§ Mr. Hallsaid, he had a Petition of rather a novel description, intrusted to him. It prayed for an alteration with regard to the Church Establishment in Wales; and in presenting it to the House, and declaring that it had 301 his warm support, he felt it to be his duty to say a few words upon its prayer, and to request the attention of the House to the principal points contained in it. The grievances complained of were those which were common to nearly the whole of Wales and which had been slightly touched upon in that and another place; but, besides the duty which devolved upon him of particularizing the distresses of those persons belonging to the same diocese as himself, he considered this petition well worthy of notice, because it not only proved the declining state of the Welch Church, but it prayed for a remedy, at once simple and self-evident, and which, if applied in time, might tend to prevent the total destruction of the Church Establishment in the Principality. It prayed, that all incumbents, from the Bishop downwards, might be henceforth selected from persons conversant with the language of the country, He was well aware that this was not a proper period for entering into a discussion upon the state of the Established Church generally; but it might be right for him to comment upon the state of the different parishes named in the petition, in which, from local knowledge, he was enabled to declare that he considered the cause of the Established Church to have materially suffered from the appointment of ministers ignorant of the language of the country; from the great disproportion between the population of the parishes and the number of resident Welch pastors; and finally, from the benefices being, with few exceptions, conferred upon non-residents, which was not only injurious to the interests of the Church, but was unjust and disheartening to the natives, amongst whom were men of learning and piety, and capable of filling, with honour and credit, the various ranks of ecclesiastical preferment. He would only cite two instances, named in the petition, in order to prove, that the Established Church was little more than a name in those parishes; as in one, containing a population of above 3,000, only 240 attended divine worship in the church and chapel whilst, in the other, having a population of 8,000, only 100, according to a calculation lately made, frequented the church. There being two Welch curates having the charge of these 11,000 souls, one of whom had to perform duty in another populous parish adjoining. He would not take up the time of the House by commenting on the miserable stipends paid to those valuable members of society, 302 the Welch curates; but trusted he had said enough to convince every unprejudiced mind that it was not an unreasonable boon for the Welch to expect to have the preferment conferred solely, for the future, upon those who understood the language of the country. The inhabitants would not renounce their language, and it would be well to prevent them from renouncing their chruch entirely, and adhering to the tenets of those who consoled them in sorrow, comforted them in sickness, and prayed with them in affliction, in the language which they best understood. As some remarks had been made, that petitions of this description were directed against the right reverend Prelates at the head of the Welch dioceses, he thought it right to mention, before he sat down, that no such feeling existed in the bosoms of the petitioners. For his own part, he entertained the greatest respect for the high classical attainments and deep learning of the present Bishop of Llandaff, and acknowledged with due feeling, the charitable and liberal assistance which he had so often rendered to the distresses of the clergy; but, at the same time, it was not possible for an English Bishop to do that justice; to a Welch diocese which was expected by the natives. The petitioners hoped that they might in future have those preferments conferred upon natives only. They desired not to dispossess present incumbents of their benefices, but they wished, that instead of constant translation, their own countrymen should live and die in the same diocese; and with regard more particularly to the second order of clergy, they hoped that, during the lives of non-resident Englishmen, there might be an increase in the number of curates, with better salaries for their support.
§ Sir John Hanmersaid, that the inability of the Welch clergymen to discharge their duties had been very much exaggerated.
§ Mr. Jervisobserved, that it was a cause of great complaint, and, in his opinion, a very just one, that clergymen who held the principal livings in Wales were not sufficiently acquainted with the language of the country to administer that spiritual consolation to their parishioners which they required and expected. They might know enough of the language to be able to go through the service in the pulpit, but they did not know enough to converse with their parishioners, and give them religious assistance at their own houses.
§ Petition to lie on the Table.