The Sun.
London, England, 1851-12-30 00:00:00

" DEWISLAND HUNDRED.

" Out of twenty-one parishes, containing an aggre-
gate population of 10,840, no less than twelve parishes,
containing a population of 2,392, are utterly unprovided
with day-schools; thirteen parishes, containing a popu-
lation of 3,401, are without a resident clergyman; and
eleven parishes, containing a population of 2,462,
are without either a day-school or a resident clergy-
man."

" KEMESS HUNDRED,
" Of its twenty-six parishes, containing a population
of 15,559, no less than thirteen parishes, containing a
population of 3,460, are without a day-school; and
fourteen parishes, containing a population of 3,773, are
without a resident clergyman; and twelve parishes, con-
taining a population of 2,386, are without either a day-
school or a resident clergyman."
If the Bishop of St. David's had taken these cases,
and with them the long additional array furnished by
the pages of the same reports, and going through
them one by one had severally added a list of the pal-
liatives or remedies applied during the last four years,
by a patient and cereful hand to counteract and abo-
lish abuses so flegrant, the simple rectitude of such a
proceeding must have won universal respect,
while an opposite course of conduct inevitably
involves him in the ignominy of the guilty.
From the days of Sir Robert Walpole St. David's has
been known as a most unhappy diocese. In fact,
reading the words chancellor for vizier, bishop for
sultan, and missed churches for ruined villages, the
fable of " The Language of Birds" might not inappo-
sitely have been applied for many years past to the
forlorn diocese of St. David's, for long generations of
owls have probably dowered their progeny with its
dilapidated school-rooms, ',forsaken parish churches,
and moulderiog chapels of ease. At p. 7 the Bishop
darkly alludes to " statements which have of late been
industriously circulated;" and at pp. 11-12, abruptly
striking at an unmentioned censor, he says—
" If the state of the diocese with regard to its churches
and schools had been brought before the public for any
purpose like that with which an appeal has lately been
made, with very happy success, in behalf of a neighbour-
ing diocese, I should certainly not have bean tempted to
weaken the force of such a representation, even if it had
been somewhat overcharged, by exhibiting the brighter
side of the subject; and I am now more anxious that
our wants should be known, than that the efforts we
have made to supply them should be duly appreciated.
But the statements to which I have been adverting are
manifestly calculated for ends widely different from that
of exciting sympathy in our favour."
" Sympathy is our favour !" Could a, Walpole, a
Reeve, a Radcliffe, and a Scott, exercising their united
powers of romantic fiction, contrive to invest with
attractive interest parish priests neglecting their
duty, disgracing their calling, and desecrating their
churches, while rural deans, archdeacons, and bishops
stand by to tolerate or connive at such flsgiiious
abuses ? Let statements of such facts be made in
what spirit they may, such facts must in themselves
arouse our indignation alike against the persons who
commit and the persons who allow of their commis-
sion, while awakening our regret and all our noblest,
tenderest sympathies for the alienated people and for
the sacred cause of Christian truth. Still alluding to
the same statements, the Bishop adds—
" They nut only contain many gross misrepresenta-
tions in matters of detail, but, while they suppress
all notice of what has boon dune, they studiously keep
out of sight the peculiar circumstances of the case, which
are the main causes of our difficulties ant of our weak-
ness, and thus can only tend to mislead."
A reference for this sentence to the appendix will sur-
prise the reader by the few and comparatively slight
exceptions taken against the grievous " matters of
detail" mentioned in the published speech of Sir
Benjamin Hall, delivered in the House of Commons,
July 1, 1851. The Bishop's own account of the con-
dition of his diocese is, however, when thorougly con-
sidered, by far the most melancholy of any yet put
forth. It powerfully, though most unintentionally,
recalls, by a narration of visible and tangible effects,
the sad memory of past and passing generations,
through which the prosperity of the Welsh Church
has been recklessly sacrificed to a political whim,
alike baseless in wisdom and ruinous in practice.
Still alluding to Sir B. Hall's speech, the Bishop says
(pp. 12, 13, 14)—
" Similarly partial and invidious is the notice which
has been taken of the large proportion of churches in the
diocese in which service is celebrated only once on the
Lord's-day. This fact can only he viewed in its true
light when placed by the side of other parte of the sta-
tistics of the diocese—as the low average value of the
livings, the scarcity of parsonage-houses, and the number
of clergymen who have the charge of more than one
church. litqairies which I have recently made for the
purpose of ascertaining the present state of the case
with regard to these points have furnished the following
remarkable results, in which I have no reason to sus-
pect the possibility of any material error :—I find, that
out of 411 benefices—the whole number contained in
this diocese-156 are under the yearly value of 1001,
265 under 1501,, 333 under 2001. 01 the remainder, 53
are under 3001., 14 under 4001., 8 under 5001., 2 exceed
the value of 6001,, and there is 1 above 8001. With re-
gard to parsonage-houses, it appears that there are at
present only 161 habitable residences, while the c tre of
339 churches is divided among no more than 162 clergy-
M9ll. These facts throw a strong light on one another,
and on the complaints which I have heard ever since I 4
have been connected with the diocese—that the supply
of clergymen is miserably inadequate to the necessities
of the Church—a complaint which has been occasionally
urged upon me as a ground for relaxing my general
rules as to the admission of candidates for holy orders.
Indepen&ntly, however, of the impediments arising
from these most widely operative causes, to prevent the
intention of the Church from being more fully carried out
as to this part of her ordinances, there are many local
circumstances, not capable of bciug reduced into a statis-
tical form, which raise peculiar difficulties in dealing
with the subject, and increase the reluctance and mis-
giving with which I should in any case enforce the in-
troduction of a second Sunday service, against the will
and judgment of the minister. I trust, nevertheless,
that I in ty still be allowed to witne.s a growing im-
provement on this head also; though I am aware that it
must always be narrowly limited, so long as the impe-
diments which I have pointed to remain; and that these
arc such as we cannot hope to tee very speedily abated.
I shall detain you but a little longer with a few remark's
on one or two kindred topics before I pass to others of
more general interest. But I must say a few wore on
the question of archidiaconal visitations in this diocese,
which has of late been brought so prominently forward.
I am, however, happily relieved frees. the necessity of
touching on that part of the subject which personally
affects myself, and of vindicating myself from the
charge of having prevented or forbidden my archde,i.
eons, or any of them, from holding their visitatiene,
because the state of the case in that respect is new, so
fully known, and so generally understood, as to render
any further explanation of it aupnfluous. list I think
it right to state my view of the present pOsition of the
archdeacons, with regard to the different branches of
their duties."

Proceeding to propound his
state of the law, and to exonerate ofWens& from all
responsibility as to the views the uncertain
archdeacons
s
on himself
or not
visiting their proper districts, his Lordship leaves the
unfortunate functionaries their own risk and peril,
to dare or not to das I,es at their
may prompt or
divers
timidity restrain, t. the serious inconveniences" and
pains and es ti
pane , which anal ties. the Bishop opines
may possibly attend the exercise of their " defective"
and " precarious" authority. After comparing .the
(Awes of archdeacon and rural dean, with a faint in-
dication of preference for the latter, the Bishop pro-
ceeds to repel, as an insult, the charitable supposition
that when things amiss were observed by the ordi-
nary, and reported to the diocesan, their immediate
remedy must follow. He says (p. 17)—
" On the other hand, I must•observe, that the impor-
tance of both is absurdly, as well as mischievously, el-
aggerated, when language is used which implies that
nothing more is needed for the correction of whatever
may
be,found amiss in the matters which lie within their
province, than that it should be brought under the cog-
nizance
of the ordinary. Wherever else this may be the
case, it is certainly far otherwise in this diocese. No
power with which the law has invested either arch-
deacon or bishop can provide a remedy for the imp°.