ed to important positions of trust and honor. He has been for some years Secretary of the American Tin Plate Association. He is also ex-President of the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel workers. His first term commencing January 10th, 1880, he was afterwards several times reelected by the general convention. This Association was instituted Aug. 4th, 1876 and is composed of the skilled workmen in the iron and steel works of the United States and Canada Mr. Jarrett has also taken an active and prominent part in the political affairs of his State and of the country in general. Being an eloquent and effective speaker, thoroughly posted on all matters relating to the iron and kindred industries, and well versed in the whole question of tarriff and protection, his services have been in great demand in several political campaigns. And his political speeches, no doubt, have frequently contributed to secure a Republican victory. Mr. Jarrett is a member and an honored deacon of the Welsh Congregational Church in Pittsburgh, Pa., of which Dr. Thomas is pastor. He takes an active interest in missionary work and is in earnest and hearty sympathy with all efforts, through Christian influences, to elevate and improve the condition of the working classes throughout the country. May his life be spared for many years to come to occupy still higher positions of honor and usefulness.

THE REAL ST. DAVID.

BY E. J. NEWELL, M. A., CARDIFF, S. W. From the Red Dragon.

What does the world really know about St. David, the saint whose name the whole of Wales reverences and whose memory the Cymry throughout all the world celebrate every year on the first of March by joy and feast

ing? I fear that most people, on reflection, will confess that they know very little. They have heard a few wonderful tales like that of the hill at Llanddewi Brefi which rose under St. David as he preached at the council, to indicate that he was the destined archbishop of the Welsh, and which hill still stands, and may be seen, as I have seen it, witnessing whether the hagiologist lied. But how few facts can they really adduce in testimony of the title of the saint to the homage Wales so willingly accords! Yet there are some points in his history which are perfectly clear and certain, which prove that it was a true instinct which directed the choice of him as the patron saint of Wales in preference to Gildas, the stern ascetic, to Cattwg, the philosophic sage, to Illtyd, the knight and abbot, or even to Dunawd, the bold champion of national independence.

There are several legends of St. David's life in existence, but the most important is that written by Rhyddmarch, who was Bishop of St. David's from 1088 to 1096, and professes to have gathered his materials from ancient writings, chiefly found at St. David's itself. All the other lives appear to have been derived from Rhyddmarch's work, for although Giraldus Cambrensis makes much profession of originality, he is merely a copyist like the rest. Unfortunately the documentary evidence to which Rhyddmarch had access was limited, in consequence of the destruction worked on the coast of Wales by the frequent incursions of the Danes, the terrible "black pagans" who are mentioned with such horror by contemporary chroniclers. These pirates had burnt St. David's and therewith many valuable relics of antiquity. Thus with little check from ancient records and with none from historical perception, which was not, yet born,

Rhyddmarch built up a mighty structure of romance and fable around the name of David. Romance is not truth, but it may contain truth, and fortunately we have a little light from other sources to aid us in discriminating fact from fiction.

There is no reason to question the statement that Dewi was of noble birth. Nearly all the Welsh saints were so. Nay further, the same may be said of nearly all the Celtic saints, whether of Wales or Ireland. A prince who wished for a higher life than the violence and sensuality of a court would turn monk, and many of his clansmen would gladly follow his example. He became the abbot of a monastery, and his monks looked up to him both for his high birth and his ecclesiastical position. Cadoc was abbot and prince, and Gildas was the son of a prince of North Britain. It is unnecessary to multiply instances. The Pedigrees of the Welsh Saints asserts that "there were three stocks of saints in the Island of Britain-the children of Brychan, the children of Cunedda Wledig, and the children of Caw of Britain." Dewi was descended from Cunedda, who in his time had been a great ruler and leader of the British nation, having his court at Carlisle: Ceredig, one of his sons, gave his name to Ceredigion, or Cardiganshire. He was father of Sandde, and Dewi was the son of Sandde by Non.

Dewi is said to have been trained under Paulinus or Pawl Hen, the abbot of the celebrated monastery of Ty-gwyn ar Dâf at Whitland, in Car marthenshire. He was a noted man of the time. Under him Teilo, the famous Bishop of Llandaff, studied, and perhaps also Maelgwn Gwynedd, if the words of Gildas that Maelgwn had as his tutor the 66 elegant master of nearly the whole of Britain" refer to this teacher. What a subject for

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poetry or romance! Dewi, Teilo, and Maelgwn as students, perhaps at the same time, under the saintly Paulinus. Very different were their careers. Dewi and Teilo passed from Whitland to spread the cause of holiness and civilization as bishops in South Wales; Maelgwn ever wavered be'tween the church and the semi-pagan world, fought on the Christian side at the great battle of Ardderyd, nay, at one time, in contrition, took the vows of a monk; but, on the other hand, at the beginning of his career was the destroyer of his uncle, and afterwards murdered his wife and nephew. The Yellow Plague, from which his fellow-scholars escaped, smote him in the church of Llanrhos, to which he fled to escape it, and he perished miserably.

After his period of instruction at Ty-gwyn Dewi continued to follow a religious life, and at length founded his monastery of Hen-fynyw, "the old bramble-bush," which the Irish called Kill-muine, and which is represented in Latin by Menevia. In one passage of the Annales Cumbriæ it is called Moni Judeorum, a name which Professor Rhys supposes to refer to some non-Celtic tribe, of whom another trace is found in the Irish name for the Firth of Forth, "The Sea of the Giuds." Hen-fynyw is now called St. David's, after what is said to have been Dewi's baptismal name. There he founded a bishopric. Perhaps, indeed, there had been a bishop there before him; we are told of a certain Goeslan or Gistlianus, the brother of Non, Dewi's mother, but either he had been a bishop without a definite see, like Paulinus, Dewi's tutor, or else the glory of the greater has swallowed up that of the lesser, for Dewi is always regarded as the founder of the see. Rhyddmarch says that Dewi's election was a result of the synod of Llanddewi Brefi, and

adds that Dewi was made archbishop, and that his city was consecrated the metropolis of the whole country, so that whoever should rule it should be accounted archbishop. Giraldus Cambrensis, when he was seeking to, advance the pretensions of St. David's, stated in his memorial to Pope Innocent III. that at this time the Archbishopric of Caerleon was transferred to St. David's, as Dyfrig or Dubricius yielded the honor to Dewi; but Giraldus was arguing as a barrister would now, and his historical perception is not generally keener than Rhyddmarch's. There is no proof of any archbishopric of Caerleon; there are late stories, chiefly mythical, but all we certainly know is that there was in the time of Roman rule a bishop in this provincial capital. The Bishops of Llandaff and Bangor have the title of archbishop given them as well as those of St. David's, and in all probability the title was used loosely, as we know it was in Ireland, signify ing merely a high bishop, not a bishop who was a metropolitan over others.

However this may be, Dewi worked his diocese well, founding many churches therein, as the large number of Llanddewi's proves. For in those early times it was the general custom in Wales for a church to bear the name of its founder, and not to be dedicated to any particular saint. He was also chief of an important and flourishing monastery. We must not suppose that it was a place of magnificent buildings like the monastery of Tintern, or that its schools were like the colleges of Oxford or Cambridge. All the indications that we have left would point rather to a collection of mean huts of wattle and daub, with one set apart for the abbot's house and another one or two for guests, and with one or more churches, also of mean appearance. Sometimes the

early churches were of stone, but these were rare exceptions. Wher Naiton, king of the Picts, acceped the the Roman usage of Easter, and re jected the Celtic traditions, he cele brated the change by having a church built "of stone in the Roman man ner."

Glastonbury, afterwards so famous, was originally a structure of wattle; the cathedral of Lindisfarç was a wooden building. St. German when he built a church while waiting for the enemy, did not seek for stone for the work.

The Irish usage was the same, and the Irish learnt much at this time from Britain. There were two quar ters from which British influence reached Ireland. One was Whithor Ninias' monastery in Galloway, th ancient relics of whose Christianity have recently been damaged by the Protestant zeal or the alcoholic excite ment of the ignorant peasantry o that once hallowed district. Let u hope the damage was due to the whis ky the keepers of Whithorn fast day had drunk, for a whisky bottle wa found among the ruins of desecrate crosses. The other quarter wa South Wales, and here Dewi was great leader. For in ancient tim it should be remembered, Wales wa the teacher of Ireland, and Irisaints poured into Wales to learn th way of God more perfectly. instead of Finnian of Clonard, Wah receives Michael Davitt, who come not to learn, but to teach. The thr great men who were the chiefs of t Welsh Church in its work for Irela were David, Gildas, and Cattwg Llancarfan. All tradition points some declension in the Irish Chur at this period, some weakness of fas or morals which the Welsh Chu strove to remedy by inspiring Irel with the energy of its own mona spirit. The second order of In saints, which was peculiarly a mon

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