I am sorry to say that the Welsh too frequently manifest a great want of decorum and devotion in their religious assemblies. This is telling, and will tell, against dissent in the Principality. [Footnote 1: Literally, "Of a Saviour for the lost."] LETTER XVI. Stay at Cincinnati (continued)--Close of the Welsh Service--The Governor of Ohio and his Relatives--The "Black Laws"--Governor Bebb's Hostility to them--Dr. Weed and American Versatility--Private Lodgings--Introduction to Dr. Beecher and others--A Peep at a Democratic Meeting. The Welsh service being ended, my big friend on the next chair asked me, in the same language, if I was a _llafarwr_ (preacher). I answered him in the usual Welsh phrase, "_Byddaf yn dweyd ychydig weithiau_," which means that I did a little in that way. On learning this, he desired my "_cyhoeddiad_" (publication--another Welsh phrase) to preach there some night during the coming week; and he wished it to be announced there and then, to which I would not consent. He introduced me to Mr. Jones, the minister. After most of the congregation were gone, a groupe, including my big friend and Mr. Jones, collected around me, and most earnestly pressed for my "publication." I told them I had never been a Welsh preacher, that it was nearly five-and-twenty years since I had left the Principality, and that, moreover, _I could not_ preach at all to men who put down their heads in the sluggish and sleepy manner in which most of their men had done that night. "Oh! but they won't do so when you, a stranger, preach," was the reply. "Then," I said, "there must be a great want of true devotion among them, if that would make all the difference." However, being much pressed, I promised at last to give them, before I left the city, a little missionary information in Welsh. The name of my big friend was Bebb, a near relative, as I subsequently learned, of His Excellency W. Bebb, the present Governor of the State of Ohio. The history of this Governor deserves a passing notice. He is the nephew of the late Rev. John Roberts, of Llanbrynmair, a man of great worth and usefulness, whose praise is in all the Congregational Churches of North Wales. Mr. Roberts, when a young man, joined the Church at Llanbrynmair, began to preach under its sanction, became its pastor, sustained that office for thirty-six years, and is succeeded by his two excellent sons, Samuel and John, as co-pastors! Towards the close of last century, Mr. Roberts's sister, married to a Mr. Bebb, emigrated to America; as did also his brother George, who still survives, and of whom Dr. Matheson gives an interesting account in the seventh letter of the second volume of "Reed and Matheson's Narrative," calling him "_Judge_ Roberts, the _Pastor_ of the Congregational Church!" at Ebensburg, in Pennsylvania.