There is a striking statistical contrast between Wales it the present time and Ireland at the time of Irish Disestablishment. The adherents of the Church in [reland were 693,357 or 11.9 per cent. of the population in 1861 and 667,998 or 12.3 per cent. of the population in 1871 as compared with the Roman Catholics, who were 4,505,265 or 77.6 per cent. of the population in 1861 and 4,150,867 or 76.6 per cent. of the population in 1871. The number of adherents of the Calvinistic Methodists, the largest Nonconformist denomination in Wales at the present time, was 310,345 at the end of 1910, i.e. 12.8 per cent. of the population, or about two-fifths of the number of Church adherents. In Ireland the number of Church adherents was unevenly distributed among the four Provinces, being in 1861 5.3 per cent. of the population in Munster and 4.4 per cent. in Connaught. In Wales, on the other hand, the Church communicants (not adherents) are above 9 per cent. of the population in ten counties and do not fall below 6 per cent. in any county. The progress of the Church in Ireland in adherents since Irish Disestablishment from 11.9 per cent. of the population in 1861 to 12.3 per cent. in 1871 and to 13.1 per cent. in 1911 shows the devotion and courage with which Irish Churchmen have striven to repair the injury done by Disestablishment; but a comparison with the figures of progress for the Welsh Dioceses given above shows that the progress of the Church in Ireland since 1871 has been not because of but in spite of Irish Disestablishment. The Commissioners put on record the religious benefits derived by the Welsh dioceses from their present constitutional position in the Church of England: 'Each of the four Welsh Dioceses is a constituent unit of the Province of Canterbury and has in all respects the same status in the Province as an English Diocese. The four We Bishops are members of the Upper House of Convocation d Canterbury and are entitled, according to their seniority, seats in the House of Lords. In the Lower House of Cor vocation each diocese is represented by the Dean and one Proctor for the Cathedral Chapter, and by the Archdeacon: and two Proctors for the parochial incumbents. In the organisation of the Church of England each diocese, whether in Wales or in England, has a large measure of autonomy, subject to an appeal to the Archbishop's Court in all judicia matters and to the consent of the Archbishop in certain specified matters of administration, such as the holding of benefices in plurality. . . . Under this co-ordination of central guidance and diocesan autonomy, the Welsh Dioceses have the guidance of the whole Church in religious problems of a general character, while they are free to a large extent to adapt themselves to local conditions.' (Report, vol. i, p. 27.) The Nonconformist evidence shows that in the case of Nonconformists, as in the case of the Church in Wales, 'religious problems of a general character' arising from the growing unsettlement of modern thought and th growing complexity of modern life, shared by Wales with England, rather than religious problems peculiar to Wales alone, are the prominent religious problems of Wales to-day. The evidence shows that Welsh Nonconformist denominations recognise in their own organisstion the value for Wales of unity with England. 'There is no Nonconformist denomination in Wales which is confined to Wales, and there is no definite boundary line between Wales and England in Nonconformist organisations. There is no separate National Free Church Council for Wales, and Welsh Nonconformist churches belong to the National Free Church Council of England and Wales. Three of the four larger denominations in Wales, i.e. the Wesleyans, the Congregationalists and the Baptists, are part of denomin tions common to England and Wales which originated not in Wales but in England' (ib. p. 88). Each of these three denominations has the great majority of its members in England, while even the Calvinistic Methodists have 117 churches and 18,679 members in England. The areas of seven Calvinistic Methodis Monthly Meetings or Presbyteries are situated partly A Welsh Congregation England and partly in Wales. A Welsh minister said before the Commission that he did not think that the union of his denomination in England and Wales made Welsh Congregationalists less Welsh than they would have been without this union.' A Wesleyan witness was very clear that the separation of Welsh Wesleyan Methodists from the British Annual Wesleyan Conference would be injurious to the Welsh Methodists. ... They get such great help from English Methodists that I think it would be disastrous.' At the Annual Conference of the officers of the four Welsh Federations of the National Free Church Council of England and Wales held at Llandrindod on May 18, 1909, a proposal in favour of dismembering the National Free Church Council of England and Wales in order to constitute a separate National Free Church Council for Wales, which had been promoted in the interests of Welsh political nationalism, was rejected. The General Secretary of the Free Church Council said on that occasion: 'What they had to do was to approach the question as statesmen, and ask, Will it be for the good of the movement in Wales to have a distinct and separate council? Speaking generally, he was bound to say that he was of the opinion that Wales had overdone the idea of having a separate entity for every organisation. Nothing but good could come of the uniting of England and Wales in one solid force. Many a time, if they had not fought their battles together, the battles would have been lost. Wales often needed English backing and England Welsh backing. He had expressed this view to distinguished Welsh leaders, and they agreed with him that this advocacy for a separate entity, so far as Wales was concerned, needed reconsideration. What was wanted was a great, solid, unmistakeable force for both England and Wales.' ('South Wales Daily News,' May 19, 1909.) The facts ascertained by the Royal Commission on the Church in Wales do not justify the Government's Welsh Disestablishment Bill, which is shown by Mr McKenna's speech to be, like the three previous Bills, a Bill of piecemeal disestablishment, a Bill of Church dismemberment, and a Bill for the secularisation of religious endowments. For a discussion of the principles of equity and statesmanship violated by such a Bill we refer to the fifth edition of the late Earl Selborne's 'Defence of the Church of England,' Bishop Welldon's lectures on Disestablishment and Disendowment, and Bishop Creighton's 'The Chur and the Nation.' In the following passage (op. ci pp. 36, 37) Bishop Creighton states the real issue raised by the Welsh Disestablishment Bill: 'It is obvious that the Disestablishment of the Church in Wales must carry with it the whole question of the existence of a National Church. It is useless to say that the Church of England is not menaced, that it stands upon a different footing, and is not affected by complications which arise from differences of race and language. If the Church in Wales is disestablished, there is no longer any basis of principle left; the existence of a National Church is left as a matter to be settled by local convenience. An agitation in any group of counties might lead to a similar demand in other parts of England; and if the question was skilfully combined with other points of immediate political interest, its importance might be obscured. 'We have a right to demand that so large a question should not be approached piecemeal, and should not be discussed in relation to merely local and temporary ditions. There is no ground on which the Church in W can be separated from the rest of the English Church. It had no separate history since the eighth century. La before Wales was politically united with England it wa united ecclesiastically. There has been no breach in the continuity of that connexion. The attempt to represent the Church in Wales as "an alien Church," imposed upon reluctant people, has no warrant in the facts of history.' CORRIGENDA. On p. 3 of this volume, 1. 7 from foot, for 'Mississippi' read 'South Carolina.' By an oversight, the map to illustrate the article on Fuji as a Crown Colony' (No. 430, Art. 3) gave the Caroline Islands to Spain. They have been German since 1899. INDEX TO THE TWO HUNDRED AND SIXTEENTH VOLUME OF THE The names of authors of [Titles of Articles are printed in heavier type. A. - Acton, Lord, his essay on Cavour, - Armaments, Growth of Expendi- Bailey, John, 'Thackeray and the Balfour, Rt Hon. A. J., M.P., result Balkan States, their attitude to Tur- Barbour, Sir D., on the system of Bath, Beau Nash and, 331. See Baty, Dr, The History of Majority Bergson, Henri, The Philosophy |