Page:Distinguished Churchmen.djvu/45

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
THE BISHOP OF LLANDAFF
23

comfort of their families. There are men and men, but, take them as a body, our clergy are men most devoted to their work.”

The operation of the Sunday Closing Act in Wales presented a fresh field for inquiry, but his lordship was disinclined to say whether he was or was not convinced that the Act had proved a success. Of course, this is a very debatable subject in the Principality. A story has gone the rounds that the late Lord Aberdare, who was largely concerned in the passing through Parliament of the Welsh Sunday Closing Bill, was subsequently so moved by the results as reported to him as to declare that if he could have foreseen those results he would not have been a party to the promotion of the Bill.

On the question of temperance proper the Bishop of Llandaff holds decidedly rational views.

“I speak very strongly in advocacy of temperance,” he observed, “and I am President of the Diocesan Society for the Promotion of Temperance. I think in promoting the cause of temperance you want temperateness. Many temperance reformers are most intemperate men, and the consequence is that they throw back their cause a long way. The extremely rabid teetotalers are so intolerant that they think that every man who takes alcoholic drinks should be tabooed. The consequence is they put people's backs up. Although legislation may do much to promote temperance, I think it is by