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MR WHALLEY AND THE MERIONETHSHIRE…

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CURRENTE CALAMO.

Newyddion
Dyfynnu
Rhannu

CURRENTE CALAMO. (From the Oswestry Advertizer.) The Welsh-Evicting Landlords stand a fair chance of becoming historical characters, and of having their names handed down as illustrations of vindictiveness, much in the same way as we see that of Sir John Falstaff used to typify bragadocio, or Pecksniff as a model humbug. Last week Mr John Hkrdy, M.P., was charged before the Burton magistrates with uttering a malicious libel on a t«nant who had not pleased him and whose rent he had raised as a punishment. In his examination the tenant naively remarked that'when he received his land- lord's letter he thought he was in Wales We hear a good deal about the stupidity of Welsh juries let the landlords take care lest they win, for Wales the discredit of a far worse name. Confession is good for the soul t So we hope the North Walts Chronicle feels all the, better- for the honest admis- sion it made on Saturday. "The chapel and slate quarry screw" said our contemporary, "has proved itself more than a match for the much decried'land-kizent screw." So it is admitted that the landlords do put the screw on, but urged that the other side do the same. Such is not the case. The "screw seiat' has never been admitted indeed it is a thing all but impracticable. A clergyman may screw, if he chooses, for he lives independent of his parishioners and in favour with the squire; but it has often been a reproach levelled, agaiost dissenting ministers that as they have to be supported by the voluntary con- tributions of their congregations, if they don't preach what the people like they stand a chance of being starved out! As, however, the hearers choose their own preachers, as a matter of course it Lenerallv- nq that. Tninlsw and people think and feel alike cm great questions. T1 3 Welsh farmers are Nonconformists, and it would seem reasonable to suppose that, being such, no very great amount of screwing' was necessary to get them up to Liberal pitch but for want of something better it suits the Tories to ring the changes on the assertion-we can't call it argument-that the preachers compel the people to vote quite forgetting to add that it is only to vote in accordance with the dictates of conscience that they are asked by their spirituaL guides. How far has the "chapel and slate quarry screw" proved itself "more than a match for the land-agent screw" in the Merionethshire election? As regards the 'slate quarry' part in the affair, we will dismiss it with this re- mark-had Festiniog, Harlech, and Corris not contri- buted a vote on the occasion, Mr Holland would have had a 'liberal' majority! This limits us entirely to the agri- cultural districts, and to the operation of the rival screws of the preacher and landlord. Take Bala as an illustra- tion of the working of these instruments of torture. The tenantry of Rhiwlas and Wynnstay worship at the same chapels, deal at the same markets, read the same news- papers, and hold the same beliefs. At former elections they all (or the bulk of them) voted the same way, and that in entire contradiction to the views they pro- fessed as nonconformists The rival screws were there at work the preachers insisting that Christians should obey God rather than man; and the agents hinting at the possible loss of farms to those who chose to act in so pre- posterous a manner Both screws were down tight, and the landlord sometimes had the benefit of clergy in his, for established parsons have been known to preach the creed-" It is well that Tenant and Landlord should go together !in so doing placing the claims of Man a trifle before those of his Maker! The screw seiat' was entirely inoperative, as the result shewed: the tenants had not the audacity' to do right, but marched to the poll with humiliation of hearts. During the recent election the screw was released in the ease of the Rhiwlr tenants -they were left to do just as they liked with the right the Old Constitution' affords tenant farmers, of giving a vote for the land they make valuable and pay for! What was the result? Why that almost in a body they voted entirely opposite to the way in which they have always voted before! Here, we take it, is proof positive of the operation of the one screw. What _of the other? Welshmen are nonconformists, and hold very strong views on the freedom of Religion from State Control, and on Liberal Progress. They choose ministers whose views are in accordance with their own. When an election comes, only a fool or a knave would care to say that they need coercion to make them vote for a liberal candidate. What is needed, and what, thank God, the preachers do not hesitate to say is needed, is that they should man- fully resist the encroachments of the agents who dare to destroy the Free and Equal Liberty of our Old Con- stitution" by making it appear that the vote belongs to the lord of the soil. The nonconformist voter needs this help. With an agent urging him to wound his conscience, it is needful that the screw seiat' should be held tight, and the preacher would not be doing his duty to his God did he not thunder before his hearers the truth that no man can serve two masters-he must obey God or Mammon. We called attention last week to a letter in the Standard signed Welshman,' in which the writer accused the preachers of Wales in general, and the editor of Y Dydd in particular, of teaching sedition. An extract from what professed to be an article in Y Dydd was given, and in reprinting this extract we doubted the correctness of the translation. We have now received a copy of a letter on the subject addressed to the editor of the Standard news- paper, by the Rev. S. Roberts, editor of Y Dydd, and from it we find matters were worse than we supposed. Not only is the extract' wrongly translated; it is also fifteen months old, and has been given in the Standard- in various forms—at sundry times within the last twelve months. Mr Roberts shall speak for himself Some fifteen months ago a peaceable patriotic correspondent of Y Dydd, well acquainted with the trials and sufferings of several evicted families, reminded their oppressors of the agita- tion prevailing around them, that heart-burnings might lead to house-burnings; his faithful words of warning, under conserva- tive construction, have appeared again and again in the Standard and other unprincipled tory papers. It has been seasoned and re-seasoned, cooked and re-cooked in conservative cookshops; it has been boiled in tory kettles, and broiled in tory p»™a; it has been hashed and re-hashea in tory dishes; it has been roasted and stewed, and served piping hot three or four times on the big table of the Standard and as many times on the little table of the Western Mail, and various other tory tables of all forms and sizes. Tory gourmands must be very voracious when they can relish and swallow such old hash, and their larder must be very empty when they have nothing in it to give their friends as a holiday dinner, but a thin, mouldy "resurrection pie," deodorised and re-seasoned according to the most approved recipes of conservative cookery. Those tory papers have re- peatedly maligned the editor of T Dydd as a Welsh Fenian, a sower of sedition, a fomenter of rebellion, and a suggester of in- cendiarism. The Standard, knowing that the Welsh people are loyal, enlightened, conscientious liberals, and Nonconformists, is doing all it can to slander and vilify their character; but it is not so surprising that the Welshman' of the Standard should stigmatize the Dissenting preachers of Wales as instigators of Fenianism, when it insinuates that the measures of the present Government tend to disorder and Fenianism.' The Standard admits that the people of Wales are 'quiet and industrious and intelligent,' while their pulpit and press foment sedition and anarchy Its elaborate logic as to the Fenianism of the preach- ers is murdered by its sup-admission of the intelligence and industry and quiet peace of the people. Seditious preaching promoting loyalty is a doctrine not known anywhere but in tory Standards.' The wise men of the Standard gather grapes from thorns, and figs from thistles.' The preachers are all thorns, their congregations are crowned with grapes. They get figs in the pew from thistles in the pulpit. Now the question is, 'Will the Standard publish Mr Roberts's defence ?' We think not. True, an anonymous assailant has attacked his good name in all that is dear to a Christian gentleman; and Mr Roberts seeks but to defend himself. But what of that? The anonymous as- sailant hates nonconformity—so does the Standard. He is unscrupulous—so is the Standard. He has Tory squires please—so has the Standard. What hope, then, for an honest man, who has the misfortune to be a Welsh Liberal, even if all he requires is to defend himself by truth against error-even if he does sign his own name when he challenges that of his anonymous accuser. One of those canards which are hatched in mysterious comers of the newspaper world, and then go the round," relates how the "tables have been turned" on certain Welsh game-preservers. Here is the story, which, though quite untrue, is amusing and instructive- The tenant-farmers of Montgomeryshire have, it seems, suc- ceeded in turning the tables upon their game-preserving land- lords by indicting them for selling game without a licence. In several instances the charge was sustained, and fines to the full amount were exacted. There was probably in the minds of these Welsh offenders some recollection of the feudal rights with regard to game which have outlived most ancient privileges, and which, even so late as 1823, influenced Lord Cranborne's committee in its proposal to confine the selling of game to those persons who, in virtue of possessing real property, were qualified to kill it. Of course, such a piece of class legislation failed, but Mr Brandt's scheme, based on an opposite principle, was equally unsuccessful. He was in favour of permitting the farmer to breed and kill for the market any quantity of game, believing that by rendering partridges as common as domestic poultry the monopoly of the rich would be abridged, the temptation to poaching discouraged, and the meat supply of the country largely augmented. "These Welsh offenders" never existed, in Montgomery- shire at any rate, and the readers of the Adrertizer will laugh at the idea of the tenant farmers of the Principality indicting their landlords. Why, that would be worse than voting against them! Landlords in Wales are almost as sacred as pheasants. We can hardly wonder at political corruption when those who aspire to be the respectable leaders of opinion" write as a local conservative contemporary wrote last week- Politics is work for mundane men, work in which saintly souls should take no part. Politics is of the earth earthy, which priests and preachers should not soil their hands by touching- save where a question of religion is involved. It is this mixture of priestly and political functions in years gone by which has brought Ireland to her present deplorable condition. There the priesthood have raised a demon which they possess not the power to subdue. It is a terrible lesson, which. taken in time. interest — the fate of a nation of men none at all! If religion is to be eliminated from politics, no wonder that bribery, corruption, and coercion prevail. What about Church and State ? On what conceivable theory does the State support religion, if religion has nothing to do with politics? But what is religion in the opinion of writers like this, since it has nothing to do with "the daily round, the common task." Or is it politics which are too wicked for good men to meddle with ? What, then, about the sacred trio of "Church, Queen, and Con- stitution?" We evidently require a fresh version of the conservative creei-and a revised edition of the New Testament.

THE MARRIAGE OF MISS EDWARDS,…

MERIONETHSHIRE ELECTION.

SIR WATKIN W. WYNN AND THE…

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