chaplain, but by several other clergymen of the diocese, and their competency to perform all their duties in the language of the country ascertained and

attested.

I am not aware that it will be in my power to make any further communication to the commissioners on this subject.

No. 3.

(Signed)

Letter from the Bishop of St. David's to the same.

C. BANGOR.

21st February, 1837.

I beg to acknowledge the receipt, on Tuesday last, of your letter of the 8th instant, drawing my attention to the 11th section of the act 6 and 7 W. 4, c. 77, &c., and requesting me to favour the commissioners with such information and advice as may best assist them in carrying into effect the provision of the said section, relative to the appointment of clergymen to Welsh benefices with cure of souls, so far as it applies to the diocese of St. David's. I should have returned an earlier answer to your communication, but I have been confined for some days to my room by a severe cold, and prevented from attending to any business.

With respect to the subject of your letter, the best advice I can offer the Commissioners is, that they should procure the repeal of the above clause in the said act, and leave the matter just where it was left by a private act made in the 5th of Elizabeth, intituled "An Act for the translating of the Bible and the divine service into the Welsh tongue," and by the 27th section of 13 and 14 C. 2, c. 4. by both of which it is enacted, "that from and after the imprinting and publishing of the said book so translated" (viz. the Book of Common Prayer)"the whole divine service shall be used and said by the ministers and curates throughout all Wales within the said dioceses, where the Welsh tongue is commonly used, in the British or Welsh tongue." As these acts are still unrepealed, and the whole divine service cannot be used or said in the British or Welsh tongue by any minister not fully conversant with it, they appear to me to be quite sufficient to authorize and to render it imperative on the ordinary to refuse institution or a licence to any clergyman presented or nominated to any benefice with cure of souls in Wales in any parish in which it is necessary that divine service should be performed in the Welsh tongue, if such clergyman is not able to speak Welsh. I cannot, therefore, see the necessity of any interference on the part either of the legislature or of the Commissioners.

The 11th section of the act 6 and 7 W. 4, c. 77, prohibits "the appointment of any clergyman not fully conversant with the Welsh language to any benefice with cure of souls in Wales, in any parish the majority of the inhabitants of which do not understand the English language." So that in a parish containing 500 inhabitants, if 251 understand the English language, I may institute or license to that benefice a clergyman who knows not one word of Welsh, and totally disregard the 249 inhabitants who are ignorant of every language but the Welsh, who would consequently be deprived of all possibility of hearing divine service performed in their parish church in the only language they understand, or of receiving any religious instruction from their minister, and would therefore be reduced to the necessity of either becoming dissenters, or having no religion at all. And this is by way of correcting an evil which, if did exist, it could only tend to increase, but which, so far as the diocese of St. David's is concerned, I do not hesitate to affirm has no existence, except in one or two instances, in which the incumbents reside on preferment they hold in England, and were instituted to their benefices in Wales between forty and fifty years ago. By no possible accident do I ever grant institution or a licence to a benefice with cure of souls to any clergyman not fully conversant with the Welsh language, in any parish of which not merely the majority but even a very small proportion of the inhabitants do not understand the English language.

There are three commissioners, who are clergymen selected for their perfect knowledge of the language, before whom every clergyman, of whose intimate acquaintance with the Welsh language there can be the least doubt, presents himself for examination in that language previously to his being instituted or licensed to a Welsh benefice; and neither institution or licence is ever granted until he brings, together with his other papers, a certificate signed by two at least of these commissioners, and of which the following is the form: "We, the undersigned commissioners appointed by your lordship, do hereby certify that we have examined the Rev. in reading, composition, and conversation, in the Welsh language, and that we consider him perfectly competent to perform all the duties of a Welsh parish. As witness our hands, this

day of

The commissioners are by my express desire very particular in ascertaining a clergyman's ability to converse in the language, because a person beginning to learn Welsh late in life may acquire a sufficient knowledge of it to be able to read and compose in it with correctness, without being able to converse in it, or even to make himself understood by the natives. I have in several instances refused institution to clergymen applying for it because they were not fully conversant with the Welsh language; and yet, in only one of these instances could it be said that the majority of the inhabitants did not understand English; on the contrary, in most of them a very great majority of the inhabitants were well acquainted with the English language. Take for instance the parish of Laugharne in Carmarthenshire, a very extensive parish, containing, with Llansadwrnen which is united with it, 2,254 inhabitants, of which, I believe, I may say, that nine-tenths at least understand the English language, which in the town of Laugharne is spoken almost exclusively; and so generally is the English language understood in the parish that in the church at Laugharne divine service is not performed in Welsh above once or at the outside twice in the whole year. At Llandsadwrnen it is performed in Welsh more frequently, though even there the English language prevails to a considerable extent; yet, before I institute a clergyman to the vicarage of Laugharne, and I have instituted two to it since I have been Bishop of St. David's, I always require, as my predecessors have done before me, that he should be fully conversant with the Welsh language, and great dissatisfaction would be the consequence if I dispensed with that qualification. Take also another instance, namely, Lampeter Velfrey in Pembrokeshire, containing, according to the last parliamentary returns, 984 inhabitants, of whom three-fourths at least understand the English language; yet when the living was vacant about six or seven years ago, and a clergyman was presented to it who knew nothing of Welsh, I refused to institute him until he had made himself master of the language, although a petition was presented to me from several of the parishioners stating that the English language was so generally understood in the parish that a knowledge of the Welsh language was not necessary, and urging me to grant him institution without requiring him to learn it. I was perfectly satisfied, however, from information which I had received from very competent judges, who resided in the neighbourhood, as well as from what I had been told by the preceding incumbent, whose death occasioned the vacancy, that the duties of the parish could not be properly discharged by any person not fully conversant with the Welsh language.

The parish of St. Peter in Carmarthen contains at least 10,000 inhabitants; of these, perhaps 6,000, or between 5,000 and 6,000, understand English, although many of that number may prefer the Welsh language; are the remaining 4,000 or 4,500, who are entirely ignorant of it, to be abandoned to the dissenters, or to be left destitute of all religious instruction? One of these consequences must inevitably follow if the provision in section 11 of the act 6 and 7 W. 4, c. 77, be carried into effect. It is needless to multiply instances, though I could adduce many others similar to those I have already mentioned. I think I have said enough to shew that such a provision is not only unne

cessary but liable to insuperable objections. Instead of imposing any adequate restriction on the Welsh bishops in regard to the instituting or licensing of clergymen to Welsh benefices with cure of souls, the effect would be directly the reverse; it would untie my hands, give a much greater latitude than has existed since the act made in the 5th Elizabeth, to which I have already alluded, and create, to an enormous extent, the very evil which it aims at preventing. If in all those cases in which a majority of the inhabitants of any parish in Wales understand the English language a knowledge of the Welsh language is to be dispensed with,-if the majority are to be the only object of solicitude, and no provision is to be made for the spiritual wants of the minority, often a very considerable minority,-if this is in future to be the rule by which I am to be guided, incalculable mischief must ensue. What, in such a case is to become of that portion of the inhabitants of such parishes who do not understand the English language? Are they to be left destitute of religious instruction,-to be deprived of all opportunity of ever hearing divine service performed in their parish church,-and to be driven to the dissenters, as their only refuge from a state of heathenism? Under the operation of such a rule this must certainly be the case of a very large proportion of the inhabitants of the diocese of St. David's. It has not unfrequently been stated, both in and out of Parliament, that owing to neglect or partiality on the part of the Welsh bishops, clergymen are appointed to benefices with cure of souls in Wales the duties of which they are unable to discharge in consequence of their not being sufficiently conversant with the Welsh language. So far as the diocese of St. David's is concerned, there never was a statement more entirely destitute of truth.

Before I conclude, I must beg leave to suggest to the Commissioners, that they would do well to leave the management of the different dioceses where it certainly ought to be left, to their respective bishops. I am so convinced of the importance of the rule which I have hitherto observed in regard to instituting or licensing clergymen to benefices with cure of souls in Wales, in parishes a portion of the inhabitants of which do not understand the English language, that it is my intention to adhere to it. I do, however, certainly think it would be most conducive to the interest of the church in Wales, and to the welfare of the inhabitants, if some means could be devised of inducing patrons to present only natives to those benefices with cure of souls in Wales which require a knowledge of the Welsh language, because it is very difficult indeed, and certainly not a circumstance of common occurrence, for an Englishman who begins to learn it late in life to make himself as completely master of it as a native for colloquial purposes, so as to enable him to converse familiarly with that portion, inconsiderable though it may be in point of numbers, of his parishioners who do not understand the English language, which is always the lower and leastinstructed class, without which it is impossible for him to administer to their spiritual wants. In such parishes there is a very strong prejudice against having an Englishman for their minister. If in reading the service his pronunciation is foreign, which is too commonly the case, it excites ridicule in the congregation, and lowers their estimation of their minister. And if he cannot converse familiarly with them, however exemplary he may be in his endeavours to do his duty, he never can gain their affection and confidence, nor overcome their prejudice against him; and this he will find an insurmountable obstacle to his being essentially useful to them. They who have the dispensing of the crown patronage in Wales, which in the diocese of St. David's is pretty considerable, may at least adopt the rule I have recommended, to which sufficient regard has not been paid heretofore. In saying this I do not mean to allude to any particular government. The individuals to whom, by their office, the right of dispensing that patronage has appertained, have probably not been aware of the local circumstances of the diocese, nor consequently of the very great importance of doing everything in their power to promote the strict and VOL. XII.-Nov. 1837. 4 E

uniform observance of a rule so indispensably necessary for the effective discharge of the pastoral duties in all those parts of the diocese in which the Welsh language even partially prevails. If the Commissioners can effect the establishment of the rule I have suggested in regard to the presentation of clergymen to Welsh benefices, their interference will be of some use; otherwise they had much better leave the matter where it was before the act 6 and 7 W. 4, c. 77, was passed.

But when I speak of natives, I do not mean natives of the whole principality, but of those parts of it in which the Welsh language is commonly used and spoken. For in many parts of it-in full half of Pembrokeshire for instance, in the whole of Radnorshire, with the exception of two parishes, in the two parishes in Montgomeryshire which are in my diocese, namely, Mocktre and Kerry, and in the whole deanery of Gower in Glamorganshire, not one word of Welsh is either spoken or understood, and a person might be a native of those parts, and know no more of Welsh than an Englishman who had never set his foot on the principality. In Pembrokeshire there is so little connexion between the English and the Welsh parts of the county that they very rarely intermarry. And by the expression of Welsh benefices or Welsh livings, which I have sometimes used in this letter, I do not mean all benefices situate in the principality, but those only for the due discharge of the duties of which a thorough knowledge of the Welsh language is necessary, in consequence of a portion of the inhabitants of the parish not understanding the English language. (Signed) J. B. ST. DAVID'S.

No. 4.

Letter from the Bishop of Llandaff to the same.

13th February, 1837.

I am unable to suggest any better expedient for preventing the appointment of clergymen not fully conversant with the Welsh language to such benefices, than that which has been constantly employed, and employed with effect, in my own diocese, ever since I have been Bishop of Llandaff, and, as I believe, many years before, namely, an examination by the bishop's chaplain, and a report from him that the clergyman is duly qualified in that respect previous to his institution.

Whenever the slightest doubt exists, this precaution is invariably taken, and I beg leave to add, that it is extended far beyond the cases mentioned in the act, which are in fact very rare in my diocese; and that, although it is impossible to draw an exact line, since the two languages are used together in proportions of infinite variety, and those proportions continually changing, yet I should never think of instituting a clergyman unacquainted with Welsh to a benefice in which a sixth part of the parishioners, or even a less proportion than that, did not understand the English language.

(Signed)

E. LLANDAFF.

INCORPORATED SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING THE ENLARGEMENT, BUILDING AND REPAIRING OF CHURCHES AND CHAPELS.

THE meetings of this society were resumed on Monday, the 16th October. Present-The Lord Bishop of London, in the Chair; Revs. Archdeacon Cambridge, T. Bowdler, and H. H. Norris, H. J. Barchard, George Bramwell, J. S. Salt, Benjamin Harrison, N. Connop, Junr., Esqrs., &c.

Among other business transacted, grants were voted towards building a gallery in the church at Royston, Herts; increasing the accommodation in the church at Farnborough, near Bagshot; building a chapel at Bridgwater,

Somerset; building a church at Kimberworth, Yorkshire; increasing the accommodation in the church at Greasley, Nottingham; building a chapel at Countess Weir, in the parish of Topsham, Devon; building a chapel at Bartley Green, in the parish of Northfield, Worcester; enlarging, by rebuilding, the chapel at Turton, Lancashire; building a chapel at Llandyssil, Cardiganshire.

CHURCH, MATTERS.

CONVOCATION.

THE time for holding convocation is now drawing very near, and it would seem, from some indications, that there is a disposition to make some attempt, or rather, to express some wish publicly, that " it may regain its ancient powers." They who have looked into the matter are aware how complicated the subject is; and, under these circumstances, any information may probably be acceptable. It is with this feeling that the writer has now sent to the press an abstract of Archbishop Wake's work. It was made solely for his own use, and as time does not allow its being put into better order, he hopes that this statement will gain indulgence for it. If the archbishop is correct in his views, it would seem that although convocation latterly had gained, by a sort of usurpation, the habit of interfering in ecclesiastical matters, as we find especially after the Reformation, (on which are founded the strong terms used in the Declaration at the end of the Articles,) it had no such rights by its constitution, and never ought to have had them, for they properly belonged to provincial councils. It may therefore perhaps be well to consider whether, on the one hand, in petitioning for the ancient rights of convocation, (i. e., of taxing themselves, which was the real and perhaps only business of convocation,) clergy would answer their own purpose; and whether, on the other, the asking for a renewal of rights not inherent in the body, nor ever formally granted to it, (unless the Declaration in question be such a grant,) is not an awkward step to take. It would seem to the writer, that if the clergy at large are really desirous of a church assembly, (a point by no means clear,) this would be the least probable method of attaining their wishes.

CONVOCATION, ETC.

There is dreadful confusion as to this matter, arising from there having been so many kinds of clergy meetings, and frequently the same persons being summoned by double writs, and serving in both capacities.

If Archbishop Wake is right, the matter was thus: There were four kinds of meetings of clergy

I. PARLIAMENTARY CONVOCATION.

When parliament is summoned, every bishop has a writ of summons for himself (which is the origin of his seat in the House of