HANES BYWYD Y PARCH JOHN EVANS, LLWYKYFFORTUN (Dan nawdd cyfarfod misol SirGaerfyrddin). Gan THO- MAS JOHN WILLIAMS, Myddfai. Llanelli: Argraffwyd gan Rees a Williams, Swyddfa y Diwygiwr. 1848. [Memoir of Rev. John Evans, Llwynyfibrtun. By T. J. Williams, Myddfai.] IF the concurrent testimony of contemporaries is to be at all regarded there can be no reasonable doubt that John Evans was a greatman. If general agreement on the part of men of all denominations is to be considered of any value, we may be equally certain that he was a good man. But if we trust for information and detail to the pages of this memoiry we fear that our only legitimate deduction will, be that he was a very odd, eccentric man, who had somehow or other acquired the fame of being a great man. We look here in vain for the greatness. It's form is too shadowy tobetangible. Mr. Williams has produced an amusing book it is well adapted to divert, and is therefore likely to sell. Indeed we are told thatnles, early application will be made, the six thousand copies will be gone. So far as the pecuniary part b of the transaction is concerned, we are glad tnat it is so, how much soever-we may deplore it, as furnishing a melan- choly proof of the want of taste and good sense prevalent among our countrymen. The work, as we have said before, is amusing, and very readable. The oddities of the style are at first sight par- donable, and one may read on without much vexation uiitil the end of the fourteenth chapter is reached. After that (with the exception of Chapter xvi.) the author seems de- termined to furnish his readers with the means of disprov- ing the assertion that John Evans was a great iucin, Which he has repeatedly reiterated throughout the forty-nine pre- ceding pages. Mis letters, selection's from his writings, and skeletons of sermons, might be very1 passable as the produc- tion of an inferior mind; but when we are informed that they are exactly like himself, and that he was the greatest of our countrymen, if not of the sons of men, we are inevi- tably led to the conclusion either that John Evans was, after all that is said to the contrary, a very inferior man, or that the author knows nothing whatever of greatness him- self, and is perfectly incompetent to judge of it in others. It would be invidious towards Mr. Williams, unfair to- wards the public, and unjust to ourselves, if we did not state the grounds on which we base our censure of his work. We like its spirit. It is catholic, and the author seemingly does not cherish any prejudice against other denominations. Some parts of the work are also tolerably well written and free to a considerable extent from the blemishes which per- vade the work. As there is nothing impossible, with care and practice Mr, Williams may become a good writer, but without muck qare we fear he will never excel. Though Demosthenes was not born an orator, yet by labour and'per- severance he became the first orator of his own or any other age. Mr. Evarfs, the subject of this memoir, had a natural talent for speaking. For writing he had but little taste, as is evident from the specimens furnished, by his biographer. Yet had ■he cultivated the art of writing he might have been very successful, and what we say öfhim we say of Mr. Wil- liams, The style of the present work is faulty. Its dress is gro- tesque and unseemly. We have in the memoir much of a careless, free-and-easy, conversational, interrogating style, just as if the author when writing was only half awake; or perhaps that we should describe him more accurately were we to say, that he was overheard when talking to himself, and "that the listener acted the amanuensis for him. Occasionally he writes in the singular number; by and by he is on very good terms with the royal WE, aud presently he has regained his indi- vidualism—though the we greatly prevails. We have Mr. Evans described as John Evans, (hvm Gwen, Mab Cwm Gwen, Mr. Evans, Llwynyfibrtun, John Evans, New Inn, and Mr. Evans. This is not occasional, but continuous throughout the work. The narrative of Mr. Evans's life is entirely unconnected. His character as a preacher, for in- stance, is given immediately after the chapter which nar- rateshisfirst attempts at preaching, and before that episode in his life when he sought clerical orders. The whole work is characterised with a great want of judgment. There is an attempt to make the hero too heroic. If his amiability is to be described, it must be done by asking if he -,vas,liot the most beloved among the sons of men ? In describ- ing his early religious impressions, the author must fix on the period when he was on his mother's breast. Won- derful influences," we are toldu by the author, descended upon him in the means of grace when he was in his mother's bosom." In proof of this it is stated that he used to look about him here and there and throw out his hands and the author gravely adds, "this is by no means incredi- ble." Indeed, we should think so; and we would engage any Sabbath-day to find a respectable number of infants in every well attended Welsh chapel, under wonderful influ- ences," if the acts mentioned in the memoir are true indica- tions of such influences. We should be sorry to deny that very young children may be religiously impressed we only mean to affirm that s evidence docs not sub- stantiate his case. ITe has produced several pictures of con- siderable beauty, but they are exhibited without any regard to order and effect. His leading idea seems to be keeping the worthy dead on a climax, and unless lie will have him there he seems dissaiisficd. In the cradle, on his mother's arm, in school, in church, in chapel, in private, and in public, in suffering and in enjoyment, in life and in death, it would seem, that Mr. "Williams believes he. could not be described without tllb kind offices of the superlative degree. Now this is doing injustice to the memory of the great and good man. He was a man of like passions with ourselves. It is unjust to the author himself, as it throws an air of suspicion over every part of his work, and most seriously impugns the soundness of his judgment. Our regret in connexion with this Work is increased when we reflectthat it appears under the sanction of the Carmarthenshire monthly meeting, and that it was actually examined in manuscript before committed to the press by two brethren. The deficiencies of Mr. Williams might have been overlooked, but when the monthly meeting has set the seal of its approbation on what he has done, it becomes the reviewer to utter his opinions in terms .more distinct and emphatic. The insertion of the letters and skeletons of Mr. Evans has done him great injustice. In a few short years, the public will have to decide upon the character of the venerable man from what has been put on record by the press. And whoever will judge of him from his remains in this work will form a most erroneous impres- sion. lie was a man to be heard and not read. His fair and manly form, his captivating address, his graceful enun- ciation, his sweet voice and purity of language, tendered him a most delightful speaker, but most of these are qualifica- tions that cannot be traced on paper.* If, as Mr: Williams hints, this memoir is to be had in remembrance until the millenium, we earnestly counsel him to re-write it, so that the next edition will be "revised and improved" to a considerable extent. Let him divest 'himself, if possible, of all eccentric oddities, and consent to humble his pen to write in a smooth, neat style. Let him thoroughly sift the various interrogations in which he has indulged in this edition, so that he may replace them with positive statements. But if he is conscious of superior' strength—if hfisftillYaware thatthereis a divinity within him that will overpower the crotchets of style, he may go on in his present course. But let him not mistake affectation for strength; and mental waywardness for mental superiority. Young writers must satisfy the public, that 'they are men of mind, before the public will permit them to depart from the ordinary rules of composition. The Carlylian style may to some extent be successfully imitated, but every writer who does so is not a Carlyle. The late lamented Dr. Hamilton has now his imitators, but among the tribe there is not one of. his mind. have the body, but the ,breath of life is. wanting. We have said before that the work is very readable. The riumefousrane'eaotes which it contains will help" the reader to go on from page to page. A few of these could have been judiciously omitted, but as a whole they invest the work with considerable interest. If it should be our fortune to meet Mr. Williams again in the walks of literature, we hope the task we may then have to perform will be more agreeable than the present.
FRANCE. The discussion in the National Assembly on the proposi- tion of M. Liechtenberger, demanding that th<c state of siege should be raised, pending the debate on the Constitution, terminated on Saturday in a vote in favour of its mainten- ance of 529 to 140. General Cavaignac attended the committee of legislation on Friday, to give some explanation relative to the late sus- pension of nve Paris journals. The General said, that 11 It was impossible that the Paris journals could have imagined that the Government desired to prevent them from discussing freely the new Constitution during the debates in the Na- tional Assembly. The idea of suspending the Constitutionnel was a fable. The Ministers had never raised the question, and, consequently, the Minister of Justice could not have opposed a measure which was never contemplated. It was through necessity, and for the public safety, that some jour- nals were suspended. The Republic is in its infancy, and the Executive Government cannot tolerate journals which attacked the very principle of the Republic. The Assembly, moreover, has had the power, at every act of the Executive Government, during the state of siege, to mark its disappro- bation, in which case the Executive Government would have immediately ceased." The General declared,. moreover, that it was not to the committee of legislation he addressed him- self, "inasmuch as the duty of a committee of legislation is solely to prepare laws, but to politicians capable of judging affairs in a political point of view." "We are not," said,tho General, in conclusion, in a natural, but in an exceptional .state." Letters from La Vendee state that in several districts of that province a. report is circulated that Henry V. is about to return to France, and that having married a wealthy heiress, he will pay half the debts of France with his private fortune. It is said that the Legitimists will fill all offices gratuitously, and that all persons who* pay less than 100 francs annually shall henceforth be free of taxation. The Moniteur contains news relative to disturbances at Montpellier. The success, of the Legitimists in the munici- pal elections had irritated a part of the population, who went through the quarters inhabited by the Legitimists, singing patriotic songs. These manifestations assumed a graver cha- racter. A crowd wen t; along the Boulevards, preceded by a National Guard in uniform, bearing a tri-coloured flag. Se- veral individuals, coming out of a Legitimist Club, threw him down, and took away the flag. The latter used his sabre, and gave a very dangerous wound to one of his aggressors. Several persons were wounded on both sides. The Legiti- mists had carried their wounded to the Place de l'Olivcr, in- habited by gardeners known for their counter-revolutionary, opinions. The Prefect determined to calm matters, accom- panied by only M. Crouzet, commissary of police, M. Nouguier, an advocate, and two gendarmes scarcely had he been recognised when he was greeted with a shower of stones, and wounded in the shoulder the commissary of police in the head. Shots were fired, and one of the gendarnies was mortally wounded. M. Peytavin, juge destruction, re- ceived two balls in the leg. The Prefect then returned to the Marie, to have cartridges delivered to the National Guard, and to order out fresh troops. He was joined by judicial authorities, the general in command of the division, and a battalion of sharpshooters and engineers. The gendarme who was shot died. The judicial investigation is going on. Montpelier was tranquil on the 1st lIIst.
Our views of the character, life, and worth of this great man will be' seen in an article Wfittoff imijafediately after his decease, and which will be found in the FsiycirALiTy of the &th of November; 1347, pp. 138. j.
IT ALY. The Journal des Delats states, that Marshal Raèfetzky n 0 being furnished with full powers by the court of Vienna, offered the Piedmontese government, after the Sardinian army had repassed the Tessino, and before the offer of a mediation was known at Vienna, to conclude a peace on the following conditions :—He proposed to cede Lombardy, pro- perly so called, to the kingdom of Sardinia; to constitute Venice into a free town, like Humburgh or Lubeck; and to create an independent principality, composed of Venetia and the Frioul, to be placed under the government of one of the sons of the Archduke Regnier and, in return for these con- cessions, he demanded '400,000,000f. ( £ 16,000,000) in cash, that being the amount of the Italian debt with which Aus- tria had charged herself. •' TH-e- Spectaieur liepublieaiti of Saturday evening an7 nounces the arrival of a courier from Vienna with the re- fusal of the Austrian Cabinet to accept the offered mediation of Great Britain and France. On both sides, but especially on that of the Piedmontese, military preparations are carried on as actively as if the war was to be* renewed at the end of the armistice. Charles Al- bert has announced his unabated adherence to the cause of Italian independence. A new ministry has been formed at Turin, under the direction of the Marquess di Sostegno, a zealous partisan of the national cause and of the war. The Generals Fei'rere and Soriimariva, to whom the opinion of the country imputes many of the errors and disasters of the late campaign, have been removed from their command, and General Salasco, who signed the unpopular armistice, has retired. The discipline of the army has been restored, the regiments reformed, the reserve has already marched to the- frontier, and the new levy is bringing fresh troops in con- siderable numbers to the royal standard. The Lombard troops have consented to be incorporated in the Piedmontese regiments, and are now under the orders of Sardinian officers at Vercelli. The King is at Alexandria, which is one of the most important fortresses in northern Italy, and the bulwark of the Piedmontese dominions. To complete these prepara- tions for the renewal of the war, another and more folirial application has been made to the French government to al- low Marshal Bugeiaud to assume the command of the Sar- dinian army. On the other hand, the Austrians are said to have accumulated a large materiel of war in Milan. Marshal Radetzky is gone to Vienna to watch the negotiation, and to accelerate the advance of troops from other parts of the empire. It appears from official returns received from Ve- rona that the Austrian arniy suffered severely in its advance from the Adige and the Mincio to Milan. Its whole loss in killed and wounded amounts to 5,800 men, of whom 31(j) are officers. The Piedmontese army reckoned 60,000 men on the 23rd of July these were reduced to 35,000 before they crossed their own frontier, and sixty of their guns re- mained in the hands of the Austrians—a larger number than was at first supposed. Amongst the Austrian officers, after Marshal Radetzky, Generals Clam Gallas and Wohlge- muth have eai-hed the greatest distinction and the un- boimded confidence of the army. The friends of the King of Sardinia assert, that he niay expect to find himself at the head of an army of 100,000 men at the conclusion of the armistice; an army, in fact, superior both in numbers and discipline to that with which he first took the field.
JAMAICA. The proceedings of the House of Assembly of Jamaica were opened, pursuant to proclamation, on the 3rd ult., by his Excellency the Governor, with the usual formalities, and with a speech to the House of such an unusual length that it occupies two columns of each of the Jamaica jour- nals. His Excellency informed the Assembly that it was called together at so early a period in compliance with the addresses of several public meetings, presented by Members of the Legislature, and in consequence of the Commissioners of Public Accountsha vingdecliued to issue Treasury certifi- cates commensurate with the authorised expenditure. His Excellency then recommended the House to do what the Commissioners had not thought it right to do on their own authority—viz., to vote the requisite amount of expenditure. He then informed the House, that the amount of Treasury certificates which, according to the report of November last, would be required for the public service, was £ 16,000; and that the Import duties had been set down in the estimates at £ 150,000; and, further, that the official accounts of the Import duties, to the end of last quarter had fallen short of; the estimates, but that the falling off of those duties did not arise from a general decrease of trade. After some observa- tions as to the state of the colony, his Excellency drew the attention of the House to the following measures, which, in his opinion, would have a beneficial effect on the position and prospects of Jamaica, viz ;-1. The office of Receiver-Gene; ral, and the method of keeping and auditing the public In 10 accounts, upon which a communication from her Majesty's Government was to be made. 2. An inquiry into the state of the public debt, as to whether it might. not be desirable to give to„tlie whole of it the character of the Englishiund's$ debt. 3. The practicability of establishing a bank, having for its main object.to advance, in the Way "of cash accounts, discounts, or mortgages, the means of carrying on the annual cultivation, but resting in other respects as nearly as possible I" s x upon the principles of the Bank- of Englalld.. (His Excel-, lency in this clause advises the establishment of a .branch of the Bank of England as the best method of accomplishing the objects desired.) 4. An uniform average rate on land, ta substitute the parochial taxes on hereditaments and stock. 5. The establishment of a Commission for the general survey and superintendence of roads, bridges, and water; courses, and the formation of reservoirs on a grand scale 111- elevated situatins for the use of agricultural districts* 6. An effective Commission for the speedy abridgment anA arrangement of the written laws of. the island. These were the proposals of his Excellency the Governor, which, ifr conjunction with the relief from the home Government were likely to be of use to the island and it remains to bê seen how the House of Assembly will act upon the reconif mendations .contained and the arguments used in the speech referred to. We learn by private advices that in'all'fJf(jb¡;t- hility the supplies vsillbe stopped.
ARRIVAL OF LORD J. RUSSELL. DUBLIN, SATURDAY* At half-past three o'clock yesterday afternoon a steain^ appeared in the distance; "and a'signal from the Birkedhee war steqmer elicited .a reply to the• effect that the straps^ smoke was froni the Banshee, commanded by Captain ett, and that. Lord and Lady John Russell were on board. gun was then fired, and the spectators on the pier were prised of the near approach of her Majesty Prime Minister 0 to an event of rare occurrence in Ireland. About ten after four o'clock, the bow of the Banshee turned the easte. pier of the harbour, when Captain Williams, of the Iron steamer, commenced -a feu de' joie, arid did not cease till t'. Banshee came well up to the pier. Messrs. G. ltae, J- gee, J. Pim, and other directors of the'Dublin and Kingsf0*^ j Railway, went on board and paid their respects to his a ship. The tord"Mayor likewise discharged this duty? "I
miuiEius. THE IMPENDING DANGERS OF OUR COUNTRY; OR, HID- DEN THINGS BROUGHT To LIGHT. By W. FEKGUSON, Bicester, Oxon. London: Ward and Co., Paternoster- row Gilpin and Co., Bishopsgate-street-without; B. L. Green, Paternoster-row. 1848. THE COTTAGERS' COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE. By W. FER- GUSON, Bicester, Oxon. [Same publishers.] THESE works are from the pen of tlie,Rev. W. Ferguson Independent minister, of Bicester, Oxfordshire. The Im-, pending Dangers of our Country" is dedicated to LordJohn Russell, though in no very complimentary style, and con- tains chapters on the following subjects :—The cottages and hovels occupied by the peasantry—the poverty and suffer- ings of the peasantry—their immorality, bondage, igno- rance, and superstition—the failure of the State Church as a religious iastitution among the peasantry—hints and re- medial suggestions in relation to the peasantry—efforts made to promote the regeneration and elevation of the pea- santry—facts and statistics illustrative and confirmatory of the statement contained in the preceding chapters—appen- dix. That Mr. Ferguson is a competent witness on the impor- tant question on which he treats will be seen at once from the following statement It has been to instruct, feed, clothe, and employ them, that I have written more than eleven hundred letters, and published more than three hundred, within the last nine years. It has been to lead them to the Saviour of sinners that I have preached four hundred and fifty times out of doors, and in all three thou- sand and Seventy times, including four times almost every Lord's day during the summer season of nines years, It has been to make myself fully acquainted with their real distress and wretch- edness, that I have walked more than eight hundred miles from house to house, in eighteen different villages, and one market town. It has been to cheer, comfort, and bless them, that I have relieved more than four thousand persons in the counties of Oxford and Buckingham, by giving them money, food, firing, medicine, clothes of every description, shoes, hats, potato seed, sheets, blankets, beds, bedding, 8cc. It has been to preach Jesus to them, through the medium of tracts, magazines, and the scriptures of truth, that we made about 18,000 calls at their cottages, and walked about 3,000 miles during the year 1847," The cottages and hovels occupied by the poor are thus de- scribed :— Thousands of the cottages and hovels occupied by English la- bourers are a lasting disgrace to the proprietors of the suit, and a curse to those who are, by unjust and unreasonable circumstances, compelled to inhabit them. We have entered, measured, and searched, hundreds of these mud abodes, in which there is only one small 'room below and another above stairs. Some of these Toorus are not more than eight feet square. They are in general void of furniture, with" the exception of a broken chair or two, and a broken table and the things which the wretched inmates call feeds and, bedding are nothing better than a bundle of rags, pieces of old sacking, and. dirty straw. The height of some of these mud mansions is about four feet ten inches from the floor to the ceiling. They are close, damp, badly ventilated, and not fit for human beings to dwell in. Numbers of them are built of what the poor people can wattle and daub;" consequently they are too weak to support a roof, and the trembling poor are thus in constant danger of being-buried in their own mud graves." "The sleeping apartment in these graves of the living is so low that a girl or boy of twelve or fourteen years of age cannot stand upright in any part of the attic, except just in the place where the so-called bed stands." There is a village in the county of Oxford in which we have aeen a hovel without a roof of any kind but still it is inhabited by a family who have lived, sinned, and starved for years, in a jitate of danger to which the village farmers would not be very willing to expose either their hens or their-pigs. A grown-up son has slept in his every-day and Sunday clothes on the mud floor SO" long, that, -when we called, we could distinctly "trace his mould, from head to foot, in the wet clay 011 which he had slept for twelve months." But the most extraordinary place we have ever seen inhabited by a human being is a hole which a hard-working man dug out of a lull-side as a dwelling-place for himself and family. We entered the hole, measured it, and found it eight feet by five. We ex- amined the bed and bedding—they were in a good condition but the straw which was under all, was-destroyed by the water which ran under the bedding and through the gravel from the hill-silde., We have not-seen any place inhabited by human beings, in any other part of the United Kiilgdoitii which could be compared, in point-of real wretchedness, to this modern sepulchre hewn out of the clay." It cannot be reasonably expected that the inhabitants of such miserable abodes have attained a high state of civilisa- tion, neither can we hope for intelligence, piety, and mora- lity among a population who live in the misery described by Mr. Ferguson. He does not believe that there are two deeping. aptwt\Hent$in one cottage or hovel out of ten in the county of Oxford. This to a co-asidei-able exteiit is caused undoubtedly by the low rate of wages which the wretched inmates receive. We are told- The fact is, the whole of the peasant's wages is nearly ex- pended' every week on bread. Firing is so very expensive that the poor cannot afford to buy a sufficient .quantity of coals to cook their own food and, consequently, the baker is, to a certain ex- tent, their cook-he receives the principal part of their earnings." If field labourers had constant employment at the present rate of wages, they would not be in a condition to clothe themselves and their -famines. But numbers of them are frequently out of work for weeks-together, and some even for months in the winter season. "Single women are in the habit of going round to the farmers in search of work. When any of them are fortunate enough to meet with a master for a few days, they receive sixpence a day in winter, but neither food nor drink. Both married and single fe- males are paid at the rate of eightpence a day in mowing and har- vest time lads of from thirteen to sixteen-years of age receive from 2s, to 2s. -Gd. a week, without food. But neither-lads nor females are in demand during six mouths out of the twelve. So that the bulk of the peasantry are only half-fed in summer, and left to starve in winter." It is but seldom that a labouring man can buy himself a new coat or a pair'6Ttrousers: Many of them do not purchase a new garment of any kind once in two years and when they do buy one, it is a smock-frock—a most inconvenient robe." Decent clothing is the exception, not the rule, in large fami- lies. The poor creatures have much cause to bless the niemorv of the first maker of a smock-frock. IV, o, are also informed that butcher's meat, cheese, milk, coffee and sugar are not in the poor man's bill of fare. He %iilk:s the cows, but others drink the milk—he feeds the oxen, but others ertt the beef." Mr. Ferguson calculates that the average annual income, including lost time, of the peasantry of Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire is £ 21 for every family of five persons. 'The average weekly rent he estimates at 9d.; which leave-s the Stilli ol" J,19 Is. to be equally divided in five parts, which gives each member of a family of five the sum of £;3 per annum. This gives ls.;5jd, per week, or 2Jd, per day, and when a trifle is deducted for shoes and clothing we shall have something less than 2d. per head per day out of which, as the author observes, the sweating classes are expected'to live, labour,; be. happy, pay their debts, obey the game laws, and sing cheerily." A dealer in. furniture, a Mr. Polls, of Bicester, certifies in one part of the work that he would not give more than £2 10s. for all the goods found in twelve cottages occupied by able-bodied men." Ulitlerthese circumstances it need not be surprising that the sufferings of the poor are very severe. Here Are a few illutmtions It was only the other day that we went into a labourer's cot- tage in which we found a still-born child, which the poor man could not get buried, because he was not in circumstauees to pay one shitling to the gravedigger. The shilling was paid, and the dead buried out of their sight." At another novel, we found the corpse of a fine child stretched on a mud floor, with a pieea of old sacking, or something like it, thrown over it. The smalt sleeping attic wai occupied by the other children, all of whom were suffering from fever. In the same village-a poor woman died, about three' years ago, without a sheet or a blanket to cover her skeleton frame. The poor family had but one sheet—not a blanket-in the house and th'e suffering woman died while a neighbour was washing that sllfeet. In the facts and statistics, we repeatedly meet with such cases as the following :Eight sleep in the same room in two wretched beds."—" G. has a wife and nine children- no employment. Three ragged and torn beds in one small room in which eleven sleep."—" H. has a wife and five chil- dren-no employment. Only one wretched bed for seven." —" 1. has a wife and six children—wages 9s. per week. Wife very near her confinement: They have one chaff bed and another made up of rags and flocks."—" K. has a wife and two children. The poor woman was confined to her bed when we saw her, and she had neither sheet nor blanket to change the bed on which she had been confined a few days before we called. Their bedding was such as I cannot describe." This then is the social condition of the 11, finest peasantry in the world." Let us next examine their moral condition —the task is by no mean's agreeable, still it must be per- formed. On this subject Mr. Ferguson says- "Our attention was called a few months ago to a case where fifteen persons, including three married families, live in one small S, cottage, and fourteen of whom sleep in the same room!" "The want of chastity among the working classes, as well as among those who are above them in rank and station, is most flagrant." The promiscuous intercourse of the sexes, both married and single, is carried on among the labouring classes to a degree, which if the whole truth, so far as it is known to us, were to be stated, would rend the hearts of the modest and virtuous, and as- tohish the iriends of morality and common decency." The immodesty of the young, the licentiousness of the married, the number of women ')f ill-faiue in our towns and villages, are such as to threaten the utter ruin of that section of the commu- 0 nity to which we have to looK for-female servants, and to which the hard-working, man has to look for a partner for life. "The alehouse is the poor man's chapel of ease, especially on Saturday evenings and on the Lord's day." Mr. Ferguson enters into elaborate details to show the failure of the State Church among the peasantry. The Church has not failed for w;ant of 'accommodation, because c, In each parish or village there is a church large enough to seat all who may attend at tilese parochial sanctuaries. We have a plantation of churches and a forest of clergymen in our pro- vince, but still, the masses of the people are a ruined wreck. There are about twenty parish churches, with a population of about ten thousand souls, including Bicester, within five and a half miles of our house; and a religious service is-held twice every day at several of these churches; and on Passion-week, some of the Evangelical as well as the Puseyite clergy hold about twenty ser- vices in seven days." Yet this vast and expensive moral machinery Has left the peasantry to cure fits, or rather to charm them aw ay through the medium of a.silvrrng-to drown a ghost in a barrel of ale-and to glory in their shame." We agree with 1r, Ferguson that such a state of society is fraught with danger to the country at large. The danger is not only impending, but imminent. It is in vain that'w.e talk of education as the regenerator of the country. No education, either secular or religious, will ever change the mode.of life which these unhappy cottagers pursue. "VVe are informed that numbers of young girls, many of whom have been tanghtin Sunday School, are driven to prostitution 'for a morsel of bread.' The remedies which our country re- quire are to a great extent social; and the abolition of the national debt. must take place before we can hope to conquer poverty and destitution. Religion, undoubtedly,, may do much to soothe the sunerings of the poor, and to promote; better order among them. Of this we have a remarkable proof in our own country. The Cottagers' Comprehensive Guide furnishes hints on practical religion; preventives against, disease; allotments for the poor directions for cheap and wholesome food; poor- law, parochial, relief; the emigrant's guide to South Austra- lia; letters, and general remarks. We recommend both works to the attention of all clashes,! especially to the detractors of the Welsh people, aniTthose gentlemen who derive so much pleasure from proclaiming the alleged inferiority of their countrymen. Mr*. Ferguson writes with poin-er and energy, and has done good service to his country, by pointing out its danger in time. We trust he will continue his labours, and bring more hidden thirigs to light, that they may be remedied and removed.
SPAIN. The Queen and King had- returned from La Granja. All the members of.th6 Cabinet, except the Minister for Foreign Affairs, 'had arri^efd ill the capital. General Narvaez had met with an accident on the way. His carriage drove with so much -rapidity down a steep hill, that he deemed it pru- dent to jump out of it, and in coming to the ground expe- rienced a few contusions. The General was reported to have manifested a desire to withdraw from the direction of affairs and to take a leave of absence for the restoration of his health. It was even said that he had already received his passports from France, and that M. Mon would assume the presidency of the Cabinet in his absence. Count de Vista Hermosa, Corregidor of Madrid, an intimate friend of Gene- ral Narvaez, to whom he had promised to remain at his post whilst he continued at the head of the Cabinet, was also be lieved to have tendered gnatiori of that office. Among the .persons arrested the efore was M. Andrea Cabal- lero, a wealthy capitalist, mtimate friend of M. Mon, and a most inoffensive man in every respect. M. Caballero wafe accused of having paid a bill, of which the amount was in- tended for the Carlists. He was, however, immediately li- berated, and several Ministers apologised.
