amount of the existing debt may be fairly capable of considerable abatement, if the tender of immediate payment were made to the creditors. Some portions of the debt are of questionable origin and validity; some consist of interest long unclaimed, and probably abandoned; some have been actually bought and sold in the market at a rate considerably lower than the nominal amount. It is proposed, therefore, that an inquiry should take place, and an estimate be formed of the fair marketable and redeemable value of all the debts which may be proved against the several Trusts; that the Government should advance the sum required to pay off such estimated value by way of loan, at the lowest remunerative rate of interest; and that such loan and interest combined, in the shape of a terminable annuity, should be charged in the first place upon the tolls; or, if they should prove inadequate, upon the rateable property of each county, according to the proportion of its debt. The effect, of course, would be at once a diminished charge in respect of the debt so redeemed and converted, and a certain prospect of its ultimate extinction upon the expiration of the annuity.

The debt thus dealt with, and placed in course of liquidation, the remaining stages of the required reform seem accessible and almost easy by comparison. Consolidation of Trusts, the longdesired but rarely-attained object of all who have spoken, written, or theorised on the turnpike-laws, is the next great step to be effected; and equal and moderate rates of toll, gates to clear one another at fixed distances, reduction of salaries of officers, improved economy in repairs, and more careful and responsible administration of funds-benefits which have been so signally realised in the Metropolitan and in other consolidated Trusts—may be expected to follow in its train. The Commissioners propose that the amalgamation of Trusts should be made coextensive with each county, and that all the turnpike-roads therein comprised should be placed under a central county administration and control; subordinate boards, for local management and repair of roads, being constituted in the several districts. The only other feature of their plan which it seems important to notice here, is the appointment for South Wales of an engineer officer, in connexion with the Government or Board of Ordnance, to overlook and check the management of roads and application of funds, and to be the channel of that control over the powers of the local boards, which it is proposed hereafter to vest in the Secretary of State.

It has lately been announced that a measure, founded mainly upon the suggestions which we have now cursorily noticed, will be submitted to the legislature by Government during the present session. Whatever modification the plan which we have now

passed

passed in review may receive and very possibly it may derive much improvement in its transit through parliament—we earnestly hope that no pressure of other business, no concession to clamour, should such be raised-above all, no interested opposition-may disappoint the just and reasonable expectations of the people of South Wales, of this or some other redress for the wellinvestigated, proved, and incontestable grievance under which they have suffered. The country is now quiet and peaceable, tolls are again collected, the police and soldiery have been removed: nevertheless things cannot go on as they are. We do not speak as distrusting the sincerity of those by whom the promised measure of relief is to be proposed, but we are alive to the difficulties of the question, and bear in remembrance the repeated delays and failures experienced by those who have attempted to introduce reforms of a similar character with respect to the Turnpike-Trusts in England. In the system now in operation in this country may be found, we have no doubt, instances of mismanagement, of oppressive tolls, of funds wasted or misapplied, and of dilapidated finances, which nothing in South Wales can surpass; while the immense and yearly accumulating arrear of debt, stated in the Parliamentary Return for 1842 at about eight millions and a quarter of money, seems to urge a resistless argument for legislative interference with a system which has produced such ruinous results. Yet Commissioners have reported and Committees sat in vain, and, session after session, the resistance of vested interests, and the combined and powerful influence of those who derive profit or power from the existing constitution of the Trusts, have proved effectual to stifle every measure which has been proposed for their correction. We trust, however, that recent events in South Wales, and the feeling which they have excited in the public mind, will, with the influence of the Government, aided by the representatives of that country in the legislature, whose patriotism may be honourably exerted in this cause, prove strong enough to counteract any efforts which may be interposed to shield the Welsh turnpike system, so justly convicted and condemned, from an effectual reformation.

We have left ourselves too scanty a space to discuss, except in the briefest manner, the remaining articles in the budget of Welsh complaints, and upon some we have already commented incidentally. The effect of the Tithe Commutation Act is one of the most important: this, the Commissioners argue, and we think justly, is a landlord and tenant's question, and that where the rent-charge now fixed upon the land exceeds the value of the tithe formerly paid, the lessee has an equitable claim upon his lessor in respect of the new burthen superadded by the act or bargain of

the

the latter, or, at all events, by operation of law, upon the original terms of their contract. It is quite clear that the rent-charge, though payable by the occupier, is virtually a charge upon the land; and it may be hoped that the just and liberal feeling of the Welsh landholders, coinciding in this case with an enlightened regard to their own true interest, as identified with that of the cultivators of their lands, will induce them to adopt the course necessary to indemnify those who have been made liable to an unforeseen and additional burthen by the effects of the Commutation. With respect to the latter class, the shrewdness and sagacity for which they have already had credit may be well exercised in finding the solution to that curious fallacy which some puzzle-headed persons have disseminated, and which the Commissioners have taken much pains to confute, that the system of averages established by the Act operates with special injustice towards the Principality. Finally, to all parties we would suggest, as the wisest course, that they should learn to make the best of the measure as it now stands, inasmuch as the Tithe Question is one, they may be well assured, which no prudent Government would suffer to be unsettled more than once in a century.

Of all subjects, scarcely excepting the tolls, on which the Commissioners were appealed to, none excited more soreness, none certainly elicited more unanimous condemnation, than the bastardy clauses of the Poor Law Amendment Act. The injustice involved, as the popular notion conceives, in throwing the whole burthen of the consequences resulting from an act of joint criminality upon the weaker sex (for the remedy held out by law against the male offender proved a practical nullity), 'outraged,' says the Report, the moral feeling, and provoked the indignation of the people to a degree that can hardly be described. Interdum vulgus rectum videt.' A Bill, however, has been brought in and is now before parliament, to undo what we cannot but regard as a false step in legislation, based on a fond theory, disproved by general experience, but especially inapplicable to Wales, where the peculiar relation of the sexes and prevailing habits of the country produced a wide exception to that state of things which led to, and was supposed to justify, the alteration of the law in England. But of this unwise and unmanly innovation we trust we may now speak as virtually repealed.

To the increase of the burthen of poor-rates, and to the causes which have mainly tended to produce it, we have already adverted. Attempts have been made to throw all the odium arising from this source upon the new Poor Law Act; but those who will be at the pains to investigate the evidence and returns upon this subject may satisfy themselves that the increase has much more connexion

with the general distress which the country has suffered during the recent period, than with the machinery employed for its relief. To that dawning re-action which already, we trust, after so protracted a depression, sheds the light of improved prosperity upon the empire, and more especially to the revival of that important branch of trade which is the staple manufacture of South Wales, and the great field for the industry of its population, the struggling middle classes of that country may now hopefully look, not only for a mitigation of this peculiar burthen, but also for a recovery from that decline of profits, and continued exhaustion of means which have made them unwontedly sensitive to the pressure of every demand. Legislation may relieve from some vexatious enactions, or may lessen the friction of unavoidable burthens, but the heavier portion of the evils which have afflicted South Wales, the stagnation of trade, the deficient harvests, and the general impoverishment, which have increased poor-rates and made tolls intolerable, are incurable by Parliament:

'O passi graviora! dabit Deus his quoque finem.'

The exorbitant amount of the fees paid to magistrates' clerks for the transaction of the ordinary business at petty sessions seems to have been another very general, and in some cases, vehement complaint. This again is not a Welsh grievance merely, but one which applies to the whole kingdom, and it has recently attracted a good deal of public attention. The evils of the present system, its oppressive consequences, and injurious moral effect, are, we think, beyond controversy, and it is one which clearly falls within the scope of legislative remedy. The Commissioners suggest the payment of the clerks by salary out of the county-rate, instead of the present uncertain and unequal remuneration by fees; and they suppose that the adoption of such a measure would produce a very slight, if any, increase of charge to the counties, which would get the benefit of the larger fines that would be imposed if there were no costs, and that at the same time it would ensure the services of a class of persons better qualified for their duties than some of the present functionaries. This suggestion is well worth considering, and we trust that this grievance, which is both a real and remediable one, may not be suffered to sleep.

We have now done with the catalogue of Rebecca's complaints, and have only to advert in conclusion to one or two less popular, but not less interesting topics-which have called forth some remarks from the Commissioners, with reference to the general condition and prospects of the country with which their lengthened inquiry must have made them so intimate. One of these is the extensive prevalence of the Welsh language, the exclusive use of which the Commissioners justly regard as constituting a serious

drawback

drawback upon the advancement of the community, an impediment to education, the means of which are sadly deficient, a great hindrance to the operations of the church, to the administration of the laws, to the diffusion of sound opinions, and other general benefits of social intercourse. Certain persons, whose intentions are doubtless good, but whose zeal might find, we think, a better field in the present age than the perpetuation of useless distinctions, are at prodigious pains, by means of festivals, associations, badges, premiums, and similar machinery, to cherish and still further diffuse the native language of the Principality-a language which it is no libel to describe as singularly deficient in beauty or euphony, and which possesses scarcely a particle of literature deserving to be rescued from oblivion. It would be a curious speculation how much of the mischief of the present day is perpetrated through the medium of well-intentioned societies. We venture earnestly to recommend some of the concluding observations of the Report on South Wales to the consideration of these zealous archæologists, and to suggest as a worthier object of their intelligence and patriotism, and a better application of the sums devoted to the sustentation of this worthless relic, the extension of their aid and co-operation to that humble but discerning class who regard the English language 'in a spirit that does credit to their sagacity, as the language of advancement and promotion,' and who 'gladly embrace any opportunity of giving their children the advantage of acquiring it.'

The subject with which we shall conclude these remarks is one on which, had not our limits been already too far exceeded, we should have desired rather to dilate, though with far other feelings than satisfaction. The condition of the Established Church in the Principality, as described by the Commissioners at the close of their Report, is a melancholy picture. Who shall say that it has had no connexion with the deeper causes of Rebeccaism?

'We feel it incumbent upon us, before closing this Report, to add a few words upon a subject which it is impossible to regard without feelings of serious concern and regret: we refer to the existing position and circumstances of the Established Church in South Wales. That so large a proportion of the lower and middle classes are seceders from her communion is a fact which, on whatever other grounds it may be partly accounted for, the deficiency of her means has beyond all doubt greatly contributed to promote. In no part of the United Kingdom has so large a proportion of the great tithes been diverted into lay hands. In the diocese of St. David's, which includes nearly the whole of the six counties, the average value of the vicarages is stated to amount to only 137. per annum. In consequence of this state of things many of the rural and thinly-peopled districts have been left without accessible means of worship or spiritual instruction, while the ministers of large and popu

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