THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY BY THE REV. J. VYRNWY MORGAN, D.D. Editor and Part Author of "The Cambro- American Pulpit" "Welsh Religious Leaders in the Victorian Era" "Welsh Political and Educational Leaders in the Victorian Era" "Theology at the Dawn of the Twentieth Century" Author of "The Welsh Religious Revival, 1904-5," "A Study in Nationality" and other works. LONDON : JOHN LANE, THE BODLEY HEAD NEW YORK.: JOHN LANE COMPANY TORONTO : BELL & COCK.BURN MCMXIV PRINTED BY GARDEN CITY PRESS LTD LETCHWORTH iAU rights reterved THIS BOOK is INSCRIBED TO Sir Edward John Webley-Parry-Pryse, Bart. in grateful recognition OF THE GENEROUS FRIENDSHIP WITH WHICH HE HAS HONOURED THE AUTHOR AND IN TOKEN OF HIS STERLING WORTH AND THE ESTEEM IN WHICH HE IS GENERALLY HELD CONTENTS PAGE PREFACE _________ v INTRODUCTORY NOTE ------- ix INTRODUCTION CELTICISM ------ xiii CHAPTER I THE CHARACTERISTICS OF WELSH DEVELOPMENT I CHAPTER II THE HISTORICAL BASIS OF WELSH DEVELOPMENT - " 2 5 CHAPTER III THE TRANSLATION OF THE BIBLE INTO WELSH - "59 CHAPTER IV THE PROGRESSIVE ASPECT OF THE WELSH INTELLECT - JJ CHAPTER V THE " TEN GREAT MEN OF WALES " - - - - I08 CHAPTER VI THE RISE OF WELSH NONCONFORMITY - - - - 1 29 CHAPTER VII NONCONFORMITY AND LIBERALISM ----- 153 CHAPTER VIII PRESENT-DAY NONCONFORMITY ----- 171 CONTENTS CHAPTER IX BISHOP OWEN OF ST. DAVID'S A CHARACTER SKETCH - 1 96 CHAPTER X PROGRESS TOWARDS WELSH SELF-GOVERNMENT - - 2IO CHAPTER XI PROGRESS TOWARDS WELSH SELF-GOVERNMENT (continued) 233 CHAPTER XII A WELSH INDEPENDENT PARLIAMENT - - - - 25 1 ETHICS OF CONTROVERSY ------ 275 CHRONOLOGY --------- 287 APPENDIX --------- 303 INDEX ---------- 307 PREFACE This work does not pretend in any sense to be a history of Wales, or to give any consecutive narrative of all the movements that have affected the fortunes of the Prin- cipality. It differs in many important respects from a regular history. It was rather to dwell upon the dra- matic phases of historical events and upon the religious and sociological phenomena, and to concern itself but slightly with the growth of Welsh institutions as such, that it was written. Not much account has, therefore, been taken of proportion. So much has been said and written of late years res- pecting the rapid advance of Wales in population, in commerce, in education, in the facilities for education, in political ambition, and in her progress towards self- government, that I have deemed it of interest and of importance, not merely to Welshmen, but to other sections of the United Kingdom, to discuss the problem or problems involved in this development, and to endeavour to furnish an adequate account of the causes which have led up to the changes that have taken place. The question presents grounds for a reconsideration of many of the conclusions formed by Welsh nationalist historians, and of the whole lines of argument hitherto adopted by them. Their deductions are, I contend, without justification. In other words, their synthesis or the traditional formulas by which they have sought to explain the forces that have operated in the evolution of Welsh national life, have been based upon false facts and false inferences. The fact is, that around the history of Wales, both ancient and modern, there has grown up a mass of legend and local prejudices which it has been impossible to arrest, and from which vi PREFACE it is difficult to wean the native mind and to disentangle the truth. Wales, we are constantly being told, owes nothing to Parliament, nothing to Englishmen, nothing to Anglican- ism, and nothing, except what is baneful, to the influence of the foreigner and of foreign modes of thought. What progress there may have been in culture and in the means of culture, in art and science, in classic instruction, in knowledge and in adaptability for the work of civic administration, has come entirely from within. It is the sole product of local initiative. To the degree, we are told, that Wales is free on the side of religion, free on the side of politics, free on the side of industry, and free on the side of liberty, it is due, on the one hand, to the internal character of the native intellect, and, on the other hand, to the activities of Welsh Nonconformity. What influences have come into Wales from without have been of an oppressive, disintegrating, and denationalizing character. Had Wales been left to herself she would, according to the popular Welsh doctrine, have succeeded centuries ago in establishing political unity on an enduring basis, and would have advanced along the path of progress. Wales always possessed the qualities of civic virtue, of patriot- ism, of high statesmanship, and of genius for cohesion and co-operation on progressive and harmonious lines, but her development was so trammelled by intermittent invasions, that when Wales had begun the work of con- struction, her efforts were always frustrated by inter- ference from without ; hence it is that Wales was for centuries in a condition of decadent stagnation. It is in these directions, it is said, that we are to look for the true explanation of the lateness of the develop- ment of Wales. Now that the people are allowed liberty of action in association with politics, with religion, with business, with education, and now that the element of free individual reason is permitted to act, they are finding rest and exhilaration in higher things. They go further, and avow that the instrument of liberty in the hand of a Welshman is set six notes higher than in the hands of an PREFACE Vll Englishman, or of an Irishman, or even of a Scotsman. So it is with the instrument of education. Wales leads, not only in the United Kingdom, but in Europe ; she plays religion, education, music, and poetry better than any other civilized community, and when she will be privileged to make her own laws in her own Parliament, she will play government better than any other nation. The Welsh mind, it is contended, is so differently related to religion, to ethical ideas, to education, to temperance, to political economy, and to the question of government, that it is providentially set apart to illumine the minds of other people on ethics and politics ; they have a message of their own to deliver to mankind ; and for the due consideration and the due deliverance of this great message, it is necessary to have a Parliament of their own with an Executive of its own, and responsible only to the Welsh. They have not yet considered the ways and means., the question of finance and the annual contribution to the Imperial Exchequer for the upkeep of the Army and Navy, the constitution of such a Par- liament, and various other matters that statesmen of responsibility would regard as important. The only thing, it appears, that they have seriously considered is the question of offices, and these, it seems, have already been allocated. The Welsh electors are told that they must accept a Parliament, but they are not told what kind of Parliament or why it is needed ; so the people are apathetic, and those Welsh Parliamentary Representatives who are asking for it are like voices crying in the wilderness. These and other questions are discussed in this work with considerable fullness. I have introduced very little, if any, matter which cannot claim to come within the scope of my proper theme. My object has been to trace and to analyze the historical causes of which the existing conditions of affairs is the outcome. I shall probably be told, by those who claim to be the only rightful and legitimate exponents of Welsh life and thought, that my attitude is unpatriotic, but I have yet to learn that it is inconsistent with patriotism to try to get a comprehensive Vlll PREFACE view of all the facts and to interpret those facts in the light of one's own judgment rather than in the light of a judgment formed by others who have gone into Welsh history with a different temperament and with a different end in view. My attitude has been detached throughout, but that does not necessarily imply that it has been unsympathetic. To those Welshmen who would rather be flattered than informed or edified I do not appeal, and for them this work will have no value. For reading the proofs, my grateful thanks are due to Mr. Ifano Jones, of the Welsh Library, Cardiff, who has extended to me at all times that courtesy and assistance which he has rendered to so many Welsh authors. My readings and researches in the National Library of Wales have been greatly facilitated by the unfailing kindness of Mr. Ellis, the assistant librarian, whose helpful services have been at my disposal. For help of many kinds I am indebted to my wife, who has greatly lightened my labours, and who undertook the task and responsibility of preparing the Index. To the various friends whom I need not name, but who have made the appearance of this work possible, I am deeply grateful. J. V. M. St. David's Day, 1914. INTRODUCTORY NOTE That a new order of things for Wales lies in the design of Providence is clear : the sun of her Midsummer Day is on the horizon ; what her future is going to be, depends not only upon her administrative capacity, but upon her discretion and her patience to bide her time. If her birth- right of freedom will ever be blighted, it will be blighted, as it always has been, by disunion and precipitancy. With regard to the speculative scheme for Welsh Home Rule which was introduced by Mr. E. T. John, M.P., in the House of Commons on March nth, 1914, it may be said that Utopian as the scheme is in many respects, it shows much careful thought and study of the question ; but what Wales needs at the present hour is, not more legislation, but a period of reflection and time to show a larger capacity than she has hitherto shown in the work of civic administration. Her record in this respect is not very creditable, and it certainly does not warrant the demand that has been made in the Bill referred to for an Independent Parliament. It may be said that Wales has not given her sanction for such a measure, neither has she given much thought to the question ; she has not mani- fested any great desire to undertake the responsibility of complete self-government. What is equally important is, that Welsh nationalist politicians, judging by their policy and speeches, do not seem to recognize that they have any obligations beyond the borders of the Principality, or that they owe any loyalty that is not purely local, or any obligation to any interest in Wales excepting purely Welsh interests. Wales, apparently, is as much of the Globe as the majority of Welsh nationalist politicians can carry. Mr. Owen M. Edwards, His Majesty's Chief Inspector of Schools for Wales, is reported to have stated at Swansea, is X INTRODUCTORY NOTE on March 9th, that the Board of Education will, in respect of such schools as do not teach Welsh, make a very sub- stantial reduction in the grants paid towards their main- tenance. According to the theory upon which the policy of the Welsh passive resisters has been founded, it would be quite legitimate for English parents to refuse to pay the rates for the maintenance of schools which thrust Welsh on English children who have not the remotest chance of speaking the language in their homes, or of making any future use of such parrot Welsh as they aie now taught in the schools in Wales. It would be interesting to know whether Parliament ever intended to relegate such arbitrary powers to the Welsh Department of the Board of Education, and whether their policy is a legal one. Should complete autonomy in educational matters ever be granted to Wales, matters would be worse than they are at present ; and should Wales be granted an Independent Parliament, it would be necessary for the Imperial Parliament, in the interest of Wales itself, to provide against the abuse of power by such a Parlia- ment. The disgraceful tactics that have been adopted by the Welsh Department in order to impoverish and to ex- terminate the voluntary schools in Wales, are well known. Neither the quality nor the quantity of the work done in these voluntary schools justifies the actions that have been taken. Such a policy is not going to unify Wales. Indeed, it is carrying out with a vengeance the foolish and antiquated notions that were expressed by the Ciceronian and the Demosthenian orators of Wales during the St. David's Day celebrations, viz., " that language is the bedrock of nationality," " that Wales has added more to the momen- tum of the active forces of the world than any other nation, ' ' " that the voice the world is wanting to hear will come from Wales." But the lesson of history is, that since the conquest the civilization of Wales has depended chiefly on the predominance of the English element, and her civic and commercial prosperity is due not to the " Celtic " element, but to those Englishmen who have invested their INTRODUCTORY NOTE XI capital and who have set in motion the materials which they found in the Principality. Much has been said, and rightly said, respecting the boons that the Christian Celts undeniably gave to the heathen English ; but, as the late Andrew Lang states in that part of his History of Scotland in which he attributes the civilization of Scotland to the predominance of the English element over the Celtic, " Thus, if Celts brought to heathen English the Columban Christianity, Christian English led the way, before the Celts, in their return to unity with the Western Church. . . . Organization had to come from the English under continental discipline." It must be obvious to every im- partial student of Welsh history that, in so far as the civic and administrative side of Welsh development is concerned, the organization had to come from the English rather than from the so-called Celtic element in the Principality. The claim that the Welsh element possesses a higher capacity for the government of Wales than does the English, is as preposterous as it is untrue to the history of Wales herself. J. V. M. March 21st, 1914. INTRODUCTION CELTICISM What does Celticism, or what is often called Pan- Celticism, mean ? Psychologically, certain definite, independent ethnic traits and tendencies — directly opposed to those of the Anglo-Saxon — inherited and acquired, the peculiar heritage of the Brythonic and Gaelic nations. Among those traits may be mentioned : mysticism, idealism, spiritual finesse, power of expression or imagination, and of sentiment or religious fervour. From the most primitive times down to the present, these traits have been recognized and, more or less, preserved and transmitted, despite all modifications and develop- ments of subsequent history. Practically, or politically, Celticism means the union and work of the Celtic nations which still exist or are known as Celtic entities. It means the affirmation of the individuality of each Celtic people, their reunion with the sources of past traditions, and their combination into a Celtic cosmos, with the view, not merely of maintaining their national life intact, but of accentuating the distinctions that separate them from the English, of freeing the Celtic mind from intellectual dependence upon other races, and of securing for the Celtic people the right to manage their own affairs, and a larger share in the management of the affairs of others. This, generally speaking, is the sphere of thought and the field of action covered by what is termed "The Celtic Movement." It has a political as well as a psychological significance ; it has opened up a new phase in the history of Great Britain. The cycle, we are told, is turning or xiii Xiv INTRODUCTION returning towards Celticism, or Pan-Celticism. Celts are no longer to feel themselves to be living in conquered lands. Their misfortunes they attribute to their past subservience, and to the fact that they have for so long neglected to emphasize their nationality forcibly enough before English eyes. The crucial moment, we are told, has arrived, for so rapid and widespread has been the Anglicizing process, that it must be checked and finally conquered, or the Celtic nations will perish at its hands. That, we are again assured, would be a loss to England herself, for England needs the Celtic element so as to counterbalance in her genius the Norman and German elements. The Celts, it is claimed, have a lesson of idealism to teach in opposition to the vile current of contemporary materialism, and the Celtic factor in the composition of the English mind has advantageously revealed itself in the career and achieve- ments of some of England's greatest men and greatest poets. Our attention is also being directed to other move- ments of national renaissance, of which so many small nationalities have given demonstration. The Southern Slavs and Poles are fighting for the recognition of their own civilization. The Czechs, too, have revived their nationality. Everywhere throughout Europe the smaller nations are asserting themselves and seeking to give legislative effect to their ideas, hopes, and aspirations. A people can only develop by cultivating their natural gifts — they can be emotionalized only through their own culture. The Celts, it is contended, had better keep their own soul, with its faith and youth, than acquire the soul of another race, especially such an unimaginative soul as that of the Saxon, with its gross utilitarianism and corrupt materialism. So degrading, it is alleged, has been the effect of Anglicization, that the Celt is being killed by degrees, both morally and intellectually. He has been so Saxonized that he has almost forgotten his race, his an- cestry, his history, his traditions, and his mother-tongue, and all that his mother-tongue means in the form of idealism. Hence, the Celts of the United Kingdom are being stimulated through the Press, and by means of CELTICISM XV various organizations, to act in unison, to reanimate themselves with a proud patriotism, and with due sense of their separate and collective dignity. They are being urged to take a more combative view of British politics, and to combine in checking this " aggressive " and " blatant ' Imperialism which is so unmindful of the obligations which the stronger nations owe to the weaker. Britain, it is said, needs a Scotland, a Wales, and an Ireland that shall be truly Celtic and autonomous, and to whom shall be given their own life — moral, mental, economic, and political. England needs a Welsh nation full of that passion for knowledge, of that mystic fervour for artistic beauty, and gifted with that eloquence which has been the pride of Wales in the past. She needs an Irish nation to show the world the ideal of never-ending hope, of worldly sacrifice for the sake of higher things, of pure family affection within the home circle, and a kindly welcome to strangers. She needs a Celtic nation in Scot- land to show what a hereditary military spirit and a frugal mind can do to advance a nation in prosperity. All this, we are told, must be done on purely Celtic lines, and in closest touch with Celtic thought and tradition. In common the Celts have suffered, and in common they must act, for they are the common inheritors of a common patrimony, the champions of a nationality based upon similar historical causes, which symbolizes a similar national ambition. This is the philosophy of Celticism as we understand it — partly psychological, partly political, founded upon ties of blood, and upon a supposed identity of racial attributes and interests, both practical and ideal. Hence it is that we hear so much about the solidarity of the " Celtic democra- cies," and more especially of the " Irish and Welsh democracies." But this much abused phrase, "The Celtic races," or " Celtic democracies," is responsible for many illusions. It has been used, even in scientific circles, without adequate reflection, and has been made to cover an unjustifiable assumption. It would be more than difficult to over-estimate the services which these phrases have XVI INTRODUCTION rendered in certain directions. The dexterity with which they have been predicated of three races so diverse, not only in their types of culture, but in their national history, and in the instincts that separate them, is sufficient to cause the critically-minded to pause and consider. They are being used as if they had the same significant content in the case of Scotland, Ireland, and Wales. The term " Celtic," philologically considered, has a definite meaning, but in anthropology it has no deter- minate meaning. The advance of the science of ethnology has gone far to show that questions of origin are not so simple as they were once supposed, and that racial character cannot be dismissed in a single phrase. " In my view," said Mr. Balfour once, " there is in these Islands no sharp division of race at all. In the veins of the inhabitants runs more than one strain of blood. The English are not simply Teutonic — still less are the Irish Celtic. We must conceive the prehistoric inhabitants of both Britain and Ireland as subject to repeated waves of invasion from the wandering people of the Continent." The character of a people is essentially a composite product. There is no- where to be found a race of absolutely pure blood, neither is there to be found a nation consisting of a single race. The Celts, like the English or the French or the Germans, are an amalgam of several races. Each unit within the Celtic cosmos is the outcome of many varied forces, ethnic, social, and historical. It is impossible to determine the precise or actual influence of any one of these forces upon the national psychology. To seek to explain this psychology by race alone, would be as unscientific as to deny altogether the influence of race as a factor in the development of national character. The political history of Scotland or of Ireland or of Wales would not have been what it is, if these countries had been inhabited by other or different races, even under the same conditions. In the analysis of national character, race, climate, history, and religion must be taken into consideration. Nations respond to certain ethnic traits, tendencies, and influences. No people is so disinherited by the developments of history CELTICISM XV11 as to lose all sense of identity and individuality. The English are obviously English, and the same may be said of the Scots, the Irish, and the Welsh. While all of them have, more or less, participated in the advance of general civilization, there has been the inevitable persistence of the native mentality, of social and religious proclivities, and of accustomed political action. It is expected that the systematic study of contemporary types which is now in progress will eventually throw some fresh light on this as on many other dark places in British ethnology. This much, however, may be stated with confidence : those who maintain the theory of the purity and unity of the Celts, and who advocate the transference or distribu- tion of the seat of government on the ground of race, occupy an untenable position. The doctrine that racial or national type is to be regarded as final, definite, and permanent is no longer valid. Each race or nation is the incarnation of the physical influences by which it is surrounded and controlled ; it gradually responds to those conditions to which it is exposed, conditions that affect the physique, the brain, the thought, and the intellectual powers. Such changes come by degrees and as cumulative effects, with the result that racial elements are being modified and partly eliminated. What is reserved comes by a gradual process of assimilation into physiological correspondence with the country. Customs, names, sentiments, language, and aspirations change. Such changes are not only important in themselves, but are closely connected with political results. What tendency there is among the Celts is not towards homogeneousness, but towards diversity and antagonism. Not only do they represent different contemporaneous stages of advance- ment, but different ethnic traits. Whether we consider them physically, intellectually, psychologically, or ethni- cally, they have but few elements in common, and the dis- tinctions are continually becoming acute. Homogeneous- ness will not come by the volition of politicians as by artificial stimulus. The varied aspects which the Scots, the Irish, and the Welsh present, are beyond the control B XV111 INTRODUCTION of the individual — they are the necessary consequences of climate, education, and other material considerations ; the effects can never be effaced in absolute reality. We must not be deceived by casual tendencies or by incidental resemblances. Comparatively speaking, the purest Celts are the Gaels in Ireland. Scotland is Gaelic, but not so pure, there being much Scandinavian blood in the population of the High- lands and Western Isles. Though language may be evidence of bygone political or geographical association, it is no criterion of race. The Celtic form of speech was once widespread, and the early peoples of Britain were not necessarily the only ones who had thrown aside their original tongues to adopt it. The Welsh in Wales speak a language unintelligible to the Gaels, whereas Scottish and Irish Gaels can understand each other. It is not improbable that the average Welshman is racially nearer to the average Englishman or Lowland Scotsman of the present day, than to the average Irishman or Gael. If a competent ethnologist were to be sent round Wales to identify the individual men and women who seemed to him to approach what he should consider the Aryan type, his report would go to show that he found comparatively few such people ; the vast majority he could label as, probably, not Aryan, not Celtic. To pronounce, from the point of view of race and history, on the social, political, and even religious proclivities of that majority, is rendered more difficult by the difficulty of estimating correctly the influence on the Welsh of other races, both ancient and modern, and the influence on Wales of movements orig- inated or developed in England. What elements the Welsh have in their blood it is impossible, at present, to state with any degree of finality, but the complexity of the stock is apparent. Those who have studied the ethnography of Wales have been impressed with the extraordinary diversity of facial types among the Welsh, especially in the country districts. There are two very distinct coast populations. The estuaries of the south-west of Wales show numbers of CELTICISM xix typical Nordics — tall and fair, with narrow or medium heads ; on some parts of the northern coast there is to be found a marked infusion of a tall, dark, strongly-built, broad-headed type, which is also distributed along stretches of open coast with bays, notably in Cardigan- shire. Professor H. J. Fleure, who has devoted many years of close and careful study to this question, has come to the conclusion that the Mediterranean types are the funda- mental element of the population of Wales. The average Mediterranean type has a long head, strong occipital pro- tuberance, nose straight, slightly prognathous, stature slightly under average, and dark colouring. These types are specially predominant in the valleys among the great moorland areas which presumably have been open country from early times. Abercromby supposed the Bronze-Age invaders of Britain to have fused with the earlier popula- tion and to have given it a leavening of broad heads. In most parts of Wales are found a few broad-headed people. According to Professor Fleure, this type is very numerous in those deep valleys between craggy mountains or along great through lines : they form a very important part of the population. Whether they are to be identified with the type of the Bronze-Age invaders or not is an open question. Situated as Wales is, she has always been exposed to colonization, not only from England and Ireland, but from Northern Europe. That this colonization has materially modified the Welsh composition, cannot be doubted. In these more modern times the foreign immigration has been falling upon the Welsh valleys like a flood, changing the habits and the entire life of the native population, and even modifying their racial characteristics. There is no evidence that the Irish immigrants have amalgamated with the Welsh, or that they have in any degree modified the composition of the Welsh. Intermarriage between the Irish and the Welsh is a thing of very rare occurrence indeed ; there is far less affinity between the Welsh and the Irish elements than there is between the Welsh and the English or the Scottish, and less religiously than socially XX INTRODUCTION or intellectually. This is not an unimportant considera- tion when studied in the light of the fact that Irishmen have at all times been migrating into Wales, especially to the nearest corner — Pembrokeshire. Thus the Irish story of the Deisi tells us how some of those people left the part of Ireland represented by the Baronies of the Decies in the County of Waterford, and gave to Dyved a line of kings represented in the time of Gildas by Vorti- porious, from whom Elen, wife of Howel the Good in the tenth century, was descended. To come down to a later time, we read in The Description of Penbrokshire, by George Owen, who lived in the reign of Elizabeth, that the Anglo- Flemish portion of his native country was so overrun by Irishmen that in some parts the clergyman was found to be the only inhabitant who was not Irish. This, it is true, was an exceptional time, as it was at the end of the war known as "Tyrone's Rebellion," but many of the exiles must have settled in Pembrokeshire. In fact, Mr. Henry Owen, the learned editor of George Owen's work, remarks that the descendants of those Irishmen can still be traced. As to the alleged unity of the various branches of what is termed "The Celtic stock," where is the evidence of it? We do not find it in their language. This is a distinctive division, a division which is less affected by outward circumstances than the psychical. It is claimed that they are united by sentiment. If this is meant to imply that the Irish, Scots, and Welsh are mutually animated by a disposition of mind towards each other, or that they have larger social or religious sympathies with each other than they have with other races, it is belied by facts. Histori- cally speaking, in more modern times nowhere have the Irish been received with less hospitality than in Wales, and in no community has the Irish priesthood been treated with greater indifference and want of sympathy. Down to very recent years, the presence of the Irish, both in the industrial and agricultural districts, was regarded as an intrusion. They were even treated with contempt and derision ; they were not considered as having any affinity with the Welsh, either racially, socially, or religiously. CELTICISM XXI In whatever light we regard "The Celtic races," as repre- sented by the Scots, the Irish, and the Welsh of to-day, we find that there are primordial differences of type — differ- ences not merely environmental in origin, but fundamental. Even if grafted on in the process of time to an originally identical stock, they are wide and enduring. According to the principle which lies at the basis of ethnology, differences in physical traits are not decisive of race. There is a physical and moral likeness between races that are classified as distinct, and a diversity of physical and moral types among races confessedly of the same origin. That there exists among the Celts 1 a certain affinity of character — a certain likeness of qualities — it is clear. This affinity is nowhere more apparent than in the absence among the Celts of Wales and of Ireland of the critical sense, in their excesses and illusions ; their impatience of outside criticism, their liability to examine everybody's conscience except their own, to advertize and exaggerate their difficulties, and to look for the cause or causes of their political failure and backwardness, in bad masters and bad legislation — everywhere except in themselves. Yet, psychologically speaking, and taking a broad view of their history and characteristics, no human types are, at the present stage of their development, more opposed. So fundamental is the difference in the type of their nationality, their religious proclivities, their habits of conviviality, their economic needs and methods of political warfare, that it almost amounts to an antagonism. When we come to the background of their political and economic exigencies, or when we compare their psychical characteristics, their mental and spiritual output, their relative contribution to the progress of material civiliza- tion, and the quality of their literature — both prose and poetic — we find that they are separated by a strong and definite line of demarcation, and separated as much by the quality as by the quantity of their respective intellects. 1 The term " Celts " is used here and elsewhere in this work for the sake of convenience, and in order to designate the Irish, the Welsh, and the Scots ; its use does not commit the author to any theory as to its exactitude. XX11 INTRODUCTION As they differ in their intellection, so they differ in the texture of their intercourse, in the type of temperament which predominates among them, in their habits of con- viviality, in their brain power, in the kind of brain that they have, and in the power which they have in that brain. This, after all, is that which ranks men and nations in the world. Where is the foundation of this Celtic coalition which goes under the name of " Pan-Celtic Nationality " ? What are the elements that are to constitute it, the elements that will coalesce, and form the Celts into an organic whole for offensive and defensive purposes — politically and nationally ? What is the central conception, or the fundamental point of agreement, which indicates the direction in which the Celts are to act ? Are the lines of cleavage less important than what is common to all of them ? What are the basal propositions of this Celtic federation ? Are they racial, religious, political, or linguistic, or each and all ? Does the Welsh nature reflect the Scottish, or the Scottish the Welsh ? Do their thoughts rebound from those of each other ? Many are the compli- ments that are passing just now on the side of the Welsh and the Irish ; they are essentially diplomatic, due entirely to the necessity for an interchange of kindly services at Westminster. There is no high or solid ground of affinity. What are the forces that bring men and nations into closer intercourse ? A common language may smooth the way of union, but language is not an essential element of nationality. Race is not nationality ; it is not always an element of nationality, and seldom an essential element. A glance at the map of the world shows the most strongly marked nationalities embracing races obviously very diverse, and still geographically distinct. America is a supreme example. Italian nationality unites the Lombard and the Neapolitan ; the Prussian has joined the German and the Slav ; the common French nationality covers the Gascon, the Provencal, and the Norman. True, we have seen Alsace and Lorraine forsaking their associa- tion with German nationality to cleave to that of France, CELTICISM XX111 and the great Scandinavian Peninsula rent by a national line of demarcation. But the dream of " Pan-Celtic Nationality," founded on racial ties, is chimerical. Men and nations are drawn and held together by religion, by common interests, common habits and traditions, common aspirations and a common political form. They are drawn together by similarities of taste both literary and artistic, and when they find themselves open to the same intellec- tual pleasures and coincident of the same thought, it is of a higher grade than natural affinities, and sometimes stronger. A great idea, a great principle of conduct, whether social, political or religious, is the only nucleus on which a true nationality can concentrate. The Celts, or the people of Scotland, Ireland, and Wales, whatever minor tendencies they may have in common, do not possess that community of mind — the essence of which is ideas — which alone can bind and keep them together as an organic whole. It is a significant fact, and in this connection a very material one, though all four — Scotland, Ireland, Brittany, and Wales — are Christian nations, each one holds, and intensely holds, a different type of Christian thought. While the Bretons and the Irish are mainly Roman Catholics, the Welsh are mainly what are called "Non- conformists," and the inhabitants of the Highlands are either Presbyterians or Roman Catholics. We have been asked why it is that a people like the Welsh, who act and think politically with such unrestrained liberty, should be so conservative in their theology. The aspect of theological thought to which the Welsh are predisposed is the Cal- vinistic. The psychology of this theological partialism is to be found in the fact that the average or typical Welsh- man is a man of large self-esteem, large reflective powers, and large conscientiousness, but comparatively small benevolence. A mentality that is so constituted is ordinarily in sympathy with the ideas of governor and government, which are of the essence of Calvinistic philosophy. But, strange to relate, while in theology the Welsh mentality represents the point of view of the XXIV INTRODUCTION governor, in politics it stands for the point of view of the governed. In politics the Welsh are intensely Arminian, while in theology they are intensely Calvinistic. They exhibit in politics attributes of mind the very antithesis of those which they exhibit in theology, viz., a wide benevolence and large social feelings, with small con- scientiousness. Few race characteristics are so profoundly marked as the intensity of religious feeling in the Celtic races, and it is worthy of note that side by side with this intensity of religious feeling among the Irish, is their enervation of mind in their practical life. There is another significant con- trast : among the Presbyterians of Scotland and the Non- conformists of Wales, religious belief is founded on a more philosophical basis than in the case with the Catholics of Ireland. This may be, and probably is, due to a different state of culture and education, and to the lack of the philosophic spirit among the Irish. Though religion to the Scots and the Welsh is a second nature, it is with each of them a thing of the individual rather than of the race. " The Irish," remarked a Catholic Englishman, " are Catholic because they are Irish, and Irish because they are Catholic. They will not allow that I, as an English- man, am Catholic, for that is a privilege which belongs to them. They hate me, who am a Catholic, because I am an Englishman, and above all because I am a Catholic Englishman." Ireland has always been Irish, and Wales has always been Welsh, but they have not always been national. The preservations of the nationality of the Highlands has been more difficult. The rebellions against central control sapped the Highland national life for a time, and the deportation of so many clans abroad, and the losses of their race on hundreds of battlefields, undermined their national strength. Wales has never had to suffer for her religious opinions or convictions, or for her nationhood, in the same manner, or to the same degree, as Scotland, or even Ireland. " Brittany and Ireland between them scarce count two martyrs ; they are reduced to venerating CELTICISM XXV as such those of their compatriots who were slain in the Anglo-Saxon and Danish invasions." 1 Scotland has a score or more. " If for that endurance and tenacity of purpose for which the Scots are distinguished, they are indebted to their long-continued struggle with the English ; if for their thrift, to their almost ceaseless fight with poverty, they derived at least their moral grit from the Reformation ; for brilliant examples of moral courage and steadfastness to principle, it is not necessary to go back to Patrick Hamilton, to Knox, or to Melville. Their nobler qualities were reproduced in the Covenanters of the seventeenth century — in men of the humblest rank who unshrinkingly faced persecution, torture, and death rather than deny or quit one of the least of Christ's truths. Even women faced the scaffold and the stake for contro- verted or despised truths. By such sufferers the heritage of the Reformation was mightily increased." 1 The Welsh have but one martyr, in the person of John Penry : "To the noble army of martyrs, in the reign of Queen Mary, Wales only furnished three, and they were Englishmen, viz. : Bishop Ferrar, at Carmarthen ; Rawlins White, a fisherman, at Cardiff ; and William Nichol, a simple but pious man, at Haverfordwest. It is probable that there were a few Anglicized Welshmen amongst those who suffered martyrdom in England in this reign, and that there were two or three from Wales amongst the exiles who fled to the Continent, and returned to their native country on the accession of Elizabeth ; but the mass of the nation, both priests and people, were decided Papists ; and the very small number who had imbibed Protestant principles were by no means men of such energy of character, brilliancy of talent, and elevated piety, as the state of the nation and the circumstances of the age required. In vain we search the history of the Reformation for a Welsh Cranmer, Latimer, or Knox."' Indeed, Welsh history is neither very illustrious nor of 1 Poetry of the Celtic Races, by Ernest Renan, p. 45. 8 The Reformation in Scotland, by Rev. D. Hay Fleming, LL.D., p. 536. * History of Nonconformity in Wales, by Rev. T. Rees, D.D., p. 3. XXVI INTRODUCTION great importance to the world. As a story of a people, and if taken in a modern sense, it is not unworthy of study, but it is not a phenomenon of European interest. What direction Welsh development will eventually take is not likely to disturb the equanimity of the family of nations. The Welsh, even in the days of their independence, founded no empire. At no time did they develop the conception of the State. When a king died his realm was treated as a private estate and divided equally among his sons. The result was civil war. Whatever its origin, it always was a disturbing and a disintegrating factor in Welsh society, leading to disunion and bloodshed. The Saxons gave the crown and headship of the State to the most capable member of the royal family, not to the eldest son of the king. Even at this late hour, the Welsh have no conception of the State except as something to be robbed — due chiefly to the influence of Dissent. It stands to-day in opposition to the State because the Church is a State Church. Christianity has done much for the Welsh, so has education, but Christianity in its sectarian or separatist form has rather accentuated than softened their racial and religious asperity ; it has greatly multiplied the disintegrating elements. The philosophy of its present- day politics seems to be to establish a spiritual modus vivendi of charity, kindliness, and co-operation, among all Christians in the Principality by a process of tyranny and sectional ascendancy. Absurd as this may be, yet it is true in fact. Politically what the tribal system was in old Welsh society, Nonconformity, as it is developing itself, is in the new Welsh society. Ideally it is unsectarian; in practice it is sectarian and divisive, tending to disaffect and to drive off other parts of the nation. In theory it is conciliatory ; in its organic working its movement is not toward but away from common moral, intellectual, physical, and political interests. It eloquently proclaims its unmitigated opposition to any form of religious teach- ing being endowed or thrust upon individuals and the community, yet it ruthlessly imposes its religious and political dogmas upon others when and because it happens CELTICISM XXV11 to have the majority and the power. In fact, sectarianism has a passion for power; it thrives on discontent. One sect rises in antagonism to another plus their combined antagonism to the Church. This is the spinal marrow of the religious question in the Principality. But it is better, we are told, to put up with all the mischief of division and sub-division, as it keeps men alive and awake and at work. This is political wisdom ! But political wisdom is not a Welsh attribute, neither is the art of statesmanship a Welsh art. What political institutions the Welsh developed did not contain the elements of stability, progress, and permanency. Having reached a certain stage, they always fell short. It may be argued that their failure was in a measure due to the fact that they were not left alone and in peace long enough to mature their institutions and to establish their kingdoms on a basis of permanency, being compelled to abandon the task of construction and defend themselves against ever-recurring invasions. Yet, it is impossible to explain away the fact that the Welsh people have nothing to their credit in constructive statesmanship. Even when left alone, they have contri- buted nothing to the art of government, to scientific know- ledge of the world, to discovery, to philosophy, or to the artistic side of civilization. They justly have a reputation which is wanting in practicability, forever chasing ideals and missing them. What is traditionally is contempor- aneously true. It is due partly to the uncritical and segregating character of the Welsh genius, partly to erroneous ideas or to what nationality connotes, partly to their religious peculiarities, partly to the excessive cultiva- tion of the emotional side of their nature, partly to the absence of conceptual thinking, and partly to the influence of physical and social environment. Hence it is, that of the glorious names in British history in the realm of science, in the region of mathematics, in high statesman- ship, in dramatic art, in philosophy, invention, and scientific theology, the proportion to be assigned to Wales is small, and very small indeed as compared with Scot- land, or even Ireland. XXV111 INTRODUCTION Two intellects more dissimilar in all their essential attributes, less likely to coalesce, and having less affinity in the region of practical affairs than those of the Welsh and the Scottish, it would be difficult to find. Of the sympathy which springs from a sense of racial ties, or of a community of interest, or of an interested or a dis- interested friendship, there is very little trace on the part of the average Scotsman towards the average Welshman. Of the community of feeling which arises from a sense of intellectual equality there is none, and room for none. The sense of superiority in the Scotsman forbids it. The modern Welshman is following in the footsteps of the Scot, though with infinitely less reason and justification. He has the gift of speech, and that may materially help him with the uneducated, though this gift, which is for ever advertized, is not necessarily associated with intelligence, or even with eloquence. The gift of utterance is one thing, oratory is another. Nothing is more difficult for an untrained mind than to differentiate between loquacity and eloquence ; among no class of citizens is the one gift mistaken for the other more than among the Welsh. Of two national intellects, the least reconcilable are the Welsh and Scottish. The Scotsman is so much more methodical in his thinking, and so much more adaptable to the golden mean. It takes more to electrify him, and he puts a greater restraint upon himself. He is a bolder reasoner, and less content to remain in the region of concrete facts. Having a decided bias for general prin- ciples, the Scotsman is more apt to exert his intellect on abstractions. He is not satisfied unless he can ascertain and define those principles, and draw his conclusions on purely logical lines. The Welshman, on the other hand, does not trouble himself about logic ; even when logic is against him, he believes he is right. What he wants to believe, he believes with intensity, even when facts and conditions show how untenable are the premisses upon which his conclusions are founded. The subconscious side of human nature is much nearer the surface in the Welsh and Irish soul than in that of the Scottish. The CELTICISM XXIX discipline of the national character has been far more rigorous in Scotland than in Wales or Ireland, and the Scottish intellect is far more capable of adapting itself to the aggregate intellect of the world. Froude said that as a training in self-dependence, no better education could have been found in the British Islands. That the Scots are more highly trained intellectually than are any of the other branches of the Celtic stock, is obvious. Into what- ever branch of learning or of statecraft we inquire, the pre-eminence of the Scottish intellect is unquestioned and unquestionable. The Scots are less emotional than are the Irish or Welsh, and less given to hasty judgment. Mr. Balfour has told us something about the Scottish perversity in judgment. Speaking of the old days, he said, ' ' Whatever England did, Scotland from the very necessities of her political situation did the opposite." It would be interesting to know what Mr. Balfour would have to say about this perversity in judgment and conduct which Scotsmen unquestionably exhibit outside the political sphere. The difference between the average Scotsman and the average Irishman or Welshman is nowhere more apparent than in the sphere of criticism. Unlike the Scots, the fiery nature of the Welsh and Irish Celts shies at unpleasant truths. They cannot be got to look steadily at a dis- agreeable fact, especially if it compromises the traditional reputation of their race. Herein lies their essential weak- ness, and their liability to exhibit hostility towards their critics. Scotsmen rather enjoy having their foibles and perversities pointed out to them, especially by the English. They take it as a sign of superiority in themselves. They boast that they are indifferent to hostile criticism, and they justly base their self-content on their national history. Scotsmen pity their critics ; Irishmen and Welsh- men get angry and revile them. They lack that intel- lectual discipline which endows a people with the neces- sary courage to look into the mirror that faithfully reflects their deformities and peculiarities. They are more at home in the world of romance than in the world of reality . XXX INTRODUCTION There seems to be a limit at which the Welsh and Irish mentality fails. In the case of great, or of the greatest intellects, the limit is so remote that it never seems to be reached. The Irish are more largely dominated by the social instinct, and have a far shrewder and more delicate perception of the feelings of others, and a far greater capacity to enter into, or to understand, those feelings. This in part explains their greater aptitude in the region of political action. The sense of liberty in the Irishman is greater than his sense of equality ; hence it is that the idea of individual freedom is still among the Irish, as it is among the Celts generally, in a backward state. The individualistic temperament is a dominant factor in every healthy and well-developed society. Not that the Irish mind is inaccessible to ideas : it really possesses a swift- ness of perception and an intellectual agility which are not common either to the Welsh or to the Scottish mind. Ireland has jealously guarded her nationality, and during the last hundred years, at any rate, the Irish idea of nationality has been identified almost exclusively with the popular political cause. In Wales, on the other hand, the idea of nationality has been closely identified with the preservation of the Welsh language, due to the mistaken notion that the native language is essential to nationality, and that language is a proof of purity of race. " We must," they say, " remain Welsh in blood, speech, customs and ideals, if we are to be, or to remain, a nation." The Welsh understanding of the term " nationality " needs to be revised and corrected, especially in view of the great fact of Anglicization, and the complexity of the social, religious, economic and educational problems that are maturing for solution. A nation's attitude towards these, and other problems, largely depends upon its definition and understanding, both theoretical and practical, of the term " nationality." The popular Welsh conception of the future of Wales, and the popular Welsh conception as to what nationality connotes, or as to what constitutes its principal ingredients, are irreconcilable with facts, and mutually destructive. The Irish, while protesting that CELTICISM XXXI they compose a distinct nation, have in a much larger degree copied English manners and ideals. Much has been said about the " evil tourist influence " and the " base London Press," which penetrate even to the very hamlets of Munster and Connaught. The Irishman, it is com- plained, is "on the road to become a Cockney." Traces of denationalization are to be perceived in a very marked degree among the Irish middle classes ; even the peasants are changing their language and losing some of their distinctive Celtic characteristics. A knowledge of the Irish language is confined to comparatively few Irishmen. The same is true of the Irish professional and commer- cial classes of the towns. The Irish aristocracy are hopelessly Anglicized. The Irish, though fervently nationalistic, and violently anti-English, are rapidly adopting the features of the Anglo-Saxon character, not only in the matter of political institutions, but in sports, music, customs, language, and names of places and persons. Even the Parliament that they are apparently accepting as a solution of the Irish problem on its Imperial side, is modelled after the English, or rather British, Parliament, and their achievements in the nineteenth century have lain outside Ireland— in England, the Colonies, and the United States of America. But contact with Anglo-Saxon elements does not fully account for this process of denationalization : there are historical causes due to the different plantations that have been made at various periods. There are the influences of the Danes, the Normans, and other people who from time to time established themselves in the country. It has been claimed that Wales presents problems parallel to those of Ireland; that she has stronger claims to a Parliament of her own. But Wales can in no sense consider herself an oppressed nationality. The highly popular theory that has been so assiduously circulated of late years that the national life of Wales has been crushed by the dull leaden weight of English authority, is not warranted by the facts of history. Welshmen, it is stated, have been diffident and ill at ease in the great world. XXX11 INTRODUCTION because they have never recovered from the shock of their subjection to England ; they have been cowed, fettered and humiliated. It may be true that there have been periods when the rights of conquest were stretched to their extreme limits ; but the attitude of England has been, on the whole, a friendly one. As a nation Wales is free, and she has received more encouragement from England to develop her nationality than is generally known or supposed among Welshmen. These are not the only absurdities of history which Welsh nationalist historians are repeating, and that for purely political purposes. Wales, they say, was conquered by England, and the English policy has been to keep the Welsh in subjection. But the people who conquered Wales were the Normans ; the Anglo-Saxon conquest fell short. The English were themselves a subject race, having been conquered by the Normans. In this respect they passed through the same experience as the Welsh. The Norman conquest was not complete in Wales until the time of Edward I. In that conquest of Edward the people of South Wales — of the Marches — helped the King. It is difficult to understand how Welsh Nationalist politicians can avow that the reasons for Welsh Home Rule are stronger and more valid than the reasons for Irish Home Rule. What those reasons are they do not state. We need only to compare the history of the two countries, their economic needs, their population, their political experience, their suffering, the character of their nationhood, and their constitutional status, in order to see how foolish this Welsh claim is, and how untrue it is to the lessons of history. Wales has less the character of a nation than either Ireland or Scotland. Even Ireland is not a nation in the sense that Scotland is a nation. Politics, even at this late hour, among the Welsh is in the stage of mere passionate life. It is passing, though slowly, into an intellectual process ; but Welsh politics is not a positive science capable of a clear vision or close guidance in the art of political conduct. Welsh political thought runs on less eclectic lines than that of the Irish. The Irish CELTICISM XXX111 have been Liberals and Conservatives in turn. They have never wavered from the main dominating line of action, viz. : that the Irish can make better progress by managing their own affairs from Dublin than by allowing Britishers to do it for them. For this they have struggled for generations. Welshmen, on the other hand, have never toyed with Conservatism since they had the franchise. They have consistently voted Liberal since 1868, even when their self-interest demanded that they should do otherwise. Politics is not with the Welsh, as it is with the Irish, a constructive art. To say that the Welsh repre- sentatives can do for Wales what the Irish representatives have done for Ireland, is obviously absurd. They have not the financial backing, not the natural ability, not the courage, not the political aptitude, and there is a world of difference in their history and economic needs. That Wales has felt the reflex influence of the Irish movement, cannot be questioned. Wales gave to the cause of Irish Home Rule in 1895 a larger majority in proportion to its population than Ireland herself gave. But that vote was a compliment to Mr. Gladstone. The Welsh of those times had an almost supernatural faith in his integrity. Being a neurotic people, the Welsh are ever liable to extremes — either of malignant censure or of fulsome laudation. The masses of the Welsh did not understand — they were intellectually incapable of under- standing — the principles of that Bill. The unintelligent, and one might almost say unconscious, fidelity of Wales to the cause of Irish Home Rule has been well repaid by the loyalty of the Irish representatives at Westminster. To that, and that alone, must be attributed the ability of the Asquith Government to carry the Welsh Disestablish- ment Bill through its most critical stages in the Commons. The present Chairman of the Welsh Parliamentary Party —Sir David Brynmor Jones — a man highly and justly esteemed, said in the debate on the third reading of the Church Bill, on February 4th, 1913, that he regarded it " as a providential occurrence that the Irish and Welsh nations, which had suffered so long, should triumph to- X XXXIV INTRODUCTION gether in the same session." But it does not require much prescience to see that Welsh and Irish political philosophies have nothing in common. The Irish Party acted through- out in accord with that policy which they have always pursued — the policy of political expediency. They could not help themselves. Not only did they save in Com- mittee — and that by a very narrow margin — the Welsh Church Bill, but they saved the Government from defeat ; and thereby made it more possible to bring to fruition their own political ideals. It is no disrespect to say that this fidelity of the Irish at Westminster to the cause of what is termed " Religious equality in Wales," cannot properly be attributed to a sense of any racial affinity, or community of interest, or an appreciation of the back- ground of the movement. The alliance is a purely mechanical one, based on purely prudential considerations. Search as narrowly as we may, there are no other alliances playing within this artificial one. Strange companions train together. What interest can the Catholics of Ireland have in Nonconformity ? Men endure men and con- duct other than their own just for the moment because it advances their ambitions, and ambition has no scruples as to bedfellows. Say, if you like, that the Irish have acted right from low motives, but do not say that the alliance has any other meaning. A good many minds are sorely perplexed over the attitude of Welsh Nonconformists towards the question of Irish Home Rule. The explanation is, that Welsh Non- conformists labour under the belief, or delusion, that with the advent of Home Rule the power of the Irish priest will be crippled, and that the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland will cease as a political factor. It is exceptionally difficult for a Welshman to enter into the spirit of a religious system, or of any modern ethical philosophy, different from or alien to his own. The Welsh pulpit has never been at pains to form intelligent conceptions of what is involved in the study of com- parative religion, and theology has never been studied purely as a science. Welsh Nonconformists have never CELTICISM XXXV really studied Roman Catholicism, either as a doctrine or as an institution. It provokes too much aversion in their hearts. They have never ceased to warn their flocks against " its intolerance and its proscription of individual judgment," as if such a thing were alien to the genius of militant Nonconformity. The average Welsh- man has never thought it necessary, or obligatory upon him, to ascertain the real character of Roman Catholicism, its ideas, or its nature, as shown in history. He does not know the doctrine that it imposes, the outlines of its theology, the beneficence that has characterized its influence, its principles of action, and how those principles have been modified in the course of time. He simply regards it as a purely political principle, and as an instru- ment of persecution, whose policy is to force Catholic establishment on Protestant communities, and to destroy Protestant institutions. Because the Welshman thinks that Home Rule means the end of Rome Rule, he is anxious to see Ireland in a state of political independence. Not that he considers that Irish interests, whether religious or political, are identical with those of Wales. As to Imperial consequences, as to whether Ireland is likely to compromise her patriotism, or may ultimately find it difficult or impossible to harmonize her nationality with British Imperialism, and to remain at peace as an integral part of the United Kingdom, it does not trouble him. Thus it is that we come back to our original premisses, viz., that the terms " Celtic races," or " Celtic democracies," or " The solidarity of the Celtic democracies," have been made to cover an assumption which is not warranted by the facts of history. But it is difficult for the unthinking populace to get down to the bedrock of historical and psychological facts, through the vast superstructure of imagery, assertion and metaphor heaped up by golden- mouthed Celtic orators. We are now more than accus- tomed to the essential superlativeness of everything Celtic in the eyes of the Celt. It would be a calamity, we are told, if this " Celtic aestheticism " and " love of first principles," if this " brilliant Celtic genius " which has XXXVI INTRODUCTION lurked sulkily amid its native mountains, " were lost to civilization, or were to cease to be a vivifying force in the world of thought and of politics." Students of history need not be reminded that this " brilliant Celtic genius ' did vivify the French intellect in the days of the French Revolution, with the result that it caused it to rush head- long in an indistinguishable mass in pursuit of an imprac- ticable and impossible ideal — the ideal of equality. It more than once brought France to the brink of destruction. What saved France was the streak of Teutonic blood and Teutonic character. It was this " Celtic genius " that frustrated and destroyed the colonizing policy upon which France, at one time, so successfully embarked. It made the Napoleonic dictatorship possible ; it made Parnellism possible in Ireland ; Lloyd Georgeism, Owen Glyndwrism, and all sorts of " isms," possible in Wales. This " brilliant Celtic genius " has always been pursuing ideals, and always missing them, seldom or never counting the cost. " The Persians, the Greeks, the Romans, and the Teutons are the only makers of history, the only authors of advancement. Other races possessing a highly devel- oped language, a copious literature, a speculative religion, enjoying luxury and art, attain to a certain pitch of cultivation which they are unable either to communicate or to increase. They are a negative element in the world : sometimes the barrier, sometimes the instrument, some- times the material of those races to whom it is given to originate and to advance. Their existence is either passive, or reactionary and destructive, when, after inter- vening like the blind forces of nature, they speedily exhibit their uncreative character, and leave others to pursue the course to which they have pointed. . . . The Celts of these islands, in like manner, waited for a foreign influence to set in action the rich treasure which, in their own hands, could be of no avail. Their language was more flexible, their poetry and music more copious, than those of the Anglo-Norman. Their laws, if we may judge from those of Wales, display a society in some respects highly cultivated. But, like the rest of that group CELTICISM XXXXV11 of nations to which they belong, there was not in them the incentive to action and progress which is given in the consciousness of a part in human destiny by the inspira- tion of a high idea, or even by the natural development of institutions. Their life and literature were aimless and wasteful. Without combination or concentration, they had no star to guide them in an onward course ; and the progress of dawn into day was no more to them than to the flocks and the forests." 1 The keynote to the political failure of the Celtic people, whether Welsh, Irish, or Highlander, has been their inability to decide the merits of a question apart from local and personal considerations, and their innate tendency to be obsessed by ideas, to the exclusion of individual judg- ment. This Celtic characteristic is the product of the principle upon which the tribal system was founded. Freedom of criticism, of thought, and of action, was im- possible under such a system. It made it impossible for the Welsh to attain to that unity and co-operation by which alone they could offer any effective resistance to their Anglo-Saxon neighbours. Loyalty to a chief was the governing idea of tribal society. The local chieftain was the hero ; loyalty to the clan, or to the tribe as a whole, was a remoter consideration. No people could, under such conditions, make any substantial advance in national development. Individual ambition was sacrificed to that of the local chieftain. What patriotism existed was narrow and provincial ; and the character which was evolved out of such a system was also narrow and provincial, devoid of strong vigorous intellectual qualities, clannish, querul- ous, vindictive, circumscribed in its outlook, crushed by local confinement. There are still traces of the old tribal system in the composition of the Welsh of to-day, and Welsh religion in its sectarian form has accentuated rather than softened these influences. Love of personal liberty and respect for the rights of men — the great secret of ultimate political success — the Celts have been slow to cultivate. It has 1 History of Freedom and other Essays, by Lord Acton, pp. 240-2. s XXXV111 INTRODUCTION been one of the central factors in the policy and success of the Teutons, as it is exemplified in the civilization of the English-speaking nations in England and the United States of America. The main force in the making of the political success of the Anglo-Saxon peoples and of their free institutions has been the Teuton element and Teuton traditions, due both to racial qualities and to a chain of political accidents. The Empire of Charlemagne was founded on a combination of Teutonic and ecclesiastical forces, and after Charlemagne what gave France its political force under the Capetian dynasty was the vigour of a Teutonic aristocracy. The German Empire of to-day is a striking example of Teutonic political success. The Teutonic genius may lack that dazzling and effervescent brilliancy which characterizes the Celtic genius, and it may be that success has come to the Teutons slowly and by long patient labour ; but it comes at last, and comes in virtue of patient plodding, freedom of criticism, the Imperial character of their patriotism, love of individual liberty, and respect for the rights of men, which they have always cultivated and never lost. On the other hand, the failure of the Celts as political bodies is a fact that is writ large on the pages of human history ; their political nature is rooted in disappointment. It almost seems that whatever else the Celts are intended to do, they are not intended to succeed as the founders of empire or the framers and establishers of free political institutions. These are conclusions based upon the facts of history, and upon a national psychology that not blindness itself can controvert. The secret of their failure is, in the main, traceable to tribal institutions and geo- graphical isolation. Lord Acton wrote of their lack of individual liberty in thought and action. Their non-success may, however, have been due partly to their over-anxiety to satisfy the individual, but they never rose to it, with the result that the State suffered. Indeed, their con- ception of the State was crude and defective. In addition, there is their traditional disposition to look for the causes of their non-success everywhere but in themselves, the CELTICISM XXXIX absence of the sense of national unity, their inability to cohere, the parochial character of their patriotism, and the bad grace with which they have faced their failures. These are pivotal Celtic defects, and defects that char- acterize the Celts of to-day as of more ancient times. There is the same recklessness, the same sentimental idealism, the same local intolerance, the same slavery to a local hero and master idea. Ireland is still lost in regrets for the past, and never done with historical grievances ; she is obsessed by racial prejudices, hating the English and imitating them, anathematizing the " pirate Empire," always asking alms and always speaking of " half measures of reform," and reforms that come " too late " and only in " response to threats of violence." The people are backward, disloyal, divided and wretched, without wealth, without industry and without commerce, because we are told they are oppressed. When they have been left to themselves, they will, they say, be happy and prosperous, doing what they would have done, notwith- standing their decadence, if they had been left to them- selves under their own military chiefs, viz., establish political unity on a sound and permanent basis. That this view is tainted with extravagance must be obvious to every impartial student of Irish history. However grave may have been the misdeeds connected with English or British rule in Ireland at certain periods, the phenomenal advance that Ireland has made of late years has been due to the generosity of the British Parliament in providing for the economic and political development of that part of the United Kingdom. Yet, Irishmen brazenly shut their eyes to the brighter side in this chapter of Irish history. They ask alms and insult those who give it ; they live in the memory of times gone by and wreck what they cannot rule. They leave out of account the internal character of the people as they do their tradi- tional habit of ascribing their misfortunes to their rulers. It is a national trait. In no part of the Kingdom are morals purer than in Ireland, but nowhere is character less developed, and in no part is there a larger distribution Xl INTRODUCTION of the qualities that go to make indifferent citizens. On the one hand, they emphasize distinctions of race and of religion, seeking to found upon them a separate nation- ality. On the other hand, they ignore distinctions of race and of religion, and even scorn them, when they concern other portions of the country ; they decline to recognize the claims that are advanced by those who are separated from them by ties of blood and of religion, by tradition and political ideals, and by all the deepest instincts of human kind. No true or prosperous nationalism can be established on such a basis. If Ireland needs, as she un- doubtedly does, a readjustment of her political system, she also needs a psychological emancipation to fit her for the larger responsibility. Politics form only a part, and a subordinate part, of a nation's life ; political sense must precede political freedom. An integral nationalism founded upon a memory of the past, upon an assumed purity of race, or upon an irrecon- cilable and a separatist propaganda, is a disintegrating nationalism ; it retains and perpetuates the thesis of old revolutionaries. It provokes abuses in the very attempt at remedying them. It becomes hard and oppressive after the manner of workman become master. Such nationalism, whether it be Irish or Welsh, lacks realism, for it lacks the practical and business spirit in the conduct of human affairs. It leaps at one bound the whole length or width of an idea, exaggerating its own miseries and thinking only of its own interests ; it is sour, imperious, and in- different to the lives and opinions of others. The tyranny which it denounces in the foreigner it justifies in its own groups, leagues, and cliques. Welsh nationalism likewise is full of that instructive and excessive optimism which developes energy and organizations, but obscures judgment, which seeks to create a political problem where none exists, and to exaggerate grievances purely local and racial in their origin, confounding nationality with politics, preaching the spurious doctrine that nationality connotes a dis- tinction of race and language — of language more than CELTICISM Xli race — together with a distinctive community in manners and customs ; shouting " Wales a Nation," and " Wales for the W T elsh," and indeed everything that is of value exclusively for the Welsh, forgetting, or not knowing, that a people must be a nation in fact before they can be a nation in name, and that nationality is a part of the life of a people that stands above politics. An Independent Welsh Parliament would not make Wales a nation; politics and even liberty itself are not ends, but means to an end. Welsh nationalists find it convenient to forget that during the days of independence — extending over a thousand years — Wales did not succeed in establishing any permanent institutions, and that during the periods when she was free from invasions, with ample oppor- tunities for self-culture and advancement, her time and energies were mainly occupied in a sanguinary strife between the rival claims of native rulers and princes ; what opportunities the people had they wasted in internecine warfare. The period of real advance — municipal, ad- ministrative, and on the lines of unity — began after the Imperial yoke was put upon the neck of Wales. But the Welsh intellect still being in the line of aboriginal instinct, and having been imperfectly and irregularly developed, has ever since it took an institutional turn forty years ago, been proceeding at a pace and with an impetuosity that is truly Welsh, calling out for all sorts of Government grants, institutions, and the machinery of civic adminis- tration, without adequate thought as to cost or efficiency or the perfecting of those institutions already created, putting greater pressure upon the national intellect than it can bear, or the resources of the country justify, with the result that many of the Welsh Secondary Schools have been recently declared to be insolvent, and the Welsh elementary system to be the most backward in the King- dom. Every violence has its penalty to pay. This pre- cipitancy has cost the Celts dearly. Power they have always loved, and for power they still cry out, but when power is vested in them they use it lavishly, unthinkingly and indiscriminately, thus causing misery to themselves xlii INTRODUCTION and to their descendants, and anxiety to the State. It is this hysteric precipitancy, this power-getting and Parlia- ment-getting mania which infests modern Celticism (as if autonomy created or constituted nationhood, and as if Parliament were the only remedy for racial deformities) , that causes it to fall into all sorts of political excesses, gullibility, and morbid inability to abide its time, to fail to be at ease in the broad world of reality, and to be unwilling to share with other nationalities the qualities that it needs, but which it has as yet neither inherited nor acquired. THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY CHAPTER I THE CHARACTERISTICS OF WELSH DEVELOPMENT The process of development, it has been claimed by some writers, is the same in the case of every race or nation. While the rate at which it proceeds varies, they all pass through the same typical changes, or stages of growth. It is, however, a rash thing, as Renan says, to lay down any law on the intermittence and awakening of nations. As nations differ in their type of genius, so they differ in the manner in which their genius is revealed to them, and in the course which it takes. Genius moulds and is moulded by its own environment ; it seeks its own medium of ex- pression. Whatever attracts it, touches and invigorates it. Genius responds to that which is compatible with its own character, and develops along the lines to which it is relatively sensitive. What is true of individual, is true of national genius. Hence it is, that the vitality of nations runs into so many different grooves. Not only is there a difference in manner and in customs — that is, in the modes of civilization, but in the source or sources whence it springs, and in the moral and physical causes which contribute to its growth. Something depends upon the soil — its nature and pro- ductiveness ; something upon the physical structure of the country, upon its mineral resources, its climate and its population, and the rate at which it increases ; something upon its proximity to other nations, and the character of 2 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY their civilization ; something upon the peculiarities of the inhabitants, their ignorance and the duration of their ignorance ; upon the number of talented men among the inhabitants, the extent of their knowledge, their ability to diffuse it, the objects to which it is applied, the freedom with which it pervades all classes, and the power of the popular mind to assimilate it. These are important factors, and must inevitably count among the causes that contri- bute to a nation's development. No two nations can develop in the same manner. There may be periods when there is a degree of similarity in the trend of the national mind ; but as nations differ in their mentality, and as they differ in their needs and aspirations, so will they differ in the course of their respective development. Buckle calls attention to the remarkable similarity be- tween the development of the French and the English intellect during the seventy years which succeeded the accession of the French king Henry IV. This similarity, he says, was neither accidental nor capricious. Though the English were the first in the order of time, being for nearly a whole generation in advance of the French in every branch of intellectual excellence, yet, when the develop- ment was fairly on its way in France, it proceeded on lines almost identical with those of England. Buckle says that the analogy that existed was not only striking, but com- plete in all its parts. " To sum up the similarities in a few words, it may be said that both countries followed the same order of development in their scepticism, in their knowledge, in their literature, and in their toleration. In both countries there broke out a civil war at the same time, for the same object, and, in many respects, under the same circumstances. In both, the insurgents [Buckle meaning the cause of the insurgents], at first triumphant, were afterwards defeated ; and the rebellion being put down, the governments of the two nations were fully restored almost at the same moment : in 1660 by Charles II ; in 1661 by Louis XIV. But there the similarity stopped." 1 The divergence which began at this period 1 Buckle's History of Civilisation in England, p. 343. THE CHARACTERISTICS OF WELSH DEVELOPMENT 3 continued to increase for more than a century, ending, on the part of France, in a disastrous revolution, but, on the part of England, in the consolidation of the national prosperity. This is only one of the many examples that history affords in corroboration of the marked peculiarities in which civilized nations differ in the process and continuity of their development. Progress does not normally incline in the same direction in the case of every nation, or in the case of the same nation at every stage of its movement. Generally speaking, in looking backward we certainly see no evidence which entitles us to infer a uniform or con- sistent progress in the history of Western civilization * At points the stream becomes stagnant, and the current sometimes moves backward, as in the case of Spain after the death of Charles III. In no nation do we find what progress there is bound down to one particular line ; new contingencies arise which necessitate the application of new maxims, new policies, new laws, and even new forms of constitutional government. Losses there may be in certain directions, and interruptions in the continuity of traditional development, though the losses may be counter- balanced by gains in other directions, resulting ultimately in a higher evolution and the consolidation of national forces. National ideals take new forms with the changing life of a nation, and one type of national culture supersedes another. There are writers and speakers, who are Welsh by birth and in respect of their intellectual and literary standpoint, who claim to see a close analogy between the develop- ment of Wales and that of England. On page xxiv of The Welsh People, there is the following statement: "The Welsh people . . . have steadily progressed by the side of their conquerors in regard to all that goes to make up civilization, and by combining an obstinate vitality with a certain happy power of adapting themselves to new circumstances, have succeeded in retaining their language and some of the best characteristics of their ancestors." Such a statement is not borne out by the facts of history. 4 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY To say that Wales has progressed " side by side " with England is to imply a complete and perfect parity not only in order of time, but in the lines along which the development has proceeded. In considering the civiliza- tion of England it is necessary to differentiate between the legislative schemes of her political rulers and the spirit of her people, between a progressive nation and a reactionary Government. This was forcibly expressed by Fox from his place in Parliament, in 1795, when he declared that the people of England would be justified in resisting the arbitrary measures by which the Government of the hour sought to suppress their liberties. The condition or degree of a nation's progress is not necessarily reflected in the politics of its rulers ; while the men at the head of affairs may be despotic, the people may be animated by a spirit of freedom and of justice. Such was the case in England during the latter part of the eighteenth century. Under the iniquitous system set up by Pitt and Dundas, political associations and public demonstrations were forbidden, the gaols were filled with political prisoners, and those who opposed slavery were treated as the enemies of the Government and of the country. But the national mind was in no sense in a state of stagnation ; it was fully awake, and the light of liberty was emerging out of the " void and empty darkness." The spirit and aim of the people were entirely different from the spirit and aim of their rulers. The intellectual movement which was in progress and which was making rapid head- way among all classes, was working in the direction of knowledge and of liberty. It was the pressure of this movement that made the Reform Bill possible, a measure which formed an epoch in the annals of England, and which changed the manner of thought of the statesmen of the time. No ruler or group of rulers, however able and firmly established, can stop the march of destiny. They may occupy themselves with expedients for pro- longing their tenure of office, and for keeping things as they are, or as they were; but public feeling, if it be serious and well-matured, is bound to triumph in the end. THE CHARACTERISTICS OF WELSH DEVELOPMENT 5 During the latter part of the eighteenth century the people themselves were concerned with the work of reform ; they initiated it, found the means to carry it out, and brought it to fruition in spite of their rulers, under the inspiration of popular enthusiasm and the broadening of intellectual interests. Conversely, laws which are repugnant to the spirit of a people, laws which are in advance of, or in opposition to, the will of the people, laws which have been proposed without sufficient consideration by the body of the people, may be placed on the statute-books and even enforced by rulers in temporary authority ; but to be successful or to be effective, they must have the support and the moral sanc- tion of the collective will, otherwise there cannot be any permanency ; sooner or later the population on which they have been imposed will bring to certain ruin both the laws and the rulers who have coerced them. If the liberties of the people of England were in abeyance during the period to which I have referred, they were not overthrown, for the reason that the spirit of sturdy inde- pendence which had begun as far back as the eleventh century to affect the national character of the English, could not be broken. Whosoever will consider what Eng- land has done, as Draper says, since she entered fairly on her Age of Reason, will remark a wonderful contrast. She has been foremost in civilization and in defence of freedom, foremost in solving the problem of uniting individualism with organization, and in bestowing on her colonies and dependencies around the earth a form of government which has been conducive to their growth and enlighten- ment. The civilization of Wales is a much later growth, and of infinitely less importance to the world at large. If Wales had never developed, there is not an art, not a science, not a system of philosophy, that would have suffered ; literature, poetry, or music would be none the poorer. Wales is the youngest of all the component parts of the United King- dom in point of advancement, and in the width of her mental unfolding she is the most backward, and the one that 6 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY offers the least indication of the trend and capacity of the human intellect. The progress of Wales is not of a nature answering to that observed in the case of England. It is with reluctance that she has participated in the fruits of the world's culture, and has assumed her relative place among the rest of the smaller nations. Her dialectical spirit, her literary and artistic tastes, her interest in criticism and in the great intellectual manifestations of life — philosophy, science, literature, government, and aptitude for political power — are only just beginning to be developed. Not only has Wales not developed " side by side " with England either in point of time, or in material and intellectual resources, or in political power, or in comporting herself to the modes of thought which have prevailed in more civilized communities, but even at this late hour Wales exhibits many of the characteristics which are peculiar to races of lower culture. The influence of the psychical life of a people upon their scientific and religious development is a factor of tremen- dous importance. It has not been studied by Welsh educationalists or by Welsh religious leaders with that frankness, courage, and earnestness which it deserves. Until they face this problem, they cannot possibly realize the nature of the needs to which they are supposed to minister. Where in the whole career of the Welsh do we find any tangible traces of that cautious reserve, that stability of character, that determination to examine things at their foundation and to bring preconceived ideas and aspirations to the test of logic and of fact, a quality of mind which distinguishes races of higher culture, and to which the English intellect owes its leading peculiarities ? The Welsh soul is overflowing with aspirations, but it lacks the inspiration to give proper effect to those aspirations. This is the tragedy of Welsh national life at the moment. Young men who ought to be in the secondary schools are flocking to the University Colleges without the necessary preparation. They become quite rhetorical as they dilate upon their aspirations and the miraculous nature of the deeds they intend to perform. They have been imbued THE CHARACTERISTICS OF WELSH DEVELOPMENT 7 with a sense of their potential greatness, they cry out for some form of tuition that will satisfy the bent of their mind and expand their aspirations. Here, if anywhere, do conscientious professors feel the difficulty and complexity of the educational problem which Wales presents at this stage in her development. No wonder that they are baffled and distressed at the mysteriousness of the way in which such aspirations are to be brought to the test of facts, and of realities of life, and, above all, to the limited capacities of the students. What the students need is to be deprived of what they have, or think that they have, and to be given what they have not. The sober truth is, that the Welsh University Colleges are addressing them- selves to the wrong recipients ; the professors are com- pelled to play the part of elementary schoolmasters. It may be doubted whether the graduates of the Welsh University Colleges are as well educated and as well equipped intellectually as are the pupils or scholars in the higher forms of the secondary schools of Scotland. It is not the professor who fixes the standard of culture or of education, but the student. It is the graduate who determines the value of the degree conferred. It is an unpromising state of affairs when the authorities have to accommodate their tests and examinations to meet the limitations of the average student. If the Welsh Univer- sity Colleges decided to teach nothing for the next ten years but mathematics or one of the sciences, they would do more for the Welsh mind than has been done by reli- gious instructors or pulpit orators for the last two centuries and a half. Indeed, they would thus undo much of the mischief that has been done. The average Welshman does not aspire to be exact or logical in speech and in thought : he aspires to be literary or rhetorical. He cannot study history scientifically : he picks at it, and trifles with it, looking out for something that may feed his prejudices ; facts he does not care about, and for the logic and sequence of events he has neither taste nor mental aptitude. Salva- tion for the Welshman by way of his aspirations is hopeless. 8 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY In further illustration of the psychical peculiarities of the Welsh, peculiarities which separate them from the races of higher culture, it would not be too much to say that no race which stands above the negro line has been so fascinated as the Welsh race by the incomprehensible ; no other race has spent so large a part of its existence in multiplying unrealities. The emotional instability which the Welsh have manifested in their constant chasing after unattainable ideals, shows a decided preponderance of the transitory and less permanent feelings ; what perti- nacity they have revealed in this regard has proceeded from passion rather than from calculating insight. What sentiment the Welsh have is controlled by emotion ; hence their liability to periodical outbursts of feeling which cannot tend towards the solidifying of the national character. Impressions are easily made, but there is very little disposition to scrutinize them, due mainly to the want of mental coherence and to the immature state of the reflective faculty. This is one of the defects which pre- vents the Welsh mind from controlling the ideas which it generates, or to guide the course which those ideas take. No student who has closely studied the different aspects of the psychological life of the Welsh, can fail to notice the narrowness of outlook so characteristic of that type of mentality which lacks the power to abstract and to generalize. This perhaps is the one supreme division or distinction which separates the lower or less cultured races from the higher or more cultured ones. Continuous acquisition, which is the fruit of a coherent and a dis- ciplined intellect, is only just beginning to manifest itself in the civilization of the people ; the tendency to exag- geration seems to be an abiding characteristic. Such traits are strictly peculiar to the infancy of nations ; and he who wishes to understand the lateness as well as the peculiarities of Welsh development, must study them in the light of these psychical characteristics, for they are of the essence of the causes that have rendered the Welsh mind so unamenable to the methods of developed civi- lization. There is a worthy attempt now being made to THE CHARACTERISTICS OF WELSH DEVELOPMENT 9 govern by intellect rather than by emotion ; even among the commonalty there is less vehemence in the defence of ideas because they have been believed by so many good and pious men of old. In brief, the national intellect is outgrowing its old faith, and is gradually becoming ashamed of its superstitions. The advance of education is causing Welshmen to become aware of the fallacy of their opinions, although still angry when the fallacy is pointed out to them. Hence it is that the majority of Welsh historians and writers continue to think and to write under the pressure laid upon them by Welsh public opinion. It is their more convenient course and the more remunerative. There may be a fairer hope for a nation whose spirit has been imbued with a sincere religious sentiment. Whatever the political and intellectual history of Wales may have been, there cannot be any doubt as to the religious bent of the national mind. The Welsh have always been devout, whether in Catholicism or in Protestantism. Historically speaking, it is to the religious phenomenon that we must for the most part refer when we seek to trace the elements in which the people have been most active and which have been most active in the people. It is here where the laws or processes of Welsh development differ from those greater laws that have operated in larger societies. Reli- gious influences have been the cause rather than the effect of the changes that have taken place. But in considering Welsh development interiorly, or in the light of the con- tents of the self-conscious experience of the people, cog- nizance must be taken of the native intelligence, for native intelligence accelerates mental evolution. Speech has also played its part, so has the discussive element — both are elements of civilization. There is hardly any trace of the artistic, the dramatic, or the scientific in the progress of Welsh evolution. Pure criticism, physical discovery, and concentrated thought arising from purely intellec- tual activities, have not in any material degree affected the course of the Welsh intellect. What, therefore, is the standard by which we must estimate the culture and progress of the people ? By the 10 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY totality of their moral feelings, or by the totality of their intellectual achievements ? — by their religion or by their artistic tastes ? — by the extent in which their activity or development has been due solely to their own unaided efforts, or by the extent to which its development has been directed and modified by outside elements ? Welshmen neglect to differentiate between the effects of their civi- lization and the cause or causes of it. Indeed, it is their daily boast that their progress is due entirely to themselves — that present results are the natural results of the play of their own internal character, and the peculiar condi- tions of Welsh society. If a nation be left entirely to itself, and if such a state of things could ever exist in Western Europe, then its literature, its social and moral maxims, its political ideals, its aptitude for business, and the development of its religious consciousness, would be the effects rather than the causes of its own civilization. No detached student of Welsh history, no historian possessed of any psychological insight, could detect any real traces of the "power of adaptation to new circum- stances " which the scholarly authors of The Welsh People claim as being a Welsh characteristic. A Welsh nationalist, who is a Member of Parliament, speaking in London on October 16th, 1913, said that the cosmopolitan sympathy and catholicity of judgment and temper which characterized the people of Wales to-day were really inherent in the race. With every desire to be respectful to a worthy Welshman, who is disposed to exercise an independent judgment, there is only one answer — viz., the statement is untrue ; the implications run counter to the whole history of the Welsh race. Their bane as a people has been their want of catholicity towards one another and towards those who differ from them. Not the least important among the causes that have re- tarded the development of Wales has been her traditional unwillingness to open up communication with the rest of the world, partly from want of interest in letters, partly because of her contempt for every form of culture, except the Welsh form, and partly because she was not in THE CHARACTERISTICS OF WELSH DEVELOPMENT II possession of a common language, with the result that the many-tongued literature of Europe has been, in the main, an unopened chapter in the annals of Wales. The theory that found favour was the theory that the prevalence of the native language was the condition of her power and success, and its non-use or deterioration the measure of her decay. Religious, political, social, and literary unity, it was contended, was implied in the exclusive use of Welsh. As to the increasing non-use and deterioration of the language among the native Welsh, there is no room for argument: the fact is patent. Yet, instead of being the measure of her decay, it is in reality the measure of her advance. None can dispute that it is coincident with her advancement. The first token of her intellectual progress was the moment when the Anglo- Welsh move- ment began and the segregating policy ceased to dominate the public mind. Whatever analogies there may be in the historic development of nations, Wales, at any rate, has pursued a peculiarly isolated progress. There has been in the past but little readiness or power to adapt herself to new conditions. The martyrdom of Wales for the sake of a dying language is a pathetic spectacle, all the more pathetic because it has been taken as a proof of its necessity, its utility, and its ultimate triumph. A language that has approved itself by lasting so many centuries has a right to live, and must live, in the new society as it did in the old. This is the argument. But martyrdom for a language is no more a proof of its necessity, or of its intellectual utility, than the martyrdom of men for a dogma is proof of its truth or serviceability ; it often proves rather its doubtfulness. The Welsh language has obstructed rather than facilitated the way of Wales in the world. We have yet to learn of a single monoglot Welshman who has ever distinguished himself in any branch of industry, learning, or politics. The sons of Wales who have reached eminence have reached it through the medium of the English language. What measure of greatness Mr. Lloyd George has attained he has attained 12 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY outside the Celtic or Welsh ambit. He is Welsh, yet the most un- Welsh of Welshmen. A great change has taken place in public sentiment ; the work of reconstruction is being prosecuted with earnestness, and on a more cosmopolitan basis. True, the reactionary elements, going by the name of Nation- alists, are very active. They are seeking to reanimate the old doctrine that the principle of stability which Wales hopes to get, rests on the exclusive, or compulsory, use of the native tongue. They are loud in their denunciation of everything English, except English gold and English patronage ; they cannot conceal their aversion to the inroads of cosmopolitan ideas and customs. The moral man in Wales, they say, is superior to the moral man in England ; they make a similar claim on behalf of the intellectual man. It is, therefore, their ambition to keep the immaculate native from the contaminating influences of the foreigner. That their sincerity is open to question may be gathered from the fact that they publicly applaud what their private judgment condemns, and that for the obvious reason that it is the easiest and quickest way to precedence and authority and lucrative positions in and outside the Principality. But the trend of the best thought is against the segre- gating policy. The profound distrust of the Englishman as regards morals and intellect is disappearing ; a better appreciation of foreign culture is spreading throughout the whole Welsh body politic. Communication with the rest of the world has been finally established, with the result that those ancient forms of thought, which have for centuries resisted every other means of attack, are being dislodged, and dislodged to the advantage of the community as a whole. Welsh history teaches that one of the root- causes which account for the lateness of Welsh develop- ment as compared with that of England, or of Scotland, is the pertinacity of that quality of " obstinate vitality " which some Welsh authors never cease to glorify, as well as the unhappy inability of the Welsh mind to adapt itself to new circumstances. THE CHARACTERISTICS OF WELSH DEVELOPMENT 13 Again, the lateness of the development of Wales has been due, in no small measure, to the lateness of the spread of Puritanism in Wales as compared with England. Wales is now in the process of emancipating herself from the enervating influences of Puritanism. England has long since liberated herself from its thraldom ; she is happier and more progressive in consequence. It is claimed — in some quarters — that the " Act for the Better Propagation of the Gospel in Wales " never had a fair chance. But Puritanism was bound to fail ; it carried within itself the elements, not of construction, but of destruction. There is evidence that the Puritans evinced an interest in education, and even contemplated the establishment of a W'elsh University. Professor Firth states that the Puritans, as a party, showed a great zeal for education ; this zeal took a very practical shape, both in England and in Ireland. Bishop Edwards, of St. Asaph, has an illuminating chapter dealing with Puritan- ism in Wales, in his Landmarks in the History of the Welsh Church (1913). The learned bishop has, however, weak- ened rather than strengthened his position by the use he makes of some information which a Bangor librarian is alleged to have unearthed from the Lambeth Library, con- cerning the Cromwellian schools and schoolmasters in Wales, and the salaries paid them. There were only forty free schools, we are told, and the salaries varied from £40 to £5. There were thirteen other schools, all except two being pre-Commonwealth foundations. The master of the Brecon school was, we are further informed, "a young man of no competent learning for a schoolmaster," and the headmaster of the New Radnor school " was a drunken and a debauched man." Even assuming the truth of these charges, to use them as an argument shows a littleness of mind that can expect no sympathy ; it is too narrow and jaundiced a view. Church defenders, much less an eminent and scholarly man like Bishop Edwards, do not need such weapons. The Puritan might retort by giving an equally depressing description of the state of the Church in Wales at the 14 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY commencement of the eighteenth century, which were days of comparative enlightenment. He might ask what the Church party in England did at that period to encourage the education of the Welsh clergy and to secure the appointment to office in the Principality of men who were able to preach and administer the sacraments in the Welsh language. From the time of George the First down to 1870, the Welsh episcopate was not Welsh, but English, both in sympathies and in language. The report of an episcopal visitation made by Dr. Lewis Bayly, Bishop of Bangor, in 1623, shows that one curate was presented for not reading service in due time, for not reading of homilies, and for not registering christenings, weddings, and funerals. He had preached only three sermons in a twelvemonth, spending his time in taverns ; he was a public brawler and drunkard. A clergyman at Aberdaron, in Carnarvonshire, neglected to bury a dead child ; and on one occasion when he came to the church he was drunk, and he went straight from the service to the tavern. Such examples might be multiplied, and they were not confined to one parish, or to one county. The clergy were wretchedly paid, and many of them were ignorant and uneducated. The stipends were so small that three or four churches were being served by one man for ten or twelve pounds a year. Bishop Edwards himself gives painful illustrations of the manner in which churches were served, the regis- ters kept, and the services performed. This is what the Bishop says (pp. 175-6) : " A document drawn up in 1712, by the hand of Bishop Fleetwood, one of the most distinguished prelates of the eighteenth century, shows that in the diocese of St. Asaph, out of 140 benefices 91 were under £80 a year, and of this number four were under £10 a year, three under £20, and ten under £30. In Bangor, out of 130 benefices, there were ten under £10 a year, eighteen under £20, fourteen under £30, and altogether 91 under £80 a year. In St. David's, out of 411 benefices, no less than 324 were under £80 a year ; of these there were 62 under £10, seventy-five under £20, and seventy under £30. Lastly, out of 202 benefices in THE CHARACTERISTICS OF WELSH DEVELOPMENT 15 the diocese of Llandaff, there were seven under £10, twenty-six under £20, and twenty-five under £30 a year. Thus, in the four Welsh dioceses, taken together there were no less than 324 livings of under £30 a year, while the salaries of the curates varied from £5 to £20. This poverty was aggravated by the fact that in most of the parishes there was no house of residence for the clergyman." This " valuable information," which is said to have been " unearthed from the Lambeth library," will not help Church defence, and we are sorry to find a man in the position of the Bishop of St. Asaph making such use of it. These much-despised Puritans have enough sins of their own to account for without having placed to their discredit sins they were not accountable for. The Puritans were in no way responsible for the suicidal policy of the early Hanoverian Sovereigns, the evils arising from clerical absenteeism and the system of pluralities, the wretchedly paid clergy of low moral spiritual type, the lack of discipline, and other abuses in connection with the Church system of the eighteenth and the earlier part of the nineteenth century. The fanaticism with which the Puritans persecuted the Church and the gentry whom they regarded as their political opponents, and their widespread destruction of cathedrals and churches in Wales, was nothing less than ruthless vandalism for which there can be no excuse and no justification. This widespread devastation not only threw the Church into disorder, but it produced calamitous effects upon the social and religious life of Wales. It had much to do with the depressed and maimed condition of the Church when Wales entered on the Restoration period. It is not in this direction alone that we have to look for the evil effects of Puritanism upon the life of Wales. Puritanism curtailed what opportunities for culture there were for the youths of the country ; it checked what inter- course there had been between the better classes of Eng- land and Wales ; it weakened the faith and impoverished the spiritual resources of the people. Beyond this, Puritanism left a mark upon the character of the Welsh l6 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY people which is well-nigh indelible. It narrowed the already too narrow outlook of the Welsh intellect ; it suppressed and it continues to suppress every effort at cultivating the aesthetic side of Welsh life. To the influence of Puritanism — its negative and repressive ethics — per- petuated by Nonconformity, Wales is in a very large measure indebted for her backwardness in material civilization. The part played by Puritanism in checking the artistic and purely intellectual development of the Welsh, is a consideration of great moment, and there are strong indications that Welshmen are beginning to realize the magnitude of the paralysis which fell upon the mind of Wales through the Puritan Rebellion. There are two rigid formulas by which Welsh nationalist historians are seeking to characterize the movement of Welsh development, viz., the predominance of the inward principle and the predominance of Nonconformity. Interior factors, they claim, account for everything that is now taking place. The part played by the inward principle is apparent, but the inward principle is not of primary importance. The historic development of Wales cannot be exclusively deduced from any assumed funda- mental character of the people taken in abstraction from the influence of outside factors, such, for instance, as Par- liamentary action, the inroads of general civilization, and movements that have originated in England. When we push our analysis a little deeper, we find that we can reach no satisfying insight into the social, religious, political, or intellectual development of Wales, if we limit or con- fine our attention to the internal character of the people, or to the rise of Nonconformity, or to the influence of what is called the religious awakening of the eighteenth century. No historian could afford to ignore the eighteenth century Revivals ; they have been factors in the development of the people. But it is necessary to correct two misconceptions which have prevailed with regard to the religious move- ment of the eighteenth century. It has been miscalled " The Methodist Revival;" it has also been claimed by Welsh nationalist historians as the force that rescued THE CHARACTERISTICS OF WELSH DEVELOPMENT 17 Wales from a state of " barbarism and utter ignorance." One regrets to be obliged to repeat, as a matter of historical truth, that this movement had its origin in the Church ; its leaders, mediums, and feeders were Churchmen, and almost all of them were in Holy Orders. To say that the moral and intellectual condition of Wales was growing worse at the dawn of the " awakening " is a travesty of the truth, as any impartial or critical student may find by a close examination of the subject. There is one criticism that may fairly be passed upon Welsh nationalist historians : they do not retain a correct historical perspective, they judge the eighteenth century by the standard of duty and morality which prevails in the twentieth, and they are not justly free from the imputation of studiously ignoring the brighter side in the history of the Church during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and of over- emphasizing the ignorance and immorality which undoubt- edly prevailed among the masses, and that for purely political purposes. This charge I make with regret, but without reservation. Those days were days of comparative enlightenment in so far as culture among the better class was concerned. When the seventeenth century dawned, the Church had many great scholars and many rich patrons. Before Cromwell shattered it and threw its organization into chaos, it would not be too much to say that it was in a condition of great promise. Dissent likewise had a few men who had just claims to be regarded as men of culture, who were earnestly engaged in seeking to improve the moral condition of the masses. A dispassionate considera- tion of the different periods preceding the eighteenth century revivals will, it can hardly be doubted, lead an impartial enquirer to conclude that in so far as the masses of the people were concerned, Wales was morally in a deplorable condition ; also, that among the more cultured classes there was great intellectual activity, as is shown by the number of distinguished men which Wales had pro- duced, more especially during the reign of Elizabeth. This is a highly controversial subject. It is contended, l8 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY on the one side, that the fact that Wales had produced so many men of learning goes to show that the country could not have been in such a demoralized condition as it is pictured by Reformer, Romanist and Sectary alike. But we cannot gauge the morals of the masses by the intel- lectual activities of the most cultured elements in the nation any more than we can gauge the average intellect by the accomplishments of isolated geniuses. Undoubtedly, the sum of moral conduct is fairly constant ; the reading of history justifies this conclusion. A rigid Puritan could give as lurid a picture of certain phases of Welsh life to- day as Vicar Prichard did of the aspect of Welsh society which he saw and deplored. There are many parts of Wales at the present moment where one could find vices of the most appalling kind. Whether Vicar Prichard was describing sins that were exceptional, the reader may judge for himself from the picture which he thus draws : — I blush the vices to display We Welshmen act in open day, And grieve our immoralities to shew. Yet, 'tis my duty to reflect Should I the unwelcome task reject, That God will bring them all to public view. There's not a hamlet to be found, Or pretty village all around, But that some monstrous crime appears Therein, to din the Godhead's ears. There's no profession you can name That has not highly been to blame, As if with all its might it strove To pull down vengeance from above. Our gentry now so selfish grown, Seek no man's profits but their own ; Our clergy sleep both night and day, And leave their flocks to roam away. The judge and magistrate from fear The murderer and sot forbear, And leave each tyrant to oppress The fatherless without redress. THE CHARACTERISTICS OF WELSH DEVELOPMENT 19 The sheriffs and their cormorant train On the fleeced populace distrain ; And under veil of justice prey Upon their wealth in open day. * Dr. Griffith Roberts, a native of North Wales, writing more than sixty years before Vicar Prichard, describes the condition of the country as follows : — "There are many places in Wales, yea, whole counties, without one Christian in them, living like beasts and not knowing anything good, and in those places where they are Christians they are only those who are common and poor who follow Christ. The gentry and the wealthy are without thought of faith in the world. In England the gentry are often good, and show a good example in life and faith ; the Welsh gentry give example to the poor and com- mon people to be without any faith or conscience. Therefore, they will have to render an account in the day of reckoning, not only for their own shortcomings, but for their want of good example." In 1703, less than a century after Vicar Prichard's Welshman's Candle, there appeared The Visions of the Sleeping Bard, by the Rev. Ellis Wynn, Vicar of Llanfair in Merionethshire. This Welsh classic has passed through twenty-eight editions. It is truly suggestive reading. He describes, with lurid vividness, the moral, social and in- tellectual condition of Wales in the late seventeenth century. No more direct and positive evidence of the moral degra- dation prevailing in Wales, and the general ignorance of the masses, in the early years of the eighteenth century, is to be found than in the Records of the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge, founded in 1698. Regarded from the point of view of culture and learning, the literary output of Wales during the Elizabethan period proves that Wales had at that time reached a height of intellectual excellence which is not equalled or even approached at the present time, and that in spite of the vastly increased number of educational institutions. 1 See Pictures of Wales during the Tudor Period, by J. Birkbeck Nevins, M.D. 20 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY Can Wales to-day produce a scholar worthy to be com- pared with William Salesbury, the first to translate any considerable portion of the Scriptures into Welsh ? If a council for the revision of the Welsh Bible were appointed to-day, where are the Hebrew or Greek scholars who could take the place of William Salesbury or Bishop Richard Davies, or of Bishop Morgan ? Notwithstanding all the resources of information that would be at the command of the Welsh revisers of to-day, there is no gainsaying the fact that Wales could not produce such a fine group of scholars as was produced during the Eliza- bethan period. In fact, it is doubtful whether Wales could produce a single scholar that would be qualified to take part in the revision of the Welsh Bible. There is not a single Welshman who could accomplish what was achieved by Edmund Prys, author of the Welsh metrical Psalms (162 1), or Bishop Parry, who gave his revised edition of the Welsh Bible in 1620, or Bishop Lloyd, who published the Bible in 1690. In order to realize the vastness of the work performed by these men, we must take into con- sideration the almost insurmountable difficulties of undertaking the work of translation and revision, in face of the almost complete lack of books of reference and other aids to scholarship. By comparison, the Welsh scholars covering the periods in question were giants. One thing is absolutely clear : it was not with the rise of Nonconformity that the blessings of education and the higher arts of civilization were introduced into Wales. During no period of Welsh history have such a number of eminent scholars been produced as Wales produced in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and in the seventeenth century, before the shattering of everything by the Puritans. Many of them were sons of peasants, and some were bishops, born and bred in Wales, who played an important part in the ecclesiastical history of England during the same period. As to how far the Reformation or the new Protestant movement took root in Welsh soil, it is a question that cannot for want of space be discussed here. It is claimed that it was more unwelcome in Wales than THE CHARACTERISTICS OF WELSH DEVELOPMENT 21 in any other country, owing to the fact that the instincts of the Welsh have ever been conservative in the realm of religion. The whole movement, we are told, did violence to the most cherished convictions of the Welsh people. But the advocates of this view must take into considera- tion the following facts, which indicate a readiness to accept the Elizabethan Church. There was no rebellion ; eminent Welsh Catholic scholars had to go abroad to Italy and elsewhere to find peace and scope for their work. They found no sympathy among the people of Wales ; if they had, they would have remained, as they did in Ireland, to keep the Catholic faith alive. If Wales had remained Catholic as Welsh nationalist historians claim, Wales would have furnished a base for attacking Protestantism in England ; it would have been a second Ireland prepared for a counter-reformation. In fact, the Jesuits entirely failed to make any impression in Wales. A review of all the facts of Welsh history, as well as the trend of events during the last quarter of a century, goes to show how foolish and how untenable is the claim which is being made that the growth and development of Wales into a higher national consciousness, a wider intellectual outlook, and a higher state of morality, is to be attributed solely to the activities of Nonconformity. What Protes- tantism has indirectly done for the revival of Catholicism throughout Europe, Welsh Nonconformity has done for the revival of Anglicanism in the Principality. Had Welsh Nonconformity done nothing else, and accomplished no other result than this, it would have been a blessing to Wales. The Church is emerging from the conflict stronger than she entered it ; she is vindicating herself through the increased vigour of her ministers, the elasticity of her system, and the moral change which she has imposed upon herself. Her bishops, administrators, and clergy, are men of such uprightness of character and of intention as to command increasing respect. A true reformation has taken place through all ecclesiastical grades. It is impos- sible to study official statistics and all the available sources of information, without coming to the conclusion that the 22 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY Church, so far from being a merely effete or a reactionary agency, is an active power for popular good in a very wide sense. The link which binds the Church in Wales to the Church in England has proved an incalculable blessing to her. This connection has given her a concentrated energy which has greatly helped in the harmonizing of their combined power, and in the formation of a will toward the attainment of her aims, and even her efficiency as a spirit- ual force among the people of Wales. When we consider the weakening of moral influence arising from a tendency to division and sub-division on the side of Nonconformity, and the perfecting of a complete and effective organization capable of compressing its disputes and of properly direct- ing its growing strength, it is not to be wondered at that the issue of the conflict should have turned out as it has done. Finally, in estimating all the forces that are at work in the Welsh body politic, and all the characteristics of the intellectual movement which is now in progress, it is clear that Wales is stepping on far and fast, chiefly for the reason that foreign or outside influences are daily becoming more powerful. The signs of the times are all around, and they who list may read. As to the reality of the develop- ment there can be no question ; it is reflected in the personal life, and in the higher intrinsic quality of the personality of its citizens. It is reflected in the greater symmetrical development of the national character, a clearer concep- tion of the means whereby the capacity of the people may be realized, the interaction of different minds, the forma- tion of tendencies which have a collective value, the degree in which each section of the community is endeavour- ing to fulfil its allotted task, a more democratic tendency in the conventional forms of social life, a new standard of intellectual merit, a greater tendency to amalgamate the different sections of society, and to meet on more equal terms ; the supremacy of intellectual superiority over aristocratic superiority, larger freedom in social enjoy- ment, greater admiration for English literature, and for habits of thought which are not peculiar to the Welsh ; the rebound of the Welsh mind from its former servility THE CHARACTERISTICS OF WELSH DEVELOPMENT 23 to a bolder, even offensive aggressiveness, a restlessness, and an excitement of the general intellect, hostile to stationary and conventional ideas, and dangerous if carried to excess, and the manner in which the whole body of the people are taking up the ends in view into their own conscious efforts. The accumulative activity of this development is astonishing. It proceeds, in these latter days, not only with rapidity, but with an impetuosity that is truly Welsh. The native mind, having been slowly and irregularly developed, has suddenly taken a violent leap forward, putting greater pressure upon itself than its capacity warrants, or the civilization of the country requires, crying out for all sorts of government grants, educational institutions, and the machinery of civic administration, without any adequate thought as to cost or efficiency. Since the time when the Welsh intellect took an institu- tional turn, in the latter half of the nineteenth century, in the founding of the University College of Wales at Aberystwyth, in 1872, and the University Colleges of Cardiff and Bangor, the former in 1883, the latter in 1884, and the granting of a Charter for a University for Wales, on November 30th, 1893, the demand for the establish- ment of new institutions has been growing with positive vehemence, without any regard to need, or to the perfect- ing of those institutions already created. The relevance, and, if we may say so, the importance of these observations will be apparent when considered in the light of the new and far more difficult problems that are being created by the importation of almost daily fresh elements, alien in blood, ideals, language, religious and physical peculiarities, elements into which the native elements are fast merging. These are factors not only of racial and religious, but of vast economic, importance. At no other time did Wales witness civilization coming to it from such diverse directions. Interiorly, it is coming, not as formerly, solely from the pulpit and the Church, but from the common school, the college, commerce, and knowledge ; exteriorly, through the influence of foreign 24 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY culture, the impact of continental socialistic ideas, the immigration of foreign workmen, the introduction of electricity, new mechanical appliances, physical dis- coveries, inventions, political discussions, and increased facilities for locomotion. These are the precursors of philosophical evolution. It is impossible to exaggerate the character of these disturbing influences, which directly affect the most vital interests of the country ; they are sowing the seeds of a future civilization, which will be as different in its essence and complexion from the present as the present is from the past. Vast material of racial, social, and intellectual warfare is being imported with astounding rapidity. Swarming about the valleys are, not only all sorts of men, but all sorts of economic ideas, concerning mining royalties, the distribu- tion of the fruits of labour, the rights of minorities, the nationalization of mines and railways, the justice of judicial decisions, rents, strikes, and profit-sharing. These and similar questions are being discussed not only with candour, but with much intelligence. The all- important question is : Are the political leaders of the people, whether self-constituted or elected, capable of grasping these social and economic problems ? What knowledge of political economy have they ? Have they any acquaintance with the history of legislation ? Have they ever studied the causes of the unequal distribution of wealth, which is, and has been, the most fruitful source of social disturbances ? Have they any sort of acquaint- ance with the laws and principal circumstances by which nations grow, and of their character and temper ? Of what practical value can colleges and educational institu- tions be, established in the midst of these great and grow- ing industrial districts, if they produce men who cannot, through lack of knowledge and technical and business training, face these problems, and help to penetrate the mind of the workmen and masses of labourers with even a few reflections, that they may help them to arrive at sane and sound conclusions ? CHAPTER II THE HISTORICAL BASIS OF WELSH DEVELOPMENT In analyzing the foreign influences which have contributed to the development of Wales, account must be taken of the early Nonconformist movement. Neither the history of Welsh Nonconformity, nor the history of Wales, can be properly understood apart from this earlier movement. Not that early Nonconformity is to be regarded as the precursor of the Nonconformity of the eighteenth century, represented by such men as Howel Harris, Daniel Rowland of Llangeitho, Jones of Llangan and others. The earlier movement was an English importation, Bristol and London being the centres from which the influence chiefly radiated. This, however, must not be taken as evidence that early Nonconformity failed in its appeal to the Welsh mind. The explanation as to the fact that it did not at first affect the purely Welsh population is twofold. Firstly, the early Nonconformists did not address themselves to the Welsh-speaking people. Wroth, Erbury, and Cradock were Englishmen ; they confined their attention to the more Anglicized portion of the community. Secondly, the Welsh agricultural community, which they did not attempt to influence, was in a more backward state, socially and intellectually. " It is probable that the Welsh farmers and their families had hardly progressed intel- lectually as a class from the time of the Conquest." 1 By the year 1735, practically a century after Wroth had, in 1639, established the first Independent cause at Llanfaches, there were not more than eight Nonconformist 1 The Welsh People (1902), p. 470. 25 26 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY causes in North Wales. There were, at that time, very numerous Nonconformist causes in the South, some of them strong and powerful, for the reason that there was a comparatively large English population. These observations, bearing upon the characteristics of early Nonconformity in Wales, are made here with the view of showing that it was not an insular formation. In November, 1639, the Southwark Nonconformist Church, London, which was, though Independent in Church govern- ment, constituted, since 1616, of both Independents and Baptists, deputed their minister, Henry Jessey, to assist Wroth and his co-workers in Wales to form a church on similar lines at Llanfaches. There had been, in 1633, a Baptist secession from the Southwark Church ; and since 1638, a second secession had taken place. Jessey, with the concurrence of his congregation, while deciding for infant baptism, held immersion to be imperative. In 1645, owing to a change of views, Jessey was baptized by im- mersion, but he did not make baptism a condition of communion. Llanfaches Church was a free-communion church, being constituted of both Baptists and Inde- pendents. Cradock assisted Wroth in the organization of the Church at Llanfaches, and at Wroth's death (1642) he succeeded him as pastor ; but he was only pastor for a brief period, as, owing to the harryings of Charles I's Commissioners of Array, he, with Vavasor Powell, Morgan Llwyd, and many others, fled to London. 1 As regards the constitution of the Llanfaches Church, it was modelled after " the New England pattern." In 1675, Henry Maurice says that Wroth " cast " his "church, called by him, into a mould of church order according to the New England way, in his days. They were and are in judgment, uniting saints as saints." (" Broadmead Records," addenda, note B.) Between 1639 anc * 1642 Llanfaches prospered greatly ; and, as Erbury, in his Apocrypha, 1652, page 8, says, " Saints from Somerset, Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Radnorshire, Glamorgan- 1 See The Baptist Union Official Handbook (19 12), compiled by Mr. Ifano Jones. THE HISTORICAL BASIS OF WELSH DEVELOPMENT 27 shire, etc., came in multitudes to Llanf aches." This is borne out by "The Broadmead Records": "Sometimes Mr Wroth would come over and preach to them [the Bristol Baptists converted in 1640 by John Canne] . . . And sometimes some of the professors of Bristol would go over to Wales to hear Mr Wroth and the good ministers there." By 1642, just before the breaking out of the Civil War, Wroth " was laid asleep according to his prayer . . . without ever hearing a drum beat in order thereto." (" Broadmead Records," p. 9.) The breaking out of the Civil War adversely affected the interests of early Nonconformity in Wales. " The godly professing people were fain to fly, and leave their habita- tions . . . And this city [Bristol] being now possessed with the Parliament's Army, many of the ministers, and professors from Wales . . . fled by night, some one way, and some another, and came to this city, and joined (namely, most of the church at Llanfaches) with the church at Bristol . . . And so they continued and kept together in church fellowship . . . until Bristol was delivered up to the King's forces, which was in . . . one thousand six hundred and forty and three. Then those of Wales, and most of the professors of this city, were fain to journey to London. . . . When they came to London, the said people of Wales and those of Bristol joined together, and did commonly meet at Great Allhallows for the most part [with Walter Cradock as preacher] ; only those professors that were baptized before they went up, they did sit down with Mr. [William] Kifnn and his church in London, being likewise baptized." 1 The eighteenth century movement in Wales was simi- larly affected by English sources. This movement greatly influenced the Welsh intellect ; it produced a marked effect upon the whole of the Welsh-speaking population. The popularly accepted idea, among Nonconformists, is that the eighteenth century revival was purely Welsh, Nonconformist in its spirit and complexion, and in every sense the indigenous product of the Principality, spring- 1 Broadmead Records (1847), PP- 2 9"3'- 28 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY ing solely from the silent energies of the native mind. This is as erroneous as the view set forth by Bishop Edwards, of St. Asaph, in his Landmarks in the History of the Welsh Church, published in 1913. The learned bishop tries to show, not only that the native element was less active than the foreign, but that the eighteenth century revivals in Wales were essentially English in their inception, rules, rulers, ideas, organization, and inspi- ration. The bishop further states that the great Christian revivals of the eighteenth century were called forth by the creedless morality of the Presbyterians and Independents in Wales. In so far as these revivals were a reaction, they were quite as much a reaction against the lifeless morality of the Church as they were against the creedless morality of Nonconformity. Anglican services had become cold and formal ; Nonconformity, likewise, was devoid of zeal. Both needed life. The fuel was there, and Griffith Jones, of Llanddowror, set it on fire. Bishop Edwards is mistaken in his statement that the Circulating School which Griffith Jones established at Llanddowror in 1730 was the first to be established in that locality. If he would consult the Records of the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge, 1698-1738, he would find that there was a free school at Llanddowror before Griffith Jones went there as vicar. These Records prove, also, that the communion offerings in many of the Welsh churches were given to Charity Schools before the year 1730. The violent aversion which the bishop has conceived against Howel Harris has prevented him from doing justice, not only to Harris, but to himself. To Harris he will concede nothing — not even his personal character. The bishop writes that the first Methodist Association was held in January, 1743, at Watford, near Caerphilly, when Whitefield was appointed Moderator. But, as a matter of fact, Howel Harris had formed the first Methodist Society six years previously, at Werneos (a farm in Llan- dyvalle parish, Breconshire), about May, 1737. That was two years before Whitefield ever visited Wales, when he THE HISTORICAL BASIS OF WELSH DEVELOPMENT 29 met Harris, at Cardiff, in 1739. As to whether Harris was a subordinate of Whitefield, or whether he borrowed his theology from him, and was taught by him the art and work of an evangelist, as the bishop says, are questions with which I deal in another chapter. Harris had behind him three years' experience as an evangelist before he met Whitefield, having commenced the life of an itinerant preacher in 1736. But what we are chiefly concerned with here is to show that the eighteenth century movement was greatly indebted to both Wesley and Whitefield. The revivalist movement in Wales, which was in process before Whitefield visited Cardiff in 1739, undoubtedly felt the reflex influence of the movement in England. The visit of Wesley and Whitefield, and the tours which White- field made through a great part of South Wales in 1743, and again in 1749 and 1766, was a great step in Welsh civilization. The open-air meetings, which had been practised by the early Puritans and later by Howel Harris and Rowland of Llangeitho, and on account of which Rowland came into conflict with Bishop Squire in 1763, were greatly multiplied. It is during this period that we find the first outward manifestation of that emotional hysteria which has formed so characteristic a feature of all subsequent Welsh revivals. What is true of Nonconformity is also true, only in a larger measure, of Anglicanism in Wales. Speaking of the part played by the A.C.S., Bishop Owen of St. David's says : ' For the progress of the Church in Wales we are largely indebted to the invaluable help of the A.C.S." The problems confronting the A.C.S. were of two kinds. In the rural parts there were extensive parishes, with people scattered in two or three different centres at con- siderable distances from each other ; each centre needed its own place of worship, and therefore the whole parish could not be served without the supply of an additional clergyman. In some cases the difficulty was caused by the construction of a railway through a valley ; a little town would grow up round a railway station and call for special attention, while the old village away on the hills, with the 30 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY old Church in it, still needed as much pastoral care as ever. In the south, however, and chiefly in the coalfield of Glamorganshire and West Monmouthshire, the problem was of a different kind. The question was, how the Church could adapt herself to the strenuous work needed among the tens of thousands in the colliery towns of the Rhondda, the Rhymney, and the other valleys that have in recent years attracted to themselves such huge populations. The answer depended largely on whether the Church in Wales could do the work called for by altered circum- stances. There were those who felt that the Welsh Church would be able to do the enlarged work that was needed if Church people in England could give the necessary co- operation. In such a spirit the A.C.S. has for many years past given assistance where attempts were being made to set an additional clergyman to work. In 1912 the society helped to support 160 additional curates in Wales, gave towards their stipends no less than £6,337, °f which only £2,199 was collected in Wales, leaving a net benefit of £4,138 from money contributed in England, and distribu- ted by the A.C.S. in the exercise of its central responsibi- lity. It is clear that the money so given has produced im- portant results which could not, humanly speaking, have been otherwise attained. The help given by the society to the Diocese of Llandan consists at present of ninety-three grants to sixty-one parishes ; the amount of these grants is £3,764. The population of the aided parishes is 658,000. In 1836 The Church Pastoral Aid Society made grants for five curates in Wales. Those grants amounted to £240, and the population influenced was 43,000. Ten years later grants were made for nineteen curates, and one lay agent, costing the society £1,532, and benefiting a population of 132,546. In 1856 the society made possible the employment of thirty-one curates and of nine lay agents, amongst a population of 268,000, at a cost of £3,685. Yet another ten years showed a doubling of the number of agents employed on the society's grants, and a doubling of the population amongst whom it laboured. THE HISTORICAL BASIS OF WELSH DEVELOPMENT 31 At the present time the society is responsible for grants towards ninety-six curates, twelve lay agents, and three women workers, amongst a population of 463,000. These grants amount to £5,557. This society has been instru- mental in the formation of many new parishes, and is at present actively at work in each of the four Welsh dioceses. The findings of the Welsh Church Commission showed clearly the progress made by the Church of England in Wales. It was proved to be a growing body. The Easter communicants in the four years 1905-9 had steadily increased, the numbers being 134,234, 135,964, 138,782, and 144,411 ; it was not only growing, but specially active where needs were greatest, and able to adapt itself to changing conditions. Whereas in 1891, in the South Wales coalfield, there were 336 churches and mission rooms for an estimated population of 950,000, i.e., one for every 2,827 people, there were, in 1906, 481 churches and mission rooms for an estimated population of 1,105,506, or one for every 2,298 people. These results are not only a testimony to the activity of the Welsh clergy and the laity, but they afford an example of what has been achieved in the districts covered by the grants made by the A.C.S. and the Church Pastoral Aid Society. Without this outside assistance it would have been impossible for the Welsh Church to maintain the efficiency of the ministry and to do what has been so well done in the various districts for the spread of virtue and true morality. Though it is the Church that has nominally and directly benefited, yet Wales itself has participated in the blessing. The activities of these societies encircle the household, the school, the community, and the nation. They help in restraining the outrage of passion, in in- spiring indolence with enterprise, in building schools, mission rooms and churches, in producing an intelligent morality, in refining social life, and in preserving law and order. These are factors that must be taken into account in estimating the culture of the Welsh, the sources of their culture, and the elements that have operated in the shaping of their civilization. 32 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY Another organization which played no inconspicuous part in the moulding of Welsh national life was the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. Indeed, it is impos- sible to look back on the history of this organization, and the benefits it has conferred upon Wales, without senti- ments of gratitude, admiration, and pride. It is a strange fact that the generality of Welshmen know far less of the S.P.C.K. than they do of the British and Foreign Bible Society, and they take far less interest in its work and history. This is due partly to the fact that the British and Foreign Bible Society has been boomed by all Welsh Nonconformist ministers, partly to the influence of the Evangelical party in the Church of England in Wales, partly to the fact that the S.P.C.K. has not realized the necessity of engaging Welsh-speaking Welshmen who know Welsh W T ales and who understand the peculiarities of Welsh life, as their agents and representatives in Wales. It seems that all these great organizations, or those who control their committees, have an objection to utilize the services of Welshmen either on their staff or as their agents. In addition to this, there are so many retired missionaries who have nothing to do, and their claims are preferred — very often to the detriment of the societies and the object they have in view. Something may also be due to the fact that the British and Foreign Bible Society, unlike the S.P.C.K., is a society of one idea, and confines itself to one kind of work, viz., to providing Bibles. There are two erroneous impressions which still prevail among Welshmen. One is, that the British and Foreign Bible Society is an organization initiated, con- trolled, and subsidized by Nonconformists ; the other is, that no efforts were made to supply the people of Wales with the Bible in their own tongue before the advent of the British and Foreign Bible Society. That Wales is in- debted to the British and Foreign Bible Society is indis- putable. In 1806 it published, as its first work, an edition in three issues of 10,000 copies of the Welsh New Testa- ment, and in 1807 an edition of 20,000 of the Welsh Bible. But the S.P.C.K. anticipated the British and Foreign Bible THE HISTORICAL BASIS OF WELSH DEVELOPMENT 33 Society by over a hundred years, and it had performed marvellous things in Wales generations before the latter organization had come into being. The former was established in the year 1698, and the latter in 1804. Speaking of the S.P.C.K. the late Archbishop Benson once said : " It is the greatest and most important society that we have working within the great Society of Christ ... Of all our societies in England this is the oldest and grandest. . . . Its work is the very largest ever conceived." Many of the great educational establishments of India are largely indebted to the liberal grants of the S.P.C.K., and in many quarters of the world its aid has been given to similar work. One of its founders was a Welshman in the person of Sir Humphrey Mackworth, Bart., at one time Member of Parliament for Cardiganshire and Governor of Neath Castle. Branches of the society were formed in various parts of Wales at a very early period. Much of the correspondence which passed between the branches and the parent society is still extant ; it is truly interesting reading, it serves to show the very noble effort that was being made in those days by Englishmen in England, in conjunction with the Anglicans in Wales, to promote the interests of religion and of education in the Principality, and to foster the use of the Welsh language among the native population. English books were trans- lated into Welsh, and Welsh books dealing with religious and educational matters were published by the society. The most signal service, however, which the S.P.C.K. rendered to Wales was in the publication of the Welsh Bible in the eighteenth century. The following is a list of the various editions published in Welsh: — In 1717-18, 10,000 copies of the Bible (with Apocrypha) and the Prayer Book. In 1727 another edition was issued ; in 1746, 15,000 copies ; in 1752, 15,000 copies, together with 5,000 copies of the Welsh New Testament, and 5,000 copies of the Prayer Book. In 1769, 20,000 copies of the Bible and Prayer Book. In 1799, 10,000 copies, and 2,000 copies of the Welsh New Testament. The much talked of " Mari Jones " Bible was one of the 34 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY 1799 edition ; it was a " full Bible," with Apocrypha and Common Prayer bound up with it. Some Welsh Bibles of the 1769 edition were offered for sale at two shillings and ninepence per copy to those who had failed to secure as many copies as they needed. In 1809, when it was discovered that more Bibles were needed the S.P.C.K. printed off 20,000 copies from the stereotype plates. Thus it will be seen that the society printed and distributed within a period of a hundred years more than 80,000 full Bibles with Prayer Book ; 7,000 of the Welsh New Testaments, and 5,000 copies of the Prayer Book. It is important to remember that, roughly speaking, the population of Wales increased during this period from 400,000 to 600,000. A large proportion must have been English, and not more than one-third could read or write. It is perfectly clear that the Welsh-speaking portion of the population could not have been badly off for Welsh Bibles. This fact is borne out by the Rev. Peter Williams. His first edition was printed in 1770, and his second edition in 1779-81. In his preface, he thanks God that they then had an ample supply of Bibles printed in their own language and at a low price. There is clear evidence that from the time of the first S.P.C.K. translation of the Bible into Welsh until the present day, it has never been out of print. The S.P.C.K. still continues to supply Welsh versions of the Bible and Prayer Book, in addition to a large and varied Christian literature in the same language. With the society's aid, scores of Welsh parishes have been provided with Sunday schools and parish rooms which are used for religious, intellectual, social, and philanthropic purposes. Many of the older Church day schools were founded in connec- tion with the society, and, since the passing of the Educa- tion Acts, many have been aided in meeting the require- ments of the Board of Education, besides those assisted in various circumstances from the Negus Welsh Fund. It would be difficult to find a single parish in Wales which has not in one way or another experienced the society's beneficence, it may be, for the provision of Bibles and THE HISTORICAL BASIS OF WELSH DEVELOPMENT 35 Prayer Books in Welsh or English, or Welsh and English, for the free use of worshippers in churches and mission churches and scholars of day and Sunday schools, or in the establishing or replenishing of the parish, Sunday, and day school libraries, or text books for religious teaching, or in some analogous way. Moreover, the conditions of Church life in Wales have always evoked special sym- pathy, and have been regarded as a reason for help being afforded to the fullest possible extent. Something — indeed, much — must be ascribed to the influence of the English Universities, and especially to that of Jesus College, Oxford. When, after the accession of Henry VII., the colleges and universities of England were thrown open to the members of the landowning classes, and in a lesser degree to the inhabitants of the towns, it was the beginning of a new era for Wales and the Welsh. Some of the fortunate members of the Welsh tenant farmers, or very small yeoman class, began to make their way to the English universities ; some of them succeeded in carving out a career of usefulness, and even of distinction, for themselves in Church and State. Among them may be mentioned Lord Herbert of Cherbury, one of Elizabeth's courtiers, and the author of a history of Henry VIII, which he dedicated to Charles I. His brother, George Herbert, whose life Isaak Walton wrote, was Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, and Public Orator for twenty-six years. Sir Edward Carne, a man learned in civil law, was Public Orator before the Pope in Henry's divorce suit, and Ambassador for Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth. William Salesbury, who gained at Oxford, in the days of Jewel, a high reputation as a Greek and Hebrew scholar, was also proficient in other languages. It was his Oxford training that qualified him to be the first translator, in any considerable portion, of the Scriptures into Welsh, and to compile his Welsh- English dictionary, which he dedicated to Henry VIII, as a preparation for the work and as being " necessary to Welshemen who wil spedly learne the englyshe tongue." In Salesbury's time there were no Welsh words for 36 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY " propitiation," " atonement," " only-begotten," and many other Scriptural terms, and he had to coin them as best he could. Towards the latter end of the sixteenth century, we find that a considerable number of Welshmen had made their way to the older universities and the great schools of England, thus opening up an avenue of culture for Welsh youths, and forming a closer bond of union between Wales and the better classes in England. " Since the Welsh were admitted to the Imperial Crown of England," said Camden, headmaster of Westminster, in 1592, " they have to their just praise performed all the parts of dutiful loyalty and allegiance most faithfully thereunto ; plenti- fully yielding martial captains, judicious civilians, skilful common lawyers, learned divines, complete courtiers, and adventurous soldiers." In Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of Wales, and in the Reports of the Commission appointed by the Govern- ment in 1832 to inquire into the Endowed Schools in Wales, the reader will find a list of schools founded for the benefit of Wales. We need name only a few : Grammar School for eighteen boys, founded at Abergavenny by Henry VIII, in 1543 ; Grammar School at Bangor for one hundred children, sons of poor people, also special grants for ten poor scholars, and two scholarships in Jesus College, Oxford, founded by Geoffrey Glynn, LL.D., Advocate in the Court of Arches, and in 1609 by Bishop Rowlands of Bangor ; Free Grammar School at Car- marthen, and at a later date, other " inferior " subjects being added to Latin, Greek and Mathematics, also one exhibition at Jesus College, Oxford, and one in Queen's College, Cambridge, by Queen Elizabeth, and subsequently, in 1644, by Bishop Owen of Llandaff ; and again in 1676 by Archdeacon Jones of Carmarthen ; Christ College, first established in 1331 at Abergwili, by Bishop Gower of St. David's, and afterwards removed to Brecon by Henry VIII in 1531. Then there are the educational foundations (schools or colleges) connected with Welsh interests : Christ College, THE HISTORICAL BASIS OF WELSH DEVELOPMENT 37 Cambridge, endowed by Margaret Countess of Richmond, mother of Henry VII, in 1505 ; St. John's College, Cambridge, endowed by the Countess of Richmond, in 1511 ; Westminster School, endowed by Elizabeth, in 1560 ; Jesus College, Oxford, by Dr. Hugh Price, a native of Brecon, in 1571. These and other facts prove how groundless are the statements which were recently made in Parliament by a Welsh member on the third reading of the Welsh Church Bill, statements which have been circulated through the press in Wales, to the effect that the development of Wales is due entirely to her own internal character and efforts ; that the Welsh people owe nothing to Parliament, nothing to England or the English, and nothing to the Established Church. The same individuals have endeavoured to give a new lease of life, and a semblance of reality, to the vain chatter and half wit of Gerald the Welshman, who was born in 1147, namely, that the Welsh are " the best, the bravest, the quickest-witted, the most musical, the most cultured, the best scholars, and the best fighters in the world. They are a nation of gentlemen ! " It would strain the ordinary use of language too much to call such a mental state by the term " sanity," though there are enough and to spare of militant Welsh nationalists who admire and applaud such a robust old game-cock spirit. " All is vanity " is the great relieving word for such a mode of thought. These exponents of Welsh history and of Welsh characteristics, not only do not deserve a hearing, but forfeit all title to respect. The impression which they desire to convey is that there has been, throughout the generations, a general conspiracy to underrate the good qualities of the Welsh, to extirpate every vestige of Welsh patriotism, and every prospect of a separate Welsh nationality. It is difficult to discover what their standard of historical truth is. The extreme fallibility of their knowledge of other races has been abundantly proved. If they deceive the uneducated and the uninitiated (and there are many such in the House of Commons) in one thing, what security have the public that they ^,8 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY ~> will not deceive in others ? The deplorable fact is that there is not one Conservative Member for Wales at Westminster who is capable of exposing such fallacies, and of showing — as it could easily be shown — how untrue to history are such statements as those to which I have referred. " Wales," we are further informed, " lived under wretched political conditions up to the advent of the Tudor period." The fourteenth century they describe as the " Coercion period." " English officials," we are told, " traders and settlers, came into the country under pro- tection." " Coercion Acts of the most oppressive charac- ter were enacted to keep the Welsh in subjection." But, English officials and Government representatives were not the only men who had to be protected. William Salesbury, when translating the Bible into Welsh, was obliged to carry on his work in a chamber that was only accessible through an opening in the kitchen chimney. This he was com- pelled to do for his own personal safety. The country was full of marauders, thieves, vagabonds, and murderers. Political conditions ! Why, the life of one Welshman was not safe in the hands of another ; neither was his home, his children, nor his property. Those were the days when it was a disgrace to be known as a Welshman. The average Welshman's word could not be trusted, neither could his honour nor his honesty. Hence it was ordained that " no whole Englishman by three years next following shall be convict at the suit of any Welshman within Wales, except it be by the judgment of English Justices or by the judgment of whole Englishmen Burgesses or by inquest of Boroughs Towns and Englishmen of the Seigniories where such Englishmen be arrested." 1 For similar reasons it was established that " no Welshman be made Justice, Chamberlain, Chancellor, Treasurer, Sheriff, Steward, Constable of Castle, Receiver, Escheatour, Coroner, nor Chief Forester nor other officer, nor Keeper of the Records nor Lieutenant in any of the said offices in no part of Wales." 2 1 2 Henry IV, c. 18. * 4 Henry IV, c. 32. THE HISTORICAL BASIS OF WELSH DEVELOPMENT 39 In considering the invidious distinction drawn between the Welshry and the Englishry, a distinction which gradually disappeared after the accession of Henry VII, we must take into account three important facts. First, the repressive legislation passed in the reign of the Lan- castrian princes was enacted consequent upon the evils connected with the insurrection of Owen Glyn Dwr. Second, it was mainly directed against those Welshmen and Welshwomen who were of the " amity or alliance of Owain Glendour " (4 Henry IV, c. 34). Third, the enor- mity and extent of the crimes committed by Welshmen not only upon each other, but upon inoffensive English- men and Englishwomen within the counties upon the Marches of Wales. Their persons they assaulted, their goods and chattels they stole. By day and sometimes by night, they waylaid women and maidens, ravished them, killed their protectors and burned their dwellings. It was not an uncommon thing to see Englishmen and English- women being captured and kept as hostages among the mountains of Wales. No other country in Europe — not even in Ireland in its most anarchical state — presents a darker calendar of crime ; a condition of things due not to political causes, but to the criminal tendencies of the people, and the depth of moral degradation into which they had sunk. There was not a vice or a crime of which the bulk of the Welsh population was not guilty. " Of Thievies, Manslayers, Robbers, Murderers, Burners that make felonious Burnings, and their Receivers and acces- sories. Of Mascherers, that sell and buy stolen Meat knowingly. Of Whittawers, that is, those that whiten Hides of Oxen and Horses, knowing the same to have been stolen, that they may not be known again. Of Redubbers of stolen Cloths, that turn them into a new Shape, and change the old one, as making a Coat or Surcoat of a Cloak, and the like. ... Of Ravishers of Maids, Nuns, and Matrons of good repute. ... Of Forgers of the Money and Seal of our Lord the King. ... Of them that shear Sheep by Night in the Folds, and that flay them or any other Beasts. Of them that take and collect by Night the 40 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY Ears of Corn in Autumn, and carry them away ; and of all other the like Trespassers." (12 Edward I.) " Where for lack of diligent and sure custody of Jurors sworn for trials of murderers felons and accessories of felons and murders in Wales and the Marches of the same divers adherents friends and kinsfolks to such offenders have resorted to the same Jurors and have suborned them to acquit divers murderers felons and accessories openly and notoriously known contrary to equity and justice," etc. 1 Down to the Tudor period, the able-bodied men of the Welsh families took part in raids on the Marches, and in the interminable feuds which raged among them at home, and in the course of which they waylaid one another or burnt one another's residences about their owners' ears. From the moment that Wales was subjected to English law, they began to find their occupation gone. But it remained for the Civil War which broke out under Charles I to complete their ruin, since they nearly all took the side of the King. Probably, the condition of things was slightly better in the Principality than in the greater part of the marcher land. It was bad enough in both. Private wars between the lords continued to be almost incessant. Even before the conquest the castles of the Lords Marchers had become the haunts of men of disreputable character, ready to place their swords at the disposal of any one willing to employ them. During the two hundred years which succeeded the conquest of Wales, their adminis- tration of justice had become a mere mockery, and the number of courts and the clashing of jurisdiction involved the holders of land in vexatious litigation, as expensive as it was corrupt. The corruption of these courts was unbounded, and the difficulty of appealing to Parliament, even in those cases in which it was possible to do so, led to the institution by Edward IV of the Court of the Council and President of the Marches of Wales. 2 The court appears to have been founded, not by Statute, but by Ordinance of 1 26 Henry VIII, c. 4. 1 Probably in 17 Ed. IV. See Doddridge's Principality of JVales, etc., p. 38. THE HISTORICAL BASIS OF WELSH DEVELOPMENT 41 the King. The jurisdiction of this court is obscure, but it appears that at first it was limited to the pleas of the Crown. But there can be no doubt that for many years it was an efficient instrument of justice, and did much in the way of correcting the abuses and remedying the grievances connected with its administration in the Lords Marchers' courts. Probably the court was practically superseded by the operation of the Statute of 27 Henry VIII, chapter 26, and by other legislation long prior to its dissolution, which took place in the first year of the reign of William and Mary, by a Statute which states that the powers of the lord president had been much abused, and that the institution had become a great grievance to the subject. The grievances alluded to appear to have been the adoption of the practice of the Star Chamber, whereby the court had become the sole judges both of law and of fact, a procedure by information instead of indictment, and the adoption by the lawyers practising in the court of oppressive and unduly technical devices. Enough has been said to show that the root-cause or causes of the restlessness and insecurity in the land were moral, not political. Welshmen forget that the power of legislation which was assumed by Edward I and his successors was that which naturally belongs to the Crown after the conquest of an insurgent and independent country. Then the question of defence was an important one for Edward. The openness of the Welsh seaboard, with its many opportunities for stealthy approach, gave the Welsh ports the sinister repute of being admirable vantage- grounds for hostile descent. ' The Isle of Anglesea," wrote Sir Richard Bulkeley to Thomas Cromwell, on the 9th of April, 1539, " lies open to all countries, it is but a day's sail from Scotland, Breton lies open on it, and the men of Conquet know it as well as we do. So also do the Span- iards know every haven and creek, and Ireland and other countries lie open upon it." Rumours of invasions of the Realm by way of Wales (though often unfounded), of pending revolt among the Welsh (often true), periodically 42 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY reached the ear of the King and Parliament. Even as late as 1436, the author of " Libell of English Policy," advised his countrymen to beware of Wales. That was after the rebellion of Owen Glyn Dwr, which so seriously jeopardized English interests in Wales. There was always danger from France, Scotland, and Ireland, with the additional fear of concerted action by the wavering Welsh, notorious as the latter were for their tendency to rebel and their light- ness of head. It was also a matter of importance that English burgesses should be induced to settle in Wales, and to remain. The question of burghal defence had become an affair of State ; hence it was that the State had to interfere in matters which, at the present time, would be regarded as merely of local importance. In the process of reconstruction, when new methods of adminis- tration were introduced, abuses real and fancied were inevitable, due partly to want of sympathy, or want of understanding, on the part of English officials, of native peculiarities and native sensibilities. What royal despotism there may have been was a necessity, as it has often been a necessity in the history of all states in the transition from an anarchical to a more settled social and industrial condition. One would imagine, by the pro- ductions of some would-be Welsh historians, that the period of Welsh tranquillity and prosperity was the period ante-dating the time when the Imperial yoke was put upon the neck of Wales. When Wales was independent, and under the sole rule of her own native princes, we find the same social and racial symptoms. Indeed, the larger part of Welsh history, during the days of its separate political independence — extending over a thousand years — was occupied with a sanguinary strife between different Welsh tribes, rulers, and princes. " The story of our country, under its native Princes, is a wretched calendar of crime, of usurpation, and of family feuds. Our law of distribution — the law of gavelkind — balanced the power and raised the competition of the younger branches against the elder ; a Theban war of Welsh brethren, ending in family blood and national THE HISTORICAL BASIS OF WELSH DEVELOPMENT 43 destruction." 1 The History of the Gwedir Family, by Sir J. Wynn (about 1620), and The Welshman's Candle (about 1630), afford abundant evidence of the internal condition of the country, due far less to political than to moral causes. The same conditions are reflected in the Acts of Henry VIII and of Elizabeth, as well as in those of Henry IV and Henry V. The mistake Welshmen make is to judge these laws in the light of what Wales is to-day. To say that those laws reflect only the opinions which the Parliament of those times had of the Welsh, is only a part of the truth, and to say that the motive behind all those enactments was the denationalization of Wales and the crushing of the Welsh, is to distort the facts of history. Not one Welsh child out of twenty thousand, not one Welshman out of twenty thousand, knows that the javelin men who now form merely an ornamental escort to the judges in Wales, at the present day, in going to and from Assize Courts, were in times past an absolute necessity for the protection of Royal officers when travelling through Wales in discharge of their duties. Welshmen also forget that from the days of Edward I, even up to the time of Henry VIII, only about one-half of the area covered by Wales was really under the rule of the English King and of the English Parliament. The power of the English monarchs and of the English Parlia- ments in the Marches of Wales was very limited. The Lords Marchers were semi-independent from the time of Edward I to the days of Henry VIII, and were allowed to maintain armies, to make raids, commit depredations, make private war, and attack one another at will. The conquering Lords of the Marches openly defied King and Parliament to wrest from them what they had gained by conquest, or to impose upon them any law or laws they did not wish to obey. Edward I, through the Statute of Rhuddlan, stopped the creation of any new Lordships Marchers. It was only at the close of the seventeenth century that the Court of the Council of the Marches became amenable to the discipline of Parliament, and 1 See History of the Five Royal Tribes of Wales, by Philip Yorke, of Erthig. 44 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY willing servants of the royal will. Like many other useful institutions, it had greatly degenerated in the course of time, and finally it had to give way in the face of new political forces. There is no view to which distance lends so much enchantment as the view of lawlessness or of rebellion ; hence the soul of Owen Glyn Dwr, noble patriot as he undoubtedly was, still goes marching on. The penal laws of Henry IV were not more repressive — in some respects, they were less repressive — than the Crimes Acts which Mr. Gladstone enacted, and with no more reason, against the Irish in the nineteenth century, a people in an infinitely more civilized state than were the Welsh of Henry IV's time. Back of those penal laws there was no desire to crush the Welsh, but to save them from themselves and to safeguard the Crown. The manner in which the Welsh conducted themselves, not only with regard to the rights of the Crown, but towards each other, and towards the most rudimentary elements of a civilized society, was deplorable. If the Welsh of those times had stood for anything in the form of social, legal, and economic reform, one might understand the estimate in which the penal laws of Henry IV have been held by Welshmen. They did not stand for education, or for anti-clericalism in the form of religious liberty, or for a wider suffrage, or for instruction in the practical arts. All they stood for was what they stood for in their tribal days — the intractable spirit of local individualism, which led to the most bloodthirsty form of vengeance, all degrees of crime, and every con- ceivable type of vice. Believers in virtue, in social order, or in progress, those semi-barbaric masses of a people were not. There was no interaction of moral or intellectual forces, and not a single symptom of a stream of tendency towards racial peace and national righteousness discernible anywhere. Anarchy followed anarchy. The whole country was pulverized into internecine strife — a relic of the old tribal system. One successful chieftain was sup- planted by another chieftain more successful than himself. The number of Welshmen killed and murdered in the THE HISTORICAL BASIS OF WELSH DEVELOPMENT 45 struggle for independence against the foreigner was not more numerous than the number of Welshmen killed and murdered through internecine feuds. There was no approach on the part of the Welsh towards a pacific nationhood except in the days of Howel Dda. When Henry VIII came to the throne, he practically repealed the former penal statutes passed in the reigns of the earlier Henrys. By his Act of the twenty-seventh year of his reign, he took the first step that was ever taken to humanize the Welsh by equal laws, and to place them on a more equal footing legally and morally. He had, earlier, in the fourteenth year of his reign (1523), commanded that a Royal Eisteddfod should be held at Caerwys, partly for the purpose of cultivating literary and musical habits among the Welsh, and partly for the pur- pose of licensing bards, thus ending the intolerable nuis- ance caused by the " vagabond minstrels," a nuisance which had constrained Henry IV to enact that " no waster, rhymer, minstrel, or vagabond shall in any way be sustained in the land of Wales to make kymorthas or coillage upon the common people there." 1 These rhymers went about extracting doles from the gentry ; they were the descendants of the men who in Glyn Dwr's time sang and recited for the purpose of raising money for Glyn Dwr's insurrections. Although Wales was not in the same condition of hope- less lawlessness in the reign of Henry VIII as it had been in the reign of Henry IV, yet it was still deplorable. Henry VIII himself was well aware of this, for he says — c. xxvi, s. 3 : ' There are many Lordships Marches within the country of Wales in which the law cannot be used, where murders and house-burnings, robberies and riots are committed with impunity, and felons are received and escape from justice by going from one Lordship to another." Henry VIII's father — Henry VII — had done something towards restoring order and to encourage a more law- abiding spirit among the people. The Court of the Council 1 4 Henry IV, c. xxvii. 46 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY of the Marches of Wales, whose functions Henry VII extended by investing it with larger judicial powers, was an attempt to provide a centralized government and to bring the administration of law into line with social necessities. Remedial policies have to be applied slowly, and with care, especially in the case of a people in whom lawlessness was practically a second nature, who, when they had political independence, failed to govern them- selves, or to evince any real political aptitude. Indeed, it was only because Henry Tudor was a Welshman that they gave any tokens of obedience to law and order. It was a question of race that affected them then, as the question of race, and of race alone, affected them when, in the days of Elizabeth, they suddenly turned from Catholicism and became Protestants. Those so-called Welsh historians who are for ever harp- ing upon " the evils under which the land was so heavily groaning," in the reigns of Henry IV, and even of Henry VIII, and who are for ever dinning into the ears of an impulsive and historically ignorant people about the " anti- Welsh policy of the earlier Henrys, and even of Henry VIII himself," either have not read Welsh and English history critically and philosophically, or they are consciously perverting history for political purposes, and with a view of creating for themselves a false reputation for high patriotism. In referring to the Act of Union of 1535 — an Act which proved an immediate success — the Welsh author of Mr. Lloyd George's biography says that " the Welsh people were not long in discovering flies in it." Henry VIII's enactment wounded, he tells us, the sensi- bilities of the people, in that it " brought under ban the native tongue of the Welsh populace." This he attributes to the fact " that the Tudor monarchs had lived out of Wales, and were quite untutored in the use and excellences of its language." " To them it sounded as a medley of harsh, guttural sounds, the last relic of the uncouth times in the history of the Welsh race. . . ." " Henry sought to bribe the Welshmen to do what he must have realised no legal enactment of his could accomplish in the direction THE HISTORICAL BASIS OF WELSH DEVELOPMENT 47 of undermining the use and repute of their ancient tongue." The duty of a historian is to get at all the facts, and to present them as they stand, not in their isolated relations, but as they correspond with other facts. The essential defect of this writer is his want of the critical faculty, his superficial acquaintance with all the facts of history, and a proneness to sacrifice what history he knows to politics. Prejudice, whether due to ignorance or to racial or political passion, is both a misfortune and a reproach. Henry VIII, recognizing the necessity and political ex- pediency of making Wales an integral part of the kingdom, and of removing penal enactments of Henry IV against the Welsh, ordained by 27 Henry VIII, c. 26, s. 20, that " all justices and other officers and ministers of the law shall keep the sessions courts and all other courts in the English tongue, and no persons that use the Welsh language shall have any office or fees in England or Wales, upon pain of forfeiting the same unless they use the English language." This enactment deals exclusively with the official use of Welsh ; it does not place any restrictions upon the use of the Welsh language among the people at large, in daily intercourse, in worship, or literature. To describe this enactment as something that "sent a shock through the whole Welsh system," and as an open violation of the language, is mere draff and offal. There is practically no available evidence upon which we can estimate the extent to which the Welsh language was used in the Courts of Great Sessions, either orally or in the written proceedings. In the Parliament called together at Lincoln (a.d. 1315-1316) in the reign of Edward II, to consider certain petitions presented from West Wales and South Wales concerning the removal of certain grievances, an Ordinance was promulgated by the King to the effect that in case of complaints respecting contracts between Welshmen and Welshmen, or concerning trespasses inflicted upon Welshmen by Welshmen, brought or to be brought in the Welshery, the proceedings should be carried on according to the Welsh law ; and that in those complaints which concerned an Englishman or a 48 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY foreigner, they were to be conducted as it had hitherto been accustomed. Concerning complaints or disputes between Englishmen and Welshmen, it was ordained that one-half of the jury should be of Englishmen, and one-half of Welshmen worthy of trust. How the mixed jury of Welshmen and Englishmen worked in practice, whether the juries were addressed in both Welsh and English, how the proceedings were conducted when the judge knew no Welsh, and what part was played by the latimer (llad- merydd — interpreter), there is no evidence to show. It is interesting to note that this Ordinance of 1315-16 (not a Statute) was the first piece of legislation relating to Wales which was enacted between the Statutum Wallice (1284) by Edward I, and the reign of Edward II, who was the first English Prince of Wales. Another point of interest is the statement made by Edward II in the Ordinance, that he was born in Wales. " We, being minded to do away with undue grievances, and in the desire to confer more ample favour upon our aforesaid lieges, for that we were born in the country of Wales, also because those whom their place of birth especially associates with loyalty to their King will render themselves more inclined and more ready to obey us the larger the favours with which we shall have approached them, have thought proper of our special grace, for their greater tranquillity and convenience, that what is written below shall be granted to them." It was not until 1731 that the Latin language ceased to be the language of official and judicial records in England. It had been gradually supplanted by French, and all Acts of Parliament were written in French until the fourth year of the reign of Henry VII. According to Blackstone, even the arguments of counsel and decisions of the Court were delivered in French, the custom having been introduced by William the Norman and his sons. Edward III made the change from French to English, after he had subdued the Crown of France. Whether his reason for so doing is the one given by Blackstone, viz., that he considered it beneath the dignity of the English Crown to use, officially, the language of a conquered people, or because, as THE HISTORICAL BASIS OF WELSH DEVELOPMENT 49 the Act itself seems to imply, French was an un- known tongue among the English people, and it was therefore both proper and expedient that all legal proceedings should be conducted in English, so that the people might understand, and those who were put on their trial should be able to know what was said for and against them. The Act of 1730-1 enacted that the records of the Courts, as well as all other legal proceedings, were to be in English and in English only, not in Latin, not in French, and not in any other tongue or language whatsoever. For the same reason Henry VIII had enacted (27 Henry VIII, c. 26, s. 20) that the English language was to be the official language of Wales, and that Welsh was not to be used officially in the Law Courts of Wales. " It was directed by section 3 of 6 George II, c. 14, that the proceedings in the Courts of Great Sessions were to be in the English language. This followed an Act (4 George II, c. 26, 1730-1) establishing the use of the English language in courts of justice within England and Scotland, and remedying the mischief arising from the proceedings in those courts being carried on in an unknown language." 1 It was not until 1863 that the Welsh bishops were em- powered to make provision for English services in certain parishes in Wales. As the law stood up to that time, it was compulsory in all parishes in Wales in which Welsh was the tongue commonly spoken by the people, that the whole Divine Service should be used and said by the minister and curates throughout all Wales in the British or Welsh tongue. That such a law was a hardship upon the English-speaking population of Wales is clear. It was therefore provided as follows : " That wherever any Ten or more Inhabitants in any Parish, District, or Place in Wales shall certify in writing to the Bishop of the Diocese within which such Parish, District, or Place is situate, that they are desirous of having Divine Service performed and the Sacraments administered in the English Language, and that they, or some of them, will undertake to provide 1 See The Statutes of JYales, by Ivor Bowen (1908), p. xcvii. 50 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY a Building to be used as a Chapel for the Performance of Divine Service in the English Tongue, and to provide for a Spiritual Person who may officiate therein, and for all other Expenses incident thereto, and shall apply to such Bishop to give the necessary Licences for the Purposes aforesaid, it shall be lawful for such Bishop, if it shall appear to him that sufficient Provision is not already made for such English Service, on the Nomination by the Incumbent of the said Parish, District, or Place of a fit and proper Person as Minister to such Chapel, to license from Year to Year, or for any Term not exceeding Two Years, such Building in any Part of such Parish, District, or Place as a Chapel for the Performance of Divine Service, Preaching, and Administration of the Sacraments according to the Use of the United Church of England and Ireland in the English Tongue, and to license such Minister to perform such of the said Services and Offices as may be specified in the said Licence." 1 The Act also provided that in case the incumbent failed or refused to nominate the minister, the bishop could do so. The licensed building was not, without the assent of the incumbent, to be held to be a parochial chapel. The Act did not confer upon the minister of the licensed building any power or authority to perform any pastoral or ministerial functions other than were specified in the said licence. Neither did the Act abrogate or affect the right of the incumbent of the parish, district, or place in which the said licensed building was situated, in respect of the publication of banns, or the solemnization of marriages, or the performance of burials, or his right to any offertory, or any fees, dues, or emoluments to which he was entitled at the time of the passing of the Act. The necessity for such an Act, owing to the grievous injustice to the English-speaking population, will at once be seen, when we take into consideration the complexion of the population of Wales in those times. The first com- plete and systematic enumeration of the population of Wales, as well as of England, was carried out in 1801 — 1 Act 26 and 27 Victoria, c. 82. THE HISTORICAL BASIS OF WELSH DEVELOPMENT 5 1 that is sixty-two years before the date of the passing of the Act in question. According to this first census, we find that the population of Wales (excluding Monmouthshire) was 541,677, or somewhat more than one-fifteenth of the population of England, which was 8,350,859. Wales (including Monmouthshire) contained 587,245 persons, or about one-fourteenth of the population of England. Between 1801 and 1841 the population of each individual county steadily increased, this increase being most marked, as well as being most evenly distributed, in the decennium of 181 1-2 1, when it amounted to a total for Wales and Mon- mouthshire of 17.9 per cent. In the first decennium (1801-11) the increase was 14.8 percent. ; between 1821 and 1831 it sank to 12.6 per cent., but rose again in the following decennium to 16.9. This result was due to the great development of industries in the counties of Glamor- ganshire and Monmouth, in which counties the increase amounted to 35.2 and 36.9 per cent., respectively; while for most of the purely agricultural counties the percentage of increase had fallen into single figures only. In 1861, the total population of Wales was about 1,286,411 — an increase of 10.6 during the previous decade. The rapid development of commerce in South Wales during the first half of the nineteenth century, caused workers from every part of the kingdom to pour in like a flood, thus adding very considerably to the existing purely English population of Wales. It was not, however, until 1891 that a census return was furnished giving a record of the number of persons speaking Welsh only, English only, or both English and Welsh within the confines of the Principality. Notwithstanding the efforts made to im- pugn the accuracy of the first census of 1891, the returns have long since been accepted as substantially correct by all well-informed persons who have carefully studied the question. Briefly summarized, the population of Wales in regard to language in 1891 was composed as follows : — 52 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY Speaking only English .. 759416 Speaking only Welsh .. 508,036 Speaking English and Welsh .. 402,253 Speaking foreign languages 3,076 No information (over two years) • • 12,833 Infants under two years . . 9079 1 Total 1776,405 It is thus seen that those who spoke English only out- numbered those who spoke Welsh only by 251,380. There was a population of 759,416 unable either to speak or to understand the Welsh language, making 45.6 per cent, of the total population. That the enormous increase, especially during the last quarter of a century, in the purely English population of Wales has been brought about at the expense of the Welsh-speaking population, is obvious, due partly to the immigration of English people into Wales, and partly to the rapid and serious decline of the Welsh language among the Welsh themselves. One wonders how long is this calumny, as to the Welsh language having been " branded with ignominy," going to be kept up ? There are Welshmen who are en- deavouring to cast discredit upon the British Parliament, the Church, the gentry, and upon Englishmen in general, as if they had one and all conspired to obliterate the Welsh language, and to suppress the nationality which has been founded upon its continued existence. There is no space to elaborate the question here, but it should be stated that since the days of Edward I there has been an increasing desire on the part of the British Legislature to adopt the procedure of the English legal system, and to frame all laws relating to Wales to the particular wants of the Welsh people. Slowly, but sympathetically, has the new political organization, which was introduced after the Conquest, been brought into harmony with the require- ments of a separate Welsh nationality. Indeed, in the very first instance that we have of sepa- THE HISTORICAL BASIS OF WELSH DEVELOPMENT 53 rate legislation in Church matters relating to Wales during the early part of the nineteenth century, we find a distinct recognition of the special needs of the Welsh people as to the performance of ecclesiastical duties in the Welsh language. Two separate Commissions were issued to con- sider the state of the Established Church in England and Wales ; the Commissioners made several reports bearing dates respectively the 17th of March, 1835 ; the 4th of March, the 20th of May, and the 24th of June, 1836. Consequent upon the reports of the Commissioners it was enacted : — " That the said Commissioners shall prepare, and lay before His Majesty in Council, such scheme as shall appear to the said Commissioners to be best adapted for preventing the appointment of any clergymen not fully conversant with the Welsh language to any benefice with cure of souls in Wales in any parish, the majority of the inhabitants of which do not understand the English language." 1 A case was decided in the days of Queen Elizabeth (Leonard's Reports, p. 31), to the effect that it was a valid ground of refusal by a bishop to institute a clergyman, if he could not speak Welsh, in a parish where the parishioners did not understand English, because he could not instruct his flock according to his duty and charge. That decision arose out of the case of Albany v. The Bishop of St. Asaph. When the Marquis of Abergavenny, in 1886, presented a clergyman, who was unable to speak Welsh, to a living in the county of Monmouth, within the diocese of Llandaff , Bishop Lewis, after appointing a commission to enquire into the linguistic needs of the parish in question, refused to institute the clergyman nominated by the Marquis of Abergavenny. We find the same deferential treatment of the Welsh language, and the same conscious desire to adopt Imperial legislation to the necessities of Wales, in the provision for marriages in the Welsh tongue. In 1837 it was stipulated that, in all places where the Welsh tongue is commonly spoken, the solemn declaration to be used in the celebra- 1 See Act (a.d. 1836) 6 and 7 William IV, c. 77, ss. 1 1, 19. 54 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY tion of marriages before the registrars is to be truly translated into the Welsh tongue and furnished to every registrar throughout Wales, and that it is lawful to use that translation in all places where the Welsh tongue is commonly spoken. 1 In the Act (a.d. 1843) for regulating the Cathedral Churches of Wales — 6 and 7 Victoria, c. 77 — provision was made out of the proceeds of the revenues of ecclesiastical estates in the Principality of Wales, vested in the Eccle- siastical Commissioners, for the maintenance of a clergy- man, being a native of the Principality, to officiate in Welsh in a church or chapel within London or Westminster or the suburbs for the performance of divine service. In so far as the duty of the State towards the Welsh language is concerned, Welshmen have no grievance. It is not the function of the State to preserve the language of any particular people within the State. It is its duty to afford every facility for the people, if they so desire, to cultivate the language which is native to them. The British Parliament has not been unmindful of its duty to Wales in this regard. Generally speaking, the Welsh people do not know the extent to which they are obligated to the British Parliament. Even where there has been a vague knowledge of the existence of the many ameliorative Acts passed by Parliament for the express benefit of the Welsh, their provisions, especially as to procedure, have been known only to a few. The result is two-fold ; the failure of the people to avail themselves of such Acts to the extent that Parliament intended, and a mistaken sense of injustice among the people. The ignorance as to the provisions of the Agricultural Holdings Act and the Ground Game Act was well nigh universal in Wales. Almost all the tenant-farmers in the Welsh-speaking districts believed that these Acts — especially the former — could be totally avoided by means of a contracting-out clause. They were unaware that the Act of 1875 had been amended by the subsequent Statute of 1883. Even among the better educated the Act was described as a dead letter. The 1 See section 23 of 7 William IV, and 1 Victoria, c. 22, s. 23 (a.d. 1837). THE HISTORICAL BASIS OF WELSH DEVELOPMENT 55 greatest benefit which the Welsh tenants have derived from the Act is an indirect one, namely, that on many estates fresh agreements have been drawn up and adopted, containing provisions as to compensation more in accord- ance with the spirit of the Act than those which were previously in force, thus improving the condition of many tenant farmers, and the relation between them and their landlords. The Tithe Rent-charge Recovery Act of 1891 also effected a considerable improvement in the relations between landlord and tenant. By making the landlord responsible for its payment in the first instance, the tithe has in many cases been merged in the rent, with the result that the tenant farmer has not since been conscious of its existence, and the inherent repugnance which most Non- conformists felt towards such a charge is no longer roused. It has been deemed expedient by the State to publish Abstracts of such Statutes as the Mines Regulations Acts, and the Factory and Workshop Acts, with the view of more effectively bringing home to the persons carrying on, or employed in, such industries, the conditions and regulations imposed on them by Parliament. Welsh translations of such Abstracts have been officially prepared and published by the Home Office, for exhibition at the mines and factories. The General Register Office, as early as 1837, had two of its official papers issued in Welsh, and since then a vaccination notice and the form of in- struction for filling in the Census schedules have also been translated by that department. Several other depart- ments have also, from time to time, recognized the desira- bility of translating their notices, etc., into Welsh, notably the Local Government Board, which has so issued several Acts of Parliament and Administrative Orders. In the Coal Mines Regulation Act (50-51 Victoria, c. 58), by the 30th section (sub-section 1) it was enacted by Parliament that, in the appointment of Inspectors of Mines in Wales and Monmouthshire, among candidates otherwise qualified, persons having a knowledge of Welsh were to be preferred. By the Quarries Act, 1894 (57-58 56 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY Victoria, c. 42, s. 2, ss. 3) and by the Factory Act of 1901 (1 Edward VII, c. 22, s. 118, ss. 2) similar provisions were made for the appointment of Welsh-speaking inspectors of quarries and factories. 1 The same tendency projects itself through the whole fabric of British legislation, from the time of Edward I to the present, namely, a tendency to grant the Welsh equal rights and privileges with other portions of the kingdom, and to defer, as far as the civilization of the Welsh permitted, to the local peculiarities of the nation, by a policy of wise administrative adaptation. This is the one consistent and integrating principle which has, in the main, characterized the attitude of the British Parliament towards Wales. In proportion to the self-discipline of the Welsh, and to their amenability to discipline, and in proportion to the greater aptitude for civic ad- ministration, and the deeper sense of responsibility, mani- fested by them, there has been a disposition on the part of British statesmen to trust them, and to admit them to a larger share of political power. Herein lies the secret of the higher potentialities which are inherent in Welsh society as it exists to-day. Let Welshmen cease their whining, and let those who desire to be recognized as representatives of the people abandon the unhistorical practice of building up a superstructure of racial and political grievances upon unlawful inferences, and upon things that exist merely in their own imagination. Let them also bear in mind that it is impossible to estimate the real character of Welsh social and political evolution without taking into account the influence on Wales of movements that have originated or developed in England and the British Parliament. Very few Welshmen realize the helpful bearing of the Report of the Commission appointed in 1846 in pursuance of a motion by Mr. William Williams, M.P. for Lambeth, to " inquire into the state of education," upon the progress 1 For a list of all the Parliamentary Papers and State documents that have been officially translated into the Welsh language, see Appendix A in Report of the Royal Commission on Land in Wales and Monmouthshire, 1896. THE HISTORICAL BASIS OF WELSH DEVELOPMENT 57 of morals and education in the Principality. Unpalatable as that Report was — a Report that became known among Welshmen as " Brad y Llyfrau Gleision " ( " The Treach- ery of the Blue Books ") — it proved beneficial on the whole. The very fact that public attention was called to the backward state of education — and of morality — in Wales, was ultimately productive of great good. It set the educa- tional machinery going, and ever since the progress has been rapid and continuous, culminating in the system now existing. Here again the foreign element has come in to inter- mingle with Welsh elements. In the early stages of the Welsh colleges and the University, the teachers, or professors, were largely composed of Englishmen, Scots- men and Irishmen ; and one is constrained to bear testimony to the very excellent services they have rendered to the Principality, and are still rendering, not only in their readiness to grasp the Welsh point of view, but in having helped to set the University movement on a proper working basis. When the institutional movement began, Wales was deficient in men capable for the work, and she was obliged to go outside for assistance — to England, France and Germany. That assistance has been given in such a reasonable spirit, and with such devotion to the cause of Welsh education, that they have laid the Welsh under a deep debt of gratitude to them. When we come to industrial Wales, the facts are equally striking. The Society for the Mines Royal, which was set up as far back as 1567, opened up the lead mines of Car- diganshire, and the extinction of piracy made the Welsh coasts safe for trade and traffic. But industrial Wales, as we know it to-day, sprang into life in the first quarter of the nineteenth century ; and in the list of the first organ- izers of industry in Wales there are but very few Welsh names : they are mostly English and Scottish. As to the slate-quarrying industry in North Wales, and the iron industry in the South, Wales is very largely indebted to England. The founding, as well as the technical and commercial conduct of these particular industries, has 58 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY been in the hands of Englishmen. In the coal and tinplate industry, Welshmen have been more to the front. Broadly speaking, it may be stated with confidence that what material progress there has been in Wales, in the departments of industry, science, scholarship, commerce, or of pure criticism, has been due chiefly to external forces and influences. It has come almost in spite of the Welsh themselves. If a wider and saner conception of art prevails, if there is a tendency among Welsh writers towards a higher literary ideal, a greater tendency towards historical truthfulness, a more business-like habit of life, a larger detachment from theological prepossessions, a greater interest in science, or in the application of science for practical purposes, it has been very largely communicated to it from without, so slow has the Welsh intellect been disposed to profit from the productions of the aggregate intellect of the world. CHAPTER III THE TRANSLATION OF THE BIBLE INTO WELSH In order to further understand the relative degree to which modern Welsh development is due to causes spring- ing outside Nonconformity, and outside Wales itself, and how far that development presents conditions of normal and inherent development, it is necessary to widen our vision, and to retrace our steps to the translation of the Bible into Welsh by Bishop Morgan. This survey will show more clearly that the laws of progress in Wales have not been acting in a state of isolation, but that they have been affected by several sources of interference, viz., the authority of the Government, the influence of foreign sympathy and culture, and the interaction of elements from within. Queen Elizabeth, anxious to promote the Reformation, and inspired by the advice of eminent Welshmen, induced Parliament to enact a Statute (1562) providing for the translation of the Bible and of the Divine Service into the Welsh tongue. 1 Provision was made out of the public funds for the translation of the English Bible. In the case of Wales, ungenerous as it may seem, the Acts stipulated that the cost of printing should be borne equally between parson and parishioners, not solely by the bishops, as is commonly supposed : ' for the which Books so imprinted, the Parishioners of every of the said Parishes shall pay the one Half or Moiety, and the Parson and Vicar of every of the said Parishes (where both be) or else the one of them, where there is but one, shall pay the other Half or Moiety." The duties of the Bishops of Hereford, St. 1 5 Elizabeth, c. 28. 59 60 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY David's, St. Asaph, Bangor and Llandaff, and their successors, were to see that the work was carried out, that copies of both the Welsh and English translations should be kept in every parish church throughout Wales, and to fix the " Price for which the said Book shall be sold." Why the Bishop of Hereford was included we can only surmise. Hereford was the mother-town of the Welsh Boroughs, and the diocese contained some Welsh-speaking people. But the chief reason, probably, was that parts of the Diocese of Hereford formed a part of Wales. The work of translation was to be completed in three years, that is by March ist, 1566. Twenty-six years, however, elapsed before the work of translation and publication was com- pleted. If the Church in Wales had done nothing beyond giving the Bible to the Welsh in their own tongue, she would have justified her existence. The passing of the Act of 1562 does not indicate any disposition on the part of " the English Parliament to extinguish the Welsh language," and the help which Bishop Morgan received from Whitgift, the Archbishop of Canterbury, who assisted him financially, does not lend colour to the charge that it was the policy of Anglicans to stamp out the Welsh language, and to crush the spirit of Welsh nationality. Far more just and generous is the view of this great work given in The Welsh People : " The Church thus rendered an inestimable service to the cause of religion in Wales, and, indirectly, as pointed out else- where, gave a new life to the language and literature of the country" (p. 461). No literature of any value was produced in the old Cornish. The Bible and the Book of Common Prayer were not translated into it ; neither was it introduced into the service of the Sanctuary. The consequence was that the old Cornish died out by degrees in the various parishes, so that its existence is a mere tradition in Cornwall to-day. Such in all human pro- bability would have been the fate of the language in Wales were it not for the translation ordered by Queen Elizabeth, and had it not been consecrated to the service of the Church. THE TRANSLATION OF THE BIBLE INTO WELSH 6l The delay in executing the work has been put down to the discredit of Anglicanism. The bishops of those times have been described as " passive resisters " ; they have been charged with " indifference " and " incompetence," and as wanting in sympathy with the undertaking. Only one bishop (Dr. Richard Davies, Bishop of St. David's), we are told, was qualified for the task. " Bishop Davies alone was sufficiently versed in the Greek and Hebrew languages." It is a peculiarity of Welsh nationalist historians that their study of history is controlled by political considerations. Such are the subterfuges to which they resort in order to further sectarian and political designs, that one's mind recoils in disgust. There can be no greater literary crime than to distort history, or to draw conclusions upon imperfect data. It is difficult to find language strong enough to condemn the introduc- tion of such predilections into the sacred domain of history. Not only is it a disgrace to literature, but it is a reflection on the nobler instincts of our common nature. A very recent Welsh example of this method of dealing with history, and of this sectarian and political bias in the interpretation of history, has been presented to us in the biography of Mr. Lloyd George (1913) by a Welsh Member of Parliament, and nothing was wanting to ensure the immediate and complete success of this strange composi- tion. The heralds were numerous beyond all precedent. Having regard to the overwhelming predominance of the subject-matter, the endless variety of the topics discussed, and the alleged rare merit of the biographer, the appear- ance of the work was to mark a " memorable epoch in our political history." Now that educated and discriminating students have had the opportunity to put this production to the test of fact and of historical criticism, they can only contemplate with wonder the average intellectual condi- tion, the good taste, and respect for the interests and the dignity of literature, of those who were its sponsors. We were entertained with the same rapturous sort of literature, and on the same loquacious level, during the Revival of 1904-5. Everything the Revivalist said or did 62 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY was invested with an immortal significance. Such was his absolute disenchantment with ordinary life, that his whole personality was swallowed up in supernatural good. Deities paid their visits to him, and angels were proud to converse with him. Volumes were written on his "homage-compelling gaze," his purity, the fullness of his faculty, and the inability of men to play the hypocrite in his presence. This biography of Mr. Lloyd George has been conceived in the same vein. There are the same thrills of wonder, the same ideality that mocks at our reason and our knowledge ; it absolutely escapes the jurisdiction of logic and of the facts of history. On page 106 the author says : " Not only did Glyndwr's fortune continue in the ascendant, but even the heavens themselves blazed forth his triumphs. In the spring of 1402 a comet with fiery tail flamed across the sky. While Englishmen regarded it with a superstitious awe, as the portent of dread events, the Welsh bards gleefully discerned in its shape the form and features of a dragon, the national symbol of their race ; and they hailed it as the omen of the national glory which was destined to follow in the trail of Glyndwr's campaign. The intrepid Welsh leader, with consummate skill, quickly diverted the emotions of buoyant hope which surged in his countrymen's breasts into the channel of practical warfare and of fierce on- slaught." Could there be anything more naive or fatuous ? Again, " Cynddelw, the most majestic of the Welsh bards, paid tribute to him (Glyndwr) as ' the proud lord whom God made without a fault.' " No future historian worthy the name is likely to make the absurdities of such a biography, or of such a " History of Wales," the basis of his investigations, for the obvious reason that the work shows no width of reading, no well- organized thinking, no close reasoning, no scholarship, no gift of scientific interpretation, no capacity for the classification of facts, no patient and anxious reflection. The writing of history should be taken in hand by those whose habits of mind fit them for the task. In the quest after truth, success depends not on the speed with which THE TRANSLATION OF THE BIBLE INTO WELSH 63 men hasten in the path of inquiry, but on the skill and dis- crimination they show in the selection of their authorities, the manner in which they use their authorities, and the measure of detachment they evince in the interpretation of facts. A critic is pre-eminently the spectator, avoiding identification with the person or the movements observed. Hurried affinities and lightning deductions are not characteristic of the critic, the historian or the philosopher. When we come to the central characteristics of this writer, we feel that he lacks, and lacks lamentably, the attitude of a historian. His style and idiom are those of a man who is determined to make Welsh history fit in with certain sectarian and political doctrines. It is clear that he is conscious of what may be expected of him by the class for which he writes. He lets himself go with an energy that is almost ferocious. He does not face historical difficulties, but pours out a string of rhapsodies and unsubstantial rhetoric, and we are no wiser in the end. He does not clear the way for any new construction, he provides us with no cipher-key with which to unlock the mysteries of the past, he supplies us with no authentic knowledge of many important periods in Welsh history. He assumes that Welsh development must have followed a certain course. I know of nothing that is so full of wild, thoughtless generalizations, and purely ornamental com- monplaces, eked out with such manifest charlatanism, as this high-piled fabric to which the too-flattered name of a History of Wales has been given. It leaves the ground cumbered with heaps of unpicturesque ruins from which the future historian can learn but little, save the depth and height of verbosity and gullibility. The value of the work is altogether vitiated by the author's want of the historic sense. To link such a piece of work with the life of a noted statesman is highly reprehensible. The fact that the writer was permitted to stand on the shoulders of the Chancellor of the Exchequer was in itself a guarantee of a measure of attention for a garbled history, which, if left to stand on its own merits, would not have been seriously considered. There is nothing so easy as to garble 64 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY the history of a nation, easier much than to garble the history of a government. This production may have lured idle, credulous and ignorant politicians, but of all the pseudo-historical works that have emanated from the Principality, this will stand out as a lasting monument of the traditional Celtic passion for historical inaccuracy and extravagance. The impression prevails very largely among the Welsh people (and for sectarian and political reasons it is being strengthened by such writers as I have referred to) that the country had to wait twenty-one years for the Bible on account of the " hostility and incompetency of the bishops." The truth is, the people had only to wait for the Old Testament with the Apocrypha, until the version of Bishop Morgan was ready, in 1588. There was no hostility on the part of the bishops — nothing but a desire to see the work accomplished. The difficulties were many and great. In Bangor the diocese was very much out of order, there being no preaching, and pensionary con- cubinage permitted to the clergy by paying a pension, notwithstanding the fact that liberty of marriage was now granted. 1 Bishop Scory had his hands full at Hereford, being greatly and continuously troubled by the pro- ceedings of the Council for the Marches of Wales. He had also his troubles with the Cathedral clergy. No one who understands the difficulties surrounding the life of Bishop Scory, and its vicissitudes, will fail to appreciate the reasons why he did not take a more active and immediate part in the translation of the Bible into Welsh. That he was in sympathy with the project, and that he was well qualified as a scholar for the task, has been abundantly proved. Bishop Scory had a copy of William Salesbury's New Testament placed in the ancient library of Hereford Cathedral, chained to the bookcase with the original chain fitted with a swivel in the last link, to facilitate the handling of the book. It is the only instance of a copy being chained. It is not known how many copies of the Testa- ment were published. It is a much treasured volume. 1 See Parker's Correspondence, p. 257. THE TRANSLATION OF THE BIBLE INTO WELSH 65 The copies now in existence are very small in number — about fifty copies are recorded. 1 Wales was differently situated from England; in this regard it is unjust to compare the case of the former with that of the latter. In Wales the question of political unity was a formidable one. There were not a few, both English and Welsh, and not altogether confined to the better class, who believed that the best interests of Wales would be served by a complete fusion of the two peoples— racial and linguistic. For that reason, and because they desired the political unity of Wales, and were convinced that it could be achieved only on those lines, they looked upon the undertaking initiated by Queen Elizabeth as an obstacle to the ideal which was so earnestly advocated by both Welsh and English. The inhabitants of the towns in Wales at that time were English-speaking, and there were large districts which were wholly English. They did not want a Welsh Bible foisted on them. Then, it was not believed that Latin was going to die out as a language of culture. Languages as such were not regarded with any veneration in the sixteenth century. In addition to this, there was the difficulty, or rather the impossibility, of finding Welsh compositors. The work had to be set by Englishmen who did not understand a word of Welsh, and the time consumed in correcting mistakes must have been very considerable. The question of expense was also an obstacle, and a serious one. The money had to be raised, one half from the parishioners, and the other half from the parsons of the various parishes. As to what method was adopted, and what degree of persuasion or compulsion had to be exercised, or how long it took, there is no evidence. But it must have taken time, especially in view of the strong feeling which prevailed among all classes that it would be far better for the Welsh to acquaint themselves with the English language, and for both Welsh and English to amalgamate, instead of allowing two nations to grow up within the con- fines of the Principality — the one Welsh in language, spirit, 1 See The Bible in Wales (1906). 66 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY and ideal, and the other English. History has, however, created for Wales two nations — native and foreign, with the line of demarcation — social, religious, political and linguistic — very marked. There was a time when the two were more hostile than they are now. What animosities or prejudices there were, have been mildened by many centuries of life in common. Personal sympathies have developed between those who were, and are still, separated by race, language and religion. There are still deeply divided lines, and the future of Wales depends, in a large measure, upon the manner in which this problem will be faced. Wales is more Anglicized to-day than it was in the days of Elizabeth ; she is infinitely more cosmopolitan, and the psychological differences between the individuals of the various classes are much greater than the surface of things might suggest. The foreign element has come to stay, and it is quietly but surely playing a powerful part in the formation of a new national character. Native Wales is borrowing heavily from British civilization, with heavy consequences. Regarding the fitness of the bishops for the work of translation, " It so happened," says the writer already referred to, " that the Bishops of Hereford and Llandaff were Englishmen and utterly untutored in the intricacies of the Welsh language; while Dr. Richard Davies, the Bishop of St. David's, was alone sufficiently versed in the Greek and Hebrew languages to be competent for the task " ; " Salesbury was also engaged for two years with Bishop Davies on the translation of the Old Testament ; and they had made some progress when they disagreed over the Welsh rendering of some Hebrew word, with the result that their labours were brought to a close and never resumed. The disagreement has been rightly described as providential, inasmuch as it served to prepare the way for a less pedantic and a more popular version than was then possible." " Previous to the appearance of Morgan's Welsh Bible the vernacular tongue of Wales was rapidly degenerating into a corrupted patois, and into a congeries of ill-sorted dialects. But Morgan's translation arrested the THE TRANSLATION OF THE BIBLE INTO WELSH 67 degeneration. It restored to the language its pristine purity, and gave to it a standard of literary excellence and a vitality which it has never since lost." What obligation was there upon the Bishop of Hereford to know Welsh ? What discredit was it to him that he was not versed in the intricacies of that language ? The duty of the bishops, according to the Act, was to see that the work was done. This biographer states that the five bishops transferred the task of translating the New Testament to William Salesbury, as if that was a disgrace to them. William Salesbury was appointed by them to superintend the work, and act as general editor — not an uncommon thing. This Salesbury did at the request of the five bishops. He stayed with Bishop Richard Davies at Abergwili while he did the work of translation. The Welsh translation of the Book of Common Prayer, which Salesbury and Bishop Davies published in 1567, and the Welsh translation of the New Testament which Salesbury published in the same year, five years after Elizabeth's Act was passed, was an instalment, and a very substantial instalment, of the complete Welsh translation which was in hand. The Welsh of those times was not more of a corrupted patois than it is to-day. Classical Welsh was not unknown then, as may be shown by such men as William Salesbury ; Dr. William Morgan ; Richard Davies, Bishop of St. David's ; John Davies of Mallwyd ; Dr. Griffith Roberts of Milan ; Dr. John David Rhys ; Morris Kyffin, and many others that might be named. Bishop Morgan's version was not a " popular version." His translation was more for the parson than for the people. It was not understood of the commonalty, because of the bookish and Hebraic idioms introduced in translating. Three hundred years have passed since then, and instead of Morgan's Bible saving the Welsh language from " the taint of corruption," the " taint " is more marked than ever, even among those who live by the Welsh Bible. Their speech is a mixture of Welsh and English, and of the Patois that passes for Welsh. If Dr. Morgan rose from his grave, he would find it more than difficult to understand 68 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY the kind of Welsh spoken by the majority of the Welshmen of this generation, and even the kind of Welsh preached from the Welsh pulpit. Such is the congeries of ill-sorted dialects among the Welsh of to-day, in the North, the South and the West of Wales, that it often happens that Welsh persons are compelled by sheer necessity to address each other in the English tongue rather than Welsh, in order to be able to understand each other. There is no authority, other than mere tradition, for the alleged cause of the difference between Bishop Richard Davies and Salesbury. As to the statement that it was regarded as providential " inasmuch as it served to prepare the way for a less pedantic and a more popular version," no scholar and no man acquainted with the facts would have made such a statement. William Salesbury a pedant ! He was truly the great scholar of the whole group, the man to whom the Welsh are really indebted. His claims to the attention of the historian are second to none. Salesbury was of German descent, but the date and place of his birth, and the date and place of his burial, are unknown. He was conversant with nine languages, besides English and Welsh. His style was not due to ignorance either of Welsh, Greek or Hebrew. He was a rare scholar, and especially was he a Hebrician, " whereof there were not many in those days." His great aim was to make the translation exact and intelligent even to the simple. For this reason he retained in compound words their root forms, thus making them self-interpreting, and drew out other words more fully than they were ordinarily spoken, to show their etymological growth, but not necessarily to be read aloud. He therefore distinguished between the spoken and the literary forms, by printing the former in Black Letter, and the latter in Roman type. There was no standard that they could adopt. The Welsh of the North differed from the Welsh of the South, and in view of the different terms often used in the North and the South of Wales, Salesbury placed in the margin corres- ponding, if not always simpler, words to make the meaning clear. By so doing he has greatly enriched the Welsh THE TRANSLATION OF THE BIBLE INTO WELSH 69 vocabulary, and has done as much for the language as for the religion of Wales. His method was only formed by him with a definite purpose, and in view of the peculiar conditions of that primitive stage of Welsh prose and literature. As to the introduction of so many English and foreign words when W'elsh ones were available, it should be borne in mind the extent to which such words had already been introduced by the Welsh bards and other writers, in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, not only as to technical but also as to other matters. This was more marked in the South of Wales than in the North. Of the five thousand five hundred words given in Salesbury's Dictionary, it has been " calculated that one thousand two hundred bear the marks of comparatively recent introduction from the prevailing speech of the English people." 1 It has been justly observed that Salesbury stands out as one of the greatest benefactors of the Christianity and the lan- guage of Wales. Mr. Herbert Vaughan has pointed out 2 that Bishop Morgan's task was far less difficult of performance than the work undertaken by Bishop Richard Davies and Salesbury. Not only did Morgan enter into the labours of these two pioneers, but on all hands he received sympathy and help — financial and clerical. Of Dr. Gabriel Goodman, first Dean of Westminster, in whose house Morgan stayed while he was preparing his translation, he says, " He assisted me by his labours and advice." Morgan also acknowledges his obligation to Dr. Richard Davies. There were also con- cerned in the former Dr. David Powell and Archdeacon Prys, etc., persons whose great skill in the original lan- guages no one ever thought of calling in question. 3 The truth is, that too much credit has been given to Bishop Morgan, and too little to Richard Davies, and especially 1 See " Welsh in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries," by Ivor James, in the Red Dragon, 1887. * See "The Translation of the Welsh Bible," in the Church Quarterly Review, vol. lx., 46 (1905). 3 The Bible in Wales, p. 2 1 . 70 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY to William Salesbury. As Sir John Wynn of Gwydir 1 says : " He had the benefit and the help of Bishop Davies and William Salesbury's work who had done a great part thereof, yet he covered the name of all." With regard to the statement of the writer in question, viz. : " While Dr. Richard Davies, the Bishop of St. David's, was alone sufficiently versed in the Greek and Hebrew languages to be competent for the task " (p. 166), taking a charitable view of his case, it may be confidently stated that the writer exceeds his authority, and, more than probable, his knowledge. Indeed, he quotes no au- thority, and his own is not sufficient for educated persons. The Bishop of Hereford at the time of the passing of Elizabeth's Act was John Scory. Something has been said about Scory's record. He has been called a time- server, a money-lender, and an avaricious man. True, in some respects he was not an ideal bishop. During his Hereford episcopate the Queen induced him to surrender to the Crown nine or ten of the best manors belonging to the See, and to receive in exchange advowsons and other less valuable possessions. It is possible that Scory thought more of his own interests than of the interests of his suc- cessors ; possibly he found it more than difficult to decline to accede to the request of the too persuasive Queen. His gift to the Queen at the New Year, 1561-2, was £10, in demi-sovereigns, in a green silk purse, the Queen giving a gilt cup with a cover weighing i8£ ounces. These presents appear to have been repeated annually. On December 24th, 1566, he with other prelates subscribed a letter to the Queen " beseeching her majesty that the bill concerning the uniformity be not stayed." He was accused of being a money-lender. He was mixed up in that revolting affair, the burning of Joan Bacher for heresy, The unfortunate woman suffered on May 2nd, 1550, on which occasion Scory preached. The young King Edward has recorded in his journal that she " resiled the preacher who preached at her death," saying that he " lied " like a rogue, and ought to read the Bible. (Strype's Memorials, II, i, 335.) In 1 See History of the Gioydir Family, p. 96. THE TRANSLATION OF THE BIBLE INTO WELSH 71 November, 1551, he and Elizabeth his wife obtained a royal license to eat flesh in Lent and other fasting days. In February, 155 1-2, he was appointed a commissioner for the revision of the ecclesiastical laws. Respecting the place and method of his early education we have no information, but that he was a scholar and a man of great ability, it is clear. He really stands out as the most capable, interesting and distinguished of the five bishops to whom Elizabeth's Act applied. The statement that he was ninety years old when he died, is probably an error, although his age was undoubtedly great. " Not only was he the survivor of all Edward the Sixth's bishops, but he outlived all but two of the original set of Eliza- bethan prelates. We surmise that he also survived all the other members of the old conventual establishments in the country." 1 Scory became a friar in the Dominicans' house at Cam- bridge about 1530, signing the surrender on its suppression in 1538. In 1539 he proceeded to the degree of B.D., under a grace setting forth that he had for nine years studied the sacred faculty there. On the refoundation of the Church of Canterbury by chapter eight, April, 1541, he became one of the six preachers in that cathedral. This preferment he owed to Archbishop Cranmer. He was, about May, 1550, made examining chaplain to Ridley, Bishop of London. He was appointed to the bishopric of Rochester on the 26th of April, 1551. On the 23rd of May, 1552, he was translated to the bishopric of Chichester in conse- quence of the deprivation of Dr. George Day. On the 4th of June following a royal license was granted to Scory to preach and to authorize others to preach within his diocese. On the accession of Queen Mary, Scory was deprived of the bishopric of Chichester, whereto Dr. Day was restored. Scory was one of the party who circulated copies of Archbishop Cranmer's declaration against the Mass, the same having been given to him by Cranmer merely for his consideration, and not with a view to publication. 1 Sec Dictionary of National Biography. H 72 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY He submitted himself to Dr. Bonner, Bishop of London, renounced his wife, did penance and was absolved, taking out a license under Bonner's seal, date 14th of July, 1554, w T hereby he was empowered to exercise his ecclesiastical and pastoral functions in and throughout the diocese. Scory escaped to the Continent, residing first in Wesel and latterly at Emden in Friesland, where he became superintendent of the English congregation, and where he WTote, in 1555, his " Comfortable Epistle unto all the faithful that be in prison." After Elizabeth's accession Scory returned to England, and we find him preaching at Court in February, 155S-9. He was one of the Pro- testant divines appointed to dispute on doctrinal points with the leading Roman Catholic prelates and clergy at Westminster on March 31st, 1559. On March 3rd, 1559-60, he preached before a great audience at the Court, and on the 10th at St. Paul's, before the Lord Mayor and Aldermen. Scory formed a link with the past too powerful to be ignored and too valuable to be lost. He was one of the first bishops nominated by Queen Elizabeth, becoming Bishop of Hereford on July 15th, 1559. Scory died at Whitbourne, and was buried there, 1586. His works are : — 1. The Declaration of the Devayre done at Mallta, with and for the delyverance of the Kynges Letters, A.D. 1553. MS. Harl, 283, p. 100. 2. An Epistle wTytten by John Scory to the late bishope of Chicester unto all the faythfull that be in pryson in Englande, or in any other troble for the defence of Goddes truthe : etc. 3. Two bokes of the noble doctor and B. S. Augustine, th one entiteled of the predestinacion of saintes ; th other of perseverance unto th ende ; whereunto are annexed the determinacions of two anncient generall councelles, confermyng the doctrine taught in these bokes, by S. Augustine : all faythfully translated out of Laten into Englyshe, by John Scory, the late B. of Checester, very necessary for al tymes, but namely for oures, wherein the papistes THE TRANSLATION OF THE BIBLE INTO WELSH 73 and anabaptistes have revived agayne the wycked opinions of the Pelagians, that extolled mans wyll and merites agayst the fre grace of Christe. . . . Svo, n.d. 4. Blessed Cyprian Martr his sermon of Mortalitie, or the willing forsaking of this life (2) his exhortation to keep and endure the faith of Christ, &c. Trans- lated by John Scory, exile. . . . Svo, 1556. 5. Sermon at St. Paul's cathedral at the obsequies of Henry II King of France 9 Sept. 1559. Abstract in Strype's Annals, i, 129. 6. Letters. Several have been printed. 1 The Bishop of Bangor during the period covered by the year 1562 was Rowland Meyrick, a native of Bodorgan, Anglesey. He was consecrated Bishop of Bangor at Lam- beth Palace on December 21st, 1559, by Archbishop Parker, assisted by three other bishops who had been exiles in the reign of Mary. Meyrick presided over the See of Bangor for six years ; he died in 1565. He was succeeded by Archdeacon Robinson, who was Archdeacon of Monmouth, in 1562. He was consecrated Bishop of Bangor, October 20th, 1566 ; he became chap- lain to Archbishop Parker at the accession of Elizabeth. Robinson was regarded as an accomplished scholar, and often preached in St. Paul's in " time of Parleament." He died February 3rd, 1584 ; that is, four years before the publication of Bishop Morgan's version. Robinson was succeeded by Hugh Bellot. As to how much Greek and Hebrew Bellot knew, it will at once be seen when it is mentioned that he was a Cambridge scholar and one of the translators of the English Bible. It was a peculiarity of Bellot that he would on no account admit a female into his family. 2 He retained his own monastic austerities to the end. Bellot was translated to Chester in 1595, where he died in less than a year's time. He was buried in the chancel of Wrexham Church. 1 See Athenae Cantabrigiensis, vol. I, 1500-1585, pp. 511-14. Also History of the Diocese of Hereford, by Chancellor Phillpott, and Some Notes on Hereford Cathedral and See (Bell's Series). J See Royal Tribes of Wales, p. 22. 74 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY In his Latin dedication of the Welsh Bible to Queen Elizabeth, Bishop Morgan gives — " The names of those who have more especially endeavoured to promote this work : The Rev. Fathers the Bishops of St. Asaph and Bangor, who have both of them lent the books I asked for, and have condescended to examine, weigh, and approve of the work." The Bishop of Bangor here referred to was Hugh Bellot, and the Bishop of St. Asaph to whom he refers was William Hughes (1573-1601). It is certain that Hughes, in the late years of his episcopate, had to bear his share in the heavy expense of the publication of the Welsh Bible. The Bishop of St. Asaph from 1561 to 1573 was Thomas Davies. The Bishop of Llandaff was Anthony Kitchin, alias Dunstan ; he died 1563, about the time the Act authorizing the translation of the Bible into Welsh was passed. The See was vacant for three years, when Hugh Jones, LL.D., Prebendary of Llandaff, was appointed and elevated in the year 1556. He was the first Welshman preferred to this See for three hundred years. He was an educated man ; he died in 1574. It seems remarkable at first sight to find so large a pro- portion of English names actively and immediately con- cerned in the translation of the Bible into Welsh — a movement so entirely Cymric. To a Scotsman — John Ross — belongs the credit of being the printer of Peter Williams's commentary, the publication of which extended over four years — 1767-1770. Ross taught himself the Welsh language, and he became an extensive printer and publisher of Welsh books. His career extended over a long time ; the earliest appearance of his imprint is 1763, and it occurs as late as 1807. He was also the printer of two other issues of Peter Williams's Bible — those of 1779- 1781, and 1797-96. l Before the issue of this Bible no systematic commentary in Welsh on the whole Bible had appeared. In order that the reader may be able to further appreciate the part played by outside cultural elements in the evolutionary process of Welsh development, we must pass 1 See The Bible in Wales (1906), p. 48. THE TRANSLATION OF THE BIBLE INTO WELSH 75 under review the first attempt at a free circulation of the Bible in Wales. This was done by the Rev. Thomas Gouge, an English clergyman, who, in the year 1674, devoted his energies to that purpose. Gouge was a Nonconformist turned out of his living in 1662, but did not, however, form a Nonconformist congregation afterwards. The Bishop of Llandaff, at the time Gouge came to South Wales as an evangelist and philanthropist, cited him as an unlicensed preacher. Gouge called on the bishop and exhibited his university license, which was good for the whole kingdom. The bishop was friendly, but neverthe- less, on Gouge's failure to appear to the citation, he issued a decree of excommunication. Gouge hurried back to Wales, promised to preach no more, and made his peace. At a later period, however, he obtained a license to preach from the Welsh bishops. 1 This noble Englishman spent his own money, raised subscriptions, distributed thousands of books and established hundreds of free schools. About forty had been founded in the days of the Commonwealth, his object being to teach Welsh children to read and write English, and to give them a knowledge of religion. Gouge thus served two ends : he helped in the dissemination of knowledge among the commonalty, and he fostered among the Welsh a taste for reading Welsh books by providing the aged poor with free religious books, in the standardized language of Dr. Morgan. Gouge had the co-operation of Dr. Tillotson, first Dean and afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury, and Dr. Stillingfleet, and many others. According to the funeral sermon of Gouge, preached by Dr. Tillotson, by the exertions of Gouge and those who assisted him, there were every year over eight hundred, sometimes a thousand, poor children educated. The voluntary society which they formed in 1674 had but a brief existence ; but another society was founded in 1698, called ' The Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge." That was eighteen years after the death of Gouge in 1680. There were three Welshmen members of the committee — Sir John Phillipps, Picton Castle, 1 See Dictionary of National Biography. 76 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY Pembrokeshire, Sir Humphrey Mackworth and Dr. John Evans, then Bishop of Bangor. Those who desire to acquaint themselves with the services rendered to Wales at this critical period — 1698-1730 — by the Anglican Church, have only to consult the records of this society. Besides distributing religious books in both Welsh and English, printing Bibles, and bestowing them upon the poor, providing free libraries in various parishes, with four central libraries in each diocese, a system of free schools was established, many of which were subsequently endowed. Here we have the beginning of popular education in Wales. By popular education, I mean, the first systematic attempt at introducing the art of reading and writing, the first attempt at giving the people a taste for learning, to penetrate their mind with intelligence, to create a community of feeling and interest, to give the people knowledge, and the power that knows knowledge — intelligence. There were as many as 1,850 Welsh children in the three hundred schools founded by Gouge and his co-workers. Can the Welsh historian point to any period when money was better invested, when energy was put to better use, or when patriotism was worthier of the name ? I regard it as the very substratum of Welsh development — the very sign and promise of the latter- day glory. CHAPTER IV THE PROGRESSIVE ASPECT OF THE WELSH INTELLECT The foregoing observations have not been made with a view of disparaging the Welsh, but in order to show how numerous and far-reaching have been the crucial actions that have sprung from sources outside Wales itself. I know of no attempt at placing this aspect of Welsh civilization in its true perspective. It is a side — and a very- substantial side — of Welsh development ; but the Welsh have been unwilling to inquire into it, and would, probably, be loath to consider it, as having any real bearing upon the modern national movement. It is a striking fact that in all Welsh computations of the forces that have operated in the making of the modern life of Wales, we hear very little (generally speaking, nothing) as to the innumerable benefits that have accrued to Wales through the Annexation, Parliamentary interference, the investment of English capital, and the stimulus that men of foreign birth have given, and are giving, to the develop- ment of the mineral resources of the country, and to the improvement of the means of communication, which have done so much towards diminishing the innate hostility of the Welsh towards everything English. It is because there is no form of Welsh contemporary history in which the formative influence of external forces — Parliamentary, industrial, scholastic, democratic and scientific— have found any adequate expression, or even a passing thought, in the national consciousness, that I have considered it necessary to make an attempt, however 77 yS THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY feeble, to bring it within the grasp of the Welsh intellect. The point possesses a significance which cannot be over- estimated, for the reason that Wales has just been born, not into the end, but into the beginning of her new era. There could be no study more useful or opportune for a Welshman at the present moment, when self-glorifica- tion has become a cult, than to compare the relative place of the native and foreign elements in the development of Welsh life and thought. A healthier intellectual exercise for them in these days of transition it would be impossible to conceive. It would tend to correct their racial prejudices and vainglorious assumptions, to restrain the segregating tendencies of Welsh nationalism, to increase their respect for a culture other than their own, a culture to which their civilization is so very largely indebted ; and, not least, to diminish their antagonism to everything foreign by a diffusion of a more generous view of our common nature. With this object in view, and this object alone, the subject has been treated in the last chapter, and will be further developed in this. No Western nation has ever been able to work out its own economic or intellectual redemption solely in virtue of its own internal character. Among Eastern nations, China, ancient Egypt, Turkey and India, may be cited as exceptions. They present the nearest approach to the condition of inherent development. It is, however, reasonable to suppose that the influence of Christian missionaries — men of knowledge, courage, and power — has not been entirely fruitless in those countries. They have, for generations, familiarized the minds (only an infinitesimal remnant, it is true) of the population with Western habits of thought ; and the Western commercial man, who invariably follows in the wake of the missionary, has prepared them for the reception of those physical and scientific discoveries which have played so great a part in Western civilization. When the Welsh were left to take care of themselves, the people were, to use the language of Burke, " ferocious, restive, savage, and uncultivated, sometimes composed, THE PROGRESSIVE ASPECT OF THE WELSH INTELLECT 79 never satisfied." In so far as Wales is a nation, it was the Act of Union that made nationhood possible. In consider- ing the progress of the people as a whole, it is impossible to escape the conclusion that their real progress began when foreign influences set in motion the larger forces of national civilization — forces which, in the hands of the Welsh themselves, were but of little avail. Welshmen complain that they have been misunderstood and underrated. Judged by their intellectual achieve- ments, they have not been underrated. They have been misunderstood, due chiefly to their traditional policy of dreaming and wasting away their existence in an idle solitude, flattering their own vanity by cultivating a sense of unwarranted moral superiority over other nations — nations equally religious when religion is interpreted as touching morals, when it is taken to cover conduct (not merely feeling) and all that appertains to conduct. The lesson of history is, that the closer the contact between nations, especially between nations differing so materially in their civilization as the Welsh and the English, the more they are likely to rub off each other's angularities, and to divest themselves of their mutual antipathies. Modern France and modern England are, probably, the best examples of the value of personal contact. There is certainly a more favourable view of Welsh qualities being diffused through English society. This improved relation- ship is the greatest justification for the Act of Union, and the political advantages that have accrued from it. This solitary misanthropic spirit which has been brood- ing for so long over real and fancied wrongs, exaggerating every disability, losing itself in the void of thought that lies beyond, aggravated by racial divisions and vindictive controversies over non-essentials, has cost the Welsh dearly. It goes far to explain their failure, even in the days of their independence, to establish any political institutions, or to found any science, or to impress their language upon the rest of the world. As G. P. March, in his Origin of the English Language, says : " We may safely say that though the primitive 80 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY language of Britain has contributed to the English a few names of places, and of familiar material objects, yet it has, upon the whole, affected our vocabulary, and our syntax, far less than any other tongue with which the Anglo-Saxon race has ever been brought widely into contact. I might go too far in saying that we have bor- rowed, numerically, more words from the followers of Mohammed than from the aborigines of Britain ; but it is very certain that the few we have derived from the distant Arabic are infinitely more closely connected with us than the somewhat greater number which we have taken from the contiguous Keltic." Indeed, the Welsh intellect has not been the vehicle of any great or permanent idea ; it has not been capable of any real artistic effort. In the region of art it is still in a semi-barbaric state. It has not the instinct of fact, or the faculty of proportion, or of seeing and presenting things as they really are. Even in its present temper, which is a curious amalgam of romanticism and democracy, it is still incapable of an audacious idea ; hovering between the two worlds, hardly knowing which course to take, ever savouring of the flatterer and the charlatan. Its psychological insight is poor, as are its powers of artistic characterization. It is largely incapable of thinking in abstract terms, and cannot go far without the aid of illustrations and concrete symbols. Hence it is that Welsh literature inclines more to concrete realities than to the epic or philosophic. This accounts for the phenomenon that the very few artists of distinction that Wales has produced have been landscape artists. When we come to the departments of architecture and design, which are closely connected with the mechanical appliances, we find no phenomenon of real originality. The same may be said of the younger sisters of architec- ture — painting and sculpture. In vain do we look in these directions for the index of the life and activity which the people have displayed in the delineative arts. The place of the historian in the culture-evolution of the Welsh people is small. With a few notable exceptions, THE PROGRESSIVE ASPECT OF THE WELSH INTELLECT 8l such as Stephens's Literature of the Kymry (1849), there is nothing dealing with Welsh history which bears the imprimatur of a high rigorous critical spirit. It would not be possible to over-estimate the value of The Welsh People, by Sir John Rhys and Sir David Brynmor Jones, M.P. The History of Wales from the Earliest Times to the Edwardian Conquest (1912), by Professor J. E. Lloyd, has been well received. A similar compliment might be justly paid to a work on Christianity in Early Britain, by the late Rev. Dr. Hugh Williams, of Bala. But Wales has no historian of the standing or calibre of Dr. Arnold, Froude, Freeman, William Stubbs (Bishop of Oxford), and Buckle — all masters in the art of history. There is no scarcity of annalists, chroniclers, and bio- graphers all convinced of the assured immortality of their subjects. Thousands of persons have found a place in Welsh biographical and historical literature whose history, to quote the saying of Dollinger, might be com- prised in the words : " He was born, became a lawyer, or a minister, or a journalist, married, and died." Not one in a hundred of the literary productions of Welshmen deserves to see the light of day ; Wales has not a single master of socio-historical exposition, and not a single sociological work worthy of consideration. There has been no scientific attempt at giving an anatomy of the Welsh, or at tracing the development of Welsh ideas. The science of character is part of the science of history. Scarcely anything has been done to discover the principles that have governed and guided the destiny of the people. For all the purposes of human thought, and for the guidance of European scholars, Welsh historical literature, with the few exceptions already mentioned, is almost meaningless. When controversy exists, particularly if it be politico- religious in character, it is impossible to get at the bed- rock of truth, through the assertions, metaphors and the superstructure of fancy, heaped up together indiscrimin- ately by loud-mouthed orators and fawning literary sycophants, who prefer eulogies to truth, and who invent history to please themselves and the particular political 82 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY constituencies whose goodwill they are so assiduously cultivating. The Welsh intellect is unhistoric, for the reason that it is essentially uncritical, and not sufficiently disciplined to be brought within the scope of scientific law. It lacks the qualities of originality, comprehensiveness and in- tellectual boldness. It is deficient in that inquisitive and incredulous spirit which is always the precursor of all high and solid intellectual improvement. It has too much regard for tradition, for old notions and dogmas, and too much fear of standing opinions. It is the normal way of things literary in Wales to repeat the normal thing, and to credit what has been racially credited. The ordinary Welsh historian or biographer has no security to offer the world for his good faith. He goes into history to prove his theories, or to verify some dogma, tradition, idea, or political prejudice by which he has been obsessed. Theories, no more than philosophies, subsist in order to be adopted. History that is made personal, or sectarian, or purely political, is not history. Men who write history for political or sectarian purposes, or who consciously eschew the pathless borderland, and all the areas of unsettled thought and disputed fact, for fear of offending racial, political, or denominational sensibilities, or who write as advocates of preconceived ideas and systems, have no claim to the title of historians or classical biographers. It may be stated in general that Welsh historic science is not so much science as Welsh — unreliable and avowedly partisan. The Welsh intellect has not been trained, and it is not now being popularly trained, in the historic process. Mr. Alfred Wallace, in his very interesting book, This Wonderful Century, estimates that the nineteenth century has made greater advances in science, both theoretical and applied, than all the centuries of the past put together. It may also be stated that the human reason has, since the Reformation, marvellously developed its penetrating and exploring power. The old sciences— among them the science of history — have made astonishing progress, and THE PROGRESSIVE ASPECT OF THE WELSH INTELLECT 83 some new sciences — the science of sociology among them — have arisen. This new body of learning, like other new sciences, is at present in a confused, amorphous state. But in the advance of these sciences we see how vigorously, and with what success, the method of inductive reasoning is being applied in the discovery and interpretation of the countless facts of life, and what flood of light is being thrown backward on to the beliefs of former generations, and the real history of the human race. Herein is the source of the new critical spirit which is being manifested towards the supernatural side of religion and the whole phenomena of life. History is becoming more realistic : there is a growing preference for facts over myth, fable and imaginative narration. Theories are practically discredited, and hypotheses are only accepted on sufferance and with suspicion, even in cases when a hypothesis only provisionally explains or correlates a group of facts. The influence of this new spirit is increas- ingly felt, not only among scholars and reading people, but the general mind of the world has been affected by it. The Welsh intellect, on the contrary, does not seem to be able to keep pace with the aggregate intellect of the world in its mental phases. What it seems to need is a greater diffusion of that sceptical spirit by which, as Buckle says, ' in France as well as in England, toleration was pre- ceded." The controlling principle, generally speaking, in Welsh historical matters, has been a blind and obstinate credulity. Hence, the constant repetition of common- place and hackneyed ideas that have been, like stamps, in circulation for generations. Taking the Aristotelian view of the idea of development, a view which was revived and deepened by Hegel, viz., that development means the unfolding of what has already a potential existence, we cannot expect much from Wales in this direction, for the reason that the scientific element does not seem to be a constitutive element of the Welsh intellect. A highly credulous people are never an inquiring people, and the greatest historic intellects are the sceptical intellects. The Welsh pride themselves that there is not a single 84 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY sceptical book in the vernacular. This, unfortunately, is true. I say, unfortunately, because, without the spirit of inquiry, without the courage to sift facts, and to separate what is mythical from what is true, the historic spirit is impossible. It shows how the Welsh mind has been satisfied with what knowledge it has possessed, and with those theological opinions the origin and basis of which it has never been at pains to examine. Students who are acquainted with Welsh sermonic literature know with what horror and aversion the Welsh mind has regarded opinions contrary to those it has inherited by tradition. It cannot very properly be said that such a state of mind has advanced far beyond the stage of primitive credulity. Ministers of religion have never really cultivated the love of inquiry at first hand, for the reason that they consider it dangerous ; and when doubt intervenes it is invariably taken as a symptom of scepticism, and scepticism they confound with atheism. Anything that troubles cherished beliefs is discouraged. Wales is a dangerous place for an independent thinker. This freedom-loving people has not yet grasped the prin- ciple of individual liberty in thought and action. A Welsh writer who seeks to win applause must prostrate his judgment and venerate everything that is popularly venerated. He must make the Established Church the sole object of his hostility, Nonconformity the sole object of his admiration, and Welsh nationalism the embodiment of the highest form of intellectual morality and patriotism. Above all, he must swear his allegiance to the orthodox doctrine of the immaculate conception of Mr. Lloyd George. If a writer seeks to purge Welsh history of its sophistry, Welsh politics of its hypocrisy, Welsh national- ism of its superstitious vanity, his motives will be impugned, his knowledge of Welsh history stigmatized, his right to speak for Wales questioned, and even his moral integrity assailed. Merit is measured by the standard commonly received ; when such a standard is adopted, the dross is considered of more value than the gold. The more a Welsh writer seeks to strengthen ancient prejudices, the THE PROGRESSIVE ASPECT OF THE WELSH INTELLECT 85 more he enhances the prospects of his own popularity. If his instincts are independent, and he has the courage to express thoughts in his own way and to discriminate between what is historically false and historically true, he must veil his meaning in mystical language. His know- ledge he must take at second hand ; his facts he must class, define, interpret, and circulate, according to pre- scribed formulas. He who endeavours to discuss current questions, or commanding personalities, on their pure merits, does it at his peril. One frequently comes across inspired paragraphs giving a list of books Englishmen and Welshmen should read — all emanating from the orthodox fraternity. Some of them even write anonymously in praise of their own works. This is not an uncommon practice among Welshmen. Such is the civilization of Welsh literary culture. For his reward, the independent writer must look within himself and to the future, when the prejudices of the present will have passed or dimin- ished, and the outlook is more elevated. There are un- mistakable signs that the Welsh mind, as it progresses, is regaining something of that ferocity which characterized it of old. It is becoming less tolerant and less conciliatory : defiant, aggressive, and selfish, concentrating its thoughts upon itself, and intoxicated with the exuberance of the ignorant adulation that it receives. Further, the weakness of the Welsh historic sense is manifest not only in the region of literary activity and research, but exhibits the same symptoms in the sphere of natural science, in the observation, collection and classification of ascertainable facts and details, in the investigation of the physical laws which connect them, and in the recognition of their unity and diversity. So it is in the domain of geographical science — the science which embraces history, ethnography and geography — hitherto regarded as separate, though parallel, studies. In vain do we look for any symptoms of the progress of the Welsh intellect in the higher mathematics. Wales is commercializing herself, and the science of mathematics is by no means unimportant to a commercial community. 86 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY Apart from morals and aesthetics, what we do and what we are may be said finally to rest on the achievements of mathematicians. We may even regard modern mathe- matics as a philosophy, for it seeks to form its conclusions, and to make known its definitions, by investigation ; it explains the mental processes involved. The science of mathematics is fast developing into a branch of the science of psychology. Among those European mathematicians, most of whom, we have been recently told, are under forty years of age, and who are conducting their investigations with this philosophical view of mathematics, in vain do we search for the name of a single Welshman. Similar criticism might be applied to the activities of the Welsh intellect in the domain of theology, the sciences of law, medicine, psychology, philology, philosophy, and political science. In these branches the Welsh intellect counts for very little, and in most of them for nothing at all. The Welsh University does not give us much hope of any improvement. Welsh University Colleges are fast degenerating into mere local academies for the supply of teachers for Welsh elementary and high-grade schools. The prime object seems to be to popularize these institu- tions — to give what is termed " democratic education." While it is a popular policy, it is not a good one. Such a policy will avail nothing in the acquisition and cultivation of the Welsh historic sense. No real high scholarship can be expected. The true policy is to raise rather than to lower the university standard, to restrict the institutions rather than to make them more democratic. Wales has no record worthy of attention in mechanical contrivances, or in inventions for the saving of time and of human labour. There has been no advance towards creative effort in the sphere of the sciences, such as physics, chemistry and engineering, or in classical study. There is still great deficiency in the means provided for the advance- ment of scientific education, or real classical learning. Notwithstanding her University system, and her general scheme of education, which some foolish Welshmen claim to be the best in the world, Wales is still under the reproach THE PROGRESSIVE ASPECT OF THE WELSH INTELLECT 87 of being without high scholarship, or a learned class, i.e., a class of men who are devoting their energies to the pursuit and extension of knowledge. Those who are considered scholars are either Englishmen, or Germans, or Welshmen who have gained their knowledge and infor- mation in England and abroad, and who have breathed the intellectual atmosphere of Europe. There is not a single Welshman that stands at the highest point that the knowledge of the age allows — not one profound scholar on whose judgment in a disputed point general confidence would be reposed, or who could be ranked with those Scotsmen or Englishmen who have been distinguished for these faculties. Except Sir John Rhys, there is no one who has created a reputation for the Welsh intellect in the department of philology. There is no man who, by the force of his genius, has created a school of thought, or who has raised up a body of pupils, ready to defend him and to propagate his influence — no one who has given us a new view, or a new theory, of anything. Wales, priding herself as the most Celtic of all the Celtic countries, has done less than any other country for Celtic scholarship. The German intellect, with its keenness for analytical research, has done more for Celtic studies than has been done by the Celtic people themselves. The best text-book on Dafydd ap Gwilym is in German, and the best text-book on the Black Book of Carmarthen is in French. It is officially and publicly admitted that the staffs of the Welsh colleges have not, as yet, contributed anything to research in the various departments with which the colleges are connected. Not a single Welsh professor in Wales, with the exception of Sir Edward Anwyl, Professor J. E. Lloyd, Professor J. Morris Jones, Professor Witton Davies, and Professor Stanley Roberts, has done anything worthy of consideration. If the Welsh are asked why they have not accomplished much in archaeology, in mineralogy, or in philology, the answer is, " Want of money." If they are asked why a nation reputed to be so musical has not produced a single 88 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY composer whose name counts in England or on the Continent, the answer is, " Want of University training" ; but not a single Welsh musical composer who has achieved any sort of reputation in the Principality ever had a University training. When the Welsh are asked why they have not done much in Welsh literature, their own special heritage, it is again attributed to want of money. The truth is, that Welsh knowledge of old Welsh history has been at a standstill for the last fifty years. Welsh Univer- sity Colleges not only do no research work, but do not teach the method of research. Too much energy is devoted to supplying the Welsh world with purveyors of ready- made learning. It is a curious psychological fact that in those spheres where the capacity of the Welsh intellect is more generally and evenly distributed among the people, there it does not, or cannot, specialize or achieve distinction ; and in the one or two departments where a few isolated Welshmen have distinguished themselves, the qualities which they have revealed, and the aspect of genius which they have mani- fested, are qualities and aspects of genius not common to the aggregate intellect of the people. The love of song and the aptitude for song are natural to the Welsh ; it is very generally diffused; but this song-loving nation has not yet produced one musical composer of distinction, and in orchestral music it is still in its infancy. The imagina- tive quality is a quality common to the people, so common that it has been the greatest enemy of Welsh veracity ; but there is no Welsh art, and there are no Welsh artists. The Welshman's imagination has brought him and his country into all sorts of difficulties, but it has brought him no distinction. The poetic instinct is a strong Welsh instinct ; the zest for poetry, though less fervent than it was, has been a characteristic of young and old alike. There has been abundance of it in the pulpit with prose sermons as vehicles ; but the Welsh have yet to produce a great poet able to arrest the attention of the world. The same may be said of philosophy : there is plenty of the rough ore distributed through Welsh literature, but THE PROGRESSIVE ASPECT OF THE WELSH INTELLECT 89 it has never been accumulated, and has not, as yet, em- bodied itself in the personality of a great Welsh philosopher of the standing or of the capacity of Mill, Adam Smith, Hume, Reid, or Locke. No people have wasted so much of their energies on theology and theological subjects as the Welsh. The native literature is full of it, and the Welsh preachers, until recently, have been altogether obsessed by it ; yet, in no enlightened country is the science of theology in a more backward state. There are hundreds of Welsh theologians who stand on an imaginary eminence, and who are inflated by a fancied superiority. But the science of theology is unknown among the Welsh. In what direction does the Welsh general intellect show any special aptitude ? Before answering this question, it is necessary to further observe that we cannot measure the range or quality of the national intellect by the achievements of a few outstanding men in the nation, who may or may not have descended from the race to which the nation belongs. The more the history of Wales is studied, the more completely will this be verified. The state of a nation's culture or the degree or variety of its acquisitions, is not necessarily reflected by isolated geniuses. Such geniuses may represent no essential feature in the organic development of the people. They may not represent any quality common to the people, whether immanent or operative. There may, and often does, exist, varying degrees of culture, or acquisition, within the nation. Certain elements may be progressive, some stationary, others reactionary. There may also be varying degrees of culture and of opinion among the most progressive section in the nation. There may be develop- ment even when the whole body of the nation does not move together. But the fundamental character of a nation, or its peculiar mentality, cannot be argued from exceptional cases. It is a fallacy to suppose that exceptional men, or great men, are only an enlarged edition of the average type. They may be, and in most cases are, both in the quality and the motive of their mind, the very antithesis of the average 90 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY citizen. Extraordinary men must not be judged as if they were merely extraordinary examples of the ordinary qualities characterizing the people, or the race to which they belong. Extraordinary men differ in kind rather than in degree. They do differ in both respects, but chiefly in the quality and composition of their intellect. Rather must we look for symptoms, or manifestations, of the genius of a people in the personalities that are responsible for the historical actions of the people, in the principles that are held in common by the people, in the maxims of morality and policy handed down from generation to generation by the people ; in their racial way of looking at things, in their customs and ideals, in the temperament which predominates among them, in the particular type of culture which exists, not as an abstraction, but as an element in the self-conscious life of the mass of the indi- vidual persons comprising the nation. No type of culture develops or unfolds itself in virtue of some inward energy of its own. The fact that John Gibson (1790-1866), admittedly the chief sculptor of his day and generation, was a Welshman, is no proof of the existence of this particular form of genius in the national intellect. Welshmen are frequently reminded that it was John Nash (1752-1835), a gentleman of Welsh extraction, who designed Regent Street, London, and the Haymarket Theatre, and who remodelled the Italian Opera House, the United Service Club House, Pall Mall, and All Souls' Church, Langham Place. Also that Owen Jones (1809- 1874) designed St. James's Hall and was director of the decorations of the Crystal Palace. But very little, if any, architectural taste do we find among the Welsh people. They lack the very constituents of art. Constant references are being made, in Welsh circles, by prominent Welsh representatives, and even by Welsh- men who claim to have been technically educated, to what they describe as an important " discovery "' by a " Welshman." The reference is to Sidney Gilchrist Thomas, who solved the problem of the elimination of THE PROGRESSIVE ASPECT OF THE WELSH INTELLECT 91 phosphorous from pig-iron, in order to make it suitable for the manufacture of steel. The presence of phosphorous made steel brittle, and therefore reduced its value. This " discovery " of Thomas proved of the greatest economic importance to Great Britain, Germany, and the United States of America. It brought about a revolution in the manufacture of iron and steel. It enabled the Germans to build up the present gigantic industrial structure, inasmuch as Germany, like Great Britain, had enormous deposits of cheap phosphoric iron ore. The result has been that the scientific capitalists of Germany have outstripped their British colleagues in the manufacture of steel. But, valuable as this contribution has been to this branch of chemistry, it cannot be called a " discovery," for the reason that it neither involved nor implied any new law of nature. It was an invention, a skilful adaptation of laws previously discovered. When considered under its scientific aspect, it is impossible to treat the application of laws previously known to new purposes as a " dis- covery." Other and more glaring instances could be adduced to show that if there is any special direction in which Welshmen need to be educated, it is in the use and value of words. Mr. Andrew Carnegie has been publicly asked in Wales to redeem his great debt to Wales and Welshmen, for the reason that, as it is claimed, " his fortune depended largely on one (Gilchrist Thomas's) of the greatest discoveries of the nineteenth century." But the fact is that Gilchrist Thomas was of mixed Welsh-Scottish descent, his father being Welsh, and his mother Scottish. He was born at Canonbury, North London, educated at Dulwich College, did not speak Welsh, and spent the whole of his life in London, excepting the time he spent at Cwmavon, Glamor- ganshire (where the noted Rio Tinto Copper Works were established), in the company of P. C. Gilchrist, who ren- dered Thomas great assistance in his work. Mr. Carnegie might retort, and not without reason, that it is more than probable that Thomas inherited his inventive genius from his mother rather than from his father. Such an invention 92 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY is far more in line with the Scottish than with the Welsh intellect, as the output of the two intellects clearly indicates. When we examine the national civilization of the Welsh in the light of their literature, what do we find ? I use the term literature in its primary sense — to cover every- thing that has been written. Literature is one of the forms in which the national intellect registers itself ; it is a depo- sitory of the thoughts of the people. What knowledge the people have accumulated and what culture they have acquired, we find in their national literature ; it is the mould in which such knowledge or such culture is cast. It is a cause as well as an effect of the civilization of the people. The character of the literature is a matter of great moment, for the reason that it reflects the life, the spirit, and even the knowledge of the people, and that it indicates the manner in which their knowledge has been stored and communicated. Of far greater moment, however, is the disposition of the people by whom the literature is read. If they do not know how to use and digest it, and by what standard to judge its merits, it cannot serve as an auxi- liary to their education. We cannot measure the value of the literature of a people by the quantity of books, periodi- cals or magazines which they have produced, any more than we can gauge the education of a man by the largeness of his library. Otherwise, Wales would, in comparison to her population, be entitled to rank among the most enlightened countries. Neither can we measure the know- ledge of the Welsh by their activity in education. I would not even measure their culture by this activity. There are but few nations who have, during their whole existence, thought and written. There have been great gaps in the literary life of Wales ; the longest being that of the seven- teenth century. What benefit Wales has received through her literature is due more to what such literature has preserved than to what it has created. Generally speaking, Welsh literature has been of practically little value to the world at large ; as an agent of general education, it does not count. THE PROGRESSIVE ASPECT OF THE WELSH INTELLECT 93 When we look into the older literature of Wales there is much that is attractive to the general mind, and it is a notable fact that this literature has been very successfully defended, more so in Wales than in Brittany, against the influence of foreign culture. Vast quantities of Welsh MSS. have been transmitted from the Middle Ages, which are preserved in the British Museum and other places, consisting of legends, triads, national proverbs, statutes, and superstitious fables. The mere fact that these literary productions of the tenth and five succeeding centuries should have been preserved, and especially having regard to the numerous wars in which the Welsh were engaged during the centuries, and the deplorable condition of the country owing to constant intestine warfare and law- lessness, is very remarkable. The character of this literature goes to show, notwithstanding the universal and almost tragic ignorance which characterize those times, that there were learned Welshmen who were inspired by the higher literary ideals. It is a matter for congratulation that the creation of a Welsh National Library located at Aberystwyth has at last removed one serious defect in connection with Welsh literature. It is the mission of this library to secure, preserve, also to make, these ancient MSS. accessible to those who wish to consult them for literary purposes. It is intended to supply a copy of every Welsh book ever printed, and every work in the English and other languages, on subjects relating to Wales. It is lamentable to think that cartloads of valuable manuscripts have been lost or destroyed in Wales during the last one hundred years, because they were scattered throughout the country, many of them being in possession of people who could not appreciate their value. Those who desire to obtain a fuller account of these remains of ancient lore may find it in the Myvyrian Archaiology, Stephens's Literature of the Kymry, and the publications of the Welsh MSS. Society. The Myvyrian Archaiology, which appeared in 1801, is a work of great value, both literary and historical. It was edited by Dr. Owen-Pughe, a Merionethshire man, 94 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY born 1759. Owen Jones (1741-1814), a well-to-do Lon- don furrier, who was associated with Dr. Owen-Pughe in financing the production of several of his works, did much by way of collecting and transcribing Welsh MSS. ; he left behind him over thirty thousand pages of prose and verse. But without the aid of Edward Williams (Iolo Morgannwg), the antiquarian part of their work, and con- sequently our present knowledge of Welsh MSS., could not have been secured. He was the admiration of learned English as well as Welsh ; and both Pughe and Jones should never be mentioned apart from him. Attempts have been made to depreciate the value of the part played by Iolo Morgannwg, on the plea " that Iolo's contribu- tion forms but a fraction of the whole, and that fraction the least ancient and least authentic." The best answer to this is contained in the tribute paid to him by Dr. Owen-Pughe himself : " For various communications and for assistance of the most valuable kind, I am indebted to another fellow-labourer in exploring the treasures of Cymric lore, my friend Edward Williams, the Bard of Glamorgan." There is another name that has been linked with the names of Dr. Owen-Pughe, Owen Jones and Iolo Mor- gannwg, in connection with this great collection of medi- aeval Welsh literature, that of Evan Evans (Ieuan Brydydd Hir), one of the founders of the study of Mediaeval Welsh. The name of Evan Evans was omitted from the title-page, but a large share of the honour of its execution belongs to him. There are also the tales known as the Mabinogion, fixed towards the twelfth century, which, in their ground- work, carry us back to the very remotest ages of the Cymric genius. They are from the " Llyfr Coch o Hergest," translated, with notes, by Lady Charlotte Guest, daughter of the ninth Earl of Lindsay, and published in three volumes, 1838-49. This is a form of narrative which is peculiar to, and characteristic of, the Welsh mind. It took eleven years to issue the work. These tales are divided into two classes, the first relating to Arthur, and connected THE PROGRESSIVE ASPECT OF THE WELSH INTELLECT 95 with Wales and Cornwall ; the second, which is of a more mythological character, and of greater antiquity, has for its scene the whole of Great Britain, and leads us back to the declining years of the Roman occupation. This literature of romance gives us the most vivid illustration of the quality and colour of the Cymric imagination. Its influence upon the poetic art of Europe in the twelfth century was great. It is worthy of note that this very curious literature, which is more romantic than lyric, should have remained unknown to the world until the early part of the nineteenth century. The cause is due partly to the scattered condition of the Welsh manuscripts ; partly to the fact that the Mabinogion never recommended themselves to the Saxon mind, for the mistaken reason that Arthur — who had become the exponent of Welsh nationality — -was considered to embody a spirit of patriotic resistance against the " alien." These manuscripts were pursued and suppressed for centuries, on the supposition that the fables contained elements of reality, and that their circulation would be calculated to foster and to bring to a focus the hatred of the Welsh against their conquerors. Lady Charlotte Guest's edition was based on the Oxford manuscript. She was refused access to the earlier manu- scripts, of which the Oxford manuscripts were only a copy, and several Welsh texts which were seen and copied in the early part of the nineteenth century have since disap- peared. On the face of it, it is inconceivable that the political ambitions and the racial dreams, or illusions, of an insignificant country like Wales, lying outside the path- way of nations and the highway of civilization, sparsely populated, without outward strength or resources, should appeal to the whole Continent of Europe, and actually penetrate to the very heart of mankind. This Cymric hero— Arthur — and the heroes within his cycle, play a purely mythological part. They represent the Cymric ideal in all its naturalness and simplicity, before it had been modified, as it has been modified, by external in- fluences. The permanent interest of these narratives lies in the fact that they constitute the highest manifestation 96 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY of the essentially romantic element which has played so large a part in Cymric life, and the highly productive nature of the Welsh genius in the realm of the imagination during that period. When we come down to later times, and more especially to the present, Welsh literature does not seem to possess that imaginative quality and spiritual ecstasy which dis- tinguished it in earlier times. Speaking generally, it contains very little that is of general interest or of per- manent value. This is not without its significance, es- pecially in view of the foolish claims made by a few loud- mouthed Welsh nationalists, namely, that " the Welsh system of education is the best in the world," and that ' there exists in Wales a higher standard of culture than in any country in Europe." One might be forgiven for charitably assuming that they do not really understand what culture and education mean. As to education, if a tithe of what was contained in the Report of the Welsh Department of the Board of Education, 1910, is well founded, the system should be recast. No such damaging criticism has been directed against Wales since the publi- cation of Baron Lingen's Report on the State of Morality and Education in the Principality in 1847. It is not the judgment of a few monoglot English barristers, but the studied and sober pronouncement of a National Depart- men whose officials are Welsh, and who are aware that on these reports future generations will estimate Welsh progress in education. With regard to culture, art is a means and a mark of culture, so is disciplined emotion, so is exactitude of thought and expression, so is the critical faculty, so is science and scientific criticism, so is refinement ; and by refinement I mean, comprehensively, the bringing to bear of reason, of judgment, and of a restrained imagination, upon things and qualities in such a way that men will see truer and finer elements in them than they could otherwise see — truer and finer than their native intelligence could see. In what department of Welsh life do we see any con- spicuous evidence of such refinement ? Not in the men who indulge in such foolish panegyrics from the platform of the THE PROGRESSIVE ASPECT OF THE WELSH INTELLECT 07 Eisteddfod, and on St. David's Day ; not in the Welsh pulpit ; on the contrary, the lack of this refinement partly explains the visible decline of the Welsh pulpit as an educative and as a progressive force. Scientific criticism is not only unknown among Welshmen generally, but discouraged and suppressed. The critical faculty, in so far as it applies to reasoning, is always stronger in an advanced than in a more backward civilization. In W T elsh circles, scientific criticism, even when it supplies something of a constructive character in place of what it takes away, is treated as a negation, and the few who cultivate it are branded as heretics, and as wanting in knowledge, patriotism, and ability. County education authorities invariably find, when they advertize posts demanding special scientific qualifications, that none among the Welsh candidates are qualified. That experience is general throughout Wales. The Welsh Industries Association is doing good work by way of cultivating a taste for what is good in art and handicraft among the Welsh. But the association needs to teach the lesson that art as a means of culture is as important as science, and that sterling workmanship is not only essential to but a sign of true culture. Any system of Welsh educa- tion that does not aim at the intellectualization of the Welsh emotion is fatally defective, in so far as the real cultivation of the people is concerned. To send out a mass of young men and women into the world, to occupy responsible positions in the Civil Service, in the teaching or legal profession, in the Church or in statecraft, with their emotions undisciplined and unrestrained, is bad for them- selves and bad for the State. Wales is now passing into the constructive period, and it is therefore essential that progress should proceed on sane and solid lines. Hence the necessity of keeping this excessive emotionalism under proper restraint, and of laying a durable foundation. In uncultivated and lowly developed countries, morals are divorced from religion, so that when they advance in the scale of civilization, they proceed recklessly. This has been the case in Wales. 98 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY What Wales needs at this stage of her progress is candid and constructive criticism. I know of no Welsh critic or literary man, in the real sense of the word, who has the power to originate, or who has attracted general attention for beauty of form as an imaginative writer. Wales is not represented in any worthy manner in the great literary world ; the national intellect seems to have thrown itself into the waste of denominational theology and poetic productions of an entirely local and evanescent character. It is remarkable that the imaginative aspect of the Welsh intellect, which is reputed to be so rich, fertile and varied, has been sadly impoverished in its own special department — the poetic and the dramatic. The golden age of Welsh poetry is far back in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, radiant with the consummate artistry of such a poet as Dafydd ap Gwilym. In the wake of the reli- gious awakening of the eighteenth century, there came into existence a mass of religious and descriptive poetry which emanated chiefly from the pulpit. It was pretty and f anci • ful, but not such as could be dignified by the name of high poetry. As to poetry of the present day, there is no mis- taking the fact that it is of a more superficial character than that of any other period. Wales has her poetic works in the lyric, the epic, the long poem and the ode, all lighted up by the glint of social life, passion, national sentiment and religious fervour, expressed in the main with a wonder- ful wealth of feeling ; but there is nothing which could be placed in the market worthy to be ranked with those of English and foreign poets. Welsh poetic literature has not directly played the same heavy part in the cultivation of Welsh moral life and mental equipment as the produc- tions of Wordsworth, Browning, and Tennyson in England. If we test its worth by its creative or prophetic gift, it is very poor indeed. It is not interpretation, but a mere echo of feeling and sentiment, without disciplined crafts- manship, and without that one great essential quality of high poetry, viz., redundant energy. For the poetry that is inspired by, and that seeks to express, the soul's direct vision of reality, the mystic poetry, the poetry that is the THE PROGRESSIVE ASPECT OF THE WELSH INTELLECT 99 crown of literature, the Welsh soul is apparently incapable of producing. " If all the poets of Wales," said the late Rev. Dr. Lewis Edwards, of Bala, " were rolled into one, they would not make a Milton." " Crowned ,; and "chaired" bards are still being produced at the Eistedd- fod, but a Welsh " chaired bard " is not necessarily a poet. Eisteddfodic poetry is officially and traditionally regarded as the high-water mark of poetic development. The mass of soulless rhymes that has been prized and published, in various forms, under the name of poetry, is truly marvellous. It is in verse it is true, but verse is not poetry. There are no Welsh poets in this age who seem to be working on the same lines as the poets of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries — the period when Welsh poetrymay be said to have reached its zenith. Now the field is ap- parently exhausted ; it looks as if the Welsh intellect in this particular phase of its activities is a spent force. In tracing its career there are not wanting indications that it is incapable of sustained and prolonged efforts in any high degree ; it is spasmodical, fond of chasing ideals, then abandoning the task for something new, without accom- plishing anything substantial. There are also signs that the decay of the poetic sense, and of the avidity for poetry among the Welsh, is so real and so widespread, that it does not sanction the hope that much, if anything, is to be expected in future. The beginnings of Welsh poetry seem to have been its most attractive period. The Welsh intellect is rapidly commercializing itself ; it is abandoning all serious attempts at exalted intellectual energy. What energy it has it is throwing with true Celtic vehemence into the scale of commerce on the one hand, and of politics on the other. It is less disposed to press the higher imagi- nation into its service, being controlled very largely by a growing love of power, of easy fortune, of pleasure and worldly success. Neither does the Welsh intellect seem disposed to enter other fields of literary enterprise. There is no sign that fiction is about to take the place in the new Wales which 100 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY poetry filled in the older Wales. Notwithstanding its reputation for the vigour of its imaginative quality, there is no work like that of Alice in Wonderland, and there are no Welsh novelists that could be compared with Lord Lytton, Charles Dickens, Thackeray, Charles Reade, Charles Kingsley, George Meredith, George Macdonald, and Hall Caine. There are no women writers like Marie Corelli, either. The Welsh intellect has produced nothing for the stage. There has been enough and to spare of drama in the form of dialogues performed in chapels and schoolrooms by Church members and choristers. There are a few indivi- duals, such as Ifano Jones and Elphin, who have shown a gift in this branch of literature ; but for the dramatist as an artist the people have no use whatsoever ; it is repugnant to the religious instincts of Welshmen. Welsh Nonconformist ministers have been solid in opposition to the drama as art, though in industrial villages they have encouraged local amateur companies composed of their own members under their control and jurisdiction. They have been opposed to the drama, they say, because of its objectionable features and the " questionable sort of plays " which, they maintain, are too often enacted. If there is to be drama, it should be in Welsh, and irrespective alto- gether of monetary considerations. This is the view of the matter which is being taken in Welsh Nonconformist circles. There can be no doubt that the Welsh have been slow to recognize the drama as literature, or acting as art. Hence it is that they cannot be persuaded to transfer their life to the stage — so great has been Puritan prejudice. Welsh Puritanism, as it has been expressed and expounded by the Nonconformist pulpit, still regards the drama as a menace to the morals of the people ; it is still being de- nounced as a soul-destroying instrument, with the result that the youth of Wales have been driven to seek other and, in many instances, more questionable forms of amusement and mental recreation. This opposition to the drama on the part of Welsh Nonconformist ministers is not altogether disinterested : the preachers seem to THE PROGRESSIVE ASPECT OF THE WELSH INTELLECT IOI regard the stage as a formidable rival to the pulpit ; and that they cannot tolerate. But Puritan prejudice and the tyranny of tradition do not altogether account for the absence of the native dra- matist. The Welsh intellect, in so far as it has developed itself, has not manifested any taste or aptitude for serious dramatic art. It does not possess the capacity for criticism or for the analysis of motive. For the creation of charac- ters, into the conception of which so many elements enter, and for their development in dramatic form, the national intellect has not exhibited much efficiency. It lacks con- cision of thought. Not that the Welsh intellect is inca- pable of theatrical effects, more especially in the realm of religion ; but it is unfamiliar with the mode and order of thought which are capable of creating picturesque situations by choosing topics from ancient history, or of investing the life of the people and of the country with imperishable interest. These causes tell against both the Welsh drama and Welsh poetry. Taking a broad view of Welsh thought and life, we cannot escape the conclusion that there is a complete break of high intellectual continuity, and there is no evi- dence that any new form of genius is about to take the place of those forms which have exhausted their energies. It is difficult to understand why one order of genius in the national intellect recedes or is lost, either for a time or for good, and another comes to the front ; certain it is that we cannot attribute it to the presence of one or more individuals of originality and destination in the nation, for the reason that they but seldom represent any form of genius that is common to the nation in the mass, and their presence is no guarantee that they will endow the people with a measure of their own particular genius. In the case of Wales, the only relief to the completeness of the break in purely intellectual activity is to be found in the realm of civism — in a wiser habit of municipal administration. I see no signs in the direction of real statesmanship, high poetry, fiction, astronomy, geology, biology, pathology, physics, logic, political economy, embryology, or higher 102 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY mathematics. In these departments the Welsh intellect is in a torpid state. The contrast between Welsh sermonic literature, Welsh periodical and Welsh journalistic literature of to-day, and that of thirty or fifty years ago, or more, is very marked. Not only do we miss the old flavour and the old fruit, but the subtlety, originality, profundity and searching penetra- tiveness, that characterized the literary productions of those times. There were intellectual giants in those days, not technically educated, it is true, but giants neverthe- less. Men of seductive communicability, of great intellec- tual boldness, with a distinct touch of genius. What Welsh talent there is to-day seems to have disappeared from personalities and gone into committees and offices representing all sorts of interests, religious and secular. This decay of pure intellectuality may be partly explained by the fact that the intellectual activities of the people are more widely scattered, and partly to the influence of the newspaper press, which is daily becoming more bustling, braggart and superficial. It may be explained partly by the fact that nations suffer intellectually during the period of transition from one language to another. It is possible that this decline in the intellectual power of the Welsh may be due to, or a sign of, the development which the Welsh brain is now undergoing through the interaction of various economic factors and the general current of the new civilization that is emerging. It is possible, according to the hypothesis thrown out by Aristotle, that this par- ticular fruit of Welsh culture, which is now partially lost, will be found again. It is as erroneous to speak of the invariability of the brain as to speak of the invariability of species or of racial types. Some men speak of the brain as if it were a marble, motionless upon a level table. The brain itself, or the character of the brain, suffers modi- fication through admixture of blood and the numerous physical and material conditions under which it exists. The intellectualization of the womanhood of Wales is being carried to such an extent, like everything Cymric, that it is rapidly becoming a menace to the motherhood of THE PROGRESSIVE ASPECT OF THE WELSH INTELLECT IO3 Wales. It is astonishing what a number of Welsh women of all grades crowd into the colleges. Not for one-third of them can any avenue of usefulness be found, partly- through lack of suitable openings, partly because their attainments are not sufficiently high to qualify them for anything better. So most of them return, with useless degrees, whence they came. There is evidence already forthcoming that this democratic contact with university life is not going to strengthen the most important unit of a civilized nation — the family group. It requires courage to say it, but it cannot be disputed that the college-bred woman is the most undomesticated of the women of Wales ; and there is among them a distinct tendency to disregard the instincts of motherhood, chiefly for the reason that they prefer to be unencumbered in their married state, in order to be better qualified to still retain their position in the teaching profession, so as to be able to augment the family income at the expense of single women who are properly qualified, many of whom are, on that account, denied promotion and even the chance of a livelihood. Among the married women-teachers of Wales to-day, to be childless, and therefore without the restraint of a family, is looked upon as a singular felicity. It reminds us of the saying of Plutarch, that the Romans married to be heirs, and not to have heirs. Not only is the influence of the Welsh colleges of a male- ficent character in so far as it affects the question of motherhood, but it is creating a problem which it is not in the power of the colleges to solve. The main idea under- lying the educational policy of such institutions is to popularize them both for the sake of the educational notoriety which it brings to the Principality, and to prepare the youth of Wales for those pursuits in life that can give them contentment. Therefore, the tendency is to increase indiscriminately the number of young people who clamour for college education. The colleges are taking in an enormous mass of raw material, which properly belongs to the elementary and secondary schools. The gap or the interval between the cultivated and uncultivated elements K. 104 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY appears to be far less obvious than it was, due partly to artificial stimulus, and partly to a genuine growth of intelligence and an increase of interest in economic and political questions. Distinctions in intelligence can no longer be gauged by distinction in classes, positions, or wealth. If I were asked which of the classes had shown the most marked advance in knowledge of economic, political and sociological questions, I would specify the working class. In my judgment, they are the truest and most conspicuous example of what increase in intelligence there has been in the Welsh community. In this sense they have made great progress, and progress in so far as it exists is to be attributed mainly to increase of intelligence. Hence the preference of the working classes for men of their own order or rank to represent them on local bodies and in Parliament. This preference does not rest upon any purely intellectual aspiration or upon purely political con- siderations. It rests mainly upon a greater sense of equality arising from a greater fancied and real equaliza- tion of knowledge and opportunity. The lower class, as it has been traditionally called, is growing up side by side with the better class, in a wider reach of power and thought. What shows the strength of the movement is, that it has smitten all classes in the country. What has brought them to it ? Physical discovery ? Criticism ? Intellectual activity ? Political concentration ? Increased facilities for locomotion ? The inventions of our age ? These are the precursors of philosophical evolution. It is impossible to exaggerate the influence of these interacting elements upon the Welsh intellect. Neither is it possible to exagger- ate the character of the disturbing influences which are coming in upon Wales, and upon the native population of Wales. There was a time, not many years ago, and it is still largely the case in the agricultural districts, when the least cultivated read Welsh books, spoke and wrote in Welsh almost exclusively, and when the more cultivated read English books and addressed each other in the Eng- lish language. The literature of the one was not the literature of the other, and the language of the one was THE PROGRESSIVE ASPECT OF THE WELSH INTELLECT 105 not the language of the other. It is not so to-day. The tendency is towards homogeneity of thought. The purely Welsh elements are being gradually lost in the mass with which they mingle. This amalgamation of the native with the foreign will yet prove the richest soil. When it is aerated, when intelligence and mutual sympathy and the sense of communal interest shall have penetrated it, it will be as wholesome for the nation's intelligence as it will be fertile for its commerce. The results are already far- reaching, for Welshmen are beginning to revamp their opinions ; they are forming new leagues of amity and are looking upon the complicated problems of life in a different and broader light. They are looking to the harmonizing influence of men's reciprocal interests not only upon the lower plane of commercial and industrial life, but upon the higher plane of moral and intellectual life. We see a new Wales crystallizing on the remnant of old Wales with a different and a higher type of civilization. Through this commingling of divers elements and inter-communication of ideas we witness the gradual but sure formation of a different type of Welshman. He is a freer thinker, he treats the past less seriously and the future more adven- turously ; not that he is mentally superior to his ancestors, for, as I have already stated, the arrest of growth in creative mentality is one of the most striking features of Welsh development. But the Welshman of to-day is widening the range of his converse; he is exercising greater inde- pendence and catholicity in the choice of his amusements and in the sources of his intellectual pleasures. He is even discarding his native language as a means of instruction, and his native religion as the sole agent of culture. In whatever direction we look, there is indisputable evidence that the Welsh intellect is receding more and more from the centre whence it received its general im- pulse to moral and spiritual progress. Business did not begin to develop the Welsh as it did the Americans. America is developing from the commercial, upon which its civilization has been founded, towards the educational and the cultural, whereas Wales is developing from the 106 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY religious towards the commercial and the cultural. True religion still means a great deal to the Welsh, but the Welsh preacher is no longer a teacher to his own genera- tion or a prophet to the future. There was a time within the memory of living men, when Wales had to depend upon the Welsh pulpit for its philosophy, its metaphysics, and educational inspiration. The Welsh pulpit had com- plete command over the mirth, the action and the senti- ment of the people. In no country, with the exception of Spain and Scotland, have the purely religious feelings exercised such a sway over the lives and affairs of the people as in Wales. To be religious — not moral — was the supreme consideration. The national mind directed its energies towards the creation of religious sentiment. The question of the influence of religious belief on the character of the people is, from the point of view of culture, an interesting one. In so far as the Welsh are concerned, their absorption in religious affairs has retarded their progress in material civilization. But religion no longer leads the way ; for the instrument of religion there has been substituted the instrument of intellection. The Welsh mind is no longer distinguished by its exclusively religious direction. In the region of pure morals, as well as in the domain of theology, it is pursuing a downward course. Its thoughts are no longer engrossed with doctrinal disputations, as was the case half a century ago. There has been a very distinct decline among the Welsh generally in the influence wielded by religious ideas. It would be truth to say that Welsh politics and education have been developed at the expense of Welsh religion. This revolution in the relative position of the religious and the political or the intellectual, is fast investing the Welsh mind with a less spiritual character. The change is as real as it is apparent. Prayers, sermons and conventional gatherings have to a large extent lost their former signi- ficance. Not only is the Welsh mind attracted by a totally different class of ideas, but there has been a complete change in the direction and quality of its thinking. It is showing a decided disposition to generate its own thoughts, THE PROGRESSIVE ASPECT OF THE WELSH INTELLECT IO7 to reason out its own reasons, and to draw conclusions from facts. Intellectual excellence, due more to the general trend of civilization than to the influence of the Welsh colleges, is taking the place of moral excellence. There is a gain that goes with the loss. It would be difficult to determine how far it is legitimate or possible to differentiate between moral and intellectual acquisitions, for the reason that there can be no intellectual perception apart from moral feeling. It would not be legitimate to speak of intellectual excellence as something superior to moral excellence. But there is every justification for saying that the intellectual principle is more progressive than the moral, and more permanent in its results. It may be less attractive, but it is more capable of transmission, and, when regarded in its ulterior results, it has a wider effectiveness. These are the lines on which the Welsh intellect is at present advancing, and so surely as it con- tinues to advance in the same direction we will witness its emancipation from its narrow and primitive past. The teaching of history and of the sciences is that the supreme aim of nature is its improvement of the intellectual ; nations advance towards their zenith as they approach the maximum of their intellectual culture. There can be no surer sign of culture than when the emotions are less active than the judgment, when the intellect ceases to be terrified by the phantoms which its own ignorance has reared, when scientific criticism takes the place of blind and obstinate credulity, and when it becomes politically tolerant of other forms of religious and political beliefs. If the Welsh intellect has any serious moral defect, it is in the arrogance which belongs to a strength that refuses to confess its own weakness. CHAPTER V THE " TEN GREAT MEN OF WALES " Much has been said and written of late years about the "great" men of Wales, and when it was made known that a list of the ten greatest Welshmen was in course of preparation, it evoked considerable interest. There were not a few who suspected that an attempt might be made to include Thomas Jefferson, Cromwell, Shakespeare, William Morris the poet, " George Eliot," George Meredith, and John Williams the martyr-missionary of Erromanga. The " judges," however, decided upon St. David, Henry VII, Prince Llywelyn, Howel Dda, Bishop Morgan, Williams of Pantycelyn, Dafydd ap Gwilym, Giraldus Cambrensis, Owen Glyn Dwr, and General Picton. The fact that not one out of the 354 competitors named the ten worthies previously selected by the judges, goes to show how utterly their judgment is at variance with that of their countrymen. Not only is there no disposition to approve of the selection, but it is regarded as an insult to the intelligence of the nation, to say nothing of its sentiment. The marvel is that 354 competitors should waste a minute over the affair with such adjudicators. If Welshmen at large, or the most educated section of the community, had been given the opportunity to select three judges, it is perfectly safe to say that they would have selected men other than those who were arbitrarily selected by the " benefactor " who gave the prize. It is a striking symptom of the feelings of the country in which such an arbitrary method of selecting judges and of fixing 108 THE " TEN GREAT MEN OF WALES IO9 upon the ten greatest Welshmen, is permitted. It is a phenomenon worthy of careful study. As to St. David, the national Saint of Wales, he is a mythical personage and an abstraction to most Welshmen. If his name is to be included, why not that of King Arthur ? Henry VII is among the ten because he fulfilled, acci- dentally, and by a stroke of good luck, the prophecy that a Welshman should be King of England. He is to be " honoured " in this Welsh fashion, we are told, on account of his " daring tactics " on the field of Bosworth " in the face of such a fighter as Richard." The crown which was placed on his head by the inglorious Lord Stanley, and which he could not have claimed as heir of Lancaster, he won by the " sword of Wales alone." We have not yet been favoured with the Welsh definition of the word ' great," but taking the term in the sense in which it is understood among educated men, Henry VII cannot by any stretch of imagination be called " great." Not a single attribute of greatness can be legitimately applied to him. What direct service to Wales may be placed to his credit and to the credit of General Picton, we have yet to learn. These names are, however, high-sounding names, and they will stand the Welsh in better stead in the sight of the world than the names of those Welshmen who are unknown in general history, but who have done infinitely more for Wales and the Welsh than either Henry or Picton, or both combined. Howel Dda (Howel the Good), who was born in the last quarter of the ninth century, is the only historical law- giver that the Welsh have ever produced. He was a humane ruler and a capable administrator. His laws, as Lord Acton observed, indicate a state of society in some respects highly cultivated. His efforts as legislator certainly operated in the direction of national unity, and he succeeded in an eminent degree in preserving the com- mon peace during the whole of his reign. This was in itself an achievement worthy to be commemorated, for, historically speaking, the intervals of peace in the life of the Welsh have been very rare. 110 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY Owen Glyn Dwr >vas not a great soldier or a great ruler of men ; he was not even a great patriot. He did not conceive or plan the insurrection with which his name is associated ; there is no evidence that he was prepared when he was secure in wealth and social standing to offer himself on the altar of freedom. It was Meredydd ab Owen — probably Owen Glyn Dwr's son — who stood at the head of the revolt in its earlier stages. Owen Glyn Dwr came to the front after he had been declared an outlaw ; he used the wrongs of his countrymen and the spirit of resist- ance which was abroad, to avenge his own personal grievances. There is stronger categorical proof in favour of this than of the opposite view. It was Grey of Ruthin who gave Owen Glyn Dwr the pretext for joining the revolt. Owen Glyn Dwr was a typical Welshman in that he disliked every form of constituted authority ; it was contrary to the spirit of clanship which constituted the chief feature in the Welsh body politic of those times. Blind and obstinate obedience to the chief of the tribe, irrespective of the validity of the engaging cause, was a sign and a proof of patriotism. Loyalty to a chief was of more importance than loyalty to the national cause. This was the one great disintegrating element that made co-opera- tion on broad and permanent lines impossible. We are not justified in giving the name of patriotism to the devo- tion of a tribe to a chief. Another ingredient which entered into the composition of Cymric patriotism was bitter hatred of other races and bitter inter-tribal mistrust. In its intensity it was irrepressible and unsurpassable ; in its effect it was ruinous. A community so organized, or dis- organized, could not possibly progress. Those times were not ideal times ; patriotism then was a mere phase of racial or tribal altruism. Though the same spirit still permeates Welsh civilization, the conditions are favourable to the growth of a more enlightened patriotism ; in this regard there is a distinct moral gain. The insurrection was the last open struggle of semi- barbarism against a higher form of civilization. Its suddenness, ferocity, and destructiveness, caused wide- THE " TEN GREAT MEN OF WALES ' III spread alarm ; there were successes, but, fortunately for Wales itself, complete success was impossible. Owen Glyn Dvvr had neither the brains nor the statesmanship of Henry IV. He was more of a hillside adventurer than a patriot. Patriotism requires the sacrifice of property and of life itself for the attainment of some noble object, such as the preservation of the body politic as it is, or the recovery of what a country may have lost, or the acqui- sition of what naturally belongs to it. Patriotism puts an obligation upon citizens, and more especially upon the leaders of the people, not to injure the community or the State. Patriotism, while it cannot forget the past, remem- bers only to teach the lesson it bequeaths, not to forge bolts of vengeance. Patriotism has no personal interests and asks for no personal gain. Someone asked Lincoln at the most critical hour in the history of the Civil War, what he thought of himself. He replied that he had no time to think of himself. There have been men in whom the responsibility of leadership has been providentially or accidentally vested ; but what power they possessed or what authority was conceded to them, was marred by a passion for adulation, precedence, personal power, and an absorbing thought of self. Unlike Lincoln, Owen Glyn Dwr never once lost sight of his own personal interests ; in every alliance he con- tracted, in every treaty that he made, the thought of self was the main principle of action. The motive which animated him when he joined the insurrection was the motive which predominated throughout his whole career- revenge, destruction, and personal aggrandizement. His rapacity was as ruinous to the welfare of Wales as it was to his own reputation. No impartial student who looks at all the facts can with any show of reason place Owen Glyn Dwr in the realm of kingcraft, or of statesmanship, or of disinterested patriotism. Prince Llywelyn was a chivalrous character, who, by his skill, his courage, his policy, proved not only his worth in war, but the breadth of his mind and the spirit of his patriotism. He won the allegiance of almost all the barons 112 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY of Wales, and he made a noble and disinterested stand for the cause of Welsh nationalism as it was then understood. He had not, however, the soldierly qualities of his grand- father, Llywelyn the Great ; he had not his foresight or his brilliancy. Llywelyn the Great and Howel Dda (Howel the Good) are the only two chieftains of the Welsh who, after Rhodri Mawr, played any really considerable part in the affairs of the island. In comparing the abi- lities and achievements of the two Llywelyns, it is diffi- cult to appreciate the preference given to Prince Llywelyn over Llywelyn the Great. Indeed, the omission of the latter is so grave an error, from a historical and a patriotic point of view, that it will be a serious reflection upon the nation if no means will be taken to remedy the mistake. Dafydd ap Gwilym, one of the mediaeval Welsh bards, has received much attention of late years in Welsh circles, though it is curious to note that the only systematic and comprehensive treatment of his poetry is in German, by the late Dr. Stern of Berlin. Dafydd's selection is by no means unchallengeable. His date is not certain; it is probably 1320-1380. Very little is known of the personal appear- ance and peculiarities of the fourteenth-century Welsh bards. The legend about Dafydd ap Gwilym as being a " quiet, sober-living man," is resented by the more ardent of his Welsh admirers ; they prefer to think of him as a " stodgy, well-fed monk, with a rubicund countenance and a nose like a round radish — a taciturn man and scholar with a twinkle in his eye." This of course is a hint to the sculptor. His temperament, we are informed, was " an attractive one," being free " from sulkiness and surliness." As a poet he is " a European phenomenon," the " earliest of the great singers of wild nature in mediaeval Europe." His verse is " full of self-assurance," and this alone, it is said, " gives his poetry an individuality that is well-nigh unique in Welsh." His native poetry " charms by its superficiality," and his verse " is not rhymed ornithology." " His art was a special art, the Riddle Art of the Dark Ages in its Welsh development." It was this achieve- ment, it is claimed, gave Dafydd ap Gwilym "his fame," THE TEN GREAT MEN OF WALES 113 and Welsh poetry " such a distinctive place in European literature." Hence his pre-eminence " among Welsh and European poets," and the decision to give him a position in the " Pantheon " of Wales. Giraldus de Barri, usually called Giraldus Cambren- sis, was born about 1146, in the castle of Manorbier, the ruins of which still stand on the rocks of the Pembroke- shire coast. He was allied to the best British and Norman families of the country. His grandmother was the Nest — the " Helen of Wales " — who had been the mistress of Henry I, and afterwards the wife of Gerald de Windsor, lord of Pembroke. His father, William de Barri, and other members of his family, had joined in warfare in Ireland. One of the most interesting features in the life of Giraldus Cambrensis is his effort, which he con- ducted with characteristic energy, to secure archiepiscopal status for St. David's; i.e., the independence of the Welsh Church. He did not succeed. When Baldwin, Arch- bishop of Canterbury, in 1188, conducted a preaching crusade through Wales he was accompanied by Giraldus. Welshmen in general are familiar with his name, though his writings are known to only a few students who come across his works in the course of their studies. He was an able writer and an exceedingly keen observer of the events of his time. His works, such as Dcscriptio CambricB and Itinerarium Cambrice, constitute, in conjunction with the laws of Howel Dda (Howel the Good), the principal Welsh authorities respecting the condition of Welsh society at the end of the twelfth century. He is regarded by some as a credulous and garrulous annalist because of the emphasis which he places on the unsavoury aspects in the character of his countrymen; but all attempts at refuting his judg- ments have failed. He describes the Welsh of those times as wanting in veracity, honesty, and moderation, both in language and in love of food and intoxicating drinks. They never scrupled to take false oaths in legal causes, and they were as prone to cheat, rob and molest their own countrymen as they were to plunder, deceive and falsify their oaths to 114 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY strangers. They were wild, turbulent and irresponsible, impatient of restraint and control, and dangerous both as friends and as foes. The " judges " have not told us on what grounds they have placed Giraldus among the ten great and notable Welshmen, whether on the ground of his ability as a writer, or of his stern and imperious eccle- siasticism, or of his courage and fidelity in the presentation of so dark a picture of the habits and peculiarities of the Welsh people in mediaeval times. As to Bishop Morgan and Williams of Pantycelyn, neither possessed any intrinsic greatness. The former wrote, and the latter sang, himself into the heart of the Welsh nation. As to the validity of their claims to be ranked among the foremost of Welsh worthies there can be no dispute. In their influence upon the mind of the masses of the Welsh people and the abiding character of that influence, they stand supreme and alone ; no such honour, if it may be called an honour, can be too great for them. Bishop Morgan's translation of the Bible into Welsh, which was published in 1588, was not only a remarkable literary achievement, but the greatest of all the gifts that were ever bestowed upon the Welsh. There is no positive evidence to show why, or exactly when, he took up the task. Apparently, as Bishop Edwards of St. Asaph has recently observed, " the starting-point and authorisation of his work dates from the time when a parochial dispute brought him into contact with his old college friend Arch- bishop Whitgift, whom Bishop Morgan places first among those who assisted him in his great work." It is safe to say that Bishop Morgan and Williams of Pantycelyn are the only personalities among the ten selected who remain in intimate association with the literary and religious life of Wales. Bishop Morgan was first made Bishop of Llandaff and afterwards translated to St. Asaph, where he died. Williams (1717-1791) was a curate at Llanwrtyd, Breconshire, being ordained in 1740. It is on record that he travelled for nearly fifty years on an average 3,000 miles every year as an itinerant preacher. It is this technical violation of the stipulations < I THE TEN GREAT MEN OF WALES II5 of the parochial system that brought him, as it brought other clergymen of the Established Church, into conflict with his bishop, who declined to ordain him to the full priesthood on account of his activities beyond the limits of his own particular parish. It is claimed that Williams regretted in later years that he had not been more observ- ant of Church rules, but they quote no authority in support of their statement. It is difficult to reconcile such inhibitions, to say nothing of the penalties imposed upon the men who, in their zeal for the moral welfare of the country, failed to observe them, with the boasted elasticity of the system upon which the Church has been founded. The truth is, that the misfortunes that have overtaken the Church are, in a measure, to be attributed to the manner in which Welsh bishops penalized those of the clergy who preached and conducted evangelistic services outside their own parishes, and that at a time when the conditions of Welsh society and the dearth of Welsh preachers made the itinerant preacher almost a necessity to the community. Williams, however, continued in communion with the Church until his death, in 1791, twenty years before the Methodist secession. His hymns, which numbered 916, containing 4,000 verses, were mostly expressed in Welsh — a language unfamiliar outside Wales. One of his most popular hymns, and the most often sung wherever English is spoken, " Guide me, O Thou great Jehovah," was composed by Williams in English, and not translated from the Welsh, as it is so commonly supposed. Foreigners unfamiliar with the Welsh language cannot hope to gain, even under the most favourable conditions, a true con- ception of Welsh poetry ; a complete and literal trans- lation of Welsh poetry is practically an impossibility. Scott idealized Scottish national life, not in Gaelic, but in the language of the largest of all reading constituencies. Loti used the French, not the Brythonic, language as the medium through which to communicate his thoughts to the outside world. But the Welsh have always used for literary purposes a language not commonly understood, partly owing to want of education, and partly to the mis- Il6 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY taken idea that it is unpatriotic to patronize any language but the Welsh, and that the preservation of the native language is essential to nationality. It need hardly be observed what a serious impediment the Welsh language, or this erroneous view of its function and importance, must have been to the advancement of the people in learning, science and general knowledge. Wales has suffered grievously from the want of educational facilities ; it has also suffered from the exaggeration of its religious con- sciousness, or the puritanical side of its religious conscious- ness ; but it has suffered more through its pertinacious and excessive adherence to a language which is but very imperfectly adapted to express the greatest and ripest results of human thought. The psychology of this pertinacity is to be found in the belief — a belief still cherished by many Welshmen — that no nation can express its own soul or make its own indi- vidual contribution to the world's thought and art except by virtue of its own tongue, — that the marks of race in- evitably disappear with the disappearance of the language, and that language is proof of purity of race. No topic could be more attractive to a philosophic mind than this question of the relation between the national tongue of a people and the national spirit of a people. There was a time when the Welsh language was considered as a sinister instrument of sedition and of secret political propaganda. Its continuance was regarded as a menace to law and order. Those days are past. That the Welsh soul can express itself more forcibly in the cult of the Welsh tongue is evident. But, as the history of the Welsh shows, their language has been fatal to their commerce and to their progress in material civilization. It has actually prevented them from making the contribution to general literature that their talents justified. It has kept them out of touch with the larger world, and out of the reach of those in- tellectual resources supplied by other languages, resources in which the Welsh language is so sadly lacking. Much has been heard of late years about the revival of the Welsh language ; this temporary and enforced revival THE TEN GREAT MEN OF WALES II7 has been accepted in some quarters as involving a revolu- tion in the soul of the nation. There has been no revolu- tion in this sense ; what revolution there is, is decidedly towards the abandonment of the Welsh language for social, commercial and intellectual purposes. An attempt is being made to force the language to the front, and to make it compulsory in Welsh elementary schools. This is an injustice to those who do not believe in its utility, and to those of foreign birth and tongue who do not wish it to be taught to their children. Complaints have been made to the Welsh University Court that Welshmen and those who learn Welsh are handicapped in the matriculation examina- tions, owing, as it has been alleged, to the fact that the Welsh papers set in the matriculation examination are difficult — more difficult than have been the papers in English, French, and German. These grievances are altogether imaginary ; they show a desire to reduce the value of the examination in Welsh. It is beyond question that, to the vast majority of even the Welsh candidates, the Welsh language stands in the position of an acquired language when considered from a literary standpoint. It is dying out in the home, in the market-place, in social life, and as a means of correspondence among the Welsh themselves. It has wholly disappeared from the County of Radnor, it is fast drawing its last breath in Monmouthshire and Montgomeryshire, and it is being dislodged from one stronghold after another in Glamorganshire. Purely Welsh churches, or the churches in which the sermons are preached in Welsh, and the services conducted in Welsh, are rapidly dying out. There are only four Welsh churches left in Monmouthshire out of the thirty that existed thirty years ago. In the centre of the industrial districts of Glamorganshire purely English causes are being multiplied, and the purely Welsh churches find it difficult, and in very many cases impossible, to retain their own congregations. They are daily faced with the alternative of either seeing their churches die a natural death, or of boldly facing the situation and con- verting them into English causes. What Welsh there is Il8 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY spoken and what Welsh there is often preached, is mongrel Welsh. As a variety-making power in the animate creation modifies inherited traits, so the inventive power of each new Welsh generation seems to be coining new phrases and modifying new words, in order to meet new wants and new conditions. The fusion of English words with Welsh is proceeding at a rapid pace. So great is the difference between the spoken and the literary Welsh of to-day and that of the past, that the Welsh spoken and written a few centuries ago would be unintelligible to the majority of Welshmen to-day. What Welsh there has been taught in day-schools in Wales, has been forced upon the pupils. It is parrot Welsh ; it is not conversational Welsh. Not one scholar in a thousand learns enough or can learn enough to carry on a conversation in the language, much less to acquaint himself with its literature. Not one in a thousand concerns himself or herself with the language or even with these parrot phrases when school days are over. To represent this enforced teaching of Welsh as indi- cating a revolution in the soul of the nation is more than absurd, and one regrets to say that it has much to do with Welsh politics, and with the idea of sequestrating the purely Welsh population in the Principality, and of welding them together into a separate community, with ideals and aspirations of their own as against the rest of the popula- tion. It is a policy that is fatal to the future of Welsh children and to the future of Wales itself. The Welsh tongue can no longer, in view of the events that are transpiring in the Principality, be the thread of national continuity. That it once gave organic life to the people, there can be no question. The Welsh language was the mother of the old patriotism — the retrospective patriotism ; it was the source of the old idealism, and the reservoir of the old spiritual force. But conditions have changed ; there is a new Wales composed of every creed and every nation. Upon the South Wales valleys are being deposited almost daily fresh elements alien in blood, language, eco- nomic ideals, and religious or non-religious peculiarities. THE " TEN GREAT MEN OF WALES II9 Ancient customs are being rudely overborne. Men do not change their personal habits, customs and manners, when they change their country ; they are less likely to change their language for the sake of Welsh, which has no com- mercial value, and which to them is as alien as the character of the people who speak it. Looking broadly at this list of the ten greatest Welsh- men — a list which is typical of many things that are tolerated in Wales rather than consciously and actively acquiesced in by public opinion — what is its real signi- ficance ? Is it the decisive criterion of the range, originality, versatility and endowment of the Welsh mind ? Are Englishmen and the educated people of other countries, are the tourists from other lands who visit Wales, expected to look upon this Cardiff statuary as representing the culture of Wales at its fullest and richest point ? Is this catalogue of great names the best that Welshmen can produce ? If so, it is indeed a lamentable exhibition. When regarded in its local or purely Welsh national aspect, it is extremely unsatisfactory; but when compared with the great or greatest men of other races, or even when com- pared with the great or greatest men of the kindred Celtic races, it brings out in the boldest relief the weakness rather than the strength of the Welsh intellect. It sets the fire of complete obliteration to the claims which have for so long and so boastfully been made by Welsh national- ists, viz., " that Wales leads Europe in education, and that it has represented in the past, and continues to represent to-day, the highest type of culture to be found in any country in the world." It would not be difficult to produce a better list of ten men of English or foreign blood who have done more for Wales than the majority of those who make up the Welsh list —men who, in literary aptitude, in scholarship, and in pure intellectuality, are far ahead of the ten Welshmen named. For instance, there is William Salesbury, a man of German descent. As I have had occasion to observe in another part of this work, Salesbury was truly the most accomplished scholar among the whole group that had to 120 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY do with the translation of the Bible into Welsh. His erudition was more accurate and extensive, and his knowledge more solid and varied. His researches into the abstruse questions of ancient history, of philology, and of Biblical criticism, unquestionably placed him as the most learned man in Wales in those times. He was versed in eleven languages, including Welsh and English. He was a competent Hebraist — the most competent of the group. It has been alleged by his Welsh traducers that his trans- lations were " too uncouth " to be intelligible to Welsh- men. With this aspect of the case I deal more fully in my second chapter. It may, however, be observed that there are certain statements which are more discreditable to those who make them than to those concerning whom they are made. This is a case in point. Salesbury was a North Walian ; even in these more modern times many of the terms used in the North are regarded by the men of the South not only as " uncouth," but as un- Welsh and even ridiculous. Salesbury is the man who did the pioneer work. He it was who first sought to stir the Welsh to activity. In his book of Welsh proverbs, published probably in the year 1546, Salesbury appealed to the Welsh to make some effort to provide a Welsh translation of the Bible. " Go," he said, " as pilgrims with bare feet to the King, and beseech him to have the Holy Scripture in his own lan- guage." Not only did he urge this upon the people of Wales, but he devoted his whole time to the initial work of preparation. In 1547 he published a Welsh-English dictionary which he had compiled and which he dedicated to Henry VIII. In 1551 he completed the first part of his arduous but self-imposed task of publishing in Welsh the Gospels and Epistles appointed to be read in the service of the Church on Sundays and Holy Days throughout the year. St. Matthew he translated from the Hebrew text, because he considered the Hebrew to be more akin to the Welsh. It was Salesbury who acted as editor for the Welsh bishops. As Bishop Edwards of St. Asaph has so well said in his recent publication which deals with the THE TEN GREAT MEN OF WALES 121 history of the Welsh Church, "It is impossible to study the various records relating to the Welsh Bible without feeling that William Salesbury was the man who, from the very first, stands out as inspiring, and bearing a chief part in, the noble work of giving the Bible to the people of Wales in their own language. His scholarship, his un- quenchable zeal, and his generosity, were the chief factors that promoted and made possible the work begun by him and by Davies, and completed by Bishop Morgan." Bishop Morgan never paid an adequate tribute to his great indebtedness to William Salesbury. Salesbury was the first to translate any considerable portion of the Scriptures into Welsh. He did the greater part of the translation of the New Testament ; Bishop Davies trans- lated a few of the shorter Epistles, while Huet was responsible for the Book of Revelation. The Welsh version of the Prayer Book which appeared in 1567, four years after Elizabeth's order, was the joint work of Salesbury and Bishop Davies. Without the pioneer work performed by Salesbury, it would have been impossible for Bishop Morgan to have accomplished his great task. The Welsh people owe a heavier debt to Salesbury than to any other man of his time. In every sense he ranks the first, the foremost, and the greatest. When we widen our vision, and examine this list of the ten great or greatest Welshmen in the light of its larger significance, it simply serves to emphasize the poverty of the resources of the Welsh intellect. It certainly does not bear out the preposterous claim that Wales leads Europe and the world. One of the chief elements, I would almost say the controlling element, of which the Welsh character is compounded, is its insistence upon believing, and be- lieving with irritating intensity, what it wishes to believe, and its persistence in believing what it wishes to believe in spite of the most overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Welshmen almost seem proud of their prejudices and of their limitations — intellectual and educational. Wales does not even lead in the United Kingdom ; on the contrary, it is far down in the scale. It cannot lead so 122 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY long as Welsh elementary education (the most backward in the kingdom) is left where it is. In no part of the United Kingdom is the proportion of unqualified and un- certificated teachers so great as it is in Wales. The entire system needs to be recast. There can be no graver symptom than when people are proud of what they ought to be ashamed — proud of the antiquity of their opinions, proud of their childish credulity, and proud of their gift of exaggeration. It is folly for a people to claim a reputation to which they are not entitled. But it is a peculiarity of the Welsh that they think that all truths most important to know are already known to them ; of the accuracy of their own opinion they are always sure. When taken in the mass, the people are most kind and compassionate in their feelings. Of the native Welsh generally, the best observers pronounce them hospitable, warm-hearted, zealous and affectionate in all the private relations of life. Their sincerity in religion is unquestionable, as their history shows. Yet, all these qualities, and all their intercourse with other races, have availed them nothing. Under the high-sounding names of religion and education, very little has been done to redeem the Welsh character from the grave error which Giraldus Cambrensis pictured with such courage and fidelity. Is it any wonder that the punctilious honour or veracity of the average Welshman has passed into a byword ? This tendency to exaggera- tion, which is of the very essence of untruthfulness, still remains the most prominent feature of the native charac- ter. In this regard the Welsh are certainly the most remarkable people of modern as they were of mediaeval times. What the end will be, and whether the right path will ever be taken, it is impossible for anyone to say. The truth is, the Welsh have fewer great men than any country in Europe. In point of greatness, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland, Finland, or even decadent Spain, could name ten men by the side of whom the ten men of Wales would pale into insignificance. Even in the United Kingdom, and among their kindred Celtic races in Scotland and Ireland, the Welsh fall below rather than excel THE " TEN GREAT MEN OF WALES 123 in point of greatness, not only in one but in every depart- men we might name. At whatever elevation we look at the genius of the Welsh, or in whatever sphere of human thought, activity and learning we study its operations and achievements, its inferiority is painfully manifest. Be- tween Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, to say nothing of England, there is an intellectual chasm which cannot be bridged. In power of attention in religion, in the execu- tion of music, in the drapery and milk business, they have shown considerable aptitude ; but in real learning, in the higher and wider reaches of the human intellect, Wales makes a poor exhibition, and the poverty of her present record is not compensated by the reflection that she once possessed men of real greatness. Let us omit England and Europe from our catalogue, and simply take Ireland and Scotland. Does Wales lead Ireland ? If so, in what direction ? Not in the wide extension of her literary culture, not in her influence upon European or American politics, not in the number of valuable MSS. to be found in continental libraries such as Paris, Basle, Milan, and Vienna, not in her arts and sciences, not in her suffering for the sake of race, religion, and nationality. As compared with Ireland, Wales has yet to learn the meaning of suffering. She does not lead in the number of great men she has given to the service of the Em- pire. Ireland has given some of her greatest sons, from a Napier and aWellesley to aDufferin and a Lord Roberts. It matters not whether we compare early or pagan Ireland with early or pagan Wales, or latter-day Ireland with latter- day Wales, Ireland has incomparably superior claims to the attention of the general historian. Where in the annals of Wales do we find any parallel to the missionary enthusiams which characterized the early religious move- ment in Ireland ? Where are her schools for the teaching of literature and science, Latin and Greek, philosophy and theology, such as were founded by St. Patrick himself at Armagh ? On the banks of the Shannon may still be seen the deserted ruins of Clonmacnoise University, where Alcuin was trained. As that learned Irishman, Dr. 124 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY Sigerson, has said, "The literary sceptre once wielded by Rome, fell in later times to Celtic Ireland." It was from Ireland that Europe received her first love-songs. "It was the Irish," as L. Paul-Dubois, the author of Contem- porary Ireland, says, " who invented rhyme, in all its varied forms, single or double, final, initial or medial, including the most elaborate assonances and alliterations." Coming down to more modern times, have the Welsh any reformer of the stamp of Thomas Davis, the poet who made the ballad an institution in Ireland ? Is there any Welsh political poetry like that of T. J. Sullivan, or any Welsh revolutionary poetry like that of Kickham and Ellen O'Leary ? Can the Welsh produce a pleiad of poets like Thomas Moore, Geoffrey Keating, the founder of Modern Irish, J. M. Synge, Jane Barlow, Raftery, the blind poet of Mayo, whose works have been recently edited by Douglas Hyde, or W. B. Yeats, one of the masters of poetry in the English language ? Have the Welsh any translators like George Sigerson or Douglas Hyde, poet and prophet ? For purity of idealism, the latter's works may be favourably compared with the best lyric poetry that has been produced in England during the greater part of the last generation. In the region of political leadership, where are we to look for a group of Welshmen that are worthy even to be compared with Grattan, Isaac Butt, O'Connell, and Charles Stewart Parnell ? Whether we take the mere mechanism or the soul of politics, have the Welsh any skilful debaters or Parliamentarians like John Redmond, John Dillon, William O'Brien, Timothy Healy, or the late Mr. Sexton ? In rhetorical skill, intellectual insight, courage, decision and strategy, the Welsh members, as compared with the Irish, are " mere babes in the wood." Is there a Welsh historian or dramatist who can be ranked with Justin McCarthy ? Are there any up-to-date Welsh historical novelists or dramatists like Father Dineen, author of Cor mac Conaill, or Father O'Leary, author of the novel Seadhna, and of that little comedy called Tadhg Sacr, or P. J. O'Shea, author of Aodh Neill? Where are THE TEN GREAT MEN OF WALES 125 the Welsh schools of art that have produced anything approaching the Book of Kelts (eighth century) or the Brooch of Tar a (ninth century), or the Bell of St. Patrick (twelfth century) ? Ireland has made far better use of that literary wealth of ancient Ireland in Ireland's intellectual renaissance, than Wales has made of what ancient literary wealth she possesses. Whether we look at the literary, poetic, or political side of the Welsh renaissance, or by whatever standard we com- pare it with that of the renaissance in Ireland, the superiority of the latter is too obvious to need any further elaboration. In whatever direction we analyze the patriot- ism of Ireland, we cannot but appreciate its sacrificial attitude even if we condemn its methods. Unlike that of Wales, it is a patriotism that is prepared to part with what is dearest to a man or a nation for the attainment of its ideal. Welsh patriotism is about the cheapest, the most sentimental, and the least worthy of consideration, and Welsh nationalism the most Saxon of all modern movements. When we come to Scotland, our difficulty is to know what not to say. Are there any Welsh religious leaders who, in their hold on the imagination of the Christian world, can be placed in the same category as John Knox and Andrew Melville ? These are the men under whose guidance and inspiration began the struggle with the civil powers which culminated in sixty years in open rebellion against Charles I. Have the Welsh any poets like Dunbar, the most power- ful British poet between Chaucer and Shakespeare ? In the region of the drama, which may be taken as the measure of a nation's civilization, and as the most important aspect of literature, have they a man of the power and standing of Sir David Lindsay, the greatest dramatic writer of his age in Europe ? Can they produce a political writer like Buchanan, who placed popular rights on a sound basis, and who anticipated all subsequent revolutions, or Rutherford, whose Lex Rex (1644) exercised such enormous influence in the Civil War ? Where in the whole arsenal of the Welsh intellect is there a genius like Napier, whose contribution 126 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY to the law of the progression of numbers benefited man- kind ? In the realm of secular philosophy, is there a Welshman who can be named with Francis Hutcheson, who, though born in Ireland, was of a Scottish family ? His appearance formed an epoch, not only in the national literature of Scotland, but in the trend and reach of Euro- pean thought in the sphere of metaphysics. As a moralist, Hutcheson is rightly claimed as a disciple of Shaftesbury, whom Professor Sidgwick pronounced to be the first to distinctly take psychological experience as the basis of ethics. In the opinion of Sir James Macintosh (see Mackintosh's Memoirs, London, 1835, vol. i, p. 334), the taste for speculation in Scotland, and all the philosophical opinions (except Berkleian Humanism) may be traced to Hutcheson. Where are the Welshmen, like Black and Leslie, who have distinguished themselves in the depart- ment of inorganic physics ? Have they a geologist like Hutton ? What have the Welsh done in any of the divisions of organic sciences, such as pathology and physiology? Cullen and John Hunter were new characters in their profession, men of such fine and discoursive genius that none would question their claims to eminence. Hunter stands at the head of his department, the first among the men of his class in both ancient and modern times. In the science of political economy, have the Welsh a man who could be placed in the same category as Adam Smith, author of that great work the Theory of Moral Sentiments, and the author of even a greater work, The Wealth of Nations ? In originality of thought, in power of reasoning, in comprehensiveness, in constructive ability, in the quality of the imagination, in that exuber- ance of thought which is one of the highest forms of genius, in its effects upon the legislation of all civilized states, this work ranks among the greatest efforts of the human in- tellect. If the whole speculative energy of the Welsh mind which has been scattered abroad throughout the ages, could be concentrated and embodied in one personality, it would not make a single organizing mind of the calibre of Adam Smith. THE TEN GREAT MEN OF WALES I2J Then, there is David Hume, a contemporary of Adam Smith, whose work on the principles of morals prepared the way for Bentham. The principles which Hume applied to the individual Bentham applied to society. If his economic theories contained some fundamental theories, they were original, and effected wonderful changes, especially when we consider the state of knowledge at the time. His views of free trade began to be adopted after his death. In fiction, have the Welsh a man who can be named with Sir Walter Scott or Tobias Smollet, or Ian Maclaren ? Have they any poets like Robert Burns, Byron, Allan Ramsay, or James Macpherson, Robert Ayton or Thomas Campbell ? Burns is read to-day more than ever ; what he wrote came fresh from the altar of the gods. In none of the Welsh poets, whether ancient or modern, do we find anything which bears those unmistakable marks of inspiration which we find in Burns or Byron, poets who have coloured the thought and shaped the understanding of men. As to ancient Welsh poetry, very much of it is made up of the most extravagant praise of some Welsh princes who occupied no higher position than that of a petty lord-marcher. Modern Welsh poets have been so unduly subjected to the competitive system, that their efforts have been cramped, and their genius, such as it is, checked and vitiated. We do not upbraid a man because he is poor, or ill, or low, and the Welsh ought not to be attacked because of their poverty of great men ; that is their misfortune. But for Wales to pretend to be leading Europe and the world is a pretentiousness which must be met by stating the facts; and the facts show three things: Firstly, that the list of the ten great men for the Cardiff statuary is not the best that could be selected for Wales. Secondly, that a list of ten Englishmen, ten Scotsmen, and ten Irishmen could be framed far surpassing the Welsh list. Thirdly, that Wales does not lead Europe in any respect, and does not lead even the United Kingdom. Indeed, when we look for any light upon the intellectual 128 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY development of the Western world, in vain do we look to Wales or the Welsh. Where are their great artificers, their great enterprising merchants, their great readers, their great historians or great thinkers? After all, the great thinkers are really the great men, the creators of events and the benefactors of their species. Thinkers have to do, not with facts, but with ideas, and it is ideas that ultimately determine the progress of the world. Sufficient evidence has been produced to convince the most incorrigible Welsh egoist that the place of the Welsh intellect in the annals of the world's intellect is not only subordinate, but very abject indeed. Those aspects of genius which have been almost normal, even prolific in Scotland, have been either very rare or non-existent in Wales. Yet, there are Welsh Members of Parliament, some of them Cabinet Ministers, who say, for the benefit of the Welsh, that there are great names enough to estab- lish the indisputable succession and superiority of Welsh genius. The fact is, the Welsh intellect has not as yet reached even the borderland of greatness. It is highly reprehensible that a few men should have been empowered to foist upon the public a private undertaking which, in its results, is not sanctioned by the judgment of the country, and which, instead of enhancing the reputation of Wales with educated men, has only served to emphasize her intellectual and scientific poverty. CHAPTER VI THE RISE OF WELSH NONCONFORMITY No one can properly understand the evolution of political Wales, or speak with any degree of authority or intelli- genc upon the subject, without adequate knowledge as to how Welsh Nonconformity took its rise, and how it came to be what it is. A full account of Welsh Nonconformity would form the fitting theme of an entire volume, or a number of volumes. All that is proposed in this chapter is, to give the reader an insight into the circ istances that fostered its growth, the social and religious conditions that preceded it, and its influence upon the economic and politi- cal progress of the country. As to the genius, or peculiarity, of Welsh Nonconformity in the earlier phase of the movement, it was of a type analogous to that of the Independency and Presbyterian- ism of the Revolution. As to its nationality, it was more English than Welsh. During the debate on the Welsh Church Bill on July 8th, 1913, one of the Welsh Members is reported to have said that " in England the Church was a national Church, it was racy of the soil. Englishmen had created it, it was the expression of the religious feelings and of the culture of Englishmen, but," he said, " in Wales it was not so, it was an extraneous growth ; it was an exotic which was transplanted from an alien soil." This is precisely what may be said about early Welsh Nonconformity. It was ' an exotic which was trans- planted from an alien soil." It did not represent the genius of Wales. The only Welsh religious body really 129 130 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY racy of the soil is the Welsh Calvinistic Methodist denomination, which was a direct offshoot of the Mother- Church in Wales in the eighteenth century. Welshmen did not create early Welsh Nonconformity ; it was neither the fruit of their culture nor the expression of their religious feelings. As I have already intimated, in no sense can it be described as Welsh. Its founders, being English, confined their ministrations to the English side of Welsh life — to the towns and the more Anglicized portions of the Principality. Hence it is, that but few of the Welsh-speaking people were influenced by their preaching. We might go further and say that the precision and formality which marked the pulpit ministrations, and the religious exercises, of the early representatives of the Baptists and Independents, or Congregationalists, of the Wales of to-day, explain the sporadic and insipid character of Welsh Nonconformity, from its birthright on to the advent of what is popularly, though erroneously, called the " Methodist Revival." As to the underlying cause, or causes, which promoted its growth, education cannot be said to have been one of them. The isolation of the people from the rest of the world, the dearth of ideas and want of educational facili- ties, seriously retarded their progress. Everything we know shows that the provision for education was of the scantiest possible description. In the agricultural districts, where the use of the Welsh language predominated, the ignorance of the Welsh farmers and their families was deplorable. What progress there may have been was con- fined to the members of the landowning classes, to whom, after the accession of Henry VII, the colleges and univer- sities of England were thrown open, and in a less degree to the inhabitants of the towns, who were enabled to take advantage of the facilities afforded by the grammar schools founded in some of the boroughs. Some fortunate mem- bers of the tenant-farming, or very small yeoman, class, under exceptional circumstances, were enabled to go to the English Universities, and carve out a career for them- selves in England. It is a significant fact that between THE RISE OF WELSH NONCONFORMITY 131 1630 and 1650, one-third of the students of Jesus College, Oxford, were Welshmen. A good many had graduated, and were Fellows of the Colleges of the Universities. Archbishop John Williams, one of the distinguished statesmen of the first half of the seventeenth century, was a Conway thoroughbred Welshman. But hardly a voice came from the people as a whole; they were content to live in obscurity and ignorance. Even the intellectual movements of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries did not penetrate the popular mind. " If Wales," we have been asked, " was in so low a condition morally and in- tellectually, how could it have produced such a number of distinguished scholars ? ' As I have stated elsewhere in this work, Welshmen were greatly in evidence in the Church and State during the periods in question, and Noncon- formity had not then arisen in the Principality. But the state of a people's culture is not necessarily reflected by isolated scholars or isolated geniuses. Learning, there can be no doubt, in the days of Elizabeth and up to the time of Charles the First, found a congenial soil in the minds of many distinguished Welshmen. Whatever credit may be due to Nonconformity, it cannot be claimed that it was the precursor of learning in Wales. The world was astir, and the light of art and of learning was beginning to dawn upon the minds of men. The claim that education, either in its origin or in its progress in Wales, found its chief patrons in Welsh Nonconformity, is a preposterous claim. Equally preposterous is the claim that Welsh litera- ture or Welsh culture is the distinct product of Noncon- formity. Of one thing, however, there can be no question : coincident with the progress of Welsh Nonconformity we witness the beginning of a distinct diversion in the direc- tion and activities of the national intellect. The move- ment was in keen antagonism to the existing social and religious order ; and, in the light of the ultimate results, the historian has to put a new valuation upon the spiritual forces at work in the Principality. It forms the back- ground of much that we find in the thought and action of modern Welshmen. We cannot ignore the individual 132 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY aspect in the birth and historic development of the movement, though the One-Man-Theory has been greatly overdone. William Wroth, who, with the aid of Henry Jessey — a London Nonconformist minister— founded the first Inde- pendent congregation at Llanfaches in Monmouthshire, in 1639, could not have been successful if his action, and the action of Erbury, Cradock, and others, had not been the embodiment of tendencies potentially or actually at work in society. Wroth had held Puritan views for about twenty years before Laud caused him to be ejected from his living in the Established Church. He shared the sympathies of that party among the clergy and laity in England which made its influence felt during the larger part of the reign of Elizabeth. What degree of vitality there was in the Puritan movement may be gauged from the fact that even at the beginning of Elizabeth's reign it had inspired the religious belief, and obtained the adherence, of a very considerable number of the clergy and the bishops. Its sacramental doctrines obtained the assent of the majority of the laity. Its growth was fostered by many circum- stances, notably the death struggle with Spain and the Papacy, and the intrigue against the Queen. It came to be regarded by cautious ministers like Cecil, and sober Parliament men like Bacon, as the one strong bulwark against Popery, and many of the best men in the nation felt that the safest policy for England was to rally the Calvinistic nations of the world against the common enemy. But Elizabeth, while favourable to a wider toler- ance in theological doctrines and ceremonial observance, had made up her mind to resist by every means in her power — and with the aid of Parliament — the effort of the Puritans to introduce into the Church a presbyterian system of government ; she had resolved to enforce, by penalties if necessary, the use of the Prayer Book by the ministers of the Church. Elizabeth stood strong against the swelling tide of Puritan feeling, and in 1573 she issued her famous proclamation for the punishment of Noncon- formists. Ten years later — 1583 — she appointed Whitgift THE RISE OF WELSH NONCONFORMITY 133, to be the Archbishop of Canterbury ; she thought that he could be trusted to carry out her policy of repression. Whitgift, though in sympathy with the doctrinal system of Calvin, was uncompromisingly opposed to the Calvinistic system of discipline and government. The conflict broke out over the question of a distinctive clerical dress, rites, ceremonies, and observances, but the underlying cause was more vital to the interest of the Church than such controversies could ever be. The essence of the Puritan demand was to make the Church Puritan ; the ideal was a simpler service and a simpler ritual. They preferred a presbyterian form of govern- ment, and resented episcopal interference. They had no thought of forming a sect, or sects, outside the Church. Sectarianism was foreign to the sixteenth-century spirit. The formation of a sect could be no relief to the religious peculiarities of the Puritans. To be the promoters of sects within the nation was no part of the policy of either High-Church or Low-Church Puritans. It was altogether a question of ascendancy within the Church. This is true of all the Anglican reformers. There were many among the bishops, the clergy, and the laity, who thought that room could be found for Puritanism within the Church, but a reaction set in, and the irreconcilability of the two systems became more apparent as events developed. Calvinism was quite as much a system of government as it was a body of theological thought. It rested upon voluntary associations called " synods " and " classes," as centres of authority. The system of the Catholic Church made the bishop the unit of government and the source of jurisdiction. The Puritans demanded the abolition of confirmation, and the disuse of the ring in marriage, because to them they implied the sacramental character of the rite. They rejected the doctrine of baptismal regeneration, and repudiated the authority of the episco- pate. They even disputed the claim of the Church to be the heir of Athanasius and of Lanfranc. It is no part of this treatment to discuss the problem as 134 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY to whether a Puritan England or an Anglican England would have borne the best results. But that the two systems, so essentially different, could not have existed side by side within the Catholic Church, is clear. Laud took this view. Moreover, he looked upon Calvinism, which formed the religious strength of Puritanism, as an evil in itself. Therefore, he brought the discipline of the Church, the patronage of the Crown, the influence of the Government, and all the force of traditional authority, into play against Puritanism, and against Calvinism as the motive power and the structural basis of Puritanism. In depriving Wroth of his benefice, he acted in accordance with his principles. It was an intellectual act, and, from his point of view, a moral act. He believed in prerogative government, and though a man of great learning, he was essentially a man of action ; as he believed so he acted. The question at stake was no longer whether the Church would be able to maintain her Catholic and corporate position, but whether she could crush Puritanism. Laud made the fatal mistake of identifying the cause of the Church with the cause of the Crown. By 1662 it had become clear that to exterminate Puritanism was an extremely difficult task. True, Puritanism lost its ascend- ancy, with the result that the Church recovered herself, and took possession of the field. England rallied to her aid, and Puritanism had to go forth into the wilderness. Then the work of developing its principles in the freedom of voluntary societies had to be faced. The Puritan ministers who resigned their benefices on St. Bartholo- mew's Day, 1662, sacrificed all for the sake of their con- victions — houses, tithes, and personal comforts. If Puri- tanism had to go forth, it made liberty of conscience a political necessity. Statesmen had come to realize that there was no force that could abolish religious divisions, and, human nature being what it was, that such divisions were inevitable. Following liberty of worship came the removal of civil disabilities. Religious toleration, first allowed as a political expediency, was ultimately raised to the dignity of a moral principle. In whatever THE RISE OF WELSH NONCONFORMITY I35 light we may regard Puritanism, this much, at any rate, stands to its credit. The progress of Puritanism in Wales, though slow, was in one respect very marked. It was embraced by the most saintly of men, among whom was Henry Vaughan, the " Silurist," 1622-95, who united in his character all that was best in Puritanism and Catholicism. Among the High-Church Puritans were Churchmen like Bishop Morgan Owen, 1585 (?) — 1645 ; the old Royalist bard Huw Morris of Pontymeibion, 1622-1709 ; Ellis Wynn, " o'r Lasynys," 1671-1734 ; and Theophilus Evans, author of A Mirror of the Primitive Ages, 1694-1767. Among the Low-Church Puritans were men like Rhys Prichard, author of The Welshman's Candle, 1579-1644 ; William Wroth, 1576- 1642 ; William Erbury, 1604-54 ; Walter Cradock, i6o6(?)-59 ; Vavasor Powell, 1617-70 ; and Stephen Hughes of Meidrim, i623(?)-88. It is not unworthy of note that Wales has put to the test the three great religious forces of Christendom — Catholicism, Anglicanism, and Nonconformity. In 1558 Wales saw the overthrow of Catholicism and the enthrone- ment of Protestantism. In 1602 came the first suggestion of secession from the Established Church. In 1639 that suggestion was literally fulfilled in the founding of the first Independent cause at Llanfaches, in Monmouthshire. In 1662 the ejectment of the two thousand ministers took place. This date is of great importance in the history of Nonconformity. Catholicism is now almost derelict in Wales. The story of its decadence is writ large in the annals of the country. Very little, comparatively speaking, remains to remind one of the fact that the Welsh of Wales were, once upon a time, the most devoted of Papists. One occasionally sees a lonesome-looking priest here and there, and the ruins of a monastery and a priory or two. A new and beneficent chapter has been opened in the history of Anglicanism. Wales is now blessed with a body of parochial clergy that are a credit to the nation and to the Church. The evils of pluralities and clerical absenteeism have been removed. The work of restoration has been M I36 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY carried out with vigour, and at considerable cost. Church communicants and adherents have increased by leaps and bounds, and the impression the Church is creating among all classes is excellent. In addition to the older edifices which one still sees perched on barren heights, or in some cosy nooks, are the more modern ones built in the very centre of our industrial districts and in our towns and villages of recent growth. Touching the question of the perfectibility of the origin of the Welsh Nonconformist movement, tradition has it that William Wroth was a skilled violinist, and his presence was always in demand on festive occasions. He drank deeply of the pleasures of this world, though this serious deflection of life's purpose and of his high calling was ultimately rectified. He became known, in his later days, as " The Apostle of South Wales." It would, as I have already intimated, be a mistake to suppose that Welsh Nonconformity was the creation of one person or of one cause. It was the creation of many persons and many causes. Wroth, Erbury, and Cradock have been canonized as the morning stars of Welsh Non- conformity, or, to be more correct, of Nonconformity in Wales. Vavasor Powell, Morgan Llwyd, Hugh Owen, and James Owen — all seventeenth-century men — loom largely in the annals of the movement in its earlier stages. But no review would be complete that did not recognize the services of Samuel Jones, the father of the colleges at Brecon and Carmarthen ; and of Peter Williams, the greatest of the pioneers of Welsh Biblical exposition. Wroth excelled as a preacher ; Samuel Jones as a teacher ; and Stephen Hughes as the establisher of churches, many of which are strong to-day. They and those who followed them were men of vigorous minds, but the force of their appeal consisted in the fact that it expressed the aspira- tions and experiences of the many. Any personal power requires for its efficiency the receptivity of the masses. The movement, however limited the area which it at first covered, was the synthesis of the factors that controlled the historical development of the times. It would have THE RISE OF WELSH NONCONFORMITY 137 been impossible were it not that the psychic forces favour- ing its ultimate growth were immanent. If I were asked to name or to specify these psychic forces, I would include the reflex action of English Puritanism, the silent, though unrecognized, working of the democratic instinct, the gradual unfolding of the unconscious inwardness to active consciousness, in the mutation of societies, the interaction of different minds resulting in the fixing of dispositions and the forming of tendencies which were asserting and perpetuating themselves with increasing vigour and in spite of tradition and of every kind of authority, whether political or ecclesiastical ; the susceptibility of the public mind to those reforms in worship and organization which men were advocating, and the presence of many contingent elements whose operation, though subordinate, was very real. These were some of the forces that constituted the ferment which determined in what direction Welsh society was to evolve. Then, there was the accidental, or, as some would have it, providential, presence of geniuses of the type of Wroth, Erbury, Cradock, Vavasor Powell, and later of Harris and Rowland, who exactly fitted the hour. The greatness of a great man is not to be measured merely by his talents, or by his potentialities, but by his ability o sum up in himself the vital needs of his generation and to give them visibility to others. He is great to the extent he speaks the language and uses the forms of thought of his time. Not that Wroth or Erbury or Cradock were men of inherent greatness ; there was no approach to greatness. They became a power in the land in virtue of the social and spiritual environment which supported them. When Nonconformity came into being, it was founded on the theory of popular control, a theory irreconcilably opposed to the genius of Anglicanism. Indeed, such a theory had not then been recognized as the great factor in the life of the Western world. Governments were not conducted with reference to the wishes of the people. Democracy, at that time, had not been set on its throne, and the epoch of nationality had not been opened. This was the outlook throughout Europe. In Wales itself the 138 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY bulwarks of authority, both civil and religious, had been the clergy, the landowners, the aristocracy, and the civic functionaries, who, for the most part, spoke the English language, and were out of touch with the native popula- tion — their ideals, history, language, and aspirations. The majority of the clergy and of the upper classes of those times were actuated by the same motives, imbued with the same prejudices, and concerned with the same interests. However generous a view one may wish to take of their mutual activities, it is impossible to explain away their attitude on the ground of their ignorance of the moral, racial, and linguistic conditions of the Principality. The people were denied any jurisdiction in civic affairs, and it was sought to make them "hewers of wood and drawers of water" to the privileged classes. These facts are stated because they explain the phenomenon which Mr. Lingen (afterwards Lord Lingen) in 1847 noticed, namely, that " the Welsh element is never found at the top of the social scale." It is therefore natural to suppose that the civic attitude towards the new movement, and to the men who subse- quently became its feeders, medium, and exponents, was one of undisguised hostility. What had got itself estab- lished, whether in religion or in politics, had a right to be established and to be perpetuated — so it was thought in those days ; it was a peculiarity of the age into which Nonconformity was born. Here, they thought, and, in effect, said, are men preaching without a bishop's license, and against the recognized religion of the land and the policy of the State. Here they are destroying all the educated and uneducated notions of the community, en- couraging the people to break loose from traditional ideas and sentiments, invading different parishes, disturbing the common peace, creating discussions, raising disputations, and violently exciting the populace, and it cannot be tolerated. The honesty and sincerity of such convictions cannot be doubted ; so they felt everything in them rise in indignation, and their conscience pledged them to use every means to crush a movement which, as they devoutly THE RISE OF WELSH NONCONFORMITY 139 thought, would, if successful, unsettle the faith of men, undermine the authority of the episcopate, and compromise the interests of orthodoxy. The fact that the religious movement of the eighteenth century originated within the Church itself, and that its leaders were almost all in holy orders, did not abate the anger of those who believed in the established order of things. On the contrary, the hostility was renewed, and with increased vigour and vehemence. I have already stated that the religious movement of the eighteenth century is erroneously called " The Methodist Revival." Strictly speaking, it was not a Methodist revival. Even Howel Harris and Daniel Rowland, who brought the movement to fruition, were in the Anglican Church when the revival began, and it started out in places where the old Dissenters had been labouring and preach- ing for years. Generally speaking, they were welcomed and encouraged by old Nonconformists, such as the Baptists and Independents, and even guided by them. Levi Pugh was in Cardiganshire before Daniel Rowland ; and William Williams was in Tredwstan many years before Howel Harris. The new movement was not of Methodist origin. Methodism was the result of that movement. The leaders of the revival were Churchmen, and, as already stated, they were nearly all in holy orders. In so far as it was " a reaction," it was quite as much a reaction from the Arminianism of the age as it was a reaction against the unemotional character of Welsh religion — both Anglican and Nonconformist. Arminian opinions were cherished generally in Church-of-England circles in Wales in those times ; they were also entertained by a section of the Baptists and Independents. Dissent was divided and congregations were rent in twain over this Arminian con- troversy, which began in 1729. It resulted in the estab- lishment of many congregations who became Unitarians. The followers of Rowland and Harris called themselves ' Calvinistic Methodists " in contradistinction to the Arminian Methodists of England. They adhered to the doctrinal articles of the Church of England, though in their Calvinistic sense. I40 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY What Welsh religion lacked was " fervency," an ele- ment so much in keeping with the Welsh character. It was wanting both among Churchmen and Nonconformists. Very little encouragement, if any, had been given to emo- tion in religion up to that period. This fact goes far to explain the insipid character of early Nonconformity, and the depression from which Welsh Anglicanism had suffered. Indeed, the influence of Welsh Nonconformity is not very perceptible in Welsh history until the eighteenth century. New life was breathed into its dry bones by the new move- ment which had made itself manifest in the Church itself. Rowland and Harris felt that the great need of the time was to remove the restrictions which had been imposed upon the spirit of religion. They resolved to lend their aid to usher in the new day of light which had dawned upon the Church and, through the Church, upon the whole of Wales. Their crusade marks a new chapter in the annals of the Welsh mind. From that time the stiff and conven- tional form of religious life had to give way to new efforts after naturalness. As the common people had suffered most, to the common people they went, appealing to their conscience and emotion rather than to their understanding. The success of the eighteenth-century movement was assured ; first, because the masses of the people hungered in their hearts for the new Evangel, and second, because of the eloquence and intensity of those who proclaimed it. The movement called into active life those elements of intelligence, religious fervour, and interest in spiritual things, so characteristic of the Welsh. He would sadly err who would deny its depth and reality because of the scenes of violent spiritual excitement, and the exhi- bitions of uncontrolled contrition for past transgression, which accompanied the revivals. He would also sadly err who would cavil over the extravagance of Harris, whether in his conduct or preaching, or who would neglect to take into account his temperament, his education, and the depth of degradation in which the masses were found. It is difficult to say how much ill treatment Rowland (1713-90) received, but in all probability not so much THE RISE OF WELSH NONCONFORMITY 141 as Harris (1714-73). Rowland was in holy orders, but Harris was a layman. He was a rough diamond, turbulent and passionate, and calculated to say and do things that would greatly shock a more refined nature. He became the subject of jest and ridicule and indignation. In Lecky's History of England, vol. ii, pp. 604-5, we find the following reference to him : — " He (Harris) made it his special mission to inveigh against public amusements, and on one occasion during the races at Monmouth, when the ladies and gentry of the country were dining together in the Town Hall, under the presidence of a duke, H. Harris mounted a table which was placed against the window of a room where they were, and poured forth a fierce denunciation of the sinfulness of his auditors. . . . Seward, who was one of his companions, was killed by the mob. On one occasion a pistol was fired at H. Harris ; on another he was beaten almost to death ; again and again he was stoned with such fury that his escape appeared almost miraculous. . . . Women in his congregation were stripped naked. Men were seized by the press gangs, and some of his coadjutors had to fly for their lives." The following extract from a letter written by Mr. Cennick, dated Friday, June 26th, 1741, shows what Harris suffered in different parts of England, and notably at Swindon, in Wiltshire : — " Dear Mr. Lewis, — Brother Harris and I, with about twenty-four on Horseback, set out to go thither on the same Morning from Brinkworth ; and just before I came out of our Friend's House there to preach, one Mr. G — h — d, . . . waited at the Door to speak with me. . . . He told me it was better to desist, or look to the Consequence. . . . The Con- gregation being gathered together in the King's High-way, Brother Harris and 1 stood up in the midst, and I began Prayer, and scarce had I ended, but a rude Multitude came running down to us from the Town ; . . . they brought a low Bell, or a large Bell, to fright away Birds from Corn, also a Horn, two Guns, and a Fire-Engine; and while I was preaching they began to fire over People's Heads, and to play the Engine upon Brother Harris till we were wet through, as was a few who stood close round us. . . . They cursed fear- fully, calling us Presbyterians &c. When one Engine full of Water was emptied, they withdrew a Space to fill it again out of the neighbouring Ditch. . . . After a little Time they came back as Brother Harris was exhorting the Brethren to 142 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY Steadfastness, and began to shoot over our Heads again, and to play the Engine upon us as before . . . some with Buckets took up the muddy Water and threw it on us 'till we were like men in the Pillory ; one threw an Egg, and struck Brother Harris on the Lip, so that it bled. . . . Towards the latter End they held their Guns so close to us, that our Faces were black with the Powder. . . . When they were weary of playing the Engine they took the Baskets of their Cudgels and fill 'd them with Dust, and cast it over us till they them- selves were all in a Confusion, and we as if roll'd in a . . . When we were praying they rush'd behind us through the Congregation with the Engine while some were thrust thereby into the Ditch. ... By this Time we were all scat- tered and despersed. . . . We walk'd up into the Town as we were, reasoning with those who oppos'd us, covered over with Dust and Muddy Water, and our Hair hanging over our Faces, clotted with the Filth. Some own'd how they were set on by Mr. G — h — d, and how his Charge was, Use them as bad as you will, only don't kill them. . . . And when we had borrow'd Cloaths to change us, we gathered the People together in a Yard, where we were entertain 'd; and Brother Harris preached to them, and I prayed. I am persuaded some of them were convinced of Sin, and begg'd us hard to come to a Village about a Mile distant. " 2 The following letter, referring to Harris, is an extract from Whitefield's journal at Cardiff, dated March 8th, 1738-9 :— A burning and shining Light has he (Harris) been in those Parts ; . . . a Barrier against Prophaneness and Immorality, and an indefatigable Promoter of the true Gospel of Jesus Christ. About three or four Years God has inclined him to go about doing good. He is now Twenty-five Years of age. Twice he has applied (being every Way qualified) for holy Orders ; but was refused under a false Pretence, that he was not of Age, though he was then Twenty-two Years and six Months. About a Month ago he offered himself again, but was put off. Upon this he was, and is still resolved to go on in his Work ... he has discoursed almost twice every Day for three or four hours together ; not authoritatively as a Minister; but as a private Person, exhorting his Christian Brethren. He has been I think in seven Counties. . . . He has been made the Subject of Numbers of Sermons, has been threatened withpublick Prosecutions, and had Constables sent to apprehend him. . . . He is of a most Catholic Spirit . . . 1 See The Weekly History, No. 14, p. 34 (published by J. Lewis, Bartho- lomew Close, London, 1740, 1741, 1742). THE RISE OF WELSH NONCONFORMITY 143 he is stiled by Bigots, a Dissenter. He is condemned by all that are Lovers of Pleasure. . . . Many call, and own him as their spiritual Father ; and would lay down their Lives for his Sake. He discourses generally in a Field ; but at other Times in a House, from a Wall, a Table or any Thing else, lie has established near thirty Societies in South Wales, and still his sphere of Action is enlarged daily. He is full of Faith and the Holy Ghost. . . . My Heart was still drawn out towards him more and more. . . . Accordingly we took an Account of the several Societies, and agreed on such measures as seemed most conducive to promote the Interest of our Lord.'" That Harris should accept certain suggestions which were made to him from time to time by Wesley and Whitefield is reasonable to suppose. But there is no evidence that Harris was subordinate to them or that he was being taught by them. On the contrary, Harris had views and ideas of his own — both theological and practical ; and to such views he clung with grim tenacity, as is shown by the following letter written by him to John Wesley : — ' Trevecka, July 16th, 1740. Dear Brother John, — I was in Hopes that I shou'd have heard from you 'ere this time, and likewise from Brother Charles, how you have all done since I left you. I was im- mediately call'd abroad as soon as I came home from Bristol, and could have no time to sit down to write 'till now. ' There were such Reports of your holding no Faith, with- out a full and constant assurance, and no State of Salvation, without being fully and wholly set at Liberty in the fullest Sense of Perfection ; and that I had been carried away by the same stream, that many of the little ones were afraid to come near me (and their Prejudices against you for that, and for opposing the Doctrine of Election) notwithstanding all my Endeavours to remove it, seems almost invincible; and I have b • n stagger'd myself ('till I shall hear from you) on Sight of some Letters that I have seen in Wales since I came down. These Letters have inform 'd me, that the Night I left London, you turn'd a Brother out of the Society, charging all to beware of him, and such as conversed with him, as of the D 1, purely because he held Election. My dear Brother, <;:nnot you see in a more cool Spirit, what was at the bottom of this? Do you not act with the same stiff, unbroken, uncharitable Spirit which you do, and ought to condemn in 1 See The Weekly History, No. 27, pp. 1-2. 144 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY others ? I assure you by the little Conversation I have had with that Person, I found all the Fruits of the Love of God in him, and all room to hope that the Saviour is in him ; And as to some Aspersions laid to his Charge, I have spoke to one here in the Country who was at London not six weeks ago, and who had the best Opportunity of being inform 'd, who intirely clear'd him. My dear Brother, if the Ministers of our dear Lord will thus eat and devour one another, will not the Enemy take Advantage? If you exclude him from the Society, and from the Fraternity of the Methodists you must exclude Brother Whitefield, Brother Seward, and myself; and if you go on to take such Methods as to let those who are without rejoice in our Divisions, will you not grieve the Spirit of God in all the Brethren ? For, while, my dear Brother, you contend for the establishing the Confidence of poor Sinners in the several Promises which I never denied, but have always in the most explicit Terms asserted, as strong as possible, that whosoever would come to Christ on the terms of the Gospel he would receive. But I hope I shall contend with my last Breath and Blood, that it is owing to Special, Distinguishing, and Irresistible Grace that those that are saved are saved. Can you say in the Presence of God, that it was Your good Improvement of Preventing Grace that brought you to believe? How did you strive, but could not? And yet by shewing (as you ought) that Man can, and does damn himself, resist, quench, and grieve the Spirit, you stumble and attribute to Man what you always found wanting in yourself, viz., A Power to be passive, to receive, to resign, to confide in Christ, you found all your Power could not effect, and that it was All in the Pleasure of another, and so it is still. You are faithful and watchful just as long as you are kept so. Look now to the Teaching of God's Spirit in your Heart, and less to your Reason and Learning, and then you will soon see that God chose you and not you him; and see on what a tottering Foundation you build, viz. Your own Faithfulness, and not on God's Unchangeableness. . . . Can't you see that your way is still the old Covenant that you are preaching. ... Is not your reasoning, making them that are saved to be under no greater Obligation to God than those that are lost? O that you wou'd not touch on this Subject 'till God enlightens you ! My dear Brother, as you are a Publick Person, you grieve by your Opposition what God's People feel, viz. His Electing Love ; and you make many poor Souls believe simply because you hold it." " Yours, " Howel Harris." 1 1 See The Weekly History, No. 13, pp. 2-3. THE RISE OF WELSH NONCONFORMITY 145 It is a mistake to regard the movement, as many persons unacquainted with the facts do, as a mere manifestation of dissent, — a kind of protest or rebellion against the Church, the bishops, and ecclesiasticism in all its forms. It may be looked upon in the light of a protest — indirectly. But it was not intended to create a schism, but to infuse new life into the ministrations of the Church, and thus increase its influence. It was a true reform, founded upon the principle, not of destruction, but of purification and renewal. The idea of forming an organization outside the Church, in which they had spent their earliest days, or of identifying themselves with Nonconformity, was at first foreign to their mind. Rowland, the central figure in the new movement, had no sympathy with sectarianism. He was a true son of the Church ; its services, ritual, mystic rites, had been familiar to him from childhood ; its doc- trines, its venerable claims and teachings, had become part of the very texture of his being. He had no desire to change the basis of religion as it was then understood ; he only desired to make the Church more useful, and to place it on a more democratic foundation. He had an ambition to restore to the Church the gift of preaching, and he claimed a wider freedom in the exercise of that gift. Rowland was only claiming what had previously been granted to other clergymen of the Established Church, notably to Stephen Hughes, who was made Vicar of Meidrim, near Carmarthen, in the year 1645, when twenty- two years of age. The change which was made in the order of the Established Church in 1644, bestowed upon the clergy a larger degree of liberty to exercise their judgment as to the manner in which they might be able to do good. Stephen Hughes availed himself of this privilege. In addition to his church at Meidrim, he had, as far back as 1650, established congregations in the parishes of Llanedi, Pencader, Capel Isaac, and other places. His missionary enterprise won for him the title of " The Apostle of Car- marthen," though it is uncertain whether this title was given him by his critics or his friends. After Hughes had been ejected from his living through the Act of Uniformity, 146 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY he continued to serve those Independent congregations which he had established, and in the course of time he succeeded in forming new ones in other parishes. 1 But Bishop Squire was " a disciplinarian " ; he had no sym- pathy with outdoor preaching, and he adhered strictly to the limitations imposed by the parochial system. He indirectly forced Rowland and the movement into exile, and ultimately into opposition. He prohibited him to minister in the two parishes which had been assigned to him — Llangeitho and Nantcwnlle. A building was erected for Rowland at Llangeitho by his sympathizers ; and it became the Mecca of thousands of his countrymen, who travelled long distances to hear the preaching of the Word, and to partake of the Holy Sacrament administered by him . The bishops of those times, unlike the bishops of the present, did not understand the needs of the Church which they were defending, neither did they understand the genius of Nonconformity, or the reasons why eventually it appealed to the Welsh mind. They did not seem to realize how their Church had withered under the ministration of men alien in tongue, men of imperfect education and in- capable of entering into the life and thoughts of the people. They regarded Nonconformity as if it were a poison to be eradicated from the social system. A patriotic clergy would have endeavoured to preserve the priceless blessing of religious unity and social concord, if for no other reason than that the early Nonconformists were not separated from the Church by any great theological differences. They were not Dissenters on the score of doctrine, or of antago- nism to the Church per se, or of deliberate conviction. They were not Dissenters on the score of principle. They were Dissenters, in the first instance, from the necessity of circumstances. True, as time went on, controversies arose respecting Church organization, doctrine, tithes, Church Rates and the Establishment, with all the consequences that may naturally be expected to follow. Such contro- versies were accentuated by the sense of religious rivalry, and religious rivalry became tinged more and more with 1 See Tr Adolygydd, March, 1 85 1 ; p. 423. THE RISE OF WELSH NONCONFORMITY 147 political rivalry. The more keen the feeling of nationality grew, the more acute became the religious and political divisions which separated the one from the other. Taking a broad survey of the whole Welsh Nonconform- ist movement from the nineteenth century downward, how are we to explain its successful issue ? In every hamlet and every parish throughout the length and breadth of the land, the people embraced it with ardour and gratitude. No less remarkable than the spread and extent of the movement, was the source from which the money necessary for the building of chapels came. There were no powerful landowners or rich men among the Dissenters. They were of the poorer class. They contributed gene- rously according to their slender means. By personal gifts, by systematic collections, and by the aid of ministers (many of whom gave their services free), Nonconformity was built up. In addition to their poverty there were other difficulties. The early Dissenters were often met by the positive refusal of landlords to grant sites, on any terms, on which to build chapels and schoolrooms. Other landlords, after a delay of many months, and even years, would ungraciously grant sites, but no lease. Thus it was that buildings costing many hundreds of pounds had to be put down, without any security, beyond the bare word, or honour, of a capricious and prejudiced landowner. Those who were responsible for the services were in many instances subjected to all sorts of petty persecutions, thus embittering the feelings of the cultivators of the soil, who were Welsh in their speech, manners and social habits, and who still retained many views of life, ideas and tradi- tions, belonging to an earlier stage of civilization. These are facts which no historian can ignore ; they are stated here simply in order to explain the rise of Nonconformity, and the influences which contributed to the creation of the marked divergence between the political and religious opinions of the privileged classes and those of the masses of the people. The reader may draw his own conclusions as to what may be their relevance upon more modern controversies between Anglicanism and Nonconformity. 148 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY In what direction are we to look for the secret of its potency? Was it due to the thirst after pure doctrine, to the desire for a more efficient and systematic teaching of the great truths of religion, or to the demand for a vernac- ular religion ? Was it a natural reaction from the Laodi- cean temperature both of the Established Church and of early Nonconformity ? Was it because Nonconformity, after its baptism in the eighteenth-century revivals, taught a higher morality or supplied an example of a more dis- ciplined life, or because it was as a system of government better suited to the temperament of the people ? The explanation is less simple and less obvious than many Welsh writers and denominational thinkers have hitherto assumed. The supposition that underlies the inherited Nonconformist history of the movement is, that its ascendancy was due entirely to the fact that the clergy and civic authorities had allowed the people to grow up in ignorance of the true meaning of religion and with gross superstitions in their hearts, superstitions which they could have corrected had they been so minded, but which they fostered for the reason that they wished to maintain their influence, and for the reason that the only way they could maintain it was by keeping the people in subjection. Popular ignorance was the surest foundation of ecclesias- tical authority. In no other way, it was thought, could they enforce opinion and demand obedience without argument or dispute. As I have already stated, the anomalies and maladministration of the Church were too glaring and widespread to be disregarded, though it should be stated that the activity and influence for good of many individual Churchmen, in pre-Nonconformist days, were much wider and more varied than is commonly supposed. But we cannot explain away the rise and progress of Nonconformity on such narrow ground. An attempt should be made to analyze and weigh other factors — historical, personal, accidental, social and political. It is a mistake to look upon Nonconformity as being exclusively a religious force. The more its inner meaning is penetrated, the more we consider the lines upon which THE RISE OF WELSH NONCONFORMITY 149 it developed, the issues it raised, and the problems it created, the more it becomes apparent that Nonconformity- stands for a good deal more than is generally thought, and more than is included in the term " religion " as religion is popularly understood. Indeed, it stands for a conception of religion totally different from that which prevailed even as late as the middle of the eighteenth century. The religion then professed, not only in Wales, but throughout Europe, was confined to what may be called "The eccle- siastical sphere." Nonconformity came, either for good or evil, to give religion a wider meaning, and to interpret it as something that in its very essence was bound up with the whole social life of the people, animating it and pene- trating it at every point. It built up a sectarian religion for the Welsh that represented the character of the race, a form of religion that was in accord with the spirit of the race, that afforded a scope for the genius so peculiar to the race — its mysticism, its idealism, and its imaginativeness. It marked more strongly the real disposition of the people, and developed that disposition more freely and fully than had hitherto been done. This, then, is the secret of its ascendancy, viz., the fact that it gave expression to, and greatly intensified, the sen- timents lurking in the substratum of popular conscious- ness. It set in motion the forces of national individuality ,* it fostered, expanded and amplified them. It paved the way for a higher national intellectualism, partly, by inter- preting the Bible in the mental speech of the people. The privileged classes of pre-Nonconformist days did not understand the people: they had never studied them, they did not consider them worthy of study, or even fit objects of their solicitude. Hence, they were blind and deaf to their needs. They had no sense of the essential unity of the people, or of their freedom. Free speech they suppressed, and free thought they discouraged. What learning there was was confined to the property-owning and privileged classes, and what learning they had they sequestrated. They stood in opposition to the new move- ment, which, as they thought, would tend to disturb the 150 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY public mind. What public offices had to be filled were filled by the nominees of the gentry and their supporters. These twin interests were amply represented at the Quarter Sessions, in the law courts, in the Civil Service, and in all State appointments. Nonconformity came to the aid of the people by coalescing and confederating them, by bringing them harmoniously together, and by teaching them to have faith in themselves. Notwithstanding their apparent cowardice, and their traditional, even slavish, regard for the govern- ing classes, the people were full of instinctive and progres- sive life. To this life Nonconformity gave expression ; this life it fostered and developed. Upon this life it organized itself. It may be argued that the time for a full and complete synthesis of Nonconformity has not yet arrived. Two hundred and seventy years is not a very long period in the history of a religious organization. We have, however, sufficient data to enable us to judge its place in the Welsh body politic. The changes, religious, social and political, in the life of Wales brought about by Nonconformity were partly instantaneous, partly of gradual growth, and partly the result of the interaction of other elements, but they have been positive and, in one sense, abiding. They are seen in the realm of higher education, in the complexion of our Parliamentary representation, in a fuller recogni- tion of Wales as a unit in the British body politic. Before the advent of Welsh Nonconformity there was no orga- nized Welsh democracy. The relation of the one to the other is a problem of profound interest. It is the kernel of the modern political development of Wales. I use the term in its wider sense. It embraces the tendencies which Welsh Nonconformity has created, and the general con- ditions of Welsh society which have resulted from its operations over the whole field of social and political life. It is possible to ascribe to Nonconformist democracy what in reality is the direct product of civilization. Too many ardent Welshmen neglect to take into account the line that divides the one from the other. THE RISE OF WELSH NONCONFORMITY 151 But it was Nonconformity that sealed the doom of the old civism. It supplied the conditions of general progress by teaching the people to have confidence in themselves, and by providing them with a system of church govern- ment through which that confidence might be exercised and developed. It rightly estimated the gift of utterance so characteristic of the Welsh, and laid emphasis on a fluent and polished use of that gift in the vernacular ; it placed opportunities in those directions within the reach of the young. Public as well as personal virtues were inculcated, and political reform was regarded as a moral obligation. Its fundamental idea of a community was founded upon equality of treatment and of opportunity for every man and every form of faith, and one of its prime objects was to prevent any class of men, or any organiza- tion, however good its aims, and however strongly en- trenched, from acquiring any more. It greatly aided in the preservation of the Welsh language : it gave an impetus to the study and use of that language by reading the Welsh Bible and by listening to public oratory. It led to general and greater literary activity, as is shown by the increase, gradual but certain, of the number of books, chiefly of a religious character, and the rise of Welsh periodical literature and Welsh journalism. It stimulated the demand for education, not only for its own ministers, who were sadly deficient in culture and scholastic attain- ments, but for the masses of the people. It operated in the direction of an improved morality, and it indirectly created a great change in Anglicanism itself. From that time onward we witness an immense improvement in clerical activities. There is to be found in Wales to-day as active and competent a body of parochial clergy as in any equal area in England. Some of the most distinguished among them are persons sprung from Nonconformist families ; they are to be found not only in Wales, but in many districts in England. It is said by some English ecclesiastical authorities in England, and by not a few of the English clergy who are not in sympathy with the Welsh race, that these Welshmen are "aliens" in the Church of N 152 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY England, and that they do not assimilate themselves to the spirit and genius of Anglicanism. That this feeling, or prejudice, exists there can be no doubt; it militates against Welshmen in England socially, and keeps them back from obtaining that promotion to which their talents, education, activities, and even seniority, clearly entitle them ; preference being given to Englishmen with less ability, less experience, and less aptitude. Great, indeed, and solid is the debt of Anglicanism in general to Welsh Nonconformity in this respect. It has added to its cerebral power, to its culture, to its progress, and to its power as a spiritual organization. No account of the progress of the Church of England in Wales, no account of the development of Wales itself, can be just or final, which disregards the rise of Nonconformity, or which, historically speaking, denies it its rightful place as a reforming factor in the Welsh body politic. If some of the more extreme and unreasonable of Anglicans were quite candid with themselves, and with the facts, they would recognize that they have understood Nonconformity but very imperfectly. Their inability to appreciate its under- lying principles, or to comprehend the social, religious, and political causes that contributed to its growth, is due no doubt to their failure to study it sympathetically in the largest possible way and by areas sufficiently wide and typical. Whatever may be thought of Nonconformity as a system of theology and of government, and whatever may be said, and very properly said, of its exaggerations, its growing intolerance, its comparative and positive decline in recent years, there is no gainsaying the fact that it has in the past brought good consequential fruits for the people of Wales, and indirectly for the people of England. CHAPTER VII NONCONFORMITY AND LIBERALISM It has already been suggested, in the previous chapter, that the growth of the consciousness of national entity, which is the very foundation of the modern progressive Welsh policy, is closely associated with the development of Welsh Nonconformity. This result is seen in the existence of "a veritable little republic within the bosom of the monarchy," as M. Max Leclerc once described Birmingham. Tested by the spirit of courage which it has fostered, the devotion to high moral ideals which it has kindled, the impetus which it has given to the pursuit of knowledge and intellectual activity, and the manner in which it has nursed the sentiment of freedom in the soul of the people, Welsh Nonconformity will bear favourable comparison with other religious systems of even more pretentious claims to excellence and divineness. Nonconformity as a system of worship and of government, and as a social and political force, is a great factor in British history ; it is also a great factor in the history of modern Wales. In its essence, it is identical both in England and in Wales ; the fundamental principles are the same. Welsh Noncon- formity bears in its origin a later date than English Non- conformity, and it has been developed under different conditions. English Nonconformity was, in no small measure, begotten by the exigencies of a political crisis between King and Parliament. Welsh Nonconformity has its source partly in the spread of Puritanism in Wales, partly in the failure of Anglicanism to understand the '53 154 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY Cymric temperament and to minister to the spiritual need of the Welsh in days past. Welsh Nonconformity is no historical appendix to English Nonconformity. They are distinct in their origin, though identical in their orga- nization and method of government. But the democracy of Nonconformity, its elasticity and its enthusiasm, are more noted characteristics of Welsh than of English Non- conformity. English Nonconformity has to some extent been influenced by Anglicizing tendencies; the dividing line is not so sharp or definite. It is difficult, if not impossible, for the average Englishman to understand the clear-cut divisions in Welsh social, political, and religious life. In England a Churchman may be a Liberal, and a Nonconformist may be a Conservative, without exciting any comment. Politics in England are not in- dissolubly wedded to sects. In England two or more successive elections in the same constituency, between the same candidates, may result in different returns, but in Wales, as in Ireland, the poll of each of the candidates, in nearly all the constituencies, can be foretold before the election takes place. A Welsh Nonconformist who is a Conservative in politics is considered by his co-religionists a traitor to his sect, and almost a traitor to his country. In ninety-nine cases out of a hundred a man's religion is a test of his politics, and there is no body of Welsh opinion that is ready to change its votes through personal attach- ment to a candidate, or by conviction through the argu- ments brought forward by the other side. The two camps — Liberal and Conservative — are as well defined as hostile armies engaged in military operations. The facts go to prove the independence of the Welsh elector. Whatever influence the clergy of the Established Church, who as a body are Conservative, may have been able to exercise in the past, they do not count politically to-day. However intimate the relation between the Nonconformist minis- ters and their flocks, they could not improperly coerce the tenants or any other class of Welsh voters. If Non- conformist ministers turned Conservative to-morrow, it would be so much the worse for themselves. The NONCONFORMITY AND LIBERALISM 155 temper of the Welsh mind is Liberal, so is the temper of Nonconformity. A signal instance of the independent attitude assumed, especially by the tenant-farmers of Wales, is afforded by an election for Cardiganshire in 1886. The late Mr. David Davies of Llandinam, a well-known and influential Calvinistic Methodist, was a candidate in the Liberal-Unionist interest, and was opposed by Mr. Bowen Rowlands, Q.C., as Liberal candidate. The former was supported by the combined influence of the bulk of the Calvinistic Methodist ministers, and by the gentry of the county, including nearly all the landlords and the clergy. The contest was marked by the greatest energy on both sides; yet the Liberal candidate was successful. Liberal-Unionism has never gripped the Welsh mind, and apart from Mr. David Davies and Lord Glantawe (for- merly Sir John Jones Jenkins), who once represented the Carmarthen Boroughs, there has not been a single Welsh- man in Wales of any consequence and influence with the electors who has championed the cause of Liberal-Unionism. Religious and other questions show that, as a general rule, whatever landlords, ministers, clergy, gentry, or certain prominent individuals may do or say, the tenant-farmers and the Welsh voters vote in the main in accordance with the opinions they choose to adopt. Without doubt, there have been occasions in past years when landlords or their agents, in conj unction with the incumbent of a parish, have used the power given to them by the relationship between them and their tenants to influence the action of the latter in political and religious matters. On the other hand, there were some landlords, as there are to-day, who treated their tenants, whether Nonconformists or Churchmen, without reference to political considerations. It would be wrong to hold them responsible for the conduct of indiscreet agents and the more zealous and inexperienced members of their own family. To say that a man, because he is a landlord, or a clergyman, or an agent, ought to be debarred from that free expression of his political views, and of that outward activity that the law allows, is not only an unwarrantable 156 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY restriction upon his rightful liberty, but it shows a lack of knowledge of the world in its wider aspects, and of the first principles of moral and political freedom. Emphasis has been laid on the abnormal political activity of Welsh Nonconformity, and upon its lowly origin. For these reasons its divineness is still being questioned. It does not, we are told, bear the notes of a true Church, and its claim to be a custodian and a revealer of God's truth is, therefore, disputed. When and where this position is adopted, as it is adopted, on the conscien- tious ground that apostolical succession and sacerdotal virtue in the sacraments are essential to a Christian Church, nothing more can be said or done except to treat with due respect those who hold such views. But to plead its lowly origin in refutation of its claim to possess spiritual value, is both arbitrary and illogical. Our final spiritual estimates of any and every religious phenomenon, if the Bible and human experience are to be our criterion, must be based upon results and not upon origins. The Welsh revival (1735) had its message and its mission — its spiritual message and mission. Its leaders, though of lowly origin and, in many instances, unlettered and un- cultivated, were men of exalted emotional sensibilities. They were the subjects of abnormal psychical influences, and to this, together with their gift of utterance, must be attributed their religious authority over the masses of the people. It has been objected that they were liable to obsessions, and that they presented all sorts of pecu- liarities. It was called " fanaticism " in those days. Their fervour was supposed to invalidate the reality of their convictions. But there are many dominant traits in the Christian life that can never be brought out without fervour. A temperate climate is not a suitable climate for intensities. Wales had for generations been living in a temperate climate ; its religious life, such as it was, among both Conformists and Nonconformists, was so dry, so high, and so inward, that it had deteriorated into a condition of wintry negativity. It was a religious life that did not grow and did not develop. The fire that it NONCONFORMITY AND LIBERALISM 157 lacked, the eighteenth-century movement supplied. True, many of its leaders lacked the instruction and the training which, in our day, are considered as essential requisites for the work of the ministry. But they were suitable for the work for which God had raised them, and if we judge them by the only evidence that is decisive, viz., the work they did, the vices they uprooted, and the masculine courage they instilled into the Welsh mind, their religion was, in essence, a reversion to the original Gospel as founded and proclaimed by Christ and his Apostles. As to the political complexion of Welsh Nonconformity, it should in fairness be stated that its past history is blended with far more interesting associations than what is involved in its demand for the disestablishment and disendownemt of the Church in Wales. To characterize the persistent and unwearied agitation of the last fifty years as an agitation that has been wholly created or fostered by wire-pulling politicians, is to misunderstand and misinterpret a movement that has been carried on by the majority of the Welsh people — a majority composed of Nonconformists, reinforced by a number of the laity and clergy of the Established Church, who, for reasons of expediency, advocate with Nonconformists the separation of the Church from State control. Though the political side of Welsh Nonconformity has proceeded without in- terruption since the first half of the nineteenth century, it is not too much to say that closely interwoven with its political activities has been the realism of the supernatural which animated the powerful individuality of the many marked figures which guided the movement. The spiritual sympathies of its leaders carried it straight to the people's heart, and marvellous, indeed, was the effect in the spirit which it breathed into the old rude clay of the nation. What politics Welsh Nonconformity has taught, it has taught through its civism. It was its obsession of civism that gave Nonconformity its political bias, and it was its own understanding of the principles of religious liberty, and of all that it implies, and its determination to realize that principle, in its own way, that explains its absorption THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY in political pursuits. Nonconformity has been the domi- nant factor in all Welsh elections during the last forty years. Every Liberal returned for a Welsh constituency since the historic election of 1868, has been returned in virtue of the Nonconformist vote. The reason is not far to seek. Previous to its advent, the mass of the Welsh peasantry were not well educated : they did not take much interest in politics. Though much of their fear was groundless, they were timid and backward. What poli- tical convictions they cherished, they whispered to each other in the solitude of the night. But the spirit which they had inherited— and it was the only treasure that they had inherited — had never been entirely sapped, though too often consumed through the miseries of war and the un- controllable tendency to disunion, arising out of that quarrelsome and vindictive temperament whose excesses had so darkened the pages of Cymric history. It was in Nonconformity that this spirit found its redeemer, its feeder, and its exponent. Thus it is that sectarian politics and sectarian religion have gone hand in hand. To Nonconformity, and to it alone, must be given the credit, or discredit, of having formed the political policy of the Welsh, and of having fused them into one organic whole, on the basis of Liberalism. Welsh Nonconformity has, of later years, called forth a fresh reaction against its tendencies, if not against itself, for the reason that it has identified itself so closely with politics, and especially with party politics. Its dogmatic assertiveness has caused it to be regarded as being, in essence and spirit, a purely political movement. This, however, is to overstate the case. Welsh Nonconformity is a social and an educative movement. True, not to the same extent as it used to be, when the pulpit was the only source of information available to the people. But the education of the Welsh nation is not so much, even now, in the custody of Welsh schoolmasters, or of Welsh secular schools and colleges, as it might appear to anyone looking at the surface of things. Welsh Secondary Schools have created a revolution in the educational system of the NONCONFORMITY AND LIBERALISM 159 country, and in the material prospects of the incoming generations. Yet, not one out of every thirty of the children of the people pass through these schools. Not one in three hundred pass through the Welsh colleges. If the children of the people had to rely upon such insti- tutions for their culture, the bulk of the Welsh democracy would be left without any culture at all. Historically, besides providing that type of religious instruction which suits the religious genius of the Welsh, Nonconformity has supplied the means of genuine intellectual culture and enjoyment. I am not merely referring to the Sunday Schools, and to those purely religious exercises in the form of prayer meetings, or to the various subsidiary meetings, such as those for musical practice or for catechizing the young, or the " Seiat," which occupies one evening of every week, and which is confined to communicants and their children. This is the particular service when the sermons of the previous Sunday are passed under review, and the religious experiences of the members are elicited, unworthy members expelled, and candidates for member- ship are questioned. If their conduct and knowledge of the Bible are satisfactory, they are accepted, and recom- mended to receive the hand of fellowship and the Holy Communion on the Sunday appointed in each month for that purpose. The presence of the minister is not essential, he being considered the mouthpiece, and not the ruler. This particular service is very democratic. There are other week-night meetings, in the form of literary and debating societies, and classes, where readings are given from the works of various Welsh and English authors. They have a collegiate atmosphere about them, and possess what Welsh Secondary Schools and colleges lack, viz., the current and motive power of moral idealization. Besides being an educative force, Welsh Nonconformity has been a great civic force. The sum of its influence has been of the utmost weight and importance in the work of administration and of social amelioration. It would not be possible to limit the circuit within which its power to form and to change vital national issues has not been l6o THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY exercised. Neither would it be possible to exaggerate the services it has rendered in maintaining order, in extending the influence of the law, in curbing the criminal tendencies in the Welsh character. When we come to take a large and a broad view of its operations in the civic life of the country, the forces which it has set in motion, and the thoughts which it has embalmed in the only literature read by the people for generations — when we consider the far-reaching effects of the exertion of its emotion, its sentiment and its passion, upon the life of the community, it is impossible, if we desire to be just, to avoid the conclu- sion that it has been a great preservative and con- servative factor in the history of Wales. As to the affiliation of Welsh Nonconformity with Liberalism, it is clear that it could only exert its political in- fluence, or secure the adjustment of what were considered to be just grievances, through the leverage of one of the two political parties in the State. The leaders of the early Methodist movement were more Conservative than Liberal. They believed in the old political system, and had a dread of interfering in practical politics. They refused to participate in the Disestablishment agitation (which had been started as far back as 1793) until after the middle of the nineteenth century. But, between 1846 and 1850, not less than 1,734 persons were brought before the magistrates for the non-payment of Church- rates, very many of whom were known to be strong adherents of Calvinistic Methodism. The result was, that they ultimately fell into line politically with the rest of the Nonconformists. This the Methodists did in 1862, at a great meeting which was held at Swansea on that date, to commemorate the expulsion of the 2,000 ministers under the Act of Uniformity. It was then that Welsh Noncon- formity united its forces, and the Radical note was sounded. From that day until now, a period of fifty years, Welsh Nonconformity has never wavered. The managers of the Conservative party in London have never really considered Wales with a view of helping Welshmen. It has been one of the causes that has contri- NONCONFORMITY AND LIBERALISM l6l buted to the estrangement which now exists between Nonconformists and Churchmen. The futility of the Con- servative attempt to win Wales back from Liberalism may be gauged, not only by the average type of Parlia- mentary candidates to which I have already referred, but by the average type of speakers they have been sending down to address Welsh audiences. There is nothing that causes more irritation to a Welshman than to have to listen to a speaker who is English by birth, tongue, instincts and feelings, addressing them on the delinquencies of Welsh Nonconformity and the benefits of the Establish- ment, the curse of Liberalism and the virtue of Conserva- tism. Races are susceptible in different and in opposite directions. One cannot appeal to a Welshman, either religiously or politically, in the same way as one would appeal to an Englishman or to a German — at least, not with any hope of success. Bishop Berkeley once asked "whether there be any instance of a people being converted in a Christian sense otherwise than by preaching to them in their own language ? " What is true religiously is true politically, and even more so that the question of language is the question of affinity. Conservative candidates of the aristocratic type proceed in their luxurious motor cars, smoking their Havanna cigars, to a meeting held in a small schoolroom in a country parish, they speak a language foreign to the natives, and affect a sort of patronage which at heart is as unreal as it is in effect detrimental to their own interests and to the interest of the cause which they are supposed to champion. No greater insult can be offered to any voter than to try to impose upon his sim- plicity. The Welshman is naturally shrewd, and he sees through a sham as quickly as the most educated of his neighbours. He knows who are the men who take real interest in national affairs, and who contribute to their support ; he likewise knows that, with very few noble exceptions, the leaders of Conservatism in Wales and the gentry of the land contribute comparatively very little and, in many cases, nothing at all. It has been claimed by some Conservative leaders that l62 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY it requires a higher type of intelligence to comprehend Conservative principles than to comprehend democratic or radical principles, and that this explains why Wales is so Radical. This view is seriously advanced in some quarters ; it would be amusing were it not so tragic. The one opportunity that Conservatism ever had in Wales was thrown away, and every means it has since adopted to increase its power has failed. It has failed, partly, because Conservative managers in London, acting in unison with local Conservatives, have tried to foist upon the constitu- encies candidates whose knowledge of politics — to say nothing of the Welsh temperament and Welsh history — was so deficient, and whose gift of expression was so defective, that their candidature was nothing less than an insult to the community ; in the end it served to weaken rather than strengthen the position of Conservatism in the Principality. In those cases, when Conservatism in Wales was represented or espoused by candidates whose intelligence or education was above the average, and who were able to address public audiences with any degree of decency, they were, with one or two exceptions, men who had no affinity with the Welsh people, and who displayed the same indifference to the claims of Nonconformity and to the interests of the democracy in Wales in general. This policy has for generations been a settled maxim among the Conservatives in Wales. Conservatism in Wales has never had a leader of the type of Mr. Lloyd George, or of the late Mr. Thomas E. Ellis. Such leaders are, apparently, not destined to come from the loins of Conservatism in Wales, and Conserva- tism discourages rather than encourages their appearance ; it does not go in for breeding leaders or speakers of the more popular type. What leaders Welsh Conservatism has had have been separated from the people by a profound mental and moral antagonism. They have never under- stood the people, and, what is more, they have never under- stood themselves, more through a lack of psychological insight than through any real lack of goodwill towards the people. The only Welsh national leader on the Conserva- NONCONFORMITY AND LIBERALISM 163 tive side worthy to be ranked, and that in more respects than one, with the best that Liberalism can produce, is Bishop Owen of St. David's. He has the gift of knowing how to manage the temper of the Welsh, and, at the same time, how to cultivate their good feelings. Historically speaking, Conservatism sought to surround Welsh Nonconformity from its very birth with irritating restrictions ; it actually fought it at every stage, and treated its ideals and aspirations with contempt and derision. To the many injustices and disabilities from which Nonconformity claimed to be suffering, Conserva- tism turned a deaf ear ; it even tried to stereotype and to perpetuate them. When compelled by the sheer force of circumstances to recognize its existence as a religious organization, it did so grudgingly. Conservatism has gone further ; it has actually assumed an attitude of open and active hostility towards those Welshmen who, at con- siderable sacrifice to themselves, endeavoured to stimulate popular intelligence on other than mere religious questions, and to prepare their fellow-countrymen for taking up the duties of citizenship. One illustration shall suffice. When the Rev. Dr. William Rees of Liverpool, a Welsh Congre- gational minister, started to issue and edit Yr Amserau ( The Times) in North Wales (eight years after a sixpenny monthly had been established in the South by the Rev. David Rees of Capel Als, Llanelly), he was greatly handi- capped by what was termed " taxes on knowledge," in the form of stamps and paper duty. This burden weighed heavily upon both the publisher and the editor. Dr. Rees did the editing and the work of translation, etc., without any remuneration. He and the publisher suffered also from want of capital. To escape a part of this pressure, they took the paper to be printed at Douglas in the Isle of Man, that island being exempt from some of those exactions. When this fact became known to the gentry and the clergy of North Wales, they held a meeting at Bangor, and adopted a memorial to the Government calling attention to the fact, and suggesting that it was unlawful to take a British paper to be published in that 164 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY island. The result was, that the Conservative Govern- ment, which was then in power, declared that the publica- tion of a Welsh newspaper in the Isle of Man was illegal. It proved a serious matter for the editor and publisher, but the paper survived ; its circulation was increased, and it became a powerful factor in the social and political life of the Welsh people. Could there be anything more suicidal, even from the point of view of Conservatism itself ? Yet, there are educated men in England who ask how and why it is that a people like the Welsh, whose nature is so essentially conservative, should be Radicals in politics. They com- plain, and rightly complain, that as Nonconformity has increased in power, it has become more intolerant. It is the way of all communities that have been kept under. This is an aspect of development that is familiar to all students of revolutionary movements. There are others who, while deploring the fact, regard the Disestablishment and the Disendowment of the Welsh Church as a move- ment that is bound in the end to react favourably in the interests of Conservatism in the Principality. It will mean, they say, the capture of several Welsh seats. But the Church question is not the only question that divides Conservatism and Liberalism in Wales. Such an hallu- cination affords a curious proof of the existence of that undifferentiated sense of the reality of things which has too long afflicted Conservatism. This then is the hope, that the hour of the dismemberment of the Welsh Church will be turned into the birthday of modern Welsh Conser- vatism. The dethronement of the Establishment is to make the Welshman a human being of a totally different political denomination. Such a hope, however, is not rationally or logically deducible from anything one sees. Such is the difference in the emotional atmosphere of Conservatism and Liberalism, that such a development, if it can be called a development, would be equivalent to taking the Welshman from the Tropics into an Arctic climate. Of one thing we may be sure, nothing is going to happen in Welsh politics that is not conformable to the NONCONFORMITY AND LIBERALISM 165 temper of the Welsh. It is a very remarkable fact that while the Church in Wales, whose interests, spirit, and ideals have been considered to be identical with those of Conservatism, has been making large and rapid advances in Wales, there has been no corresponding increase in Conservatism. It is claimed that there is going to be a great change, but such a claim has been so often made that one may be forgiven for being sceptical. Whereas the advance in Conservatism has yet to be proved and tested, the advance on the part of the Church has been abun- dantly justified by statistics, by the work of restoration, by the consecration of the clergy, by the excellent impres- sion which the Church is creating, and by the humani- tarian work she is doing. While the leaders of the Church have grasped the situation, Conservative managers still affect the belief that all is going well. Who are their advisers, and what are the sources of their information ? Have they at their headquarters in London an educated, thoroughbred Welshman who can speak the language, who would be capable of doing the work of translation, and, above all, whose judgment is not warped and vitiated by personal and sectarian considerations.* If the world knew the amount of money which Conservatism has so inju- diciously and recklessly wasted in Wales, and that to no effective purpose except to affect a show of activity, it would be amazed. Indeed, there has been something pathetic, even fatalistic, in the attitude of official Con- servatism towards Wales and all Welsh movements of a popular character. What one fails to understand is, the difference between the manner in which Conservative leaders have approached England and Scotland and the manner in which they have approached Wales. Is it because they think that Wales does not materially count in the political game ? Let it be understood that it is a deep sense of this difference that has prompted the criticism which I have deemed it necessary and prudent to pass upon the attitude of Conservative leaders towards the Principality. Ex- • According to a statement published in the Press this month, the deficiency has now been partly met. 1 66 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY amples are sown so broadcast throughout Welsh history, that it is impossible to escape the conclusion that, if the Conservative policy towards Nonconformity and towards Wales as a whole had been successful, it would have resulted in the dominion of a privileged class over an unprivileged class, and of an alien element over the native. Such a policy aimed at overruling the rights and wishes of the inhabitants, and absorbing their divergent interests in a fictitious unity. Liberty stimulates diversity, and diversity preserves liberty by balancing conflicting in- terests, and supplying the means of organization. Everything points to the fact that, while the religious difficulty has been the chief difficulty with regard to Welsh Nonconformity, it has not been the only difficulty. The principle of nationality is involved in the ethnological character of the Nonconformist movement. It is based on democratic lines, and democracy is founded on the perpetual supremacy of the collective will. Almost every question in which Welsh Nonconformity has been in- terested, and which was originally of a religious character, has become a political question. So long as they remained in the abstract region, in the condition of mere ideas, there was no conflict of interests. But when they were so dis- cussed that the abstract became concrete, and they took hold of men's interests; and so began to be practical, and to affect institutions and ancient prejudices, and the peace of the community, passion was engendered, followed by conflict, agitation and misunderstanding. Such, for example, as the question of tithes, Church rates, the Burial question, Disestablishment and Disendowment. There are some questions where it is by no means clear whether they strictly belong to spiritual jurisdiction or not. On such questions as the tithe, it is impossible to read very deeply into the literature of the Reformation period with- out seeing that the ecclesiastics of that and of previous generations regarded tithes as purely spiritual matters ; they claimed that all questions arising out of tithes should be settled by archbishop or bishop in spiritual courts. There were, on the other hand, eminent lawyers, like NONCONFORMITY AND LIBERALISM 167 Christopher Saint-German, and other contemporary writers and lay authorities, who held that the tithes, though given to secure and to maintain spiritual services, were in themselves temporal, and therefore came within the jurisdiction of the State. The lay view of the Refor- mation period is the Nonconformist view of this period, viz., that it is Parliament, and not the spirituality, that ought to decide whether tithes should be paid, and as to the justice of the amount in individual cases. The ground they take is, that such questions are really political ques- tions, that some authority must decide, and that the only competent authority is the State ; the advowson is a temporal matter, and, therefore, a political question ; it is for Parliament to order as it sees fit. This principle, we are reminded, was conceded when Parliament, in the reign of Henry IV, cancelled all appropriations of vicarages which had been made from the beginning of Richard IPs reign. This is the Nonconformist position. All questions that affect money and property, civic peace, national interest and prosperity, all questions that touch the people's pockets and the welfare of public institutions, open up difficulties which must be regarded as economic and administrative rather than religious. The State can legally and morally claim to legislate upon such matters. Nonconformists avow that they owe it to them- selves, as a Christian duty, to bring all such public questions to the arbitrament of revealed truth, and to the test of experience. Their contention is, that it is impossible to preach any great salient moral truth, thoroughly and faithfully, without touching politics. When the truth ramifies and radiates, it ultimately emerges as a political problem, and its application can only be solved on poli- tical lines by political action. It rests on the necessity of social growth and of moral development. Generally speaking, all questions that belong to religion become political questions in their final issue. It has been so in the history of the United Kingdom and of America. There is no question that touches society, no question that finds an application to men's morals, men's material in- l68 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY terests and prejudices, and the welfare of civil and religious organizations, that may not become, through the evolu- tion of public affairs, a political question. As to the right of ministers of religion to discuss such questions, it may be said that the function of the minister is to apply great truths to the times in which he lives in such a manner as to work reformation in the individual and, through the individual, in society. Preachers have lost power over the people for the reason that they have either neglected to do this, or have done it indiscreetly and dispropor- tionately, or because they have degenerated into mere routinists in ceremonies and dialectics and reasoning upon technical ideas and propositions In the work of moral and spiritual reformation it is impossible to entirely renounce secular subjects. By " secular subjects " is meant public and private economy, the maintenance of peace, the sanctity of marriage, the preservation of the Sabbatic principle in modern society, war, slavery and the education of the young ; in brief, whatever relates to the welfare of the community as a whole. Abstract doctrinal preaching has emptied the pews. Such preaching must fail to interest the world at large for the reason that it applies to men's intellect alone, and bears no relation to men's passions and prejudices, hopes and yearnings, and the strenuous life with all its concomitant evils. Questions of a purely speculative nature interest only the few : they never draw audiences ; and if the preacher has no audience, his power is necessarily limited. The con- ventional religious discourse about what men call truth, and which confines itself to the saving of men from the perils of the future world, is obsolete. Truth is an in- strument with which to preach life and to touch life in all its aspects, and when men preach about life, if their preach- ing be accompanied by courage, learning, eloquence and discretion, they are sure of a hearing. Civic duties and political ideas come within the range of the preacher's duties. Unlike the citizens of Rome, the citizens of to-day are compelled both by duty and necessity to take interest in public affairs, and they have to be morally as well as NONCONFORMITY AND LIBERALISM 169 intellectually qualified for the task. The common school or the seminary is not sufficient, for the reason that neither of them covers that part of man's nature to which the pulpit must appeal. In every political question there is a moral question, and the preacher must understand the psychology of politics, because politics have to do with government, both civil and imperial, and government has to do with constitutional liberty, with public health and public morals, with the suppression of tyranny and the administration of justice. Therefore, it is the duty of the pulpit to educate men in the duties of citizenship, in the conception of citizenship, and in the execution of those obligations which citizenship imposes. Not that the discussion of social or political questions is to be the chief element of the ministry. The chief element is the central spiritual truth of man's relation to God, of man's relation to his fellow-man, and of man's destiny hereafter. All other questions arise out of this, and whatever may be right to say about them on the platform or in Parliament should be said from the pulpit, if said temperately, sympathetically, and with taste and knowledge. This does not mean that ministers are to embroil the pulpit in party warfare and party manoeuvre, and the details of party politics, or to convert a religious organization into a political organization. That this is the case in Wales to- day is the conviction of many who are not unfriendly to Nonconformity, and of not a few among the Nonconform- ists themselves — preaching politics too much and too foolishly. Welsh people, or the people of Wales in general, do not attend divine services as they used to, and the proportion that attend such services is not increasing but decreasing. The cause of this is in some measure due to the undue absorption of the Nonconformist mind in purely political questions. Every principle and every force is liable to misuse, and present-day Nonconformity is committing the mistake which the Church committed in days past. As the Church was utilized by the eighteenth-century Governments rather as a political machine than as a spiritual force, so I70 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY Liberal Governments of this generation have utilized Nonconformity for electoral and political purposes. Nonconformity, it is true, has had to look to the one political party that was prepared to do it justice, and to obtain, by legislative action, security of tenure in the land, and equality of treatment and opportunity. The problems which Nonconformity has created are problems, not for ecclesiastics to settle, but for the politician and the statesman. But the essential weakness in the position of Welsh Nonconformity to-day is, that the political type rather than the saintly type has become its moral ideal. It has become so aggressive on its political side that it is in danger of destroying itself by friction, and of losing the efficacy of its appeal through the cultivation of a certain kind of bellicose excitement which has been so much in evidence of late years, and which, unfortunately, is being regarded as synonymous with that holy fervour that in its palmy days made Welsh Nonconformity a power for so much good in the land. Its devotion has become dry and arid ; there is no moisture in it : politics has got it. Eden is behind Welsh Nonconformity, and the wilderness before it. CHAPTER VIII PRESENT-DAY NONCONFORMITY I have endeavoured, in a very limited manner, to explain the Nonconformist movement in the light of the people's desire for a common form of worship in unison with their racial qualities, a common organ of democratic adminis- tration, and a common instrument of religious and politi- cal defence. I have also endeavoured to show how the movement proceeded along national lines, how it was in- fluenced by the interaction of intrinsic and extrinsic elements, how it helped to rescue Wales from the political nonentity which threatened to be its doom. No one who really understands Wales would attempt to deny to Non- conformity the credit that is due to it — for its past ser- vices in the field of Welsh hymnody, literature, and educa- tion, and the impetus it has given to the social, educa- tional and religious development of the people. Its output of work has been very considerable during the two hundred and seventy years of its existence. It has done for the Principality almost as much as Presby- terianism has done for Scotland. The evolution of Welsh Nonconformity has been a great factor — the central factor, some would say — in the life of the people. It has certainly been one of the chief means in the growth and expression of the national consciousness. This much, at any rate, is now conceded. But during the last quarter of a century there has been a great change in the spirit, aims, and ideals of Nonconformity. If the founders of Nonconformity rose from their graves, it is questionable whether they 171 172 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY would be able to recognize it, or, if able to recognize it, would own it, so completely have the old marks dis- appeared. Among the changes which have come over Noncon- formity, not the least interesting is its approximation in form of worship, in style of architecture, and in ceremo- nial, to those of the Established Church. Nonconformist ministers are rapidly assimilating themselves to the clergy of the Church of England. The clerical collar has invaded the most obscure and distant dingles, where no such vision was formerly to be seen. The architecture of the chapels also approximates more and more towards Church models. Also the Calvinistic Confession of Faith is framed upon the lines of the Church Catechism, and the old and only legal title of " The Welsh Calvinistic Methodist Connex- ion " is fast giving way to that of " The Presbyterian Church of Wales." What used to be a number of loosely associated congregations have become closely knit to- gether in one centralized body, with the title-deeds of the various chapels entrusted to the central body presided over by the Moderator. Unlike their predecessors, many of the Nonconformists of to-day are insistent upon designating their places of worship as " churches " instead of " chapels," the name " chapel " being regarded as a mark of inferiority. While, on the one hand, the clergy borrow more and more from Nonconformist sermonic literature, Nonconformist minis- ters, on the other hand, are borrowing more and more from Anglican sermonic literature. It would take a clever man to distinguish between the best sermons of Dissent and the best sermons of the Church. There is even a disposition to discard the word " minister," and to substitute for it the title of " parson " or " Nonconformist clergyman ' rather than of " Nonconformist minister," whereas, in years past, Nonconformists took pride in being known as " Dissenters." The reason for all this is, that the relative position of Church and Dissent has been reversed. Formerly wealth, power, social status and political in- fluence were allied with the Established Church ; these PRESENT-DAY NONCONFORMITY I73 are now largely on the side of Nonconformity ; the Church is on the defensive, and is being called upon to justify its existence and its claims to be the exponent of the religious life of the nation. Nonconformity is on the aggressive, though less against sin and public evils than in the prose- secution of its social and political ideals. Generally speaking, it may be said that there are signs that the main body of the ministers of religion in Wales, following the lead of the clergy of the Established Church, is moving slowly, but steadily, towards some aspects of sacerdotalism. The transcending influence which belonged to the powerful personalities of the old preachers was not misused for individual aggrandizement. In the relation of their Church life they made themselves the servants of the people, while the inferior talent of the present genera- tion of ministers is being utilized, in the main, for the acquisition of authority in the sphere of administration. The establishing of the various sustentation or endowment funds is more likely than otherwise to foster this ambition for centralized authority. The significance of this move- ment has not been examined with that honesty and deli- beration that it demands, for the reason that it may be fraught with grave consequences to the independence of the people. What is the real import of this process of change ? There are some — Bishop Edwards of St. Asaph among them — who claim to see symptoms which indicate a gradual, though certain, reversion to what may be called Church or Catholic types. These new notes, they say, point to reunion, if not uniformity. But the facts do not warrant such an inference. Whereas in Scotland the opening years of this century are illumined by brightening hopes of Church union, in Wales the separatist policy is being pursued with vigour and even increasing bitterness. It was not unusual fifty years ago to hear leading Anglicans and Nonconformists in Wales discussing in a friendly manner the question of reunion. The idea of the restora- tion of its Archbishopric to Wales, and the probable effect of it upon the religious life of Wales, appealed to many. 174 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY It was thought that it would be good to unite Wales — both Church and Nonconformity— under the wing of such a dignitary. When, however, they came to the question of " orders," the difficulty was regarded as insuperable. The late Dr. William Rees (" Hiraethog "), of Liverpool, once said that " God would have to raise a second St. David before this difficulty could be overcome." But the times have so changed that Welshmen to-day would ridicule such vain and worthless attempts at unity. A Welsh bishop acknowledges the validity of the ordination of the Roman priesthood, and would license a Roman priest to preach in his diocese. The same bishop does not acknowledge the validity of the ordination of a Noncon- formist minister. If he should desire ordination in the Church, the conditions imposed by the bishop would be such that not one out of a hundred could accept them. Beneath this Anglican veneer which is fast spreading itself over Nonconformity, there persists the same old conflict of ideas as to what constitutes a true Church, as to the legality and righteousness of State endowments, as to the existence of an Established Church, and various other matters upon which Anglicanism and Nonconformity are still at variance. While the Disestablishment and Dis- endowment crusade has, in Scotland, given place to a more fraternal policy of Church reconstruction, the very reverse is the case in the Principality. In vain do we look for any trace of that conciliatory spirit that has inspired the repre- sentatives of the two negotiating ecclesiastical bodies in the North, and which is the most hopeful feature of the situation. The more militant of Welsh Liberationists are becoming desperately aggressive in the assertion of their own distinctive position. A Liverpool Congregational minister speaking on the Church question at a meeting of the Congregational Union held at Swansea on the 8th July, 1913, is reported to have said : " We mean to be in at the death, and there are to be no further concessions." This spirit is typical of the majority of the more militant of the Nonconformists of the Principality, and it is they, and not the more moderate section, who control the agi- PRESENT-DAY NONCONFORMITY 175 tation. It is not a Christian spirit, it is not a gentlemanly- spirit. Parties, when they are weak and in the minority, usually exhibit toleration ; but when these gain the ascen- dancy, they become arbitrary and oppressive. The position to which Nonconformists adhere is, that the Church does not need the State, and that the State does not need the Church. What faith, moral laws, and rules of discipline, they hold, the Church may have framed and may need, should be, as they were in the time of the Apostles, enforceable in the court of conscience alone. The State, they argue, cannot recognize any religion, and yet keep its hands off the religious conscience ; and one reli- gious body should not be prejudiced by the endowment of another. They go further, and claim that the existence of an Established and Endowed Church is a departure from the principle of religious equality. This doctrine may be held to imply that one religion is as good as another — that, as a great protagonist has said, there is no positive truth in religion ; that all are to be tolerated, for all are matters of opinion ; that revealed religion is merely a sentiment and a taste — not an objective fact, not miraculous ; that it is, therefore, the right of the individual to believe just what strikes his fancy. Indeed, the consistent Libera- tionist must, and does in effect, state not that his own particular sect should not be prejudiced by the endowment of another, but that, since religion is so personal a peculia- rity and so private a possession, it must of necessity be ignored in the intercourse of man with man. It is not, in this connection, unworthy of note that there are in- equalities which Dissenters approve and even advocate. The Protestant succession to the Throne is one of the cardinal principles of Dissent ; but it is an inequality. So is the Throne, though Dissenters acknowledge that it is proving itself to be one of our most valuable national institutions. In India the Welsh Calvinistic Methodists, in their mission in the Khasia Hills, have secured complete control over all the schools of that district. The schools are entirely supported by public money, while the teachers I76 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY must all be members of the Methodist Connexion, and the doctrines taught in those schools must be those of the Methodists. We have a right to ask Welsh Nonconformists to explain on what ground can a thing they consider wrong in prin- ciple in Wales, be right in principle in India ? We might also ask why it is that Dissenters do not apply their theory of the proper dissociation between the State and religion to the field of national education ? Secular education would be the fairest to the divergent interests of the conflicting religious bodies. But Nonconformists reject it on the good ground that the religious education of the young is too important a matter to be left to chance. It is curious that the very argument which Nonconformists use about religious education in national schools, is just the argument that Anglicans use about religion itself. What is equally curious is the reservation, even intolerance, which Nonconformists exhibit towards those who are seeking to apply in the realm of religion, the very theory of equality which they themselves are applying, and applying with so much vigour and vehemence, in the sphere of education. It is true, as Mill pointed out, that so natural to mankind is intolerance on whatever they really care about, that religious freedom has hardly any- where been practically realized except where religious indifference, which dislikes to have its peace disturbed by theological quarrels, has added its weight to the scale. The duty of toleration is admitted in Welsh Nonconformist circles only with reservation, due chiefly to the lack of symmetrical development in the Nonconformist intellect and to the vagaries of its Puritanism. So little regard have militant Nonconformists for consistency, for the rights of others, and for those existing institutions that have been inherited from long past, that they claim the privilege of reviving a derelict principle, and of enforcing it, when- ever Nonconformist rectitude is satisfied that it ought to be enforced. It is perfectly clear that a national system of undenominational religious education is as much a violation of religious equality, or neutrality PRESENT-DAY NONCONFORMITY I77 as the existence of an Established and Endowed Church. Much has been spoken by ignorant politicians, from public platforms, about the principles which divided Nonconformity in former times from Anglicanism. Principles they had, but voluntaryism was not one of them. Voluntaryism to them became an after necessity, for without it they could not continue to exist, much less thrive and extend their operations. To say that William Wroth, who established the first Independent Dissenting congregation in Wales in 1639, ^ e ^ because they did not believe in receiving State money, is not merely an exag- geration, but a gross travesty of history. Voluntaryism had nothing to do with the origin of Nonconformity. Voluntaryism is only an accident of Nonconformity. Its essence lies in its evangelicalism as against sacramenta- rianism. It stands for freedom of action as against paro- chial limitations and the theory of apostolic succession. It cannot be successfully maintained that Protestantism, either on the Continent or in Great Britain, has ever disassociated itself from State endowments. The Non- conformist pioneers left the Church because of the episcopal restrictions of their evangelistic labours. The disruption of the Established Church of Scotland took place on the question of the spiritual headship of the Church ; it had nothing to do with endowments. Presby- terianism in Scotland and in Ireland believed then, as it does now, in State money for the upkeep of religion. Calvin in Geneva and Knox in Scotland strove to secure State support for the ministers of religion. The distinctive note of Nonconformity is a question of ritual and polity, and, to some extent, of doctrine. These, and not the question of endowments, differentiated the early Nonconformists from the Church. It is pathetic to witness the tenacity with which Non- conformists cling to the voluntary system as a theory, while at the same time they virtually acknowledge its failure in practice. The various religious denominations are now making every effort to found sustentation or I78 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY endowment funds in order to supply their ministers with a living wage. It is on record that they regard some form of endowment as an absolute necessity, and that the future of Nonconformity in Wales depends in a large measure upon the success that will accompany these efforts. In the face of these facts — facts that are known to every Welshman in the Principality, it is difficult to understand how any Welsh Member of Parliament can stand up in the House of Commons and declare to those who do not know the facts that the voluntary system in Wales is a success. One of the party did so on July 8th, 1913, and he claimed to know the mind of the majority of the Welsh people better than any man in the House. It was the same gentleman who said that " what the North Pole was to the sailor's compass, religious equality was to Wales ; what Waterloo was to Europe and Bunker Hill to the United States, the passing of this Bill would be to the Princi- pality." Such foolish attempts at rhetoric are utterly valueless both in their substance and in their effect. The truth is, the Nonconformist ministry is the one sweated industry in Wales at this hour ; it is the one industry that is not in a position either to assert or to enforce its rights. It applauds the democracy while the democracy compels it to subsist on terms that an ordinary artisan would scorn to accept. To say that they all do it for the love of the work would be to pay them a compliment not deserved. The majority of them cannot help themselves. It is the one industry for which they are fitted or unfitted ; and if they complain, they are liable to be branded as being avaricious by those who are their masters, and, in not a few cases, their oppressors. Speaking at the Central Meetings of the Cardiff District of the Glamorgan and Carmarthen Baptist Association, on Wednesday, May 16th, 1913, the Rev. J. H. Shakespeare, M.A., Secretary of the Baptist Union of England and Wales, said : — " It was horrifying to think that the Baptist denomination, with all its glorious history and its wealthy laymen, still had the reputation of paying its ministers worse than any other PRESENT-DAY NONCONFORMITY 179 denomination. It was still more horrifying to think that they were sending missionaries abroad to convert the heathen, but were content to let their ministers starve at home. More than half the Baptist ministers in the country were obliged to maintain themselves and families on less than £2 a week. Their ministers did not go to college for that amount. The very nature of their profession insisted that they should keep up respectable appearances, and they could not go to live in a cottage like an ordinary labourer. The Baptist denomi- nation would get on the rocks if they did not do this for their ministers. " How unseemly, therefore, is the capital that certain Welsh Nonconformist writers are endeavouring to make out of the " wretchedly paid clergy " of the Welsh Church at the commencement of the eighteenth century. The stipends, we are told, were so low and so inadequate, that the ' type of men who took orders and accepted the average Welsh living, could not, upon the most favourable construction, be deemed to have been cultured or efficient." The argument is frankly granted ; it is irrefutable. But how does Welsh Nonconformity stand to-day in the light of this argument ? What " type " of man can Noncon- formity expect for fifteen shillings per week ? That is what about four per cent, of its ministers receive. The best average is not higher than eighty pounds a year. We might easily multiply facts to show that the voluntary system has broken down under the pressure of modern conditions. Generosity any more than catholicity is not an attribute of the Nonconformist mind. Why, therefore, do the Welsh Nonconformists still adhere to the voluntary system despite its acknowledged failure to meet the conditions of modern society ? Why do they persist in adhering to methods that have lost their force at the risk of falling into an impassive condition? Church leaders have adopted an opposite policy, with the result that they are rapidly regaining lost ground. They adhere to traditional methods because of the mistaken notion that voluntaryism is an essential principle of Nonconformity. There never was a time when Welsh Nonconformists stood in greater need of instruction in the history, development and fundamentals of Noncon- l80 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY formity. That ignorance prevails, and prevails both in the Nonconformist pulpit and the Nonconformist pew, as to the essential difference between the State establish- ment and the voluntary organizations of Free Churchmen, is perfectly obvious. Much has been said about the per- sistent misrepresentation of Nonconformity by Episco- palians ; and undoubtedly there is an element of truth in this. But it does not lie in the mouth of Welsh Non- conformists to charge Episcopalians with misrepresen- tation. The bulk of them do not understand the genius of Anglicanism, and have practically no knowledge as to what constitutes its principles. Neither have they any real knowledge as to what constitutes the principles of Nonconformity itself. One of their greatest needs is to devote themselves to the task of educating their adherents in the principles of their system. Indeed, the need for this instruction has already been realized by the leading men. Something has been done, it is true, with respect to its history — its beginnings, its personalities, and the dis- abilities under which it suffered in its earlier stages ; but very little attention has been paid to the philosophy and psychology of this history. No intelligent solution of the problems which arise in the sphere of conduct and of knowledge, or of the mental processes which lead to them, is possible apart from psychology. Thus it is that we hear so much in these days of the psychology of art, religion, and education. I know of no attempt at any profitable discussion of the psychology of the Welsh Nonconformist movement, either in all or in any of its phases. There are numerous works, in the vernacular, giving existential facts relating to its birth and progress. There is no lack of census reports in which are tabulated the number of chapels built, ministers ordained, colleges founded, the religious and political grievances that need to be adjusted, and the various religious and semi-religious organizations connected with the system ; but there is no work of any consequence that seeks to show how the facts connected with the historical development of Welsh Nonconformity have been correlated with events in the social world con- PRESENT-DAY NONCONFORMITY l8l stituting its environment. Consequently, there is very little to help the outsider to form any conclusion as to how its inner consciousness developed, and how the facts of its history operated upon the thought and conduct of its adherents, or how they affected the conditions of Welsh society as a whole. The mere observation of bare facts to each new Welsh generation, the mere recital of incidents in the lives of the Nonconformist pioneers, and " the suf- ferings they endured," is not sufficient to enable those who are unacquainted with such facts, or who do not value them as Welshmen do, to obtain an intelligent apprehen- sion of the problems involved in the Nonconformist movement, or how those problems affect legislation, or in what manner they touched the interests of the community and of the nation at large. Not only is Nonconformity but imperfectly understood by the present generation of Nonconformists, but they have not the courage to study the system in the light of the present. The world has grown since Nonconformity was founded, and there are indications that the system is not sufficiently generic to take in all forms of truth and to adapt itself to changing needs. It is ceasing to attract, and to be an ideal of Christian life to a large section of its own offspring, and that section by no means the least intelligent or God-fearing. The word " minister " is not the call-word it used to be ; it is no longer the symbol of certain qualities and attributes. The office is respected, but the man who holds the office is under sufferance. Not that the people have ceased to have regard for the truth, or are unwilling to hear the truth. But the traditional interest in, and respect for, the average minister, has been seriously weakened, with the result that the truth as it is being preached does not find its way down to men's thoughts, feelings, conduct, business and life. That Nonconformist ministers have not fallen into this condition of disrespect without deserving it, is clear. They have courted it, and even boast of it. Their time has been unduly occupied in persecuting the Church and in interdicting Churchmen and Conservatives from public l82 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY positions; they have been trying to curry favour with working men and to retain what authority there is left to them by inculcating socialistic doctrines from the pulpit ; they have presumed to criticize things they do not under- stand, and with superb superciliousness have disregarded all ethics except Puritan or Nonconformist ethics. The spirit of " professionalism " in the preacher, it is com- plained, is more conspicuous than the idea of devotion or of patriotism. The fact that this sentiment exists, and that it is growing in the community, is in itself a matter worthy of consideration. It would be fatal in any Christian organization, but it is peculiarly fatal to Non- conformity, for the reason that Nonconformists, humanly speaking, derive their inspiration from the pulpit, not from the Sacrament, not from the worship, for worship is subordinated to the preaching of the Word. Hence it is that any lowering of the prestige, or any weakening of the authority, of the minister or preacher, in the estimation of the people, is a fact of transcendent significance to Nonconformity. It strikes at the very foundation of the whole system, and all that has been built upon it. That this authority has been weakened is patent to every student of Welsh contemporary history. The causes are many and varied. Not the least important among them is the fact that the attention of ministers has been diverted unduly from their true vocation to other and less spiritual ends, with the result that they are losing the capacity for their proper work, and the disposition for it. The preaching of to-day does not influence national feeling in the same direct and forceful manner as it formerly did, partly for the reason that the Nonconformist pulpit is wanting in personality. It is less individualistic, and is lacking in the fervour of pious faith, dabbling with trivial results and ephemeral discussions. There has also been, during the last generation, a gradual and a growing change towards a lower level of eloquence. This may partly be explained by the fact that the art of public speaking is more generally practised among Welshmen, and that what oratory there is, is more commonplace. The history of the Welsh PRESENT-DAY NONCONFORMITY 183 Nonconformist pulpit is growing much tamer than it was ; what interest it creates, it owes to seniors rather than to the younger generation of preachers who have had a university training. What vitality there remains, what insight, what pastoral theology, what unction and true sympathy, are on the side of the older men. What one might expect from the university-bred preacher, namely, an increased efficiency of exact thought, and a wider or more real culture, one seldom finds. In no sense can it be said that the average Nonconformist minister of to-day is the best man, or even among the best, in the community. He is in fact more or less tolerated. He has unwittingly created a reaction which must ultimately operate to his detriment and to the advantage of those interests to which he is so violently opposed. This is the Nemesis that has overtaken present-day Nonconformity. To the plea that the mission of Nonconformity has been to christianize politics, the obvious answer is, that it has overleapt itself. As to what extent it has succeeded in christianizing politics, that is a question that still remains in the broad borderland of debatable ground. But it is impossible for an impartial mind, that has read deeply into the con- temporary history of Wales, to escape the conclusion, that Nonconformity has succeeded, in an eminent degree, in politicalizing and secularizing its own Christianity. The best service a true son of Wales can perform is, to honestly face facts as they are. If Nonconformists have the faith they profess to have in the divinity of their system of government, and in the suitability of its method of worship to the genius of the Welsh, and its adaptability to the changing needs of the times, it surely cannot suffer by the fullest light and the freest investigation. It is an open secret that Nonconformity is not keeping pace with the progress of population ; its advance in membership and in spiritual influence is not commensurate with that of the Anglican Church. In every little town, and in almost all country parishes, the lives of Noncon- formist ministers, through the overlapping of effort among the rival sects, are in a large degree wasted. Pastors are 184 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY not properly distributed, but are often concentrated in comparatively limited areas, and by no means always in districts where they are mostly required. That present- day Nonconformity is a declining religious force, and that it no longer reflects the complexion of the nation in its many varieties, is a conclusion which no impartial student of modern Wales can escape. The old virtue is gone out of it, and with the virtue the frankincense. At the ballot boxes, when under whip and spur, it gains easy victories ; but as a civilizing and spiritualizing influence, it has not the same grip on the rising generation, and it can no longer claim to be the exponent and the organized expression of the religious life of the nation, and the services which it is rendering to the cause of higher civiliza- tion is not commensurate with its power, its pretensions, or its reputation. A certain Welsh Member of Parliament, speaking at Penygroes, North Wales, on Saturday, December 20th, 1912, in dealing with the question of immorality in Wales, is reported to have said : "It should be noted that illegitimacy in Wales was highest in the rural areas where were also Church endowments. If the usefulness of endow- ments was to be measured by the rate of illegitimacy, the sooner the Church was disendowed the better." The speaker referred to had apparently forgotten, or does not know, that the rate of illegitimacy is no safe criterion of the state of morality in certain districts or counties. The rate is higher in the rural than in the urban districts, for the reason that the people are less sophisticated. Bastardy cases are now rare in the smaller towns of Wales, the reasons for which are obvious, as anyone who cares to make inquiries may find out for himself. There are country towns in Wales where the Nonconformists greatly predominate, yet, cases of illegitimacy are very rare, and the cause of their rarity is not in the superiority of their morals, but in their greater knowledge in such matters, which knowledge saves them from the open results of their secret immorality. But taking the speaker on his own ground, it can be clearly shown that the rate of illegitimacy PRESENT-DAY NONCONFORMITY 185 in Wales is not highest where Church endowments are high. According to the Registrar-General's Report, the most immoral counties, not merely in Wales, but in the United Kingdom, are Denbigh, Anglesey, and Merioneth. But the average endowments in Merioneth amount to only about £207 as against £244 in Carnarvonshire, £239 in Breconshire, £246 in Carmarthenshire, £213 in Cardiganshire, and £230 in Radnorshire. Such an argument urged in favour of disendowing the Church would be shameless if true. As a matter of fact, the very reverse is the case, as is shown in an article which appeared in a Welsh quarterly called " Y Geninen," for September, 1909. It was written by a Welsh Baptist minister of good standing ; he is in active service in the town of Carmarthen, and one of the principal officers of the local Free Church Council. The following is a transla- tion of a part of the article in question : — ' Should we not have bowed our heads in shame when we were told, in 1907, in naked figures, by the Registrar's Reports, that the most immoral counties in England and Wales are the counties in which Nonconformity flourishes and the Sunday School is a power? ' Let us take the figures for the year 1906, in which the effects of the Revival should have been chiefly felt. What do we see? Without counting the stillborn children, or the girls who married before the child was born — (and it is certain there was a large number of these) — the number of those who went astray,' in Wales and Monmouthshire, stood at the hi^h figure of 2,421. Estimating the number at something about half the immoral cases that happened, there were as many as four thousand males, and the same number of girls — the total being at least eight thousand — guilty of illicit inter- 1 -nurse within twelve months. The North is worse than the South ; it may be taken as a rule that for two girls who fall in the South there are three in the North. Why is this? Why had the Registrar-General to report to the House of Com- mons thai the three most immoral counties in the kingdom . re Denbigh, Anglesey, and Merioneth? In the year 1907 there was an improvemenl in these counties; but the figures still high, and Anglesey takes the first place on the list as the worsl out of fifty-five counties registered for bastardy. The standard figures for the kingdom are 8.1 in 1906, 7.8 in 1907. Somersetshire is as low as 5.4 and 5.5; and i86 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY other counties in England, like Surrey, as low as 5.9 and 5.7; Middlesex, 6.1 and 5.7; and Gloucester, 6.8 and 5.8. Now, where stands religious and Nonconformist Wales face to face with those figures? For South Wales we have 8.7 and 8.4; North Wales, 11.8 and 11.1. The following are the exact figures for each of the Welsh counties, except Mon- mouth, in which the figures stand at 9.6 and 9.3 : — Illegitimate Children for every Thousand Unmarried Girls or Widows between 15 and 45 years of age. Ye ar. 1906 1907 England and Wales 8.1 7.8 Anglesey • • • 13-3 12.9 Merioneth . . . 13.2 12.7 Montgomery . 12.6 11.7 Denbigh . 13-5 10.3 Flint . 1 1.9 1 1.0 Carnarvon . . . . 9.4 IO.5 Radnor . 8-3 "•3 Pembroke . . . . 10.7 8.4 Brecknock . . 9-5 8-3 Glamorgan . . . 8.9 8.4 Carmarthen . 7-7 8.9 Cardigan • 6-3 7-3 " It will be seen that the best county in Wales, in 1907, is not to be compared with the best county in England ; and that every county, except Cardigan, is more immoral than the average over the whole kingdom. Radnor and Pem- broke, where the Baptists are so strong, are the worst coun- ties in the South ; and the six North Wales counties, which are, one above the other, at the top of the list, are the strongholds of Methodism. . . . Catholic Ireland, compared with Nonconformist Wales, is almost clean of bastardy, and that because the priest, with all his weaknesses, takes an interest in some aspects of the moral life of the people that are neglected by Nonconformist ministers. " For years, from time to time, I have cut out of the South Wales Daily News reports of cases — sometimes as many as six or seven from one page — of crimes committed upon girls and young children, and for which the criminals were condemned at the assizes to penal servitude ; but the reports are too numerous to give here ; and all the cases are not brought before the assizes, either. Some time ago a man was summoned in Pembrokeshire in a case of bastardy ; PRESENT-DAY NONCONFORMITY 187 and it was found that he had tied the innocent girl to a post, and there had become the father of her child. There are cases in Wales where it is believed throughout a neigh- bourhood that fathers have got children by their own daughters; and yet the moral sense of those neighbour- hoods is so dead as not to express any public moral indig- nation. Examples of villainous acts too scandalous to be recorded could be added. ... It appears that a number of our young people derive their chief pleasure in thinking of, and playing with, things which ought to be sacred. ... In the centre of the town of Carmarthen there is a new park, and in the park there is a wooden pavilion. Around this, day after day, little girls between seven and twelve years of age assemble, and have the opportunity of reading, upon the wooden structure, the most unclean and filthy language possible for a human mind to imagine. . . . And the young people of Carmarthen . . . are not worse than those of other Welsh towns. ... I have, ere now, seen drawings of a nude man and woman in a hymn-book in a chapel in Wales, and in Testaments used in the Sunday School ! . . . Our churches are dumb, fathers and mothers are too frequently dumb ; children are allowed to grow up an easy prey to the lust that seems to be one of the hereditary sins of the Welshman. . . . " At the root of the sin that besmears the good name of Wales lies drunkenness. . . . Wales was not so sober in 1908 as in 1907. I have been many times in Switzerland, and have gone there from one public-house to another, and have walked for hours through some of the streets of cities like Geneva and Zurich, on Saturday nights and fair-days, but without seeing therein anything like the scenes which are a disgrace to the ' old land of the white gloves.' . . . France is infidel, it is immoral, but she is not rendered ugly by the sights that bring the breath of hell to the towns where Nonconformity predominates. Let one of my readers « iter a public-house, on a Saturday night, at Llanelly, or Swansea, or Bridgend, or Dowlais ; let him go by the train known in the neighbourhood as ' The drunkards' train ' ; and if his heart does not bleed for the homes represented there — if an intense desire is not awakened within him to see Wales rising in her strength to throttle her most shameless enemy, little knows he of the claims of humanity, much less of the demands of patriotism. "There was a time in Wales when drinking among women was comparatively unknown ; now it is growing quite a common thing. Every year a certain number of our women drink so hard that the doctor is compelled to notify that the i88 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY cause of their death is deliriut?t tremens or cirrhosis of the liver. The Registrar points out that the total of the deaths under these two headings must be had before we can know the number of those who die from drunkenness. These are the figures for 1907 : — Deaths from Deaths from Alcohol and De- Cirrhosis of the Counties. lirium Tremens. Liver. Males. Females. Males. Females. Monmouth . . 12 6 H 21 Glamorgan . . 36 13 40 36 Carmarthen 3 1 S I Pembroke . . 4 3 7 6 Cardigan 1 3 2 Brecknock . . 2 3 3 Radnor 2 Montgomery 3 1 2 2 Flint 2 5 2 Denbigh 5 3 1 7 Merioneth 3 3 Carnarvon 2 5 6 4 Anglesey 3 2 Totals 70 32 92 89 " It will be seen that the total of males from both diseases is 162, and that of females 121. " These are the figures of those convicted of drunkenness in Wales last year — 1908 . . . : — Number convicted of drunkenness. Counties. Males. Females. Anglesey 161 15 Brecknock 286 37 Cardigan 186 8 Carmarthen 883 33 Carnarvon 540 90 Denbigh . . 592 79 Flint 233 45 Glamorgan 5,525 618 Cardiff . . 9 1 87 Swansea . . 693 165 Merioneth 122 2 Montgomery >53 12 Pembroke 559 5 1 Radnor . . 93 3 PRESENT-DAY NONCONFORMITY 189 The Registrar gives the total of females summoned for open drunkenness in Wales, excepting Monmouthshire, as 961, and the males 9,219 — 10,180 within twelve months ! " One may judge how rampant this sin of drunkenness is in some parts of Wales by remembering the fact that 57.74 is the average throughout the kingdom of those convicted of drunkenness, while in the Borough of Brecon it is 172.44; in the Borough of Carmarthen, 133.67; in the Borough of Carnarvon, 133.20; in the Borough of Wrexham, 141.65; in Neath, 140.67; in Tenby, 154.55; in Aberavon — the most drunken town, on an average, in Wales — 226.4 — four times as many as the standard number for the kingdom. In a small place like Haverfordwest the figure is 179.79. Of tne agricultural counties, the best by far is Merioneth, and the worst Pembroke. ..." These are not opinions or conjectures or vague imputa- tions put together without reason or evidence, but irre- futable facts, and the deductions based upon them have an air of absolute verity. They correspond with the state of things which exists in Wales at this hour, and they deserve to be carefully scrutinized and examined at their foundation ; they are tragic enough to turn the very name of Nonconformity into a byword and a reproach among cultivated people. It concerns the leaders of Welsh Nonconformity to understand the forces behind the facts ; but so disorganized has their vision become and with so jaundiced an eye do they look upon the defects of their system, that they still go on in the even tenor of their way, preparing new epiphanies as if all was sun and noon- tide. The handwriting is on the wall, and they who list may read. The state of things represented by such facts and deductions are not mere passing episodes of light and temporary interest ; on the contrary, they afford a start- ling indication of how slight a hold Welsh Nonconformity now has over the consciences and lives of the people in the very districts where it proudly predominates in the number of chapels and ministers, but where it has already lost its exuberance and where the light is fast dying out of its soul. If Welsh Nonconformity is not to lose all that it has toiled for, some sudden and dramatic act is needed. The time is past when Welsh Nonconformists may continue 1 90 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY to eat the bread of the dead, and rest on the tombstones of their ancestors, taking credit to themselves for a reputa- tion which they did not create and which they are failing to maintain. To attribute this deterioration in morals and manners indiscriminately, as they so wantonly do, to the pernicious influence of foreign elements, is not honourable ; it is not warranted by the facts. These men and women of alien birth are not altogether the lawless, godless people that Nonconformist ministers misrepresent them to be. Strange as the ideas and the ethics of the foreigner may appear to the native mind, equally strange do the ideas and ethics of the natives appear to the foreigner. Wales owes much to this immigration of a new people, for the reason that it largely represents a type of culture not so remote as the type which still persists in many parts of Wales, more especially in the rural districts. It represents manual dexterity, creative genius, indomitable energy, freedom of intercourse, business aptitude, and in many cases real learning. That there are dangers which come from the conflict of old peoples moving among new ones, is obvious, and that this immigration deposits a good deal of slime, is equally obvious. It could not be otherwise ; it is so in the case of other countries. But the good side of this immigra- tion outweighs the evil. To the industrious, the educated and the law-abiding, Wales owes a greater debt. They have brought to her culture, the means of culture in science and classic instruction. Judging by the unworthy attempts that are being made to fix the whole responsibility upon the Scots, the Irish, and the English in the Principality for the evils that are fast eating their way like canker into the Welsh body politic, they must be the very dregs of humanity, come to break in upon native simplicity and contentment, and to degrade the Welsh nature with their vices. It has already been shown that public morals are worse in the districts which are regarded as more purely Welsh, and that the most immoral counties in Wales are the counties in whichNonconformity flourishes and the Sunday PRESENT-DAY NONCONFORMITY 191 School is a power ! The truth is, Welsh Nonconformity is confronted in the fourth period or epoch of its existence with problems with the like of which it was not confronted during the three previous periods, and for successfully coping with which it needs certain qualities and attributes which it has not as yet developed. The higher Wales ascends in the scale of material or scientific civilization, and the more complicated its economic and religious conditions, the less able Nonconformity is to adjust its ministrations, and the more difficult it is for Nonconformist ministers to retain their hold upon the community. The more primitive the people and the simpler the order of society, the better adapted their style of preaching and the character of their services seem to be. Much more complicated are the problems of the present period than of the three periods through which Nonconformity has already passed, and passed on the whole with so much credit to itself and blessing to the community. Every religious organization, like every organism, has its own best conditions of service and efficiency. Judging by present results, Welsh Nonconformity is not as efficient under the conditions of the new society as of the old. It has not the same force, or zest, or power, or adaptation, or the same happiness in the discharge of its proper functions. Its spiritual activity has largely come into desuetude, if not into discredit, and the more courageously we examine the different periods or epochs through which it has passed with that of the present, the more definite are the con- clusions. There are four totally distinct periods. The first was the period covered by the Puritan movement, which marks the beginning of Welsh Nonconformity in the first half of the seventeenth century. The second was the period which intervened between the rise of Noncon- formity and the rise of Welsh Methodism about the middle of the eighteenth century. This period, which may be termed the age of early Welsh Nonconfor- mity, resulted in very little beyond making the Welsh, who were Loyalists, staunch Parliamentarians and es- I92 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY tablishing a few sporadic congregations, chiefly in the South. It left the bulk of the Welsh population un- touched, and was itself in a condition of extreme languor. The third period began with the advent of Calvinistic Methodism, when the Welsh intellect came under the dominion of theological ideas, followed by a more general awakening of the higher feelings of the people. This is the period when the Welsh were taught some of the valuable lessons of self-government through the manage- ment of their own organizations and religious affairs. The fourth period (the present one), dating from 1868, signalized the rise of new political forces in the Principality : Nonconformity began to openly iden- tify itself with questions of general interest, such as Disestablishment, the Burial Question, Tithes, Free Vote, Education and other problems bearing upon the social, political, and religious life of the people. It was then that the battle for special recognition began, and Nonconformity has ever since, and with increasing vigour, thrown its weight into the social and political scale, con- centrating its energies more and more upon the social and political aspect of Welsh development. A comparison of the different indications which the history of these four periods or epochs represents, goes to show that having regard to its greater advantages in education and in wealth, the vast increase in the popula- tion and the aid it receives from other agencies, present- day Nonconformity is not maintaining its natural level ; neither is it maintaining its old ideal, nor its usefulness in the community at large. Indeed, in considering the general spirit of Welsh Nonconformity to-day and the real nature of its civilization as it is revealed in its internal and external activities, in the habits of thought which it has contracted, in the complexion of its theological opinions, in the level of its intellectuality, in its tendency towards centralization, in the inversion of its develop- ment by permitting the political to outstrip the cultural, and the consequent concentration of its energy upon the material rather than its spiritual wants, in its ruinous policy of running a multitude of insignificant causes — PRESENT-DAY NONCONFORMITY 193 in many cases the result of schism — on the cheap and constantly-begging-for-money system, misnamed the free-will offerings of the people, the divergence between the present and the past becomes increasingly and painfully obvious — a divergence which may be verified by any impartial student who cares to acquaint himself with the facts at first hand. So great is the transition, that secular motives have taken the place of the religious. The present generation of Welsh Nonconformists are never tired of glorifying the splendid iconoclasm of their ancestors in their fight for religious equality ; but their methods were entirely different, to say nothing of their spirit and their motive. The Church which their ancestors revered, and of which they spoke in private and in public with that respect which is due to her noble tradition, her services to the State, her learned men, and the genius of her system, the men of to-day assail privately and publicly with sallies of irreverence ; they show their contempt for it, and seek to lessen its growing influence in popular esteem, by acts of public malignity which are profoundly offensive to a large number of their more cultured ad- herents as well as to those who hold no brief either for Nonconformity or Anglicanism. Their intolerance is not even palliated by the sincerity of their convictions. Because an increasing number of the descendants of Nonconformists feel that the form of religion in which they were born, suckled, and bred, no longer represents the best thought or the ripest scholarship of the age, — because the conviction has been forced upon them that an organization which was originally founded and which has been championed as a counterpoise to autocracy, has itself degenerated into a condition of autocracy of a far more insidious character, they are charged with all sorts of moral delinquencies and mental aberrations. Non- conformist politicians preach a lofty and disinterested patriotism, the patriotism which, when conscious of its strength, tries to assimilate what is best in other systems ; but they practise a type of patriotism which is largely leavened by self-interest — a patriotism whose quality and value they measure by the intensity of its hatred of 194 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY Anglicanism, and its exclusion of whatever is not of its own blood, or speech, or political complexion. They proclaim from the public platform and at political and religious or semi-religious gatherings, that they do not believe in endowments for any Church even when equivalent services are rendered ; yet, many of them subsist entirely on incomes from endowments settled upon them by will by men who are now dead, and for which they render no equivalent service. They do not believe in endowments freely left by pious ancestors to provide incomes for impecunious Anglican clergymen, because they are Anglican ; but they believe in begging for and accepting endowments to provide a living wage for Nonconformist ministers because they are Noncon- formist. Having been pre-eminent in the land for wellnigh half a century, controlling the political representation of the country, extending its influence into every department of social life, multiplying chapels recklessly and without regard to cost of maintenance or the necessity for them, Welsh Nonconformity is now face to face not only with a comparative and positive decline in its moral influence and in the number of its adherents, but face to face with the problem how to feed and clothe its own ministers ; it is pathetically invoking the aid of endowments and sustentation funds to save very many of its underpaid pastors from humiliation and their pews from depletion. So great has been the Nonconformist fanaticism for prov- ing progress by multiplying chapels unnecessarily, that it is now bemoaning the ever-pressing burdens which they entail. Having lost its old grip, not only on the working classes and the younger generation, but on the lower middle class, among whom its success has chiefly been won, it tries to ease its troubled conscience by uttering loud lamentations over the gross materialism of the times, the lack of Sabbath observance, the spread of the cinema, the influence of foreigners who have invaded the Princi- pality, and the baneful effects of Anglicization. This, they say, will all be righted when they get an independent Parliament, for, as we are told, one of the first Acts of PRESENT-DAY NONCONFORMITY 195 this Parliament, after appointing officials and fixing salaries, will be to make the teaching of Welsh compulsory in all the schools, to do away with Church schools, to make the Welsh language the official language, and to appoint Welsh-speaking Welshmen to every important post. All will have to be in a healthy political state and known to have been loyal subjects of the predominant party. It has already been publicly stated, on the most unimpeachable authority, that this Welsh Parliament will have to pass an Act making the observance of the Sabbath in Wales compulsory, and compulsory according to Nonconformist and Radical ideas, for the authority of the Nonconformist conscience must be held to be sacred and its sovereignty absolute. So what Welsh Nonconformist ministers unwittingly confess themselves unable to do, or to induce the public to do voluntarily, they will, through a Welsh Parliament, compel them by law to do. Welsh Nonconformity does still influence the small capitalist ; but its power over the proletariat is per- ceptibly less than it was. Nonconformity does not minister — it does not profess to minister — to the entire community ; its genius is unsuited to the very poor. For the unfortunate and the outcast it has no concern what- ever. It does not attach to the chapels used for worship the same inviolable sanctity which the Church of England in Wales, and in England, associates with her edifices. Present-day Nonconformity has no scruples about using them for political demonstrations — even when other buildings are available — or of parting with them or of transferring them wholly to secular occupations. In very many instances only a very fine line divides it from Unitarianism ; it has but little effectiveness against unbelief or religious indifference, for such are its rapidly shifting outlines of belief, its drift towards rationalism, its exchange of a crude Bibliolatry and a cruder Calvinism for the latest dissolving views about Holy Scriptures. The closer we examine its absence of permanence, the clearer it becomes that it is largely due to its inward impermanence. CHAPTER IX BISHOP OWEN OF ST. DAVID'S Born 24TH August, 1854; Bishop of St. David's since 1897 A Character Sketch In view of the very conspicuous part which Bishop Owen has played in his country's religious and political history, the interest which his speeches on the education and dis- establishment controversies have excited, and the im- portant bearing his forthcoming efforts must have upon the formation of public opinion in England, the salient features of his intellect and character deserve to be examined. A man who can constrain others to follow where he leads, and whose career is indissolubly linked to the events, the course of which he has helped to determine, is a personality of more than local interest. Whatever views one may hold on the merits of all the questions at issue, we cannot hesitate to rank Bishop Owen, if we desire to do him justice, as belonging to the higher order of public men. He is a unique character who has created, or con- tributed, a new type not already too rich or too various in the ecclesiastical life of Wales. The very considerable place which he holds in the history of the Welsh Church and of his time cannot be attributed solely to purely intellectual gifts, or to eloquence, or to profundity of thought. Rather must it be attributed to the high order of his moral courage, his persistence, adroitness, passion for accuracy, invincible optimism, unquenchable self- 196 BISHOP OWEN OF ST. DAVID S 197 confidence, domineering audacity of purpose, a determina- tion to get to the bottom of every question and to examine its historical basis, and to what men call "back-bone." These are valuable qualities in times of strife and change. It is no disrespect to say that those who have only heard him preach can form no adequate idea of his power. I do not mean to imply that the bishop has not been a success in the pulpit. He has originality, and nowhere is originality more necessary than in the pulpit, where well-worn theories have to be treated. He possesses the notes which mark the two highest forms of religious character — passionate fervour and purity of motive. He has great power of sympathy, and industry is natural to his nature. His resolute will, his gift of reading character, his training, and his ability to probe men's motives, eminently qualify him for the task of an ecclesiastical ruler. Not that he is capable of resorting to unworthy arts, for he is, above all, honourable. He is full of art, and, as some would have it, artful. But no bishop could be further removed from the mere worldly, crafty, and selfish ecclesiastic who, from motives of indolence or indifference, withhold from their race and their age the best that they have to give. It has been suggested that the political is the strongest of the bishop's interests. That the political element in history attracts him, and that he has an aptitude for political and practical life, is obvious, though the range of his sympathies and activities extend far beyond the ordinary ideas of the politician. It is equally obvious that his religious convictions are the basis of his politics. It is to him a matter of honour to defend his principles and his Church, and in defending them his policy is not to say what the people may wish to hear, but what he thinks they ought to know. What the bishop is theologically does not concern us here. Morally, he is a Puritan, a man of stern and rugged sincerity, unalterably faithful to himself and to the in- terests entrusted to his charge, upright, and a lover of truth, with no thought of worldly ease or of luxury. When I98 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY he argues, it is not for victory merely for the sake of victory at any cost or by any means. He argues from a deep sense of justice, and his sense of justice has not blunted the edge of either his charity or his urbanity. Such is his innate regard for virtue and intellectual refinement, that he can appreciate and treat with due respect the good qualities of those whose opinions he dislikes and whose policy he opposes. What Puritanism there is in his nature is the kind of Puritanism that is lenient to the ordinary mind, and he knows how to attach men to himself by friendly deeds and words. There is about him an aspect of subtlety, dreaminess, and introspection, that does not, at the first glance, inspire intimate confidence. But behind this seeming reserve and unsociability, there is a strong capacity for friendship ; what cynicism there may be is the fruit of a keen and a somewhat sceptical intelligence rather than of an unsympathetic heart. His caution L not of the self-regarding type ; the sacrificial element is a dominant element in his personal character. What humour he has is the humour that goes with grit and resolution, that never degenerates to weaknesses ; and what geniality he shows comes straight from the heart. The bishop is an ardent Welshman who speaks the native language ; he is deeply interested in all Welsh movements and institutions. Yet, it cannot be said that he is a normal specimen of a Welshman. He believes that the religious and intellectual culture of the people, is a far more urgent problem and of far greater importance than the fate of the native language ; he believes that a speaker or a writer who gives bold, though dignified, expression to his own views, may all the same be a thorough Welshman, and need not necessarily be a fool or a knave, or a mixture of both. To think of the average Welshman is to think of enthusiasm rather than of judgment, of the ideal rather than of the practical. Bishop Owen, however, looks at things not through the mists of sentiment, but as they stand in their historical relation ; he judges soundly and cautiously. On the emotional side of his nature he is passionate and highly susceptible ; on the BISHOP OWEN OF ST. DAVID'S 199 intellectual side he is deliberate and conservative. This is the secret of his popularity among the most thoughtful and educated section in England. There is in his character a notable blend of the fire of the Celt with that regard for facts which characterizes the Englishman. It is remark- able that a man who is so combative, who writes so many letters, and who addresses the public so frequently with so much candour and perfect courage, should not be more often involved in passing difficulties. The explanation is, that he makes sure of his facts. Not once has he been involved in real trouble, for the reason that he does not speak inadvisedly or without mastering the details of his subject. He fails neither in resolution nor in circum- spection. To his intense passion is united keenness of perception and strenuous self-control. He is never dis- concerted, and not a single point that may aid his cause escapes his notice. Hence it is that his answers are pertinent and complete. His penetration is the penetra- tion that comes from vigorous thinking ; his speeches are cogent, his ideas well grouped, and his presentation logical and definite. The public platform is not a favourable place for the pursuit of truth. Invective rather than fact, abuse rather than argument, is often expected. But, if the bishop has distinguished himself in any way, it is in the dignity that he has imparted to those discussions in which he has been so extraordinarily active. Not that he is lacking in the gift of repartee. A good specimen of this gift he gave in his recent reply to Mr. McKenna. " Mr. McKenna," said he, " has at last come to see the absurdity of calling Church property in Wales, entirely derived from English sources, Welsh national property, and he has therefore been compelled by public opinion to allow in his Bill the Ecclesiastical Commissioners and Queen Anne's Bounty to leave £27,000 a year to the Church in Wales." ' In Parliament, in order to conciliate Liberal Churchmen, Mr. McKenna calls this generosity ; in Wales, in order to appease Nonconformist wrath, he calls it justice." " His policy in Wales is to repudiate any idea of generosity ; at Westminster, his policy is to play the role of philanthrop- 200 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY ist." " The general policy of the Government seems to be to take away money from the rich and give it to the poor, but the policy embodied in Mr. McKenna's Bill is the exact opposite : it is to take away money from the poor and give it to the rich." While his defence is incisive and full of dogmatic gravity, it is but seldom personal and never abusive. Being the son of a Nonconformist, and a keen observer of events, he understands the Nonconformist temperament perfectly. He does not revile its heroes, or depreciate its services to the Welsh community. He is too shrewd a politician not to remember that to abuse is not the way to convince. If, from the Welshman's point of view, his method of attack and defence has a weakness, it is his excessive use of statistics. The Welsh mind is not mathematically inclined, and accuracy is not one of its characteristics. It instantly and enthusiastically responds to sentiment ; a glowing peroration covers a multitude of sins. But the bishop's mission is to teach, to educate the Welsh into the habit of independent thinking, to look at public questions in their logical and practical relation. His own mind is stringently dissective ; it never goes beyond what the facts can be made to prove. Hence it is that he always pins the Welsh mind down to facts, and that his own speeches and letters are so remarkable for their connectedness. Bishop Owen has not the graces of a popular speaker. There is no studied display of facial expression, and very little action of the body. His voice is neither melodious nor delicate in its modulation. His language is not always distinct, and may seem strange to the foreigner. Still, his speaking is effective, chiefly for the reason that it is lucid and apt to the matter in hand. There is some art in the handling of words — notably precision of phrase, and a subtle suggestiveness. His style does not attain to a high degree of literary merit: there are no flashes of imaginative light and no glowing periods. Yet, his speaking is shrewd, vigorous, direct, and practical. There is a concentrated energy in his language and a fierce conviction in his suppressed feeling that carries great BISHOP OWEN OF ST. DAVID S 201 effect. He has an ardent temperament, and a touch of the rhetorical temperament. He is far removed from the demagogue. He has learned how to put restraint upon himself. This is the highest compliment that can be paid to him as a Welshman, and especially as a Welshman who combines in himself the most distinctive and distinguishing characteristics of his country. He does not stoop to beguile or flatter his audiences, or to appeal to sordid motives. He walks rather than runs to conclusions ; once they are formed, he carries his principles to their logical issue, standing by them to the end, and alone if necessary. Were he still in the ranks of the beneficed clergy, he would be one of the most strenuous of reformers. Though a born fighter, he is pre-eminently catholic in spirit. He has left his impress upon his age as his age has left its impress upon him. The controversies of the times, and the nature of the questions at issue, have brought to light and stimulated to action certain qualities for the development of which there is but very little scope in the mere discharge of episcopal duties. The influence which he has thrown back upon his own age has been wholesome and inspiring. He has created a new type of episcopal excellence; he has given his clergy and his Church an object-lesson in industry and self-abnegation. He has declined to sacrifice, for the sake of a false peace and an ephemeral popularity, what is most sacred in the sight of every man, and what no man need sacrifice — his manhood. I would call the bishop a Stoic if Stoicism consists in indifference to worldly ease, or riches, or the applause of men. He would feel under no obligation to be inactive if he thought the time had come for striking a blow in defence of what he deemed to be a sacred cause. Indeed, the bishop appears to me to be a supreme example of the man who can be silent when there is a temptation to speak, and speak when there is a temptation to be silent. No man more cordially dislikes controversy ; it is through the force of circumstances alone that he has been drawn into the vortex of politics ; but he is a great moral as well as a great political force. His whole outlook on life is based 202 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY on faith in the Providence of God and the whole of his morality on Christian charity. There is in him an accent of pathos and a tinge of wistful melancholy, but in his sadness there is no bitterness and nothing akin to despair. His buoyancy is remarkable. It is superabundantly clear that to him, at any rate, the Church is the soul of the State, and that the strength of the State corresponds to its religious strength ; there can be no health, no sound- ness, in a community that makes no formal recognition of religion. For this reason he regards Disestablishment with as much aversion as he does Disendowment. No one knows better than the bishop how much could be gained for the Church by compromise, but compromise would set a precedent which might be used in future against the Church in England, and the bishop finds it obligatory upon him to carry his principles to their logical issue whatever the consequences. I know of no Welshman in whom the religious motive is paramount in a greater degree ; he is what is so sadly needed in Wales in these agitated and expectant days — a great restraining force. Not only has he helped in a material degree to keep the soul of his Church alive in a de- cisive moment, but he has helped to keep alive the reflective instincts of the Welsh people. He is a penetrating though not a pitiless observer ; while an ardent Welshman, he has that detachment so characteristic of superior minds. What is equally rare in Wales, he has the courage to remind the people of their national delinquencies. In this regard he will go down to posterity as one of the greatest constitu- tive forces in this generation, making for national right- eousness. It will yet be seen that he has accomplished more in his age and for his race than is implied in the judgment of opportunist politicians. Time inflicts mournful damage on men's reputations: colour fades and memories pale. Some men get scant justice from their contemporaries, while others are egregiously over-esti- mated. The ashes of the controversy over Disestablish- ment are still hot, and men are apt to miss the right perspective, especially in respect to the exponent of an BISHOP OWEN OF ST. DAVID S 203 unpopular cause. Welshmen in general find it more than difficult to see greatness or to appreciate patriotism in a man who is not of their politics or faith. It is one of the fatal defects in the Welsh character. It is safe to say that were Bishop Owen of St. David's a Liberal in politics and a Nonconformist in religion, he would have been canonized long ago as a Welsh national hero. But in whatever light we may justly regard the bishop, his thoughts, his speeches, the subtleties of his mental progress, his union of qualities, his purposes, and the manner in which he has executed the trust that has been reposed in him, he has everything to gain from the reflections of future genera- tions. Interest in his work will not grow less vivid, neither will admiration of his character be less intense. In speeches more defaced by passion than adorned by argument, some misguided Welsh politicians have fool- ishly and vainly sought to win applause and to increase their popularity with certain groups by casting ridicule upon Bishop Owen. There is a rule of decency even in controversy. The greater our charity, the stronger our position. Indeed, catholicity demands a difference of opinion and of judgment as the basis of the condition of its charity. Dignified opposition is manly and often necessary, but it should be dignified. I know of no instance in which it could be laid to the bishop's charge that he had been unmindful of the dignity of controversy. Petty and un- generous methods are repugnant to him. Even under the greatest provocation he has kept free from personal bitterness, meanness, and arrogance. In the selection of his evidence as well as in the tone of his expression, he has always been mindful of what he owes to his high office. Not that Bishop Owen has, at any time, shown any disposition to surrender that autonomy of spirit which is the birthright of every man ; that he has preserved invio- late throughout. Mr. McKcnna has found in him a foeman worthy of his steel. His keen intellect has seen through the sham religiosity of the more insincere of his antago- nists. Some of his addresses may very properly be charac- terized as truly Juvcnalian onslaughts, pregnant with 204 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY thought, careful in construction, ingenious in argument, and abounding in happy sallies. The bishop never gives the impression that he has taken up the cause of Church Defence because it is a fruitful field for the exercise of his controversial gifts, or because it provides a convenient avenue for notoriety. His sincerity is above doubt. There is about him something of the prophet's fulness of soul and burning consciousness of a divine cause. Art there may be, but no artificiality ; what satire there may be is of the grave and serious sort, which takes the form of an appeal to the intelligence and moral sense of the people. Of him it may be truly said that he has neither " feared nor flattered any flesh." For the sycophant and self- seeker he has no use. Of all the vices that poison the springs of Welsh national life in this generation, there is none that is more prolific or more injurious to the highest welfare of the nation than the vice of flattery. It reeks through the whole Welsh party politic. Literary men seem to feel the pressure of it, and Welsh Parliamenta- rians live by it. They publicly compliment one another on their brilliancy, their eloquence, and their patriotism. They go down to their constituencies and tell them how much superior they are to other people, especially to the English. There is none of the reserve which belongs to true delicacy and modesty, and so to wisdom. What carelessness there may be in truth-telling, what extrava- gance in the statement of facts, what vain-glorious assumption in virtues that do not exist, and what ob- tuseness of honour, they ignore or ostentatiously under- value as factors of moral results. These faults have assumed national dimensions, and they seem to have insect fecundity. Every candid mind revolts against fulsome laudation on the one hand, and unreasonable depreciation on the other. I confess that I am drawn to Bishop Owen of St. David's because of his great unlikeness in this regard to other Welsh national leaders of this generation. He has the sense of proportion, the sense of fineness, and the sense of harmonious combination. When applied to things physical, it is called art. It also enters BISHOP OWEN OF ST. DAVID S 205 into every true and proper conception of character, whether individual or national. Not that he is devoid of the gift of admiration — such a defect would be fatal to his character, as it would be fatal to the character of any public man. It is said that Tolstoy had not within him the capacity to appreciate even the great masterpieces of the world. His whole defect was his inability to admire, due it is said to his obduracy and his indomitable pride, which was the strength of his character. The bishop's mind is essentially candid, and candour he admires when he sees it. It is not the offence, but the defence of the offence, that he finds it hard to pass over. He looks marble, but he is far from being cold or unsympathetic. He is highly sensitive to want and suffering. He is a great discerner of spirits, and has a clear vision of every case. He never speaks on a matter which he does not understand, and he could pass an examination in detail on every topic which he discusses in public. He probes every fact to the bottom, and he has perfect command of all his facts. He has lately been probing the vitals of what is called " Welsh Nation- alism." His observations deserve to be recorded in a permanent form — In private life a person who is induced by flatterers to imagine himself better than his neighbours shows himself thereby to be without any worthy ideals of what a man should be. So likewise no nation can grow to worthy national life which is induced by flatterers to believe that it is better than its neighbours. This fulsome flattery of the Welsh people by party politicians is at the present time a serious obstacle to the elevation of Welsh national life, and when it is accom- panied by ill-natured disparagement of English people as aliens, such as is often the case, an attempt to revive tribal particularism in the twentieth century, it is an insult to the intelligence as well as to the religion of Wales. Welsh national life is not such a poor thing as to need the base stimulant of ill-will towards anybody in order to inspire the enthusiasm of Welshmen for the welfare of Wales." The bishop calls for a sounder and broader foundation for the elevation of Welsh national life. He contends that the political theory of Welsh nationality put forward by 206 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY Welsh Disestablishes is not only absurd for the aggressive purpose for which it was framed, but is also in itself a mischievous theory, because it degrades the fine poetry of Welsh patriotism into the bad prose of party politics — " There must be room," he says, " in the national life for the free play of wholesome variety. More than half the people of Wales had no knowledge of Welsh, and a large proportion of them were not Welsh by race. The economic and social conditions of life in industrial and rural Wales are widely different. The essential vice of the political theory of Welsh nationality is, that it is a theory which divides the people of Wales, and the Bill which is based upon this sectarian theory is a Bill which, from the nature of things, cannot possibly promote the unity of Welsh national life. The weakness of Wales throughout its history has been its imperfect unity. To my mind the real essence of nationality is unity of devotion to the noble cause of the welfare of the country as a whole. Everybody who lives in Wales or is connected with Wales, whatever be his language, his race, or his opinions, if he puts the welfare of Wales as a whole before his own self-interest and does his best, according to his lights, to serve the common weal, is a Welsh patriot — or, if they preferred a new-fangled term, a Welsh nationalist. The twentieth century has no use for narrow particularism and sectarianism, but needs an ideal of national life broad enough and yet real enough to meet the growing expansion of modern thought and sympathies." The only answer yet made to the bishop's contention that the principle of Welsh nationality does not justify the passing of the Welsh Church Bill, is to raise the question whether the Church in Wales is a national Church. But it is curious to note, as the bishop has pointed out, that the first clause in the Bill recognizes the national breadth of the Church's divine mission by assigning to it the title " The Church in Wales " in the future as in the past. Though the question raised in reply is irrelevant, it illustrates the confusion of mind about nationality as well as Disestablishment. The Church is national, says the bishop, in so far as it is truly catholic, for in spiritual things it was a great law that the needs of all were the needs of each. He has always acknowledged with thank- fulness and respect the good work done for religion in BISHOP OWEN OF ST. DAVID S 20J Wales by Welsh Nonconformist denominations. They had laid stress — necessary stress— on various aspects of Christian truth. At a time, however, when there was profound change in the religious thought of Wales, the Church has a unique responsibility for serving the nation by bearing its witness to the permanence and univer- sality of the Gospel in all ages and all lands, and to the essential difference which there was between the perma- nent truths of the Christian faith and the changing opinions of men about them. As to deduction based upon the modification of doctrine, the bishop has made good use of the argument advanced by Lord Haldane before the House of Lords, in 1904, in his speech as counsel on behalf of the United Free Church of Scotland. Lord Haldane based his argument mainly on the fundamental truth that modifications of doctrine, unless they amounted to apostasy, did not break the con- tinuity of a Church, because " the Church is like an organ- ism ; the materials may change, and there may be meta- bolism of every item of which it consists, and yet the Church goes on preserving its organic life through the medium of its system of church government." Bishop Owen has never failed to impress upon Welsh- men that the dismemberment of the Church cannot be justified even on the political theory of Welsh nationality. Some Welsh Members of Parliament are preparing to agitate for Home Rule for Wales, but none of them, says the bishop, have hitherto been so far detached from common sense as to advocate the complete separation of Wales from England. A proposal to create a Welsh province for the Church would have been analogous to a proposal for Home Rule for Wales, but what the dis- memberment of the Church meant was the complete legal separation of the Welsh from the English dioceses, and was analogous, not to Home Rule for Wales, but to the com- plete separation of Wales from England. Since no Welsh political nationalist had ever dreamt of agitating for a repeal of the Union between England and Wales, it was simply disingenuous to suggest that any theory of Welsh 208 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY nationality hitherto advanced afforded any shadow of justification for the tyrannical proposal to dismember the Church without the consent of Churchmen. The bishop's reflections on government, the reciprocal rights of Parliament and people, and the claim that the Imperial Parliament should place its judgment, its con- science, and its authority, in the hands of its members, and that without reference to the considered and informal judgment of a majority of its electors, are not without significance ; on these points he speaks with precision, and with the voice of an enlightened publicist. The bishop, however, is no pedant : his wealth of ideas and power of observation have saved him from becoming one. He is a genius of singular versatility. He has gained a repu- tation which has placed him as a controversialist, as an administrator, and as an educationalist, in the front rank, and it says not a little for him that in the public duties which he has undertaken he has proved himself a patriot, and has shown enormous industry as well as discretion. But greater than his genius, or his scholarship, or his work, or his energy, is his personal character, which, in its rugged simplicity, its transparent honesty, and its noble ideals, is a possession of incomparable worth to his Church and to his nation. He has become famous without courting fame. What he has courted and demanded is freedom of expres- sion for himself, and peace for his Church to do its proper work. His critics have charged him with prejudice ; if to be prejudiced is to champion what one believes to be right or to denounce what one believes to be wrong, then there is truth in the implication. But if by prejudice is meant that his moral sense is blunted or perverted by passion, by partizanship, or by personal pique, no charge ever rested on a more slender foundation. This is not the flaw that is in the ruby. True, but few men in public are entirely free of some subjective quality which more or less impairs their power of seeing things as they really are. The bishop feels more keenly than most men on the Church question, and though he expresses himself in strong and convincing BISHOP OWEN OF ST. DAVID'S 209 terms, not once has there been a failure either in manners or in morals. By morals I mean, that his nature is too honest to wilfully misrepresent facts even for the sake of a temporary advantage. It will be to his credit that in the collision between the waters of the old world and the waters of the new, he has manifested a spiritual intuition and a gift of leadership which will remain among the richest treasures of his episcopate. Bishop Owen is certainly cast in a great mould. Greatness is a thing to be inherited : it cannot be created or developed even under the guidance of the wisest of masters. What he has inherited by nature he has enriched by his remarkable acquirements, he has presented to his age and to his countrymen an ideal which would be worth their while to keep in remembrance. When I come to look round the man — his intellect, his disposition, his purposes, his spirituality, and the elevation of his intellectual outlook, and when I review his life, his work, and the manner in which he has responded to the demands of his age, in the light of his contemporaries of whatever class or creed — I come to the conclusion that he is one of the foremost representatives, not only of his race, but of the Church which is the only institution that covers all the centuries of Welsh history. To say, as we have to say, that there are limitations to his genius, would be to repeat a mere platitude. Were it otherwise, or had there been combined with Bishop Owen's creative and adminis- trative qualities, with his scholarship, with his industry, with his clearness of vision, and with his powerful imagi- nation, the power and graces of the born orator, greater intensity of emotion, and that demagogism which seems to be one of the necessary ingredients of popularity and of colossal reputations in these days, we should have had united in one man the completest expression yet known of the Welsh genius. But the qualities that he possesses are of a kind which belong to the greatest repre- sentatives of a race or of a nation. CHAPTER X PROGRESS TOWARDS WELSH SELF-GOVERNMENT The idea of an independent Parliament in Wales is no novelty ; but the supposition that Howel Dda's tenth- century convention bore any resemblance to the mediaeval institution called Parliament, is not well grounded. Howel Dda (Howel the Good), grandson of Rhodri Mawr, one of the old British kings, was a powerful and humane chieftain* Under his wise and pacific reign, the Principality ex- perienced a period of unusual calm and prosperity. He had had opportunities of meeting English kings, and of acquainting himself with the methods and policies of those rulers in whose countries the laws and customs had been codified. There was a growing tendency, in the ninth and tenth centuries, throughout the whole of Western Europe, to embody ancient laws and traditions into a rigid and formally-written system. After Howel Dda had become King of Gwynedd (between a.d. 943 and 950) he summoned six men, " four laics and two clerics," from every commote in Wales, to the Ty-Gwyn-ar-Daf (White House), " which is identified by modern antiquarians, and far-reaching traditions, with Whitland in Carmarthenshire," 1 the sole right of legisla- tion being vested in the Welsh princes. Howel Dda con- vened this assembly " in order to examine the customs and laws of his dominion and to deliberate thereon," with a view of promulgating an authoritative written set of laws, which the rulers, or king's officers, could consult at all times for guidance and instruction. This fact would 1 See The Welsh People, p. 179. 210 PROGRESS TOWARDS WELSH SELF-GOVERNMENT 211 indicate, that if the results of the formation of these laws were, in the first instance, recorded in Latin, they were afterwards translated into Welsh, as otherwise the object in view could not have been gained, or, at any rate, gained but very imperfectly, by simply publishing a Latin book. Whether the Latin text was the original, or a translation, it is impossible to state with any degree of certitude. This much, however, is clear, that it was a Latin, not a Welsh version, that Howel Dda presented to the Pope for his approval, in Rome, in 928. The result of the Ty Gwyn deliberations was, that some of the old Welsh laws were confirmed, some amended, some abrogated, and some new ones enacted. According to the fifteenth report of the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts, 1 there was a second convention, attended by " all archbishops, bishops, abbots and priests," when the deliberations of the first assembly were confirmed and promulgated. Whether this second convention took place before or after Howel Dda's visit to Rome in 928, there does not seem to be any definite or authoritative information. As to how far these laws were purely Welsh, or were conscious imitations of the Anglo-Saxon laws, " we think it quite probable, and in some instances certain, that Howel, or those who assisted him, intentionally adopted some rules or descriptions either from English or foreign bodies of written law."* It would not be correct to say that these codes embody pure Celtic law and nothing besides. They seem to be tinged with a large amount of colour coming from Roman or ecclesiastical sources. In the organization of Howel's own court or household, there seems to be a very marked resemblance to the one created by Charlemagne, a system which, in all probability, was modelled after that of the Byzantine Court. With regard to other portions of Howel Dda's code, viz., what may be properly designated as his legislation, the evidence of conscious imitation is but very slight. When such portions are compared with the Anglo-Saxon laws, there is no greater 1 See Parliamentary Paper (C. — 9295), 1899. * The Welsh People, (1902), p. 186. 212 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY similarity in ideas and usages than there is between the Welsh and Irish sets of laws. All the races constituting the Indo-European group held at first identical ideas of tribal organization. " The king (i.e., the tribe-chief among the Britons during the pre- Roman era), in virtue of his office, led them (the tribesmen) to the fray ; but he did not do everything according to his own will. He gathered the heads of households, the old and experienced folk, into a kind of council or committee, and when they had decided that anything was right, it was announced to the army." 1 This legislation of Howel Dda, from whatever point of view one may regard it, presents a study of extraordinary interest. It reveals the social condition of Welsh society both at the time and during the period when the laws were in operation in Wales' and Monmouthshire. It affords some indication of the aptitude of the Welsh mind for the task of legislation ; it also gives us an insight into the ideas of political and property rights which prevailed among the Cymry in the tenth century, and the form of government to which the Welsh mind in those days was inclined — which was aristocratic rather than democratic, — monarch- ical rather than republican. It was a tribal form of political organization which did not contain the seeds of progress or of permanency. These laws, besides being evidence of the civilization of Celtic customs, enable us to realize some- thing of the nature of the interval which separates mediaeval Wales from the Wales of to-day, especially with regard to Welsh ideas as to the function and end of government. There are, however, two leading ideas which run through the whole of the ancient laws of Wales ; one is a determina- tion on the part of the ancient Cymry to develop their nationality in their own way ; the second shows that in the effort to adjust their laws, customs and ideas, to the exigencies of change and time, the crux of their difficulty always lay in seeking to reconcile the present with the past. Welsh nationalism to-day is a reflex of the nationalism of the tenth and earlier centuries. True, we cannot legislate without regard to the past ; we must look 1 Prof. J. E. Lloyd's Llyfr Cyntaf Hanes, 1893, p. 53. PROGRESS TOWARDS WELSH SELF-GOVERNMENT 213 to the historical causes of which the existing condition of affairs is the outcome. But, legislation to be remedial, constructive and progressive, must, in the main, be in favour of the interests of the future — not of the majority that is, but of that silent unobtrusive majority that looms in the future. The fatal defect that stultifies and vitiates modern \\ elsh nationalism is, that it is constantly feeling, thinking, and arguing within the circle of a certain idea, or a group of ideas, inherited from the past, which ideas are daily becoming more untenable as the population of Wales becomes more diversified, and the economic needs of the Principality are multiplied. ' We have always been Welsh," they say, " in language, in thought, in out- look, and in our religion, and our very salvation as a people depends upon our continuing to be Welsh in these senses." Such an ideal carries with it its own condemnation and destruction. The future of Wales is not contained within the confines of such a narrow principle. To check, or to limit, the social and intellectual efficiency of a people for the sake of a language, and that confessedly and palpably a decadent language, and in order to foster that language, to preserve and sequestrate certain customs and traditions that appertain to another and an older civilization, is not patriotic politics. It is not the politics that Germany practised ; it is not the politics of the progressive nations of the world, whether Eastern or Western. " The people in the present, who are already destined to inherit the future, are not they whose institutions revolve round any ideal schemes of the interests of existing members of society. They are simply the peoples who already bear on their shoulders the burden of the principles with which the interests of the future are identified." 1 Herein lies the essential difference between the old Cymric legislation and that of Edward I. His Statutiim Walliae — the Statute of Wales — which was enacted at Rhuddlan on Sunday in Mid-Lent, 2 1284, two years after the death of Llywelyn the 'last' prince, which occurred on December nth, 1 Principle! of Western Civilization, by Benjamin Kidd, pp. 5-6. * See Political History of England, by Prof. Tout, vol. iii., p. 133. 214 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY 1282, was a progressive and adaptable piece of legislation ; it determined the civil and legal administration of Wales for nearly three hundred years. It was " the most comprehensive code that any English legislator issued during the Middle Ages." 1 It is interesting to note that the Statute of Wales by Edward I, like the laws of Howel Dda, was drafted and promulgated after an investigation into all the particulars connected with ancient Welsh laws and usages. The Commission was issued December 4th, 1280, to Thomas (Becke), Bishop of St. David's, Reginald de Grey, and Walter de Hopton, commanding them to examine upon oath " unsuspected persons both Welsh and English in order to obtain certain information respecting Welsh laws and customs, the manner in which the people had been governed by their native kings and princes, and as to how far the English judicial system had replaced Welsh usages and laws, the rights of barons, and landed pro- prietors." Fourteen questions were to be put to each of the witnesses. The Commissioners examined 172 wit- nesses ; the questions and answers are to be found in the appendix to Wotton's Leges Wallicae. A translation is given by the Rev. Thomas Price (Carnhuanawc) in a paper entitled " Historical Account of the Statute of Rhuddlan." The evidence showed that within the area embraced by the Commissioners' jurisdiction, the English judicial sys- tem was slowly replacing Welsh laws and customs. It was not a Parliamentary Statute, but a King's Charter, " to all his subjects of his land of Snowdon and of other his lands in Wales." It emanated from Edward I's sole authority, drawn up by the advice of the nobles of the kingdom, and included among the recognized laws of the realm. It remained on the Statute Book until it was repealed by the Statute Law Revision Act, 1887. Edward ordered two copies to be made, and kept in every com- mote in Wales— the one in Latin and the other in Welsh. Sunday in Mid-Lent, 1284, marks the end of the purely Welsh period, the final subjection of the Welsh princes, 1 History of English Law, by Pollock and Maitland, vol. i, p. 220. PROGRESS TOWARDS WELSH SELF-GOVERNMENT 215 and the incorporation of English institutions into the Welsh body politic. Anglicizing influences were brought to bear on the facts of Welsh tribalism, and they continued in operation until 1535, when the process of assimilation was deemed sufficiently complete for the purposes of practical union with England. As we witness the purely Cymric political organization receding definitely into the background, never again to receive the active assent of the Welsh intellect, and the Edwardian system gradually, but firmly and surely, superseding it, we are conscious that it marks the beginning of the crucial epoch in Welsh histdry, when the theory, or principle, of Welsh develop- ment became for the first time, and primarily, related to the future of Wales as a whole — not as an isolated unit, segregated from the rest of the world, living on its own limited capital, making its own sorrow and feeding upon it ; but linked with, and a part of, the corporate life of the kingdom. For centuries the Welsh had endeavoured to shine in a sort of solitary splendour, contemporaneous with some of the most notable nations of antiquity ; yet, living a detached life, as if they were not members of a series of nations, and capable of developing through their own initiative and of relying upon their own intellectual resources. What the Welsh have always lacked are fellow- ship of life and community of development. The lower we descend in the scale of civilization, the more pronounced becomes the solitary note ; the higher we ascend, the more pronounced is the principle of association and inter- dependence. The more highly organized a community is, the more fully and perfectly it is dependent on other communities. The principle holds good socially, in- tellectually, commercially and politically. Nations are being bound together into one economic whole ; one nation can only prosper in the prosperity of other nations. So profoundly influenced was the Welsh mind by the narrow ideas in which it had been cradled, that it had become entirely subjective in its character, accumulating for itself no knowledge, no science, no refinement, and no benefit of any kind in the process, wearing itself out by 2l6 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY its own friction, and making practical co-operation, both within and without, impossible. In the Edwardian legislation we find, for the first time in the history of the Cymry, the current of Welsh civilization brought into the sweep not of a disintegrating but of an integrating process. Not that Edward I was unmindful of what was essentially Cymric in the organized, or rather disorganized, politics of Wales. On the contrary, it affords a striking illustration of the desire of Edward I to adopt the procedure of the English legal and social customs — without unduly violat- ing pre-existing Welsh traditions — to the requirements of the Principality. No student who examines impartially the Edwardian political organization, can doubt that it was a courageous and an enlightened attempt at bringing English ideas and institutions into harmony with the aspira- tions and necessities of a separate nationality. Not only was it an attempt, but it actually succeeded, and succeeded at a period, and with a people, that gave but little promise of such a desirable consummation. Edward I may be very properly regarded as the apostle of a new liberty for the Welsh, and as the originator of the economic develop- ment of Wales. His introduction of the municipal element was one of the determining factors. It narrowed the sphere of tribal custom, it did away with a great number of the old Welsh manorial customs, and proved a veritable god- send in the emancipation of the villein and his villeinage lands. From the advent of Edward I, and the new or modified arrangement for the government of Wales em- bodied in his legislation, the history of Wales gradually became less tribal and more civic in character. His task was by no means easy. He had to deal with a restless people unaccustomed to restraint and to centralized authority, a people engaged mainly in pastoral pursuits, living in family groups, according to the traditions of the old tribal system. They paid no attention to commerce, shipping, or manufacture, and possessed no towns. To civic pursuits they did not give much thought. Fairs seem to have been the sole means of commercial exchange in the purely Welsh districts. PROGRESS TOWARDS WELSH SELF-GOVERNMENT 217 At the close of the thirteenth century the commercial economy of the various Welsh communities was fashioned on feudal lines. There were no municipal institutions; what development was necessary could not be on the lines of the old Welsh tenure. Welsh towns could not grow: they had to be made. There is no evidence that a single Welsh prince ever created a borough in the modern sense. " The Welsh princes and their respective clans were incessantly occupied with war. They did not evince any desire for the acquisition of wealth, or of knowledge, or for the cultivation of the fine arts. Up to the time of the Conquest the native economy scarcely required real urban life, or centres. What impetus to the formation of town life Wales received was in virtue of the English policy. The aggressive Welsh policy of the Norman kings and their feudatories led to a systematic planting of boroughs in the conquered districts of Wales." 1 There were a few towns of a sort in Wales before the Conquest in 1282. The Welsh Brut, under the year 1263, relates of the burning of some of the towns (trefydd) of Gwynedd by Edward I. What towns there are in Wales to-day are of English, not Welsh, type. Many have been the impulses to progression from within during the intervening centuries ; but, speaking generally, we must look back to the administration of Edward I for the initial stages in the economic develop- ment of the life of Wales. Indeed, the Act of Union itself was an answer to the request of the Welsh themselves to be governed by English laws, and to be raised to the position of responsible citizens of the English Realm. The W r elsh, as it is natural to suppose, chafed when the Edwardian system was intro- duced ; they clung tenaciously to the old tribal habits of their ancestors, with the result that their admission into the full borough and municipal privileges established by Edward was later than it would otherwise have been. At one time they clamoured for the strict observance of old Welsh tribal laws, but so thoroughly and so sympatheti- 1 The Mediaval Boroughs of Snowdonia, by E. A. Lewis, M.A. (1912), pp. 5-6. 2l8 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY cally had the task of pacification, reconstruction, and administration been conducted, that in the days of Henry VIII they pleaded for the adoption of the laws of England, under which they had been governed at the discretion of Royal officers ever since the conquest. The punitive clauses attached to the Statute ofRhuddlan were in the main precautionary, such as a conqueror might be expected to prepare for the pacification of a conquered race. The application of the repressive statutes of the Edwardian and Lancastrian periods varied with the attitude of the people ; they were only meant to be applied in case of necessity. The policy of all the English kings from Edward I to Henry VIII was to pacify the country, and it may be stated that, in point of justice as between English officials and native Welsh in respect of illegal and unjust actions, the Welsh generally received sympathetic treatment at the hands of the Crown. W T e may go farther and say that every encouragement was given to the Cymricizing process. By this we mean the gradual extension to Welshmen of the rights of municipal privileges in the English boroughs of Wales, and especially of North Wales. After the revolt of Owen Glyn Dwr, the only English towns left were Conway, Carnarvon, and Beaumaris. This extension of municipal privileges to the Welsh had to be carried out gradually and cautiously. The reasons are not far to seek. At the time of the Black Prince, the greater part of the burgesses of Beaumaris were Welshmen, the result being that it threatened the undoing of the liberty of the town, and the Crown was on more than one occasion deprived by fraud of its revenue. For power they fought ; and power, when they had it, they abused. The Edwardian object was the creation of loyal boroughs irrespective of race ; and Edward and his successors encouraged Welshmen, especially during inter- vals of comparative peace, to participate in burghal privileges. In proportion as they showed their loyalty, power was vested in them. The detailed history of the conquest and the settlement of Wales by Edward I, which was more economic and PROGRESS TOWARDS WELSH SELF-GOVERNMENT 2IO, political than military, has not been told with an adequate comprehension of the facts as a whole. According to the evidence available, the Norman settlement in Wales was by no means a violent break with the past, in so far as the local life and local organization of the various cantrefs were concerned. The lordship or sub-lordship oftentimes appears to have become coterminous with a cantref or a cwmwd, and probably, in its actual visible working, the individual conquest, from a legal point of view, only led to the Norman conqueror exercising a right and jurisdic- tion very analogous to that of the Welsh arglwydd (lord) in lieu of the dispossessed Cymro, the holding of the court in the new castle instead of the older timber-house of the Welsh chieftain, under the officers of the former instead of those of the latter. One of the most remarkable things about Wales has been the enormous influence of law and custom. Long before the Norman had placed his foot as conqueror upon English soil, the cantrefs and cwmwds, the areas and names of which had been handed down from generation to genera- tion, were parcelled out among lords and princes, or kings, exercising customary rights over their own area. The mere fact of a particular cantref or cwmwd being taken possession of by a Norman or English stranger, in no way, from the Welsh point of view, affected status and right. The pretensions of the Welsh arglwydd remained the same, and continued to be recognized by relations and depend- ents, even after the building of a castle by the intruder or conqueror, or the loss of a series of battles. The Welsh lord would retreat to the higher ground, where he fortified his house, and imitated, as far as he could, the fortress of the stranger below. So, though defeated and ousted, the Welshman did not admit the stranger's right, but still maintained his own legal theory. Though superseded, he still called and deemed himself the lord of the conquered territory, and he was so in fact to the extent that the occupiers of the soil recognized him. Sometimes the Welsh arglwydd, or lord, would retake the castle and the adjacent l.irids, and, for a brief period, enjoy the ancient rights 220 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY both in name and reality. It was only after many vicissi- tudes and generations of local conflict, that the Welsh arglwydd, his relations and dependents, acquiesced in the counter-theory of the Norman lord. Even the most rapacious Norman adventurer that ever came into Wales always endeavoured to establish himself under the colour of a legal right and a legal title. He was carrying out the commands of his sovereign, the conqueror of the country, and his title to any land that he had won with his sword was his, either by the express or the implied grant of the Norman King of England. As time went on, and peace and order were established, the Norman settlements became more fixed and permanent and the hostility between the Norman lords and such of the Welsh princes or lords as retained any cantrefs and cwmwds, was modified materially. It was not unusual to find a Norman and a Welsh lord combining together for military purposes against some other Norman lord or Welsh chieftain. Intermarriages between Norman and Welsh families of the most powerful and important class became very frequent. By the middle of the thirteenth century the rapprochement between the conquered and the conqueror was very marked. As to the servile occupiers of the land, the Welsh-speaking clergy, and the lower orders, they still entertained their racial prejudices, and continued to cherish their national demands for their own language and form of government. It is impossible to get at the heart of the political revolution of Wales, and the process of emancipation which has been going on silently for centuries, without realizing the nature of the first force, and the many subse- quent forces from without, that have helped to set in motion the many agencies that operate in the ascendancy of the present. The necessity for dwelling upon this aspect of Welsh historic development is all the more necessary because one so rarely finds any disposition to mention or to acknowledge it in any Welsh treatises dealing with Welsh political and Welsh national subjects. The Wales that Edward I found was a very different PROGRESS TOWARDS WELSH SELF-GOVERNMENT 221 Wales from the Wales of to-day. Socially and morally, Edward I found the Principality a country occupied by a dynamic and unprogressive people. Physically, he found it a country with no roads, or only such ways as we should now call mountain tracks. The larger portion of what is now enclosed and cultivated land, Edward I found waste and uncultivated. The large areas which now form estates and large farm holdings, were then covered by forest trees. In whatever sense we use the term " cultivated," Wales at that time cannot be said to have been cultivated. With the exception of the castles and churches and religious houses, there were no buildings but the hastily constructed and unstable timber residences described by Giraldus Cambrensis. Only those small portions of the country situated close to a castle, a church, or a monastery, were enclosed, and the territorial divisions which we have seen were recognized by the laws, were simply marked out by artificial mere-stones or by natural objects. Edward I cleared the thick forests, erected convenient quays, did away with the old tribal system of trading, fixed central marts and new weights and measures. New roads were cut, communications were opened up through tracts previously impassable ; what had been an imper- vious desert he turned into a fruitful field. He initiated the Welsh mind into the art of government ; he modified, if he did not actually change, its course, which for cen- turies had been predetermined in a particular direction. Edward, reasoning according to the ordinary maxims of politicians, might well indulge the hope that what he had effected, legislatively and municipally, would permanently change the destiny of Wales ; and it did. That there should be frictions and reactions was inevitable. The Edwardian policy did impose certain limitations on the Welsh. After the conquest a Welshman could not trade within the new boroughs. It was the one special privilege of the English that no Welshman should inquire of a cause in which the English were involved. The Welsh had no longer any princes to fight for them ; and they had not, at that time, been granted the power to elect Members of Parliament to 222 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY speak for them. But, as a general proposition, it may be confidently stated that Edward I rightly discerned the evils under which Wales was groaning. With zeal and determination he applied himself to accomplish what no Welsh prince or king had ever accomplished, namely, to unite Wales under a single rule, and to establish a form of government which ran counter to the whole train of preceding circumstances. The marvel is, not that the Edwardian system was grudgingly accepted at first, but that it found so large a measure of acceptance, and that with so little bloodshed it did work itself into harmony with the Welsh mind. Edward I was a statesman of progressive views and comprehensive intellect. He had had large experience as an adminis- trator in managing his father's estate and his own. He grasped the Welsh situation quickly. He knew that while, on the one hand, it would be dangerous to strain the loyalty or the submission of the Welsh unduly, it would, on the other, be dangerous to be over-indulgent. If he was an autocrat, as, under the circumstances, he was bound to be, he was a benevolent autocrat ; if he was a king, he acted constitutionally ; if he was a conqueror, he was not an oppressor. He played the part of a moderator between two extremes. He was merely extending to Wales his policy of conciliation and consolidation, which he was carrying out in England. The reign of Edward I was a red-letter day in the history of Wales ; it was the reign in which Wales was born into the possibilities of a corporate existence. Castles were necessary to Edward ; without them he could not have defended subject districts, or remedy legal and administrative problems. What skilled labour he found necessary in the building of them, had to be imported, for the reason that there were no skilled workmen available in Wales. They were associated closely with borough life, and formed the centre of the civic administration of the different districts. Hence it is that the constables of such castles were Englishmen, and that " offices of charge " were denied to Welshmen. Edward had to keep Wales PROGRESS TOWARDS WELSH SELF-GOVERNMENT 223 within the grip of the English Crown ; he was in danger not only from the wavering Welsh, but from France, Ireland, and Scotland. He was resolved upon four courses : (a) to subdue the Welsh ; (b) to civilize them, which was both a political and an economic problem ; (c) to admit them only by degrees to the full rights of burgesses ; (d) to make tentative what legislation was necessary, so that it might be modified, relaxed, or enforced, according to the varying conditions of a people undergoing a gradual change of political opinions. It was no longer a question of conquest, but of administration. What unrest he had to cope with was due as much to economic as to political causes. It was the introduction of a new civilization — a task of no small magnitude. The adjustment of the rights of a conquered race is always a difficult problem; and more difficult with a people so unaccustomed to discipline and restraint. Edward I was the inaugurator of a new civilization for the Welsh ; with his reign originated the economic development of the country. He was the first to introduce the municipal element into Wales ; he sought to instruct Welshmen in the art of civics ; he fostered peace and commerce and a more refined method of living ; he proved himself to be both a great patriot and a great constructive adminis- trator. I have dwelt at length upon these considerations for the reason that in purely Welsh circles there is but a very poor opinion of the ability, integrity, and statesmanship of Edward I. One Welsh writer follows another repeating the same ideas, the same views, and the same sentiments. Their servility and want of independence of thought are marvellous. The Welsh author of the biography of Mr. Lloyd George, in canonizing the Tudor Period, says: ' Since the time of Edward I Wales has been governed as a conquered country. There had been annexation, but there had been no attempt at organic unity." The absurdity of this statement will at once be apparent to those who have any knowledge of the Edwardian adminis- tration. The same writer also tells us that " Henry VII 224 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY signalised his accession to the throne by an immediate reversion of the anti- Welsh policy " ; also that " Henry Tudor did not forget after his victory either the Welsh blood in his veins, or the great services which his country- men had rendered him at the crisis in his career." We are further told that under the reign of the Tudors, " order was substituted for disorder," and " a general sense of security for oppression and injustice." Again, "By an unerring instinct he [Henry V, 1413] diagnosed the real cause of the trouble in Wales " ; " Henry [Henry VIII] had no difficulty in realising that what was good for England was also good for Wales." The writer quotes another Welsh writer, a Member of Parliament, who, in writing of the Tudor period, supplies us with one of those Welsh rhapsodies with which we are already so familiar: "The country was suddenly transformed as if by magic." The more we study this incoherent mass presented to the public in the guise of " history," and these dissertations upon Welsh history, the more the heap continues to grow. It is unquestionable that the new or modified arrange- ment for the government of Wales, embodied in the legis- lation of the Tudor kings, was a great step forward in Welsh historic development. The Tudor period was one of the great periods in English history — a period of deep- ening national consciousness, a period of magnificent discovery, a period of noble imaginations, and, broadly speaking, of growing peace and order. But it was the fortune rather than the creation of the Tudor kings. Henry VII and Henry VIII were born into this period ; they did not give it birth. These two kings will always have their defenders, on the ground that they were considered good patriots, and that Henry VIII left his kingdom immensely richer than he found it. How and by what means he accomplished this, does not fall within the province of this work. That Henry VIII was unscrupulous and even atrocious in the methods which he adopted to achieve his ends, there can be no question. As for Henry VII, so great was his dynastic greed that he seriously contemplated a marriage with Juana, the mad Queen of PROGRESS TOWARDS WELSH SELF-GOVERNMENT 225 Castile ; so revolting was his avarice that he subordinated every other consideration to the one of profit and gain. ' If the Queen's madness should prove incurable," wrote Ferdinand's Ambassador in London to his master, in April, 1507, " it would perhaps not be inconvenient that she should live in England, for the English seem little to mind her insanity, especially since he [the king] has assured them that her derangement of mind would not prevent her from bearing children." How did Henry VII " decline " to forget " the Welsh blood in his veins and the great services which his country- men had rendered him at the crisis of his career " ? He did so, we are told by the same Welsh author, " by appoint- ing a commission to Wales to enquire into and publish his Welsh descent," and when a son was born to him in i486 ' he christened it by the name of Arthur out of compli- ment to the Welsh people." Henry also, it seems, placed a Welshman of the name of Rhys ap Thomas " in command of the English forces against the pretenders who laid claim to Henry's crown." Most assuredly, it is an easy thing, after all, especially to those who have learnt the secret, to satisfy the racial pride of a Welshman ! " With unerring skill he [Henry VII] diagnosed the evils from which the country was suffering, and with serene courage he applied the remedy." His " remedy " was to call his son by a Welsh name and to appoint a commission to inquire into his own Welsh pedigree. What a marvellous patriotic act and what strange " remedies " for a nation's ills ! The truth is, the performances of Henry VII are very disappointing from a Cymric standpoint. Welshmen looked forward to some drastic reforms ; they expected recognition in the form of the benefits of a long sought liberty. But he accomplished little beyond indicating a policy of amelioration, which his son took up and extended. Henry VII made no determined effort to reduce Wales into a more settled condition, or to remedy the grievances the people suffered at the hands of the Lords Marchers. l He continued the Court of the Council of Wales and the 1 See The Welsh People ( 1 902), p. 365. 226 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY Marches which Edward IV had established, and he did this with the view of suppressing crime and disorder. But it proved inefficient in putting down the abuses of the Lords Marchers' system, and it failed to make punishment swift and certain. There is direct evidence for this. Rowland Lee, who held the office of the Presidency during what J. R. Green calls the " English Terror " under Thomas Cromwell, wrote to Cromwell in 1534-5 concerning the condition of the Lordship of Magor. Lee says he had found that there were, under the protection of Sir Walter Herbert, not less than forty-three criminals who had never been punished — five had committed wilful murder, eighteen had committed murder, and there were twenty thieves and outlaws who had committed every other variety of crime, such crimes including the robbing of a mother and son, and putting them " on a hotte trevet for to make them schow," and the robbery of the Cathedral of Llandaff, which was perpe- trated by a friend of Sir Walter Herbert and other per- sons. The " hotte trevet " means, obviously, the "trivet," which is supposed to be equivalent to the Welsh trybedd, a three-legged utensil to put over an open fire. The reduction of the Marches to order and tranquillity and the suppression of the powers of the Lords Marchers, were in reality due to Rowland Lee. It was his tenure of office, which lasted from 1535 to 1543, that prepared the way for the practical application of the statutes by which Henry VIII united Wales and the Marches to England. Lee was undoubtedly a cruel and an arbitrary adminis- trator. It is impossible to state definitely how many men he caused to be hanged during his term of office. It is said by Ellis Griffith (" a soldier of Calais," as he describes himself), in his History of England and Wales from William the Conqueror to the reign of Henry VI," that they num- bered five thousand. 1 This figure has been reduced by some authorities to one-fifth. Regarded from a purely political ground, Lee's cruelty can no doubt be justified. 1 See Gwenogvryn Evans's " Report on MSS. in the Welsh Language," Vol. I (1898), pp. x and 214. Parliamentary Paper, 1898, C — 8, 829. PROGRESS TOWARDS WELSH SELF-GOVERNMENT 227 The five Acts relating to Wales, passed in the year 1535, were all the inspiration of Rowland Lee, and were enacted with a view of merging Wales and the Marches completely into the English system. The objects were the suppression of the political and j udicial authority of the Lords Marchers, the checking of friendly verdicts by jurors partial to the accused, the prohibiting of the bribing of juries, the escape of criminals from the district where the crime was committed and was triable to a district where it was not, the permit- ting of appeals from the courts of the Lords Marchers to the King's Commissioners or the President of the Council of the Marches, the abolishing of cymhorthas (or collections), the prohibiting of public gatherings of Welshmen except by special license and in the presence of Crown officials (as in the case of Ireland in recent years), the punishing of Welshmen for assaults on the inhabitants of the English border counties, and the appointing of justices of the peace in Chester and the Welsh counties. We know that, during the two hundred and fifty years following the conquest by Edward I, Wales was more or less in a continuous state of disorder ; the peace of the King and of his feudal tenants was ill kept. Life and property were insecure. Not only were wars between the Lords Marchers and the reputed descendants of the Welsh princely families breaking out constantly, but Welshmen were at war constantly among themselves. Still, long before the Tudor period, symptoms of reconciliation were discernible everywhere, and they had found legal expres- sion. There had been a gradual change for the better in three directions : (a) in the policy of the English Crown ; (b) in the disposition of the Welsh and in their apprecia- tion of the value and efficiency of English laws ; (c) in the social and political condition of the English boroughs. The old privileged districts of the mediaeval burgesses had died a natural death. When Henry came to the throne, the native baronage, through intermarriage and other influences, had its representatives. Intermarriage seemed to have been the great factor that undermined the hard and fast decrees of Edward I's political ordinances. A Welsh 228 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY bondman married an English widow-burgess at Pwllheli, who, on paying a fine of a florin, was allowed to enjoy the full complement of burghal privileges. Foreign wars also served to have brought about that process of assimilation which culminated in the reign of Henry VIII. Welshmen and Englishmen fought side by side on the Continent ; they returned home with an increased sense of loyalty to the Crown, and they impressed that loyalty upon their fellow-countrymen. The process of granting and legalizing burghal privileges to Welshmen had been developed slowly many generations previous to the Tudor dynasty. It had become the usual custom for Welshmen to sue for letters patent making them denizen subjects (subjects of the same liberty as Englishmen in Wales), thereby exempting them legally from the inconveniences of the penal statutes. 1 An early Edwardian ordinance stipulated that the castle garrisons should each contain five Englishmen only, but from the middle of the fourteenth century it was very common to find Welshmen in the garrisons. This, with other similar evidence, goes to show that at the advent of the Tudor dynasty, it was no longer a case of English against Welsh, but of loyal against disloyal subjects. " It would be difficult to name any English borough in North Wales that did not harbour a Welshman from the time of the Conquest onward." 2 There was no intention to put into continual operation the restrictive and repressive ordin- ances of Edward I, and other ordinances of parallel origin and purport, which were given statutory form in the reign of Henry IV, and which were ratified formally for the last time by Henry VI, in response to a complaint from the English inhabitants of North Wales. The extent to which they were enforced varied with the fluctuating tempera- ment of current politics. That they were of a temporary character, like the Irish Coercion Acts of more modern times, there can be no doubt. They were to be enforced 1 See Calendar of MSS. relating to Wales in the British Museum (E. Owen), ii, pp. 145-151. 2 See The Mediaval Boroughs of Snowdonia (1912), pp. 255-268. PROGRESS TOWARDS WELSH SELF-GOVERNMENT 229 as disturbances were renewed. The evidence of their application is extremely meagre. Indeed, in view of the almost entire dearth of evidence in this connection, a few authors have expressed the doubt whether these laws were applied at all. These Coercion Acts were revived by Henry IV in seeking to thwart the insurrection of Glyn Dwr, and again by Henry VI in quelling local riots. These measures had become legally ineffectual with the Act of Union, and in actual practice at a much earlier date. They were repealed finally in the reign of James I. Excepting the cases of the more important boroughs, these laws do not appear to have debarred many mediaeval Welshmen from the amenities of public life. There is ample evidence that Welshmen had been allowed to hold offices, and to exercise privileges which they were theoretically or legally forbidden to hold. Some kind of Welsh sympathy had crept into the life of several English boroughs in Wales. With the economic and political changes accompanying the Black Death, many Welshmen settled as burgesses in the Marcher boroughs, and had employment as labourers on English manors. It may be that they found security for their good behaviour, as the law required, but nothing is known. The Welsh immigra- tion to English Marcher boroughs in England, and to the garrison boroughs of Wales, had assumed such proportions that the House of Commons, in 1380, made the strange declaration that the Edwardian ordinances were still in force. The Commons also, in 1444, ordered a strict obser- vance in all points of every ordinance previously enacted against the Welsh. Again, in 1447, the Commons con- firmed these orders, at the same time adding further restrictions. The very fact that the Commons passed such resolutions is in itself a proof that they were not rigidly enforced in Wales, and the fact that they were not rigidly enforced goes to strengthen the evidence already furnished as to the growing Welsh sympathy which had crept into the several English boroughs, and which had undoubtedly possessed the Crown officers themselves in many of the Welsh districts. 230 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY When Henry VII came to the throne, the powers of the Lords of the Marches had been practically broken and destroyed, in consequence of the Wars of the Roses. This is a fact of tremendous importance. It made the task of bringing about a brighter and more peaceful Wales infinitely more easy for Henry VII than for Edward I. When we come to the bed-rock of the whole situation, Henry VII's reign was a great disappointment ; he did not requite the services of Welshmen as he might and should have done, and he did practically nothing towards the reconstruction of Welsh civic and political life. He did not summon a single Welshman, in the true sense, to Parliament on his accession. Out of the twenty- nine peers that Henry VII summoned to his first Parlia- ment, not a single one of them can be claimed as being Welsh either in name or descent. Not one of them held principal property and lordships in Wales either in the Principality proper or in those parts of the Marches that were ultimately apportioned to Welsh counties. Wales owes but little, if anything, to Henry VII. In point of natural ability, diplomacy, and statesmanship, Henry VII is not to be placed in the same category as Edward I. The task of Henry VII would have been infinitely more difficult were it not for the firmness and foresight displayed by Edward I in dealing with the very grave problems which confronted him after the conquest. We may go farther, and say that however beneficial the Tudor legislation proved to be, it was chiefly the landowning class, as dis- tinguished from the actual cultivators of the soil, that reaped the benefit of the comparatively friendly attitude of those monarchs to the Principality. The lower classes benefited but little. Even during the early years of Henry VIII, assaults, riots, and civic disturbances of every kind were rife in the garrison towns, and his chief difficulty was not with the English, but with the Welsh. On March 9th, 1518, Henry VIII commanded the local justices and chamberlain of North Wales, together with the constable of the Castle of Carnarvon, to make inquiries into the hardships inflicted PROGRESS TOWARDS WELSH SELF-GOVERNMENT 23I by Welshmen on the burgesses of the town of Carnarvon. The Welsh had been molesting the bailiffs in the execution of their duty, and the borough juries were so packed with corrupted Welshmen in cases touching the English people, that the ends of justice were defeated. Perjured inquests and " bloody affrays " were frequent. Throughout the reign of Henry VIII, North Wales continued to be the scene of much civil dissatisfaction on the part both of the English burgesses and of the native population. The practice, on the part of Welshmen, and of Welsh writers in general, of ascribing the sole cause and origin of Welsh modern development to the attempt of the Henrys to found a dynasty on an aristocracy of Celtic race, and to the wisdom of their rule in conciliating the Welsh, as well as to the superiority of their statesmanship over that of the previous kings and rulers, is not only erroneous, but a reflection upon their historic sense. It is a reflection upon their critical interpretation of facts, and upon their inability, or indisposition, or both, to study the laws of progress, not as they stand in their isolated relation, but as they are connected with the whole. Whoever has studied the different stages through which this question of Welsh development has passed, knows that Henry VIII was simply the exponent of that march of public opinion and public progress which had been going on long before his day, and long before the day of his father, Henry VII. The task of suppressing disorder, of framing laws, of adopting precautions against anarchy, and of making provision for the public health, devolved, in the first instance, upon Edward I. Greater services no ruler can render to a community, or in the interests of civilization ; it is in reality the only service which any Government can render. Edward did more : he cultivated the trading spirit which has contributed so much, if not more than any- thing else, to the happiness and upbuilding of nations. He gave the Welsh a zest for progress, and a better under- standing of the complicated relations of life. He it was who first taught them in the art of living together in com- munities rather than in groups, tribes, families, and 232 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY separate clans. He sought to train the Welsh mind to project itself beyond its racial limits and its traditional environment, to shed its solitariness, to become more accessible to new ideas, and to familiarize itself with a corporate mode of existence. In brief, Edward sought to make citizens of the Welsh, and thus to lay the foundation of local self-government. He took in hand the political discipline of one of the oldest Christian people, who had inflicted upon themselves the greatest injuries from the most patriotic though mistaken intentions. The student who wishes to place his mind in touch with the elementary points in the making of the modern municipal and national life of Wales, and to acquaint himself with the vital regenerative forces which have helped to make Wales an organic whole, must go back to the administrative achieve- ments of the king who was her conqueror, not her oppressor. CHAPTER XI PROGRESS TOWARDS WELSH SELF-GOVERNMENT-^:onmiM«f The assembly which was convened at Aberdovey, North Wales, by Llywelyn the Great, Prince of Wales, in 1216, the year following the Great Charter of Liberties sealed by King John on June 15th, 12 15, was more of a Parlia- ment in the modern sense than the one called by Howel Dda in the tenth century. It had a legislative, executive, and a judicial character. One of the objects of this Council was to consider an alliance with Philip Augustus, King of France. It is clear that an agreement was arrived at concerning the part which Wales should take in the civil war in England. The date of the alliance between Llywelyn and Philip Augustus was, probably, 1216. In 1212, Pope Innocent, as the result of his interdict against King John, called upon Philip Augustus to make war upon John in order to reduce him to " subjection to the Holy Church." At the same time the Pope absolved the Welsh princes from their oath of allegiance to John, and removed the interdict from Wales. The Welsh princes and Philip Augustus were acting under Papal authortiy against John. The idea of forming an alliance was due to the influence of the Church. The fact that King John gave Llywelyn his illegitimate daughter — Joan — in marriage, has been taken by some Welshmen as " actually embodying a recognition of the independence of Wales." The collapse of the " alliance," they say, " was due to John's notorious shiftiness of character, and not to any breach of trust on the 233 234 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY part of the Welsh prince." There seems to be no limit to the fantasies of these Welsh writers. There was enough and to spare of Welsh " shiftiness " and "duplicity" in those days. That Wales benefited through John's friendship with Llywelyn, notwithstanding Llywelyn's intrigues with the English barons in their struggles with John, is shown in the three clauses of the Charter of Liberties. In those clauses, 56, 57, and 58, the privileges of the Welsh Princes were set forth. Their protection was guaranteed, and the hostages and charters which had been obtained by the English Sovereign as security for peace, were to be restored to Llywelyn. It is in those clauses that we have the first mention of Wales in the constitutional documents of the English or British Realm. It was not a Parliamentary Statute, though it was placed at the commencement of the English Statutes. It is significant that the whole constitutional history of England has been described as being a commentary on this Charter of Liberties. It is the beginning of the formal history of British constitutional liberty. Llywelyn ranks as one of the three most important figures in Welsh mediaeval history. But his career is not more entrancing than that of Owen Glyn Dwr, or of Gruffudd ap Llywelyn, whose Welsh reign extended from 1039 to 1063. In sheer military capacity the latter was the greatest of the three. Wales developed under his leader- ship a degree of unity, activity, and influence which the people not only had not exhibited for centuries, but which even Llywelyn the last Prince of Wales never excelled, if equalled. There are solid reasons for regarding Gruffudd ap Llywelyn as the greatest military chief that the Welsh have ever produced. In one respect, however, Gruffudd and Llywelyn fared alike : both were the victims of their countrymen's duplicity and treachery. Llywelyn the Great, or Llywelyn ab Iorwerth, who ruled in Wales two hundred years later than Gruffudd ap Llywelyn, was the representative of one of the very oldest reigning families of Western Europe, a family that could trace its origin to the time when Britain still formed part PROGRESS TOWARDS WELSH SELF-GOVERNMENT 235 of the Roman Empire, and which had, with some brief intervals, ruled in Gwynedd for nearly nine hundred years. Neither Owen Glyn Dwr nor Henry VII could substan- tiate a claim to anything more than a remote and indirect connection with the race of Llywelyn ab Iorwerth. In fact Glyn Dwr had no claims to kingship, or to the rulership of Wales, in the same sense as Llywelyn ab Iorwerth. Owen's pretensions, unlike the legitimate claims of Llywelyn, were founded on personal rather than on racial grounds. True, both had grievances of their own — griev- ances connected with disputed lands. Llywelyn ab Iorwerth, besides having direct lineal claims, was a man of enlightened intelligence, who pos- sessed qualities calculated to excite both loyalty and respect. He was a more humane man than Owen Glyn Dwr, who was bent on destruction wherever he could. He was also a man of greater discretion and higher statesmanship, and far less actuated by personal considerations. Popular liberty rather than severance was the keynote of his domestic policy, and he strove to subordinate the ancient ideal of his race to the necessities and possibilities of their practical life. He saw how Wales had been wasting her blood and treasure in pursuing an unattainable ideal ; he saw the inexpediency of an independent Wales. He had taken full measure of the character of his race : their excessive liability to internal strife and their impatience of centralized authority — " perverse when stagnant, and rebellious when progressive." He faced the inevitable issue with boldness, and with equal boldness he reversed the policy of previous Welsh princes. Llywelyn had no personal pretensions, and showed no disposition to appeal to his people or to unite them on the ground of their hostility to the King of England. The independence that he sought for was not the severing of the ties that bound Wales to England, but freedom for the people to carry on their affairs in accordance with native conceptions. This was Llywelyn's domestic and foreign policy during the whole of his reign, which extended from 1194 to 1240. On such a policy he succeeded in uniting the whole of 236 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY Wales — excepting Pembrokeshire and Glamorgan — as early as 1216, that is, forty-nine years before Simon de Montfort's great Parliament met in 1265. It was a notable achievement, especially when considered in the light of the previous history of the Welsh, and the geographical features of the country. Wales, unlike England, is in the main extremely hilly and mountainous, and it was there- fore, in early times, much more difficult to bring into line than was the case in England with its far easier access and communication. Llywelyn failed in his purpose, as other Welsh princes had failed, and as his brilliant grandson, Llywelyn ap Gruffudd (the "last" Prince), failed. But Llywelyn the " last" Prince waged an honourable war in the thirteenth century, and though a rebel in the technical sense, he was no rebel at heart, or in intentions. The Welsh of those days had their grievances, and grievances that were real and hard to be borne. Edward Fs treatment of the re- mains of Llywelyn, who was slain near Builth on December nth, 1282, by an English man-at-arms, and his utter want of magnanimity in dealing with Dafydd, Llywelyn's brother, who technically, though not substantially, pos- sesses the melancholy honour of being the last Cymric Prince of Wales, helped to keep alive the hatred with which the Welsh-speaking people for several centuries afterwards regarded the English. The insurrection associated with the name of Owen Glyn Dwr, in 1400, differed from the movement led by Llywelyn the Great, and had for its ideal objects other than those contemplated by the latter. Owen's ambition was to cut the last knot that bound Wales to England, " to deliver the offspring of Wales out of the captivity of our English foes, who have, for a long time past, oppressed us and our ancestors." Glyn Dwr's Parliament at Machynlleth, Dolgelly, and Harlech, was more democratic than Lly- welyn's, because, whereas the latter was composed of chiefs, the former was composed of foui persons, irrespective of blood, from each commote. The initial stages of the out- break took place in the summer of 1400; but Owen's name is PROGRESS TOWARDS WELSH SELF-GOVERNMENT 237 not connected with it. " Openly," says the Welsh bio- grapher of Mr. Lloyd George, " he [Owen] raised the standard of revolt against all English rule. . . . The boldness of his action came upon his countrymen like the fall of a spark upon seasoned timber. Instantly there was a great conflagration." However, in examining Henry's first proclamation against the Welsh rebels on the 19th September, 1400, we find no reference to Owen. 1 Neither is there any mention of Owen in the report of the Chamber- lain of Carnarvon, which was made to the King's Council early in 1401. This report presumably constitutes the earliest reference to the first stages of the revolt. The first allusion to Owen is in 4 Henry IV, c. 34 (1402): "It is ordained and stablished that no Englishman married to any Welshwoman of the amity or alliance of Owain ap Glendour, Traitor to our Sovereign Lord, or to any other Welsh woman, after the rebellion of the said Owain ; or that in time to come marrieth himself to any Welshwoman, be put in any office in Wales, or in the Marches of the same." The Chronicle History of Henry V states that the Welsh rose against the King and then chose Owen to lead them. The revolt was an accomplished fact before Owen appeared on the scene. It is clear that he did not take any active or leading part in the earlier negotiations of the struggle until the end of the year 1401. On the 29th November of that year there are letters from Owen showing that he desired to place himself in communication with the King of Scotland and the Lords of Ireland, in order to ascertain what assistance Wales might expect in her conflict with England. The bards again called the nation to arms, and they gave expression to the national longing for a ruler of their own race. It is difficult to decide whether Owen joined the revolt owing to Lord Grey's duplicity, or because the Welsh, after they had openly revolted, ultimately chose him for their leader, or because he had already been declared a rebel. Owen had suffered much at the hands of Reginald Lord Grey, of Ruthin. As Mr. A. G. Bradley says in his memoir of Owen, 1 See Ellis's Second Series of Original Letters, II, 2. 238 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY " There rankled one deep and bitter grievance, and this concerned the upland tract of Croesau that lay upon the north-western fringe of his Glyndyfrdwy manor, over which he and his powerful neighbour, Reginald Grey, Lord of Ruthin, had been falling out this many a long day." The question of disputed territory was decided in the King's Court in favour of Owen in the reign of Richard II, but with the accession of Henry IV Grey renewed his claims and openly annexed the land to his own estate. Grey in his capacity as chief Marcher in North Wales, inten- tionally neglected to hand over to Owen, until it was too late, the King's summons to Owen to rally to his support in his proposed expedition against the Scot« in July, 1400, with the result that Owen was declared a rebel, and treated as such. The circumstances of the time were favourable to a revolt. In Wales the oppression of the Marcher Barons, and the resentment caused by the changes in social conditions, had prepared the way for a general in- surrection. The reaction was vigorous and general. The Welsh farmers sold their cattle to buy horses and harness. Meetings were being held " in desolate places and wild," but " their counsaelle be holden yet sacred fro us, wher- throgh yong people are more wilde in governance." 1 Richard II had just been deposed, and Henry, the new King, had to contend, within his own dominion, with the partisans of the late King and the descendants of Edward III, who were senior to him in descent. Scotland was openly hostile, and the Irish were fighting constantly against the English colonies on their coast. The King was also embarrassed by France, which was then preparing for its war with England. France regarded Henry and England with a good deal of contempt. Charles VI of France would neither speak of Henry as " king," nor of his envoys as " ambassadors." He was preparing for a descent on South Wales to seize the castles of Pembroke and Denbigh, which had been granted to Isabella by the Treaty of 1396. Owen knew it would be to the advantage of Charles to harass Henry as much as possible in Scotland, 1 See Ellis's Original Letters, II, 8. PROGRESS TOWARDS WELSH SELF-GOVERNMENT 239 Ireland, and Wales ; but the truce which was effected between England and France acted as a temporary check upon his designs. Owen appealed to Ireland for assist- ance against what he termed their " mutual foes,' - the Saxons, "for," he said, "it faileth me much in men-at- arms. ' ' He appealed to Robert of Scotland ' ' on the ground of common ancestry," and to the Lords of Ireland on the ground that if he was able " to manfully wage this war on our borders . . . you and all the other chieftains of Ireland will in the meantime have welcome rest and calm repose." Owen endeavoured about the same time to get assistance from France, and France was sympathetic. Early in 1402 a certain knight named Dafydd ab Ieuan Goch, in the County of Cardigan, who for full twenty years had fought against the Saracens with the King of Cyprus and other Christians, being sent by the King of France to the King of Scotland on Owen's behalf, was taken captive by Eng- lish sailors and imprisoned in the Tower of London. 1 There were probably Welsh agents in France and Brittany trying to secure aid even before Owen had issued his commission to Yonge and Hanmer on the 10th of May, 1404, for on the failure of the privateering raid which William de Chastel, Lord of Chateau Neuf, near St. Malo, made on Dartmouth on April 15th, 1404, there were found Welshmen among the captives. 2 In the month of June, 1401, Scottish ships appeared on the coast of Wales, but Henry Percy, the Governor of North Wales, had had some intimation of their intentions, and the Scottish ships were met by Henry's ships at sea, and were pursued. One of them entered Milford Haven, and was captured. There was an agreement made earlier in the year between Meredydd, Glyn Dwr's son, who seemed to have been at the head of the revolt in its early stages, and the men of " Owtiles," of Scotland, to land at Barmouth and Aberdovey. Meredydd was to warn the Welsh of their approach in order to take concerted action. 1 Adam of Usk (1904), p. 71. 1 Rymer's Foedera, VIII, 358 (1704-1732). 240 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY Owen desired to place himself in communication with the King of Scotland and the Lords of Ireland; his envoys were supposed to reach Scotland by way of Ireland, but while in Ireland they were captured with the letters upon them, and beheaded. It was Owen's policy to rise without " fair warnings " and to destroy as much property as he could. The ravages caused by him had almost everything to do with the repressive and, in some respects, unduly harsh measures that were enacted against the Welsh in the succeeding reigns. If Owen ultimately failed in his purpose, he left behind him a desolate country and a great heritage of bitterness, as is evidenced by the anti-Saxon character of the Welsh poetry during the years 1415-85, and the manner in which the Welsh molested those Englishmen who were known to have aided the Crown during the rebellion. According to a Scottish contemporary 1 (though grossly exaggerated), Owen and his men had, in the space of three years, expelled all their enemies from Wales. They took all the castles built by the English and destroyed them, with the exception of three — Aberystwyth, Conway, and Harlech. The loss of revenue to Henry's own property through Owen's depredations is estimated by Adam of Usk at £60,000. In addition to this, the castles had to be garrisoned and rebuilt from English funds. By the com- mencement of 1404, Owen, directly or indirectly, through his subject barons, ruled the whole of Wales. Moreover, he had made the question of the liberation of Wales a factor in European politics. In the spring of 1404, Owen summoned a parliament to meet at Dolgelly, and as the result of the decision arrived at by that parliament, he issued, on the 10th of May, 1404, to Griffith Yonge (afterwards Owen's Bishop of Bangor) and to John Hanmer, a commission with full power to conclude an offensive alliance with Charles VI against " Henry of Lancaster." Accompanying them as their notary was Benedict Comme, a clerk of the Diocese of St. Asaph. They arrived in Paris early in June. On the 1 Scotichronicon, II, 450. PROGRESS TOWARDS WELSH SELF-GOVERNMENT 241 14th, Charles VI issued a commission to the Count of March and the Bishop of Chartres, to meet the Welsh ambassadors and to complete the treaty. The king was cordial, for the reason that he remembered that a certain Welsh squire, Owen of Wales — the Owen Lawgoch of Welsh legendary fame — who was of the same race as Owen Glyn Dwr, had served France valiantly against the English. Owen asked for assistance in the form of " money, harness, and men." To this Charles assented ; he gave a gilded helmet, a cuirass, and a sword, to be handed over to Owen as a token of goodwill and as evidence of more substantial assistance. A formal treaty was signed on July 4th, 1404, being sealed, on the part of France, by the French Ambassador, and, on the part of Wales, by Griffith Yonge. Owen ratified the treaty at his " castle of Llanbadarn," on the 12th of January, 1405. The alliance was both defensive and offensive against Henry of Lancaster and his adherents. Even before the completion of this treaty, King Charles had appealed through Louis, Duke of Bourbon, to Henry III, King of Castile and Leon, for forty armed ships, as quickly as possible. It was proposed that the Count of March should sail for Wales from Brest on August 15th of the same year with one thousand lances and five hundred crossbowmen. What assistance Spain gave is not clear, but as there was no money forthcoming from Paris, the expedition did not sail until November. The force was, however, insufficient, and the time had passed when it could be of any real service to Wales ; the result was, that they " explored the coast of England," and came to an inglorious end, many of the ships and men being lost, so that the French alliance proved of little or no avail to Owen. Another and a later expedition from France proved equally fruitless. Jean de Hangest, Lord of Hugueville, who had been captured by the English at Marck, undertook, on his release, the task of carrying out King Charles's pledge to Owen. He secured the funds by pledging his estate at Ayencourt, near Montdidier. With the aid of Jean de Rieux, the Marshal of France, a force 242 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY of 800 men-at-arms, 600 crossbowmen, and 1,200 light infantry was collected. 1 Having secured the concurrence and assistance of the Estates of Brittany, the expedition sailed from Brest for Wales on the 23rd of July, 1405.* Reaching Milford Haven in the month of August, they were met by a force of 10,000 Welshmen. Jointly they com- mitted a good many depredations, and were more or less successful ; but, meeting the English forces at Woodbury Hill, between the Severn and the Teme, the Welsh and French forces were compelled to retire upon Caerwent. In November, 1405, part of the French troops returned home. In March, 1406, the remainder returned to France. This second French expedition, like the first, was a keen dis- appointment to Owen. Their failure damaged his prestige in the sight of the English, and demoralized his Welsh supporters. Charles is alleged to have said, as the end of Owen's career drew near, that he would have rendered more effectual assistance had he known that the Welsh really needed help. Early in 1406, Owen sent another commission to France — Morris Kery and Hugh Eddouyer, a Dominican friar. They returned with a friendly message from Charles, who now proposed that Owen should ack- nowledge Benedict XIII, the Avignon Pope. Owen was not over-scrupulous in the adoption of means to secure his end. Charles's suggestion was, that if Owen united with him in spiritual as in temporal matters, he would persuade the Pope to confirm the Welsh prelates in their livings, and guarantee that only men loyal to Owen should be appointed to any vacancies that might occur ; and further, that he would use his influence with the Pope in respect of Owen's proposal to reform the Church in Wales. Owen favourably entertained the idea, and he and his council decided to recognize Benedict XIII as the true Pope. As the result of Owen's acknowledgment of the supremacy of the Avignon Pope, there are found, in Volume XCII of the Registers of the Supplicitiones , in the Vatican Archives, two Rolls of Appeals to Benedict XIII 1 Chroniques de St. Denys, III, p. 144 sqq. 1 Chronicum Brittannicum (printed in Morice's Histoire de Bretagne, I, p. 115). PROGRESS TOWARDS WELSH SELF-GOVERNMENT 243 from Wales, while the nomination of Griffith Yonge as Bishop of Bangor in 1404 was annulled in 1414 on account of his adherence to the schism. 1 Through the influence of the Earl of Northumberland, Charles issued a proclamation on the 23rd of October, 1406, calling upon all men " good and true " to rise and drive the usurper Henry from the throne, and set up the Earl of March, who was the true heir. But the friendship of France did not help the Welsh much. The return of the last remnant of the second French expedition left Owen single-handed, and every effort to obtain sympathy in England had failed. Late in 1405, another Parliament was held at Harlech, when an attempt was made on Owen's life by Dafydd Gam, who was afterwards kept prisoner by Owen for a period of ten years. Through the intervention of some of Owen's staunchest friends, Gam's life was spared. Gam, who was a native of Breconshire, had a remarkable record. A dispute between him and Lord Slwch at Brecon resulted in the death of the latter, and Gam had to flee the country. In 1415, after his release from prison, he raised a con- tingent in Breconshire, composed mostly of Welshmen, in order to assist the King in his conflict with France. He made amends for his previous conduct, and was forgiven by Owen for the attempt on his life. Sir Walter Raleigh composed an eulogy on Gam for his bravery on the field of Agincourt, and compared him to Hannibal. When he was sent to inquire into the condition of the enemy, he reported that there were " plenty to kill, plenty to be made prisoners, and plenty to run away." When Owen's Parliament met at Machynlleth, Owen found two strong supporters in John Trevor, Bishop of St. Asaph, who had thrown in his lot with the insur- rectionists, and John ab Howel, an Augustinian canon. The canon is being credited with having secured for Owen the support of the men of Glamorgan and Gwent. He was killed with seventy other Welshmen in a battle fought "near Brinbiga, upon the river Usk." 1 Sec Matthcws's Welsh Records in Paris, 1910, p. xxxiv. 244 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY It is worthy of note that the return of the last remnant of the second French expedition coincided with the sign- ing and sealing of the compact or treaty between Owen and the Earl of Northumberland and Mortimer, at the home of David Daron, Dean of Bangor, at Aberdaron, in Lleyn, North Wales, on February 28th, 1406. Shakes- peare {Henry IV), following the chronicler Hall, " whose account is very inaccurate," 1 describes the meeting as having taken place at Bangor. Since Hall's time (1547) it has been usual to suppose that it was signed before the battle of Shrewsbury (1403) ; but this is impossible, and " on a general view of all the circumstances, I am con- vinced that the meeting took place in the spring of 1406."* " Though some chroniclers ascribe this treaty to 1405, there can be no doubt that Mr. Wylie is right in ascribing it to 1406, the only year in which the Earl of Northumber- land can have been at Aberdaron." 3 It was the son of the Earl — Henry Hotspur, together with Edmund Mortimer (married to Owen's daughter), who had conducted, with the King's consent, the negotia- tions with Owen relative to terms of submission in 1401, when Owen was prepared to submit. In 1406 a secret agreement was entered into between Owen, the Earl of Northumberland, and Mortimer, to put the Earl of March on the throne of England, and to allow Owen to reign independently in Wales. As to the character of the compact made at the home of David Daron, Dean of Bangor, in 1406, it was similar to the one entered into with Charles VI of France — an offensive and defensive alliance. They actually defined the boundaries, and allotted to each other the country of Great Britain, so as to avoid any cause of further dispute between them. Owen and his heirs were to have Wales, together with portions of the County of Gloucester, Worcester, and Stafford, and the Counties of Monmouth, Hereford, Salop, and Chester. The Earl's share was to be 1 Dictionary of National Biography (1890), XXII, p. 433. 2 Wylie's History of Henry IV (1894), II, pp. 378-9. 3 Oman's History of England, from 1377 to 1485 (1906), p. 201. PROGRESS TOWARDS WELSH SELF-GOVERNMENT 245 the counties north of a line drawn from Worcester in- directly east to the sea, but the Counties of Durham and Cumberland were not marked. Edmund Mortimer was to have the English counties south of such a line. They were to be united against all enemies, excepting the King of France. The Earl of Northumberland and Lord Bardolf re- mained in Wales till the 19th of June, 1406. 1 Their efforts to obtain assistance in England having failed, they went to France in the middle of July, 1406, where they found the two envoys that Owen had sent, reaching Paris by way of Brittany. But no help came from France. During the winter of 1407-8, Northumberland crossed from Scot- land into England, and was killed in battle on Bramham Moor on Sunday, 19th of February, 1408. Edmund Mortimer died of fever during the siege of Harlech, and the castle capitulated in February, 1409. After the death of Northumberland, Owen decided once more to try his luck in France. Accordingly he sent two envoys, who reached Paris on the 21st of May, 1408, asking for assist- ance against the English. The 200 archers and 300 men- at-arms granted them never reached Wales. Late in 1413, Owen, in despair, sent his last envoys to Charles. From the 3rd of December, 1413, to the 22nd of February, 1414, Griffith, Bishop of Bangor, and Philip Hanmer, were ambassadors for Owen at the French Court. On the 5th of July, 1415, Henry V commissioned Sir Gilbert Talbot to treat with Owen with the view to his submission, and on the 24th of Februar}', 1416, with his son Meredydd. 2 In the year 1415 — the traditional year — the conflict ceased, and Owen's career closed. He was buried " in the night season by his followers. But the burial place being discovered by his adversaries, he was laid in the grave a second time, and where his head was bestowed may no man know." 3 Fortune gave Owen an opportunity which was not given 1 Rolls of Parliament, Henry IV, iii, p. 606. 2 See Matthews'a Welsh Records in Paris, 1910, p. xxxix. 3 Chronicon Adae de Usk (1904), p. 129. 246 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY to any previous Welsh prince or leader. The time was opportune for a revolt on a truly national scale. In the Lordships Marchers the ruthless rule of the over-lords had exasperated the people ; the discontent was deep and widespread ; it was a simultaneous and concerted move- ment. Wales had previously undergone many reactions, but unquestionably this was the most important, the most comprehensive, and the most theatrical of all. Welsh students from the universities of England, Welsh labourers working in England, and Welsh soldiers who had served in France as mercenaries, flocked to the standard of Owen. The idea of Welsh independence, by no means a novel one, still had its fascination for the Welsh mind ; the pro- gramme of reform advocated by Owen could not fail to appeal to the patriotism of the people. Among the reforms were the following : That only Welsh-speaking Welshmen should be appointed to any benefice in Wales, the restora- tion of St. David's to its old position as the Metropolitan Church of Wales before it was made subject to Canterbury, the revocation of what appropriations had been made by the monasteries or English colleges of Welsh Churches, the establishment of two universities in Wales, the one in the North and the other in the South. Altogether it was a situation that offered a rare oppor- tunity to a man of real military genius. The spirit of the times was rich in the materials for a reaction on a scale more rapid and complete than any formerly known among the Welsh. Coincident with the Welsh movement, though forming no part of it, there were other disturbing influences of a similar character throughout the land. England was weakened by a spirit of treason within her own camp, and she was threatened by attacks from with- out, which were both real and imminent. Henry was beset by difficulties on all sides. The King of France was strengthening his border fortresses, and he had closed the Somme to English merchants. He claimed the right to make war on Henry whenever he pleased, notwithstanding the treaty agreeing to a truce of twenty years which had been signed on the occasion of the marriage of Richard 1 1 PROGRESS TOWARDS WELSH SELF-GOVERNMENT 247 with Isabella of France in 1396. Outside the pale the Irish were independent, and even within the pale the power of the Lord Deputy in Ireland was not supreme. Scotland was openly hostile, and Henry had to contend with the descendants of Edward III and with the partisans of Richard II. The Welsh revolt was an accomplished fact before Henry had had time to gain strength. The political situation in England had made the Welsh insur- rection a factor in European politics. But the sympathy which France, Ireland, and Scotland manifested towards Wales had no deeper source than mere hatred of England. It was not due to any affinity of character, likeness of qualities, or identity of political interests, except in so far as those interests had for their object the overthrow of Henry IV. Nowhere did the Welsh insurrection awaken wider reverberations than among the people of France, but between the French and the Welsh there was the most pronounced opposition imaginable — socially, religiously, and psychologically. There were no tears shed in France over the Welsh reverses, none in Scotland, and none in Ireland. What outside assistance Owen needed and expected, depended entirely upon political considerations over which he had no control. The Welsh had not the strength to conquer alone, and Owen was unsuccessful, partly from want of men and money, partly from the failure of his allies to render timely assistance, partly from that inscrutable fate that seems to guide the destinies of nations in certain directions, partly from the defects of his own character as man, soldier, and leader. That he failed in his purpose was a blessing to Wales itself. The misfortunes that embittered Owen's declining years were so sad that they cannot fail to enlist our sym- pathy, and could not fail to enlist our respect were it not for his own unjustifiable excesses. Owen was filled with ambition, but he was not born to rule. He was without dignity or mastery of self. He was unequal to the exi- gencies of Welsh political life, and intellectually incapable of properly guiding this great explosion of popular passion. No historian could give him a place among the distinguished T 248 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY warriors and military commanders, either of ancient or of modern times. He was not a great soldier or a great politician. The world has no interest in his military tactics, or in the sieges and battles that were fought under his command. He lost much in prestige, both in the eyes of his adherents at home and of his allies abroad, by his methods of warfare and his disinclination to openly attack the English forces when they met his. He was sagacious in the art of guerilla warfare, and as a negotiator he proved himself to be a man of skill and ability, though his negotia- tions with his foreign allies did not aid him much. His patriotism and integrity of purpose it would ill become us to ignore or to depreciate. He was a man of daring and a magnetic personality ; but if we look to Wales for a great soldier or a great administrator, Owen Glyn Dwr does not furnish an illustration. Such were Owen's misconceptions as to the rights and duties of Henry, who was compelled, on account of the Welsh insurrection, to defend the interests of the English Crown, and to maintain the politi- cal relationship between England and Wales established by Edward I, that he proposed to Benedict XIII, through King Charles VI, the outlawing of Henry of Lancaster and his adherents as heretics, and their torture in the usual form, while Owen, his heirs and his subjects of whatever nation, as long as they fought against the " said intruder," were to be granted full remission of their sins, which was to endure as long as the war between Owen and Henry continued. Owen had undertaken a task for which he was not equal, a task for the success of which he knew that Wales would have to rely upon outside help. Yet, he entered upon the conflict before definitely ascertaining the nature and ex- tent of the assistance upon which Wales might count. One may well feel for the people and the country whose interest depended on the care of a leader who impulsively acted throughout according to his own instincts of hatred, and who relied, for the continued support of his own race, upon that aversion to constituted authority which had always afflicted the Welsh mind. He sought to aggravate PROGRESS TOWARDS WELSH SELF-GOVERNMENT 249 rather than to mitigate those feelings of national hatred by which war is encouraged. The apparent cause of the failure of the insurrection was in Owen's inability to obtain timely and efficient aid from his allies abroad, but the real and ovei ruling cause was the character of Owen himself. If a leader or a ruler be judged by the services which he has rendered to his country, and by the effect of his policy upon the moral and material interests of the nation which he represents, Owen Glyn Dwr does not seem to merit the almost superstitious reverence with which his name has been traditionally regarded among the Welsh. As a political force he was reactionary rather than progressive. If the history of his reign is instructive, it is instructive in so far as it shows how much genius Owen had expended in maturing the arts of destruction. What was the final outcome of this insurrection ? There resulted not a single and united Welsh Wales, but two hostile Wales — English and Welsh. The chasm between the two classes of people was widened, and the line of racial demarcation strengthened. The divisions were extended to politics, religion, and social amenities. The Welsh regarded the English within Wales as their natural enemies. They molested and persecuted those English- men who were known to have aided the Crown in Owen's time. Menace hung over the head of every loyalist throughout the length and breadth of the land, the Welsh wreaking vengeance upon them for their loyalty. Repres- sive measures of the most arbitrary kind became a necessity for the protection of the loyalists and the security of the country. If the system of penal enactment which followed was insulting to the best feelings of Welsh- men, it has to be said that Welshmen themselves made that system a stern necessity. To say that the purpose of this legislation was to crush the spirit of Welsh nationality by legal means, is to misrepresent its object and origin. From whatever point of view we may regard the in- surrection headed by Owen Glyn Dwr, it was the worst thing that could possibly be imagined to the Welsh them- 250 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY selves. It exhausted the resources of the country, brought it to the brink of ruin, and the English conquest was for ever firmly established. The Welsh intellect relapsed into a condition of servility and inaction from which it did not recover for centuries, and Wales lay prostrate at the feet of England. The prospect of self-government was indefinitely postponed, and Wales remained for centuries a blank in the annals of Europe. The insurrection satisfied Owen's taste for adventure, and gave him ample scope to avenge his personal grievances. The cold- blooded and systematic excesses and misdeeds of the chief of the insurrection, and the wholesale devastation of which he was guilty, reduced Wales to a desert. Owen left behind him a great memory and a ruined country. It was the part of Owen, while he excelled in force, to excel also in deeds of spoliation and destruction. The price had to be paid, and it was a heavy one ; progress came to a standstill, and the solution of what was called " The Welsh question " seemed further off than ever. Such is the glamour with which this insurrection has been in- vested, that it needs an effort to realize the frightful and destructive influences it had upon the country and the people. It added a fresh source of decay to those which already existed, and traces of its ravages are still observ- able in the soul of the people. The insurrection was a brief dream which had a brutal awakening. Success, we are told, brings to light the good qualities of a people, and misfortune their failings. Thus it is that the faults of Welsh- men are so difficult to distinguish from their misfortunes. Owen left behind him a sorely-stricken nation sunk in dissolution, and palsied to the heart. Wales had used up all her strength in fighting for an unattainable ideal, so that she had none left for the task of advance and reforma- tion. The insurrection brought her no honour, and it was not worth the spilling of a single drop of Welsh blood. CHAPTER XII A WELSH INDEPENDENT PARLIAMENT After the lapse of more than five centuries, we see Wales emerging in a new and more favourable light, showing a degree of intellectual vitality and industrial enterprise that is truly remarkable, especially when regarded in the light of the historical past. Wales, as it is known to-day, is only fifty years old — at least in public discussion. She may justly pride herself on her progress towards local government ; what progress there has been is, in the main, of the pattern foreshadowed by the faithful devotion of the men of the type of Henry Richard— the first apostle of modern Welsh nationalism, and the first interpreter of the voice of Wales in the British Parliament — rather than of the pattern foreshadowed by Owen Glyn Dwr, or by any of the Welsh princes who preceded him. One of the most striking features in connection with the modern Welsh movement is the concomitant revival of that faith, or ancient Cymric dream of power, so devoutly cherished and so steadfastly affirmed throughout the vanished centuries. This is the faith that has inspired and sustained the Welsh. It is the faith that inspired the Spaniards with the belief at one time that the Cid Rodrigo was to return to restore the glories of Castile. It is the same spirit of romance that sprang up among the Brythons of yore, and which bound the Europe of the Middle Ages under its spell. There is no great literature of the Con- tinent which does not betray the influence of the Brythonic hero, Arthur, whom his people, as late as the time of 251 252 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY Henry II, expected to hear returning from the Isle of Avallon, hearty and strong, and ready to lead his country- men to victory over those whom they regarded as their foes and oppressors. So real was this expectation, that it is supposed to have counted with the English king as one of the forces with which he had to cope in order to obtain peace from the Welsh. Thus it was that the monks of Glastonbury proceeded to discover there the coffin of Arthur, his wife and his son. This they did to convince the Welsh of the unreasonableness of their reckoning on the return of Arthur, who had been dead some six hundred years. But there were Welshmen here and there who con- tinued to believe in the eventual return of Arthur ; and even in comparatively modern times a Welsh shepherd is now and then related to have chanced on a cave where Arthur and his men are sleeping in the midst of untold treasure, awaiting the signal for their sallying forth to battle. This cave is located in various spots in Wales, and also in the Eildon Hills, near Melrose, in South Scotland. Similar expectations have been connected in Ireland with the names of several of the heroes of local stories current in that country. For instance, the O'Donoghue, who is supposed to be sleeping with eyes and ears open beneath the Lakes of Killarney till called forth to right the wrongs of Erin, or the unnamed king who sleeps among his host of mighty spearmen in the stronghold of Greenan- Ely, in the highlands of Donegal, awaiting the peal of destiny to summon him and his men to fight for their country. Arthur was not the only hero of the Brythons who was expected to return from the other world. There are certain passages in the thirteenth-century manuscript of the poetry associated with the name of Taliesin that a similar expectation once attached to Cadwaladr, sometimes called the Blessed, the last king of the Brythons to contest the lordship over what is now the North of England with the Angles of Deira and Bernicia in the latter part of the seventh century. This sort of superstition still lingers in the bosom of some fervent Welshmen. In 1858, there A WELSH INDEPENDENT PARLIAMENT 253 appeared an article in Y Brython from the pen of the Rev. Benjamin Williams, a clergyman and a Welsh anti- quary. In that article he alludes to a certain Owen Lawgoch, " Owen of the Red Hand." Popular imagina- tion represented Owen as a hero who was expected to return eventually to reign over Britain. In the meantime he was supposed, by some, to be biding his time in foreign lands ; by others to be sleeping in a treasure cave, where certain intruders once on a time saw him, a man of seven feet in stature, sitting in an ancient chair, with his head resting on his left hand, while the other, the red hand, grasped a mighty sword of state, which had come down to him as an official heirloom from the ancient kings of Britain. This Owen Lawgoch was the subject of ballads sung at Welsh fairs, and Mr. Williams quotes the following couplet : — " Tr Owen hwn yw Harri'r nawfed, Sydd yn trigo 'ngwlad estronied." ("This Owen is Henry the Ninth, Who tarries in a foreign land.") Mr. Williams's statement that this " is sometimes heard sung " — (" Clywir canu weithiau") — means that he, or some of his friends, had heard it sung not long before the time of writing. The couplet above quoted forms part of a ballad entitled " Daroganau Myrddin " (" Merlin's Prognostica- tions "), which purposed to have been written about 1668, and which is even at the present day well known in South- West Wales. Now it turns out that Owen Lawgoch was a man who lived in the time, probably, of the Black Prince, whose courts appeared to have treated him as a rebel and traitor who had led a revolt of the Welsh against English rule. He had himself presumably escaped, but according to the records of a court held at Conway in the forty-fourth year of Edward the Third's reign, a certain Gruffudd Sais was condemned to be deprived of the land which he had been holding as a free tenant of the prince on the plea that Gruffudd was an adherent of Owen Lawgoch. 1 1 See the Record of Carnarvon (Record Office, 1838), p. 133; also the ntroduction .p. iii where the editor discusses the question of the identity of 254 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY No successful attempt has yet been made either to establish Owen Lawgoch's identification with Yeuain de Galles or to search his pedigree, and thus to place him satisfactorily in point of succession. That such a person as Owen Lawgoch existed there can be no doubt. The Record of Carnarvon contains an entry that in or about the forty-fourth year of Edward III (25th January, 1370 — 24th January, 1371) a person called Owen Lawgoch was a traitor and enemy to the King. Who he was and what constituted his treachery, is not stated. All we know is, that his father was a free tribesman whose hereditary lands lay in the Island of Anglesey. Froissart the French chronicler (1337-1410) was a contemporary of Owen Lawgoch ; he spent some time in England and was acquainted with English political life. Froissart in his Chronicles has much to say concerning him as a man who had distinguished himself on various critical occasions. According to his account, Owen escaped when a boy to the Court of Philip VI of France, where he was kindly treated and subsequently educated with Philip's nephews. Frois- sart says that the King of England, Edward III, had slain Owen Lawgoch's father and given his lordship and princi- pality to his own son, the Prince of Wales. Owen fought on the French side against the English in Edward's conti- nental wars. He was, according to Froissart, engaged in the battle of Poictiers in 1356 ; he fought both on land and sea, and was always entrusted by the French kings with important commands. In 1372 he was placed at the head of a flotilla with 3,000 men, and ordered to operate against the English. He made a descent on the Isle of Guernsey, and while there he was charged by the King of France to sail to Spain to invite the King of Castile to the Prince of Wales, whether it was Edward of Carnarvon, afterwards Edward II, or Edward the Black Prince, who died before his father, Edward III. Owen Lawgoch's name is also associated with Pantyllyn Cave, near Llandebie, Carmarthenshire. It is said that he and his men on one occasion took refuge in this cave, and that they were shut up inside it and starved to death. A number of human skeletons of unusual size was discovered in this cave in 1 8 1 3. Fuller particulars of this " find " may be seen in Arch. Camb., 5th Ser., vol. 38, pp. 163-7. A WELSH INDEPENDENT PARLIAMENT 255 send his fleet again to help in the attack on La Rochelle. Owen Lawgoch survived Edward III, who died in 1377, and the Black Prince, who had died shortly before. Owen Lawgoch was engaged in the siege of Mortagne sur Mer in Poitou when he was assassinated by one Lamb in the year 1378. Lamb having ingratiated himself into Owen's confidence, had been taken into his service. Lamb pretended to be in possession of news from Wales to the effect that the people were longing to see Owen back to be lord and master of his country. Owen was buried at the Church of Saint- Leger, while Lamb returned to the English to receive his reward. The following entry is to be found upon the Issue Roll of the Exchequer for Michaelmas, 2 Ric. II [ed. F. Devon] : " 4 Dec. [1378]. To John Lamb, an esquire from Scotland, because he lately killed Owynn de Gales, a rebel and enemy of the King in France, on his passage to England to ex- plain certain affairs to the Lord King and his Council. In money paid to his own hands, in discharge of £20 which the Lord King commanded to be paid to him. By writ of privy seal, etc., £20." It is interesting to note, as Sir John Rhys has observed, that Owen Lawgoch's namesake — Owen Glyn Dwr — was nearly thirty years of age when this happened. Glyn Dwr was destined to assert Owen Lawgoch's claims in another form. It is clear that the memory of Owen Lawgoch in France partly explains the sympathy that was so readily extended to Owen Glyn Dwr. At any rate, it made it much easier for him to enter on friendly relations with the French Court of his day. The writer of Chronique de Saint- Denys, in describing the arrival, thirty years later, of the appeal of Owen Glyn Dwr for French assistance, states that Owen backed up his appeal by recalling the services to the throne of France of Yeuain de Galles, " to whom he had succeeded by right of inheritance." 1 It is the same kind of faith that caused so many Welsh- ' For further useful facts and interest ing suggestions, see " Owen Lawgoch — Yeuain De Galles," by Edward Owen, in the Transactions of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion, 1899-icpoand 1900-1901. 256 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY men and Welshwomen in certain parts of Wales, especially in the mining and rural districts of South Wales, to embrace with so much ardour the teaching of the Mormon mission- aries about the middle of the nineteenth century. There was a very large exodus from Wales to Salt Lake City. The doctrine of the imminent approach of the end of the world, and the coming of Christ in the flesh to reign with His saints in a temporal kingdom in the West, had a peculiar fascination for the Welsh mind. It belonged to an order of ideas which had long been familiar among the Brythons. Fear, apprehension, superstition, and faith in the unseen and unknown, are peculiarly Welsh attributes. The sense •of wonder has played a great role in the history of Wales. Nowhere was the uneasiness created by the Crimean War, and by the appearance somewhat later of Donati's Comet, more vivid than among the Welsh. Such occurrences were commonly connected with the events set forth in the sixteenth chapter of the Book of Revelation, including among them the stealthy coming of Christ, and the gathering together of mighty hosts to Armageddon. A great change has since come over the Welsh mind. It does not give the same credence to the stories and legends of the past. It is more practical and material in its ten- dencies. Yet, coincident with the renaissance of Wales, we witness the revival of that ancient dream of power and glory with the thought of which the descriptive and didac- tic poetry of the earlier ages has been so deeply tinged. The loyalty of Wales to Mr. Lloyd George is to be under- stood partly because the people have had a feeling that, through his extraordinary Welsh gifts, he may help them to grasp this power the echo of which has resounded throughout the centuries. It explains the modern self- assertiveness of the Welsh, and their somewhat osten- tatious display of racial power and possibilities. But while this thought of the glory and power which the Welsh of to-day think are within their grasp consoles and strengthens their pride of race, they do not seem to have any very distinct or distinctive idea as to what constitutes this power or glory. When considered in the light of the A WELSH INDEPENDENT PARLIAMENT 257 notion of independence, I find that it is not in the old Cymric or Glyndwrian sense, or even in the modern Irish sense. In so far as the masses of the people are con- cerned, an unbridgeable chasm separates them from the period of their independent historical existence. Inde- pendence or semi-independence as a definite political programme does not appeal to their sympathies. Inspired by the example of Ireland, Wales is urged to follow out her evolution to the end, by demanding an Independent Parliament. Wales, it is argued, cannot, without a Parliament, be a nation, and she cannot be a nation for some purposes and not for all, even if nation- hood involves for her difficulties and sacrifices. She cannot demand a national voice on the Church question, or accept the gift of a separate Insurance Commission or a Welsh Department of Education, or claim a separate Board of Agriculture, without carrying the principle to its logical conclusion, by demanding a separate Parliament for Wales, with a separate Executive, which will be respon- sible, and responsible to the people of Wales only. " The advanced democratic sentiment of the Welsh people," we are further told, " must not be subordinated " to what they are pleased to call " the more conservative tendencies of the Anglo-Saxon population of England." But, as I have already intimated, purely English senti- ment is being ruthlessly subordinated at present to the more democratic tendencies of the Celtic population in Wales, Scotland, and Ireland. In this struggle for nation- hood, or for the political rights of nationhood, one wonders what has become of the pride, the patriotism, and the nation- hood of the English — a people famous for their liberal principles and their sound practical sense. Politically speaking, England has been the most hospitable of nations. She has been generous in her treatment of men of other races, and she has given protection to the victims of political oppression from every land and clime. What has become of the voice of England — the England that three times encountered powers which aspired to the mastery of the world, and three times overthrew them ? Yet, this 258 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY England is, to-day, practically disfranchized, even on questions that apply solely to herself. She has had to submit to the arbitrarily imposed will of the smaller nationalities. Her interests have been overlooked in order to give precedence to the more clamant, though divergent, interests of the Celtic nationalities. If there were an insistent demand for a Welsh Parlia- ment, with an independent Executive, backed by the weight of a great volume of public opinion, British states- men, even if unconvinced of the wisdom of such a policy, would be obliged to give it serious consideration, especially in view of the prevailing spirit of warm sympathy with the aspirations of the smaller nationalities. Of such a demand, however, there is little positive evidence in so far as the masses of the people of Wales are concerned, or in so far as the bulk of the Welsh-speaking population of Wales is concerned. The negative evidence is all the other way. Welshmen as a whole, and Englishmen in Wales as a whole, are either indifferent or are attached to the present system. By the present system, I mean the policy of granting gradually and judiciously to Wales the apparatus or the machinery of self-government in all purely local affairs, such as education, agriculture, religion, and general administration. Such a policy, fortified by a wider appreciation on the part of Wales of those larger duties and larger privileges which we sum up as Imperial, and a less narrowly parochial spirit, is all that is needed for the full and proper development of Welsh nationality. The idea of an Independent Pailiament in Wales, with all its concomitant financial obligations, to be met and discharged by Welsh taxpayers, together with a fixed annual contribution towards Imperial expenditure, has not been considered by the body of the Welsh people or of the population of Wales, or even by the Welsh Par- liamentary representatives. It exists among the bulk of them as a mere idea. They have no concrete system in their mind ; and without any intention of being disre- spectful, I would say that with four exceptions the Welsh Parliamentary Members are incapable of conceiving or A WELSH INDEPENDENT PARLIAMENT 259 formulating such a complicated scheme. In this regard they are not to be placed in the same category as the Irish Members. To thrust an Independent Parliament upon the people of Wales as a matter of Imperial political exigency, without giving them the opportunity to consider and to comprehend it, would be doing them an injustice. To force a subordinate Parliament upon a people in order to be democratically and theoretically consistent, is not statesmanship. There are many, and among them the most responsible and successful business men, who sincerely question whether Wales is large enough and financially strong enough to bear the cost that a separate Parliament and a separate Civil Service would involve. Those who desire an Independent Parliament on purely Welsh grounds forget that the purely Welsh population is de- clining rapidly, and that the purely English, or alien popu- lation, is progressing at a very rapid pace, especially in Glamorgan, where more than half of the population of Wales is to be found. Those who have the heaviest com- mercial stake in the country do not desire it, and do not believe in its practicability. Indeed, many of the most patriotic and intelligent Welshmen strenuously oppose it on the ground that they fear it would throttle the Welsh language by ignoring it as a language of administration, etc. They predict, and with reason, that the great majority constituting its membership would be anti- Welsh, or simply English. Those who know Wales and the Welsh will not scorn the difficulties involved in the question of location. Among the characteristics of the modern, as of the ancient, Welsh people is their peculiar distrust of one another, and the spirit of unfriendly jealousy that exists, not only between Welshmen having similar aims and ambitions in life, but between different towns and districts in the Principality. Hence their constant liability to get out of the current of great movements and on to the arid sands of local contro- versy. If the idea of a Welsh Independent Parliament (and it still languishes in the condition of mere idea) ever comes to fruition, the question of location, involving, as it 260 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY necessarily must, the question of a capital for Wales, will in itself be sufficient to wreck any Welsh Home Rule scheme. It would receive far graver consideration and create far keener interest than the all-important question of the financial position of Wales, or the question as to whether Wales is large enough and its economic and poli- tical requirements wide and diversified enough, to justify the experiment of a separate Government and a separate Civil Service. That the intense bitterness created by the location of the National Library at Aberystwyth was more real than vocal is evidenced by the efforts that are still being made by those who think it ought to be at Cardiff to deprecate its national value. The hostility was renewed when it was decided to locate the offices of the Welsh National Memorial at Newtown ; subsequently this deci- sion was cancelled. One thing is certain, Cardiff cannot lay hold of the affections of the Welsh people, from an historical standpoint. Cardiff resents the reluctance of rural Wales to accord to her all the rights of a capital, including the location of all Welsh institutions. On the one hand the rights of autonomy are claimed on the ground that Wales is a nation ; on the other it is claimed that Wales cannot be a nation without a capital or a parliament, and not until Welshmen come to think on parallel lines, especially in regard to national objects. It is admitted that Wales has never possessed a capital in the same sense as England or Scotland, and that Wales has never been a nation as England and Scotland are nations. " Let us have a capital," they say, " and be on a par with other nations." Their idea is that a capital is the prime factor which forms the basis of the constitution of a nation, and that the capital should be accessible to the majority of the population, and situated in Cardiff. If situated elsewhere it would not be a capital, and therefore Wales would not be a nation. Such is their conception of the elements that constitute nationhood. This question of the location of a capital is not merely a sentimental one ; it is intensely practical. Wales, geographically as well as racially, is divided against itself. A WELSH INDEPENDENT PARLIAMENT 261 One suggestion for reconciling the inhabitants of Wales to the fixing of the centre of government at Cardiff is, that the representation of the more remote parts should be arranged, not on the strict basis of population, but on a plan which would give those parts a majority over the representatives of Glamorgan and Monmouth. Another suggestion is, that of peripatetic assemblies, as are all the religious assemblies in Wales. Both suggestions are im- possible. It cannot be claimed that Cardiff is a metropolis in the sense of being a mother-city. As being a great com- mercial centre Cardiff has its advantages ; but commercial advantages are not essentially relevant to the question of a capital for Wales. The question is, whether Wales will decide to create a capital as was done in the United States and Canada, and as is to be done in Australia, or accept Cardiff purely on the ground of its commercial eminence ? Most of the meetings connected with Welsh affairs have been held at Shrewsbury, because it is the most accessible to every part of Wales; and if Shrewsbury were selected, it would be a convenient capital, and would not create the lasting bitterness that would issue if Cardiff or any other town in Wales were selected. Wales, indeed, shows great promise in many directions. Her output in trade, in education, and in domestic litera- ture, has won for her the most generous recognition ; but the chaos of her political conditions is deplorable. The country is split up into numerous parties, cliques, and office seekers. Between the industrial and agricultural sections, the socialistic and the middle class, there is really no sympathy. There is a strong national sentiment, but it has not yet been able to vanquish denominational antagonisms. The historical suspicion, even hostility, between North and South prevents the population from growing up into a complete and united body. So stands Wales to-day, full of sustained strength, yet torn by in- ternal dissensions ; animated by a high intellectual ambition, yet threatened on all sides by dangers, and compressed into narrow, unnatural limits. Filled with high aspirations in her nationality, in her intellectual 262 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY development, and in her growing trade and industries, Wales is yet rent asunder by personal and sectional vin- dictiveness. For centuries this Welsh aboriginal instinct has been eating into and diminishing the capital resources of the nation. Intellectual collision emanating from knowledge and enlightenment, resulting in the melting down or adjustment of opinion in the examination and analysis of facts, is a sign of political health, and a condi- tion of progress. But strife, division, and bitterness, emanating from non-consenting intellects, which cannot stand the ordeal of criticism, opposition, and discipline, result in the decomposition of public affairs, and are fatal to any community, however high and long-established may be its religious credit and reputation. There are reasons for fearing that the aggressive self- assertiveness which Welsh development has undoubtedly tended to foster, is leading to discord and friction ; and worse : instead of cultivating that finer political harmony which comes with assured strength, it multiplies the ele- ments of attrition. The alluring vista opened up by the rapid economic development of the Principality is turning the heads of some Welshmen, and the new-developed will to possess political power is being permitted to oust from the minds of Welshmen the aspiration for culture, and to thrust the ideal of a psychological emancipation — the greatest need of Wales — into a secondary place. The disposition of the Welsh intellect is to-day, as it always has been, towards extremes, and its idea of national unity still remains in a chaotic and primitive stage. Historically speaking, it is impossible to name an epoch in Welsh life that was not darkened, or to specify a move- ment that was not thwarted in its progress, by this chronic vice of internal disunion. There has been no lack of patriotism ; but side by side with the most passionate patriotism there was the most ungovernable tendency towards family feuds and racial discord, feuds which degenerated into what one would almost characterize as a religious profession. Herein lies the secret of the political failure of the Cymric race in the past. So deep-rooted is A WELSH INDEPENDENT PARLIAMENT 263 this vice of internal disunion, that nothing seems to be able to eradicate it. To underrate its significance, or to con- sider that it is unpatriotic or disloyal to speak of it, is fatal to true progress. A candid and impartial study of the political forces that have operated in the past history of the Welsh, the manner in which these forces were applied and directed, and the grievous political disasters that followed, is a study worthy the attentions of every Welsh- man who loves his country and his race. Welsh profes- sional politicians have apparently forgotten the fact that Wales once had independence ; yet, it failed through sheer lack of political capacity and the want of administrative efficiency. It is not correct to say that the Welsh have never had the opportunity of really testing their political aptitude. The ancient Welsh kingdoms disappeared because the political principles upon which they were founded had not the dignity of growth or of permanence. There was no security because there was no stability. The Welsh people spent or wasted their whole life in asserting their right to personal liberty and to a freer government ; but what measure of autonomy they obtained — and they did obtain a very large measure of autonomy — they failed to retain. Self-government is not in itself a solution of all social and political difficulties ; it is not an end in itself. To invest a small and a comparatively poor nation, how- ever excellent its convivial and moral qualities — a nation that has only recently emerged from obscurity, and that still feels the restraints of ancient traditions — with a full measure of autonomy, would be to give them, not political liberty, but political vagabondism. It is interesting to note the various attempts that have been made to invest this political idea of an Independent Parliament with power over the Welsh. It has been tried by speculative ingenuity, by appealing to the racial pride of the people, by the Irish analogy, by the remembrance of past wrong, by emphasizing the evils of Imperialism and of Cosmopolitanism, and by recalling the ancient dream of Owen Glyn Dwr. It is regarded as a good omen that the idea of two universities in Wales, which Glyn u 264 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY Dwr projected, in his letter of March 31st, 1406, addressed from Pennal to Charles VI of France, has been more than fulfilled. It is taken to presage the concurrent fulfilment of Glyn Dwr's dream of an independent Wales. The exalted and, in some respects, overrated reputation of Wales for religiosity, is being used in defence of a certain separatist and predatory policy, and to foster an exclusive nationalism, as if the Welsh were fixedly divergent — religiously — not only from the " kindred Celtic people," but from the rest of mankind. This is the deduction which is being made by the superficial sociology which finds favour among a certain class of Welshmen. Englishmen and Scotsmen have had it perpetually dinned into their ears that the Welsh are a people set apart from the rest of the world, a people composed of a clearly and perman- ently sundered type or species of humankind, divided essentially in nature and character, a character of their own which is their destiny, determining of what sort of civilization, or progress or achievements, they are capable. This shallow sophism appeals to the lighter intelligence among the Welsh, and it has bred a type of pharisaic patriotism which has assumed offensive proportions. It is being made to render service to the lust for political power which so largely dominates the idea of an Inde- pendent Parliament in Wales. It is being utilized in the interests of a certain combative separatist political policy, and in order to invest the movement with a certain moral and intellectual authority. Thus it is that the Welsh are represented as needing a Government of their own, partly because they have a religious genius of their own, and a destiny of their own, involving an economic problem of their own, which can only be developed, or perfected, through a Parliament of their own. This is not only an excessive and an improper use of a people's religious culture and reputation, but it overlooks the very important fact that the science of government calls for the possession and the exercise of an entirely different set of mental qualities. In urging the idea of an Independent Parliament for A WELSH INDEPENDENT PARLIAMENT 265 Wales, at Bala, on September 18th, 1890, the late Mr. Thomas E. Ellis said : " It will be the symbol and cementer of our unity as a nation, our instrument in working out our social ideals and industrial welfare, the pledge of our heritage in the British Empire, the deliverer of our message and example to humanity, the rallying point of our nationality and fulfiller of our hopes as a people." Ellis misunderstood the " hopes " of the Welsh people. They did not want an Independent Legislature ; his message, therefore, fell on an irresponsive nation. Ellis made another mistake : he misinterpreted the very character of his own nation. Susceptible as the Welsh have been to patriotic appeals, they are not the sort of people to revolutionize their political traditions, even at the bidding of a man so greatly beloved as himself. At heart the Welshman is a traditionalist. The important fact is, that Welsh Home Rule has never been taken seriously by the bulk of the Welsh people, and so long as there is a wise administrative adaptation on the part of the British Parliament to the local peculiar needs and reasonable aspirations of the people, there will be no demand on the part of the masses for a Welsh Independent Parliament, and, what is equally significant, no necessity for it. An attempt is being made to explain away the indiffer- ence of the people of Wales to the idea of an Independent Parliament, by attributing it to the alleged habit of the Welsh to " underrate their own abilities." This surely will be a piece of intelligence to those across the border, and to those who know something of the spirit of the Welsh Press. It is a Welsh axiom that the Cymric race has been endowed with a light which Providence has withheld from other and less and even more gifted races. Welsh literature, both prose and poetic, is saturated with this vainglorious sentiment ; the political events of the last few years have vastly intensified it. Welsh life to-day is animated by a spirit of the most exalted egoism. What- ever the average modern Welshman may be remarkable for, he is not remarkable for his meekness, or for his 266 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY want of confidence in himself and in the greatness of his nation. " The recognition of the right of the Irish people to govern themselves makes it incumbent upon the Welsh people speedily to decide as to how far, and in what manner, they intend to participate in that larger scheme of devolution which has been foreshadowed by the Prime Minister, and which both domestic and Imperial interests are bringing daily more into the field of practical politics. In how far does Wales desire Home Rule ? This is a very important question, and one on which there is consider- able diversity of views among Welshmen themselves. It is a question to which a decided answer, yea or nay, will shortly have to be given, and to which, therefore, those who take a real interest in the future development, or indeed even in the maintenance, of Welsh nationality, must address themselves . . . Yet, there are many who seem very shy of the bolder and bigger demand — namely, that for a Welsh Parliament and a Welsh Government for Wales. Fears are expressed as to the financial position of Wales under such an arrangement, when she would be no longer attached to the English Treasury. ... I some- times think that, like many gifted races, the Welsh under- estimate their own ability, and suffer from a certain lack of confidence, due to a critical temperament, which is not uncommon among intelligent people ; and that they show a tendency to exaggerate the importance of small matters, and to make mountains out of molehills." 1 It is no discredit to Sir Alfred Mond that he is an alien in Wales, and that racially he has no affinity with the Welsh people. He has evinced the deepest interest in the social welfare of that section of the community which he represents. There is one thing, however, that he makes clear, viz., that the Welsh mind is not, as yet, made up on the question of Welsh self-government. The fatal defect in the argument or the plea which he advances is, that it is based on the assumption that national polity depends upon the people's will. National polity, like language, evolves itself by a 1 Sir Alfred Monu, in Wales for August, 1912. A WELSH INDEPENDENT PARLIAMENT 267 process of gradual growth. A nation derives its ideas, instincts, will, and capacity for government, as it derives its temperament — by inheritance, and by a process of historic development. Those who have carefully studied the history of legislation with the history of opinion, in all civilized communities, know that when laws are passed, or political institutions are established, either contrary to the public will, or before the public will has matured sufficiently, or when they do not grow naturally out of the express will of the people, they can only succeed temporarily. No great organic change, no great political innovation, can be of lasting benefit until it is preceded by a change in public feeling and sentiment. " No reform," says Buckle, " can produce real good unless it is the work of public opinion, and unless the people themselves take the initiative." On the question of an Independent Parliament in Wales the body of the Welsh people are either indifferent or sceptical as to the wisdom of it, or hostile on the ground that the needs and resources of the country do not warrant it. The idea does not stir them as a matter of freedom, it does not appeal to them as a matter of necessity, it does not inspire them as a national reprisal. The idea is not the centre of the nation's energy ; it is not a part of the nation's energy ; it is not within the field of the self- conscious purpose of the nation. Nowhere does one find that spirit of expectancy, that sacrificial attitude, so characteristic of all great movements. The Welsh do not take Welsh Home Rule any more seriously than Welsh Home Rule takes them. " I am certain," wrote Gladstone to Panizzi on June 21st, 1851, " that the Italian habit of preaching unity and nationality in preference to showing grievances, produces a revulsion here, for if there are two things on earth that John Bull hates, they are an abstract proposition and the Pope." This purely abstract idea of an Independent Parliament in Wales has not obsessed the general Welsh mind. There does not exist that sense of grievance which has invested the idea of Irish Home Rule with that power which no modern British Govern- 268 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY ment, whether Conservative or Liberal, has been able to ignore entirely. There is not the material for such a sense of grievance, for the very obvious reason that there are no national grievances. What grievances exist can be and are being slowly adjusted by a wise adaptation of Imperial jurisdiction to local necessities. Thus it is that there are many in Wales who may wish well to the larger idea, and it would not be difficult to get resolutions passed in its favour by local political associations ; but very few there are among the masses who would exert themselves to get it, and fewer still who would sacrifice anything for its attainment. The cause of her national individuality — her liberty of soul — is a vital question to Wales ; but an Independent Parliament is not vital to her individuality ; it is not vital to her rights or to her freedom, or to her integrity, or to her democracy, or to her development, or to a reconcilia- tion with England, or to her status among the smaller nations. What direction Welsh evolution will take, or where her development will end, is not a phenomenon of European interest ; it is not a phenomenon of domestic interest in the same sense as is the development of Ireland or Scotland. An Independent Parliament for Wales, we are told, is a vital question " Imperially," for so great has become the congestion of business at Westminster that Wales must be given the risk of a measure of freedom and administration for which no reasonable man can claim that she has had any training or preparation. It is also, we are assured, vital to the progress and culmination of the national idea, which has received from the general Celtic movement such a vigorous and fruitful afflatus. The tendency, we are told, is towards the alchemy of autonomy, towards raising the status of the smaller nations, and increasing their opportunities for self-culture and self- government. The true equity which comes with an ideal democracy must be that which gives to each component part not only equal rights and privileges, but an equitable opportunity for promoting their own political develop- ment. No central Government can have sympathy with, A WELSH INDEPENDENT PARLIAMENT 269 or wise administrative adaptation to, the local peculiarities of the nation. Wales ought on these grounds to be given an Independent Parliament. Even assuming that the economic needs of Wales are not wide enough, or that Wales is not strong enough financially to maintain an Independent Parliament, or that there is a serious lack of the creative and administrative capacity among the general body of the Welsh Members of Parliament and among Welshmen generally, it is only right that the Welsh should have their own Parliament, especially as a Parliament is about to be granted to the Irish. Thus run the arguments of those who have assumed the role of political directors of the Welsh, and who are en- deavouring to invest the idea of Welsh autonomy with authority in the eyes of Britishers. We know that there have appeared from time to time thinking and prophetic spirits who have been able to anticipate the course of future events. Such men have provided religions, philo- sophies, and systems of thought, by which important and even epoch-making movements have eventually been brought about. But Wales was never poorer than she is to-day in men of the prophetic type, or in men of inde- pendent thinking. In no department of Welsh thought and life is independence of thought encouraged, or even permitted, unless the price of ostracism be paid. Welsh journalism and English journalism in Wales is party and sectarian journalism. Unskilled in calm and fruitful discussion, it revels in petty jealousies and recriminations, always ignoring disagreeable facts. There is not a single Welsh periodical in Wales, not a single English newspaper printed in Wales, that tries to inform public opinion in Wales ; every sheet is modelled on the opinion of its readers. There is no evidence of real talent in any of the editorials, except it be in the abuse of politics. Every political question inevitably takes on an aspect which is either sectarian or partisan. For a Welshman to think independently is to betray. Party men are envious of every movement distinct from their own, and they claim a monopoly of patriotism. They form a syndicate, a kind 270 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY of mutual admiration society, whose narrow and spurious orthodoxy must be accepted. Their motto is to wreck what they cannot rule, or what they have not the genius to originate. Thus it is that public opinion in Wales is so lacking in initiative, and is still in a semi-self-conscious condition ; and thus it is that Wales has no great leaders, and that dictatorship is still possible. Under the surface of public agitation and the skin-deep excitement there is a dead weight of apathy and fatalism. The verdict that history will pass upon Mr. Lloyd George up to the present will be, that he, with his great abilities and his once great control over the Welsh people, neglected to educate them in the progress of independent thought and high political morals ; that he permitted the nation, of whose loyalty to himself he boasted, to nourish itself on an ex- cessive optimism and self-admiration which paralyzed its better judgment ; that he paraded its " glories " before the world, and exaggerated its virtues in the eyes of the English, but never once had the courage to instruct the Welsh people in their deformities ; that he exercised at one time an enchantment over them which, for the highest purposes, long lay as heavy as lead and as cold as death upon the soul of the people. Mr. Lloyd George has won his fame outside the Welsh ambit. He long ago released himself from his oath of special allegiance to the special cause of Wales ; he has, as it was inevitable, devoted his great talents to the larger life of a British statesman upon which he embarked a few years after he entered Parliament, and for which he is so emi- nently qualified. Apart from this distinguished man, and two or three other Welsh Parliamentarians — notably Sir David Brynmor Jones, a man of real scholarship, true judicial insight and administrative capacity — Wales is in a bad state. Among the rank and file Wales has not a single administrator or magistrate of real talent and breadth of view, or a man of national dimensions. Plenti- ful enough are the cliques, rings, classes, and self-consti- tuted spokesmen, who " corner " offices and salaries, and politicians who voice only their own ambitions, and who A WELSH INDEPENDENT PARLIAMENT 27I presume authority never vested in them, and for which authority their ability, education, and experience do not entitle them. They urge upon an idealistic people plans for costly buildings, and they recklessly multiply schools of the same type that overlap and destroy each other, utterly regardless of the resources of the nation and in a spirit of the most irresponsible arrogance. They have a patriotic Welshman, they boast, at the head of the Treasury, and Welshmen should make hay while the sun shines. Even if Wales had as leaders men of the prophetic type, men highly trained politically, the teaching of history is, that the results of such systems — religious, political, and philosophic — depend largely upon the mental conditions, education, experience, and aspirations of the people among whom they are propounded. No system that is too much in advance of a nation can be of permanent service to that nation. Moreover, while a particular system may be sound theoretically, and suitable to, or required by, the exigencies of one portion of the kingdom, it may be both unnecessary and unworkable in a different set of circum- stances, or among a different class of people. There is plenty of political feeling in Wales ; but the critical spirit and the gift of political statesmanship are still in a back- ward state, due not to the temporary effect of a retard- ation in the social development of the country, but to lack of training and experience. Democratic local government in Wales is a thing of very recent origin ; the people are only just beginning to be trained in the conduct of local affairs, and by local affairs I do not mean the management, or mismanagement, of churches and chapels, mission rooms, clubs, and friendly societies. Wales is only beginning to face the problems of modern society ; her practical sense has never yet been really tested in the work of civic administration ; and among no modem people is a strong centralized government more of a necessity. On October 6th, 1913, a meeting was held, at Car- marthen, in favour of Home Rule for Wales. A Baptist 272 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY minister, in supporting Welsh Home Rule, delivered a very trenchant criticism of local government as it is carried on at present in Wales. He stated that he believed in Home Rule, and that Wales would not come to her own until she had the right to manage her own affairs. What he feared was, that Home Rule might be upon them before they were ready for it. For some time now he had been making inquiries into local government in Wales, into the way that Acts of Parliament were being administered by the County Councils, Borough Councils, and Parish Councils. And as far as his observations went — from the point of view of nationalism and of Home Rule — local government in Wales was in a bad way. Let them take, for instance, the administration of the Small Holdings Act. Here was an Act passed by a Liberal Government in response to a Liberal demand. What had become of that hope in hundreds of cases ? The administration of the Small Holdings Act by some of the Liberal and Radical County Councils of Wales was a farce and a scandal. When he thought of the way these people had been treating the demands of some poor labourers and cottagers, he felt ashamed of being a Welshman and a Liberal. Again, they might instance the Housing Act. Their shocking housing conditions were notorious. People were allowed to live like pigs in this land abounding in its churches and chapels, in its " Nazareths " and " Galilees " and " Beth- esdas." And what were their councils doing ? Not a stroke more than they could help. The Welsh local council, as a rule, did not begin to move until it heard the crack of the whip of Mr. John Burns and the Local Government Board. England was made fit for political power by the long exercise of civil rights. Let Welshmen in general first of all sharpen their intellects and prepare themselves for politi al life by that preliminary discipline which a contest with the difficulties of civic life can never fail to impart, instead of using what measure of local government they have as a weapon for further demands, and before they have perfected the institutions that are already in exist- A WELSH INDEPENDENT PARLIAMENT 273 ence. One of the traditiona 1 * ^aknesses of the Welsh is to ask for things and to be dissat A ded when they have had them. The idea of a University for Wales was vigorously championed among Welshmen, but there are not a few who question its organization, professors, curricula, output, and its religious or non-religious influence upon the oncoming generation. Many of those who demanded Welsh Inter- mediate Schools have lived to denounce them. The same thing is true of Welsh County Councils, the Central Welsh Board, the National Library, the Welsh Department of the Board of Education, and other institutions. Either be- cause they are not located in certain districts, or because of the increase in rates or lack of funds, or because their usefulness is questioned, the general interest in them is undoubtedly lost. Let Welshmen devote less time to the cultivation of the imaginative faculty in the direction of the ideal, and more time to the cultivation of the practical ; let them think less of what institutions they have not, and make better use of what institutions they have. In- deed, there is so much that is superficial and unreal in the talk about Welsh Home Rule, that British statesmen and Britishers generally would do well to be, as Wellington once said, a " little hard of hearing." At bottom there is a dead weight of apathy and indifference. Generally speaking, the people have to bring pressure to bear upon their representatives, and to convince states- men in charge of public affairs, that what they demand is just, reasonable, and necessary. But in the case of Welsh Home Rule, Welsh Parliamentary representatives have yet to undertake the task of bringing the masses of the Welsh people to their way of thinking. Their work is not at Westminster, but in the Principality itself, and until there is a direct spontaneous movement among the great body of the people, and until evidence is forthcoming that they have studied the problem and grasped what is involved in the larger idea, and have been properly trained poli- tically, British statesmen cannot be expected to pay any serious heed to their representations. Between the present system and a definite grant of national autonomy 274 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY there are various degrees and shades of administrative decentralization possible. In the case of Wales, having regard to her lack of political experience, her inability to complete present schemes owing to her impecunious con- dition, and the smallness of her population, all that is necessary and desirable could be accomplished by the creation of a Welsh Department of State like the Scottish Department, in charge of a Cabinet Minister, similar in status to the Secretary for Scotland ; he to have charge of all the functions of government in respect of which devolution is practicable. Welsh Parliamentary represen- tatives and public men in Wales generally should approach the consideration of the question of self-government for Wales with that skill, dignity, and statesmanship peculiar to men to whom such subjects are familiar. THE ETHICS OF CONTROVERSY The function of the St. David's Day celebrations, we have been told, is to call a truce to the controversies among Welshmen and to bring them back to the recognition of the fundamental facts of their national unity. It would be interesting to know what these fundamentals are, if only for the reason that the Bishop of St. David's, and those who are of his way of thinking, regard the memory of St. David in a very different light from what it is regarded by Welsh nationalists ; to the former it is essentially religious, to the latter it is chiefly secular. Churchmen regard the memory of their patron saint as an encouragement to continue in their resistance to the proposal to disestablish and disendow the Church in Wales. This accounts for the fact that the " convivial " celebrations this year were less representative and less national in character than in former years. There could be nothing more interesting, from a purely psychological point of view, than an intelligent treatise on the history of controversies in Wales. There have been all sorts of controversies — doctrinal, religious, and political ; and they have been conducted with as much ferocity as the civil controversies in France. Theological — and of late years political — questions have had an attraction for the Welsh mind, such as, for instance, the relation between the death of Christ and the forgiveness of sin, whether Christ had two wills or one, the Socinian interpretation of the Godhead, 'md kindred subjects. Such discussions have stimulated in an extraordinary degree the argumentative faculties of the people. As to how far they have developed what may be termed " the piety of the intellect " is another matter. With regard to the quality of the arguments, it may be said that if they were absurd, they were subtle, each disputant claiming for himself the exclusive title to orthodoxy and »75 276 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY the exclusive credit of having upheld the "crown honours of Christ." This partiality for theological or religious questions has been interpreted by some as indicating a higher order of intellectuality, and as denoting a finer sensitiveness to the claims of revealed truth, than is ordinarily found among civilized races. This estimate errs, however, on the side of generosity. Sensitive the Welsh are, and highly sensitive to the purely emotive element in religion. Looking into the inner history of these controversies, it may be said that if they show anything , they show what excellent propagandists the Welsh are, and how imperfectly the element of religious fervour in the Welsh nature has been tempered by a judicial fairness of mind and catholicity of outlook. The controversies of former times are not so widely known as the political controversies of the present, but they still echo, and the memory of them still lingers, in the minds of many. Since the advent of Dissent, Wales has always been agitated more or less by disturbing and virulent questions of orthodoxy, church government, and minor religious regu- lations. Scarcely a generation has passed since the " No Popery " cry was a popular cry with Dissent. Roman Catholic priests were spoken of as the " Sirens of Satan," those who resorted to the confessional or who sought the benefit of absolution were supposed to be living under the " impending wrath of God." Socinians came within the category of " blasphemers," and disbelievers in verbal inspiration were regarded as "atheists." The controversies over adult baptism were bitter and prolonged. One sect gave birth to another, all the sects speaking in terms of excommunication of each other. The question of discipline also occupied a prominent place, members being expelled for the violation of rules which the stoutest Calvin of to-day would be loth to defend and afraid to enforce, each member being supposed to accept as final and authoritative the inter- pretation and construction which the minister and his deacons placed upon the great and intricate problem of human conduct and divine truth. For the present, there is a truce among the sectaries. However much they may still THE ETHICS OF CONTROVERSY 277 differ among themselves, they have confederated on the assumption that the dethronement of the Established Church is an aspiration common to them all. This unity is, however, political rather than religious. Among no class of people more than among the Welsh has politics developed at the expense of religion ; such criticism may be applied generally, but it seems to be specially applicable to what has been termed " The Celtic fringe." The facility with which the Welsh intellect has carried into politics the fervour, and even the intolerance, which it formerly manifested in the sphere of religion is one of the most striking features in the evolution of modern Wales. It might be advanced as an argument against the traditional assumption that the Welsh are lacking in assimilative qualities. The Welsh type does certainly benefit by trans- plantation ; the more of the world the Welshman sees and the more he knows of other races, their mode of thought, their achievements, and their way of doing things, the more tolerant he becomes and the more liberal his education. It is also curious to note how the Welsh have intertwined politics with controversies, not only with regard to the Church, as a State Church, but over the doctrine, discipline, liturgy, organization, and administration of the Church. The appeal for support which is being made to the evangelical party in the Church, and to those Churchmen who advocate reform, is both flattering and seductive. It affords an insight into the aptitude of the Welsh mind in the region of political diplomacy. The evangelical party is assured that Dis- establishment will enable them to put a check on the " Rome- ward drift " which they so bitterly lament and with which they are at present unable to cope. It is sought to detach the party of reform on the plea that once Disestablishment becomes a law of the land, bishops will no longer be able to force presentees on reluctant parishes, for the reason that power will be invested in the laity. To the reformers they say, " If you support us, you will be in a position to dictate to your clergy as to what they should preach ; and if they do not please you, or gratify your wishes, you can tell them to come down. You will be able to interrogate them 278 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY as to their orthodoxy, and if their views are not in accord with your own, or if they are not amenable to caution or to discipline, you can resort to those subtle and refined methods of persecution in the exercise of which we have shown such proficiency ; or if you prefer more open methods, you can dismiss them. It is a democratic system and works well among us Nonconformists. The days of the squire-parson are over ; they are out of date. With us preaching is every- thing, and worship next to nothing. In brief, Disestablish- ment will raise the Anglican Church to the dignity of a Free Church. This is our ideal, and it ought to appeal to those of you who are animated by the same democratic instincts as ourselves." But the question of reform within the Church is a matter that concerns Churchmen themselves. The need of reform in the Nonconformist system is equally obvious and urgent. The Rev. Puleston Jones, M.A., of Pwllheli, a well-known Calvinistic Methodist minister, referred recently to the number of Welsh Calvinistic Methodist ministers who had seceded and had entered the Anglican Church because Nonconformity did not give them security of tenure. He was ashamed, he said, to think of the host of Methodist preachers who were candidates for every salaried public post that became vacant. The sad fact is, that a great number of the Welsh Nonconformist ministers have degenerated into mere politicians and office seekers. It ill becomes them to speak as they do of " the flutter in the dove-cotes of the Church at the prospect of losing the loaves and fishes," or of " the mockery of episcopal selection," which, they say, " is little short of blasphemy." Is this the means whereby they are going to synthesize into harmony the many discordant notes which disgrace the public life of the Welsh community ? No wonder that the desire for purely devotional services is dying out in Nonconformist circles. The greatest deterrents are the sermons that take the form of incoherent harangues on the topics of the hour. They cannot understand the degree of vitality and pros- perity which the Church is able to show at this critical time in her history ; and because they cannot understand THE ETHICS OF CONTROVERSY 279 it, they dispute it. But they forget their obligations to the truth, and to their own self-respect. That the Church is receiving but a very imperfect measure of justice at the hands of her critics and oppressors, is obvious. They are, seemingly, incapable of discerning the purpose, the activity, and the spiritual character which are behind her temporal appendages. What makes them incapable of a fairer estimate of her spiritual value ? Surely it cannot be their aversion to spiritual things. Is it, then, their proneness to propagate rather than to test the beliefs which they have inherited ? Is it their temperamental inability to enter into the spirit of a system not their own ? Is it because of the belief which they seem to entertain that the older the tradition or the institution the less valuable it is ? Clearly, sectarian admiration for an institution seems to be in proportion to the lateness of its origin. It cannot be disputed that the type of sectarian intoler- ance which is fast developing itself in Welsh national circles is not a good thing either for religion or for the stability of the community. The Church seems to have astounded the liberationists with her enormous power of resistance, but her resistance proves her right to endure. If she did not resist, she would be unworthy of her tradi- tion. It has been made abundantly clear that whether Disestablishment be right or wrong, good or evil, it is not going to bring about that era of peace and goodwill in Wales which has been used as an argument in favour of the measure. " From the elements of this crisis," they say, " they are going to build up a united Wales." It is difficult to argue with idealists, for the reason that it is difficult to get them to face concrete facts. " Patriot- ism," we were told, "is an ennobling force, so far from setting people by the ears, it brings them together." Surely no impartial observer could claim that Welsh patriotism, as it operates in the region of sectarian politics, is bringing people together in Wales. It is setting people by the ears as no other movement has done since the last religious revival. We then witnessed the same 280 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY stream of intolerant thought and abuse of others who took an opposite view. Those who did not go off into fantastic experiences and strange nervous developments were regarded as not having received the mystic disclosure of Christ in the soul. Hollow spirits poured out such streams of prayer and exhortation and confession as to make one's hair stand on end. Leading ministers, who had lost their balance, urged the people to hear the revivalist, to look at him, and to idolize him ; they were so anxious to prolong the movement that they endeavoured to run every meeting in the same mould, instead of allowing the meetings to develop according to the providence which prevailed in the place and at the time. Notwithstanding the good that was accomplished through the revival, it will take many years to heal the divisions, the disruptions, and the bitterness caused through the wilder spirits of those times. No wonder that Ferrari preferred devils to saints in the interest of the community. " I declare," said Henry Ward Beecher, " that through long periods the characteristic actions of the organized external churches of the Lord Jesus Christ have better befitted the administrations of devils than of men." " I believe," he said at another time, " that, much as has been the joy that has been made in this world, more has been the misery that has been made by men who represented religion and called the Church the Church of God. The tears have been ocean deep, and the anguish has been heaven high ; and no historian's pen can ever compass that story of divine anguish." This controversy over Disestablishment, like the con- troversy over the Welsh revival, shows how even good men are turned into what Lord Acton once called " prodi- gies of ferocity " ; hearts have been hardened and con- sciences corrupted. Men otherwise amiable, including ministers of religion, professors and principals in Noncon- formist theological colleges, resort to invectives of the most offensive kind. They openly and falsely charge the Welsh bishops with " initiating and engineering ' the Nonconformist protest against the disendowment clauses of the Church Bill, and that in the face of the most THE ETHICS OF CONTROVERSY 28l positive evidence to the contrary. The petitions have been described as "scandalous," and those Nonconformists — including Liberals and Conservatives in politics — who have signed have been described as " mean and con- temptible." Parliament, it is contended, ought to put a stop to such proceedings, on the alleged ground that they interfere with the liberty of the subject ; it oppresses the poor and the helpless, they say, as if none but the poor had signed. In fact, the men who constitute the committees and who organize the petitions, especially in South Wales, are men of position and influence in the com- munity. One Welsh Member of Parliament described the petition " as the last throw of the ruined gambler." It is painful to find such Liberalism qualified by such illiberal sentiments. We have here one of the innumerable ex- amples which history affords of the operations of that accursed spirit which, when heated by sectarian strife, and which, when it has been invested with sufficient power, persecutes even to death those who dare to differ from it. This is the spirit that tampers with the most sacred principles, and which wounds and insults the tenderest feelings of the heart. From such protagonists it is idle to expect any of those maxims of urbanity and of moderation, to say nothing of charity, to which bigots are always strangers. Is this the policy by which Wales is going to be made a homogeneous nation ? On the contrary, it will only perpetuate the feud, wake up malig- nant passions, and drag out whatever there is venomous in human nature. Such language is unpardonable, and it is scarcely explicable, except on the ground of vindictiveness. It is a relief to be able to observe that all the Welsh Members of Parliament are not termagants. There are softer and milder spirits among them, though their convictions are equally strong and ardent. There are several of whom no constituency and no nation need be ashamed. While they have steadfastly adhered to their own principles and to the cause which they deem to be a just one, they have never lost sight of what is due to 282 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY their own manhood, as well as to the ethics of controversy. When this conflict is over, they will have the satisfaction of knowing that, while they did their duty, they never resorted to the coarse maxims of a vulgar and selfish utility. It should also be observed that the body of Welsh Nonconformist ministers in Wales ought not to be judged by the language and the actions of the most bigoted and turbulent among them. It cannot be claimed that Welsh Nonconformist ministers, in the mass, are endowed with anything beyond the ordinary form of intellectual force, but they are reasonable men whose j oy and pride are in their work. We may go further and say that present-day Nonconformity may justly boast of a score or more of supremely gifted men : in their grip of divine truth, their penetration into the genuine simplicity of Christ's gospel, their gift of utterance and power of appeal, they are com- parable to the very best that England or Scotland can produce. It is, however, worthy of note that the men to whom I am referring are almost without exception non- political men; politics do not absorb their time. Con- spicuous they are not in the sense that the political preachers are, and for the reason that they do not attract the attention of the press by defaming the Welsh bishops and the Welsh clergy, or by foolishly threatening the Welsh Parliamentary Members with imaginary penalties if they do not do as they are told. Yet, these gifted and unobtrusive men, who concentrate their mind on their proper work, are, in so far as Nonconformity is concerned, the leaders of the spiritual and intellectual life of Wales. Controversy reveals and affects the character of a nation. So long as politicians and political leader-writers have human nature in them, they cannot be expected to avoid the temper of party ; but controversy does demand good faith, tolerance, and respect for the convictions of others ; it demands knowledge of the truths and the principles that underlie opposite opinion, and scrupulous- ness in referring to matters which have been but im- perfectly studied and mastered. The ethics of controversy THE ETHICS OF CONTROVERSY 283 demand that no controversialist should make statements that reflect on the sincerity and integrity of an opponent, or which can be construed to the detriment of their personal honour. When the leaders of the people indulge in unworthy language, it is natural to suppose that the rank and file should catch the contagion of their spirit. In so far as the Established Church is concerned, there are two facts that she has to face, namely, that no State Church can long subsist in modern society which professes the religion of the minority, and that the progress of Dissent and democracy in Parliament places the Church under the dominion of a majority. On the other hand, Welsh sectarian politicians must not forget the fact that in growing nations, parties, whether religious or political, with their majorities and minorities, cannot always remain in the same proportion, as the signal advance of the Church in Wales during recent years demonstrates. It is a noteworthy fact that while it has been shown to be difficult to secure a strong or an enthusiastic gathering of Conservatives for purely political purposes in the various parishes in Wales, all the meetings connected with Church defence have been largely attended and characterized by the greatest determination and enthusiasm. The extreme exaggeration of a principle in one generation is apt to force men into the opposite extreme in another generation. Tolerance of another opinion is requisite for freedom, otherwise there is no security for the liberties of either the individual or of religion. There is nothing improper in putting to the test the claim that Welsh Nonconformists are unanimous with regard to the Welsh Church Bill. It was claimed for the Parliament Act that it would give the electors time for reflection, and an opportunity to express their assent or disapproval. Is it not a principle of democracy that every interest is to have the right and the means of protecting itself ? Opinion is not necessarily right because it is held by the majority. Liberty and freedom seem to bear different senses in different generations and among different classes of people, and among the same classes at 284 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY different periods in their history. When parties are in a minority they complain of oppression, and when in a majority they become oppressors — a sad comment on human nature. Personal liberty in these days seems to be nothing, and popular liberty everything. What some men in these times seem to mean by liberty is the power to persecute those who have incurred their displeasure, to vilify them and to crush them, to prevent people to read or to hear or to be educated in anything that may be contrary or hostile to the opinions, whether religious or political, which they hold or the profession which they fellow. Hence the movement among some Welsh Nonconformists to exclude Renan's Life of Christ from the libraries in Wales, and the violent outburst against those Nonconformists who do not believe in Disendowment. " What effect," one prominent Nonconformist deacon asked lately, " will this have on our Nonconformist Churches ? It can have but one effect, and that is to aggravate the difficulties already experienced to find that which is needful to promote religion in our land, and it is this aspect of the question I earnestly appeal to my Nonconformist friends to consider." What impropriety is there in getting those who volun- tarily protest through the press, and thousands of other Nonconformists who agree with them, to sign a protest to that effect ? It is, we are told, nothing but a repetition of the old Tory tactics of 1868. What is the difference between the abuse of privilege and the abuse of power. The only difference between the old landed gentry in Wales and these violent Nonconformist politicians is, that the landlords of old, like most of the landlords of the present, were more courteous, more gallant in their manners, and more benevolent to the poor. If the con- tributions that have been made from time to time by the Conservative landlords and gentry in Wales towards the building of chapels, the reducing of debts, and other necessities, could be computed, it would be a revelation to many. Such contributions have been included in the voluntary offerings and constitute a considerable portion of the funds which have been entirely credited to what is called the " Nonconformist Voluntary System." THE ETHICS OF CONTROVERSY 285 Welsh Nonconformist extremists say that they cannot be expected to be indifferent to the furtherance of the cause which they champion. " To what extent," they ask, " are we expected to carry out the spirit of tolera- tion ? " There is only one answer : they are expected to carry it to the limit of courtesy and good manners, which they are failing to do. They are expected to permit those who differ from them to criticize and, if possible, to defeat measures which they consider to be detrimental to their own interests. " Toleration," said Mr. Balfour once, " is one of the most valuable empirical maxims of modern times." Rigid lines of demarcation will always separate men in this world. To have too many opinions is as bad as to have too few ; indifference is the defect of tolerance, persecution the excess. The civilization of every com- munity is to be tested by the degree of fairness and security permitted to minorities. Lord Acton said, " It is bad to be oppressed by minorities, but worse to be oppressed by majorities." While the majority is absolute, and especi- ally if it be selfish and unscrupulous and bound by no other code than its own judgment of temporary expediency, there is no redress, except revolution or civil war. Heraclitus complained that the masses were deaf to the truth, and that a thousand counted more in their eyes than one good man. Demagogues, and even modern statesmen, reflect the vagaries and the follies of the masses both in their ideals and in their manners of con- ducting public discussions. The masses are becoming arbitrary, and their arbitrariness is reflected in the speeches of those who share, or who adopt, their sentiments ; the masses are becoming regardless of rights that have been legitimately established, and politicians who desire power accommodate themselves to their ideas and sentiments. So compliments are exchanged for the sake of a vote. In spite of education the masses are, apparently, incapable of being moved by unmixed truths. Having no wisdom, they get from their leaders, or those who seek their suffrage, what they are looking for — exaggeration, misrepresentation of facts, speeches with a touch of 286 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY vulgarity, and false principles which correspond with the aspirations of the crowd. One sometimes reads on the placard of some daily papers, "A great speech by Mr. Lloyd George," but when one peruses the speech, there is not a single element of greatness in it. The whole thing is made up of nothing but verbiage, sophistry, and personal abuse of opponents. This seems to be the " psychological climate " in the world of politics in these progressive days. Politicians contend that they can't help themselves ; they regard it as one of the necessary evils of public life and the only way in which the democracy can be conciliated ; so they sacrifice what is proper to what is politic. Dan- gerous indeed is the extent to which the theory of the sovereignty of the collective will has been carried during late years. Politicians, and some who desire to be desig- nated as statesmen, are fast degenerating into mere ser- vants and sycophants. The word has gone forth that the only way to get and to retain power is to shout with the largest mob. This is the New Orthodoxy in British politics. CHRONOLOGY It is a peculiarity of Welsh history that many of the records are more or less fabulous, and that there are many traditional dates which cannot be verified. There are narratives for the support of which there is no direct or credible evidence, and periods extending over many centuries concerning which the information is very scanty. From the death of Cadwaladr, about 664, which marked the breaking up of the old Cymric kingdom, to the acces- sion of Rhodri Mawr in 844, the entries are brief and obscure. There are in the Brut only about two hundred entries between 664 and 1066. Apart from the incidental light thrown upon the period by the Brut and the Laws of Howel Dda (Howel the Good) and the Liber Landa- vensis, which is also called the Book of Teilo (Teilo is one of the principal traditional saints of Wales), there is nothing in Welsh literature upon which the student may reasonably rely, or rely with any certainty, for information regarding the structure of Welsh society and the economic and political conditions which prevailed in Wales during this period ; it partly accounts for the difficulties that stand in the way of the historian of Wales. These diffi- culties have been increased by the fact that Welshmen have, in a large measure, left to others the spadework of inquiry into Welsh origins and history. Some of the historians and researchers who have worked most patiently in order to get at the facts of Welsh history are not Welshmen, but Englishmen and professors in English universities. To compile a history of England to-day, if no more had been done in that direction during the past three hundred years than has been done in the case of 287 288 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY the history of Wales, would be an almost impossible task. When regarded in this light the Welsh national colleges have been a great disappointment, for the reason that they have contributed comparatively little to this depart- ment of science ; the output of Welsh scholarship towards the historic record of Wales is among the most discouraging features of the Welsh system of higher education. The study of history in a scientific sense is still, among the Welsh, in its infancy. Similar criticism may be applied to the Welsh method of reading, classifying, and inter- preting the facts of history. It is also to be regretted that Welsh history, especially the modern side of it, is so im- bued with politics and with the spirit of sectarian partisan- ship ; hence it is that Cymric history still remains in a highly chaotic state, and that notwithstanding the attempts that have been made of late years by a few educated and enlightened Welshmen to contribute to the volume of Welsh history productions characterized by a scrupulous regard for accuracy. There appeared recently a work by a certain Welsh author purporting to be a history of the Welsh from a new standpoint, based upon Welsh genealogies. It was claimed that Welsh history was founded on false theories and false inferences ; that it was wrong on the main lines upon which it had been developed ; the whole fabric of Welsh history, we were told, had been entirely overthrown. We were assured by a few impulsive and idealistic Welsh- men that such productions as The Welsh People, by Sir John Rhys and Sir David Brynmor Jones, had now been rendered obsolete. Another instalment of the same work, and built upon the same theory, has been promised ; but, judging from the first volume, the second is likely to accomplish nothing beyond adding to the mystery and uncertainty which must always be attached to the early history and development of the Cymric race. The History of Wales from the Earliest Times to the Edwardian Conquest, by Professor J. E. Lloyd, of Bangor, which was published in 191 1, affords a striking and wel- come example of the modern historic spirit ; it will in all CHRONOLOGY 289 probability rank as a standard work for the period which it covers. Strange, however, as it may seem, an ex-chair- man of the Welsh Parliamentary Party who has been raised to the Peerage is reported to have said since, very recently, at a lecture delivered by a Welsh Member of Parliament, " that, unfortunately, they (the Welsh) had not a decent history of Wales yet, and he would be glad if the lecturer to whom he had just listened, and of whom he was fond, would undertake the work." It is a Welsh characteristic to ask for histories and institutions and to be dissatisfied when they get them. Such pious expressions as the one referred to have no particular savour or promise, for the reason that those who indulge in glowing perorations about " the superiority of the Welsh over other races," and who, in the amplitude of their rhetorical form, speak of the Welsh system of education as the ' queen of all systems," and of Welsh history as the " most romantic in the world," are not the men to write history. It is possible to make too much, as it is possible to make too little, of one's own race, and there are signs that the more educated and reasonable Welshmen are becoming tired with the recurrence of these fervid and ever unex- hausted platitudes. " We find Welshmen everywhere," said one of them lately, " excepting in gaols, workhouses, and penitentiaries; or, if they were found there, it was through being corrupted by contact with other peoples." Speaking on " The Reformation in Wales," one of the fraternity described, in very lurid colours, how " Catholic Wales was shocked at the tremendous cataclysm pro- duced in Wales by the Reformation," as if there was no evidence to show that the new faith did find considerable acceptance in Wales and among the Welsh. The same person is reported to have stated in public on two occa- sions that " Bishop Ferrar, of St. David's, who was burned to death at Carmarthen, was the only Protestant martyr during the Marian persecution." A perusal of this table will show the reader how grossly misleading such a statement is. As I mention elsewhere, statements have also been made on the floor of the House of Commons 29O THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY to the effect that Wales owes nothing to Englishmen, nothing to Parliament, and nothing to Anglicanism. The average Welsh politician of the present hour has so much rhetoric to spend that accuracy to him is a matter of very trifling importance. Temporary excitement is what he chiefly stiives after, and he gauges his success by the effect he is able to produce, not on the judgment, but on the feelings of others ; whether this or that date in history — this or that fact — is wrong, does not matter so long as it serves to aid the exigencies of polemics. With a few notable exceptions, it may be stated that this disregard for historical accuracy is a common evil among Welsh politi- cians ; it is due partly to want of knowledge, partly to sectarian prejudices, partly to defective education, and partly to excessive emotionalism. In vain do we peruse the speeches of the great majority of them for a critical, enlightened, and constructive contribution to the dis- cussion of historical events, or to the political problems of the hour ; with ringing phrases and vehement exclama- tions made in the kindling excitement of their thoughts, they rouse unreflective and ignorant audiences into a whirlwind of passion. It is a sad reflection that just with such men popular success is possible. Ideas strike them suddenly, and they are unable to react against their feelings. Once they are obsessed, they give way to all sorts of weird fancies and strange prejudices. On no question have they shown greater disregard of the obligations of conscience in history than on this question. Fresh evidence comes to light each day to prove how untrue is their contention that the Nonconformists of Wales are unanimous with regard to the justice of the disendow- ment clauses. Equally erroneous and unhistorical is the claim which has been made, and which has been repeated in almost every book and on every platform by Welsh nationalist historians, viz., that the beginning of the modern develop- ment of Wales dates from the rise of Nonconformity. Previous to its advent, partisan historians tell us, Wales was in the shadow of darkness, there was no freedom of CHRONOLOGY 29I mind, no passion for knowledge, no patriotism, no civiliza- tion, and no real intellectual progress ; such, we are further informed, was the withering effect of the old ecclesiastical system, and such was the determination of ecclesiastical authorities to crush the Welsh language, to check the aspirations of the common people, and to keep the Welsh in subjection. This digression is to make clear how general and persistent is the tendency among Welsh politicians and a certain class of Welsh writers to make general de- ductions without a rational basis, how it affects the origin and growth of popular views and opinions, and how it colours the tone and temper of the national intellect. It is when we come to the matter-of-fact side of the Welsh genius that we are confronted with its comparative im- practicability ; those who know most of this side of Welsh life and history will best understand that it is not a congenial soil for accuracy. What security is there that the laws of any country shall be just or advantageous to the community as a whole when they are founded on false facts? A nation, or a majority in a nation, is liable to err when guided by leaders who are blinded by extreme partisanship, and who lack that scrupulous regard for historical truth which is the founda- tion of character and which is the test of every good government and of every wise legislation. No law is valid which contravenes the conscience of history ; there is a higher sanction than the sanction of the collective will of a given majority to which legislators and civil authorities should be subjected. A perusal of this table will show the relevance and propriety of the foregoing observations. It possesses more than a mere historical interest for the guidance and convenience of students and writers; it gives an insight into the forces that have operated in the devel- opment of the literary, political, and religious life of Wales. It will also serve the purpose of reference. Recognized authorities differ so often with regard to certain dates and events, that popular writers are liable to adopt one date without knowing of the existence of another, or to adopt 292 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY the date or dates fixed by one historian in preference to those of another historian without being able to give any valid reason for his preference. In those cases where a difference exists, and when there is no available data to enable the student, or writer, to decide for himself which of the dates is the correct one, alternative dates are given. The term " probably " is used when there is no definite information procurable to aid the historian in fixing the precise period or date when a certain event happened, or when a certain person lived or died. About 420. The beginning of the development of monachism in Britain. About the sixth century, after the departure of the Romans. The beginning of the history of the Cymry, as Welsh, when considered as a separate and independent people. Probably 516. Birth of Gildas ; probable date of death, 570. Probably 546. Death of Dubricius of Llandaff, The Annates Cambrics and The Book of Llandaff give the year 612. According to The 5S4. Death of Daniel, of Bangor. / Annales Cambria, they were the founders of the four extant Welsh bishoprics. 58S or 589. Death of David of Menevia. The Annales Cambrics gives the year 601. Probably 603. Sunday, 13th January. Death of Kentigern of St. Asaph. The Annales Cam- brics gives the year 612. 577. The Battle of Deorham, when the West Saxons permanently severed the Celts west of the Severn from their kinsmen in the country consisting now of Cornwall, Somerset, Devon and Gloucester. 596. The founding of the See of Canterbury by Augustine. Probably 616. The Battle of Chester, when the Cymry of Wales were cut off from their northern allies, with the result that they were enclosed by Teutonic kingdoms within that part of the West of the island which is now called Wales. Probably 664. Death of Cadwaladr, which marks the breaking up of the old Cymric kingdom. 679. The Historia Britonum, which introduced a new departure in monas- tic writing; it was elaborated about the year 826 by Nennius, who lived in South-East Wales. 844. Accession of Rhodri Mawr ; date of death, 877. Probably 907. Succession of Howel Dda (Howel the Good) to the kingdom of South Wales and Powys. CHRONOLOGY 293 About Lent, 943. First convention convened by Howel Dda at the Ty- Gwyn-ar-D3f (White House), Whitland, when Welsh laws and customs were codified and set down in writing for the first time. 950. Death of Howel Dda (Howel the Good). 1039-63. Extent of the reign of Gruffudd ap Llywelyn ap Seisyllt. Between 1066 and the beginning of the fourteenth century. Wales gradually divided into parishes for ecclesiastical purposes. How or when done is uncertain, but not by Act of Parliament, as is commonly supposed. 1077. Return of Rhys ap Tewdwr from Brittany to claim the sceptre of South Wales. 10S0. Return of Gruffudd ap Cynan from Ireland to claim the sceptre of North Wales. 108 1. Visit of William the Conqueror to Wales at the head of an armed force in order to impress the chieftains of South Wales with a sense of his power. His expedition marked a stage in the conquest of South Wales ; it was also closely associated with the foundation of Cardiff Castle. 1094. General revolt among the Welsh, led by Cadwgan, to shake off the Norman yoke ; though temporarily successful, the revolt failed through the inconstancy of the Welsh chieftains. 1 1 15, 19th Sept. Bernard made Bishop of St. David's ; during his episco- pacy (n 1 5-47) we have the first evidence of the existence of such functionaries as archdeacons and rural deans, one being Daniel (Archdeacon of Powys), son of Sulien, who was Bernard's rival for the bishop's chair of St. David's. Daniel died 1124. The other was Ievan of Llanbadarn, who died 1136. The exact date of the creation of such offices cannot be ascertained. In the Dimetiaa Code, one Blegywryd is mentioned as an Archdeacon of LlandafT ( Ancient Laws of Wales, i, 342, 343), but he is only called arch- deacon in this one passage ; in every other instance he appears as a layman. 1 128. The coming of the Cistercians to England. 1 129. The founding of the Cistercian Abbey of Neath. Between 1 133 and 1 150. Completion of The Book of Llaniaff. The materials for this book were collected by Urban, who was made Bishop of LlandafT on nth August, 1 107 ; he died 1 133. According to some authorities, the present form of the book is due to Urban ; according to others, Geoffrey of Monmouth, after 1 140, weaved the materials (old charters) into a connected history. About 1 146. Birth of Giraldus Cambrensis. Probably 1 147. Death of Caradog of Llancarvan ; date of birth unknown- He collected the acts and successions of the British princes after Cadwaladr down to about the middle of the twelfth century; it was written in Latin. 1 1 54 or 1 1 55. Death of Geoffrey of Monmouth. 294 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY 1 1 75. Resignation of the See of St. Asaph by Godfrey to Richard, Arch- bishop of Canterbury, at a Council held at Westminster, which denotes the completion of the control of the See of Canterbury over the Welsh bishoprics. 1175. Certain canons made at a council at Westminster by Richard' Archbishop of Canterbury, prohibiting the custom of marriage among the Welsh clergy. Probably last quarter of twelfth century. The Black Book of Carmarthen, the oldest Welsh manuscript in existence, believed to have been written at the Benedictine Priory of Carmarthen. 1 179. Decree of Lateran Council making it obligatory on the part of a bishop to maintain a man whom he might ordain in the absence of a title or proof of visible means of livelihood. 1 188. Archbishop Baldwin's pilgrimage in Wales, partly to preach the Crusade, and partly to secure formal recognition of his archi- episcopal authority over the Principality. 1 1 94 to 1240. Extent of the reign of Llywelyn the Great, or Llywelyn ab Iorwerth — the ablest of all the Cymric princes. 1212. Pope Innocent absolved the Welsh princes from their oaths to King John, and removed the interdict from Wales. 1 2 16. Assembly convened at Aberdovey by Llywelyn the Great, for the formal partitioning of the Welsh districts in South Wales, and to consider the question of an alliance with Philip Augustus of France, which resulted in the issue of a letter by Llywelyn declaring the alliance. 1238. Llywelyn the Great convened a meeting of his Welsh vassals at Strata Florida, at which they swore fealty to his son Dafydd as the successor to his principality. 1240, nth April. Death of Llywelyn the Great, in the Cistercian Monas- tery at Aberconway. 1267, 25th September. Treaty of Montgomery concluded, by the terms of which Edward I granted the Principality to Llywelyn and his heirs on condition of his doing homage and paying an indemnity. Llywelyn did not honourably observe the terms of the treaty, to the detriment of his cause and the descendants of his house. 1277, 7th November. Treaty of Conway, which reduced Llywelyn the "last" prince to the position of a petty baron; it resulted in the ruin of the house of Gwynedd. 1280, October. Thomas Bek consecrated Bishop of St. David's ; he founded the two collegiate churches of Abergwili and Llanddewi- brefi, respectively in 1283 and 1287. 1 28 1 or 1282. Edward I appointed commissioners to visit North Wales and to make a return of the laws, customs and legal proceedings of the Principality. The ordinance of Rhuddlan was based on the reports of this commission. 1282, 11th December. Death of Llywelyn ap GrufTudd, the "last" Prince of Wales, when the Principality ceased to exist as an independent or semi-independent state. CHRONOLOGY 295 1284, Sunday, Mid-Lent. The Statute of Wales proclaimed at Rhuddlan on the sole authority of Edward I ; this statute marks the end of the purely Welsh period. 1284. Visitation of the Welsh dioceses by John Peckham, Archbishop of Canterbury, when all Wales passed under the rule of Canterbury. Probably 1320-80. Dafydd ap Gwilym. There is no definite date, but he is considered to have flourished in all probability towards the latter half of the fourteenth century. The fact that thtre is no mention of Owen Glyn Dwr's revolt in the body of Dafydd ap Gwilym's poetry goes to show that he did not live to witness that revolt. He may be regarded as a Welsh troubadour whose lyric muse was devoted to singing what the French called L'amour courtois. For this reason the monks and the clergy of the Middle Ages became his sworn foes, which was not wholly to their discredit. 1322, 18th April. Writ issued to Edmund, Earl of Arundel, Justiciar of Wales, commanding him to select twenty-four persons from North Wales and twenty-four from South Wales to attend the Parlia- ment summoned to meet at York, 2nd May, 1322, which was complied with. 1326, 14th December. Meeting of Parliament at Westminster, and by pro- rogation on 7th January, 1327, to which members were returned for the counties of Anglesey, Carnarvon, and Merioneth, and the boroughs of Beaumaris, Carnarvon, and Conway. No members for Wales were afterwards summoned to Parliament until 1535, a period of two hundred and eight years. 1328. Henry de Gower became Bishop of St. David's; "he founded the beautiful episcopal palace of St. David's." 1378. The assassination of Owen Lawgoch by John Lamb, an esquire from Scotland, while Owen was engaged in besieging Mortagne-sur-Mer in Poitou. Lamb received the sum of £20 by way of reward in accordance with the order of the English King and by writ of privy seal, etc. 1400. Beginning of the insurrectian eventually associated with the name of Owen Glyn Dwr. 1404. Owen Glyn Dwr summoned a parliament to meet at Dolgelley. 1404. Owen summoned another parliament at Machynlleth. 1404, 4th July. Formal treaty signed and sealed by Griffith Yonge and the French Ambassador in Paris on behalf of Owen Glyn Dwr and Charles VI of France against Henry IV. 1405, 12th January. Treaty with France ratified by Owen Glyn Dwr at his " Castle of Llanpadarn." 1405. Owen Glyn Dwr summoned a parliament at Harlech. 1406. Owen Glyn Dwr sent another commission to France early in the year, with the result that he became united with Charles VI in spiritual as well as in temporal matters. Owen and his Council, with the consent of the nobles of his race and the "prelates of the Princi- pality," decided to recognize Benedict XIII, the Avignon Pope, as 296 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY their spiritual lord. By this compact the beneficed clergy in Wales were to be confirmed in their livings and only those persons who were loyal to Owen were to be appointed to the vacancies. 1406, 28th February. Signing and sealing of the treaty between Owen Glyn Dwr, the Earl of Northumberland, and Edmund Mortimer at the home of David Daron, Dean of Bangor, at Aberdaron, in Lleyn, North Wales. 1408, 21st May. Owen Glyn Dwr sent two more envoys to France asking for assistance. 1409. The surrender of Harlech Castle in the spring of the year. Edmund Mortimer dying, probably, in the summer of the same year. 1413. Late in this year Owen Glyn Dwr, being in despair, sent his last envoys to Charles VI of France appealing for his assistance against the English. 141 5, 5th July. Sir Gilbert Talbot commissioned by Henry V to treat with Owen with a view to his submission. 1416, 24th February. Henry V's mission to Owen renewed through Owen's son, Meredydd ab Owen (See Welsh Records in Paris, xxxix). Close of Owen Glyn Dwr's career. The traditional date is 141 5; but if Henry V's mission to Owen was renewed on the date above men- tioned, as it seems to have been the case, the year 1415 cannot be accepted. On the other hand, Arch. Camb., vol. 9 (1863), p. 170, contains a letter by W. W. E. W[ynne], Peniarth, quoting a note in Hengwrt MS., 133, giving 141 5. (See Historical Manuscripts Commission Reports, vol. ii, part iii, p. 83 1 .) H47- J ohn Delabere made Bishop of St. David's. During his tenure of office (1447-60) a petition was presented by his clergy asking to be allowed to retain their wives, which request was granted. The Welsh clergy remained alone among the clergy of Europe as the defenders of the absolute right of the clergy to marry, and that in spite of all attempts from 1 1 15 to 1530 to force celibacy upon them. 1485, August. Battle of Bosworth. 1523. Date of the Eisteddfod at Caerwys, which was held by virtue of a commission issued by Henry VIII. 1527-68. Humphrey Lhuyd, who translated the entries made by Caradog of Llancarvan into English. The MS. of his translation of Caradog's translation is to be found in the British Museum. 1 535-43- Tenure of office of Rowland Lee, during what Green calls the " English Terror," under Thomas Cromwell. His administration has been characterized as cruel and arbitrary, but it was justified both by its results and the political conditions of the period. It was Lee's administration that made it possible and comparatively easy for Henry VIII by his statutes to unite Wales and the Marches to England. 1535. The incorporation of Wales with England. 1539. Final dissolution of the monasteries, which proved a grievous loss both to learning and to religion. CHRONOLOGY 297 1 541. The burning of Thomas Capper, an English Protestant martyr, at Cardiff, after 130 days' confinement in Cardiff prison, whether for denying Transubstantiation or the Royal Supremacy does not appear. There is no reference to Thomas Capper in the index of martyrs in Fox's Acts and Monuments. But in Hobson Matthews's Records of the County Borough of Cardiff, vol. i, p. 225, under Ministers' Accounts for the year 1542-3, there is the following reference to Capper : " Out of which there is allowed to them 4s. 4d., for costs and expenses sustained in burning Thomas Capper, who was attainted of heresy at Cardiff, as is set out in the bill of particulars on this Account shewn and remaining. And to the same 6s. iod. for the diet of the said Thomas, being in prison there by the space of 130 days at the rate of id. a day." 1542. Christ College removed from Abergwili to Brecon; apparently it was at this time that it was first called " Christ College." 1546. Publication of the first book in the Welsh language, which was edited by Sir John Price, of Brecon. 1555. The burning of Rawlins White, another English Protestant martyr in the middle of High Street, Cardiff, for " heresy." 1555, 30th March. Bishop Ferrar, of St. David's, burnt at Carmarthen. 1555. The burning of Oliver Richardine, at Haverfordwest, for " heresy." Act passed authorizing the translation of the Bible and the Divine Service into the Welsh language. First Welsh version of the Prayer Book, the joint work of William Salesbury and Bishop Richard Davies. The first Welsh grammar, printed in Milan, by Dr. Griffith Roberts, a Welsh Catholic priest. The founding of Jesus College, Oxford, by Dr. Hugh Price, a native of Brecon. 1563 1567 1567 1571 .587 John Penry began his campaign for reforming the Established Church in Wales. 1588. Publication of Bishop Morgan's Bible. 1593, 29th May. Execution of John Penry at St. Thomas-a- Watering. 1621. Laud's accession to the bishopric of St. David's. 1630. First popular edition of the Welsh Bible, purchasable for five shillings, issued at the cost of Sir Thomas Middleton and Rowland Heylin, two London Welshmen and Churchmen ; it was edited by Robert Llwyd, Vicar of Chirk. 1632. Publication of a Welsh Dictionary by Dr. John Davies, Rector of Mallwyd, containing ten thousand words cither purely Welsh or words nationalized by the use of centuries. This work, together with the 1630 Bible, greatly aided in restoring the purity and prevalence of the Welsh language. 1633. Formation of the first " unmixed Baptist " congregation in Wales in the Olchon Valley, its minister being Howel Vaughan. This was probably the firtt Welsh congregation that separated in church Y 2 298 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY worship and discipline from the Church of England. (See His- tory of the Baptists, 1778, by Joshua Thomas.) 1639. Formation of the first free-communion congregation at Llanfaches, Monmouthshire, by William Wroth, with the aid of Henry Jessey, a London Nonconformist minister. Wroth had been preferred Rector of the Established Church at Llanfaches in 161 1. 1649, 22nd February. Act for the "Propagation and Preaching of the Gospel in Wales." 165 1. Petition of the six counties for South Wales and the county of Mon- mouth presented to Parliament, containing charges against the Cromwellian Commissioners for embezzling the profits of the livings, and other crimes. 1662. " Act of Uniformity." There is no authority for the common belief in Wales that the reading of the Book of Sports on Sundays was a sine qua non of the retention of benefices. The Book of Sports formed no part of the Act of Uniformity. 1674. Voluntary society formed by Thomas Gouge, an English clergyman, and subsequently taken up and continued by the S.P.C.K. 1689. Passing of the " Toleration Act," and origin of the " Free Churches." 1704. Formation of the fund since known as Queen Anne's Bounty. 1713-90. Rowland of Llangeitho. 1714-73. Howel Harris. Harris, like Rowland, remained a Church- man all his life. Neither of them formally seceded from the Church, though Harris founded what ultimately became known as the first Methodist Association. When in 175 1 Harris established his institute at Trevecka, the gallery in the parish Church was reserved for his use, and the Holy Communion was administered to him and his followers every month by the vicar of the parish in whose Church they worshipped, and on his grave was inscribed : " Howel Harries, Esquire, ... a faithful member of the Church of England." 171 8. The first Welsh book printed in Wales, at Trefhedyn, now called Adpar, near Newcastle Emlyn, at the press established in the same year by Isaac Carter, one piece being, Can ar Fesur Triban, another Can Senn iw hen Feistr Tobacco. 1730. The founding of the Welsh Circulating Schools by the Rev. Griffith Jones, of Llanddowror. 173 1. The Latin language ceased to be the language of official and judicial records in England. The submerging of the Latin by the English language was the means of saving the Welsh language from ex- tinction ; it had gradually been giving way to Latin, as is clearly indicated by the number of Latin words in the Welsh language. 1737. Formation of the first Calvinistic Methodist Society by Howel Harris. 1746. Act of Parliament for including " Wales " in England. 1767-70. Publication of Peter Williams's Commentary. 1787. Origin of Welsh Sunday Schools in the modern form by the Rev. Thomas Charles of Bala through his circulating schools. It should, CHRONOLOGY 299 however, be noted that there were Sunday Schools at Cardiff in 1786, and that Morgan John Rhys of Hengoed, a Baptist minister, had started Welsh Sunday Schools and night schools under the auspices of the London Society in the year 1785, eleven years before Charles appealed for aid to the London Society in 1796. Mr. Charles's schools were devoted to the reading and exposition of Scripture, those of Morgan John Rhys were catechetical schools. 1788. Publication of the first Welsh reading- and spelling-book, by Owen Hughes. 1793. Origin of the anti-Church movement in Wales by Morgan John Rhys, in his first instalment of Hanes Degymau (History of Tithes), published in August in the third number of his Cylehgrawn Cynmraeg. 1 80 1. The first complete and systematic enumeration of the population of Wales, as well as of England. 1801. Publication of the Myvyrian Archaiology. 181 1. Final severance of the Welsh Calvinistic Methodists from the Church of England in Wales. 1816. Herbert Marsh made Bishop of Llandaff ; he re-established the office of rural deans, which had been long in abeyance. 18 18. The founding of the Cambrian Society in Gwent and Dyfed. Seren Gomer for 18 18, p. 346, gives an account of its formation at Car- marthen, and states that they adjourned to Abergwili; but it says nothing concerning the part played in its founding by Bishop Burgess. This society was chiefly instrumental in reviving the Eisteddfod. 1822. The founding of St. David's College, Lampeter, by Bishop Burgess. 1830. Welsh political institutions made the same as those of England, re- sulting in the merging of the history of Wales in that of Great Britain. 1834-35. Royal Commission appointed, with the approval of the Church, to inquire into ecclesiastical duties and revenues ; under the acts subsequently passed and amended, the body now known as the Ecclesiastical Commissioners was incorporated, and the Episcopal and Capitular estates as well as the distribution of the revenues arising therefrom, vested in them. The incomes of the various bishoprics and dignitaries were re-arranged and fixed at the present amount ; previous to that their income was derived from the rents accruing from their landed estates and other properties. 1838-49. Publication in three volumes of the Mabinogion (the charming legends of pre-Roman and Arthurian Wales), translated with notes by Lady Charlotte Guest. 1840. Liber Landavensis first printed from a British Museum MS. copy, containing documents concerning the Bishops of Llandaff, endow- ments of the Church and history of the diocese. 1841. Publication by the Record Commissioners of the Ancient Laws and Institutes of W ales, compiled by Aneurin Owen ; this is the best and authoritative edition of these laws. 300 THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY 1846, 1st October. Commission instituted by House of Commons to inquire into the state of Education in Wales. The reports, which were stigmatized by Welsh Nonconformists as " Brad y Llyfrau Gleision" (The Treachery of the Blue-Books) because they seri- ously prejudiced the morality of the Welsh, greatly stimulated Welsh interest in education ; to these reports may be traced the system of education now existing in Wales, as well as the reform of the Church of England in Wales, with which the name of Bishop Short (1846-70) is associated, who devoted the whole of his episcopal revenue and much of his private income to establishing schools in Wales, and building and restoring churches and parsonages. 1852. Return from Wales to Parliament of the first Nonconformist of modern times in the person of Mr. Walter Coffin, who sat for Cardiff until 1857, when he resigned. 1852-8. Publication of the English-Welsh Dictionary by Canon Silvan Evans ; the first part of his Welsh-English Dictionary (letter A) appeared in 1887. The author died before the completion of the letter E ; but as far as it goes, it is the standard Welsh Dictionary. 1862. Meeting of Nonconformists at Swansea to commemorate the ex- pulsion of the " two thousand," when Welsh Nonconformity first organized itself on political lines. 1868. The abolition of Church Rates. As there was no positive enactment giving the Church a proprietary title to such rates, they could not be legally enforced. The payment which in the first instance was voluntary on the part of parishioners, eventually became a matter of custom. 1870. Elementary Education Act. 1872. The founding of the University College of Wales, at Aberystwyth. 1880. Burials Bill. 1880, 25th August. Appointment of a Departmental Committee to inquire into the condition of Intermediate and Higher Education in Wales. 1883. The founding of the University College of Wales, at Cardiff. 1884. The founding of the University College of Wales, at Bangor. 1889. The Welsh Intermediate Education Act. 1 89 1. The National Institutes (Wales) Bill, empowering the National Coun- cil to establish a National Museum for Wales, and to apply for a charter of incorporation. 1893, 30th November. Royal assent given to the Charter establishing a University for Wales. 1893, 27th March. Appointment of a Committee to inquire into the con- ditions upon which land is held, occupied and cultivated in Wales and Monmouthshire. 1896, May. The scheme for the Central Welsh Board of Intermediate Education received the approval of the crown. 1906, June. Appointment of a Royal Commission to inquire into the condi- tions and temporalities of the Established Church in Wales, for the CHRONOLOGY 301 alleged purpose of obtaining reliable information with a view to proper legislation on the subject, the reason assigned being that Parliament was not in possession of adequate information when the Bills of 1894 and 1895 were brought forward. It is, however, worthy of note that though the report of the Commission was not issued until December, 1910, the present Bill for Disestablishing and Disendowing the Church in Wales was introduced in 1909. 1907, March. Issue of a Royal Charter founding the National Library of Wales. 1907. Royal Charter for the founding of a National Museum for Wales. APPENDIX CLOSE OF OWEN GLYN DWR'S CAREER Mr. T. Matthews, M.A. (Welsh Records in Paris), gives 21st of September, 1416, as the date which denotes the closing of Owen Glyn Dwr's career, and he quotes the following as his authority: — Panton MS., 22 : Annales Owenni Glyndwr ex liber vet : script per Lewys Mor- gannwg. Historical MSS. Reports, pt. iii. He bases his inference as to 21st of September, 1416, on the following note in the said MS. (Historical MSS. Commission Report, by Dr. Gwenogvryn Evans : vol. ii, pt. iii, p. 831 ; Panton MS. 22): — "mccccxv ydd aeth Ow : mewn difant yn gwyl Fathau yn y Cynhaeaf o hynny allan ni wybuwyd i ddifant, rhan fawr a ddywaid i farw, y brudwyr a ddywaid na bu." It will be seen that Mr. Matthews is in error, inasmuch as the date of the year as given in the MS. is 1415, not 1416. But he is warranted in giving 24th of February, 1416, as the date when Sir Gilbert Talbot renewed, on behalf of Henry V, the mission of peace to Glyn Dwr through his son Meredydd ab Owen, which had been previously made direct to Owen himself. The date 24th of February, 1416, as the date of the renewal of the mission, is given in Rymer's Foedera, ix, 331. The wording of the quotation from Panton MS. 22, as given above, shows the uncertainty that existed as to what had really become of Owen, whether he was dead, or in hiding, or had disappeared. The phrase "aeth mewn difant," as quoted by Dr. Gwenogvryn Evans from Panton MS. 22, means that Owen disappeared. The crucial question seems to be the date of Glyn Dwr's disappearance from public view, whether into hiding or through death. In the Archceologia Cambrensis, vol. ix, third series (1863), p. 170, there is a letter under the heading " Date of the Death of Owen Glyndwr," signed by W. W. E. Wynne, Peniarth, 1863. In this letter there is a quotation from Hengwrt MS. 133, as follows : " Obitus Owain glyndwr 3°3 304 APPENDIX die sancti mathei apostoli anno domini millimo ccccxv." The letter proceeds, " Then appears a notification of an eclipse of the sun in 1433 ; and then one of the death of Hen. V. All these entries appear to be contemporary with the foregoing events ; and, if I recollect, it is the only- authentic record which has come to light of the death of Glyndwr." Dr. Gwenogvryn Evans, in his Calendar of the Peniarth MSS. for the Historical MSS. Commission, refers to Hengwrt MS. 133 (which is also known as Peniarth MS. 26) as a MS. on paper and vellum "written for the most part about the year 1456." He comes to this conclusion from a note which occurs on p. 83 of the MS. : " This booke was pennd in Ano Christi 1456." He quotes in the Calendar the note on the date of Owen Glyn Dwr's death as follows : " Obitus Ow : Glyndwr die Sancti Mathei Aprili 1415." In his Calendar he refers to p. 98 of the MS. and reads the entry which occurs there on the death of Owen Glyn Dwr in this manner. However, a reference to the original MS. (Hengwrt 133) makes it clear that Dr. Gwenogvryn Evans has interpreted the abbreviation "apli" as "Aprili." In this he is wrong, as "apti" is the usual abbreviation for "apostoli." Further, as Mr. Wynne says in his letter, the vellum leaf on which the reference to Owen Glyn Dwr occurs appears to be one of two such leaves (as a matter of fact there are three vellum leaves) bound as part of the MS., and contains a list of events with dates. As these vellum leaves are, apparently, insertions in the MS., the external evidence of the authenticity of the dates occurring on them is wanting, but the script may be taken as belonging to the middle or the latter half of the fifteenth century. It should also be noted that St. Matthew's Day falls on September 21st, not in April, as is shown in the Calendar, and also in Chambers's Book of Days. The day given in the Hengwrt MS. 133 (Peniarth 26) is identical with that given in the Panton MS., and Mr. Wynne of Peniarth was justified in interpreting it as St. Matthew the Apostle's Day, which, as has already been stated, falls on September 21st. The only difference between Panton MS. 22 and Hengwrt MS. 133 is, that the former refers to Owen Glyn Dwr's disappearance, while the latter refers to his death as having occurred on St. Matthew's Day, 1415. As to the two years 1415 and 1416, it must be considered that, according to Rymer's Feeder a, ix, 331, Henry V commissioned Sir Gilbert Talbot to treat with Meredydd APPENDIX 305 ab Owen, Glyn Dwr's son (with a view to Glyn Dwr's submission), on 24th February, 1416. It is therefore more than difficult to accept the traditional date — 1415 — as the year of Glyn Dwr's death or disappearance. We cannot lightly pass over the reference to Glyn Dwr's death in the chronicle of events in Hengwrt MS. 133, neither can we ignore the importance of the discrepancy between the date of his death as given in Hengwrt MS. 133 and the date of Henry V's second mission to Owen through his son Meredydd, as given in Rymer's Fcedera, ix, 331. The evidence in favour of placing the death of Owen Glyn Dwr in 1416, is quite as weighty as the evidence in favour of the year 1415. The evidence in favour of September 21st is irrefutable. In so far as circumstantial evidence is concerned, no author could be considered as rash who maintained that he was justified in discarding the year 1415 in favour of the year 1416. On the whole, the latter year is far less doubtful than the former and less liable to discussion. If Owen Glyn Dwr died or disappeared in the month of April, 1415, as Dr. Gwenogvryn Evans seems to imply, it means that ten months had elapsed before Henry V was cognizant of the fact at the time of the renewal of the mission to Owen through his son Meredydd, on February 24th, 1416. If Owen died or disappeared on St. Matthew's Day, September 21st, 1415, it means that a period of five months had transpired before Henry V knew of it. Whichever of these two interpretations we take, it is inconceivable. Henry V was an astute man and statesman, and it is not unnatural to suppose that he kept Glyn Dwr under observation and had adopted means of ascertaining his movements. As it was Henry V's object, through this second commission as well as the first, to come to terms with Owen Glyn Dwr, it shows that Henry was under the impression that Owen was still alive on February 24th, 1416. It may be that Henry V thought that there was a better chance of success by negotiating the second time with Owen through his son Meredydd than direct with Owen himself, as was done in the first instance. INDEX Abercromby, xix. Aberdaron, 14, 244. Aberdovey, 233. Aberystwyth, 23, 260, 262. Acquisitions, moral and intellectual, 107. A.C.S., the, in Wales, 29, 30. Act for the Better Propagation of the Gospel in Wales, 13. Act of Uniformity, the, 145, 160. Act of Union, the, 46, 79, 217, 229. Acts, Parliamentary, for the benefit of Wales, 54, 5S. # S6i 57. Acton, Lord, xxxviii, 109. Adam of Usk, 240. Administration, local, in Wales, 272, 273- Age of Reason, the, 5. Agriculture, Board of, 257. Alsace, xxii. Anglicanism, advance of, in Wales, 21. I35-. Anglicization, xiv. Anglo-Norman, xxxvi. Anglo-Saxon, xiii, xxv, xxxi, xxxvii. Anglo-Welsh, the, movement, 11. Anwyl, Sir Edward, 87. Architecture, Welsh, 80. Arglwydd (lord), 219, 220. Armageddon, 256. Arminianism, 139. Arnold, Dr., 81. Arthur, King, 94, 95, 109, 225, 251, 252. Aryan, xviii. Association, Welsh Industries, 97. Athanasius, 133. Bacon, 132. Baldwin, Archbishop, 113. Balfour, Arthur J., xvi, xxix. Bangor, 23. Baptists, 139, 178, 186, 271. Bardolf, Lord, 245. Bards, 99. Bartholomew's Day, St., 134. Battles — Agincourt, 243. Bosworth, 109. Bramham Moor, 245. Brinbiga, 243. Battles (cont.) — Poictiers, 254. Woodbury Hill, 242. Bayly, Dr. Lewis, 14. Benedict XIII, 242, 248. Benedict, Comme, 240. Bible, Welsh, 20, 33, 34, 38, 59, 60. 114. Bills — The Reform Bill, 4. The Welsh Church Bill in the Commons, xxxiii, xxxiv. Bishops, the Elizabethan, of Wales and Hereford, 64-74. Bishops, Welsh, 49. " Black Book of Carmarthen, The," 87. Black Death, The, 229. Blackstone, 48. Board of Education, 96, 257. Bonner, Dr., Bishop of London, 72. Bradley, A. G., 237. Bretons, xxiii. British and Foreign Bible Society, 32. Brittany, xxiii, xxiv, 242, 245. Bronze Age, the, xix. Browning, Robert, 98. Brythonic, xiii. Buckle, 2, 81, 83, 267. Buckley, Sir Richard, 41. Burke, 78. Cadwaladr, 252. Calvin, John, 177. Calvinism, 134. doctrinal system of, 133. Calvinistic philosophy, xxiii. notions, 132. system of discipline and govern- ment, 133. Cantrefs, 219, 220. Cardiff, 23, 260, 261. Carne, Sir Edward, 35. Carnegie, Andrew, 91. Castles — Aberystwyth, 240. Conway, 240. Harlech, 240. Cathedral churches, 55. Cathedral, Llandaff 226. Catholicism in Wales, 135. 3°7 308 INDEX Catholics of Ireland, xxxiv. Celticism, xiii, xiv. Celts, xiv, xvii, xviii, xxi, xxiii, xxix. Celtic— sestheticism, xxxv. characteristics, xxxi, xxxvii. coalition, xxii. cosmos, xiii, xvi. customs. 2 12. democracies, xv. elements, xiv. entities, xiii. factors, xiv. federation, xxii. forms of speech, xviii. genius, xxxvi. mind, xiii. religions, xxiv. movement, xiii. nations, xiv. races, xv, xxi, xxiv. renaissance, xiv. Charlemagne, xxxviii, 211. Charles I., 26, 35, 40. Charles II., 2. Charles III. of Spain, 3. Charles VI. of France, 238, 240, 241, 2 44> 2 45. 2 4 8 . 26 4- Charter of Liberties, 233, 234. Christianity, xxvi. Christopher Saint German, 166. Church, Elizabethan, 21. Church day schools, 34. Church Pastoral Aid Society, 30, 31. Classes, the working, of Wales, 104. Cockney, xxxi. Coercion Acts, 228, 229. Colleges, Welsh University, 7 23, 57. 88. Connaught, xxxi. Conservatism in Wales, 160-6. Constitution of Llanfaches church, 26. Controversy regarding capital for Wales, 260. Corelli, Marie, 100. Covenanters, xxv. Cradock, Walter, 25, 26, 27, 136, 137- Cranmer, xxv. Cromwell, 17, 108. Cromwell, Thomas, 41, 226. Cromwellian schools, 13. Culture, Welsh literary, 85. Cwmwds, 219, 220. Cymhorthas, 227. Cymric, 213, 215, 216, 225, 257, 262, 265. Cymricizing, 218. Cymry, 212, 216. Czechs, xiv. Dafydd ap Gwilym, 87, 112. Dafydd ab Ieuan Goch, 239. Danes, the, xxxi. Daron, David, dean of Bangor, 244. David, St., 108, 109, 174. David's, St., Day, 97. Davies, David, 155. Davies, John, of Mallwyd, 67. Davies, Bishop Richard, 20, 61, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, iai. Democracies — Celtic, xv. Irish, xv. Welsh, xv. Development, lateness of Welsh, 12. Dickens, Charles, 100. Dollinger, 81. Draper, 5. Dundas, 4. Dynastv, Capetian, xxxviii ; Tudor, 228. ' Dyved, xx. Eddonyer, Hugh, 242. Educational foundations connected with Welsh interests, 36, 37. Edward I., 40, 41, 43, 52, 56, 214, 216, 217, 218, 220, 221, 222, 223, 227, 228, 230, 231, 232, 236, 248. Edward II., 47, 48. Edward III., 48, 238, 247, 253, 254. Edward IV., 40, 226. Edwards, Bishop, of St. Asaph, 13, 14, 15, 28, 114, 120, 173. Edwards, Rev. Dr. Lewis, 99. Eisteddfod, the, 45, 97. Elements, foreign and native, xix, xx, 2 3. 2 4> 57. 70. 105. Elizabeth, Queen, xx, xxv, 20, 35, 36, 37. 43. 4 6 . 53. 59. 60, 65, 132. Elizabethan period in Wales, 19, 20. Elliot, George, 108. Ellis, Thomas E., 162, 265. Elphin, 100. Empire, British, 265 ; German, xxxviii. service of, 123. Endowed schools in Wales, 36, 37. England, the disfranchisement of, 258. Erbury, William, 26, 136, 137. Ethnography, the, of Wales, xviii. Ethnology, British, xvii. Evans, Evan (Ieuan Brydydd Hir), 94. INDEX 309 Ferrar, Bishop, xxv. Fiction, Welsh. 99, 100. Firth, Professor, 13. Fleetwood, Bishop, 14. Fleure, Professor H. J., xix. Fox, 4. France, xxxvi, xxxviii. Freeman, 81. Froissart, the French chronicler, 254. Froude, 81. Gaelic, xiii, xviii. Gaels — Irish, xviii ; Scottish, xviii. Gam, Dafydd, 243 Gascon, the, xxii. " Geninen, Y," 185. Genius — Celtic, xxxvi, xxxviii. Irish, xxix, xxx. Scottish, xxviii, xxix. Teutonic, xxxviii. Welsh, xxvii, xxviii, xxix. George I., 14. George II., 49. Gerald de Windsor, 113. Gibson, John, 90. Gildas, xx. Giraldus Cambrcnsis, 113, 122, 221. Gladstone and Panizzi, 267. Glantawe, Lord, 155. Glastonbury, the monks of, 252. Glynn, Geoffrey, 36. Goodman, Dr. Gabriel, 69. Gouge, Rev. Thomas, 75, 76. Gower, Bishop, of St. David's, 36. Greeks, xxxvi. Green, J. R., 226. Grey, Lord, of Ruthin, 110, 237, 238. Griffith, Bishop, of Bangor, 245. Griffith, Ellis (a soldier of Calais), 226. Gruffudd Sais, 253. Guest, Lady Charlotte, 94, 95. Hamilton, Patrick, xxv. Hanmer, John, 239, 240. Hanmer, Philip, 245. Hanoverian Sovereigns, 15. Harris, Howel, 25, 28, 29, 137, 139, •44- Helen of Wales, 113. Henry I., 1 13. Henry II., 252. Henry IV., 39, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 111, 167, 228, 229, 237, 238, 247. Henry IV. (of France), 2. Henry V., 224, 245. Henry VI., 226, 228, 229. Henry VII., 35, 37, 39, 45, 46, 48. 109, 130, 223, 224, 225, 230, 231, 2 35- Henry VIII. , 35, 36, 41, 43, 45, 46, 47, 49, 120, 218, 224, 226, 228, 230, 231- Herbert of Cherbury, Lord, 35. Herbert, George, 35. Herbert, Sir Walter, 226. Highlands, xviii, xxiii, xxiv. Historians, Welsh nationalist, 16, 17, 2I . 37- " History of the Gwedir Family," 43. Hotspur, Henry, 224. House of Commons, 229. Howel Dda, xx, 45, 109, 112, 113, 210, 211, 212, 233. Hughes, Stephen, 136, 145. Hume, David, 89. Ideals, Welsh and Irish, 257. Illegitimacy in Wales, 184. Immigrants, Irish, xix. Imperialism, xv. Indo-European races, 212. Intellect — English, 2. French, 2. Welsh, 82, 85, 86, 87, 88. 89. 100, 101. Intellectuality, decay of Welsh, 103. Invasions, xxv. Ireland, xv, xvi, xxiv, xxxi, xxxii, xxxix. the great men of, 123, 125. Irish, xvii, xix, xx, xxi, xxiv, xxix, xxx. anglicization of the, xxxi. Isabella of France, 238, 247. Italian, xxii. James I., 229. Jefferson, Thomas, 108. Jessey, Henry, 26, 132. Jesuits, 2i. John, King, 233, 234. Jones, Archdeacon, of Carmarthen, 3 6 - Jones, Sir David Brvnmor, xxxiii, 81. Jones, Griffith, of Llanddovvror, 28. Jones, Ifano, viii, 26, 100. Jones, Prof. J. Morris, 97. Jones, Samuel, 136. Kery, Morris, 242. Khasia Hills, 175. 3io INDEX Kiffin, William, 27. Knox, John, xxv, 177. Kyffin, Morris, 67. Lamb, John, 255. Lanfranc, 133. Languages — Brythonic, 115. English, 48, 49. French, 48, 49. Latin, 48. Welsh, 11, 47, 49, 52, S3, 54, 55, 60, 68, 69, 115, 116, 117, 118, 119. compulsory teaching of, 117, 118. corruption of, 118. decay of, 11, 117. Latimer, xxv. Laud, Archbishop, 132. Leckie, 141. Lee, Rowland, 226, 227. Legislation — - Edwardian, 216, 218, 219, 220, 221, 222, 223, 228, 229. Howel Dda, 210-2. Tudor, 230. Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of Wales, 36. Liberal-Unionism in Wales, 155. Liberationists, 174. Library, Welsh National, 93, 260, 273- Lincoln, Abraham, Hi. Lingen, Lord, 138. Literature, Welsh, 80, 81, 92, 93, 96. Sermonic, 84, 102. Llangan, Jones of, 25. Lloyd, Bishop, 20. Lloyd George, 223, 237, 256, 270. biography of, 46, 61, 62, 63, 64. Lloyd, Prof. ). E., 81, 87. Llywelyn ab Iorwerth, 234, 235. Llywelyn, the " last " Prince of Wales, in, 112, 213, 233, 234, 236. Llwyd, Morgan, 26, 136. Locke, J., 89. Lombard, xxii. Lords Marchers, 40, 41, 43, 225, 226, 227, 246. Lorraine, xxii. Loti, 115. Louis XIV. of France, 2. Lytton, Lord, 100. Mabinogion, the, 94, 95. McKenna, 199, 203. Macdonald, George, 100. Mackworth, Sir Humphrey, 33, 76. Magor, Lordship of, 226. Manuscripts, Welsh, 93, 94. Society of, 93. March, Earl of, 243, 244. March, G. P., 79. March boroughs, 229. Marchers of Wales, 39, 40, 43, 45, 46. " Mari Jones " Bible, 33. Martyrdom of Wales for a dying language, 11. Martyrs, xxv. Mary, Queen, xxv, 35. Mathematicians, European, 86. Mathematics, xxvii, 86. higher, 85, 102. science of, 85. Melville, Andrew, xxv. Memorial, Welsh National, 260. Meredith, George, 108. Meredydd ab Owen, no, 239. Metaphysics, 106. Middle Ages, 93. Mill, John Stuart, 89, 176. Milton, 99. Mineralogy, 87. Missionaries, Mormon, 256. Mohammed, 80. Morgan, Bishop, 20, 59, 60, 67, 69, 75. "4. I21 - Morgannwg, Iolo, 94. Morris, William, 108. Mortimer, Edmund, 224, 245. Munster, xxxi. " Myvyrian Archaiology, the," 93. Napier, 123. Nash, John, 90. Nation, xxxii, 4, 10. Nationalism, xl. Welsh, xl, xli, 84. National individuality, 268. polity, 266. Nationality, xxii, xxx, xxxi. Celtic, 258. English, 257. Irish, xxx. Italian, xxii. Pan-Celtic, xxii, xxiii. Welsh, xvii, xxvii, xxx, xxxi, 266. Nationhood, xxiv, xxxii, 257, 260. Neapolitan, xxii. Newspapers, English, in Wales, 269. INDEX 3" Nichol, William, xxv. Nonconformists, Welsh, and Irish Home Rule, xx.xiv, xxxv. Nonconformity — in England, 153, 154. in Wales- causes of the growth of, 130, 13b, 137. M 8 , '49. i5°- changes in, 171, 172, 173. characteristics of, 129, 130, 131, 132, 140, 146, 157, 158, 159- Conservatism and, 163. decline of, 182, 183, 194. democratic character of, 154. ethnological character of, 166. lowly origin of, 156. origin of, 128, 130, 136. political complexion of, 154, 157. 158, 169. problems created by, 166, 167, 170. reaction against, 158. results of, 147, 150, 151, 153. Nordics, xix. Normans, xiv, xxii, xxxi. Northumberland, Earl of, 243, 244, 245- Owen, Bishop, of Llandaff, 36. Owen, Bishop, of St. David's, 196- 209. Owen, George, xx. Owen Glyn Dwr, 39, 42, 44, 45, no, in, 218, 234, 235, 236, 237, 240, 241, 245, 246, 247, 248, 249, 250, aS 1 ! 2 55. 263, 264. Owen Glyn Dwr's negotiations with France, 240, 241, 242, 245. Owen, Henry, xx. Owen Lawgoch, 241, 253, 254, 255. Owen-Pughi-, Dr., 93, 94, 218. Pan-Celticism, xiii, xiv. Papists, xxv. Parliaments — British, xxxi, xxxix, 4, 52, 365. Dolgrlley, 240. Harlech, 243. Henry VII. 's first, 230. Irish, xxxi. Irish and Welsh members of, 2 59- Lincoln, 47. Machynlleth, 243. Simon de Monlfort's first great, 236. Parry, Bishop, 20. Pathology, 101. Patrick, St., 123. Patriotism, xv, xxxv, xxxvii, xxxviii, no, hi, 118, 125, 194, 204, 264. Paul-Dubois, L., 124. Pembrokeshire, xx. Penry, John, xxv. Percy, Henry, 239. Periodicals, Welsh, 269. Philip Augustus, 233. Phillipps, Sir John, 75. Philology, 86, 87, 106. Philosophy, xxvii, 5, 86. Calvinistic, xxiii. Physics, 86. Picton, General, 109. Pitt, 4. Poetry, Welsh, 98, 99. Poles, xiv. Political economy, 101. Politicians, Irish, 124. Powell, Dr. David, 69. Powell, Vavasor, 26, 136, 137. Presbyterians of Scotland, xxiii, xxiv. Presbyterianism, 129. Press, the London, xxxi. Price, Rev. Thomas (Carnhuanawc), 214. Prichard, Vicar, 18, 19. Priesthood, Irish, xx. Prince, the Black, 235, 253, 255. Privileges, Burghal, 228. Protestant, xxxv, 20, 175. Protestantism, 9, 21, 135. Provencal, xxii. Prussian, xxii. Prys, Edmund, 20. Psychology, 86, 88, 116, 180. Pugh, Levi, 139. Pulpit, the Welsh Nonconformist, xxxiv, 100, 106. Puritans, 101, 133, 134. Puritanism, 13, 15, 16, 132, 133, 134, '35. 137. 198- Radicalism, the beginning of, in Wales, 160. Rates, Church, 146, 166. Rees, Rev. David, Capel Als, 163. Rees, Dr. William (Hiraethog), 163, 174- Reformation, the, 59, 82, 167. in Wales, 20, 21. Reid, Thomas, S9. Renan, 1. Revival, the, 1904-5, in Wales, 61, 62. 312 INDEX in Revivals, eighteenth century, Wales, 16, 17, 27, 28. Revolution, the French, xxxvi. Rhodri Mawr, 112, 210. Rhuddlan, 213. Rhys ap Thomas, 225. Rhys, Dr. John David, 67. Richard II, 167, 238, 246, 247. Richard, Henry, 251. Robert of Scotland, 239. Roberts, Dr. Griffith, of Milan, 19. Roberts, Prof. Stanley, 87. Roman Catholics, xxiii, xxiv. Rome, 168. Ross, John, 74. Rowland, Daniel, of Llangeitho, 25, 29. 137. 146. Rowlands, Bishop, of Bangor, 36. Rowlands, Bowen, 155. Salesbury, William, 20, 35, 38, 67, 68, 69, 70, 119, 120, 221. Scandinavian, xviii. Scholars, European, 81. Schools — ■ Endowed Grammar, 36 Scottish secondary, 7. Welsh elementary, 86. secondary, xli, 158, 159, 273. Sunday, 159. Scotland, xv, xvi, xviii, xxxii 41, 106, 171, 173, 177, 239, 247. 257. Great men of, 125-7. Scots, xvii, xx, xxi, xxiv, XXX. Scott, Sir Walter, 115. Sectarianism in Wales, xxvi, xxvii. Seiat, 159. Siege of Harlech, 245. Siege of Mortagne surMer in Poitou, 255- Sigerson, Dr., 123, 124. Simon de Montfort, 236. Shakespeare, 108, 244. Shakespeare, Rev. J. H., 178. Shrewsbury, 261. Slavs, xiv, xxii. Smith, Adam, 89. Society for the Promotion of Chris- tian Knowledge, 19, 28, 32, 33, 34, 75- Spain, 3, 106, 122. Squire, Bishop, 29, 146. Standard of culture and progress, 9, 10. 12, 238, XXIX, Stanley, Lord, 109. Statesmen, British, 258, 273. Statute of Rhuddlan, 43,48,213,214, 218. Stephens's " Literature of the Kvm- ry," 81. Stern, Dr., of Berlin, 112. Stillingfleet, Dr., 75. Stoic, 211. Stoicism, 211. Stubbs, William, Bishop of Oxford, 81. Sweden, 122. Switzerland, 122. Talbot, Sir Gilbert, 245. Taliesin, 252. Tennyson, Lord, 98. Teutonic, xvi, xxxvi, xxxviii. Thackeray, 100. Thomas Becke, Bishop of St. David's, 214. Thomas, Sidney Gilchrist, 90, 91. Tillotson, Dr., 75. Tithe Rent-charge Recovery Act, 55. Treaties, 241, 244, 246, 247. Trevor, John, Bishop of St. Asaph, 243- Tribal system, xxvi. Tribalism, Welsh, 215. Tropics, 164. Tudor period, 40, 224, 228. Ty-Gwyn-ar-Daf (White House), 210, 211. Types — Anglican, 179. Aryan, xviii Breton, xxiii. Bronze Age, xix. Catholic, 173. Celtic, xviii. contemporary, xvii. facial, xviii. Irish, xxiii. Mediterranean, xix. national, xvii. Nonconformist, 179. Nordic, xix. physical, xxi. racial, xvii. Scottish, xxiii. Welsh, xxiii. Tyrone's Rebellion, xx. Unitarianism in Wales, 139. United Kingdom, 167. United States of America, 167. INDEX 313 Vaughan, Herbert, 69. Voluntaryism, 177, 178, 179. Vortiporious, xx. Wales — the Church of England in, 21, 22, 28, 30, 32, 33, 35, 60, 139, 140. ^5: l6 5. !72, 246. Womanhood of, 102, 103. Wallace, Alfred, 82. Walton, Isaak, 35. Wars of the Roses, 230. Waterford, xx. Welsh— anglicization of, xxx. civilization of the, 5. progress of the, 6, 12, 22. psychical peculiarities of the, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. " Welsh People, The," 3, 81. Wesley, 29, 143. Western Isles, xviii. Westminster, xxii, xxxiv. White, Rawlins, xxv. Whitefield, 28, 29, 142, 143. Whitgift, Archbishop, 60, 132. William de Barri, 113. Williams, Benjamin, Welsh anti- quary, 253. Williams, Archbishop John, 131. Williams, Rev. Dr. Hugh, 81. Williams, John, of Erromanga, 108. Williams, Rev. Peter, 34, 74, 136. Williams, Rev. William, of Panty- celyn, 114, 115. Wordsworth, 98. Wroth, William, 25, 26, 27, 132, 136, 137. *77- Wynn, Rev. Ellis, 19. Yeuain de Galles, 254, 255. Young, Griffith, 239, 240, 241, 243. GARDEN CITY PRESS LIMITED, PRINTERS, LETCHWORTH. 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