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ousness whereof (if doubted or forgotten) will appear twenty years hence as horridly as they do now by reading the aforewritten catalogue, the truth whereof singularly, every word, I now avow.

am a withered stubble and a most wicked rebel, yet when I consider and believe the promises of thy gospel, and the example of Peter, Mary Magdalen, the publican, the prodigal child, any many others; how it is as easy for thee to one sin; and thy

Wherefore, let me endeavour to help pardon a million as

my memory to confess, work a sincere repentance, contrition, odiousness to the least sin, since 'twas by the least I came gradually to the greatest,-and sincere resolution and watchfulness for the future. And to that end let me endeavour to pray and confess to God as well as I can, humbly craving the assistance of that spirit now that gave me a first sight of these horrid sins, and still continues to

show me the deceitfulness of my heart,

and desire to return to embrace its en

emies, and helped me to conclude this imperfect and disordered confession. O assist me to conclude; that, having confessed, resolved, and prayed by thy divine assistance, they may never more be a burden to me, as knowing that it is as easy for the Almighty to forgive the most obstinate sinner as the least transgressor, the sins of twenty one years' repetition as of one minute, millions as one. Wherefore, as thou dost show me the example of other returning sinners, I'll by thy assistance (O blessed spirit that kept me hitherto from sliding, which had been without thy assistance impossible), though confusedly and shamefully, yet confidently in Christ's merits, approach the throne of thy grace, O Almighty Father, saying a brief confession.

IV. A BRIEF CONFESSION TO GOD IN
PRAYER.

O most gracious Lord and heavenly Father, most holy and pure thou art. Oh, in thy incomprehensible and accustomed mercy towards mankind in general and towards me, vilest of all, suffer me, and send thy Holy Spirit, promised to all the penitent, to assist me, that am but vile dust and ashes, to speak to thee through thy son Jesus Christ who, with his most precious blood has purchased, as thou wert pleased to own, this admittance to vile dust and ashes to come before thee that art a consuming fire. Notwithstanding I

most gracious calls to the greatest sinners, and promise to pardon and forgive the sinners that are the heaviest laden with sins, whenever with penitent heart they, lamenting those sins, return unto thee, imploring thy peace; notwithstanding the heinous guilt of my sins and the horrid and innumerable sins of all sorts I have endeavoured to recollect of my past life, having most imperfectly drawn and yet not willingly passed by one; when I review what thou hast been pleased to bring here to my mind and helped me to write by thy Holy Spirit, with innumerable others I cannot remember, and when I consider the goodness thou hast ever showed me when I thus rebelled against thee,-I am ashamed of myself, and confusion seems to cover my face as a veil. And though I stand here guilty of the most dreadful sins, and of the breach of all thy holy laws and commandments, and my conscience tells me I am according to my power one of the greatest sinners on earth, yet the inexhaustible fountain. of thy most abundant mercy bids me come boldly to the throne of thy grace, that thou art well pleased in thy dear son, that he is willing to take the curse and the burden of all my sins upon him, on condition of sincere repentance and resolution of amendment, which I would do. But, without thy divine help, I cannot do the one or the other, wherefore I most humbly crave that thou wouldest both quicken and help me in my present work of working out my own salvation, through my dear Saviour, with fear and trembling. Look down with pity upon me, now desiring from the bottom of my heart, if my deceitful heart does not still deceive me, to confess with sincere sorrow, and to beg thy most gracious pardon and assistance for the future, else I am still but a miserable creature.

Oh, I tremble to think before whom I stand, and what a stubborn and obstinate

rebel I, most sinful worm, have always been ever since I was able to sin, and how wicked I find my deceitful heart still. Oh, but I would repent, and it is in thy power alone to help me and soften and purify my corrupted heart. O then assist me, O most gracious Lord, with thy divine spirit direct me. I know thou knowest all my misdeeds, and my most secret sins are not hid from thee, and I come to confess them in humble reverence, and in obedience to thy most gracious command and encouraged by thy most merciful invitations to me and to all the greatest sinners. I perceive and confess that in sin I was conceived and born, and that, notwithstanding the vow I made at my baptism, notwithstanding the good instructions and education and example I had from my good parents, as I was able I, according to my ability, broke all thy holy laws, in taking thy name in vain, profaning thy holy day, swearing; telling lies, disobedience to parents, and masters, and brothers and superiors, and stealing several things. Even in my childhood I gave myself to the love of money, women, pride, envy, malice, coveting everything I could have, filthy playing, and all manners of wickedness I could privately be guilty of, notwithstanding the several kind motions of thy Holy Spirit.

But when I grew up in years, and out of man's fear, woe unto me, I grew more in all manner of vice that an hypocrite could do. Having no fear of thee before my eyes in all thoughts, words and actions, I now began to extinguish all checks of conscience, all growing virtues. Oh 'tis with trembling and confusion I think how near I was to repentance being brought upon me by some good sermon from one of thy ministers, and how negligently I slept on it afterwards. How soon did I forget all the good instructions I had, instead of praying for help against temptations,-for prudence, justice, faith, fortitude, temperance, sight. to understand thy blessed Word, and memory to retain it, and there learn to know my Creator in the days of my youth. Nay, instead of reading thy holy Word, and the good books from whence I might

In

learn to serve thee, and to do my duty to thee, to myself, and to my neighbour I spent my time in reading profane books, ballads, and foolish and corrupt songs. stead of studying to serve thee, I converted the learning and understanding thou gavest me to be employed in thy service, to the service of the devil. And not being contented with my own service, how often have I enticed others to the same misery.

When I came to years to understand thy will, and fill myself from that with true wisdom and understanding of thy will, and whereon I was to ground my faith; when I came to see thy excellency, power, with my own miserable condition by majesty, goodness, omnipotence, and mercy, nature, and my own actual_sins,—instead of prayers for divine counsel to direct my goings in thy way, and fortitude to resist thy will from thy Word, or endeavouring all temptations, and seeking knowledge of to arrive at that piety I so often heard recommended with so many direful threatenings, and thy ever-lasting displeasure on such as despised it, and such extraordinary encouragement to such as study and enfear and love thee with all their hearts and deavour to please thee, believe in thee, souls, worshipping thee, giving thanks unto thee, putting our whole trust in thee, to call upon thee, and honour thee all our days, instead of remembering these weighty duties, I did not believe thy divine being, or thy holy Word, or my dependence upon thee. I groundlessly, when I was called to consider by thy most gracious Spirit, presumed on thy mercy while I went on in my wilful sins.

I did not love thee, or ever study what love I did owe thy divine majesty, thy excellencies, or providential care of me. And I could not incite in me as much love and admiration as to labour to please thee, or to keep thy holy commandments, or to attend thy divine ordinances out of obedience to thy commands. But I, vile rebel, have made the rule of thy divine worship to be what my mind thought fit, not what thy Word prescribed. I did not at all thirst to enjoy my Saviour in heaven by drawing near to him here in his sacra

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This map appeared in the Cambrian Register for 1818. Trevecca is about half an hour's walk south of Talgarth.

ments. I did not fear thee so as to study in the least to keep from offending thee, thy law being now no guide to me, I fearing to do some great crime lest I should be

seen of man. Nay, to shun outward shame or suffering, how many sins have I committed against thee!

[To be continued.]

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I. AN OUTLINE OF WELSH POLITICAL HISTORY.

THE mountains of Wales are Mountains. the first and most important element in its history. Races and languages have passed away, but the mountains remain. In the future, as in the past, they will give Wales a separate history; in the future, as in the past, they will make it difficult to unite Wales in the furtherance of a common aim. They have been the cause of Welsh isolation, the strongholds of Welsh independence; they have been an equally mighty cause of Welsh disunion, frowning upon any upstart political in

stitution.

In the history of Wales there are two characteristic struggles,-the struggle for independence and the struggle for unity. The two struggles are always going on,Arthur is never really asleep,-but the relations are not always the same between Welsh princes, king of Wales, and foreign

conqueror.

in Wales.

Far back, when the dark IberThe Romans ian and the tall fair-haired Celt 80 450 had not yet coalesced into one people, there was a desire for unity among the people of the mountains, and a difference, not so much of race or of language, between them and the people of the lowlands. Caratacus was welcomed by a confederacy of the mountain tribes when the Romans had driven him from the plains of Lloegria. The Romans formed the mountain region, from Carleon to Dumbarton, into one province, and placed it under one head, the dux Britanniarum. The strength of the walls of Chester was to make up for the one break in the long line. of mountains.

When the Romans left Britain, about 450, leaving it to the Teutonic tribes who were pouring into its civilized provinces, they left behind them the belief in political unity. Native princes stepped into the power and assumed the dignity of the Roman governor who had just turned his

back upon the island,—Maelgwn Gwynedd still marched along the northern wall, Cunedda Wledig still defended the west

ern coast.

450-1066.

Before 600 the Teutonic tribes The struggle had reached the Welsh mountains. against the English. In 577 the West Saxons reached the mouth of the Severn, and the battle of Deorham severed the connection between Wales and Cornwall. In 613, Aethelfrith and the Northumbrians pierced to the mouth of the Dee, and the battle of Chester severed the connection between Wales and the Strathclyde which lay to the north. The battle of Chester roused the Welsh to a last struggle for the sovereignty of Britain. Cadwallon and Edwin fought, not only for the north, but for the right of wearing the "Crown of Britain." Before 700, the Welsh had given up the hope of re-conquering the mountains of the north; all their energy had to be spent in defending the mountains of Wales.

Between 700 and 1063 three kings,Rhodri the Great, Llywelyn ab Seisyllt, and Gruffydd ab Llywelyn,-succeeded at various times in uniting Wales. But, at the best, the unity was a loose confederation of princes, owing unwilling allegiance to a powerful prince of Gwynedd. And when the Welsh laws were codified by Howel the Good in the first half of the tenth century, they were written for three separate districts.

against the

1066-1282.

The influence of the Normans upon The struggle Wales was even greater, perhaps, Normans. than their influence upon England. They came to Wales just at the time when Harold had broken the power of Gruffydd ab Llywelyn, and had made Wales swerve naturally back, from its newly won unity, into its accustomed feuds. William the Conqueror placed some of his ablest followers on the Welsh borders,— Hugh of Avranches at Chester, Roger of Montgomery at Shrewsbury, William FitzOsbern at Hereford,-and the Normans began to conquer the whole country. From

Chester, the lower valley of the Dee and the northern sea border were conquered; the Belesme family obtained the upper valley of the Severn, and aimed at getting supremacy in Wales; a host of Norman adventurers spread over the plain of Gwent and Glamorgan, and occupied all the pleasant regions between the lower Severn and the sea. A long line of stone castles was built along the valleys, monasteries rose under the shadow of the mountains. Normans, like Robert of Belesme, thought of becoming independent in Wales, and of subjecting every native prince.

But the tide of Norman conquest was turned back. A great national outburst found champions in Gruffydd ab Cynan and Gruffydd ab Rhys, and the Norman. lords had to call the kings of England to their aid. Owen Gwynedd and Rhys ab Gruffydd held their own against Henry II.; Llywelyn the Great helped the English barons against John, in their struggle for the Great Charter; the last Llywelyn joined the English barons against Henry III., but fell before the united strength of England under Edward I. in 1282.

During the struggle against the Normans, the Welsh kings did not aim at developing any Welsh institutions. They wished to retain the supreme power, and to subject the Norman lordships even. But there is no originality in their plans, they imitated the political and ecclesiastical policy of their Norman neighbours. English law was rapidly encroaching on Welsh law, Welsh institutions were being gradually assimilated to English institutions, and the "Statute of Rhuddlan" is not in any way the beginning of the Anglicising of

Wales.

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At the same time, the subjugaThe Church tion of the Welsh Church was com

of Wales.

pleted. Wales was partly Christian when the Romans left it, and when Lloegr relapsed into heathenism at the coming of the English. The legends about Saint David probably describe the final victory of Christianity in Wales, about the middle of the sixth century. British Christianity, however, soon lost the fervour of its first missionary spirit, and became permeated by the heathenism it had displaced. It could not withstand the mighty monastic revival of the eleventh century, and Valle Crucis Jose on the land of a Welsh prince. It was the aim of Giraldus Cambrensis, and of Llywelyn the Great, to reform the Church of Wales without subjecting it to the metropolitan see of Canterbury. But the attempts at reviving an imaginary archbishopric at St. David's failed, the English archbishop continually encroached upon the Welsh bishops, and followed Edward I., the conqueror of Llywelyn, as the con

queror of the Welsh Church.

The great oppression.

1254-1536.

Between 1284 and 1536 Wales was placed under the rule of the officials of the English king, and under the lords marchers. The

one represented law, the other unlaw; and it was difficult to know which was the worse. The English sheriff had by this time become proverbial for extortion and injustice, the justice of the peace followed him to carry out the social war to the bitter end against the farmer and artisan, the king's purveyor was so hated that his name had to be changed by act of Parliament. The border lords were cruel, oppressive, superstitious, absolutely devoid of all ideals of honour and truth; they were the selfish perjured race who were soon to place the Lancastrian kings on the throne, and to plunge the country into the anarchy of the Wars of the Roses. After many abortive attempts, the oppressed Welsh found a leader in Owen Glendower, the most striking figure in Welsh history. His glorious ideals, a reflection of Dante and the dawn of the Revival of Letters, disappear in the iron gloom which spread over Wales at the end of the Middle Ages. The aim of the English king was now to pre

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