consulted, estimates the proportion of the
hill-clergy in Westmoreland and Cumberland,
who are
"more or less intoxicated at one
time or another, at parties, fairs, or markets,"
as one sixth of the whole number. Another
informant writes, that "several of the clergy"
in his neighborhood are notorious drunk-
ards." The social position held by the clergy
may be inferred from the above statements.
It is in fact precisely the same with that
assigned to their predecessors by Mr. Macau-
lay. A gentleman who resides in Westmore-
land writes thus: "As a rule the clergy
here are of a low order, and rarely associate
with the gentry. In our own village, for in-
stance, where the clergyman is not by any
means a bad specimen, no servant is kept at
his house, and several of his sons have been
brought up to handicraft trades. We are
very good friends, but he could not visit at
my house.
His sister was waiting-

maid to a friend of ours."

Thus far the aspect of the Church is the same in the northern as in the western hills. But there is one marked feature of difference. In Wales the Dissenters outnumber the Church, and by their superior energy have obtained almost the entire control of the religious education of the people. In these English districts, on the contrary, the Dissenters are a weak minority; and the prevalent sect is that of the Wesleyan Methodists, who are but little alienated from the Establish

designed to be subsidiary and supplemental to that of the Establishment. But many will be surprised to learn that this was still more especially the case with the Calvinistic Methodism of Wales, which is now regarded as one of the most hostile forms of dissent. The founders of this sect were all members of the Church, and all but one were clergymen. In the midst of the ignorant boors who then filled most of the Welsh pupils, there were to be found, here and there, men of a very different stamp; men burning with apostolic zeal for the salvation of souls, and called to the priesthood by a higher ordination than of human hands. Such was Griffith Jones, vicar of Llandowror, in Carmarthenshire, the father of national education in Wales, who, in 1730, founded the first of those catechetical schools, by which, before his death, a hundred and fifty thousand persons had been taught to read the Scriptures in their native tongue.* He spent a life of self-denying labor, in establishing schools, and circulating Bibles; for, till his time, the Bible had been an unknown book in the cottages of the poor. He adopted the practice of field-preaching, and addressed large audiences in the open air, in different parts of Wales, with remarkable effect. Nevertheless, being an incumbent, he could not be deprived of his benefice without a legal cause; and accordingly he lived and died vicar of Llandowror. But his successors and imitators, being only curates, were removable at the pleasure of the bishops; and, This difference would appear at first sight a one by one, they were ejected from their proof of the greater attachment entertained cures, by worldly prelates, who feared entowards the Church by the inhabitants of the thusiasm more than sin, and were zealous in English mountains. But we fear that it is in nothing but in hating zeal. Such was the reality only an indication of the greater supine- fate of Daniel Rowlands, the chief organizer ness and stolidity in which their clergy were of Calvinistic Methodism; of Williams of sunk during the last century. For the dissent Pantycelyn, whose hymns are now sung in a which now exists in Wales did not originate thousand chapels; and of Charles of Bala, in the invasion of the Church's territory by who succeeded these early leaders, and introan external foe; it sprang from the unwise duced Sunday schools into Wales in 1785. attempt of her rulers to stifle a religious Howel Harris, though educated at Oxford, movement which arose spontaneously in her was refused ordination altogether; he afterown communion, and amongst her own wards founded the Methodist College of ministers. The history of that outburst of Trevecca, but never quitted the communion religious life, which so strangely broke the of the Church. Such men could not bo deadness of an age of spiritual stagnation, is silenced by episcopal prohibitions. They now well known, so far as England is con- heard a voice from heaven commanding them cerned; for who has not read that most to preach the Gospel; they saw that thoureadable of biographies, Southey's "Life of sands were won by their labor from heathenWesley?" Every one is aware that Wesley-ism to Christianity; and they felt that even anism was created and organized by ministers of the Church, and that its system was only 1

ment.

*Some years ago we were in a boat on one of the Cumberland lakes, when we observed upon the road which ran along the shore, a man and woman

ride by on the same horse, the man in front, the woman behind. "There goes our priest and his wife," said the boatman. On landing, soon after, we saw the worthy couple making hay together, in a small field which the clergyman farmed.

if schism were to result from their success, the guilt must rest on those who had cast them out. Meanwhile they continued members of the Church, and kept their followers in her communion. Nor was it till our own times that the separation occurred between

*For a full account of this excellent man, see Phillips, p. 284, &c. † Phillips, pp. 125, 285.

the Welsh Methodists and the Establishment. | we cannot doubt that the intelligence of the Until the present century they received the peasantry is stimulated by the discussions Sacraments exclusively from clergymen of the in which they take part; and we may hope National Church, and recognized none others as duly ordained. In the year 1811 they first resolved to ordain ministers of their own, and only since that time have they been a dissenting sect. They have now about eight hundred places of worship scattered over every part of Wales, and teach more than a hundred thousand children in their Sunday schools.*

In

preachers especially delight in calling forth | better districts, where the clergy are both edthat disgusting exhibition of folly and fanat- ucated and efficient! You enter the church, icism which has disgraced the very name of and find perhaps five pews occupied. religion in Wales the practice of "jump- one, the squire slumbers in the softest corner ing.' A whole congregation may be seen, of the manorial seat. In another the butler' drunk with excitement, leaping and shouting attitude shows that he is sharing the repose, in concert, and profaning the most sacred though not the cushions, of his master. The names by frantic invocations.* We cannot third pew is filled by the rector's family, the wonder that these bacchanalian orgies end too fourth by his domestics. The fifth is occupied often in the same manner as their heathen by the wife and children of the parish clerk, prototypes; for such fervor being purely of bound, by virtue of his office, to conform exthe flesh, is easily turned into the current of ternally to the Church. But where is the mere carnal passion. Moreover, the doctrine population? A glance at the interior of the of the preachers who stir up such" revivals," neighboring Zoar or Ebenezer will show you is frequently of the most antinomian tendency. them. There they sit, as thick as bees in a Hence we must explain the melancholy fact, hive, stifling with heat, yet listening patiently that the spread of religious knowledge in to the thundering accents of a native preacher, Wales has not been attended by an improve- which you had heard while you were yet afar off, ment in the morality of the people. In no breaking the stillness of the sabbath air. Tan other country has so large a portion of the uffern (hell fire) is the expression which falls population been instructed in controversial oftenest on the ear. The orator is enforcing theology; and we fear that in no other coun- his favorite doctrine of reprobation upon his try is there a greater prevalence of unchaste rustic hearers; and you cannot help fearing habits among the poor. Such, at least, is the that they are mentally applying his teaching, unanimous evidence of the numerous witnesses by complacently consigning the squire, the examined by the government commissioners.† rector, and the parish clerk to an uncovenanted Another evil which has attended the devel- doom. opment of Sectarianism in Wales, is the entire religious separation which it has caused between the higher and lower ranks. Mr. Lingon too truly says that, " even in religion the Welsh peasant has moved under an isolating destiny; and his worship, like his life, has grown different from that of the classes over him." The cause of piety, and of social order, both suffer from this unnatural isolation. The very idea of the Christian congregation is that it should embrace "high and low, rich and poor, one with another." Within the walls of the church all disparities are equalized; here, at least, as in apostolic times, "the believers have all things common." How painfully different is the state of things in Wales, often in the

This unhappy condition of things not only severs the strongest bond of union between different ranks of society, but it also renders even the best and ablest clergymen comparatively inefficient. The pastoral position of a Welsh clergyman in most parishes, is indeed of a very hopeless kind; and the more zealous and energetic he is, the more distressing he must find it. Through no fault of his own, he is deserted by his flock; and those among the poor who frequent his ministrations are generally the worst men in the parish, who are rejected by the discipline (lax as it is) of the Dissenters; and to show their spite against those who have excluded them, exercise their legal right of attending the National Church. Such circumstances might well discourage the most sanguine; and it is infinitely to the credit of some among the Welsh clergy (and those no inconsiderable number), that instead of yielding to indolent despair, they have found in the very sterility of the soil entrusted to their cultivation only The general result of this evidence may be a new call to labor. Repulsed as theological summed up in the words of one witness (Rep. ii., teachers by their people, they have become p. 60): "Want of chastity is the giant sin of their best instructors in practical religion. Wales." Or is, perhaps, still more correctly They have built parish schools, and thus taken stated by another, a magistrate of North Wales: "Fornication is not regarded as a vice, scarcely up the only ground not preoccupied by dis as a frailty, by the common people in Wales" sent; for the Dissenters in general have con(Rop. iii., p. 68. See also Rep. i., p. 21). We fear that this unanimous testimony of so many witnesses of all ranks and sects is not shaken by Sir T. Phillips' arguments. He has proven, indeed, that the number of illegitmate births is not greater than the English average; but he has forgotten to notice the evidence given, that a large proportion of the poor women in Wales are pregnant some months before marriage.

These scenes, however, are getting less common than they were, and many preachers discourage them. "I do make them wip (weep) and cry for mercy," said a preacher with a very Welsh accent, to a friend of ours," but I do not

make them lip (leap). I do not wish to see them

lipping."

tented themselves with their Sunday schools, without attempting Day schools. Such clergymen, therefore, have easily become the voluntary schoolmasters of their parishes, and thus secured the affection and respect of the younger generation. While, at the same time, they have been the friends and comforters of the aged, the sick, and the help

less; and by showing a benevolence unre- | either generally unknown, or universally unstricted by sectarian distinctions, they have derstood, the same perplexities do not occur. taught their opponents the catholicity of But in the former case (where Welsh prevails Christian love. But virtue and energy like exclusively), another difficulty is introduced, this cannot be expected from the majority of from the want of a supply of fit persons to any profession; and we ought to make some undertake the ministerial office. The Bishop allowance for the indolence and uselessness of Llandaff, in the valuable charge with which even of the worst among the Welsh clergy, he commenced his Episcopal labors, states it when we remember the circumstances in as the result of his previous acquaintance which they are placed by the alienation of with South Wales, that the only class whence their flock. Many of them, in fact, occupy the Welsh-speaking clergy can hope for rethe same position with the ministers of the cruits, is too poor even to afford the small Scotch Establishment in those localities where expense of a Lampeter education.* We may the whole population has gone over to the add, that the same fatal difference of language Free Kirk; and we know how nearly irre- excludes Wales from a source of aid by which sistible is the temptation to such ministers, England is largely benefited. There we see notwithstanding the stringent discipline of many of the very poorest livings held by clerthe Presbyterian Church, to convert their gymen of independent fortune, who have office into a sinecure. taken orders from a love for the work of the ministry, and who neither need nor seek moro valuable preferment. Such men would gladly help that most ancient branch of their Church which has been established in Britain ever since the time of Constantine. But they are shut out by the impassable barrier of a for

Another cause of the inefficiency of the Welsh Church is the immense size of the parishes into which its territory is divided. As examples, we may mention Llandrillo in St. Asaph diocese, comprising an area of forty-two square miles, and endowed with only 1614; Beddgelert in Bangor, comprising nearly fifty square miles, and endowed with 931.; Ystradyfodwg in Llandaff, containing forty square miles, and endowed with 1307.; and Caron in St. David's, comprising about fifty-five square miles, and endowed with 807! the English mountains there are to be found parishes of even greater area than these; but there, they have been mostly divided into separate chapelries, of a manageable size whereas, the Welsh parishes have generally remained undivided. It is evident that such an extent of parochial territory renders the full performance of pastoral duties impossible.

But the Church of Wales has to contend with other difficulties, no less formidable than those which arise from dissent. The chief among these is the prevalence of two languages. The parishes of Wales may be divided into three classes. First, those where Welsh only is the language of the great ma-eign tongue. jority. Secondly, those where English is spoken or understood by all. Thirdly, those in which the population is divided into a Welsh and English portion, neither being inconsiderable in respect of the other. These latter, or bilingual parishes, constitute the chief difficulty. If an Englishman is appointed to them, how can he satisfy the Welsh if a Welshman, how can he minister to the English The clergyman should, of course, be able to speak both languages; but he must speak one of them as an acquired, the other as a native tongue; and the very circumstance which attracts his Celtic parishioners will repel the Saxons. Again, how is he to manage about the services? Here he cannot please both nations; so he is reduced to a compromise which pleases neither, by performing service alternately in either tongue. The rule adopted by the Welsh bishops seems, in itself, a right one; namely, that where so much as a sixth part of the parishioners do not understand English, at least half the Church Services should be in Welsh. Yet when, as often happens, the English inhabitants are churchmen and the Welsh dissenters, the action of this rule is unsatisfactory, compelling, in fact, the performance of one service every Sunday to empty walls. In those places where English is

In some of these parishes the clergy adopt a singular mode of pleasing their Welsh parishioners, when the service is in English. They give out the text of their sermon, and that alone, in Welsh. The effect upon a stranger is sometimes startling. He imagines that the clergyman is suddenly bursting into a paroxysm of "the unknown tongues."

In

The great size of these mountain parishes shows that when our parochial system was originally established they were very thinly inhabited. And so they remained till the

*Primary Charge of Bishop of Llandaff, p. 45 -47. The Bishop suggests as a remedy, the foundation of Scholarships or Exhibitions; a recommendation which has been since acted on by

some benevolent persons.

Many similar instances are given by Sir T. Phillips, p. 222–224.

Thus the parish of Kendal, in Westmoreland, contains an area of above a hundred square miles; but it has been divided into sixteen chapelries, each of them under the charge of an incumbent endowed with about 70l. per annum. So the large parishes of Crossthwaite in Cumberland, and Kirby Lonsdale in Lancashire, are each divided into seven chapelries.

present century. But now, in some parts of who, with few exceptions, use and regard Wales, especially in the south, the mineral them as so much brute force instrumental to wealth which has been discovered below the wealth, but as nowise involving claims on husoil has covered its surface with a dense pop-man sympathy."* Strong as this language ulation. The counties of Glamorgan and is, we fear it is not exaggerated. Monmouth (nearly the whole of which are now included in the diocese of Llandaff) contained 140,000 inhabitants in the year 1821; and 417,000 in 1851. So that the population has trebled in thirty years. Within the last ten years it has risen from 305,000, to 417,000; a greater increase than that of any other portion of Great Britain. Thus the eclesiastical agency, which was intended to provide for a few shepherds and farmers scattered among the hills, is now called on to meet the wants of overgrown manufacturing towns, which are doubling themselves every twenty years. So that we see the machinery and appliances of the Church, originally designed for tens, or at most for hundreds, standing in solemn mockery of the wants of thousands and tens of thousands."* It might have been hoped that the creators of this vast population would have spent some portion of their enormous wealth for the benefit of those to whose toil they owe all that they possess. But we grieve to say that, with a few noble exceptionst, they have hitherto shown themselves insensible to the truth, that property has its duties as well as its rights. One of the Government Commissioners says of this manufacturing population: I regard their degraded condition as entirely the fault of their employers, who give them far less tendance and care than they bestow on their cattle, and

* See Letter of the Archdeacon Llandaff on the wants of the Diocese (London, 1850), p. 5. Much interesting information will be found in this pamphlet, the author of which is distinguished not only by his eloquence and ability, but by a prac

tical wisdom to which the Church of Wales is

already largely indebted. Among other instances he mentions, that of Bedwelty parish, which in 1801 contained 619 inhabitants, and now contains about 30,000.

Amongst these exceptions the Rhymney Iron Company should be mentioned with honor. In 1838 they unanimously agreed to the following resolution, "That the Company having caused to locate, on what were before barren mountains, a population of eight thousand souls, is up every principle bound to provide and endow a church for the use of the tenants of the Company." Accordingly the Company built or endowed a church or parsonage, and provided schools also. We ought also to acknowledge that some of the mineral proprietors of this district, who sit on opposite sides of the House of Commons (Sir J. Guest, Mr. Clive, and Mr. Booker), have shown a proper sense of their duties, as ironmasters and landlords, towards their workmen. [Since writing the above, we lament to hear of the death of the former; but it is satisfactory to find that his successor in the representation of the great seat of the iron trade, is a man who has specially devoted himself to the moral and intellectual improvement of the working classes.]

Having then to contend against all these gigantic difficulties, the progress which the Church of Wales has made in the last few years is most creditable to those who have been instrumental in effecting it. And though such improvement has been chiefly in the more civilized districts, yet even among the peasant clergy sufficient amendment has taken place to show the truth of our previous remark, that poverty, though the actual cause, is not a necessary cause, of many blemishes which have disfigured the establishment. In the first place, those gross and scandalous abuses which prevailed in the last century are either entirely swept away, or fast disappearing. Episcopal superintendence has Deen changed from a name into a reality. Archdeacons visit their archdeaconries, and the obsolete office of rural deans has been revived: so that the bishop is kept constantly supplied with information of the state of every parish in his diocese. The ordinance of Confirmation, which non-resident prelates had suffered to fall into disuse, is now regularly administered. The clergy reside, for the most part. upon their livings, and no longer leave their duties to be discharged by half-starved curates. Pluralities are henceforward impossible, and the pluralist will soon be as extinct an animal as the Plesiosaurus. Full services are now performed in churches which had never before been opened twice a Sunday within the memory of man. Glebe houses are rising in every direction.† New churches are built; and old ones are restored, which the slothful fall into ruin. The eighteenth century may negligence of a former generation suffered to be called preeminently the age of ecclesiastical dilapidation. Totally without the sense of architectural beauty, it resigned the glorious masterpieces of Gothic art to the mutilation of the churchwarden; the cheapest patchwork of lath and plaster was good enough to repair a church. But in England there was at least sufficient sense of decency to keep the walls standing, and the roof weather-tight.

* Rep. ii., p. 293. See also the anecdote at p. 63. We find from the Report of the Diocesan Church Building Society, that 1000l. was anonymously given last year, to be expended in building a church in whatever spot might be considered the most spiritually destitute in the diocese. After due consideration it was determined to spend it in building a church for the workpeople of the wealthiest iron-master in Great Britain.

+ In St. Asaph 70 parsonages have been built or restored in the last 40 years (Canon William's Sermon, p. 23). In Llandaff 60 parsonages were added during the 20 years of Bishop Coplesten's episcopate.