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 secured Freeman's active support for the Cambrian Archæological Association, which was started in 1846–7, Jones himself acting as one of its general secretaries in 1848–51, and joint editor in 1854 (Index to Arch. Camb.) He also interested himself during this period in Welsh education, advocating the reform of Christ's College, Brecon (in a booklet on Its Past History and Present Capabilities, 1853, 8vo), and, at the time of the schools inquiry commission, of Ystradmeurig School. Thirlwall, who had a high opinion of him (cf. Letters to a Friend, p. 255), had recognised these services by appointing him in 1859 to one of the six cursal prebends of St. David's ; but this he vacated in 1865, on settling at Bishopthorpe. He was consecrated bishop of St. David's by Archbishop Tait at Westminster Abbey on 24 Aug. 1874 (being made D.D. by the archbishop's diploma on 27 Oct.), and enthroned at St. David's on 15 Sept. He did not obtain a seat in the House of Lords till after the death of Bishop Selwyn in April 1878, but then as junior bishop he held the chaplaincy of the house for the unusually long period of four and a half years, till December 1882. After his release from the chaplaincy he rarely attended the house.

'The progress of the diocese during Bishop Jones's episcopate was far greater than the progress during any period of equal length since the Reformation' (quoted by his successor, Dr. Owen, in his primary 'Charge,' 1900, p. 26). This was partly due to the fact that in his time the diocese reaped the benefit of reforms initiated by Burgess and Thirlwall, the latter of whom had devoted himself to church building and restoration, the augmentation of benefices (thereby greatly reducing non-residence), and the reform or establishment of educational institutions. All this work Bishop Jones continued and extended. While always encouraging judicious 'restoration' he also gave his support to the multiplication of new mission churches, and the number of churches annually consecrated by him' was more than treble Thirlwall's yearly average. His personal efforts for improving the number and status of the parochial clergy and his scrupulous care in the exercise of patronage and in the selection of candidates for ordination (insisting on good testimonials and preferring well-educated to merely fluent men), resulted within a few years in the almost total disappearance of non-residence from the diocese, in a much-needed improvement in pastoral work, and in the progressive raising of the educational and spiritual standard of the ministry. He also applied his conspicuous business ability to effecting a very complete organisation of diocesan work. In the diocesan conference which he established in 1881, administrative as distinct from deliberative functions obtained prominence from the outset, so that by 1897 as many as twenty-one diocesan committees, boards, and societies submitted reports to the conference.

The proposed division of the diocese—by far the largest in the kingdom—did not, when first suggested, commend itself to the bishop, but he subsequently accepted the proposal, and was prepared to relinquish a part of the income of St. David's on condition that the endowment left should not be less than that of the other Welsh dioceses. He ultimately contented himself, however, with the appointment in 1890 of a bishop suffragan to relieve him of confirmations, while himself retaining control of diocesan business to the end.

As visitor of St. David's College, Lampeter, he was endowed, under the college charter, with exceptionally wide powers, which he exercised to its very marked improvement, one of his first acts being to supply it with a complete code of statutes (1879, 8vo), instead of the few provisional rules which it previously had, while in his last year he assisted the college board in framing a more democratic charter. When the university of Wales was being established in 1893, he however missed the opportunity of securing the inclusion of Lampeter as a constituent college of the university, towards which he thereafter advised an attitude of friendly reserve. He took an active part in the government of Christ's College, Brecon, becoming chairman of its board of governors in 1880 (see his evidence before Lord Aberdare's committee on Welsh intermediate education, Minutes, pp. 433–43). As to elementary education, he was satisfied with the religious instruction which it was possible to provide at board schools. He also cheerfully accepted the Burials Act of 1880, which in his opinion was 'not unjust' to the church, for he admited that the nonconformists of Wales had at least a theoretical grievance in the matter. But when the Welsh church establishment was more directly attacked, he denied that Wales was either geographically or ecclesiastically distinct from England, embodying his views in the dicta that Wales is 'merely a geographical expression,' is 'nothing more than the highlands of Scotland,' and that it 'has never had a national unity.' He, however, took only a slight part in the work of church defence, which in its militant and aggressive forms was distasteful to