felt themselves at liberty to suppress the evidence given by many dissenters, and this, too, on the very points with which their reports were specially concerned. It would not, of course, do to omit entirely the names of dissenters. Such a fact would have revealed too plainly the sinister design of the Commissioners. A few dissenters were consequently examined, though their evidence was not wanted. It did not favour the foregone conclusion,' and is therefore consigned to oblivion, by these most impartial and veracious judges. But to the proof:

Not only,' says Mr. Richard, did these gentlemen ignorantly or wilfully omit to consult the best informed and most competent authorities, but they did far worse. Now, observe, I am not going to mince the matter; I have taken care to get firm ground beneath my feet before I stood here. I do distinctly and deliberately charge these gentlemen with having dishonestly garbled or suppressed, not once or twice, but in many instances, evidence given to them by some of the most respectable and intelligent men in Wales, but which evidence was almost uniformly in favour of the people. I will not refer to the numerous indignant complaints which constantly appear in the Welsh papers from persons whose evidence is contained in the Reports, against the mutilated form in which it is given, and against the manner in which the Commissioners have made a general application to the entire population, of certain strong expressions employed only in regard to a small and most depraved class of the population; I go on authority of the most direct and undoubted kind, when I affirm that the following gentlemen furnished valuable and copious information to the Commissioners, every line of which has been suppressed :-The Rev. Lewis Edwards, Presi dent of the Calvinistic Methodist College, at Bala: the Rev. John Phillips, Bangor, Agent for the British and Foreign School Society in Wales; Dr. Owen Roberts, Bangor, a respectable lay gentleman, who has interested himself long and deeply in the social and educational condition of his country; Rev. Edward Davies, of Haverfordwest, who, in a letter I received from him this week, says, 'I gave evidence myself to Mr. Lingen, which covered nearly two pages of his folio note-book, and of which there is not a word in the Report; simply because, I suppose, it tallied not with the grand purpose of making out a case for government aid; ' the Rev. Thomas Thomas, Principal of the Baptist College, at Pontypool; the Rev. Evan Jones, of Tredegar; the Rev. Mr. Bright, of Newport.' -p. 206.

The manner also in which inquiries were conducted, was singularly one-sided and suspicious. The witnesses were directed by leading questions, to the evidence that was sought. 'Is there any deficiency of good day-schools, with competent masters, in your neighbourhood; and in what respects are they defective? Is there much ignorance among the poor; and on what subjects? Are their morals defective; and if so, in what respects? State instances and facts which illustrate this.' We need not say, what would be thought of such a mode of questioning in any

court of justice; nor is it needful that we should deny the accuracy of the picture drawn, as a likeness of the general condition of the community. The attention of the witnesses was directed to the worst parts of society, and their replies are then exhibited, as a portraiture of the whole. I do not deny,' says Mr. Richard, that many of the evils depicted, do actually exist in Wales; though even these are, I firmly believe, in many instances, grossly exaggerated. But what I do object to, and vehemently protest against, is, the practice uniformly pursued by the Commissioners, of taking the utmost pains to hunt out, with the keen scent of a vulture, all the corruption and garbage of society, and putting these forward as fair average specimens of the intelligence and morality of the people.' We need say nothing in support of this protest. Every rightminded man will instantly perceive and admit its force. We might as well appeal to the language of Billingsgate, in proof of the current phraseology of London, or to the morals of our gaming-houses and brothels, as illustrating the general tone of English society.

We had marked many other points in this lecture for comment, but must content ourselves with alluding to one. We refer to the evidence given by several clerical witnesses, on which the case of the Commissioners mainly relies. The Rev. Richard W. P. Davies, of Crickhowel, represents the mining districts of Brynmawr, in Breconshire, in colours the most hideous and revolting. The commissioner, Mr. Symons, readily avails himself of this evidence, and putting it in the foreground of his summary, gravely assures us, that not the slightest step has been taken to improve the mental and moral condition of the population. Now, what are the facts of the case? It is true, as the reverend detractor alleges, that there is neither church nor chapel of the establishment, within two miles of Brynmawr. But what then? There are six dissenting chapels, built at an expense of nearly six thousand pounds, and which numbered, at the time, one thousand one hundred and thirty-six members in actual fellowship, and furnished accommodation for every man, woman, and child, in the place. Nay more, a British school had recently been erected, at a cost of three hundred pounds, and two hundred Sunday-school teachers were actually engaged in the work of popular education. What shall we say to such facts? They speak for themselves, and need no comment. The witness who could give such evidence, and the commissioner who relied on it, are equally unworthy, to say the least, of respect and confidence.

The same glaring violation of truth is observable in the evidence of the Rev. J. Griffith, of Aberdare, but we pass it over, for the

present, in order to make room for another instance, adduced by Mr. Richard, and which we shall give in his own words. The extract somewhat exceeds our limits, but we cannot forego its insertion, and it does not admit of abridgment. Mr. Richard says:

I prefer selecting from all others, for special examination and remark, the evidence of the Rev. Henry Lewis Davies, of Troedyraur, in Cardiganshire. And I do so for several reasons. In the first place, it is one of the worst (involving the most serious charges against the people and their religion) to be found in these three volumes. In the second place, it is put forward with great and studied prominence by Mr. Symons, in his summary. In the third place, it has been carefully culled as a choice specimen, by all the Whig papers, and published as an illustration of Welsh morality; and, in the fourth place, the parties on whose authority I am about to contradict its statements are personally and intimately known to me, as men on whose veracity the most absolute reliance may be placed.

'The Day-schools are very deficient in Wales. The people generally desire and deserve to have better schools. I believe that good schools, where the Bible should be taught, without the Church Catechism or any sectarian doctrines, would flourish; but I am sure, that in this neighbourhood, no schools exclusively on any church or sectarian principles would answer, or be sufficiently attended. As an instance of this I may state, that when Sir James Graham's Bill was proposed, the Dissenters and Methodists in my parish opposed my school, and told the people I was a Roman Catholic. Very few children remained, and it was obliged to be given up in consequence. The Independents and Methodists then joined in establishing a day-school in my parish. They tried to teach each their own doctrines and catechism in the joint school, and soon split, and were obliged to establish a separate school within two or three fields of each other; and yet their principles are nearly similar.

The Welsh poor people are wofully ignorant on all secular subjects. They used to be well instructed in the Sunday schools in the Bible and in scriptural truths; but latterly, since so much doctrinal controversy has arisen, they pretty nearly confine their questions, (pwnc in Welsh,) and catechising, to polemics. For instance, such as State and Church connection; that confirmation is contrary to Scripture; that baptism ought to be by immersion, or the reverse; Presbyterianism and Independency, etc.; they thus attend far less to Bible history and gospel truths than to these sectarian points. Having been absent in England for about twelve years, I perceived a great change for the worse in this respect, on my return six years ago; and this state of things is rather worse than better now. The pwnc is generally printed, and always chaunted at the schools about here. They often meet at evening schools, in private houses, for the preparation of the pwnc, and this tends to immoralities between the young persons of both sexes, who frequently spend the night afterwards in hay-lofts together. So prevalent is want of chastity among the females, that, although I promised to return the marriage-fee to all couples whose first child should be born after nine months from the marriage, only one in six years entitled themselves to claim it.'

Now, I happened to be pretty well acquainted with this locality myself, and having received the impression, from annual visits to the neighbourhood for nearly ten years, and free and frequent intercourse with the people, that they were peculiarly peaceful, intelligent, and religious, I was utterly astounded when I read this piece of evidence. I wrote instantly to a friend residing there, calling his attention to it, and begging to know what truth there was in it. He made it known to his neighbours, and a universal storm of indignation was raised through the parish. Mr. Davies was written to in the first instance, to produce his authority for the charges he had made, each of them being separately and minutely described. He sent back a note denying being actuated by any sectarian feeling in what he had advanced, and declaring his intention to enter into no paper discussion on the subject.' But that would not do, for the Welsh blood was up. A public meeting was called. The largest chapel in the neighbourhood was densely crowded. Every one of the charges contained in the evidence was deliberately examined, and indignantly denied. It was proved that Davies's school was broken up, not because the people thought him a Roman Catholic, but because he insisted upon the children, (nearly all of Dissenting parents) attending the church on the Sunday; that such a joint school of Independents and Methodists, which soon split, because each tried to teach their own doctrines and catechism,' never had an existence, except in the curate's own imagination-that instead of the Sunday schools confining their questions and catechising to polemics, not one of the schools in his parish ever had a catechism on any one of the subjects he mentionsthat so far from the evening schools for the preparation of the punc leading to the immoralities he descries, there has been no evening-school held in the parish for fifteen or twenty years, that the secret of his never getting any one of his female parishioners to claim the promised return of the marriage-fee, was not the cause which he slanderously insinuates, but because Mr. Davies had made it a condition that the child should be brought to him to be baptized, and the people, being all Dissenters, disdained to sell their principles for the sake of his contemptible bribe—that, in one word, almost the whole of this foul representation was a tissue of the most wanton and gratuitous (you know what), invented by this man, to avenge himself of his parishioners, because they were dissenters.'-pp. 220-222.

The extent of this quotation compels us to close abruptly, which we do with an earnest recommendation to our readers to keep their attention fixed on the Welsh branch of the educational movement. When such base arts have been resorted to, in order to make out a case, we must not rely on the fairness or common honesty of our opponents. Unless the vigilance of an enlightened people interpose, their end will be worthy of the beginning. We thank Mr. Richard for having called the attention of our countrymen to the subject, and strongly recommend his lecture, together with the series of which it forms part, to the early and repeated perusal of our readers.

613

ART. VIII.—An Act to empower the Lord Lieutenant or other Chief Governor or Governors of Ireland, to apprehend, and detain, until the 1st Day of March, 1849, such Persons as he or they shall suspect of Conspiring against her Majesty's Person and Government. [25th July, 1848.]

THE prediction of Hume as to the euthanasia of the British constitution seems about to be realised; but who could have expected it to expire in the arms of Whiggism? The history of the Whigs as an opposition would have led us to regard them as the incorruptible champions of self-government, local institutions, and municipal rights, the hereditary opponents of arbitrary power. To those who believed their loud and everlasting professions, their official career of patronage and intrigue, their large promises and poor performances, subserviency to the aristocracy, and resistance to the people, vacillating inconsistency, and endless delay in questions of reform; stubborn pertinacity, and rapid legislation in matters of coercion, must appear peculiarly incongruous. In a party trading in professions of purity, such things strike the observer 'like stains upon a vestal's robe,' or 'blasphemies from the mouth of a bishop.'

This party took Ireland under its special protection. Misgovernment in no other part of the empire excited so much of their virtuous indignation. Against Irish Coercion Acts they declaimed with the vehemence of boys in a debating society. The numerous barracks regularly fortified, with holes for cannon and musket pointing to every road and street, and perforated towers at every corner; the jails crowded with prisoners for the crimes of politics and poverty; the system of detectives and spies, spread like a net over the wretched population; the representative of the Queen armed with dictatorial powers, proclaiming and disarming any district he pleased; all these things the Whigs condemned as violations of the constitution, which justice would instantly correct. For a season, Lords Normanby and Morpeth acted on such professions, and proved that they were right. Since then, however, the party have been retrograding rapidly. Never had government such an opportunity of saving England from the reproach which the condition of Ireland brings upon it. The famine, followed by the death of O'Connell, gave them the occasion of putting an end to agitation, by putting society in that country on a new basis. Millions of money were freely voted for this purpose. Starvation, plague, and emigration, more than decimated the population, as if to render the work of regeneration more easy, to prepare the