xiv] FIRST LITERARY EFFORTS 221 



collier breathes forth, an extemporary prayer. The Established Church 

 is very rarely well attended. There is not enough of an exciting character 

 or of originality in the service to allure them, and the preacher is too 

 frequently an Englishman who speaks the native tongue, but as a 

 foreigner. 



Their preachers, while they should teach their congregation moral 

 duties, boldly decry their vices, and inculcate the commandments and 

 the duty of doing to others as we would they should do unto us. here, as 

 is too frequently the case throughout the kingdom, dwell almost entirely 

 on the mystical doctrine of the atonement — a doctrine certainly not 

 intelligible to persons in a state of complete ignorance, and which, by 

 teaching them that they are not to rely on their own good deeds, has the 

 effect of entirely breaking away the connection between their religion and 

 the duties of their everyday life, and of causing them to imagine that 

 the animal excitement which makes them groan and shriek and leap like 

 madmen in the place of worship, is the true religion which will conduce 

 to their happiness here, and lead them to heavenly joys in a world to 

 come. 



Among the youth of both sexes, however, the chapel and prayer 

 meeting is considered more in the light of a " trysting " place than as a 

 place of worship, and this is one reason of the full attendance, especially 

 at the evening services. And as the meetings are necessarily in a thinly 

 populated country, often distant, the journey, generally performed on 

 horseback, affords opportunities for converse not to be neglected. 



Thus it will not be wondered at, even by those who affirm the con- 

 nection between religion and morality, that the latter is, as I said before, 

 at a very low ebb. Cheating of all kinds, when it can be done without 

 being found out, and ali the lesser crimes are plentiful enough. The 

 notoriety which Welsh juries and Welsh witnesses have obtained (not 

 unjustly) shows how little they scruple to break their word or their oath. 

 Having to give their evidence through the medium of an interpreter gives 

 them an advantage in court, as the counsel's voice and manner have not 

 so much effect upon them. They are, many of them, very good witnesses 

 as far as sticking firmly to the story they have been instructed in goes, 

 and returning the witticisms of the learned counsel so as often to afford 

 much mirth. To an honest jury a Welsh case is often very puzzling, on 

 account of its being hardly possible to get at a single fact but what is 

 sworn against by an equal number of witnesses on the opposite side ; but 

 to a Welsh jury, who have generally decided on their verdict before the 

 trial commences, it does not present any serious difficulty. 



The morals and manners of the females, as might be expected from 

 entire ignorance, are very loose, and perhaps in the majority of cases a 

 child is born before the marriage takes place. 



But let us not hide the poor Welshman's virtues while we expose his 

 faults. Many of the latter arise from his desire to defend his fellow 

 countrymen from what he considers unfair or unjust persecution, and 

 many others from what he cannot himself prevent — his ignorance. He 



