- 
 phantly, or at least suggest such an exclamation, to 
 their many English readers, " Such are your intelligent, 
 religious, and virtuous people of Wales ! " 
 
 And, first, let us say a word as to the question of 
 chapels and their debts, which seem to be severely exer- 
 cising our worthy friends of the Establishment in these 
 days. The line taken by the members of the Church of 
 England in Wales on this subject is very peculiar. 
 They acknowledge that they have failed absolutely to pro- 
 vide in any adequate degree the means of spiritual in- 
 struction for the people of the Principality ; that if every 
 seat in every church were occupied, there would still be 
 tens, if not hundreds, of thousands without any accom- 
 modation for public worship ; that but for the exertions 
 of Nonconformists large tracts of the country would be in 
 a state of heathenism. And this is the case, let it be ob- 
 served, after they have done their utmost. For some 
 thirty years ago the members of the Church in Wales did
 
 206 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 put forth considerable efforts to make up for ages of past 
 neglect. These efforts have been gladly and -gratefully 
 recognised by the Dissenters. To quote words used by 
 Mr. Eichard himself, in a speech he delivered at 
 Wrexham, in April last, reviewing the past fifty years 
 in the religious history of the Principality, and referring 
 to the great improvement in the Church of England, 
 during that time : 
 
 We have seen dilapidated churches repaired or rebuilt, and a 
 considerable number of new ones erected ; we have seen services 
 more frequent, and conducted with far more spirit and devotion ; 
 we have seen among the clergy able and earnest men, devoted to 
 the duties of their office, abounding in activity and labour, ready 
 to go forth into the streets and alleys to compel the careless to 
 come in, and not unwilling, if they meet any stray lambs 
 wandering out of or near the fold of Dissent, to take them up and 
 carry them in their bosom. 
 
 In the diocese of Llandaff especially, where indeed the 
 need was most urgent on account of the rapid and 
 sudden growth of the population, there was, on the 
 accession of the late bishop, a praiseworthy effort made 
 to supply the grievous deficiency in the services of the 
 Church of England. A Diocesan Church Extension 
 Society was formed, and with liberal help from the 
 Ecclesiastical Commissioners and other extraneous 
 resources, considerable results were obtained. The 
 cathedral, which "for 127 years; had been a roofless 
 ruin," was restored ; new churches and new parsonages 
 were built, and old ones repaired ; curates were multi- 
 plied, and services were reformed and made more regular. 
 Yet how fitful, feeble, and inadequate were all the exer- 
 tions made, is shown by the report of the Society's 
 operations, presented at its annual meeting in 1879, and 
 which is thus summarised in the Church Times : 
 
 It was established in 1851, for the purpose of enabling the 
 Church in the diocese to increase its accommodation, and to 
 multiply its clergy in proportion to the enormous growth of the
 
 LETTEKS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 207 
 
 population in the great mining districts of the diocese. The 
 society was vigorous in its birth. In its first year it had an income 
 of .5,112. But of this sum nearly ,4,000 was given in the form 
 of donations. However, in 1852, it had an income of .1,598. 
 From that year down to the present if we except the years 1863 
 and 1868, in which spasmodic efforts were made to rescue the 
 society from ruin by the galvanism of such a demonstration a& 
 that which we are now noticing the income has steadily 
 decreased until the total receipts for the year had fallen from 
 .5,112 in 1851 to 942 in 1878. 
 
 During this period the population of the diocese has been 
 increasing at the rate of 8,000 a year, and has more than doubled 
 itself during the life of the society. Thus, while the resources of 
 the society have been steadily decreasing, the fields in which it 
 ought to operate have been continually growing. A more melan- 
 choly state of things it is difficult to imagine. 
 
 The writer in the Church Times then calls attention to 
 a memorial that had recently been presented to the bishop 
 by some of the Welsh clergy, in which 
 
 They point out that two of the seven sects in Glamorganshire 
 alone have 118,000 adherents, and that of these no less than 
 110,000 worship in the Welsh language, and contribute more than 
 .40,000 per annum to religious purposes. . . . The sum of 
 .942 contributed for church extension by all the Churchmen of an 
 enormously wealthy diocese contrasted with more than ,40,000- 
 per annum given by the Welsh Dissenters in one county of the 
 diocese, is painfully significant. 
 
 There are other remarks by the Church journalist still 
 more pungent which we withhold, though we might be 
 justified in producing them, by the example set by the 
 Reviewer in his quotations to the disadvantage of Dissent, 
 from Nonconformist publications. 
 
 Such being the acknowledged inefficiency of the Church 
 to provide for the spiritual wants of the people, and such 
 being the exertions and sacrifices of the Nonconformists 
 to supply its lack of service, our Church friends never- 
 theless are never weary of carping and cavilling at the 
 latter, and trying to depreciate in every possible way the 
 work they are doing. 
 
 Misrepresentations of the grossest nature are con- 
 tinually made as to the circumstances under which
 
 208 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 chapels are built in Wales. Mr. Gathorne Hardy, now 
 Lord Cranbrook, once stated in the House of Commons 
 that they were built, not from voluntary contributions 
 for Church purposes, but merely as matters of profitable 
 investments, yielding often as much as 7 per cent. When 
 this was contradicted by the member for Merthyr, Mr. 
 Hardy, like a true Christian gentleman, publicly with- 
 drew his statement, and expressed his regret that he had 
 been misled into making it. Shortly after, the Press 
 newspaper, which was then the recognised organ of the 
 Conservatives, declared that chapels in Wales were built 
 by employers of labour, and held in mortgage by them 
 for sums advanced for their construction, and that pains 
 and penalties were inflicted on those of the people who 
 refused to frequent or encourage these chapels. This 
 preposterous statement, which awoke peals of laughter 
 in Wales, had nevertheless to be refuted in England. 
 Quite recently there appeared in the Guardian a speech 
 which had been made at a Diocesan Conference, by the 
 good Archbishop who has just passed away from us, to 
 this effect, that the sale of advowsons in the Church of 
 England differed nothing in principle from the system 
 which prevailed in Wales, where men bought shares in 
 chapels in order to place in them as ministers persons in 
 whom they were interested. When this was denied on 
 the best authority, the charge was varied by an anony- 
 mous writer into this form : the case of a Nonconformist 
 gentleman, or body of gentlemen, buying or building a 
 chapel, and solely by virtue of their money-power exer- 
 cising the patronage by placing in such a chapel a mini- 
 ster whose ministry they had reason to believe would not 
 be a moral and spiritual, but a commercial success. 
 When this grossly offensive allegation was again contra- 
 dicted in the most positive and peremptory manner, and 
 the evidence in support of it demanded, the libeller again
 
 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 209 
 
 shifted his ground into the safe general assertion that 
 some of the chapels in Wales were heavily laden with 
 debt. 
 
 But the favourite allegation is that chapels are built 
 from " unworthy motives." No one will deny that 
 chapel-building, like everything else human, is sometimes 
 promoted under the influence of very mixed motives, 
 where an alloy of the gross earthly elements comes in to 
 adulterate what ought, no doubt, to be altogether 
 heavenly. It may be frankly admitted, and indeed is 
 constantly admitted and bewailed by Nonconformists 
 themselves, that places of worship are unduly multiplied 
 under the promptings of sectarian jealousy or emulation. 
 But it is most edifying to remark the cool assumption 
 of our worthy Church friends, that it is only Noncon- 
 formists who are afflicted with these infirmities of the 
 flesh. Yes, they indeed, if they are Christians at all 
 which in the exercise of a large and liberal charity they 
 may be admitted to be are Christians of a very defec- 
 tive and immature character. But pass over to the other 
 side, where Churchmen are drawn up in array, and you 
 are at once among the spirits of just men made perfect 
 The one class may be seen fluttering with soiled and 
 heavy wing among the beggarly elements of this world, 
 the others have soared into the pure empyrean 
 
 Where bright aerial spirits live insphered 
 In regions mild of calm and serene air, 
 Above the smoke and din of this dim spot 
 Which men call earth. 
 
 We are asked to believe or, at least, so much is im- 
 plied that they, when they build or enlarge churches, 
 are actuated by simple disinterested regard for the good 
 of man and the glory of God. Why, nothing is more per- 
 fectly notorious, that scarcely a church has been built in 
 Wales for the last forty years that has not been built 
 
 P
 
 210 LETTEKS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 really, and often openly and avowedly, in rivalry to 
 Dissent. Indeed, in many parts of that country there is 
 nothing else for the clergy to do but to convert or pervert 
 the people from Nonconformity to the Church. The 
 members of the Church of England do not attempt to 
 disguise, and we honour them for then: frankness, that 
 their object is "to regain to the Church the Welsh 
 people,"* and so they do not scruple to become, in a, 
 spiritual sense, " robbers of churches," provided they are 
 only Nonconformist churches. " Let them babble and 
 bleat," said the Bishop of Winchester at Swansea, " if 
 they will only feed in our pastures and come home to our 
 sheep-folds." We do not blame them very severely for 
 this. But let us have equal measure. If the aggrandise- 
 ment of one's own Church be "an unworthy motive " for 
 building places of worship when it is done by Dissenters, 
 how does it cease to be so when done by Churchmen ? 
 
 And now as to the moral condition of the country. 
 The whole tendency of this article is to blacken its- 
 character in order to discredit Dissent. But how does 
 the matter stand? Look first at the criminal statistics 
 of Wales. A few months ago Mr. Justice Williams 
 stated that he had just been on the South Wales circuit ; 
 that he had been to Cardiganshire, Carmarthenshire, 
 Pembrokeshire, Breconshire, and Eadnorshire, and that 
 in all those five counties there were only two prisoners to 
 try, one of whom was acquitted, and the case of the 
 other was disposed of in half an hour. Mr. Justice 
 Lindley went to North Wales. In Merionethshire there 
 was not a prisoner to try, nor one civil case. In 
 Anglesea not a prisoner to try, nor one civil case. In 
 Denbighshire there was one prisoner, who was acquitted, 
 and one civil case, which was settled without a trial. In 
 Flintshire there were seven cases to try, but of these, 
 * Canon Lewis at the Swansea Church Congress.
 
 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 211 
 
 judging by their names, three were Irish. Of the seven, 
 three were found guilty, and of the three who were con- 
 victed two were sentenced to two months' and one to 
 three months' imprisonment. In Carnarvonshire there 
 were five prisoners. Two or three years ago Mr. Justice 
 Lush, addressing the grand jury at Swansea, said it was 
 highly creditable to South Wales that there were only 
 seven prisoners for trial, notwithstanding that the 
 calendar now represented the whole of the business of the 
 South Wales counties. Would it not be natural to sup- 
 pose that all Welshmen, at least, would be proud of such 
 a, record as this, and regard it as honourable to the 
 character of their countrymen ? But there is hardly 
 any passion so mean and malignant as ecclesiastical 
 jealousy. And so we find Welsh Churchmen doing their 
 utmost to pooh-pooh this evidence of the social virtues 
 of the population, trying in every way to reduce its 
 significance. The paucity of crime, we are told, is 
 owing to the fact that the population of Wales is almost 
 exclusively a rural population. In the first place, this 
 is not true as a matter of fact ; and in the second 
 place, if it were true, have we not ample and appalling 
 evidence thrust upon us daily that the most deadly 
 crime may abound in purely agricultural districts ? But 
 vhy should this be ? While English judges are year 
 after year expressing their delight and astonishment at 
 naiden assizes or the lightness of the calendar, and 
 paying the highest tribute to the " purity of conduct, 
 the good morals, and the honesty of purpose which dis- 
 tinguish the Principality " to use the language of the 
 late Lord Chief Justice Cockburn why should the 
 dgnitaries and clergymen of the Church of England be 
 aixiously endeavouring to deprive their countrymen of 
 ary special credit in the matter? The reason evidently 
 is this. The great bulk of the people are Noncon-
 
 212 LETTEBS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 formists, and may not their remarkable freedom from 
 crime be ascribed to the influence of Nonconformist 
 chapels and Sunday-schools? But that must not be 
 allowed. Bather than that, better blow upon this 
 social peculiarity as meaning nothing in reality that is 
 deserving of admiration or respect. 
 
 We come next to the question of temperance. Very 
 obviously the effect, if not the intention, of the 
 article in the Church Quarterly is to convey to English 
 readers the impression that the Welsh are an ex- 
 ceptionally drunken people. The Eeviewer quotes, more 
 suo, a few passionate sentences which appeared thirty 
 years ago in two Nonconformist periodicals bewailing 
 the prevalence of intemperance. He then takes a more- 
 recent extract from an English paper published at 
 Cardiff, containing one of those fanciful statistical 
 calculations which, as has often been said, may be made 
 to prove anything. Seven licensed houses were selected 
 in Swansea and Merthyr Tydvil, and the number of 
 persons who entered them during one hour on one 
 Sunday evening was counted. To these were added the 
 numbers assumed to enter at other hours. Then the 
 number of all the licensed houses in Glamorganshire was 
 taken, and multiplied by the number which were assumed 
 on the above very slender basis to frequent the sevea, 
 and the grand total was announced as a proof of tie 
 addiction of the Welsh people to Sunday drinking. This 
 grand total amounts to 100,000 ! That is to say, that 
 one-fifth of the whole population of Glamorganshire- 
 men, women, and children are made to spend their 
 Sunday evenings in public houses ! We do not scrujle 
 to say that it is a preposterous calculation, wanting in 
 nearly all the elements required for a sober and trust- 
 worthy conclusion. The Eeviewer then refers to the 
 Sunday Closing Act for Wales, passed in 1881, tut
 
 LETTEBS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 213 
 
 which has only just come into operation, and adds the 
 following offensive insinuation "Whether the voluntary 
 movement which led to this result originated in a con- 
 sciousness that such a measure tuas specially needed for 
 Wales, or from a sympathy with the efforts that were 
 made elsewhere, we do not venture to decide." We 
 have no idea what is meant by " the efforts made else- 
 where ; " but we happen to have an official document 
 which will throw considerable light on the suggestive 
 doubt of the writer. It is a Parliamentary return, 
 showing the number of convictions from September, 
 1879, to September, 1881, of all persons arrested 
 for drunkenness on Sunday in England and Wales. 
 And the result is this, that the convictions in 
 England were ten per 10,000 of the population ; 
 the convictions in Wales were four per 10,000. This 
 is for all Wales ; but if we omit Glamorganshire, 
 which the writer before us does when it suits his 
 purpose, where, as Sir Thomas Phillips said more 
 than thirty years ago, what is still truer now, 
 " there are found large numbers of Englishmen and 
 Irishmen, many of them driven thither by crime and 
 want, and characterised by much that is lawless and 
 unrestrained," the proportion of convictions in Wales 
 is only 2 1 /? per 10,000 against the ten per 10,000 in 
 England. 
 
 The answer to the innuendo grounded on the demand 
 for the Sunday Closing Bill was given by anticipation in 
 the debate on that measure in the House of Commons, 
 and by no less a person than Mr. Gladstone, whose 
 generous sympathy for Wales is requited by the deepest 
 gratitude and veneration : 
 
 The Welsh (he said), as far as I have ever had the means of 
 judging, are upon the whole, and especially as you come among 
 the poor Welsh, a very sober people. You may say that if they 
 
 P 2
 
 214 LETTEBS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 are a very sober people they are less in need of this Bill ; yes, 
 that may be true. But is that a reason why the Bill should not 
 be passed? Is there no such thing as the temptation to drunken- 
 ness ? If the condition of the people with regard to the use of 
 spirituous liquors has been improved to such a point that they 
 are, almost without exception, desirous to set aside the tempta- 
 tion, would it not be a cruel thing on the part of Parliament if we, 
 on the invitation of honourable members who do not represent 
 Wales, and have no title to speak on its behalf, were to refuse to 
 set that temptation aside ? 
 
 Mr. Gladstone has exactly hit the point. If the people 
 of Wales had not already made great progress in their 
 love of temperance they would never have demanded 
 the measure with such practical unanimity. From the 
 borough of Merthyr, referred to by the Reviewer per- 
 haps not without a purpose petitions were sent in 
 favour of the Bill signed by 21,450, and in one part of 
 that borough, Aberdare, there was a general house-to- 
 house canvass with the following remarkable result. 
 Number of canvass papers filled in was 5,051. Of these 
 4,659 were in favour of Sunday-closing, 210 were against, 
 182 were neutral ; that is, 92 per cent, for closing, 4 per 
 cent, against, and about 4 per cent, neutral. When 
 these returns were classified they revealed the following 
 very striking result : that of 2,138 colliers who are 
 householders in Aberdare, no fewer than 1,976 approved 
 of Sunday-closing during the whole day, while 91 only 
 opposed, and 71 were neutral. Of artisan householders, 
 776 are for closing, 34 against, 23 neutral. Of labourers, 
 hauliers, &c., 659 are for, 28 against, and 24 neutral. 
 Of farmers, 33 are for, none against. Of railway ser- 
 vants, 176 are for, 10 against, 14 neutral. Even among 
 the publicans themselves we find 45 for, 28 against, and 
 12 neutral. Now we venture to submit that a popula 
 tion who could act in this way must, as Mr. Gladstone 
 says, have been already " improved " to a rather high 
 point as regards the use of spirituous liquors, and, we
 
 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 2l5 
 
 dare to add, that they were so improved very largely 
 through the " influence and inner workings " of Dissent. 
 
 With regard to the general question, it is not very 
 easy to find definite statistics as to the social habits of a 
 people. But there are one or two facts that have 
 recently come to our knowledge which are not without 
 significance, as bearing on the sobriety of the Welsh 
 people. The Deputy Chief Constable for the county of 
 Glamorgan has lately stated that at the time of the 
 visit of the Prince of Wales to Swansea last year, he 
 was on duty from 6 a.m. until 2 a.m. the following 
 morning, and during the whole day and night he did not 
 see a single drunken man or woman ; and although it 
 was estimated that 100,000 people visited the town 
 during the day and night from the counties of Mon- 
 mouth, Glamorgan, Brecknock, Carmarthen, Cardigan, 
 and Pembroke, there was no person apprehended 
 for drunkenness. Here is another fact. During the 
 National Eisteddfod meeting at Merthyr, in 1881, there 
 was an extraordinary influx of visitors from almost 
 every county in Wales. In course of the four days on 
 which the meetings were held, the Great Western, the 
 Midland, the London and North Western, and the Taff 
 Vale Railway Companies carried nearly- 20,000 pas- 
 sengers in and out of the town, and on one of those 
 days, the day of the Choral Competition, upwards of 
 10,000 tickets were collected at the Merthyr railway 
 stations, yet during the whole week there were only 
 three persons apprehended by the police ; one of whom 
 was a tramp, and the two others Irish labourers who 
 had annoyed their employer. But none of these three 
 were apprehended for drunkenness. 
 
 But we have a word more to say on the question of 
 Temperance. It must not be forgotten that the intem- 
 perance which this writer insinuates rather than asserts,
 
 216 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 to abound in Wales is referred to as " a revelation of the 
 inner workings of Dissent." Now, perhaps in no part 
 of the world has the cause of Temperance been carried 
 on with so much energy, and, happily, we may add, with 
 so much success as it has been in Wales. But by 
 whom ? We have before us an article which appeared 
 a little more than a twelvemonth ago in a Welsh 
 Quarterly, Y Traethodydd, from which the Eeviewer is 
 fond of quoting. It is a history of the origin and pro- 
 gress of the Temperance movement in Wales. We cite 
 two or three sentences : 
 
 The most remarkable thing in connection with the Temperance 
 cause in Wales, and it goes far to explain its extraordinary suc- 
 cess, was the admirable readiness with which the ministers of the 
 Gospel and the leading men in the different religious denomina- 
 tions took it up and laboured for it. ... The clergymen of 
 the Church of England generally looked upon the thing with a 
 good deal of contempt. I can remember only one Welsh clergy- 
 man who took any interest in it, the Rev. Henry Griffith, of 
 Landrygarn, a man greatly beloved, and " made perfect in every 
 good work." Some Nonconformist ministers were unwilling to 
 give up what they thought wholesome beverage. But as for those 
 good and holy men who among the different sects had won most 
 thoroughly the love and confidence of their countrymen, and who 
 by their ability, zeal, and devotedness wielded such extraordinary 
 power over them, they from the first threw themselves into the 
 work, and nobly did they labour for it. Such men as John Elias, 
 Henry Bees, and Ebenezer Richard* among the Calvinistic 
 Methodists ; Dr. Arthur Jones and William Williams of Wern 
 among the Independents ; Christmas Evans and Dr. Pritchard 
 among the Baptists ; and Lot Hughes and William Rowlands 
 among the Wesleyans, at once recognised in this movement the 
 guidance of providence and took to it as the work of God. 
 
 Another early and eminent champion of this good cause 
 says : " In the Dirwestydd, a Temperance magazine, 
 for 1837 and 1838, there will be found the names of all 
 the ministers of all denominations in North Wales who 
 were pledged abstainers. They number about five hun- 
 dred, and there is only one clergyman of the Church of 
 
 * Father of the member for Merthyr.
 
 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 217 
 
 England in the whole list " the Rev. Henry Griffith 
 already mentioned. " For the first ten years in the 
 history of the Temperance movement in North Wales, I 
 don't think another clergyman could be found." So 
 that, after all, it looks as if " the inner working of 
 Dissent " had really been in favour of sobriety instead 
 of the contrary, and that Dissent was left pretty much 
 to struggle alone in this holy war, while "the autho- 
 rised teachers of the people " stood aside jeering at the 
 workers, or passing by on the other side in utter 
 indifference. 
 
 There is one more matter which we must touch, 
 though it is one difficult fully to discuss. Mr. Richard, 
 in his lecture at the Memorial Hall, after referring to 
 the remarkable absence of crime in Wales, said, " With 
 regard to another point on which it is thought our 
 country is most vulnerable, the question of morality as 
 between the two sexes, I must denounce the grossly 
 exaggerated representations that have been made on that 
 point as groundless and calumnious. Things are not in 
 that respect as the best friends of Wales desire and are 
 diligently labouring to produce. But I assert, and have 
 elsewhere proved, that with all our shortcomings Wales 
 will compare advantageously with almost any part of 
 England." This, like every other statement made in 
 favour or in defence of the Principality, is floutod by the 
 Reviewer. He had not failed to search for and exultingly 
 display any strong sentences which had appeared in the 
 form of deep lamentation, in Nonconformist publica- 
 tions, thirty years ago or, as he says, from 1851 to 
 1856 that might seem to give countenance to the 
 charge alluded to. But he knew, or might have known, 
 that Mr. Richard's refutation had been before the public 
 for sixteen years, and that it referred to nearly fjhe very 
 period specified by himself.
 
 218 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 " We will not ask for his proofs," says the Eeviewer. 
 Well, they shall be given unasked. In his " Letters on 
 the Social and Political Condition of the Principality of 
 Wales," Mr. Eichard has dealt with this subject at large, 
 and in justice to our calumniated fellow-countrymen in 
 Wales, we must allow him to speak for himself. The 
 imputation, and the only imputation, was that illegiti- 
 macy was in astounding excess in Wales as compared 
 with other parts of the kingdom.* 
 
 With all this, there are, no doubt, evils enough in 
 Wales, as in every country under the sun, requiring to 
 be remedied. There remains an amount of ignorance, 
 irreligion, and immorality, to the removal of which the 
 attention of the members of the Church of England may 
 be directed with more profitable purpose than in vilifying 
 the character and jeering at the labours of others who 
 are working to the same end. 
 
 It is very obvious with what deadly effect the charges 
 laid to the door of Nonconformity, as to the condition of 
 the country, may be retorted on the Church. Very 
 truly and pertinently we may say, " If the moral and 
 religious character of the people be such as you insinuate, 
 what account do you give of your own ministrations ? 
 For upwards of three centuries you, as the Protestant 
 Church Establishment, have had the Principality of 
 Wales under your spiritual care. For a large portion 
 of that time you had the field almost wholly to your- 
 selves, excepting the few scattered Nonconformists 
 whom \ our predecessors hated and harried and hunted 
 ' as one doth hunt a partridge over the mountains.' 
 j 
 
 * Here, in the original article as it appeared in The British 
 Quarttrly Review, there were inserted several extracts from the 
 " Lette.'s on the Social and Political Condition of Wales," which 
 need not be repeated, as they will be found on pp. 61-70 of this 
 volume.
 
 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 219 
 
 During the whole of that time you had the patronage of 
 the State, which you say is of such supreme importance 
 to the conservation of religion and piety in the land ; you 
 had all the ecclesiastical and educational endowments of 
 the country in your hands ; you had all the gradations 
 of your hierarchy, including bishops and deans and 
 archdeacons, &c., which you deem essential to the com- 
 pleteness and efficiency of a Christian Church; you 
 had the higher and wealthier classes of the community, 
 almost without exception, in your ranks ; you had a race 
 of people under your charge who, as their whole history 
 proves, are eager for instruction, and singularly 
 accessible to religious impression and emotion ; you 
 had the parochial system in operation which divided 
 the country into convenient districts over which you 
 claimed to exercise authority both by civil and eccle- 
 siastical law. And with all these advantages in your 
 favour what have you to show ? If the country be in the 
 deplorable state which you not only confess, but loudly 
 and almost vauntingly proclaim, what can you have to 
 say, except to admit one of two things either that 
 your system is wholly unsuited to such a country as 
 Wales, and such a people as the Welsh, or that you 
 have failed utterly and ignominiously to work it to any 
 good purpose." 
 
 The members of the Church of England in Wales 
 have been, for some years past, making very strenuous, 
 but hitherto very unsuccessful efforts, to allure the 
 Welsh people from the folds of Dissent to their own. 
 But certainly such articles as that in the Church 
 Quarterly will hardly help them in the process. What 
 their Church has done is this. First, for many genera- 
 tions, it utterly neglected the spiritual interests of those 
 committed to its charge. Then, when others had done 
 the work it had failed to do, it strove to dispossess them
 
 220 LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON WALES. 
 
 of their labours. And finally, having miscarried in that 
 aim, through the loyalty of the people to those who had 
 " cared for their souls,'' they hold up the country to 
 dishonour and contempt before the English people by 
 unfair suppression of its virtues, and gross exaggera- 
 tion of its shortcomings and defects. We can hardly 
 imagine anything more like to hasten and to deepen 
 the cry for disestablishment of the Church in Wales. 
 
 W. SPEAIGHT & SONS, PKINTERS, FETTER LAKE, LONDOM.
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 UNIVERSITY C7 CALIFORN1 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 llullHl ''''* "' "' *1 ^ C *1 7