The Welshman

THE DISSENTING SCREW. TO THE EDITOR OF THE WELSHMAN." "Audi Alteram Partem." SIB,—I have no wish to crow over a dt feated oppo" nent. In a political contest, where both parties work from principle and employ fair means, whichever wins, the defeat of the other is no disgrace. This time, the Liberals both in Carmarthenshire and Cardiganshire, not to mention other places, have, to my thinking, gained a glorious victory. They allege, I believe with perfect truth, that a frightful use was made of the screw by the Tory landlords, and still more by their accredited agents. In fact this is no mere hearsay. I know it myself, and hundreds of others know it equally well; but no one can know it better than the tenant farmers themselves, who, during the recent canvassing, were so bedriven and harassed, that I often heard many of them express, with a woeful countenance, their deep regret that they had ever been enrolled on the register. Our Conservative friends, on the contrary, taunt the Liberals with the screw. They especially visit the Dissenting Ministers with sweeping condemnation. They have discovered the existence, and, if their story be true, the prevalence of a screw unheard of before in a most unexpected quarter. Until now the poor Dis- senting Ministers had been, in certain well-known circles, quietly snubbed, or insolently ignored. Their number was allowed to be great, but as to assigning them any political influence, such a preposterous thought was not for a moment to be entertained. Why, they lived on the voluntary donations of their members, whom it was their first interest and chief care to keep- well-pleased and well-humoured. The ministers were simply the servants of the congregations, to be awed into silence by the lord deacons, or ousted out of their places by a turbulent and democratic congregational vote. They were under the finger and thumb of their churches. We have heard such descriptions of the office of the Dissenting Ministers, until we could not help pity- ing their helplessness. But all at once the tables are turned. These Dissenting Ministers, who before were mere playthings in the hands of their members, are now alleged to be possessed of such tremendous hold over them, that the recent Liberal victories have been chiefly won, it is said, owing to their religious screw. Now, how can both these charges be true ? We want our opponents to keep to their facts, not play fast and loose with them, as it serves their purpose. Do they abandon their first position ? Then, we are very much surprised if a little more attention to facts will not drive them equally from their last assumption of the Dissent- ing Ministers' screw. However false the first position was, we venture to assert the second is not a whit less so. If there is any meaning in words, what our opponents mean by the Dissenting screw must be that ministers threatened their members with excommunication if they voted for the Conservative candidate. Now, I for one am prepared to challenge the Conservatives to mention a single instance in the counties of Carmarthen and Cardigan, where such a threat was issued. I seriously challenge them, and bid them not to seek shelter under a false delicacy about names and such transparent sub- terfuges. Out with the names, and let us know clearly where we stand. Let one such case be produced on credible evidence, and I shall have my answer ready. I have been for thirty years a professed Dissenter, and hereby solemnly declare that I never have known any ecclesiastical coercion applied to members of Dis- senting congregations as regards political contests. I know ministers have attended political meetings, have spoken at such meetings, and in no doubtful language expressed their political views. I know they have reasoned with their members and friends, and urged them to a consistent course of conduct as Dissenters in the elections just brought to a close. I have heard them speak of conscience, of principle, of consistency, of fidelity to one's professions but a word of threat, any intimation of exclusion from Church membership, owing to an adverse vote, never a word. Allow me, sir, further, to say that I cannot approve of the rampant and bitter tone of some of your corres- pondents as applied to Dissenters. Even at election times we have a right to expect respectful language, such as it becomes men of education and of honourable feeling to use towards one another. Random tirades against Dissenters, or against the Welsh language, as the organ of Dissent and of Radical political sentiments, are futile and foolish, and betray the impotence from which they spring. I can assure the eliss of writers referred to, that our Dissenting ministers cannot be reached in that way such attacks hurt them not, nor do they heed such. Notwithstanding the violent lan- guage applied to such papers as the Daner, the Dydd, and the Tyst, it is a fact that nothing so low and so virulent, and in such bad taste, is allowed to appear in them as have recently seen the light in more than one Conservative newspaper. Now, that Dissenting ministers have, as it is con- fessed, proved themselves to be an clement of power in the country, it is not likely they will be induced to dis- grace this position by condescending to adopt the passionate and abusive language of some of their vilifiers. I am, Sir, Yours obediently, Decernber 8tb, 1868. SUETONIUS. I December 8th, 1868. I

The English Independent calculates that in the new I House of Commons there are 12 Independents, 5 1 Baptists, 5 Quakers, 2 Wesleyan Methodists, 1 Calvin- istic Methodist, 17 Unitarians, 10 Presbyterians (non- conforming Presbyterians are probably meant), G Jews, and 26 Roman Catholics, of whom 1 only, Sir John Simeon, represents an English constituency.

MASSES AND PRAYERS FOR THE DEAD. The Romanizers in our Church offered up on the 3rd November in St Clement's Cnurch, at Cambridge, a mass,—a high mass," it is said, whatever that may be,—for the repose of the late Primate's soul; in other words, we believe, a full celebration of the Communion Service with the special intention of procuring the repose of good Dr Longley's soul and the Bishop of Ely is said to have replied to those who complained of this remarkable Romanizing feat,—Mr Nichols, the churclnKrarden of St Clement's, Cambridge, and cthers,-that the system of introducing doubtful doc- trines into our Church by the use of unauthorized hymns, anthems, and introits is not to be justified on any principle of loyalty and honesty but he adds, to the complainants, You are probably aware that a decision of the Court of Arches has been given to the effect that prayers for the dead have not been forbidden by the Church of England, and you will therefore see that there may probably be a legal difficulty in deal- ing with the question which you have brought to my notice." No humane man can help sympathizing with Mr Nichols and other unhappy churchwardens of English churches in this critical ecclesiastical crisis,— when Dr Colenso's views and the duty of free criticism of the Bible are dinned into one ear, and Mr Purchas's views and the duty of celebrating masses for the repose of departed dignitaries are dinned into other e,lr,-and those embodiments of immovable calm and dignity, their own Bishops, tell them piteously in an answer to their appeals against both classes of in- novations that the Court of Arches has decided in favour of permitting both, so that there will probably be a "legal difficulty" in dealing with the question they have brought to the notice of their right rever- end father in God. Thrice unhappy churchwardens Hitherto they have thought Church-going, and Church ministrations generally, a sort of mild sedative to the worries of the week, calming and sobering institutions, in which it was their high privilege to be told of their superiority to the superstitions of Romanism on the one hand, and to the destructive Rationalism of our age on the other. And now they find themselves safe from neither the one nor the other. They are at any time liable to be told either that there is some error in the Bible which a discriminating mind should reject, or that there is some wonderful medieval or foreign superstition (as they had always thought it) which a pious mind should accept. They scarcely know whether, when they are invited to reconsider the doctrine of damnation, it is most likely to be with a view to giving it up, or with a view to alleviating the terrible sufferings of the middle state" by offering up masses foi some one who is dead. The Churchwardens can have no comfort in their lives. Who are they that they should suddenly be torn asunder between clergymen who explain away hell and clergymen who offer to shorten the time in purgatory ?—and this, too, without comfort, or hope of comfort, from their bishops The Privy Council de- clines to interfere with clergymen who take distinctions between "eternal" and "everlasting" punishments! The Court of Arches has decided that the Church of England does not forbid prayers for the dead And if they say, Well, but these are not prayers for the dead,—they are masses for the repose of the souls of the dead, is not that rank Romanism ?' the disheartening reply is, that masses only mean special celebrations of the commuuion Service with intention,—intention, namely, to secure rest for those no longer with us. What a juncture for Churchwarden,—Mr. Nichols and his friends Who ife sufficient for these things ( After all, though one cannot help smiling sadly for a moment at" the theolgical vortices into which the worthy but unprepared city men, or shopkeepers, or it may be attorneys, apothecaries, or the like, are drawn at times like the present, when the Church becomes instead of reigon of still life, a region of active strife, every one must see that by such controversies, and only by such controversis, can the true principle of Protestantism, the principle that every man should be convinced in his own mind," be tested and applied. Hitherto the ordinary mass of English Churchmen have been no more capable of explaining what they believed and why they believed it, than so many Roman Catholics. By a great price they seem likely to obtain this freedom,— the price of being thrown for a time into an utter con- fusion of mind, of being bewildered by the muttering of masses on one side, and the loud "exposure" of Biblical errors on the other, till they are compelled to ask themselves what are the real foundations of their belief, and what they may fairly borrow from either rationalist or Roman Catholic, without ceasing either to have a faith in Christ, or to have a faith of their own which is not taken on the mere word of sacerdotal authority. And from this point of view we cannot for- bear saying that independent Christian conviction will, we believe, not only accept many of the results yielded by the free but reverent criticism of the Bible, but also not a few of those readings of the divine nature and of the meaning of revelation to which the Roman Church has approached nearer than any other. Protes- tants who think and study for themselves will have much to learn from that great Church which has been no less truly than eloquently called the missionary of nations, the associate of history, the patron of art, the vanquisher of the sword." And as to this matter of Prayers for the Dead,—if it were only prayers (not masses, not high celebrations of the Communion with intention"), what could be more natural, more human, more consonant with all that either nature or revalation teaches, than to pray for those who have left llS, no less than for those who are still with us ? If prayer be anything at all, it is the full outpouring of the soul to God,- with an earnest effort, at submission to His will, it is true, but without any artifical conditions, without any of the poor etiquettes of creed, because in a region far beneath intellectual creed, if it is to be prayer at all. Can a man who prays that he may believe, that his unbelief may be helped," that is, who goes far beaneth the immediate and tem- porary forms of his belief in the very act of prayer, be expected to guard himself against saying this or that to his God lest he should seem to be inconsistent with the Tweuty-First Article or to have forgotten the limi- tations of the Twenty-Second ? If prayer be not free and full, allowed to overflow, if it will, even the banks of dogma which the mind in its defining moods has laid down for itself, it is nothing, and might as well not be at all. Was their ever a mother who, after praying with her whole soul for an erring son up to the moment of his death, could withold the prayers of her heart thenceforth ? She might, perhaps, be persuaded by rigid dogmatists to call her prayers by another name after his death,—to speak of them, say, as acts of trsut, as efforts to trust him entirely to the pity and love of his Saviour or his Father; but every one knows that this change of their name would not change their nature, that what she called fervent prayers before death, and fervent acts of human trust after death, would be absolutely identical in kind, and only differently labelled in deference to an external etiquette. If dogma could fetter our free communion with God, about either the living or the dead it would do a simple mischief,—and the most fatal of all mischiefs, by the way, to the true Protestant principle. If that principle be, as Mr Gladstone justly defined it the other day, to pull down all intermediate screens between the souls of man and the spirit of God, any dogma which succeeded in setting a penalty on the free outpouring of the soul concerning either those who are gone from us, or those still with us, would be in the deepest and truest sense a wall of separation between man and God, and therefore, opposed to the very essence of Protestantism. The duty and right of free prayer are far deeper than any duty or right of correct belief, and are, indeed, the first conditions of any Christian belief that is worth any- thing. To make even a correct intellectual conclusion a fetter upon prayer, would be to make a mischief of it, not a good. Suppose a father or a mother to refuse to hear any free outpouring of a child's inner thoughts which was not shaped with a careful view to all the accuracies of the knowledge it might have already acquired, is it not plain that this would put an end to all such free outpouring altogether ? And so it must be, of course, with relation to God. It is a sheer piece of mischievous meddling to tell men what they may not pray for, so long as they pray to be made willing to bear the will of God. If their hearts are full of the living, they must and will pray for the living. If they are full of the dead, they must and will pray for the dead. And to either prayer alike our Lord's words plainly apply, If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask Him So much, even on the supposition that there were any sort of reason, natural or revealed, for holding that the condition of the individual soul is less open to the in- fluence of prayer after death than before. We can understand well, though we do not agree with, those who deny that prayer can have any effect except on the mind of the person who prays But we cannot under- stand those who, believing in the naturalness, and (in some distinct or indistinct, half-defind, or undefined sense), in the efficacy of prayer, limit it to prayer for those who are on this side of the grave, on the strength, perhaps, of some text about the tree lying where it falls,' which proves that trees are never carted away just as much or as little as that the everlasting destiny of souls depends solely on their condition at the moment of death. This seems to us inventing a dogma for the sake of hampering men in their prayers, rather than establishing a dogma which happens to hamper them in their prayers.. The Apostle John, so far from forbidding prayer for those who sin what he calls the "sin unto death," simply declines to enjoin it: "There is a sin unto death, I do not say that he shall pray for it; but If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and He shall give him life for them that sin not unto death." This seems to us an express injunction to pray for all who need our prayers, unless, at least, he who prays believes the object of his prayer to have, as we understand it, actually destroyed his own spiritual life but which of us would venture to assert that any man had done this ? Who with any love left for another could sit down in the quiet assurance that that other had finally extinguished-even if, in spite of what the apostle says, it be possible in this life finally to extinguish,—all germs of spiritual life ? As for the special case which gave rise to these remarks, we need scarcely say that we have no particu. lar sympathy with tho Romanizers. It seems to us most natural that the friends and relatives who loved Dr Longley should pray for him, whether he he out of the visible world or in it; but official prayers for the deceased head of a Church, as such, are scarcely natural, and therefore hardly good. God wants our confidence, the true unveiling of ourselves to Him, and not wishes formed on a regulated pattern which are hardly part of ourselves at all. It is quite possible that in His providence He really gives efficacy to the heart's prayers, because it is good for us to feel that such prayers in the right spirit will often be answered, and not to the other,—the merely formal prayers. Aud, of course, the notion that the celebration of the Communion with intention" to procure the repose of the late Archbishop's soul can add anything to the force of genuine prayer, is to our minds due to the heathen notion that we can buy from God what He will not give to our mere entreaty. If we enter into the idea of the Mass at all, it is this,—that a repetition of the sacrifice of the body of Christ is supposed to be endowed with a certain separate efficacy with God, every time it is repeated and then, it is maintained, we suppose, that it is more pious to back our own heartfelt desires by a miracle which a certain order is given the power to perform (just as it is proper for a petitioner to a great king to come with a signet of his, or something to which he has promised to attach a value), than to put those desires in their naked intensity before God. Of course, those who, like us, don't believe in the miracle, think the signet ring a mock signet ring, and regard the whole conception as a heathenish one, which tends to discredit and paralyze mere prayer, instead of to add anything to the prayer which accompanies the so-called "sacrifice." But that the Catholic Church in encouraging prayers for the dead is more humane than any so-called Protestant Church which forbids them seems to us plain. AndEng- lighmen will never get an honest theology of their own unless they consent to learn from both sides, from the Rationalistic critics on the one hand, and the Roman Catholic theologians on the other.- Sveetcttor.

I THE WEEK AT HOME. Sixteen representative peers for Scotland have been elected. The peers chosen were-the Marquis of Tweedale, Earl of Lauderdale, Earl of Leven and Melville, Earl of Home, Earl of Morton, Lord Blantyre, Earl of Airlie, Earl of Selkirk, Viscount Strathallan, Lord Elphimstome, Earl of Haddington, Lord Colville of Culross, Lord Saltoun, Earl of Orkney, Lord Sinclair, Earl of Kellie, and Lord Rollo. The Earl of Kellie and Lord Rollo had an equal number of votes, and the House of Lords will decide which of them shall sit. The impediment which it is understood has arisen to the settlement of the differences between England and the United States is not altogether unexpected. It has always been a question Low far Mr Reverdy Johnson's instructions warranted him in going, and we have once or twice suggested that this was a point for Mr Johnson and not for us to decide. We believe the fact to be that Mr Seward gave the new Minister authority to treat all matters in dispute without holding himself bound in any way by past negotiations. He was to act entirely in accordance with his own judgment, unfettered by the correspondence which his predecessor had carried on. But the arrangement agreed to by Mr Johnson has not given general satis- faction in the United States, and it has even provoked a certain degree of ill-feeling in the class which always cherished a sentiment of hostility towards England. It cannot be denied, also, that the action of a portion of our press would be likely to encourage Mr Seaward in the idea that Mr Reverdy Johnson's policy might be safely reversed. At any rate, the revival of the old dispute as to the right" of England to recognize the belligerency of the South ought to give satisfaction to fault-finding critics on both sides the Atlantic, for it stops any further progress in the adjustment of the controversy. Mr Seward is not slow to act upon public opinion, and we much fear that, for the present at least, the Alabama question," with all it3 evils and dangers, will remain to breed fresh irritation between the two countries. There are few sober men who do not regard with a feeling of aversion the hubbub which a variety of in- terested persons keep up on the subject of Christmas Before autumn is fairly over the dismal effusions of minor comic writers make their appearance, and publishers exhaust themselves in efforts to be before each other with double extra Christmas numbers." By-and bye we shall be pestered to buy Boker's famous Christ- mas annual, warranted to cure low spirits, at Mid- summer. In these melancholy attempts to be cheerful we read how Jones spent a merry Christmas on the top of an omnibus, and how Robinson in the Temple dined off his boots because no one had asked him out to dinner. The changes have been rung on people snowed up in distant wilds, or wrecked on a desert island, until al sensible persons are sick of the whole imposture. Tawdry pictures, silly verses about the yule log and roast beef, moonstruck narratives, weak childish moralizings-these are the contributions over which we are expected to go into paroxysms of mirth. Our best magazines, happily, leave Christmas to the senti- mentalists. To make the young happy, to relieve dis- tress, to foster household affections, are obvious duties. But what sense is there in persecuting grown up men and women with trumpery narratives of wholesale glut- tony and sham hysterical jollity ? And now there is a contemporary beginning to agitate for a "four days' holi- day at Christmas. On that day," says the affecting article, each of us retires from the strain and trouble of life to realize in the tender affection of, &e. This plaintive appeal is silent, respecting the thousands of per- sons who could not aiford to be shut out of their places of business for four days together, the frugal workmen who would object to the orgie thus recommended, or the people (and there are such) who would find it difficult to realize in tender affection that it was indeed the blessed season of family parties and indigestion. UNAPPROPRIATED SEATS IN CIIURCfi. Upon the question of free and unappropriated seats in churches the Rev B. Webb, of St. Andrew's, Wells- street, writes to us :—As the account which has reached you of what I said at the annual luncheon of St. An- drew's, Wells-street, about the assignment of seats in churches, is not quite accurate, I ask leave to correct it. Confining myself to my own particular case, I stated that, so soon as systematic and sustained pastoral work had gathered round my church a growing number of attached friends and supporters--for example, children under instruction, candidates for confirmation, regular communicants, active lay-helpers in various works of charity, sick and infirm and aged persons, and the like —it became absolutely necessary to secure to them a priority of accommodation in church. At St. Andrew s the influx of strangers, many of them coming from mere I motives of curiosity, had often excluded altogether the regular worshippers. To meet this difficulty, and to carry out their own proper function of providing for the orderly seating of the congregation, my churchwardens have begun to reserve certain parts of the church until five minutes before the service begins for the u.;c of such persons as are known to them as habitual attend- ants. When the bell stops ringing all restrictions are removed, and any vacant seat may be occupied by the first comer. It is obvious that this plan merely gives i priority of accommodation to the regular worshippers. It ought to be added that it is only at one service (the principal one on Sunday mornings, which is naturally the most crowded) that this reservation is made, and that an additional full choral service, free and open to all, is given every Sunday morning, in St. Andrew s Church at an earlier hour. Again, the seats that have been thus provisionally assigned are still free, since no payment is made for any of them, and no distinction whatever is made between rich and poor among those who, being regular worshippers, have had seats assigned to them. The statement made in your paper of Tues- day that I had lost faith' in the principle of open churches may perhaps cause surprise and regret in some quarters. I shall be much obliged if you will allow me to point out that what has been done at St. Andrew's is a very different thing indeed from a return to the old dog-in-the-manger system of a pew-rented church." The following passage from the recently published Memoirs of Baron Bunsen" is not without interest at the present moment, considering the quarter from which it came. It occurs in a letter to Dr Arnold by Bunsen, written in 1833, when divers schemes were on foot for saying the Irish Protestant Church from appre- hended attacks by partial reforms and new distributions of revenue, such as those suggested by the recent Government Commission with the same view. What is most remarkable in the passage is that it proceeded from Bunsen, who adopted with German eagerness (if he did not originate) those transcendental notions respecting the union of the temporal and spiritual power which misled Gladstone (according to his own avowal) in his youth, which Arnold rendered popular with many more, and which some disciples of Arnold have maintained to the present day. Yet even Bunsen saw the iniquity of the Irish Protestant Church in so strong a light that he regarded it as an exception to all his general rules, and had scarcely patience with the doubts which still beset Arnold as to the alternative of reforming or abolishing it. Is the revenue of a Church to go for alms to curates ? for equalizing the incomes of those who have nothing to do, or who know not what they ought to do ? are new glebe houses and curates the props of a reformed establishment ? 0 misery at least one-half of the fund ought to be ap- propriated in equal shares to the foundation of popular schools in every parish, and of seminaries in every diocese. 0 ye blind cannot ye see that in doing so you only perform what you ought not to have left undone after the Battle of the Boyne, or, rather, after the succession of James I., and that in ten years' time those who weep over the ruins of your Protestant Estab- lishments will blame you for not having kuown this your day" ? Such a measure would have been popular among the clergy and the chief public of England, but more, it would have been just. Let me not hear of the paltry considerations of adding to the comfort of twenty, and building new houses for one hundred of the clergy, or churches where there is no Congregation. Is the Church of Christ a hospital, or a tontine, or an agricul- tural establishment ? What is the utility of economical measures ? Enough of that.—(Memoirs, 1, 391.) The Duke of Abercoru has filled up one of the vacan- I cies in the National Board of Education by appointing the Rev. J. II. Jellett, professor of Natural Philosophy in the University of Dublin. Mr Jellett has been a supporter of the mixed system of education. FATAL RAILWAY ACCIDENT.—-A few days ago a melan- choly accident occurred on the Llauelly Railway, at Swansea, to a master marrincr named Patterson, who had only recently been married. It appeared that the poor fellow had been spending an evening with some friends, and had imbibed too freely. After leaving them he managed to stray on the railway, having lost his way in the dark. One of the trains knocked him down but although he sustained serious injuries about the abdomen, he survived for some hours. He was con- veyed to the Infirmary, where he expired. The Sheffield papers report what they call the daring capture of a burglar The burglar in question was one Joseph Siddall, who is said to be a notorious character. A police-constable, named Lawton, observing a light shining through a crevice in the kitchen shutter of the Queen public-house early on Sunday morning, got over a high wall into the back yard to ascertain the cause. He made some little noise in doing so, and the light suddenly disappeared. He found the back door unfas- tened, and pushed it open, and there was just moonlight enough to enable him to see two men before him, one of whom levelled a pistol at him and pulled the trigger. The cap missed fire, and the policeman at once threw 'himself on the man and hugged him close. The second man escaped. A desperate struggle ensued between the policeman and his captive, in the course of which the latter, who was the bigger and more powerful man, severely beat the officer about the head with the pistol The policeman did not let go his hold, however, and the landlord coming downstairs, found the two lying on the floor exhausted—the policeman uppermost. The bur- glar was then secured and taken to the Sheffield police- station, Lawton, whose head was bleeding from several wounds, never leaving him till he was locked up. The burglar was not struck by the policeman once. Every room in the public-house had been ransacked, and a bundle of plunder was packed up ready for removal. Siddall has undergone four years' penal servitude for a highway robbery, and was strongly suspected of a mur- der at Attercliffe a few years ago. The pistol with which he attempted to shoot the policeman was heavily loaded, and he had on him two cartridges charged with slugs. RAILWAYS AND AGRICULTURE.—The farmers in town had an important subject brought under their notice at the meeting of the Central Farmers' Club on Monday night. Mr J. K. Fowler, of the Prebendal Farm, Aylesbury, read a paper on the influence of rail- ways upon agriculture. Mr Fowler observed that through the introduction of railways the whole country had been converted into one vast mart. By the aid of railways the farmer was enabled to transport his pro- duce, whether of arable or pasture districts, his corn and cattle, milk, poultry, eggs, and vegetables, to the best market, whilst new centres for fresh breeding herds had been opened in many and various directions. Cows were bred in the country for the supply of London with milk, which was brought fresh into town every morning by rail in fabulous quantities. On the other hand, the rural districts were supplied, through the same means, with coal as a substitute for the wood which was formerly used, and now was all but ex- hausted and the introduction of coal had been followed by the threshing machine, and the steam cultivator, the benefits of which were inestimable on the cold heavy lands of the country. True, the railways had absorbed a quantity of land within the last thirty-five years, which was equal to 700 large farms but the facilities given for the carriage of coal and the produce of agriculture made up in his judgment for the absorption.of what he termed the raw material of farming. The labour market, too, had been greatly influenced by railways. It was calculated that upwards of 200,000 persons had been taken from agricultural pursuits and employed in different capacities, such as railway porters, ticket clerks, and artificers, at enhanced rates of remuneration, and thus a desire had been awakened on the part of the rural poor in the neighbourhood of railways to give their children a better education. Having enumerated several other minor points in respect of which railways had exercised, and were exercising, abeneficial influence upon the agricultural community, and amongst them the fact that local peculiarities of speech were disappearing, and that there was a general tendency to "a fusion of race" throughout the United Kingdom, Mr Fowler, nevertheless, admitted that they were not an unmixed good, that they had certain drawbacks, and in particu- lar that cattle were treated with great brutality in the transit, that the embankments and cuttings were often left in an unsafe condition, the fencings and level crossings insecure, and that noxious weeds were al- lowed to grow, and their seeds to be scattered for milcs over the country round. He looked forward with hope, however, to the speedy arrival of the day when, by the extensive adoption of tramways, there would not be a district which could not boast of being in connection with the great railway system of the country. In the course of the discussion which succeeded, Mr Mechi observed that one advantage conferred by railways upon the agricultural interest was that of being instru- mental in the removal of that great obstacle to progress, local prejudice the belief that one's own parish was always the best, and that all others were inferior to it. Mr C. S. Read, M.P. (who was in the chair), in sum- ming up the debate, said that railways had been the means of spreading all sorts of diseases umong cattle. He was also aware that, owing to the manner in which the transit of cattle was conducted, it comprised within twenty-four hours an amount of loss and suffering that used to be distri- buted over a week. But that was the result of abuse of the rail way, and not its use; and he trusted there would soon be a cure for it. One part of the subject not touched upon that evening (Mr Read added) was the advantage of the railroad to the agricultural labourer. There was no doubt that if there were an intelligent boy in the night school he was sure to come and ask for a berth on the railway and he knew that railways had as they always would, absorbed the best of the agricultural labourers but then there wa this compensation, that where agricultural labour was super- abundant, and the railroad was within easy reach, for a week's pay the labourer could transport himself to any other part of England where his services were wanted. In the same way the master was enabled to procure a supply of agricultural labour from a distance which a a few years ago he would have found to be impossible. DISCOVERY OF THE HEIR-AT-LAW TO IMMENSE GLAMORGANSHIRE ESTATES.—Many of our readers, says a contemporary, will remember that considerable ex- citement occurred in the neighbourhood of Morriston owing to the litigations between rival claimants to the Drymma Estate. Legal and physical means were resorted to, for the purpose of ejecting cantankerous tenants. The new claimants to the estates were mostly people in humble circumstances. After much wrangling and expenditure of breath and money, the new claimants to these lands and hereditaments were wrested, and the matter has been in abeyance for some years. But, in consequence of the judicial and legal in- vestigations on that occasion, a poor man named Mordecai, or, as he is commonly called by his neigh- bours, Mort, has been convinced that he is himself the long lost heir to the Dymma Estate, and to immense landed property in Swanse, Gower, and various parts of Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire. The new claimant has, with singular industry and pertinacity, prosecuted his patronymic researches into his pedigree, until he has contrived to have an apparently unbroken geneological tree showing his direct descent from Robert Popkin and his wife, Rebecca, who married in the year 1711, and the successive transfer of the property to a Sir Watkin Lewis. Not only has the new heir succeeded in con- vincing himself that his claims are tenable and indis- putable but he has also advanced his rights in so cogent and plausible a manner, with the aid of docu- mentary evidence, that a number of tenants residing in various properties in dispute have absolutely refused for some years past to pay rent to any one until owner- ship is satisfactorily proved in the superior courts. Mr Frank James, solicitor, of Merthyr; a Mr Rogers, an ex-barrister, residing in Carmarthenshire and other legal authorities have been consulted on the subject; and recently a Mr Olive, an able London solicitor, has been so far convinced of the legitimacy of the claim, that he has already found money to prosecute the suits, without loss of time. Eminent barristers have also been retained to unravel the mysteries that have for many years defied the skill of various other alleged descendants of Robert Popkin, whose broad acres have sadly puzzled the brains of his posterity. A large number of writs have been issued, during the past few weeks, from the Court of Ex- chequer and served on tenants and owners of property at Swansea, requiring them to put in an appearance within a specified period. Mr Arthur Berrington, the Duke of Beaufort, Mr Henry Eaton, Mr Lewis Llewellyn Dillwyn, M.P., the Corporation of Swansea, Mr Richard Richards, and scores of other landed proprietors of Swansea an neighbourhood are stated by Mort and his friends to be iu illegal possesion of pro- perty which he claims.. This extraordinary claim, which appears to be incredible, has elicited no ordinary discussion in the town during the past week. The numerous persons who have been served with legal processes are naturally very uncomfortable, in contemplation of expensive litigation, oven should it ultimately result in their favour. Singular revelations in regard to the mode in which the extensive Forest aud other estates have been sold, bequeathed, and transferred, are anticipated whether the results will be favourable or otherwise to the hopes of the lost heir-at-law of the great original Robert Popkin. The stories already in circulation arc of an amazing and incredible character. The gossips predict that before the courts of law have finally done with the estates ample materials will be afforded for the delectation of those who are partial to the perusal of stories which elucidate "romance in real life." Certain it is that the sinews of war have been abun- dantly furnished by some enterprising spirits. We may state that Mordecai at present lives in a cottage at Cwmbwrla, a mile from Swansea. The case ¡ comes on on Friday at the Court of Exchequer of Pleas —at least the writs are returnable then. It is announced that the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland has determined to confer the honour of knighthood upon Mr Peter Tait, of Limerick. Mr Taifc is a Liberal- Conervative, and has just unsuccessfully contested the city of Limerick. Ho has been mayor of that city three years in succession. The Irish Government have appointed Mr. Maurice Keatinge, son of Judge Keatinge (on his father's retiring from the Probate Court), Marshal of the Court of Admiralty. Mr Keatinge is already one of the Principal Registrars of the Court of Probate and Regis- trar of the Court of Faculties, and is to hold the three offices, the salaries of which amount in all to about 12,OUO per annum. The Duke of Norfolk comes of age on the twenty- sixth of the present month, when there will be great rejoicings at Arundel Castle and in the neighbourhood. I. The Weekly Register hears that one of the Duke's first acts upon attammg his majority will be to lay the foundation stone of a large Roman Catholic church at Arundel, which is to cost 150,000, and is to be built at his grace's expense. In the preamble to the Duke of Cambridge's order just issued for the regulation of sergeants' messes, com- manding officers are desired to encourage these esta- blishments as a means of supporting the consequence and respectability of non-commissioned officers. It would be hypercritical to object to the word conse- quence," though it conveys the idea of a strutting French drum-major rather than the honest British sergeant, but all will concur in the desire to elevate the position of this most useful and importaant rank in the army. The life of young non-commissioned officers is not an easy one. Comrades yesterday of those whom it becomes their duty to-day to control, they find them- selves at their first outset exposed to many little annoy- ances from those who are jealous of their rise, and it requires not only firmness but tact to overcome these difficulties. Living in habitual contact with the men, they see much that it is advisable to wink at, but woe to the corporal who is detected in concealing a fault. His stripe is doomed. Yet, on the other hand, if he brings forward every little peccadillo he is is detested as a bully by the men and disliked as a bore by the officer. A judicious treatment of soldiers has often averted a serious difficulty, and a mutinous rascal who, if pro. voked at the wrong moment, may commit some fearful act of insubordination, has often been tamed down by non-commissioned officers into docility and obedience. Promotion in these ranks depends solely upon merit The best lance corporals are selected for the places of corporals, the best corporals for sergeants, and so on. Under our present system, where soldiers and officers are drawn from different strata of society, there is no reason to be afraid of favouritism, but should the road to a commission proceed solely through the rank, stringent regulations will be required to prevent a colonel from making his relations corporals before they are qualified, or to protect him from the inevitable ac- cusation of nepotism when it does not exist. It is frequently asserted that sergeants are averse from accepting commissions, but this rule, like most others, has many exceptions. Young, unmarried sergeants are almost always eager for promotion, and the supposed dislike of privates to an officer who is up to all their dodges" exists among the evil doers only. In the majority of cavalry regiments the adjutants have been raised from the ranks, and a more excellent, efficient, and highly respected body of officers does not exist. Yet at the same time it must be said that the com- fortable little places of barrack sergeant or militia staff sergeant are more coveted by the honest old fellows when they retire from the busy life- of military service.

NEWCASTLE-EMLYN PETTY SESSIONS. TO THE EDITOR OF THE "WELSIIXAY." I SIR,-Mr Fitzwilliams has very kindly favoured you with an appendix to the account I previously sent of the case of Griffith Jones, the young boy that was com- mitted before him to take his trial at the Carmarthen- shire Quarter Sessions for stealing clothes. Between the reports of us both, your readers have a good oppor- tunity to judge of the matter in its simple and legal bearings. In one small point alone do we differ. Mr F. denies that the young lad was kept in the cold chamber of the lock-up, but that be was comfortably domiciled in the private apartment of the keeper. Which assertion is the most likely to be correct, I leave an impartial public to decide. I stated in my first letter, that the lad when brought up after his week's confinement looked a pitiful case for commiseration. I trust that I may be allowed, without in the least prejudging the case, or to find Any fault whatever with the worthy justice's decision, to add thr.t the poor fellow is an orphan. His mother died when he was an infant, his father followed some years later, but. in the interval he had taken to himself another spouse and at the death of the father he was tossed on, or perhaps more properly, he was thrust into the wide world to shift for himself without friends to advise or relations that cared to assist him. Furthermore, with reference to the stocks. Mr F. endeavours to revive an old statute or custom (I do not know which), that by the almost universal consent in other districts has been thought more honoured in the breach than in the observance. These ancient implements of torture are yet found stowed away in some of our venerable old churches, and their chief uses in ages gone by were to place those that misbehaved themselves during the service, and directed their eyes from their duties towards their sweethearts. If their revival has been attended with the good result related by Mr F., in suppressing drunkenness, I think that the re-introduction to our churches could not fail to have an analogous beneficial effect upon our devo- tional exercise, for afterwards, whosoever would be caught to smile or cough, ought to do penance in the stocks, without any distinction as to station, size, or sex. I hope to be allowed, Mr Editor, to make one further suggestion. As there are two stocks already in exis- tence, and which are not likely to be wanted on the Sunday, I move that the one by the Lock-up house should be made portable, for as the keeper already com- bines in hi3 own person the office of clerk at church, I feel convinced he would have no objection to wheel this Juggernaut backwards and forwards to the place where the duty of the day requires it. I am, Sir, Yours very truly. N A LIBERAL IN EARNEST. Newcastle-Emlyn, Dec. 7th. IN ,ARNE8T. I

THE WEEK ABROAD. I TRIAL OF MR JEFFERSON DAVIS.—New York, Dec. 4th.—In the United States Circuit Court at Richmond the motion to quash the .indictment against Jefferson Davis was argued before Chief Justice Chase and John C. Underwood, judge of the district court for Virginia. The ground urged for the motion was that the penalties named in the bill of indictment as framed by the grand jury do not attach, the fourteenth amendment to the Constitution adopted in 1866 having named disfran- chisement as the only punishment for rebellion. The Chief Justice, having listened to the argument of Mr Davis's counsel and the reply of the Federal attorney, decided the ground well taken, and would have granted the motion, but as Judge Underwood dissented, the argument will have to be repeated before the full bench of Supreme Court at Washington. The certifi- cates to carry the case thither were duly signed by the bench: A new Life of Count Bismarck, by Herr Hesekiel, has just been published at Berlin. It contains an interest- ing collection of his private letters, abounding with humorous descriptions of the life he led in the country before he was thrown into the whirl of politics. The following is an extract f-om one of these letters, ad- dressed to a friend from his family estate at Kniephof —" I am sorely tempted to fill my letter with agricul- tural complaints. We are tormented with night frosts, cattie disease, bad roads, dead lambs, hungry sheep, and dearth of straw, money, manure, and potatoes. And to add to all this, here is John in the yard whist- ling a wretched scottische out of tune, and I am not cruel enough to stop him, for he is doubtless trying to soften his love disappointment with music. The ideal of his dreams refused him the other day and married a wheelwright. This is just my case-all but the wheel- wright, who is as yet sawing in the bosom of the future." In 1844 he thus describes his amusements at Scohnhausen, another family estate, where he was living alone with his father We read, we smoke, and often we play at a game which my father calls shooting. When it rains, or freezes hard, we sally forth in full spurting costume, treading on our toes, and looking out for the wind, into a pine wood where, we all know, not a living being is to be found, except perhaps an old woman or so looking for sticks. We then stop with our guns ready to fire, while the kamekeeper wakes the echoes with all sorts of unearthly cries. Of course, not a vestige of game is to be seen but my father, nothing daunted, moves on to another copse, and there the same thing is repeated dal segno with similar results. This goes on for three or four hours, and we then return as triumphant as if we had made a large bag. Now that the weather is fine we have invented another way of passing the time. We set all the clocks in the house according to the sun, and this we now do in such perfection that they all strike together, except the one in the library, whose final stroke is heard a little after the others. Charles V. was a fool to us The Times correspondent at Madrid is of opinion that if Spain is now, as the Spaniards boast, governing herself, she exhibits a singular inaptitude for self- government. He writes:—" Even here in Madrid, in the presence of an imposing force, and in the light of an ever-watchful press, there may be said to be nothing like police. All the rules which public health and decency enforce among civilized people are here openly disregarded. Madrid is becoming a nastier" place than ever it was under the worst Bourbon Government. Obscene prints, disgusting photographs, are sold in the streets with absolute impunity. Gambling to a fearful extent is carried on in public and private houses with- out even an attempt at interference. Besides the public lottery, we have endless private speculations of the same objectionable description. In the most con- spicuous column of the Correspondenoia of last evening I learn that of all lotteries which ever were in the world no one ever afforded such advantages as La Peninsular, which for a stake of 40 dols allows a prize of 11,500,000 reals ( £ 115,000), and for 2 dols. a house worth 80,000 dols." What forces itself ever on my attention is the wonderful increase of mendicity. After all that has been said and done to drive away the poor who have no claims on the Madrid public, the beggars allow us no peace,—a lazy, impudent, hideous set of beggars. It has become difficult to force one's way through the throng of them impossible to stop on the footpath and have two seconds quiet talk, or even a passing greeting with an acquaintance impossible for a shopping lady to get in and out of her carriage with- out being beset with whining opportunity impossible to go home and have any appetite for breakfast or dinner after running the gauntlet of all the withered limbs, sickening sores, and horridly disfigured faces by which the lazars appeal to your charity. Surely, with the exercise of a litle common prudence, such loath- some objects could be easily kept out of sight ?" PARIS, Friday Evening. -"The Parisians are laughing to-day at the immense preparations made by M. Pinard and the Prefect of Police to deal with the demonstra- tion of yesterday. It is asked how the Government could have been so misinformed as to the inteutions of the people the manifestation turned out to be simply one of sergents-de-ville, who effected sixty- two arrests. Nearly all the unfortunates who fell into the clutches of the executive were lads, who were released this morning. One gamin, seeing a detachment of police returning to their quarters empty-handed, cried out. 'Eh! messieurs faites done quelque chose; arretez-vous les uns les autres.' The imprudent youth was immediately pounced upon, and repaired the misfortune he criticized. We now know the preparations which were made by the authori- ties to meet any eventuality. The infantry ready to march were confined to barracks the cavalry had their horses saddled twelve batteries of artillery were held in readiness at Vincennes, and the railway authorities were instructed to keep the line to Varsailles open for the conveyance of troops. A couple of battalions of in- fantry were posted behind the cemetery of Montmartre. The Mont lew of this morning states that a numerous crowd showed itself on the Boulevard de Clichy at about half-past two, and the circulation was momentarily in- terrupted.' The circulation was interrupted by the police — M. Oloz iga, the new Spanish minister here, is to have his interview with the Marquis de Moustier to-mor- row, and there is a report that he intends to announce that the Provisional Government at Madrid have come to the decision of offering the throne to the Duke of Genoa, Prim to be Regent until the Duke comes of age. It is further stated that this candidature has been favourably received in England, Prusia and Italy.A correspondent of the Gaulois gives an account of an interview which he had with Mazzini a few days ago at Lugano he found the arch-conspirator in tolerable health. General Bufcler is reported to be ill at his residence in Lowell, Massachusetts. He is said to have been at one time speechless. The Emperor of Austria has addressed an autograph letter to Baron Beust, in which, in recognition of his service and as a token of Imperial goodwill, his Majesty confers upon him the hereditary rank of Count. Mr. John Savage, the Fenian chieftain, is at present residing in Paris, as agent to the conspiracy with which he is connected. He is in anticipation of being em- ployed on some literary business for the Government of the United States, and perhaps this will account for interviews with the American Minister and a trip to Compiegne. Though the matter has been kept very quiet it is quite true that there have been lately disturbances among the students at St. Cyr, to which some persons attribute a good deal of importance. The Emperor had invited a certain number of the young men to the reunions at Compiegne this attention was not well received and a few days ago, as the Governor of St. Cyr, General Goudrecourt, was returning to his re- sidence, a very cowardly assault was committed on him by some of the students, who left him, it is said, much injured and almost unconscious. It it is not stated whether the General has been able to indentify his assailants but whatever the motive of the de- monstration no one can justify the manner of carrying it out. The news from the East is not reassuring. A Con- stantinople telegram of Saturday says the Porte has sent an ultimatum to the Greek Government, granting a short delay for the latter to give explanations of the past and reassuring guarantees for the future as regards its proceedings in the Cretan question The ultimatum declares that otherwise commercial and diplomatic relations will be immediately suspeneded, the Turkish Minister will have Athens, & passports will be given to the Hellenic Minister at Constantinople. Hobart Pacha has been promoted to the rank of Ferik, and was to leave on Saturday to take the command of the Turkish steam fleet in the Archipelago. To those who think that improper influence or intimidation is not possible where the ballot is in opera- tion we command the following story from an American paper :—An ironmaster in Lancaster County, Pennsyl- vania, was in the habit of driving his men in a waggon to the polls on election days. He did not trouble them to get out of the waggon, but took their ballots and handed them in, saying, This is Peter Hummel's vote this is Jacob Miller's vote this is Casper Weber's vote," and so on. Then the waggon was sent off for a fresh load, Mr C. waiting until it arrived, and handing the ballots in himself, 60 as to be sure they were on the right side. Suppose the advocates of the ballot system explain how this could have been prevented ? The results of the Enquete Agrieule which has been for some time going on in France, prove clearly enough that the small-farm system is very far from bringing about Utopia, or even justifying the confidence reposed in it by Mr Mill. Some of these results are sufficiently dis- heartening. The state of the fishing and salt-making population, for instance, on the estuary of the Loire, seems far from satisfactory. The salt-trade is dying out, and but for the sardine fishery the people would starve. Yet here division of property has been carried out in the most logical way. We read of the salt-marsh divided hetween 3,000 proprietors, each of whom owns, perhaps, two or three little salt-pans. Of course such subdivision is found in practice to prevent all im- provement in the manufacture—" there is no guiding- spirit to set things forward in the right course"—it also hinders anything like free trade. This multitude of small owners—ignorant of prices, unable to go to the great markets, is absolutely at the mercy of a few re- graters, who buy up all the salt as it is made, giving pretty much their own price for it. One curious fact, a pendant to the well-known love of sub-letting among the Irish peasants, is that these petty proprietors seldom make their own salt. This is done on the metayer principle, by men called paludiers, who have, perhaps, the hardest lives of any among the proverbially hard- faring French peasants. Indeed, in this district, sub- division seems to have gone too far, even for French- men. We are told that these little properties are ab- solutely unsaleable, and that the only chance for the owners is to persuade Government to make a coast rail- way for their benefit, and to let them off all taxes. This is certainly not a promising state of things. The paludier himself gains about 100 francs a year suppose he has a wife and sister, who will carry the salt which he makes (all this kind of work is done by women), the additional income will be about 75 francs. Then, what with loading the salt barges and doing for his proprie- taire the needful repairs to the pans, he may reckon on 80 francs more, making a total of 255 francs-a very small yearly income, even for a French peasant. The depreciation of property in the district is startling. The value of the Guerande salt-marsh has fallen from three millions of francs to a million and a half. The pans, which were worth 156 francs a piece, now only fetch from 10 to 14. Very different is the condition of the salt-works in Loraine and Franche Compte. These, which only date from the Restoration, belonged, till the other day, to Queen Christina. They are now in the hands of private companies, as are the salt-works of Provence only in the west has the plan of small-proprietorship been tried and (as might have been expected) it has failed miserably. Of course the remedy is (as usual) to appeal to Government. Routes salicoles are talked of along the coast, like the routes agricoles which have been made in the Landes. The canals are to be dredged and deepened, and a railway is to be made to Guarande; and the tax is to be reduced. But the confession that even if all this is done, there is still only a faint hope of keeping alive the salt-trade at the mouth of the Loire, certainly does not say much for the blessings of small proprietorship. The people fare very badiY, soup maigre in the morning, soup maigre at night, and a few potatoes in the middle of the day. What does Mr Mill think of that sort of fare from year's end to year's end 1 During the slack time, too, both sardine-fishers and salt-workers are even worse off than this, and often stay in bed whole days, to try to realize the cruel pro- verb, Qui dort dure ? The only chance for them is to encourage the deep-sea fisheries off the coast—to do for this Bas-Breton population, in fact, what the Conserva- tive Government was preparing to do for the fishing population in Ireland. We must not fancy that these people are badly off just because they are not small proprietors, like those for whom they work; in most cases they have their patch of land, the produce of which helps out the wages of the paludier and the gains of the sardine-fisher. Nor do they compare unfavour- ably with the Provencals or the Lorrainers in education and general intelligence. The chief reason for their falling behind in the world seems to be this sub- division, which makes it almost impossible for them to keep up with modern improvements.— Imperial Review. SPAIN, MONDAY.—The news from Spain this morn- ing is less peaceful than usual. The Republicans are reported to have made an armed demonstration on Saturday at Port Santa Maria, Cadiz. They were called upon to lay down their arms, but refused to do so, and erected barricades. The troops, however, who were called out, carried the barricades by assault, and dispersed the Republicans. Nor is it the Republicans alone who are likely to give trouble to General Prim and his colleagues. The Madrid correspondent of the Constitutionnel considers the out break of an insurrection organized by the Carlists to be imminent in Aragon and Catalonia. Moreover, the Imparcial of Saturday acknowledges that the importance of the insurrection- ary movement in Cuba cannot be denied, and adds :—- The anti-Spanish character of this insurrection is the work of filibusters, and it is urgently necessary that the Government should pacify the island as speedly as possible, in order to confer afterwards upon its inhabi- tants the liberties they have a right to expect from the revolution. The government ought not to hesitate in introducing suitable reforms in the Spanish possessions and, before all, the question of slavery should be at once taken into consideration." In conclusion, the Impar- cial says that Spain ought not to shrink from any sacrifice to put down the Cuban insurrection, the triumph of which would be the worst stain that could be cast upon a revolution which is at present the pride of Spain. TUESDAY. — More disturbances are reported from Spain. Yesterday morning the workmen engaged by the municipality of Madrid struck, in consequence of the reduction made in their daily wages. The National Guard, which was called together, showed every dis- position to support the authorities, and it is hoped, we are told, that no serious disturbance will result. The Official Gazette publishes a telegram from Tarragona, announcing that a monarchical demonstration made there on Sunday was disturbed by Republicans, who destroyed the monarchical banner. The governor was compelled to resort to the military force, and the cavalry charged and dispered the rioters. Whether anybody was killed or wounded we do not learn, but it is added that order was completely restored. Further accounts are also given by the Gazette of the dis- turbances at Cadiz and Puerto Santa Maria. At Puerto, on Saturday, the workmen employed by the town authorities asked for an increase of salary. Their attitude was threatening, but the movement was speedily suppressed. On the same day, between 3 and 4 p.m., another disturbance broke out at Cadiz, but the troops defeated the rioters, and a telegram sent on Sunday evening at seven o'clock by the Governor of Seville announced that the insurgents (so they are called) had made their submission, and that perfect order prevails in all the other towns of Andalusia. A decree has been published, signed by all the mem- bers of the Spanish Provisional Government, ordering the general elections to be held on the 15th of January and the following day, and the Constituent Cortes to meet on the 11th of February next. In a preamble the Government ackowledges the sense of honour and the good feeling which animate the whole Spanish people, with the exception of an insignificant minority in some localities. The Government promises to observe the strictest neutrality and to cause their agents to do the same. The members of the Government repeat that their own opinion is in favour of a monarchy elected, not by universal suffrage, but to be chosen by those whom the people may send as their representatives to the Constituent Cortes.