1.--"The Church in Wales," a Paper read at the Church Congress, Manchester.

2.--"A Charge at the Primary Visitation," 1890.

3.--"Common Sense Patriotism," 1894.

4.--"The Truth about the Church in Wales," 1889.

5.--"Clerical Discipline," 1886.

6.--Facts and Figures about Church and Dissent in Wales," 1888.

"The people here know as much about India and Hindustani as they do about Wales and Welsh," was the answer given to me by the Vicar of a great English town whom I had just asked on our way to a Church Defence meeting, what points he wished me to refer to in reference to the Church in Wales. Certainly, information about Wales, and the Church in Wales, is needed at the present time. In the following pages I have endeavoured to give some facts bearing upon the Church question in Wales, I give my authority for the facts quoted. I, myself, believe that the best defence of the Church in Wales is, that the English public should know the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth upon this subject. I trust that fair-minded opponents also will welcome accurate information about the work of the Church in Wales.

It will be useful to recall at the outset the discussions in Parliament in reference to the Welsh Church question. The first formal resolution in favour of Welsh Disestablishment was moved in the House of Commons on May 24, 1870, by Mr. Watkin Williams, afterwards Mr. Justice Watkin Williams. That resolution ran thus:

(1.) "That in the opinion of this House it is right that the Establishment of the Church and its Union with the State should cease to exist in the said dominion and principality."

(2.) "That it is just and expedient that the public endowments enjoyed by the Church Establishment should after making provision for all vested interests be applied, to the support of a national and undenominational system of education for the said dominion and principality of Wales."

In moving his resolution, Mr. Watkin Williams stated that "the total revenue of this Church is £350,000 per annum." This, I need hardly point out, is a gross exaggeration. The not clerical income at the present time of the Church in Wales is less than £200,000* [*See Appendix 1.] a year. Mr. Watkin Williams estimated the population at 1,220,000, and of that number he gave the Church 203,333 and Nonconformity 1,016,660; and he also gave Mr. Henry Richard's estimate. Mr. Henry Richard computed Churchmen to be 135,555 and Nonconformists 1,084,444. If either of these estimates [5/6] were correct, it is clear that Nonconformity in Wales has declined since 1870 from 89 per cent. to 47 per cent. of the population, which is the present proportion as shown in the official Year Books of the Welsh Nonconformists quoted in Appendix A. Mr. Watkin Williams stated that "the Church Establishment in the Principality of Wales is an ancient and venerable institution. It is not like the Church in Ireland, an alien Church forced upon the people, by a conqueror and an oppressor." In the same debate Mr. (now Sir) George O. Morgan said "but there was, however, this difference between the two (Ireland and Wales) countries, that whilst Dissent in Wales was a plant of foreign growth--such a thing as a Dissenter having hardly existed there 150 years ago--in Ireland it had existed from time immemorial." (Hansard 3rd Series, Vol. CCI). Mr. Henry Richard, on the other hand, asserted some years later that "the truth is that the Church of England in Wales has been throughout its whole history an alien Church, the Church of the conqueror and invader, and that mark is branded upon it indelibly." I do not offer to reconcile these contradictions.

The next resolution in the House of Commons on the Church in Wales was moved on March 9th, 1886, by Mr. Dillwyn, and ran thus: "That as the Church of England in Wales has failed to fulfil its professed object as a means of promoting the religious interests of the Welsh people, and ministers only to a small minority of the population, its continuance as an Established Church in the Principality is an anomaly and an injustice which ought no longer to exist." Mr. Dillwyn said that "he now proposed to bring this question before the House solely on the ground of the nationality of Wales and of the Welsh Church." It will be observed that Welsh Disestablishment is here claimed because the Church is national and not alien. Mr. Dillwyn gave his estimate of the Church population as 217,000, and the [6/7] Nonconformists as 1,125,825, out of a population of 1,343,227. In this debate Sir William Harcourt made this statement: "The Church of England in Wales is so much an integral part of the Established Church of England that it is not merely difficult, but I will say; impossible, to raise the question as a separate one--I do not mean by resolution, but practically, in legislation--without involving the other. I think that this is a proposition which will commend itself to every man's mind. If you raise the question of the Church in Wales you raise the whole question."

The next resolution was moved by Mr. Dillwyn on May 14th, 1889, and was identical in terms with that moved in March, 1886. Mr. Dillwyn said: "I do not wish to go upon the religious ground at all. I wish to put this simply as a National question." In this debate a powerful speech was made by Mr. Byron Reed.

The same resolution was again moved on February 20th, 1891, by Mr. Pritchard Morgan, whose inaccuracies, as numerous as his speech was long, were pointed out by Mr. Gladstone, then Prime Minister. The greater part of Mr. Gladstone's speech was devoted to a most powerful and conclusive defence of the Church in Wales.

In 1892 the same resolution was proposed by Mr. Samuel Smith, who went to the beginning of the last century for proofs of the Church's shortcomings and to Liverpool and America for proofs of her numerical weakness. Mr. Bryce, M.P. (Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster), maintained that "the Church in Wales is the legitimate historical succession to the Church of St. David."

The debate on the introduction of the Suspensory Bill in 1893 will be fresh in the minds of all who have followed this controversy. One thing must strike those who take the trouble to read through all these various discussions in Parliament on the Welsh Church, and that is the astounding contradictions in the speeches of those [7/8] who have advocated Welsh Disestablishment. One Welsh Liberationist describes the Church as alien, another immediately proceeds to describe her as national. One describes her as the Church of England thrust upon Wales, forthwith another describes the Church in Wales "as a different and separate Church, having originated at a different time, and from a purer source than the Church of England." Not less remarkable are the estimates given of the numerical strength of the Church in Wales; of all these estimates there are not two which agree.

The estimate of Churchmen given by Liberationist Welsh Members varies from one-thirteenth to one-third of the population. Such contradictions do not imply that consistency and identity of statement which characterize a strong and honest case.

[9] CHAPTER II.

NUMBERS.

Throughout this controversy our opponents have asserted that the Church in Wales is in a hopeless minority. The relative proportion of nonconformists to Churchmen has been given as 13 to 1, 12 to 1, 10 to 1, 8 to 1, and 3 to 1. Some have avoided statistical proportions and clothed the assertion in what has now become a stereotyped phrase in the literature and oratory of Welsh Liberationists. 'The Welsh people are a nation of nonconformists,' is the usual form in which the phrase appears. Mr. Gladstone, the late Prime Minister, in his speech in the House of Commons in February, 1891, reproduced this phrase, but with a significant loop-hole for future repudiation. "It was not very far," he said, "from the truth to say, though I admit there is some element of exaggeration, but only a very limited one, that the nonconformists of Wales are the people of Wales." Does this assertion rest upon any solid basis of fact? There is reason to doubt this. The authors of this assertion have been most strenuous opponents of an official parliamentary religious census for Wales. When such a census was proposed in the House of Commons on July 22nd, 1890, Sir G. O. Morgan resisted the proposal, and made this remarkable confession: "But I am afraid those who looked at the returns are not observers of human nature, and they would at once conclude that the members of the Church of England were enormously in excess of the members of other denominations." Mr. Stuart Rendel, in support of Sir G. O. Morgan, added that "the Welsh members as a body joined in a vigorous protest against the proposal." This action on the part of the Welsh Liberationist [9/10] members tells its own tale. They used all their influence to secure the taking of a language census for Wales in 1891, because they believed that the results of the language census would help on the cause of Welsh Home Rule. I do not think it is unfair to assume that they would have welcomed a religious census for Wales quite as readily if they believed that its results would have been satisfactory to the disestablishment cause. But, however this may be, the solid fact remains that those who assert 'the hopeless minority' of the Church in Wales are entirely responsible for opposing the one method by which their assertion could be brought to the test of truth.

Welsh Liberationists delight in the machinery of an amateur census. These amateur efforts have been hardy and shameless annuals. Churchmen are prepared to accept the results of an official parliamentary religions census, but they will not accept these amateur census-returns taken in many instances by children of tender years, and in other instances wholly suppressed because they were too favourable to the Church.

Fortunately there are some materials for forming an estimate of the accuracy of this assertion about the overwhelming preponderance of nonconformity in Wales. We have the official Year Books of the Welsh nonconformist bodies, and we now have the results of the parliamentary language census for Wales. With the latter I will deal in the next chapter. The official records of the nonconformist bodies in Wales supply the Nonconformist estimates of their own strength. I have tested these figures in a large number of individual cases, and I have not found a single instance to lead me to suspect that these figures understate the numerical strength of nonconformity. In appendix A I give for every Welsh county these official nonconformist figures. In studying these figures it is important to clearly understand the terms "members" and "adherents." [10/11] In Welsh nonconformity "member" includes practically all who have been enrolled on the membership list. This enrolment is a loose but permanent tie except in cases of flagrant misconduct. The list of members practically exhausts the numerical strength of a nonconformist denomination with the single exception of the children too young for adult membership. This explains the large proportion borne by members to adherents. In Appendix A it will be seen that the total number of members claimed by the Welsh Nonconformist bodies is only 381,795. "Adherents" is explained in the appendix, It will be seen that under the term "adherents" or "hearers" every man, woman, child, and infant that can by any possibility be claimed as a nonconformist is included. Here then we have the nonconformist estimate of their own numerical strength. Here we have this nation of nonconformists publishing their own official census of their own numbers. What is the result? All the four nonconformist bodies of Wales taken together number, according to their own showing, less than 47 per cent. of the whole population!

[12] CHAPTER III.

THE LANGUAGE CENSUS.

The results of the language census for Wales have the most important bearing on the Church question for two reasons. The results of that census when compared with the amateur estimates framed in recent years of the Welsh-speaking people in Wales by Liberationist members, afford an instructive object-lesson on the value of the amateur calculations of the Welsh Liberationists. Secondly, Welsh nonconformity claims to be essentially Welsh in language, and the predominance of nonconformity is coincident in area with the predominance of the Welsh language. Given then the number of Welsh-speaking people, an estimate of a reliable character may be formed of the number of Welsh nonconformists.

In the report of the Committee to inquire into the condition of intermediate and higher Education in Wales appointed by Mr. Gladstone, and presided over by Lord Aberdare in 1881, the following very important statement is made.

"In close connexion with the subject of Welsh nationality are the existence and prevalence of the Welsh language. The question of language is, and must be for a long time to come, a very important factor in estimating the condition, both social and educational, of the people of Wales. To those who are resident in Wales the prevalence of the Welsh language is a matter of daily experience. According to calculations made after the census of 1871 by Mr. Ravenstein in his work on the Celtic-speaking population of the British Isles, out of a population of 1,426,514 in Wales and Monmouthshire no less than 1,006,100 habitually spoke Welsh. It has also been stated that of the Nonconformist bodies of Wales 686,220, or including children under 10 years of age 870,220, use the Welsh language in worship, as against 36,000 who worship in English."

Here we have the habitual speakers of Welsh estimated at 1,006,100 out of a population of 1,426,514. Others [12/13] ventured an equally high estimate of the habitual Welsh speakers. The Right Honble. A. Acland said in the House of Commons on June 29th, 1588, "he would bear out from his own experience the statement that seven-tenths of the Welsh people habitually speak Welsh in their ordinary conversation." That is to say, Mr. Acland states positively from his own experience that those who habitually speak Welsh in Wales number 1,243,483 out of a population of 1,776,405. The official census gives the number of 'monoglot' or habitual speakers of Welsh as 508,036. Mr. Acland's amateur estimate exceeds that of the official census by 735,447! Even if the habitual Welsh-speakers are added to those who speak both Welsh and English, the total is only 910,289. So that Mr. Acland has given an estimate of the habitual Welsh-speakers which is actually 333,194 in excess of the total number of those who know any Welsh at all, as proved by the official census. I stated that the monoglot Welshmen include all those who habitually speak Welsh. I will prove this. Before the census of 1891 was taken, the Society for the utilization of the Welsh Language issued an appeal in all the Welsh vernacular newspapers, who backed up the appeal with the strongest editorial articles.

In this appeal the Society made these statements.

"Is it too much to expect that every Welshman that can fill up his paper in Welsh will do so rather than in English? We demand that every public official in Wales shall be able to speak Welsh. If a large proportion of the inhabitants of Wales fill their census papers in English rather than in Welsh, what consistency will there be in our demand for Welsh-speaking officials in Wales. It will be rank Anglo-toadyism for any Welshman or Welshwoman that can speak their mother tongue to deny their language by filling up their papers in English. We shall not have such another chance for 10 years. Let every Welshman and Welshwoman who read this appeal take care not only to do their duty in their own home and family, but to be apostles to others. Make known these facts to all your acquaintance, and adjure them, as I adjure you, in the name of a Welshman, of Wales, and of Welsh to be faithful to your country, your language, and your nation."

[14] This appeal was signed by the Secretary of the Society for the utilization of the Welsh Language.

This appeal is backed up in the "Banner" with the statement that--

"Those who speak Welsh in the family, even if they know some English, ought to fill up the paper with the words 'Welsh only.'"

In another vernacular paper the appeal is followed by this direction that--

"Those who could not give their evidence in a court of law in English should enter themselves as Monoglot Welsh, and special attention is asked for this point because by attending to it we shall hold up the arms of Mr. T. E. Ellis and others when they are fighting for our rights as a nation in Parliament."

The "Genedl Gymreig" in a leading article made this statement--

"Don't allow feelings of pride or conceit to impel anyone to claim a knowledge of English. Remember that the best thing for us is to swell the number of the monoglot Welsh,"

And the article concludes with this pregnant sentence.

"Don't deny your language, don't claim a knowledge of English of which you are not masters. If you cannot give your evidence in English in a court of justice write 'Welsh only' in the language column. Remember that consequences of immense weight to us as a nation depend upon the language census taken next Monday. Do not let anyone's conduct on the occasion be treacherous or unpatriotic."

Every possible political and nonconformist pressure was exercised to swell the number of the 'monoglot Welsh.' Nonconformist ministers who preach in English, commercial travellers who do all their business in English, schoolmasters who teach in English, even the officials who took the census in some instances returned themselves as monoglot Welsh.

I conclude this evidence with the following quotation from the General Report of the Census 1891 presented by the Registrar-General to Parliament.

"This instruction seems clear enough. Nevertheless abundant evidence was received by us that it was either mis-understood, or set at naught by a large number of those Welshmen who could speak both languages, and that the word 'Welsh' was very often returned when the proper entry would have been 'Both;' on the [14/15] ground, it may be presumed, that Welsh was the language spoken habitually or preferentially.

"Indeed so desirous do many householders appear to have been to add to the number of monoglot Welshmen, that they not only returned themselves as speaking Welsh, that is, Welsh only, but, made similar returns as to infants who were only a few months or even only a few days old.

"Two parishes, one in Carnarvonshire and one in Merionethshire were selected by us for detailed examination. In these parishes there were 138 babies under one year of age, and 59 of these were returned as speaking Welsh. There were also 147 infants between one and two years of age, and 87 of these were entered as monoglot Welsh. Thus, of 285 infants not yet two years of age, 146, or more than a half, were represented as being "able to speak Welsh, and Welsh only.

"Children under two years have been excluded by us from the, language tables; and consequently these strange statements as to their power of speech are not of much importance, excepting that they furnish good grounds for regarding with mach suspicion the trustworthiness of the statements as to persons of riper years. Thus in these same two parishes there were 1,587 children of from 5 to 15 years of age, children, therefore, who must have had a more or less lengthy period of school attendance. In the schools of both of these parishes English had been taken as a class subject, not without success; yet of these 1,587 children 1,490 or 94 per cent. were returned as unable to speak English. Whether a person can be fairly described as unable to speak English will, of course, depend very greatly upon the standard of proficiency used to determine the question. We cannot but think that the standard applied must have been unduly high in these parishes."

[16] CHAPTER IV.
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FACTS PROVED BY THE CENSUS.
_______

(The parliamentary census 1891 gives the population of Wales and Monmouthshire as 1,776,405, and the number of those who speak only English as 759,416, the number of those who speak only Welsh as 508,036, the number of those who speak both English and Welsh as 402,253, the number of those who were not classified, (infants &c.) as 106,700).

At the risk of repetition I ask the reader to keep the facts quoted above clearly in mind. These facts as I have shown in the previous chapter establish on the authority of a parliamentary census two points viz., that the number of those who speak Welsh habitually or preferentially is only 508,036 and that this number is considerably less than half the estimates given before the census by Welsh Liberationists.

I will now proceed to show the bearing of this language census upon the Church question in Wales. We start with the fact established by the parliamentary census that there are in Wales 1,161,669 who speak English, and of that number 759,416 speak only English. What proportion do the nonconformists in Wales claim of this 1,161,669 who speak English?

In the Report of the Parliamentary Committee on Welsh Education appointed in 1881 by Mr. Gladstone, it is officially stated that the number of nonconformists in Wales who worship in English is 36,000 and the official report gives as its authority for this statement Sir Hussey Vivian M.P. now Lord Swansea, whom the Earl of Rosebery this year described as "a master of this subject." On the authority of this master of Welsh nonconformist [16/17] statistics we are informed that out of 1,161,669 of people who speak English in Wales, Welsh nonconformity claims only 36,000. It would hardly be right to suspect that "such a master of the subject," as Lord Swansea has been described, would understate the number of nonconformists in Wales who worship in English. But even, if we yield to the temptation of this suspicion and treble this estimate quoted in the official report of Lord Aberdare's Committee of the nonconformists in Wales, who worship in English, the total we get is only 108,000. The result then is this that, after multiplying by three the number quoted in this official report, we find that there are in Wales 1,053,669 who speak English and do not worship in English in nonconformist chapels in Wales, and what is still more striking there are 651,416 people who speak only English who are thus proved beyond any doubt not to belong to nonconformity in Wales. The official census states that those who habitually or preferentially speak Welsh presumably entered themselves as monoglot Welsh. I am sure that this statement is correct, and from an intimate knowledge of Wales, I have no hesitation in saying that 508,036 includes all those who by preference speak Welsh while the great majority of the 402,253 entered as bi-linguals speak English habitually or preferentially. Here then we have this one valuable and incontrovertible fact that there are in Wales at least 1,000,000 English-speaking people of whom nonconformity claims a mere fraction. The Welsh Nationalists who clamoured for a language census were so inebriated by their own fervid estimates of the number of monoglot Welshmen in Wales that they never could have imagined that the results of the parliamentary census, in spite of all political and nonconformist pressure, would have shown that the number of habitual speakers of Welsh in Wales was so small, still less did they forsee that the language census for which they asked would finally and authoritatively prove that they have exaggerated the number of nonconformists in Wales as [17/18] grossly as they are now demonstrated to have exaggerated the number of those who habitually speak Welsh. The nemesis is comic and complete.

It is fair to add that the nonconformists in Wales have for some time realized that the English language is predominant in Wales and that the spread of that language threatens their serious diminution. The Calvinistic Methodists in their official report in 1882 made this statement--

"We cannot maintain our hold upon the country unless we win the towns and this can only be done through the English language,"

and in 1883 they state that the weightiest subject of the day appertaining to the Methodist denomination is the spread of English throughout Wales and in their official report of their English Chapels in 1889 they state--

"That there are 600,000 English speaking people who need the Gospel in English in this Country (i.e. Wales)."

In the Baptist year book for 1878 this statement is made:--

"We cannot shut our eyes to the fact that in many districts (in Wales) the use of the Welsh language is decreasing. Like the flow of the tide, the English language is advancing in the principality. If the nonconformists in Wales will not or cannot meet the requirements that will follow the change of language, the power of nonconformity will be diminished."

The Congregational Year Book stated that

"a large proportion of the rising generation in Wales are being transformed into English-speaking people,"

while the author of the history of Welsh Congregationalism and their official statistics stated in 1891 that

"English was greatly gaining ground in their chapels on the borders, and that the Welsh language had absolutely disappeared from the services of some of their chapels,"--

and in describing the only English Independent Chapel, at Bangor, he loudly laments its failure in spite of the fact that the chapel is free from debt, that the minister has a fine house, and that this chapel started before all the rest. I will add one more testimony from a different quarter to the prevalence of the English language. In the [18/19] "Labour Tribune" January 27th, 1894, a report is given of an interview with Mr. Brace, the agent of the Miners' Federation. He was asked what about the difficulties of language. This is his answer:--

"Well there are but very few men in the whole of South Wales "who cannot talk and understand the English language. I have lectured in every part of South Wales and Monmouthshire. I am English. I was generally understood. The question of language is not much of a difficulty. The coming generation are not learning to talk Welsh, and whatever difficulty exists will decrease rather than increase in the future."

These testimonies all confirm the facts given in the parliamentary language census, as to the predominance of the English language in Wales; and it is hardly necessary to point out that the spread of education means the spread of the English language. An attempt has been made to explain the large number of English-speaking people in Wales by asserting that they are mostly to be found in Glamorganshire. Glamorganshire numbers nearly half the population of Wales, and it is therefore quite obvious that the number of English-speaking people in that county will be much larger than in any other Welsh county. The futility of the attempt to which I have alluded is proved by the fact that, in the proportion of English-speaking people to the rest of the population, Glamorganshire only stands fourth in the six counties of South Wales. In Breconshire 85 per cent of the people speak English; in Pembrokeshire 77 per cent; in Radnorshire 95 per cent; in Glamorganshire 73 per cent, and, in North Wales, in Montgomeryshire 70 per cent; in Flintshire 70 per cent, and in Denbighshire 63 per cent. In only five counties, viz., those of Anglesey, Carnarvon, Merioneth, Cardigan, and Carmarthen does the percentage of people who speak English fall below 50 per cent, and the total population of the counties is only 429,537, considerably less than one fourth of the population of Wales and Monmouthshire. These five counties lie to the west, and owing to their remoteness and, for the greater part, their scattered population, are naturally [19/20] the last to be reached, by the influence of English thought and speech.

To sum up this most important question of the language census, let me point out that nonconformity in Wales claims the merest fraction of the 1,161,669 who speak English. It is under the mark to state that there are 900,000 people in Wales who worship in English. The lowest estimate given of those who worship in Welsh in the Church in Wales is 100,000. Do I claim the 900,000 as Churchpeople? My reply is that an official parliamentary religious census is the only final and reliable answer to that question. Churchmen demand that census. The Welsh Liberationists oppose it. Welsh Radical members describe Wales as a nation of nonconformists, while the Welsh nonconformists in their own official year books only claim 47 per cent, all told, of the population. Added to this comes the official parliamentary census, which has proved officially and beyond all question that there are in Wales 1,161,669 who speak English, and that of this number not one-tenth are nonconformists. Whatever may be thought of these facts, one thing is certain, that an official parliamentary religious census is demanded by justice and by fair play.

[21] CHAPTER V.
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THE POLITICAL REPRESENTATION OF WALES.
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The one argument advanced against the Church in Wales as unanswerable is the character of the representation of Wales and Monmouthshire. The chairman of the Welsh Radical members stated in the House of Commons that the Welsh Disestablishment Bill was the only measure ever introduced which practically had the unanimous votes of every single member in the district affected. A careful examination of the exact number of votes recorded on either side in the Welsh constituencies on this question offers the best comment on this statement. At the last general election five out of the 34 Welsh seats were uncontested, and for these five seats I have added in the votes polled on either side the last time each seat was contested with the exception of the seat for the Rhondda, where at the last contest one candidate was described as a Labour candidate and the other as a Liberal, and I have therefore added to the Gladstonian total the votes polled by the Labour candidate, and not added any votes to the Unionist total. This is the exact electoral record in Wales and Monmouthshire. The number of voters on the register for Wales and Monmouthshire is 314,540. Of this number 145,818 voted for Liberationist or Gladstonian candidates, and 86,883 for Conservative or Unionist candidates, while the number who did not record their votes was 81,839. The first important point to note is that only 47 per cent. of the registered voters have recorded their votes for the disestablishment candidates. [21/22] This cannot with any truth be described as 'practical unanimity.' On the other hand the number of those who recorded their votes for Unionist candidates together with those who did not go to the poll number 53 per cent. of the electorate. The majority therefore of Welsh voters either voted for Unionist candidates or neglected to go to the poll. This fact then remains established, that only 47 per cent. of the registered voters in Wales have recorded their votes for disestablishment candidates.

Is there good reason to suppose that the number of voters in favour of disestablishment will be larger at the next trial of strength? At the general election of 1892 the Liberationist party in Wales were admirably organised and provided with candidates for every constituency. Nonconformist ministers and deacons in Wales with very few exceptions took a most prominent part in advocating the Liberationist cause and in exercising to the fullest extent their personal and official influence upon the members of their congregations. I merely record the fact and express no opinion upon the line of action and conduct pursued. It was abundantly clear to those in Wales who followed closely the preparations for and during the last general election, that the Liberationist party polled their full strength; on the other hand the Unionist cause was unorganised and in many constituencies only supplied at the last moment with candidates. In some instances the candidates were entirely unknown to the constituency and found themselves face to face with the task of making themselves known to the electors and of piecing together the fragments of organisation, which were all that they found in the constituency. For this work many of them had four weeks. This was a blunder which I trust will not again be repeated. With the Welsh Liberationists politics are the very life and breath of their nostrils, and they carry their political prepossessions into their religion, their business and their social life. Politics do not seem to enter into the calculations of the [22/23] Conservative and Unionist party until five or six weeks before an election. Attack is more exciting than defence, but the enthusiasm and the compactness of the assaulting party, in contrast with a quietness which looks like apathy in those on the defensive, is a misleading index of the relative strength of both parties. Strong positions may be rushed and this has been one of the great dangers against which defenders of the Church in Wales have to be on their guard. I think our opponents have made their 'rush' a little too soon. A small attacking party can only hope for victory when they move as one man. Already there is a revolt in the small band of Welsh Liberationist members. With organisation and system and strong candidates ready to represent the Unionist cause in every Welsh constituency I believe the political record at the next general election will be very much more favourable to the Unionist cause. But even as it stands at present it seems unreasonable to maintain that 47 per cent of the registered voters in Wales and Monmouthshire are to be allowed not only to disestablish and disendow the Church in Wales but to disintegrate the Church of England. A majority of two-thirds of the ratepayers is to be required for the closing of public-houses, while Parliament is asked to disestablish and disendow the Church in Wales upon less than a bare majority of the voters.

[24] CHAPTER VI.
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WELSH NONCONFORMITY.
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I do not intend to give a detailed history of the rise of nonconformity in Wales, and I shall content myself with stating the facts which establish the date and character of its origin. The most powerful nonconformist body in Wales are the Calvinistic Methodists. They are a distinct Welsh sect, and are not in communion with the Wesleyans or the Presbyterians. I take the Calvinistic Methodists, because until the rise of Methodism in Wales the other nonconforming bodies were numerically and influentially insignificant. The Welsh Calvinistic Methodists seceded from the Church in the year 1811. That secession arose, as the facts prove, from no sort of hostility to the Church, but from these simple causes:--that a number of active, devout lay-churchmen, upon whom the evangelical spirit had fallen, formed themselves into societies of itinerant lay-exhorters or lay-preachers, that their preaching brought about a religious revival in Wales, and that at times, owing to the increased congregations and the wide area of the parishes, there was some difficulty in procuring, when required, the ministrations of episcopally-ordained clergymen, and it was this difficulty which induced the Methodist leader, Charles of Bala, to consent, after much hesitation, to the ordination of some of these lay-preachers in 1811. The late Bishop Hughes of St. Asaph stated that there was proof that Charles of Bala afterwards deeply regretted this action. The following quotation from the rules drawn up by these Methodist Guilds and Societies in 1801 proves that the original intention of the revival [24/25] was merely the formation of Guilds or Societies to work within the Church.

"The Church of Christ is a spiritual society, and transcendently surpasses all others that ever were, or may be formed. All others will sooner or later be broken to pieces and consumed, but the Church shall never be destroyed; she will stand for ever as firm and lasting as the eternal foundation on which she is built. Behold how good and pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. These considerations gave origin to the private Societies among the Methodists. They meet together as joint members of the household of faith, conforming themselves with the Apostles injunction to warn the unruly, to comfort the feeble-minded, and to support the weak. We do not designedly dissent or look upon ourselves as dissenters from the Established Church. In doctrine we exactly agree with the articles of the Church of England, and preach no other doctrines but what are contained and expressed in them. Our meetings are seldom or ever held on church hours, but in union with the Church we desire the full enjoyment of those privileges which the laws and constitution of our favoured country amply afford us of having liberty without restraint to use every scriptural means to spread the knowledge of the Gospel of Christ among poor, ignorant, and perishing sinners. Making a sect or forming a party is not the object we are aiming at, God forbid."

The Constitutional Deed of the Welsh Calvinistic Methodists dated August 10th, 1826, confirms the statement that the Methodist secession in Wales was not due to any hostility to the Church or to any doctrinal difference. The Constitutional Deed page 19 states that

"the object of the Welsh Calvinistic Methodist connexion hath been and shall be to promulgate the Gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ as set forth in the doctrinal articles of the Church of England,"

and in page 31 the Deed enacts that

"no alteration in the confession of faith or the tenets or doctrines to be taught and maintained by the said connexion shall be at any time allowed or even discussed."

Coming to a still later date we find the following record. At an Annual Association of the Welsh Methodists held at Bala in June, 1834, the following resolution was proposed by Mr. John Elias, of Anglesey, seconded by Mr. William Morris, of [25/26] Pembrokeshire, and unanimously agreed to by upwards of 500 preachers 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 matters. We therefore are of opinion that it pertains not unto us to interfere in such matters, and we therefore strenuously enjoin upon every member of our connexion 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 we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty."

I have brought the record down to 1834, within sixty years of the present time, and there is not one syllable of hostility to the Church to be found either in the writings of the founders of Welsh Methodism or in the Constitutional Deed by the provisions of which the Welsh Calvinistic Methodists of to-day are legally and morally bound. But this is not the spirit of the Welsh Methodists of to-day. No one acquainted with the subject will venture to deny that between the founders of Welsh Methodism and its leading representatives to-day there is a difference in tone and teaching which is not a development but an absolute contradiction. During the last few weeks I have imposed upon myself the unpleasant task of reading the Welsh "Baner" edited by the Rev. Thomas Gee, the leading minister and spokesman of the Welsh Methodists, and at the same time I have been reading the life and letters of the Rev. Thomas Charles, one of the Methodist founders. The contrast between the Rev. Thomas Gee and the Rev. Thomas Charles is not one of time and circumstance or individual temperament, but the two men are absolutely opposed in spirit, temper, and tenets. I have taken these two gentlemen as types, and the study of both vividly illustrates the marvellous transformation which Welsh Calvinistic Methodism has undergone during the 83 years of its existence. Enough has been said to establish the fact that the early Welsh Methodists were deeply attached to [26/27] the Church, and that Welsh Calvinistic Methodism only dates from the year 1811. Before that year the other nonconforming bodies in Wales were scattered and insignificant so that for all practical purposes Welsh nonconformity may be described as a growth of this century, and forms little more than a fitful and feverish parenthesis in the religious life of Wales.

[28] CHAPTER VII.
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THE NONCONFORMIST MINISTRY.
_______

At the present time the Church provides in every parish in Wales a resident ministry. The visitation of the sick, the care of the young and poor, and the countless other works of charity and philanthropy to which a living ministry must devote its activities can only be provided for by a settled and resident ministry How far has the voluntary system in Wales made or attempted to make provision for these most essential duties of the ministerial office? I have received from 1006 Parishes returns made by the Clergy of the number of nonconformist ministers resident in their several parishes. The result of those returns will be found in the appendix on the resident ministry of nonconformists. From this return it will be found that in nearly half the parishes of Wales nonconformity has failed to make any provision for a settled ministry. Under the term nonconformity I include not only the four principal nonconformist bodies in Wales, but all the minor sects, such as the Primitive Methodists, the Unitarians, and the Bible Christians. The return given in appendix "J" shews that the resident ministry of the principal nonconformist bodies is placed in the same parishes, and that these bodies do not divide between them the work, but are in competition with each other. It is important to point out for the information of those not acquainted with Wales that there is no intercommunion of worship, or government, or work between the several nonconformist bodies in Wales; [28/29] political co-operation there is, but not religious. In appendix "K" I gave the official record from their own year book of the Welsh Calvinistic Methodists, whom I select for these reasons. They form the wealthiest, most powerful, and aggressive nonconformist body in Wales. For many years this denomination has made strenuous efforts to provide a settled pastorate. The results of these efforts appear in appendix "K," which is their own official record. That record shows that the Welsh Calvinistic Methodists have 1,311 chapels, and that of that number 753 are without a resident pastor. This fact speaks for itself. The Rev. Joseph Evans, the official statistician of the Welsh Calvinistic Methodists, in the Manchester Guardian this year gave 400 as an approximate estimate of the number of parishes in Wales and Monmouthshire in which his denomination had been able to provide a settled pastorate. Here then we have three witnesses. (1). The returns of the Clergy, (appendix "J." show that, out of 1006 parishes, the Calvinistic Methodists have a resident minister in only 328). (2). The official statistician of the Calvinistic Methodists states that of 1081 parishes in Wales and Monmouthshire he approximately estimates the number in which his denomination has provided a resident pastor at 400. (3). Their own official Year Book shows that out of 1,311 Chapels 753 are without a settled pastor. If we accept the official statistician's own estimate we have the very startling fact that out of 1081 parishes in Wales and Monmouthshire there are 681 parishes in which the Welsh Calvinistic Methodists have failed to provide a resident pastor. This statement of the official statistician is confirmed by the returns of the clergy and by the official Year Book of the denomination. The Welsh Calvinistic Methodists have frequently been described as the national denomination of Wales. The facts quoted above will enable my readers to estimate the accuracy of this description.

[30] One other very important fact must be remembered with respect to the settled ministry provided by nonconformity in Wales. The official Year Book gives the total number of Methodist ministers in Wales as 641. Of this number a very large percentage are engaged in secular occupations in combination with their ministry. In the year 1888 the number of Methodist ministers in Wales was 569. Out of that number no less than 191 were shopkeepers, farmers, commercial travellers and agents; while 12 were engaged in educational work, so that out of the total of 569 ministers only 366 were ministers pure and simple. It is obvious that the very large percentage--probably a third of the total number--of Methodist ministers engaged in secular occupations cannot give their time to pastoral visitation. Moreover, the combination of a secular and ministerial occupation in one man must, especially in small communities, create a situation in which the secular and ministerial interests are, if not irreconcilable, without doubt, mutually hurtful, and the secular will often profit at the cost of the ministerial.

I have gone fully into these facts with no wish to minimise the generosity and self-sacrifice of Welsh nonconformists, but to make quite clear the fact, long ago recognised as such by Dr. Chalmers and Mr. Spurgeon, that the voluntary system is unable of itself to provide that resident ministry which is indispensable if the most essential duties of the Christian minister are to be adequately and regularly discharged. The broad fact remains that, if it were not for the Church, there would be out of 1081 parishes in Wales and Monmouthshire, no less than 681, where the most powerful nonconformist body is unable to maintain a resident pastor; while there are about 500 parishes where there is not a single resident nonconformist pastor of any denomination. I need hardly point out how entirely different it was in the case of Ireland, where one homogeneous body had its resident priest in every parish.

[31] CHAPTER VIII.
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THE CARE OF THE POOR AND RELIGIOUS EDUCATION.

In close connection with the question of a resident ministry come the questions of the care for the poor and provision for the religious education of the young. The experience of the parish clergy in Wales points to the fact that in trouble and sickness the poor of all denominations turn for help first to the clergyman of the parish. The voluntary principle finds its energies and generosity exhausted in the mere maintenance of its organization, and has small time or resources left for the care of the poor. I wish the proofs for this fact to be given by nonconformists themselves. In 1887 the Welsh Calvinistic Methodists in North Wales appointed a committee to report upon the causes of a decrease in their numbers. I give from nonconformist papers the accounts given of the report presented by that committee.

[32] In the Genedl Gymreig (a Welsh Radical and nonconformist newspaper) of November 16th, 1887, under the heading of "The Llandudno Association," the following appears:--

"The Rev. Thomas Roberts, Jerusalem (Bethesda), presented the report of the committee which had been investigating the cause of the decrease in the number of chapel members. The decrease was confined to North Wales, as South Wales showed increase. The decrease was attributed in a great measure to migration, and also to the fact that many of the chapel officials did not put down the names of those members who either neglected or were too poor to contribute their subscriptions towards the 'cause,' and this was greatly condemned. It was resolved to call the attention of the chapels to this."

In the Herald Cymraeg (a Welsh Radical and nonconformist paper) of November 15th, 1887, under the heading of "The Association of Calvinistic Methodists," the following appears:--

"The Rev. Thomas Roberts, Bethesda, read the result of the inquiry which he and Mr. Samuel Hughes, Bodynyfed, Amlwch, made into the supposed decrease in the number of the members of the denomination. They found out that no decrease had taken place in South Wales, but that a little was to be observed in North Wales. This occurred in some chapels while there was an increase in others. One reason for the decrease was the migration which took place, especially from Anglesey, Lleyn and Arfon; but an important reason for the decrease was the negligent manner in which the lists of some chapels were kept. They knew that poor members were not always able to contribute, and on this account some officials left these persons out of the lists, which was to be greatly condemned. Had it not been for this negligence it was supposed that the lists would have proved much more numerous than they appeared. It was resolved that this report be inserted in the minutes of the association, and that the attention of the chapels be called to this matter."

The Celt (a Welsh newspaper edited by a nonconformist minister) on November 18th, 1887, gives the following account of the report presented by the Committee:--

"As the church members of the "Corph" (the name given to Calvinistic Methodists) are fewer in number than they were, a committee was appointed in the previous meeting to examine into the matter. Their report was received last week. It is stated therein that the decrease is in North Wales only, that there is an increase in South Wales. The decrease in Arvon and Anglesey is chiefly attributed to migration; but it is stated that the decrease in other districts has been caused by the action of the officers of the "Corph" in striking off the books the names of people too poor to pay their contributions. No wonder that the committee condemn this unworthy action. Who would have supposed for a moment that churches could be found in Wales whose officers are unwilling that the poor should be members of it? It the correspondent of the Times gets hold of this affair, he will have something to say about the Voluntary principle among Nonconformists."

In an annual statement made to his congregation in the year 1890, the Rev. T. J. Morgan, statistical secretary for the Welsh Calvinistic Methodists, makes this remarkable and candid statement:--

[33] "Are we not in perpetual danger of becoming possessed with the idea that the church (i.e. the Welsh Calvinistic Methodists) is a machine for collecting money? Are we not far too much inclined to value the worth of our church members according to the amount of their money contributions and to yearn for additions to our numbers in order to meet more easily our pecuniary obligations? The nature of the church as a spiritual society and the aim of the church as a channel for the working in it and through it of divine influences and for preparing unto God a peculiar people, are being lost sight of by us. . . . . . . . . Much is being done, but I fear that by far the most important thing of all is being neglected."

These extracts speak for themselves. If further proof is needed of the inability of the voluntary system to help on philanthropic and charitable works which lie outside the maintenance of their organization, I would point to these two facts. The nonconformists in Wales have done next to nothing for the elementary education of the poor. In appendix G it will be seen that in North Wales the nonconformists contributed to building, &c., Hospitals £1,700, while Churchmen in North Wales have given £95,300; and for the annual maintenance of Hospitals, &c., in North Wales the nonconformists only contribute £820, and Churchmen £5,500 a year. Again I do not mention this as a reproach. The nonconformists in Wales number some of the richest laymen among their members, and yet they are able to do so little for general works of charity and benevolence. The explanation is to be found not in a lack of generosity on their part, but in the necessities and limitations of the voluntary system.

To pass to religious education, the record in Wales is, I trust, without a parallel in any other part of the United Kingdom. According to the Blue Book return of 1888, out of 300 Board schools in Wales, excluding Monmouthshire, there were 123 schools where the Bible is not read at all, and 119 where it is read without comment. Here we have the startling fact that in bible-loving Wales there are 242 Board schools out of a total of 300 where the Bible is not read at all or read without comment; and out of the 300 Board schools [33/34] there are 290 where there is no examination in religious knowledge. For this deplorable condition of things the responsibility lies wholly and entirely with the nonconformists of Wales. In the Board schools of Denbigh, where the Rev. Thomas Gee presides and guides the policy of the nonconformists, the syllabus provides that the master alone may read a portion of scripture, "and may occasionally make some practical observation on the same, no special doctrines being alluded to, and that the history of the Jews and the Jewish nation, and the geography and natural history of ancient as well as modern Palestine, may be taught from the Bible, but that in any use that may be made of the Bible it is to be distinctly understood that no reference whatever is to be made to the doctrines taught therein, except in cases of discipline and to enforce moral teaching."

Here again comment is unnecessary. I have frequently heard, in visiting the parishes of this Diocese, that the nonconformists find that in their Sunday schools the prizes are carried off by the children taught in the Church day schools, and that they find an alarming ignorance of religious truths in the children taught in the Board schools. It is fair to add that some of the nonconformist ministers, notably, the Rev. T. C. Edwards, the Principal of Bala College, have publicly expressed their regret that the Bible has been excluded from the Board schools of Wales. Their protest has had no effect upon the Welsh political nonconformists who follow the lead of the Rev. Thomas Gee. In the schemes for Welsh intermediate education drafted by the Welsh county committees, it was actually proposed to forbid all definite religious instruction, not only for day scholars but also for boarders. It seems almost incredible that such intolerance could be possible at the present time. Churchpeople who send their boys to these schools as boarders are not allowed to have their children taught the doctrines of Christianity, nor in the family worship [34/35] in the boarding master's house can the formularies of any denomination be used. Parliament has fortunately cancelled this outrageous provision, but the proposal of such a provision remains as a proof of the entire disregard for the religious training of the young which is being manifested by the political dissenters in Wales. This tyranny and intolerance is emphasised by the fact that a great part of the rates for the school Boards in Wales are paid by Churchmen, that to the building of the intermediate schools in Wales churchmen have been the largest subscribers; and that to the university college of Aberystwyth (practically a nonconformist college) churchmen gave 33 per cent. of the total contributions, while to the Bangor university college they gave more than half.

Summed up, the facts are these. In Wales nonconformity leaves the care of the sick and poor to the Church. In elementary education in Wales the nonconformists have done next to nothing by voluntary efforts, while from the Board schools supported by the rates paid by churchmen and others, the nonconformists have excluded all definite religious teaching. This is not a record of which the voluntary system has any reason to be proud, nor is it a record which promises well for the future, if the attempted spoliation of the Church should unhappily succeed.

[36] CHAPTER IX.
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THE WELSH DISESTABLISHMENT BILL, 1894.

Mr. Asquith, in introducing the Bill, stated the motive and the spirit with which, so far as the Church is concerned, the Government brought forward this measure. "We present," he said, "this Bill to Parliament in 'the firm' belief that if it be carried it will not hinder, but it will rather help, the work of the Church in Wales. We think that in this Bill we do no injustice to the Church." An examination of the Bill upon some vital points offers a comment upon Mr. Asquith's declaration.

I begin with what I regard as far the most important point--viz., the effect of the Bill, if passed, upon the unity and organic life of the Church. Mr. Asquith again and again stated that he was following the Irish precedent. The Irish Church Act "put an end to the establishment of the Church of Ireland and dissolved the union created by Act of Parliament between the Churches of England and Ireland as by law established." The Welsh Church Bill proposes "to terminate the establishment of the Church of England in Wales and Monmouthshire." The Irish Act disestablished a Church recognized as distinct from the Church of England, and only united to the Church of England by Act of Parliament. The Welsh Church Bill avowedly proposes to terminate the establishment of a part of the Church of England. The Welsh Bill cuts out from representation in the Houses of Convocation in the province of Canterbury the Bishops and clergy in Wales and Monmouthshire. This provision---without any parallel in the Irish Act--deliberately lops [36/37] off from the organic life of the Church these four dioceses. Again, the Irish Act dissolved the corporation of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners for Ireland. The Welsh Bill makes minute provision for interference with the Ecclesiastical Commissioners of England and Queen Anne's Bounty. The provisions for the chopping and changing of properties now vested in the Ecclesiastical Commissioners illustrate the essential unity of the Church in England and Wales and the deliberate character of this attempt to break up that unity. Under the Welsh Bill the four seats vacated in the House of Lords are to be filled by English Bishops. This arrangement in itself is a striking proof that the authors of this Bill are conscious that they are dealing with one and the same Church.

To pass to another point. The Irish Act provided that the three Commissioners were to be members of the Church; the Welsh Commissioners may be Nonconformists. Three men, like Mr. Lloyd-George, clothed with the extraordinary powers given to the Welsh Commissioners under this Bill, might prove unequal to stop those direct incitements to disturbance in order to get rid of the clergymen which Mr. George foresaw in his speech. With regard to the funds of the Church and the vested interests of the clergy Mr. Asquith said:--

"Wherever a clergyman, or wherever a person, be he clergyman or be he layman, at present enjoys a freehold office in the Church, in consideration of the performances of service or of duty to the Church, he ought, in our opinion, to receive under this measure, depriving him of his office, changing his status, and disestablishing the Church, to be placed in the same position pecuniarily as he was before Parliament made that change in his status and the status of the Church. . . . We, therefore, propose that so long as the holder of any existing benefice or office performs the duties of the office which he held at the date of disestablishment, or is only prevented from so doing by some cause other than his own wilful default, he shall be entitled to receive the same emoluments--neither more nor less--as he would have been if the Church had not been disendowed."

[38] Compare this statement with the actual words of the Bill itself, clause 16, sec. 2:--"The Welsh Commissioners shall pay to each person who at the passing of this Act has any existing interest in any such tithe rent-charge, in substitution for, and in satisfaction of,
that interest, and as part of the emoluments of his office, the amount payable to them by any county council in respect of the tithe rent-charge." There is not one word in the whole of this clause which provides--(a) for the performance of the duties of the office held in the Church, nor (b) is there any security that the present holder of the benefice or office will have his vested interests preserved intact. The tithe rent-charge is to be collected by the county council, and, after they have deducted "cost of collection, rates, and other outgoings," is to be handed to the Welsh Commissioners, who are to pay the holders of any existing interest. These deductions are to be "such as the Commissioners will allow," and with the kind of Commissioners that we are likely to have under this Bill, a large demand for deductions that would only trench upon the vested interests of the clergy would he regarded with no unkindly eye. The Irish Act allowed the deduction of "outgoings to which such holder (i.e., of a vested interest) is liable by law." The omission from the Welsh Act of this legal safeguard is significant. Compare again this provision for vested interests with that in the Irish Act. There (Clause 14) the Commissioners were "to ascertain and declare the yearly income" of every vested interest and "to pay each year to the holder of every such vested interest so long as he lives and continues to discharge such duties in respect of his said archbishopric, bishopric, benefice, or preferment, as he was accustomed to discharge, or any other spiritual duties in Ireland which may be substituted for them, with his own consent and with the consent of the representative body of the said Church hereinafter mentioned, or if not discharging such duties shall be disabled from doing so by age, [38/39] sickness, or permanent infirmity, or by any cause other than his own wilful default, an annuity equal to the amount of yearly income so ascertained as aforesaid."

Here in the Irish Act two things are clearly and absolutely secured--(a) the full vested interest of the beneficed clergyman (b) so long as he discharges the duties belonging to his benefice.

In the Welsh Bill the existing interest of the clergyman is very precariously provided for, while in the clauses which make this provision not one syllable is said about his obligation to discharge the duties attaching to his benefice. So far as to the clergy. Now as to lay holder of vested interests. The Irish Act, Clause 16, provided that the yearly salary of lay holders of any freehold office in the Church, or of any office held during good behaviour which the Commissioners may think equal to a freehold office, should be first ascertained and declared by the Commissioners, and that the amount of that yearly salary should be paid for life to the lay holder of such office so long as he discharged the duties attaching to it. Compare with this the Welsh Bill, which provides that the Welsh Commissioners "may pay to the lay holder of any freehold office out of moneys in their hands such sum by way of compensation, either by a single payment or by a life annuity, as they may, with the consent of the Treasury, determine." I wish to call special attention to this point. Here you have the Cabinet Minister who introduced this Bill stating precisely and definitely that the holder of every freehold office, be he clergyman or be he layman, shall under this Bill be entitled to receive the same emoluments--neither more nor less--as he would have been if the Church had not been disendowed. When we come to the Bill itself we find that the lay holder of a freehold office will only "receive such sum by way of compensation as the Welsh Commissioners may, with the consent of the Treasury, determine." We can imagine what that determination [39/40] would be with, say, Mr. Lloyd-George as Chief Commissioner and Mr. Acland at the Treasury. But the contradiction between Mr. Asquith's statement about vested interests and the provisions of the Bill itself is a warning that for the true interpretation of the Bill we must look only to its actual provisions, and not to the rhetorical euphemisms of its introducer.

Let us next consider how these financial arrangements would work out for the clergy and the Church. The clergy would hold their vested interests in the form of a precarious annuity, liable on the one side to extortionate deductions demanded by a county council and connived at by Welsh Commissioners, and on the other side they would be constantly exposed to those direct incitements to disturbance which Mr. Lloyd George foretold would be used to get rid of the clergyman with an annuity. A situation of a more degrading and perplexing character for the clergy of the disestablished Church could not have been contrived.

Under the Irish Act the holder of a vested interest was allowed with his own consent and that of the representative body to change from one cure to another. There is no such provision in the Welsh Bill. Mr. Asquith stated that this would bear hardly upon the Church, because a man would be tied to the living where he happened to be at the time disestablishment took place, and then he added these words:--"Those seemed to us to be very serious evils, and we therefore propose by way of meeting them an alternative, under which the incumbent who comes under the operation of this Act may exchange his existing interest, so long as he continues to discharge the duties of the benefice, for a compensation annuity on a lower scale, and in the schedule we have provided such a scale." Clause 17, which provides this alternative compensations, says not one syllable about the obligation to discharge the duties of the benefice, while the clergyman who accepts the [40/41] alternative compensation, if 35 years of age, sacrifices half his income. Contrast with this the Irish Church Act, where to the clergyman who commuted his vested interest or received it in full as an annuity there was perfect freedom to change his work as the Church thought fit. The Welsh Bill by its scheme of compensation penalizes men between 30 and 50 so heavily as to make a change of work not reasonably possible for them. The Church of Ireland by the commutation scheme, after disestablishment, started with a considerable central fund, and with perfect elasticity and independence for her clergy. The Welsh Church would be stripped bare and allowed slowly to bleed to death, while with the clergy tied to the livings they happened to hold at the time of disestablishment the whole machinery of the Church would be brought to a complete deadlock. "Freed from the fetters of the State" the Church would be by this Bill stripped of all her property and left manacled and helpless.

Mr. Asquith in this connexion, made one remarkable statement:--"In that respect (in the case of the churches) we are following strictly the Irish precedent." In the Irish Act, "church" includes cathedrals or collegiate churches, and the churches and cathedrals were handed over to the disestablished Church. In Wales the four cathedrals have been this century restored at a very great cost by the free gifts of Church people, and yet the Welsh Bill would hand over our four mother churches to the Welsh Commissioners. This cruel and deadly blow, dealt at the heart of the Church in each diocese, is peculiar to the Welsh Bill, and yet Mr. Asquith deliberately led the English public to believe that he was "in this respect strictly following the Irish precedent."

There are many other details in the Bill which, if space permitted, are open to criticism. A word as to the plunder and its destination. The net value of the plunder available for the parochial bribe is £125,000 and [41/42] for the central fund £32,000. When, therefore, the whole plunder has been secured, the net annual value will be £157,000. I have gone carefully into these figures with the assistance of the most competent authority. From this net yearly value there will be a deduction for the "salaries and incidental expenses" of the Welsh Commissioners and the staff which they are authorized to employ. Mr. Asquith said the Commissioners under the Irish Act were a merely temporary body appointed for a temporary purpose. "But," he said, "we do not propose that they (the Welsh Commissioners) shall be a temporary Commission." Therefore this deduction for salaries will be a permanent yearly charge upon the £157,040--permanent and in all probability increasing. Mr. Balfour has pointed out some of the main inequalities which would result from the disposition of the tithe rent-charge proposed in the Bill, how counties and parishes with very large populations would get a smaller share than those with very small populations. In this diocese in several parishes the bulk of the tithe belongs to lay impropriators, in others it belongs to schools or colleges. In these parishes there will be little or no share of the "national property" for anybody, although Mr. T: E. Ellis stated in Parliament that "no sacredness should attach to the claims of lay improprietors, which are the worst burdens upon land."

There is another extraordinary inequality in the proposed disposition of the national property. The Welsh Bill vests the glebes in the parish council, or, failing a parish council, in other specified local bodies. Let me show how this works out in North Wales. The population of North Wales is, in round numbers, 460,000, and there are in the two North Wales dioceses 350 parishes. Out of these 350 parishes there are 87 with an aggregate population of 200,645 with no glebe; while on the other hand there are 20 parishes with an aggregate population of 9,790 with 2,048 acres of glebe. Surely this is an inequality which, in Mr. Asquith's [42/43] own words, would be "a constant source of 8mbitterment and animosity among the various sections of the community." The late Professor Freeman stated that "the Church of England as a single body has no property; the property belongs to the Church of Canterbury, the Church of Westminster, the Church of Little Peddlington, or any other." Mr. Asquith began his speech with a similar statement--viz., that "all ecclesiastical property in England and Wales is an endowment of some particular benefice or office"; further on in his speech he said:--"We propose that as far as this property is attached to localities it shall in future be applied and enjoyed locally and parochially"; and finally he stated that "the Church enjoys exclusively property which in our view is national property to be appropriated to national purposes." If the property belongs to the benefice or office, how does it belong to the locality or parish; or if it is only local and parochial property, how is it national? In Mr. Nye's excellent little book on dissenting endowments several instances are given of endowments left to chapels or the ministers of chapels. In the light of Mr. Asquith's statement, may I ask whether the endowment left for the minister, say, of little Bethel at Bala belongs to the holder of that "office" for the time being, or to Bala, or to Wales?

Enough, I think, has been said to show how far the Welsh Bill realizes the beneficent purposes and the magnanimous spirit with which Mr. Asquith avows that he lays hands upon the Church of England in Wales.

[44] CHAPTER X.
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PROFIT AND LOSS.

In appendix "M" I give the present gross value of the tithe-rentcharge which belongs to the Church in Wales and Monmouthshire, and my authority for these figures is the Return made to the House Commons and ordered by the House of Commons to be printed on July 27th, 1894. The gross commuted value of the tithe-rentcharge belonging to the Church in Wales and Monmouthshire, according to that return, is £179,914. The present gross value is £134,936. From this present value must be deducted rates, taxes and cost of collection. The general estimate* [* Mr. Asquith, in introducing the disestablishment bill, said that "probably not less than 25 per cent. ought to be deducted (from the gross total) for the cost of collection and other things before we arrive at the net amount."] for this deduction is given as 25 per cent. upon the present gross value. In order not to overstate the case, I have estimated these deductions at only 20 per cent. upon the present gross value. This leaves a net sum of £107,948, which would be available after all other vested interests had run out and all other charges and liabilities had been discharged, for distribution among the several parishes. Put briefly, the Government measure offers at a distant date to the parishes in Wales and Monmouthshire £107,948 as the complete fruit of the spoliation of the tithe-rentcharge belonging to the parochial incumbents in Wales. Two things are clear. It would take at least 40 years before the whole of the endowments had fallen in [44/45] to the parishes. The administration by Commissioners of the endowments of the Church would be without doubt expensive if we may estimate the cost from the analogy of other public bodies in Wales. The salaries of the Commissioners and of the army of subordinates whom they would employ to assist them in the administration of the endowments of the Church as they fall in would swallow up a large amount of the income. There can be no doubt that 20 per cent. greatly underestimates the probable cost of rates, taxes, collection and administration if the Church were disendowed. It is important that the Welsh farmers, who are now being tempted with the bribe of the spoils of the Church, should realize that the annual amount available for public purposes, after Commissioners and other officials have been paid, would be extremely small. Still more important is it that the Welsh farmer should clearly understand that not one penny of these parochial endowments are to be given to him. The confiscated endowments of the Church are by the Government Bill to be given, not to the farmer, but for cottage hospitals, dispensaries, convalescent homes, trained nurses, district halls, institutes, libraries, museums, academies of art, and any other purpose to which the public rates cannot be applied. The Government bill makes it clear that the tithe-rentcharge is not to be given to the farmer, and it is not to be given to any object which will relieve the rates. By the liberality of churchmen there is at present in Wales an abundant supply of cottage hospitals, dispensaries, infirmaries and convalescent homes; and trained nurses are provided in very many parishes. Parish and district halls, institutes, libraries, museums, and academies of art exist already, and it requires a bold man to maintain that the need or demand for these things is great in Wales, or at any rate great enough to justify the spoliation of the Church in order to provide the necessary funds.

[46] So far I have merely stated the profit side of disendowment. The immediate profit derived from the funds of the disendowed Church would be infinitesimal, and the remote profit would be small.

Meanwhile the loss must be clearly stated. If the Church were disendowed, from that moment all the resources of Churchmen would be concentrated upon an effort to maintain the organization of their own disendowed Church. Enough has been already said to show that that effort would be so great that it would dry up all other channels of benevolence. I have already proved that works of general charity and philanthropy are in Wales supported mainly by Churchmen, and that to these objects nonconformists contribute little or nothing. In every parish in Wales Churchmen distribute with an open and impartial hand charity to various objects and persons. Disendowment would alter all this, and the benevolence of Churchmen would then be in danger of becoming as sectional and restricted as is that of nonconformists at present. The loss to the community would be heavy and general. The loss under this head alone would be greater to the community at large than the gain which would accrue even when the whole of the endowments had fallen in, but there is another very definite item of loss, which admits of no doubt either as to its extent or certainty. In appendix "M" the numbers in the Board schools in Wales, and the cost of their education to the ratepayer, together with the debts at present unpaid by the school Boards in Wales, is given from the last Blue Book. In parallel columns are given the numbers attending the National Schools in Wales, together with the gross present and the net present value of the tithe rent-charge belonging to the Church for each county. This table is compiled from the Blue book of the Committee of Council on Education for 1894 and the Tithe rent-charge Parliamentary return of July 27th, 1894. The figures are therefore official and beyond question. A study of this table proves that if the school Boards in Wales were [46/47] called upon to supply education for these 73,875 children now educated in National Schools the whole net income of the tithe rent-charge would be practically absorbed. At present it costs the ratepayers £205,791 to educate 152,177 children in Board schools in Wales; it would therefore cost them £99,902 to educate in Board Schools the 73,875 children that are now educated in National Schools. This calculation assumes that the School Boards would be able to educate the 73,875 children at the same rate as it costs them to educate the children now in the Board Schools. But the assumption is too sanguine. If the voluntary schools were closed, the buildings would not be handed over to the School Boards, but would be retained by their present trustees. In this diocese alone Churchmen have contributed during the last 40 years £137,417 to the building alone of National Schools (see appendix E). It is therefore clear that the School Boards would have to provide new schools. At present the School Boards in Wales possess a number of school buildings which were handed over to them by various bodies. When therefore provision for additional school buildings is taken into calculation it is quite certain that the total cost would exceed by a very large amount the present net value of all the tithe rent-charge belonging to the Church in Wales. There is also another important fact to be borne in mind. The voluntary schools would be given up at once if disestablishment and disendowment took place, but it would take 30 or 40 years before the whole of the tithe rent-charge had fallen in. The present generation would therefore get a very small amount of the tithe rent-charge, while the community would be saddled with an immediate annual addition to the rates of £100,000 a year at least.

I have deliberately endeavoured to give the lowest estimate of the loss to the community which would ensue from the closing of the voluntary schools. From what I know myself of the expenditure of School Boards in Wales I am certain that the financial loss under this [47/48] head alone would be very great indeed. In this chapter I have endeavoured to strike the profit and loss balance simply from the point of view of finance. There is one fact bearing upon this point, to which I may here call attention. Much is said about the large sums of money contributed by nonconformists in Wales to their chapels. It would be interesting at this time to know what proportion of those contributions has come from the pockets of Churchmen. I believe there is hardly a nonconformist chapel in Wales to which Churchmen have not at some time or other given large contributions. I do not refer to those persons who describe themselves as Churchmen, and who contribute largely to nonconformist denominations and ministers, with whom they have intimate political relations. I refer rather to that body of Churchmen who, apart from all political considerations, have as a general rule been always ready in a kindly and neighbourly spirit to respond to the appeals for help from the nonconformists living in their parish or district. There are few Church households in Wales where the inquisitive begging cards from nonconformist chapels do not find their way, and the nonconformist concert and bazaar tickets are very familiar to all in Wales. In appendix 'L' I am able to give a very definite and a very substantial proof of the great assistance given by Churchmen in Wales to nonconformists. From returns received from parishes in Wales this striking fact is established that out of 1076 chapel sites no less than 591 have been leased at a nominal sum or given by Churchmen. More than half the chapel sites for which returns have been received have been practically given by Churchmen to nonconformists. The Government bill does not propose to confiscate these sites.

[49] CHAPTER XI.

RESULTS.

What results would follow the disestablishment and disendowment of the Church in Wales? Some indication may be derived from the precedent of the Irish Church. The position of the Irish Church is admitted to have been very much weaker in every respect than that of the Church in Wales. Numerically the Church in Ireland formed only a fraction of the people, the great majority of whom belonged to one homogeneous body. In Wales the Church is surrounded by a number of different sects, and its vast predominance over them is tacitly admitted by the refusal of an official census which would prove it. In Ireland, it has been stated on high authority, the greater part of the endowments were of the nature of royal or parliamentary grants. If disendowment and disestablishment might hope for good results anywhere, it would have been in the case of the Irish Church. I am able upon this point to quote the evidence of several of the Irish bishops, to whom last year I addressed inquiries as to the effect of disestablishment upon the Church in Ireland. This is their testimony:--

The Bishop of Tuam--"We lost grievously by disendowment * * * The effect on rural districts is unsatisfactory." The Bishop of Killaloe--"On the whole the blow dealt to us, however softened, has been most lamentable and I fear is likely to be still more so as time goes on,"--and adds "The man must be an idiot, I think, who does not see that the attack on the Welsh Church is just to seize in outwork so as to ensure the more successful assault on the central citadel of the English Church." The Bishop of Ossory says "It is the State more than the Church that has suffered most severely by disendowment. That act took the keystone out of the arch of property and has thus demoralised the country in regard to all kinds of contracts and possessions." The Bishop of Meath says that "Disendowment coupled with disestablishment has certainly lowered the status of the clergy and discouraged learning." The Archbishop of Armagh states that "the result of disendowment has been and WILL BE DISASTROUS, and is becoming more so yearly by the land agitation." The Bishop of Derry speaking of disendowment says that "the spirit of confiscation is contagious. The breath of revolution breathed upon the land in 1869, and we have been in a fever ever since. Disendowment has affected the Church in some rural districts very seriously." . . . . In reply to my question whether disestablishment had conciliated the feeling of nonconformists [49/50] towards the Church, his answer is as follows:--" Since disestablishment, up to last year, the feeling of Dissenters towards the Church was I think, bitterer than before, with a few honourable exceptions." To this testimony let me add that of Dr. Salmon, the Provost of Trinity College, Dublin, who writes thus "It had been thought likely that disestablishment by throwing over the barriers of separation between the Church and the Dissenting sects would tend to bring about a fusion of these bodies. Twenty years of experience has shewn no sign of such a fusion, and the line of separation between the Church and the sects remaining exactly where it had been, and I see no greater inclination to pass over it on the one side or the other;" and he adds, "From another point of view, the experiment tried in Ireland has not been such as to encourage thoughtful men to wish to repeat it in Wales. It had been predicted on the one hand that disturbance of what had been peaceably possessed for centuries would give a shake to the whole institution of property, and would lead men to think that they were to get rich not by industry and economy, but by persuading the legislature to give them something that had belonged to their neighbours; it was said on the other hand that our disendowment would make Ireland happy and contented and more attached to England. I need not say which of these predictions has been fulfilled. However, this may be, I must say that I would gladly aid in repelling assaults on the Church in Wales because every one knows that what is aimed at is the Church of England as a whole. It is too big a mouthful for her adversaries to swallow whole. So their plan is to eat the artichoke leaf by leaf. Now the Church of England is far more than an aggregate of parishes or dioceses; it is because it is one great and venerable institution that it is so strong a break-water against infidelity and false doctrine, that all who care for Christianity or even for Theism, would find their cause endangered by its removal. I really think that less harm would be done to the Church of England by disestablishing or by disendowing her than by disintegrating her." Dr. Salmon adds in a postscript an amusing story, "An Irish clergyman who attended the Grindelwald conference, met there some nonconformist ministers who claimed his gratitude for the benefits the Irish Church had received from disestablishment. He said to them, 'You seem not to have read the conclusion of the parable of the Good Samaritan. The wounded traveller was well taken care of at the inn, speedily recovered and found himself in very comfortable quarters. While there he received a visit from two gentlemen who introduced themselves as belonging to the party of the robbers and come to claim his gratitude for the benefits they had done him. 'If we had not stopped you on your way to Jericho, you would never have been so pleasantly circumstanced as you now find yourself.'"

To the above I would wish to add the testimony of Mr. Gladstone, the late Prime Minister, who used these words in the House of Commons, May 16th, 1873 [50/51] (see speech published by Church Defence Institution):--

"Now I am not going to recant anything which I have said on the subject of the Irish Church disestablishment, but I am bound to say if my honourable friend challenges me to say in reference to the present condition of that Church whether there is not more freedom for religious thought in the disestablished Church in Ireland, I willingly accept the challenge and declare that she is less free than she was before."

With regard to Ireland there can be no doubt about the results. Since 1869 the Church in Ireland has numerically decreased. Disendowment has had the effect of seriously crippling the work of the Church in rural districts, of mischievously lessening the independence of the Clergy, of lowering their social status and educational attainments, of accentuating rather than of ameliorating the bitterness of nonconformity, and of narrowing the sympathies and energies of the Clergy of the Church of Ireland to one school of thought. I have already pointed out that as far as rural districts are concerned the results in Wales would be worse than they were in Ireland, because in Ireland there was one homogeneous body of great wealth, and thoroughly organized, and already making religious provision in almost every parish for the people. The rivalries and jealousies of the competing sects in Wales renders them entirely unable even to attempt such provision for the rural districts. It can hardly be maintained that it would be for the welfare of religion in Wales to weaken and cripple the only religious body which at present contends for the religious instruction of the young in the elementary and intermediate schools of Wales. There is now a strong current in Wales setting towards secularism. This is to be seen in the irreverence and, in some notable cases, in the blasphemies of the vernacular press in Wales. From time to time complaints are heard from nonconformist ministers of the disregard of religious sanctions observable among their people, and painful descriptions have been given by nonconformist ministers of the low state of morality and religion prevalent in their congregations. In one of the vernacular papers, edited by a Methodist minister, it was stated "that there is no [51/52] need to waste time to prove that religion is declining among us. The pulpit has lost its sacredness; it is to be feared that the divine glory has left our Zion . . . Our ministers waste their time over school Boards and other things instead of visiting the sick and widows in their affliction." The late Rev. J. Thomas, D.D., president of the Welsh Congregationalists, stated in 1891 that "no one who observes can fail to admit that the interest of the young, and persons of mature age as well, in the spiritual work of the Churches is failing." This testimony can be multiplied, and it comes from those who speak from personal knowledge of the inner life of Welsh nonconformity. It has been said that one result of disestablishment in Wales would be the extinction of religious bitterness. The exact reverse would be the result. It is difficult to convey to the mind of any one unacquainted with the country the angry rivalries and the exclusive dealing--to borrow a well-known euphemism--which prevails amongst the nonconformist sects in Wales. Each sect confines its trade to its own members, and as Mr. J. R. Davies, the leading Methodist layman in North Wales, pointed out in his speech at the nonconformist Union in 1892 the Methodist, the Baptist, the Independent, and the Wesleyan seem to have realized their highest ideal if they can secure the election of one of their members for county or town councils or other local bodies. Amid this stifling atmosphere of religious competition some strong, independent and moderating influence is required if the community is not to lose touch with all that is sound and wholesome. At present the only hope for that influence lies with the Church in Wales. Hitherto Churchmen in Wales have escaped the blight of the sectarian spirit, and have joined freely and unsuspectingly in all works of general benevolence and philanthropy. All deplore the bitterness now prevailing amongst the nonconformist sects. Surely it is a strange remedy for this bitterness to propose to disestablish and disendow the Church in Wales, and to plunge one more religious body into this degrading competition.

APPENDIX A.1
_______

NO. 1.--AUTHORITIES.

The Official Year Books of the four bodies, which comprise Welsh Nonconformity, viz.:--

(a) The Congregational Year Book (Y Dyddiadur Annibynol), published by H. Evans, Bala, 1893, page 142.

(b) The Wesleyan Year Book (The Minutes of Conference), published 2, Castle Street, City Road, London. See pages 448-472.

(c) The Baptist Official Year Book (The Baptist Handbook), published by Veale Chifferiel & Co., 31, Cursitor Street, London, page 288.

(d) The Calvinistic Methodist Year Book (Ystadegau Eglwysi a Chynulleidfaoedd), published by Lewis Evans, Castle Street, Swansea. See page 1.

No. 2.--'Adherents' or 'Hearers' are thus defined in the official directions of the Calvinists, viz.:--"Adherents or Hearers include all the Chapel members and everybody who is a hearer although all are not present at the same time, and all the children." The Congregational directions are, that as in the Government Census of the population the baby born on the morning of the census is counted, so all the children and infants in Congregational families are to be counted under the head of Adherents or Hearers.

It is especially important to notice that adherents therefore include every single person, man, woman, child, or infant, who can by any stretch of imagination be described as belonging to the denomination.

No. 3.--The Wesleyans and the Baptists only give the number of "Members" in their Official Year Books, and I have calculated the "Adherents" for these two bodies upon the same ratio as Members bear to Adherents in the two largest denominations.

No. 4.--It will be seen that the four Nonconformist bodies of Wales all told number upon their own showing only 47 per cent. of the whole population.

Appendix A2

Number of Nonconformists in Wales.

Appendix B.--Language Census--Wales and Monmouthshire.

Appendix C1
______

I am indebted for the figures in this table to a Return from the Register General's office.

Number of Marriages solemnized according, and not according to the Rites of the Established Church in Monmouthshire and Wales, 1893-92.

Appendix C2

Sir G. Osborne Morgan's Burial Act.
_______

Extract from the Visitation Charge of the Bishop of St. Asaph, 1890.
__________

"The total number of Burials in this Diocese by the Clergy of the Church was 3618 last year. Assuming a death-rate of 18 per 1000, the total number of Burials in the Diocese in one year would be 4,824. I have to thank the Clergy for the very complete and accurate returns, giving the list of burials under Mr. Osborne Morgan's Act for the last 5 years, for every parish in the Diocese. The number of Burials under Mr. Osborne Morgan's Act in this Diocese was 247 in 1885: 216 in 1886; 271 in 1887; 245 in 1888; 251 in 1889. Deducting the Burials in four parishes, the number of Burials under Mr. Osborne Morgan's Act was 119 in 1885; 109 in 1886; 128 in 1887; 128 in 1888; and 98 in 1889. During the last 5 years, out of 208 parishes in the Diocese, there are 94 parishes in which there has not been a single burial under Mr. Morgan's Act, while there are 30 parishes with only 1, and 18 with only 2. To speak quite plainly, Mr. Osborne Morgan's Act is in this Diocese practically a dead letter."

Appendix D.
_______

From Editor of Official Year Book Church of England.

Statement of Voluntary Offerings devoted to the Maintenance of Church Day Schools within the four Welsh Dioceses, during the Year 1893, i.e., the Year ending Easter, 1893.

Appendix E.

ST. ASAPH DIOCESE--Population, 270,180.
__________

Elementary Schools in the Diocese

(BLUE BOOK, 1893)

Appendix F.
__________

Statement of Voluntary Offerings devoted to the support of the Poor in the year 1893, within the four Welsh Dioceses.

Appendix G.
________

Infirmaries, Hospitals, &c

In the following tables the Voluntary Contributions of Churchmen during the last fifty years to Hospitals, Infirmaries, and similar Institutions are given. Every possible care has been taken to make these Tables as accurate as possible. The Contributions have been arranged in two Groups, viz.:--

TABLE A.--Contributions to the Founding and Building of such Institutions.

TABLE B.--Contributions for their annual maintenance.

Under the heading "Not Classified" have been put contributions from Works and Companies, Bazaars and Entertainments.

Appendix H.
__________

Church Work in the Diocese of St. Asaph.
__________

There are 208 Parishes in the Diocese of St. Asaph, and the total Population is 270,180. During the last forty-four years 192 Churches, 152 National Schools, and 138 Parsonage Houses have been built or restored, and the total sum voluntarily contributed exceeds £800,000. This sum does not include the money raised for Church Expenses, School Maintenance, and Church Societies, which amounts to £28,000 a year, giving a total of about £50,000 a year raised in one small diocese alone by voluntary contributions.

Appendix I.

Income and Work.

WELSH NONCONFORMITY AND PASTORAL CARE.

THEIR RESIDENT MINISTRY (Appendix J.)

APPENDIX K.

SUMMARY OF THE STATISTICS of the C.M. Denomination given in the Official Year Book 1894, for Wales and Monmouthshire.

APPENDIX L.

RETURNS RELATING TO CHAPEL SITES IN WALES.

(Appendix M.) "PROFIT AND LOSS"

[page A] ESTABLISHED CHURCH (WALES).

A BILL

TO

Terminate to the establishment of the Church of England in Wales and Monmouthshire, and to make provision in respect of the Temporalities thereof.

BE it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

DISESTABLISHMENT.

1. On the FIRST DAY OF JANUARY ONE THOUSAND EIGHT HUNDRED AND NINETY-SIX (in this Act referred to as the date of disestablishment), the Church of England, so far as it is established by law in Wales or Monmouthshire (in this Act referred to as the Church in Wales) shall cease to be so established, and save as by this Act provided, no person shall, after the PASSING OF THIS ACT, be appointed by Her Majesty or any person, by virtue of any existing right of patronage, to any ecclesiastical office in or connected with the Church in Wales.

2.--(1.) On the date of disestablishment every cathedral and ecclesiastical corporation in Wales or Monmouthshire, whether sole or aggregate, shall be dissolved.

(2.) After the date of disestablishment no bishop of the Church in Wales shall be summoned to or be qualified to sit in the House of Lords as such. Provided that--

(a) every person who is at the PASSING OF THIS ACT a bishop, dean, or archdeacon of the Church in Wales, shall during his life enjoy the same title and precedence as if this Act had not passed; and

(b) writs of summons shall be issued to the bishops not disqualified by this enactment for sitting in the House of Lords as if the bishops so disqualified had vacated their seats.

TRANSFER AND DISPOSITION OF PROPERTY.

3. On the date of disestablishment there shall, save as by this Act provided, be transferred to the Welsh Commissioners hereinafter mentioned:--

(a) all property vested in the Ecclesiastical Commissioners or Queen Anne's Bounty which is ascertained as herein-after mentioned to be Welsh ecclesiastical property; and

[B] (b) all property not so vested which, at the PASSING OF THIS ACT, belongs to or is appropriated to the use of any ecclesiastical office or cathedral corporation in or connected with the church in Wales or the holder of any such office;

subject, in the case of all such property, to all charges and incumbrances affecting the property, and in the case of all such property, except tithe rentcharge, to the existing interests of all persons who at the PASSING OF THIS ACT hold such offices as aforesaid, and in the case of tithe rentcharge, to the obligation to make such provision as is herein-after mentioned in lieu of their existing interests.

4.--(1.) The Ecclesiastical Commissioners and Queen Anne's Bounty respectively shall forthwith after the PASSING OF THIS ACT ascertain and by order declare what property vested in them respectively at the PASSING OF THIS ACT or under the provisions herein after contained consists of, or issues out of, or is the produce of, or is or has been derived from, property situate in Wales or Monmouthshire, in whatever manner the same is applied whether in England or Wales, and that property shall be the Welsh ecclesiastical property for the purposes of this Act.

(2) They shall also, by order made before the date of disestablishment, allocate the charges on any fund held by them respectively in such manner that the charges for purposes of the Church in Wales, and in particular for bishops, archdeacons, and cathedral corporations of the Church in Wales, shall be borne by the Welsh ecclesiastical property, so far as it is able to bear them, and that that property shall be exonerated from, and the fund wholly charged with, such of the charges as are not allocated on the Welsh ecclesiastical property.

(3.) Orders of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners and Queen Anne's Bounty under this section shall be made with the concurrence of the Welsh Commissioners, and in default of such concurrence shall require the approval of Her Majesty the Queen in Council given on the advice of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council.

5.-(1). Any property transferred by this Act to the Welsh Commissioners, which consists of, or is the produce of, or is or has been derived from, property given by any private person out of his own resources since the year ONE THOUSAND SEVEN HUNDRED AND THREE, and does not come within the description of a church or ecclesiastical residence for which provision is otherwise made by this Act, shall, for the purposes of this Act, be deemed to be a private benefaction.

(2) The Welsh Commissioners shall ascertain and by order declare what part of the property transferred to them by this Act constitutes private benefactions within the meaning of this Act, and shall on the request of the representative body herein-after mentioned, vest the same in that body, subject to the charges and incumbrances and interests saved by this Act.

[C] 6.--(1.) Subject to the charges and incumbrances and interests saved by this Act, the Welsh Commissioners shall, save as otherwise provided by this Act, by order vest the property transferred to them by this Act, as follows:--

(a.) they shall, on the request of the representative body, vest in that body all churches, not being cathedral churches, and all parsonage houses;

(b.) they shall vest the burial ground and glebe of and ecclesiastical parish--

(i.) in case of a rural parish, in the parish council of the parish, or, if there is no parish council, in the chairman and overseers of the parish; and

(ii.) in any other case, in the council of any county borough or district comprising the parish;

Provided that where the ecclesiastical parish comprises parts of more than one parish for civil purposes the property shall be vested, as the Welsh Commissioners may direct, in some one or more of the said councils or bodies, or in trustees on behalf of those councils and bodies jointly;

(c) they shall vest any tithe rentcharge in the county council of the county in which the land out of which the tithe rentcharge issues is situate.

(2.) Every church, parsonage house, burial ground, and glebe vested under this section shall be held subject to all existing public and private rights with respect thereto.

7.-(I). The Welsh Commissioners shall out of moneys in their hands in pursuance of this Act maintain and keep in proper repair and condition all cathedral churches transferred to them by this Act, and all such churches shall continue to be subject to all existing public and private rights with respect thereto, and shall, if and as long as the representative body so request, continue to be used for the same purposes as heretofore.

(2.) The Welsh Commissioners shall on request by the representative body allow any ecclesiastical residence transferred to the Commissioners by this Act, and not being a parsonage house, to be used in connexion with the Church in Wales for the purpose of an ecclesiastical residence, subject to the condition that it be maintained and kept in proper repair and condition by the representative body.

8.--(1.) All plate, furniture, and other moveable chattels belonging to any church affected by this Act, or used in connection with the celebration of Divine worship therein, shall vest in the representative body if and when incorporated.

(2.) The Welsh Commissioners shall, on the request of the representative body, vest in that body, subject to the interests saved by this Act, any moveable chattels held and enjoyed by the incumbent for the time [C/D] being of any office, together with or as incident to the occupation of any ecclesiastical residence affected by this Act.

9.--(1.)--Except as otherwise provided by this Act, the Welsh Commissioner shall apply the property transferred to them by this Act as follows:--

(a) where the property is attached to a parochial benefice they shall apply it to some one or more of the purposes mentioned in the First Schedule to this Act in accordance with a scheme to be made with their approval by the county council of the county in which the parish is situate, due regard being had to the interests of the parish;

(b.) they shall apply all other property in the first instance towards payment of the expenses of carrying this Act into execution, and, subject thereto, to some one or more of the purposes mentioned in the said schedule in accordance with schemes to be made by them, so, however, that not less than TWO-THIRDS of such other property shall be applied towards the promotion of technical and higher education, including the establishment and maintenance of a library, museum, or academy of art for Wales; and for that purpose any part of the property may be vested in or appropriated to the use of the University of Wales or any joint committee of the county councils in Wales and Monmouthshire.

WELSH COMMISSIONERS.

10.--(1.) The following persons, that is to say,

 

shall be Commissioners under this Act during Her Majesty's pleasure. If any vacancy among them occurs by death, resignation, incapacity, or otherwise, Her Majesty may, by warrant under Her sign manual, appoint some fit person to fill the vacancy.

(2.) The said Commissioners (in this Act referred to as the Welsh Commissioners) shall be a body corporate, styled "The Commissioners of Church Temporalities in Wales," with a common seal, and power to hold land for the purposes of this Act without licence in mortmain.

(3.) The Welsh Commissioners may act by any one of their body, but if any person aggrieved by an order of one Commissioner so requires the order shall be reconsidered on rehearing by the three Commissioners.

(4.) There shall be paid to the chairman of the Welsh Commissioners such salary, not exceeding FIFTEEN HUNDRED POUNDS a year, and to one other of the Commissioners such salary, not exceeding ONE THOUSAND POUNDS a year, as the Treasury may direct.

[E] (5.) The Welsh Commissioners may, with the consent of a Secretary of State, and the consent of the Treasury as to number and remuneration, appoint or employ and remove a secretary, and such other officers and persons, and with such remuneration, as appears necessary for enabling the Commissioners to carry this Act into effect.

(6.) The said salaries and remuneration and all incidental expenses sanctioned by the Treasury of carrying this Act into effect shall be paid by the Commissioners out of moneys in their hands in pursuance of this Act.

(7.) The salaries of the Commissioners and the remuneration and number of their officers shall be subject to reconsideration and revision at the expiration of FIVE YEARS from the passing of this Act, and of such subsequent intervals as the Treasury may direct, and the Commissioners and the persons appointed or employed by them shall not have any right to compensation, superannuation, or other allowance on abolition of office or otherwise.

(8.) A paid Commissioner or a person appointed or employed by the commissioners shall not during his continuance in office be capable of being elected to or sitting as a member of the House of Commons.

11.--(1.) Subject to such appeal as is herein-after mentioned, the Welsh Commissioners shall have full power to decide all questions, whether of law or of fact. which it may be necessary to decide for the purposes of this Act, and shall not be subject to be restrained in the due execution of their powers under this Act by the order of any court, nor .shall any proceedings before them be removed by certiorari into any court.

(2.) The Welsh Commissioners with respect to--

(a.) enforcing the attendance of witnesses, after a tender of their expenses, the examination of witnesses, and the production of deeds, books, papers, and documents;

(b.) issuing any commission for the examination of witnesses;

(c.) punishing persons refusing to give evidence or to produce documents, or guilty of contempt in the presence of the Commissioners or any of them sitting in open court; and

(d) making or enforcing any order made by them for carrying into effect this Act.

shall have all such powers, rights, and privileges as are vested in the High Court for such or the like purposes, and all proceedings before the Commissioners shall in law be judicial proceedings before a court of record.

(3.) The Welsh Commissioners may review and rescind or vary any order or decision previously made by them or any of them; but save as aforesaid, and as by this Act provided, every order or decision of the Welsh Commissioners shall be final.

(4.) They shall make general rules for regulating the procedure under this Act, and generally for securing the due execution of their powers, and giving effect to this Act. All such general rules shill be submitted [E/F] to Her Majesty the Queen in Council for confirmation, and when so confirmed, with or without modifications, shall be laid before both Houses of Parliament, and shall have effect as if enacted by this Act.

(5.) They shall in each year make a report to a Secretary of State of their proceedings under this Act, and this report shall be laid before Parliament.

12. An appeal shall lie to Her Majesty the Queen in Council against any decision of the Welsh Commissioners with respect to any question as to what constitutes a private benefaction, or as to what sum should be paid under this Act to any person, and any such appeal shall be referred to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council.

13.--(1.) The power to make any scheme under this Act shall include power to amend or supplement any such scheme.

(2.) Every scheme made under this Act shall be submitted to Her Majesty the Queen in Council for confirmation, and when so confirmed, with or without modifications, shall be laid before both Houses of Parliament and shall have effect as if enacted by this Act.

SUPPLEMENTAL PROVISIONS AS TO ECCLESIASTICAL LAW AND OTHER ECCLESIASTICAL MATTERS IN WALES.

14.--(1) As from the date of disestablishment, the present ecclesiastical law in Wales and Monmouthshire shall cease to exist as law, but that law and the present articles, doctrines, rites, rules, discipline, and ordinances of the Church in Wales (including the present jurisdiction and authority of the Archbishop of Canterbury and the courts of the archbishop), shall, with and subject to such modification or alteration, if any, as after the commencement of this Act may be duly made therein, according to the constitution and regulations for the time being of the Church in Wales, be binding on the members for the time being of that Church in the same manner as if they had mutually agreed to be so bound, and shall be capable of being enforced in the temporal courts in relation to any property which by virtue of this Act is held on behalf of the said. Church or any members thereof, in the same manner and to the same extent as if such property had been expressly assured upon trust to be held on behalf of persons who should be so bound.

(2.) Provided that--

(a.) No ecclesiastical court or person shall have any coercive jurisdiction, and any right of appeal to the Queen in Council from any such court or person shall cease; and

(b.) The said constitution and regulations shall not be enforceable against the Archbishop of Canterbury without his consent, and the Archbishop, with the approval of Her Majesty in Council, may give that consent; and

[G] (c.) No alteration in the articles, doctrines, rites, or save so far as may be rendered necessary by the passing of this Act, in the formularies of the Church in Wales shall be so far binding on any ecclesiastical person having any existing interest saved by this Act, as to deprive him of that interest, if he, within ONE MONTH after the making of the alteration, signifies in writing to the representative body his dissent therefrom.

(8.) On the date of disestablishment the bishops and clergy of the Church in Wales shall cease to be members of or be represented in the Houses of Convocation of the Province of Canterbury, but nothing in this Act shall affect the powers of those Houses so far as they relate to matters outside Wales and Monmouthshire.

15.--(1.) Nothing in any Act, law, or custom shall prevent the bishops, clergy, and laity of the Church in Wales from holding synods or electing representatives thereto, or from framing, either by themselves or by their representatives, elected in such manner as they think fit, constitutions and regulations for the general management and good government of the Church in Wales and the property and affairs thereof, whether as a whole or according to dioceses, and the future representation of members thereof in a general synod or in diocesan synods, or otherwise.

(2.) If at any time it is shown to the satisfaction of Her Majesty the Queen that the said bishops, clergy, and laity have appointed any persons so to represent them, and hold property for any of their uses and purposes, Her Majesty may by charter incorporate such persons (in this Act referred to as the representative body), with power to hold land without licence in mortmain.

SUPPLEMENTAL PROVISIONS AS TO VESTED INTERESTS.

16.--(1,) Every county council in whom any tithe rentcharge is vested in pursuance of this Act shall pay to the Welsh Commissioners the annual amount, according to the septennial average, of the said tithe rentcharge (after deducting the sum allowed by the Commissioners for cost of collection, rates, and other outgoings other than income tax), or such less amount as may be required by the Welsh Commissioners for the payments to be made by them in pursuance of this Act, and the amount which any such county council are so liable to pay shall be a debt from the council to the Welsh Commissioners, and a charge on the county fund of the county.

(2.) The Welsh Commissioners shall pay to each person who, at the PASSING OF THIS ACT has any existing interest in any such tithe rentcharge, in substitution for and in satisfaction of that interest, and as part of the emoluments of his office, the amount payable to them by any county council in respect of the tithe rentcharge.

[H] 17. Any person who at the PASSING OF THIS ACT holds an ecclesiastical office affected by this Act may, if he thinks fit, with the consent of the representative body, arrange with the Welsh Commissioners to exchange his existing interest in the emoluments of his office arising from the property transferred to the Welsh Commissioners by this Act for a life compensation annuity calculated in accordance with the Second Schedule to this Act, and thereupon shall vacate his office, but the emoluments aforesaid shall during his life vest in the Welsh Commissioners, and they may apply any part thereof not required for the compensation annuity as if he were dead.

18. The Welsh Commissioners, if application is made to there within SIX MONTHS after the passing of this Act by or on behalf of any person who is at that date entitled to any right of patronage to any benefice affected by this Act, shall, on the occurrence of any vacancy in that benefice after that date, pay in compensation for the extinction of that right an amount not exceeding ONE YEARS emoluments of the benefice taken on an average of the THREE YEARS immediately before that date, with interest at the rate of THREE per cent. per annum from that date.

Provided as follows:--

(1.) Her Majesty shall not, nor shall any corporation, sole or aggregate, dissolved by this Act, nor shall any trustees, officers, or persons acting in a public capacity, be entitled to any payment under this section for or in respect of any right of patronage; and

(2.) Where any person would, but for the provisions of the statutes affecting Roman Catholics in reference to conformity to the Established Church, have had at the PASSING OF THIS ACT any such right of patronage, he shall be entitled to payment therefor in the same manner as if it were then actually vested in him; and

(3.) A trustee or other person occupying a fiduciary position wall not be bound to make an application under this section.

19. If the Welsh Commissioners find that any person who at the PASSING OF THIS ACT holds any lay office in or in connexion with the church in Wales by freehold tenure or by any tenure which, in the opinion of the CommissioNers, is equal to freehold tenure, will be deprived of any emoluments by the operation of this Act, they may pay to that person out of moneys in their hands in pursuance of this Act, such sum by way of compensation, either by a single payment or by a life annuity, as they may, with the consent of the Treasury, determine.

20. (1.) Where a parsonage house is together with other endowments of a benefice subject to a building charge, the occupier of the parsonage house shall, as between himself and the occupiers or persons in possession of the other portions of the endowments, be primarily liable to payment of the charge.

(2.) Any money payable on the first vacancy after the PASSING OF THIS ACT in an ecclesiastical office affected by this Act in respect, of dilapidations [H/I] in an ecclesiastical, residence shall be paid to the person or body in whom on such vacancy the residence is vested.

21. The Ecclesiastical Commissioners shall, as soon as may be after the PASSING OF THIS ACT and before the date of disestablishment, ascertain and by order declare what property not being vested in them at that date consists of or issues out of, or is the produce of, or is or has been derived from, property situate in Wales or Monmouthshire, and is at that date applied or applicable to any ecclesiastical purpose in England, but not in Wales or Monmouthshire, and all such property shall as from the date of the order vest in the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, subject to the existing interests therein, and to all charges and iucumbrances affecting the property and the Ecclesiastical Commissioners shall charge their common fund, with payments ascertained by them to be equal to the net proceeds of the property so vested. Any order of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners under this provision shall be subject to the like concurrence or approval as an order for allocation of the charges on their common fund.

(2.) An order of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners or Queen Anne's Bounty making any allocation under this Act may make any such adjustments, whether of income or of liabilities, as are incidental to the allocation.

(3.) As from the date of disestablishment, any liability or power of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners or Queen Anne's Bounty to make payments for any ecclesiastical purpose in or connected with the Church in Wales shall cease. Provided that they shall continue to make such payments as appear to them required for preserving the interests of persons interested in such payments at the PASSING OF THIS ACT.

(4). As from the date of disestablishment first fruits in respect of any subsequent appointment to any ecclesiastical office in or connected with the Church in Wales, and tenths in respect of any such office, shall cease to be payable to Queen Anne's Bounty, and any tenths payable by any person who is at that date the holder of any such office shall, during the continuance of his office, be paid to the Welsh Commissioners or as they may direct.

SUPPLEMENTAL PROVISIONS (GENERAL).

22. Where any ecclesiastical or cathedral corporation dissolved by this Act holds any property in trust for any charitable purpose, the property shall on the dissolution of the corporation vest in the Welsh Commissioners, and the Commissioners shall, on the request of the representative body, vest the property in that body or in persons appointed by them, subject to the trusts affecting the same, and under the same supervision, local, or otherwise, as heretofore, or as near thereto as the circumstances of the case will admit.

23. The Welsh Commissioners and any local authority shall with respect to any property vested in them by or under this Act, have power [I/J] to manage the property and, as incidental thereto, power to sell or exchange any part thereof; but any such power of sale or exchange shall not be exercised without the consent of the Local Government Board.

24. The Welsh Commissioners shall have power to decide any question arising under this Act between different local authorities, and to make any adjustment of rights or liabilities incidental to the distribution of property under this Act among such local authorities.

25. A county council shall not, by reason of being entitled to or receiving any tithe rentcharge under this Act, be liable for the repair of any ecclesiastical building.

26.--(1.) All books and documents relating to any of the property vested in the Welsh Commissioners by this Act, and not in the possession or under the control of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners or of Queen Anne's Bounty, shall, within THREE MONTHS next after the date of disestablishment, be delivered up to the Welsh Commissioners by the respective registrars of the diocesan or other registries, or other the officers then having the custody or possession of the same respectively, on getting receipts therefor from the Welsh Commissioners.

(2.) The Welsh Commissioners shall preserve the said books and documents, and shall permit reasonable access to the same, and shall hand over to the representative body such of them, if any, as relate exclusively to property to which that body become entitled, and certified copies of such of them as relate to that property jointly with other property.

(3.) The Ecclesiastical Commissioners and Queen Anne's Bounty respectively shall deliver to the Welsh Commissioners any books or documents relating exclusively to the property transferred to the Welsh Commissioners by this Act, and shall permit the Welsh Commissioners and any local authority in whom any such property is vested in pursuance of this Act to have reasonable access to, and to take copies of or extracts from, any books or documents retained by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners or Queen Anne's Bounty, and relating to any property vested in the Welsh Commissioners or in any such local authority.

(4.) The Welsh Commissioners shall lodge in the Public Record Office in London such of the books and documents received by them under this section, and not handed over to the representative body, as may not be required by the Commissioners for the execution of their duties under this Act.

27. Every order of the Welsh Commissioners operating as a conveyance or mortgage of any property shall be deemed to be a conveyance or mortgage within the meaning of the Acts relating to stamps, and shall be chargeable with stamp duty accordingly.

28.-(1.) The Welsh Commissioners may, with the consent of the Treasury, borrow such sums of money as they may think expedient for carrying into effect any provision of this Act, and may give as security [J/K] for the repayment of any sums so borrowed, and the interest thereon, the whole or any part of the property transferred to them by this Act.

(2.) The National Debt Commissioners, if they think fit, with the approval of the Treasury, may, out of any money in their hands under the Acts relating to savings banks, advance to the Welsh Commissioners, with such guarantee as is by this Act authorised (but not otherwise), any money which by this Act the Welsh Commissioners are authorised to borrow.

(3.) The Treasury may, if they think fit, guarantee the payment of the principal and interest of all or any part of any money borrowed by the Welsh Commissioners.

(4.) Any security given by the Welsh Commissioners in pursuance of this Act shall be in such form, and may contain such powers of sale or otherwise, as the Treasury approve, and there shall be certified thereon, in such form and manner as the Treasury direct, any guarantee given by the Treasury.

(5.) For giving effect to the guarantee aforesaid, the Treasury, in aid of any money applicable under this Act for payment of principal and interest for the time being accrued due in respect of any money borrowed by the Welsh Commissioners in pursuance of this Act, may cause to be issued out of the Consolidated Fund of the United Kingdom, or the growing produce thereof, such sums as may be necessary for payment of the said principal and interest, or any part thereof respectively.

(6.) If any money is at any time issued out of the Consolidated Fund in pursuance of the guarantee aforesaid, the Treasury shall cause the same to be repaid to the Consolidated Fund out of the funds in the hands of the Welsh Commissioners.

29.--(1.) All money payable to the Welsh Commissioners under or by reason of this Act shall be paid into such bank and be invested in such manner as the Treasury direct.

(2). At the end of every financial year accounts of the receipts and expenditure of the Welsh Commissioners, both of capital and of income, shall be made up in such form and with such particulars as the Treasury may direct, and shall be audited by the Controller and Auditor General as public accounts in accordance with such regulations as the Treasury may make, and shall be laid before Parliament, together with his report thereupon.

(3). The expense of such audit shall be part of the expenses of carrying this Act into execution, and be defrayed by the Welsh Commissioners accordingly.

30.--(1). The Welsh Commissioners shall, with respect to any ecclesiastical parish part only whereof is situate in Wales or Monmouthshire, determine by order with reference to the population of that part, and the situation of the parish church, and the other circumstances of the case, [K/L] whether the parish is to be treated as being wholly within or wholly without Wales or Monmouthshire, and the perish shall for the purpose of this Act be treated accordingly, but any parishioner of the parish may appeal against any such order to Her Majesty the Queen in Council, and any such appeal shall be referred to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council.

(2). The Ecclesiastical Commissioners shall attach to an English diocese any ecclesiastical parish which at the PASSING OF THIS ACT is situate in a Welsh diocese, but not in Wales or Monmouthshire, and any ecclesiastical parish which under this section is to be treated as being wholly without Wales or Monmouthshire, and may make any provisions necessary or incidental to such attachment.

(3) Any ecclesiastical parish which is at the PASSING OF THIS ACT situate wholly in Wales or Monmouthshire, or is for the purposes of this Act to be treated as so situate, shall, as from the date of disestablishment cease to be part of an English diocese, but save as by this section provided nothing in this Act shall affect any English diocese.

31.--If any vacancy occurs in any ecclesiastical office in or connected with the Church in Wales, between the PASSING OF THIS ACT and the date of disestablishment--

(1). Her Majesty the Queen may in the case of a vacant bishopric, on the petition of the Archbishop of Canterbury, or of any three Welsh bishops, fill the vacancy; but any bishop so appointed shall not be summoned to or be qualified to sit in the House of Lords, and shall be subject to the provisions hereinafter mentioned:

(2). Any other vacancy may be filled by the same person as if this Act had not passed, but the person so appointed shall be subject to the provisions hereinafter mentioned.

(3). A person appointed to any office in pursuance of this section shall not be liable to pay any first fruits in respect of appointment to the office, or any tenths in respect of the office, but his interest shall not be an existing interest within the meaning of this Act.

32.--In this Act unless the context otherwise requires,--

The expression "ecclesiastical office" means any bishopric, ecclesiastical dignity, or preferment within the meaning of the Church Discipline Act, 1840, and includes any lay office in connexion therewith:

The expression "ecclesiastical person" means a bishop and the holder of any ecclesiastical office who is in holy orders:

The expression "right of patronage" includes any advowson, right of presentation, or right of nomination to an ecclesiastical office:

The expression ''synod" includes any assembly or convention:

The expression "property" includes all property, real and personal, including things in action and rights of action; and where any property is held in trust for or for the benefit of the holder of any ecclesiastical office, or for any cathedral or ecclesiastical corporation, [L/M] that property shall be deemed for the purposes of this Act to belong to that office or corporation:

The expression "house" includes any curtilage or garden appurtenant to the house:

The expression "ecclesiastical residence" means any parsonage house and any house of residence of any bishop or member of a cathedral corporation:

The expression "cathedral corporation" means any dean and chapter, and also any corporation of minor canons, or vicars choral, or any other subordinate corporation of or belonging to or connected with any cathedral or collegiate church in Wales.

33.--This Act may be cited as the Welsh Church Act, 1894.

The erection or support of cottage or other hospitals, or dispensaries, or convalescent homes.

The provision of trained nurses for the sick poor.

The foundation and maintenance of public parish or district halls, institutes, and libraries.

The provision of labourers' dwellings to be let at reasonable rents, and allotments.

Technical and higher education, including the establishment and maintenance of a library, museum, or academy of art for Wales.

Any other public purpose of local or general utility for which provision is not made by Statute out of public rates.

Where the compensated holder is at the time of application of the age of FIFTY YEARS or upwards the compensation annuity shall not exceed THREE-FOURTHS of the average net emoluments of his office arising from property transferred to the Welsh Commissioners by this Act during the SEVEN YEARS immediately preceding the application.

Where the compensated holder is less than fifty years of age a deduction of ONE-FIFTIETH shall be made from the said three-fourths for every year that is wanting to make up his age to fifty years.

DENBIGH: PRINTED BY C. COTTON AND CO., VALE STREET.

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