Papurau Newydd Cymru

Chwiliwch 15 miliwn o erthyglau papurau newydd Cymru

Cuddio Rhestr Erthyglau

17 erthygl ar y dudalen hon

--.Jöh¡'" Carmartlicn Borough…

ILM/s Inspectors Reports.

jPENYGRAIG.

Pertrefl Felingwm.

The Education Bill.

---_----------_. A Slander…

Newyddion
Dyfynnu
Rhannu

A Slander oil the Welsh People. To the Editor of the Carmarthen Weekly Reporter. For some time I have been anxiouf'diat the Welsh people should know how grossly and persistently th' y are tdsnelered in English Church newspapers. The Ritualistic papers in particular abound in venom and scurrility. Some of the charges are ridicukuu: in themselves, ccu isting of mere spiteful tittle-tattle. Does a Welsh School Board let a brass band practice in a sch; oi on Sunday, or a Haptist congregation hold a bazaar en Gocel Friday, or a deacon give a tedious preacher a quiet hint to cut his sermons shorter ? Then these trivial mat era are ndJuced as proofs that religion in Walts is at a very low tbb. At such things we can afford to laugh but of late tho old slender has been revived that the Welsh people are grossly immoral, and it is alleged that their immorality is due to their Non- conformity. The latest end worst journalistic outrage of this kind is a loug article in the Church Times of May bt. Of course it ie anonymous, but the writer declares that every one of his statements is supported by "men who are among the most experifneed clergy in South Wales The sub- headings of this attiele are FUggestive, 44 Demoralisation and Dissent," Religion without Morality, "1 wo National Sins." Here are one or two choice extracts — "The really appalling result cf Dissent is the moral evil that has undoubtedly resulted from the divorce of religion and conduct. 4i When one finds that just in those parts of South Wales where Dissert is strongest, immorality ar.d crime cf a peculiarly revolting kind are rampant that one of the distiicts held up with truth by Liberationist speakers and newspapers as a place where Dissenters are ten to one, and the chapels are crowded, is the most criminal district in Great Britain; that in another district, oftm similarly quoted, tic offences againet the Criminal Law Amendment Act are five times as numerous as the average in England and Wales then, indeed, the corrupt fruits of the corrupt tree become ppparent. 44 The two leveling national failings are untruth- fulness and sexual immorality, which latter in ccitnin districts has become ciiminality, and I believe they are largely the result of Protestant Dissent. lhat sexual immorality is a grievous national evil is denied by robody who knows the countty. 41 The worst feature of the whole business is not that particular forms of ein are prevalent — that is the case in eTery rountry-but that these who prcfets to be the leaders cf the people, instead of trying to eradicate the sin, try to explain it away or even deny its existence. The firt great difficulty that^ir.cets the Church in Wales, then, is this elemoralisation rejultinj from Dissent." I might be weii content to let these sentences stand in their naked hideousness, for my object is to make known to the Welsh people how they are being elefamed. When honert, God-fearing Welshmen and Welshwomen are thus maligned simply because they are Nonconformists they will more than ever understand how foul and ciuel and unlovely and un-Christ-like is the spirit of Sacerelotalism. For half a ccntury this charge has been repeated in vaiious forms. Thirty years ago my old friend Henry Richards exposed the mendacity of priestly assailants of the Welsh people. The time has come when the work must be done over again. In Wales itself bishops and clergy of the Church of England speak fairly to their countrymen, but when English audiences are addressed they lament the wickedness of the Welsh, and protest that it is due to their detestable Disseat. Now let us turn to the facts as regireb illegitimacy as given in the hst Annual Report of the Kr^i^trar of Births. Deaths, and Marriages. In the first place it is not true that tho rate of illegitimacy is higher in Wales than in England. In England and Wales it is 4'3. The attrage of more than half the counties of England is higher than that of Wales, and yet the writer in the Church Times h,8 the uud&city to declare that sexual immor:\1ilY is one of the two leading national failings The argument that because Dissent and illegiti- macy prevail in Wales therefore Dissent is the cause of illegitimacy i, absurd. Let us apply the same argument to the -.Evtabliehed Church and English counties. The illegitimate births in Wales are 4T of the whele; now let us turn to England. The Established Church is strong in Oxfordshire, and the illegitimate biitlis arc 5 7 j it is strong in Norfolk, and the illegitimate births ara 6*8 it is strong in Cumberland, and the illegitimate births are 69. St all we therefore say that the Established Church is the cause of the high, rate of illegitimacy in these counties ? Thete is equal reason for this assertion as for the assertion ihe Chvrch Time* that illegitimacy in Wales is the. fault o.! Dissent. Every man who thinks for a moment will see that the race of illegitimacy alone is nn unsafe index of molality- In Lpndon the rate is lowest, and yet London is far from being the most moral part of England. The rate of illeintimacy is lower in South Wal e than in Noith Wales, but it is notorious that South Wales is net morally superior. High rates of illegitimacy prevail in agiioultural districts, and therefore it is not suipiining to find that the rate in North Wales is G'G. But cross the border to the neighbouring agricultural counties of Shropshire and Herefoid, and what do we find ? Shropshire illegi imacy ia also G-6, exactly the same rate as that of North Wales, while in Herefcrelihire the rate rises to 7-6. In Shropshire add Hereforelshire Dissent is weak, and tho Established Church is in overwhelming strength yet as regards illegitimacy Shropshire is as bad as North Wales, and Hereford- shire far worse. If it be true that the illegitimate birth rate uses when the people arc alienated foro the Established Church, it oucht to fall" when the people are attached to that Church. The facts do not coincide with the theory. Apparently tha defamers of the Welsh people reckon that the command "Thou shuli not boar false witness egainst thy neighbour" is for the present suspended 10 the interests of the Church but possibly the wide publication of such attacks m the Principality itself nav be effective in pruenting them for the future.. HOWARD EVA us. Liberation Society, 2, S^rj.ants,'lr.n, Lmrd n,

Ferry side and District Gossip.

Socrates and Agricultural…

C W M DWYFEAN.

LLANDILO.

AV H I T L'A LN 1).

LLANDDOWEOK.

FERRY SIDE.

CROSS INX, GOLDEN GROVE.

I The Deaf h of GJadstoiiiaii…

LLANFYRNACH.

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