Welsh Journals

The RUTHIN Illustrated Magazine. A H0HTKL7 JfOHRS&L FOR ALL CLASSES. To Inform. To Instruct. To Amuse. No. 27. Vol. III. APRIL, 1881. TWO PENCE JOSHUA HUGHES, D.D. The Right Reverend Joshua Hughes, Doctor of Divinity, seventieth Bishop of St. Asaph, is the son of Charles Hughes, Esq., of Newport, Pem¬ brokeshire, and was born in the year 1807. Dr. Hughes was educated at Cardigan and Ystramen- rig Schools, and subsequently at St. David's College, Lampeter, under Dr. Ollivant, the present Bishop of Llandaff. Dr. Hughes was ordained deacon in 1831 by Dr. Gray, Bishop of Bristol, and priest in the same year by Dr. Christopher Bethell, Bishop of Bangor, beginning a celebrated career in the Church under the late Archdeacon Hughes (a kinsman), as curate of Aberystwith. Subsequently Dr. Hughes was promoted to the incumbency of St. David's, Carmarthenshire, eventually being preferred to the historic parish of Abergwib" (in 1839), by the well-known John Banks Jenkinson, Bishop of St. David's, in which parish the Bishop of that See resided. His re¬ markable zeal, as a parish-priest and a preacher, led Bishop Connop Thirlwall, who had succeeded Dr. Jenkinson, to present Dr. Hughes to the important vicarage of Llandingat,near Llandovery in 1845, and where he was Rural Dean, Surrogate, and Proctor in Convocation for the diocese of St. David's. For the long space of a quarter of a century Dr. Hughes laboured as a priest in this parish, when, as we have stated, Mr. Gladstone appointed him, in 1870, to the vacant See of St. Asaph. This diocese includes the counties of Denbigh and Flint, with portions of the counties of Carnarvon, Merioneth, and Salop. The popul¬ ation of the See is 260,000 souls, whilst the territorial jurisdiction comprises 1.067,583 acres. The church sittings accommodate 70,000, and his lordship has the patronage of some 190 benefices. Considering that Dr. Hughes took the Latin Essay at Lampeter, together with the Welsh Essay, and was First Class at the Final Examin¬ ation, it will be understood why Mr. Gladstone* with no political bias (although Dr. Hughes happens to be a Liberal), and with his passion for an erudite clergy, should have promoted the subject of our sketch to the throne of St. Asaph % w t i its rich traditions (anterior to the Ref |ma- tion). Dr. Hughes has never actually identified him¬ self with any party in the Church, feeling that a bishop should be the chief pastor of the whole flock, not a political or theological partisan. If he were ticketed we should suppose his sympathies would be in somewhat the same direction as those of his illustrious friend and patron—the late Bishop Thirlwall. Although he is firm in his loyalty to that Church which he has done so much to conserve, he still works, not in opposition to, but in harmony with, Christians of all denomin¬ ations feeling that the world is too full of misery, both temporarily and spiritually, for unseemly and untimely differences to occupy valuable time which ought to be devoted to more legitimate work. He is, therefore, respected by Dissenters, and revered by enlightened Churchmen. Bishop Hughes is an eloquent and graceful preacher, especially in his mother tongue—the Welsh language, with its unique capacities for pathos and poetry. The Bishop of St. Asaph married Margaret, daughter of Sir Thomas McKenny, Baronet, of Ullard, county Kilkenny.—The "Biograph"