Welsh Journals

DISESTABLISHMENT IN IRELAND AND WALES. By P. M. H. Bell. S.P.C.K., 1969. Pp. 392. 95s. The Irish Church Act became law on 26 July 1869 and came into force on 1 January 1871; the Welsh Disestablishment Act received the royal assent on 18 September 1914 and came into force on 31 March 1920, having in the meantime been amended by the Welsh Church Temporalities Bill (1919). This book thus commemorates the centenary of the passing of the former Act and the fiftieth anniversary of the enforcement of the latter. Mr. Bell has written a book which is admirable in its structure and which suggests that he is as good a teacher as he is an historian. Although for readers in Wales those chapters dealing with the disestablishment and disendowment of the Anglican Church in Wales contain most interest, there are parallels to be drawn between the two campaigns and the legislation which resulted from them. Probably the greatest contrast is the short, sharp, decisive campaign which resulted in the Act of 1869 and, on the other hand, the long-drawn-out battle which led to the disestablishment of the Welsh Church. Apart from the merits of the case for Irish disestablishment, Gladstone's political instincts seem to have played an important part, for, as Mr. Bell puts it, 'he had picked a political winner where no one else was willing to place a firm bet'. A striking similarity in the two pieces of legislation is what Mr. Bell has described as 'one of the master-strokes of the [Irish Church] Bill', namely, the creation of a representative body which would receive the property surviving disendowment; and this, no doubt, served as a precedent when the turn of the Welsh Church came. The length of the respective campaigns for disestablishment and disendowment of the Irish and Welsh Churches respectively differed greatly. The first motion for Welsh disestablishment was introduced into the House of Commons in 1870 and between that and the fact of disestablishment fifty years were to pass. Readers of Dr. Kenneth Morgan's Wales in British Politics, 1868-1922, are already aware of the part played by this issue in the politics of Wales itself and also in the politics of Great Britain during this period. Mr. Bell, in his book, analyses the issues involved (p. 266) and shows that they were not nearly as simple as they appear to be at first sight. The different contenders and agencies emphasized different aspects of the question, and not all churchmen in England and Wales opposed disestablishment, although the first Disestablishment Bill (1894) would have paralysed the Welsh Church financially. But of the campaign itself Mr. Bell correctly states: 'The disestablishment question was in large part the symbol of a national and class struggle'. The Welsh Church 'became inevitably an object for attack by a movement whose objects were social and national more than religious, though a desire for religious equality played some part'.