and Mr. Price was unanimously elected the first Grand Master of the new district. There is an amount of labour to be performed on this important committee, of which few can form an adequate notion till they really joined in the work. At the Swansea A.M.C. he was appointed a director, in which onerous post he has satisfactorily acquitted himself. When the Aberdare District was formed, in 1855, it contained only ten lodges and six hundred and sixty-three members; it has since increased to thirty-four lodges and two thousand and thirty-five members, according to the January Report, thus more than fulfilling Mr. Price's assertion at Durham, that "the number of members and lodges would be doubled in five years." Mr. Price is also one of the trustees of the district.

In 1857 the Aberdare District presented him a splendid testimonial, as a mark of esteem for "eminent services rendered to the district." Mr. Price has been of the greatest service to our Order, by lecturing in the chief towns of the Principality, on the objects, principles, and constitution of Odd-fellowship, and has, by this means, secured the influence and good offices of many wealthy persons on our behalf. He stili continues his services to his district and the Order in general. He is also connected with several societies of a similar character to our own. He is trustee of a society known as the "True Ivorites," one similar to our own, only that it is confined to Wales, and carries on all its transactions in the Welsh language; a member of the "Undeb Cristionogol," a society connected with his own congregation, and honorary secretary to the Aged Ministers' Society.

As a Christian minister and a public lecturer he stands in the first rank amongst his brethren in Wales, and presides over one of the largest congregations in the Principality. He has a Sunday school in connection with his church, where upwards of a thousand children are taught the true principles of Christianity. As a proof of the respect in which he is held by his people, we may mention that in the year 1818, the members of his church presented him with a handsome donation of books, and in the year 1854, the ladies of his congregation gave him a beautiful gold watch and chain, while the young men testified their faith in his teachings, by the gift of seventy-seven volumes of beautifully bound books. The position of Mr. Price as a citizen as well as an Odd-fellow, and the high respect in which he is held by his neighbours, may be gathered from the following additional facts gleaned from the public papers of the day. In 1847, the ladies of Aberdare presented him with a splendid writing desk and silver pencil case, for defending their characters against certain imputations cast upon them in some parliamentary blue books of that date. In 1849, he was elected a director of the Aberdare gas company, which office he fills to this day. In 1852 he was elected a director of the Aberdare market company. In 1852 he was elected by an overwhelming majority, after a severe contest, to fill the post of poor-law guardian, which office he held for some years with credit to himself and the satisfaction of all parties. In 1854 he

was elected a member of the Aberdare board of health, and in 1857, was made a member of the Aberdare burial board, both of which honorary offices he still holds. Through these various scenes of active duty Mr. Price has passed with a cheerfulness and devotion, which prove that in whatever sphere his lot had been cast, he would have made himself a principal man among men.

In literature the name of our director is by no means unknown to the Welsh public.

He is the author of four works on theology, and has been joint editor of "The Gwron" newspaper, certainly one of the best conducted papers in the Welsh language. He is the sole editor of "The Gweithiwr," one of the cheap weeklys devoted to the elevation of the working classes; and is also actively connected with the "Seren Gomer," the oldest monthly magazine in Wales. In connection with the Gwron newspaper, he and his fellow editor were each presented with a valuable silver medal by the wives and daughters of Aberdare, for their services to the working classes in that paper. Mr. Price was married March 16th, 1847, to Mrs. Ann Gilbert, daughter of the late Morgan Thomas David, Esq.; by this marriage he became the owner of considerable mine and al property in the valley of Aberdare, which contains some of the best st m coal in the world. His marriage, however, was destined to last but a short time, for death, the destroyer, carried his amiable spouse to her everlasting home on September 1st, 1849. He still remains a widower, with a good and dutiful son and two fair daughters. The chief visitors to his residence are the poor aged widows and infirm old men of his congregation, who very frequently spend a day with him enjoying his company and hospitality.

Such is a brief outline of the career of one born in a humble cot, in an obscure hamlet in Breconshire, raised by his own untiring and indomitable energy to occupy one of the most important spheres in Wales amongst the members of the Baptist persuasion, and performing besides many of the responsible and laborious duties of a patriotic citizen. At our annual meetings Mr. Price takes an active part in all the discussions, and is a most energetic and skilful debater, speaking the English language quite as fluently as his native tongue. To our Order he may be said to be the representative of our Welsh brethren; and all who have the pleasure of his acquaintance wish him a long life of health and strength, to follow up successfully his Christian labours, and his philanthropic and patriotic views, for the benefit of mankind at large. Of the social and domestic character of Mr. Price enough will have been seen from the foregoing sketch. Although essentially a minister of the gospel, his mind is not imbued with that asceticism observable in some clergymen, but he unites in his own person the characteristics of the Christian and the gentlemanthe kindly adviser and the cordial friend.

ANOTHER CLAP OF THUNDER.

BY C. HARDWICK, P.G.M.

Thunder-storms are rare, in the winter season, in England. Nevertheless our climate, unlike our principles (or, perhaps, more truly our prejudices), is notoriously of a rather fickle and uncertain character, and, consequently, most Englishmen would not feel materially affected if the advent of Christmas were heralded by a sonorous peal or two of Heaven's artillery; or if a shower of hailstones should glitter like orient pearls in the burning sunshine of a midsummer's day. The English Times newspaper much resembles, in its temper, the English weather. Some authorities assert that it immeasurably outstrips all competitors in the facility with which it accommodates itself to the various changes in the temperature of the monied class feeling in the country, and, no matter how fiercely the presiding Jupiter may have previously dealt out his "thunder" upon the now popular principle or party, when struggling in the shadow of comparative obscurity, the very same weapon is unblushingly employed in the effort to destroy a reputation once lauded, or in polishing and purifying, and rendering somewhat presentable the well-kicked carcase and thunder-smeared countenance of the newly-elected protegé. Some people (knowing ones, no doubt, with, however, more worldly prudence than British pluck) when they find themselves or their principles assailed by the leading journal, instead of returning its blow manfully on the forehead, prefer paying court to the modern literary Jupiter or his lacqueys, with the view to propitiate the ire of the dreaded potentate, and secure his able advocacy at the proper season; and that is generally when your position renders you independent of any such time-serving sycophantic special pleading, no matter what may be the amount of mere scribbling talent, which it unquestionably both can and does command.

Now, for my part, I do not think this to be either the most manly or the most politic way of dealing with the Times. With all its material power, it is, from the nature of its composition, essentially a coward. It possesses little or no sense of honour. It will publish the grossest falsehoods, and refuse the slandered party the right of justification in the columns where the slander appeared. For "principle," in the true sense of that term, it has long existed without a reputation; indeed, I am not sure whether, at the present day, the Times does not professionally repudiate such a thing, as mere Utopian chatter. Why, therefore, should any honest man shrink from measuring a blade with this literary monstrosity, if his duty to himself, or to any section of society with which he may be connected, call upon him so to do? It strikes me I had not the worst of it in our last encounter, about two years ago; at least, the poltroon, after being clearly convicted of egregious ignorance and falsehood, skulked into his den at Printing House Square, and has not, to my knowledge, even chirped on the subject of friendly societies since, until the reverberation of the unseasonable peal of thunder which startled the nation in December last.*

I originally fancied the first thunderbolt, hurled specially at the Manchester Unity, came from the hand of some subordinate in the establishment;

* I certainly have heard that some allusion to the Manchester Unity or to Friendly Societies generally was made, by the writer of the "City Article," a few months ago. I understand the notice was rather complimentary; if so, Jupiter must have been indulging in one of his occasional naps, and thus, doubtless, the favourable view of the subordinate writer slipped into type without the cognizance of his rancourous chief.

but information since received has induced me to alter that opinion. There can be very little doubt, however, that the December fulmination is the deliberate act of the presiding deity.

Mr. John Bright, in his Manchester oration, amongst other matters, intended to show, what we had thought no sane man of the present day ever disputed, that since the conclusion of the last century a large amount of progress, intellectual and moral, had been manifested amongst the operative portion of our population. Mr. Bright observed: "Your staticians say that 2,000,000 of the people are subscribers to benefit societies, and that they possess reserved funds amounting to more than £9,000,000. Is that no proof of providence? Is that no proof of improvement and advancement ?"

Not approving of the inference which Mr. Bright wished to draw from this circumstance, the "Thunderer," with a reckless audacity, somewhat peculiar to itself, perpetrates the following compound of ignorance, falsehood, and impertinence :

"Rash as it may be to answer so fierce a challenge, TRUTH and PATRIOTISM" (?) "require us to do so. Every man of common sense and sound feeling, whose position or inclination has brought him much into contact with the labouring poor and the classes somewhat above them, including just about the 2,000,000 in this pompous panegyric, regards the general condition of our benefit societies as one of the greatest calamities and scandals of this country. The majority of these 2,000,000 subscribe to societies that from the hour of their institution, and in their printed rules, deliberately contemplated and still intend bankruptcy, or the cruel and fraudulent process of dividing their funds at no distant day, throwing out the elderly and sick, and starting afresh with the healthy and young. The monthly payments are fixed so low, so much is spent in monthly and yearly carousing, and so great is the reluctance to binding the members by submitting to enrolment, that the consummation we have mentioned is only a question of time; and a time will certainly come, in most cases, when the old and sickly will find themselves thrown overboard, and purposely deprived of a remedy against the managers."

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"A little learning is a dangerous thing," says Pope. The truth of this apothegm was never better illustrated than in the instance under consideration. I have said this portion of the Times' leader is a compound of ignorance, falsehood, and impertinence. I will first canvass its merits under the first mentioned clause of my indictment. The writer talks about the labouring POOR and the classes somewhat above them, including just about the 2,000,000 in this pompous panegyric," and hence concludes that these are the identical persons who belong to friendly societies. We are most of us, and have been of late years, marvellously eloquent upon the subject of popular education; and I am willing to confess that I possess some enthusiasm myself on this question; yet my experience has taught me that the great bulk of the middle and upper classes stand quite as much in need of instruction as to the feelings, habits, intelligence, and moral aspirations of the working man as the operative does of the formula at Almack's, or the rules of etiquette observed at the court of Her Majesty. These men of "common sense and sound feeling," so beloved by the patriotic journalist, too often gain their experience from the overseers' office and the jail, and afterwards expend a prodigious amount of philanthropic eloquence on the depravity of the "people," concerning the best portion of whom they know just about as much as they do of the internal economy of the household of the King of Timbuctoo. The Times' assertion however can be refuted by actual evidence. I do not know what experience Mr. Delaine or any of his subordinates may possess, or how far they

may be qualified to speak to the fact, but I have myself, and thousands of others in my presence, have heard hundreds of gentlemen, including clergymen, magistrates, members of parliament, mayors, aldermen, councillors, etc, publicly express themselves in terms directly the reverse to those used by the leading journal! So much for the impertinent folly of the assertion, that EVERY MAN of common sense and sound feeling" regards the best portion of the working classes as neither more nor less than rank swindlers !

I have shown that the writer in the Times is lamentably ignorant of the character of the class of men who belong to these institutions! I beg to tell him that they are neither paupers nor felons, and cannot relatively be called poor men. They pay their taxes to government as well as the rich, and seldom trouble it more. They are as truly independent, honourable citizens as the members of the literary craft, not even excepting the wellpaid staff of the Times. A large number of these men already possess the political franchise, and, no doubt, will remember the candidates who endorse the opinion of the "great literary gladiator," respecting the motives of themselves and their brethren, as members of friendly societies. Mr. Neison shows that their lives are longer than those of the members of the aristocracy, and he honestly attributes this to their more regular lives and more prudent habits.

The Times speaks of the great reluctance which exists to "binding the members by submitting to enrolment," and afterwards observes "good men in vain have laboured to urge the wiser and better principles required for a public emolument, without which no club is secure for a day." What a tissue of unpardonable ignorance! Why the very 2,000,000 of members whom the Times has been bullying thus roundly ARE ENROLLED!! Mr. Bright merely quoted from Mr. Tidd Pratt's report. The same document shows,-"The number of individual depositors in savings banks on the 20th November, 1857, was 1,241,752, and the sum due to them £32,984,023. It appears, therefore, that the members of these societies and the depositors in savings banks possess funds amounting to nearly £42,000,000." What do you think of this couple of facts Mr. Times? It strikes me they will have more weight in the argument than a whole hogshead of your best XXX"bottled thunder." *

The Times appears to think that a public enrolment will give security to friendly societies. This is not true. It merely places them in a position to sue and be sued, like any other joint stock company. Some privileges with regard to taxes, etc. are likewise conceded, with the view to encourage them to enrol. So far from the members as a body objecting to enrolment, the fact proclaimed by Mr. Tidd Pratt that 20,000 clubs, with more than 2,000,000 subscribers, have already taken advantage of the act, dashes to the earth at a blow the ignorant babble of the Times, and speaks well for the labours of (not the "good" men of the leading journal but of) the intelligent workers amongst the members themselves.

Just one other specimen of the ignorance of this writer. He tells us the weighty reason why the members have a relutance to enrolment. Can the reader imagine it? Listen to this seer! He says, at some future time, "the old and sickly will find themselves thrown overboard, and purposely deprived of a remedy against THE MANAGERS!!" I wonder who this Solon thinks are the managers. The constitution amongst nearly all these societies is purely democratic. The members elect officers every six

* It was stated some years ago (1856), by Lord Beaumont, in the House of Peers, that the entire number of members of friendly societies, enrolled and unenrolled, had been computed at 3,052,000; that they were in receipt of an annual revenue of £4,980,000; and they pos. sessed an accumulated capital of £11,360,000 ! !