0/I E> RARY OF THL U N I VLRSITY Of 1LLI NOIS THE TRUTH ABOUT THE CHURCH IN WALES. BY THE RIGHT REVEREND THE LORD BISHOP OE ST. ASAPH. DELIVERED AT TRURO, ON NOVEMBER 7, 1889. FIFTH THOUSAND. LONDON : SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, HAMILTON, KENT & CO., Limited. STATIONERS' HALL COURT, E.C. THE CHURCH DEFENCE INSTITUTION, 9, BRIDGE STREET, WESTMINSTER, S.W. PRICE ONE PENNY. 2_ THE TRUTH ABOUT THE CHURCH IN WALES. The following lecture was delivered by the Bishop of St. Asaph, on Thursday evening, November 7, 1889, at the Concert Hall, Truro, the chair being taken by the Earl of Mount Edgcumbe : — The present position of the Church in Wales cannot justly or adequately be explained without some reference to its past history. I do not think that any competent The Identily person has attempted to question the statement of the Church made by Mr. Gladstone that " the Welsh Sees of England are simply four Sees held by the suffragans of the Archbishop of Canterbury and form a portion of the province as much as any four English Sees in tKat province." The attempt to prove that the Church in Wales is " a com- plete, separate Church" has practically been abandoned, and is only now repeated by those who are indifferent to their own reputation for accuracy and trustworthiness. Again, to quote Mr. Gladstone's words, " it is practically impossible to separate the case of Wales from that of England." And he goes on to prove that the real question raised by the advocates of Disestablishment in Wales is " the Dis- establishment of the Church in England." It is remarkable that the very people who started this theory of a separate Church in Wales should almost in the same breath have formulated against the Church in Wales the charge ' ' of being throughout its whole . e ,„ y c . 7 , « -, m Wales history an alien Church, the church of the con- not ^lien. queror and invader." Perhaps it is not to be wondered at that those who had the hardihood to give A 2 4 THE CHURCH IN WALES. currency to these historical inaccuracies should not have the intelligence to perceive their inconsistency. This charge of alienism cannot be answered more correctly or completely than in these words of Mr. Gladstone's: " It is a proposition completely sustained by history that the people of Wales were the staunchest Churchmen in the country, as long as their Church was administered in the spirit of sympathy to their national feelings." To this admirable statement I now simply add the historical fact that less than 200 years ago the whole Welsh nation were Churchmen, and not nominal Churchmen, but conspicuous for their loyalty and devotion to the Church. Mr. Stuart Rendel, a Welsh patriot, whose patriotism is entirely free from any connection with Wales either by birth, language, residence or possessions, has the credit of having formulated the following statement : — " Nonconformity a century back evangelised Wales, and the Church of England prior to that time had reduced Wales almost to heathenism." Side by side with Mr. Renders statement I put that of Mr. Gladstone made last year at Wrexham : " The mass of the people believe that the Welsh people have been a very religious people for a hundred and twenty or a hundred and fifty years : but there are a great many who are in the habit of saying that before that time the Welsh were a very godless people. This is a place, I hope, of freedom of opinion : and will you allow me to say I don't believe a word of it ? " I will not weary the meeting with statistics, but I have gone very carefully into the evidence on this point, and I state without hesitation that Welsh Nonconformity is in truth the outgrowth of what is called the Methodist Revival, and Welsh Calvinistic Methodism as a Nonconforming body only dates back as far as 1811, when by the ordination of their own Ministers that body separated from the Church. It is a most important point to remember with regard to the religious condition of Wales that Welsh Nonconformity is practically less than 80 years old. Now it is no doubt true that the last century was marked u,uc THE CHURCH IN WALES. 5 by religious indifference in England and Wales, but that indifference was less conspicuous in Wales than in m^^ Life England. I can prove from authentic records and Diffi- with regard to my own diocese, extending over cul ties in the the whole of that century and applying to every as n ury * parish in the Diocese, that the number of communicants was large, and that the ministrations of the Church, the state of poverty and disorganisation in which she had been left after the Commonwealth being remembered, were by no means as scanty as they have been represented. You will understand what this confusion must have been when I tell you that during the Commonwealth there were less than 100 Ministers for 700 Parishes in South Wales, and that as late as the year 1720 there were in the Diocese of St. David's 37 livings under £50 a year, 42 under £40, 60 under £30, 29 under £20, 39 under £15, 57 under £10, and 29 under £5. I do not wish to minimise or palliate the failings of the Church during the last century in Wales, but I do say that any unbiassed or dispassionate man who will take the trouble to master the evidence must come to the conclusion that those failings have been grossly and unfairly exaggerated. Some of that evidence I will give as briefly as possible. In 1721 Dr. Erasmus Saunders published a book on the state of religion in the Diocese of St. David's — a book ... ... o "An Extra- written with evident candour, truthfulness and ordinary- knowledge — and this is what he says of the Welsh Disposition People : — " An extraordinary disposition to re- ^o 11 - ligion prevails among the people of this country. There is, I believe, no part of the nation more inclined to be religious and to be delighted with it than the poor inhabitants of these mountains. They do not think it too much, when neither ways nor weather are inviting, over cold and bleak hills to travel three or four miles or more to attend the public prayers." He goes on to describe how " the servants and shepherds met for mutual instruction and edification, and how they delighted in the composing and singing of divine hymns consisting either of the doctrinal and historical parts 6 THE CHURCH IN WALES. of Scriptures, or of the lives and worthy acts of eminent saints." A return is given in 1710 for the Archdeaconry of Carmarthen, and in this return is given the number in each parish who could read Welsh. I take six typical parishes, each being a rural parish. In these parishes there were 265 families and 167 poor people could read Welsh. As the return only gives the poor people who could read Welsh, you will see at once that the average is high. More- over during the fifty years which immediately preceded the earliest appearance of the Methodist movement within the Church, a period which, if we accept Mr. Stuart Eendel's statement, must have been as gross in darkness as the hour that precedes the dawn, the Welsh Church gave to the Welsh people more than 180 Welsh Books, most of which were on religious subjects. To all that I have said a friendly critic may reply, " Well, you have proved what every well-instructed person knows, Then what ^at ^ e ^ nurcn °f Wales is not a complete was the cause separate Church, that it is not an alien Church, of Welsh Non- that the statements made about that Church by ' } political adventurers are easy of but perhaps not worthy of refutation, and you have proved that at no distant date Welshmen were all loyal and devoted to that Church, which had been theirs before the mission of Augustine, a Church which first gave them their Christianity, which gave them their Bible in Welsh, and (let not this important point be forgotten) that the Church which gave to Wales the Welsh Bible alone saved from extinction the Welsh language, which is now the life and mainstay of Welsh patriotism." All these points every fair and candid mind must accept as proved, but there still remains the great question how came it to pass that Nonconformity during the early years of this century gained such a hold upon the Welsh people. There was more than one cause for this. First of all the Commonwealth left the Church in Wales more disorganized and impoverished than it did the Church THE CHURCH IN WALES. 7 in England. Very few I think have realised The Disorgaa . the extent and severity of the damage and ization after disaster brought upon the Church in Wales by the Common- the Commonwealth. Again, before the Church in Wales had had time to recover herself there gathered upon the wreckage left by Cromwell, an English and often non-resident An English Episcopate. Energetic oversight was possibly not and often the characteristic of the Episcopate in any part Non-resident of the Anglican Church during the last century, pi but it is difficult to imagine that this work of supervision could have been so completely disregarded as in many in- stances in Wales. Imagine a Welsh Bishop residing in some remote part of the North of England and only once visiting his Diocese, and, remembering what the means of communication and travelling were last century, picture the many inconveniences and disadvantages to the work of the Church in his Diocese, which residence at such a distance from his work must have involved. This non-residence was utterly and hopelessly bad; but that was not all. Last century the proportion of people in Wales who* could speak or understand English was very much less than it is now. I doubt at the present time whether the number of people in Wales who cannot speak or understand English would amount to one -fifth of the whole population. Last century, I venture to think — but it is, of course, only a shrewd guess— that the number of purely Welsh-speaking people was much nearer four-fifths. Therefore a knowledge of the Welsh language in those who had to minister to the Welsh people was four times as important then as it is now. An English Episcopate which often did not reside among the Welsh people, and when it did reside could not speak to them, can always make good its claims to be reckoned amongst one of the chief causes of Nonconformity. Further, during last century and the early years of this century it cannot be truthfully said that the disposition of Episcopal patronage in Wales was free from gross abuses. 8 THE CHURCH IN WALES. Next should be reckoned the extreme poverty of the Church in Wales, which brought with it the baneful neces- sity of holding livings in plurality. Imagine one e ex reme qj man serv } n g fi ve parishes, some of them Poverty of * J « f . > the Church. ^ en mi l es apart, and receiving irom none 01 them more than £7 a year. When we remember all these things the marvel is that the Church in Wales sur- mounted her difficulties as well as she has done. In speaking, however, of the history of the Church's troubles and depres- sion let me state this one fact. The records of the Diocese of St. Asaph alone prove that among the Englishmen who filled that See were some men of noble and earnest lives, who shewed zeal and energy in their work — while among the parochial clergy themselves I can multiply instances of devoted ministry. No doubt there were then cases of neglect and indifference among the Welsh clergy, but men like the late Mr. Justice Watkin Williams and the present member for the Swansea Boroughs, the two men who in the House of Commons have proposed the Disestablishment of the Church in Wales, have seized upon a few cases of gross immorality among the Welsh Clergy, and from these argued most unfairly, as I think, that drunkenness, dishonesty, im- morality and neglect of duty were prevalent. Mr. Dillwyn, not content with this libel on the Welsh Clergy in the last century, includes in it the Welsh laity. I differ from Mr Dillwyn ; I think he would find it a very difficult thing indeed to prove that the Welsh laity were as immoral and corrupt in the 18th century as he represents them to have been. I say advisedly to prove. From what I have stated about the difficulties of the Church in Wales, and of the presence of earnest and devoted Cle en men among her ministers, you will see at once themselves that the conditions were favourable to a religious the Parents of revival. These devoted clergy were themselves . ^ e parents of this revival. The formal secession of the Methodists arose, as the facts prove, from no sort of hostility to the Church, but from these simple causes. A THE CHURCH IN WALES. i* number of active, devout Churchmen, lay and clerical, upon whom the evangelical revival spirit had fallen, formed them- selves into Societies of itinerant exhorters and lay-preachers. Their preaching brought about a great religious revival in Wales. Owing to the increased congregations and the wide area of the parishes, many of these being held in plurality, there was some difficulty in obtaining, when required, the ministrations of episcopally ordained clergymen. To meet this difficulty the leaders of these Methodist Societies deter- mined in 1811 to set apart eight of the lay preachers in North Wales and eight in South Wales to administer the Sacraments. It is on record that this step was taken by the leaders with the greatest reluctance, a reluctance which in the case of the chief leader, was before his death an openly expressed remorse. Among the founders of Welsh e ,***?* Methodism there was not one syllable of hostility church, to or disagreement from the doctrine and worship of the Church of England. In their first printed rules the Welsh Methodists repudiate most strongly the idea that they are dissenters from the Established Church, and even as late as the year 1834, at an annual association of the Welsh Methodists, held at Bala in June (10th, 11th, and 12th), the following recommendation was (at the meeting at two p.m. on the 11th) proposed by Mr. John Elias, of Angle- sea, seconded by Mr. William Morris, of Pembrokeshire, and unanimously agreed to by upwards of 500 preachers and elders then present from various parts of the Principality : " That we deeply lament the nature of that agitation now so prevalent in this kingdom, and which avowedly has for its object the severing of the National Church from the State, and other changes in ecclesiastical affairs. We, therefore, are of opinion that it pertains not unto us to interfere in such matters ; and we strenuously enjoin upon every member of our connection to meddle not with them that are given to change, but on the contrary to pray for the king and for all that are in authority that B 10 THE CHURCH IN WALES. we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty." It is not my business to specify the various steps in the declension of the tone and spirit of Welsh Nonconformity. p ,. . . This declension is a fact well-known. I prefer Character of to record the words of a Welsh Nonconformist, a Modern Non- Liberal, and a writer in a Radical newspaper. I quote his testimony from the Homilist, an English Nonconformist magazine of January, 1888. "The characteristic feature of Welsh Nonconformity is the general air of lethargy and sloth that pervades everything. The mournful cry issues from the chapels in the land ' Who hath believed our reports, and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?' the dread "I chabod" appears to have been written over our doors, and the tale to be told ' The glory has departed/ The cause must be sought for in the decay of the preachers. In fact the real preacher seems quickly be- coming a relic of the past Enter into conversation with your minister and try and find out his hobby. Politics first, politics second, politics to the end of the chapter." At a recent gathering of the Methodists in the county of Cardigan, the following appears in a report read by one of their Ministers : — " The Chapels have generally Its Spiritual relaxed into a state of lethargy and carelessness,, Declension, we are sadly wanting in devotion and zeal to- wards the cause, and in brotherly love towards one another. It would be difficult for the world to know to-day that we are disciples of Jesus Christ, judging by the measure of the love we bear one another." This statement is corroborated by the statistical report of the Methodist body in North Cardiganshire for 1888, read by the Rev. Thomas Levi. I ask special attention for these figures, be- cause I am enabled to compare these official Methodist statistics for 1888 with the official Methodist statistics of the same district for 1878. In 1888 the Methodist Chapels in this district numbered 48, in 1878, 46. In 1888 the Ministers numbered 27, in 1878, 25, and the number of THE CHURCH IN WALES. 11 communicants in 1888 numbered 5576, in 1878 they num- bered 6070; the number of children (in the Chapels) in 1888 was 2871, in 1 878 it was 4434 ; the total number of the congregations in this district in 1888 is given as 11,228, in 1878 as 13,544. Before I point out the significance of these figures, let me remind you that the Calvinistic Methodists are in every sense the most powerful Nonconformist body in Wales, and that Cardiganshire is their stronghold in it 8 Numerical South Wales. Now you will see that the official Losses. Methodist statistics which I have quoted prove that during the last ten years the Methodist chapels in North Cardiganshire have increased by two and the Methodist ministers by two. Now observe these significant facts. While the ministers and chapels have thus far increased, the number of communicants has decreased in ten years by 494, the number of children has decreased by 1563 (that is, by more than one-third), and the congregations have de- creased by 2316. But looking in another direction the evidence is the same. In a Welsh newspaper called the Goleuad, which is the re- cognized organ of the Methodists, and which admirably represents the decadence of Welsh its General Nonconformity, the following appears in a lead- Deterioration, ing article upon Welsh preaching: — "Where it (our preaching) fails is in its influence upon the life ; there is not the harmony there ought to be between profession and practice. Is it possible that Wales must again struggle slowly through a period of indifference until she has lost the mighty influences that rule her ? We fail to create a sense of confidence in our young people ; they come and go accord- ing to their own tendencies, with only the slightest degree of the feeling of any responsibility." This confession of the Goleuad is confirmed by the recent words of an eminent Methodist minister, who says, "What irreverence is there even to impiety at our sacred ordinances ! No pretence, much less feeling of devotion in our worship ; the throne of grace 12 THE CHURCH IN WALES. is approached in prayer, only a few bending the head, much less bowing the knee." All this points to a deterioration much more serious than any decline in numbers. I quote these facts in no party spirit, and for no party purpose, but simply as proofs of a state of things familiar to anyone who knows well the inner life of Wales. Let me now pass on to deal with some of the misstate- ments made with regard to Wales by advocates of Dis- Is there establishment. Last May Mr. Dillwyn stated in Proselytising the House of Commons that the Church in Wales ftnd. Persecu- ' tion ? if so was a proselytising Church, that it was a fact that by whom ? the influence of the landlords and of most of the employers was exerted to induce people to declare them- selves Churchmen. I claim to know Wales well, and I say advisedly that that statement is untrue. But I go further and say that if truth is to be made known, it will be found that such pressure and persecution — for it is nothing less — as Mr. Dillwyn speaks of, is often and very freely prac- tised among the Nonconformists. Within my own experi- ence I know a number of cases of Nonconformist employers of labour, who have not only compelled their servants to go to their Chapel but have kept back from their wages contri- butions to the chapel fund. The following case is also known to me. A Nonconformist started some works, and after a time decided to build a chapel belonging to his own denomination,' for which a contribution was levied upon the workmen. Among the workmen were Nonconformists belonging to other bodies, and Churchmen, who all had to contribute, many of them as much as £5. With regard to attendance at religious worship, Mr. Dillwyn tells us that 86,438 is the average attendance at Mr Dillwvn's Church m North Wales on Sundays, and 317,078 Extra- at Chapels ; that is, that a total of 403,516 out of ordinary a population of 480,848, on an average attend a place of worship in North Wales on Sunday. Allowing 25 per cent, for those who from age, illness, or other causes are unable to attend public worship, we shall THE CHURCH IN WALES. 13 appreciate the full value of Mr. Dillwyn's statistics which tell us that the average, not the extraordinary attendance at places of worship in N. Wales, actually exceeds the possible number who could attend by 42,882. In order to compose an argument against the Church in Wales Mr. Dillwyn has conjured up an army of 42,000 statistical spectres ! In Brymbo parish, where Mr. Osborne Morgan resides, I was last July at the opening of a new church with accommo- dation for about 500. Last month I visited the parish again. The Vicar and the Churchwardens °^^ h l find the church so crowded that they are already statistics, preparing to enlarge it. At the confirmation on October 3rd in the parish church of Brymbo I confirmed 170 candidates, 11 of whom were over 50 years of age, 14 were over 30 years of age, 25 over 20 years of age. The Church itself — seats and aisles — was densely crowded, and a large number of people were outside in the Churchyard unable to gain admittance. All this took place within sight of the house of a Bight Honourable Gentleman who is perpetually telling the English people that the churches in Wales are empty. The previous week at a confirmation at'Bhosllaner- chrugog, a mining parish not far from Brymbo, when I arrived at the church twenty minutes before the service began, so dense was the crowd that I had the greatest diffi- culty in getting into the church. The confirmees numbered 100. In the diocese of St. Asaph, since the end of May I have confirmed over 3600 candidates. Most untrustworthy with regard to the Church, Mr. Osborne Morgan is no more to be trusted when he treats of Dissent. He stated in the House of Commons that "the Calvinistic Methodists alone gave Morgan's £173,000 a year to their cause. They had Blunders. 4,500 places of worship, and a corresponding number of ministers and preachers." JSow the total number of the ministers of the Calvinistic Methodists, Baptists, Independents and Wesley ans was in 1887 u-nder 1600, the total number of the Calvinistic Methodist ministers 14 THE CHURCH IN WALES. being CI 9. Mr. Osborne Morgan's language is ambiguous; if he was speaking of all the Nonconformists in Wales, his imagination simply trebled the truth, if, as the context seems to shew, he was speaking of the Methodists only, then his imagination has multiplied the truth seven times. The comparative number of the clergy and the Noncon- formist ministers is an important point. Last session another Noncon Welsh member of Parliament described the Welsh formist Minis- clergy as a comparatively small body of clergymen ters and wno minister to the wants of a minority of the ergy * people. The actual numbers in 1887 were as follows : — The clergy in Wales numbered 1427, and the Nonconformist ministers 1557. And here I would call attention to another very important consideration. The Calvinistic Methodist ministers are the most numerous and the best educated of the Nonconformist ministers in Wales, but even among them one third are engaged in some secular calling in addition to their ministry, a fact which is equally true of the ministers of the other denominations, so that a considerable reduction has to be made even upon the 1557. Once more, while we are frequently reminded of the merits of the voluntary system, we are never told of the enormous chapel debts in Wales. The debt upon The Truth j^q Methodist chapels in Wales alone exceeded ab °^ t b s apel in 1887 £320,000; and while their adherents have been steadily decreasing, the chapel debts have been advancing by leaps and bounds. Sir Hussey Vivian, in his speech upon the Disestablishment motion last session, combated this fact, and gave as a proof of his contention a chapel built in recent }^ears which had cost £13,000, the debt on which had been reduced to £1500. This chapel was completed about 1874, and the debt remain- ing upon it at the time Sir Hussey Vivian spoke was close upon £7000. If the whole truth were known, I believe the debts upon the Baptist and Independent chapels do not fall far short of those on the Methodist chapels. £320,000 multiplied three times gives a very large and awkward total. THE CHURCH IN WALES. 15 The full significance of this enormous burden of debt remains yet to be fully understood. Another statement made in the House of Commons last session was the following by Mr. Thomas Ellis, M.P. : — " What remains of the Established Church in Wales is the rent-receivers, large landowners and An . „, wer t0 . . Mr. Thomas capitalists of Wales." This reckless and ridicu- Ellis lous statement I purpose meeting with some facts about the Church. The Bishop of St. David's, in his recent charge, gave the following statistics : — The number of Sunday school scholars in the Diocese of St. David's has advanced from 28,763 in 1880 to 32,923 in 1889. The number confirmed for the triennial period ending December 1st, 1876, numbered 4352, and for that ending in 1888, 8545; in other words, the number confirmed has doubled during the past twelve years. The number of communicants has risen from 26,589 to 39,401 in the same period, an increase of 50 per cent. This is for the Diocese of St. David's alone. You will notice that the percentage of communicants in St. David's in proportion to the population exceeds that of any Diocese in England. I will supplement these facts about the Diocese of St. David's with the confirmation statistics of my own Diocese. During the last six years the number confirmed crajftmatioii in the Diocese of St. Asaph average 2000 each statistics in year. Compared with the population, this st> Asa P n " DioCGSG shows a larger percentage of confirmed than in many English Dioceses. The Burials Act, passed in 1880, suggests some very significant reflections. For years previously Mr. Osborne Morgan had filled the land with the sound of the terrible grievance which the Nonconformists of Burial Wales suffered in having their dead buried with statistics, the services of the Church. I believe he stated that the grievance affected 600,000 in Wales. Now, if only half what he said was true, it is quite obvious that the Noncon- formists would eagerly have seized the relief given by this 16 THE CHURCH IN WALES. Burials Act. Well, what are the facts ? Since the passing of that Act, in 266 parishes in North Wales, 1440 funerals have been celebrated under the provisions of that Act by Nonconformist ministers, while 20,298 funerals have been celebrated according to the rites of the Established Church. I know in my own experience a number of cases where every possible pressure has been put by Nonconformist Ministers upon members of their flocks to adopt the pro- vision of this Act in the burial of their dead ; and such pressure has been stubbornly resisted. I leave this branch of the subject with a striking illustra- tion from my own diocese. Kecently the churchyard attached to the Parish Church of Denbigh had e en lg ^ Q ^ e c i osec [ or enlarged ; the adjoining field, Churchyard . o > J o > and Mr. Gee. f rom which alone enlargement was possible, was leased by Mr. Thomas Gee, a Methodist preacher, editor of the Barter, and leader of the Tithe agitation. Mr. Gee refused to give up the required ground unless, for the future, Nonconformist ministers were permitted to officiate within the Church at funerals. This permission could not be granted, and the enlargement of the churchyard was therefore abandoned. Meanwhile the Den- bigh Town Council, of which Mr. Gee is a member, formed rui • -r^ therms ves into a Burial Board, bought a piece of ground, and opened a Cemetery. The cemetery was hardly com- pleted when the working men of Denbigh, Churchmen and Nonconformists alike, took the matter up entirely of their own accord. They approached the landlord, who promised to give the necessary ground, provided Mr. Gee gave up his lease ; but Mr. Gee was master of the situation and stubborn. " You've got a cemetery now," he said in so many words — ' what do you want with a churchyard ? " but the working men would have nothing to do with the cemetery, and the storm of indignation rose so high that poor Mr. Gee collapsed beneath its onset and he gave up his lease. The additional ground was secured, and consecrated by me this summer. On the day of consecration the rain came pouring down, THE CHURCH IN WALES. 17 but notwithstanding this the people came literally in thou- sands ; the Church and churchyard were simply packed with people, and I have never seen a more reverent or impressive congregation. I should like before I sit down to say something on the Tithe Question. Sir William Harcourt in his recent speech at Carnarvon, stated that " Tithe, being national property, ought to be applied to the uses of the nation/' and recom- Ti^g and mended its being given to secure free education F . ree Ed ^ca- for the people. This is a very tempting bribe ; does it work but let us see how it works out. In my out? own diocese the Voluntary Schools are twice as numerous as the Board Schools. Assuming the Disendowment of the Church in Wales, there can be no doubt that the Church would be compelled to give up her Voluntary Schools. At the lowest computation this would more than double the present School Board Rate for Wales. This year's* Blue Book gives the present School Board Rate for Wales as £1 40,38 L If the School Boards were called upon to supply all the Elementary Education for Wales, that rate would, I believe, amount to, at least, £300,000. This is putting it very low, because if the Voluntary Schools are closed the old School Buildings would not be transferred, and the expendi- ture to supply new ones would be enormous. But to this estimate, if there is to be Free Education, as Sir William Harcourt promises, £80,000 a year must be added for school pence. The bribe, therefore, works out something like this. The parochial tithe in Wales amounts to £137,000 a year. Set this against the £380,000 and it leaves £243,000 a year to be drawn from the pockets of the Welsh Rate-payers, that is to say that the acceptance of Sir William Harcourt's pro- posal would mulct the Welsh Farmers in an increased School Board taxation of £100,000 a vear. 18 THE CHURCH IN WALES. .... Some one may ask what about the tithes to *' Legal Alien- J ... ation of Lay-Impropriators. I asked Sir William Har- National court whether he included these under tithe. Property!" This is his reply :- Malwood, Lyndhurst, October Zlst, 1889. My Lord, In reply to your letter of the 30th, I have to say that I should suppose when National property has been legally alienated to private uses it would acquire the character of personal rather than of XDublic estate. I have the honour to be, Your obedient Servant, W. V. HARCOURT. The spectacle of Sir William Harcourt in one breath demanding the nationalisation of tithe, and in the next breath inventing the fiction of a "legal alienation of national property " is a political somersault marvellous even in these days. One word more as to the future. We are bidden by our opponents, lt Look at the representation of Wales ; the great majority of your members are against the Church." This is a Time True, I reply. But they owe their seats to other of Transition, causes besides their opposition to the Church. Supposing that Yorkshire or Cornwall returns members pledged to Disestablishment, is the Church forth- with to be disestablished in Yorkshire and Cornwall ? Again, the Church, even by the confession of her enemies, is making stead} 1 - and great strides in Wales ; and granting that the ballot box is against us, would it be fair, just, or even politic to give effect to a political change which in a few years the majority of the Welsh people themselves would deplore and regret. Sir William Harcourt, and his appropriate compan- ion, Mr. Cyril Flower, M.P., both recently speaking in Wales, sneered at the starvation of the poor Welsh Clergy, and tell THE CHURCH IN WALES. 19 us we never hear of starving Nonconformist ministers. The answer is plain and complete. The Nonconformist ministry in Wales is chiefly a preaching ministry; in the rural districts, especially, pastoral work is not attempted by the Noncon- formist ministers. In a large number of villages they have no resident ministers at all. As a rule the Nonconformist minister in the rural district is engaged in some business or other. And this fact is in itself a proof that their ministry must lack the two essentials of wholeheartedness and inde- pendence. Furthermore, Nonconformity in Wales ministers in Welsh, and has utterly failed to start English causes. The Noncon- formist official Year Books state that " they can Progress of only maintain their hold upon the country through th ® ? h ^ rc ?' the English language, that a large proportion of ties of Non- the rising generation are being transformed into con ormis s * English-speaking people, and that like the flow of the tide, the English language is advancing in the Principality." The Methodists have for years striven hard to start English Chapels. According to their own statement their English communicants number 4 per 1000 of the population. A remarkable letter from the Rev. Emlyn Jones appeared last week. He confessed that his denomination, the Independents, were failing entirely to provide English services, that of the £700 a year given towards the English causes in Wales £400 was collected in England, and that their opportunity had well-nigh passed. As a comment on all this, let it be clearly understood that the Church in Wales is now doing her duty by and making rapid progress among the Welsh- speaking people, that English is quickly becoming the language of the people, and that the English-speaking people in Wales are insufficiently ministered to by Non- conformity. To sum up, I would not lift a finger to maintain the Established Church in Wales if I was not profoundly 20 THE CHURCH IN WALES. „. . convinced that the highest interests of the Welsh Highest p Welsh Inter- people are bound up in the welfare of the Church ests hound up i n Wales. To cripple the Church would be to mtheC urc . cr jpple the social, intellectual, moral and religious progress of the Welsh people. The Church in Wales pleads guilty to many shortcomings in the past, but that man is no true patriot who would weaken the powerful religious influence which she exerts to-day. Her difficulties have been many, and not a few confront her still ; but her life and expansion are undeniable. They are borne witness to by Nonconformists no less than by Churchmen. I appeal with confidence to religious minded Welshmen to maintain in her integrity this mighty power for good. The National Church Almanack for 1893. Full of all kinds of information for Churchmen. In crimson paper cover, 32 pages. Price One Penny, or Six Shillings per Hundred. The Bishop of Manchester on Disestablishment. A Speech delivered at the Diocesan Conference at Manchester, October 19, 1892. Price One Penny. The Title of the Church of England to Her Property and Revenues. A Paper read at the Lincoln Diocesan Conference, October, 1892. By the Eev. G. G. Perry, M.A. Price One Penny. Four Important Aets of Parliament. The Tithe Act, 1891, The Education Act, 1891, The Burials Act, 1880, Mr. Marten's Burial Act, 1879. A full explanation of their provisions, with the texts of the several Acts. In one cover. Price One Shilling. The Chureh in Wales— Shall we Forsake Her? A Speech by His Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury at the Church Congress, Rhyl, October 6, 1891, revised by His Grace. Price One Penny, or Six Shillings per Hundred. Also in Welsh. The Continuity of the English Church through Eighteen Centuries, with Numerous Diagrams and Coloured Map. Second Edition. By the Rev. A. E. Oldroyd, M.A. Price One Shilling. The Chureh Defence Handy Volume, containing the Leaflets of the Institution, together with Papers, Speeches, and Statistics by Bishops, Eminent Statesmen, Members of Parliament, and others. Eighth Edition. The Smaller Handy Volume, containing a careful selection of Leaflets. Price Sixpence. The National Church. Published on the first of every month. Price One Penny. 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