Writing to Mr. Edmondes in 1845, he says:—

'It is necessary that a commission should be appointed to inquire into the state of Lantwit-Major parish, as to the use of the Welsh language there. It has been called an English parish, and as such W took it some twelve or fourteen years ago; but after a few years' experience, finding that there were many persons in that parish and in Llisworney with whom he could not converse, he, from conscientious motives, resigned it. . . . . . . As the dean and chapter of Gloucester wish to appoint a minor canon of their cathedral, who knows nothing of Welsh, I should be obliged to you to execute this commission, and to report to me your opinion whether it is necessary, and, if not absolutely necessary, whether it would be serviceable to the church, to have a minister capable of conversing in Welsh. I may thus, if not justified in refusing their nominee, yet impress upon them, as patrons, the duty of selecting a person qualified in that respect, both on account of those who are unable to speak English, and of those who use and prefer their native language, although they may have learnt English.'. . . . . .

Again, in 1847:

'My only doubt as to's qualification for the divinity school is, that he is not acquainted with Welsh ....... Certainly I mean to be strict in requiring a knowledge of Welsh before instituting or licensing a clergyman to a parish, in which that language in any material degree prevails.

The bishop recurred to the subject of language in the Charge delivered to his clergy in 1845, the following extracts from which will be found to contain much additional and valuable matter:

'One of the disadvantages we labour under, tending materially to disunion and dissent, is the use among the people of two living languages, and those most dissimilar and incongruous in their character. This evil, in whatever coun

tries it existed, it has been the policy of all wise governments to obviate, by encouraging, as much as possible, the ascendancy of one, and that the language of the larger part of the nation, so as in process of time wholly to supersede the other. The business of civil life, the administration of the laws, the intercourse of society, are all aided and improved by the adoption of one medium of communication among the inhabitants of the same region; and if all these interests require a sacrifice of that natural partiality which attaches us to local peculiarities, much more-infinitely more-is the cause of true religion entitled to that sacrifice, for the peace and the union of the church are in a still greater degree promoted by the same expedient. The feelings and affections are influenced by idioms and modes of speaking not easily transfused from one language to another, although external objects and mechanical operations, and the ordinary business of life, may be sufficiently expressed in translated words for all practical purposes. Now it is the former class of ideas with which revealed religion is chiefly conversant, and which the teacher of that religion seeks to instil into the minds of his hearers; these they may imbibe most eagerly, when clothed, not in an acquired vocabulary, which serves well enough for the common uses of life, but in their native tongue, long associated as that is with all emotions of the imagination and the heart. This is a quality not peculiar to the Welsh language; it is an incident common to all languages. When, therefore, a population is in that transition state, that a large portion have already dropped the use of their own language for that of another race, and the two races are become not only intermixed in all conceivable proportions, but their respective peculiarities are daily disappearing, it causes the greatest perplexity to the pastor of a parish how best to carry on the religious instruction of such a community: and whereas union is a vital principle of the church, which

it concerns us all to cherish as much as possible, this mixture, while it lasts, becomes a fatal source of discord and disunion. All the expedients of alternate or occasional service in each language, according to the relative numbers of the two portions (which are besides ever varying), although the only remedies the case admits, are inadequate, and generally abortive. The minor party draw off to that assembly, whatever its denomination, in which their own language exclusively prevails, and separation soon ripens into absolute schism, and even hostility. When I reflect on the evils arising from this state of things, and when I know by experience that the only adequate remedy is the use of one language, it grieves me to think that any among us should, for the sake of indulging the love of antiquarian lore, or a romantic feeling of local and partial attachment, studiously endeavour to perpetuate the mixture in those districts where it was fast dying away, and thus purchase a pleasure of the imagination to themselves by the surrender of sacred and substantial good.'

On subsequent occasions the bishop was involved in controversies with lay patrons, who desired to nominate clergymen ignorant of the Welsh language to parishes in which it seemed to him necessary that the ministrations of the church should be performed in the native tongue; and in the latter part of his connexion with the see, he rebuked, in his place in Parliament, the lord chancellor of England for seeking institution in Welsh parishes for two clergymen, one of whom held a benefice in the diocese of Rochester, and was wholly unacquainted with Welsh, and the other of whom did not possess that complete acquaintance with the language, which in the judgment of the bishop was necessary for the satisfactory discharge of the pastoral, as well as ministerial duties of the particular parish to which he had been presented, although he had earned the commendation of the bishop for the manner in which he had

discharged his duties in another parish of the same diocese, in which an occasional Welsh duty was required.

The chancellor for some time upheld the presentations he had made; and, although he at length yielded to the bishop's determination, and presented other clerks, yet this was not done until after a debate in the House of Lords, on a motion made by the bishop for an address to the crown, praying her Majesty to consent to the introduction of a bill, for limiting the time during which benefices in the gift of the crown might be kept vacant.

In a letter to a friend, written on the morning after the debate, the bishop gave expression to his feelings in the following language:

'My fixed determination was, never to institute a man, incapable of performing the duty of a living, on the plea that he would employ a Welsh curate. When I found such a man in possession, it was the only expedient in my power to compel him to employ a Welsh assistant. But I resolutely refused to create such cases myself, and I have repeated, over and over again, that I looked upon such arrangements as not only unfair and unjust, but most offensive to the feelings of the Welsh people, and an insult to their clergy.'

The bishop's views on this subject were clearly manifested in the disposal of his patronage. The livings in his gift in both archdeaconries were six in number, to all of which he nominated once, and to some more than once: and by the courtesy of the chapter of Llandaff, his recommendation was usually followed in the disposal of their livings, twentyone of which became vacant during his episcopate.

On every vacancy, whether the patronage was in the bishop or the dean and chapter, the benefice was conferred either on a native of the diocese, or on a native of some other part of Wales who had laboured in the diocese; and several of the benefices thus bestowed were English parishes,

in which an acquaintance with the Welsh language was un

necessary.

He firmly upheld the order and rule of our own branch of the church catholic against the unscriptural pretensions of Rome on the one hand, and the mischievous spirit of schism and causeless separation on the other. Thus, in the Charge delivered to his clergy in 1839 is the following warning:

'I would intreat you, my reverend brethren, not to disparage your church, or give encouragement to those who disallow it and break from it, by yielding, even in name, to their pretensions. To bestow the title catholic upon the Romish church, as contradistinguished from our own, is practically injurious, not only with uneducated people, but it has actually been employed in controversial argument as a proof of their superiority and of our recent origin. To speak of theirs as the old faith or the old religion, and of the Protestant confessions as a new form of Christianity, has an equally injurious tendency. The truth, as you well know, is, that ours is the old faith. Let us, however, drop altogether the distinction of old and new, and adopt that of genuine and corrupt. There is but one faith, one religion, one church, from the beginning-that church has been for ages grossly corrupted by the influence of popery, and it has been more or less reformed and restored to its original purity by Protestants in different parts of the Christian world. We of this land have accomplished the work more thoroughly, and yet more temperately, than any other nation. Let us cherish this great and glorious work as our dearest possession; at the same time, never let us give way by submission, no, not for an hour, to that spirit of schism and separation which is directly opposed to the very constitution of the church, as founded by Christ and his apostles, as placed on record in the holy Scriptures, and as transmitted to us through the uniform practice of the first and purest ages. Do not, I beseech you, under a