Page images
PDF
EPUB

energy reäppears in his wanderings and persecu- as I have done, wandering up and down our cold tions. We find him called a Cradoc* and a and barren country, than if I had been made an round-head, and often bespattered with eggs and archbishop. It was no choice of mine; it was dirt; then immured in a public-house, amidst Providence that led me to it." scores of scoffers, like Samson among the Philistines; suffering indeed here rather an excess of hospitality, from which, when its urgency abated, hecounted his deliverance as wonderful as Daniel's from the lions' den." The narrative, which we have faithfully abridged, reminds us of a doubt, which once suggested itself in reading the life of Mr. Simeon, how far personal foibles may have provoked a feeling which is often termed hostility to religion. Yet these did not prevent Peter Williams from distinguishing himself by literary labors of a more arduous kind than might have been expected from his position; and his various editions of the Bible, with a concordance and annotations, deserve to be mentioned with respect.

In the celebrated John Elias, at a somewhat later date, we find extraordinary powers of intellect, chastened by profound and childlike humility. We know not if any character in the volumes before us leaves altogether a more pleasing impression on the mind. His teaching was as practical as it was vivid; his advice to his own children is of the most touching simplicity; his errors seem to have been chiefly things of circumstance; and he can only be called a schismatic in the same sense as Chalmers or Robert Hall. Yet this man, who calculated eclipses, who swayed multitudes by his eloquence, and who enjoyed in his country almost the influence of Chalmers in Scotland, was the child of a Welsh peasant, stinted by a churlish congregation, (Life, pp.

bigotry at which his heart revolted, (Ibid., pp. 198-201.) Though his biography, which professes to be written by an English clergyman, abounds in editorial twaddle, it betrays the working of his mind towards a purer system. Had he been nurtured in some high hall of ancient wisdom, and saved by position as well as early influence from the temptations of a sect, how different might have been his history! He died in June, 1841-Utinam noster fuisset!

We must refer to the copious and interesting 50-97,) and goaded by fiercer followers into pages of Sir T. Phillips for details of various worthies who succeeded. Mr. Charles, of Bala, seems to have been a man of liberal and cultivated mind. His suggestions led more or less directly to the establishment of that equivocal institution, the Bible Society: and, as late as the year 1811, he was prevailed upon, apparently against his better judgment, to provide for a Donatistic succession, by laying unauthorized hands upon new teachers. Up to this time, the proper Methodists, who must be distinguished from Independents or Dissenters, (these two latter words being used in Wales as synonyms,) had felt great scruples as to the propriety of receiving the sacraments except from clergymen who had been regularly ordained. Some personal neglect or disappointment seems to have been originally considered by Charles as a providential call to preach the Gospel in his own fashion; and those who judge human nature wisely will not withhold a certain amount of sympathy from such mingled motives. In a coarser character, as we see in the sad histories of Goronwy Owen, and Evan Evans, (commonly known as Evan Brydydd bir, Anglicè The Tall Poet,f) both clergymen, and both ill-fated bards, the same disappointment might have led to sottishness and degradation. Being turned out of three churches in this country," said Charles, "without the prospect of another, what shall I do?" Yet later in life he could say, "I might have been preferred in the church; it has been repeatedly offered me; but I really would rather have spent the last twenty-three years of my life,

66

We have no ambition to usurp the province of the future Weale. He will assign a prominent place in his gallery to Jones of Llangán, and still more so to the Baptist Christmas Evans,* who mingled, not unlike a Capuchin friar, broad humor with pathos. He will also tell how the harvest of Methodism was free from Arminian tares until the close of the century; how Wesleyanism was then introduced, and attracted many proselytes, though its congregations have never been so numerous as those of the Calvinistsstill called by way of emphasis, and not in any offensive sense, Methodists—whose doctrines were either more homespun, or at least more congenial to the Welsh mind.

It may be asserted, generally, of the class of men of whom we have presented our readers with some fair samples, that they conceived themselves to be fighting the battle of divine truth. Neither were they so contemptible in intellect or knowledge as they have sometimes been supposed. Perhaps, also, in some questionable matters, they were as much sinned against as sinning. Those who share our own conviction, that any shred of Christianity

*Cradoc was one of the earliest Puritan preachers in Wales, and the name was afterwards applied opprobriously to the first Methodists.

+ It is customary with Welsh bards to assume a byname, either from the place of their nativity or from some personal peculiarity. This Evans was of very remarkable stature. He may be known to our English readers as a literary correspondent of Bishop Percy's, and as the editor of some fair specimens of Bardic remains. He also published sermons, with a preface of advice to the bishops of the Welsh sees, telling them that they were "the abominations, witchcrafts and sorceries of a whore."

* We are not sure whether it was Christmas Evans, or John Elias, who, at a Bible meeting to which Lord Anglesey had been seduced as president, painted in choice Welsh, with a proper portion of the "serus in cœlum redeas," a scene in which admission was asked for his lordship into heaven. To the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and the Commander of the Cavalry at Waterloo, the answer was, "Not known here ;" and so on, in diverse dignities; but when introduced as President of the Bible Society, the reply became, "That is written here; let him coine in."

we were surprised to find essays on the "Horæ Paulina," on the philosophy of Coleridge and of Plato, not to mention interminable discussions of Oxford divinity and other lighter subjects. It would have given us sincere pleasure to have added that the knowledge of the writers had taught them any degree of charity. This influx of fresh thought is even expanding the language; which is evidently growing and enriched daily by the formation of self-evolved words, especially such as denote abstraction and generalization. This is a circumstance which we would recommend, in passing, to the attention of the parochial clergy.

is precious, will pardon for its sake some accompaniment of evil. How far the human corrupted the divine, and earthly passion assumed the language of heaven; whether even the pure ideal of Methodism is not founded on such an exaggeration of some true portions of religion as practically to distort them; and whether its distinctive characteristics are not morbid, while its life, so far as it lives, depends only upon what it enjoys in common with the Church, are questions on which we had rather furnish our readers with the materials for judging than ourselves presume to decide. But whatever may be the nature of its influence upon the Welsh, there can be no doubt of its extent. Nor, again, have such influences been without The two societies, which are termed in Wales effect in modifying the character of the people. Methodists and Wesleyans, and which correspond A certain democratic and litigious tone has been nearly to the followers of Whitfield and Wesley given to the middle and lower classes. Strength in England, number about twelve hundred congre- of purpose is the usual inheritance of Puritanism. gations between them. Their declared members, The modern Welshman neither excels in reverwith those of other sects which may now unhap- ence, nor sins by listlessness; but displays rather pily be grouped with them as dissenters, constitute a marked energy and hardihood of perseverance, an eighth, and their ordinary attendants amount to with some tendency to be disputatious and pragat least a fourth, of the entire population. When matical. The harsher features, however, of the the prosperous farmer or his thrifty servant would latter element are softened by a warmth of affecsecure his savings, he invests his fortune, not in tion which seems natural to the people; and, notrailway shares, but in part ownership of a meeting-withstanding some allegations now before us, that house; so that interest as well as conscience directs the habit of dwelling upon privilege rather than him to support this new establishment, which has duty is unfavorable to a high moral tone, we are already its traditions. Nor do these figures ade-inclined to believe that, in transactions between quately represent their influence, since the temper man and man, the conduct of the Welsh is still of the conventicle often creeps into higher places, stamped in general by firmness and fidelity. It and is sedulously represented as the only true requires a long time to break down a national inProtestantism. Opinions generally of this stamp stinct of honesty, and although the principal fault seem to be stereotyped in the country. Among of the lower classes may be a proneness to overthe machinery by which the popular mind is taken value devotional excitement and formal scripturalhold of, a prominent place must be assigned to the ism, yet a certain corrective influence from the Sunday schools, which are worked with a lauda-church may prevent these temptations from doing ble diligence, by which, however, Sunday becomes their extreme work. a day of toil. Hence, at least, the indigenous mind is formed upon a certain interpretation of the Bible. If this peculiar wisdom is not always justified of her children, she still teaches them some wholesome lessons. An extraordinary impulse has been given to a purely native school of thought and literature. Not only numerous editions of the Bible, concordances, hymn-books, and tracts of a missionary nature, but songs, newspapers, magazines, and treatises on popular topics, such a geography and agriculture, stream yearly from the Welsh press. How far sedition contributes a certain garnish we are not now inquiring. Those who imagine the Welsh intellect asleep, or the language inoperative as a medium of instruction, have still to read a chapter in contemporary history. The very book, " Drych yr Amseroedd," from which we have quoted, and others of the same kind, such as "Hanes y Bedyddwyr," (History of the Baptists,) though not free from a certain mythical* air, are highly calculated to take hold of the popular imagination. Josephus seems to be a favorite author. On opening the "Traethodydd," (Tractarian,) a magazine of some merit,

66

But the effects of Methodism in Wales were destined to be modified by other agencies, which we need not apologize for saying little of in this place as they have already been discussed at some length in our Journal. (Q. R., vol. lxx.) The task of those religious teachers who moulded a primitive race of shepherds and farmers, with many predisposing influences in their favor, had been comparatively easy. But, between 1740 and 1788, the iron-trade of Great Britain quadrupled itself, and within almost the first century of the Methodistic hegira, or by the year 1847, the same trade had increased its Welsh exports alone from nineteen hundred tons to upwards of five hundred thousand; the entire mineral exports of South Wales alone in that year amounting in value to considerably more than seven millions sterling.* It is obvious that the immediate effects of such growth was to open new markets for agricultural produce, and by creating new wants, as well as the means of supplying them, it gave an enormous stimulus to the general progress of those parts of the country which it might seem less immediately

*We use the word mythical, in its proper historical sense, to denote unconscious shaping of the imagination.

For the whole of these figures, and part of the subsequent picture, we rely upon Sir Thomas Phillips, p. 44 et seq.

to affect. But if these advantages were not purchased at too high a price, they were at least attended by serious drawbacks in a moral point of view. What sort of population grew up in consequence of that trade may be seen vividly described in various Reports of Commissions upon Mines and Collieries, as well as that upon the State of Education in Wales. Sir Thomas Phillips protests aganist the description given in the last as over-colored; and Mr. Tremenheere points out several distinctions in favor of the Welsh mining districts, as compared with some others in the kingdom. The state of their houses and their personal habits, he tells us, show greater cleanliness, and their observance of Sunday is more orderly, while their dissipation lies in the use of beer rather than of ardent spirits. Yet, speaking generally, those fields of iron and soot, which have become workshops of Mammon, differ only in detail or degree. Il trained by parent, seldom warned by priest, and little cared for by employer, yet enjoying wages which place sensual gratification within reach of an unspiritualized nature, these men are found precisely in that state most calculated to break down the moral being and to throw back humanity into barbarism. If such elements of corruption had been insufficient, the constant migration into the coal and iron districts of shoals of the least settled characters from all parts of the country would supply any lack of evil. Out of 130,000 persons in the mining portions of Glamorgan and Monmouthshire, nearly 60,000 are not natives of either county. The native Cymry protest with reason against any estimate of the national character which may be formed upon inference from such an heterogeneous population. Yet there the mass of evil and danger exists. The atmosphere is one of smoke and the district of crime—| "the people are savage in manner, and mimic the repulsive rudeness of those in authority over them. The public opinion which pervades such masses is formed neither by the press nor the pulpit; but by the laugh of the dissolute, mingled with the pining of occasional want, and the ravenousness of criminals scarce escaped from the law. This is the way we cherish the image of God. Yet one book of a higher kind is the subject of lectures amid the colliers in the neighborhood of Newport, as well as among the students of the University of Cambridge. Sir Thomas Phillips heard, in 1839, the theory of property laid down in Paley's "Moral Philosophy," inculcated by men of rude eloquence upon their hearers, with applications and inferences little contemplated by the Archdeacon of Carlisle. The keen logic of uneasy toil is somewhat different from that of literary leisure. Thus, as the Roman empire saw hordes of barbarians lowering over its luxurious decay, Great Britain cherishes in her own territory intestine vultures already flocking to the carcass of order and civilization. Unfortunately it has happened that the districts, where these elements of trouble have most largely developed themselves, are precisely those where the church * Part II. of "Education Report."

is in a great measure crippled, not so much by natural poverty, as by the sacrilege of her nominal friends. A melancholy list of rich impropriations and poor vicarages, with churches ruined and schools neglected, in parishes of formidable extent, belongs to the statistics alike of the sees of Llandaff and St. David. The archdeacon of the former see asserts in his charge, that at Merthyr Tydvil there is church-room for about a tenth, and at Aberdare for not quite a thirtieth of the resident population. Nor is the mere building of a stray church in the moral wilderness an adequate remedy. It is men, said the wise Greek, who make the city. Where the great mass of the popular zeal has been directed into a different channel, and churches have no tolerable endowment either to repay a learned education or to counterbalance the stirring temptations of life in more favored scenes, how shall we find the Griffith Jones, or the Joseph Milner, to stand between ignorance and crime and to stay the plague? Even in North Wales, where the church has been less despoiled of her revenues, the modern cradles of mineral and manufacturing wealth present similar phenomena. Yet the quarrymen of Merioneth and Carnarvonshire are comparatively a respectable set of men ; not, indeed, churchmen, and not highly enlightened, but generally Christian and intelligent, with many of the comforts which depend upon high wages, and not only reading, but in some cases contributing to a literature of their own. The quarries, in which they work, certainly rank among the wonders of the kingdom, and may fairly divide with the Britannia tube the attention of the tourist. The accounts which we have heard given of the men's habits by the teachers, in whom they place most confidence, show room for improvement; but are far from inspiring us with the same uneasiness as the state of corresponding districts in South Wales.

It is here, then, that our Welsh friends experience the difficulties of Dissent. Here was a fair field for the spiritual descendants of Daniel Rowlands to justify their principles by their results. A single street in Bryn Mawr, or Merthyr Tydvil, with a row of happy and orderly homes, would have been a more important trophy than records of the most glowing emotion kindled by transient eloquence, or the most confident explanation either of the mysterious being or the unsearchable counsels of the Most High. We should even have considered it a better test of religion than chapels freed from debt or the parade of teetotal processions. It cannot, indeed, be alleged that the persons alluded to have not made some such attempts as we suggest their square meeting-houses with conventicular-headed windows, and some text of Scripture presumptuously applied, rise by the side of the tall chimney and at the mouth of the mountain coal-pit. Considerable merit should be allowed to their Sunday schools, which, though imperfect in their teaching and deficient in mental and spiritual exercise, have doubtless in many localities proved to a certain extent useful in communicating religious

[ocr errors]

truth is, probably, not that the professors of Methodism in the Principality are much worse than other men; but that they profess to be much better and are not. Some allowance must be made for the inherent defects of their system, and possibly also some for a natural enthusiasm in the Cimbric temperament. To lay much stress upon the last consideration would require a stronger belief than we profess in the very doubtful generalizations of ethnology; yet it was wisely said by Mahomet, "If it had pleased God to make all men alike, he could have done so; but as it is, he has made them different."

instruction. They are thronged by large numbers, is too universal among mankind to be the one both of children and adults, who are formed into sufficient reason for inferring hypocrisy. The classes, and entrusted to teachers the most distinguished for zeal and ability. Nor do these form the most attractive part of their exhibition. The preacher, generally wrapt in an ample cloak, and riding on a small pony, may be seen, as he approaches, attended by swart admirers, who nevertheless require the occasional stimulus of "a gifted man" from a distance. We will not disparage his eloquence; it commences low and affects argument, then rises in a sort of climax or peculiar gamut to the highest notes of his voice. We have thus an ingenious blending of the synagogue with the theatre. All are on tiptoe to catch a glimpse of some favorite orator. The When the commissioners appointed to inquire same multitude, who either would not enter into the state of education went down into the church, or were utterly uninterested by the service Principality, they appear to have given too easy as they generally find it performed, here sing and credence to the representations made in a spirit of groan in vehement chorus. Roused to emotion mutual antagonism. The dissenter thought the rather than patient of discipline, and stimulated church heathenish or popish, and the churchman by assurance of election rather than urged to thought the dissenter vicious: the ill-employed work out their salvation, as well as enjoying barrister imagined that a people who contribute occasional insinuations against whatever is estab- so little to the maintenance of criminal lawyers lished in church or state, they hum a sort of grim must have some latent vice to account for such a applause, and go forth, in too many cases, to work peculiarity; while the lover of English undefiled some pleasant sin. Thus they tread "paths to was unable to conceive of a people speaking a differheaven," which, there is some reason to fear, ent language, as having any expression of intellect may possibly lead to a different terminus. We or medium of instruction, the verdict of the comare, indeed, very far from saying that such a missioners would certainly have had more weight worship interposes no check to evil, or that check-perhaps it might have been a different findingan adequate one. John Elias may have left among his successors many as good subjects as he was himself; but would the favorite Boanerges of any chapel in South Wales have dared to denounce Chartism? Would not his stipend be in danger, if, by an inopportune question from We are not about to lend any countenance to St. James, he were to run counter to the tradition the ridiculous supposition that gentlemen of the of his sect? May not the character of the most rank and character of these commissioners would popular preaching be inferred from a complaint, have condescended to anything like intentional which we find in page 56 of Drych yr Amseroedd, misrepresentation. Yet, unfortunately, there does that the old heathens of the church, before the appear a certain coloring in the Report, which time of Daniel Rowlands, used to say as they has not suited the peculiar vision of any among plodded homeward, "That was a good sermon the parties who are delineated. We are inclined to-day, if we could but practise half of it?" to attribute some features, which savor of exagDoes the saying imply such utterly legal blind-geration, to causes above suggested, and some to a ness as the author quoting it imagines-or might it not be profitably repeated by our modern revivers of the Evangile ?

However deplorable immorality may be elsewhere, it assumes a more offensive aspect when found in combination with high spiritual pretensions. It can scarcely, therefore, be matter for surprise, that persons who contrast all that they hear professed with all that they find practised in the Principality, should sometimes indulge in denunciations of too sweeping a cast. Descriptions, which would be strongly worded of the worst districts, have been made to comprehend the whole country. Charges have been brought forward of a harsher character than we care to repeat. We do not subscribe to them. It seems to be forgotten that some amount of inconsistency "Life of Elias," p. 148.

if they had themselves been able to converse in their own tongue with the men and children whom they examined. John Styles, at least, would cut a bad figure, if examined in French, even after a year's schooling at Stratford-le-Bow.

The

preconception that they were to find a certain
state of things, which accordingly they found.†
The latter influence perhaps operates generally on
compilers of blue-books; and, if it were other-
wise, the whig system of multiplying commis-
sions would come to an untimely end.
result, at least in the present case, is not abso-
lutely satisfactory. The commissioners scem to
have relied too much upon hearsay, a species of
evidence which they could themselves only glean
from that section of the population which is
familiar with English. In our own opinion,
* Sir T. Phillips, p. 77.

The instruction given them, to look out in Wales for pagan influences, seems an instance of foregone conclusions of a curious kind.

In Cardiganshire, the stronghold probably of the Welsh language, we find that only 3000 persons out of 68,766 speak English. We have no such precise data before us as to the rest of Wales.

men to give evidence in broken English, without feeling the hardship and possible injustice; of which they would be acutely sensible if in a foreign land, they were themselves compelled to give evidence on oath in a foreign tongue, which they might understand well, yet speak imperfectly. -Sir T. Phillips, pp. 78, 79.

which is formed upon some comparison of various evidence; but this is not found to occur more fresources of information, their report is about as quently in Wales than at assizes in English councorrect a picture of the Principality as one of ties. Again, witnesses who have an imperfect England would be, compiled by a French writer knowledge of English, and who therefore desire on statistics, from speeches of Mr. Cobden on the pected, without reason, of feigning inability to to give evidence in their native tongue, are susaristocracy, and descriptions of our manufacturers speak English in order to gain time to pervert the by Mr. Ferrand. Both would be founded on truth. Judges have been known to compel such facts; but on facts so dressed that their most intimate friends no longer recognize them. One thing is certain; if the Arabian Nights had been bound in blue paper, and transmitted into Wales as a faithful description of the people, they would hardly have excited more general astonishment. A host of scribes and orators rushed forward to the rescue. Of the publications which appeared Upon the delicate subject of chastity we must on the occasion the most amusing was by the refer to the abundant illustration furnished by the Dean of Bangor, the cleverest by a writer calling book before us. We are not compiling a bluehimself Artegall, and far the most important by book. It does, however, appear, if any reliance Sir Thomas Phillips. This gentleman, who is can be placed on figures in such matters, that the not more known by his gallant and successful Cambrian fair have been unduly aspersed, and resistance to a dangerous outbreak in 1839 than by his active exertions in the cause of education, has taken the opportunity of publishing a volume, which is a perfect encyclopædia of trustworthy information on all subjects connected with the religious and educational state of his country. His book is more valuable, though his case is less striking, because he evidently conceals nothing, and often rises from the zeal of an advocate to the impartiality of a judge. It would, indeed, be easy for the gentleman, whom in one or two chapters of his work he assails, to justify, by quotations from his pages, a considerable portion of the details, though certainly not the breadth of statement or general spirit which mark their Report.

There are two points on which Sir Thomas appears to us eminently successful, and his success depends upon a simple appeal to authentic figures. He goes largely into the sad statistics of perjury and violent crime, taking care to distinguish the two mining counties of Glamorgan and Monmouth. In these two we find more criminal convictions than in the eleven remaining counties of Wales; while in the whole of Wales we still find the ratio of crime to population not quite half that of England, and in the eleven more primitive counties it is less than one third. On the other hand, the number of persons convicted in Wales is about eight per cent. less in proportion to those committed for trial than is the case in England; and various considerations, of which the most important is the probability of error arising from two languages, are adduced to show that this result is not caused by perjury, or unwillingness to convict :

deserve a verdict of at least comparative acquittal
from the charges which in more places than one
have been alleged against their pure fame. The
education commissioners certainly owe them an
apology; and to have erred as they apparently
did err, in a matter of such importance, may jus-
tify stronger censure than we have thought it
necessary to repeat. On the other hand, we hesi-
tate to allow, what seems implied by Sir Thomas,
(P. 68,) that the use of the English language in
Radnorshire has produced in that county a pecu-
liar aptness to tender frailty: nor perhaps is the
ratio of crime to mere population a complete test
of morality, unless we also know its ratio as
regards property. In wealthy and commercial
countries there is more temptation to fraud and
theft than in those stages of society which are
less removed from the pastoral. Still it is by
tests of this kind, which are reducible to figures,
rather than by hearsay gossip, that the character
of a people must after all be practically deter-

mined.

We

Those portions of the work, so creditable on the whole to Sir Thomas Phillips, which suggest various remedies for existing evils, deserve serious consideration from all persons to whom duty or affection make the welfare of the Principality a matter of interest-for, after all deductions from exaggerated statement, and all reasonable concession to sensitive patriotism, it must be allowed that many circumstances in the state of the people call for treatment of a remedial kind. admire the vigor and enabled a nation of peasantry (for the higher classes may here be set aside) to develop a hierarchy and literature of their own. Yet may not such a display have been purchased by the sacrifice of a sounder system, and of blessings more likely to be permanent? The sword by which the Prince of Peace would sever his church from the world, was never meant to set asunder high and low: even if the organization of voluntaryism more effective among its adherents than * Sir T. Phillips, pp. 67, 6

Jurors may not understand the speeches of the counsel, or the charge of the judge; and therefore it is peculiarly unfair to impute to them corruption and a forgetfulness of their oath, whenever they may give an erroneous verdict. It might, indeed, be expected that, under such circumstances, increasing the proverbial uncertainty of jury-trials, verdicts would often be given against the weight of

character which have

were

68.

« PreviousContinue »