Arthur James Johnes (4 February 1809 – 23 July 1871) was a Welsh county court judge.
He advocated in various pamphlets, issued between 1834 and 1869, the fusion of law and equity, the establishment of local courts for the recovery of small debts, the extension of the jurisdiction and the improvement of the procedure of the county courts, the abolition of imprisonment for debt, reform of the bankruptcy laws, and even such a fusion of the two branches of the legal profession as would enable clients to retain barristers themselves.
97), to which he contributed articles under the signature of ‘Maelog,’ and under the same name published in 1834 some admirable English translations of poems by Dafydd ap Gwilym.
This was the first successful attempt by a churchman to expose the abuses of the establishment in Wales–pluralism, nepotism, absenteeism, and the promotion of English-speaking clergy to Welsh-speaking parishes.
He published in 1841 ‘Statistical Illustrations of the Claims of the Welsh Dioceses to Augmentation out of the Funds at the disposal of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, in a Letter to Lord John Russell,’ London, 8vo; and in 1843, ‘Philological Proofs of the original unity and recent origin of the Human Race,’ London, 8vo.