The Carmarthen Journal and South Wales Weekly Advertiser

THE TITHE BILL Is at last within measureable distance of becoming law. The debate during the committee stage wasquitein accordance with the best traditions of Parliament. The conduct of the Welsh members was that of statesmen, who, though naturally disliking the measure, were yet careful that their opposition did not degenerate into obstruction. This temperate spirit was reflected by the promoters of the Bill, their hands being strengthened and upheld by Sir W. Harcourt, who appeared to take an almost fatherly interest in it. It has now been definitely settled that the landowner is to be directly liable for the payment of tithe, and that in default of payment proceedings may be instituted against him in the County Court. Mr Arthur Williams tells us that this change will have no effect in Wales, but that her 40,000 yeomen will continue to resist payment. There was a twang in this remark of Mr Williams that strongly reminds us of the old Cornish song, where their loved Bishop being committed to the tower 11 30,000 Cornish boys will know the reason why." Then the Nonconformists of England were ready to take up arms in defence of the Church and Bishops, who were their bulwark against Romanism and the aggression of the Roman Catholic King James 2nd. Times are changed now, the Noncon- formists represented by Mr Williams are ready to hand over, not only the Church and Bishops, but their own Nonconforming brethren, to the I tender mercies of the Priests and their bigoted followers. Whether Mr Williams' bravado will find QJ1 echo in Wales remains to be seen. We must confess to having our misgivings, the Welsh have a natural affinity for law, and the prolonged agitation against tithe has given them opportunity for studying its intricacies in connection with the subject. No doubt they will continue to agitate, at any rate, for a time, against the payment of tithe. Mr j Williams' yeomen may even seek to baffle the 1 County Court bailiffs, but we trust we may be spared a repetition of the scenes of violence that have lately disgraced our country. When magistrates openly encourage resistance under the name protest, to the payment of just and legal debts, on the flimsy and oft exploded pretext of conscientious scruples, we cannot be surprised that rough country lads should construe protest" to mean the heaving of brick bats. They are not so much to blame as the educated men who have led them into the error, but at the same time actual assaults upon officers of the law is an amusement that cannot be indulged in with impunity. The sooner our farm boys realise this fact the better. Pelting a bailiff with eggs and stones or tearing the coat off his back is no doubt great sport, but it is hardly worth a month in Carmarthen gaol. If they have any regard for their own interests, our ardent youths will in future avoid the bailiff and join the ladies in noisy protest beyond reach of temptation. The clause of the Bill that provides for remission of tithe, when that x -1- i j_l_ 1 t- "1- > 1 i impost exueeus- (iwo-x/iiircis oi fcne annual value of the land, will not affect us in Wales where- the Commutation Act has proved so favour- able to the farmer. It is, however, a tardy acknowledgement of the injustice suffered for years past in certain parts of England, where tithe has swallowed nearly the entire economic value of the land, and from the original tenth has become the whole. We must confess to feeling some sympathy with the amendment of Mr Bryn Roberts, which would have had the effect of reducing the limit to one half the value. There is one point that is placed forcibly before us by the recent disturbance in Pembrokeshire coupled with the late conduct of the Cardiganshire Police Committee. The Chief Constable whose duty was to provide for the peace of the county was afraid to under- take the responsibility. The Police Act places the Chief Constable at the mercy of the present Joint Standing Committees. In Pembrokeshire the tithe agent after submitting patiently to outrage and insult applied for the police protection that he had a right to claim, the Chief Constable did not daro to provide it without previously consulting his committee. This is all very well in a case of tithe distraint, when a few days delay may not be of great consequence, but carried to a logical conclusion it means that, in case of a possible riot, the lives and property of tax payers are to be imperilled for several days, while a committee meeting is being summoned. We pay taxes on the understanding that the Government protect us in our legal rights if these whom 0 in the Government charge with this duty fail in carrying it out, the Government will have no option but to do it themselves, by taking the police under its own control. The Pembroke- shire Committee have been equal to the occasion, but the delay that has occurred might under other circumstances have led to serious consequences.

MR. PARNELL. It was the custom with the Welsh press till very recently to couple the names of Mr Gladstone and Mr Parnell to flatter them both with almost equal impartiality, and to place them together on the same pedestal. Why are they silent now ? There is no lack of instances wherewith to continue the parallel. Mr Parnell on his late tours in Ire- land has copied Mr Gladstone so closely that it almost seems a wilful parody. He receives deputations in railway carriages; he travels in Saloons, and addresses audiences from the windows he harangues them ou railway platforms-all to the great inconvenience of the bona fide traveller. But he goes still further he commits his cause to Providence, and pretends to know the Almighty's wishes and to have his ear, quotes Scripture with exactly the same solemn unctuousness as Mr Gladstone. The latest example at Ennis is too funny to be passed over. He travelled on Sunday last in his usual regal style-niobs, processions, bands meeting him everywhere with the greatest enthusiasm, and twenty addresses. At the Broadstone Station, Dublin, loud calls were made for a speech, and after thanking them he said, I believe, and I am sure, that it will be more evident when public opinion is fully expressed, that the cause of Ireland, so far from having receded from the events of the last months, has progressed immeasurably, and the way is cleared immensely. Sometimes good cometh out of evil, and I believe that great gain will come to our country from the recent division in our ranks. Everything that is patriotic, earnest, and independent will soon be once more re-united, and will press forward with overwhelming front to victory." We can but look on and wonder at the audacious clever- ness of the man who is able to persuade masses of people, amidst applause, that the fact of his being the hero of a divorce suit is an exempli- fication of the truth of Scripture, and to over- look it accordingly. Rumours are rife in I T 1 1I..1 i1.» « ijonuon uiao me quarrel Detween the Irish Earties has been adjusted, and that, the liberal leaders having given Mr Parnell the Home Rule Bill he has been asking for, he is to retire for the present, and Mr McCarthy retain the leadership till Mr Dillon has served his sentence. As we write we have no certain knowledge, but it seems incredible that Mr Gladstone, Mr Morley, and Sir W. Harcourt can have eaten the speeches they made in 1886 on the introduction of the Home Rule Bill, and conceded all to Mr Parnell that he wanted. If this is so, he has indeed triumphed. For utterly unscrupulous as he is, he will just retire as long as it suits him, and no longer. 0 11 He said on Sunday: You have won, as I told you truly in 1880 that you would win-and in a few days you will know the truth of my declaration- a settlement of this question which will be everlastingly creditable to your patriotism and you will be able to work for and to build up your nation, the future Irish nation, upon a secure and firm foundation. You have won a legislative independence and a Parliament which will not be a mock or H puppet body, but which will possess a real power to protect the interest of every class amongst (tit- people; which will have a power, if needs be, to settle the great Irish land question, the question which the Imperial Parlia- ment has been tinkering at during the last nine years and which will secure that which I told you in 1880 it was necessary to secure before you could stand erect as free men in your own country—the disarmament of the Royal Irish Constabulary and its conversion from a military into a civil force and its transference to the control of the elected representatives of the Irish people. Such a Parliament, my friends, will have the power to secure and protect the interests of the Irish labourers and promote and foster Irish industries, so that the artisans may increase and multiply and devote their million talents to the pursuit of those trades in which they so wonderfully excel in every other country where they are driven from their own country. Under such a Parliament Ireland will realize her national aspirations. So will she refuse to be a proviuce. Ireland has been a nation, will be a nation, and will live a nation and our future Parlia- ment must be a national Parliament. For this, fellow- countrymen, I have fought for many long years; not for my own position, and I do not fight to-day for my own position, but for the legislative rights of Ireland. I still fight to-day, and you and I will continue the struggle together for these rights until we have got them, and when we get them we will keep a firm grip upon them. Now I have touched upon no personal topics. This meeting to-day shows me that you have been willing to leave the issue of this question to my own honour and in my hands, and just as always I have asked only to be judged by results, so to-aay, at the foot of this statue, I ask the men of Clare and Ireland to have patience and judge me by results. Certainly anything less like the speech of a Z5 man who was about to retire into private life was never uttered. As an example of unscrn" pulous tenacity of purpose which has alwayo characterised him, we give the followin anecdote of his childhood, vouched for by hi mother Charlie Parnell and his sister had each a battalion of wooden soldiers and artil- lery in the shape of a pop-gun. War having zn Z5 been declared, the young lady's soldiers went down swiftly before a tremendous fire opened by Charlie on her lines. Meanwhile the young gentleman's soldiers, though perpetually hit, declined to fall. The victory remained with his, and it was subsequently discovered that he had glued his own men to the Jioor."

"STICK TO PADDY. MATTHEW XXV. 40." Mr Gladstone is the recipient of congratu- lations from all parts of the kingdom on the recurrence of the anniversary of his birthday couched, generally, in sincere and felicitous terms. On the last occasion the stream of telegrams and letters that poured into Hawarden, bore one from a certain Noncon- formist, Minister rfisidino- qf. Npwnnrh Pem- _u- _t"-v, U brokeshire. It presumed to counsel Mr Gladstone to Stick to Paddy" with the above quotation from the Gospel of St. Matthew. We confess we had not before heard of this shining light of Newport, nor are we aware that he has ever figured publicly before, save perhaps in his own obscure village and in the parish of Penbryn, in the adjoining county of Cardigan. Having now come forth on the back of Mr Gladstone's last birthday we are curious to know the next development of this self-constituted guide, philosopher, and friend of the G.O.M. It has not transpired what effect this strange message bad on Mr n Z5 Gladstone's mind. Perhaps the advice was timely, but what about the Scriptural quota- tion ? By some mysterious mode of reasoning this man has contrived that by advocating Home Rule to Ireland our countrymen will render service to God, Who will faithfully re- ward them in the end We must protest in the most emphatic manner against this base and wilful travesty upon the Holy Writ. We have heard before, but we were slow to believe that Nonconformist ministers pointed to the Almighty as a Being partial to the Radicals (we trust we shall not be considered irreverent in our reference). Recklessly daring, and bold to an extraordinary degree, C) r5 as we are prepared to admit our opponents to be, we could not bring ourselves to believe they went so far as to libel the great Master whom they profess to serve. We have heard of and can undersand certain of these poisons studiously weak in their condemnation of the sins of the age, of their own gross acts of immorality, of their swindling Railway y Companies, officers of Inland Revenue, and of their pocketing the tithes, but we lived to see the early days of 1891, before we were persuaded they had gone so far as to dare to mock God Himself, by dangling Heaven before us as a bribe for political fidelity. Is there no limit to this perverse audacity 1 Is the in- telligence of our countrymen to be insulted for ever 1 The country is patient to a certain degree which it can and will not overstep. The conscience of these political Jacks is ex- ceedingly handy and serviceable. It is as portable as a light wheelbarrow, and will take anything to build up the common heap of Radicalism. To render odious and destroy the Monarchy they cry for a red Republic, to do away with the House of Lords thpy will assert until they are hoarse that the country can do better without it, and to encompass the downfall of the Church they do not hesi- tate to brand her alien and divert her revenues. But what does Stick to -Va(l(ty mean ? It means the perpetration of crime of the deepest dye, of the murder of poor, honest, Godfearing people for no sin of their own, of cruelly assaulting helpless women and children, of killing and maiming cattle, and of intolerable intimidation. "Stick to Paddy "and help him to re-enact the terrible scenes that have blasted the fair name of his country and have been a reproach to civilisation itself. Stick to him that be may march through murder and rapine to the disintegration of the Empire," and gain for Ireland a total Separation. Stick to him that he may trample under his Romanist feet, our Protestant brethren in that country. Stick to Paddy and steady his aim when he takes the lives of old people like Thomas Barrett, Leahy, Fitz- maurice, Brian, Cronin, and the Huddy's family with scores of others. Stick to him through crimes great and small, stick to him to evade the law, to batter his own countrymen, and assist him in his rowdy political meetings each Sun- day, resting assured on the word of this great Nonconformist minister from Newport, Pem., that by so doing you will be rendering ser- vice to God, Who will not fail to reward you. Such a base and reckless calumny, and such a gross insult to the Christian sentiment of the 3 people of this country was never before heard of.

CHAPEL EVICTIONS AT NEW QUAY. Seldom, if ever, have the arbitrary acts of even the rulers of Nonconformist chapels equalled, certainly not surpassed, those that have recently marked out boldly and un- mistakably the officers of Towyn Chapel, New Quay. For the information of our readers it is necessary to travel back to the unfortunate occasion in October last, when a duly an- nounced religious meeting was sacrificed for a political one that happened to be held on the same evening. We are not so much concerned as to the eagerness with which Noncon- formist bodies contrive to make all their religion subservient to politics. We. however. believe we ought to be saved a lot of their hypocrisy if they less often paraded their pre- tentious piety and their conscientious scruples before the public gaze, and acted more in harmony with their real character. Un- fortunately this is an occurrence, the utter re- pulsiveness of which to every right thinking man, is only equalled by the audacious persistency and rare uniformity with which it is carried out. There were in Towyn a few honest minded Christians who protested, though unsuccessfully, against this n 15 prostitution of religion to party strife. They drew the attention of the public to it. This step led to further disclosures of acts not al- together very intelligible in the conduct of the people entrusted with the internal government of this chapel. They brought to light the domineering actions of certain occupants of the Set Fawr, and the unblushing manner in which they invariably asserted themselves. On the occasion of the departure of the late pasior, to take charge of another chapel, one of the members drew attention to certain passages in an address that was proposed to be presented to him on the occasion as being untruthful. A meeting of the authorities was immediately summoned to consider these assertions. As a result the pastor wrote to our columns, stating that that meeting had condemned our correspondent's charges as "ft tissue of deliberate lies," and that it was further resolved, in order to mark the ab- horrence these self-righteous people had to. n p wards all lying," to excommunicate Lover ;5 of Truth." Following the appearance of this tzl