of public interests. When the amalgamation of the sees of St. Asaph and Bangor was threatened (1843–6), he took active part with the Earl of Powis, his father, and others in opposing the scheme. The remonstrances which appeared in the press were chiefly from his pen, and when the measure was averted he helped to found the Powis scholarships in recognition of Lord Powis's action in the matter.
In 1848 he obtained the prize offered to the university of Cambridge by the orientalist John Muir [q. v.] for a preliminary dissertation on the comparative merits of Christianity and Hinduism; and by a special grace of the senate was directed to proceed with a larger work on the same subject, for which the entire prize of 500l. was awarded.
In 1850 Williams became vice-principal and professor of Hebrew in the theological college of St. David's, Lampeter, impelled thereto by patriotic enthusiasm and a desire to raise the educational standard of the Welsh clergy. Many abuses had crept into the management of the college, and hostile criticism which threatened its extinction was at this time agitating the Welsh press. Dr. Harold Browne, his predecessor (afterwards bishop of Ely and Winchester), had found life at Lampeter a constant struggle for the principles of common-sense and honesty, and on resigning had inaugurated reforms (see Dean Kitchin, Life of Harold Browne, chaps. iii. and iv.) In Williams's hands the entire system of education and finance was remodelled, and, in spite of great obstacles, the literary and moral character of the college was raised and the number of students increased. He formed a scheme for the better endowment of the college in the interest of its scholars, and left no stone unturned to obtain help from government, but owing to complications, which arose in connection with his theological views, the increased endowment only took effect after he had left St. David's College.
In December 1854 he was appointed select preacher in the university of Cambridge. The second sermon of the course, on inspiration (Rational Godliness, s. xix), was destined to affect all his future career. The course being interrupted by his father's death, a report was circulated that it had been stopped by the authorities, and a cry of heterodoxy was raised. Other sermons, which, as a mark of confidence, the heads gave him the opportunity of preaching at Cambridge, were, together with sermons preached at St. David's College, published in ‘Rational Godliness after the Mind of Christ and the Written Voices of the Church,’ London, 1855. But the publication of that volume only increased the disquietude of the Welsh evangelical clergy. A memorial protesting against Williams's teaching was addressed to Connop Thirlwall [q. v.], bishop of St. David's. Alfred Ollivant [q. v.], bishop of Llandaff, asked him to resign his chaplaincy, and by admitting to holy orders in Llandaff students from other dioceses struck a severe blow at his position as theological tutor at Lampeter. But with characteristic tenacity of purpose Williams struggled on for eight years, finally appealing to the visitor to set the affairs of the college on a firmer basis.
Williams's greatest literary work was ‘Christianity and Hinduism,’ 8vo, Cambridge, 1856. This was the expansion of the Muir prize essay. His views on revelation, inspiration, and prophecy, already enunciated in ‘Rational Godliness,’ were brought out more fully, and to this book he referred inquirers as giving the most comprehensive account of his theological opinions, especially in their metaphysical aspect. The dissertation took the prescribed form of a dialogue in which a Buddhist, a Hindú philosopher, a Vedántist, a German naturalist, and two English clergymen discuss the respective merits of the Indian and other religions. A careful account of Brahmanism and Buddhism is given, as well as of the different systems of Eastern philosophy. The last five chapters deal with the Hebrew religion, discuss the prophetical question, and give an exposition of Christian doctrine based on the Lord's prayer. The Sanscrit scholar, Horace Hayman Wilson [q. v.], considered the book ‘well calculated to become a standard reference for the leading points of Hindú speculation, and the scope as well as history of their religious opinions.’ Bunsen welcomed it as a highly remarkable philosophical and learned work (Bunsen, Life, ii. 429, and Max Müller, Chips, iii. 506). Lassen and Ewald also appreciated it highly.
This work completed, Williams took his D.D. degree on 11 June 1857. Shortly after he visited Baron Bunsen at Heidelberg. In 1858 he accepted the King's College living of Broad Chalke with Bower Chalke and Alvedistone, near Salisbury. At first he stayed there only during the vacations, but in June 1862, when with great reluctance he left Lampeter, he took up his residence at Broad Chalke, and in the following August finally severed his connection with St. David's College.
In February 1860 ‘Essays and Reviews’
