The Press. FRIDAY, JUNE 5, 1914.

Press, Volume L, Issue 14986, 5 June 1914, Page 6

The Press. FRIDAY, JUNE 5, 1914.

J "While tho Homo Rule Bill has excited deeper feelings in the minds of the : BritisTi people than any other measure ■.';irirecent years, tho Welsh Itfsestablish;ment Bill, one of the other first fruits •of the Parliament Acfc. has perhaps created more bitterness nnd a more permanent sense of injustice, Although ",vMt; AsquitK,, in defending' the Parliament Act,, said that that Act could Hot possibly bo .used so as to carry a measure which depended, for its enactentirely upon the coalition of groups for'their own ends, iyei the Welsh Church Bill at ever? .stage survived only by the grace of the r Irish Nationalist vote—by the rote, ..jthat i$ to say, of a party to nine- :. Jbenths of whom the principks of the is totally repugnant. What good .Roman Catholic opinion thinks of this - Bill is made clear by an articlo in the .London "Tablet," tho fmo weekly which; Toices the views of educated Catholicism in Great Britain. Tho "Tablet, 5, always ablo and intellectual, can on this question speak with the anthonty of detachment and disinterestedness. It cannot be suspected 'of partiality towards the Established Church. la its latest number to hand, which appeared.when the Bill was virtually Jaw it lias some particularly interesting comments to make on the tneasuro. It quote* Mr T. P. O'Connor to support its contention that the Bill ; has not any overwhelming backing in the country. "Thus it was that when '/'the Welsh Church Bill camo before "Parliament," safd that indiscreetly candid Nationalist M.P., '-jt did not ;. *'create a ripple of excitement among ! •*' the working classes, and if it liad I '"not been for the steady adhesion and !' f discipline of tho Trish members it "would not have passed." That this . was so xrae apparent when the Bill ;•'. was being put through the Houk* of

Commons. The disapproval of a num- ' kr of Liberals made the Government ,' dependent on the Nationalists for a majority, and the Nationalists, with an eye on Homo Rule, did not fail. i' And that democracy is not. excited by the Bill does not surprise the "Tab..let." M Life will go on very much as before. The Welsh farmer will still pay I the obnoxious tithe; "it will be small "oomfort to know that henceforth ■""it.will support a local ' museum, in-

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"stead of a parson." Tho village clergyman will remain, but his successor will be poorer, and the work of tho parish will be hindered by failing funds. All the Welsh Nonconformist bodies havo lately been Trying to create permanent endowments so as to provide living wages for their ministers, yet Nonconformists have- deliberately d*prived tho parsonages of the Anglican clergy of just the Fame sort of support. The Bill will deprive 103 parishes of the whole endowments, while the prospects of 560 Anglican curates are seriously damaged, and not a ppr.ny compensation is allowed. Theso men have given the Church years of work, yet Parliament callously disendows many of the parishes where hoped to serve The total income from endowment is £260,000, of which £157.000 is to be taken under tbo Bill and applied to secular purposes. Mr. McKonna, theMinister in charge of the Bill, sounded tho depths of fatuousness when ho pointed out that all would bo well financially if tho voluntary subscribers who already provide £'300,000 :\ year increased their gifts by £157,000. The "Tablet" remarks caustically that this principle .seems capable of .a wide applie.iiion. "You rob a man of funds " bringing in £~/}Q a year, and then, " for his consolation, explain to him "that if his mother's uncle will allow " him an equivalent income, he will "be just as rich as before." Perhaps, in years to come, peace in Ireland may make men forget tho bitterness caused by tho treatment of the Irish question iir.der the Parliament Act, but it will l>2 long before honest men of any creed will forget the Welsh measure, fj- which the English Roman Catholics havft as much contempt as their Ani glican friends.