534 
tible) hear more in the fame ftrain from 
your’s, A LITTLE WELCH FaRMER. 
8th May, 1800. 
P.S. Since the above was written, my 
,concerns have called me as far as Merthyr 
Tydfil (a diftance of about thirty miles). I 
am forry to fay, that, throughout the whole 
{pace of that journey, my remarks have been 
more than confirmed, as far as they relate to 
the profpe&s of another harveft. ‘The crops 
of every kind make a very indifferent appear- 
ance, (peas only excepted). Many of the 
wheats look very bad, both in colour, and the 
{canty proportion in which they have come 
up. Some of them do not look as if they 
could ever yield their feed again to the fowers, 
Accidents alfo, and the want of fufficient pre- 
cautions in draining and water-furrowing 
(circumftances of extreme importance.in this 
region of torrents) have occafioned the actual 
defolation of fome fields, both of wheat and 
oats. The floods that-accompanied a violent 
thinder-ftorm, the night before my journey, 
(May 9) had inundated feveral pieces that 
day in fight of the road, fcouring the roots 
out of the ground in-fome places, and bury- 
ing them in others with a thick layer of 
fiones and-rubbifh, through which they can 
never fprout again. 
17th May. 
é 
eae Bm 
Io the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SR ; 
HILE you generoufly continue to 
V afford us a page in your widely 
circulated Magazine, we may ftill retain 
the long-protracted hope of engaging the 
attention of our fellow-citizens ; and hope 
deferred; however fickening to the heart, 
is lefs intolerable than defpair. 
I have already faid (in a former letter) 
all that can be faid refpe€ting the illufive 
profpect of melioration, whichthe Curates’ 
Bill holds out.tous. But, Sir, we cannot 
avail ourfelves of thefe advantages, fuch 
asthey are. A re€tor or vicar has but to 
declare that he will do his owvz duty, in 
order to difmifs any one of us. If indeed 
the curate can remain upon the {pot’until 
the parfon fhall become weary of his ardu- 
ous undertaking, and fhall again ftand in 
need of an afliftant, he muj? thex employ 
the perfon whem the bifhop has licenfed to 
the curacy. But, Mr. Editor, the parfon, 
inflamed with an extraordinary zeal, or 
ftimulated by refentment,, may perfift in 
doing his duty for half’a year, and, fhould 
‘he be a charaéter of fingular perfeverance, 
for a whole twelvemonth ; the guondam 
curate is without fupport in the mean 
' while, and compelled, long before the ex- 
piration of twelve months, to abandon his 
fituation, in ordex to. obtain from fome 
Cafe of Curates frated. 
[July 1, 
other curacy (if he can get one), or in fome 
other line of life (if he cannot) Bread to 
fave him from ftarving ; for however much 
bifhops ought to be, and may be, given 
to hofpitality, it is really out of their 
power to fupport all their diftreffed clergy. 
I myfelf knew an inftance of a clergy- 
man in the greateft diftrefs, weighed down 
by a numerous family of young children, 
diimifled from his. curacy from inability, 
through ill health, of performing the du- 
ty. This man’s pitiable cafe was humbly 
reprefented to the bifhop of the ciocefe: 
his lordfhip charitably fent him tem pounds. 
What could he do more? unlefs, indeed, 
he had beftowed upon him the next vacant 
benefice. But the forlorn curate was taken 
to Abraham’s bofom, probably before a 
vacancy occurred ; fo that his lordthip’s 
future intentions can only be known and 
regiftered above, Indeed the poor man 
lived fo fhort a time after the bifhop’s be- 
nefaclion, that his lordfhip (who is a maf- 
ter of calculation) probably forefaw that 
ten pounds would bea provifion for life. 
We are a clafs of men, Sir, too depref. 
fed ever to merge from our deplorable fi- 
tuation, unlefs the woice of the public fhould 
declare itfelf loudly in our behalf. The 
dread of difmiffion and confequent inevi- 
table poverty will ever keep us as indivi- 
duals lent; and we are too much difperf- 
ed to be able to unite as a body, and pe- 
tition parliament for relief; and yet, it is 
from the legiflature alone that we can ever 
expect it. 
That we have long endured our fuffer- 
ings in patient filence, cannot be denied. 
But the hardnefs of the times now drives 
us to defpair; and while we admire the 
liberality of that government which has, 
taken upon itfelf to fupport fuch numbers 
of the popifh clergy, we cannot but feel 
the more deeply grieved and humbled, that 
fuch numbers of wretched prieits of its own 
eftablifbed religion fhould attras&t none of 
its compafiion, 
The nation, Mr. Editor, contributes 
very liberally to the fupport of the efta« 
blifhed priefthood ; and, I prefume, were 
the contribution of that part of the tithe 
which ftill remains in the hands. of the 
church, properly divided and diftributed, 
there would be a comfortable provifion for 
an officiating prief? for every parifh ; a pro- 
vifion that would enable him to breed up 
a family decently. For, as to a certain 
defcription of priefts, who have no cure of 
fouls attached to their benéfices, they real- 
Jy are a dead weight upon their orders And 
very many of another defcription, who de 
occafionally condefcend to infru& Paty 
‘ : ock 
