The Cambrian News and Merionethshire Standard

RELIGION IN WALES. (No. 4.) PLACES OF WORSHIP. BOSWELL, in one of his letters, written in 1774, told Dr. JOHNSON that Cambria would complain if he did not honour her with some remarks, after his visit. JOHNSON replied that he had been in five of the six counties of North Wales, had seen bt. Asaph and Bangor, the two seats of their Bishops had been upon Penmaenmawr and Snowdon, and had passed over into Anglesey, but that Wales was so little different from England, it offered nothing tc the speculation of the traveller. The ways, never very obvious to out- siders, in which Wales differs from England,were not so conspicuous a hundred years ago as they are now. The progress England has made in population, wealth, and knowledge, during the past half century has not been equalled in Wales, and the relative difference between the two countries is therefore more easily discovered now than when Dr. JOHNSON came to the by no means unreasonable conclusion that Wales wa3 too much like England to call for special remark. English visitors and residents experience great difficulty in sympathizing with the claims of Wales to be considered a distinct part of the United Kingdom and entitled to separate legislation. But that many natives of the Principality believe in those claims, and consider Wales a distinct nation can no more be disputed than that the belief itself explains a good deal that puzzles English writers who in far too many instances have erroneously looked at the Principality as a part of England which offers even fewer distinctive features than are found in Yorkshire or Westmoreland. A hundred years ago the neglected, and often dilapidated,- parish churches, scattered here and there over the country, were almost the only places of worship to be found in the Principality. In 1742 the Nonconformist congregations were only 110 in number, and many of these congregations assembled in barns and private houses. The Nonconformist places of worship are now between three and four thousand in number, and are steadily increasing. Nothing strikes visitors more forcibly than the numerous Nonconformist chapels built in districts where apparently there is no population to warrant the erection of such large places of worship. In the early days of the Cal- vinistic Methodists landowners were very un- willing to grant sites for chapels which consequent- ly were often built in inconvenient places. The refusal of building sites tended very much to embitter the common people against land- owners, who, as a rule, are now more favourable to Dissenters. The refusal of a site for a chapel is so well calculated to create a storm that few landowners now care to incur the odium it entails. Notwithstanding all difficulties, chapels are far more numerous throughout Wales than churches are in England. Standing back a little way from the turnpike road between two villages nestled among the hills at the junction of two or more beautiful little valleys on the edges of wild moors —crown lands on which poor people have en croached at the feet of mountains where sheep farmers follow their primitive business; in all sorts of secluded places chapels have been built, until Wales is better supplied with places of worship than any other part of the United Kingdom. In many large Welsh parishes extending over from fifteen to thirty thousand acres, the inhabitants could not possibly attend the churches, supposing, as was not always the case, there were resident clergymen and men who could minister to the people in their own lan- guage. For some years past the work of res- toring old churches and building new ones has been actively pursued, and at the present time is going on energetically all over Wales. So much had to be done however, owing to long periods of neglect, that critics are apt to under-estimate what has been accomplished by the Church of England during the past quarter of a century, and particularly during the last decade. As a rule, the members of the Church of England in- clude the landowners and rich people of the dis- trict, so that there ought to be no difficulty in obtaining funds for the restoration of old eccle- siastical edifices, and for building new churches in districts where they are needed, if the Church in Wales is to hold that position which those who love her communion desire to see her take. Some of the rich men of Wales have given liberally, but in proportion to their means labourers, small farmers, miners, and quarrymen, far excel the landed proprietors in supporting religion. Some of the old churches being res- tored possess architectural features of consider- able interest and beauty. These features in most cases are carefully retained, and frequently the whitewash and deformities of the immediate past are removed, and the simple plainness of an older age is brought back with many excellent effects. In building new churches the substan- tial features of the old edifices might be copied with advantage, if the necessary funds were forth- coming. If ever there was a time when ugliness in archi- tecture was considered to be a virtue, it was about eighty or a hundred years ago, when the Noncon- formists of Wales, and more particularly the Calvinistic Methodists, first began to build chapels. The places of worship erected at that time, and for many years afterwards, are monu- ments of dreary ugliness—cheerless alike inside and out. Four plain walls with a door at one end, and long, narrow, factory like windows at intervals all round. Inside everything was of the plainest possible deRcriptiondeal forms or pews, white- washed walls, plastered ceiling, tin candleholders. No attempt, whatever, was made at adornment, even when it would have cost no more than ugliness. Flowers, one of the greatest and most beautiful gifts God has given us, are shunned to this day as the emblems of Popery and High Churchism. These barn-like chapels were built by poor people who neither knew nor cared anything about architec- tural styles. They wanted places of worship, and made sacrifices-noble sacrifices—of time and money and labour in order that they might pro- vide. for themselves veritable "Bethels" and "Ebenezers." Those old, ugly, meetinghouses were paid for mainly by labouring men and poor farmers, who gladly contributed more than they could well spare by denying themselves what are commonly deemed the necessaries of existence. The people were roused to a new conception of life and its destiny, and performed works of building which, considering their poverty, may fairly be considered marvellous. The spirit abroad in those days protested in its emphatic way against certain evils and extravagances by ignoring external beauty in worship, but the de- votion that fixed a chapel wherever a congrega- tion could be gathered together would, under other auspices, have been equal to the erection of sacred piles as magnificent as any to be found in the country. The deep religious fervour of the people, fed and sustained by men of great earn- estness and of rare gifts of speech,, sought outlets, and, instead of concentrating itself upon one or two great temples, happily covered the country with places of worship, which, notwithstanding all that may be said against them, have proved a bles- sing to the country, incalculably great. The demand for larger places of worship has been constant, and that demand has been mere than met, down to the present time, by the liberality of the congregations. The majority of the members of these congregations are poor men and women who, according to their means, give liberally and regularly as long as ever there is a debt on the chapel. There is now a desife to erect beautiful chapels but the successes achieved by Nonconformists in ecclesiastical architecture in Wales are not hitherto conspicuous. The lonn narrow windows are now 'sometimes filled with tinted glass, but they are still long and narrow. Mullions and tracery are not often found in the windows of Welsh chapels. The stonework of new chapels is more substantial, and undoubtedly a considerable advance has been made in planning buildings pleasing to the eye. Improvements are more obvious in the internal fittings and ar- rangements than in external appearance. The ceiling may still be plastered, but if so it is panelled. The wood work is often very substan- tial and in good taste, and occasionally the pulpit or platform is an artistic piece of carved work. In towns large sums are often spent on chapels, but although the designs are improving they are still far from impressing the beholder with any- thing akin to that awe which is inspired by the grand old cathedral churches of the country. The builders of places of worship in old times made good work that stood for centuries, but in those days building was a religious act, and was not done by contract. Owing to the two languages, each denomination is compelled in the larger towns to provide two places of worship. As the English language be- comes more general the need for English chapels will be increasingly felt in the smaller towns and the less thickly populated districts. Already in places of six or seven thousand inhabitants there is the English Church and the Welsh Church the English Independents and the Welsh Inde- pendents the Welsh Calvinistic Methodists and the English Calvinistic Methodists the Welsh Wesleyans and the English Wesleyans the WelshBaptistsandtheEnglishBaptists. Wherever a denomination is divided in this way it is clear the expenses are greatly increased—are in fact doubled—without anything like a corresponding augmentation of' strength or usefulness. This multiplication of places of worship goes on in some instances to such an extent that there is accommodation for more than the whole popula- tion of the town or village. At one per- haps the only place of worship a village con- tained was a Calvinistic Methodist Chapel. The Wesleyans then build a chapel and were quickly followed by the Baptists and Independents. In a few years one or more of the bodies erect an English place of worship, and to complete the provision the Church of England erects a chapel of ease or a church. This process is going on all over the country, and there is a sense in which it may be said that all the places of worship are needed, although together they afford far more accommodation than is required for purposes of worship. The aggregate amount spent in the erection and maintenance of the Nonconformist system is very great, amounting to nearly half a million a year. When it is remembered that this sum provides and maintains about 4,000 places of worship, and supplies them with preachers, it cannot be said that the money is not carefully spent.

ABERYSTWYTH RURAL SANITARY AUTHORITY. AT the meeting of the Aberystwyth Rural Sanitary Authority on Monday last, Mr. BIROHAM was pre- sent. After some conversation he informed the Board that unless the sanitary work was done more efficiently he could not recommend the repayment of a moiety of the salaries. Local Government Board Inspectors are slow to interfere with negligent Boards and officials, bui there is a limit, almost reached at Aberystwyth, beyond which silence would be reprehensible. The sanitary condition of the Aberystwyth rural district is of far greater importance than has yet been realized. Attention must be paid to thos ■■■' social conditions which experience has proved are inimical to life and morals, and for whose regula- tion the legislature has provided an expensive system of officials. The Aberystwyth Rural Sanitary Authority started well. A house to house inspection was made, the condition of the district was ascertained, well paid officers were appointed, and it seemed to the ratepayers that something was going to be done to elevate this portion of North Cardiganshire to a higher position in the country than it had previously held. Abstracts of Mr. ALDERSON'S reports were published in these columns in the year 1873. Those reports showed that there were houses all over the district unfit for habitation; that drainage was deficient. that water supplies were inadequate; that ventilation was neglected that overcrowding was prevalent; that filth abounded that privy accom- modation was almost unknown; that in fact there was ample work for an energetic Sanitary Committee for many years to come. Six years have passed since the publication of those humiliating reports which the Sanitary Committee might again read with advantage, but practically nothing has been done to bring about a better state of things in the district. Manure heaps have been removed but, to quote a word of the inspector's, they are recurrent." The Sanitary Committee are at a dead lock, and on Monday last were informed that unless the work is more efficiently discharged, the moiety of the officers' salaries repaid by Government will be withheld. What can be done with a body like the Aberystwyth Rural Sanitary Committee unless the London Board exercise their extensive powers and get rid of people who will not put the law in force ? It may be said on behalf of the Committee that it is difficult to decide upon water and drainage schemes, and still more difficult to know what to do with the inhabitants of houses unfit for human habitation—those miserable abodes made of turf, cemented with mud, and thatched with straw," referred to by I the Rev. WILLIAM JONES in an essay written in 1840. We will for argument's sake admit the difficulty of deciding upon water and drainage schemes, and also that of disposing of the inhabitants of houses unfit for human habitation. As long as wealthy landowners refuse to build good cottages, and ignore the responsibilities that devolve upon proprietors of large estates, these difficulties will remain. But have all the houses unfit for habitation occupied by out-door paupers been condemned ? Is it not a fact that at the present moment, and during all the past six years, the most wretched hovels in the neighbourhood have been occupied by out-door paupers ? The SANITARY INSPECTOR, the MEDICAL OFFICERS, the RELIEVING OFFICERS, the members of the Board of Guardians, and the Rural Sanitary Committee are to blame for the scandalous neglect which has gone on year after year, and which is still going on. There is no excuse for the disgraceful condition of the Aberystwyth Rural Sanitary District. The Sanitary Committee sins with its eyes open, and weakly tries to evade responsibility by laying the blame upon a servant who some weeks ago was elected to be the master of the Board. The general complaint against the Sanitary Committee is, that they have not carried out needful structural works but their utter condemnation lies in the fact that they have done nothing else. There are cottages on the road to Llanbadarn with small windows that cannot be opened. There is a ruined house at the entrance to Llanbadarn that in any other part of the United Kingdom would be considered a nuisance at the eastern end of Pwllhoby there is another ruined house used as a receptacle for filth. What is the use of an Inspector who does not attend to small but important matters of this kind ? And, further, what is the use of a Sanitary Committee that allows these defects, visible from the turnpike road, to continue year after year ? The Committee and officials are almost as much in need of removal as the nuisances they treat -with such tender regard. Mr. BIROHAM will do good service if he makes such representations to the Local Government Board as will cause that body to insist upon something like a fair return of work for the salaries paid. It is very dis- heartening year after year to report the proceed- ings at the Aberystwyth Rural Sanitary meetings, and to find that the something which the Com- mittee was going to do six years ago, and has been going to do ever since, it is still going to do, sometime in the indefinite future. People sunk in poverty, who live in mud hovels surrounded by filth, represent something more than a social inconvenience; they are the indubitable proofs of intellectual and social torpor in high places where, in these days, such torpor is a crime. If the landowners of Cardigan- shire had done their duty in the past, the county would never have stood as low as it did s,)me time ago. If they are prepared to do their duty in the future, it may soon obtain a creditable position but it is to be feared the do- nothing policy of the Sanitary Committee meets with the approval of the landowners, who know that new cottages are needed, but are not disposed to build them who are well aware that drainage and water are wanted, but are not disposed to bear the expense. Six years is a period long enough for the Sanitary Committee to have shown that they were capable of doing useful work They have thrown the opportunity away, and have no right to complin whatever steps may be taken by the Local Government Board. with a view of bringing about a more satisfactory state of things than now exists.

LOCAL AND DISTRICT NOTES. Owing to the persistent way in which the Aberystwyth Poor-rates Collector does not collect the rates there is now due on School Board precepts more than £ 1,000 The unfortunate overseers have borrowed £ 340 at the bank to meet demands made upon them, and have been going about the town with Mr. SAMUEL collecting rates to pay that sum back again. On Tuesday the Council borrowed a further £ 300, for which interest will have, to be paid out of the rates, in order to appease the School Board. The constant arrears of rates cost the ratepayers about £ 60 a year in interest. That the extraordinary performance should have gone on so long is marvellous, and among other things proves once more that blood is thicker than water. A private employer would not have borne for a week what the ratepayers have deliberately chosen to suffer for years. There are some things hard to under- stand, gand this is one ofj them. The over- seers are not much to be pitied because they could have ended their troubles fn a day by simply going to the Board of Guardians and lodging a complaint. They don't like to be unneighbourly. How kind, but how disastrous. On Tuesday, January 28, according to an announcement in our advertising.columns, an examination will be held in the schoolroom at Aberystwyth for the purpose of filling three exhibitions of JE6 each per annum, tenable for three years. The candidates must be in the sixth standard in the Board or National Schools. This is a movement in the right direction, and will afford intelligent boys additional educational opportunities. If Mr. EDWARD JONES'S ex- ample is extensively followed a very interesting problem in the education question will be satisfactorily solved. '"?■ The London and Provincial Bank has declared a dividend of 12 per cent. The other banks in the district have done equally well. The excited state of the people was well illustrated in London last week when a run was started on a bank by a word or two uttered in con- sequence of a. temporary crush. A sarcastic correspeir dent in one of the London dailies advises the banks to refuse the money of those people who in their eagerness to save themselves withdrew their deposits and as far as th,'y could the stability of the bankjthey honoured with their custom. It was agreed on Monday by the Aberystwyth Town Council to let the stables and land on Morfa Mawr by auction. It would have been well if all the land had been let 'ay -1. a. There is only one way to keep things clean and sound in a borough, and that is to treat every body alike. Mr. SZLCMPER may have paid more for the fields he has taken than., they are worth, but it would have been more satisfactoryjto have received less in -in:open bidding. Lead min ing was never perhaps at a lower ebb in Cardiganshire than at the present time. It is not that the trade is depressed-it is almost at a stand still and scores of poor people are suffering far more deeply than can be realized by those who have food, fire, and clothing. The continued severity of the weather intensifies the suffering and multiplies the victims. The people are going away from the mining villages to seek for work elsewhere. The Post-office arrangements with the Cambrian Rail- way are far from satisfactory. Last Saturday week, and again last Saturday, the Post-office van did not reach Aberystwyth until 2.40 p.m. instead of coming at 7.25 a.m. One consequence of this delay is that in some parts of the town letters are not delivered until nearly five o'clock in the afternoon. At Aberystwyth the delivery of letters is very little better now than when the trails came in an hour and a half later. The clerks who travel with the van are changed every week for three months, and the sorting of the letters has to be done over again, for the simple reason that the sorters cannot learn the districts by only coming upon the ground four weeks in a year. Another great drawback is that there are only three letter carriers for the whole of the town during the winter months. The result of this economy is that in winter letters are delivered late in the day because there are only three carriers, and in summer because the town is full of visitors. In some parts of the town there is no night delivery of letters at all an arrangement highly unsatisfactory to the people who happen to be subjected to it. The Post-office arrangements at Aberystwyth are as unsatisfactory as they well can be, owing to the cheese-paring policy pursued :by the higher offi. cials. The POST-MASTER does what he can to satisfy the publios but he cannot make a boy do a man's work, nor can he get three men to do four men's work in the same time. There are, of course, ways and means of obtaining alterations in postal arrangements when they are as un- satisfactory as at Aberystwyth. The SURVEYOR for this district resides at Shrewsbury, and,it is reasonable to sup- pose, occasionally visits toAberystwyth; but strange to say he never discovers any defects, nor institutes any reforms until a violent agitation has proved to him that further delay would be dangerous. Aberystwyth requires an additional first-class clerk in the office a fourth letter carrier; more speedy sorting of the letters; and arrange- ments that will secure the regular arrival of the mails at the proper time. This subject will be dealt with again and again until the defects pointed out are remedied. Aberystwyth is not a village, and must be provided with average postal accommodation even if the cost absorbs the profit made. There is no reason why Aberystwyth should be stinted in accommodation as long as the busi. ness is steadily increasing. The quarrymen of North Wales are calmly and metho- dically setting themselves to the work of encouraging emi- gration by contributing out of the funds of the Union fixed sums to those members who are willing to emigrate. The quarrymen of Wales are not averse to emigration, and as this is about the most favourable time for emigra- tion that has been known for at least twenty years, it is not improbable that a large number of men will see homes in the colonies and in the United States. Men who are willing to work on the land, and are not afraid of work, have nothing whatever to fear in emigrating. There are millions of acres waiting cultivation, and capital is beginning once more to flow, to wards the land instead of to rotten governments. The depressed condition of trades and manufactures has induced men to turn their attention t3 the soil, which is a safe bank, and always makes a fair return for what is expended upon it. It is well that it should be remembered that the Welsh Colony in Pata- gonia is not one of the best fields for emigration, especially for men of limited means. There are wide fields under the British Government—fields where there are roads, rail- ways, schools, banks, mints, markets, and other aids to civilize life. In the United States, again, the emigrant is sure of a fixed government, and will find himself under in- stitutions and laws not unlike those he has been accus. tamed to at home. Emigration is the solution of the labour question, and is also the only hope of the tenant farmer. The tenant farmer who can raise one or two hundred pounds is the man for whom there is a bright outlook over the sea. As long as there is a fierce compe- tition for undrained, unfenced, exhausted, rabbit-infested farms, it will be impossible to teach landlords wisdom. The advice to give is, emigrate and find spots where your produce will not be devoured by vermin which you are not allowed to kill. The Lampeter Market Committee deserve success. Two rent audit dinners have been held in the town in the course of the week, and a deputation from the Committee waited upon the tenants on each occasion and asked them t3 support the markets. The deputations, we are in- formed, were favourably received. This is satisfactory, as far as it goes, but it ought not to be necessary in these days to ask farmers to bring their produce to market. One reason why Welsh farmers are not more prosperous is that they do not support markets well enough to attract large buyers, and are, consequently, driven into the hands of middlemen. The measure of success achieved at Lampeter by the Committee is sufficient to encourage them to persevere, and ought to be enough to secure the hearty support of the Local Board, the owners of property in the town, and the landowners and farmers in the neighbourhood. Lampeter is situated in the heart of an excellent agricultural district, and if good accommodation is provided, and the inhabitants work well together, will ultimately be made a first-class market town and every- body will be benefited. Farmers could easily double the amount of their garden and dairy produce if they were wise enough to see the advantage of doing so. There is an unlimited demand for butter, eggs, fruit, fowls, &c., in the great centres of population. These are the facts that the committee must impress upon the farmers time after time, unceasingly. Good markets are far too valuable an acquisition to be easily obtained, but, unfortunately, farmers are a long time in recognizing their advantages. Nothing will be more likely to encourage the Market Committee than to compare the present markets with the markets of five years ago. At the Cardiganshire Assizes only eleven grand jurymen put in an appearance, the least number required to form a jury being thirteen. Great inconvenience was caused, but ultimately two special jurymen were called in. If there had been a little patronage to give away Cardigan. shire magistrates would have appeared in greater force. The Local Government Board has consented to the es- tablishment of a Local Board of Health for the district of Festiniog. We are glad that the authorities in London have seen fit to accede to the wishes of the inhabitants in this matter, for there can be no question that a large and populous district like that of Festiniog ought not to be without some form of local self-government. The num- ber of members of which the Board is to be composed is not yet fixed. Care should be taken that it be neither too large nor too small for its efficient working.

The special correspondent of the Daily News at Con- stantinople gives a very gloomy description of the present condition of Turkey. He says that never in the history of any country has there been such a hopeless deadlock. Throughout the empire disorder reigns, and there are in- dications of incipient insurrection. In the midst of all this, the Government has shown itself utterly incapable of dealing with the exigency, and has done nothing which can inspire hope of improvement in the future. Four men wer3 convicted at Northampton Quarter Sessions on Wednesday on the charge of inciting a young man to personate his father at the last municipal election at Northampton. The jury recommended them to mercy and they were let off with a fine of ten pounds each. The examination of the convict, Charles Peace, who is charged with the murder of Mr. Dyson at Banner Cross two years ago, was to have been resumed before the Sheffield magistrates on Wednesday, but while on his way from Pentonville to Sheffield, travelling from London by express train on the Great Northern Railway, he made a desperate attempt to escape. He jumped through the open window of the carriage, but his foot was caught by one of the warders, and he was held suspended head down- wards for a few minutes, till he managed to work his foot out of the boot, when he fell on the line and was partially stunned. The train was stopped, and the warder and others ran back to the spot and captured Peace, who was incapable of resistance. He was conveyed to Sheffield by the next train. He does not appear to have been very seriously hurt. The Pall Mall Gazette correspondent at Rome states that at a meeting of Cardinals which has been summoned by the Pope for the 20th of February, Cardinal Manning will be consulted on the proposed establishment of a new Roman Catholic Diocese in Wales. The annual meeting of the National Federation of Liberal Associations was held at Leeds on Wednesday, January 22, under the presidency of Mr. J. Chamberlain' M.P. The report stated that the Federation comprised 101 Associations. -Mr. Chamberlain said that the movement had been a great success, and he believed it would bring about the unity and eventual triumph of the Liberal party.

LOCAL AND DISTRICT. "V"V\.I. BANKRUPTCY.—Richard Davies, Tymawr, Penllech, Carnarvonshire. ECCLESIASTICAL APPOINTMENTS.—Rev. David Thomas Clark, B.A., vicar of Llangadwaladr. PARTNERS HIPS DISSOLVED.—Nevill Brothers LlanelJv Carmarthenshire, rollers and manufacturers of iron and ironfounders. M. Louis, W. O. Edwards, and W C Langley, Rhyl, Flintshire, solicitors; as regards W' (' Langley. Evans and Jones, Denbigh, ironmongers! plumbers, gasntters, and bellhangers. DEATH OF MRS .WILLIAMS.-We regret to record the death of Mrs. Williams, mother of Mr. Watkin Williams M.P., which took place at Rhyl on Monday, Tan. 13: Mrs. Williams was the widow of the Rev. Peter Williams" rector of Llansannan, and had attained the advanced age of eighty-one years. THEOLOGICAL SCHOLARSHIPS:—The Entrance Theolo- gical Scholarship, £ 60 a year, has been awarded to George Robert Bell, of St. Chad,s College, Denstone. A few months ago a Science Scholarship at Cambridge was also obtained by a Denstone boy. BRECON AND MERTHYR RAILWAY (61 miles open). Traffic Statement for the week ending January 19, 1879 Passengers, parcels, &c;, £ 158 0s. 4d. goods and live stock, 29)4 12s. 8d.; total, RI,082 13s. Od. £ 17 153. 0d. per mile per week. Corresponding week last year (61 miles open): P^engere, parcels, &c., £ 202 16s. Od.; goods and live stock, ~old 13s. Id.; total, £ 1,022 9s. Id. • £ 16,153. 2d. per mile per week.—Increase for this week, B60 3s. lid. Aggregate for 3 weeks, 1879; £3,261 4s.. 3d.; Aggregate foi 3 weeks, 1878, £ 3,292 2s. Gd. De- crease for 3 wMeks, ioO 18s. 3d. ECCLESIASTICAL. -The Bishop of Hereford has sicrnified his intention of collating the Rev. Charles Williaru Pritchard, M.A., rector of Silvington, Shropshire, in the diocese of Hereford, to the rectory of Withington, now vacant by the death of the Rev. Charles Henry Philip Abbot. The Rev. Owen Jones, curate of Bodedern Anglesey, has been promoted by the Bishop of Bangor to the living at Lianfair, near Harlech. Net income over B200 and a rectory house with nine acres of glebe land The rectory of Denio-cum-Llanrhos; (Pwllheli) vacant by the resignation of the Rev. E. O. Williams, has been offered by the Bishop of Bangor to the Rev. H. Rees vicar of Conway. NoItTH WALES QUARRYMEN'S UNION. PROPOSED EMIGRATION. The Committee of the North Wales Quarrymen's Union held a special meeting on Saturday January 18, at Carnarvon, to decide upon the steps to be taken in the present depression of trade, which is said to be unprecedented. Mr. Parry (Bethesda) presided.—A report, for public circulation, was drawn up, in which it is stated that the trade within the last six months has got into, if not through, one of the most sudden and strange panics that has ever occurred, the present danger being lest employers should drive things too far with the men. After complaining of the apparent disinclination on the part of quarry owners to make "stock" preparatory to the revival of trade, the Committee announce that, look- ing at the present deplorable condition of affairs, and that the reason given for reducing wages and shortening hours is the inability of quarry owners to sell the quantity of stock made, they have resolved upon voting every mem- ber of the Union wishing to emigrate to America £ 3 for the first year of his membership, and JB1 for every succeeding year he has been connected with the organization: and to all emi- grating to Australia and New Zealand double that amount; £ 2 being further added in the case of those going to South America or to places west of Chicago. It is ex- pected that a large number of unionists will accept the Committee's offer.

THE ADDRESS TO THE QUEEN FROM THE MAGISTRATES OF MERIONETHSHIRE. The Clerk of the Peace for the County of Merioneth (Mr. E. Breese) has received the following letter from the Home Secretary in reply to the address from the magis- trates of Merionethshire to her Majesty, on the occasion of the death of the late Princess illice, The address was determined upon at the last Quarter Sessions Whitehall, 15th January. 1879 Sir, —I have had the honor to lay before the Queen the loyal and dutiful address of the Magistrates of the county of Merioneth in Quarter Scions assembled, on the occasion of tl e death of her Royal Hishnesa the Grand Duchess of Hesse Princess Alice of Great Britain and Ireland. And I have the satisfaction to inform you that her Majesty was pleased to receive the same very graciously.—I am, sir, your obedient servant.. RICHARO ASSIIETON CROSS. The Clerk of the Peace for Merionethshire, Portmadoc.

Mr. Wheatley, solicitor, of Salford, has been appointed town clerk of Cardiff at a salary of £1,000 a year. There were twenty-seven candidates. <