'p(UL THE WAR AND WALES THE WAR AND WALES BY THE REV. J. VYRNWY MORGAN, D.D. Editor and Part Author of " The Cambra-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," " The Philosophy of Welsh History," and other works WITH FOREWORD BY H. STUART JONES, M.A., Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford ; Fellow of the British Academy. LONDON : CHAPMAN & HALL LIMITED, 1916. \\\ PRINTED BY THE GARDEN CITY PRESS LTD, LETCHWORTH. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED TO MISS ELIZABETH AND MISS LOCKHART DICKSON OF EDINBURGH IN RECOGNITION OF THEIR AFFECTIONATE INTEREST IN MY LITTLE DAUGHTER CONTENTS Page PREFACE ix FOREWORD xi INTRODUCTORY NOTE ----- - XV Part I CHAPTER I THE ETHICS OF WAR 3 CHAPTER II THE BLESSINGS OF WAR ------ 28 CHAPTER III REFLECTIONS ON THE WAR "52 CHAPTER IV THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE SOLDIER - - - - 90 CHAPTER V THE PROBLEM OF PEACE Ill Part II CHAPTER I THE BELGIANS IN WALES 149 CHAPTER II THE EFFECT OF THE WAR ON THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE WELSH l68 CHAPTER III THE EFFECT OF THE WAR ON THE RELIGIOUS CONSCIOUS- NESS OF THE WELSH 195 vii viii CONTENTS CHAPTER IV THE EFFECT OF THE WAR ON THE SPIRITUAL LIFE OF THE WELSH 2l8 CHAPTER V THE EFFECT OF THE WAR ON THE TREND OF THEOLOGICAL THOUGHT IN WALES 246 CHAPTER VI THE WAR AND THE SOUTH WALES MINING INDUSTRY - 281 CHAPTER VII MR. LLOYD GEORGE I HIS GENIUS, CHARACTER, AND RELATION TO THE WAR ------ 329 CHAPTER VIII WILLIAM MORRIS HUGHES : HIS CAREER AND WORK- - 368 APPENDIX 4°3 PREFACE I desire to state that the chapter on the Right Hon. D. Lloyd George, M.P., is an expansion — on a very considerable scale — of an article which I contributed to the Fortnightly Review, and which appeared May, 1913. I am obliged to the Editor for his permission to repro- duce it in this volume. The chapter on the Right Hon. W. Morris Hughes, Premier of Australia, was submitted to Mr. Hughes himself, and I have his authority for saying that all the facts are correct. For reading some portions of the proofs my thanks are due to the Rev. G. C. Rowe, B.A., Principal of St. Andrew's School, Tenby, and to Mr. R. L. C. Morrison. For help of various kinds in connection with this and other works I am greatly indebted to the Rev. D. Silyn Evans, Aberdare ; also to my wife, whose services to me in the same direction have been invaluable. Having regard to the fact that the character of this work is philosophical rather than historical, and the greatly increased cost of production, which an author cannot pass on to the public, the preparation of an Index has been dispensed with. J. Vyrnwy Morgan. July 26th, 1 916. FOREWORD BY H. STUART JONES, ESQ., M.A. Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford ; Fellow of the British Academy. The " fog of war " hides much from our eyes besides the incidents of the long-drawn struggle on the battlefields of Europe, and not least the silent but momentous changes which are taking place in the minds of men, whether belligerents or neutrals. It is probable that in few, if any, of the countries affected by the war are these changes deeper or more pregnant with consequences than in Wales. The interpreter of the Welsh spirit has need of the gift of divination in no scant measure if he is to grasp its secrets. Dr. Morgan has thus set himself no easy task in the present volume. But he was well equipped for the effort, for it will hardly be denied that his knowledge of Welsh char- acter is of the most intimate. In his previous writings he has shown himself a candid friend of his countrymen, and played a part which demands no small moral courage ; for it is the prophet who prophesies smooth things who alone finds honour in his own country. It is good to know, however, that Dr. Morgan supplies the exception which proves the truth of this rule ; and the reason doubtless is that even those who do not see eye to eye with him cannot grudge him the recognition that he possesses, not only candour of expression, but the deeper and more valuable candour of mind — the temper which impels a man to see things as they are. His writing is always conspicuously sincere — a quality too often absent from studies of national as of individual character. His book is, therefore, timely and much to be welcomed. I am glad that in the first of the chapters which deal with the details of his problem he has struck a xi XU FOREWORD note which will find a ready response in the hearts of Welshmen. He says with justice that " sympathy " is an attribute common to all Welshmen, and that Welsh sym- pathy is something sui generis in its intensity. The welcome extended to the Belgian refugees furnishes the occasion for this observation, and Dr. Morgan is justified in saying that this, the strongest of Welsh instincts, has never before been exercised on so generous and so dis- interested a scale. He warns us, however, against supposing that the contact between Protestant and Catholic is likely to modify religious conviction, however much it may soften the asperity of theological dispute : and is clearly right when he says that " Welsh Wales is as Protestant in spirit and in principle to-day as she ever was." It is natural that the chapters which follow should deal very largely with the effect of the war on spiritual life, and I commend them to the study of those who would realize to how great an extent Welsh character is the expression of spiritual tendencies. No one knows these tendencies better than Dr. Morgan, and those who expect or desire a religious revival on familiar lines should lay to heart what he says with regard to the absence of all signs that the old phenomena are about to repeat them- selves. " The Churches in Wales," he says truly, " are not becoming more evangelical through the war," but I must leave it to the reader to seek the explanation of this in Dr. Morgan's own pages. From religion the transition is abrupt to another region, in which the signs of the times cry aloud for an interpreter — the battlefield of Labour and Capital in the Welsh mining industry. Dr. Morgan handles this topic with similar insight, and strikes the true key at the outset when he tells us that the mining communities " arc rapidly becoming an independent organism in the Welsh body politic." Patriotic Welshmen may perhaps find in this fact some consolation for a record none too creditable to the Principality — a record which is set down plainly, but without any tinge of bitterness, in this book. FOREWORD Xlll The closing chapters are devoted to the two sons of Wales whose names will be for ever associated with the Great War — Mr. Lloyd George and Mr. W. M. Hughes. We find a discriminating study of the first, and an ex- cellent account of the career of the second, for which Dr. Morgan can claim special accuracy, inasmuch as it was submitted to Mr. Hughes himself. This closes the book, which, being written " without fear of favour," deserves, and, it is to be hoped, may find a wide circle of readers. I will but add the expression of a wish that The War and Wales may sooner or later — and sooner rather than later — be followed by a volume on " Wales after the War." H. Stuart Jones. July nth, 1916. INTRODUCTORY NOTE No section of the United Kingdom has given a greater surprise in this war than Wales ; and modern Welsh Wales has never more greatly surprised herself. If any prophet had ventured to predict two years ago that Wales would reverse herself so completely as she has now done, his prediction would have been regarded, both in the Prin- cipality and in England, as an idle dream. Those who have a detached and a scientific understanding of the history and temper of the Welsh, know how difficult it has always been to make an impression on the granite of their tradition. But, suddenly and unexpectedly, Wales has, in many respects, become another self. She has come to see how costly our sins of military, political, and intellectual unpreparedness have been ; she has seen how by insisting upon making the question of British Imperialism a purely party and political question, the unity and integrity and safety of the British Empire have been endangered ; she has seen how the appeals for reductions in the Army and Navy blinded her, as it blinded other portions of the United Kingdom, not only to the reality and gravity of the German menace, but to her own particular interests. There are some faint indica- tions that she is gradually realizing, through the conduct of Germany and the mighty scourge of war, that to continue to foster the partial obliteration of Christian teaching by penalizing all definite religious instruction in the schools, will be bad for the children and bad for the State. Wales will, we hope, never again be Liberal- Radical, or patriotic, or idealistic, in the old or pre-war sense. But the reaction involves much more than a change XV XVI INTRODUCTORY NOTE of opinion; the fine fighting qualities that her citizens, both Welsh and English, Scottish and Irish, have shown, and the unanimity and enthusiasm which have charac- terized their devotion, will be treasured as the brightest gem that has been placed in the diadem of Wales since the days of the annexation. Wales has sent 200,000 men to the Colours. The last published total for Glamorgan alone was higher than the figures for the whole of Ireland. Areas and population of the two countries at the last census in 191 1 were as follows : Square miles. Population. Ireland . . . . 32,586 4,390,219 Wales 7,466 2,025,202 The population of Glamorgan at the last census was 1,120,910 and Ulster 1,581,698. Glamorgan has produced 83,000 recruits, and Monmouth about 24,000 ; that is, at the time of writing. A regiment called the Welsh Guards has been formed in recognition of the services rendered by Welsh regiments. Their first Colours were presented by the King in the grounds of Buckingham Palace, His Majesty wearing the service uniform of the Welsh Guards. The Consecration Prayer was recited by the Bishop of St. Asaph, first in English, afterwards in Welsh, and " The Land of my Fathers " was sung, at the close, in Welsh, by the whole battalion. The following is the description of the King's Colour : " Gules (crimson) : In the centre a Dragon passant or, underneath, a scroll with motto ' Cymru am Byth.' The whole ensigned with the Imperial Crown." The Regimental Colour is : " The Union. In the centre, a Company Badge ensigned with the Imperial Crown." The first annual report of the Welsh Military Hospital at Netley shows that during twelve months, 1,700 had been admitted ; there were 107 officer patients and 1,630 non-commissioned officers and men. At first the hospital accommodation was for 100 patients, but it can now INTRODUCTORY NOTE XV11 accommodate twelve officers and 200 non-commissioned officers and men. The staff numbers ninety-four, which includes four medical officers, a matron, and eighteen nurses, a quartermaster, lady housekeeper and her assistant, and a lady dispenser. I refer here to Wales as a whole. That there are many Welshmen who have assumed an unpatriotic attitude, is true ; also, the number of exemptions claimed on conscientious grounds and the results produced by indis- criminate starring, are disturbing factors. It is an historical fact that a number of students affiliated with the denominational colleges have, under the leadership of their Principals, claimed exemptions, the Principals, in several instances, giving notices of and supporting appeals on behalf of those whose applications were refused. The reason advanced by some of the students was that they considered the war to be wrong, and that their conscience would not allow them to take any part in the war. The reason advanced by others was that they were bound by the example and teaching of Christ. It is a delicate story, and the disposition among the general body of Welshmen is to find fault with the leaders rather than with the students, though it cannot be disputed that in some Nonconformist Theological Colleges in England, the only students who have held back from enlistment have been Welshmen, and that in spite of the fact that they were encouraged by the college authorities to enlist. The movement has its own meaning and interpretation. They may think that they are playing a highly prophetic part, and that in years to come they will be written about as heroes, or they may have in their mind the statement made by Lloyd George when fighting the Government on the Education Bill fourteen years ago, namely, that there were hundreds of Welshmen that all the King's Army could not compel to disobey their conscience. It has been a matter of adverse comment among Welsh Nonconformist soldiers in France, that leading Welsh ministers have not followed the example set by the Bishop B XV111 INTRODUCTORY NOTE of London and other bishops in visiting the soldiers at the front. There is another ministerial consideration. The war has seriously interfered with the salaries of a good many Nonconformist ministers, who, even in prosperous times, are by no means adequately remunerated. They either get a stipulated stipend or agree to accept what their congregations can raise ; but seeing that so many of their members have enlisted, the churches find it is more than difficult to make up the usual amount, with the result that the ministers have suffered financially. While other members of the community receive a bonus to meet the increased cost of living, ministers get no such con- sideration. If some means could be devised to adjust this grievance, it would be a blessing and an encourage- ment to the ministers to enter with greater zest into the work of the prosecution of the war, in the way that is open to them, though a large number have done their share and have shown great patriotism. Welsh agriculturists have played a very ignoble part in this war. Very many farmers have made the most strenuous, and in many instances, the most unjustifiable efforts, to secure exemption for their sons and their men- servants who are of military age, not on religious grounds, but because, as they allege, they are absolutely indispens- able. There is no class of Welshmen who are so progres- sive — politically, and no class who are so conservative — socially and economically. It is extremely difficult to induce them to adapt themselves to new conditions, or to adopt more scientific methods in the cultivation of their farms. To not a few of them the war has been a great boon, and they do not mind how long the war may last, and that for the sake of the high prices they are now able to get for their produce. Yet, farm labourers are, in the majority of cases, only paid two shillings a day and a meal. Partly for this reason, and partly because mining is a privileged industry, many farm workers, and some sons of farmers, have abandoned agriculture for the time being and have become colliers. INTRODUCTORY NOTE XIX But this spirit is not typical of Wales as a whole ; the heart of the nation is sound. I would define the present attitude of Welshmen in three words : Ambition, Patriot- ism, Duty. They do not want to be cowards ; they love their country ; they have seen the light and felt their obligation. Wales and Germany have developed in con- trary directions. The spirit of Wales was subdued through the Norman Conquest, and her disposition became less warlike ; subsequently, under the influence of Puritanism, she came to hate war and to develop an anti-militarist spirit. Since Waterloo, especially, she has had a horror of war. The intense enthusiasm which Wales has shown in this war is evidence of the thoroughness with which she has reversed her former and puritanical self. Great, accord- ing to her population and economic resources, has been her sacrifice, and great has been her suffering. Great also will be her reward in the consciousness of a national duty nobly done, and in the higher estimate of her loyalty and virility which must eventually be formed by those who dwell beyond her own borders. Here in reality is an epoch in her historical development that will or ought to stand as a lighthouse on her future promontory, and cast its beams beyond this generation to the sons and daughters of Wales, of whatever nationality, who may need guidance thereby. If we were asked to specify the particular period which, more vividly and more transcendently than any other period, distinguishes New Wales from the Old, the present is that period ; and we would say that good as was the Old, the New is better. It is better because the Wales of to-day has served the old patriotism under a higher dispensation ; she has given the world a wider disclosure of her own inner character, a nobler disclosure of her own secret loyalty, and a more practical disclosure of those modes of thought and psychological requisites which are essential in a self-governing people who accept the doctrine of the sovereignty of the entire nation, without which no community, however strong its religious XX INTRODUCTORY NOTE foundation, is legitimately entitled to come within the sphere of government. Old Wales was local and sectional ; it lacked the central and centralizing elements ; it stood not only at variance with, but in antagonism to, non- Welsh Wales. It stood in antagonism to almost every type of mentality that was not native to the soil. It was no more national in the broadest and highest sense, than a popular hero is national who appeals only to certain political or sectarian parties, or cliques, or particular interests. It was not national for the reason that, among a grow- ing cosmopolitan population, its vision was circumscribed by race, language, and a particular type of religion and civilization. Its ideal was Turkish rather than British : that is, not to absorb and not to be absorbed, as if a nation lived to itself alone. Hence it is that though Liberal, politically, Wales was not liberalized by a large and generous outlook. Her aim was rather the re-affirmation of purely Welsh rights, in opposition to the affirmation of civic duties and obligations as a unit in the British body politic. Every effort at inoculating Welsh thought with international thought was resented, as was every effort at inoculating Welsh music with the spirit of British music. Internationally, whether in art or in ethics or in politics, was a forbidden subject. Under the genius of such a system and of such an ideal- ism, there were no possibilities of a general adaptation or application of purely native maxims and aspirations, and, therefore, no hope of that sympathy or co-operative harmony between the various fragments of the community, differing in race, language, habits of thought, and tradi- tion. This Old Wales was exclusive and divisive ; its test of citizenship in the Welsh community was as imprac- ticable as the type of patriotism which it advocated ; it over-reached its aim by over-action. It over-estimated and distorted denominationalism, and the things that divide rather than the things that unite, and made sectarian and political distinctions vital issues in a social and a national sense; thus alienating the best elements INTRODUCTORY NOTE XXI outside the churches, and neutralizing the moral and spiritual power of the ministry, with the result that the influence of the ministers has by no means been in propor- tion to their numbers. What the war has done is to give the Welsh a sense of something finer, higher, and more truly national. If it has not eliminated, it has materially softened the asperity which caused so much discord and attrition in times past. It has given the Welsh an object lesson in the work of unity, cohesion, and homogeneity, by showing that it is to the best interest of each section to remain in unison with the other, and thus to foster and to maintain a better public spirit. There is another important lesson which the war has taught the Welsh. Germans used to pride themselves, Paulsen tells us, upon their freedom from selfish, arrogant, vain and narrow-minded self-conceit, which the flatterers of popular passion call patriotism. " Have we," he asks, "still the right to boast of such freedom? " This question could with emphasis and propriety be put to the Welsh of to-day. What is peculiarly interesting is the severity of their censure on the egotism of the Germans; that is, their sense of superiority, and their confidence in the unimpeachableness of the German character. But if what some Welsh politicians, publicists, and writers of all grades have said and written about Welsh culture, were placed (as it could be placed) side by side with what German politicians, publicists and writers have said and written about German culture, it would make highly interesting reading. In spirit there is hardly anything to choose between Welsh and German chauvinism, and not only in spirit but in some of the subjects quoted as the special domain of their respective pre-eminence. There is the same transcendental faith in their racial purity and superiority, in the uniqueness of their history, their language, their nationality, their patriotism, their litera- ture, and especially their music. What is humiliating to the good sense of those Welshmen who have specialized in the idealization of the Welsh character, is not only that they claim for the Welsh a XX11 INTRODUCTORY NOTE monopoly of all virtues, but that they attributed to them virtues or qualities which are not peculiarly Welsh, which are not of their own country or time, but which are the note of foreigners par excellence; and that they have attri- buted to themselves and to their leading men, ideas and results which are not original to them, but which they have borrowed and adopted from foreign sources and claimed as their own. This characteristic side of Welsh life and thought has been developed by every effort of literary suggestion and instruction. The Welsh have been leading one another, as the Germans have been leading one another, into the belief that there have been but very few great persons or great movements in history into whose making something Cymric had not entered. Acceptance of such a doctrine, especially the spirit under- lying it, conditioned the success of every writer or poli- tician. If Wales had a population of over sixty instead of over two millions, with the same economic and geo- graphical conditions as Germany, one often wonders what this characteristic temper would have led her to attempt. Seeing how German chauvinism has thrust the German nation on to the abyss of destruction, one might not very unreasonably expect to find some symptoms of an uneasy conscience among a certain class of Welshmen, who have been chiefly responsible for creating and spreading this chauvinistic spirit among their countrymen. But they seem to be looking for remorse only among the Germans. They have always refused to sit in judgment on them- selves, and have treated with scant courtesy any attempt at independent thinking on the part of any writer. They have elevated the pomp of political self-esteem and the doctrine of boisterous self-assertiveness, into a religion. Apparently, they have never realized that the absence of self-criticism, and resentment of honest and intelligent criticism, is fatal to any people who desire to maintain their national life. Every type of civilization imperils its own future, as it imperils the common peace and the common good, so long as it is animated and fed and fostered by an exaggerated chauvinism. INTRODUCTORY NOTE XX111 It was recently stated at a public conference that the increasing effect of the English language upon the Welsh people is due to the present educational system, a system which was once proclaimed by the very same group of men as being the best in the Kingdom, and equal to any in the world. Now it is said that the University colleges have no traditions, and that they are not truly national and democratic. Also, that the Welsh talent is not being cultivated along the right lines, for the reason that these schools and colleges are not making Wales more Welsh in language and in spirit ; hence, we are told, their failure. This is provincialism with a vengeance ; and unfortunate indeed will it be for the nation if it still continues to be governed by such an idealism. Language, like morality and filial obedience, is fostered upon the mother's knee, and when it is not fostered there, as it is now the case in Wales, no organization, and no amount of compulsory teaching in the schools can arrest its undoubted decay. Many years ago, I was asked by an eminent American scholar and publicist, whether I could place him in possession of any Welsh work by a reputable author, which took the form of a scientific criticism of Welsh life and thought, because, as he said, all that he had seen was of a highly superlative character. If I may in all humility say so, I have for years, in a feeble way, conscientiously endeavoured to supply this want in Welsh literary life. For example, my main object in writing my last work, entitled The Philosophy of Welsh History, was to try to show that the Welsh could not honestly hold the opinions of themselves that they were holding; that the part they had played, or had failed to play, in the sciences of law, medicine, psychology, philosophy, phy- sics, chemistry, engineering, political economy ; and in theology, drama, fiction, poetry, art, or classical studies, did not warrant the reputation which they had, with- out just foundation, created for themselves, and were asking the world to accept. I was dealing with the great temptation of the hour among the Welsh to overrate their capacity, their achievements, and their particular Xxiv INTRODUCTORY NOTE type of civilization, and respectfully warning them against the consequences of their chauvinism, which, instead of dignifying the term culture as it was being applied, was making it odious, and instead of purifying, was corrupting their spiritual elements. But the last thing a people want to be told is what they would rather not hear. It is a sad reflection that a writer who depends on the public taste for his living must be content to produce only what suits the public taste. The penalty of writing what one feels and thinks and considers to be of importance, and is of importance, is, as Grant Allen once said, " no pay and starvation." For- tunate is he whose nature does not require that it should be sustained by the stimulus of that outer moral dram in the form of flattery, or profits, or public applause and the excitement caused by it, without which life, to some natures, loses all its spring and interest. It is not necessary to agree with all the postulates or conclusions of an author in order to properly appreciate the purpose, if not the value, of his thesis. To say that an author thinks meanly of his nation and that he resents their self-expression because he deprecates their obviously exaggerated estimate of themselves, and because he points out that much, if not most, of what is of value in modern Welsh life is in a very large measure the outcome of outside and non-Cymric influences, is to do him an injus- tice. To victimize him, and to question his right to be heard, is not only a serious reflection on those who have pretentions to the higher forms of culture and spirtuality, but it is a disgrace to literature and to the nobler instincts of our common nature, and distinctly harmful to the best interests of the nation itself. It is a commonplace remark that with sufficient self- assertion, a man of inferior ability can persuade others to take him at his own valuation. The same is true of a nation in the aggregate. The criticism to which, as I have thought, the Welsh have rendered themselves liable, is the criticism to which it is generally conceded that the Germans have rendered themselves liable, viz., that they INTRODUCTORY NOTE XXV have advertised and celebrated themselves, their system of education, their prose and poetic literature, and their public men beyond their due, and that they have thought of their own country, their own culture, their own history, and their own type of civilization, as in inevitable opposi- tion to other countries, their culture, their history and their type of civilization, with the result that they have developed a mistrust of, and an aversion from other non- Celtic countries, and other foreign forms of culture. My sincere conviction has been that this very laudable love of country, this justifiable pride in the progress of the Welsh people and in the achievements of their foremost men, at home and abroad, this just resentment against the attempts that have been made in many directions to keep the Welsh " under the hatches " (the phrase is that of Lord Lingen), and the tone of lofty superiority which the governing classes have adopted towards them in the past, has unfortunately developed a peculiarly truculent type of patriotism, a patriotism which is in danger of producing something more than an aversion for its opposite. This war shows how deeply the aggressiveness of German chauvinism has sunk into that nation's mind, and how deplorable are its results. The love of Germans for Germany, and their inordinate pride in everything German, has brought them to the belief that German patriotism is inseparable from hatred of other countries and of other forms of culture. As German historians and writers have tried to justify their self-esteem on the ground that a nation cannot dispense with arrogance, so have modern Welshmen sought to justify their self-esteem by arrogating to themselves qualities and achievements to which they have no claim, either in the realm of history, or of philosophy, or of action. The Welsh have yet to learn that the less civilized a nation is, the more difficult it is for that nation to resist the temptation to pride itself on possessing the very virtues which it conspicuously lacks. The more highly civi- lized a nation is, the greater its ability to recognize its XXVI INTRODUCTORY NOTE own limitations, and its power to act on the maxim of " Know Thyself." That Wales has a future — in some respects a great future — there can be no question, but it is a future, not a past. It is both wise and good to keep the past in view, to reflect upon the simplicity and solemnity of it ; to recall the virtues that adorned it ; to cultivate veneration for the pious and dynamic personalities who gave a beyond to the life of the nation, by promoting that onward and upward tending which is the soul of progression. It is wise and good because it serves to keep the rising generation in touch with the regenera- tive forces which have helped to make Wales, intellec- tually and politically and spiritually, a nation to be respected, and because it tends to redeem the present from the bondage of self-conceit. But it is sad to see a nation offering up so much incense at unworthy shrines, ignoring those who seek its highest interests, helping those who injure it, and honouring some not on account of any encouragement they have ever given to men of letters, or preachers ; not on account of some inherent quality, developed in corresponding action, either of an intellectual or of a moral nature, but merely on account of wealth and power. Nowhere more than in Wales has charlatanism taken the place that is due to superior knowledge, and to the more sincere form of patriotism. The laws of sowing and reaping are the same in the social as in the spiritual world, and a nation, like an in- dividual, reaps what it sows. What sort of harvest the future will produce depends upon the preparation ; upon what and who is it which is to the nation the best and the greatest that it desires to realize ; upon its willingness to learn of other nations, and its ability to share with those nations the virtues that it lacks. The Welsh have lived too long on the reserve of their own intellect, and have fed themselves too much on their own mental and social prejudices. If this war has any lesson for the Welsh — and it is with a deep attachment to Wales and loyalty to the welfare of the Welsh that I say INTRODUCTORY NOTE XXV11 it — it is that they should not look upon their country and all for which the country stands, as in a natural state of challenge to other countries, and to that aspect of culture and civilization for which those countries stand. J. Vyrnwy Morgan. July 26U1, 19 16. PART I THE WAR AND WALES CHAPTER I THE ETHICS OF WAR It is possible to understand, and even to respect, the position of those who sincerely believe that all wars are unlawful and sinful, and who regard it as a reproach to the Christian Powers that they cannot, through their diplo- mats, settle their differences without hurling masses of men against each other in deadly conflict, thereby causing so much undeserved hardship. It is a reproach ; it is a disgrace. But while there have been diplomats who have instigated wars, there have been diplomats who, like Sir Edward Grey, have imperilled the safety of their country in their efforts to preserve peace. Pacific intentions alone are not enough to ensure peace. Even the wisest diplo- mat cannot always allay those passions, or adjust those conflicting interests, that make for war. Diplomacy can- not provide a substitute for armed strength ; policy and armaments are essentially interdependent. The very peace measures adopted by diplomats not in- frequently result in war. For instance, during the Boer War, England had not a friend in Europe ; she remained in a state of splendid, though perilous, isolation. Her military resources had been severely strained in the struggle with the two small Dutch States in South Africa. Germany, although already in possession of a very formid- able Army, was busy building up a Navy of such strength that it might seriously threaten Great Britain's dominion of the seas. 3 4 THE WAR AND WALES After the war between Russia and Turkey, in 1877-78, Germany and Austria-Hungary, being alarmed at the power of Russia, formed an alliance against Russia, and Bismarck succeeded in persuading Italy to join, thus forming the Triple Alliance. France and Russia replied to this by forming the Dual Alliance in 1896. England, relying upon her naval supremacy, stood alone, and was friendless. This, together with the fact that her military forces were insufficient, caused our statesmen to consider their policy. Consequently, an agreement was made between Great Britain and France, which was signed in London on April 8th, 1904, by Lord Lansdowne and M. Paul Cambon. It was extended by a similar agreement with Russia, which was completed in 1907. This grouping of the three Powers — England, France, and Russia — was an earnest attempt to preserve the peace of Europe. The Alliance was looked upon as a good counterpoise to that of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy. It was fervently hoped, and sincerely believed, that the founding of this balance of power in Europe would be a guarantee of peace. Neither France, nor Russia, nor England, contemplated war, either for glory or revenge. Russia had settled down to the institution of political reforms. France had no desire for fresh territories in Europe. England had all she needed. While the other Powers, including France and Russia, were augmenting their military forces, England did not add a single man to her Army. Yet, this entente between England, France, and Russia, which was designed for peace, resulted in war. Russia was compelled to assist Serbia, after Austria had delivered an impossible ultimatum to Serbia. When Russia began to mobilize, Germany, acting on the strength of the treaty of 1879, came to the aid of Austria. Then France, in virtue of the Dual Alliance of 1896, had to stand by Russia. This involved England, for she was bound to France by the entente of 1904. Apart from this, France had placed practically the whole of her Fleet in the Mediterranean, for the reason that THE ETHICS OF WAR 5 England had been obliged to withdraw her battleships, in consequence of the concentration in force of the German Navy in the North Sea. England had assured France that if the German Fleet came through the Channel, or through the North Sea, to commence hostilities against the French coast, or French shipping, the British Fleet would give France all the protection possible. This is only one of the many examples that could be adduced to show how nations sometimes find themselves at war against their will. The actual cause of England's declaration of war against Germany was the violation by Germany of the neutrality of Belgium, although Prussia had actually signed, in 1839, tne Treaty of London which guaranteed the integrity and the neutrality of Belgium. England undertook a great and a noble task when she entered the conflict in order to fulfil an honourable obliga- tion, and to vindicate the rights of small nationalities. But there is another and a graver consideration which ought to reach the conscience and mind of every Briton, viz., the war has so developed and extended in area and in policy, that Great Britain has now to fight for her own exist- ence. The question now is, " Can the British Isles, the heart of the Empire, be saved from destruction ? ' There is another question that is being asked, " What is the use of diplomacy? " " Could not diplomats have devised some means to prevent so many European nations, most of them Christian communities — in name at any rate — from embarking on such a titanic conflict ? Is not diplomacy the Father of Lies ? " There are diplomats and diplomats. History bears witness to the fact that some of them have lured their own and other nations to unlawful and immoral wars — wars of revenge, glory, and aggrandizement. There have been inefficient diplomats, careless diplomats, who have un- consciously betrayed the interests of their own country, and who have allowed the diplomats of other nations to gain undue advantages over them. Much depends on diplomacy. There can be no question that Germany's c 6 THE WAR AND WALES preponderating influence in the Balkan States, and in many sections of the near East, is due to the fact that she, unlike England, placed the flower of her diplomatic service in Constantinople, Bukarest, Sofia, Athens, and else- where. Her dream has been, and is, an Empire extending from Berlin to India ; and in order to attain her ends, she appointed representatives who could speak the language of the people, who understood the psychology of the people, and who always kept the interests of Germany in view. The failures of British diplomacy, in this and in other respects, especially in the Balkans, are a painful theme. Priceless opportunities have been thrown away, and valuable positions have been lost, largely as the result of inattention, half-heartedness, procrastination, the want of a definite policy, and, in some cases, the want of capacity. But Great Britain has also been blessed with the services of peace-loving diplomats, of trained intelligence, with a knowledge of history, of international law, and of social psychology ; diplomats who possessed a profound acquaintance with the whole political fabric with which national and international interests are bound up ; who were animated by great ideals of liberty ; and who never neglected the interests of their own country. Yet, faith- ful, vigilant, and peace-bearing as they were, bolts from the blue were their daily portion. Much as they struggled to keep the balance even, they found themselves in the grip of forces whose action they could neither control nor restrain. It has been abundantly demonstrated in this war, that the smallest accidental act or influence, either makes or diverts the course of war, or extends its area. The un- accountable escape of the Goeben brought Turkey into the orbit of the war, and on the side of Germany. The failures of the Dardanelles Expedition resulted, not in the opening of the Dardanelles, but of the whole Eastern question, thus giving a new objective to the war. Writing on the campaign of 1761-62, Frederick the Great said : "At the end of the last campaign in the THE ETHICS OF WAR 7 opinion of statesmen Prussia was lost. She was saved by the death of a woman and was supported and saved by the help of that Power which had been most anxious to destroy her. In a similar manner Madame Masham saved France in the War of Succession by her intrigues against Lady Marlborough. How vain are our calculations ! The smallest accident influences and changes the fate of Empires. Chance makes a plaything of us, laughs at the vain wisdom of us mortals, elevates some and overthrows others." While the risks of war remain — and they will always remain — it is criminal for any nation to be unprepared, to refuse to face the facts, or to turn a deaf ear — as Eng- land did before this war — to the pleadings of men whose experience, services, and knowledge entitled them to a respectful hearing. It is a sad truth that English history does not record a single instance in which the warnings of impending danger, uttered by a small, but a far-seeing minority, succeeded in waking up the country. Since the time of Pitt no Government has detected smouldering perils before they had burst into flames. Great Britain may yet be forced to fight for her existence, not only, or necessarily, against a rejuvenated Germany, but even against America. We do not know — though we may surmise — what is going to be the future relation of Great Britain and America. It is easy for pacifists, humanitarians, internationalists, and ministers of religion, to moralize on the evils of war, and the curse of what they call " militarism " ; but each nation owes a duty to itself, a duty which it would be criminal to neglect ; and the lesson of history is, that the nations that have neglected such a duty have either perished, or have been deprived of their prosperity and greatness. Moreover, the economic conflicts between great industrial countries are growing, and will continue to grow, in intensity and magnitude. These conflicts have much to do with our Army and Navy estimates, and are entirely outside the will of sovereigns and statesmen. We have already stated that we can appreciate the 8 THE WAR AND WALES feelings and nature of those who hate war, because they believe that all wars in their primary origin and in their final results are unlawful and immoral, and an outrage on humanity and Christianity ; and they therefore decline to participate in them. Their position is that New Testa- ment Christians cannot but believe, and act on their belief, that all wars, whether aggressive or defensive, are in all their roots and fruits an abomination, and a viola- tion of all laws both human and divine. The divine life, they say, they gladly aspire to, in obedience to the Divine Power, which is above and out- side them, and in whom lies the sovereignty of the Universe. The divine law, they agree, is a restraint upon them, and a diminution of the liberty to do as they please in the realm of the spirit ; to that they reverently submit. But the right of the State to set bounds to their liberty of choice and action, and to force them to take up arms even in a war of defence, they dispute ; such a claim they can- not tolerate. With all problems of State, and with all great human disciplines, outside their own sphere, such as the Army and Navy, they have no concern ; they are attached to an order of existence which is both independent of, and antagonistic to, the normal interests of the State and the community. The doctrine of non-resistance is, at all costs and in regard to all military operations, to them a religious principle. This is one of the tendencies of the religious theory, viz., to separate itself unduly from all activities which lie outside what is purely moral and spiritual. Its absorption in its own theory precludes and incapacitates it from paying attention to, or understand- ing, theories of social and political life. But it is impossible to respect the feelings and motives of those who do not seem to consider it to be either un- manly or unchristianlike, for one citizen to expect another citizen to do the fighting for him, while he himself exists in selfish enjoyment of what measure of peace, liberty, and prosperity, may result through the courage and self- sacrifice of those who willingly place their lives at the THE ETHICS OF WAR 9 service of their king and country. They live in the hope that fools enough will be found to sacrifice their lives for others. Of course, if self-interest were universal, there would be no such fools to be found. Their case is that it should be left to the individual conscience to decide whether it be right or wrong, necessary or unnecessary, to take up arms in defence of one's country. Their reasons are twofold. First, that to compel a man to fight, and possibly lay down his life for his country, is the greatest infringement of liberty, and ought to be strenu- ously resisted. It is a philosophical truism with this class of citizen, that every man understands his own duty, or his own affairs, best ; that he need not be meddled with by the State, or by his fellow citizens, at least till he asks for advice, and even then no one should try to compel him to act upon it. The essence of indi- vidual liberty, according to them, is that the individual is the master of his own destiny, and responsible only to himself. The exercise of the " right " of the State, they say, to call upon its citizens to render a service which is repugnant to them, is compulsion, and compulsion is not only alien to the Welsh, or British genius, but a violation of the liberty of the individual. They look upon the State, not as an object of service, but as an instrument of gain for personal and sectional ends. That such a sentiment should prevail — and it does prevail to a larger extent than our Government seems to know — is not surprising. Just as the Professors and Historians of Germany re-fashioned the conception of the State, so certain politicians in England have re-fashioned the conception of democracy. For the last ten years, at any rate, we have been told, that the will of the people, whatever that may be, must prevail, and that the people are always right. The spirit and aim of much of the legislation that has been enacted in England during recent years has been based on the theory that the State exists for the individual. Germany, on the other hand, has legislated on the theory that the State and the life of the State must be supreme ; that the State, with its controlling 10 THE WAR AND WALES power for good, is as real as, and of greater importance than, the life of the individual. While Germany preached the absolutism of the State, England, or certain parties in England, preached the absolutism of the individual. As the one theory has brought disaster upon Germany, so the other has brought disaster upon England. Neither country will be the same when the war is over ; there is humiliation and disillusionment in store for both. Our criticism is, not that pacifists and moralists cherish individual liberty, but that they regard their liberty as absolute, not conditional. A complete, though tempor- ary, subordination of one's liberty to State control may be necessary for the preservation of individual liberty. Within the State the liberty of each is conditioned by the respect that is due to the rights of others ; it is liberty that has its obligations. When we come to the wider field of international affairs, the liberty enjoyed within the State may have to be curtailed through hostile pres- sure from without, and in order that the State itself may survive. According to the immemorial Common Law of England, every able-bodied subject, within certain prescribed age limits, is liable to be called upon to aid the King in main- taining order within the country, and to follow the King in defending the realm against alien enemies. These ancient Common Law duties are justified by history, and by political principle, for a nation is an entity whose prosperity or adversity must, if it is to remain strong and morally healthy, be shared by all alike. How different it is in France ! The war concerns us quite as much as it concerns them. This fact has not been realized in England as it should have been. Indeed, it is often said, by way of justification, by very many who refuse to enlist, that it was not necessary that we should participate in this war. " Why should we," they ask, " sacrifice our comfort and our lives, for the sake of France, of Serbia, or of Belgium ? " It is difficult to argue with such type of men. Great, or Greater Britain, is not fighting merely for France, or Serbia, or Belgium, but for THE ETHICS OF WAR II her own existence, and for that liberty concerning which pacifists seem to be so solicitous. France is fighting for us as well as for herself, and the French are conscious of the fact. For the one cause, quite as much as for the other, France has given everything she possesses ; all personal and all sectional considerations have been laid aside, her whole manhood is under arms ; the entire energies of the whole nation are being devoted to the prosecution of the war. In France priests and people are on the same level ; they share the responsibility and the hardship. The Primate of England says that it is wrong for the English clergy to fight ; he says this of the unmarried clergy of military age and fitness. Combatant service in the field, he claims, is inconsistent with the ministry of the Church. But if a clergyman says that he cannot fight because his faith forbids him to kill in battle, may not a Christian layman say the same? There is no evidence that it is a part of divine law that a priest must not fight. If it were divinely forbidden for a priest to kill, it is certain that the twenty thousand French priests would have rebelled against, rather than have submitted to, the secular law which ordered their mobilization. It may be that the Church does not know her own mind on the question of episcopal and sacerdotal militancy. There have been wars of religion — such were the Crusades. Even Christianity as it presents itself to us to-day is the perplexive outcome of ages of contention. One of the outstanding facts of history is, the everlasting conflict of religious ideas and doctrines. Christianity in its organized and institutional form is pugnacious and divisory. Is there any agreement, is there any approxi- mation to agreement, in respect to symbols of worship, doctrine, orders, conditions of membership or organiza- tion ? Doctrines differ not merely in the form in which they are presented, but in the things that they teach. Each doctrine, and each sect, from the greatest of all sects to the numerous minor sects, seeks to increase its own strength by dividing the strength of its antagonist. 12 THE WAR AND WALES This ever-recurring discussion, conflict and bitterness, over doctrines and the substance of doctrines, is like the ever-recurring Eastern question. The Christian world stands to-day where the diplomatic or the political world stands — talking of peace and of union, while at the same time fostering the views and the passions that work for disunion. The spirit of religion as organically expressed is exclusive, dictatorial, and divisive. The boastful and arrogant affirmation of the one is as widely prevalent as the other, and the boastful claim to unity of the one is as groundless as the other. The Roman Catholic sect is busy converting Protestant England, and Protestant England is busy protesting against being converted. There are about one hundred and fifty denominations in the world, all founded on conscience — the combative conscience — and each belittling the other. Behind all the divisions and sub-divisions which have rent, which still rend, and will continue to rend Christendom, there lies the same intolerance, the same cupidity, the same passions, and the same dominat- ing spirit, that caused the wars that were waged to dis- possess sovereigns of their hereditary crowns, to annex their dominions, and which have caused other wars in more modern times. This leads us to the second reason given by pacifists and moralists for not participating in this war, viz., that war has no justification in Scriptures, in morals, or in humanity. They appeal to certain passages in the Bible, and to cer- tain sayings of Christ, which they translate into the political phraseology of their spiritual faiths, thus missing their true spirit and meaning. Instead of interpreting the Bible as a whole, and considering the meaning certain characteristic phrases, with which we are so familiar, must have had, and were intended to have, to those upon whose ears they fell, they pervert them by their insist- ence on those particular interpretations which they, for personal, doctrinal and other purposes, choose to distort out of their incidental phrases and metaphors. Their weakness is that they are merely literalists ; and such is THE ETHICS OF WAR 13 the extravagance of their literalism that it suggests a reaction ; indeed, it explains the revolt of many who have been led to deny the reality at the back of the figurative terms in which the reality itself is set forth. Similarly, heaven, hell and punishment are, to them, material ; "fire," "darkness," "chains," "demons," and "tor- ment," they explain in a purely literal sense. It has been almost impossible to set forth the truths of religion without the use of figurative language ; but those who take such language in its purely literal sense, and who elaborate it into the grossest materialism, have this peculiar advantage, namely, that they can justify or condemn, as they please, every sect, creed and ceremonial, and triumphantly quote the Scriptures as their authority. They can inveigh against wealth, marriage, and almost every profession. Thus it is that narrow religionists in every age have claimed to be sole faithful supporters of true religion, and have, with a "clear conscience," com- mitted in the name of religion, the deadliest crimes. If the figurative language of the Bible is to be taken literally, it might be thought not unreasonably that Christ was encouraging improvidence when He said, " Take therefore no thought for the morrow ; for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof " (Matthew vi. 34). And that He was compounding felony when He said, " And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also " (Matthew v. 40). And that He was giving a licence to the garrotter when He said, " But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil ; but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also " (Matthew v. 39). But John the Baptist was not condemning war, neither was he casting a reflection on soldiership, when he said in answer to a question as to how the soldier should act, " Do violence to no man " (Luke hi. 14). What he meant was that they should not abuse their power by aid- ing and abetting the extortions of the tax-collector and the publican. 14 THE WAR AND WALES The contradictions of Scriptures regarding war are certainly interesting, even inexplicable. " Blessed be the Lord my strength, which teacheth my hands to war, and my fingers to fight " (Psalm cxliv. i). " Scatter thou the people that delight in war " (Psalm lxviii. 30). " Take ye the sum of all the congregation of the children of Israel after their families, by the house of their fathers, with the number of their names, every male by their polls. From twenty years old and upward, all that are able to go forth to war in Israel ; thou and Aaron shall number them by their armies " (Numbers i. 2, 3). " But thy servants will pass over every man armed for war, before the Lord to battle " (Numbers xxxii. 27). " And Moses said unto the children of Gad and to the children of Reuben, Shall your brethren go to war, and shall ye sit here? " (Numbers xxxii. 6). " From whence come wars and fightings among you ? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members ? " (James iv. 1). " Cursed be he that doeth the work of the Lord deceitfully, and cursed be he that keepeth back his sword from blood " (Jeremiah xlviii. 10). " And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse ; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war " (Rev. xix. 11). The term war sometimes bears a purely spiritual mean- ing ; such, for instance, as in 2 Cor. x. 3, " For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh." But the common acceptation of the term, as used in Scriptures, denotes a state of hostility between provinces and nations. It is interesting to note that the wars of the Bible were of two kinds — voluntary and compulsory. The first were wars undertaken by God's chosen people on their own initiative, and in order to avenge some insult or injustice, or for the purpose of helping and defending their allies. The second were wars of obligation ; that is, wars which they were commanded by God to undertake against their enemies, who had designs on their liberty and religion. The motive underlying these wars varied from time to time. Sometimes, they were commanded to go to war to THE ETHICS OF WAR 15 vindicate God's honour ; sometimes, to cast off the yoke of alien kings who kept them in subjection ; sometimes, that they might possess those provinces which God had prepared for His chosen people ; sometimes in order to uphold their religion and the religion of their forefathers. War is sometimes spoken of in the Bible as a judgment upon those who have fulfilled the measure of their iniqui- ties, and who have ignored God's moral laws. For the prosecution of these wars, God raised, from time to time, men like Gideon, Caleb, Joshua, Samson, David, and others, whom He inspired, guarded and fortified for the conflict with their enemies. These leaders, or generals, were not fabulous heroes, or men who waged war for the sake of war, or because they gloated at the sight of human blood, or desired to bring other nations into subjection, in order that they might rule and tyran- nize over them, or profit by them. Such leaders were moved by God to fight His battles ; and it is worthy of note, that such battles were always fought for ethical and spiritual ends. When the ancient Hebrews went to war, and the actual conflict was near at hand, the high-priest would present himself at the head of the army, addressing them in the following words : " Hear, O Israel, and be not in fear of your enemies ; for the Lord your God fights for you." Hence the declaration : " The Lord is a man of war, the Lord is his name " (Exodus xv. 3), Thus it is seen that the ethics of war are replete with antithesis. Indeed, there is very little that is definite in the Bible to help us to form an absolutely conclusive judgment upon the ethics of war ; or upon the ethics of many other perplexing social, religious, and political questions, such for instance, as slavery, temperance, democracy, or the re-marriage of divorced persons. The absence of any positive declaration in the Scriptures is reflected in the uncertain, even contradictory sounds, which proceed from the pulpit, the press, and ecclesiastical conventions. Christ never assumed to legislate upon such matters ; He never suggested any form of legisla- tion in regard to purely civil affairs ; He did not judicially l6 THE WAR AND WALES decide questions that belonged to the State. To under- stand rightly such sayings as, " My kingdom is not of this world ; if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight " (John xviii. 36), or, " Then said he unto them, But now, he that hath a purse, let him take it, and likewise his scrip : and he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one " (Luke xxii. 36), or, " Blessed are the meek ; for they shall inherit the earth " (Matthew v. 5), the time and place of utterance, the per- sons addressed, and the social and political conditions of the time, must be taken into consideration. Christ did not mean that a meek man was one who, when he was hit, just bore it and did not hit back. He did not mean that the meek man was one who should possess anything in the form of houses, or lands, or property, or wealth, or even influence ; it is control rather than posses- sion that is implied. He did not suggest that humility was a single attribute of the soul — it is not. Meekness stands for the state of the whole mind, produced by the complete ascendancy and symmetrical development of the highest moral feelings in man. It denotes a state when the spiritual emotions completely rule the soul, and rule everything that comes within the sphere of the soul. It signifies that the time is coming when the manhood that is completely under the influence or control of the spiritual elements shall govern, and govern in virtue of its superiority morally and spiritually. Christ was not forbidding resistance to injuries, or deprecating physical force ; He was not forbidding war, or deprecating patriotism. He was not teaching that physical power was antagonistic to moral power, or that man in order to rise to the higher state, must suppress or obliterate the lower feelings ; but that the lower feelings should serve the higher, and that the higher should pre- dominate over the lower. Christ was emphasizing the worth of forgotten, neg- lected, or undiscovered virtues and principles of action. He was recommending the friendship virtues — the vir- tues of forbearance, mildness, sacrifice, forgiveness, and THE ETHICS OF WAR 17 disinterested kindness. These virtues men and nations were to gather together and to foster, every one, severally, into an ideal conception. They were to be the test and criterion of all theologies, churches, and ordinances ; they were to settle the relative merits of different beliefs and different organizations. Christ lived in an age of violence ; in an age that had canonized the doctrine of force ; an age when might stood for right. The Roman Empire was, at that time, the supreme power on earth ; it was founded, held together and governed by might. All governments existed by the consent, and at the mercy, of Rome. The Sceptre of Power, which was originally vested in the Oriental monarchies, had passed to Persia, from Persia to Greece, and from Greece to Rome. In Rome it rested in the time of the Saviour. The trend of the Sceptre of Power in His day was Westward ; it has been Westward ever since — Great Britain and the United States of America. There is no further West, for beyond the Occident is the Orient. It seems, in these troublous times, to be as restless as Noah's dove, as if in quest of a new body in which to begin life over again. Will it continue its life in the West ? What part of the West? In Central Europe ? In Great Britain? In the United States of America ? Or will it retrace its course and return to the East whence it first came? When Christ proclaimed these virtues, all modern Europe had practically no existence ; Britain was, as it were, sunk below the horizon ; Gaul was a wilderness. Modern Germany was unknown. The American conti- nent had not been discovered. He was speaking to a smaller world than the world of to-day, and to fewer nations. It was gloom everywhere except in Palestine, Greece and Rome. The substantial power of the world lay in the Roman Empire ; that power was heathen ; not only heathen, but hard. In such an age Christ trained a band of men who could, and did, show the worth and beauty of the milder virtues ; men who cared not to answer nor to strike back. l8 THE WAR AND WALES Had Christ this modern world in mind when He uttered these words ? Did He intend that these virtues and principles of action should be observed and acted upon in modern Britain, modern Germany, modern France, and modern Italy, as well as in ancient Palestine ? The world of to-day is not only a larger, but a totally different world from the world which Christ knew in His day. Society is different ; the theory of society is different ; government is different ; the theory of government is different ; family life is different ; the doctrine of family life is different. Children, in the days of Christ, had no rights, they were slaves ; they were the property of their parents in the same sense as their houses and lands were their property. Worship is different, the ideas connected with worship are different ; sonship is different ; every- thing is different. Christ lived before the great dis- coveries in science were made ; before democracy, as we know it, was born ; before the theory of nationality had been evolved, before republicanism had been dreamed of. Is the teaching of Christ absolutely applicable to the modern as to the ancient world ? Did He intend to lay down laws that should be applicable to all future condi- tions, to every class, to every race, to every nation, independently of the special time and circumstances with which they were connected ? However, few things stand out more clearly and promi- nently in the life of Christ than this, that while He pointed the world of His day to neglected sides of human character ; that while He was from the very first at variance with the religious authorities ; while He was constantly in revolt against the dogmatic spirit in reli- gion, and against the assumption of clerical infallibility ; yet, on all questions of a political character He taught that respect and obedience should be paid to established authority. But there can be no authority, no stability, no peace, no prosperity, no order, within the State, no security for the safety or permanence of the State, if each citizen is to be allowed to be a law unto himself, or to be permitted to THE ETHICS OF WAR ig put to the test, whenever he chooses, the principle of passive or active resistance, especially in times of national stress, and on the ground that he is committed, religiously or theoretically, to certain opinions or principles of action. No form of civilized government is possible or conceiv- able under such conditions ; and any form of government founded on such a basis would be the negation of democ- racy — it would be anarchy. While it should be the aim of every good, sound, and progressive government, to further the happiness and prosperity of the people by enacting laws that are conso- nant with justice and goodness, and by ameliorating the lot of the poor, it should also be its maxim to inculcate and to enforce the doctrine that contentment and pros- perity can only be attained through service and sacrifice, and equality of service and sacrifice. Otherwise a well- organized, powerful, and an enlightened autocracy is safer than, and preferable to, democracy. There have always been classes of men who, as Machiavelli observed, will not understand, whatever explanation may be given them. There is much force in his observation that if such cannot with certainty be made trustworthy friends of the State, it is very clearly necessary to prevent them being enemies. When personal liberty is interpreted as personal licence, when what is called democracy is synonymous with autocracy, it must eventually prove an injustice and a curse. Bureaucracy has its defects and limitations ; it has also one great redeeming feature — discipline. When democracy passes into despotism, it is bad for the State, for morals, and for democracy itself. It would not be too much to say that bureaucracy has superseded democracy in England in this war, and that by a voluntary Act of Parliament, and for the reason that it is considered a more fitting instrument with which to carry the war to a successful issue. The late Mr. Joseph Chamberlain said that if we had a great war on our hands we should have to appoint a Dictator. We have come as near as possible to it in this national emergency, in the bureaucratic form of government which has been 20 THE WAR AND WALES established. Our executive has been armed with extra- ordinary, we would be justified in saying, despotic power. True, Parliament, nominally at any rate, remains ulti- mately supreme. But the fact stands, that a democratic Parliament has delegated its authority to a bureaucracy ; it has voted without resentment, and without any adverse criticism, for measures which have abrogated for the time being every vestige of constitutional safeguard for the liberty of the subject and the freedom of the Press. Everything is subject to the discretion of the Executive. A sad comment on the capacity of democracy to govern in war time. One of the outstanding features in connection with this war, in so far as England is concerned, is that whilst leading statesmen, soldiers, and sober men of all parties and opinions, have no doubts or searchings of heart respecting the duty of Britons in this grave crisis, there is a class of men ever ready to supply us with hypocritical glozings — they are pacifists and professional purists. They constitute a sort of police whose duty it is to speak and to act in defence of " a higher morality," and of " religion." They have such " deep and conscientious convictions," that they would decline to serve " whatever the consequences of refusal." They profess to have reached these conclusions, partly " through association with international movements " ; partly " through their Christian faith." The obvious answer is, that if religion is the effeminate, ambiguous, nerveless, and unpatriotic thing that they would have us believe, then it is no match for the vice and the villainy of the devil, and it has no claim to our allegiance. But does not the Book that descants more liberally and admirably than any other upon the virtues of charity, peace, and forgiveness, also descant and descant almost vehemently, upon the duty of " abhorring evil ? " What is abhorrence ? How are we to define it ? It is more than dislike, more than indignation, more than hate. " The very word in its etymology," said Henry Ward Beecher, " signifies that kind of affright which causes the THE ETHICS OF WAR 21 quill or hair of an animal to stand on end, and throws it into a violent tremor, and puts it into an attitude either of self-defence or aggression, so that every part of it is stirred up with a consuming fire." A dangerous weapon, we are told, to put into the hands of the people ; so it is when they are uneducated and un- enlightened. Fire is a dangerous weapon, but we do not forbear to use it on that account. So is this maudlin philosophy about the " inalienable right " of " free citizens " to refuse to serve in arms in the interest of the country in which they were born, which gave them educa- tion, liberty and a livelihood. Men who can, in a crisis of this magnitude, stand unabashed outside the main current of national sentiment, who can refrain from expressing their abhorrence and acting upon it, are un- worthy to be ranked in the roll of manhood ; they lack the virtue that is indispensable to the purity and integrity of their own souls. The guilt of Germany, her vices, her idolatry of her own power, her treachery, and her determi- nation to overthrow England, and to override every law, human and divine, are so obvious, so vulgar, so diffusive, that it is more than difficult to understand how even professional purists, and especially some ministers of religion, can find ingenious palliations for so gigantic a moral and intellectual defection. It is pitiable to see some preachers in Wales as in England, so mealy-mouthed that they shrink from calling things by their proper names. Having been smitten on the one cheek they practically tell us to turn the other, and let the smiter go free. Our duty is, they say, to build up the life and strength of our country without inflicting loss on that of other people — this is their " faith." Not that many of them are strangers to the mechanism of politics. When the Disestablishment con- troversy was at its height, they were to be seen at every convention ; even their pulpits were converted into political platforms — so sensitive were they to the " evils " associated with the Church " as by law established." But now, when humanity is dishonoured to its very D 22 THE WAR AND WALES core ; when England, even the British Empire, is shaken to its deepest foundations, and its existence in imminent peril ; when the sounds that fall on men's ears are sounds of sorrow and mourning ; when the world is filled with shocks of calamities ; when Europe is bowed down, roll- ing and wailing in grief ; when tribulation like the sheeted doom of storm has swept over the whole continent ; when tears are so numerous that they are too cheap to be counted ; when blood is so plentiful that it cannot be measured ; when millions of hearts and households are pierced with anguish ; when countless orphans go lonely, yearning and longing for the dead who never return ; yet some of these ministers of religion who put, as they said, God's measure, or the golden reed of justice, on the Church and its clergy, because a " State Church jars against democratic religion, and against integrity at large," are silent in face of crimes that have caused Europe and the East to bubble like a crater. They do not believe in recruiting ; in so far as their indirect influence goes, they discourage it. They do not believe in the conviction or retribution that comes through a thrust of the bayonet. Their conscience forbids them, and the more conscientious they are, the more disastrous is their influence on society. They were not ordained, they say, to raise soldiers for the State, they were ordained to teach moral truths and to preach " Christ and Him crucified." But they crucify Him afresh in that they fail to apply themselves to one of the most important functions they could address them- selves as ministers of religion, viz., the maintenance of liberty as a permanent principle in human society, the maintenance of international honour, and the suppression of the treason of savagery. Instead of animating their people with a sense of their duty as citizens of the Empire, they indulge in vain babblings about the wisdom of brotherly love, the wisdom of forgiveness, the wisdom of conscience, and the wisdom of personal liberty. Instead of inspiring their young men — most of them thoughtless and pleasure-loving — with patriotic ardour, by showing them how through THE ETHICS OF WAR 23 hardships ; how through marches over morass and wire entanglements ; how through night and day vigils in the trenches and on the heights ; how through loss upon loss ; how in sight of the wounded and the dying ; how when injured themselves, but concealing their injuries, our brave soldiers, who are our own kith and kin, are toil- ing and labouring and enduring without a murmur of complaint, in anticipation of a victory that will avenge the wrongs of Belgium; that will lift this awful load of sorrow from the heart of France ; that will secure the safety of England and her Colonies ; that will dispel the gloom that overshadows the soul of the civilized world ; they discourse upon the iniquity of war, the blessedness of peace, and the need of an immediate peace ; thus weaken- ing and degrading their young men in every bone, and muscle, and nerve, and faculty of their being ; making soft pillows for them to put their heads on, and easy cushions for them to sit down on, and sweet music to lull their better impulses. It is unchristianlike, they say, to sacrifice the manhood of the nation in order to assist " alien countries," or to inflict suffering and loss for the sake of moral or political purification ; peaceful and remedial measures, they claim, are the best, the wisest, the most moral, and humane. They might as well say that a surgeon who, when he sees gangrene in the limb, takes the saw and inflicts pain and loss in order to save life, is performing an immoral and an unchristian act. All physicians are for palliatives, but when palliatives are of no avail, they resort to the knife to get rid of the disease. We do not censure the surgeon, nor his art ; on the contrary, we bless both. Neither does Christianity condemn war or the warrior. Christ, when He looked about Him in His day, became angry, and said of those who sat in Moses' seat, " For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders." " Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ! for ye devour widows' houses, and for pretence make a long prayer ; therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation." " Woe unto you, 24 THE WAR AND WALES scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves." What would Christ say of a nominally Christian Power that has, for a generation at least, been weaving a web of intrigue into the social and political fabric of almost every nation, in order to make proselytes, and to consoli- date its strength for a conflict upon which it had set its mind and heart ? What would He say if He saw this same Power, in pursuance of its political ambition, descending to such depths and lengths of wickedness ; insulting and dishonouring manhood in man, woman- hood in woman, childhood in the child ; its crimes so wrought into, and so twined round about the individual persons who committed them, who condoned and even justified them, that it is difficult to distinguish the one from the other ? What would He say if He saw the kill- ing of wounded, their mutilation, looting, arson, rape, and murder, attacks upon hospitals, placing women and children in the firing line to screen German soldiers, and the beating of French soldier prisoners of war with the butt end of rifles, and the kicking of them into insensi- bility before they were shot ? What would Christ say if He saw Belgium — perman- ently and compulsorily neutral — lying along the ground, bleeding, impoverished, wretched and ruined ; and nearly a quarter of a million of her population scattered throughout England, glad of the hospitality that the British people have provided for them ? What would He say of Germany's indifference to the most elementary principles of justice in measuring and appropriating punishment ? What would He say if He saw a million and a half kept in subjection and want in their own land by an alien enemy, who refuses to relieve their necessities, or to help them in any way, because Germany has so stultified its moral sense, so blinded its conscience and its judgment to the interior and higher elements of political life? What wouldChrist say of an entire nation like Germany, THE ETHICS OF WAR 2$ which has been taught — and which has accepted that teaching — by her governing element — which is com- posed of merchants, manufacturers, professors, educa- tionists, and publicists — that war is a normal state of civilization ? To hold the German Staff, or German mili- tarism, alone responsible, is to misread the whole history of the development of modern Germany. Her political system has not been imposed upon her by alien tyrants, or even by internal tyrants ; it is a system that has grown with the growth of years, that fits in with, and is accepted by, the mind of the nation as a whole. The system is an expression of the disposition of the people — both educated and uneducated, and they claim that the means justify the end in view. If that system is to be reformed, or to be crushed, it will not be reformed or crushed from within, for governments and states do not reform of themselves, any more than medicine reforms of itself ; the pressure must come from without. This is the history of all reformations. Would Christ subscribe to the German ideal, that there is nothing of any real consequence between nations, beyond material power, beyond the sword, might, and numbers ? Or would He subscribe to the British ideal, that beyond and above physical power, there is human liberty, human progress, righteousness, honour, the sacredness of obligations, and the right of the weaker nations to independence and to develop themselves on the lines of their native genius? Would He endeavour to explain away, as some Welsh and English pacifists do, brutal and licentious crimes such as the cutting away of women's breasts, the piercing of children with the bayonet, and the dishonouring of women in the presence of their children ? Would He say, as some of our professional purists, ministers of religion and politicians say, that we ought to discriminate between the " good people " of Germany and their rulers, and between their rulers and their soldiers, when it has been abundantly proved by official and independent evidence, direct and definite enough to satisfy any court of justice, that these things 26 THE WAR AND WALES are known in " cultured " and " religious " Germany, and that the whole German mind is infected with an insolence and an ambition that knows no pity, no love, no justice ; that knows no consideration for honour, or for truth, or for anything that stands in its way ? Men eminent for their judicial fairness, men of discrimination, who did not want to believe that Germany was capable of such atroci- ties, have been compelled, by irrefutable evidence, to believe it. If British soldiers had been guilty of one hundredth part of such crimes, England would have acted with vigour and promptitude, and not a man proved to have been guilty would have gone unpunished. The world as Christ would have it be, was a world without offences ; but the world as He saw it, with a mixed and an imperfect civilization, was a world which He denounced, though a world which never in His day — never before or after His day until now — disclosed such depths of wickedness and such inhumanity as has been disclosed by Germany. Christ was vehement in proportion as the evil was malignant. " Those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring them hither, and slay them before me." He gave His back to the smiters, but He smote the money- changers with whips, and cast out those who bought and sold in the temple. Yet, in this tragic hour in the history of Western Christianity, and of Western civilization, as we have hitherto known it, a civilization founded not on force and science as the Germans would have it, but founded on Christian faith and morals ; in this supreme crisis in the history of liberty, and in the history of England and the British Empire, we have men who profess to be acting under the inspiration of Christ — some of them ministers of religion — who consider this war too foul a thing for them to touch except to condemn it, or to be indifferent about it. This war, they say, like all wars, is against the will of God, and England ought to make peace. It is not a misfortune to be a minister of religion, but it is a misfortune to be a mere minister. It is a misfortune THE ETHICS OF WAR 27 to be a minister, and not to be a patriot as well ; to be a minister and not to have manhood. But there is neither manhood nor patriotism in permitting crimes against humanity which one can help to prevent, or mitigate, or avenge. There is neither manhood nor patriotism in being silent or inactive when the tyrant takes all he covets, and slays all whom he hates, while he rends asunder those " ties of brotherhood " upon which pacifists profess that they set so much value. Once, and once only, probably, does the occasion arise, during the life of an individual, when duty calls for its last and supreme proof of good citizenship and patriotism. The present is one of those rare occasions, and it is reasonable to suppose that those who are deaf or in- different to the call of duty now, will never again, under any circumstances, be able to hear it, or be given the opportunity to respond to it ; for it is to be hoped that the world will never again be visited by such a calamity. When the battle is over, and the enemy vanquished, the pride and the joy will be the pride and the joy of those who suffered, who fought, and who gave what they possessed for the preservation of human liberty. They will cherish the memorials of it and tell their children of it, and tell them not merely of each external event, but also of the interior moral truths for which Britons and their Allies fought and conquered. CHAPTER II THE BLESSINGS OF WAR The title of this chapter may appear strange, but it has been selected not because of any disposition to ignore or to despise the noble Christian ideal of peace and brother- hood, but because it states precisely the claim which we desire to set forth, viz., that the evils of war, whether inherent or incidental, should not blind us to the beauty of the sacrifices which it demands, and the interests — moral, spiritual and intellectual — which have been conserved and promoted through the instrumentality of war. There have been wars — brilliant wars — in the history of England which we now deplore, however proud we may be of the prowess of those who conducted them. But while our statesmen, or those who have been respon- sible for the government of this country during the last generation, have their several degrees of guilt for what has happened, it is not unreasonable to suppose that posterity will look upon the present war as the least self-regarding of all the wars in the history of this country. It is also necessary to observe that there is a broad line of distinction between the idea that underlies this treat- ment and the idea that war in its root and essence is morally or intellectually defensible. German philoso- phers and historians, notably Treitschke, Bernhardi, and Nietzsche, look upon war as the guiding principle in the culture of their own nation, and culture they conceive in terms of physical force, aggrandizement, territorial expansion, and superiority in arms. It was on the lines which exalted the potency of big battalions and which 28 THE BLESSINGS OF WAR 20, were to hack their way through right and wrong, that these titanic thinkers, so well equipped with knowledge and philosophy, designed the destiny of Germany. Regard- ing mercy and justice and the obligations of international rectitude as illusions, and might as right, they subjected the spiritual to the material, and urged that the material element should go hand in hand with the military element. The apologists of Nietzsche say that his analysis of the " golden rule," of love, pity, sacrifice, and of what he called "the pseudo-humanity that is called Christianity," which, as Nietzsche claims, " by giving as it does an absolute value to the individual, makes it impossible to sacrifice them," should be taken in the spirit rather than the letter. Nietzsche, they tell us, was not conscious of any real inhumanity. Ironical as his criticisms and deductions may sound, he does not mean them ironically. His message to mankind: " Live dangerously! " meant, we are further told, the very antithesis of that minute bureaucratic despotism which Prussia has imposed on itself and the rest of Germany. But while it may be said that national movements often carry their creators beyond what they anticipated or designed, it is true that the law of the sword was Nietzsche's law ; he denounced compassion, self-denial, and the altruistic instincts, as the worst of vices. All obstacles, according to Nietzsche, that stand in the way of human development must disappear, whether those obstacles be God, or the dogma of the immutability of moral rules and moral ideals. " There is," he says, " nothing in even the most sacred observ- ances and institutions of human life which has not, when tested by history, a tentative and provisional character." The Kaiser can find in Nietzsche's philosophy ample justification for the violation of the neutrality of Belgium and of every canon of righteousness of which not only he himself but the united will of Germany has been guilty. Why, therefore, should he hesitate to be remorseless, and remorseless without scruple, when the whole trend of philosophical and religious thought in modern Germany is on his side ? Have not the poets, dreamers, and 30 THE WAR AND WALES historians of Germany, made war an objective end in the life of the nation, and an objective end because when at war the nation stands on its loftiest and largest plane? It has been said that war is the only school that is universally available, and that it is universally avail- able because it is in the line of aboriginal instinct. That it is incompatible with our spiritual self has been amply proved in this as in every other war. What, therefore, is the secret of the mystery that such a brutalizing agency as war should ever attract the sympathies and stir the imagination of civilized human beings ? But all men are moved by the emotions of war — emotions not altogether useless or dishonourable. It would not be too much to say that some of the most sacred and ennobling associations of life cluster round the history of war. Communities are thrilled with emotion as they read of the brave deeds of the dead and the living, of their indomitable will, their great calmness under close fire, their sufferings and priva- tions, and hardly a murmur escaping their lips. We have on record, in this war, many strange and pathetic scenes both in England and in the Colonies, when husbands parted from their wives and children, and when sons separated from their mothers and fathers. We were told how the crowds who witnessed their departure were melted, subdued, and animated by a great wave of passionate feeling and enthusiasm. It was the same when the flower of England's youth left these shores for the Crimea ; it was the same on that summer night at Brussels before the battle of Waterloo. There are men now living who remember the excitement which prevailed in England when the list of the killed came after the charge at Balaclava. The incidents of war are always read with avidity, even by those who think all wars unlawful and sinful. What is the psychology of this intelligent emotion, concentrated enthusiasm, and ardent patriotic feeling which war engenders ? Why is it that the episodes of war quicken our pulse, awaken all that is best and worst within us, and kindle in our souls a spirit of devotion to THE BLESSINGS OF WAR 31 one's country ? How are we to explain it ? All move- ments that touch the emotion are popular, and it is to the emotion rather than to the intellect that war appeals. People are excited to enthusiasm by physical things. War has a physiological basis. It is congruous with ordinary human nature ; there is nothing that speaks so universally to man as war does. " Ancestral evolution has made us all potential warriors," said the late Pro- fessor William James, of Harvard. " As for myself," said Voltaire at the age of seventy-three, " weak as I am, I carry on the war to the last moment, I get a hundred pike-thrusts, I return two hundred, and I laugh. I see near my door Geneva on fire with quarrels over nothing, and I laugh again." This would not be considered a religious state of mind, yet it is the normal state of mind of many who are called religious, and even of many who live by religion, but who, from this standpoint at any rate, do not merit the good name any more than Voltaire. It is instinctive in man to fight for himself, to resist and assail the foes of his life, comfort, aspiration and success, whether they be men, beasts, climate, heat, cold, or infectious diseases. " Life," said Napoleon, "is a fortress; why throw obstacles in the way of its defence? " It is a thoroughly scientific principle to maintain the different provisions for resistance with which the human body has been naturally endowed ; provisions which take the form of adaptation, adjustment, evasion, counterac- tion, direct and active conflict with the causes of disease, with the view to their destruction. Self-defence and self- preservation are the first and primary laws of life. Whether the provisions possessed by the body for assail- ing and destroying its enemies be relatively or absolutely weak, relatively or absolutely strong, man fails and is weakened in proportion as he is irresolute and negligent, and does not make full and proper use of his powers of resistance. Some by personal qualities, inherited or acquired, have this resisting power in a greater degree than others, by which health is maintained and disease and death are kept 32 THE WAR AND WALES at bay. Physicians tell us that this natural resistance possesses certain mechanism which controls and regulates the physiological systems, preserving mutual harmony, and controlling disturbing influences from within and without, of a morbific character ; just in the same way as the State organizes some of its subjects into a navy, an army, a constabulary, and a Central Government, with whom lies the duty of protecting and preserving the State against enemies from within and without. Life is a struggle and a discipline, and war is part of that struggle and discipline. The teaching of biological science is, that the highest types have been evolved out of pitiless struggle ; and the teaching of human experience — which runs in the same direction — is that suffering breeds patience, sympathy, efficiency and endurance, and that physical force is often the means — the necessary means — of moral good. Sainthood comes by way of suffering. If we eliminate the fact of the Crucifixion out of Christianity, we rob it of the main force that leads the world onward towards sacrifice and perfection. These are strange and inexplicable facts ; but true facts. War is a great factor in human history and in the mak- ing of civilization ; it is an abiding factor. War will not cease so long as human nature remains what it is, and so long as the conflicting ideals and interests — moral, political, and industrial — which make wars inevitable, remain, and so long as its determining causes remain. The determining causes of war are many and varied. Nationality is one of them, viz., the refusal of one race to be governed or suppressed by another, or an alien race. Of all wars, there is none that appeals more strongly to the sympathies of the civilized world, than the determina- tion of oppressed nationalities to break off an alien yoke. Another of the causes which produce war, is the mixing of nationalities in the same territory. Ireland offers an object lesson. The impasse in the attitude of Ulster and the rest of Ireland, has arisen out of the fact that they cannot agree either to unite or to separate. Population is a great determining cause of war ; it is THE BLESSINGS OF WAR 33 one of the determining causes of this war. Germany says that she wants fresh territory for her great and rapidly growing population. Prosperity must be ranked among one of the causes of war. One nation by its intelligence and its enterprise creates great industries and great wealth ; it gains control over a large area of the world's trade and becomes dominant on land or sea. It creates jealousy among other nations, and a determination to obtain, by war if neces- sary, the advantages in trade and political power to which they think they are justly entitled. Competition is un- doubtedly an aspect of this instinctiveness for war ; that is, the ambition to equal or excel. It appeals as a rule to the lower faculties, and often to the higher. It is a strong motive in the present war, and in some respects a leading motive. Indeed, there can be no more interesting study for the historian, the psychologist, or the moralist, than the study of the origins of war, the different forms which war assumes, and the forces that have been evolved through the instrumentality of war. The apparent cause is not always the real cause of war ; the pretext is often but the spark which is set to a store of gunpowder. The interests on behalf of which wars are often waged are more imagi- nary than real. It is a significant fact that this, the greatest of all wars in the history of the world, sprang from the threat against the independence of Serbia, a country in which Great Britain had no political interest. There have been wars of religion ; their record is a sad one, and we are ashamed of them. The mere fact that they were " religious " wars does not blind us to the iniquity of the causes that prompted so many of them. There have been dynastic wars which were commenced and conducted without reference to national desires, or to popular feeling ; wars that were initiated and settled by the reigning families ; their interests alone defined and regulated the administration of the frontiers. Fenelon said that a princess carried a monarchy in her wedding portion. He might have added that she often carried a 34 THE WAR AND WALES prolonged war, for sometimes a marriage contract was the signal for a bitter conflict of arms between reigning families. Such was the origin and nature of many of the wars under the old European system. Family alliances counted for much in those days, they count for something in these days, and Germany has never failed to keep this point in view. There have been wars and revolutions evoked by cupidity, and wars which excited a cupidity that could hardly be satisfied. There have been wars provoked by the selfish and violent abuse of power by kings and the ruling classes ; and there have been wars and revolu- tions that were fomented and supported by the populace. There was a time when war was a slower and a less brutal affair than it is to-day, and less destructive in its results ; when the commander of one army would exchange compliments with the commander of the opposing army, while the respective nations remained practically unper- turbed, because they failed to interfere vitally with the interests of certain classes of society. Such wars were of more interest to the soldiers than to the nations to which they belonged. There have also been wars, revolutions, and insurrections, that were brought about by particular wrongs, by the evils and defects of the social state ; spontaneous, aggressive, popular wars, or revolutions, that needed no Kaiser, or autocrat, to instigate them, and no popular orator, or statesman, to defend them. It is sometimes the case that one war leads to another war, just as a former disease in the body is responsible for a subsequent disease. But, chiefly, because of the great misery, great suffering, and great loss which war entails, it is difficult to get some men to view it in its larger aspect ; to view it as it appears generally in the light of history ; as it has affected in- dustry, liberty, and authority ; as it has affected the national spirit, traditional national ideas, and the re- naissance of new ideas ; as it has affected the general principles of government, national independence, and the forces that have determined the character, the form, and THE BLESSINGS OF WAR 35 the policy of the State ; as it has affected slavery, mon- archy and democracy. In this regard, it may be said that the religious view-point is most unsatisfactory of all. It has looked upon war — all wars — with so much aversion and alarm, that religious students, or historians, have found it almost impossible to speak or to write of war without prejudice, or to lift it out of the heat of party feeling. They have made light of battles, or of military opera- tions, even in wars of defence, as if they were of no im- portance. It is to the civil, the literary, the scientific, and the religious, not to the military annals of Europe, or of the nations out of Europe, that we are to look, they say, for the sources of their power and development ; and, therefore, for the materials for writing their history. Philosophy, literature, scientific discoveries, philanthropy and religion, they claim, are the lamps that burn in the temple of history and constitute the glory of the world's achievement. The movements that really count, the movements that have moulded the minds of men, that have changed the spirit of their thinking, that have revolutionized industry, that have made for progress, liberty and culture, that have advanced the cause of civilization, are such movements as the discovery of America by Columbus, which, by the way, had two incidental consequences, viz., the destruction of Patristic Geography and Ethnology, and the determination of Latin and German Christianity. The events of supreme importance are, it is said, such as the discovery of the printing press ; the application of electricity to telegraphy ; the Reformation of the six- teenth century ; the rise of Puritanism ; the period of the Elizabethan literature, which, at least in England, was concomitant with, if not caused by, the Reformation ; the translation of the Bible by Wickliffe ; the Oxford Movement ; religious revivals ; the spread of education ; the awakening of the theory of nationality in Europe, which, as Lord Acton says, " converted a dormant right into an aspiration, and a sentiment into a political 36 THE WAR AND WALES claim." These and kindred movements, it is urged, are defensible from the point of view of morality, knowledge, religion and progress ; but wars are not defensible on any such grounds, for they are now, as they have always been, a drag upon civilization. But as these scientific, educational and religious move- ments are important factors in the annals of mankind, so are wars. It is not to glorify war as such that we write, but in order to show that wars bear good as well as evil fruit. For evidence of this we need only refer to such wars as the wars of King Alfred and of Charles Martel ; the war of the Netherlands ; the civil war in America ; and some of our English civil wars. These and other such wars may be counted as among the best assets of progress and enlightenment. Force is often essential for the up- rooting of evil, and for the removal of abuses, both reli- gious and political. Lofty ideals, noble sentiments, and progressive aspirations, may, at the crucial moment, be of no avail if there is not sufficient force to support and to give them effect. Judged by this standard, there have been wars that could vindicate themselves at the bar of the world's conscience, because they made it impossible for certain evils to again find a foothold in civil society ; because they circumscribed the power of other evils in other directions, strengthened the moral sense of man- kind, and liberated the enslaved and oppressed. In reckoning up the results of war we must set the good alongside the bad and strike a balance. Some of the movements to which we have just referred, and which, according to some, are the only factors that count, cannot be usefully or properly studied without reference to the wars of the past. For example, was not the Refor- mation saved, and was not England delivered from the physical and spiritual thraldom of Rome, when, in 1588, Queen Elizabeth's admirals sallied forth against the Spanish Armada ? We can no more understand history in the light of isolated events than we can understand the Bible in the light of isolated sentences. Pacifists and professional purists are either unmindful or ignorant of THE BLESSINGS OF WAR 37 the debt that the causes which they espouse owe to the wars of the past. While they dwell, and rightly dwell, on the miseries of wars, they say nothing of the tenderness of their pathos and the heroism of their interest ; or of the part they have played in the moulding of national char- acter ; or of the manner in which they have directed and redirected commerce and industry ; or of the impress that they have left on art, literature, economics, and even religion ; and on the character of rulers and statesmen. And what of the qualities of patience, self- control, heroism, moral and physical endurance, which wars have called forth, and which have been developed in the rush of a charge, in long sieges, and when bayonets crossed ? These are qualities which could not have been developed in time of peace. War is a factor in moral and intellectual results, and its effects, as well as its causes, should be impartially studied. One competent authority, who spent over a year with the forces at the front, recently declared that the effect of discipline, training, actual warfare, and of what is termed " militarism," upon the character pf our soldiers, both civilian and regular, was of such a nature that there was no need to fear that the young men who had joined the Army would suffer any moral injury. His experience was, that one of the most encouraging features in connec- tion with the operations at the front, was the elevation of character among the troops. War is war, and no nation can engage in it, especially in such a costly and gigantic war as this one, without seriously depleting its manhood, and without finding its finger-prints on its finance, its economy, its chief sources of income, its National Debt, and the burden of suffering it entails on the people. But, however disastrous this war will eventually prove to be, it may, like all other evils, be converted into good. There have been remedial wars ; wars that led to the reconstruction of civil society ; wars that were provoked by definitely ascertained evils, and that pointed the way to reform. The advantages of war are not altogether E 38 THE WAR AND WALES material, there are often conjoined moral and intellectual effects of no mean order. Such were the effects of the Persian wars on ancient Greece. They lasted fifty years, and according to Plato, reflected, in one sense, but little honour on Greece. Only thirty-one towns, and most of them small ones, were faithful to the cause of Greece. Treason had infected most of her ablest men. If Greece, at that time, had had a king, or a dictator, she would have become the mistress of the world. But of the elevating effect of the Persian wars on Greece there is abundant evidence in the develop- ment of her pure art, her philosophy and her literature. Not that Greece as a whole was learned ; it is to Athens, and to Athens alone, that we are to look for the intellect of Greece. It was to Athens that the Persian wars gave political supremacy ; it was in Athens that art found a true and real expression, and the great development of science and literature took place. It has been said that after the Persian wars Greece could form in sculpture living men. Up to the time of the Persian war, the school educa- tion of the Greeks was limited to a very few subjects — reading and writing, playing on the flute and singing, and gymnastic exercises. In addition to this, the pupils were made acquainted with the works of the poets, and were impressed with the importance of a decent behaviour. But this instruction ceased when' the youth approached manhood ; then the only means of gaining instruction was intercourse with older men, and taking part in poetic contests. But with the Persian war, newjsubjects of instruction and new methods were established which exercised an important influence on the whole spirit and character of the nation. j The valour and endurance of the Greeks during the Persian wars gave them a glorious issue ; it gave them the age of freedom in thinking, the age of perfect beauty in architecture, the age of oratory, the age of great men whose intellect and achievements have excited the admiration of subsequent ages. Fifty years after the THE BLESSINGS OF WAR 39 battle of Plataea, Athens had become the centre of the mental activity of the world ; her intellectual supremacy was equal to her political. It was to Athens that the philosophers of Italy and Asia Minor directed their steps ; her statues, her temples, her style of architecture, found no parallel in any other country ; for a just appreciation of the true in the beautiful, they have since had no parallel in any age or country. Were it not for Marathon, when Greece asserted her independence, Darius would have done what the Kaiser will do if he succeeds ; he would have submerged the rising parts of Western civilization in intellectual darkness and moral barbarism. Marathon secured for Europe the growth of free institu- tions, for mankind the intellectual treasures of Athens, and the ascendancy for ages of European civilization. What of the expeditions of Alexander ? Were they not the means of sowing the seeds of Greek culture upon remote snores ? They have not yet ceased to germinate. There is no more notable page in the annals of European history than the conquest of Persia by Alexander. It was the ruin of Persia as it was the ruin of Greece, for Greece ceased to attract enterprising men, and Athens lost her political supremacy. Military glory is a doubtful asset, and Alexander left an unsavoury reputation in his own native country ; but in sagacity and statesmanship, Alexander has not been excelled by any other commander or conqueror, not even by Wellington or Napoleon. There was much that was baneful in his expeditions ; yet, much that was beneficent in result. They were quite as scientific in their character as they were military. Greek recruits, and with them Greek ideas, were scattered all over the Persian empire. Among the many learned men that Alexander took with him was Callisthenes, a pupil of Aristotle, and author of the History of Animals, who became Alexander's tutor. Here, in the opinion of competent historians, we have the beginning of the policy which led to the institution of the Museum of Alexandria, the policy that gave the works of Aristotle a celebrity far beyond the confines of Greece. They were translated 40 THE WAR AND WALES into Syriac in the fifth, and from Syriac into the Arabian tongue, in the ninth century. From Spain to Mesopo- tamia, Aristotle's productions became a source of interest and instruction to Christians and Mohammedans alike. Alexander's expeditions and their scientific results have had an influence on the intellectual progress of Europe which it would be impossible to exaggerate. They mark a new age in the history of the human mind — the age of Reason ; what was done by the men of science in Alex- andria, foreshadowed what is being done by the men of science in our own day. Charles Martel, the Duke of the Franks, left a memory detested by the Roman Church. The ignorant and semi- barbarian Frankish clergy, who had so faithfully copied the methods of Rome in defence of temporal possessions, consigned him to eternal damnation because he was the first of all kings and princes of the Franks who separated and dismembered the goods of the Church. But it was Charles Martel who, through his victory over the Arabs at the great battle of Tours, a.d. 732, decided the religious destiny of Europe. If the Saracen invasion had not been checked, the civilization of Europe would not have been what it was during the succeeding centuries. It was Gibbon who said that had Charles Martel failed to win his fight against the Arabs at Tours in the eighth century, we might now have had Mohammedan doctors teaching the faith of Islam at Oxford. It was the battle of Chalons, a.d. 451, which marked the death-throe of the Roman Empire, that arrested the career of Attila, the King of the Huns, or, as he called himself, " the Scourge of God." It was the battle of Waterloo, which was a clear contest of soldiers, that ended the military monarchy founded by the conqueror of Europe. Napoleon's power had really been broken years before in the Peninsula ; but when Wellington and his Allies crushed him at Waterloo, they saved Europe from French dominion, and from such internecine wars and revolutions as occurred in France from 1848 to 1870. It is one of the ironies of history that THE BLESSINGS OF WAR 41 France herself had then the same ambition as Germany has now, viz., the ambition to dominate Europe. As England was out at Waterloo to save herself and to save Europe from the dominion of Napoleon, who had fought against her for sixteen years, so now England and her daughter nations are out in Flanders and elsewhere, to save herself, and to save Europe, from the dominion of Germany, and from the dominion of those ideals for which Germany stands. Is there a pacifist, worthy of the name, who will say that Garibaldi's genius for war was not a genius purified by one of the grandest passions that ever animated a patriot and a warrior ? Garibaldi was a man of peace ; he participated in the peace movement which reached its height during the memorable years of 1848 to 1851. But he was also a patriot and a lover of liberty. When he slipped out of Genoa one moonlight night, with his legion of one thousand picked Italians, and went down the west coast to Sicily, almost everybody thought him mad ; and almost everybody, except Cavour, thought he ought to be suppressed. But after two bloody fights, Garibaldi was master of Sicily. Francis II, being in terror, offered Garibaldi fifty millions of francs, and the whole of his fleet, on condition that he left the mainland and took Venice instead of Naples. But to Naples Garibaldi went from Palermo, having left the bulk of his army in Sicily. Then occurred an episode, which, in its dramatic in- tensity, in its concentrated passion for the love of man and the emancipation of Italy, and in its immediate and far- reaching effect, has no parallel in the history of civilized warfare. Alighting from the train at Naples without an army at all, and with only a few of his staff-officers, Garibaldi faced the Neapolitan army, numbering 30,000 men, which was supposed to be loyal to the Royalists. The guns of the fort of St. Elmo were manned by men who were waiting for the command. But, standing up alone in his carriage, in close proximity to the guns, with un- covered head, Garibaldi calmly looked at the gunners with their lighted matches. Twice the order to fire was given, 42 THE WAR AND WALES but the third time the men threw down their matches, and threw up their caps, shouting, " Viva Garibaldi." Thus was Italy, and the whole land of Sicily, which had been groaning under the despotism of Austria and the Pope, liberated. Not only did he liberate Italy, but he saved the country much blood and money. He did what the King of Italy might not have been able to accomplish for many years. What would have been the conse- quences had Garibaldi yielded to the admonitions of the Italian Government ? It is more than probable that Italy would not have been liberated for another sixty years. But as Nelson placed his telescope to his blind eye, so as not to see the admiral's signal for recall, and won ; so Garibaldi disobeyed the instructions of Cavour, thereby emancipating two Kingdoms. The Seven Years' War created a new epoch in English history ; it raised England from an insular Kingdom into a mighty Empire. Indeed, the history of England claims that war time has been a period of invention, manufactur- ing and commercial development. It was her wars and her conquests that gave her command of the ocean, and her material prosperity, and enabled her to become the foremost nation of the world. It is only by being pre- pared for war, by being able to hold her own and to triumph in war, that she can keep what she has won. More than a million lives were sacrificed in the Seven Years' War, and it inflicted fearful suffering upon Prussia and Europe, but it laid the foundations of Prussia's greatness. Frederick the Great practically doubled the national territory ; the population of Prussia increased from 2,250,000 to 5,500,000. Prussia's prestige in Europe was enormously increased. It made modern Germany, and the remembrance of the Seven Years' War is a source of inspiration to Germany in the present conflict. The advantage which Germany has over the Allies lies in the fact that her policy and destiny are in the hands of one man, who is virtually a dictator, whereas the policy and destiny of the Allies are in the hands of a Committee. Every student of history knows what blessings THE BLESSINGS OF WAR 43 Germany reaped through the battle of Jena. While the Prussian army was shattered at a single stroke, yet, to the bitter experience which preceded and followed that battle, Germany owes her re-birth and regeneration. One cannot but admire the rapid powers of intuition with which the Germans grasped the intensities of that por- tentous period, and how the impetuous national spirit sprang phcenix-like into high patriotism in answer to the requirements placed upon it. To prevent another Jena and another Austerlitz became the instant aspiration of every German heart. After the defeats inflicted by the successes of the French army in those Napoleonic wars, which filled every capital and province in Europe with dismay, and which left Germany so poor and weak, and with no Frederick the Great to raise her from the dust, there arose a galaxy of poets, dreamers, philosophers, and profound thinkers, such as Fichte, the like of whom the world had not seen for ages ; who with marvellous insight truly diagnosed the real causes of their country's downfall. It was they who stirred the national consciousness, and made it possible for Bismarck to call a united Germany into being. Blood and iron alone could not have done it. A great change came over the world when it witnessed the triumph of the Bismarckian policy, by which the map of Europe was transformed. The defeat and dismember- ment of Denmark, followed by the defeat of Austria and the reorganization of Germany, crowned by the over- throw of France, and the conquest of two of her provinces and an enormous war indemnity, raised Prussia, in the space of seven years, from being one of the minor countries in Europe, to a foremost place among Continental Powers. It also commenced a marvellous development of financial, commercial, and colonial expansion. But behind Bismarck, with his avowed policy of " Blood and Iron," of might without right, were the dreamers, philosophers, publicists, and historians of Ger- many, who had infused the spirit of aggressive Imperial- ism into the public mind. Before Bismarck there was a 44 THE WAR AND WALES long and consistent procession of intense Pan-German thinkers, like Goethe, Schiller, Arndt, Fichte, Niebuhr, and others, who laboured to explain the principles in- volved in the conception of nationality, who emphasized the uniqueness of German nationality, of the German language ; and the superiority of the Teutonic race. By forming plans of national education, and by awakening in the race a sense of superiority over other races, they prepared the way for the subsequent development of Germany, and for a policy of "Blood and Iron," of force and ambition, which mocked at moral considerations as foolish sentiment. The revolt of the American Colonies established on that continent the principle of Constitutional Government, which might have been postponed for generations, if the English armies had been successful. The slave trade in America, the greatest abomination in the world, was killed through war. In peace time it flourished, and men of peace defended the system. If it had been left to the Churches of America it would never have been destroyed. " The pulpit," said Henry Ward Beecher, " which is set to discern between right and wrong, maintained itself in this nation in its most respect- able form, and in eminent places, without there being expressed, to any considerable degree, one word of indig- nation. In the greater number of churches that God made to be His very mouthpiece ; in pulpits where God meant that His word should bespoken, how piteous and cowardly the spectacle ; but now that the wickedness is crushed, and it is fashionable, the pulpit is open and loud-mouthed in condemning slavery. Everybody can now preach emancipation. A man had better be a John, and go into the wilderness, clothed in camel's hair, and eating locusts and wild honey, than to be a fat minister in a fat pulpit, supporting himself luxuriously by betraying God and playing into the hands of the devil." We are not far enough from the present war to regard its genesis, events, and consequences, with sufficient calm- ness and impartiality, to draw from it just or adequate THE BLESSINGS OF WAR 45 conclusions. Posterity will be able to look at the war with less prejudice, and will have fuller knowledge of its causes and results. They will judge more intelligently and more dispassionately. But it is patent enough that the effects of the war have already run deep enough into the life and history of our country, and into the life and history of our Colonies, to enable us to observe certain facts. The war has de- stroyed many things ; it has destroyed the doctrine of possible Dominion neutrality ; it has dealt a mortal blow at International Law and diplomacy which prevailed in the Europe we knew before the war. The idea of nation- alism has already taken the place of internationalism. The war has brought into bold relief the unity of the Empire, both spiritual and political. It has brought the Dominions into the domain of British foreign policy. Though the foundations of naval and military assistance from the Colonies were laid long before the war, the war has established these foundations on a permanent basis. Some authorities seem inclined to trace the date of the laying of these foundations to the German Navy Law of 1900. However, there is one fact that is beyond question, viz., that the creation, through the war, of the Dominion forces, is going to exercise a growing and an abiding in- fluence on our Imperial policy. What makes it all the more certain and valuable is, that the Dominions have stepped into the arena of their own accord, and that not with a view of sharing in any advantages, so much as to share in the responsibilities. And the enthusiasm with which they have done it, is one of the outstanding features of the war. It is one of the factors that have changed, or (as one might almost say, speaking technically) that have destroyed the British Constitution. If we go back a few years before the war, Canadian politics, like English or British politics, displayed the same character- istics, viz., extreme party violence on questions of Imperialism and national defence. There were a few politicians and publicists in Canada, as there were in England, who feared an approaching crisis, and who 46 THE WAR AND WALES urged preparation ; but the majority stubbornly refused to entertain any such fears. In no part of the Empire, more than in Canada, has the doctrine of the infallibility of politicians received such a rude shock. Broadly speaking, it is the spirit of healing that the war has engendered among Britons. It has softened the feeling among different classes ; it has humanized the atmosphere ; it has taught the glory of nationhood ; it has brought about natural conditions into British in- dustrial life, which are infinitely more advantageous to the community and to the State, than those that existed in time of peace ; it has prepared larger ground for the ideals of liberty, and for the application of the principle of autonomy; it has taught the lesson that a piet}^ or a patriotism that falls short of self-sacrifice in the service of the State, in peace as well as in war time, is neither piety nor patriotism in the true sense of the word. This is a distinct gain to civilization. At present we see nothing but the terrors, not of the Lord, but of the devil ; but when the gains and losses of the war are computed in the light of its profound effect upon the British character ; upon the moral nerve of our posterity ; upon our own social life ; upon our religion and our system of education ; upon the new conception of the State as an object of service, and not of gain ; upon the new Europe which will be constructed on the ruins of the old ; upon the nationalism that will take the place of internationalism ; upon the developed unity of the British Empire — both moral and political ; upon the part our Dominions will in future play in the domain of British foreign policy, those who will live to see it, will be better able to realize how all evils — especially the evils of war — are not only ideally, but practically, capable of being converted to the good of the State, of mankind, of faith, and of civilization. If there is any ground for pessimism it is in the influence which the war is likely to have on the question of authority. What the Reformation effected in the sphere of religion, this war is going to effect in the sphere of politics. The THE BLESSINGS OF WAR 47 controversial writings of St. Augustine have dominated Christian systematic theology for fifteen hundred years, but Luther, St. Augustine's disciple, prepared the ruin of his master's system when he declared the Bible in- fallible, but opened it to the individual inquirer. We live in an age when the foundations of Luther's structure are being rapidly undermined in so far as Protestants are concerned ; and not only have we seen the gradual surrender of the belief in the infallibility of the Bible, and in the fabric of doctrine which a purely human logic has built upon it, but we have seen a gradual decline of all authority since the Reformation — domestic, educational, and ecclesiastical. Equally striking has been the decline of political or governmental authority. This decline has nowhere been more real than in Eng- land ; due, mainly, to the vagaries of certain classes of professional politicians and professional labour agitators. As the former are not statesmen, so the latter are not workmen ; neither of them care for the interests of the State, or for the interest of the community in general. To them we are largely indebted for the social hate, class war, and many of the difficulties with which the Government has had to contend in the prosecution of this war. The part they have played is, indeed, a very ignoble one. They have intimidated both Parliament and the executive of the day, and have openly preached the gospel of rebellion against Constitutional authority, in opposition to which they are seeking to set up an authority of their own, based on threat and force, which may ultimately prove the ruin of the country. They are poisoning the soul of the nation and are compromising its highest interest. They are exploiting the tragedies of this war and the difficulties of the Government on behalf of their own special interests and in the interests of so-called democratic ideas, and they have no hesitation in weakening the power of the State and in humiliating Great Britain in the eyes of the world. The sound and only safe theory that it is the first duty of the State to protect the State, and that it is the first duty of the citizen to assist the State in that 48 THE WAR AND WALES great function, has no place in their political creed. They have even threatened to paralyse the Navy by the stoppage of coal and our industries by stopping the railways, in defiance of the Government, and that in a great war. This war is going to accelerate this decline. We are already being told that the world has had too much of authority and not enough of freedom ; of freedom as it applies to the individual, to the community, and to the race. The war, it is claimed, has made it inevitable that every separate race or nation shall, in future, have the right to form its own government, to elect its own parliament, to frame its own laws, and to shape its own destiny, in accordance with its own genius and political necessities. There were very marked tendencies in these directions in Wales before the outbreak of the war, and notwith- standing the sense of solidarity, or developing social sense, which has been one of the distinguishing charac- teristics among the Welsh in connection with this war, there are under-currents which clearly indicate that there will be less rather than more regard for authority in any of its forms, and that the power of every man in authority will be weakened, and weakened throughout England and Europe. The only Kaiseiism that will survive this war, and whose power will be increased through the war, is the Kaiserism of democracy, and of industrial democracy in particular. One of the follies of democracy is that it is jealous of every authority except its own ; of every ideal, and of every project in the direction of reform, that does not originate with itself ; it attributes motives and becomes rebellious when opposed, or when it cannot exact its pound of flesh. To talk to it of its rights is to conciliate it, and to awaken its enthusiasm ; to talk to it of its duties is to alienate and to depress it. Indeed, there are not wanting indications that one of the results of the present war will be to fortify this type of democracy. THE BLESSINGS OF WAR 49 The industrial workers have been made to feel, and rightly so, that they are indispensable in this war. For this and other reasons, they are demanding confidential information regarding the inner history and the require- ments of the war, which has been denied to Parliament, and which is accessible to only a few in the Cabinet. Moreover, the claim is being set up in Wales, that no Government should decide upon, or announce, any policy, or take any political or international action, with- out first of all ascertaining the views and securing the support of the chosen representatives of the whole of the organized workers and socialistic forces in the country. On no other ground can any Government in future count upon their support in any national emergency. The workers in their collective capacity must have their freedom of choice and action, even in matters relating to the State itself. The French railway strike, they hold, has taught them that they must possess the right to do what would be legal for them as civilians, but illegal as soldiers. The blunt truth is, that the object is to force the State to surrender to trade unions the most im- portant parts of the function of the State, as they are forcing thousands of persons within their own ranks to surrender the most important elements of their personal liberty. Whether we examine the ethics of industrial democracy on the negative or on the positive side ; whether in the restrictions which it imposes, or the affirmative action which it aims at procuring, and to get incorporated in statute law, the result is the same, viz., the substitution of the collective authority of the purely industrial com- munity for the old political or governmental authority. The future Parliament is to be the trade-union parlia- ment, and the future Cabinet the authorized representa- tives of all organized industries — in effect, at any rate. That this forebodes evil for the future it need hardly be said ; more especially as what this war has set our workers to think about is not justice but liberty ; not liberty to do what the law allows, but liberty to do what the subject 50 THE WAR AND WALES pleases, even when his action runs counter to law, or is inconsistent with the interests of the State, or is in direct antagonism to international considerations ; and this notwithstanding the provision of the Defence of the Realm Act. It will be much more difficult after the war to appeal to organized labour on the ground of public justice than on the ground of liberty, even when the claims of justice are shown to be eminently more essential to the safety of the country than liberty of choice and of action lor the individual. The South Wales miners only returned to work when all their demands were granted. It was no triumph of diplomacy; no compromise, but an absolute surrender. " We are a free people " is an axiom which is very popular among the Welsh, and it is devoutly held among classes of Welshmen that have no affinity with the ambitions of labour. The claim is made in a political sense. But if the Welsh are a free people in sentiment, they are not so in fact. A free people are a people that have never been conquered, that have never been subjected to defeat in arms, that have never been compelled by political or national exigencies to submit to terms of peace. A subject people that have been forced to allow an alien power to exercise political sovereignty over them can- not rightly be said to be a free people. In the days of their independence the Welsh were a free people, both in name and in fact. But when they lost their independence, and became absorbed in the State system of England, they ceased to be free. True, they still have an indepen- dent hearing ; they have fully recovered from the shock of their subjection to England. The reason is obvious. Broadly speaking, the Welsh have not, in the meantime, had much ground for complaint ; certainly not in the sense that Ireland or Poland has had reason to complain. There is hardly any trace of the dull leaden weight of an alien authority seeking to crush out of existence, or to suppress, the national aspirations of the people. In the main, and increasingly, the attitude of England has been considerate, even sympathetic. While preserving the THE BLESSINGS OF WAR 51 outer form of subjection, the Welsh have been allowed to indulge in the privileges of independence. The Principality remains a principality still, and the nation at large has long since become conscious of the benefits of annexation. CHAPTER III REFLECTIONS ON THE WAR It would be as difficult for a Briton as for a German to reflect with perfect sanity of judgment and perfect steadiness of mental outlook upon this agitated period, when so many nations are rioting in an exuberance of conflicting passions. It would be as hopeless to expect a Briton to appreciate the point of view of a German, as it would be to expect a German to appreciate the point of view of a Briton. The arguments that would be patent to the one would be unrecognizable to the other ; the code of ethics that would be sound to the one would be dangerous to the other ; the interpretation of events that would be unavoidable to the one would be im- possible to the other, chiefly for the reason that racial, national, and emotional preferences inevitably act as currents which impel them onward to certain definite and one-sided deductions. Even the calm, clear-thinking philosopher feels, as he reflects on this awful drama, as if plunged into despair in the presence of a necessity of shifting, analysing, and mastering the facts that are known — and all the facts will never be known. Herein, in part, is the tragedy of the war, viz., the confusion of judgment upon the Tightness or wrongness of the war, each combatant honestly believing that he is taking his stand on the side of moral righteousness. This confusion increases in proportion as we seek to ascertain the cause or causes that have brought about such a condition of affairs. Nations in the heat of the emotions of war find it difficult to turn the light of 5* REFLECTIONS ON THE WAR 53 inquiry upon themselves — upon their motives, policies, and ambitions, and to apportion their relative degree of guilt for the conditions which brought them into conflict, and which made the conflict inevitable. It is a strange coincidence that while England has no apologists in Germany, Germany has many apologists in England. Marvellous, indeed, is the unanimity with which the common mass of the German nation willed this war, and put its conscience into it, and the unanimity with which this common mass holds in contempt everything that is British. German apologists in England tell us that the German people were led or forced into this war by a dishonest Government, by an unscrupulous and an arrogant diplomacy of " blood and iron." They ask us to look not at the Kaiser or the German Staff, but at the heart or the soul of the German nation as it has mani- fested itself in its traditional habits of thought and life — materials of the finest quality ; how fine, they say, no one can know who has not lived among the German people. They are, we are assured, a good-natured, genial, home- loving people, full of chivalry and industry; their un- restrained patriotism, they further tell us, is perfectly natural and in some respects generous. To hate them would be wrong ; to crush them would be a crime. When asked to explain the robberies, open and shame- ful, which the Germans have committed in Belgium, the indescribable atrocities of which they have been guilty, the levying of huge taxes for offences designedly committed by German soldiers, but falsely attributed to the Belgians, they say that such conduct is due to the bitterness of thwarted hope. But the German Army did not know that its hopes were thwarted when it yelled songs and shouted insults at men, women, and children, threatening them, by signs, with cut throats, or starvation, as it marched through Belgium for nearly three days and three nights ; also men do not suddenly fall into such perversion of the moral sense, or perversion of the discerning faculty, as prevents them from seeing what is good in others and what is evil in themselves ; conscience is not organically F 54 THE WAR AND WALES changed in a moment, and the loss of all accuracy of judgment does not occur instantaneously, especially in those who have been morally bred or religiously trained. They come to it by gradual stages through physical dissipation, or through cynical and sneering scepticism, or through malignant vanity. Moreover, high artistic and intellectual culture very often goes with gross lust and fiendish cruelty ; not that we forget that large armies contain many low specimens of humanity, nor that it is in reprisals that soldiers let their unbridled savagery have unchecked play. But German savagery revealed itself at the very beginning of the war. The disposition was there when, with riotous rejoicing, they marched out of Berlin, cheered by the vast majority of the people. The disposition is still there, as is shown by the murder of innocent men, women, and children in France and in England by Zeppelin night raids, and the manner in which such murders have been acclaimed by the German press and the German nation as deeds of merit and daring. These raids are not reprisals ; indeed, it is felt that England has too long displayed a passive and excessive patience. Some ministers of religion in Wales have openly declared that they would rather see England lose the war than indulge in reprisals. Viscount Bryce said that when it comes to cruelty for cruelty, Germany will always win, and that as England stands for humanity she must not retaliate. What a record for a people who possess such pretensions to a superior culture and for a country reputed to be the home of profound learning and high intellectual and artistic culture. When asked to explain this extraordinary psycho- logical phenomenon, this " abrupt " appearance of such a mood of cruelty among such " good-natured people," and its development among the whole German nation — its clergy, its nobility, its merchants, its professors, and its workmen — they glibly refer us to Treitschke, Bern- hardt Nietzsche, and the Kaiser ; to German militarism and German Protestantism. These, it is claimed, are REFLECTIONS ON THE WAR 55 the self-interested and mysterious men and forces that have corrupted a genial and peaceful people, and that have caused them to depart from the civilized standard of warfare, and to cultivate a hatred to which history offers no parallel. This is the explanation vouchsafed by a certain class of professors and politicians, and by sections of the religious press. Indeed, to the question as to who is responsible for this dire calamity which has befallen Europe and the British Empire at large, the answer given, even by the man in the street, is in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred practically the same. But we cannot solve the question of the cause or causes of this war, or of any war, or of any great convulsion, whether it be military, or social, or political, by one formula ; or by singling out one person, or fact, or incident, or turning-point in history. The causes may be intermin- able, and may ante-date the war, or the political con- vulsion, by generations. In this chorus of condemnation of the Kaiser, and of German militarism, as it is called, Britons are apt to forget to ask themselves what part they have had in precipitating and prolonging the war. That we are doing our duty now is the conviction of the vast majority of Britons and of many neutral nations. But if we are to profit by this war, if we are to prevent, if possible, a recurrence of such a gigantic evil, our statesmen, and the people, must honestly face the question as to how far and in what respect are they responsible. It has been said that it was inevitable that two powerful nations, with such diverse and antagonistic ideals of war, culture, liberty, civilization, the relative rights of might and right, and the rights of the smaller nations, should some day come into mortal conflict. But no impartial student can dispute the fact that one of the determining causes, if not the determining cause, which impelled the Germans on their course of fire and rapine, was the certain know- ledge that Great Britain was not prepared, and the doubt which they legitimately entertained, until the last 56 THE WAR AND WALES moment, that she would and could intervene effec- tively. " The knowledge," wrote Mr. W. S. Lilly — and it is now the judgment of the safest authorities — " that a million, or even half a million of English troops, could have been sent to Belgium would have safeguarded that country's neutrality." " The British Constitution," said Mr. Birrell, " is not, perhaps, the best for the preparation of war, but it might be after all the best guarantee for ultimate victory." That this is true, in part, is obvious ; a monarchical government possesses distinct advantages over a democratic govern- ment, not only in relation to war and the conduct of war and the preparation for war, but in various other ways. Discipline and authority are as essential to the State as freedom ; but discipline and authority have been, in latter years, only possible in the United Kingdom by conceding to the democracy all its demands. The advantage of bureaucracy over democracy in grave crises is implied in the formation of a Coalition Govern- ment — the first in English history since the ill-starred and short-lived Administration of Fox and North — which has arrogated to itself powers as arbitrary as those exercised by the Kaiser himself. The authority which but yester- day was vested in the House of Commons itself has been revoked. In the land where the liberty of the subject used to be regarded as the most precious of its possessions, and the House of Commons as the most democratic assembly in the world, the Executive has become the dictator, and it is worthy of note that hardly a voice of expostulation has been heard. If, as Mr. Birrell and others have suggested, the fault is with the British Constitution, the sooner it is modified to meet modern requirements the better. It is infinitely more important to have a Constitution that will enable a country to be in such a state of preparedness that none will dare to attack it, and that will safeguard the interests of the commonwealth in time of peace, than to have a constitution that " might be after all " the best guarantee for " ultimate victory." RELFECTIONS ON THE WAR 57 As to the strange contention advanced in some quarters, in England, that this war and the character of the war is due to the cast of thought, religious and philosophic, which is ultimately derived from the Lutheran Reforma- tion, the obvious answer is, that the Prussian State is not the offspring of Protestantism, neither is Germany exclusively Protestant. There is a large Roman Catholic minority which has played a very important part in German politics. It has had a few hard tussles with the State, and the State has discovered that it is a force to be reckoned with. For all practical purposes, Roman Catholics in Germany enjoy as much favour and support from the authorities as do the Evangelical churches. If Teutonic Protestantism has been corrupted, so has Teutonic Roman Catholicism, for both are equally in- volved in this war ; both have put the whole weight of their authority into it ; they know of the violation of humanity, the violation of justice, the violation of all manly and all civil instincts on the part of German soldiers, partly on their own initiative, and partly at the instiga- tion of their officers, whose misdeeds were condoned and applauded by their superiors. But not a word of protest has ever been uttered either by the Protestants or by the Roman Catholics of Germany. The Roman Catholics of Germany and Austria have acquiesced in the philosophy of conduct that has been taken for granted by German diplomacy ; yet the critics of Protestantism are only con- cerned with the delinquencies of German Protestants. German Protestantism, they say, has dethroned Christ and Christianity ; it has knocked from under its feet the foundation of morals and of the Bible on which alone it rested. There is about as much reason for differentiating between Lutheranism and Romanism in this war and in the departure from the civilized standard of warfare, as there is in differentiating between the mass of the German people and the military party who, as some German apologists in England have contended, committed a " religious " and " peace-loving " people to this bloody 58 THE WAR AND WALES adventure. It is time that this kindly theory should be abandoned, as they have been obliged to abandon the legend which represented the German soldiers as being driven to advance against the British and the French by their officers at the point of the revolver. The truth is that the two chosen friends and allies of Protestant Germany to-day are just those whom Luther bluntly called " the arch-enemies of Christ and His Holy Church " — Latin Austria and the Turk. The powerful Centre Party, which represents the Roman Catholics of Germany in the Reichstag, was permitted by the authorities to publish a resolution, passed by its executive committee, in which are defined the aims that the party hopes will be achieved by means of this war. The resolution ran as follows : "In order that the world- task imposed on the ability and industry of the German people may be fulfilled, their productive forces must have absolute freedom of movement at home, on the free ocean, and in the countries beyond the seas. The exter- nal condition for the successful development of the German nation is, as the experience gained in the world-war shows clearly, an enhanced security against the military and economic schemes evolved by our enemies in the hopes of accomplishing our destruction. The awful sacrifices that the war has cost our nation, demand that our country's defences in the East and in the West shall be strengthened to such an extent that our enemies will never again venture to attack us. These strengthened defences must also enable permanent economic provision to be made for our growing population, and similar defences must be raised for our Allies. The religious forces of the nation must also be augmented on the conclusion of the war, because on them the true greatness of Germany is based, and they are the means employed by God in leading Germans to the accomplishment of such wonderful deeds." It is painful to note these efforts to construct an anti- Protcstant theory out of the experiences of this war, by attributing German soullessncss, German brutality, and German decadent materialism, not to the nation as a REFLECTIONS ON THE WAR 59 whole, but to Lutheranism ; and by tracing the latest development in German religion and Biblical criticism to the Lutheran Reformation. We have been reminded that Heinrich Heine, eighty years ago, traced a logical sequence in the movement of the Reformation and the later revolution in German philosophy and politics. Heine foretold a coming renaissance of German paganism, and described the destruction of Christian cathedrals as one of the fruits of Lutheranism. Hegel, they also tell us, was a Lutheran ; he did not believe in God in any sense com- patible with Christianity, and his glorification of the Prussian State as the Political Absolute was the direct result of Luther's defection ; though we had always thought that the crime alleged against Luther was that he taught a self-absolving individualism which led to social, political, and religious anarchy. As to Heine, he was a Jew and he regarded the German race as bar- barians. His estimate of them had nothing to do with this religion, whether Protestant or Roman Catholic. It is interesting to behold the ardour and persistence with which Heine's attempt at tracing this " logical sequence " has been taken up, and is being prosecuted. Luther, we are told, preached the gospel of the freedom of judgment and of free inquiry in the realm of religion, hence his responsibility for the spirit of socialistic revolu- tion that was stirred up in his time, and which has troubled Europe ever since. Luther issued publications against the monks and the prelates which, it is alleged, resulted in the Peasants' Revolt. Erasmus wrote to Luther that while he (Luther) did not acknowledge them, they ack- nowledged him as the apostle of liberty, and that many of his disciples were among them. His motive in dis- owning their cause was, we are told, that he saw that it was his only chance of saving the Reformation ; for that reason alone he clung to the skirts of the Princes. Luther propounded the Erastian doctrine that the Prince, or Head of the State, was ipso facto the summits episcopus of the Lutheran sects in his dominions; hence, we are told, the formal and abject subjection of German 60 THE WAR AND WALES Protestantism to the German civil Power previous to and during this war. The pathos of this argument consists in the fact that those who advance it seem to regard it as a matter of profound thankfulness that the civil Power can, and that it is the only Power that can, stay the division, and the sub-division of the sects, and prevent the begetting of fresh sects, as in Germany and Scan- dinavia. They also refer with pride to the fact that the Lutherans a few years ago were prevented from abolish- ing the Apostles' Creed by the personal intervention of the Kaiser. We are reminded that the modern descendants of the Huguenots in France have followed their German co- religionists in becoming Unitarians. This they attribute to the fissiparous tendency of the principle of private judgment which Luther launched upon Europe and the world, and to the repudiation by Luther and Calvin of the doctrine that the Holy Catholic Church, as a visible society, is the Kingdom of Heaven on earth, and that it possesses a threefold Apostolic Ministry, derived by succession from the Apostles, as the organs of the Body of Christ, and the stewards of His sacramental channels of grace. The destruction of all true ideals of marriage as a sacrament, it is also urged, began with Luther's fanatical hatred of monastic vows and clerical celibacy. Statis- tics are quoted in order to show that the disregard of the ties of matrimony is peculiar to Protestant communities, and that illegitimate births in Lutheran and Calvinistic countries far exceed in mumber those in Roman Catholic countries. Some years ago, we are told, the illegitimate births in Calvinistic Scotland were ten per cent, as against three per cent, in Ireland, and even this low average was mainly furnished by the Protestants of the North. The Celts of Ireland are as moral as the Calvinistic Celts of Wales are the reverse, and the laxity of the Calvinistic Lowland Scots is equally notorious. German Rationalism, it is said, is identified with German Lutheranism, and must be regarded as the product of REFLECTIONS ON THE WAR 6l Lutheranism ; yet in other connections, it is said by the same class of critics, that Toland and the English Deists influenced Germany during the predominance of Whig Erastian principles at the accession of George I, in 17 14, and that their ideas laid the foundation of German Rationalism. Indeed, Luther seems to be regarded as the fruitful parent of all the political unrest, all the social disruptive influences, as well as of every species of unbelief or of mis- belief, from what are called the heresies of Benjamin Hoadley in the eighteenth century to those of Dr. Colenso, Dr. Cheyne, and the nebulous " Liberals of our time." And now, as if enough of evil results, and results for which Luther cannot be held responsible, had not been laid to his charge, we are told, as we have already inti- mated, that this, the greatest war in history, and the brutality with which it has been conducted by the Ger- mans, is nothing but the aftermath of the Reformation. This campaign against Luther and Protestantism affords a very interesting study in the pathology of spiritual disease. How are we to diagnose it? Un- doubtedly, it is part of the propaganda to get rid of the Latitudinarian side of British Christianity by eliminating what is called the " alien Protestant element " from within the Church of England, an element which has become a " savourless salt " to the more Catholic section. Canon Liddon uttered a warning against " Anglican comprehensiveness " which embraces the doctrine of the Three Schools, and which, as he said, while admirable in themselves, cannot be reconciled with the nature and obligation of a revelation from God, and is inconsistent ■with Catholic ideals. The contention is that it is illogical to fit Protestantism into the framework of a Catholic hierarchy and the formularies of the Church of England. There is, it is considered, even a more important considera- tion, viz., when the Pope declined, in 1896, to recognize the validity of Anglican Orders, it was chiefly for the reason that he could not recognize the Calvinian or Protestant current in the Anglican Church. So long, 62 THE WAR AND WALES therefore, as the Protestant element remains, and remains unabsorbed, and is allowed to have a voice in the inter- pretation of the formularies of the Church of England, she can never be Catholic ; she will always be distracted by a conflict of ideas and aspirations. The anarchy to which " this alien Protestant element " has reduced the Ecclesia Anglicana makes it imperative, we are told, on the part of Anglo-Catholics to rid the Church of it. It must be understood that this treatment is not an attack upon Anglo-Catholicism either as a doctrine or as a system of worship. We appreciate the courage and persistence with which it has borne witness, through good and evil report, to some forgotten and neglected aspects of the truth, aspects which the circumstances of this war have emphasized. We are endeavouring to give what seems to us to be the drift of Anglo-Catholic thought regarding the causes that are responsible for the war and the conduct of the war, and to indicate the unsoundness, in this particular respect, of its mental and historical outlook. We submit that there is less room for intoler- ant dogmatism on the alleged connection between the Reformation and between German Protestantism and the war, than there is on any other phase of the war. The attempt to place the burden of guilt on German Protes- tantism, and thus, either directly or by implication, to absolve German Roman Catholicism from any or equal guilt, puts the Anglo-Catholic in the position of a special attorney pleading for his own side, and pleading, as we hold, against all the facts of the case. Such a method of reasoning is as illegitimate as the reasoning of those critics who would have us believe that the war is the result of the application, by the Germans, of Darwinism to ethics. It is as grotesque to make the great German reformer as it is to make the great English naturalist responsible for the new German morality. To perversely treat as an ethical principle a valuable working hypothesis in the field of natural science, is as pernicious as to perversely treat a spiritual principle, or a reforming movement, by associating some of its alleged results and REFLECTIONS ON THE WAR 63 its misapplications in the course of time with the principle of the movement itself. It is even more pernicious to take up its worst features and the more objectionable forms of its later development, and then to attribute them to the original purpose or the personal character of the reformer or the leader of the movement, as has been done of late years, and is being done during this war, with regard to Luther and the Protestant Reformation. Hegel himself insisted that a principle pressed too far issues in the opposite extreme ; it is as applicable to Roman Catholicism as it is to Protestantism. It is an unchanging law in human history. When Henry broke with Rome he did not foresee the development of the militant Protestantism of the Protestant religion ; neither did Luther contemplate the dissidence of Dissent when he nailed his famous protest to the church door at Witten- berg. Unitarianism would have had as little mercy at the hands of Luther as it would have had at the hands of Henry. Would Roman or Anglo-Catholics attribute to the papal and priestly system as such the responsibility for the sale of indulgences which was a scandal to Luther's age, and which caused a reaction against the penitential and confessional system of the Roman Church ? Would they allow that the grave evils which resulted from the universal enforcement of clerical celibacy, the Papal Schism, and the corruption of the Roman curia, justified an indiscriminate and wholesale attack on Roman Catholi- cism as a spiritual system? Because monastic life, in the sixteenth century, had bred corruption of the most deplorable kind, and had lost the high ideals of purity and self-sacrifice, would they, for that reason, deny that it was mainly by the monasteries that the way of civiliza- tion was pointed out to the peasant class of Europe ? Would they give the monks of that and of previous generations no credit for their silent hospitality to the wayfarer ; for their devotions and austerities, for the elevating impression they made on the barbarians of Europe by their sacrifices and separation from the world ; for their cultivation of letters ; for the literary relics and 64 THE WAR AND WALES the noble hymns and strains of music which they have transmitted to us, and which will live for ever ? If the monastic institution has had its evils, it has had its pre- eminent merits ; and what may be said of the monastic institution, may also be said of Roman Catholicism and of Protestantism. As to the alleged glorification of, and the submission to, the German State on the part of German Protestantism, it has to be stated that the clerics of Germany of all creeds and sects are disciplined servants of the State, and they are simply tolerated by the military caste. Their first duty is to take an oath of allegiance and obedience to the Emperor and the State. German militarists regard the German clergy as a negligible quantity. In 1896, the Kaiser said that there was no room in Germany for political parsons. " The parson," said Wilhelm II, " must leave politics alone, for it does not concern them in the least." It is the Erastianism, not the Protes- tantism of Germany, that is responsible for the paralysis of their religion. The ideals of the German nation of to-day have not been derived from religion, though the religion and the politics of Germany are now so intermixed that we cannot distinguish the one from the other ; and, notwithstanding the traditional mutual distrust among Protestants and Roman Catholics, they are perfectly united in the prosecution of this war. German religion (and by this we do not simply mean the religion of the dominant party — the Protestants) is in reality a State religion. As an illustration of this, we may mention the fact that the ancient churches and cathedrals of Germany are reno- vated, and her new ones built, largely from funds obtained by State lotteries, the State levying a tax on each lottery ticket sold. Long before the war began the churches and ministers of Germany had become impotent to stir the spiritual life of the people. German social democracy is semi-atheistic ; the upper classes are intellectual materialists, the lower ranks are social democrats ; they are hostile to both religion and morals. It is no secret REFLECTIONS ON THE WAR 65 that, before the war, the masses from whom the bulk of the German soldiers was drawn were the most irreligious multitude in Europe ; they were intolerant alike of Protestantism and Roman Catholicism, scornful of both priests and pastors, of the churches and the Sciiptures. If, as it has been said, the question as to what kind of a settlement we can hope to attain at the end of the war depends, to some extent, upon our ideas of its causes, one might almost despair of a satisfactory or of a final settlement, for the explanations of its causes assume, in England at any rate, astonishingly different and astonish- ingly peculiar forms. The Machiavellian character of German diplomacy and of German Imperialism did not, like Jonah's gourd, spring up in a night. An onrush of new ideas of action has always been prepared long before- hand in the world of thought. The Renaissance had its forerunners in Petrarch and others ; a way for the French Revolution had been prepared by men like Voltaire, Diderot and Rousseau. To say that the new philosophy of duty, morals, religion and statesmanship, which obtains in Germany to-day, is the sole work of the Kaiser, Treitschke, Bernhardi and Nietzsche, is a peculiarly foolish legend. True, Nietzsche will stand out in history as a very great figure in the world of thought in the nineteenth century, but to ascribe to him all that is being ascribed, is to place to his credit not only a triumph without precedent, but to ignore the trend and substance of the literature of Germany during the whole of the last century, and the personalities who, during that period, helped to infuse the spirit of aggressive Imperialism into the German mind. It would also be to ignore Germany's wonderful development in financial, commercial and colonial expan- sion, and the manner in which German Imperialism modified its form and enlarged its scope and its claim, so as to fit in with the progressive adjustment of Germany's economic and geographical conditions. Indeed, there are two illusions which seem to obsess some students of German philosophy and of German historical criticism and scholarship : one is to regard it as 66 THE WAR AND WALES entirely new and entirely German, the other is to over- look its unity and solidarity. As it has recently been pointed out, in those very fields of history and scholarship which the Germans are generally supposed to have made in a manner their own, a valuable literature has arisen in France and Belgium, notably at Louvain, where historical criticism and Oriental studies have been cultivated with conspicuous success ; and in spite of the historical fallacy by which Germans affect to regard Russians as bar- barians, scientific philology is deeply indebted to the Imperial Academy of Petrograd. The German critic or historian is largely indebted to the scholars of the Renaissance, to the researches of the French Benedictines, and notably to Joseph Scaliger, the celebrated litterateur and author of De Emendatione Temporum. He left Agen, where he was born in 1540, and went to Paris in 1559 to study Greek, Hebrew, Syriac, Persian, and modern European languages. When he became Protestant he retired to Geneva after the massacre of St. Bartholemew, returning to Paris in 1574. I R I 593 he was appointed to the Chair of Polite Literature in the University of Leyden. It was Spaniards and Englishmen who first ventured into the rich field of Sanskrit studies, and French- men were foremost in interpreting Egyptian hieroglyphics and the sacred books of Mazdeism. Whether we look into the realm of philology, or of historical criticism, or of philosophy, German scholarship owes much more than is general^ thought to foreign sources. So great has been the arrogance of the Germans that it has perverted not only German science and German scholarship, but the German intellect. What rests, chiefly, to their credit is that they have developed the re- searches of others and have adopted and advertised them as their own. So sedulously have they fostered the impres- sion (which they themselves created) that the Shakespe- rian cult flourished in Germany long before it developed in Shakespeare's own country that it has been accepted as true in certain quarters in this country, especially among those admirers of Germany who never cease to REFLECTIONS ON THE WAR 67 proclaim the merits and advantages of German culture and scientific progress. The ability to develop and to enrich the discoveries of others is a great gift ; but the war has been the means of exposing the shallowness of German pretentions to originality and to discovery in many fields of science and literature. Bopp's Indo- European Family of Speech was stolen (without acknow- ledgment) from a Welshman in the person of Sir William Jones, the most celebrated linguist that the world had ever known previous to his day ; his services to Oriental literature are the admiration of scholars in every country. What should be said regarding the solidarity of European thought and history should also be said, at any rate in a larger measure than it is being said, regarding the soli- darity of German thought and history. The tendency has been, in some quarters in England, to divide the German world of letters into two classes, viz., what they call the official representatives of learning and letters, and the unofficial representatives, and to place the one in antagonism to the other. The official representatives are the writers who have thought inside the lines prescribed for them by the State, and the unofficial representatives are the writers who have brought independence of thought to bear upon history and public affairs. The German State being in control of the universities, and the universities being in control of the primary and secondary schools, the State has been able, we are told, to stamp on the national mind its own peculiar conception of life and politics and morality, and to corrupt, by militarizing, the national mind. What the Allies have to do, if they can, is to destroy what is called German militarism, and to break the official fetters that bind and limit the free activity of the German intellect, so as to open the doors in Germany towards a more humane and liberal and spiritual conception of life and politics. When this has been accomplished, the German universities under the pressure of the State will no longer absorb everything in the way of learning and research, and will no longer be able to repress independent thought upon history and 68 THE WAR AND WALES public and international affairs. Then Germany will revert to the path of peace and regain her sanity of judgment. This is the professorial view of the origin and development and the aggressiveness of German Imperialism, with all its evil concomitants, that we are asked to accept ; and it is in this direction, they tell us, we are to look for a permanent settlement and a per- manent peace. We hold, however, that these deductions are misleading, and they are misleading because the diagnosis is wrong. The history of modern Germany does not appear to us to warrant the statement that there has been no indepen- dent thought in the sphere of history and political science ; it certainly does not warrant the assumption that there has been none in the sphere of pure learning and research. The evidence goes to show that the conception of German aggressive Imperialism had been taught before the Kaiser, or Bismarck, or Treitschke, or Bernhardi, or Nietzsche, made their appearance. For its root-elements we must go beyond the immediate past back to the prophetic soul of Germany as expressed in and through the poets, novelists, historians, philosophers and dreamers of the first half of the nineteenth, and the latter half of the eighteenth century. What Nietzsche and the others did was to develop the conception which they had in- herited from their forerunners, and to bring it to its tragic culmination. The fatal date in the history of German Imperialism is, we are told, the close of the year 1890, when the Emperor summoned forty-five leading educational autho- rities to Berlin for the purpose of discussing the reform of education, and to formulate a scheme for the adapta- tion of public education to the world-position of Germany. In one regard, the Kaiser only demanded what some other and smaller nations, reputed to be highly religious, have demanded for themselves, viz., that the German language and patriotic German history should be the first and chief concern of Germans and of German educationists. Every pupil, master, and professor was to become an REFLECTIONS ON THE WAR 69 Imperialist scholar and teacher. The conference adopted the reforms suggested by the Kaiser, and they were made obligatory by the Government a few months later, with the result that by the beginning of the twentieth century an enormous mass of books and pamphlets were issued from the press relating to Imperialism. Leagues of all descriptions — colonial leagues, navy leagues, German linguistic leagues — were established not only in Berlin, but in every provincial town and village. Vastly important and far-reaching in its consequences as was the decision of this Conference, it would be a mistake to suppose that it marks the birth of German aggressive Imperialism ; it was but another onward stage in the continuous, cohesive, conscious, and system- atic evolution of the German mind in the one and same direction. To regard the Kaiser's action as a violent break with what is erroneously called the " pacific " past, is to adopt an entirely wrong mental attitude towards the elementary points in the making of modern Germany and of Pan-Germanism. What the Kaiser did was to widen the scope and to intensify the energy of the ambition which had already obsessed the German mind. The adaptation of education to Imperialistic purposes was conditioned by the historical and economic development of Germany, apart from which such adaptation would have been impossible. The Kaiser was only a tributary stream in the mighty current that had been growing in strength and volume, and gathering momentum, long before his day ; so was Treitschke only a tributary stream, so were Bernhardi and Nietzsche. There is always a disposition when some dynamic personality appears at the psychological moment on the horizon of a nation's life, and brings to a focus the growing thoughts, yearnings and aspirations of his race, and leads his race by them, to place that personality in the category of a creator rather than in the category of a medium, and thus to ignore or to underrate the antecedent forces that conditioned his power and success. It is open to us to say that in adopting means for the G 70 THE WAR AND WALES realization of Germany's self, the Kaiser was helping the nation to realize its worst self, but it is not open to us to say that — great and powerful as he was — he could have abruptly embodied a ruthless Imperialism in the whole German education system unless he derived his impact from the historical consciousness of his race. The Kaiser's action showed not only himself, but the people whom he led. We are not justifying the Kaiser, but trying to explain him in the light of the historical, political and economic exigencies of his day. The Kaiser had a pretty clear idea of the mood of the imaginative genius of the philosophers, historians, and philologists of Germany, some of whom unconsciously, but most of whom con- sciously, contributed to the expansion of Prussian tradi- tion. The Kaiser was once a pupil of Maurenbrecher, author of The Foundation of the German Empire. As professor of history at Bonn, he taught that the interests of Germany should outweigh all interests. "It is the task," says Maurenbrecher in the book referred to, " of our successors to maintain and to expand, to protect and to complete, what the Emperor William and Prince Bismarck founded in these great nine years." This was the task that the Kaiser undertook, not only as Emperor, but as a loyal German citizen and a faithful descendant of his forefathers. What is true of the Kaiser is also true of Bernhardi, of Nietzsche and of Treitschke, the historiographer Royal of Prussia. It is difficult to understand why Treitschke should be represented as shedding his independence and Liberalism under the pressure of German bureaucracy, for Treitschke forsook his Liberalism when he saw the tendency of democratic ideas. It was from his tutor, Dahlmann, a very distinguished academician and pro- fessor at Kiel, that Treitschke got his ideas that modern Germany was divinely destined to be the militant apostle to less cultured, less enlightened, and less heavenly favoured nations. Indeed, this strange doctrine had become an integral part of German historical culture before Treitschke entered Berlin University. It was from REFLECTIONS ON THE WAR 71 Emmanuel Geibel, the chief lyric poet of Germany in his own age, that Treitschke borrowed the couplet : " One day, mayhap, the whole world would recover its health in the German character." Treitschke was the connect- ing link between the old and the new Imperialism, which differed not in spirit and purpose but in method. The difference between Treitschke and his predecessors was that Treitschke abandoned history for political science ; he remained a historian, but he obtained his ideas from the older historians, and made the glorification of Prussian absolutism, hatred of France and of England, and the annexation of Belgium and Holland, a primary part of his creed. This creed he developed into a system of statecraft. Before Treitschke there was Leopold von Ranke, a man of Liberal sentiments, who was appointed professor of modern history at Berlin in 1825. He gradually lost touch with democratic ideas and ultimately became a loyal supporter of the Prussian tradition; he taught that the expansion of Prussia was a political and a moral necessity in order to ensure the preservation of German culture. It is recorded that he frightened Bismarck by advocating the annexation of Switzerland " so that the nest of Radicalism might no longer disturb the peace of Europe." Paul Botticher, a very eminent Orientalist, also complained to Prince Bismarck that he had not taken enough from France. Botticher was among those who in 1853 demanded the annexation of Alsace and Lorraine, on the ground that Alsace and Lorraine as well as Schleswig-Holstein really belonged to Germany. In fact, Bismarck was forced by German professors of his- tory and political science to extend Germany's frontiers, partly, it is true, for the reason that Germany's popula- tion, having increased at such a prodigious rate, had made the acquisition of new territories an economic necessity. Before Leopold von Ranke there was Baron von Stein, who, in 1819, founded an association of historians for the purpose of taking up history as a science with a direct bearing on public life. Some of the historians whom 72 THE WAR AND WALES Baron von Stein gathered round him insisted that Prussia should extend her rule, by force if necessary, over the petty German States and towns ; among them were Liberals as well as Conservatives. Their ambition was to make Prussia the most enlightened and most powerful State in Europe. They all looked upon France and England and the older nations of Europe as obstacles not only to their own purposes but to the progress of civiliza- tion — as they conceived it. Indeed, if we want to trace the beginnings of the Pan- Germanism of to-day, we have to go back to the Ger- many of the eighteenth century. Goethe — poet, novelist, artist, scientist, and philosopher — though a man with a cosmopolitan mind, was an ardent apostle of the gospel of Pan-Germanism ; so was his contemporary, Schiller, the great German poet who wrote a History of the Revolt of the Netherlands ; Memoirs from the Twelfth Century, to the Most Recent Times ; History of the Thirty Years War ; and who, from 1799, published successively, Wallenstein, Maria Stuart, and William Tell. So was Fichte, the German philosopher who became professor in Jena in 1793. Blucher, who was also an eighteenth century man, represented the old military tradition. As to Nietzsche, it is true that his influence was, in some respects, more direct and deadly than of any of his predecessors. But even this fact does not justify us in treating him as a portent standing wholly apart from them. It is also true that his teaching is often in conflict with the teachings of philosophers like Fichte, and Kant (who was more than half Scottish in origin) who devoted a special treatise to a consideration of the means of securing a permanent peace; and there is much in the principles of the earlier German thinkers of Jena and Konisberg, which runs counter to the ruthlessness of that military morality which is usually associated with what is termed the reactionary philosophy of Nietzsche. But Nietzsche is in reality the legitimate offspring of his elders, some of whom, if they did not contribute directly to the philosophy of the Pan-Germanism of to-day, yet REFLECTIONS ON THE WAR 73 contributed indirectly to that aspect of German Imperial- ism upon which later Pan-Germanism has been founded. While men like Mommsen were not enamoured of Prus- sian institutions and the junkers, yet they glorified the Prussia of Frederick the Great and taught hatred of France. In fact, modern German statesmanship is Frederickian ; Bernhardi and Treitschke are merely the imitators and expounders of Frederick the Great. The closer we study the development of German Imperialism, the more unhistorical appears the profes- sorial contention which has been taken up by a certain class of politicians, that there has been no independent thought in Germany upon history and public affairs, and the more grotesque appears the statement that there are two Germanys — a peace-loving, industrious, purely intellectual Germany, and a sinister, bellicose, tyrannical and military Germany. It would be truer to the facts of German history to say that the State was forced to assimilate the ideas of its historians, philosophers and philologists, than to say that they were compelled by the State to think and to write within the limits prescribed for her. German militarism is the effect rather than the cause of Pan-Germanism. The Germans are militarists only in the sense that they have made their Army as Great Britain has made her Navy, perfectly equipped and ready for action ; military defeat would not stop that kind of militarism in Germany, any more than defeat would stop Great Britain building another Navy. There can be no greater delusion than the belief that when the Allies crush, if they can, German militarism, they will bring peace to Europe and liberate the German people from the fetters that bind them. The dagger of Brutus removed the man but left the cause ; the cause of Pan-Germanism is in the philosophy in which the German nation has been bred by its publi- cists ; it is in the economic conditions of Germany ; it is in its growing population. It is in the common belief of the nation that its cramped position, both on land and on sea, is due to the selfishness of Great Britain ; 74 THE WAR AND WALES it is in German nationality and German chauvinism. " If you sink," cried Fichte to the Germans of his day, " Humanity sinks with you, without hope of future restoration." England's glory, said his successors, was fading, or had faded ; in the sphere of music, poetry, science, romance, literature, philosophy, education, re- search, and Biblical criticism, she had everything to learn from Germany. England had no great scholars, or diplomats, or statesmen ; she had no culture, no healthy tastes, no high standards of life, but enough and to spare, of course, of covetous, arrogant, braggart passions. She was at variance with herself ; disloyal spirits were breath- ing openly, and there were no moral or State forces strong enough to keep them in check ; the " reign of terror " had taken the place of the " reign of law," fears of revolu- tion and of civil war were paralysing the industries, and destroying the harmony of the country. There was no unity. England was exhausted, and her doom was about to be sealed. Germany, on the other hand, was full of vigour and enthusiasm ; intellectually, she was the foremost nation in the world ; ancient Athens was returning to life in Germany ; German blood had been the true inspiration of Christ ; German blood was the secret of the power wielded by all the leading personalities in the history of mankind. Germany's progress had been as great and as far- reaching in the realm of finance and commerce as it had been in the realm of the intellect. Industry had been nourished by war ; the policy of " blood and iron " had been made to pay. The Bismarckian policy had transformed the map of Europe. The defeat and dis- memberment of Denmark, the defeat of Austria, the reorganization of Germany, the overthrow of France, the conquest of two of her provinces, with an enormous war indemnity, had raised Prussia in seven years from the fourth place among Continental Powers to the acknow- ledged primacy in the first rank. Germany's hour had come. "Be no longer hysterical REFLECTIONS ON THE WAR 75 women and children," said Dr. Karl Eisenhart to the statesmen of Germany. " Be prepared," said Professor Karl Lamprecht, " to take your share in the redistribution of the globe." " Germany is destined to lead the nations of the earth and to win the freedom of the seas for other nations," said Professor Richard Ehrenberg. Side by side with the literary, historical and economic development, there was the military development. While steps were taken to popularize the new Imperialism in every university, school, town and village, the Kaiser was pleading for a larger navy ; this was within a week after the Boer War had commenced ; with the result that the German Navy Estimates increased from nine and a half millions in 1901, to twenty- three millions in recent years. There was scarcely a German Navy in existence in 1900, but it became so formidable in the North Sea, that England was compelled to concentrate almost all her battleships in home waters, and to entrust her interests in the Mediterranean to the French Navy. Until the German Fleet is destroyed, German naval policy will remain intact, and British sea power will be in jeopardy. As with the German Navy, so with the Army. Its peace strength expanded from about six hundred and fifty thousand in 1911, to eight hundred and twenty-two thousand in 1913. " It is a fact worthy of note," said the late Lord Roberts, " that this addition of one hundred and seventy thousand men to the numbers with the colours — an addition just equal to our Expeditionary Force — was made almost immediately after the Morocco crisis of 191 1, when the British Government had shown its determination to stand by the side of France against any attempt of German aggression." According to the German recruiting statistics for 1912, after taking three hundred thousand men for the Army and Navy, Germany had about a million men between the ages of twenty and twenty-two who remained in the reserve. It is impossible to state how many men Germany has enrolled for military service since the war began. Some authorities have placed 76 THE WAR AND WALES the figure as high as a million and a half ; the lowest estimate is a million. As with the Army and Navy, so with finance. When the present war broke out, Germany had a sum of fifty millions immediately available for war purposes. This money was obtained by special levy imposed by law on the richer section of the community in 19 13. Ostensibly, the money was raised for the initial expenditure in con- nection with the increase of the peace strength under the law of 1913 ; it was ready for collection, but not called for until the outbreak of the war. After the war had lasted a year, religious men in England began to talk about the mobilization of prayer and of the spiritual forces of the country ; but Germany had already done what was infinitely more effective, viz., she had mobilized, in peace time, the whole resources of the nation — financial, journalistic, educational, military and naval, for the struggle that she knew was inevitable. Moreover, Germany established a national trade policy founded on the principle of economic independence, with the result that after nineteen months or so of war, and an alleged blockade of Germany by Great Britain, Germany is able to support her vast operations and to feed herself without any intolerable strain. She strove to be indepen- dent in clothes, metals, munitions, and food-stuffs ; and although she has not entirely fulfilled that ideal, she is very much nearer to it than England is, or ever can hope to be under her present fiscal system. Great Britain has to depend for three out of four of these commodities veiy largely upon America. Not that Great Britain is entirely dependent on, nor that Germany is entirely in- dependent of, the outside world. But that whereas Great Britain has been looking without, Germany has been look- ing within, so that she has been better able to conserve her own capital and industries, while Great Britain's outflow of wealth has to go to meet her transatlantic purchases. Germany's gain in economic independence is a gain in national strength. Great Britain's economic dependence has made her so much indebted to neutrals, especially REFLECTIONS ON THE WAR JJ to the United States, that she has been almost forced to partially surrender her right of blockading Germany. Since the beginning of history, both in men and nations, self-reliance and self-dependence have been the main source of strength ; this is one of the secrets that Ger- many has learned, and through which she is now profiting greatly. It is reasonable to suppose that a country which is more or less self-supporting, whether temporarily or permanently, stands in a far better position, both in peace and war time, than a nation which depends largely on foreign trade. For this reason the financial difficulty is far less urgent in Germany than in England. Germany's indebtedness is internal, which is an advantage, for the interest on the debt will be spent in Germany ; and when the war is over the lessons of her independence will materially help her trade. Even Britain's blockade has partly proved a gain to Germany, for the reason that it has already resulted in the concentration of her wealth at home ; it has forced her to reconstruct her trades and industries, and to invent new ones to meet the exigencies of war. Her foreign indebtedness at the end of the war will be nothing. It is calculated that Great Britain will be fortunate if, at the end of the war, her national debt will not exceed three thousand millions ; which will mean, at least, one hundred and fifty millions per annum interest. By her accumulation of foreign investments, her control of so many foreign industries and of certain metals necessary for war, her saving of wasteful consumption, her organization of the means of production, her economy and control of expenditure, Germany has so far been able to meet her financial difficulties, and is far less dependent on neutral countries than is England. It was confidently predicted by one statesman when the war broke out, that the weakness of Germany's financial position would bring about a speedy collapse. It was an illusion. A nation may be strong economically, but weak financially, and vice versa. The difference between Great Britain and Germany, at the beginning of the war, was 78 THE WAR AND WALES that the former was strong financially but weak economic- ally ; while the latter was weak financially but strong economically. Germany's fiscal and economic organization have placed her in a position to overcome her financial difficulties, although her wealth and resources are by no means comparable to those of the British Empire. Even Great Britain's sea power, though highly injurious to Ger- many's production, actually assists her economy, partly for the reason that Britons are more wasteful, less scientific, and cannot be brought under the same law of rigorous necessity as the Germans ; the Germans are far less extravagant, and they are prepared for any sacrifice in the interest of the nation and of the political State. It has to be conceded that no other nation in the whole history of warfare has ever possessed such a perfect machinery, or such a conception of the right significance and potentialities of the political State as the mainspring of power and progress, and that in contradistinction to the theory — so popular in England of late years — of the unlimited rights of the individual citizen. It is about the most magnificent thing in the history of the world ; and, in the latter sense, it may be said that Germany has rendered great service to Great Britain. From the beginning of time the Germans have been a military nation ; so will they remain in the practical future, what- ever the result of the war. Her conscript system has enabled her to say who was to fight and who was to remain in the workshop, while Great Britain had to enlist indiscriminately, and thus cripple her industries. Which- ever way we look, we find that Germany has always taken the long view, economically, militarily, diplomatically, and strategically. But in spite of all her skill, foresight, craft, intrigue, organization, unity of thought and ideal between the Army and the people, and in spite of her theory that war is not the antithesis of peace, but a continuation of the policy of peace, Germany has lacked one quality, viz., imagination, which projects the vision beyond the narrow views of class, race and nation, and REFLECTIONS ON THE WAR 79 which brings the understanding which we call sympathy, into operation. While Germany was analysing war, and reducing it to a science, a business and an art ; while she was instilling into the public mind the idea that peace was a preparation for war, and that war was a complex and a long under- taking, requiring thought, insight, foresight, strategy, and vigilance, and war diplomacy, what was Great Britain doing during the forty years that Germany was preparing ? The question is shorter than any answer can possibly be. There is, however, one fact which none could or would question, viz., not until the South African War did Great Britain realize that the old-fashioned ideas of the British Army had become obsolete. It was then that our statesmen and soldiers came to see that the scientific principle which had penetrated the German Army and the German nation, was the only principle upon which war could be successfully waged in modern times ; that is, to organize the Army, the training of troops, transport, supply and the administrative departments in time of peace, as if matters were on a war footing. It stands to the credit of Mr. Balfour that he was among the first to appreciate this necessity. He it was who appointed the Esher Committee to inquire into the organization of the War Office, which resulted in the creation of an Army Council. Germany has had a General Staff for fifty years, Great Britain for eleven years only. This fact explains why Germany, at the commencement of the war, had so many trained officers possessing special aptitude for Staff work, technical knowledge, and the capacity to handle men in the field ; officers who under- stood their business and who had knowledge of the geography of every country in which they were interested. In addition to this, there was perfect co-ordination between foreign and military policy, the lack of which has been one of the main causes of Great Britain's weak- ness in this war, and of the failure of British diplomacy, especially in the Balkans. Sir Edward Grey himself has admitted that the checks to Entente diplomacy are due 80 THE WAR AND WALES to the military strength of Germany. British diplomacy has been largely ineffective because it has not had mili- tary advantages behind it. Unlike Germany, Great Britain's military plans were not cut and dried ahead of every turn in the course of diplomacy. While the German Colonies were well armed and con- tained wireless stations, British Crown Colonies were neither well armed nor well prepared. German traders, who were to all intents and purposes German political agents, were allowed without any restrictions to work clandestinely in Great Britain and in her Colonies to the advantage of the Fatherland, and to weaken British credit, British power and British finance. Art, music and international relations, were utilized in order to create a pro-German sentiment in Great Britain, and to corrupt our politicians. This bloodless invasion was a preparation for the bloody invasion of Belgium of 1914, and the projected invasion of Great Britain. By the patient and far-seeing labours of years, Germany has monopolized and controlled the ore output and the smelting operations, so that Great Britain found herself without the power either to secure the metal or to smelt it if it is secured. Germany was also allowed free licence in British markets, both at home and in the Colonies, to make contracts and to form combinations which have given Germany a dominating influence in several direc- tions ; she has utilized and still utilizes them to Great Britain's disadvantage. Before the outbreak of the war Great Britain was in a position of economic dependence on Germany respecting many essential industries ; and all for the sake of what one Welsh Parliamentarian proudly called the eternal principle of Free Trade. For the sake of such a principle Germans have been allowed to enjoy in Great Britain, as well as in the British Empire, greater privileges, in some respects, than have ever been accorded to Britons themselves. A generation or so ago, Great Britain kindly ceded Heligoland to Germany and permitted her to occupy an Empire in Africa twice the size of her Empire in Europe, REFLECTIONS ON THE WAR 8 1 to say nothing of islands in the Pacific and a station in China. She, or rather the Foreign Office, allowed Ger- many to acquire trade and territorial privileges in Turkey that were highly inimical to British interests. In every sea Germany was given a free hand to reap the fruits of British enterprise, usually without paying a toll, in markets developed by Britishers, to the cost of which she had contributed nothing. Dr. Lyttelton, headmaster of Eton College, once asked the question : " Has England no responsibility in this war? " Yes, but her responsibility does not lie in the direction which he indicated, viz., " England's sins — cruelty, discord, grasping selfishness, covetousness, and her neglect of the people." True, England has not been immaculate any more than other nations. England also has in the past pleaded " the rights of a higher civilization over a lower," but never in the sense that Germany is doing it to-day. In the main and increasingly England has, little by little, emancipated herself from that materia- listic and pagan Imperialism which, unfortunately for the world, has been raised by the Germans into a national cult ; little by little England has learned to respect the rights of the smaller and weaker nations, and nursed into freedom the peoples over whom she rules. If there is any sin to be laid at the door of England, it is that she has not profited, during her interval of peace, either by her own or by the experience of other nations. If the example set by Queen Elizabeth, when she defeated Spain, had been followed, the present calamity would not have come to pass. Queen Elizabeth did not strike until she had built her powder-mills ; until she had made English trade national and England independent of the Pope. It was through her industry and commerce, quite as much as through her military power, that England conquered Spain and Italy, though Philip was supported by the vast resources of Italy, the Hanseatic League, and the Spanish monopoly of the Indies. Elizabethan England was rela- tively poor, but her economic strength made her prac- tically independent, just as the economic strength of 82 THE WAR AND WALES Germany has made her practically independent. While there is a shortage of some commodities there is a super- abundance of others. England's or Great Britain's responsibility in this war lies in her guilty passivity, in her refusal to face the facts, and in the subordination of national to party interests — that is, to the manipulation of electoral bodies, and the retention and acquisition of votes. In 1913, just a year before the war, Mr. Lewis Harcourt said : " I can conceive no circumstances in which Continental co-operation by our troops would not be a crime against the people of this country." That German statesmen took note of this observation, it is reasonable to suppose. It is a notorious fact that even at the very eve of the present war, a section of the English press urged the Liberal Government to remain neutral, so that Great Bri- tain might profit by her trade with all parties to the quarrel. It venomously opposed the maintenance of a powerful Navy and of an efficient Army ; it kept on heaping con- tempt upon those who held it to be the duty of every citizen to defend his country against invasion, and more especially against the designs of Germany. Its pre- dominating feeling and expression was one of admiration for everything German, and of scorn for the late Lord Roberts and for those who warned their country of the impending catastrophe. Some of these papers went so far as to say that Lord Roberts was suffering from " senile decay," and was to be pitied. Lord Haldane was more polite, but none the less contemptuous. In 191 2 he made the following statement about Lord Roberts : " What I miss in Lord Roberts is just that understanding of the point of view of the strategist and of the statesmen, which is absolutely vital if we are to make a proper military organization." Lord Haldane was good enough to own that Lord Roberts was capable of leading troops in the field, but he could not admit that he was a strategist ; therefore, he could not " fashion plans and organ- izations for the defence of the country." Comment is unnecessary. The blunt truth is, that to this section REFLECTIONS ON THE WAR 83 of the English press, and to the politicians it represented, the present war is to a large extent due. It blinded a section of the community to the greatest danger that has ever confronted the British Empire ; it forced the Liberal Government to effect reductions of the regular Army, and of the supply of munitions, and to devote the money to promote the " national welfare," which, in reality, meant party welfare, as if fleets and armies and munitions had nothing to do with the nation's welfare, or with the security of the Empire. We give the following extracts from leading articles in the London Daily News as an example : March 7th, 1906. — We believe that every recent change in that (European) situation has made for the possibilities of wise retrenchment (of naval expenditure). August 24th, 1908. — We are to follow the simple rule that for every battleship Germany lays down we must lay down two. That way ruin lies. February 5th, 1909. — Defence requires no such building (of six Dreadnoughts). February 9th, 1909. — This campaign is engineered in order to plunge the country into absolutely ruinous (naval) expendi- ture. March 10th, 1911. — We have repeatedly expressed our opinion that an exaggerated naval programme this year is not only without justification on the score of good figures, but that it can only affect adversely the diplomatic situation. January 25th, 1912. — Extravagance, appealing to panic, has become the one virtue in naval administration. November 26th, ^13. — Mr. Churchill's forecast of another big increase in the Naval Estimates has strained the loyalty of the Liberal party to the breaking-point. January 1st, 1914. — This country is threatened with an addition to its already monstrous expenditure on armaments. There is not only no warrant for such an addition, there is every reason against it. There never was a time when it was more clearly the duty and the interest of the Liberal Government to resist the extravagant demands of the Admiralty. February 4th, 1914. — The swollen Navy Estimates . . . have become a menace to the Constitution. 84 THE WAR AND WALES Similar extracts could be given from the South Wales Daily News. Indeed, very much worse extracts could be given from both papers, worse because more malignant, and lacking quite as much in knowledge and intelligence as in urbanity and chivalry, and attributing the basest of motives to men like Lord Roberts and others who warned the nation of the German menace. As if per- fectly oblivious of the incalculable harm it has already done in this respect, this is what the South Wales Daily News says regarding the question of trading with Ger- many after the war : " Are not our manufacturers being bluffed by rumours of Germany's mighty preparations for future trade? " " Is it certain, or even probable? " It still takes the same line, sacrificing the best interests of the country for the sake of theories. While Germany, and even France, were steadily aug- menting their naval and military equipment, these papers and the Radical press preferred the risk of irretrievable disaster to a really effective measure of national defence. Not that the Conservative Party is guiltless ; indeed, the history of the last twenty-five years shows very clearly that both parties have been criminally negligent. But it also shows that the Conservative Party had a keener appre- ciation of the necessity for an adequate Army and Navy, and that it made some effort, however miserable, in the days of Lord Salisbury, to grapple with the situation. But, unlike the Radicals of England, the Conservatives have never been traducers of British soldiers, or the sycophants of the German Emperor and of the German people ; they have never been the spoilers of the British Navy, or have drunk in their Clubs the health of the German Emperor ; they have never sneered at the anxiety for the safety of this country which was gnawing at the hearts of men who knew the facts, and who implored the nation, but in vain, to rouse itself out of the extraordinary apathy which had overtaken it. Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, when in opposition, declared in Parliament that he did not see his way to commit himself and his party to " any great scheme for REFLECTIONS ON THE WAR 85 the development, the increase, the extension, or the recon- struction of our Army forces." This was in answer to the miserable plan of national defence which was introduced by Mr. George Wyndham, the Under-Secretary for War in Lord Salisbury's Government. When Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman became Prime Minister in 1906, almost the first task he himself under- took was to reduce the Army by over thirty thousand men, as a sop to the Little Englanders who had placed him in power. It was stated at the time, that Sir Henry's lack of insight into the state of European affairs was lament- able. If he knew the facts, but lacked the courage to face them ttnd to legislate accordingly for fear of the Jacobin doctrinaires, his action, or want of action, was nothing less than criminal. He was not satisfied with reducing the Army. In the month of July, 1906, he cut down the number of Dread- noughts, provided by the Cawdor Programme, from four to three. This was a concession to the Radical and Labour pacifist members who had approached him on the subject on June 21st, 1906. In the following October, he reduced the sea-going fleets by ten ships, under the pretence of " a redistribution scheme." This reactionary policy was continued for a period of two years, and was only arrested by the attitude of one of our Admirals, who on December 9th, 1908, called the attention of the Government to the defective condition of the East Coast defences. In the month of March, the following year, Mr. Balfour moved a vote of censure on the Government ; the vote was not carried, but it accomplished its purpose. The effect was shown when Mr. McKenna, in 1909, defied the Little Englanders, and proved that he cared more for the safety of the country than for the solicitations of the Radical and Labour doctrinaires. The tragic fact in this melancholy business is that Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman and his Cabinet knew at the time that Germany was actually preparing for an enormous increase in the German Navy, and that for the avowed purpose of wresting the control of the seas from H 86 THE WAR AND WALES Great Britain. This very serious piece of intelligence he and his Cabinet concealed from the British public for a period of two years ; that is, from May, 1906, when they first received it, to March, 1909. Very soon after the outbreak of the war, Mr. Asquith declared, at Cardiff, that two years previously Germany had sounded the British Cabinet as to its probable attitude in case of war between Germany and France. He also stated that he was imparting this information to the public for the first time. It is no secret that shortly after the commencement of the war, an insidious attempt was made to bring about a pacifist stampede among the Radicals to force the Government to discontinue the war. Lord Haldane, while at the War Office, not only reduced our already too small Regular Army by a substantial amount, but he encouraged the country to rely on a Volunteer system, with its inadequate training and its utterly false conception of the idea of war, and of pre- paration for war. Little wonder that Lord Haldane's assurance that the Territorials would have six months' training before going to the front, after war had been declared, was received in Germany with surprised amuse- ment. But even that pledge was broken. Lord Roberts — a great patriot and a great soldier — did not hesitate to say that Lord Haldane's scheme was totally inadequate to meet the situation. He solemnly adjured the Government and the people of this country, " to arm and be prepared," for the " hour of their ordeal was at hand." " The only way," he said, " to arm pro- perly, is through conscription." He insisted that the issue was so grave that it involved nothing short of the future of this country and the existence of the British Empire, and that it would be folly to rely on the Kaiser, or treaties, or Hague Conferences. Professor Gilbert Murray, who, among others of the fraternity, seems to have a tender heart for everything that is German, and who warns us that we should not hate the " kindly " Germans, made a remarkable state- ment in the Hibbert Journal for October, 1914. " Thank REFLECTIONS ON THE WAR 87 heaven that we have in power not only a very able minis- try, but a strongly Liberal and peace-loving ministry. It unites the country more effectively than any ministry that could be suspected of Jingoism. In the second place, it gives a chance of a permanent settlement based on wisdom and not on greed." How lurid does such a statement appear in the light of the present, and how grotesque in the light of the record of the Liberal Government which for eight years, after it assumed office, deliberately neglected the safety of the commonwealth, because it had its eye upon the ballot boxes of a General Election ! What wisdom, what morality, what patriotism, can be attributed to a Govern- ment whose policy struck at the very roots of the State ? It was open to the Liberal Government to come to a settlement with Germany as it arrived at a settlement with France. It could have agreed to hand over to Ger- many certain British possessions — Sir Edward Grey has said that the freedom of the seas is a matter for argument and adjustment when the war is over. One wonders why he did not make that statement before the war began. But the Liberal Government was not in the mood to make concessions to Germany. What, then, was its duty, when it must have been patent to them as it was to all clear- visioned men that the Armageddon was coming ? The duty was to accept the German fact and face it. But it neither made concessions to Germany nor made any preparation for a war that was inevitable. Every statesman on the Continent realized the significance of the German phenomenon ; France, Italy, Russia, and some of the smaller Powers, made such preparations as they could, but the British Government remained passive, and not only remained passive, but concealed the truth from the public. Ministers and politicians, aided by a section of the press, chloroformed the nation by false assurances of safety, thus destroying a popular realization of national interests and of the gravity of the situation even when the war was a natural fact. Lord Haldane, who led the fatal school of diplomacy 88 THE WAR AND WALES in England, speaking at Grimsby on November 28th, 1910, said : "In naval and military defence we are absolutely and completely equipped to meet all emergencies and situations. The person who says we are not is in a blue funk." In 1909, he said at Tranent, he did not think Germany had the least intention of invading us. He had himself many friends there, and they were very much misunderstood in this country. Speaking at Leeds, after his return from Germany, in 1912, he said, " There is no wish that comes closer to the bottom of my heart than to say a great deal about Berlin"; but all he said was to praise the " big men " of Germany — and they were " very big men " — whom he had met, and to express his gratitude to the German University which gave him, as he said, " some power of seeing things through German spectacles." Lord Haldane, writing in the Nation on August 7th, 1915, blamed the Democracy because it was " suffering from an indisposition to reflect, and in con- sequence was not disposed to listen to the few who preached." But the only men who did preach and who insisted upon securing the future of this country, were Lord Roberts and those who supported him. Yet, Lord Haldane said in the same paper, " I did all that in me lay, all that seemed to me to be possible, to bring home that information, not where it would simply lead to mischief, but to the minds of my colleagues and to those with whom I was working." He blames the Democracy for not re- flecting and for not leading the Government, while at the same time he admits keeping the truth away from it for fear of doing mischief. If he warned the Cabinet of which he was a member of the German menace, how came it that in 1913 — the year after Lord Haldane's mission to Berlin — Lord Loreburn wrote an introduction to a pamphlet entitled The German Panic, published by the Cobden Club ? Lord Loreburn was Lord Chancellor until June, 1912, and therefore must have heard Lord Haldane's report on his visit to Berlin. The object of the pamphlet was to show that " the German scare was only a familiar move in the high game of politics, by which the REFLECTIONS ON THE WAR 89 employing and possessing classes endeavour to divert the force of popular demands for drastic social reforms by thrusting to the front of the political stage one of the sensational issues of foreign policy kept for that purpose." " Time will show/' says the author of this pamphlet, " that Germans have no aggressive designs against us, nor we against them ; and these foolish people will cease to talk of a future war between us which will never take place." One shrinks appalled at the thought of the awful responsibility that rests on Lord Haldane and those who acted upon his advice. He misrepresented German sentiment as Lord Bryce misrepresented American sentiment with regard to this country. A very large section of native-born Americans are unfriendly to Great Britain; the Irish-Americans, the German- Americans, and the descendants of the Revolutionists are distinctly and avowedly hostile, and whatever the nature of the Irish settlement which Lloyd George may effect, this sentiment will remain the same. Every text-book in the American schools is based on an anti-British senti- ment. All the facts are given and interpreted from a purely American point of view. CHAPTER IV THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE SOLDIER There is no body of men in the world, except perhaps undergraduates, concerning whom such odd convictions and delusions prevail as about soldiers ; and there is no body of men, except perhaps criminals, drunkards, and the insane, in whom the clergy, ministers, and churches have taken so little sympathetic interest as in our soldiers. Intercessions are seldom, if ever, made for them either from the pulpit or from the pew. This is due, partly, to the fact that a soldier's calling is considered, by many, as being incompatible with the Christian ideal ; partly because the clergy — especially the Nonconformist clergy — have systematically adopted a fatalistic attitude towards soldiers as a class, and have regarded them as an evil that has to be tolerated ; partly because they are supposed to be, religiously, under the care of Army Chaplains. More reputations have been marred than made in this war ; many strong men have gone down into what is worse than death — that is, disgrace. The politician's credit is a thing of the past ; never before did honest and patriotic citizens hold him in greater disesteem. But there is one man whose reputation has been vastly en- hanced — the soldier ; the one man whom the politicians and their supporters in the Press derided. It would not be too much to say that the psychology of the variety and surprise of a soldier's career has never been honestly or dispassionately studied by ministers of religion, or by the members of our churches. The " dreary, doubtful, waiting hours," which comprise so 9 o THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE SOLDIER gl great a part of his life, they have never taken into serious consideration. The disposition has been to give him as little credit as possible. If he is playful he is considered rough ; if he is humorous he is said to be vulgar ; if he is seen walking with a young woman he has evil designs ; if he attends church once a Sunday it is because he is compelled to do so ; if he violates some civic rule or moral law, it is only what we are to expect from men of his class. The orthodox idea is that the typical soldier is drawn from the most irreligious section of the community, and the least accessible to the influence of Christianity ; he is treated as a man who is intolerant of the clergy, disdain- ful of religious institutions, and impervious to spiritual impressions. Certain sections of the Press have never failed to express their dislike and mistrust of soldiers and sailors ; they have never ceased to clamour that they should be subject to civi- lian control. "The Army as an Army," said Mr. Asquith, " has no representation in the House of Commons." Then he proceeded to criticize those members who are serving with the Forces upon the impropriety of their claiming to represent any opinion in the Army. " The Army as such," said a London daily Radical paper, of the more irresponsible kind, " has no political status, and its sole duty is to obey the civil power." This means that our soldiers and sailors are expected to sacrifice their lives without a murmur in carrying out certain military pro- jects conceived by men who know less than they do about warfare, and who are less capable of judging whether such projects are wise or have any hope of success. Our soldiers must fight, suffer, and sacrifice themselves in silence without a hearing. This is the gospel that is being preached to-day by the anti-military section of the Press, and by those professional politicians who have brought this country nearer to irremediable disaster than it has ever been during its entire history. Thus it is that our soldiers are made to feel that when they took to soldiering, they ceased not only to be members of the human community, but that their only interest in the 92 THE WAR AND WALES country of their birth, is to suffer for it. " This war," we are told, " and the national aspirations behind the war, must not be allowed to fall into the hands of militarists, for it is the danger in every war and it is the danger in this war. There will be no permanent peace if the military party have any voice in the settlement." The reply to this is obvious ; if our politicians and the professors who expound these nightmare doctrines had paid heed to the warnings of our soldiers or " militarists," as they choose to call them, it is probable that the war might never have happened ; it is certain that the war would be of shorter duration than it is likely to be, and less costly in both men and money. It has been fashionable among some politicians and professors, to deride the professional soldier ; they make use of him in war time and ignore him in time of peace. But more than one correspondent has borne testimony to the insight and intelligence of our soldiers, which might be envied by politicians, editors, and men who have pretensions to culture. It is distressing to note the attempts that are being made to differentiate between the old type of soldier and the civilian soldier, who, as they tell us, has enlisted from " a solemn sense of duty." War, they claim, is not a regenerating experience to the professional soldier. It is to the volunteer who goes out to the Front " with the Gospel in his knapsack and Christ in his heart " that this war will be a regenerating experience ; it is through him that " The Kingdom of God will be manifested." They ask us to believe that the civilian soldier is far more clean-living and patriotic than the professional soldier — a very doubtful statement. Never before, we are told, in the history of the world has the flag waved over an Army like the present, either for character or chivalry ; they are the flower of the young manhood of our homes and churches ; for them to fight is a privilege and an honour, as if the professional soldier did not deem it an honour and a privilege to fight for his country. It may be true, as it is claimed, that this is the most religious British Army since the days of Cromwell's Ironsides. It is certainly true that THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE SOLDIER 93 no Army has ever been so well fed, clothed, and provided for. Different, indeed, sadly different, was the lot of those professional soldiers who fought at Alma, Inkermann, and Balaclava. But justice can be done to the motives and the patriotism of the civilian soldier without disparaging the type of soldier to whom this country owes so much. No system can be more unfair or more disastrously wasteful than that under which recruits are enlisted, not as fighting men, but as workmen — of course at Trade Union rates of pay, which run from 2s. a day to ios. a day, or ten times as much as the fighting man receives, with allowances as well. The soldier proper, who is doing the real work, and who is risking his life every hour of the day and night, receives the least pay. Thus a premium has been placed upon the services of the non-combatant by the Government. To say that the modern British soldier cannot possibly be a religious man, and is not a religious man, is an innuendo as untrue as it is unworthy. Before the war the cry was the Church's inability, and the inability of the ministers of religion, to influence the soldier to any extent. But the real cause of this inability has been due rather to ignorance of the men, and, consequently, how to deal with them, than to the men themselves. Beneath the rough exterior, the occasional cursings, and at times immorality, one finds the real man ; the man who believes in a Supreme Being, and who is ready to give a comrade a helping hand. The Chaplains at the front and ordination candidates who are under arms, and who are serving in other capacities, are having their eyes opened to the real character of the soldier, because they have had opportuni- ties of meeting and of knowing him in a way which is impossible in normal times. This, surely, will be to the good of the churches in general ; good to the future use- fulness of these clergy, as well as beneficial to the cause of Christianity (and incidentally to the advantage of the soldier) ; that is, if they will make full and proper use in the future of the knowledge and the experience which they have thus gained. 94 THE WAR AND WALES It need hardly be said that a soldier's life is not alto- gether conducive to high morals ; the whole thing is so materialistic, and so crowded with temptations both actual and potential. But virtue is, in a large measure, a matter of environment ; it is often less the result of inward principle than of circumstance. Conditions have to do with morals as they have to do with health and disposi- tion. Most men would be surprised if they were brought into judgment against themselves ; most Christians would be astonished if they knew what a short step it is from the most intense religious emotion to the most fierce animal passions ; indeed, the worst and most hopeless moral failures are often found among those who are most liable to religious appeal. Some are good because they have never been tempted on the side on which they are vulnerable ; the name of piety is often given to what is nothing more or better than puritanic egotism. There are those who preach morals who have no morals but what they have inherited ; the two cardinal conditions of human goodness are something to love and something to rever- ence, but there are thousands who have never been blessed in their homes or in their social life with anything either to love or to reverence ; no man or woman is above his or her circumstances ; but all are created with the power to rise superior to their circumstances. Things that are not sins when committed by a civilian, are often called sins when committed by a soldier. But the soldier has his own peculiar psychology ; rules of conduct and ideal standards of morals, which may not be difficult to observe in certain walks of life, are often very difficult to observe in the circle in which a soldier moves. This is not to condone a soldier's occasional lapses, but to explain them. There is tragedy in the fact that a soldier when ordered to the Front, may be tempted to say to him- self : "I may not have long to live, so I might as well enjoy myself during the few hours that remain." But to think or to speak of the average soldier, as some religious people have been in the habit of doing, as a man who spends his waiting hours in eating to gluttony, in drinking THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE SOLDIER 95 to intemperance, in wallowing in all manner of sinful pleasures, without any thought of God, or of honour, or of religion, or of any consideration for his wife, or his off- spring, or his parents, would be to do him a grave in- justice. It would be equally unjust to speak of him, as has often been done, as one who gloats at the sight of human blood, who has no feeling for the living, and no respect for the dead. The typical soldier is a man of strong humanitarian instincts ; there is in him, as the basis of all, a tenderness none the less genuine than his fearless devotion to duty. Marvellous, indeed, is his power of endurance and resistance, and his spirit of contentment wherever he may be placed, or whatever hardships he may be called upon to endure. No class of men can be so genial on so little as the soldier. His kit, his liberty of action, and even his freedom to air his grievances, are prescribed and limited by law and custom. When he goes to war he can only take with him so much. It is made a criticism abroad that Englishmen, when they travel on the Continent, carry their homes with them — their nurses, maids, companions, wives, even their horses and carriages. Yet, amid all their luxury, they have not as great a sovereignty over themselves as our soldiers, even when right in the midst of suffering, and the shock and terrific conflicts of human life. Not that his contentment implies a want of sensitiveness, or indolence, or lack of enterprise, or of aspiration ; it is the result of training. There would be not only strikes but revolution and bloodshed in the Welsh coalfields, if miners had to subsist on so little as our soldiers, or if similar restrictions were placed on their liberties of speech and action. Even an unskilled work- man has the right in law to say, " If I am to work I must be situated so and so." He has his vote and his represen- tation in Parliament ; but the soldier must obey and work, however he is placed. He belongs to no Federation ; he has no Parliamentary representation ; he is in bondage to the law of the State. He must, at the risk of his life, carry out plans and policies which are dictated — often 96 THE WAR AND WALES unwisely dictated — by politicians. Little wonder that he seeks exhilaration in time of peace, and seeks it sometimes in irregular ways, for no class of men, excepting monks, are obliged to live so far apart from organized society ; yet the soldier is contented, courageous, and loyal. As one captain wrote : ' In success, his enthusiasm is the most sanely delightful thing conceivable ; a reverse does not dishearten him ; he grumbles at trifles and laughs at difficulties." His humanity is as exceptional as his courage. This joyful, humorous, and, apparently, careless man, who may be seen, occasionally, rolling towards his barracks the worse for drink, has many deeds of kindness, many thoughts of God, and many acts of chivalry and heroism to his credit, not only on the field of battle, but in time of peace. He will go when under gun and rifle fire to rescue a wounded comrade ; he will carry and protect him though he himself may be wounded, and will not abandon his charge unless compelled by sheer exhaustion, or when death intervenes. He will exhilarate his end ; he will ease his pain and quench his thirst ; he will smooth his turfy pillow, and will even pay domestic attention to his grave. He does it because humane blood flows in his veins ; he does it because the dying or the dead is a com- rade in arms who faced the same foe ; he does it because there is no mother, or wife, or sister, or child, to do it for him. We do not pause to ask whether this befriending soldier is known as a professing Christian, or whether he is a sceptic, or a wandering sheep ; all we care to know is that in the dearest and most sacred relations of life and death, he proves true to his manhood and to his humankind. It is not of himself that the soldier thinks, but of his country, his country's cause, honour and safety ; he thinks of the credit of his regiment, and of his own. There is hidden in his soul an unsuspected power by means of which he is able to rise above the thought of self or the fear of death. Most men are conscious of plenary powers which are not apparent in the ordinary actions of the mind ; they open THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE SOLDIER 97 up and reveal themselves only when under the exhilara- tion of certain excitements ; and it is excitement, not cruelty, that causes the soldier to delight in war. Men when under the influence of fear, or hope, or indignation, are capable of feeling and of doing what they are incap- able of feeling or of doing in less excited moments. The possibilities of this reserve or secret fountain of power which is in every man, increases in proportion as he ascends towards and in the moral sphere. Old warriors despised men of peace as being ignoble ; it is not difficult to understand it, because when they tried peace they were weak and insipid, but in war their manhood was intensi- fied and amplified, revealing depths of power that did not belong to its ordinary development. The soldier is a remarkable example of the potentialities of this reserve power ; he is capable, when under the excitement of war, of prodigious heroism ; and there can be no question that he who has been under military discipline, and who has seen active service, exhibits higher averages of manhood than are to be found in other levels of life. How manfully does the soldier endure the limitations placed upon his personal comfort and the safety of his life ! How indifferent are old war veterans to cold and rain, and fire and death ! Who can read of their long and weary marches, their night vigils, the long periods they are obliged to and able to go without food, how they cultivate danger and even welcome it, and how skilful they have become in all the exigencies of war, and how the thought of home, children, kindred and country, inspire them to the greatest acts of self-abnegation that are possible for a human being to achieve, without a feeling of deep and sacred emotion ! Much has been said of late about the influence of religion upon the soldiers at the front — both regular and civilian — and one regrets to find that the general implica- tion is that our soldiers are feeling the re-action of this inspiration in the form of a rebuke. The ministers of the Free Churches in Wales have been advised by certain ministers from England that they will need, when the war 98 THE WAR AND WALES is over, a firmer grip of their text, and preach, not a finely- phrased sermon, but the forgiveness of sins and the atone- ment of Christ. We have a right to ask — to whom and for what cause is the forgiveness of sin to be preached when the war is over ? Is it to those men whose patriot- ism answered the requirements placed upon it and who were face to face with death in the trenches ? Is it to the men who through the shock and the stress of the conflict in Flanders and in the Dardanelles have returned home maimed for life ? Is it to the men who have been deprived of their memory or of their sight or of both ? This is the only inference ; for if forgiveness of sins and the Atonement of Christ are to be preached to those Welshmen and Englishmen who, for various reasons, have not shared the experiences of the war abroad, why wait until the war is over ? We can conceive of nothing more wicked than to suggest that ministers of religion should reserve their sermons on " the forgiveness of sins " for the men who have suffered for their country and for the sins of others. Rather should forgiveness of sin be preached to those shirkers and traitors who have dishonoured their own souls, and who have failed their country in the hour of distress. Rather should it be preached to those ministers of religion who have been proclaiming, and who still pro- claim, the mischievous idealism of non-resistance, and the inherent right of every man to refuse, on the ground of conscience, as on any ground which it may be convenient for him to advance, to take up arms in defence of the State. If such idealism prevailed it would mean ruin and shame ; it would mean the end of Britain and the Empire ; and for the world the utter elimination of whatever pro- gess in practical ethics and spiritual idealism it has made. The Kaiser and the Devil would have things all their own way. For them and for true religion there is no room in the same world. If religion is to live, Kaiserism and devildom must die. Rather should it be preached to those editors and politicians who failed to grasp the intensities of the THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE SOLDIER 99 portentous period that was so rapidly dawning upon Europe and England ; who openly despised the warnings of those who pleaded, and pleaded in vain, with them and with the people to prepare for the coming storm, and who said that the late Lord Roberts was suffering from " senile decay." Rather should forgiveness of sin be preached to those who neglected to warn the country of a war which they knew, or ought to have known, was imminent, but for which they did not prepare ; rather should it be preached to those who are now seeking to evade their responsi- bility by laying the blame upon democracy, because, as they allege, democracy did not lead and show them the way, and compel them to prepare in time. The point of offence — criminal offence — which is here prominent, and which is the thing to be considered, is that their guilt is not an unconscious guilt. If they did not know, then poor indeed was their intelligence department ; if they did know, it is the imperative duty of the people to bring them before the inquest of the nation. That they did know is now acknowledged, and, to his credit be it said, the Minister of Munitions has admitted — by impli- cation at any rate — his misplaced confidence in the pro- testations of the Germans. Almost single-handed he has made the most supreme efforts to retrieve his political past, and to bring the national mind to a true realization of the gravity of the situation. The tragedy of it is that we are still being urged to place our trust in those who blinded us in the day of peace, who bewildered the way of truth, who for the sake of their own vanity, their own pride, their own lust of place and power, who for the sake of their own politics misled the nation, knowing that they were doing it ; they overgoverned, almost brutally over- governed the nation ; they indulged the people to their harm, thus helping the re-action against governmental authority. Over-severity and relaxation are the two ex- tremes which meet in the common destruction of nations as they meet in the common destruction of the home ; they are crimes, not only crimes against law and discipline, but crimes against humanity. We hear of much that is 100 THE WAR AND WALES going to happen when the war is over, but very little do we hear at present of the obligation we owe to the brave dead and living, to bring a sense of shame and guilt to those politicians who, if they had done their duty, could have shortened the duration of the war, if they could not have prevented the war itself. As to the significance that is being attached to the religious experiences of the soldiers at the front, it has to be stated that if they have serious moments, so have they light and merry ones ; if they are turning to sacred things in the leisure of the camp, so do they turn to wit and mirth, for they want rest and distraction ; it is their privilege, as it is the privilege of all active men. Robert Louis Stevenson said that there is no duty we so much underrate as the duty of being happy ; and one of the things that have impressed those who have visited our soldiers at the front, is their joyousness, their hopefulness, and the elasticity of their spirits. There are no laggards and no sullen hearts among them ; around the camp fires one sees a throng of courageous happy human faces, conscious of what is awaiting them ; but still calm and radiant and ready to face death with a cheering air. It is well that they can unbend, be chatty and gay. They cannot be thinking of God, prayer and conversion, all the time. It is not in the constitution of any individual to concentrate all his thoughts on God, or on anything; that would be insanity. If prayer is an armour, sO is mirth. It may be, often is, of God ; it may lead and often has led men back to God. It is despised in the sanctuary and discouraged by the " sober-minded " ; but it is one of the greatest assets in a soldier's life. Fortunate is he who has the spirit of mirth and cultivates it, for it is like a garment in cold weather. The soldier has a right to all the harmless joy he can get out of life. Mirth is a great asset in any life ; it tempers anger and passion ; it creates good fellowship ; it can be, and often is, perverted, but the mirthful faculty is not the only faculty that is being perverted. Every faculty has its good and its evil, its temperate and intemperate tendency. THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE SOLDIER IOI Temptation always goes with the strongest faculties. But laughter may be, often is, as sacred as tears ; and a noble ballad when we want to sing one as good in its time and place as a psalm of David. It is part of the duty of an officer to cultivate bright- ness and lightness of heart in the men under his command, for the reason that it helps them to be masters of their hours, their place, and their circumstances. Humour is a thing that they are encouraged to wear all the time, for it revives their drooping spirits in their long and arduous marches. It is a noteworthy fact that in almost every platoon there is one or more humorist ; and, as a rule, their humour is wholesome in its kind ; it sustains and vitalizes, it brings exhilaration, and it gets more of life out of them. If they ridicule, it is in a good-natured way that takes off the sting. They seek humour as men seek the stimulus of opium, or of alcoholic drinks. Not that they are indifferent to moral or to religious appeals ; what they resent is the intrusion of religion in irregular ways, at the wrong moment, and in the wrong place, and being compelled to listen to the discourses of Army Chaplains, who do not understand their life, upon sub- jects that have no relation to their career and difficulties. " There are lots of people who try to cheer us up," said a corporal at the Front, " but they are not all as successful as Mr. Will Crooks. They mean well, only their efforts are not always as good as their intentions. Somebody sent our battalion a gross of Holy Living and Dying, but we sent them over to the Germans, as they seemed more suited for that quarter than for us. Every time a soldier's name and regiment appear in the papers, he is sure to get endless packets of cheerful literature with headings such as ' Eternity ! Where ? ' ' Prepare to Meet Thy God ! ' One bright American effort is headed in large black letters, ' Soldier, if You were Shot Dead This Moment, Where Would You Go To ? Heaven or Hell ? ' If people at home cannot do better than this they had better not send us anything." Trenchtown, as it is called, is not the place for such i 102 THE WAR AND WALES grotesque and insulting appeals. If a soldier has no " religion " before he enters the trenches, or is placed in the firing line, he has not much hope of finding it, for the obvious reason that he has something else to think about. It is the conviction of duty that he needs, not the convic- tion of religion. Thus it is that before he vacates his trench he tries to make it more agreeable to the comrade who takes his place, by leaving some humorous sketch, or some quaint saying, so that they are able to adapt themselves to their surroundings. Against the hardness or the dreariness of his lot he sets his wit, and his wit is always productive of some amusing consequences. It is by jest rather than by prayer that he seeks to defraud war of its horrors ; and what a triumph for human nature ! Those who are conversant with his thoughts, words, and actions, know that the visitor who brings some tobacco or cigarettes, is regarded as a far greater bene- factor than he who brings tracts, and his superior sense of the fitness of things is certainly appreciated. The soldier's religion is sufficiently vital to make him cheerful and compassionate, and to have a spare thought for his successor. He is helpful because he is practical. If he were constantly haunted by dread of the future he would be unfitted for his duties. None of the trenches have been found to be the depositories of gloom ; all the indications are that they have been the depositories of hope, laughter, courage and indomitable will. Soldiers seldom exaggerate their distress in order to excite compassion ; they suppress rather than give vent to their suffering. To quietly commend Christ to the soldier in the leisure of the camp, and to impress upon him the seriousness of life, is necessary and commendable — it is spiritual work ; but to chase away ennui and to brace his spirit to do an irksome duty cheerfully, is also spiritual work ; and any- thing which ministers to his cheerfulness is necessary and commendable. Cheerfulness is a point of honour among soldiers, both in peace and in war time, and the humour in some cases is absolutely priceless. " A lot of tragedy and an enormous lot of good humour over here," said one THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE SOLDIER 103 chaplain to another. " My regiment," said one officer, " has been sadly reduced in number, yet the spirit of the men is cheerful and unshakable." " Withdrawn from their well-earned sleep in the dead of night," said another officer, " to perform some dangerous task in an exposed position, yet one never hears a murmur of complaint ; with silent, steady, expert hands, they perform their arduous and dangerous duties, and joyfully return to their trenches either to resume their slumbers, or to talk over their experience ; they always manage to extract some humour out of it." The blunt truth is, that when the soldiers leave the trenches for the camp, it is not the chaplain that they want to see, but the daily papers. They want to smoke their pipes, chat with their comrades and friends, play fireside games unhindered by the voice of the drill- sergeant and the booming of the guns. They want music. " We have in our section," wrote a gunner, " a fellow who possesses and plays a mouth-organ, and despite this instrument being a little the worse for wear, it has been the means of brightening our lives when circumstances almost made it impossible. Many times when we have had hard times in the trenches, and are marching back to billets tired and jaded, a tune on the mouth-organ has made new men of us, and the inhabitants of these badly damaged villages about here ' turn out ' and think that we are a battalion of the ' New Army ' just arrived, instead of well-worn warriors of over eleven months' experience." When these men return home, if they ever return, it is cheerfulness that they will look for. If there is anything that they are likely to resent, it is the thrusting of certain types of Christianity, whether Evangelical, or Catholic, or Roman Catholic, down their throats in uncouth and tact- less ways ; their souls will be too tender and sensitive to be roughly or unwisely handled. There are many who will be disillusioned when the war is over, and none more so than those who stand as special pleaders for sectarian or hierarchical Christianity. 104 THE WAR AND WALES Thousands of men will return at the end of the war with the image and superscription of God upon them ; they will lend an eager ear to a plain, straightforward, pas- sionate, and an unpretentious message, but for materializ- ing theologians they will have no use. Whosoever will try to fascinate them by the poetry in the hierarchy, or to juggle them by its casuistry, or to philosophically scare them by its doctrine ; whosoever will seek to terrorize, or to entice them, into this or that form of faith and practice as being more suitable, or more Scriptural, than any other, will do more harm than good, and will fail. If they are to be told that all that there is of Christ goes into the pulpit, that all that there is of religion goes into the churches, that all that there is of salvation goes into methods of worship, they will not heed. If, on the other hand, they are to be told, or rather reminded, of the priceless worth of the virtues of self-restraint, good humour, forbearance, temperance, endurance, patience, discipline, sympathy, and kindness ; or if they are to be reminded of the physical and moral advantage of courage, co-operation for the good of others, coolness and promptness in decision, willingness and ability to endure hardship ; if they are to be reminded of these, the very qualities that their military discipline gave them, and the very virtues that the war developed, and if they are to be advised that these same qualities which fitted them for their struggles on the battlefield, will also fit them for the struggles with the temptations of daily life at home in time of peace ; if they are to be encouraged to believe that these same qualities will help to make them better citizens, better fathers, better sons ; better brothers, better Christians, they will respond and be grateful. If the Gospel is preached to them in all the simplicity of its idealities and aspirations, in all its buoyancy and seriousness, and in the brightness of its hope, they will understand and appreciate. It has been said that the soldier is so unimaginative that he does not realize his position or his danger ; but there is not such a being in existence ; those who think so, do not understand either the soldier or human nature THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE SOLDIER 105 Great of heart, keen of brain, strong of hand, he confronts difficulties the thought of which would overawe and over- come the average man ; he knows that he has a chance of dying, or of being wounded, or of being incapacitated for life, but he reckons his risks very calmly, neither exaggerat- ing nor minimizing them. But such calculations are only secondary in comparison with the greater purpose which animates him ; he is in the battle to do his duty and of his duty only he thinks. Whether in peace or in war, the soldier feels no resentment against those who might be soldiers but are not ; but when he fights for his country, he knows that they are missing much which on no considera- tion would he forgo. Those who are " waiting to be fetched " own a point of view which he does not understand. That he should, occasionally, suffer from war weariness, or that he should before the battle be liable to an invasion of fear is natural ; but his inward thought is in harmony with his actions. Whatever the motives which inspired him to enlist in the first instance, they do not affect his feelings after a few months' service. It is remarkable how quickly and entirely after his enlistment, he enters into the spirit of his regiment and of the service ; as a rule, he comes to know that the decision itself was right, and he begins to think of something besides himself. Self-control becomes to him a duty, and self-control to him means self-denial. How willingly and cheerfully he endures discomforts — constant, unintermitted, and every limitation, restriction and discipline. How he trains his ear, his hand, his eye, his step, his will ! If his life has any lesson for us and for our children, it is in the semi-moral element that goes with all this discipline, this punctual regularity, this rigorous exercise, this system of order, obedience, perseverance and cheerfulness, which, in the case of the professional soldier, continues for years, and sometimes almost all his life. Of all the lessons that the war has taught this generation, there is none more useful or more significant than this to a generation that had developed into selfishness, self-seeking, 106 THE WAR AND WALES and self-admiration ; a generation that had come to regard religious teachings concerning indulgence in pleasure and ease and the comforts of life, as the impossible visions of poets ; a generation that had mistaken the self-culture of self-indulgence for the self -culture of self-denial. Question as we may the various motives that have animated the professional soldier, it is clear that he is capable of a self- denial which even professing Christian men, who claim to act from higher motives, are more often than not in- capable of. Christian instances of self-denial are not very numerous in this generation. The soldier courts rather than shrinks from danger ; he conceals rather than exposes his wounds ; he denies rather than feigns sickness, because he wants to be at the point of danger. He sees his comrades falling in twos and threes as his regiment marches along ; he sees others blown to pieces by shell fire, but his courage keeps rugged and robust, and his bearing is manly and self-controlling. Many and tragic are the heroic episodes of war. A few examples will suffice. ' We were at our wits' end," wrote one soldier from the Gallipoli Peninsula, " to deal with the situation and meet the heart-breaking cries for water that met us on all sides, while waiting for the return of the messengers sent with an urgent request to the nearest M.L.O. Then it suddenly occurred to me that my own water-bottle was full, as it had been filled the night before and not touched. I rushed to fetch it, and pro- ceeded to dole it out in a cup. As I handed the cup to each of the wounded men, I said : ' Look here, old fellow, there is only a very little water here, and you must only take enough to wet your lips and rinse out your mouth.' Each man, without exception, put the cup to his lips, took one small mouthful, and then passed it on to the next. It is difficult for anyone who has not experienced it, to realize the self-denial and self-control necessary to remove a cup of water from one's lips when consumed by over- whelming thirst. One splendid young fellow came crawl- ing in, and his first words were ' Oh, give me a drink ! ' I handed him the cup, telling him the state of affairs, and THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE SOLDIER IO7 immediately he said, ' Oh, there are plenty want it worse than me ; give it them,' and he refused to touch a drop." Here is another instance of the devotion of a soldier to a wounded comrade: "Although himself severely wounded in the thigh in the attack on Hill 70, on the 1st August, 1915, he remained out over forty-eight hours under the Turkish trenches with a private of his regiment, who was severely wounded and unable to move, although he could himself have returned to safety. Finally he fixed a shovel to the equipment of his wounded comrade, and using this as a sledge he dragged him back over 600 yards to our lines. Though fired at by the Turks on the way, he reached our trenches at about 9.30 p.m. on the 23rd August." Thus an officer writes of the heroism of a doctor's son from Wales : " Two battalions led the attack at one portion of the field, and Douglas led the leading platoon. Every boy went like a lion. They had to get over the parapet in a hail of machine-gun bullets, and Douglas was hit in the hand as he crossed, and again before he had gone twenty yards. He struggled on with the utmost gallantry, and the leading platoon raced along. Although badly wounded he dressed the wound of a boy near him suffi- ciently to let this lad crawl back. He was then hit again and killed." Here is the substance of a letter written by a corporal of the Western Australian Artillery, from the Dardanelles, which sent a wave of patriotic pride through that Colony : " This is how the men in this battery (the 8th) die. When the smoke from the bursting shells had cleared away Wallis ran up to see the damage. He found Mick Taylor crawling about the ground covered with blood and dazed. Bill said, ' Are you badly hurt, Mick ? ' ' No, Bill,' he said. ' I am only scratched. Look after Doug and Stan.' We subsequently found that he was wounded in fourteen places. Bill Wallis then picked up Doug Lennard. The poor lad had one arm off, one leg shat- tered at the thigh, and internal wounds. He said, ' I'm done. Look after Mick and Stan. Don't mind me.' 108 THE WAR AND WALES Carter was leaning on the gun. He had a fearful wound in his side. He said, ' I'm sorry I'm moaning. I know it will upset the others, but I can't help it, I can't help it.' He died, poor lad, almost immediately. His last words were, ' Did they get the gun ? ' Doug was in fearful agony, but kept saying, ' I'm dying, but, by God, I'll die game.' He lingered for two hours, and it was a terribly pitiful thing to watch. His last words were : ' I died at the gun, didn't I ? ' And so he went, dear lad, the most gallant, the most unselfish little soldier God ever made. He has taught us all how to die. Mick may pull through — fourteen wounds. God grant it may be so ! I do not think in the whole history of this war there is anything to eclipse this incident for gallantry or unselfish devotion to comrades. The General spoke to us all. He said, ' Dear lads, — I have heard of nothing grander than the way your comrades died. I am proud of your battery. I only hope that when you return you will be appreciated as you should be.' We buried the dear lads side by side at midnight. It was a real soldier's burial. The minister's voice was drowned in the crack of rifles, whilst the bullets whistled overhead, and thus we left them." The typical soldier is not so obsessed with fears or anxieties concerning the fact of death or the manner in which death may come to him, as many who preach and live by the Gospel. There is a meaning and a magnitude in a soldier's death which the majority of professing Christians have not fully grasped. It is one thing to yield up life to a painful disease, or to old age, or to yield it reluctantly after having made every effort to ward off death ; it is quite another thing to yield it voluntarily, and yield it gladly and heroically, when in the prime of manhood ; to yield it as a sacrifice for one's country, or for liberty, or in defence of a great cause. No higher action is possible for an individual ; there is no achievement comparable to it. The soldier does not simply yield his life, he gives it ; he gives the sum total of it, including all its brightest hopes and THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE SOLDIER 109 greatest possibilities ; he gives it in fulfilment of a public and patriotic duty, and the moral effect of such a death will not be lost on the community. No sermons, however eloquent and erudite, no Scrip- tural reflections, however deep and sincere, could enforce and enforce with so much power and on such a wide scale, the fact that vicarious suffering is a doctrine founded on fact. This will stand out among the most valuable and lasting spiritual impressions of the war. This, we believe, is one of the leading changes in the Welsh mind brought about by the war, viz., a new example of the law of self-sacrifice in Humanity as well as in Christianity. Here is an opportunity for the Welsh pulpit to apply the philosophy of it to the trouble of the day ; to apply it in its manifold relations to life, to duty, to liberty and person- ality ; to apply it not in its creedal limits, but as a perfectly definite ideal of life and conduct, as the price an individual or a nation must pay for every step of progress and every triumph over oppression the world shall ever gain ; to apply it as the common rule of vicarious suffering insti- tuted in the formation of human society, and existing in daily operation since the dawn of history ; to apply it not as a theory, but as an historical actuality tested and exemplified in and by the contemporary experience of those who have died for the principle ; to apply it as an antidote to the unbelief in moral qualities which has been the bane and curse of the world. How does Christianity determine the dignity of human nature and the inherent moral worth of individual life ? Not by measuring its social or political power, or by computing its material wealth, or by estimating its rank or its productiveness in the realm of industry or of political economy ; not by its culture, or the scope of its intellectu- ality, or by the raptures of its religious emotionalism ; not even by its devotion to any outward form of worship, or even its devotion to prayer, but by how much one individual will give up for another, for virtue, for liberty, and for country on behalf of righteousness. The gauge 110 THE WAR AND WALES is the intensity, sincerity, and productiveness of the principle of self-sacrifice. In this sacrifice we have not merely the measure of a man's inherent moral worth, but the measure of the worth which he attaches to the principles at stake, and the measure of esteem in which he holds his country and the civilization for which his country stands. He that is greatest is he who has in him the strongest current of self-sacrifice ; he who suffers manfully and heroically for a virtue, who by his manliness and heroism gives that virtue force and perpetuity, and thereby adds to the lustre and potentiality of its empire. He who violates this law, who evades it, who looks at it with murmuring resentment, revulsion or resistance, or incipient rebellion ; he who shelters himself behind the patriotism of the brave, who prefers to enjoy his freedom at the expense of his fellow-man, and especially the man who has the most to lose, is bound to suffer in the esteem of his countrymen, in the deterioration of his own moral sense, in his own accusing and self-condemning conscience, and in the cowardly and corrupt disposition which he will always carry in his own soul. CHAPTER V THE PROBLEM OF PEACE There is no word that appeals more strongly to the moral consciousness of civilized men, or that attracts their desires more ardently, than peace ; yet there is no word that is so seldom answered in any development or experi- ence in practical life. All nations have had their alterna- tions of peace and war ; no nation, however pacifically disposed, has had a continuous period of peace ; gradual and sure progression towards peace, as one passes through the educatory stages, is not a fact of history — the world has always been in struggle. No principle has been so generally blest as the principle of peace, yet no principle has been less endowed with general vitality, or executive force, or directive agency. It is one thing to give birth to an idea, it is another thing to make it dominant ; that is, to cause it to intersphere, to manipulate human forces, and to inoculate diplomacy, statesmanship, international relationship, education, foreign policy, and all public movements, with its own virus. It seems to have left no more impression on nations than a cloud does of itself on the field over which it passes. Indeed, there is nothing more pathetic in the history of mankind than its longing desire for peace, and its failure to discover the means whereby peace can be secured and established as a permanent working principle in human society. The idea of peace and desire for peace was familiar to the human mind long before the birth of Christ. It occu- pied a characteristic place in two, at least, of the Aristo- phanic comedies. The chief object of his Achamians, in 112 THE WAR AND WALES the oldest extant comedy, was to depict the earnest longing for a peaceful country life on the part of those Athenians who had been driven into the city against their will by the military plans of Pericles. Aristophanes does not spare the demagogues who, by unworthy means, gained control over democratic constitutions, or the foreign ambassadors who, by their flatteries and mis- representations, played upon the emotions and prejudices of the people. Among the demagogues of the war party, whom Aristophanes lashes, is Cleon, who inflamed the martial propensities of the people ; and the generals, who, like Lamachus, had shown far too great a love for the war. The object of Aristophanes' comic satire, which rested upon a moral foundation, was to promote the interest of his native country in so far as he was capable of under- standing those interests. His fifth comedy, entitled Peace, made its appearance on the stage shortly before the peace of Nicias, which concluded the first part of the Peloponnesian war, and, as was then fully believed, was destined to put an end to the destructive contests among the Greek States. The idea, or the subject, is the same in both plays, except that whereas peace is repre- sented in the Achamians as the wish of an individual only, in the Peace it is wished for by all. Since the days of Aristophanes the thought of peace has given birth to strains of poetry, and to hymns of a character so sacred and so consonant with the higher faculties and the nobler aspirations of man, that will prove to be angelic ministrations as long as the world lasts. Yet there is no virtue that has come down to us through the ages that has so many wrinkles on her face as the virtue of peace ; peace still hovers over the world as a sort of vibrating negative. It may be said that there is no disposition concerning which men and nations have so universally and so consistently exercised so much self- deceit as the disposition for peace. Kings, rulers, states- men, politicians and the democracy, in all countries have always been so much in favour of peace, so convinced of the blessings of peace, because peace is so much better THE PROBLEM OF PEACE II3 than war, and so much more in accord with reason and morality and civilization. Yet they neglected the steps and the instruments, intermediately, by which war may be averted and peace secured. A pacific disposition is a good thing, provided that it is not negative ; that it does not remain in a passively receptive state. It is when the disposition is an energetic and positive development that it acts with beneficence and leaves its impression on whatever it presses against. In time of war, the peace sentiment gushes forth, and even those who are firmly convinced of the righteousness of the cause for which their nation fights, long for peace ; yet when the nation is at peace, men think but little about peace, as if peace took care of itself, ripening, enlarging, and growing in active influence in greater and greater proportion spontaneously and involuntarily. Hence it is, historically speaking, that peace has been more of an anomaly than war, and that war is as great a factor to-day as it was when mankind was in a rude and undeveloped state. This is one of the tragedies of life, that in proportion as mankind has risen in the scale of civilization the more destructive war has become. Since 1815 the prophets of peace have been telling us that the granting of self-government, the increase of intercourse among nations, the growing immensity of the material interests exposed to damage, the influence of popular education, and the exercise of mutual trust in international affairs, would soon make all war impossible, and when war was inevitable, more humane. The debates that have taken place at the Hague Conferences, the agreements arrived at, the extension of Red Cross activities, the growth and spread of humanitarianism, and the increas- ing sentiment against the infliction of pain and suffering, especially unnecessary pain and suffering, pointed un- mistakably, it was said, to the certain fact that the wars of the future would be less cruel, because civilized men of all nationalities, and particularly the Christian churches, would take care that the non-combatants, the women and children, the wounded and the prisoners would not be 114 THE WAR AND WALES involved ; the miseries and the hardships of wars would be alleviated on every side. But what are the facts of this war, facts that have been investigated with that scrupulous fairness which distin- guished Lord Bryce's Committee, and facts which have been verified by other independent authorities? What do the facts prove? They prove the shelling of un- defended places, of churches and of hospitals, the abuse of the white flag, firing on stretcher-bearers and ambu- lance waggons, the murdering of persons who desired to surrender; and most of them committed by the express orders of responsible German officers, such as brigade and company commanders, and very often when the German troops were present in force. The Geneva Convention, which has, from the beginning, been generally regarded as a law of perfect obligation, and which Germany has, nominally at any rate, regarded as sacred, has been per- verted by the German Staff into an instrument of treachery. Officers in command who were ordered to give no quarter have instigated their subordinates to use the emblem of the Red Cross to protect waggons in which machine-guns were concealed. A German hospital ship, the Ophelia, was condemned on unimpeachable evidence, by the British Prize Court, for the reason that it was used for belligerent purposes. There has been no war in which so little sense of honour, and so little of the spirit of chivalry, has been shown as has been shown by the Germans in this war. After making due allowance for mistakes and accidents, there remains a very large residuum of cases which can only be explained by deliberate malice and deliberate intention on the part of superior officers, who themselves have acted in a similar manner. They have maltreated British prisoners, in- sulted and robbed them, and forced them to dig German trenches. It is a significant fact that such inhumanities have been practised on French, English and Belgian soldiers more than on the Indian and Colonial soldiers ; this has been a part of their policy, and that for obvious reasons. Their treatment of civilians has been equally THE PROBLEM OF PEACE 115 brutal — children, women, harmless and defenceless men. The Cure of Pradelle, having failed to find the key of the church tower, was put against the wall and shot ; a shepherd at a lonely farmhouse near Rebais who failed to produce bread for the German troops had his head blown off by a rifle ; a baker at Moorslede who attempted to escape was suffocated by German soldiers with his own scarf ; a young mother at Bailleul who was unable to produce sufficient coffee to satisfy the demands of twenty- three German soldiers had her baby seized by one of the latter and its head dipped in scalding water ; an old man of seventy-seven years of age at La Ferte Gaucher who attempted to protect two women in his house from outrage was killed with a rifle shot. These revolting instances of the treatment of the civil population, which appear in the Report of Lord Bryce's Committee, could be multiplied many times. Beside the 200,000 Belgian refugees who have found hospitality in this country, there are not less than 1,500,000 Belgians destitute in their own country ; they have to depend on outside help ; the Germans have not only refused to alleviate their suffering, but they have added to, and aggravated it, by committing the most irrelevant injustices on Belgian civic authorities, and those civilians who ignored or disobeyed German orders. The German soldiery have carried off young girls to the trenches ; one of them was found by the English who carried the trenches, lying naked on the ground pegged out in the form of a crucifix. Is it any wonder that mothers went mad when they were violated by force at the point of the revolver, in the presence of their children ? Girls of nine- teen have been violated by several officers in succession, and then dragged outside the house to be asked if they knew of any other young girls in the neighbourhood. The story of this infamy and wrong, of the total abrogation of all laws human and divine, and of the ancient free- masonry of arms, in the twentieth century, and in a world crowded with temples, cathedrals, churches and clerics of all description, makes one feel lost and heavy Il6 THE WAR AND WALES hearted, like men struggling in an evil dream and unable to move. Yet some of the worst things have never been published, and the world will never know the depth of infamy which prompted them. There are some prophets of peace who predict that the end of this war will be the end of all wars, that it should and will certainly lead to a great reduction in armaments, and that militarism, whatever they may mean by it, will be crushed for ever. The folly of such a suggestion is so obvious that it would be hardly worth while to discuss or to refer to it, were it not that the suggestion is entertained and proclaimed by some ministers of religion who have done nothing and sacrificed nothing for their country in this its greatest of all needs, on the ground that the conscience of the individual is of more importance than the policy of the State, and that it is permissible for every citizen, and that it is an obligation upon every citizen, to refuse to help the State when it seems to them that the State is " waging an unnecessary and iniquitous war " — all wars to them are iniquitous, whether aggressive or defensive. Such a vain hope is not consonant either with history or with common sense. The remarkable thing is that they claim to be patriots and to be animated by the highest and noblest feelings. But it is more than difficult to define the exact place for the kind of patriotism which they cultivate, in the moral code. True, many motives contribute to the making of a modern patriot, but their patriotism is so surcharged with personal self-interest, and with such base conceptions of their place in the body politic, and of the obligations which they owe to the State, that we cannot conceive what virtue there is in the patriotism which they practise. The idea underlying patriotism has undergone significant changes. At one time it was centred in the Sovereign. There was a period in the history of England, as well as of France, when loyalty to the Sovereign was regarded as of more importance than loyalty to the Fatherland ; to-day loyalty to the Fatherland is of more importance than loyalty to the Sovereign. It has taken England many THE PROBLEM OF PEACE 117 centuries to develop in this direction, and the develop- ment has shown that democracy is not incompatible with a Constitutional monarchy. The more autonomous Great Britain becomes, the more loyal the people are to the Throne ; their loyalty increases in proportion as the Sovereign respects national feeling and recognizes the tendencies of the times. This is applicable not only to the Sovereign, but to statesmen, politicians, and the religious leaders of the people. For this reason few indeed are they whose love for their country takes the form of re- proof. On the contrary, the increasing tendency is to tone down convictions in order that they may fit more aptly into popular passions and expectations, however subversive of the rights of the State and the well-being of the community as a whole such expectations may be. If there is any class of people in the United Kingdom who are showing signs, and strong signs, of superseding, contraven- ing, and even defying national feeling, it is the industrial classes ; industrial organization founded upon alleged industrial rights, is to them the all-important considera- tion, and the highest form of altruism. But the future of the country depends upon the per- petuity of national feeling, or national patriotism, a feeling which is not alloyed with sectional interests, and which does not enforce sectional interests at the expense of the community, or to the detriment of the State, whether in time of peace or of war. But patriotism, which means filial feeling to, and a willingness to sacrifice for, the mother country, is inconsistent with the cosmo- politan conception of duty which is involved in the idea of universal peace. It is not in the nature of man, and, therefore, not in the power of man, to discharge his obliga- tion to his own country, and at the same time to dis- charge the obligations which the idea of universal peace implies that he owes to mankind. War leads to the development of the spirit of nationality and of patriotism. The perils of war increase with the increase of patriotism ; and patriotism — modern patriotism — is the feeling that unites men of the same race, or who inhabit the same K Il8 THE WAR AND WALES country, so that they shall establish law and order within the State, defend and preserve the State from attacks from without, recover for the State what it has been wrongfully deprived of, and acquire what naturally belongs to the State. Patriotism, or nationality, or national feeling, is exclusive rather than embracive, not only in its concept and spirit, but also in its ambition and interests ; whereas peace — universal peace — is inclusive and embracive ; it belongs to an ideal rather than to a practical realm ; it belongs to the realm of religion, duty, and the transcendental rights of humanity, over whatever that is peculiar, or national, or distinctive in the local body politic as it exists, or whatever that is characteristic in literature, religion, political or spiritual ideals, or type of civilization ; so that nationality, or patriotism, when related to the idea of universal peace, cannot be said to have been a moral gain. Indeed, the many conflicting interests — industrial, territorial, political, and racial — of different nations and countries, cause us to look with something akin to despair upon the theory of the transcendental rights of humanity which is involved in the conception of universal peace, for without the absolute and permanent recognition of such rights, universal peace is impossible. It must be admitted that when the idea of peace is looked at in the light of national feeling, or the claims of Fatherland — and there can only be one Fatherland for civilized men — it makes one almost despair of the future of humanity. It is, of course, permissible for idealists, and moralists, to hope that as we have passed beyond the bounds of the tribe, the family, the city, and the province, we may finally pass beyond the bounds of the nation, and that the whole human race will be united together in one great federation, based upon and governed by the principle of peace and love. There is nothing so difficult to discuss as visions, especially visions of this kind, that project into the millennium. In the light of present facts, and the trend of things in Europe, anyone who predicted that a federation of the nations of Europe for the preservation of THE PROBLEM OF PEACE II9 peace within the confines of Europe, is conceivable, would be regarded as wanting in sanity. The one is as chimerical as the other. Then, from what source or sources is universal peace to come ? The solution, say some, lies in Socialism and in the pressure that the lower strata would exercise on the Governments to prevent them from imposing additional burdens in order to maintain an armed peace. But Socialism is essentially governmental. Socialism means force ; it has had recourse to force, and would impose its will by force if it had the power. Socialism has condoned and encouraged intimidation. Part of the illogicity of Socialism is, that while it puts the stamp of divinity on the genius for organizing bodies of working men into great federations, for defensive and offensive purpose in its war against capital, against property, against society, and against governments ; it regards as purely malevolent the genius for scientifically manipulating military forces, for combining, dividing, concentrating, and launching new combinations in defence of national rights, national honour, national safety, and in defence of those ideals that have been cherished by freedom-loving people in every age and country. Welsh Socialists have always arrogated to themselves great superiority in humanitarian sentiments ; in their sense of the brotherhood of man ; in their horror of the evils of war ; in their knowledge of international politics and in the secret workings of diplomacy ; yet, even when they see how Germany has stained the age with blood ; filled the world with mourning ; opened up ten thousand sources of grief ; wrapped an inoffensive nation in darkness, so that death towers and glooms over Europe and mankind like a black storm ; and how, if Germany succeeded, it would mean, as Germans boast it would mean, the obliteration of Socialism as a political force, and the obliteration of every principle for which Socialism stands, every German success seems like the breath of heaven to those Welsh Socialists who constitute the Independent Labour Party ; they even pride themselves on their 120 THE WAR AND WALES cynical wisdom. They read the list of British casualties with a kind of impudent pitying leer ; they discourage those civilian soldiers who are about to venture into the infernal edge of battle ; not one word of sympathy do they express to those wounded and disabled men who have borne the heat and burden of campaigning ; they have nothing but scorn for those clergymen and ministers, who have left their parishes and pulpits, for the time being, for the duties of the camp where they console, encourage, and act as the instructors and servants of all. Not one tender thought have they for those angel and heroic women who have given themselves to the unwearied performance of the duties of humanity. They even claim that they are serving the best interests of Christianity and democracy by opposing the war, by threatening to stop the supply of coal for the Navy if the Government persist with what we may be permitted to call the mildest, and, perhaps, the most useless form of Conscription ever proposed in any country, by spreading abroad the notion that the war is being waged in the interest of capitalists ; by creating a spirit of resistance to constituted authority ; by following and urging a cause of action which, if carried out, would mean not peace, but anarchy within the State. To compel men to join Trade Unions and to submit to the dictates of the Independent Labour Party, is, they say, liberty ; but for the State to compel unpatriotic and indolent men to fight for their country is treason. Universal peace is not to come by way of Socialism. Is there any hope in the direction of arbitration ? There is much here also that is calculated to make one despair. The Hague Conference, which was heralded with such a flourish of trumpets, has palpably broken down, and become a mere name. Who can compute the number of sermons that were preached upon it in England, in the United States of America, and in the British Colonies ? Who can calculate the degree of hope that the thought of it brought into the hearts of millions who had grown weary at the sight of the rivers of blood shed on the soil of Europe ? Great, indeed, was the relief, for great THE PROBLEM OF PEACE 121 had been the tension. The world was ripe, it was said in the enthusiasm of the moment, for such a method of settling questions in which the honour, the prestige, the moral and material interests of nations were at stake. The military system, which had struck its roots so deeply into the social and moral life of Europe, would, it was confidently expected, be either totally destroyed, or reduced to impotence. But not a single war has been averted by the Hague Conference. Indeed, the Emperor who gave it birth was shortly afterwards engaged in a disastrous war with Japan; and he is, at the present moment, involved in a life and death struggle with Germany. In the year immediately preceding the Hague Conference — 1898 — the total ex- penditure for the armies and navies of Europe was £251,000,000. But in 1906, it amounted to more than £320,000,000, making an increase of £69,000,000 between the dates of the two Hague Conferences. This was for Europe and the United States of America and Japan. Turkey and Montenegro are not included in this estimate. The Hague Conference is a purely academic institution ; its programme has no correspondence with the reality of things. It has utterly failed not only to prevent war, but to mitigate the horrors of war and to keep the activi- ties of nations, whether in peace or in war, within the bounds of Christian morality. Lord Clarendon's resolution, expressing a qualified dis- approval of a resort to war, which was passed at the Peace Congress in Paris in the year 1856, was spoken of throughout the world as an epoch-making resolution. Both Gladstone and Lord Derby referred to it as a distinct step forward in the interest of international peace and civilization. But their prognostications, which subse- quent events falsified, serves to show how even the greatest statesmen have constantly failed to forecast even the immediate future, or to predict the effect of their own legislation. Lord Shelburne, one of the ablest of states- men, predicted that " the sun of England would set, and her glory be eclipsed for ever," whenever England 122 THE WAR AND WALES granted the independence of America. Mr. Gladstone was wrong in his judgment of the American Civil War, as was the English Press, with but very few exceptions. We should not like to say that the predictions concerning the fate of arbitration have been unwise, but it would be both proper and correct to say that they have not only been unfortunate, but curiously wrong. The power of divina- tion has apparently not been bestowed upon politicians ; and if there is any gift which English politicians have claimed, but which the war has proved that they lack, it is the gift of prophecy, either regarding the immediate or distant future. When the Peace Congress was held at Exeter Hall on July 22nd, 1851, Henry Richard was greatly perplexed owing to the number of distinguished speakers from whom a selection had to be made. Upwards of a thousand persons were present from every part of the United King- dom, besides a very considerable contingent of French- men, Belgians, Italians, Germans, and Swedes. That Congress formed part of the peace propaganda which was carried on with unusual vigour during the years 1848-185 1. The movement had touched the imagination of Europe as well as of England ; it was supported by educated men speaking different languages, living under different forms of Government, holding opposite political and re- ligious opinions. Never in the history of England, or of Europe, was the passion for peace stronger, and the belief in the possibility of establishing permanent peace more fervent. At the back of the movement were many of the most eminent leaders of political and religious thought. Eng- land was represented by Sir David Brewster, a philosopher and a foremost man of science ; by Bright and Cobden, the two greatest political characters the purely middle class of England had ever produced. France came to the front in the person of Victor Hugo ; with him was Emile Girardin, one of the most powerful journalists in modern times ; then Garibaldi spoke for Italy. Never before or since has arbitration as a means of preventing war been THE PROBLEM OF PEACE 123 supported by such commanding personalities ; never has there been such weight of public opinion behind it ; never has the feeling been so deep or so universal. The belief in the possibility or securing permanent peace, and of limiting armaments, had obsessed the highest as well as the lowest. But, in 1854, three years after the great Peace Congress in Exeter Hall, England was at war with Russia — the Crimean War. On the side of war were Walpole, North, Pitt, and Aberdeen, and the public Press ; on the side of peace were Cobden and Bright and other statesmen. But Bright saw his effigy burnt at Manchester, and even Prince Albert was hissed when he appeared out of doors, on account of his attitude on the question — so strong was the feeling throughout England ; partly because of the suppression of Hungarian independence, and partly owing to the supposed designs of the then Czar of Russia to establish himself at Constantinople. Napoleon thought that Constantinople meant the ' empire of the world." The Duke of Wellington thought that if Constantinople was taken, " the world would have to be reconstituted." The Czar Peter of Russia thought Constantinople " was the key of his front door, and that he must have it." Lord Derby said that the " Eastern Question is the question of who shall have Constanti- nople." That Russia was aggressive, and that her aggres- sion, then and afterward, meant Constantinople, is shown by the facts of history, and by the avowal of leading personages in Russia, and even the Czar Peter himself at the time when the unspeakable Turk and the Colossus of Russia plunged into a degrading and a pestilential war, in 1878. Russia during the last hundred years has taken territory from every country with which she has come in contact — from Sweden, from Poland, from Turkey ; she has taken thousands of square miles from Persia and from Tartary ; she has pushed her territory one thousand miles toward India. It was felt in this country that England had a far greater interest in Constantinople than any other Power. 124 THE WAR AND WALES In i860, nine years after the Peace Congress in Exeter Hall in 1 85 1, when the peace movement was at its height, in which Garibaldi took part as the representative of Italy, and four years after the treaty at Paris was signed, the great Italian campaign was in progress, when Gari- baldi himself appeared as Dictator of the Two Sicilies. The carrying of Henry Richard's resolution in the House of Commons, in July, 1873, in favour of a general and permanent system of arbitration, especially in view of Gladstone's opposition, was considered at the time to mark an epoch in the cause of international peace. It was felt that the first glad promise of a new and brighter future had dawned upon England and Europe. Mr. Richard was the recipient of many valuable addresses from numerous public bodies ; messages of congratulation were received from Europe, the United States of America, and the British Colonies. This was followed by an inter- national conference held in Brussels in the month of October of the same year, which was attended by men of the highest standing in international law. Pressure was brought to bear upon Continental Governments to follow the lead given by the British Parliament. But, as if the spirit of evil had been commissioned to tempt that generation, as Job we read was tempted in earlier days, the policy of blood and iron was renewed. At the General Election of 1874 Disraeli was returned to power, when the die was cast in favour of a great imperial policy, and Queen Victoria gave him every possible encouragement. As a mark of approbation, she created him Earl of Beaconsfield, and honoured him with a personal visit at Hughenden Manor. He decided upon coercing the independent Afghans with a view to secure a scientific frontier for India. He favoured a policy having for its object the integrity of the Ottoman Empire. Then we had the Zulu War. These foreign questions kept the country in a state of perpetual excitement ; trade and industry were disturbed ; the Cabinet was divided, and diplomacy seemed to be powerless. A great anti-Turkish Conference was held at St. James's Hall, the most powerful THE PROBLEM OF PEACE 125 and representative demonstration of public opinion ever witnessed in England. Mr. Henry Richard was there, and, in a passionate address, he asked the assembly to declare that not one penny of British money, not one drop of British blood, should be expended in upholding the integrity of the Ottoman Empire. When Lord Beaconsfield and Lord Salisbury returned from the Congress at Berlin, over which Prince Bismarck presided, bringing with them, as they said, " Peace with honour," great was the joy in the country. Bismarck had given the lead in statesmanship. His policy was avowedly a policy of might without right ; it was a policy of force and ambition that mocked at moral considerations. Barbarous indeed was his policy from the point of view of morality and consideration, but Bismarck never paused to consider the question of right and wrong, of justice and injustice ; what he aimed at was the reorganization of Germany, which was crowned by the conquest of France, and of two of her provinces with 200,000,000 in money. Within a period of eight years Bismarck raised Germany from being a fourth-rate Continental Power to the Primacy in the first rank in Europe, and a primacy of a kind that it would have taken a century of normal progress to acquire. Even Glad- stone and Rosebery, though with many reserves, fell under the spell of the Bismarckian policy, the effect of which was chiefly seen in Colonial and Oriental regions. Russia, from whom it was stated that Bismarck had borrowed his idea, shaped her policy in the same direction. Austria went in for a policy of annexation in the Balkan peninsula. Italy took a province on the Red Sea. France took over part of Siam, Tonquin, Madagascar, the Niger, and at last the Nile. The statesmen of Japan, and even little Greece, started on the Imperial road. McKinley forsook the settled policy of the United States. This was, perhaps, the most disheartening thing of all, that a country so remote from European conflicts should so willingly follow its President in taking up the burden of an aggressive Imperialism. 126 THE WAR AND WALES It was once thought that the United States of America had solved the problem of the union of the human race, and that on the basis of elective affinity and of peace. Here is a virtue, we were told, that is beyond local or national patriotism ; here is the nearest approach to a practical recognition of the transcendental rights of humanity. America, we were further told, was to be the arbiter of the destinies of mankind. Here is a world- embracing nationalism that assimilates men of divers races, customs, traditions, political and spiritual ideals. But there is no more pathetic history in the record of the world than the history of America. Broadly speaking, politically and administratively, it is an example of a stagnant rather than of an advancing civilization. Presi- dent Wilson, in his address to a convention of American patriotic women, said that the United States should keep out of the European war, not merely to avoid trouble to America, but to preserve the foundations upon which peace must be built. America, he continued, must pre- serve the cause of humanity. How has America pre- served the cause of humanity within her own borders ? The cause of humanity is the cause of justice, integrity, and honest statesmanship. What is the internal record of America ? What are the facts ? What do they testify ? They testify that America is the country where, above every other country in modern history, justice is perverted and put to auction to the highest bidder ; where political society is the mother of corruption and crime ; where the formation of laws and their administra- tion is considered to be more a matter of politics than a matter of righteousness ; where the appointment of magistrates and of the chief officers of the Common- wealth and their retention in office, is as discreditable to the bribed as it is to the briber ; where patriotism is synonymous with Americanism, and Americanism synonymous with selfishness; where liberty is more of a name than a reality ; where a black man is still ostracized, still tortured, hung, and roasted alive on suspicion and without a trial ; where a man's THE PROBLEM OF PEACE I27 influence depends mainly on his colour and his dollars ; where the Law of Divorce is a scandal to civilization, and where democracy makes the pulpit all that grossness wants it to be. America knows no virtue beyond American patriotism. The love of country is the first and best lesson they inculcate in the school and on the hearth. The recent Spanish-American war proves that the war-passion is as strong in America as it was in the days of Lincoln, and that it is easy to fire that nation's heart when its interests are at stake. America took the Philippines from the Spaniards ; and in order to consolidate her power there, she negotiated with the Pope of Rome for that very purpose, ultimately signing a compromise that priests of other nationalities, and especially American priests, should be introduced into the Philippines. This was done by a Republican Government that boasted of the fact that it has no State or official Church. How has President Wilson and his Government, during this war, vindicated the American claim to champion the cause of humanity at large, and its alleged right to step in at the end of the present war as the arbiter between the belligerents, and to impose certain conditions in the terms of peace which, as they say, would be to the benefit of the whole world, but which, we think — and it is not uncharitable to say it — would be formulated and pressed for the benefit of American trade and commerce, and of her future naval, military and political power. How has President Wilson preserved the cause of humanity ? Is it by constantly reversing himself ? For a period of six months he protested that America would not permit certain practices on the part of Ger- many, and for six months Germany protested that she would continue them regardless of what he thought. When Germany discontinued these practices it was not because of anything President Wilson had to say on the matter. He capitalized the success of the British sub- marines; he accepted contemptuous "concessions" from Berlin that were in fact a denial of his demands, and hailed 128 THE WAR AND WALES them as a diplomatic victory. The murder of Edith Cavell directly concerned the honour of the United States, for the reason that not only was the request for a little delay brutally refused, but the American Legation was deliberately misled and deceived until the death sentence had been inflicted. Yet, President Wilson did nothing. He has made no protest of any kind against the violation of Belgian neutrality, or against the cam- paign of rape, murder, arson, and pillage against Belgian non-combatants. He has seen Germany's ally, Turkey, murdering about 10,000 Armenians without taking any effective action. But for the capability of the British, America would be entirely in the dark regarding the activities of the German- Americans. This German con- spiracy has extended to American industry, American finance, and the fundamental institutions of the American people ; it has been carried out not only through German and Austrian diplomacy and subsidy to the extent of about 40,000,000 dollars, but through the torch, bombs and bullets, with the object of creating a social and political upheaval in America, and of preventing by any kind of crime, if necessary, the shipment of munitions of war to the Allies, who, in the opinion of the most enlightened citizens of America and the majority of the citizens of America, are fighting not merely for their own existence, but for that humanity, which, according to President Wilson, is the destiny of America to protect. Indeed, according to a sermon preached to the members of the Ford peace party on board the Oscar II, by Dr. Charles F. Aked, who owes everything to England, the mission of America is " the peace of mankind, and to evolve a nobler type of manhood and womanhood than the Old World has produced." It would be ludicrous were it not so tragic. It is not too much to say that in the higher view, in the quiet view of eternal things, America, in the greatest battle for humanity ever fought in the history of the world, has been weighed in the balance and found want- ing ; she has stultified her future part in the history of mankind ; through the action of her President and his THE PROBLEM OF PEACE I29 desire to prolong the existence of his own Administration, America has made the great betrayal. She has allowed President Wilson to harass Great Britain with numerous Notes protesting against the blockade of Germany by Great Britain, because it has, as he claimed, injuriously affected the cotton, meat, and tobacco trade of America, though Great Britain was only doing what Lincoln and his Government did in 1862 ; what Lincoln did then was in accordance with the rules of international law, and the rights a belligerent may legitimately exercise. England suffered grievously through Lincoln's policy, and England could not repair her losses, for she could not convert idle cotton mills into factories for other purposes. Unlike America of the present time, the millions England lost by not being able to procure raw cotton, could not be recouped by the selling of arms and shells to the United States. Nevertheless, the British Government recognized the justice of Lincoln's case and stood the losses manfully and willingly relieved the famine-stricken operatives. England threw neutrality to the winds in 1898, when Admiral Dewey in the Far East was menaced by German fleets of superior force. England then gave America coal and food and asked for no penny in return. When Germany sought to bully her into evacuating the Philippines, England alone stood between Germany and America. Fifteen months after the commencement of the war, President Wilson addressed a Note to Great Britain through the United States Ambassador in London, in which occurred this passage : " This task of championing the integrity of neutral rights which have received the sanction of the civilized world, against the lawless conduct of belligerents arising out of the bitterness of the great conflict which is now wasting the countries of Europe, the United States unhesitatingly assumes." If ever there was a neutral nation the integrity of whose rights demanded their defence by the civilized world, Belgium was that nation. By ignoring the claims of Belgium, which were deliberately violated by Germany with the sole 130 THE WAR AND WALES object of devastating France from end to end, President Wilson has vitiated his own cause, and he stands con- demned before the civilized world, for he has evaded his duty as a citizen of civilization. As an exhibition of the science and art of diplomacy, none cannot but admire the skill displayed in these Notes ; they have been framed with admirable diction and immense solemnity of phrase ; but their fatal defect is, that they ignore the moral issues involved, they force upon us the conviction, that in the mind of President Wilson and of his Administration, the interest of American cotton speculators and of American beef packers, were transcendentally more important than the compulsory neutrality of Belgium, or the crimes against humanity committed by Germany. It is claimed by some Americans that President Wilson has not spoken for all that is best and most virile in American life and character; the majority of Ameri- cans, we are told, have been from the beginning on the side of the Entente Powers. There can be no doubt that this cordial sympathy has, very largely, run through many classes in the United States. Yet, America has officially followed the path of dishonour. This is inex- plicable to those who have no knowledge of the American Constitution and of the power vested in its President, which is greater than that vested in the King of Great Britain and Ireland. Constitutionally, America is an autocracy ; during his term of office, a President cannot be removed except by impeachment. He has full control of the Army and Navy, of all Government departments, and of the Cabinet. He can veto any Bill he likes, and the Bill cannot become law unless there is a two-thirds majority in both the Congress and the Senate, to override the veto. All that a Congress opposed to a President can do is to block his plans for legislation. He is not responsible to Congress in the sense a Prime Minister in England is responsible to Parliament. He can shape the policy of the nation as he pleases, and the nation has no remedy. He has more power than the Tsar of Russia ; he has, in fact, almost THE PROBLEM OF PEACE 131 despotic power. The Cabinet is the President's official family, and it has nothing whatever to do with the popular House of Congress. It is not of necessity, or in practice, chosen from the majority party in Congress, or from Congress at all. Nor are the members chosen by Congress, though they are nominally approved by the Senate. The members of the Cabinet represent the President and no one but the President. They are his personal choice, answer- able to him, and dismissed by him if he wishes. Furthermore, while they claim that the mission of America is the peace of all mankind, and to appeal to the principles of love, hope, faith, conscience, brotherhood and humanity ; to preach peace, to get men to think of peace, to plan for peace, and to impose peace upon an unwilling world, they now propose for themselves the acquisition of huge fresh armaments, which, if not to out- distance the British, are to equal them, thus adding to the burden of nations all over the world. The policy as proposed provides for the oversea garrisons in accordance with the approved plan of 19 13, and for the presence in continental United States of approximately 50,000 mobile army troops and 20,000 coast artillery troops, together with the necessary auxiliary troops, etc. The total of the enlisted men and officers in the regular army when the plan has been completely carried out would be 141,843. The plan necessitates the raising of the following additional organizations, and proposes to do this in two fiscal years, one-half in the next fiscal year and the other in the suc- ceeding year : Ten regiments of infantry, four regiments of field artillery, fifty-two companies of coast artillery, fifteen companies of engineers, four aero squadrons. It is proposed to supplement the army that is con- stantly under arms by a force of 400,000 men, raised in increments of 133,000 a year, obligated to devote a speci- fied time to training for a period of three years, and then to be on furlough for a period of three years without obligation, excepting to return to the colours in the event of war or the imminence thereof. For the pur- pose of convenience, this force has been designated the 132 THE WAR AND WALES continental army. It is proposed to recruit it territori- ally according to population ; to have it subject to short periods of intensive training (two months is tentatively proposed). To enable the " Continentals " to do their two months' training every year it will be necessary for their employers to give them leave of absence without forfeiting their positions or incurring heavy financial loss, as the Government will only pay their subsistence and a nominal wage. As Lord Rosebery said, " There is nothing more tragic than this " ; and nothing, we say, that has so much shaken the faith of men in the value of America's pacific pretentions ; nothing that has cast so much doubt (amounting to a conviction) upon America's claim to be the champion of the world's peace, and the defender of the world's freedom and honour. Her President and her Government have weighed money against humanity ; they have weighed their own trade and commerce against justice and right ; they have weighed self-interest against breaches of international law, as if party, or political, or Presidential considerations, changed the essential nature of right and wrong ; or changed the responsibility of the individual or of the Government that has been a party to such a policy. The American Government has forfeited any moral right to control any congress that may be convened to arrange the terms of peace when the war is over. As an eminent American writer said : "In the conflict of principalities and powers, that will set its seal on all future history, determining the fate of humanity for ages to come, we shall have to face the fact that not only little Belgium and little Serbia played a far more heroic role than ours, but that the Goorkhas of the Himalayan valleys, the negroes of Senegal, the Maoris, the Siberian nomads shed their blood for mankind, while we, the great American nation, the spiritual heirs of Washing- ton and Lincoln, stayed at home among the squaws." In reviewing the history of this war, it is in vain that we look for permanent peace through International law and alliances between nations. Alliances may be useful, THE PROBLEM OF PEACE 133 expedient, necessary and inevitable ; they may assist and often do assist in preserving and restoring the balance of principle and power, and in vindicating the rights of humanity itself. But one of the lessons of this war is that nations are forced to change their alliances. At Waterloo the English fought with the Prussians against the French ; to-day they are fighting with the French against the Prussians. In the Crimean war England fought with France and Turkey against Russia ; to-day she is fighting with Russia against Turkey. We have seen Talaat Bey and Enver Pasha, and their leading colleagues on the Committee of Union and Pro- gress, who posed before an astonished but sympathetic world as the regenerators of the Ottoman Empire, the authors of constitutional government, the patrons of Western enlightenment of the most " advanced " type, the ardent and loyal defenders of civil and religious freedom, the champions of peace and progress, reverting to that policy of naked savagery of Abdul Hamid, who extermi- nated a million of his Armenian subjects. The Italian Consul saw with his own eyes the drowning of the whole Armenian population of Trebizond — 8,000 or 10,000 in number — destroyed by drowning in a single afternoon. The able-bodied men were either murdered or drafted into labour battalions. The women, children and old men were driven into exile, without bread, without water, or any other provision. Lord Bryce declared that women were stripped naked and forced to continue their pilgrim- age in that state. Some of the women went mad, and threw away their infants ; others to save their honour plunged into the Euphrates. About 800,000 are supposed to have been massacred, not from an outbreak of ferocity, but from an act of policy; the orders in every case, as Lord Bryce says, emanating from Constantinople. National alliances are dictated by the exigencies of a given period : the ally of to-day may be the bitter foe of to-morrow, and vice versa ; the truth of this has been proved in the present war. We have seen Bulgaria, who owes her liberation from the Turkish yoke to Russian L 134 THE WAR AND WALES valour less than forty years ago, placing her fate in the hands of Germany and in the hands of the Turks, who oppressed the Bulgarian race for five hundred years. We have seen the repudiation of the Greco-Serbian Treaty by the Za'imis Cabinet of Greece — a treaty so closely bound up with the Treaty of Bukarest, which assigned to Greece her present frontiers — on grounds that are as flimsy as they are immoral, and as injurious to the future peace of the Balkans as they are to the integrity of international agreements. Germany was a party to the Treaty of London (1839), which guaranteed the neutrality of Belgium ; but she considered a breach of international law justifiable when military necessity called for it. " We were compelled," said the German Imperial Chancellor in the Reichstag on August 4th, 1914, "to override the joint protest of the Luxemburg and Belgian Governments. The wrong — I speak openly — that we are committing, we will endeavour to make good as soon as our military goal has been reached." England broke her treaty with Prussia towards the end of the Seven Years' War, on account of which she incurred the hatred and contempt of Frederick the Great, which he cherished to the end of his days, though Frederick him- self broke treaties which were not advantageous to his interests. Cases of broken treaties may be encountered everywhere ; if a list of them were published the world would be astonished, and still more astonished if the reasons alleged were given. The question of observing a treaty is a delicate question. If one Sovereign or one Government binds the nation through a secret treaty without sufficient thought or prudence, is another Sovereign or another Government bound to abide by it, when it can be shown that by adhering to it the nation will be ruined ? What is to be its guiding principle ? The interest of the State, or the pledge of a Prime Minister, or of a Government, or of a Sovereign, given under conditions which are found to be incompatible THE PROBLEM OF PEACE I35 with the original object of the alliance or with new conditions ? It takes two to make a peace, just as it does to make a quarrel, and human nature is no more scrupulous to-day than in the days of Frederick the Great. Alliances have their disadvantages as well as their advantages; the same may be said of treaties. One great lesson taught us by this war is that international law and treaties and con- ventions, however solemn, have all broken down ; and the testimony of history is that the doctrine of trust in inter- national morality is an impossible element, as a safe- guard against war, and as a security for the safety of a country. Statesmen, diplomats, and publicists may con- centrate their thought upon it as a goal to which nations should aspire ; leaders of religious thought may preach it, and statesmen may labour for its consummation ; but the nation that relies upon it, relies upon a broken reed. To depend solely on the word of one man, or of one nation, without taking every precaution against possible betrayal, is a crime against the State ; we must always allow for human variability. Even a small, peaceable, and in- dustrious nation like Belgium, neutralized by the consent of Europe, finally found no other defence but by force. The bitter experience of the past is that even common faith is not a common bond, and that safety is to be looked for not in trust, not in alliances, not in ideals, but in pecuniary resources, and physical knowledge ; in policies of peace backed by force if necessary, and carried out in the organization of armies and fleets. That a spirit of mutual trust among nations, and the practical exercise of it, would be a great step forward in the interest of peace is unquestioned and unquestion- able. But how is this trust to be supplied ? What can be done to produce it? Organized Christianity has failed after a trial of two thousand years. In ceremonial, in ecclesiastical celebrations, in organization, in the multi- plicity of sermons, in the parade of statistics, in the dreaminess of unconventional prayers and conventional litanies, there is wonderful activity ; indeed, the enginery I36 THE WAR AND WALES is brilliant. But it is out of all proportion to its influence, and to the part it has played ; and, apparently, it is capable of playing in any national crisis, or in preventing a crisis ; or in restoring and maintaining the authority of moral force, without which peace is impossible. Its opportunity will come, we have been authoritatively and publicly informed, when the war is over. Could there be anything more pathetic than this unconscious confession of failure and impotence ? " If anybody were to put the question to me," said the late Lord Derby, " I would say, frankly, I am not ready with the answer." " The man," he also said, " who will supply the great want of the world, viz., mutual trust between the Great Powers — the man who can solve this problem, will be a great benefactor." To such an extent did English politicians — and that in spite of grave and constant warning from those who knew the facts — gamble on this doctrine, that they have im- perilled the very existence of the British Empire, and have caused the needless shedding of precious blood. What the war has done is to spread the gospel of pre- paredness among every nation capable of bearing arms. It has emphasized the lesson of history, that as long as humanity does not modify its instincts there will be no better way to safeguard national rights than by being prepared for any contingency. Even trust in God is no guarantee of safety from invasion : it does not necessarily bring victory even in a just cause, nor any success in a temporal sense. The notion that a nation when in right relation to God can count upon security is extraordinarily common ; but it is not a Christian or a New Testament idea. Destiny holds before every nation two causes, viz., reliance upon the justice of her cause without force to support it when necessary ; or reliance upon the justice of her cause with sufficient force to make it effective when diplomacy and moral influence fail. The only hope of permanent peace, we are told, in some quarters, is in the Papacy, which is " the heart, the centre, the guardian of religion and civilization," and THE PROBLEM OF PEACE 137 through which " all things are to be renewed in Christ." Roman Catholic writers have dwelt upon " the dramatic and awful coincidence " that when the war began one Pope should die and a new Pope should succeed him. The Papacy, they claim, is an institution which stands quite separate from all other institutions in the Christian world ; it has outlasted all others ; it once took political action throughout a united Europe. The four marks which, they say, differentiate the Papacy from every other organ of authority which it has seen in its long history, rise, flourish, and decay, are its "inviolability," " its inherent power to bridge the stream of human change without a dead principle mechanically sup- porting it;" "its power of vital initiative and to govern." Papal authority, it is claimed, is the only authority that can re-establish civilization and impose peace upon the world, and impose it against divided counsels, doubt, and all worldly wisdom. When this war is over, we are assured, and when the vast liquidation of so much in Europe is concluded, it will be seen that the Papacy is the only power upon which the world can rely for " a just and a lasting peace " ; upon the Papacy rests a responsibility hardly equalled in history. It is not for nothing, we are reminded, that on the throne of the Fisherman, at a moment when the whole world stands in need, above all things, of the best diplomacy and of the best statesman- ship, God the Holy Ghost has set a diplomat and a statesman. It would occupy more space than we can spare in this chapter to deal fully with this claim ; but we may observe that if this war has proved anything, it has proved that Pope Benedict XV is not equal to the task of standing before a Europe in the plight in which Europe now is, as the chief representative of Christianity and of civilization. Pope Benedict XV has given us no evidence that he possesses " those high gifts and magnificent abilities " which, as it was prophesied, would be put to use in this war by the Supreme Disposal of Events. I38 THE WAR AND WALES There is a growing conviction that he is neither a diplomat nor a statesman. The Roman Catholic Church has always accepted war as inevitable under certain circumstances. In so far as we are able to understand, the principles of moral law which she applies to warfare are (1) that war may only be undertaken in defence of really important injured rights, and that war must cease immediately those rights are vindicated, wars of aggression and ambition being condemned ; (2) that all unnecessary and wanton violence and cruelty are reprobated by the Church. How does the conduct of Pope Benedict XV stand in the light of these principles ? He has, it appears, assured the Belgians of his most " benevolent and fatherly affection," adding his belief that he could help them more and better by doing all in his power to preserve the Holy See com- pletely neutral, and thus strengthen its prestige, authority and influence. Father Bampton, who is considered a typical representative of English Romanism at its best, has publicly declared that Pope Benedict XV cannot pass judgment on the war and the conduct of the war without some form of judicial investigation, and that, as he has not been invited to undertake such an investigation, he would be exceeding his powers in pronouncing judgment. Father Bampton also claimed that investigations are impossible at present, and that, therefore, in passing judgment, the Pope would be acting ultra vires. " In proclaiming to the whole world," says Father Bampton, " the principles which should govern civilized warfare, he (Pope Benedict XV) has been the mouthpiece of the Catholic Church, which is in the world the one and divinely appointed guardian of faith and morals, the one custodian of revealed truth, and of the moral law." But this apologia will not stand criticism. The Pope is not an historian, who is obliged to wait until he gets all the requisite data for judgment. Also the Pope claims to be the " Vicar of Christ " on earth, which claim in- volves direct divine authority. There is, therefore, no consistency in suspending judgment against iniquity THE PROBLEM OF PEACE I39 until the Pope is invited to investigate the facts. It is trifling with a great moral issue to confound par- ticular offences with the spirit and policy of Germany. It is not a question of deciding to what extent certain charges against the Germans are true — and all the world knows they are true except the Pope — but of raising a protest in the name of Christ against the violation of Belgian neutrality, and against the bestiality which has characterized the conduct of the war on the part of the Germans. Father Bampton claims that the Roman Catholic Church has, through her schools of moral philosophy and moral theology, reduced Christian ethics to an exact science, so that she is able to formulate its principles whenever required. Father Bampton has weakened rather than strengthened the case for the silence of the Papacy. Why does not the Roman Catholic Church, through the Pope, apply her capacity " to formulate her principles whenever required," to the present crisis? Why does not the Pope inform the world what these " moral laws " (of which, as Father Bampton says, the Roman Catholic Church holds a monopoly) are ? Appeals have been made to the Pope to speak with authority on the great moral questions which the war has raised ; but we have had nothing beyond interviews with journalists. He is credited with the statement that the war has no religious object, and that the bombardment of Rheims was certainly not done for such reasons ; that while now and then harshness (the italics are ours) has occurred, the Germans were always provoked ; that if he were to protest against what has happened in Belgium, he would also have to protest against what the Russians have done in Poland and in East Prussia ; that the attacks of the French clergy on German Roman Catholics cannot be justified. As to the question of trustworthy evidence, Pope Benedict XV need only peruse the Reports of Lord Bryce's Committee, the correspondence of American journalists who were eye-witnesses of the outrages com- I40 THE WAR AND WALES mitted by the Germans, and other sources of information which are accessible to the whole world. Moreover, Cardinal Mercier and the Belgian Episcopate have offered him all the evidence that he needs upon which to base a judgment. They have proposed to the Archbishop of Cologne that a commission composed of three German and Austrian and three Belgian bishops, with a neutral president, should investigate the charges brought against the Belgian clergy and non-combatant laity of resisting the German invaders, and so justifying the massacres and outrages which their resistance compelled. At the moment of writing this straightforward request has not been answered. Cardinal Mercier has made his proposal openly before the world and the Church ; he is not only prepared to submit the case of the Belgian priests and non-combatants to the most searching inquiry t but he demands it. The Pope has not seized the opportunity. It is not surprising that the resources of the Papal Chancery has been severely taxed to explain away " misunderstandings " consequent upon these journalistic interviews ; but such ' explanations " have explained nothing ; and it is patent that the moral authority of the Papacy has been gravely compromised, and that the more formal utterances of the Pope regarding the war have accentuated the suspicion that attaches to the conduct and policy of the Papacy during this war. Indeed, there is every evidence that Pope Benedict XV is surrounded by influences that are hostile to the cause which the Allies are championing ; it is no secret that in Germany the Vatican is looked upon as an ally ; the same impression prevails in France. The French were bold enough to say that the Pope's inter- vention of last July in favour of peace was so timed as to come out precisely when the Central Powers were at their strongest, when the Allies were preparing a new offensive in the West, and when a speedy conclusion of the war would be altogether favourable to German ambitions. These overtures were freely attributed to Austrian influence at the Vatican. Apparently the Pope has not THE PROBLEM OF PEACE 141 represented Catholic sentiment, in so far as the Catho- lics of Great Britain are concerned, in this war. Where, therefore, does the moral authority of the Papacy to impose conditions of peace come in ? And how can the Papacy hope to establish its claim as an effective authority for the enforcement of the principles of peace, which means the enforcement of individual and interna- tional morality, both now and hereafter? So far, the human mind has not discovered any legitimate force which is capable of upholding and enforcing the moral codes of the nations as expressed in International Law, and the facts of history, as well as the conduct and attitude of the Papacy itself, prove that this superior authority is not to be found in the Papacy, notwithstanding the fact that the Papacy once took such political action on certain dates. The only way in which the Papacy has compelled obedience in the past is by material force. The Papacy to-day has no moral force at its disposal either to mitigate the horrors of war or to keep the activities of nations, whether in time of peace or in time of war, within the bounds of Christian morality. The Papacy could only call on others to supply it ; this has always been the case. The Papacy, in the days of its temporal power, had only influence enough to move the bearers of the sword to enforce respect for its decrees ; the history of the Crusades proves this. There is a strong conviction that the revival of this policy would be a retrograde rather than a progressive step in the civilization of the world. It would certainly not be a triumph for the Gospel. On every ground it is inconceivable that the Papacy will ever be permitted to assume similar authority as the political arbiter of nations. Never before was the moral authority of the Papacy at such a discount as during this war ; never was its international authority weaker among those who are not subject to its spiritual jurisdiction ; never before in modern times was the voice of a pope treated with less regard and obedience than to-day, not only in the domain of faith but in the domain of morals. The contention that I42 THE WAR AND WALES organized Socialism clamoured, before the war, for such an international influence as is now claimed for the Papacy, breaks down utterly in the light of the fact that the German and French socialists eagerly supported the war in their respective countries under their national flags ; the same is true of the spiritual subjects of the Pope in every country. Cardinal Gasquet has said that the Papacy was specially qualified to assume the position of the arbiter of nations in virtue of the fact that a pope has no axe of his own to grind. But if there is any fact that has been established by history it is that the Papacy has an axe of its own to grind — that axe is the restoration of the Temporal Power. This is the axe that every Pope has been grinding since 1870, and the axe that every Pope must in virtue of his position continue to grind. It is claimed by some Roman Catholic authorities, and confidently believed in well-informed circles in Europe, that the German Emperor has promised the Papal court that when he is master of the destinies of Europe he will gratify the Pope's desire for the extra-territorial independence of the Sacred Palaces, now resting on the Italian Law of Guarantees, and that he will secure it by Interna- tional Treaty. Pope Benedict XV has declared that lasting peace can only be obtained when the position of the Holy See is satisfactorily settled. The freedom of the Church and its independence must, he avows, be estab- lished. In whichever direction we look for a permanent and a satisfactory solution of the problem of peace, we are plunged into a profound pessimism. It is in vain we look for it in the direction of education, or of internationalism, or of the Papacy, or of nationality, or of democratic con- trol of foreign policy. To make the most delicate questions of international relationships subjects of Parliamentary and platform agitations, to reveal to the public the counsels of the Foreign Office, and to allow demagogues to distort them for party and sectional purposes, would be to keep the whole of Europe in a state of perpetual THE PROBLEM OF PEACE I43 turmoil. Then, the influence of democracy has not been pacific ; every great war has commanded the unqualified and enthusiastic support of the nation. The democracies of history have usually been quarrelsome and bellicose. The truth is that the democracy is woefully ignorant of foreign affairs ; what it needs is instruction rather than control. Those who preach the doctrine of Democratic Control as the solution of the problem of peace, are preach- ing it to the wrong people ; they should preach it to the Germans and not to the British. The notion that mutual suspicion among nations, which is one of the causes of war, is aggravated or occasioned by armaments, is contradicted by history. Armed or unarmed nations and governments which are suspicious of each other find it difficult to maintain peace. Great armaments may even hinder war, because they make it difficult to snatch an advantage. Mutual suspicion has not been more rife in Europe during the last forty years than it was between the slenderly equipped States of the eighteenth century. Wolsey was confronted with exactly the same difficulty at a time when there were no armies worth mentioning, as confront Sir Edward Grey. Arma- ments have nothing whatever to do with the question of mutual suspicion. Peace in Europe cannot be settled on the principle of nationality ; for nationality, as we have already indicated, is inconsistent with, and detrimental to, the idea of uni- versal peace. Not only do nations interpenetrate one another, but one nation may become so great, so insolent, and so selfish, as to become a nuisance to its neighbours. Germany affords a concrete example of this truth. Sad as the statement may appear, the need for ending this present war is not commensurate with the need for com- pletely overthrowing Germany, for if the Allies fail in that, it is unquestionable that the prestige of Germany will be enhanced throughout the whole of Europe, and her diplomacy will become dominant. The failure of the European Concert in recent years does not give much hope that it will be possible to achieve Castlereagh's and 144 THE WAR AND WALES Alexander's ideal of a permanent Concert, pledged to make collective war upon the peace-breaker. Is there, therefore, any other method of approach? Clearly, there is more hope in the direction of confedera- tion than of conciliation ; but there are serious difficulties in the way of that idea, so there are in the way of the idea of the grouping of separate States, so there are in the way of the idea of developing the present arrangement between the Allies into a permanent league of peace for Europe, even if it be only a league for protection. Whatever scheme, or ideal, statesmanship may eventually evolve, one thing is certain, viz., it must be such as will fit in with the working possibilities of the age, for facts change, and facts are mightier than ideals, and the methods selected in one age may not make for harmony in another. True, we cannot absolutely and definitely prevent wars, but if we cannot prevent them, we can diminish their frequency and shorten their duration, by organizing efficiently every unit in the State for purposes of defence. That this is a natural, even a moral law, we are persuaded by a study of natural resistance to which we have already alluded. Here we find that wherever the body, and consequently its defences, is allowed to weaken from any cause, whether through want of proper nourishment, or overwork, or too little work, or any combination of lethal influences, we find a pre-disposition, and, frequently, an actual onset of disease or diseases having as their objective the destruction of the body. This, we submit, is war. So the only way to prevent war, or to wage it successfully, is to be well prepared for it. Not that we should not welcome and cultivate these periodical idealistic longings after peace, for ideals are a part and parcel of our mental life. There are no ideals without their influence, and it is often the case that sober idealists who are accounted visionaries in one generation are considered in another to be the men who have directed the largest amount of force upon life. Ideals raise and ennoble the national character ; they are a great motive force in the world ; they have a moral value. The fact THE PROBLEM OF PEACE 145 that the ideal of peace has received a rude shock in this war is no reason why we should discard it ; on the con- trary, it should be surcharged with an ever-increasing spirit of faith and hope ; our duty is to grasp it with greater fidelity, to strive to secure a better hearing and a better platform for it in the next generation, and to endeavour to make it more operative in the life of man- kind at large. But there should be a practicable reasonableness in the ideal of peace as in all other ideals. There is such a thing as fanaticism in forcing it when it is impracticable, and at a time when it is impossible to give effect to it. A pre- mature peace would be as disastrous as defeat ; it would consign the ideal of peace to a tardier and a more pro- tracted fulfilment. The very ideal of peace should inspire in every Briton a Crusade-like fervour to exact retribution for the outrages on justice, morals and humanity, com- mitted by Germany. England and her Allies are fighting not merely for national preservation, but for the principle of individual liberty which pacifists profess to value above all else, and which they value, apparently, above the great moral cause for which we have been called and forced to fight. Pacifists who rigidly adhere to the ideal of peace, and who clamour for a premature peace in face of the awful issues at stake, are, unconsciously it may be, making for the defeat of all the interests which the ideal of peace represents, and if they succeed they may eventually be deprived of the opportunity to practise, or to enjoy the benefits of their principles. In one sense, peace — perfect peace — is an impossibility so long as human nature remains what it is. The history of the world is a history of war, because times of peace are times of preparation for war — always the latter. Then there is the temptation to adopt the so-called law of necessary apposition or antagonism. All life implies action and reaction. This is something like the principle of sin and goodness being in eternal antagonism. Yet the Bible speaks of peace, lasting and universal peace, I46 THE WAR AND WALES and with honour — peace that will go along with energy, with overflowing fullness of emotion, with power, with prosperity, and with acute sensibility ; that will be the time when men under a divine influence shall know how to use their nobler instincts and come into perfect har- mony by a holy volition. This is the higher realm of life and experience into which mankind, through the divine schooling, through a process of development and education in religious things, shall triumphantly enter at last, and toward which every man is enjoined to aim, to labour, and to pray. How near or remote is this day- star age when " nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more," it has not been given to us to know, but the divine promise of the ultimate dominancy of peace is definite ; spontaneous and transcendent peace that will be finally habitual ; every insight, every intuition, and every state of mind, will reflect it, and every nation will dwell in the wondrous light and glory of the final deliverance from henceforth, even for ever. PART II CHAPTER I THE BELGIANS IN WALES The Welsh are a sympathetic race. Indeed, if the civilization of a people is to be measured by the quality of their compassion, the Welsh have gone far toward the ideal of manhood, and true manhood lies in that direction. The nearer we approach to the typical man, the more we find sympathy as a constituent element, and the more ample and glowing becomes the emotion of sympathy and the exercise of it in human life. Though sympathy, like every other attribute, is liable to abuse, it has stood the Welsh in good stead ; it has been one of their most valuable assets as a people. There is a goodness of heart and a warmth of sentiment that can be relied upon. They are not good at finesse, and not very good at diplomacy, though somewhat gifted in the art of domestic politics. Sympathy and compassion are among the leading characteristics of the Welsh character; not conventional but natural sympathy and compassion ; and they are as intense as they are natural. No race of men can be said to feel more deeply the mystery of life and the world than the Welsh, and they seem to deem it of more importance to feel it than to be ready with an explanation. Feeling, warmth and intensity of feeling colours, en- riches, and animates all their thoughts. There is a philosophical fallacy that to think well we must think coldly. In the sphere of physical, or of pure scientific truth, the intellect does and must reign supreme, inde- pendent of all feeling and prejudice; for the reason only, in and of itself, has the capacity to discern those qualities that lie beyond or outside man's own consciousness. But when we ascend into the most important sphere of 149 M 150 THE WAR AND WALES knowledge, into the realm of human life, where character, justice, right and wrong, honour, social and moral truths, are involved, pure reason cannot form a judgment without the aid of feeling. It is in this sphere, the sphere of social and moral truths, lies the life of mankind, and feeling is indispensable to the formation of just judgments. The average or typical Welshman cannot think coldly ; if he thinks at all he must think with ardour, and his ardour makes him the more competent to discern moral and social truths, and to discern them, as a rule, upon their presentation, for he is quick, sensitive, and penetrating. The Welsh mind has been so accustomed to use, or, if we may say, to sport with the feelings and the moral senti- ments, that it is capable of comprehending social and moral truths as if by instinct. It was by the power of feeling, or of sympathy, that the Welsh were brought, in the first instance, into a religious life, not by the power of reason. It is through feeling that they have been able to develop their best and highest qualities. There is a striking variation in physical type and in dialect, but sympathy is an attribute common to all Welshmen — especially racial sympathy — it is a stronger and a more enduring band of fellowship than is their language. The cult of the Welsh tongue has undergone very serious modifications of late years ; many of its present day idioms are the degenerate descendants of their ancestors. The Welsh spoken in many districts is a mere patois ; and not only in many districts, but in many pulpits. It is a very common thing to find two Welshmen being obliged to resort to English in order to understand each other, and to carry on a conversation. It would be correct to say that Welsh feeling, or sympathy, is not that of other peoples. What dis- tinguishes Welsh feeling, or sympathy, is its intenser inner force, and its abnormal development. A foreigner could not assimilate it to such a degree that he could no longer be differentiated from a Welshman. He might learn to speak and to write better or more classical Welsh than one hears from many a Welsh pulpit, or one reads THE BELGIANS IN WALES 151 in the Welsh press (there are examples on record), but he could not absorb or reproduce Welsh feeling. Sympathy in the typical Welshman amounts almost to genius ; some would say that genius is essentially sympathy — that is, the power of going out of oneself into other conditions and circumstances, of finding in one's own nature an infinite correspondence not merely with one's own special environment, but with human environment. The Welsh have always, more or less, adopted an eleemosynary pose ; their religion has taught them — so has their nature — that solicitude for their poor was a part of the function that they were expected to assume. There is, however, distinct evidence that coincident with the growth of commercialism and the spread of materialism in the Principality, there has been a loss of the old solicitude and reverence for the poor. This may be said to be a characteristic of the modern world ; it is certainly a characteristic of modern Wales. There is no axiom more popular among the Welsh of to-day than the axiom that the race is to the strong, the rich, the prosperous, and the highly placed — socially and politically. Poverty, or the failure that leads to poverty, is being increasingly regarded as dishonourable and traceable rather to un- worthiness in the individual than to misfortune, or to circumstances over which the individual may have had but little control. Poverty in Wales to-day inculpates the poor ; they are looked upon, and increasingly, with suspicion, and avoided. Hence, the tendency is to cultivate society on the side that goes on smoothly, that prospers, that has power, and from which some advantage can be secured, rather than on the side that is weak and that suffers. The old special blessing that went with the poor is, very largely, a thing of the past. Historically speaking, sympathy, especially sympathy that takes the form of charity, has been exercised in Wales on sectarian and denominational lines. Its local, racial, or theological prejudices and partialities, have impaired its vision and circumscribed its expression, from the artistic, poetic and literary view-point. Not 152 THE WAR AND WALES that it has been wanting in sincerity, but in negation of self ; it has been so specially and inwardly directed that "the still, sad music of Humanity " has sounded without response. There are a thousand things in life which may be changed, and changed without much effort ; but it does require some effort to turn human nature perfectly round, so that it will do that which it has not been accustomed to do and which is contrary to its traditions, though not to its fundamental principle. It is here that we see the influence of the circumstances of the war on Welsh feeling, or sympathy. It has divested it of its racialism, its denominationalism, and its sectarianism ; it has given it greater depth, width, and intensity. Not only has the war produced wider disclosures of it, but the Welsh have been reformed by it. Who would have thought that Welsh Nonconformist churches of an ultra-Protestant type, churches composed in the main of working men, with a sprinkling of the upper middle class, would voluntarily and unconditionally house, feed, and otherwise care for a certain number of Belgian refugees with whom, racially and religiously, they have not the slightest affinity, and would continue to do so in spite of many discouragements ? Moreover, the Welsh are very independent by nature. They are a people who have always been suspicious of strangers. There was a time, within the memory of living men, when foreigners in Wales carried their lives in their hands. They were challenged on the highway by day and by night, and peremptorily ordered to leave the district. They were always kept on the move, and often maltreated. The old spirit is not so strongly marked as it once was ; it does not show itself in the same manner, nor to the same extent, but distinct traces of it are still to be found. The Welsh of to-day keenly resent the appear- ance of English or foreign competitors at the National Eisteddfod. Englishmen of prominence who patronize it are simply tolerated on account of their money, or the glamour that attaches to their presence. In one colliery district the men demanded the dismissal THE BELGIANS IN WALES 153 of the few Belgians who had been engaged, and that in spite of the fact that they were giving every satisfaction. They even threatened to strike in case the manager did not comply with their request. It is to the credit of the employers that they refused to be intimidated. This, however, is not typical of Wales as a whole, that is, of the religious section of the community. Never before in the whole course of their history, have they performed such agreeable acts of kindness towards strangers ; never before have they shown such magnanimity, such fellow- feeling and such a merciful spirit, a spirit that breathes like summer in every district and among every Christian section of the community. To Belgium they consider that they owe a debt which they can never repay; but which they are endeavouring to reduce by making the lives of the Belgian refugees in Wales as bright and as radiant as possible, and by sending out the cream of the young manhood of the nation to avenge the wrong done to them and to their country. What astonishes the Belgian refugees is, that a people whose language they cannot speak, with whom they have no racial, religious, historical, or intellectual affinity, should be so kind to them, kinder much, they say, than some Catholics have been. They are contrasting the "arbitrariness" of a few priests with the tolerant kindness of Anglican clergymen and of Non- conformist ministers. If the Belgian refugees had to depend upon the Roman Catholics of Wales for the hos- pitality that they needed, and still need, their plight would be very sad indeed. Roman Catholicism in Wales is at present in a poor way, financially and numerically ; it has to work out its own salvation among an irresponsive people ; it is affiliated with Rome, but it receives no financial help from Rome, and none from England. About two hundred thousand Belgian refugees have found hospitality in the United Kingdom ; but it is impossible to state how many have been placed in Wales, for the two-fold reason that the Government declines to give any information, and that the refugees are coming and going all the time. 154 THE WAR AND WALES It was the intention of the London Committee to locate the refugees in those districts and towns where there was a Roman Catholic priest and a Roman Catholic church. Their plans, however, miscarried. The Roman Catholics in Wales number only 64,800 out of a population of 2,247,927 in Wales and Monmouthshire ; the consequence is that groups of Belgian refugees have been located in districts and in county towns where there is neither a Roman Catholic church nor a priest. In case of sickness, or trouble, or death, they have had to send for the nearest priest, who may be ten or fifteen miles away. This has added to their misery ; and it may be counted as one of the causes which has driven some of them into lax habits of life. There are several Belgian priests, but no Belgian bishops in Wales. The Belgian priests are subject to the Catholic bishop in whose diocese they dwell. There is a Belgian Catholic priest in London who occasionally visits those localities where there are a number of refugees. The Roman Catholic idea is no priest no service ; no priest no salvation. It is largely so among Anglicans, but not among Nonconformists. What has very vividly impressed many of the Belgian refugees, and especially the more intelligent and educated among them, is the fact that Nonconformist congregations do not abandon their services, or abstain from worshipping, simply because they have no regular minister, or if they have a minister, because he is ill and they cannot secure a substitute ; as a rule, they hold a prayer meeting. Place half-a-dozen Welshmen on a prairie, and they will constitute a religious circle by themselves ; they will have a religious service of some kind, minister or no minister, chapel or no chapel. Nonconformity in its principle, or organization, was an unknown fact to the Belgian refugees before they came into Wales. They looked upon Wales as a Protestant land, and they seemed to have a vague idea that there were many kinds of Protestants. Anglicanism was not known to them apart from the general term of Protestant. What puzzles them is Protestantism as it manifests itself THE BELGIANS IN WALES 155 on Welsh soil in its Calvinistic, Independent, and its Baptist form, with its ethico-religious spirit, its ideas of the separation of Church and State, its principle of voluntaryism, its liberty of opinion and action in the formation and organization of its churches, its doctrines, and its ordinances ; its Bibliocracy and its abnormal emphasis on preaching as a means of conversion and spiritual edification. They have seen the effect of Non- conformist Protestantism on the civilization of Wales, and on its politico-social institutions ; they have seen the distinction of Protestantism in its Nonconformist aspect from Roman Catholicism, and how Protestantism in its Nonconformist form disintegrates organically, and disintegrates not only in its system of discipline, but in its spiritual foundation ; they have seen how fundamentally the two confessions differ, how wide apart they are in their genius and spiritual conception, and how irre- concilable the one is with the other. Many curious questions have been asked by the refugees as to the social relations which subsist between the members of the different denominations : "Do the Baptists recognize the Independents, and do the Calvins fraternize with the Wesleyans ? " " Do they patronize each other in business, and do they vote on the same side politically? ' These and similar problems seem to interest them greatly. They cannot understand how the spirit of true brotherhood, much less the spirit of true Christian love, can dwell in men who hold such diverse views. But it is necessary to observe, that a great many of these Belgian refugees in Wales are men of low degree and low intelligence ; there are a few educated men among them, but only a few. Broadly speaking, the impression that they have made upon a community not unfriendly to them, is an unfavourable one ; partly on account of the serious elements of discord which have so often disturbed their own social relations ; partly on account of their habits of conviviality. It is the general feeling among those clergymen, ministers, and laymen who have been, and who still continue to be, most I56 THE WAR AND WALES solicitous for their temporal welfare, that when judged by their productivity, their reliability, and their veracity, their economic or moral value does not stand in a strong light in Wales. Very many of these refugees are from Ostend and Antwerp and the district. The majority are Roman Catholics ; there are some Liberal-Catholics, and a few Socialists. All, with the exception of the Socialists, attend the Roman Church ; but even the Socialists have their children baptized, and in sickness they seek the ministrations of the priest. Some Belgians who did not practise their religion very strictly in their own country, and who now live in Wales a long way from a Roman Catholic church, occasionally attend an Anglican service, especially in those parts where Anglicans, as the refugees say, " imitate Catholic practices." But the Roman Catholics claim that such services make no lasting impression on them. Some of the refugees have, occasionally, attended Nonconformist services, especially when they were accom- panied by someone who could interpret the services for them. There are a few Protestants among the refugees. One of their number, strange to relate, has been attending the services at "Siloa" Welsh Independent Church, Aber- dare. His son, who was brought up a Roman Catholic, decided to attend the same church as his father. When a priest heard of it, he wrote the father to the effect (a) that to leave a Catholic school for a county school was a grave sin, (b) that to leave the Catholic Church for any other place of worship was a graver sin, (c) that both sins together constituted a sin against the Holy Ghost. The father took no notice of the letter, and he and his son continue to attend the services at the said Welsh Independent church. Many of the Roman Catholic priests in Wales are men of culture and education, and of deep sympathies. Some of them are Welshmen by birth, and take a keen interest in the development of Welsh thought and life ; but it is impossible to overlook the fact that they are the ex- ponents and representatives of a system of faith which cannot recognize religious liberty as a permanent prin- ciple of a Christian society ; a system which teaches that THE BELGIANS IN WALES 157 intolerance is justified so soon as it is possible; that Protestantism is an evil ; that it will be justifiable when the opportune moment arrives, to use every means to exterminate it. Maclauchlin, a great Catholic writer whose book received papal benediction, says : " The Catholic Church interdicts the use of private judgment in matters of faith. Full inquiry, liberty of mind, freedom of thought, are words she will not and cannot listen to." The most influential community in the Roman Catholic world, the Order of Jesuits, has set itself the task of recommending and defending, as being in full accord with the true spirit of Christianity, the system of coercion by religious and civil penalties. " The great dispute," says Dollinger, " is far from being at an end. In America, it is true, scarcely anyone would think seriously of the possi- bility of a retrograde movement; but it is otherwise in Europe. The tenacity of purpose in these master spirits who set before them the endeavour to bring practice once more into conformity with their theory must not be under- rated. The final result cannot be doubtful to any one capable of understanding the unchanging laws of history " (Historical and Literary Addresses, p. 250). Another fact of supreme importance is, that the Roman Church has enlisted the Protestant and democratic sentiment of liberty on behalf of itself and of its policy. When Pope Benedict XV celebrated his 61st birthday, on November 23rd, 1915, he delivered an address to the members of the Society for the Defence of the Faith, in which he made a violent attack upon the Protestants in Rome. ' What do these emissaries of Satan do," he asked, "who, in the midst of the holy city, raise temples where God is denied true worship, who erect pestilential cathedrals to spread errors among the people, who scatter with liberal hands falsehoods and calumny against the Catholic religion and its ministers? These devilish acts are so many assaults against faith." The criticism made by the Church Times upon this violent denunciation of Protestants is so cogent that we deem it worth while to reproduce it. " If he had kept a 158 THE WAR AND WALES few of his lurid epithets to denounce the Germans as inhuman savages, as he denounced the Lutherans among them, we venture to think that he would have put his gift of strong expression to better service. We hold no brief, of course, for the Protestant proselytizers of whose practices his Holiness justly complains, but it seems to us pertinent to make one comment. Here in England the Pope's subjects enjoy greater liberty than is extended to them in any other country in Europe. Though we have, as we have always had, the Catholic Church in our midst, the Pope plants down in our dioceses bishops using even the titles as they assume the jurisdictions of the Catholic Bishops in possession. The Pope protests against the setting up in Catholic countries of what he calls Protestant cathedrals, but this is merely doing what he himself is doing by setting up bishop against bishop and cathedral against cathedral here. And, if it comes to proselytizing, of all the proselytizing agencies in this country that of the Roman Church is by far the most active and untiring. Pope Benedict XV, up to the present moment, has done little by his public utterances to commend him to the world as in any way equal to his exalted position, and his latest ebullition of wrath against the disturbers of his peace was quite unworthy of the occupant of the Holy See." It is gratifying to contrast the spirit of Pope Bene- dict XV with the attitude of Welsh Protestants towards the Belgian refugees in Wales, who are almost to a person Roman Catholics. Though these refugees have been obliged to depend on the Protestants of Wales for the hospitality they needed, Welsh Protestants, or the Protest- ants of Wales, have never dreamed of insisting that the Belgian refugees should conform either their ideas or their conduct to their life, much less conform their religion to Welsh religion. Their bearing towards the refugees has been a symbol of self-denial — of daily self -negation. They have never attempted to come between the refugees and their priests, or to impose any restrictions upon their liberty of action, or to lay any sort of law upon them. To the Welsh freedom of conscience and liberty of worship THE BELGIANS IN WALES 159 are among the most precious and indispensable of blessings, and as they claim it for themselves, they grant it to the Belgians who depend almost entirely upon them for what support they need. If Wales were to-day, as it once was, a Roman Catholic country, and the Belgian refugees were Protestants, would Roman Catholic Wales do for Protest- ant Belgium what Protestant Wales has done and is still doing for Roman Catholic Belgium ? Apparently not. Would Roman Catholic Ireland house, feed, protect, and otherwise care for Protestant refugees ? Apparently not. Some priests claim that it would be contrary to Roman Catholic principles for Roman Catholics to befriend Protestants as the Protestants of Wales are now befriending the Roman Catholic refugees from Belgium ; it would, they frankly avow, only " encourage Protestants in their sinful course." We have often been asked the question as to the effect or probable effect of this inter-affiliation of the Belgian refugees with the Welsh. It was confidently expected, in some quarters, that the part which they would severally play, through the power of companionship, through exchange of ideas, through example, and through sym- pathy, would stimulate mutual reflections, and mutual appreciation of the good and strong points in the religion of each. It was thought that the different elements would act and react on one another in such a way as to help towards the breaking up of some of the barriers to unity, and would promote the restoration of spiritual harmony, through the assertion of the inner side of religion and the piety of the heart, in opposition to the assertion of creedal differences. The Welsh being an idealistic and an impressionable race, would, it was thought, take a more sympathetic view of Roman Catholic ideas and practices, especially as they were themselves, once upon a time, very ardent Roman Catholics. The planting of so many refugees in Wales afforded, we were told, a favour- able opportunity for the Roman Catholic genius to spread itself abroad among the Welsh people. There were not a few, who sincerely believed that there were signs before l60 THE WAR AND WALES the war, signs many and evident, that the Welsh were gradually but surely reverting to " the historic Faith of Christendom," and that the coming of the refugees would modify, if not eliminate, some of their racial prejudices and sectarian antipathies. It would enable them, it was claimed, to realize more fully the emphasis which Roman Catholics place upon their religion and upon the observ- ance of its practices, in whatever circumstances they may be placed ; it would also give them a better insight into the ecclesiastical structure of Roman Catholicism — its soli- darity and its great resisting powers. On the other hand, it was thought that the Belgian refugees, looking out through the windows of their own experience, would see Anglicanism and Nonconformity (notwithstanding their difference in type, in history, in mentality, and in their conception of what constitutes the Church) working together in harmony in the new environ- ment, on their behalf. But the effect of the contact be- tween the stepsons of the Reformation and the stepsons of the counter-Reformation, has not been what was expected and hoped in certain quarters. True, the presence of so many Belgian refugees in Wales has done an incalculable work of softening, sooth- ing and reconciling ; it has refined Welsh social life through a larger goodwill and a tenderer fellowship than ever before existed ; it has developed in individuals and in the nation at large, a type of benevolence and of moral heroism, which is so unlike anything previously seen or experienced, that it may be truly called a phenomenon. But the Welsh still stand out, and will continue to stand out after the war is over, in their own peculiarities of race, faith, social characteristics, and religious convictions. We see no approach either in sympathy or in doctrine towards Roman Catholicism in Welsh Wales either through contact with the Belgians or any other influence. It could hardly be expected that the generality of its Belgians, whose mentality, education, knowledge, and conceptual powers, are so much inferior to that of the Welsh, would have been able to create any permanent THE BELGIANS IN WALES l6l impression upon them, much less to instil into them any of the elements of their faith. It is, really, the case of a weaker coming into contact with a stronger race. It is claimed in some quarters that the war will deal the death-blow to Protestantism, that the world will, when the war is over, fall back in weariness and disgust upon the " Catholic Church." Without German thought, we are told, and German scholarship, Protestantism is dead. We claim the right to speak for Wales, and we say without any reservation that Welsh Wales is as Protestant in spirit and in principle to-day as she ever was. It is not the Germany of Luther and Behmen and Delitzsch and Dorner that the Welsh are fighting. While the most educated among the Welsh realize now that true learning has suffered much at the hands of German thinkers during the last fifty years, yet, they cannot lose sight of the fact that learning owes much to Germany. They are conscious of the debt which evangelical Christendom owes to evan- gelical Germany. They are fighting, in this war, against all that political and moral wickedness which took posses- sion of Germany before Prussian militarism obsessed it, and before the people had directed their hatred against England. Protestantism is congruous with the modern Welsh mentality ; the only way by which the Welsh could be converted to Roman Catholicism would be to change their nature. It is because, as they think, the principle of the Reformation of Luther, and of the English Reformation, dethroned mechanical despotism in religion, and gave freedom to the spiritual energies of the soul, and appealed to conscience and the right to private judgment, and leaves the mind unfettered by papal anathemas, that they are Protestants; and they believe that if there is any historical fact that is well substantiated, it is that Protestantism arose spontaneously in England long before it did in Germany — from the days of Wickliffe onwards. They hold the opinion that in spite of all the significance which Roman Catholicism retains, and the power it possesses, and the part it has played in the history of the 1 62 THE WAR AND WALES world, the real possibilities of intellectual development as well as of social and moral progress, are to be found on Protestant soil. It is to Protestantism, they claim, that the world owes the modern spirit. Hence its strong anti- Roman Catholic doctrine of salvation and social ethics ; its suspicion of everything that savours of priestism, its antipathy to the papacy, its emphasis on the inwardness of religion and on individual personal seeking after the truth, on the individuality of man, and his religion, and on its democracy in church government. The typical modern Welshman is a Puritan, and no political leader who did not take account of the Puritan element in his character, would have the slightest chance of winning his confidence or of gaining any control over him. There is no priest, however cultured or philanthropic, or even patriotic, into whose hands he would commit his conscience or his country, or to whom he would go to ease himself from his load of sin. Though Nonconformity is to the Belgian refugees a mysterious and an incomprehensible fact, yet there is evidence that they have learned something. They have seen that the great majority of the Welsh attend some place of worship, with the result that it has caused many of the refugees to attend their own Church more regularly. The Socialists among them certainly recognize the Catholic Church in Wales as well as in Belgium. At home they attend Mass on national occasions ; they are married in the Catholic Church and are buried by the priest ; but they seldom attend, some of them never attend, Mass on Sundays. But the regularity with which the Welsh attend divine service has impressed even the Socialists. A few of the more educated of the Belgians, who have formed a tolerably fair acquaintance with the English language, have been, with the assistance of others, studying the Bible ; others have procured a French translation of the Bible, and have been perusing it with great interest, and to some effect. Some of them informed the writer that they had, as the result of their first reading the Bible in French, reached the conclusion that they could no longer believe THE BELGIANS IN WALES 163 in the doctrine of the infallibility of the Pope, or the infallibility of the Church, or in the doctrine of the "Immaculate Conception." It is curious to note that the two personages who have fallen into disesteem among some of these Belgian refugees are Pope Benedict XV and President Wilson ; the former for his apparent sym- pathy with the Germans, and his unwise and futile efforts to procure an inconclusive peace ; the latter for his apparent insincerity, his lack of courage and want of manliness. Every Belgian refugee to whom we have spoken seems to share the general belief in the woeful failure of the Papacy during this war. As regards the effect of this contact with Welsh civiliza- tion upon the social habits of the Belgians, it may be said that men do not easily adjust themselves to new condi- tions, and the more violent the change the more difficult the adjustment ; it is more difficult in the case of adults than in the case of children, for the reason that adults are less pliable, and that their habits are fixed. This is just as true in secular affairs as it is in the sphere of morals, or of the intellect. Every sudden and violent change has its danger. Everything in Welsh life was new to the Belgian refugees ; the domestic habits of the people, their social peculiarities, their language, their customs, and their religion. If Welsh hospitality has fallen short in any respects, it has been due not to want of sympathy, but to their lack of knowledge of the domestic habits and personal idiosyncrasies of the refugees. Tea has always been dear to the soul of Welsh women, but the average Belgian loathes it. Cheap savoury dishes, such as delight the heart of a Belgian, have never been popular among the native Welsh, who have a prejudice in favour of mutton, prime beef and broths. The refugees have simply wondered at the extravagance of the typical Welsh hostess, and at her preference for the more costly articles of food, especially meat. Whereas in Belgium, they say, they can get what- ever they wish to select, and in the smallest possible quantities, in Wales they have been obliged to buy meat in 164 THE WAR AND WALES larger quantities. Thrift, the Belgians say, does not seem to be a Welsh virtue, and they are right. The cuisine in the homes of the majority of Welsh workmen is as extrava- gant as it is unwholesome. In regard to agriculture and to the cooking of food, and to economy in the use of food, the W 7 elsh are not in a forward state, and they are not sufficiently aware of their backwardness. The efficiency of a nation, in the last resort, depends upon the efficient performance of its common duties by the individuals composing it. Another remarkable characteristic among the refugees has been their spirit of caste. A difference in work creates a spirit of caste. A Belgian who is a chemist has no dealings with a Belgian who is a clerk ; and a Belgian who is a lawyer regards himself as apart from the Belgian who is a chemist. Even when they were guests in the same house, and at the same table, this spirit of caste was very noticeable ; they simply would not acknowledge each other. We have already observed that sudden and violent changes, even of external relations, do not prove bene- ficial to adults ; indeed, they often stop life. A tree that is transplanted, where there is much cutting off of roots below, and much cutting off of branches above, is slow to regain itself, and perhaps will never blossom again. So it is with transplantation in social and moral circumstances. Sudden and violent changes from poverty to wealth, from serfdom to freedom, and sudden moral changes, carry their dangers. A sort of intoxication comes with sudden liberty ; new liberty stands very close on to old licence. It was one of the peculiarities of the Welsh revival that those who suddenly developed into higher religious life were intoxicated by their new feelings ; they looked with contempt not only upon their past selves, but upon other people who were still in that state from which they had just emerged, or were supposed to have just emerged. When adults are taken away from their fatherland and the customs of their fatherland, and brought into new countries, especially when they are brought into a higher THE BELGIANS IN WALES 165 degree of civilization, or even a civilization which is different from the old one, they do not, as a rule, take on the new influences ; partly for the reason that they have lost their assimilative qualities. They lose the old influences and do not assimilate the new ; and they, therefore, become a kind of neuter in the body politic. Such has been our observation of the effect upon the Belgian refugees, of their transplantation in external relations and in moral circumstances. The Belgians in Wales, both men and women, are not fond of work, though the family ties are very strong. Herein, it may be, is, in part, the explanation of the unfavourable impres- sion which the Belgian refugees have made upon the Welsh community. Men may change their country, their laws, and their government, but they cannot with the same ease change their customs, their domestic habits, their pleasures, or their religious beliefs. Yet, neither this fact, nor the fact that there is an inseparable gulf, religiously, between the Belgian refugees and the Welsh, has been allowed to interfere with the determination of the Welsh to do their duty by the Belgian refugees, while they are in the country. This, undoubtedly, is the climax to a very notable chapter, not only in the history of Welsh Anglicanism and Welsh Nonconformity, but in the history of Wales as a whole. To think of it and to reflect upon it, stimulates, enriches, and ennobles the imagination. No poetic sympathy this ; no generous zeal born of sudden and temporary excitement, and taking on a religious, or a sectarian, or a doctrinal mood ; but a sympathy incor- rupted and unmistakable. This is the gold setting in the diamond of religion, without which religion is barren of any real good, either to the individual or to the com- munity, or to God. Here is a sympathy that subordinates sect and creed, race and tradition, and all personal and national considerations, to the pressing needs of men alien by birth, by religion, and by civilization. There is no power like the power of sympathy; it is greater than the power of reason, or the power of conscience ; for while N l66 THE WAR AND WALES conscience, through fear, may drive men away from both God and even from their fellows, sympathy joins man to man, and man to God. Herein is the test of all theologies, churches, ordinances, preaching, and instruction in morals ; the only safe test whether man is in sympathy with his fellows, and with the principle upon which human society is founded. It would be safe to say that this, the strongest of all native Welsh instincts, has never before been exercised on so generous and so disinterested a scale. As we have already implied, hitherto its complexion has been local, sectarian, and incidental, but in this instance it has completely overshadowed the three great factors that have shaped the history and marked the development of the religious bodies of Wales, the factors that have divided them so visibly, and, in times past, that have embittered and estranged them, viz., organization, administration, and ratiocination ; and by ratiocination is meant the logic and philosophy of religion. The question that the Welsh, or the people of Wales, may, and with profit, put to themselves is, whether this principle which has been so nobly and so usefully developed in time of war, which has eased the burdens of the heavy laden and oppressed, which has met with so much appro- bation, and by means of which Welsh society has been reformed, shall be neglected, or laid aside, in time of peace ? Shall it be said that this disinterested sympathy, this fine streak of humanitarianism, is merely a warlike principle, or a principle needed only in time of turmoil and bloodshed ? Rather let it be said, that this harmonizing and unifying spirit or principle will be needed when the dark shadows of this tragic war have passed away, and the joy of peace again established ; needed to soften sectarian bitterness, needed to develop, not organic union which is impracticable and undesirable, but to develop a spirit of general comradeship among Christian believers — comradeship in work, in prayer and in fellow- ship — the only comradeship that is possible in this world, and while human nature is constituted as it is. Of all THE BELGIANS IN WALES 167 eirenicons there is none comparable to that which is born of common suffering and the common sympathy which comes out of common suffering ; it is the basis of true nationality, and the only sure foundation for every stable and prosperous Commonwealth. Without it, all doctrines, all ordinances, all artifically fostered types of nationality which permits its zeal to outrun its discretion, and all preaching, however eloquent, is as sounding brass and tinkling cymbal. The preaching that is not animated, absorbed, and moved by this uplifting sympathetic principle, has no immortality either in its utterance, or in its philosophy, or in its influence ; it is sunless and summerless and powerless ; and the preacher, however high his position, or his attainments, or however exten- sive the range of his influence, or however great his authority in the circle in which he moves, who has not this element of sympathy in his personality as a governing principle of his life, has not the true warrant of disciple- ship ; neither can it be justly said that he has been divinely authorized to pronounce the benediction, Grace be upon you, either upon those who were once lost to virtue, but who have been again restored ; or upon those who stand at the open grave where lie the remains of those who have trodden the pathless path ; or upon the distressed and unfortunate in their own community ; or upon those who are bound down in the homes into which the shadows of war and the chill of the grave have been brought, where fatherless children and mourning mothers long to look into the eyes that will never beam upon them again, and to grasp the hand of boldness and confidence that wrote messages of love and cheer from the field of battle. But all is over and ended, for the turfy or rocky sepulchre is closed, and during the long sleep no word is spoken, and no light is held at the sacred spot to reveal the bruised form that lies shrouded within. CHAPTER II THE EFFECT OF THE WAR ON THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE WELSH The Welsh are a branch of one of the most studied of European races ; and, it may be said, by no means the least interesting. What is known of ancient Wales is limited to the almost certain fact that it is, chiefly, a matter of race ; what is known of modern Wales is the activities of the people in the realms of religion, politics, and education. The modern Welsh have lived a life as far apart in its ambition from that of their ancestors as one could possibly imagine. The history of Mediaeval Wales is, primarily, the history of its aversion to constituted authority, and of its prolonged, pathetic, and unavailing attempt at securing independence. It was unavailing because it was unattainable, and unattainable because Wales was too poor, too small, too divided in sentiment and in action, to conquer and to conquer alone. The modern Welsh have been loyal, and, on the whole, self- restrained, with a high degree of immunity from crime. Agitations, discontent, and animated discussions in the realm of politics and of religion there have been ; it could not be otherwise in the case of a people so highly sensitive and democratic. But seldom have the religious, or constituted political leaders of the people, incited them to breaches of the peace, or called in question the supremacy of British sovereignty, or inculcated the idea that Welsh sub-nationality is necessarily incompatible with that Catholicism which accepts the sovereignty of the entire nation. 16S EFFECT ON THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE WELSH 169 In no direction is there any evidence that the modern Welsh have been, or are, animated by that spirit of aveng- ing justice towards their conquerors, which are so marked a feature in the life of the ancient Welsh. On the con- trary, they have educated themselves after the manner of free and loyal countries ; they have established a reputa- tion for themselves as a people gifted with intelligence, with great fertility of thought, with powers of speech and of song, with religious sentiments, with strong emotive qualities, with the ability to grasp the central facts of a situation and to reason upon those facts with a view to future possibili- ties. It is recognized that they are a talented people ; we would further say, that they possess certain definite aspects of genius, viz., pathos, humour, perception, and moral enthusiasm. They have intense convictions or preju- dices ; and combined with this intensity is their proverbial inability to see beyond the obvious side of a question, and their habitual tendency to ignore the merits of an oppon- ent's case. This faith in themselves is one of the main- springs of their enthusiasm, and the secret of their aggres- siveness. While it adds enormously to their power, as it adds to the power of all personalities possessing a similar mentality and temperament, it blinds them to the injury, both moral and material, which they inflict upon interests other than their own. Their independence, in which they have taken so much pride, has been of the narrow and self- centred kind. It explains their lack of one of the rarest of all gifts, viz., the gift of seeing themselves as others see them. It is a mistake to suppose that the civic organism was developed through the instrumentality of sectarianism. There cannot be any question of modern Welsh civiliza- tion having been produced simply and solely through Welsh Nonconformity ; all that can come into question is its share in its production. That it is a large share none can dispute. Welsh civilization is not so simple and homogeneous as some would have us believe. The historians of greater nations have always been willing to recognize that their people owe much to other races. I70 THE WAR AND WALES Welshmen have not always been mindful of the action ot English and non-Celtic forces upon their national psych- ology, and upon the development of the country. The Annexation, in 1536, brought the Welsh into closer touch with the institutions of Norman England. Another factor was the Tudor dynasty, when the making of modern Wales really began ; this dynasty marks the birth and growth of the spirit of Welsh nationalism. The ramifica- tions of the French Revolution brought into Wales a spirit of political reform which has grown apace ever since. The accession of Queen Victoria to the throne, in 1837, had an important bearing upon the development of the Welsh people. It was during her reign that Wales was precipitated into the national mould ; the reign which signalized the earliest statutory recognition of the Welsh language in civil affairs, when the control of Parliamentary representation and the direction of public affairs were transferred from the hands of the Whigs and the nobility, to the hands of the masses of the people. The modern Welsh educational movement, which has culminated in the present system, has done much towards broadening, steadying, and strengthening the national mind. But from a purely humanitarian and imperialistic view- point, the crisis or movement which has accumulated for itself the most powerful forces of social, moral, and intel- lectual determination ; the crisis or movement which has brought into activity that principle of solidarity by which the Welsh are now being brought into the world-current, and by means of which they are being liberated from that type of provincialism which has for long retarded their progress as a people, is the present war crisis. It has done more towards the removal of old prejudices and enmities and ignorances, and towards establishing a spirit of broad human sympathy and helpfulness and brotherhood, than the Welsh system of education, or even Welsh religion has done, or could have done. It has certainly done more than Welsh nationalism has done, for the spirit and essence of Welsh nationalism has been anti-British, anti- imperialistic, and anti-International. EFFECT ON THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE WELSH I7I To no portion of the British Empire has the thought of war, or the idea of Conscription, or National Service, or Boy Scouts, been more repugnant than to Welsh Wales. The ideas of the National Service League never took root in the Principality. What support the League received came from Anglicans and Conservatives ; the Noncon- formist bodies, with the exception of a few isolated indi- viduals here and there, treated the movement with derision ; it was, they avowed, wholly unnecessary from the point of view of national safety, wholly pernicious from the point of view of morals, and highly detrimental to the peace of the world. They did not hesitate to declare that they were Little Navyites, and that they favoured the immediate reduction of armaments ; they were for peace, they said, not war. It stands to the credit of the Anglican Church in Wales, and to the advantage of the State in this emergency, that she invariably shunned narrow nationalism ; and that she taught her people a type of Imperialism which in these days of change and stress has really become a necessity to Nonconformity. What imperialistic spirit prevailed in Wales before the war, was the outcome of the Church's teaching, and of the influence which she had indirectly exercised in the Principality. With the ethnical past of the Welsh, we are not con- cerned here ; any effort at elucidating their pre-historic phases, or at comprehending their constituent and con- secutive elements, increases rather than decreases the sense of mystery which attaches to their history ; and, not only to their history, but to the genesis and slow elaboration of their civilization. Indeed, the more one studies the beginnings or the constitution of any race, and the more one studies the mass of its aspirations, the less exact are our ideas. What is true of races in general, is true of Wales in particular. Men of erudition and gifted with a general critical spirit, whose desire it is to look, and to look sympathetically, into the complexity and multi- plicity of the ethnical, mental and moral origins of the Welsh, have hesitated before the difficulties which the I72 THE WAR AND WALES problem presents ; they have found what all critical students of Welsh history have found, viz., that the characteristics of their individual, collective, and here- ditary psychology are most difficult to decipher. It is a peculiarity of the many conflicting estimates of the Welsh soul which have been formed, that all the conclu- sions can be maintained and disputed with equal sincerity and plausibility. Such disparity in judgment does not tend to strengthen one's confidence in anthropo-psych- ology. Different deductions are drawn from the same data. In what directions then are we to look for the contents and inner meaning of the Welsh soul ? Not in their much-praised drama, which has necessitated so much study and patience in order to discover it. Not in the realistic and practical genius of the people ; not in their science ; not in the artistic achievements of their vivid imagination. Rather must we look for the genius and quality of the Welsh soul in the social and sexual ethics of the people ; in their aptitude for religion and politics ; in their attachment to their homes and their families ; in that form of culture which has been grown on the native soil ; in the instrument of their thought — their language ; in their actions even more than in their ideals, for the soul of a people manifests itself more in action than in ideal aspirations ; action or conduct is three-fourths of life. It is by the sum total of a man's actions that we are to judge his individuality, especially those actions which give him pleasure, or into which he throws the whole weight of his personality. What is true of the individual is also true of the nation in the aggregate. It is impossible to define the psychology of a nation's soul by a single or a fixed formula ; no psychology can be a permanent, or a final synthesis of the life, thought, aspiration and characteristics of a people. What is termed " static psychology," or the psychology of the moment, must of necessity be subject to constant revi- sion in proportion as the people are influenced by the spirit of their age, in proportion as they adopt the manners, EFFECT ON THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE WELSH I73 customs, and morals of their environment ; errors are inevitable. Anthropo-psychology is the last thing we can dogmatize about ; at best it can only have an epheme- ral value. No nation, however narrow, or exclusive, or puritanical, is so impenetrable that it does not gradually and unconsciously give way, to a greater or lesser degree, before instruction, education, and the inroads of cosmo- politan influences ; all nations are penetrable in the domain of thought and feeling ; they involuntarily change their mentality and the state of their soul. These modifications in the soul of a people are brought about through the interaction of native factors — social, literary and intellectual — and by the action of exceptional geniuses in the nation, who impress the masses with their thought, acts and achievements ; the masses come under the spell of their personality, and under the impulse of their ideas and suggestions. Ideas modify mentality, and mentality is modified with the modification of the factors that created it. It would be as erroneous to assert the immobility of the soul of a nation as it would be to assert that its character- istics cease when they change. That the moral and intel- lectual peculiarities which constitute a national type are not unchangeable may be shown by the history of the various races in the United States of America. The French- Canadians are happy and prosperous, though living under a form of government which is diametrically opposed to the one under which they were nurtured. There is a striking and an encouraging difference between the character, aspirations, and possibilities, of the negroes of to-day and the negroes before the War of Secession. The conditions of the soul of the Germany of to-day are very different from its conditions before the Reformation. We have only to compare the tendency, the morality, and the idealism of Prussian politics to-day with those of preceding generations, in order to appreciate the change which has taken place since the days of Bismarck. The France of to-day, purified and ennobled by sorrow, is not the France of yesterday — the home of gaiety and the 174 THE WAR AND WALES fount of fashion and worldly pleasure. Of all European nations France has had the least ethnical prejudice, and the most lofty sentiment as to the equality of individuals. The brilliant and exceptional position she has attained in the intellectual world, a position which made her one of the great directing forces of mankind, has been due to her social genius, which enabled her to unify the many diverse elements gathered together on her soil. Civilization has acted with the Welsh soul as it has acted with the soul of other peoples, though not to the same degree or in the same manner. There is reason for admiring the persistence with which the Welsh never cease to proclaim themselves Welsh, and that in spite of the fact that their deformities have been subjected to many forms of satire — both friendly and unfriendly. There is a touch of pathos as well as of heroism in this persistence. It is a sign of vitality and individuality ; and, as they think, of superiority. But, generally speak- ing, the Welsh horizon is widening ; there has been, during the last twelve months especially, a distinct tendency towards a rapprochement of Wales with the component parts of the Empire ; there has been a definite reaction against the proverbial theory that practical and intellectual progress is possible for any people on detached or isolated lines. National, or international thought, is taking the place of local thought. This change has come not through, but in spite of racial, sectarian, and national prejudices ; its beneficial influence on the inner life of the people is already apparent — it will become more apparent. It will prove to be a distinct advance in Welsh civiliza- tion ; for the more the members of one community main- tain intellectual intercourse with the members of other communities, the more they are likely to learn. The more advanced a nation is, the richer it is in heterogeneous elements. It has been claimed in some quarters that the National Eisteddfod, so far from being a hindrance to patriotism, has really fostered it. This is true if we take patriotism in its purely Welsh sense ; but not until now has there been EFFECT ON THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE WELSH IJ$ a single sympathetic reference to, or any practical interest in, imperial patriotism at the National Eisteddfod. On the contrary, it has been discouraged and suppressed. It is also being claimed that the past history of Wales is the past history of the British Empire. This claim throws some light upon the energetic attempt that is now being made to draw Wales into the Imperial net, partly from self-interest ; partly for the glorification of Wales ; partly for the credit of being considered imperial. It is the judgment of not a few that the spiritual element plays but a secondary part. It may, however, be stated with confidence that the claim that the history of Wales is identical with the history of the British Empire, is not only a gross exaggera- tion, but untrue to the facts of both Welsh and British history. Certainly there have been Welshmen of sterling qualities, of unquestionable worth and eminence, who have rendered in the past conspicuous service in the various spheres of British life and thought ; but they represent the exceptional rather than the cardinal type. Welsh Wales, historically speaking, has been in thought, sym- pathy, and action outside the imperial ambit ; her genius has never assumed a general or an imperial form. The Welsh have not until now considered themselves as part of the people of England, and they have had but few links of dependence, or of interdependence, with the trend and activities of the British mind — so strong has been their ethnical prejudice, and so persistent their refusal to sub- mit to the law of general historical evolution. Wales has never before been recognized as a real confederate nation in the vast British Empire ; she had no claim to such recognition. The fact that she is so recognized now is due to the effect of the war, not to the natural evolution of Welsh thought, and most assuredly not of Welsh nationalism. The districts in which the purely Welsh element predominates, more especially the rural element, have not done very creditably in this war. The best response has come from the two most cosmopolitan counties — Glamorgan and Monmouth ; and the counties I76 THE WAR AND WALES of Pembroke, Brecknock and Radnor ; counties that have no sympathy with Welsh nationalism, that have scarcely any Welsh sentiment, and where the Welsh language is practically dead. The summary tables of the 1911 Census, just pub- lished, show that out of a total population of 2,247,927 in Wales and Monmouthshire, more than half — 1,208,282 — speak English only. In Glamorgan, with the County Boroughs, only 31 per thousand of the population speak Welsh only, 350 per thousand speak Welsh and English, whereas 589 per thousand speak English only. In Monmouthshire, with the County Boroughs, 4 per thous- and speak Welsh only, 92 per thousand speak English and Welsh, whereas 863 per thousand speak English only. In Pembrokeshire 77 per thousand speak Welsh only, 247 per thousand speak English and Welsh, whereas 653 per thousand speak English only. In Cardiff 2 per thousand speak Welsh only, 65 per thousand speak English and Welsh, whereas 885 per thousand speak English only. The number of persons speaking Welsh only has fallen considerably since 191 1, and it continues to fall. The report of the committee appointed by the East Glamorgan Baptist Association to investigate the extent to which their churches had been affected by the lin- guistic difficulty disclosed a startling state of affairs. The Association embraces 119 churches, and of these five per cent, have abandoned the Welsh service entirely, while another five per cent, are holding services in both languages. No fewer than 83 churches, or seventy-eight per cent, of the whole, are experiencing difficulties arising from ignorance of the Welsh language. In nine of the churches English classes have been introduced into the Sunday School, while in no fewer than seventy-six per cent, of the whole, the lessons have to be explained in English. There is ample evidence that Welsh nationalism as such has had very little to do with the question of enlistment in Wales. When the time comes for the Government to publish the proportion of enlistment county by county, EFFECT ON THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE WELSH I77 it will be found that the rate of enlistment in Wales has been in inverse ratio to the strength of Welsh nationalism. It was from the mouths of extreme Welsh nationalists that one heard the statement, so often and so publicly repeated, that Wales might fare better under the Kaiser than under King George. Those Welshmen, Englishmen, Scotsmen and Irishmen from Wales, who are at the front, are not fighting for Welsh nationality as some nationalists state. There are more important interests at stake in this war than the interests of nationalism, whether it be Welsh, Irish, or Scottish. The discussion that is now being carried on in Wales, with a view of showing that the valiant deeds of Welsh soldiers in this war have fully and finally justified the claims of Wales to autonomy, and autonomy not only in civil, but in judicial and military affairs ; and the claim that is being set forth, that the attitude of Wales in this crisis is the coping-stone of the dramatic development of Welsh nationalism, is not only ill-timed, but ill-informed and unhistorical. That Wales as a whole has responded nobly in this war is fully conceded. She has done as well as any portion of the United Kingdom in proportion to the population. The figures in Glamorgan some time since amounted to quite 60,000, and in Monmouth from 20,000 to 25,000; for the whole of Wales the figures will certainly reach about 200,000. These men are not wastrels, but the pick of the manhood of the nation. It is difficult to say which is the more remarkable, either the free-will of the people or their conversion. No other movement has cut so sharply across their tradition and civilization. With this psychological change there has come a change in the outside estimate of the character and loyalty of the Welsh people. Never was there such justifiable pride in being a citizen of the country. Wales has gone up many grades ; she has added to her moral strength and reputa- tion. The message of the war to Wales was that she could not arrive at a superior development without breaking with those traditions which had for so long slumbered at the back of the Welsh conscience. This is I78 THE WAR AND WALES what the war is accomplishing in Wales ; it is contribut- ing to the triumph of the human principle over racial restrictions and physiological divisions. On the ruins of the old Welsh differentiations will be created a new Welsh type which, through discipline and suffering, will be more admirable physically and morally. If this transformation were the result of a passing mood ; if the war had merely touched the outskirts of the Welsh mind and spirit, and had only affected them super- ficially and temporarily, the matter would not be worthy of any very serious consideration. But Wales to-day stands in antagonism to her historical self. Were it primarily, or entirely, a religious change, men would call it "conversion," for it came by crisis, it came suddenly; it has come decisively, and, in some of its results, per- manently. The war has thrown, or overthrown, the Welsh mentality into a new state of equilibrium. Not that there has been any change in the fundamental principles of the people. We do not mean principles in a rigid philosophical sense, but principles that are great moral impulses or tendencies. Principles, however, are susceptible of different developments ; they are plastic and capable of readjustment ; they may be adapted to new and other needs ; and must be so adapted if a nation is to go on and grow. The process in Wales shows that there is, potentially and characteristically in the people, a power and a degree of adaptation hitherto unseen and unfelt — even among themselves. It is too soon yet to gauge the full and final effect of the war on the national psychology ; but the net result, up to the present, of the revolution in individual and public feeling and opinion and aspiration, is clear and emphatic enough to justify the observation that Wales will be different not only as regards the scope and quality of her patriotism; but her religion, her system of education, and her attitude towards some of the most acute political and economic questions, such, for instance, as the question of Women's Suffrage, will be different. Her conception of the functions of the State, of the relation of the State to EFFECT ON THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE WELSH 179 the individual and of the individual to the State, will be different. The political heresy that the State exists for the individual, that it is his privilege to demand from the State all he desires, and to demand it as a matter of right, has found great favour in industrial Wales. The people have been told that all they would owe to the State in return was their votes in favour of the politicians who would bleed the State and impoverish the Exchequer that the democracy might be appeased. Patriotism was to begin and end with self. With the width, the scope, the quality, and the application of it, they were satisfied. What the war has done is to burst the shell of this selfish patriotism ; to teach them a nobler type of citizenship and a higher type of morality. The lesson will never be lost. We do not feel free to state that the majority, or any very considerable number of the Welsh people, or of the population of Wales, have any substantial knowledge of the causes which led up to the war, or of its probable effect upon political economy, or upon public prosperity, or upon international laws. This could scarcely be expected of them. It is questionable whether the majority of any people could give a general outline, much less a consecutive history, of the wars or of the revolutionary struggles in which their country has been engaged. But of the things which belong to general knowledge in con- nection with this war, the Welsh have a very clear conception. They have grasped the principles that are involved ; they have taken up the distinctive British, or democratic, ideas and doctrines as distinguished from German, or autocratic, or monarchical ideas and doctrines; they know that the one stands for the sanctity of coven- ants, for the canons of righteousness and for freedom and progress in the higher elements of civilization. They know that the other stands for the obliteration of those religious and political ideals which throb in the heart and brain of all liberty-loving people, and for the supremacy of those elements of malignancy which develop them- selves in communities under the influence of the gospel of l8o THE WAR AND WALES brute force, and which in this case have overflowed Europe with its desolating and destroying power. Hence it is, that we see a race of people who, since the Conquest, have preached peace, inculcated the principles of peace, observed the rules of peace among themselves in so far as their temperament permitted them ; a people who have infused almost all the emotional energy of which they are capable into their religion ; suddenly, and as if by magic, overcoming their racial prejudices, their religious scruples, their national antipathies, and becoming as bellicose in spirit and as full of the lust for victory as any nation or class of people in the British Empire. But yesterday, they almost venerated Germany as a nation high in thrift, in industry, in popular power, in scientific genius, in free conscience, in progressive enlightenment, and high in pacific ambitions. Germany, it was claimed, had gone up in proportion as she had developed the higher qualities of the moral nature of man ; in proportion as she had developed the scientific spirit, and had diffused modern scientific knowledge throughout the German Empire and the world. So successful had been the German policy of " peaceful penetration," even in a small and a remote country like Wales, that not only was there a growing demand for German goods, but for German theology. The Pan- German theological imprint was stamped on many a Welsh sermon. Harnack was a good name to conjure with in Welsh pulpits. To quote him, or to quote any of the leading theologians of Germany, was a sign of a very special form of erudition. To have been educated in a German University was a badge of intellectual distinction. Young Welshmen who aspired to pulpit fame, were ad- vised to go to Germany for a thorough revision of their historical knowledge. So eager had become the quest after the new Biblical light which was supposed to ema- nate from German theological sources, that the reactionary tendency amounted almost to a disease. Equally emphatic were they in praise of the Kaiser's genius, his robust personality, and above all his peaceful EFFECT ON THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE WELSH l8l intentions. So transparent was his honesty, they said, that none had a right to question it. Was not he closely related to England by ties of blood ? Had he not declared his unqualified admiration of English institutions and traditions ? Had not Lord Haldane, who knew Germany through and through, assured us that all was well ? Had not Lloyd George said that Europe was ripe for a policy of disarmament, and that what money England could raise should be devoted not to the Army and Navy, but to the work of social reform ? If the Kaiser wanted more Colonies as an outlet for his surplus population, why should England stand in his way ? England had had a pretty good run. Thus they argued. Nothing could shake their confidence in the Kaiser's integrity. They even condoned and admired his inordinate pride ; it was, they said in effect, the pride of self-respect working benignantly, directed by gratitude and leavened by pacific intentions. But a reaction has come ; and so strong, deep, wide and intense has been the revulsion of feeling, that this friend- ship with Germany, this admiration of the Kaiser, has been transformed into aversion, so fierce, so implacable, that only those who understand the psychology of the Welsh temperament can properly or adequately appreci- ate it. They now see and acknowledge that not in history, not in literature, is there another instance of such colossal, intolerant, and despotic egotism ; egotism that identifies itself with God, that takes the whole of God into itself, that puts itself by the side and in the place of God, that has become a God to itself, the universe to itself, making a hideous idol of itself and worshipping itself. It is remarkable how rapidly and generally the propaganda of hate spreads itself once it is started, and the Welsh temperament lends itself to it. As to the effect of the war on Welsh literature, both prose and poetic, there is nothing of any importance to relate. It has not, as yet, produced any ballads or battle-songs for the Welsh soldiers ; there are no Welsh war lyrics. Mr. Lloyd George made some humorous o 1 82 THE WAR AND WALES references at the National Eisteddfod at Bangor, to the fact that he was surrounded by thirty-one Welsh bards. It is calculated that there are in Wales about three thousand Welsh bards, or rather poetic experimentalists ; like all modern poets they think more of freedom than of fighting for it. Welsh poetry was never less of a creative or of a consoling power than it is at the present time. There is no evidence that the war has dug out any Welsh poets who have a right to be heard, or that the recognized poets, or musicians, are seeking fresh forms of expression for the new ideas that are being planted in the nation's mind. Luther said that singing was next to theology, that it made men clever. The cultivation of the art has made the Welsh clever in the execution of music ; they have always held an exalted opinion of the function of music as a religious and social force. The Welsh soldier, whether regular or civilian, has his racial and instinctive peculi- arities. One of them is his partiality for music, whether religious or comic ; he sings to excite courage ; he sings when in sorrow and difficulty ; song and prayer and preaching are the three main modes of Welsh self-expres- sion. But " Tipperary " does not suit the instincts of the Welsh soldier ; his soul glows better under the strains of one of the old martial airs of Wales. The greater the freedom he has to express himself in his own way, the happier he is. Since none of the numerous Welsh poets or musicians have done anything for him in the war, he falls back on " The March of the Men of Harlech," or " Hen Wlad fy Nhadau," or some of the old Welsh religious hymn-tunes. What has been the effect of the war on the Welsh pulpit ? Before we can form a judgment we must go back and look at the way in which it has been educated, the way it has educated itself and the community ; we must consider the plane on which it has stood, and its attitude on the subject of peace and war, and the preparation for war. So completely has it been under the control of puritanism, that its puritanism degenerated into prudery ; EFFECT ON THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE WELSH 183 always using its theology as a weapon by which to crush somebody or something. Seldom or never did it look to the jubilant aspect of Christianity. Ministers regarded themselves as the representatives of the patriotic purity of the country. If men had casuistical reflections, or ethical doubts, the minister was the man to consult ; for was not he the protector of orthodoxy and the champion of the honour and peace of Welsh society ? It was the duty of the pulpit to probe wickedness and to form a public conscience. Thus it was that the Territorials when they were first billeted in Wales, came under the ban of the Welsh pulpit. Their presence was regarded, in many quarters, as an indignity heaped upon the community. They were spoken of as a class of men who were profuse in every- thing but rectitude ; the presence of a man in uniform at a prayer meeting, or a religious service, was not only an anomaly, but something of a sensation, as if there was no redemption for a soldier. With anger on their brow and in their heart, some ministers warned the young women of their congregations publicly from the pulpit, not to associate with any of the men of the Territorial forces ; they even circularized each individual parent on the subject, pointing out the danger to the womanhood and the morals of the community from their presence ; they spoke of the worthlessness and mischievousness of their calling ; a young woman who was seen talking to or walk- ing out with a Territorial, or a soldier, was looked upon as having broken away from religion. Not that these ministers were insincere ; on the contrary, they acted according to their sense of duty. Since the war, however, other intuitions have dawned on their minds ; they no longer sit in judgment upon those who are fighting the battle of liberty ; this great upheav- ing and purifying convulsion has endowed them with saner and kinder thoughts ; their patriotism has enlarged and filled out in other directions ; they have added so many other elements to their patriotism that fatherland stands out to them broader, deeper, and more inspiring. 184 THE WAR AND WALES The old ultra -puritanical patriotism has lost its grip ; the whole perspective of the Welsh pulpit has been altered. " What a change has come over Wales and the Welsh pulpit," observed an old Welsh soldier to a Liverpool journalist of repute. " I too am a Welshman," he con- tinued, " born and bred in North Wales. I have seen service abroad ; I was in the Boer War. I am home for a brief holiday, but shall be returning to the front in a few days. When I enlisted years ago I was made to feel un- comfortable, as if I had committed some moral wrong ; Welsh ministers regarded me with suspicion, so did the deacons and the Welsh religious community in general. Soldiering was the last word, the barracks a city of refuge for the worthless, the scum of society. But what a change! It is not the same country, and the people do not appear the same. Now some ministers pray for us ; they even pray in public for the blessing of God on the efforts of our soldiers ; they pass resolutions of gratitude at their annual religious gatherings that so many Welsh civilians have enlisted ; they personally plead with young men who are physically fit, and of military age, to join the colours ; ministers are acting as chaplains, some of them conduct services in Welsh pulpits in khaki. The change is so great as to be almost incredible." What is the secret of this remarkable transformation ? This brings us to the question of mixed motives. It has been said that there are very few people who act from less than five or six different motives. Men's faculties are complex, and it is only natural to suppose that their actions spring from complex motives. An individual who acts from different classes of motives is not necessarily a hypocrite, neither is a nation whose motives are com- plex necessarily hypocritical. It is when men and nations act from a lower class of motives, and when those motives are in the ascendancy, while at the same time they pretend that they are actuated by a higher class of motives, that they are hypocritical. That Wales has been moved by mixed motives in this war none can dispute. EFFECT ON THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE WELSH 185 We cannot ignore the influence of social environment. As goodness attracts goodness, as virtue thrives in the company of virtue, so courage begets courage and patrio- tism engenders patriotism. The thoughts of men follow each other like the links of a chain, one link draws another ; there is a natural succession of thought and feeling, and the Welsh are highly impressionable, the tragic and the spectacular always appeals to them. They have read of men in their thousands, some British and some native born, who have willingly, though sorrowfully, left their wives and children in the Antipodes, traversed thousands of miles on the high seas, and suffered hardships in order to put on the armour and wield the sword and perish if need be, in defence of the Empire, in defence of British liberty and British civilization ; and, indirectly, in the defence of Welsh liberty and Welsh civilization. They have seen how manfully the civilian soldiers are enduring the limitations, restrictions, and discipline placed upon them, and with what courage, even joy, they have taken up arms in defence of their country, with a full realization of all the possibilities that are before them. The Welshman is highly emotional ; he is not lacking in gratitude, or perception ; and under the impulse of what he has seen and read, he has veered round to the belief that if he has no sons who are able to fight, or if he cannot fight himself, he ought to help and pray for those who do, that he ought to contribute something for the comfort of the halt, the maimed and the blind who have done their share. Neither can we ignore the part played by Mr. Lloyd George. There has been a good deal of speculation as to the probable attitude of Wales in relation to this war, if it had been declared by a Conservative Government, or if Mr. Lloyd George had done what he did during the Boer War. It was rumoured in certain circles that he was against intervention ; or that he was, at any rate, a doubtful factor. Credence was given to the rumour on account of some of his previous utterances requesting the reduction of armaments. But part of his strength lies 186 THE WAR AND WALES in his ability to grasp the political significance of any crisis or incident, as well as its bearing upon his own political career and the fortunes of his own party. As regards Wales, Mr. Lloyd George knew that there were certain circumstances of history and of environment, which had rendered Welsh nationality very different from English nationality ; if it may be said that there is such a thing as English nationality left. He also knew that the Welsh have been anti-English rather than pro-English, and that he had by his own speeches widened rather than narrowed the breach. He was probably not unmindful of the fact that Wales, unlike Ireland, had not always been a military nation — not since the Conquest, and that the modern Welsh had exhibited a vehement antipathy to war under any pretext. So Mr. Lloyd George did what Jasper Tudor and William Herbert did in the Wars of the Roses. The secret of the decisive influence which they exercised in the struggle between Lancaster and York lay in their power to appeal to the national sentiment which had developed in Wales since the fall of Llywelyn. It was this same chord that Mr. Lloyd George touched when he called the Welsh to arms. He played the part of an encourager and interpreter ; he swayed them through their feelings as he has always done when he has needed their services. He flattered them by appealing to their pride of race ; by reminding them of the valorous deeds of their ancestors ; he cautioned them that if they remained passive specta- tors in this frightful contest, they would be besmirching the memory of their forefathers, and jeopardizing their political future as a nation. He dwelt on their ancient and innate sympathies with the sufferings and aspirations of the smaller nationalities ; he called for a revival of the old Welsh martial spirit. The appeal was successful. It would, however, be but fair to state that whatever racial, historical, personal, or political considerations may have entered at the beginning of the war into the calculations of that section — the Nonconformist section — to which Mr. Lloyd George appealed (there being no need EFFECT ON THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE WELSH 1 87 to appeal to any other section except Socialists), there can be no question that they now have a very clear and definite conception of the vast interests that are at stake ; the circumstances of the war have educated them into it. The Welsh have, therefore, backed their sentiment with action. Some have learned that men and nations are responsible for the injustices or the crimes which they can prevent or mitigate, and that they are none the less culpable if they excuse themselves on racial ground, or on the ground that it is none of their business, or on the ground of selfish political considerations. Not only has the war been instrumental in modifying the spirit of their thinking, but it has also developed its penetrating power, and widened its outlook. Tradition- ally, the Welsh have been highly restrictive and intro- spective in their conceptions and sentiments. The impelling motive has been local and provincial. This is especially true of the agricultural community. For generations the Welsh farmer has been tilling his land, attending to his flocks and herds, taking his produce to the market and worshipping in his chapel, without in any degree being touched by the demand for an efficient Navy to guard the shores of his native land, and to protect his commercial interests. The idea of binding Great or Greater Britain into one economic whole, has had no meaning and no personal concern for him ; he could not grasp it, hence it is that he has always been amenable to anti-imperialistic influences. Politicians who understand the Welsh farmer know the cue to take and what plati- tudes to use. " Civil freedom " ; " the liberties of the people"; "the caprice of middle-class bureaucrats"; ' the tyranny of the aristocracy " ; " the manoeuvre of the landlords and industrial magnates to impose shackles on the farmers and the workers " ; these are the stock phrases that have always won applause and secured votes. If we were asked to enumerate the attributes which have attracted the desire of the average, or typical farmer or Welshman, most ardently and vehemently, we would say that they are : home, fatherland, and his meeting house. 1 88 THE WAR AND WALES " Ty-Cwrdd," the old Welsh word for " Addoldy," which means place of worship, has always been one of the main centres of his attraction. Of his meeting house and of his home and fatherland he thinks all the year round. Welsh literature, both prose and poetic, Welsh hymnody, and Welsh religion, are impregnated with the ideas and aspirations which these attributes represent. They have always been proud when a Welshman distinguished him- self in arms ; yet, their ideal man has been the saint, not the warrior. Not that the modern Welsh are a dull, in- sipid, or a phlegmatic race of people, wanting in courage and resources ; on the contrary, they are a people of strong, fearless and acute natures. Broadly speaking, the war has been to the Welsh far- mer an education of the most real, practical, and necessary kind. He now understands, as he never understood before ; as no amount of rhetoric or reading, or instruc- tion could have made him understand, what the British Fleet stands for, what the British Army and the British Colonies stand for. He is beginning to grasp the fact that if the Allies are defeated, and if England is defeated, no single virtue, or trade, or industry in Wales can count upon security. The comforting notion that Wales might be as prosperous and treated with as much liberality under the Kaiser as under King George has been relegated to the lumber room. He is realizing that the fortunes of Wales are linked to the fortunes of England and the Empire; that the connection with England and with the Empire has extended Welsh commerce, has given the people the machinery of a free civil society, and has enabled them to augment the power of education in their own land. This, in so far as Wales is concerned, is one of the compensa- tions of the war. Indeed, it is not an uncommon thing to hear Welsh farmers express the hope that the war will last a long time because of the profits they are able to make out of it, through the greatly increased, even exorbitant, prices they are receiving for their produce. Not only has the war produced a change in the mentality of the Welsh farmer, but in the mentality of the religious EFFECT ON THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE WELSH 189 leaders of the people, and the majority of the people themselves. Hitherto they have been so absorbed in cultivating that type of patriotism which is associated with their own country, language, traditions and aspira- tions, that sectarian and national selfishness has been stirred up in them unquestionably. For the last thirty years, at least, " The Welsh Question," which means really a group of questions, including Education, Dis- establishment, Home Rule, and other issues, has not only been the predominant question, but in reality the only question that counted. We do not thus speak to the prejudice of the Welsh ; we speak, in a sense, to their credit. It is an honourable sign, a sign of vitality, a sign of strong native, patriotic feeling. But, historically, the Welsh mind has been so purely subjective in its constitu- tional habits and tendencies, that it has harboured the delusion that its development could be accomplished without intermediate relations with other races, and without contact with the outside world. This accounts for its traditional unwillingness to expatriate native ideas, or to expatriate them in the language of the largest of all reading constituencies ; as well as their unwilling- ness to impart and to assimilate foreign ideas. The psychology of this is to be explained by the fear that foreign culture might result in the extinction of native culture, and in the extinction of their entity as a people. The result has been that the Welsh have had in the past but very few moments of contact with any literature except native literature, or with movements other than purely Welsh movements. Very little interest — sympa- thetic and intelligent interest — they have hitherto taken in the British Army or British Navy ; in the question of Home Defence, in the economic and political relations of England or of Great Britain with the Colonies ; or in the great principle of national and international interdepend- ence. There has been hardly any evidence that they would have been sensitive to their loss either from a commercial or from a political standpoint ; partly because they have never troubled to understand their correlation ; IQO THE WAR AND WALES partly because they have been disposed to believe that the retention of the connection between Great Britain and the Colonies has been chiefly responsible for the expendi- ture on the Navy ; partly because of the influence of those centrifugal forces which have been grinding and producing independence ; partly because it was thought that the retention of these Colonies and the method of governing them was a violation of the fundamental principle of nationalism and of self-government. Herein is, in part, the explanation of what measure of success Mr. Lloyd George attained among Welsh Nonconformists during the Boer War. Mr. Lloyd George, to his credit be it said, has never lacked the courage of his convictions. That he was sincerely persuaded of the injustice of that war on the part of England, none who understand his character would question, even if they question the extravagance of his presentation of the case. He was then a prophet of evil augury, with very little except disdain for English or British energy. While it pained and grieved many Welshmen, his action was hailed with a concert of vocife- ration by extreme Welsh nationalists whose function it is to claim a monopoly of patriotism for themselves, while denying it to the other members of the community who differ from them. They became eloquent over the " accursed propensities of Imperialism," its " covetous- ness," the " discord it had created," and the " cruelties it had perpetrated." Nationalism, they said, was the only pure thing in the sordid world of politics. It was not a strange view for them to take, for the empire of Wales, according to them, was within herself. Imperialism, they said, was the product of an age which had lost its insight, its faith, its calm and reflective quality. Im- perialism, we were told from the press, the pulpit, and the platform, meant less of true culture and more of brute force ; less of deep life and more shallow existence ; less thought for domestic legislation, and less money for the work of special amelioration ; less regard for those obliga- tions which stronger nations owe to the weaker ones, and EFFECT ON THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE WELSH I9I less opportunity for the smaller nationalities to find a " place in the sun." This was the popular gospel ; to cry against such an interpretation, as some of us ventured to do, was to incur odium and disrespect. Even the Welsh system of educa- tion had got into the hands of men who were obsessed by the narrow nationalist spirit ; they encouraged the observ- ance of St. David's Day, which was and is a very commend- able thing to do, but the idea of an " Imperial Day " they stigmatized as " Jingo Day." Jingoism and Imperialism were, they said, synonymous terms. But now we are presented with the unusual spectacle of a majority of the people impassioned and battling round the interests which British Imperialism represents. Their system of ideas has changed from top to bottom. Not, as we have pointed out in another part of this chapter, that their purely Welsh anxieties and ambitions have lapsed into the background entirely, or that they have been abandoned ; but the imperial interests involved in the war have created for them a larger centre of personal and national activity, and have caused them to organize their life about the political and spiritual interests which happen for the moment to be in the ascendancy. They have been forced into new alliances, and their relation to many public questions has been greatly modified. It would not be too much to say that Wales, at this hour, presents a striking illustration of the reorganization of personal, domestic, social, and religious life, about a new centre and a new group of ideas. Wales has become, socially and intellectually, a new self ; and it would be premature to set a limit to the effect of the change that has taken place. Indeed, so general and so radical is the change, that those who are unacquainted with the inner history of Wales and the ethics of Welsh nationalism, might be forgiven for thinking that they have always been imperialists, and that they are the creators of what imperialism there is in Wales at this hour. What the Welsh publicists neglected to do, what Welsh educationists failed to do, the war has done ; it has made 192 THE WAR AND WALES the Welsh mind so much more objective in its tendency that it has got at last a truer perspective of its duties and destiny. The national consciousness that is now being evolved is becoming so distinct from its primitive or traditional formulas, that it will never again speak with the same accent. Never before did it realize the necessity for broader conceptions of the meaning of citizenship ; for larger sacrifices of imperial heroism and for more generous deeds on non-racial, non-political, and non-sec- tarian lines. The whole groundwork of Welsh thought has been raised. Some Welsh ministers have come to see that men can be patriotic as well as religious ; and that the ethics of Christianity are not inconsistent with the taking up of arms in the defence of home and liberty. This, in so far as Wales is concerned, is a distinct gain. It would be too much to say that the war has converted a non-imperialistic into an imperialistic people, in the same ardent and comprehensive sense as are the Scots or the Canadians, or the citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia, but it has made them much more imperialistic. The Welsh have always had a good grasp of domestic politics, but they have had no care for foreign or imperial politics. The truth is, however, dawning upon them that British imperialism is only another name for British patriotism ; that it is the impulse of preservation ; that it stands for the sacredness of moral obligations, even for the material and spiritual interest of the smaller nation- alities. They are beginning to grasp the truth so ardently held and so faithfully preached by a few isolated Welsh- men, that British Imperialism instead of obliterating, actually quickens the reverence due to total humanity ; that the general tendency and effect of British legis- lation, British foreign policy and British ideals, has been to develop a higher nationality everywhere ; that the British better than any other people have solved the problem of uniting individualism with or- ganization. The British people have subjugated dark, obscure, and EFFECT ON THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE WELSH I93 disorganized races, not in order to enslave but to educate and liberate them ; to bestow upon them in the hour of their maturity a form of government which has been con- ducive to their happiness, their moral and material growth, and their intellectual enlightenment. What constitutes the secret of their success as a colonizing people, is what constituted the secret of the strength of the Romans at all times, viz., their grasp of the interests of the conquered country ; the liberalism and the rigour of the principles which they applied. Into the organic structure of every race and nation, of every community and commonwealth, over which they succeeded in establishing their ascendancy, they have attached the subjects to themselves and to the Empire by respecting their customs as far as they were able, as well as their religion and their political institutions. It was in this way that they have forged, generation after genera- tion, links of sympathy between the conquered people and themselves ; the fruit of which we now see in the solicitude of the racially, nationally, and geographically separated parts, for the honour of England, for the integrity and maintenance of the Empire, for the preservation and consolidation of imperial unity ; a unity established not on fraud or force, as some of her enemies abroad and her super-Pharisees at home would have us believe, but a unity established and maintained by common consent founded on common interests — moral, physical, com- mercial, political and intellectual. Here then Great or Greater Britain, with her vastly populous regions composed of elements drawn and welded together from every land and every clime, stands as no other nation stands in relation to the great families of men ; she stands as the protector and sovereign of weaker tribes, willing and able to cultivate latent human forces ; she stands as the mother of many daughters strong in their own inherent strength, yet loyal in their affection, and ready to give of their treasure and blood in defence of the one imperial nation to whom they owe their safety and their ideals of freedom and progress ; and to whom we 194 THE WAR AND WALES may with justifiable satisfaction say, that destiny has entrusted the task, so complex and so far-reaching, of moulding the new worlds into sober freedom, not by right of control, but by educational and spiritual quickening. CHAPTER III THE EFFECT OF THE WAR ON THE RELIGIOUS CONSCIOUS- NESS OF THE WELSH There are in the history of every nation certain outstand- ing critical events that have vital bearing ; they go back or forward, they make the people better or worse, they lift them up or crush them down, they arrest or develop their faith. There are also in the history of every nation, as in the history of every individual, unseen forces which come and pass by unthought of and unrecognized. Yet, they more often than not, diffuse greater and more lasting impressions than the forces that are seen and recognized. There are in the calendar of Wales, as there are in the calendars of other nations, patriotic days, ecclesiastical days and days of thanksgiving, which are regarded with devotion ; they are days that specialize some pre- eminent event or crisis in the history of the past, days that commemorate definite periods of transition in the social, political and religious life of the community, periods that exhibit characteristics perfectly distinctive. Each nation, like each age, has its own logic and message, the logic of its faith, its intellect, its language, its emotion and its philo- sophy. Fresh ideas and impulses are coming constantly into play, ideas and impulses which act and interact under new forms on the immortality of the people. It is both wise and necessary to heed them, to set them apart, to study them in their origin, sequence, and individuality. Wales is now in the throes of one of these periods of transition ; the new life into which she has been so sud- denly and violently transposed is so different altogether 195 196 THE WAR AND WALES from anything that has previously occupied the atten- tion of the people, that we may be perfectly justified in calling it an epoch. It cannot be claimed that what is transpiring at the present time has any sort of parity or identity with any previous movement, it is not the merg- ing of one idea, or of one mental state, or of one course of action into another, but an entire break with the tradi- tions of the past. It has no organic relation with the political or spiritual history of the people, there is nothing which supplies a basis for this new mental change, it is a revolution rather than an evolution. It is, we are told, the same with ideas as with organic forms, each requires a seed or a germ, which means that each psychic phase in the life of a people is directly and indissolubly related to the remote and the immediate past, either as a correction, or a modification, or a development. It means that each stage in the religious experience of the people maintains a connection with that which has gone before and that which comes after, that the end is immanent from the beginning, and operative at every stage and in every pro- cess throughout. No critical or unprejudiced student of Welsh history would allow that this formula holds good in the case of Wales ; neither would he allow that the phenomena which we are now witnessing had previously fallen within the focus of the national consciousness. The ideas, feelings, sentiments and emotions which have hitherto pervaded and controlled Welsh society, whether in its most influential or uninfluential parts, were in no sense initiatory to the great drama which is now being enacted. So deep, so wide and so far-reaching is the divergence in thought, action and speech, that it has opened up a new era in the history of the people. The question we have to consider is, what has been the effect of the war, and of the moral issues raised by the war, on the religious imagination of the Welsh ? We say imagination, because the imaginative qualities of a people are reflected in the degree in which they give form and character to their religious beliefs. Has the war affected the Welsh imagination in the direction of religious or EFFECT OF THE WAR ON WELSH CONSCIOUSNESS 197 denominational unity, or of " internationalism in church- ism," whatever that may mean ? Is there any evidence that the circumstances of the war have made any impres- sion on the psychology of Welsh religion ? Changes in the social life and in the mentality of a people make possible, at any rate, changes in their ethical and spiritual life. It is not unnatural to suppose that such changes as are now taking place among the Welsh, changes which have a vital bearing on their traditions and experiences, would necessitate some movement toward the examination of former religious beliefs and convic- tions, which shall correspond to the needs of the new order of Welsh society. The development of religion in general has arisen from the needs which accompanied fresh developments in social organization. The emerging of the Welsh mind out of its traditional narrowness, the larger and closer blending of the sympathies of the people in the greater social and religious whole, must of necessity affect their spiritual consciousness. War affects religion as it affects everything else ; it has to do with a nation's culture, unity, and psychology. The general features of a nation's psychical development are reflected in its religion as they are reflected in its society. Christianity in its internal organization has come to us in time of war. War was a natural feature of piimitive culture. It was through the pressure of war, not through the fusion of peaceful elements, that nations were consolidated. War has been one of the main factors in the growth of national consciousness. This war, like all other wars, is bound to react on the national as well as on the personal side of morality. To answer the foregoing questions we require to know the elements that constitute Welsh religion, the relation- ship which has hitherto subsisted between the various religious bodies, together with the moral and theological prejudices of each. Our starting-point must of necessity be Welsh religion as we have observed it in operation in the Welsh community. While it has some elements in common with other forms of religion, it has its own p I98 THE WAR AND WALES peculiarities. What, therefore, are the leading features of Welsh religion ? By Welsh religion we mean religion as it manifests itself in and through the general Welsh religious consciousness. All that we propose to do, and all that we need to do, is to indicate broadly its chief characteristics. Welsh religion, like other religions, presents different features at different periods of its history. Though, historically speaking, there has been but little interaction with other phases of religious belief, and though it cannot be said that the development of science and of philosophy has affected the Welsh religious consciousness in any appreciable degree, yet the social and political changes which have taken place in the Principality have produced certain definite and, in some respects, regrettable changes in the general religious consciousness ; changes so dis- tinct and so far-reaching that the difference between its earlier and later phases has caused not a few to fear that it has lost its exuberant spring-time, and that it has entered upon a career of less inner vitality and less spiritual interest. Of one thing we may be certain, viz., that its earlier and later phases do not bear very much resemblance to each other. But with these differences, or with the cause or causes which may be accountable for them, we are not concerned here. All that we propose to do in this connection, is to emphasize what is persistent and characteristic in the Welsh religious consciousness. In other words, we have to ask ourselves what are the constitutive, and, appar- ently, permanent elements in Welsh religion, for we do observe certain characteristic ideas or features at each and every stage of its history. The trend of the Welsh religious consciousness is, un- doubtedly, toward a personal and an inward religion ; it is almost tribal in its instincts. The stress is laid on the inward qualities of the soul, the redemption preached is a personal redemption, and the experience cultivated is the individual experience. The theological beliefs of the individual are the theological beliefs of the group to which he belongs. Anything in the nature of individual EFFECT OF THE WAR ON WELSH CONSCIOUSNESS I99 criticism of the source or validity of those beliefs which prevail within a certain group is, generally speaking, absent. The average Welsh mind has not been accustomed to suspect or to question or to criticize its own beliefs. The maxim that he who learns to doubt, learns also consciously to hold for true, is not a Welsh maxim. What criticism there may be is directed towards those beliefs which prevail in other groups. This persistent insistence and emphasis upon the personal and inward principle in religion, or in the religious consciousness, tends to break down the barriers set up by a national religion, to obliter- ate all distinctions of caste and class, and to depreciate the worth of all external rites and ceremonies in connection with religion. In analysing the general religious consciousness it is necessary to observe that the fundamental elements in the religion of a people correspond with the fundamental elements in their psychical life. The predominant ele- ment in the general psychology of the Welsh is the pre- dominant element in their collective religious experience, viz., feeling. This, as the late Prof essor William James, of Harvard, would put it, is the doorway which connects the Welsh mind with a subliminal and subconscious religion. Of the existence of this subliminal conscious- ness in the Welsh soul there can be no doubt, as it has been shown by those periodical and collective outbursts of religious feeling which have appeared and reappeared in Wales for several generations. Such interruptions with the regular course of religious life and experience, and with the evolution of Welsh religion, are very much unlike what may be said to be the ordinary sober, sound, natural, scientific development of the mind. At whatever stage we examine the general religious consciousness of the Welsh, we invariably find feeling in the background, not that the thinking or the willing aspects are entirely absent, or, indeed, dormant ; but that the instinctive feeling always asserts and reasserts itself, and, not infrequently — especially during revival periods — dominates both reason and will, when thought 200 THE WAR AND WALES has to try to discover some argument to justify what seems to be apart from reason. This liability to a sudden and an abnormal discharge of feeling is a notable feature of the Welsh religious consciousness. In this connection, we do not mean feeling in its simple elementary type, but feeling in the sense that it connotes and embraces both emotion and sentiment. The terms are often used indis- criminately, but they are separable and distinguishable. Emotions denote simpler states than sentiments ; they are less complex and are limited to certain occasions, but they are more intense than sentiments. Emotions have great motive power, they impart energy to the will and stimulate it to action. When thought is impelled by emotion, and guided by will, progress becomes easier. Sentiments are evolved out of emotions, they develop greater permanency , and contain a larger element of thought. Sentiments act on and qualify emotions, they give them a larger scope for action, and emotions in their turn react on the sentiments. We speak of the sentiment, not of the emotion of reverence ; of the emotion, not of the senti- ment of fear and of joy. When we speak of the all-pervasive character of feeling in the Welsh religious consciousness, we mean it in this inclusive sense. The feeling or emotional disposition is a fixed Welsh disposition, and is regarded as possessing a value of its own, in and of itself, partly because of its mystical qualities. It is also valued for its effect. It keeps religion alive in the land ; it stimulates and sus- tains individual belief, and gives dynamic energy to the individual and national will ; it makes the people person- ally interested in religion by suffusing their religious consciousness with a warmth of affection ; it brings the Welshman to himself, for feeling is an essential element in his nature ; it works on his imagination and enlists his sympathies in the cause of reform ; it cultivates piety and resists the disintegrating influences of Rationalism and the barren intellectualism of Deism ; it fosters the con- sciousness and the conviction of the pre-eminent value of that personal and inward religious experience to which the EFFECT OF THE WAR ON WELSH CONSCIOUSNESS 201 Welsh mind is traditionally predisposed. Hence, in the Welsh religious consciousness, we find feeling always linked with ideas, always working upon and colouring ideas. When Welsh sentiment is linked to particular ideas, it receives such support from the feelings or the emotions that it becomes intolerant of anything that may stand in its way. This is the mood that begets persecution. Herein is the psychological explanation of some aspects of Welsh movements that have seemed incongruous to outsiders. No one could inspire the Welsh, or move them to action, or lead them on in the path of reform, by simply appealing to their reason, to their artistic or aesthetic sense — the latter attribute they possess, but in a very limited degree. To appeal successfully to the Welsh religious conscious- ness one has to appeal to the feeling-life, and to feel with that feeling. It is only when the ideas presented are absorbed in emotion and evoke emotion, that there is any real response. This explains the extraordinary power of some of the spiritual leaders of Wales in times past, and the comparative weakness of what may be termed the academic religious leaders of to-day. The former under- stood the value of feeling in religion, and the integral part which feeling plays in the Welsh religious consciousness. Not that they allowed feeling to overshadow thought, or to cause ideas to play a subordinate role, but that feeling was made to cohere with ideas, and to play its part along- side with the intellect. They saw clearly and felt in- tensely ; they caused the people to see clearly and to feel intensely, and the response which they evoked in their souls was remarkable. The W T elsh religious consciousness is essentially an emotional consciousness, and emotion working through suggestion, and playing its part with the practical and the intellectual, exercises a controlling influence over the masses. This feeling, with a strong admixture of physical excite- ment, does occasionally wear an abnormal appearance. We refer more especially to those religious awakenings which have played a more important part in the history 202 THE WAR AND WALES of Wales than in that of any other country, excepting America, and which have, in part, given rise to the errone- ous impression that the Welsh psychical life lacks balance and regularity. While it may be said this is too one- sided a view of Welsh psychology, or of the psychology of the Welsh religious consciousness, there is always, never- theless, the liability to attach an exaggerated importance to this one element. During the revival of 1904-5, feeling obtained such a preponderating influence that thought was made to play a very subsidiary role ; its sole use and function seemed to be merely to record the verdict of the feeling — unconscious and often non-rational feeling — partially the product of subconscious processes. The fatal mistake made by those who guided or misguided the movement, was to proclaim and to encourage the belief that what is distinc- tive and essential in conscious religious experience could only come to birth or to fruition through the medium of subconscious influences, and in virtue of the absolute supremacy of the feeling and of feeling in the form of excitement, apart altogether from the thinking or the reflective aspect of the religious consciousness. This is the point where the Welsh nature is always vincible and assailable. There are gradations of excitement. There is a divine excitement which awakens the higher faculties and develops latent spiritual forces. There is also a lower form of excitement, purely physical or brain excitement, which is neither a medium of light nor a source of strength ; it does not emanate from the elevated realm of moral feeling ; it goes through all sorts of fantastic experi- ences ; it exhausts itself and wears out the nature ; it makes it irritable and its atmosphere unwholesome. It has bad physical and bad moral effects. Another mistake committed by those who manipulated the Revival of 1904-5, was that they failed or neglected to discriminate between mere physical or brain excitement, and an effluence of spiritual power. From their own peculiar angle of observation they looked upon the EFFECT OF THE WAR ON WELSH CONSCIOUSNESS 203 sensationalism of the Revival, with its contortions and its alleged clairvoyant signs, as the characteristic mark of a true revival ; therefore they sought to stimulate it by artificial means. They even created indirectly the im- pression among raw and undisciplined converts, that salvation was complete at the point where repentance began ; they did not emphasize the necessity for maintain- ing the repenting and confessing spirit, with the result that the churches were inundated with convalescent moral cripples, and no one seemed to know how to deal with them, or what to make of them. This was the fell element that destroyed the radium of the Revival, the ulcer that gnawed the nerve of it, the ill wind that ex- tinguished the holy flame, and scattered its ashes broad- cast over the Principality. The Welsh have the nature which tends toward excite- ment. Indeed, if, as it is claimed, the civilization of a people, and the power of a people, are to be measured by the amount of excitement which they are able to generate, the Welsh must be in an advanced stage of civilization. A nation, we are told, that can produce but little excite- ment, is on a lower scale than the nation that can produce much. It is the function of a true revivalist to differenti- ate between the two types of excitement, to suppress the lower and to feed the higher, viz., the excitement of the moral nature. While the latter uses a great deal, it also creates a good deal ; it creates and sustains faith, hope, love, and moral heroism. It gives the religious conscious- ness a capacity for great, and, under certain conditions, even prodigious, moral exaltation. This inherent or latent power is given in a measure to all souls, but to the Welsh it seems to have been given in a large measure. We have seen it when under the dominion of feeling in its pronounced emotional religious form, as if it had been transposed into the very sanctuary of spiritual light, and had been placed in direct fullness of divine communion. It seemed absorbed in divinity and to be lost in contempla- tion of the infinite spirit, there being no room for the in- trusion of the understanding ; it seemed capable of seeing 204 THE WAR AND WALES by immediate intuition truths and phases of truths which in its normal condition it was incapable of seeing. Having dealt in a suggestive rather than in an exhaus- tive manner with the integral part which feeling plays in the Welsh religious consciousness, and its impassioned demand for a personal and an inward type of religious experience, we now come to its media of communication, that is, the methods in which it seeks to embody its genius in worship and in doctrine. One cannot read Welsh religious literature, or observe the traditional trend of the thinking and practical aspect of this consciousness, with- out realizing how strongly and vigorously it stands in protest against formalism and outwardness in religion, and how impossible it is to keep the swelling tide of its emotion within the limits of a strictly prescribed form of service. Welsh sympathies do not run in the direction of Ritualism or Sacerdotalism ; they do not respond to the appeal to the senses by incense and vestments ; they do respond, and with ardour, to the appeal to the senses by music and preaching. The symbolization of spiritual truths or doctrines to the eye and to the external senses ; the idea of absolute consecration in the blessing of the cup and in the breaking of the bread ; the doctrines of Baptis- mal Regeneration and of the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, have hitherto failed to evoke any appreci- able response from the average Welsh religious mind. The sacrament of the Lord's Supper is looked upon as a simple, unpretentious commemoration of the Sacrifice of the Cross, to be continued as a plain and perpetual memorial until His coming. The question of the development of the sacramental and sacerdotal conception of Christianity has had prac- tically no place in Welsh religious teaching, as one may learn by taking up almost any book of sermons, or any theological essay ; or by reading the history of religious controversies in Wales. Welsh sermonic literature is full of allusions to such questions as the Trinity, God's Sovereignty, Scripture Inspiration, the Person of Christ, the Incarnation, the Atonement, Heaven and Hell, Future EFFECT OF THE WAR ON WELSH CONSCIOUSNESS 205 Retribution, the Sabbath, Orthodoxy, and the Lord's Supper ; there are but few indications that such questions as Eucharistic Grace, the approach to God in Eucharistic Sacrifice, and the High-Priestly Prayer of our Lord, have been seriously studied or discussed even by accredited Welsh theologians. There have been plenty of denunciations of Roman Catholicism, of High Churchism, and of Episcopal Cate- chisms, but one has heard very little in religious conversa- tion, in Sunday Schools, or from the pulpit, concerning the principles involved in Sacerdotalism and Sacramental- ism ; we know of no modern Welsh theological work which deals with these questions on their merits. They have been denounced in the abstract, but nothing more. The average Welshman knows about all he desires to know concerning the sacerdotal and sacramental conception of Christianity. If he were told that the idea or conception prevailed from the time of the great Ecumenical Councils to the Reformation ; from the Council of Nicaea, a.d. 325, to the repudiation of the Papal Supremacy by the Church of England in a.d. 1534, that it prevails to-day in the Holy Orthodox Church, both among the Greeks and among the Russians, the heirs of the Eastern Empire, and representa- tives of the four Eastern Patriarchates, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem, it would not interest him in the least; neither would it interest him to know whether the prevalence of the sacerdotal conception at the period of the Ecumenical Councils was due to the pressure of circumstances, to some evolution of the idea of unity until it became a leading idea of the Church's life, or whether it was derived from the authority of Christ, and was a necessary element of the truth from the very beginning. His belief is more a matter of instinct than of historical knowledge, and his instincts are decidedly puritanical. The principle that the ministerial office depends for its sanction, or for its validity, upon transmission, continuous and authorized, from the Apostles, whose own commission was direct from Jesus Christ, he has treated with scant 206 THE WAR AND WALES courtesy ; to him the ministry is neither the instrument nor the symbol of the Church's unity. The last thing that he would dream of wanting would be a supernaturally endowed priest standing, as he would say, between the worshipper and God, holding the keys of Heaven, and compelling the approach of the worshipper to God, and the approach of God to the worshipper. He believes that Christ established a ministry, but not a Church or a Priesthood, and the Church to him is simply a human instrument for the accomplishing of a definite work. He repudiates the doctrine that forgiveness of sin is granted in Holy Baptism and by the absolution of the ministerial priesthood. The overshadowing of the Sacrament by numberless " theological fictions," such as that of tran- substantiation, consubstantiation and others, he looks upon as gross idolatry. When he lets the Ritualist, the Sacramentalist, or the Roman Catholic know what he thinks of him, his language is marked neither by modera- tion nor by humility. The Welsh temperament does not lend itself to a disci- plined religion. By this we do not mean a religion without spiritual or intellectual balance, but a mechanized religion, a religion that has hardened down into a fixed stereotyped system, intolerant of change, or of any expansion of the feelings in other directions. Truly significant, in this connection, is the following passage from one of Bishop Ollivant's charges to the Welsh clergy. Dr. Ollivant, who was Bishop of Llandaff 1849-82, was speaking of the insufficiency and unsuitability of the services provided by the Church at that time to the genius of the Welsh, and of its bearing upon the rise and progress of Calvinistic Methodism : — " Well would it have been for us in the present day if, by the widening and deepening of the Church's channel, the torrent of their impetuous zeal had been restrained within, instead of overflowing her banks, and separating itself into a number of different and diverging streams. Is it too late for us to learn the lesson, that by a little more elasticity in our frame- work, a little more freedom of action, a little more allowance EFFECT OF THE WAR ON WELSH CONSCIOUSNESS 207 for private feeling and opinion upon such dogmatic questions as are non-essential for the vitality of the faith, we might make our Church still more comprehensive than she is, and possibly reclaim some who, although they dissent from us, feel, and avow that they feel, that dissent is a sad and painful necessity, and that the true ideal of the Church must be that all its members should be one in accordance with our Saviour's prayer, ' As thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in Us ? No system of religion could ever hope to appeal success- fully to, or to nourish and develop the Welsh religious consciousness, which did not provide for a full expression of religious feeling, or which did not recognize the claims of this feeling to govern the religious consciousness, or which did not take into consideration subconscious influences and psychic infection. We do not mean feeling in the form of physical excitement, though it is found in this form in the highest as well as in the lowest religions. We do not mean feeling in discord with orderliness, or in discord with its intellectual surroundings, but spiritual- ized feeling in association with larger ideals; feeling at a relatively advanced stage of cultivation, as it coheres with the practical and the intellectual functions, and as it plays its own part in sympathy with them ; feeling as it reacts against the pretensions of the intellect, the tyranny of formalism, and the excessive restrictions of a fixed method of worship, with its priesthood as the dominant factor. Intersubjective intercourse is one of the main motives in the Welsh religious consciousness. By this we mean interaction with other selves, exchange of moral ideas and sentiments, and the narration of personal and collective experiences. This has been one of the most potent factors in the psychological development of the people ; it has given them intelligence, it has widened their outlook, strengthened their thinking faculty, enlarged their social sympathies, given stimulus to thought, developed the ideal side of their impulse, and brought the impulsive life under the influence of reason. It has helped to shape the personality of the nation and to develop national 208 THE WAR AND WALES consciousness. No system of religion, no form of worship, no rearrangement of the religious forces of Christendom, no religious federation which does not provide for the freest and fullest articulation of thought and experience could ever appeal to the Welsh religious consciousness. This gives us the key to the sectarian bent and the expansiveness of the Welsh religious consciousness, as well as to the freedom and diversity which has character- ized its intellection. For example, there are two distinct streams of thought on the question of communion. The strict Baptists — all the Welsh Baptists practise restricted communion — regard the ordinances of baptism and com- munion as inseparably related. No one can, they say, be a true disciple of Christ, and no one is permitted to be a member of their sect, or to partake of the Lord's Supper within their circle, unless he or she has been baptized by immersion, for the Scriptures, they contend, recognize no baptism except that of an adult believer. This form of baptism is pre-requisite to communion. Should a minister of another denomination happen to be occupying the pulpit in a strict Welsh Baptist Church on the Sunday appointed for the celebration of the Lord's Supper, he would, after the delivery of the sermon, be obliged to leave or to remain as a mere spectator while the deacons distributed the elements. There are such cases on record. The Independents, Calvinistic Methodists, and Wesley- ans, are equally definite in their belief that restricted communion is a violation of the idea of the Lord's Supper as manifested in the upper chamber in the first gathering of the disciples. There is no record, they hold, of Jesus asking any questions, or imposing the obligation of baptism, much less immersion, before the bread was broken and the wine was poured. There is no hint of a Churchly interpretation of the Sacrament till some years had passed ; the disciples went from house to house, breaking bread with gladness and singleness of heart. A similar freedom was observed in the administration of baptism ; its precise form is nowhere clearly defined, and the only absolute prerequisite was the desire of the EFFECT OF THE WAR ON WELSH CONSCIOUSNESS 209 candidate, and even that desire was sometimes representa- tive rather than individual. The apostles did at a later period baptize entire households. They were chosen informally, without any definiteness of organization, or corporate relation to one another, and the only authority vested in them was the inherent authority of truth helps, and righteousness. The rites were suggested as their purpose being individual, educational, and in- spirational. It is, however, worthy of note that the mode of baptism is not the only distinguishing characteristic of the Baptist community ; they do not take their place in the annals of modern Welsh history, nor in the history of British Christianity, from this special interest in the mere form of the ceremony ; it has a distinct and a distinctive place as a religious, social, and political factor among the Separatists. The Baptist community is a product of the Protestant Reformation ; its emphasis is not so much upon the manner in which the rite of baptism is ad- ministered, as upon the ethical qualifications for it — that is, personal faith which involves will, reason, and con- sciousness, which to a babe is impossible. It is also not unworthy of note, that baptism by immer- sion is strictly no peculiarity of the Baptist sect. The rubrics of the Church of England make baptism by im- mersion the rule. It prescribes that it should be given to infants — to every infant. The rubrics say, " if they shall certify that the child may well endure it, but if they certify that the child is weak, it shall suffice to pour water upon it." In course of time the exception became the rule. Formerly, also, the Church of England gave con- firmation and communion at the same time and on the same terms. It is still done in the Eastern Churches. This indicates the difference between the Church and the denominations ; her sacrament of admission to member- ship is bestowed upon any child, because it is a human being. Moreover, in the Anglican Church, communion is strictly a Church ordinance, the privilege of partaking of the Lord's Supper is conditional, it is given either upon 210 THE WAR AND WALES Confirmation, or upon the promise or expressed intention of submitting to Confirmation. In some of the Independent Churches in Wales children are allowed, and even encouraged, to partake of the bread and wine at the Lord's Supper. Non-members are pretty generally invited, the invitation being couched in such terms as to fix the responsibility upon the participant. But even the most liberal among Welsh Christians fear the loss of reverence for the Sacrament by making it too common It would, however, be a mistake to suppose that Welsh religion in its sectarian form inspires its adherents at present with principles of mutual fierce intolerance. The spirit of intolerance and of persecution was strong in the land fifty years ago, and even later. Forty years ago a very worthy Unitarian minister, who, at the moment of writing, is still living, barely escaped with his life while delivering a lecture at Llanelly on behalf of the British and Foreign Unitarian Association, of which he had been appointed a missionary. Discussions there have been, and discussions of a very acrimonious character ; there has also been much abstract discussion of non-essentials, but all these influences have tended to engender a spirit of tolerance. To-day the Welsh sects are fairly tolerant of one another ; they stand more in unity than in conflict, for the reason that they are conscious that there are broad base-lines on which they can co- operate. One is their sense of kinship, and they pride themselves on it. Another is their common conviction that all the sects sprang originally from one central principle, that is, "a living inspiration in preference to a dead tradition," though they are obviously open to the criticism that they have not always, especially of recent years, fulfilled this inspiration. All the sects stand for " Liberty of Conscience," " Freedom of Worship," the ' Sovereignty of the Soul in Religion," and for "Local Church Government " as the essence of permanent freedom and progress. They are united in the protest against what they call priestcraft, ritualism, and the mechanical EFFECT OF THE WAR ON WELSH CONSCIOUSNESS 211 weight of hierarchical authority. It is this common ground of conviction that gives strength to Free Church- ism, and its strength lies, mainly, in its power of attack, not in its constructive statesmanship. The genius of Nonconformity does not run in the direc- tion of the methods and machinery of Christianity ; its stress has been and is, upon personal faith, inward con- viction and devotion to ideals. To judge it solely by its extravagances, its prejudices, its theological opinions, the dull monotony of many of its services, its want of outward homogeneity, or its lack of ritual and ceremony, is to ignore the real elements of its integrity and power. There is nothing that Nonconformity fears more, or is more suspicious of, than "ecclesiastical despotism" ; it prefers to do anything to ensure its freedom of thought and action rather than endanger it through too much organization. Rather must it be judged by the benefits that have accrued from it, by its moral and political activity. Its fidelity to the democratic ideal ranks among the most notable of its contributions to the life of the community, and what measure of capacity for self-government the Welsh possess to-day, must be attributed very largely to the exercise of the principle amongst the Nonconformist churches. There has never been witnessed in Wales such a spirit of fellowship among the sects and between the sects and the Anglican Church, as there is at the present time. The circumstances of the war have revealed grounds of mutual sympathy, association and unification, deeper and wider than could be expressed by doctrinal formulas. But there is no sign of any movement towards unity between the sects and the Anglican Church. On the contrary, beneath the surface we find the same anathematizing pseudo-orthodoxy which insists upon the old theological landmarks. While the Welsh are progres- sive in politics they are highly conservative in their reli- gious prejudices. What measure of organic unity they think is necessary or practicable, they have already attained through the force of circumstances and the 212 THE WAR AND WALES necessities of their respective positions — that is, the unity of toleration. That is as far as the religious development has gone in Welsh Wales ; it is as far as it has gone in Europe. There is fairer weather before the Anglican Church in Wales than she has experienced for generations. An institution that is intertwined with, and embedded in the whole history of Wales, has undoubtedly great advantages over other religious bodies ; this historical continuity is a most precious possession. That her historical basis appeals to a people in whom the poetic and imaginative faculties are so highly developed, need hardly be said. So does the vigour of her spirituality, her better educated clergy, her principle of local government as expressed in the parish system, her activity in good works, and her power to absorb not only those elements with which she has an elective affinity, but those elements which did not originally belong to her ; her power to enrich them and to enrich herself through them. This is the supreme test of her spiritual fitness and efficiency, and it is this quality that will enable her to stand the shock and dislocation consequent upon Disestablishment. But this growing appreciation of the genius, activity, and the great resisting power of the Anglican Church in Wales, and the spirit of mutual sympathy and com- panionship between Anglicans and Nonconformists, and between all sections of the community, which has been developed through the war, does not necessarily mean, as some claim, that the path towards unity has been made easier. When the war is over they will again assert and vindicate their respective ideals. In opposition to Anglo-Catholicism, there will always stand the ethico-religious spirit of Welsh Nonconformity, with its ideas of the separation of Church and State ; its principle of Voluntaryism ; its liberty of opinion and conviction in the formation and organization of its churches, and in all matters of world-view and religion ; its Bibliocracy ; its abnormal emphasis on preaching as a means of conversion and of spiritual edification ; its EFFECT OF THE WAR ON WELSH CONSCIOUSNESS 213 spiritual enthusiasm ; its puritanism ; its liberty in association with religion, and politics, and education; its persistent emphasis on the personal and inward aspect of Christianity and upon the belief that the Holy Spirit is accessible to every individual ; and its ingrained aversion to the ritualistic and sacerdotal conception of Christianity. The opposition between these two types of mind has always manifested itself in Wales ; they have never been able to live together in harmony. The two systems represent two different and irreconcilable sets of ideas. While the war has widened and deepened the sympathies of the Welsh, made them more imperialistic, and given them a new social conscience, there are no indications that the war has altered the perspective of these long current and contradictory ideas ; or that it has affected the attitude of Welsh theologians towards one another, theologically; or the attitude of one sect towards another, sectarianly, or the attitude of Anglicanism toward Nonconformity, or of Nonconformity toward Anglicanism, ecclesiastically. There is the same religious pose and prejudice, the same outlook and conviction. There is no instance on record in the modern history of the Anglican Church in Wales of a parish where High Church practices were formerly observed, becoming evangelical, but there are numerous instances — and such instances are multiplying — of evangelical parishes becom- ing High Church in spirit and practice. Whenever a High Church clergyman — and they are rapidly increasing — takes the place of an Evangelical clergyman in any parish, he seeks to impress upon the churchwardens and his parishioners how mistaken they are, and how deficient has been their training in the doctrines and practices of the Holy Catholic Church. In answer to an inquiry by the writer as to the meaning of an advertisement for a curate who was a " definite churchman," the reply was that by a " definite churchman " was meant one who would teach the whole Catholic faith in its entirety, who was absolutely free from the taint of Nonconformity, and who would resist to the uttermost the intrusion Q 214 THE WAR AND WALES of the State in matters of doctrine and ritual. The primary work of the clergy, it was said, was to make them definite churchmen, and no person who did not believe that a special grace is miraculously transmitted through the sacraments, by ceremonial means and by the imposi- tion of hands, could possibly be a good or a definite church- man. These observations are not made here by way of depreciative criticism, and the treatment is in no sense a defence of Nonconformity. Our purpose is to show how the prospect of organic unity, and how the hope cherished that Anglicanism will eventually absorb Welsh Nonconformity, is receding more and more. Ritualistic practices are repugnant to the Welsh religious conscious- ness. It is not recognized that such practices represent even a principle, or that they are in any sense fitting vehicles for the utterance of the people's highest thoughts and deepest feelings. It is in the towns where the Eng- lish element is strong that the movement is making head- way ; it does not appeal to the purely Welsh population, especially in the rural districts. Another obstacle which stands in the way of unity is the almost insuperable difficulty in adapting the methods of administration in an ancient organization so as to meet new needs and conditions. If there is merit and strength in not being obliged to hurry with an hurrying age, there is a disadvantage in being hampered at every stage by many usages and precedents that have no application to the present. There is a growing feeling in the Anglican Church itself, and more especially among the unbeneficed clergy, that this want of spontaneity and practicability in the administration of the Church, the many legal difficulties that stand in the way of certain adaptations, make the Church a kind of a religious aristocracy. If the ideal of unity is attainable without the Free Churches having to surrender their position, and simply join the Church on the Church's own terms, the admission of a Nonconformist minister would have to be allowed. Would the bishops allow it ? The legal position of the EFFECT OF THE WAR ON WELSH CONSCIOUSNESS 215 question is doubtful. The law says that a bishop has the power to forbid, but he is not obliged to forbid ; it is left to his discretion. But he does forbid. Would the Church concede this for the sake of reunion ? Would she allow non-episcopally ordained ministers within the Anglican communion to celebrate the Eucharist ? If she did, would it promote unity ? On the contrary, it would rend the Church in twain. Would the Church for the sake of union with Nonconformity give up the apostolic order which the Roman Church and the Churches of the East would assuredly retain ? If she did, Christendom would be narrowed down to two hostile camps — Roman Catholic and Protestant — with an impassable gulf between them. Would the Anglican Church authorize non-liturgical forms of worship ? Baptism is an admission into the Church, but the Quakers have no order and no baptism. Would they be included ? If any one religious body more than another has retained the old ideal of a living inspiration in preference to a dead tradition, it is the Society of Friends. Unlike the Independents, the Baptists, and Presbyterians, they have always confined themselves to moral suasion and passive resistance ; there is no body of Christians who may be truly said to have been purer in their habits, and no sect that has shown such quiet and resolute resistance to outward authority in religion. Last July, four hundred Anglican priests met in Trevelyan Hall to repudiate the policy outlined in the statement of the Archbishop of Canterbury on the Kikuyu question. In August the Bishop of Zanzibar wrote to a representative churchman saying : " I write at once to you to ask you to be so kind as to assure the priests in question that in this diocese, so long as I am Bishop, no Dissenter will preach to the people or receive Communion at our altars with our knowledge." The Bishop of Oxford, who says that he appreciates the spiritual fruits of the labours of Nonconformist ministers, seems prepared to give full recognition of Nonconfor- mist ministers on two conditions : (a) that they subscribe 2l6 THE WAR AND WALES to the doctrine that the episcopate is of the essence of a valid ministry, (b) that an episcopally ordained priest is necessary for a valid Eucharist. " To accept," says Bishop Gore, " a non-episcopal ministry is an act of explicit rebellion against the authority of the ancient and undivided Church than which there can be no rebellion more complete." Bishop Gore says that it would be impossible to accept as a teacher in one of the Anglican churches a Baptist whose idea of the basis of membership must be different. The laying-on of hands is the completion of baptism, the appointed channel for the bestowal of that gift of the Holy Ghost which equips the Christian for full membership and service; with this intention it was appointed by the apostles. No member of another religious body who is unconfirmed, or who does not subscribe to Anglican ortho- doxy along these lines, is to be admitted to communion, and no minister of another body is to preach in an Anglican church who is not episcopally ordained. If there is to be any exception — which exception he would resist — it must be done on the responsibility of a particular bishop, not by the assent of the Church or any assembly of bishops. Bishop Gore says that in the long run the logic of the Anglican argument will work out in people's minds to its results, and they will have to choose. In so far as Welsh Nonconformity is concerned it has already made its choice. Wales, it is true, occupies but an infinitesimally small place on the map of Europe, and Nonconformity, properly so called, exists only on a very narrow portion of the earth's surface ; it is almost entirely confined to England and Wales, it is unknown in Ireland, and it bears an entirely different meaning in Scotland. The Welsh religious consciousness still stands in direct conflict with the traditional Catholic hierarchy, with traditional Catholic creed, ordinances, and its conception of the ministerial office and religion. It is its conviction that dissenting confessions favour rather than hinder the growth of personal and national liberty, and that organic unity, even if it were humanly possible, would jeopardize EFFECT OF THE WAR ON WELSH CONSCIOUSNESS 217 this liberty. The Welsh religious consciousness could not bring either its sympathies or its understanding to the measure of one vast religious corporation on hierarchical lines, or the Catholic idea of priesthood. Wars destroy rather than promote unity ; and this war, which is considered to be the fruit of Germanic autocratic ideals and lust for power, together with the crimes which have been committed in its name, has simply strengthened the natural prejudices of the Welsh against anything that savours of autocracy whether in the realm of religion or of the State. The Welsh mentality is so constituted that it regards the division and sub-division of Christian com- munities into different organizations, with different creeds, practices and ideals, and different methods of administration, as not only inevitable, but eminently desirable, both in the interest of the individual and the State. It has never taken kindly to great generic laws or rules which impose uniformity, or which tend to suppress diversity of thought and freedom of action and of utter- ance — so sharp, distinct and individualistic is the Cymric temperament. It is because, as the Welsh believe, the Reformation, in spite of its subsequent extravagances, broke ecclesiastical unity, and the tyranny begotten of it, that they still venerate the name of Luther. The cry, which has been raised in some quarters, that Luther, or Protestantism, is indirectly responsible for this war, finds no response among the Welsh. Unquestionably, there is no such thing as unity in the sense that some men are looking at it ; there never was and never will be. The lesson that history has taught and still teaches is, that diversity of thought, practice, and belief in religion, and freedom of action and expression in religion, tend to knowledge, loyalty, progress and happiness ; and that enforced, compulsory, or mechanical uniformity, tends to discontent, disloyalty, rebellions and revolutions. CHAPTER IV THE EFFECT OF THE WAR ON THE SPIRITUAL LIFE OF THE WELSH We cannot, at this stage, behold the whole war in per- spective — its surprises, lessons, and final issues. It would be impossible to anticipate the sequence of its full development. As to the diverse and contradictory views respecting its effect — in so far as its effect can be at present ascertained — on the religious or spiritual life of the inhabitants of Wales, they must be attributed, very largely, to the relative susceptibility of the faculties that belong to the different individuals who entertain such beliefs, as well as to the people in their collective capacity. We have been so accustomed to think of man as a being who creates impressions, that we almost forget to think of him as a being who is subject to impressions. And it is not for man to determine whether he will receive impres- sions or not, for he has no choice. Indeed, the circuit in which man is free to choose and to determine, and to change issues, is very narrow ; neither can he determine the nature or the effects of the impressions which he receives. This is a law in the economy of life which no man who participates in the open activities of life can overcome. It is equally true, that the moral benefits which a man may receive from his impressions does not depend upon how much susceptibility he possesses, any more than it depends upon how much conscience-power a man possesses. There are exceptional laws, but ex- tremely conscientious persons are apt to use up all the conscience that they have in themselves, so that there 218 EFFECT OF THE WAR ON THE SPIRITUAL LIFE 2IO. is none to transmit to their offspring. So with suscepti- bility, especially religious susceptibility; some have it in such abundance that they are carried away under the influence of a sermon, or prayer, or song, into such eleva- tion of feeling, that their susceptibility looks like culminat- ing in something eminently practical, but we find that it ends in nothing beyond susceptibility. Every faculty in man is adapted to a corresponding element in the physical world — the faculties are called susceptibilities. But no single faculty is capable of receiving all that is accessible to it, and no single faculty can reflect the objects that have been presented to another faculty. Men are so curiously made to receive and to give influences, that the same influence does not appeal to each faculty. Just as we find in chemistry that certain elements have a special attraction for one another, and will seize or unite with some while they ignore or are repellent to others, so each mind seeks, or is attracted by, that which answers to and which feeds its strongest faculties. One mind sees what another mind, being differently constituted, cannot see ; what is evidence to the one is no evidence to the other ; each takes that class of materials to the existence or presence of which it is most sensitive. Thus it was that Juvenal saw old Rome full of dissolute men and women, whereas Virgil saw it full of literature, and Tacitus discovered there many patriots and heroes. What one finds in life depends upon how one looks ; what one observes in history depends upon how one reads ; what one sees in the career of an individual depends upon the quality of one's prejudices. Our view- point gives colour to our thoughts and form to the sub- stance of our judgment. We search for that with which we have an elective affinity. What troubles some Welshmen is the purely political effect of the war on the future of Wales. They lament the manner in which imperialistic tendencies have superseded Welsh nationalistic tendencies. They are still longing for the political flesh-pots of Egypt, and they regard with suspicion the new ideas, aspirations, and problems that 220 THE WAR AND WALES have overshadowed the group of political ideas which animated the Welsh public mind before the war. New questions, they fear, are forcing themselves to the front, and the old ones are receding. They think of the old political visions that are now fugitive. There are others who are seriously concerned with the effect of the war on the spiritual life of Wales, and they see only the dirt and mire which this, like every war, throws up. They bemoan the limitation of the interests of the people, through the war, to things purely secular and military. Never before, they say, was there such greed for gain among all classes of the people, such abuse of charity, such reckless expenditure, such perversity among certain sections of working men ; never such high wages earned and so foolishly squandered, such a low premium placed upon virtue, and such temptations set before the people. In the purely religious sphere the fall of the spiritual thermometer, they tell us, is very marked. God is in the thought of but very few members of Chris- tian churches. Some ministers of religion are so pre- occupied with the idea of the war, the progress of the war, and the manifold duties that have developed upon them through the circumstances of the war, that they are minding every business except their own — that is, the business of imparting truth and inculcating those great moral principles that concern life and death, soul and eternity. The announcement that " the Rev. Captain or Colonel will preach here next Sunday and will administer the sacrament of the Lord's Supper," and that in khaki, is, they say, not only highly unbecoming, but calculated to lower the dignity of the pulpit. Moved by these ideas, they bid us look at the decay of religious feel- ing in the land, and the increasing disinclination to take part in ordinary church work ; they bid us consider how the war has developed virtues that are cruel and repellent, how it has thrown altogether out of gear the healthy movement of the conscience, and how those influences that soften, calm, and ennoble the soul, have been exchanged for those influences that harden, disturb and corrupt. EFFECT OF THE WAR ON THE SPIRITUAL LIFE 221 The war is dragging out what is verminous and bellicose in the people ; it is distributing those influences that animalize life ; the sentiments of many women are being polluted and their souls stained through drink and im- morality. Not only has this war degenerated warfare, but it has degenerated those who participate in it, as well as those who are interested in it. It is not the enrich- ment, but the debasement of moral values, that the war is revealing. Men are not driven to fight for ideals ; they are moved by hatred, passions, and love of power. The war, they further tell us, has created a new centre of intellectual and emotional interest for the nation, and they observe reasons for fearing that it will not only make Wales a different, but a worse Wales, and Welshmen in general, worse Welshmen, spiritually ; and worse because more materialistic. The circumstances of the war have brought about a recrudescence of those covetous and bellicose passions which are always symptomatic of moral and mental decadence. This diagnosis is an example of the rarity with which certain types of mentalities view great upheavals in human society with a single eye embracing all the facts. Not that the truth of this one-sided view may not be largely admitted ; indeed, on the whole it can hardly be denied, though it must be urged that there is much else, and much that tends in an opposite direction, to be taken into consideration, if we are honestly to inquire what is the actual condition of the churches and of the Welsh mind at this moment, and how far and in what directions that mind has been affected in a purely religious sense. It can scarcely admit of question that the war has emphasized the change which has come over the minis- terial ideal in Wales during the last generation, a change which applies to both the Anglican and the Nonconformist clergy. After making every allowance for the disposition to canonize the past at the expense of the present, no one could honestly claim, either on behalf of the Anglican or of the Nonconformist pulpit, an intellect as solid or as power- ful as in the Victorian Era. The truth is, that there has 222 THE WAR AND WALES been an intellectual reversion to a leaner and lower type. It matters not what test we take, whether gifts of speech or mental gifts, or the power that subdues and draws men, which is the very heart of preaching, or the quality of masterfulness, by which we mean the power to impose one's will on others and which always marks out born leaders of men, or the raw material of intellect, the religious leaders of Wales to-day, whether man for man, or group for group, cannot be named with those that went before. Indeed, the men who really govern, who supply the commonalty with ideas, who inspire them to action, and to whom the commonalty go for advice in times of national emergency, are not the clergy, whether Anglican or Nonconformist. It has become an axiom among the labouring and educational fraternities, that they must insist upon direct communi- cation with the State without any clerical or religious intermediary ; they have grown, and are still growing, out of touch and sympathy with the ministerial fraternity, and it may be said, with but little qualification, out of touch and sympathy with religion itself, or with religion as represented by the pulpit and the organized churches. Great scholars have always been rare in the Welsh Anglican and Nonconformist community in Wales ; to- day there is not one in sight, not even a great prophetic thinker. The polemics of Evangelicism have become exceedingly feeble, its appeals or its reasonings often degenerating into mere shrewish scolding, and into a kind of puritanical egotism which calls things sin which are not sin, which calls things holy which are not holy, which, with an excessive solemnity, excludes and anathematizes all and everything which it disfavours. This spiritual censoriousness is about the ugliest weed in the religious garden in Wales at this hour. The High Church School in Wales is equally barren of great scholars, or great thinkers, or great preachers. Both systems are, in essence as well as in practice, of the special and the unique, and both are exclusive. It is a frequent complaint that men are put to preach who are far below the intellectual level EFFECT OF THE WAR ON THE SPIRITUAL LIFE 223 of the congregations, and that in their social intercourse with the more educated and progressive classes they are unable to exercise any beneficial effect, or even to hold their own. What are the causes of this deterioration, or of this narrowing of the margin between the intellect of the Anglican and Nonconformist clergy and the average lay intellect? Obviously, the spread of education has had much to do with it. But education only partially ex- plains it ; there are other causes — social and spiritual. It may be said that the Anglican and Nonconformist clergy have degenerated intellectually and spiritually, both as regards their power of preaching and in pure learning. The true explanation is, that the Anglican clergy have developed the purely practical or social side of their ministry, and that the Nonconformist clergy have devel- oped the critical and political side of their ministry, at the expense of the spiritual and intellectual. Welsh Angli- canism has always made sermon-building a secondary consideration ; in a great many instances it has had no consideration at all ; though it can with pride claim a number of preachers in the past who were an ornament to the pulpit and to the community, preachers who com- bined the academic and the popular qualities in an eminent degree. Not a few scholars were to be found among them, men of liberal education, some of whom had devoted themselves to the general culture and training of candi- dates for orders. But the Welsh clergy, as a body, have never at any time devoted the same attention to the art of oratory, or to the capabilities of the native language, or to the development of their intellectual powers, or to the study of metaphysical and philosophical questions, as the general body of Nonconformist ministers have done. The genius of Anglicanism stands at the altar rather than in the pulpit. Both the Anglican and Nonconformist clergy in Wales have changed their ideals. With the approach of Dis- establishment, the former discarded the mistaken notion, 224 THE WAR AND WALES which was very widely held, that the Church, because it was the national Church, was bound to go on all right somehow. Also, while they criticized certain features in Welsh Nonconformity as a system, yet they felt stimulated, encouraged and excited to wholesome rivalry, by what Nonconformity had achieved in face of modern diffi- culties, and through its Voluntary system. They felt that the Church was somewhat laggard in many respects, with the result that they resolved to concentrate their energies upon purely practical work ; they consequently became increasingly active and useful in works of charity and in projects of a humanitarian character. They felt that they were called upon to meet the difficulties of the Church, and the needs of the day, by other methods than sermon-building, or by spending their time in their studies among books. The rise of the Oxford Movement, its spread ia many parts of Wales, and the manner in which it ap- pealed to the imagination of the younger generation of the clergy, gave a wonderful impetus to the humanitarian aspect of Church life and thought in the Principality. In addition to this, the clergy have had to carry the burdens of detail and organization ; so much so, that they began to think more of the social side of their ministry, and of overtaking the arrears of parochial work, than of their studies. The modern Welsh cleric is the very antithesis of the old Welsh cleric of former days, who, having some literary and scholastic tastes, neglected the parish for the study. The modern Welsh cleric has saved his Church, but it has been at the expense of his learning and his preaching ability. Such a striking and a complete reversal of the old ideal prompts us to ask, as the late Professor Drummond once asked in a meeting of Christian workers in Scotland, whether it means that the Holy Spirit has modified, or is modifying, the method of His operations ? Equally striking is the change which has come over the old Nonconformist ideal. But having already written so largely upon it, we will simply observe here that the phrase, " the expulsive power of a new affection," so often EFFECT OF THE WAR ON THE SPIRITUAL LIFE 225 used in another connection, is as applicable to religious bodies as to individuals, and that it may have a degenera- tive as well as a regenerative meaning, according to the nature of the new affection. The entering in of the regnant political idea in its social and national activities, with all its concomitants has caused a complete readjust- ment of the policy and spirit of Welsh Nonconformity, and has, consciously and unconsciously, so shifted the basis and bias of its thinking, that it has become another self. There are some who affect to see in this war and in the excitement connected with the war, sure indications of the dawn of another Welsh revival on the lines of the Revival of 1904-5 ; they are going about the churches preaching sermons of caution and alarm. " War preparing for the Revival," and the " Revival after the War," form the subject-matter of their discourses. Some of their number have been discoursing upon the spiritual significance of the reported angelic interposition at Mons. Although no witness of the event has come forward in favour of it, they are certain that something of the kind has happened ; and that Christian believers ought to be satisfied with the assertion, because all religious revivals have more or less been accompanied by visions and clairvoyant signs. Evan Roberts said that he saw a hand projecting out of the moon, and that he had visions of the devil and the Saviour. A certain woman saw lights — quickly vibrat- ing lights — as though full of eyes, the lights hovered over some hilltops, leading the way as she went. Another pro- fessed to have heard an angel singing bass. Whether these alleged visions were true or not, and whether there is anything unscriptural or unphilosophical in the supposi- tion that the Spirit of God may so act on the human understanding or imagination, and may so stimulate and spiritualize man's faculties as to enable the mind to ascend beyond the bounds of matter, and to enlarge the range of its feeling and thinking, does not concern us here. But those who experience no difficulty in accepting such statements, should not question the spirituality of those 226 THE WAR AND WALES who desire to test their reality, as far as it is possible to do so, and to inquire into the psychological peculiarities of the persons who profess to have had such visions. There are three points of view from which the whole discussion of a coming revival in Wales proceeds, and they can be stated very simply. The first is, that the pro- tagonists of Revivalism claim a sort of prophetic insight or moral intuition, which, in the realm of the Spirit, enables them to judge from certain causes to-day what will be the result of those causes to-morrow. Educated men need not be told that the whole question of moral intuition is as yet in its infancy, new light is being con- stantly thrown upon it, but there is no ground as yet for dogmatism. Neither need they be reminded that mere effervescences of the brain and abnormal physical excite- ment, however closely they may be related to religion, are moral intuitions. Similar prophecies were made immediately after the Revival of 1904-5 had spent its force. We were warned that we were on the eve of a second revival, the outgrowth of the first, " ever so much deeper and more searching than anything yet." They were most eager that nothing should be said or done to affect adversely the work of God through the revivalist, but the promised awakening did not come to fruition. These prophets missed their way because they took, and they are missing their way now because they are taking, the reports of one revival movement as their criterion and guide to the universal working of the religious emotion, as well as the working of the divine influence. They missed their way because they laid, whether consciously or un- consciously, greater emphasis on the phraseology of the experience than on the experience itself, thus giving primary position to what was secondary, and a secondary position to what was primary, and placing the psycho- logical above the religious. Moreover, it is a fair and a legitimate criticism that they have changed their perspective since the Revival of 1904-5. Then, they claimed that certain phenomena (the same phenomena) always precede and follow revivals, the EFFECT OF THE WAR ON THE SPIRITUAL LIFE 227 symptoms that precede being ignorance of the Word, moral corruption, commercial immorality, debased types of literature, decline in the practice of prayer and in the habit of church-going, love of pleasure and amusements, a general lowering of the national tone, and a widespread weakening of the national conscience. They have now changed the formula, or rather inverted its order. A revival is about to break out because Wales is now on a higher moral plane ; the present symptom is not the fall but the rise of the spiritual thermometer. The people are being told from the Welsh pulpit and press, and from the public platform, that the war has made the churches more evangelical. Prayer meetings, it is claimed, are more numerously attended, and are characterized by greater fervour and sincerity. Never before, in normal times, were hymns and spiritual songs sung with intenser feeling. The reason, we are told, is that the hymn-singers realize that they themselves share the experiences out of which the hymns and songs arose ; they are conscious of the same spiritual realities. There are also prayers and conversions in the trenches. Letters received from certain Welshmen at the front, go to show that they are feeling the spell and pathos of religion, and that in virtue of this fresh inspiration, they are receiving new girding for a more exalted heroism of service. Men who had not read the Bible for years are now quietly resting with un- shaken confidence in its message. The people are being reminded that it is in their power to help or to hinder the work of the Holy Spirit, and that it is the duty of the churches to divert the excitement, hopes, fears, sorrows, anxieties and prayers, and the desire to deepen prayer life, which are the by-products of this war, into a revival channel. It can be done, they say, without the aid of the existing costly, cumbersome ecclesiastical machinery ; all that is necessary is to appeal to, or rather to work upon, those emotions which have been deepened and intensified through the circumstances of the war. The churches have only to do their part ; then, when our civilian soldiers, who have gone through the thunder of 228 THE WAR AND WALES battle, through fire, through sorrow and through the flood, return home with their accumulated experiences, their spiritual impulses and their deepened sense of the value of prayer and of religion, the holy fire which is now being kindled in Wales will instantly blaze like a torch, and the more it is shaken the more it will blaze and shine. So they are cautioning Welshmen to prepare, to wipe away the films from their eyes, to remove the prejudices from their minds. "Do not," they say, "let the foaming passions of the hour quench the flame of the divine effulgence." This is the substance of their message, and their method of impressing it. The second point of view is, that the protagonists of Revivalism in Wales claim for the Welsh a higher rank in the spiritual order. Thus, as they hold, the question of a coming revival concerns Wales in a sense in which it does not, and cannot possibly, concern England, or Ireland, or even Scotland. The Welsh have a higher upper-life, keener spiritual sensibilities, a finer discrimination and a diviner apprehension in the superior moral states. A certain type of people, we are told, is necessary for that particular type of conversion which is produced by and associated with revivals — that is, conversion of the sudden, dynamic, and dramatic kind. For this the Welsh are pre-eminently fitted. Being a people of such pronounced sensibility, and being so largely endowed with an active " subliminal self," which, as modern psychologists tell us, is so closely connected with sudden conversion, they are the best subjects for a revival, and for those manifestations of religious experiences which are revealed in and through revivals. If there is going to be a revival, or a great religious up- heaval, either during or at the close of the war, it will not originate in England, or in Scotland, but in Wales, " that Galilee of the nations." Out of Wales, they say, must and will go forth the " balm," which will minister to " the healing of the bleeding nations of Europe." When the dawn breaks it will be to Wales herself what the coming of the morning sun is to the day ; it will stir the air, it will EFFECT OF THE WAR ON THE SPIRITUAL LIFE 229 clear away the mists, it will cause the lustrous azure of the spiritual firmament to shine again in all its splendours. It will be the jubilant interjection of the Spirit in the midst of a tempest of tears, wailings, and disappointments. Wales will emerge a more spiritual Wales, with a stronger impulse of conscience, with a loftier sense of the divinity of life ; her manhood and womanhood will be refined, en- nobled, and spiritualized. The third point of view is that they claim for that particular type of conversion, or of religious experience which is generated by, and which is primarily associated with revivals, a higher spiritual validity. It would be too much to say that they disavow, or discourage, that form of Christian experience which has been moulded from childhood by religious ideals, impulses, examples and teachings, and which has developed itself quietly and un- ostentatiously, for the reason that they live by it. But their hearts always vibrate to the revival string, because, as they think, the best fruits of religious experience are begotten of revivals. Not only have they an undue bias in favour of evangelical Christianity, but they want the world to hear the working of its machinery. Catholicism, they maintain, has " palpably failed," so has Protestantism, so has Positivism ; something must be found to take the place of these "useless isms"; that something must be "Revivalism," for the reason that it has " greater reforming energy," and that it has the power to give men a more vigorous conscience, a keener spiritual vision and higher ideals of private and public duty ; not only has it a greater spiritual, but a greater ethical value. ' It was the unanimous testimony of all observers during the last revival in Wales that not only were all the grosser vices reduced to the vanishing point, but the subtler sins of unforgiving rancour, non-payment of debts, dishonest work, were abated." This claim on behalf of its ethical value was echoed far and wide, it was reproduced in American and Continental literature, and in some of the lectures delivered in certain Universities abroad. But the truth is, that the Welsh Revival of 1904-5 aggravated 23O THE WAR AND WALES rather than abated the subtler sin of " unforgiving ran- cour," as is conclusively proved by the Correspondence which the present writer incorporated in his work en- titled The Welsh Religious Revival of 1904-5, published in 1909. His sole object in inserting the Correspondence was to indicate the absence of the ethical virtues. The Revival has left a far greater heritage of personal and religious bitterness than even the Disestablishment move- ment. In no sense can it be said that it was an ethical revival ; there did not spring in its track any educational or philanthropic organizations. Indeed, in looking at it in the light of the present, it has to be said that its primary interest lies in its psychology — that is, in what happened and how it happened, rather than in what it permanently effected. It has been charged against psychologists that they do not deal with religion as such, but with its manifestations or psychic factors. This, however, is the function of psychology ; when it goes beyond it, it ceases to be psych- ology. Yet, strange as it may seem, this is what the leaders of the last Welsh revival unconsciously did ; they canonized its hysterics and emotionalism. It was the un- fortunate emphasis which they laid on its pathological peculiarities that pained and misled so many, and gave the movement its grotesque appearance. It was this phase of the revival that the secular press dwelt upon chiefly, because it made better "copy" and ensured a larger reading constituency. These are the perils of Evangelical Christianity, viz., laying undue stress upon instant conversion, and upon the ecstatic habiliments in which it clothes itself ; ascribing the different forms which it assumes to the direct inter- vention of the Spirit rather than to a difference of mental constitution among the converted, and interpreting hypnotic suggestions in the terms of the Spirit. Not that we would say that sudden conversions are any the less real or lasting on that account. Some natures, like some fortifications, cannot be taken except by violent means. But that the excessive exaltation of this type of conversion EFFECT OF THE WAR ON THE SPIRITUAL LIFE 23I produces a sort of spiritual pride has been amply demon- strated ; we need only refer to the suspicion that fell, during the last revival, upon those whose temperament did not lend itself to this type of experience. It could be shown that the conversions that were the result of a gradual transition, were, broadly speaking, more satis- factory, inasmuch as they were followed by less disappoint- ing reactions. There is also abundant evidence that the testimony of those who had undergone instantaneous conversion, accompanied by great physical excitement, could not be treated with the same confidence as the testimony of those who had only passed through the normal experience. Not that they were untruthful, but they were the victims of all sorts of self-deceptions. They had received so many suggestions, had been prompted by so many mixed impulses, that they could not be trusted to give a faithful description of the facts and feelings which led up to, and which followed, their conversion. Another of the perils of Evangelical Christianity is to regard prayer as the only medium of conversion. But prayer is not the only medium, neither is Bible reading, neither is preaching, neither is hymn-singing. To find religion, that is, inward spiritual peace, sense of forgiveness and of oneness with God in Christ, and to take on immortality and glory, it is not essential that one should believe in dogmas, accept ordinances, listen to sermons, recite the Catechism, or observe a life of ecstatic worship. It is necessary that one should have a struggle with oneself, that one should have a feel- ing of one's own sinfulness, a sense of obligation to God, a conscious conception of divine grace. But religion is not dogma, or ordinance, or a theological doctrine, or instruc- tion in the philosophy of religion. Religion is not any- thing that belongs to a church, or to a sect, as such. A man may be theologically right on every religious ques- tion, yet practically wrong. The propagation of a church, or of a sect, or of a creed, has always been a conflict. Religion depends upon the condition of the heart upon which it is acting. A man is not necessarily a saint 232 THE WAR AND WALES because he can recite the Catechism from beginning to end without stumbling, or because he teaches the Catechism, or teaches the Bible, or even ministers to men in holy things. Almost anything can be the medium of the divine message to the individual soul. As one man may be brought into the Kingdom by a process of slow transition, another suddenly ; so may another be brought into the Kingdom through the instrumentality of material Nature, through the death of a relative or a near friend, or through reading a poem. There have been men who were con- verted by the sight of a tree, dry and leafless in the winter. Tennyson's biographer relates the story of a survivor of the Balaclava charge, who was converted in an American church, through the recitation of "The Charge of the Light Brigade," during a service by a clergyman. But the clergyman, by the way, lost his church in consequence of his recitation. Those who are in search of conversion documents need not confine themselves to the log-books of the churches. Professor J. H. Leuba quotes in his American Journal of Psychology the case of an Oxford graduate, the son of a clergyman. He was an habitual drunkard, he never darkened the door of his father's church, he knew nothing of God, for he led a very impure life. He was converted in his own bedroom in his father's rectory at three o'clock in the afternoon, while reading Drummond's Natural Law in the Spiritual World. It was so notorious that the whole village heard of it within twenty-four hours. John Duncan, one of the most commanding personalities in the history of the Free Church of Scotland, was converted from being the most sceptical into one of the most believ- ing of Christians, while engaged in linguistic and specula- tive studies. Charles Kingsley was converted on his birth-night while meditating on the sea-shore. Savonarola said that he was converted through a single word, but he never divulged it. Mark Rutherford states in his Auto- biography that a change was wrought in him as truly as the one wrought in Paul, through reading a book called Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth. John Stuart Mill EFFECT OF THE WAR ON THE SPIRITUAL LIFE 233 found peace for his troubled soul, first by reading Mar- montel's Memoirs, then by reading Wordsworth's poems. All men are not alike; all conversions are, therefore, not alike, and cannot be alike. To confine conversion to that which affects only the feeling life, and which excludes the intellectual, the ethical, or the sesthetical, is to so narrow the approach of man to God and of God to man, that but few indeed would be converted. This leads us to the consideration of the symptoms which, as we are told, indicate that the dawn of a revival is well on the way. The first is the religious condition of our troops at the front as affected by the war. Conscious of the seriousness of the work and of the nearness of Eternity, they are said to be turning to religion as a stay in the hour of conflict, and evincing a desire for more light on a few of the central truths of religion. It would be un- wise to philosophize sceptically regarding the reality of these experiences. When all allowances are made for exaggeration, there is enough left to cause deep searchings of heart. History teaches that great religious move- ments, not infrequently, synchronize with some crisis in the social and national life of the people ; also, the dispo- sition to pray for a revival, while not a sure sign of its approach, is a hopeful sign. But prayer is not the cause of a revival, and all attempts to work up or to manu- facture a revival should be discouraged ; especially, all attempts made to give it a certain form and character, as is now being done among various sections of the religious communities. There is this curious fact connected with the talk about a revival of religion through the war, viz., the different conceptions which prevail regarding its impulse, its trend, its character, and its theology ; and the different opinions, even different desires, which are being expressed concern- ing the interests that are likely to be affected by it. Indeed, there is nothing more interesting in this connection than to observe the drift or drifts of Christian thought on this subject ; men whose piety and devoutness are un- questioned and unquestionable, are far from being at one 234 THE WAR AND WALES in their understanding, deductions, and conclusions re- specting it. There are so many cross-currents that it is difficult to discern a stream. The main difficulty seems to lie in the complexity of the facts, or of the alleged facts. While the Evangelicals see in the religious experiences of our soldiers at the front, a distinct movement back to the centre of spiritual life, and to the simplicity of spiritual life, Anglo-Catholics affect to see in it a revival of the Catholic soul, which means a revival of Catholic ideas, doctrines and practices. They dwell upon the pleasure felt by some of the British soldiers at the sight of the little wayside shrines which they had passed on their march, and of the deep impression made upon them by the large numbers of people they saw nocking to their early Com- munion. The old, narrow opinions concerning the Roman Catholic Church, are, they tell us, being rudely shaken. Millions of Britons are face to face with Roman Catholi- cism in its own homes ; they have seen for themselves, and, in the vast majority of cases, have seen for the first time, the crowded churches of France and Belgium, the great proportion of men worshippers, and the unmistakable fervour of prayer in all classes of people. The inevitable result will be, we are assured, a remarkable extension of the religious outlook of our soldiers, and of those persons in the United Kingdom with whom they will come in contact when the war is over. By religious outlook they mean, the outlook as it affects former ideas regarding Roman Catholicism, and, inferentially, regarding Anglo- Catholicism. It is a highly significant fact that Anglo-Catholics should be so anxiously and so seriously concerned in the alleged change which is passing over the mind of Britons respecting the Roman Catholic Church, or respecting " Continental Christianity," as they call it. While they are never weary of writing about the great devotion of the Roman priests, their solicitude for the wounded, their self-sacrifices, and their care for the dying, not one word of appreciation have Anglo-Catholics in England either written or spoken concerning the devotion, heroism, and EFFECT OF THE WAR ON THE SPIRITUAL LIFE 235 self-abnegation of Protestant chaplains at the front. It does not occur to them that what Roman Catholics see of Protestants in the war area may be the means of widening the Roman Catholic view of Protestantism, and of modi- fying the spirit in which Protestant religion has been traditionally regarded, not only by the highest Roman Catholic authorities, but by the masses of Roman Catho- lics at home and abroad. This then is what English Anglo-Catholics see in all that is happening at the front, viz., the destruction of old British prejudices of Continental Christianity — that is, of Roman Catholicism. When the war is over, English people, it is said, will cease to think of it as something superstitious, and repugnant to the Faith of Christ. Even churchmen in England, we are told, will become less sure of the super-excellence of their own Liturgy, and of their present presentation of Christianity. They will be far more disposed, it is said, when the war is over, not only to consider sympathetically, but even to adopt those practices and methods of worship which have hitherto been regarded with suspicion by the majority of English people, especially Protestants. By these practices they mean their particular method of offering the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, which, to Anglo- Catholics, is the very centre and focus of religious devo- tion. In the desire of our soldiers for a better understand- ing of the central facts of religion, in their remembrance of their relation to God and to Eternity, in their supposed altered view of Roman Catholicism and of non-British expressions of faith and forms of prayer, Anglo-Catholics see the very hand of God stretched out to lead the English Church onward to " better things." By " better things," they mean, and avow that they mean, " better methods " of presenting Christianity, and by " better methods," they mean Anglo-Catholic methods, methods that will lead the English or British mind to the very centre of the Catholic prayer life. To this end they advocate " conversion methods " which will be " trenchant and effective." 236 THE WAR AND WALES This " conversion " is to centre round the Blessed Sacrament, and the recognition of its rightful place in Catholic prayer life. The Mass is to be restored to its place of honour on Sundays ; there is to be at least one offering of the Holy Sacrifice daily ; increased facilities for Communion are to be provided ; the tendency towards the extension of the Catholic custom of the Reservation of the most Holy Sacrament and towards the centring of prayer round the Blessed Sacrament, both at the time of Mass and at all other times, is to be encouraged ; devo- tions before the Blessed Sacrament — a thing entirely new to English churchpeople — are to be practised far and wide. In so far as the Book of Common Prayer stands in the way of the restoration of these Catholic practices, it must be revised. If the place where Anglo-Catholicism stands is too strait for it, more room must be made. The only way to bring unity within the Anglican Church, it is claimed, is by liturgical reform ; by preventing the saying of Mass in different ways in different places, or in different ways at the same place ; by adopting one authorized and avowedly consistent practice on the lines of the first Prayer Book of King Edward the Sixth ; and by adapting the Mass to meet new requirements, that is, the deep long- ing of the Anglo-Catholic soul. In this way the Anglican Church will have one homogeneous service, instead of the present unsatisfactory or contradictory service which allows some to say the Prayer Book " without any addi- tion or subtraction," and others " to interpose portions of other liturgies into the Communion Service." A uniform service on these Catholic lines would save time, friction, and disunion ; it would also have some literary advantages, it would bring the Canon of the Mass into its rightful order. If, Anglo-Catholics say, they could get authority for these changes, not only would the interior spiritual life of English Christians be enriched and beautified, but it would be a great step towards unity. This is what Anglo-Catholics mean by a revival of religion through the war ; the tendencies which are show- ing themselves, far and wide, in churches all over the EFFECT OF THE WAR ON THE SPIRITUAL LIFE 237 country, the tendencies which are showing themselves through the commingling of Britons with Continental Christians, and through the new views of Roman Catholi- cism which our soldiers are receiving, are sure indications that the English Church is going to grow to her full Catholic stature. These are the spiritual lessons of the war, as Anglo-Catholics interpret them. Through a widening knowledge of Continental Catholicism, English- men will, when the war is over, feel the barrenness of Protestantism, the unsuitability of its methods of public devotion to the exigencies of the times, to the needs of Englishmen, and to the deepening of spiritual life. It will no longer be possible to hold the Anglican Church, or to hold the English or British mind in the swaddling- bands of the sixteenth century. Thus, while Evangelicals see in the war, in the religious experiences of our soldiers at the front, and in their ultimate effect upon the minds of Britons at home, a movement towards a simpler and a more spiritual approach to God, a movement towards religion as it was taught, they claim, by Christ and His disciples ; in brief, a movement towards discipleship, Anglo-Catholics see in it a movement towards churchman- ship and churchmanship on Anglo-Catholic lines, a move- ment that will bring Englishmen very closely into touch with the Catholic soul, with Catholic ideas and Catholic practices ; a movement that will enable the Catholic Church to move on, that will increase her influence and authority. But it is obvious, that what is effective for the one cannot be effective for the other. Somebody said, that it is time to ask the plain question, " Who wants to make profit out of this crisis? " The question is shorter than any answer would have to be. That some religious bodies are trying to profit by it there can be no question. Their concern seems to be not that religion itself shall benefit, or that the soldiers shall benefit spiritually, but that the particular church, or form of worship, or type of religious experience which they represent, shall benefit ; or that some theological dogma, or belief, or sect, to which they are opposed shall be 238 THE WAR AND WALES overthrown through the war. Their inquiries and deduc- tions are, unfortunately, formed on these lines. That our soldiers at the front, both regular and civilian, are responding to the ministrations of the chaplains and evincing interest in religion, and " melting like wax," as one soldier wrote, in a simple Communion Service, is no evidence that there is going to be a revival of reli- gion in the sense in which the different schools of religious thought interpret the term revival. A vast number of these men have been associated with religion from their boyhood ; many of them are the sons of the manse. If there were no prayer and no devotional exercises among the soldiers in the trenches, the hospitals, and the camps, it would be very remarkable indeed, much more remarkable than the fact that there are prayers. The majority of our civilian soldiers at the front are men who, before the war broke out, performed the ordinary duties of life and obeyed the laws of morality ; very many of them took active part in church work, not a few of them were preparing for the ministry. That they are now showing the same interest, or even greater interest, in religion, is only what one would expect, for war brings moral conduct to a final test, and, quite independent of volition, men in groups or in masses are always infected ; they are moved by sympathy, and the power of sympathy counts for much. There is a religious feeling which is the result of social magnetism. That there are prayers in the churches in Wales and in Welsh domestic circles cannot be disputed. The Welsh have always been a praying people, though they are not now so much as they used to be. Most people pray in times of great anxiety and perplexity ; they pray during periods of remorse, they pray for their children and rela- tions. It is natural that the hearts of parents should be moved to intercession for their sons or other relations who are fighting and suffering for their country on land and on sea, or who are prisoners of war in foreign countries, or who are in hospitals. To pray under such conditions is a source of comfort to themselves. Prayer, said the EFFECT OF THE WAR ON THE SPIRITUAL LIFE 239 late Professor William James of Harvard, has " thera- peutic value," for not only in certain environment does it contribute to the recovery of the sick, but it is also a factor of moral health in the person who prays. What, therefore, is the fundamental point of the fact that there are prayers of intercession in the homes and churches of Wales ? Is it that the experience is peculiar to Wales, or that the Welsh have a greater moral stamina, or that they are more amplified and refined spiritually, or that they hold the faith in all its idealities and aspirations in a diviner sense than other portions of the kingdom ? That cannot be ; no student who understands the psychology of the Welsh would endorse such a foolish claim. The fundamental religious point of this experience in Wales, is that it denotes the presence of a spiritual spirit which under the strain and stress of the war has become more active, and more generally active, in those homes where the sorrow and the sense of actual, or the fear of possible, loss is keenest, and in those churches that have suffered the most. We say generally, because when we come to review the condition of the churches, and of the commonalty, at this time, we find that there is less devotion to, and less knowledge of, prayer. Indeed, many of the people are nourishing passions that are antagonistic to it — the pas- sions of avarice, grasping selfishness. What is more, these passions are in the ascendancy, and whenever they are in the ascendancy their opposite is in depres- sion, always. We cannot have destructiveness and constructiveness, malevolence and benevolence, domi- nant at the same time. The history of the human mind is that the one puts the other down, or is put down by it. The indications are that a revival of religion in the Welsh churches is the great need of the hour. If a business man reaped so little compensatory result as the churches in Wales are reaping he would consider his business a failure. Indeed, if the world is to be converted by present methods, human conception cannot number the years which it must take. 24O THE WAR AND WALES The evangelistic ideal finds no place in Welsh theological colleges, whether Nonconformist or Anglican ; neither the Anglican clergy nor the Nonconformist ministers have been educated in a missionary sense. The rising genera- tions of preachers are better educated, classically, than were their predecessors, and than are most of the present ministers of the older type, though it cannot be said that they are as powerful spiritually. It is not uncharitable, we hope, to say that, generally speaking, the churches are more of social clubs than anything else, and that the sermons are prepared, mainly, if not altogether, for the satisfaction of the " converted," as they are called. There is hardly any solicitude for the mere " hearer," or for the converted and unconverted who are outside the churches. The pulpit has become fatalistic. It has practically lost the saving sense. Everything — politics, ethics, economics, books and journalistic literature — is being studied, but not the soul of man itself — its psychology, its needs, its history and its development. If the physician studied as little of the human body, or the educationist studied as little of the child mind, as the average minister of religion studies the soul, their services would not be in requisition. It is the verdict of psychology — and that verdict is in accord with religious experience — that the great oppor- tunity comes in the yeasty days of youth, and that if this opportunity be then lost, it is for ever lost. Youth is the formative period ; most young men and women have settled their worldly destinies before they are twenty ; they have determined upon their avocation in life, they have selected their wives and husbands, their companions, their tastes, their opinions, and the bent of their thinking. Some psychologists have gone so far as to say that if con- version, whether sudden or deliberate, does not take place before twenty, the chances are that it will never take place. We are not familiar to-day with many conversions among the young at this period of life. There is reason for fear- ing that the organized churches in Wales are rapidly losing their grip upon the young, and that the pulpit has not quite realized the psychological fact, that conversion is EFFECT OF THE WAR ON THE SPIRITUAL LIFE 24I " a distinctively adolescent phenomenon." How many souls perish, or drift away from goodness, at this period one can scarcely dare to think. In submitting the report of the Young People's Department Committee, to a conference held at Newport, Monmouthshire, on March 19th, 1916, the Secretary stated that about 258,000 children were lost to the Free Churches during the last seven years. It is to be feared that the anxieties of the pulpit, of parents, and of the churches, do not run in this direction. This partly accounts for the fact that sudden conversions are unknown, and that conversions of the more deliberate type are very rare. The kind of life ministers are leading, the way in which their activities are being distributed, can- not possibly tend either to great piety or to high scholar- ship. There is not in Wales to-day a single outstanding personality who has established his ascendancy either in the realm of thought, theology, philosophy, psychology or pure scholarship, or only one constructive ecclesiastical statesman. On the contrary, there has been a sensible lowering of the standard of intellect, and, coincident with it, a sensible debasement of divinity. To impart what knowledge a preacher possesses is one thing, to impart his soul is quite another matter. The power to do the one does not necessarily include the power to do the other, and without it the pulpit cannot either receive, or feel, or reveal, the true measure of the divine force at work in human life for its redemption. It is a hard saying, but a true one, that education is being rapidly substituted both in the Welsh pulpit and in the Welsh pew, for the Holy Spirit, in person, presence and power. As to the unusual fervour which, as it is claimed, characterizes the singing of Welsh hymns in the different places of worship in Wales during this war, and the hope, or the expectation, of a revival or of a religious awakening that is being based upon it, one is perfectly justified in saying that it would be wrong to regard it as an evidence of the deepening of spiritual life. There is one remarkable fact, viz., that there are certain hymns which the Welsh 242 THE WAR AND WALES are never weary of singing, not only in the churches, but in the workshops, at funerals, at the seaside, and even in political gatherings. What is the secret of their hold upon the people ? It is not their theology, not their literary or poetic excellence, not their style. It is not — as some would suppose and even as some claim — that those who sing them share the experience out of which they arose. Not one in a thou- sand of Welsh worshippers to-day is conscious of the great spiritual realities which these hymns express. Some of these hymns, almost always the same hymns, have been sung at political demonstrations with as much moral fervour and physical excitement as they are usually sung in the chapels, or were sung during the last Welsh Revival. It would be correct to say that they have been sung with greater freedom and boisterousness at political meetings than even in the chapels on Sundays. It is a highly reprehensible practice, quite as reprehensible as the practice so often resorted to by the chapel folk at watering places in the summer, when they congregate on Sunday evenings to sing Welsh hymns for " the benefit of the visitors," and at the same time taking the hat round. The thoughts, spirit and feelings of those who sing these sacred hymns during the holiday season, and of those who sing them at political gatherings, are as far removed from the thoughts, the spirit and the feelings that inspired the author, as one could possibly imagine. It would be almost profane to say that these hymns are being sung because they are in accord with the experiences of those who sing them. If the personal religious history of every individual professing Christian in Wales at this hour could be written, it would be found that in but very few cases do the hymns that are most in favour reflect the life or the spiritual experience of such individuals. The vast number of the worshippers have no experience of their own with which they could even approximately compare them. What experience they have is a borrowed experience. It is a delicate question, but there are not very many who know, or who could state that they know, that they are saved ; EFFECT OF THE WAR ON THE SPIRITUAL LIFE 243 or who could affirm that their sins have been forgiven, or who would openly confess that they are conscious of their sinfulness. If the number of those who have had deadly fights with their own passions and have triumphed over them, or who have had agonizing convictions of righteous- ness or of unrighteousness could be counted, they would be very few. Not many professing Christians in Wales, or indeed in any country, at the present moment have trav- elled along this road. The secret of the ardour and frequency with which these hymns are being sung lies, in the majority of cases, in the fact that they supply an outlet for the feelings. In so far as they do appeal to their religious consciousness, it is the ideal and not the actual experience ; they have nothing cognate to it in their own life. In vain would the most sympathetic observer look for those great distinctive spiritual notes which are said to be the forerunners of great religious awakenings. In vain would he look for the note of true confession. There is not wanting that abstract form of confession in public prayers which is both insipid and meaningless. There is as much facileness, both in the pulpit and in the pew, in confessing the great fact of generic sinfulness as there is of reluctance in confessing personal sinfulness ; there is but little evidence of the consciousness of it. In vain would he also look for any sign of humility in these dark and tragic times ; or any sign of remorse at the thought that much if not all of this bloodshed might have been avoided by forethought and preparation. Our unpreparedness is even looked upon as a virtue. It would be more than difficult to convince the public conscience that there is any ground or justification for humility. Certain ministers have openly declared at representative gatherings, that they did not consider themselves called upon to rend their hearts or to humble themselves before God because they were taking part in this war ; they did not believe that they had committed a national sin ; on the contrary, if they had neglected their duty they would have sacrificed something dearer to God than peace. 244 THE WAR AND WALES The churches in Wales are not becoming more evan- gelical through the war, it is to God rather than to Christ that they are looking; a personal God rather than a personal Saviour ; it is help that they feel they need and not salvation, help in their helplessness ; not that they have forgotten a suffering atoning Saviour, but the adversity of the hour has directed their thoughts to the more potent attributes in the nature of God, and they feel that their own predominating need is the predominating need of those who fight for them, not salvation or forgiveness of sin as some have unwisely suggested. This is the moral or religious phenomenon as it appears to us in Wales to-day. There is plenty of excitement ; the Welsh are prone to it, and prone to look at it, if it be in any way related to religion, as being synonymous with revival. The history of the Welsh Revival of 1904-5 con- fiims this view. But the elements that are prerequisite to revivals, viz., sense of humiliation in the presence of a great and a fearful tragedy, sensitiveness to moral turpi- tude, the maintaining of the confessing disposition, stimu- lation to a prayerful life, the desire to reckon sternly with one's own faults, fortitude of introspection, and the spirit of repentance — these are not the experiences of the day. What is needed in Wales at this hour, is not another cataclysm in the form of stereotyped revivalism, with its contortions and paroxysms to disturb further the national equilibrium, but to foster the faith that can turn these terrible experiences to the end of moral discipline. The first and most urgent duty of the religious leaders of Wales is, not to exploit the excitement connected with the war, or to encourage peripatetic revivalists from beyond the borders to exploit it, in the interest of a particular type of religious experience, or in order to manufacture a revival which would spread in the proportion in which people would be excited, and in the proportion in which the element of free individual reason would be left out, but to teach a more Christian type of citizenship, to offer comfort to the bereaved, and above all, to develop EFFECT OF THE WAR ON THE SPIRITUAL LIFE 245 individual and national trust in God as all-good and all- powerful. We may spread revivals round and round the globe, and yet, Christianity may not be spread ; Christi- anity works vertically as well as horizontally. We need to create not an atmosphere of outward religiosity so much as an atmosphere that will cause the conscience of the nation to stand steadfastly for national equity and national liberty. CHAPTER V THE EFFECT OF THE WAR ON THE TREND OF THEOLOGICAL THOUGHT IN WALES The circumstances of the war have given rise to many questions of far-reaching importance, both in the realm of politics and of religion and theology. In politics, they have opened up questions relating to law ; nationality ; Capital and Labour ; the Royal Prerogative ; the rights of the State and of the Executive of the day ; the rights of the industrial classes ; the right of the individual citizen not to fight for his country ; compulsion versus voluntary- ism ; Free Trade versus Protection ; economic independ- ence ; preference for the products of the Dominions in British markets ; fiscal unity within the British Empire ; democratic control over foreign policy. In the realm of religion and theology, they have opened up questions relating to the idea of God and His attributes; the immanence and transcendence of God ; the person- ality of the devil ; the relative place of the divine and the human element in the shaping of the destinies of nations ; the compatibility of the temporary power of darkness with the good purpose of God ; German and British Protestantism ; the future of Protestantism ; inter- communion between the Anglican Church and the Church of the East ; religious unity ; the alleged definite failure of Christianity ; angelic interposition in human affairs ; the mystery of the tragedy of life ; intercessory prayer ; immortality and probation. It would be safe to say regarding theological, as well as political questions, that they will be in a rela- tively different position when the war is over. The 246 THEOLOGICAL THOUGHT IN WALES 247 character of the war has already become a motive to doubt to many whose faith has hitherto been as steady as the march of the sun to its meridian ; they have realized a darkness of an all but positive unbelief settling on their souls. Even the least reflecting in the community are asking pertinent and searching questions ; it would be strange if they did not ; it would be stranger still if ministers of religion and the religious leaders of the people did not. There are certain fixed lines beyond which investigation is useless, where the vision is closed and no inquirer can unloose the seal. But there is no finality in theology any more than in politics ; religious life would be imperfect without its religious agnosticism. God does not force into us all views of truth, or views of all truths, by auto- matic process. He has made provision for the exercise of individual thought ; there are truths that need faith, sacrifice, and reflection, to comprehend them. Theology is a grand science — some would say that it is the grandest of all the sciences — but it would be a mistake to suppose that God moves only on the track of theological defini- tions. The complexity of the divine character is still an unconquered problem to the theologian, so are the doctrines of Christ. True, Christ did not waste many words on the specula- tive scepticisms of the schools ; but being a poor Syrian, He knew how much there was in His own Personality, discourses and claim to Divine origin, that was out of harmony with the genius of the civilization and of the best opinion of His day. When He saw that the most advanced minds of the old culture and dispensation staggered when He said that He was " the truth," He did not treat it as a sign of godless insensibility, for He knew that He must inevitably become a stone of stumbling to His own age ; even His disciples were filled, on occasions, with distracting fears and doubts respecting many of His statements. Many curious questions were put to Him concerning His theory of property and riches ; the relation of man to the Sabbath and of the Sabbath to 248 THE WAR AND WALES man ; the bearing of the fact of the resurrection upon the marriage tie ; the transmission of hereditary in- fluences ; the hidden meaning of such sayings as " I am the resurrection and the life " ; whether the traditions of the elders had any permanent binding authority, and other subjects which engaged the public mind. " And Jesus answered and said," is a phrase that constantly recurs in the Gospels. Sometimes, He would take the questioner on his own permissions and ask questions in return. When His disciples were " aston- ished out of measure " at some of His statements, He sought to allay their fears and to remove their doubts by amplifying these statements, though they often had a meaning which was far beyond that which He developed. How exact was His knowledge of human nature, and of the motives which animated His questioners, we may gather from the spirit and character of His answers, which were always pertinent. Sometimes the motive which prompted the questioner was idle speculation ; sometimes it was the rumours that were current among the people; sometimes, as in the case of Peter, it was meddlesomeness — that was his characteristic ; sometimes, as in the case of Thomas, it was deep, sincere, personal interest mingling itself with doubt and misgiving. The only occasion that we have any knowledge ot, when Christ deliberately declined to answer a question, was when His own authority was disputed. " Neither do I tell you by what authority I do these things " (Mark xii. 33). True, we have but a fragment of any part of His life ; only mere outlines or sketches of His discourses and theories ; none of the great events of His history are fully given ; there is much that has been left unrecorded. What these large omissions signify, none can tell ; whether, if they had been recorded, they would have made any difference to religion on its ethical or theological side, it would be idle to speculate. However, in so far as the mind of Christ has been manifested to us, it is clear that He never laid any restrictions on honest investigation, or on honest doubt ; neither did He, either directly or by THEOLOGICAL THOUGHT IN WALES 249 implication, give His apostles, or the Church which the apostles founded, any warrant for doing so. One great outstanding feature of Christ's character was His noble indulgence towards honest doubt, even when it covered the most fundamental questions relating to personal salvation, or to belief in Himself as the Son of God and the risen Saviour. Man is by nature a believing creature ; he may believe what is wrong — that in and of itself is not a sin — but it is better to believe wrong than not to believe at all. What is true in physics is also true in metaphysics and in spiritual things, viz., that there is nothing so vain as a vacuum ; nothing is so vain as a vacuous man who sees nothing beyond or outside himself, and who has no faith of any kind. But it is not Christlike to disdain or to dis- courage a doubter who has been driven away from his theological or religious moorings. There may be, often is, more virtue in one man's doubts than in another man's beliefs. Some believe because they for ever see the bright and radiant side ; they never ask questions because they have no manhood, no strong perceptive or reflective powers, no great intelligence. Some doubt — always doubt — because they for ever see the dark and perplexing side of every movement or convulsion. Beliefs and unbeliefs are largely a matter of temperament, and variations in beliefs are largely a matter of education. There is a type of unbelief that is purely speculative in its origin, and a type that is inward and spiritual. There is unbelief that starts in an evil life, and seeks to excuse or to justify itself, and there is an unbelief which starts from wounded affections. Unbelief that has its origin in syllogism is one thing, unbelief that has its origin in loss of trust is another. There is a difference in moral gradations between unbelief and unbelief. It is by questioning rather than by believing that the human intellect has reached its present development ; it will go on questioning not only in the domain of physical life, but in the domain of morals and theology, for the morals of property, of political power, of family life, of 250 THE WAR AND WALES the sexes, of private wealth, of the legal rights of woman, and kindred questions, are by no means in their final form. Physical life, human life, religious life, are so full of unexplored and unexpressed forces, that the quest for more light and knowledge must be continued. Neither the evolution of the physical universe, nor the evolution of the spirit life, has reached its limits. The voice of Truth is not the voice of a pope, but the expression in each age of the highest spiritual perception of that age. All insights, all perceptions, are provisional ; no one age, or law, or doctrine, or government, can possibly be above correction or amendment by another age, or law, or doc- trine, or government. No theological system can claim exemption from fallibility ; reasonable probability is as much as any theologian may expect to grasp at any given moment. Indeed, there is hardly a study that is more interesting or instructive than the study of the mutations of theo- logical dogmas, due not merely to changes in moral tone and in humanitarian sentiment, but to the developing insight of mankind. The kingly powers of to-day are not dogmas and papal anathemas, but Christian sympathy and Christian intelligence. The sovereignty belongs not to autocracy, whether it be monarchical or theological, but to freedom of opinion in religion, and the right of private judgment. It takes a larger number of ideas to make a man, or a nation, or a creed — a creed that will represent the highest living level of Christian conscience and experience — than ever before. The value of a creed is not in its sentiment, not in its antiquity, but in the facts and the degree of truth that lie behind it. If it is to be a living creed, a consoling and a repairing creed, it must gather its best approximation to infallibility, not from one type of thought, or one particular mental outlook, or one set of churchly experiences or prejudices, but from the ripest collective spiritual perceptions of the age in which it seeks to express itself. In no other sense can it claim to be a national creed, or a creed for the masses. THEOLOGICAL THOUGHT IN WALES 251 We are far removed from the Middle Ages, when men were forbidden to think for themselves, or to think beyond certain points upon subjects that were supposed to tres- pass upon an accepted system of theology, or upon the body of dogma that the Church sought to force upon the consciences of men. It was for those who were restless and daring enough to over-step the limits of the moral and secular law of the Church that the Inquisition was set up. Those were the days when religious truths, in so far as they may be termed religious, were slave-masters. We are also far removed from Milton, who, though he saw in Christianity the gracious will of God to man, yet was incapable of seeing any mercy for Catholics ; and, happily, we are far removed from the days of Roger Williams, who, because he championed all mankind, had to run for shelter among the Indians. Possibly, there are a few theologians left in the world who might find it impossible for God to save Socrates, whose dispassionate and reverent scepticism acted as a solvent of Greek superstition, and who prepared the way for the thoughtful religion of Alexandria. The drift of common life, the spread of education, the growth of the democratic sentiment, physical discoveries, historic accidents, wars and revolutions, all play their part in the mutations of theological opinions, and in the standards of theological probability. In times of national disturbance, of social and political convulsions, when it is doubtful which way affairs are going ; when old landmarks are being removed ; when new policies invade old ones ; when tyranny appears supreme ; when heaven seems to contract and hell to expand, and every- thing is uncertain, many a man broods ; many a man feels that his faith almost fails him ; many a man is tempted to say that Christianity is a failure, and that the virtues of humility, self-denial, mutual trust, honour and personal holiness, are of no use. Under the influence of such convulsions, some break loose altogether from the faith of their fathers ; some go off into licentiousness ; some become frozen and believe in nothing ; some retain 252 THE WAR AND WALES their faith, but feel constrained to re-examine it in the light of the developments of the hour. To a Roman Catholic theologian, with his fixed, posi- tive and unalterable dogmas about God, Immortality, Purgatory, human perfection, the right of private judg- ment, and the religious conceptions that have been for- mulated for him by those whose authority he is not permitted to question, wars, revolutions, social, national and international disturbances, signify nothing, in so far as his belief or his theological ideas are concerned. It is not for him, as a Roman Catholic, to question, or to re-examine, or to reconstruct, his own dogmas. It is here that Protestant theology differs from Roman Catholic theology, in that it not only allows, but affirms the necessity of re-stating religious truths and religious theological tenets as human insight and human knowledge develops. It is here also that Roman Catholic theology comes into conflict with Welsh Protestant, and especially with Welsh Nonconformist theology. Freedom of discussion in theological and religious matters is the Magna Charta of the Welsh. Indeed, it would be true to say that the discussive element has been a powerful element in their civilization. The scholarly authors of The Welsh People vouch for the following story: "About thirty years ago an English professor of theology and a Welsh preacher were taking a morning walk in a very Welsh county, and sat down to rest awhile in a field. Near by two farm labourers, who were finishing their mid-day meal, were talking in Welsh. Their loud tones and excited gestures attracted the attention of the visitors. Said the Professor : ' Are they quarrelling ? ' ' Well,' replied the Preacher, ' they are not quarrelling more than is usual in a debate on a theological point. They are discussing whether Christ had two wills or one. The monothelite controversy is revived.' For the benefit of the professor the preacher translated the conversation as it proceeded, and the judgment of the former was that the arguments urged by each disputant were as subtle and absurd as any of those THEOLOGICAL THOUGHT IN WALES 253 to be found in the old books." (The Welsh People, p. 475.) No Christian system that does not allow free and full discussion can be acceptable to the Welsh ; they must have that liberty of thought and expression which belongs to them, for they are emotive, an independent, and an argumentative people. If it were possible to force any form of religious faith upon them which placed restrictions upon their freedom of thought and utterance, it would be to cross the grain of their genius, and to put the fire of obliteration on the very point of their vitality. The spirit of controversy is a distinctive peculiarity of the Welsh, it is the nerve that vibrates life and happiness, and which promotes culture in their midst. They have shown a remarkable partiality for philosophical and metaphysical subjects ; and, not only a partiality, but considerable native aptitude. The presen- tation of Christianity, doctrinally or theologically, has had a great fascination for them, though their philosophy of religion is always an auxiliary to their faith. The predominant element is the heart element, but to this is added the intellectual element. While men can embrace Christianity better by the heart without the help of the understanding, than they can by the understanding without the help of the heart, it is far more admirable when faith is vitalized by intellectual apprehension. Every Christian system is but imperfectly held when it is only held in a philosophical form ; but every Christian should have a creed, or intellectual outlines of his religious thoughts and opinions, just as a business man has a creed about his business, or a politician has a creed about his politics. The human intellect, in whatever sphere it has moved, has instinctively formulated its intellectual beliefs ; that is, it has given form and order to its ideas and feelings. Because religious creeds have been mis- used and misapplied and made instruments of oppression, not a few consider them as not only of no value, but mischievous. But creeds, or intellectual expressions of one's religious life and ideas, when discriminately used, are means of instruction and a help to the soul. 254 THE WAR AND WALES One of the peculiarities of Welsh religious life is the reciprocity between the feelings and the understanding. In this sense they may be said to be well educated ; for notwithstanding the extravagances which have charac- terized most of the revivals of the past, the intellect does exert an influence, and a salutary influence, upon their emotion and enthusiasm. The presentation of Christianity, and the apprehension of its central truths, through and by the intellect, has always, in modern times, been considered, in Wales, of very great importance ; though they have exercised their capacity for intellectual apprehension without arrogance and within reverent bounds. It is because they have felt the force of religion so vividly and so definitely that they have sought to look into it speculatively and philosophically, and to teach it technically and psychologically. There is a clearly marked Welsh mind for which the theological questions raised by the war have a peculiar attraction ; and the attraction is not mere idle or specu- lative curiosity ; it has its roots in the higher feelings. Neither is it of recent origin, for most if not all of these questions have for generations been matters of discussion and a source of heart-searchings, not only among the ministerial fraternity, but among the general body of adult believers. It may sound incredible to those who are unacquainted with the inner history of Welsh religion, that ministers who had not been technically educated, who could not be described as scholars in the strict sense of the term, who were not very familiar with the technics of philosophy, and who had to content themselves with what education they could find in those seminaries which were chiefly designed for men who intended becoming Nonconformist ministers (because the grammar schools of Wales and the Universities of England were closed to them by reason of the imposition of religious tests) should be interested in such abstruse problems as the psychology of the divine mind and the Trinity and the dual nature of Christ ; free will, future life, the duration of punishment, the theory of moral government, and why the life and suffer- THEOLOGICAL THOUGHT IN WALES 255 ing and death of Christ were atoning in their character. Some of the sources of the old Welsh theology were the New Testament, especially the Epistles of Paul ; the hymns of Wales, the interpretation, theologically, of their own personal experience, and " Adrodd Pwnc," as it is called in Welsh. Two or three Sunday Schools would arrange to meet on a certain Sunday in the year, in a certain chapel in the immediate district, or some miles away, in order to recite together certain chapters from the Bible, and to be examined in them by one or two or more ministers. The members of the schools would occupy the gallery, while the congregation occupied the body of the chapel downstairs. Sometimes the members of the different schools would be given a written question which was asked by one of the ministers from the pulpit ; the question was, as a rule, supplied weeks in advance, so that the scholars might have time to prepare the answer. These questions covered, broadly speaking, the whole field of Welsh theology, and included the fundamentals of religion, as religion was understood by them. Such questions took no note of the scientific attitude towards religion, and they were more or less sectarian in their character. But there were very important results of a moral, intellectual, and purely theological kind, connected with these gatherings ; and it is impossible to thoroughly understand the evolution of Welsh theology without taking them into consideration. Neither can we ignore the influence of denominational weeklies, monthlies, and quarterlies, in which articles appeared from the pen of the most prominent ministers of the day. These articles dealt with such subjects as The Freedom of the Will ; Predestination ; Original Sin ; The Doctrine of the Atonement in its relation to God, to the Person of Christ, to Man, and to the History of the Church ; and Justification. Many of these articles bore signs of deep thought and wide reading, as well as acquaint- ance with the works of the old divines of other countries. Unquestionably, they made a deep impression upon thoughtful men in all denominations. 256 THE WAR AND WALES To these must be added Welsh translations of English divines, such as the translation of Dr. Kitto's exposition on the New Testament, by the Rev. Owen Thomas, D.D., which appeared in several parts. Dr. Thomas also pub- lished, separately, an exposition on the Hebrews, based on Dr. Kitto's commentary. It would be true to say that there is much in Welsh theology that is not native to the soil; the old preachers borrowed very largely from foreign sources. Granting that theology — by which is meant mental philosophy applied to the divine mind and to the divine government — is a science that requires a calm tempera- ment or a calm atmosphere to produce its best results, a superficial observer might not expect much good or sound theology from Wales, for the Welsh are a mercurial race of people. We venture, however, to say that there is no race of men who have been less contented with a shallow and superficial knowledge of the contents of Scriptures, or who have shown greater aptitude in tracing out the root-principles of the Bible, or who have had a deeper insight into Christianity as a supernatural religion, while at the same time believing in its rationality. It must also be borne in mind that almost the whole of the undoubtedly philosophic stream of Welsh intellect has, in the past, found its way into profound sermons in the vernacular, and which have, therefore, been inaccessible to the English reading public. But the commentary on 1st Corinthians by the late Dr. Thomas Charles Edwards, ranks, in exegesis, scholarship and theological insight, with the best that appeared in his day. Unmistakably, he had the qualities of a true expositor and theologian ; and his theology was not lost either in its science or in its criticism, or in its philosophy. Like most of the old Welsh theologians, though less scholarly and less educated than himself, he was a clean theologian ; so was his father, Dr. Lewis Edwards. We would also venture to say that no race of men have had an intenser realization of the personality and the character of God, or to whom the invisible world has been THEOLOGICAL THOUGHT IN WALES 257 kept in greater suggestion. Psychologically interpreted, the explanation is that the high condition of their spiritual life gave them a strong sense of the mystical and the miraculous. Also, their imagination had been cultivated so as vividly to keep the invisible world and qualities, as well as their superiority, in suggestion. It was largely in virtue of this faculty of the imagination that so many of them lived, and so many of those who ministered to them in holy things preached, as if they were in the presence of the unseen. This is the very function of the imagina- tion, and when in alliance with moral qualities, it consti- tutes what the Bible calls faith — that is, that power which conceives by the mind things that are not sensuous and material, and which are invisible to the body ; it makes things real that have no visible form — things that are but conceptions. Hence it is that the interest of the former generations of Welsh Christians was, in secular and social life, so limited. Historically speaking, we submit that this is not an overcharged statement. What we have to confess is, that in proportion as the modern Welsh have developed in their executive nature, their force nature, and their business nature ; as they have become more and more preoccupied in the industry of life, in civic economy, in the elements of general civiliza- tion, and in all the processes of society, the less suscept- ible they have become to the higher spiritual impressions, and the less and less open to a sense of the invisible, and the less and less declared has been their interest in religion on its theological side. But through the pressure of the war theological ques- tions have been given a fresh vitality ; they have been brought into greater prominence in private and public discussions in Wales. Welshmen find themselves in a new environment ; a different set of influences plays around and about them. There are facts in the war that have staggered the faith of many, and that have caused them to re-examine certain aspects of their old belief. Undoubtedly, religion will mean something different to them in the future from what it did in the past. This does 258 THE WAR AND WALES not necessarily mean the abandonment of their original or former ideas and conceptions. It may simply mean the unfolding of their faith, as their patriotism has been unfolded ; it may mean the making of those elements of their faith that were true yesterday, more true to-day, by variety, intensity, fullness and a broader application in all directions. Whatever differences of conception in regard to religion in its theological aspect may be evolved through the war among the Welsh, it may be safely said that the old and the new conceptions will not be in antagonism. It has been said that one of the comforting things about this war is, that it has not produced any atheists. In so far as Welsh Wales is concerned, atheism found no footing before the war, and there are no indications that it will fare any better when the war is over. Critical arguments and philosophical speculations have vainly set themselves to change the faith of the Welsh — so strong is the hold the subconscious has had upon their convictions. But there are not wanting signs that semi-atheistic notions are fermenting in the minds of many ; there are hostile elements at work which obstruct their faith. The war has destroyed many an old axiom and many an ancient argument. The constant antagonism of current irre- concilable ideas of God, which the war has revealed, is not only intellectually unsatisfying, but spiritually disturbing to them. The generality of men have almost no definite concep- tion of God ; they have no tangible and presentable God ; their complaint is that they can form no ideal of Him. The difficulty is that they are trying to excogitate a true view of God by coming to God through the intellect alone, and to interpret God through the reason alone, or through philo- sophizing. It is only in devout natures that are earnestly alive to moral truth, and in which the moral feelings are exercised, that we find any definite conception of the Divine nature. The source of the knowledge of God is more in the disposition than in the intellect. The materials come, very largely, from consciousness, reflection, and experience. THEOLOGICAL THOUGHT IN WALES 259 These who have studied the psychology of the child- mind, know that the earliest ideas of God consist, largely, of the moral and social qualities which are exhibited in the family life. Children are incapable of comprehending the being of God ; and the catechisms which they learn seldom or never add anything to their ideas of God ; they go through their catechisms, yet their feelings are un- touched and their imagination is unimpressed, and its formulas have taught them very little. What they are able to realize of the affections and the attributes of God, they have realized, chiefly, through their parents and their teachers. What is true of the child-mind is also true of the adult mind. Men's knowledge of God seldom goes beyond the qualities that exist in the personal and social relations of men. The imagination may set this knowledge in a higher sphere, but the substratum of men's conception of God is wrought among men in social and moral relation- ship. The noble or divine attributes which men see in each other, in the community, and in the life of the nations, they put together and call God. Each man frames, and is compelled to frame, for himself, some ideal conception of God; the conception of God which now prevails has been transmitted from one age to another by a slow and gradual process. The personal element must of necessity play a para- mount part in the shaping of men's conception of God and of His attributes ; and by the personal element is meant the nature or the character of the different faculties that belong to the different individuals. Each man brings his own peculiarities to his study of God and of the moral govern- ment of the world, and the progress of his soul will be most fruitful in the element which predominates in his own nature. Thus it is, that to one man, God is a Governor ; to another, a Social Being ; to another, a loving and benevolent God who is genial, tender and sweet ; to another, God is all conscience and righteousness, and full of retributive justice ; he sees nothing but the sterner elements of the divine nature, and it is to this aspect of 260 THE WAR AND WALES divinity that he bears witness in his own life, and in his dealings with his fellow-men. A God without retributive justice, or without an element of cruelty, would not be sovereign enough, and a scheme of redemption which did not inflict eternal suffering would not be sanguinary enough to be taken seriously by him. As we have already dealt in this chapter, as well as in other portions of this work, with the Welsh personal element in its relation to the philosophical characteristics of Welsh theology, we need only refer here to some of those particular aspects of Welsh theology upon which the circumstances of the war directly bear, viz., the being and character of God and an intermediate state. Such ques- tions as "Does God really exist ? " " How does He exist ? " " What relation does He bear to the universe and to man- kind? " have been by no means irrelevant questions to the Welsh, but questions vital to their destiny, to prayerful communion, to personal immortality, to their peace on earth, and to their sense of the need of a Personality over- shadowing their own conscious selves, in whom they could trust in life and in death, in the contemplation of whom their religious consciousness would be complete, and the fear of whom would act as a repellent to temptation. To them, the evidences of the existence of a personal God are far more convincing than any results established by mere logic or pure reasoning could ever be ; their whole mental life as it exists apart from whatever learn- ing they have, bears testimony to this ; their spiritual intuitions come from a far deeper level of their devout nature than the level which rationalism or philosophy in- habits. Their impulses, their divinations, and the whole of their subconscious life, have prepared the premises of which their consciousness feels the weight of result ; they have in them that something which absolutely knows that their belief is true and real, and against which no atheistic argument can prevail. If we are asked after what fashion do they believe in this living God, it may be said that there has been no symptom of that " frosty chill " of Marcus Aurelius, when he THEOLOGICAL THOUGHT IN WALES 26l reflected on the eternal reason that has ordered things, for they believe in God with an intensity of conviction which affects their life through and through. To them, God is not an abstract ideality, but a superhuman being ; the immanent divinity in all things, physical as well as human. The ideal of God to them has been the guarantee of an ideal order based on moral and spiritual principles, and a guarantee that that order shall be permanently preserved against the gates of hell and all terrestrial in- fluences. He is an all-inclusive God in whose parental hands all who believe are secure ; a dweller not only in heaven, but in history ; the sure defence of the weak against the strong, and of right against might ; a God whose power is on the side of virtue, integrity, honour, justice, and all that is pure and humane ; a pitying and a consoling God, the Judge and dispenser of justice. Those who have followed the deeper searchings of human philosophy, know that where the mind of man has sounded deepest, it has always found two things about God, viz., His immanence and transcendence, which mean that God is in all things and above all things, and outside all things. One logical result of the doctrine of the immanence of God, is the belief in the divinity of humanity. It cannot be said that Welsh theologians have fully appreciated this logical result, or that they have ever seriously studied it. The theology of the Welsh, in the past, has been so largely affected by a cast of thought which has been derived from Calvinism, that it has over-emphasized the sovereignty of God, and depreciated rather than exalted the divinity of human nature. When a system either of ethics or of theology is constructed, the tendency is to emphasize one aspect of the divine nature at the expense of another, and consequently to emphasize one type of character at the expense of another. Calvinism has made the sovereignty of God its starting-point and the central idea in its theological system. It has had its advantages in that it has kept its grip on the conscience, and maintained a vigorous and a responsible restraint upon the life. T 262 THE WAR AND WALES But as we have already intimated, there has been a reac- tion in Wales against the extreme doctrines of Calvinism ; the movement dates as far back as the beginning of the nineteenth century. Ever since there has been a growing disposition not, it should be observed, to substitute love for sovereignty as the fundamental idea of Christianity, or to set up the one in opposition to the other, but to show their essential oneness, that they are both alike involved in the nature and character of God, that they are simply God viewed in different relations and acting in different directions, and that all of God is in each. Welsh theology, therefore, stands as a rule for the transcendence and the immanence of God ; the former suffused with the beatific conception of the latter. ' I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit " (Isaiah lvii. 15). The transcendent God has come to live with men, and to guide the affairs of men. Consequently, there is much of God in the very best of men, and there is something of divinity in the worst. The God of the modern Welsh is not a God who has set the machinery of the universe in motion once for all, and who has ever since stood entirely aloof to watch it working out either for good or evil, for salvation or destruction ; not a God who leaves every- thing to chance, or who is untouched by cruelty, selfishness, and oppression, but a God who works in history, and who works neither capriciously, nor arbitrarily, but surely and steadily, and with wisdom and full knowledge of what passes in heaven, and on earth where He works out His judgments. Having held these beliefs, as the Welsh have held them — devoutly and tenaciously, the question is, can they continue to hold them in the face of this war, and of the diabolical actions that are among the most infamous that have ever been recorded ? This is the question that troubles the man who lays stress on the divine transcend- ence, quite as much as it troubles the man who lays stress on the divine immanence ; it affects the theory of God's relation to the world in general, and the theory of His THEOLOGICAL THOUGHT IN WALES 263 relation to the conduct of humanity. The Welsh are easily moved — emotionally, but not theologically. In the latter sense they are Whigs rather than Radicals. Their loyalty to their faith-state, and their jealousy for the honour of God, may be said to have been the two most remarkable features in their religious history. What God is and does ; what He thinks and feels ; what is His will and purpose, are problems that have concerned them deeply. Religiously, they have been a confiding people ; the element of trust has been a prominent element in their religious experience. If we were asked to express or to define the highest and maturest mode of their religious thought, we would be disposed to express it in St. Augustine's fine phrase : " Lord, if we are deceived it is by Thee." It is pathetic ; yet we have heard prayers in Welsh that breathed this very spirit, and expressed this very faith ; a sort of rapturous trust in God that persisted through every failing of heart and every despair. And those who prayed thus, were not only heroic spiritually, but enlightened intellectually, and genuinely versed in scriptural wisdom. Welsh religious life is full of illustra- tions of this confidence. But in and through this war they are confronted with facts that test their trust as it has never before been tested. There is no curse like the curse of a lost trust, and the higher the hopes to which the trust gave rise the deeper the profound into which the soul is plunged. In so far as we have been able to gather — and we have been at pains to gather — into ourselves the mental state of many, the thoughts that have haunted them and that will continue to haunt them, the fears and doubts that have oppressed them, and the misgivings that have tor- mented them, as they have tormented a vast number of Christian men and women, it would be substantially correct to say that while the tragedy of the war has deepened their sense of the reality of life, of the individu- ality of man, and of the need of religion, it has shaken rather than established the traditional view of God and of 264 THE WAR AND WALES His providential care ; it has disturbed rather than con- firmed their belief in the transcendence and the imman- ence of God. The faith of many trembles in the balance, and the secret loyalties of their soul almost fail them. And they are not all of the timid, doubtful, melancholy type of Christians, but among them are men of the robust, trustful and buoyant type. Their idea of God has been that He is the defence of the weak against the strong, but in this war they see the weak, the inoffensive, and the, apparently, deserving, abandoned to the most cruel suffering and oppression, while their oppressors gloat in their sufferings. " Why," they ask, " all this barren martyrdom ? " " Can all that we have thought and uttered concerning the power of God, the goodness of God, and His will to avenge wrong and injustice be true ? ' " Where is God to-day ? " " Why does He not come swiftly from above in the glory of the daybreak to remove all this darkness and horror ? " " Does He condone this calamity?" "Does His patience obliterate moral dis- tinctions ? " " Does He really act upon men as a physical force acts upon dead matter ? " "Or are men mere pawns on the cosmic chessboard ? " "Or are they moral personalities destined to be redeemed into righteousness and true freedom by personal contact with a God who is love and wisdom ? " " Are we, after all, to lose our interest in our investments in virtue, in justice, in mutual trust, and faith in God ? " " Are we to be ready for anything," as Renan said, " because there are many chances that the world may be nothing but a fairy pantomime of which God has no care, and that perhaps it is wisdom to arrange ourselves so that on neither hypothesis we shall be completely wrong?" It need hardly be said that there are in Wales, as else- where, the dogmatic type of Christians, who claim that they have no need to ascertain how God works and to whom the results are always observable. No catastrophe perplexes or bewilders them. Whatever happens is quite consistent with their well-considered theory of God THEOLOGICAL THOUGHT IN WALES 265 and this divine human nature — this God in man. This world-tragedy is to them clear and simple, and it will, they say, sound the death-knell of timid Christian doubt. But the dogmatic people are not always the most clear-headed, or the most spiritually-minded ; indeed, they often prove to be the shallow ones — morally and intellectually. There are no signs that those who have been prompted by the darkness of the hour to question their own faith, or to revise certain aspects of their theological beliefs, are turning away from God ; on the contrary, they are trying to see God through it all. If they find it difficult to believe that all that has happened is according to God's law, intent, motive, and character, it is not because they are wanting to be unbelievers, or to hold their faith in sus- pense. If their faith has been covered by the clouds of war and is going lower, if they have partially, or temporarily, lost the light that was in them, it is because the brain is oppressed and the heart darkened by the thought that some malignant demon presides, for the moment, over the destinies of mankind, or shares the sovereignty. They are troubled by the irreconcilable views of God which prevail. The Kaiser declared, on the occasion of the anniversary of the beginning of the war, that before God and history his conscience was clear ; that in full gratitude he could say that God was with him in this fight for freedom. On the other hand, the Allies declare with equal earnestness that they are fighting for equity and liberty ; that the consciousness of this has been their guiding star throughout this period of bloodshed, and that they are determined to stand firmly together, and to continue the struggle till the light dispels the gloom. The ministers and churches of Germany believe with the Kaiser that their cause is a righteous one, they believe that God is blessing their arms in their fight for right and freedom ; for this right and this freedom they are determined to prosecute the war to a successful conclusion. The ministers and churches of Wales, as well as of Great Britain and the Colonies, believe that God is on their side and of the Allies ; they pray and look to God for victory. 266 THE WAR AND WALES Though we may say, and say, we think, with justice, that the hope of the f ormer is based on the principle of force, of the latter on the principle of self-sacrifice ; that the former is the creed of autocracy, the latter of democracy ; yet it cannot neutralize the impression which these contradictory ideas of God, and of the relation of God to the combatants, is making on the average mind, and it would be not only uncharitable, but harmful to religion itself, to minimize its significance. We say that no lust of conquest, no spirit of revenge, no ill-will towards Ger- many drew us into this war, but that we are fighting Prussian militarism which is the curse of the modern world ; we say that we are fighting for British freedom and for the freedom of Europe and the world ; that we have gone forth into this struggle with an open brow and a clear conscience, and with a firm faith in the rectitude of our cause. We say we are not the victims of national prejudice or a garish military excitement, and that it is the violation by Germany of every code of honour and of every humane sentiment that has caused us to unsheath the sword, and that not to have done so would have been an act of disloyalty to God. The German people, on the other hand, believe that to them has been entrusted the task of making the British people understand what German justice, the German conscience, German sentiment, and German conscientiousness really are. The English conception of right and justice, they say, is neither more nor less than the faculty of hiding their own hypocrisy and incompe- tency behind a series of causes. It is not only for the freedom of the seas that they are fighting, they say, but also for the liberation of the peoples of the earth from English despotism. History, they claim, proves that the task has been given the Germans of reviving the Han- seatic spirit of enterprise, and that the right that was born of might has never been the worst right. We say that British national feeling is in this war interwoven with religious feeling ; we quote letters from Welsh and British soldiers to show that they are THEOLOGICAL THOUGHT IN WALES 267 developing trust in God, and are realizing the presence of Christ in the battlefield ; we have written and said much concerning the alleged appearance of angels at Mons, and our conviction that God is with us in this conflict. But the leading divines of Germany claim that they are fighting for a righteous cause, and that to Ger- many has been given by God a special overcharge of the world, and that in the exercise of that prerogative the German nation may use means and opportunities which in themselves need not be easy of justification. They say that Christ is close to the German warrior on the battlefield. Jesus is invisible, the soldier visible, but both together are ready to sacrifice themselves for the spiritual ideals of Germany. " Convinced of the ever- present Supreme Powers' readiness to assist," said the German Court preacher lately, " the German soldier is perpetually asking for this assistance, not in the shape of additional aid to his arms, but as an enriching and deep- ening of his inward life. Among the heavenly powers whom he knows are surrounding him he looks for one resembling himself, for one that has lived a life like his own — serving, obedient, full of sacrifice, full of pain as well as of joy ; and this person he finds in Jesus Christ." What a realm of mystery lies in these contradictory views of God, held as devoutly and as sincerely by the one as by the other ! Is it any wonder that even the educated, to say nothing of the uneducated, are be- wildered and tormented ; and that many have a feeling of something like despair ? Is it any wonder that they are asking what guarantee have we that God, if there be one, is omnipotent, or whether His omnipotence is limited ; and, if so, what assurance have we that the good will ultimately triumph in the end ? An atheistic view or conception of the universe has one fascination : it can deliver the human mind from the oppressive and frightful thought that all these tears are shed, that all this blood has been spilt, and that all this unrighteous suffering has been inflicted, with the knowledge and by the will of an intelligent God. But an atheistic world would be a 268 THE WAR AND WALES melancholy world ; it is pathetic as it is ; and profoundly solemn, with a strain of morbid feeling in it. But atheism would turn life into a comedy, puncturing its folly with wit, its passions with mirth ; relieving men's sorrows by teaching them substantially to despise virtue and duty ; undervaluing human nature ; crushing the nobler sentiments ; redeeming, or seeking to redeem, the anxieties, doubts, sufferings, and aspirations of mankind, by taking out of life all faith, all earnestness, and all urgent convictions ; inculcating the doctrine that too much emphasis should not be placed on conduct, and that we should not be too sensible to what is termed right and wrong, because men in this their only world, are like leaves which flutter as the wind blows and determines, without any self-help. Beyond death there is nothing — no spirit-world, no hell, no heaven. Universal atheism would turn the world into a mad- house ; life would be intolerable without the thought of God ; without some hope of finding a God who governs all things ; who measures all human thoughts and feel- ings ; who has stamped with indelible lines the moral character of the race ; who has ordained that justice and judgment are only alternatives of mercy and kindness ; who has in Himself all the elements of consolation and celestial light ; who is powerful to restrain from evil by inciting fear and to wean to good by evoking love; who is sovereign, yet immanent ; sitting in the circle of holiness and august power, yet full of sympathy and tenderness, and holding practical relations to the wants of the individual and the wants of the world. This is what constitutes the divinity of Christ — this practical adaptation of the divine nature to the needs of a suffering world. There is also the question of a Hereafter and of an Intermediate life, which the war has invested with greater interest and significance. With regard to the first, it is a sad thought that the one thing that men cannot dismiss from their minds is what they know least about. God is less known to us in His relation to the spirit-world than in THEOLOGICAL THOUGHT IN WALES 269 His relation to the present. In the earth-life we have the consolations of common worship and of personal and spiritual communion ; we have the intermediate system of nature which, though it does not teach us the personal qualities of God, still less that He is a being supremely centred in one great divine universal love, yet constantly reminds us of God ; in and through it reflections of God can be traced. But in the sphere where we feel that God is most needed He seems to fail us. Hence the dread with which men think of the life beyond when they approach it, for it is darkness so far as God's revelation is con- cerned and so far as the dead are concerned. We have visited the Mammoth Cave of Kentucky in which there are chasms into which men may throw stones, and listen and hear no answer ; so deep are the chasms that no sound returns. So men throughout the ages have been standing on the verge of the life beyond, throwing over questions and listening, but listening in vain for an answer. It is in vain that we look to theology — that is, to reasoning and intellection. Theology cannot give us an influential conception either of God or of a future life ; theology has been a stumbling-block to thoughtful men from the beginning. Systems of theology have been con- structed with more consideration for the elements that are in sympathy with the lower forms of existence, than for elements that relate to our spiritual nature and to the spiritual sphere ; they have been constructed in order that they shall stand against error and heterodoxy, rather than to prevent men going wrong. Theology has never prevented men going wrong either mentally or spiritually ; on the contrary, it has caused theologians and professing Christians to commit the deadliest of crimes on behalf of theology and in the name of religion. One might imagine by hearing theologians reasoning about God, His motives, government, and methods of salvation, that when He created the world, He filled it with statutes and regulations, and afterwards put people in it. It is in vain that we look to science, for science or natural philosophy cannot supply us with any knowledge 27O THE WAR AND WALES of the spirit-world, or tell us what is beyond material phenomena. Occult science is attempting to bridge the gulf between this and the spirit-world. It is easy to dis- miss it by saying that Spiritualism is simply the heresy that arises when Catholic teaching respecting the de- parted is forgotten or suppressed, and that it is fraught with peril because it hinders the right use of Christian duty. The truth is, that the war has increased rather than decreased the interest in Spiritualism. Whatever we may think of occult science, we can sympathize with its aspirations, for it is founded on what is most instinctive in man — that is, the desire to test whether it is a fancy or an undoubted statement of fact that those who die live again ; whether their unselfish devotion to us while on earth continues in the life beyond ; whether they have any knowledge of what they have left and how that knowledge affects their peace and happiness ; whether they know God in the spirit-life as they knew Him in the earth-life, or whether our life is a blank to them as theirs is to us. As instincts preclude us from ignoring such questions, so our better affections preclude us from feeling that the departed have either perished for ever or are even in a state of un- consciousness until the last judgment. Is there a man who consigned his child to the grave, and who did not say to himself, " Lord, may I find it again " ? Is there a man who, standing at the grave of his mother, did not feel the flame of immortality burn within him ? Yet, since death intervened not a word have they spoken, an impenetrable darkness has been spread over the grave. Even Christ did not come as a revealer of a future state, or as a revealer of man's destiny. When He came back from the grave He brought no message with Him ; the disciples were not shown either the act or the time of the resurrection ; He said nothing of His own experience between His death and His resurrection. Where His spirit roamed or by what power it was affected, we know nothing, for He only spoke in a most general character of His state after death. Christ told His disciples nothing, the Bible tells us nothing concerning the THEOLOGICAL THOUGHT IN WALES 271 internal economy of the heavenly state. Literally and technically we know but little about its history, industry, philology, or government. There is a pictorial represen- tation of heaven as there is of a Day of Judgment. But if the Scriptures were written in our day very different images and figures would be employed to give us some conception of them. The Bible would, in many respects, be a very different Bible — less Oriental — and more democratic in its conception of dignity and manhood ; less would be said about thrones, princes, crowns, mansions, monarchs, harps, gates of pearl, pavements of gold, and sea of glass. The illustrations would be drawn from materials which belong to our age and civilization. The seer of the twentieth century would not be the seer of the old Oriental world. Why this mystery? Why should there not be, at least once in a man's lifetime, an answering voice that should make him perfectly certain of the existence of God, and of a future and a moral government ? There is a darkness that is thrown between the appearance of the pure truths of the Gospel and the receiving faculties of the human soul, but we know what the interposing obstacles are in that case. They are not in God, for one of the great characteristics of the truths of the Gospel is, that they have been so admirably adapted to man's moral need and mental aptitude. The difficulty lies in the fact that man lacks the moral disposition necessary for the proper and full perception of the pure truths of the Gospel. What, therefore, stands between man and a more certain and detailed knowledge of the existence of a life beyond ? What is it that hinders man when he attempts to penetrate into the unknown, and to discover that which is behind all that appears in this world ? What is it that interposes ? Is it man's moral character — man's nature? Or is the difficulty of intercourse and communication purely physical? Is it that the Bible was meant rather to teach man how to live on earth than to satisfy his curiosity ? It cannot be that God regards such knowledge as being outside the circle of our interest, 272 THE WAR AND WALES for these questions spring from an ineradicable instinct which it is impossible to ignore or to suppress. The after-life has, historically speaking, been a question of transcendent importance to the Welsh people ; it occupies a large place in their literature, both prose and poetic ; in their prayers and their hymnody. There is hardly a subject with respect to which they have been more eager to glean some information in the Bible, in books of sermons, and in conversation in family circles and in social life. Welsh Christians have thought of a future life as an opportunity for the renewal of inter- communion with the departed, for the exercise of such qualities as sympathy, affection, and personal holiness ; for the training of the mind to higher knowledge and of the spirit to loftier gracefulness, and above all, for a nearer approach to God. The thought of a future life has been to them a powerful incentive to prayer, worship, and right living ; it has been a palliative to the sadness and mystery of life, and a consoling response to their spiritual yearnings. But belief in an Intermediate-State or in a Second Probation has formed no part of Welsh theology, as we may learn by taking up almost any book of sermons delivered fifty or a hundred years ago, or by reading the history of religious controversies among the various sects. Welsh literature is full of allusion to Hell and Heaven, to the torments of the one and the joys of the other. The prominent theme in many of the discourses of the old preachers, which was repeated again and again, was how to escape from Hell ; it was vastly emphasized during the great revival movements. But the doctrine of an Inter- mediate or Hades-life has never appealed to the Welsh mind. Indeed, they have taught a doctrine which is entirely antithetical to it. What is the explanation ? Mental characteristics and local conditions of civilization are factors that count for variations in theological predilections ; the part played by those who lead and guide the people — their teachers and preachers — cannot be discounted. The religious leaders THEOLOGICAL THOUGHT IN WALES 273 of modern Wales have directed the gaze of the people to the Heaven-life on the one hand and to the Hell-life on the other, and that with an emphasis that did not fail to carry conviction. Heaven and Hell, to them, consti- tuted the future life ; they could not conceive of future existences apart from these. When a good man died he went straight to Heaven ; when a wicked or unconverted man died he went to Hell. It does not appear that they ever seriously considered the bearing of such a doctrine on the Day of Judgment. They believed in such a day when " The Son of Man shall come in the glory of His Father with His Angels ; and then He shall reward every man according to his works " (Matt. xvi. 27). But Welsh theology has made the event of death, not the Judgment which is to come, the determining element in deciding a man's final destiny. If the assumption is true, it is difficult to conceive where the necessity for this Day of Judgment comes in, or where it could in justice to man, to say nothing of the character of God, come in. Indeed, there will be no Judgment Day, in the literal, statistical sense in which it has been traditionally understood. By the Day of Judgment is meant the final scene when justice and injustice, right and wrong, shall part company and take respectively to their own spheres. There is another cause that accounts for the disbelief of the Welsh in an Intermediate-State or Hades-life, viz., that the word Hell has been used to translate two Greek words of completely different meanings. There are passages in the New Testament in which the word Hell is used, but which is contradicted by the corresponding passages in the Greek New Testament. It is interesting to recall the manner in which some of the Welsh preachers of our boyhood days bandied about and mixed up such words as Sheol, Gehenna, and Hades ; one was made to do service for the other. Hell was taken to express both the place of future punishments and the abode of those who, having passed away from earth, exist as disembodied spirits. Such passages as " His soul was not left in hell," were interpreted as the place of punishment, not Hades in 274 THE WAR AND WALES the sense of being an Intermediate-State into which Christ entered at His Crucifixion. The same confusion of ideas is caused by the use of the passage in the Apostles' Creed : "He descended into hell." It is so bewildering to some churchmen that they never repeat this clause of the Creed. The term Hell stands sometimes for Hell as it is regularly understood — the abode of the lost ; sometimes it stands for Hades — that is, an Intermediate-life, the place or condition into which persons pass at the moment of death in an unclothed or disembodied state. It is cover- ing very familiar ground to say that a reference to the Greek text, or to the Revised Edition of the English Bible, will determine which of the two meanings is intended. How does Welsh Anglican and Nonconformist theology stand in relation to the use of this word Purgatory? Welsh Nonconformity is not separated from Welsh Anglicanism by any very great theological or doctrinal differences. What differences that exist have been pointed out in another connection. But there is one point upon which it may be said that they have been practically agreed, viz., with regard to their estimate of the word Purgatory. It is claimed by some, though denied by others, that the Prayer Book warrants the use of the term. The claim is based on one of the prayers at the end of the Office for the Visitation of the Sick, in which it is asked that the defilements which the soul has contracted in this world may be " purged and done away," in order that " it may be presented pure and without spot " before God. But strong and widespread is the odium that attaches to the term Purgatory among both Welsh Churchmen and Welsh Nonconformists. Formerly, in the Eucharist, the names of saints were read aloud in the rolls of the Church, prayers and thanks- giving were made for them, and offerings were presented on their behalf. But this ancient practice has been modified on account of the manner in which, as it is claimed, it has been perverted in the past. It is a noteworthy fact that two of the most important THEOLOGICAL THOUGHT IN WALES 275 doctrines of the Roman Church are not Roman in origin ; viz. , that of Purgatory was discovered in the sect called Montanists, who believed in the purification of the soul after death. Even Clement of Alexandria spoke of a purifying fire for those who had led sinful lives in this world. The doctrine of Transubstantiation came from the Arabians, who were taught by the Nestorians. Neither of these doctrines has found a place in the philosophy of Welsh religion, which has been largely affected by a cast of thought which has been derived from Calvinism. Indeed, the Welsh mind is so constituted that it has been, theologically, in sympathy with intense ideas of governor and government ; whereas, politically, it has been in sympathy with the governed. Its emphasis has been, as we have already intimated, on the Sovereignty of God and with the doctrine of the Immanence of God. But the idea of Purgatory has been abhorrent to the average Welsh mind, chiefly on account of its Romish associations ; neither has it seriously considered the ques- tion of the soul in a place of discipline where sin can be purged and done away with, and where character can be improved. For this reason, while intercessory prayers for the living have had a large place in Welsh religion, it has been held that there is nothing in the Scriptures which justifies intercession for the departed, because, as it has been supposed, the horizon of hope is bounded by the grave. The suggestion of a second probation has had no attraction for the Welsh. The idea has seemed to them as it was once expressed by a prominent antagonist of this view, " a new probation, not for the culprit, but for the judge, as if they were apprehensive that, according to their scheme, He would not do exactly the right and infinitely kind and merciful thing the first time." In estimating the effect of the war on Welsh theology, it is both relevant and necessary to say, that so far as Welsh Nonconformist theology is concerned, it has been drifting, steadily, during recent years, from its Calvinistic moorings. It is still based on the supernatural standpoint of revelation, and it is still strongly entrenched under the 276 THE WAR AND WALES common concept of Protestantism ; its theory of salva- tion is entirely anti-Roman. Its three great characteristics are, its emphasis on the Person of Christ, the Cross of Christ, and the inwardness of religion — " Christ in you." But the doctrine of election and predestination, which Calvin made the focus of his system and for which he sacrificed rationality and universal love, have been, during the last generation at any rate, increasingly regarded as being incompatible with the main trend of the teaching of Christ, and with the developed insights of the Welsh. Though, probably, the leaders of the Calvinistic body in Wales would be slow to confess it, yet we think that there are clear indications that the twin-doctrines of election and predestination have lost their old grip on the Calvin- istic conscience of Wales ; they certainly do not concern the rising generation as they concern the elders. Very few among them could be brought to subscribe to the idea that the plan of salvation was devised with a view of excluding certain members of the human race. The growing feeling is, that whoever may lose everlasting life will lose it by direct opposition to the will of God. Whereas Welsh theology used to be Bibliocentric, it is now Christocentric, and the infallibility of Scriptures is no longer a postulate. The accent has been falling more and more on the human aspect of Christ's character, and the effect of this Christ-centred humanism has been to make Welsh Nonconformist theology more and more indepen- dent of the doctrine of inspiration. This doctrine, itself now one of the doctrines to be proved, is no longer regarded as an absolute warrant for all doctrines. There has been greater boldness in preaching the Gospel without considering the bearing of such preaching on traditional dogmatics, and a greater disposition to preach faith in Christ independently of Biblical problems. Unquestionably, the doctrine of future retribution does not hold the place in Welsh religious thought that it held a generation ago ; ministers of religion do not use it so freely as a warning, and it does not exercise the same influence as a working belief in the lives of the laity. THEOLOGICAL THOUGHT IN WALES 277 There has been a distinct change in the spirit of their thinking in regard to the commercial element in the Atonement as well as in regard to the nature and duration of future punishment. Very few — and they are mostly of the more unprogressive class of Welsh theologians — hold the belief that the impenitent soul is tortured and tortured for ever by an almighty wrathful God to satisfy justice. This change is mainly due to the fact that the doctrine of the Fatherhood of God, with its correlate the Brotherhood of Man, have become the working centre of the theology and anthropology of this century. From this centre, where Christ stood, the rising generation of Welshmen are deriving their present views of the character and the moral government of God, as well as their conceptions of future punishment. It seems to us that the trend of theological thought in Wales on this and on other ques- tions, is indicative of the general tendency of modern religious thought ; there is a new mental attitude to- wards all subjects — a more critical attitude. It is what Mr. Balfour calls " the psychological climate." There has also been a distinct change in the mode of presenting Gospel truths ; didactic preaching has been gradually giving way to the poetic, the practical and the fanciful. There has been very little demand for purely theological sermons, probably for the twofold reason that modern Welsh preachers have failed to make them interest- ing to the public, and that the people have been taking less interest in purely theological questions. They take but little interest in sermonic literature of any kind ; there is an increasing disposition to look upon such literature as among the most unattractive, uneducative, and perish- able form of literature. This is more applicable to the laity than to ministers, for sermonic literature of all kinds is a necessity of their calling ; it is still the mine from which they gather much of their ore, even more so than the Bible itself. Profound theologians and philosophers are rarer in Wales to-day than ever before — they have always been rare. As the pulpit re-acts upon the public mind, so does the public mind re-act upon the pulpit ; and u 278 THE WAR AND WALES it is reacting upon it more and more by compelling it to adapt its theology and its style of preaching to the tastes and prejudices of the hour. This has become a necessity of its power and popularity. It would occupy too much space to specify and to dwell upon the various influences that have punctured the thought of the Welsh religious world, and that have been the means of preparing a more sympathetic audience in different parts of the land and in different grades of society, for more embracive conceptions of the truths of the doctrines of religion ; this only need we say, that there has been a distinct movement in this direction, and that the war has certainly helped in the revulsion from the narrower theology which has, for so many generations, been accepted by Welshmen as orthodox. This is specifically applicable to the doctrine of an Intermediate- State, a second Probation, and prayers for the dead. We find no disposition to accept the suggestion that our soldiers who have fallen, have made such amends for the ' unsatisfactoriness " of their lives by the nobility of their death as to give them a moral claim upon the mercy of God. As a matter of fact, it is a libel upon the majority of those who have fallen, to imply that they were any more unprepared than those professing Christian believers who have not, for reasons unknown to themselves, taken up arms in defence of their country. But if a soldier, or any individual, can by an heroic and an unselfish act put himself right with God in and after death, what necessity was there for the sacrifice of Christ on behalf of man ? However, the war has brought about the feeling that there could not possibly be an end to all the unrealized aspirations and capabilities of the many bright young lives that have been cut off through the war. ' Looked at in the light of the character of God," declared a promi- nent Congregational minister, " I am driven to the con- viction that there must be a period of probation after this life. It was a question not to be settled by proof texts on the one side or the other; but could we think that the mercy of God would suffer men with the pure gold of THEOLOGICAL THOUGHT IN WALES 279 sacrificial devotion in them to be cast out for ever from His presence ? God forbid ! " This is by no means a voice crying in the wilderness ; and it expresses a growing conviction which has been brought about through the war, viz., that the Protestant re-action from the Roman teaching of Purgatory has gone to the other extreme. There is, most assuredly, a trend of thought among Welshmen in favour of future proba- tion — that is, if men in the next life turn in humble faith to Christ, they will find open the gates of the City which is not closed day or night. " Our young men who have fallen," observed another prominent Welshman, " have gone out of our sight, but not out of God's keeping and care and love." He further said that he could not believe that because many of them were spiritually immature or vicious, and a few vile in their manner of life, their eternal destiny had been suddenly and irrevocably fixed at the moment of such a death. He could not possibly himself damn a man to eternal perdition who had given his life voluntarily for him, and he could not believe that the God whom Jesus revealed could do such a thing. They could leave their dead heroes in the hands of Him who made them and of the Christ who gave Himself a ransom for many. What penances and disciplines awaited them in their new world he did not know ; what seemed certain was that, whether in purgatorial fires of love, or in some intermediate state of discipline, they would be given the chance, incom- pletely given them here, to rise on stepping-stones of their dead selves to better things. It is hardly necessary to say that there are many in Wales, and many Welsh ministers out of Wales, who rather shrink from the idea of future probation, of a future world in which the fight will still be carried on against sin. But the war has forced the public mind to question what was once held to be the certainty of the finality of death as fixing the eternal destiny of mankind ; it has also forced the conviction that through the sacrifice of those who have fallen we live to a great extent our old secure 280 THE WAR AND WALES life, and that they need and deserve our prayers. Many Christian men and women in the Principality are growing into the power of seeing and appreciating the ennobling, consoling, and intercessory value of prayers for the dead. In this tempest of tears, wailing and wormwood, when almost every chord of sorrow has been touched, when the lamentations that break from a thousand homes of death, becloud the dreary day and rend the awful night without a single gleam of light or stream of melody to relieve the utter piteousness of the hour, many sad souls are gradu- ally, but surely, finding comfort in praying for and in holding spiritual communion with those departed heroes — their own kith and kin — who paid the price of death that the living might have peace, liberty and security. They died, as all mortals die, in a state of imperfection, and requiring the mercy of God, though to what particular end none can tell. CHAPTER VI THE WAR AND THE SOUTH WALES MINING INDUSTRY All peoples evolve under the pressure of external factors ; this is as true of the qualities of their soul as of their social and political condition. Kant said that if it were possible to penetrate sufficiently into the character of a man or of a people, if all the circumstances which act on individual and collective wills were known, we could then calculate what the conduct of a man or of a people would be as we calculate an eclipse of the sun or moon. To trace all the circumstances which have acted on the individual and collective wills of the industrial classes in Wales during past generations, and to dwell at any length upon the effect of such circumstances upon their character, ideals, aspirations, political sentiments and conduct, would require a volume in itself. However, in broadly surveying their history and development, we are forced to the conclusion that they have undergone a certain influence which diverges very materially from that which has contributed to the mentality of other sections of the community, and that they are, therefore, distinguishable from them in many ways. This is true in a much larger measure of the mining communities than of any other, and the difference is such that it deserves to be noticed. They are rapidly becoming, industrially and politically, an independent organism in the Welsh body politic, partly for the reason that they have been more largely subject to foreign and socialistic influences than, perhaps, any other class, with the result that the purely Welsh impress is becoming less distinct and distinctive among them. 281 282 THE WAR AND WALES According to the Census Returns for the inter-censal period of 1901-1911, of the counties which absorbed population from without, the largest gains in Wales have been in the counties in which mining is the leading indus- try, viz., Monmouth (10.9 per cent.), and Glamorgan (10.6 per cent.); the county next in order is Carmarthen (8.6 per cent.). It is an interesting fact that in these mining communities the females are exceeded by the males ; Monmouth having nine women only to ten men. Glamorgan, which is considered the most cosmopolitan county in Wales, has a population, including the three boroughs, of 1,120,900, an increase of 30.3 per cent, on the figures of 1901. This increase is due mainly to migrations from England, Ireland and Scotland, and partly from certain Welsh counties such as Cardiganshire, Radnorshire, Montgomeryshire, and Merionethshire, which have lost something over and above their natural increment owing to the losses by migration. With this growing infusion of fresh blood, which is largely foreign, there has been a growing infusion of non- Cymric ideas and sentiments and traditions. After a period of digestion of new ideas, there always follows a period of incubation and creation ; it is the same in groups of men as it is in individuals ; and as the people advance, additional factors, national and international, come into operation, the effect of which grows daily. Social organization is subject to the ascendancy of outside influences in the same way as morality. Indeed, it might be said that the mining community in Wales is rapidly developing a civilization and a political morality of its own, as it has developed an organization of its own ; a civilization fashioned by no means in accordance with the Welsh model. There is no class of workers in Wales whose ambitions, as expressed in their collective action, correspond less with Welsh racial definitions. For the purely Welsh political ideal, whether of the past or of the present, they have no concern ; all that attracts them is the desire and determination to maintain and to extend their industrial rights, and to improve their economic THE WAR AND THE S. WALES MINING INDUSTRY 283 conditions. This result they are bent upon attaining by direct negotiation with the State, without the inter- ference of any other intermediary. There was a time when Welsh religious leaders, both Anglican and Non- conformist, were able to bring some amount of moral pressure to bear upon workmen — and upon the employer — during those periodical strikes which have been more frequent in Wales, and, perhaps, more violent, than in any other part of the United Kingdom. But it would be difficult to deny that the influence of the clergy and ministers of the present day is, in this connection, practic- ally nil. This is due, partly, to the fact that they have no practical knowledge of economic questions ; partly, owing to the conviction that the clergy and ministers and churches cannot be of any assistance to Trade Unions in their efforts to raise wages, or to secure better economic conditions. The industrial classes, it is said, owe no gratitude to the representatives of organized Christianity ; it has played a very ignoble part in all the great reforms of the past — industrial, social, and educational. It is to secular politicians, not to the clergy and ministers, that the world is indebted for the partial working out of the Christian law of life in those spheres where it has been applied. Secular civilization has been informed with a higher moral purpose than that which has been repre- sented by the churches. Ministers of religion have been so engrossed in the idea of saving souls that they have had no thought and no aptitude for those great questions that concern humanity at large. The State has always taken a broader and a more sympathetic view, hence it is that the State is superseding organized Christianity in its hold on popular imagination. It has also to be considered that the baser elements in industrial democracy in Wales are coming to the surface, elements that discount religious restraint of every kind, elements that have but a very imperfect sense of discipline and of social order. Unfortunately, power is being more and more vested in them, with the result that they are •284 THE WAR AND WALES getting beyond the control of the more sagacious and moderate of their leaders, and that they are, in a large measure, able to divert this new industrial force, not only from any contact with the churches, but with Christianity, and to mix up industrialism with Secularism and with what we would regard as anti-Christian Socialism, as if Secularism and this type of Socialism were essential elements of Trade Unionism. The responsibility for this slime that is being deposited in the industrial community in Wales must be shared by those politicians — some of whom occupy distinguished positions in the State — whose extreme and violent utterances concerning capital, the land, class privileges, and the rights of workmen have become incarnate in the actions of the industrial classes. They have, in the past, and for political considerations, made it their business to create a spirit of unreasonable discontent among the working classes of Wales, and of antagonism to capital and to constituted conditions ; they are reaping what they have sown. Thus it is that there has been of late years the tempta- tion, more especially in the mining communities, to allow their own interests and their own conclusions to override all other interests and conclusions. The certain knowledge that they can by concerted action plunge the community into anarchy, and the nation into distress, if their demands are not conceded, has emboldened rather than restrained them. They have become as suspicious of the Government as of the coalowners. Such, indeed, is the paradoxical character of their democracy — which is one of their lead- ing characteristics — that while they seek to restrict the interposition of the Government within narrower limits when it is likely to interfere with their course of action, they seek to enlarge it when it can be used to strengthen and solidify their own position. They invoke the aid of the State to protect it against the selfishness and tyranny of employers and landlords, but they defy the State when it infringes on their own liberty, or declines to sanction such legislation as they deem necessary in their own interest, or withholds legal recognition of their THE WAR AND THE S. WALES MINING INDUSTRY 285 activities ; they demand that capital should be regulated by law, but they resent any attempt at regulating labour by law, for that, they claim, should be left to their own powerful associations. It is tyranny, they hold, for the Government, or for the coalowners, to force them to work when they do not want to work, or to penalize them for absenting them- selves without notice or arrangement, in order to attend a funeral, or a football match, but it is not tyranny to force non-unionists to join the Federation, to intimidate, or to inflict all sorts of physical indignity upon them if they decline. The line of argument is that they can neither understand nor tolerate a type of workman who, while participating in the economic advantages which accrue through the Federation, declines to share in the responsibility, so that force, when necessary, is morally and legally justifiable. These observations are not made simply by way of de- preciation of the miners, for unquestionably they possess the organizing and administrative genius. Their confidence in themselves and the exaltation of their powers augment the intensity of their convictions. Their domestic traits and love of conviviality are very strong, so is their spirit of adventure — physical, moral and intellectual. They are Federationists first and patriots after, and patriots only after all their demands have been conceded, otherwise they strike irrespective of the consequences. They view every question in which they are industrially interested, from their own rather than from a Welsh point of view. The fundamental consideration is their own particular rights, wages, privileges, and conditions ; their solidarity has contributed to their social and political power, a power which has involved great changes in their policy, character, and habits of life. They approach industrial problems with great seriousness, and, let it be said, with capacity and pertinacity. They always make their influence felt, and when used wisely in a just cause, it should be met with a generous recognition. What fills one with fear is the fact that the character of the legislation 286 THE WAR AND WALES which they demand, and the character of the power which they claim should be invested in themselves, are such that their changes of purpose may have instantaneous effect given to them ; this would mean the giving of legal and moral approval to their mutability. The result would be that they could suddenly and with impunity declare war against capital, discard and repudiate existing obligations, without reference to the loss and ruin incurred thereby. This is what the forward spirits in industrial democracy in Wales seem to really mean, a fact worthy of the gravest attention of statesmen. Generally speaking, the Welsh miners are by no means an ascetic people, their spirit of economy in peace time is not very marked, neither is their aesthetic spirit, as one may see by their household arrangements. The generality of workmen's wives have neither the tact nor the taste for house-keeping. There is good ground for the feeling which prevails, but which for obvious reasons is not publicly expressed, namely, that the social ruination of the mining industries is caused by the mothers and daughters, through their wastefulness at home, their pride of dress and " turn out," as the saying goes. There are girls of eighteen to twenty-one who could be usefully employed at from sixteen to twenty shillings and more a month, but they hate w r ork, and yet they have no knowledge of house-keeping. Those who are tired of home life, and think it lowering, go to sweet and fancy shops, and small offices. These are typical cases. So incompetent are many of them that when they have homes of their own, they are unable to play the part of a house-wife or of a mother, or to make the home a counter-attraction for the public-house, where the men folk are often glad to go for a change. The workmen are receiving higher wages than they did, but they spend it even more freely now than in pre-war times. They enjoy themselves with additional cravings. The same is true of amusements — boxing matches, and prize-fights, they are as popular as ever. Places of enter- THE WAR AND THE S. WALES MINING INDUSTRY 287 tainment are fuller now than at any other time. The weekly cases that come before the magistrates are as numerous and as glaring as any they had to deal with before the outbreak of the war. The Sunday drinking evil in some Rhymney Valley border towns has been one of the most deplorable developments of the war in the mining districts. The increase in the number of flagon purchasers is enormous, and the increase in the number of women who frequent public-houses is enough to dishearten the most optimistic temperance reformer. The miners have great resisting powers, begotten, pro- bably, of the nature of their avocation, and they seldom count the cost. Their trust in the sense of justice of their employers has never been great, and it has grown less in recent years. It is a traditional belief among the miners that they have always been exploited for the benefit of capitalists. They are capable of heroic acts, and they have furnished supreme examples of courage and perseverance, not only in their conflicts with their masters, but in times of distress, through explosions in the mines ; remarkable indeed is the spirit of good fellow- ship that exists among them. They have strong initiative powers, and acute political instincts. They have not always kept within the bounds prescribed by law. Their collective action has, on more than one occasion, given rise to reproaches that have offended men's humanitarian instincts. A certain savage ferocity sleeps at the back of the conscience of all peoples, especially of those who have been kept under, or, who are obsessed with the idea that they are being wronged and deprived of their just reward by those whose wealth they have helped to create. The reputation for insubordination and irresponsibility and indifference to the rights and the welfare of the community at large, which they have made for themselves, is due, we believe, rather to the co-opera- tion of unfavourable circumstances in their historical evolution than to inherent disloyalty to the Constitution. Opportunity is of the very essence of their policy; for generations they have been fought against — often unjustly 288 THE WAR AND WALES and cruelly — and though defeated during many a conflict, their spirit has never been broken. This system of industrial welfare is not of recent origin, though it has been accentuated during recent years, partly through the influence of education, partly through the spread of the democratic sentiment, partly through the progress of science, partly through the tendency of civilization to level up differences, partly through exchange of ideas with fresh and foreign settlers, partly through the impact of Continental Socialism, partly through the force of their own egoism. It has been born, modified, and developed under the influence of innumerable courses; it has become more and more aggres- sive, more and more persistent as the miners have pros- pered and have become conscious of their power, with the result that economic questions have become more com- plicated, and the conflict between capital and labour more acute. Indeed, it is only by listening patiently and impartially to the statements of both employer and employed, each from his own standpoint, that one can really see what a condition Welsh industrial society is in, and how very far economic conditions and social organization are from attaining even the most elementary principles of what is termed Christian life. On the side of the miner the whole transaction may be summed up as follows : " Here are your duties," says the employer, " and here are your wages, and here our relations ends." The miner complains that he is treated as if he were a machine, without feeling, or conscience, or self-respect, or manhood ; that the capitalist procures his services for just as little requital as possible, and that he puts on the screw of requisition as severely as he can, without any sympathy or generosity. So the miner says, " If my employer has no care for me or for my interests, why should I have any care for him or for his interests." "If he measures only so much work by so much money, then I will measure just so much money by so much work." " He is not only my master but my enemy, and his enmity he conceals by deceit. He gives me THE WAR AND THE S. WALES MINING INDUSTRY 289 the shortest wage, so I will give him the shortest or the most irregular work for that wage, for I have the right to sell my labour at my own price and at my own con- venience. Power is his weapon — money power — and revenge shall be mine, and at the opportune moment." It is this sense of wrong and injustice that lies at the back of the spirit and the method in which the miner formulates his demands, and advocates the extermination of the capitalist, for he regards the capitalist as a more formidable foe than the Government ; he can, by political action, intimidate and influence the Government, whereas he cannot influence or intimidate a capitalist, who, as he thinks, has no sentiment and no consideration other than those of gain and security. Thus it is that he wants to increase and to extend the power of the State in the domain of Capitalism, or of private ownership, whether of the land or of the mines ; to undermine large proper- ties by taxes and succession duties he considers to be a wise and a righteous policy. It is of the essence of State Socialism that no land should be monopolized by private persons for speculative purposes, or for luxury, or for political power, and that unimproved land should be as heavily taxed as improved land. According to the principle of State Socialism, where a mine does not return sufficient profit to reward a private speculator, it should be developed by the Government, and where the mineral produced is essential to national existence, it should be under the control of the State. There can be no doubt that the spirit of mining labour in Wales is essentially absolutist, and that it has been growing in the Welsh coal- fields for some years past, the influences tend in this direction. The doctrine is that the industrial class is the nation, and that no others really count. The whole transaction on the part of the employer may be summed up as follows : " The workman by an incon- siderate use of his liberty endangers not only the property and interest of his employer, but the public weal ; he is a Trade-Unionist first and a patriot second ; his claims are more often than not unreasonable, and opposed to the 2 QO THE WAR AND WALES interest of the community and civil order. He mixes up Trade-Unionism with all sorts of disputable questions ; the sacredness of an agreement, whether verbal or written, and the sacredness of liberty in thought, speech, and action, he holds in very light esteem. He thinks of the rights of labour but not of its duties ; he demands arbitration, but he rebels when the award goes against him ; he boasts of his patriotism, but his patriotism goes near to be measured by his own interests, and it is seldom suffused with practical wisdom ; it is at odds with itself. He is drifting into the movement which has for its object the organization of industry by the State and the nation- alization of the mines. He is being made to believe that individualism means privilege — privilege for wealth, rank, and influence; he ignores the energy, acquisition, and industrial blessings that have been fostered by indivi- dualism. He does not realize the debt which he owes to the social and political order under which he lives, neither does he appreciate the fact that in comparison with other classes of workmen, and with other sections of the Welsh communities in Wales, the miners have more than an equality before the law. He cries for the State to help him when he ought to help himself ; he is unmind- ful of what he owes and what labour in general owes to private enterprise. His leaders are incapable of under- standing what would be the effect upon Wales and upon hours of work in the community if his extreme principle of State Socialism were carried to its logical conclusion ; his object seems to be not to awaken a government to a healthier activity, but to set its action aside." These facts and conditions are cited simply in order to indicate the direction toward which industrialism in Wales, and particularly in the mining communities, has been drifting in past years in social and political life. The question now is, what effect, if any, has the war had upon these and other economic conditions in the Princi- pality ? Undoubtedly, the war did accentuate the situa- ation, though both the miners and coalowners expressed a desire that every effort should be made to preserve peace THE WAR AND THE S. WALES MINING INDUSTRY 20,1 in the coalfields during the period of the war. The memorable strike of July, 1915, was made possible by the conditions which existed in pre-war times, and to which we have just alluded ; the circumstances of the war intensified the men's convictions that they were being exploited by their employers and by the Government. They believed that they were morally and legally entitled to a share in the boom of prosperity which, as they alleged, the war had brought to their employers. The amount of the enormously swollen profits of a Cardiff milling firm did much to aggravate the situation, for the reason that the miners were under the impression that the coalowners were interested in the firm. The situation was also aggravated by the fact that the English miners had succeeded in getting their agreement through negotiation with their employers, and by the prevailing sentiment among the miners that the Government had not exercised the influence that they might have done by bringing the masters and men together, and by forcing the former to agree to the terms of the latter, for their terms, they claimed, were eminently reasonable, they would cost no more than 4|d. per ton — " a paltry amount " ; consider- ing the high price of coal at the time, the difference to its employers, they said, would mean very little, as small coal was bringing ten to fifteen shillings a ton. The colliers, it was further claimed, had been working under a maximum clause loyally for two years, while the coalowners had been receiving all the profits from the increased price of coal. As the miners' wage had been mainly regulated by the price of coal, and as the coal- owners were getting a higher price for their coal under war conditions, it was only right that the miners' wage should be correspondingly advanced. But neither the coal- owners nor the Government would take these facts into consideration. The agreement which, as the workmen were urging, the Government was trying to impose on the miners in Wales, would place them in a different position from the miners of the English mines, and the miners of the United Kingdom should work under 292 THE WAR AND WALES one agreement in so far as the Government was concerned. The miners decided to strike in defiance of the Trade Union leaders. The Miners' Federation of Great Britain was not consulted, nor its assistance sought by the South Wales miners in the negotiations which took place re- specting the wage agreement; they acted throughout on their own responsibility, simply reporting the position and decisions to the larger organization. The leaders of the Miners' Federation of Great Britain were strongly and unanimously opposed to the stoppage of production in such a crisis, holding that the men had more to gain by remaining at work on a day-to-day contract, and continuing negotiations for a new agreement with the employers through the medium of the Board of Trade. The interposition of the Board of Trade, through Mr. Runciman, on behalf of the Government during the initial stages of the strike, did not lead to any tangible results, partly for the reason that the Miners' Executive, whom he met, had no solution to suggest, and had been repudiated by the extremists in the Welsh coalfields. It is a matter for regret that Mr. Runciman had not taken effective steps in advance in order to avert the trouble, if possible. It was within the knowledge of his department as far back as August of the previous year, that the Welsh miners' contract would expire in June, 1915, and that, therefore, a new contract would be necessary. Coal being such a speculative commodity, it was natural to suppose that pre-war conditions would be greatly altered, that the price of coal would increase, and that there would be an increased cost of production, due to the inevitable effects of the war, and that this consideration would also be a factor in deciding the amount of wages due to the men, and that the increased cost of living would be a factor. But Mr. Runciman's department did not anticipate the trouble, he took no action when the Welsh miners had given notice of their demand for a new contract, and when the coalowners, for certain reasons, declined to discuss a new contract. In July, 1915, Mr. Runciman THE WAR AND THE S. WALES MINING INDUSTRY 293 introduced a Bill regulating coal prices, that was three months after the yearly coal selling contracts had been signed, which meant that the Bill would not really affect prices for another year. No one doubted Mr. Runciman's sincerity and the earnestness of his desire to effect a settlement, but the miners and their leaders felt that he had but a very imperfect understanding of the techni- calities of the case, and that many of his suggestions were impracticable. The entry of Mr. Lloyd George into the discussion was a new phase which brought with it much relief from the difficult position into which matters had drifted. He had good credentials, for his success in solving industrial dead- locks had, it was commonly thought, been " phenomenal." Previous to his active participation in the final negotia- tions, Mr. Lloyd George had caused to be issued a Royal Proclamation applying the Munitions Act to the mining districts in Wales. The Act made and still makes it a penal offence to take part in a strike or lock-out until a dispute has been reported to the Board of Trade, and twenty-one days have elapsed without its being referred to a court of arbitration — when it has been so referred the award is binding. This means compulsory arbitration. Strikers are liable to a fine not exceeding £5 a day, and for incitement to strike the penalty is £50. The Act, which is explicitly appli- cable to all munition works, is capable of being extended to any other industry by Royal Proclamation. When the Bill was before Parliament, the representatives of the miners endeavoured to get a clause inserted exclud- ing the miners, at the same time offering to guarantee that there should be no strike during the war. But Lloyd George declined. Knowing the history of the South Wales mining industry, and the growing influence of the extremists, who are either Socialists or Syndicalists, he, probably, felt that he could not rely on any such under- taking given by the Parliamentary representatives or officials of the Union. Indeed, it could hardly be said that they were, really, in a position to give such a guarantee, x 294 THE WAR AND WALES partly for the reason that they depended for their official position on the support of the men, and that that support was very doubtful at the time. Their authority had been tested on many previous occasions, but never so seriously as during the war. In so far as Trade Unionism is concerned it failed, and its failure revealed a vital weakness in Welsh industrial democracy. It also re- vealed the weakness of Lloyd George. If one of the objects of the Act was to prevent strikes, one wonders why he ever troubled Parliament to arm him with such a powerless weapon. The influence of the moderate leaders among the miners, notably men of the type of Mr. William Abraham, M.P., has invariably been exercised in favour of peaceful and rational settlements. They had the courage to tell the men that they were wrong when that was their con- clusion, with the result that they were privately and publicly accused not only of being in league with, but in the secret pay of, the employers. Mr. Abraham has, in the past, had his share of abuse, and on one notable occasion, of violence. What industrial democracy lacks is gratitude, what it is afflicted with is insane suspicion of the sincerity and integrity of those who seek to correct and to restrain it. One of the causes that account for the decline of the authority of the moderate leaders among the miners, is the fact that they have not shown the same vigour in combating socialistic and syndicalist influences as the Socialists and Syndicalists have displayed in strengthening their own position. The lodge meetings at which dele- gates are appointed are often not well attended by the moderates, so that the extremists are able to elect as delegates men of their own way of thinking, with the result that they exercise in the conferences an influence which is out of all proportion to their numerical strength. A motion to take a ballot of the miners was vigorously and successfully opposed by them at the delegates' meeting at Cardiff when the fatal step was taken, and that for the reason that they feared that the result would be against THE WAR AND THE S. WALES MINING INDUSTRY 295 them. Also, the identification of the political Labour Party with the Liberal Government has served to aug- ment the prestige of local leaders, so that local control has been gradually superseding Parliamentary control. Herein, in part, was the power of the late Mr. Keir Hardie. He and his followers never neglected the lodge meetings, and thus they never failed to secure the election of dele- gates that were imbued with socialistic and syndicalist principles. His assumption of the role of an independent critic of every Government, and that, as he claimed, in the interest of the working classes, caused him to be regarded within his ow r n circle, and by some clerics, as the very embodiment of valorous virtue, whose self- abnegation was a standing rebuke to those political Labour representatives who had " sold their souls and the souls of the workmen " to the officials of the Liberal Party. It is a mere truism to say that Mr. Keir Hardie w r as a mystery, for such was the complexity of his moral and mental make-up, and his self-contradictoriness, that those who understood, or who professed to understand him, were few in number. He provoked boundless enthusiasm among some, who freely and gladly gave him their service without any thought of a reward. To unwary electors he was highly dangerous — politically ; for he had the gift of inoculating their minds with ideas and theories, essentially spurious, in the most irreproachable fashion, and clothed in the most alluring language. Superficially, he w r as the incarna- tion of innocency ; fundamentally he was the apostle of anarchy. A reformer he was not, for his spitefulness was stronger than his philanthropy. He loved man, especially man in his trial and poverty and weakness, but so intense was his dislike of recognized leaders that he opposed or held aloof from movements whose purpose must have inwardly appealed to him. Hence his false step in vainly trying to induce the miners to oppose the war, and to refuse to produce coal while the war lasted. He did not lack native ability and astuteness, but he lacked moral and intellectual congruity ; the grain of moral good that was in him was vitiated by his political 296 THE WAR AND WALES malignity ; he was at odds with himself, with his nation, and with the spirit of liberty in which he boasted. Peace among the nations of the earth he idealized, yet war between the classes he elevated into a religion. He has had his revenge in that he gave form and vitality to incipient rebellion in the Welsh coalfields, in that he widened the breach between industrial and Liberal democracy, and in that he created a spirit of antagonism between local and Parliamentary Labour control. This, so far as we can see, apart from the creation of the Independent Labour Party, was his contribution to social and political science. He was a disintegrating rather than an integrating personality in national life. That his ideals will be maintained in the Welsh coal- fields there can be no doubt, and maintained at the cost of industrial peace and social well-being. His theory that capitalism per se had failed, and that nationalization must, therefore, take its place, for the reason that the nation is greater than the property, and that the industrial classes are the nation, has gained considerable force. The dele- gates at the Cardiff meeting which decided to strike, were his disciples ; that the delegates twice repudiated the Executive Council, was due, mainly, to his influence, though the Executive Council is the permanent governing body of the Federation and conforms to its standing principles. The Executive Council was in favour of advising the men to resume work on a day-to-day con- tract, and to resume the negotiations which had been carried on for three months prior to the strike ; but the extremists argued that the miners had continued to work for two weeks after the expiration of the old contract — that the masters had said that they could not agree to the terms of the men — in the hope that they would reach a settlement ; the masters, they said, had resisted every effort of the men to better their condition, and were now taking advantage of the national emergency to withstand and to set aside their most reasonable demands, which, had there been no war, w r ould have been secured by a long and bitter struggle. It was essential, they urged, to secure an THE WAR AND THE S. WALES MINING INDUSTRY 297 agreement that would ensure a continuance of their present rate of wages after the war was over ; they had to think of the possibilities of the future. To keep the collieries going would be to help the Government and the employers, and both were conspiring to defraud the work- men of their rights. No Government, no power on earth, could force the miners to produce coal if they did not wish to do so. Thus the delegates outvoted the Execu- tive Council, and rushed the miners into a disastrous strike, which, if it had continued a week or so longer, would have brought to a standstill many steel, tinplate and fuel works in South Wales. Coal-mining is a complicated trade, and few there are outside the business who are in a position to judge mining disputes in all their aspects. But that the decision of the Cardiff conference was a blunder was apparent even to those who were not unfriendly to the men. Up to that point, as far as the public could understand, the miners had a case and a right to be heard ; in the opinion of some they had an overwhelming case. But to refuse to keep at work on day-to-day contracts, while there was hope that further negotiations with the Government would result in some of the men's demands being conceded, was a very grave mistake. It was a graver mistake to strike at a time when the safety of the country was at stake, and without exhausting all other methods of settling the dispute. Instead of gaining they lost public sympathy. To say, as the extremists and others said, that the masters had been manoeuvring for such a posi- tion and that the miners had walked into the trap, was as false and as unworthy as the suggestion that the miners were acting under German influences, and had been bought by German gold. It was the refusal of the con- ference to accept the advice of the majority of the Execu- tive Council that manoeuvred the Federation into a false position, and that caused the miners to forfeit public sympathy at home and abroad. Even Continental Socialists were bewildered. Revolu- tionaries, holding the most extreme views, were unanimous 298 THE WAR AND WALES in their condemnation of the action of the Welsh miners. M. Gustave Herve, the once-famous anti-militarist and unfailing supporter of all the past revolutionary strikes in France, addressed himself as follows to the Welsh miners in an article which he wrote to the Guerre Sociale : "Here we have workmen* who' must earn about £16 a month. Because the war has increased the price of the coal which they extract from the mine, because the cost of living is dearer, they quietly decide to fold their arms and do nothing. That we Frenchmen, whose chief coal mines are in the enemy's possession, are short of coal for our machinery is the least of their cares. By slacken- ing work they will stop the English and French factories making ammunition. I ask what do they care provided that they can have an extra glass or two to drink every day? That their comrades who are at the front, and as it is have by no means too much ammunition, will have still less, thanks to their strike, interests them not at all. That owing to their egoism our pessimists in France will spread about the absurd calumny that the English people is indifferent to the martyrdom of Belgium and our seven departments occupied by the Germans — that is a con- sideration of too high a moral standpoint to touch their consciences an instant. . . . Do they imagine that in a civilized world all able-bodied men can be mobilized with- out every one suffering ? Do they suppose that the hundreds of thousands of brave English who are in the trenches, frozen in winter, roasted in summer, under perpetual menace from bullets and shells, are enjoying themselves comfortably ? And the four or five million Frenchmen who have left their businesses, who have seen their affairs ruined, and have lost their wages, whose families live on one shilling a day, and themselves receive a halfpenny a day— do the Welsh miners think they are on a bed of roses ? . . . A strike at such a moment, when we are all fighting for liberty and the independence of Europe ! Call it what you will. For myself, I call it a crime, high treason not only against England, but against France and all the Allies." Judging by the comments in the Temps, Figaro, Eclair, Echo de Paris, and leading French-Swiss papers, the whole movement was regarded as more important in the en- lightenment it afforded than in its effect — enlightenment THE WAR AND THE S. WALES MINING INDUSTRY 299 of the characteristics of the Welsh miners, and the tradi- tional good sense of the British people. The question in France was whether a party whose programme con- tained such surprises in time of war was qualified to direct the State. Some of the French papers refused to believe that the Welsh miners had really considered the terrible accusation to which they were open. Others frankly stated that they had committed a crime against the liberty and independence of the people by their action, which would seriously affect the British Fleet, and the war industries of England, France and Italy. Every- where on the Continent, except in Germany and Austria and Turkey, the Welsh strike was regarded as a dangerous swing back of the pendulum, and the hope was expressed that the Welsh miners would compare their own behaviour with the behaviour of French Socialists, and their own manifesto with the manifesto issued by the French Socialists. Equally interesting were the suggestions advanced, both abroad and at home, as a solution to the difficulty. " If we are not," it was said in France, " to succumb in the duel which is in progress, it is important to militarize not only the armed masses but also the production of the soil and labour. When this revolution is an accomplished fact, England, transformed and unrecognizable, will have the right to reply that she, like ourselves, has done all she can for the triumph of the Allies." Among the Socialist section of the South Wales Miners' Federation, it was proposed that the Government should assume con- trol of the mines during the war, and nationalize the food supplies, and all supplies of ammunition and arma- ments, and shipping and manufactures, and all the natural wealth of the country, and compel the employers and the so-called governing classes to do their share. The Coalition Government having a greater representative capacity could venture to take this step ; it was even intimated, with a false show of sincerity, that when the Government had done this, the miners as well as the working classes in general, would not oppose conscription. 300 THE WAR AND WALES The mutiny, said some persons in England, could only be quelled by sending a strong man used to handling and controlling large bodies of men, down to the Welsh coal- fields — preferably a soldier or a sailor. This, like many other suggestions, shows how imperfectly the essential facts had been grasped in England. The suggestion made by the Archbishop of Canterbury, supported by the Bishop of Llandaff, Dr. Clifford and other Free Church leaders, was that prayers should be offered in all the churches and mission-rooms in the diocese of Llandaff on Sunday, July 18th, 1915, for an immediate and satis- factory settlement of the strike. The very men on whom such prayers were supposed to react were the men who would absent themselves from such meetings. The suggestion was largely regarded as an additional proof of the impotence of organized Christianity and of its leaders, and their utter want of the sense of the fit- ness of things. Not only in the Welsh coalfields, but in other industrial districts, religion is passing very rapidly into a mere recognition of ethical principles ; to invite them to prayer in an industrial dispute is like casting pearls before swine ; not only do they not appreciate it, but they resent it. It was proposed in some quarters, that as a large number of the W T elsh colliers were in favour of State ownership of the mines, the strike offered a good opportunity for them to have the experience, for the period of the war, of what State ownership means. " Form the mine- managers," they said, " into a Committee under the Government, let them fix reasonable wages, give the shareholders the same interest as that on the War Loan, and take any surplus for the use of the State. Let all agitations be prohibited, and any refusal to work or to obey orders be treated as it would be in the Army." For ourselves we may say that it would have been far more helpful if the Government could have seen its way at the very commencement of the strife to assure all concerned, that it would, under the statutory powers which it possessed, proceed without delay to limit the THE WAR AND THE S. WALES MINING INDUSTRY 3OI profits of the employer to those which approximately coincided with the scale of remuneration which obtained in pre-war times. The crux of the difficulty was the extra profits the employers were making in consequence of the war, and the determination of the men to benefit through it. " Give us," they said, " an agreement in some way commensurate with the profits which are made on the commodity which we produce, and for which we risk our lives." "We are not fools, neither are we unpatriotic; the suggestion that the Germans are at the back of this business, is as cowardly as it is false ; as many as 50,000 husbands and sons — all miners from the Welsh coalfields — are at this moment in the fighting line." There was another remedy proposed, viz., that a man of commanding personality should be authorized to visit the Welsh coalfields, a man who could speak to the miners with all the moral power of which the Government was capable. The idea was that he should frankly and boldly lecture them on their delinquencies, bring home to them a sense of their treachery, and the ineffable stupidity and criminal folly of their leaders. They were to be told that the Government could have no dealings with them until they had returned to work. Absolute surrender first, negotiation afterward. They were to have no con- sideration until they were humbled, for they were a byword among the nations. If they would not yield, then conscription immediately, and martial law throughout the country. After Mr. Asquith had made a supreme effort to bring the deadlock to an end, and had with tears in his eyes confessed his failure to the House of Commons, a man of commanding personality did go down to Cardiff, where he, together with Mr. Runciman and Mr. Arthur Henderson, conferred, separately, with the masters and men. There was a rueful humour in the fact that Lloyd George should be sent to allay the storm of envy and class hatred which at one time he did so much to raise. There was also a grim irony in the fact that he should go on a mission of conciliation some time after he had, on behalf of the 302 THE WAR AND WALES Government, applied the provisions of the Munitions Act by Royal Proclamation to the Welsh coalfields, and had actually set up Tribunals. True, the Government had no option but to issue the Proclamation, but we have yet to learn how they meant or how they could possibly enforce it against a combina- tion of a quarter of a million of miners. Lloyd George must have known that no class of men are more obdurate in the face of coercion than the South Wales miners, and that force, whether by statute or otherwise, would be a highly dangerous policy as applied to them. To attempt to execute it would be to aggravate rather than to solve the difficulty. No award, whatever the authority at the back of it, is binding in the South Wales coalfield. If the law allows it, then the law must be either amended or annulled. This is the philosophy of labour in South Wales. The Proclamation was received by the moderate section with dismay, but by the extremists with exultation. The most suitable contribution to every industrial difficulty is, according to their idea, a torrent of abuse of employers, capitalists, and of every authority, except their own com- bined authority. The Proclamation gave the extremists another opportunity to harangue the miners on the tyranny of the ruling classes, inflated prices, and the exploitation of the worker. They talk as if they know everything about colliery management, the investment of capital, business policy, and the principles of political economy, whereas their ability does not extend beyond the orbit of destructiveness. To have wealth is to be suspected of peculation; to be powerful, except in a labour sense, is to involve ostracism. Lloyd George must have known that he was not a persona grata with the extremists when he went to Cardiff, and that a large number of the more moderate men keenly resented the Proclamation ; the remembrance of it was like the gall of asps within them ; they were in a malicious and mischievous mood, and by no means fit subjects for lectures on their own " treachery and the criminal folly of their leaders." Lloyd George knew THE WAR AND THE S. WALES MINING INDUSTRY 303 this ; he knew that threats and abuse would be worse than useless for men who were in the gall of bitterness. It might be a popular method of dealing with dukes, and landowners, and with those " who toil not, neither do they spin, and yet have a superabundance." Thus it was honey, not wormwood, that he took with him to Cardiff where he arrived on Monday, July 19th, 1915, at 9.15 p.m., immediately proceeding, in the company of the South Wales Miners' Federation, to a conference with them at the Park Hall, which did not close till after midnight. Tuesday morning, July 20th, he again met the miners' representatives at the Park Hotel ; and at noon the same day he conferred with the South Wales and Monmouth- shire Coalowners' Association, who had placed themselves unreservedly in the hands of the Government. The strike was settled the same evening, in time for some of the miners' leaders to reach their homes early enough to address mass meetings of men, by whom resolutions were passed accepting the terms of settlement. Next day, Wednesday, July 21st, at 12.30 noon, the miners' delegate conference finally and formally by resolution, at the Cory Hall, Cardiff, accepted the terms, after which Lloyd George and others addressed the conference. He thanked them in both Welsh and English, and he reiterated his thanks in those honeyed phrases of which he is past master. And for what did he thank them ? For agree- ing to accept practically all that they had demanded. What was the position that confronted Lloyd George, Walter Runciman, and Arthur Henderson? On the one hand, they found the employers in a receptive mood, prepared to abide by the decision of the Govern- ment. On the other, the men were in a truculent mood. At a delegate conference of miners held at Cardiff on July 13th, the following resolution was adopted : " That we do not accept anything less than our original pro- posals, and that we stop the collieries on Thursday next until these demands are conceded." Due effect was given to this resolution. On Thursday, July 16th, the whole coalfield was idle ; and it remained idle for a whole week. 304 THE WAR AND WALES An analysis of the miners' original claims goes to show that no other scheduled class of workers would benefit through them more than the collier. To say, as some of the miners' leaders have said, that they were thinking only of the " under-dogs " in the industry who do not dig coal — such as the surfacemen, etc. — is palpably untrue. The men's representatives made a great point of the alleged fact that their original demands would not cost the owners more than a "paltry 4I6.. per ton." This amount was the total of an estimate over a whole year for every affected class of labour prepared by the officials of the Federation and handed to Mr. Runciman during the negotiations in London : Underground day wage men . . . . £277,102 Night hauliers . . . . . . . . 14,237 Surfacemen . . . . . . . . uncertain. Underground day men (increased stan- dard rates) . . . . . . . . 31,860 Colliers, by alteration of standard and 50 per cent, addition to new standard 319.707 Afternoon and night shift men, by bonus turn . . . . . . . . . . 274,907 £9i7.8i3 As the owners explained, these figures represent the increased cost when 22| per cent, (representing the work- men's demand for a minimum of 10 per cent, on the new standard, and the equivalent percentage on the new standard rate of the 17$ per cent, war bonus on the old standard rate granted last May) has been added to the new standard. In addition to this, as the employers pointed out, the abolition of the maximum clause would also mean to the hewers a larger monetary value from any increase in the percentage on standard rates than the same percentage would mean to any of the day or time rates of other classes, and that for the simple and sufficient reason that their standard earnings are higher. THE WAR AND THE S. WALES MINING INDUSTRY 305 The officials of the Federation, in their negotiations with Mr. Runciman, placed the estimated cost of the demands concerning surfacemen at about £50,000 per annum. Thus it is seen that the estimate of the " paltry 4|d. per ton " was arrived at by the men's representatives by distributing the workmen's estimated cost of their demands over the whole of the output of the coalfields. As the employers justly pointed out, one of the strongest arguments in favour of their demands was that some of the most expensive of them were already in vogue over large parts of the coalfield. Hence the cost of the con- cessions of the demands to some companies would be considerably heavier than the average ; in some cases, as a matter of fact, it would have represented anything from o,d. to is. per ton. The Conciliation Board had an agreement for five years, with three months' notice then to be given, terminating its operation. That term of five years expired on March 30th, and the three months' notice given by the miners on June 30th. For months, even years, before this, the workmen had informed their employers that they would not agree to the renewal of the old agreement, and for several months prior to the strike they had asked the owners to enter into negotiation for a new agreement, a request which the owners unfortunately declined, suggesting that the men should work on till the end of the year, leaving them then to negotiate an agreement. The men submitted terms, the owners submitted none. On June 30th the Government suggested terms which favourably impressed the miners, and their Executive Council, by a majority of eleven, decided to recommend the miners to continue to work on a day-to-day contract for fourteen days in order to enable the agreement to be drawn up and signed. But when the Government terms, accompanied by Mr. Runciman's interpretation, were submitted to the men's conference on July 12th, the extremists argued that the Government terms were not so satisfactory as they appeared at first. In the light of Mr. Runciman's explanations, the terms appeared to 306 THE WAR AND WALES them to be insufficient and lacking finality, leaving too many points to be considered by the independent chair- man. Also, that the terms were hedged around with all sorts of impossible conditions, and savoured of compulsory arbitration ; so the extremists, against the advice of their Executive Council, refused to give the Government any further opportunity to negotiate terms, and demanded the withdrawal of the Proclamation, with the result that the Federation, to quote the words of one of the extremists, " was on the very brink of a precipice. It stood in that position of extreme peril and absolutely unprotected. Public opinion was against it because of its refusal to give the Government a little more time. It stood abandoned by the whole of the Labour movement of the country, both industrial and political." A strange statement from a leader who had done, as it was stated at the time, perhaps, as much as anyone else — if not, indeed, a great deal more than any other leader — to create such a feeling in the coalfield as to make a strike inevitable. Even as recently as July ist he had declared that " unless the demands of the workmen were conceded nothing that the Government or the Executive could do would prevent the Welsh coalfield coming to a standstill at the end of fourteen days." Here is a noteworthy fact that the leader who was threatening a strike a fortnight before it took place, and warning the Government that fourteen days was " at most " the time which would be allowed it to discuss matters with the Executive, is the leader who admitted that the leaders and the men who took part in that strike were condemned by public opinion and abandoned by the whole of the Labour movement ! It should, however, be noted that the difference between the extremists and moderates was merely a matter of tactics ; they were all agreed that their original demands were reasonable, that the employers were exploiting them, that the employers alone were responsible for the high prices of coal — not the dealers or middlemen; that the Government was responsible for the policy of drift; that compulsory arbitration, for them, was out of the THE WAR AND THE S. WALES MINING INDUSTRY 307 question ; that the Royal Proclamation by which the provisions of the Munitions Act were applied to the South Wales coalfields, was a grave mistake on the part of Lloyd George and the Cabinet. True, the Proclamation raised the issue of the authority of the law, and placed Mr. Runciman in an impossible position as a peacemaker. It was no longer a conflict between employer and em- ployed, but between the employed and governmental authority. If the miners had resumed work after the issue of the Proclamation, in order to facilitate further negotiations with Mr. Runciman, it would have been legal for the Government to withdraw it, for the reason that the men, being at work, would not be jeopardizing the interests of the Navy, or of the nation, and such an understanding would have expedited a settlement. But the advice of the Executive had proved unavailing ; some of the extremists had not only predicted but threatened a strike a fortnight before it took place, and had been using their influence in that direction. The Proclamation had no terrors for them ; they even welcomed it. The President of the Miners' Federation warned the Government that it might be able to destroy but never to coerce the South Wales miners. He knew, as others knew, that it was not the intention of the Government to send troops to South Wales; not a man would pay a fine and there was not sufficient accommodation in the gaols of South Wales for a quarter of a million of men. In brief, the Federa- tion had arrogated to itself greater authority than the Government. Lloyd George saw that there were only two alterna- tives, either a surrender to the men, or a civic strife, the end of which no man could calculate. He realized that to vindicate the law of the land would be a costly business, both in money and in blood. As it was the stoppage resulted in a loss of 1,000,000 tons of coal, beside the loss in revenue ; the annual quantity of coal raised at the South Wales coalfields is about 56,000,000 tons per annum. Lloyd George felt as Mr. Asquith did, when the latter declared in the House of Commons that the solution of 308 THE WAR AND WALES the deadlock was to be found on the lines of agreement rather than of coercion, though he himself had tried to effect a settlement on these lines, but failed. The em- ployers had committed a grave mistake by refusing to negotiate with the men for a new agreement, and the men had committed a graver mistake by not following the advice of their Executive: this they did in the face of the fact that it would have been to their own interests to do so, and in spite of the fact that they had been working full time on a maximum basis of wage rate, and that they had the further benefit of a war bonus of iyl per cent. The men only thought of themselves, their own claims, and their own future, after the war. Their maxim, which they had elevated into a religion, was that their country's necessity was the miners' opportunity. So they reaffirmed their original demands, which involved : (a) A new stan- dard 50 per cent, above the old ; (b) five shillings a day for surfacemen; (c) a minimum of 10 per cent, above the new standard rate, but no equivalent selling price; (d) six turns for five for afternoon and night shifts ; (e) equal payment for night and day hauliers ; (/) a clause dealing with non-Unionists ; (g) a period over which the new agreement is to run — for six months after the war, but not for three years from the date of signing. Mr. Walter Runciman's proffered terms embodied the following points : (a) The standard rates of surfacemen which are below 3s. 4d. per day to be advanced to 3s. 4d. per day ; (b) the payment to men employed on the afternoon and night shifts of six turns for five ; (c) hauliers employed on the afternoon and night shifts to be paid the same rates of wages as those employed on the day shift ; (d) a new standard of 50 per cent, on the 1879 standard to be established, the standards in operation other than the 1879 standard to be corres- pondingly adjusted (this alteration in the standard not to involve any change in wages) ; (e) the minimum and maximum clauses in the expired 1910 agreement not to be THE WAR AND THE S. WALES MINING INDUSTRY 309 operative ; (/) any question of interpretation arising on these terms to be submitted in writing. References were also made to the interpretations placed upon these terms by Mr. Runciman, and it was explained that difficulties had arisen in regard to the acceptance of these interpretations as well as to the actual terms offered. These latter were considered by the miners' representatives as inadequate, and it was for this reason that the terms, coupled with the interpretations, were rejected. By the Lloyd George settlement the miners secured : (a) A new standard 50 per cent, above the old ; (b) five shillings a day for surfacemen ; (c) a minimum of 10 per cent, above the new standard rate, but no equivalent selling price ; (d) six turns for five for afternoon and night shifts ; (e) equal payment for night and day hau- liers ; (/) a clause dealing with non-Unionists ; (g) a period over which the new agreement was to run— for six months after the war. Thus, it will be seen that the miners secured for themselves a minimum wage on a high basis, no matter how prices may recede during the present temporary agreement. This settlement was made possible by the patriotic attitude of the coalowners. It put an end to the strike, but it did not solve the problem. As some saw at the time, and as subsequent events have shown, it was a surface settlement. Like his settlement of the Irish question, it was not statesmanship, but a species of legerdemain, and indicating haste rather than thorough- ness. As he has the gift of making the public believe that he has an acquaintance with subjects that are beyond his reach, so he has the gift of making the public believe that he has accomplished what he has not. As he can, and often does, exaggerate his case, so he can, and often does, exaggerate his results, or cause them to appear in a light which the facts do not warrant. With every desire to do full justice to his great talents and his great services, we are forced to the conclusion that he has received, through the Cardiff settlement, much more Y 310 THE WAR AND WALES credit than is due to him, as he has received in other cases. This criticism will be amply justified by our analysis of the agreement. One defect in the settlement was, that it did not make it clear to both sides as well as to the public, whether the new agreement was supplemental to, or a substitute for, the old agreement. This important omission has given rise to further trouble ; whether the old agreement is legally and morally still in existence has yet to be decided, either by negotiation or strike. The owners contend that the Government terms of settlement, upon which a resump- tion of work was effected, should be added to the old agreement, and that the latter should still be operative where it is not altered by the new terms; while the workmen's representatives maintain that inasmuch as the old agreement expired at the end of June, 1915, it should be regarded as defunct, and that, therefore, no reference should be made to the old agreement, and that it should in no way affect the provisions of the new agree- ment. At the moment of writing it remains with the President of the Board of Trade to try to bring about an amicable settlement. Neither has the clause relating to the non-Unionist question, which was incorporated in the Lloyd George agreement, helped to solve the problem. This difficulty is as acute as ever ; it is even more so ; it has developed with the circumstances of the war. The miners' leaders have revived the controversy, and are threatening another strike unless it is settled to their own satisfaction. Their argument is that the position which they took up during the years preceding the war has been vastly strengthened by the war. As the miners are engaged in a reserved industry — a most essential industry for the successful prosecution of the war — it is an obligation upon non- union men to become members of the Union, because by refusing they are causing strife and agitation, and risking the disruption of the mining industry and a stoppage of the works, by which there would be withheld from the Navy the coal they require, and from the Allies the very THE WAR AND THE S. WALES MINING INDUSTRY 311 material upon which success must be established. They go further ; they hold that it is the duty of the coalowners and of the Government to interfere between the Unionists and non-Unionists. The employers should either refuse to employ non-Unionists or take means to force them to join the Union, especially as Trade- Unionists have, for the duration of the war, set aside their rules and allowed women to be employed in different industries. As the workers have suspended their rules, the employers should suspend theirs, and thus promote industrial peace in war time, and put an end to what Unionists consider to be a scandal and a disgrace. Without entering into the merits of the case, we may observe that this affords another example of that political insight which is so characteristic of the miners' leaders, and of the manner in which the maxim that " the nation's necessity is the miners' opportunity," is being enforced, and enforced in ways that tend to make the attitude of the Federation appear most just and reasonable to the uninitiated. This difficulty has been aggravated by the fact that many Dean Forest and Bristol miners, and many farm labourers, and other classes of workmen from North Wales, and West Wales, have been flocking into the Wales mines, the former because of the higher wages ruling and the shortage of labour in the Welsh coalfield, the latter in order to evade military service, because under- ground workmen are in a reserved occupation, though on account of the large number of enlistments the number of men employed in the coal mines is still many thousands below the number engaged before the war. The reason assigned by the officials of the Federation for " dragooning " members of the Craftsmen's Union and other Unions into the Miners' Federation is, to prevent only a few men belonging to the Craftsmen's Association to go on strike on some petty dispute, and thus hold up a thousand — and, in some cases, a few thousand — members of the Federation, and enforce them into a strike, because one Federation cannot "blackleg" another Union. Also, that the 312 THE WAR AND WALES employers in granting to these men their terms are anticipating the worst that could happen, and helping the cause at the same time, the very thing that they desire not to bring about. But it has to be stated that sectional strikes among the Craftsmen and other Union men outside the Federation have been due, in a very large measure, to the utterances of members of the Federation, who so often boast of the manner in which they have forced their employers to grant concessions and of the high prices given. The Federationists seek to justify their action on another ground, viz., that should the Enginemen's Association continue on its own, and should they strike, it would involve members of the Federation, who, being idle through no fault of their own, would demand strike pay from the Federation. We need only observe here that if the Federationists would have the same care for the interests of other people as they are expecting from the Craftsmen's Union and other Unions, there would be far less trouble in the Welsh coalfields ; and less anxiety for the nation and the Government. W T hen the miners' leaders do a thing themselves, it is legitimate, but when the same thing is done to them it becomes an outrage. It is a peculiar fact that in action, at any rate, the South Wales Miners' Federation do not regard as Union- ists workers who belong to Unions other than the Federa- tion, and that they have struck, ostensively, against the employment of non-Unionists, whereas all the workers were Unionists, for they had and still have Unions of their own ; such, for instance, as the Engincmen and Stokers' Association, and the Gasworkers' Union. Bluntly speaking, the action of the Miners' Federation in all such cases has been, and will be, to coerce non-Unionists and Unionists who have their own Associations into joining the Federation. The following notice, which was posted at the pithead of the Standard (United National) Colliery at Ynyshir in the Rhondda Valley, affords an eloquent comment on these matters. It was posted by the local official of the South Wales Miners' Federation : "A general meeting has decided that a show of Federation THE WAR AND THE S. WALES MINING INDUSTRY OJ-O cards take place at this colliery next week, commencing on September 13th, and to continue throughout the week if necessary. Further, that all men, including surface craftsmen, stokers, etc., must produce a Federation card with all dues paid, according to rule. Those failing to comply with the above conditions will be sent home with- out question. There will be no exception, not even of men forgetting their cards. So kindly read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest these contents. All true Union men will render every assistance, others will be assisted. All members are earnestly requested to wear their badges and carry their contribution card with them throughout the week." As a matter of fact the enginemen and stokers, who belong to a society of their own, have in the past operated as a safeguard of the interests of the coalowners and even of themselves. During a strike it has been the practice of the enginemen to keep the pits in working order while the miners were righting the coalowners, so that work could be resumed promptly when the contest was over. If this were not done, in many instances the pits would be flooded within a week, and then perhaps work could not be recommenced for months. In that event the miners would surfer quite as much as the owners. The members of the Miners' Federation are now ex- ploiting the war in favour of this arbitrary policy which they are pursuing, and they are using threats against the employers because they will not assist them to give effect to this policy, while at the same time they profess to the Government and the public at large that they are straining every nerve to avoid a stoppage of work during the period of the war. One regrets to have to record in these pages that, broadly speaking, in the mind of militant trade unionists in South Wales, the output of coal, the necessities of the nation even at this critical hour, and the peace and welfare of the community, are of secondary importance compared with the promotion of trade unionism ; if they succeed, either with or without the help of the Government, in 314 THE WAR AND WALES forcing other workers who have Associations of their own into the Federation, they will acquire a new weapon of industrial warfare of extraordinary power. On March 17th a tentative agreement was arrived at on the non-Unionist question, designed to prevent stoppages during the war ; but as the miners' leaders have declared, the whole question will be reviewed after the war. The main provisions of the new settlement are that there will be no notices given to cease work on account of non-Unionism, and no stoppages, nor will there be any " show cards." The owners will supply to the Miners' Federation and other Unions concerned a list of men employed, a list once a fortnight of those who leave the colliery, and a list of new workmen employed. The liberty of the subject is, it is said, maintained by giving the men power to join whichever Union they choose, but it is compulsion nevertheless. If any difficulties arise which cannot be adjusted, they must be referred to Sir George Askwith, the Chief Industrial Commissioner. This provisional arrangement is an additional illustra- tion of the selfishness and arbitrariness of the miners, and of the persistency with which they exploit the war in their own interests. The coalowners have again subordinated their own views and interests so that the nation should not suffer. They even offered to deduct weekly from workmen's wages the amount of each man's contribution, and hand over the moneys thus collected to the treasurers of the Trade Unions to which the workmen belong, but this offer was rejected. The miners' repre- sentatives wanted the coalowners to join with them in coercing the non-Unionists to become members of the Federation. In virtue of this settlement the non-Unionists are compelled, during the war, to become members of one of the recognized Trade Unions — the South Wales Miners' Federation, or the Monmouthshire and South Wales Association of Colliery Enginemen, Stokers, and Craftsmen, or the South Wales Windingmen's Associa- tion. The Federationists have made it clear that their undertaking to withdraw notices, or to prevent stoppages, THE WAR AND THE S. WALES MINING INDUSTRY 315 only refers to this particular question. Other issues are being raised, and when the war is over they will renew the struggle over this and other matters. They are deter- mined, come what may, to force workers of all grades to join the Federation, and to force the other Unions to merge themselves in the Federation, so that its power, when it strikes, will be absolute, and the injury caused to the mines will be as disastrous as they can make it. In order to strengthen their position, they have even attempted to force the hands of the Miners' Federation of Great Britain to prevent the Executive from entering into any guarantee or ageement with the Government or any other body where questions of principle are involved before the matter has been decided by a national con- ference called for the purpose. This was as a criticism of the action of the Executive in entering into an agree- ment with Lloyd George to avoid all industrial disputes during the war as a condition of the miners being omitted from the Munitions Act. There are other matters in dispute which have arisen out of the Lloyd George agreement. One of them is the contention of the miners that the Government by striking out certain words in the old agreement, implied that they were entitled to higher pay for Sunday night work than for the usual week-night shift. Mr. Lleufer Thomas, the Pontypridd Stipendiary, decided against the workmen on the question of whether the Sunday night shift should be optional or not ; but the workmen dispute the right of the Court to decide at what rate they should be paid for Sunday night work. Further, that if they are compelled to work on Sunday night, it is for the workmen, not for the Court, and not for the employers, to decide at what rate the workmen shall sell their labour. The coalowners have not attempted, in any way, to modify or qualify the opera- tion of the new clause in the Lloyd George agreement respecting the Sunday night shift; they signed their adhesion to the agreement and are abiding by it. The miners' leaders are also making a new issue of the surface craftsmen's wages, and the bonus turn 316 THE WAR AND WALES for ostlers. The Government, through Lloyd George, gave this particular class of workmen all that they demanded. The proposal of the Federation was that in calculating the new standard rate of wages to be paid to all surfacemen, 50 per cent, should be added to the 3s. 4d. per day except where rates were higher, and that the minimum should be 10 per cent, on this new standard. The terms of the Government award were : " The rates of surfacemen which are below 3s. 4d. per day to be advanced to 3s. 4d. per day " ; and when the inter- pretation of this award was questioned the President of the Board of Trade defined it as follows : " This means that at collieries where, prior to July 1st, 1915, the standard rates of surfacemen were below 3s. 4d. per day on the 1879 standard they shall as from that date be advanced to a new standard rate of 5s. per day, and that at collieries on standards other than the 1879 standard, where the rates were below 3s. 4d. per day, they shall be raised to a new standard of 5s. per day." Thus it is seen that the concession of the men's original proposal was complete, but the miners' leaders are now agitating for a different and a higher schedule of rates for the surface craftsmen, although they, like the mineowners, accepted the Government settlement for the period of the war ; the employers are abiding by the settlement, but the men, or rather their leaders, are threatening another strike unless they get a new schedule of rates. Indeed, on the Tuesday following the settlement on the non-Unionist question, the Executive Council of the South Wales Miners' Federation resolved to ask the lodges to consider the advisability of giving fourteen days' notice to terminate contracts in order to force a settle- ment of three points issuing out of the Lloyd George settlement. This decision was arrived at, they said, after their failure to secure an interview with Mr. Runciman, the President of the Board of Trade. Another proof, it was claimed, of the incapacity of Mr. Runciman and the impossibility of moving the Board of Trade except through a threat. " Should a stoppage occur," said the THE WAR AND THE S. WALES MINING INDUSTRY 317 acting president of the South Wales Miners' Federation, " the public will have something to say to the Govern- ment." It never occurs to him, or to his colleagues, that the public may have, as it has had, something to say to the Federationists. The claim which the Federationists are now putting forward, as they have always done, namely, " that they are making great efforts to maintain peace in the coalfield," is belied by their own actions. The public would be in sore straits if it had to depend for its peace and its sense of security on the mercy of the Federa- tionists. They are constantly raising new issues and constantly reviving old ones, and if their demands are not conceded, or if the Board of Trade, or the Government, does not intervene immediately, they complain that they are being " ignored or insulted," as if the Board of Trade and the Government had nothing else to do. These three points — Sunday night shift, bonus turn for ostlers, and the wage rates of surface craftsmen — were ultimately referred by consent to a " Conciliator " to be appointed by Mr. Runciman, but if the award of the arbitrator does not satisfy the miners' representatives, it is certain that they will, as they have done in other cases, agitate against it. In the Lloyd George agreement there was no equivalent selling price fixed, for the obvious reason that the mine- owners could not at that time estimate what the cost would be. Indeed, former equivalents are of very little value to-day, partly because of the higher wages paid to the workers, partly because the Legislature has added very considerably to the cost of working the collieries. The cost of production, including the price of labour, has been increasing at an alarming rate during the last fifteen or twenty years. In 1902 the labour cost on large coal was about seven shillings and sixpence per ton ; in 1910 it had increased to eight shillings and sixpence per ton, and now it is considerably higher, and it will continue to increase. So that it was impossible for Lloyd George, Mr. Runciman, and Mr. Henderson, to fix, finally, on a fair average selling price per ton which 318 THE WAR AND WALES would enable the mineowners to make a profit after paying the workmen the minimum rate on the new standard. The equivalent question is a complicated one. The principle underlying it seems to be that at the minimum wage rate the mineowners should be secured a price which, after meeting rent, interest, royalty, management charges, and labour, would leave them a minimum profit. All that the Conciliation Board agreement can effect is a modifica- tion of the operation of the law of supply and demand. It would, therefore, be a mistake to state that a minimum wage rate is synonymous with a minimum wage, or that an equivalent selling price to such a minimum is synony- mous with a fixed price. This is proved by the fact that in 1905 the minimum wage rate was 30 per cent, above the standard of 1879. The equivalent to that was us. iod., but the average selling price dropped during the year to us. 5d., and during that time the wage rate remained stationary at 30 per cent. During the operation of the sliding scale the standard wage was paid when the price of coal ranged between 7s. 8d. and 8s. per ton, and the scale rose or fell at first 2 1 per cent, for each 4d. per ton in price. This was changed in 1890, when 10 per cent, was substituted for every shilling advance or fall, and changed again in 1892 to 8f per cent, per is. From 1892 onwards it was, more or less, the general practice to pay the men 8f per cent, for every is. advance or fall in price, or, to be more accurate, i| per cent, for every i.7id., but when the Conciliation Board was formed other factors besides the selling price of coal came into operation when wages were varied, such as the volume of trade, the price of small coal, and the prospects. In 1903 the late Sir David Dale fixed us. iod. per ton as the average selling price which should be equivalent to the minimum of 30 per cent, in that agreement. During the life of that agreement the following were the equivalents : THE WAR AND THE S. WALES MINING INDUSTRY 319 s. d. Per cent Average selling pnce 11 10 . . Equivalent 30 12 6 . 36.56 13 6 . 45-30 14 . 49-67 14 6 . 54-03 15 . 58.39 The 1910 agreement altered this, and the minimum rate was raised from 30 to 35 per cent. The equivalents were : s. d. 12 5 14 o 14 9 Per cent, representing 35 representing 50 representing 50 The 14s., however, was for the purpose of working downwards on a falling market, and the 14s. 9d. for the purpose of working upwards and on a rising market. The price of coal, however, continued to increase until it reached 16s. and over, and the maximum of 60 per cent, under that agreement was reached. According to the Lloyd George agreement of 191 5, the standard wages were 50 per cent, above the standard of 1879, and the minimum rate is 10 per cent, above the standard, therefore the minimum rate of wages is equiva- lent to 65 per cent, above the standard of 1879. Therefore, the question which Lord St. Aldwyn had to decide was, what should be the average selling price of coal which would be a fair equivalent to a wage of 65 per cent, upon the standard of 1879. Another difficulty that was left unadjusted in the Lloyd George agreement of 1915, is the wage rates to be paid in the anthracite collieries. This dispute dates back to 1882, when anthracite men had to be content with per- centages upon their basis rates, 5 per cent, below those fixed for the other areas of the coalfield. In other words, the anthracite rates are stated by the workmen to be 5 per cent, below the standard of 1879, whereas the owners contend that the anthracite standards are 5 per cent. 320 THE WAR AND WALES higher than the 1879 standards. The South Wales Conciliation Board has on several occasions failed to come to a settlement, therefore a Court of Inquiry has been appointed which consists of four members of the owners' representatives and four of the workmen's representatives, with Judge O'Connor as independent chairman, with a casting vote, which he gave against the workmen. There were certain matters in dispute which were not adjudicated upon at all by Lloyd George, but which the representatives of the miners have since claimed should be embodied in the new agreement. These include the demand for the extension of mealtime from twenty minutes to half an hour, the reduction of the hours of surface work- men to eight and a half per day, and the supply of house coal at the customary privileged rates to sick or injured workmen, and also to workmen living in apartments. The mineowners contend that these are new issues, and that if the miners persist, they, too, will seek to introduce certain charges. We have already observed that no award, or contract, or agreement, whether made on behalf of a government, or of employers, with the miners, will be regarded as binding by the militant section of the men's representa- tives, if it turns out to be disadvantageous to any fresh demands that they may eventually make. Neither will they treat the decision of a Judge, or Stipendiary, or Arbitrator, as good or worthy of observance unless they are satisfied with that decision. One more example will suffice, viz., Lord Muir-Mackenzie's decision re- specting the application of the workmen for an advance of 5 per cent., and that of the coal owners for a reduction of 3! per cent. Every item of history concerning wages in the Welsh coalfields during recent years was placed before Lord Muir-Mackenzie by the members of the Miners' Executive Council, so was every fact that had any bearing on the question in dispute, such as the increase in freight rates on pitwood, with the result that Lord Muir-Mackenzie vetoed both applications, thus leaving the wage rate unaltered. Neither the fairness nor the THE WAR AND THE S. WALES MINING INDUSTRY 321 capacity of Lord Muir-Mackenzie had previously been questioned by the miners' representatives. Indeed, they had had more cause for satisfaction than dissatisfaction with his first award. On that occasion, his decision was in favour of the workmen, notwithstanding a fall of between gd. and iod. per ton in the selling price of coal, calculated on large and small coal, and a decrease of about 300,000 tons in the volume of trade. No other occasion could be named when an independent chairman had not actually reduced wages under similar circum- stances. Yet, because Lord Muir-Mackenzie decided against both the applications already referred to, the extremists among the miners' representatives at once addressed themselves to the task of persuading the workmen that the decision was not only unsatisfactory, but that means should be taken to prevent such a decision in future. In signed letters to the press, they have raised, once more, the argument relating to the increase in the freight rates on pitwood, the exploitation of the miners by the em- ployers, and the rise in the price of coal. The increase in the cost of production and in the working of the mines, due to the war and to other causes, was, they said, very largely caused by an altogether unnecessary and avoidable increase, "through the sheer greed of the coalowners, and the exploitation on the part of profit-making indus- tries which are allowed to carry on their operations with- out any regard for the national well-being." ' No matter," they say, " how the facts may be coloured by the mineowners, shipowners, timber merchants, and land- owners, it is nothing but a cunningly-devised system of legalized thievery." In addition to this, the miners are being urged to instruct their representatives to inform the Government that at the next application for an alteration in the wage rate, there will be deducted from the cost of production that amount which they, the miners' representatives, consider avoidable ; and that if the independent chair- man refuses to fix wages on that basis, the Government 322 THE WAR AND WALES should be informed that the workmen will decline to accept a wage which is reduced by unpatriotic exploita- tion. " That would give the Government three months in which to adjust matters in the interests of the nation and remove a source of grievance to the workmen." We venture the suggestion that these constantly re- curring troubles in the Welsh coalfields and the bitterness with which they are exploited are due, very largely, to five causes : (a) The substitution of the new leadership for the old ; (b) the jealousy of the industrial democracy of every idea or movement which does not originate with itself ; (c) the spirit of unreasonable mistrust of coalowners as well as of capitalists in general, which the extremists foster on every possible occasion, and often by unworthy methods ; (d) the utilization of the English press in South W T ales for the dissemination of socialistic and syndicalist ideas; {e) the feeling created by the great fortunes made by the coalowners. Numerous examples might be quoted by us as evidence of the unreasonable and unjustifiable suspicion of the extremists among the miners, which may be counted as one of the root-causes of the troubles in the Welsh coalfields. We may refer to a statement openly made by some of the members of the Executive Council in which they refused to believe the statement of the mine- owners that the total profit for the year ending December 31st, 1914 (or in the financial year ending nearest to that date), after payment of interest on debentures or other loans and preference shares, averaged only is. o.ogd. per ton on nearly forty million tons. They described it as " the unsupported statement of an interested party." As a matter of fact, it was ascertained by Messrs. J. C. Kirk and Son, chartered accountants, Leeds, and the report of that firm of accountants, giving the detailed figures, was published in 1915. Behind such terms as " conscription," or, " the organization of industry," or " the dilution of labour," or, "' the utilization of the services of women for war purposes," the miners affect to discover some sinister THE WAR AND THE S. WALES MINING INDUSTRY 323 design on the part of Lloyd George and the Government and " Tory reactionaries," to deprive Labour of the ad- vantages which it has won in spite of capitalists, and to place the industrial classes in a position of servitude. The vice-president of the Federation told the annual conference at Cardiff on March 27th, 1916, that this war was due to the capitalist system, and that it was the duty of Labour to prevent a recurrence of such a calamity. He also said that the capitalist classes were now engineer- ing affairs in order to place the debt piled up by the war upon the workers, by a change in the fiscal system. Through the medium of the South Wales press, they say to the workers that having given a most salutary check to the exploitation of the colliers by the coalowners and the Government, it behoves them now to safeguard their political interests and their future political action, which are seriously menaced by the " reactionary hypocrites who are running the anti-democratic campaign in the name of national economy." Their real object, the colliers are told, is not economy, not efficiency, not patriotism, not the successful prosecution of the war, but the destruction of the industrial and political movement of the working classes, which, as they claim, are inter- dependent and inseparable. The real purpose underlying the agitation for abolishing or curtailing the payment of Parliamentary members during the war, they are further told, is not to economize but to strike a blow at Labour representation, and to use the war as an excuse for doing it. "Labour can come forward with much more brilliant and beautiful economic proposals," one of them wrote ; and that if any attempt is made to interfere with payment of members, which was demanded and popularized by Labour, then the workers must see to it that landlords and capitalists shall forfeit the unearned incomes which they are drawing from land and capital, and that vicars and rectors and bishops forgo their stipends. What the forward spirits in the Welsh coalfields say to the Welsh nation, as well as to the miners, privately and publicly, in newspapers and public meetings, may be 324 THE WAR AND WALES summed up in some such fashion as this : To preserve the very foundation of democracy is the peculiar care and privilege of organized Trade Unionism ; the affairs of the nation at large, its domestic and foreign policy, must be controlled by the workers through Trade Unionism, where the centre of gravity in politics and government lies ; the aristocracy and plutocracy no longer count, they have abused their power, and do not deserve to have power, for they lack both ability and a sense of justice ; the power which Labour has acquired must be used and used ruthlessly to put down despotism and capitalist tyranny ; when Labour speaks the nation speaks, for the industrial classes are the nation ; nothing must be done by any government for or in the name of the nation without first consulting and receiving the sanction of Labour ; no decision that affects Labour in- juriously must be tolerated — if the law permits it, then the law must be changed without regard to any other interests; every state of society in which Socialism does not pre- dominate is abnormal and unhealthy, and inimical to true progress ; in the industrial domain no government must be allowed to intervene except at the bidding and with the consent and in the interest of the workers ; a government's necessity or the nation's necessity must be the workers' opportunity ; if legal and constitutional action will not avail, the workers must have recourse to force, for the workers cannot be held responsible for a system in which they do not believe ; the workers must be the main instruments in revolutionizing society and the main beneficiaries in the results. The workers must not be content until the mines are nationalized, and all industries are nationalized, and all capitalists are exter- minated, and an industrial nationalism which transcends and supersedes State nationalism, is an accomplished fact. It is surely permissible to ask whether teaching of this sort reflects the feelings and opinions of the majority of the workers in the Welsh coalfields ; whether it is likely to inculcate respect for law and constitutional THE WAR AND THE S. WALES MINING INDUSTRY 325 government ; whether it is useful in the interest of the workers themselves, and whether it is conducive to the welfare of the State ? To ridicule it, or to denounce it as merely the vulgar ebullition of the Ultras, and therefore, unworthy of notice, is worse than folly, for the Ultras are the direct, and, in many respects, the exclusive cause of the discredit which had been cast upon the Welsh miner on account of the developments of 191 5, and of many other ills that have kept the Welsh coalfields in a state of perpetual turmoil, and the Ultras are rapidly extending their sphere of energies. For these reasons, and because of the ideas which prevail beyond the confines of Wales, regarding the Welsh miner, we find it necessary to state that there are very many thousands of Welshmen among the miners, to whose viture and valour every minister, every clergyman, every magistrate, and every coalowner, would bear unqualified testimony. Their peace-bearing and law-abiding disposition are factors in the life of the community ; they have the note of true religion and of true citizenship. They have contributed to the intel- lectual as well as to the spiritual growth of the districts in which they have lived and laboured ; to them every man is a capitalist who has saved and preserved his savings ; in the gospel of intimidation and of force, whether exercised by the owners or by the workers, they have no faith. They have experience enough to know that strikes have always been a calamity, and they have no sympathy with Syndicalist ideas and sentiments. In the face of the great and constant migration of foreign toilers into the Welsh coalfields, whose influence, reli- giously, has not been conducive to the higher life, they have preserved the religion of the family, they have been loyal to their ministers and clergy, and to the churches with which they have been affiliated. The tragedy of it is that their reputation should have been, unfortu- nately and undeservedly, besmirched through the action of irresponsible extremists with whose revolutionary spirit they have no affinity, z 326 THE WAR AND WALES There are, likewise, Labour leaders in the Welsh coal- fields, some of whom are members of Parliament, the countrymen of Henry Richard, whose ability, devotion to religion and to public duty, whose efforts to secure peaceful settlements of industrial disputes, and whose unquestionable, though not unquestioned, loyalty to the welfare of the miners, has never blinded them to the welfare of the employer. Justice to Labour and to Capital alike has been to them a virtue of patriotism, a patriotism free from the base alloys of self and sectional interest. But the day has come when they have found their power largely undermined, and when other councils prevail, counsels undoubtedly leavened by love of power, by class hatred, and lacking a sense of responsibility. It is in vain that we look to the restraining influence of purely religious ideas and sentiments, or to the inter- vention of the ministers and clergy, for they have no power, industrially, with the working classes. It may seem strange, almost incredible, to those who are un- acquainted with the history of strikes in Wales, but it is a fact that ministers of the Gospel were the first to notice and to agitate for better economic conditions for the working man. The Rev. Josiah Thomas Jones (1799 — 1873), a Congregational minister and author, the trans- lator into Welsh of Barkitt's Exposition of the New Testa- ment, the founder of several newspapers, and the author of some important works in Welsh, took up the case oi the working men in the district of Cyfartha,MerthyrTydvil, but the workmen themselves opposed him, and on account of the losses he sustained he was obliged to sell his printing press to pay his debts, and to escape with his family to Cowbridge for refuge ; then to Carmarthen, Carnarvon, and Aberdare. When other ministers, subsequently, championed the cause of the working men, the latter sided with the masters, and against their own interests. About 1870, strikes began, and then lock-outs. They were chiefly local, there being no Union or Federation as there is to-day. Then followed hooliganism — riotism, breaking of windows and the throwing of stones. Then THE WAR AND THE S. WALES MINING INDUSTRY 327 a weekly Welsh paper called Tartan y Gweithiwr (The Workman's Shield) was started in Aberdare by Mills and Lynch, the first Welsh weekly paper in the South to defend the rights of the workmen. The next development was the appointment of agents for the working men in the different districts. These agents, knowing the influence of ministers of religion with the workmen, began to inoculate their minds with the idea that ministers were against them, and for the masters and employers. It so happened that in the first election of Mr. William Abraham, M.P. (Mabon), all the ministers, with one exception, supported Mr. Fred Davies, of Ferndale, the official candidate, and, therefore, against Mabon ; hence the first appearance of anti-clerical or anti-ministerial feeling among the workmen ; it has been growing in volume and intensity ever since. Among the factors that have contributed to the spread of the strike spirit in the Principality, were the Rebecca Riots in connection with the evils arising from the turnpike gates. If we were asked what are the lessons of this war in relation to industrial disputes in Wales, we would say that one of them is, that there should be no strike without a ballot of the men. As it is, the Miners' Federation of South Wales does not rest on a democratic basis, for the twofold reason that sectional interests are allowed to prevail over general interests, and that the majority of the miners are in the hands of the minority, and that they are liable to be forced into a strike through the inconsiderate action of the extremists, who are able to control the votes and to manipulate the machinery. They control the lodges to which the Executive Council refer decisions and recommendations. A ballot of all workmen engaged in the coalfields would act as a check on the extremists as well as on the Delegates' Conference and Executive Council, and it would be a protection to the masses of the miners. If a general ballot had been taken during the trouble of 1915, it is morally cer- tain that the men would have remained at work on a day-to-day contract in order to give the Government 328 THE WAR AND WALES time for further negotiation, and for the resentment, consequent upon the Proclamation, to soften down. That there will be a renewal of the trouble, and in a much more acute form, in the Welsh coalfields after the war is absolutely certain ; and it should be the duty of the Government to anticipate the situation by endeavour- ing to arrive at an understanding that there should be no strike without a ballot ; this is an obligation which the Government owes to the nation, as well as to the general body of the mineis, unless the Government, through fear, or for political considerations, thinks it best to abrogate, to all intents and purposes, what authority is vested in it by the Constitution. The Government has exercised its authority over the coal- owners by compelling them against their will and in vio- lation of existing agreement to concede a 15 per cent, rise of wages to the miners. CHAPTER VII LLOYD GEORGE — HIS GENIUS, CHARACTER, AND RELATION TO THE WAR The last chapter forms a fitting prelude to our ana- lytical and historical study of Lloyd George and of the part he has played in this war. Indeed, no work dealing with Wales and the war would be complete without him, for he stands alone. In the centre of the people's mind he still remains the most attractive and popular figure among contemporary Welshmen, and his popularity is now more general than ever. A great movement, it has been said, produces a great man ; but in so far as Wales is concerned, this war has not produced a single great writer, poet, politician, or historian. There is practically nothing in these directions which, so far, can be placed to the credit of Wales. There are three Welshmen — Lord Rhondda, Sir S. T. Evans, and Mr. William Morris Hughes, the Premier of Australia — who have distinguished them- selves in this war, and whose services in their respective spheres must be recognized. Lord Rhondda's services have been recognized ; his mission to Canada and America on behalf of the Government, to make certain financial arrangements and to make contracts for the supply of munitions, proved eminently successful, like everything else he has undertaken in the financial world. Sir Samuel Evans has revived the glories of the Prize Court. The judgment that he gave in the "Kim " cases is worthy to rank with Lord Stowell's. No modern Welshman has secured a greater grip upon the Welsh imagination than Lloyd George ; partly because he touches a deeper romantic feeling, 329 330 THE WAR AND WALES partly because he has, through his great and many- sided gifts, evoked a larger sympathetic interest for Wales and Welshmen beyond the borders, and even in distant parts of the world among people alien in race and civiliza- tion, and among whom little or no interest had ever been felt ; partly because he has gone a greater distance, and has a larger number of legislative Acts and oratorical achievements to his name, than any other Welshman. What, in one sense, Bismarck was to the Germans, Lloyd George is to the Welsh. Exceptional genuises are to the commonalty of their own race what superior cerebral centres are to the indivi- dual. That the Welsh people have been during the last generation, more or less, under the influence of Lloyd George's personality and suggestion, is a fact that need hardly be emphasized. This is not to say that he has been above criticism, for censure and praise alike in unlimited measure have been lavished upon him, even by Welshmen in and out of Wales. His reputation rests, and will, in all probability, always rest on a purely racial and a political basis. Historically speaking, his influence on Welsh Wales has been, mainly, in the domain of their ambition, racial and political, and in the domain of their self-expression and their determination to accomplish their intellectual organization on a self-governing basis. This war has vastly augmented his personal and political prestige in Wales and among all classes, except among the Socialists and the motley crowds whose consciences have become so exceedingly tender and have been so greatly enlightened since the outbreak of the war. " See," they say, " how the arch-democrat has sought to enslave the industrial classes, how he has suppressed and penalized free speech and a free press, how he has had the audacity to lecture the working men of this country on the ' lure of drink,' how the little Navyite has become a big Navyite, and the anti-Imperialist has become one of the most rabid of Imperialists, and that on the alleged ground that the new Imperialism is essentially democratic. This new Lloyd George we do not profess to know, and for him LLOYD GEORGE AND THE WAR 331 democracy will have no use when the war is over ; he is by temperament an autocrat, he is no longer a man of the people." But it is the same Lloyd George. There is in him the same complete identity with the emotion and intelli- gence of the average man, which may be counted as one of the secrets of his power in the past ; there is the same sympathy with those who, as he himself once said, " in spite of the grinding toil, do not earn enough to keep body and soul together," and the same contempt for those who, as he said on the same occasion, " toil not, neither do they spin, and yet they have a superabundance"; there is the same courage to speak his mind irrespective of the susceptibilities of those whom he thinks are hinder- ing instead of helping in a great cause ; the same capacity to make up his mind in an emergency as to the right course to pursue, and to make it up without doubt and by instinct rather than by a course of elaborate reasoning ; a capacity which, combined with sufficient motive force and an appropriate emotional state, constitutes, in part, his great gift of leadership. When he has to cut iron he still cuts it with cold steel ; he still faces unpleasant facts ; he still scorns the shirker, whether he be a duke or a labouring man. True, he has changed his views on more than one question, it would be strange if a man of his type had not ; the statesman who will stand after the war is over where he stood before the war, uninfluenced by the economic, intellectual, and psychical forces consequent upon the war, will be both a curiosity and a nuisance. If Lloyd George has used terrific language in the tragedy of this war as he did in the time of peace, it is because he feels the fermenta- tion of a mighty fact within his soul. He has not become a slave-master but a drill-sergeant. What would Russia be to-day if Peter the Great had not disciplined the people, or England if William the Conqueror, the Normans, and the Plantagenets, had not with an iron hand made the peo- ple amenable to laws? As discipline converted the old gluttonous Jutes and Angles into a race heroic in industry, so out of this drilling and organizing of Great Britain's 332 THE WAR AND WALES manhood and industrial forces, and the curtailment of a liberty which had developed into a licence, and the enforcing of the lesson that citizens owe a duty to the State whose Navy and Army protect their liberty and their lives, there will evolve a sturdier nation, a more systematized industry, and a greater and a nobler Britain, than the Britain we have known, because it will reaffirm the old patriotism in a new syntax, and there will evolve a nobler Empire than the Empire we have known, because it will be more cohesive ; because the various threads will be more closely knitted together ; because its sove- reignty will be given a new definition, and its civiliza- tion will be imbued with a higher estimate of manhood and of religion. This is the ecstasy that every prophetic soul must feel through a tragedy almost barbaric in its elements, which has darkened the heavens and filled the world with mourning. No, Lloyd George has not changed, in the sense that there has been a retrograde action in his democratic ten- dencies, or in his belief as to the form of government to which a people ought to submit, or in his interest in the work of social amelioration. He is judged differently because he fights in a new arena, in a different cause and with different weapons. The public estimate of him has changed because the war has given a new meaning to his personality. There was a time — in the immediate past — when he was the apotheosis of one party and the anathema of the other ; it may be so yet, when old controversies will be revived, and party politics will cause politicians to say and do things for purely political considerations, what they would be ashamed to say or do if they stood alone in the community. This is the tragedy of it, national heroes degenerating into party wirepullers, demagogues, and the idols of certain sections of the populace. It is the old Lloyd George ; there is the same layer of intellectual and psychical life which was common to him in his pre-war days. Looking, therefore, at him historic- ally, as he looms before us during the brief span of about LLOYD GEORGE AND THE WAR 333 a generation (it was on April 17th, 1890, that he " took the oath and his seat " in the House of Commons), how are we to diagnose him ? We may judge him by his faults — his liability to speak without adequate know- ledge of all that relates to his subject, his intellectual limitations, his self-assertiveness bordering on audacity and recklessness. Or we may judge him by his excel- lences — his gifts of oratory and of strategy, his power of endurance, his genius for imparting and restoring courage, his resourcefulness and his determination to keep himself in evidence and to compel the recognition of his powers. Or we may strike at the average between the two extremes by balancing up his strength and his weakness and thus seek to frame a consistent theory of his character and genius, free from party bias or personal motive. Of the thousand and one men who have come in contact with him, or who have carefully studied his ideas, disposi- tion, and political achievements, every one has had very marked impressions, though they have all differed more or less in their estimate of the national value of his career and the quality of his statesmanship. This sharp diver- gence of views as to his past wisdom or unwisdom, his patriotism or want of patriotism, his conscientiousness or want of conscientiousness, is not unusual in the case of politicians who have taken such distinctive positions in the political world. This he shares, more or less, in common with men like Disraeli, Gladstone, Chamberlain, and other great Parliamentarians one might name. But there is one peculiarity about this historical divergence of views regarding Lloyd George. He has made different impressions upon the same people at different times. Not only have his particular qualities appealed to some and estranged others ; he has attracted and repelled the same people alternately, and he continues to do so as he unfolds his ideas and develops his personality. He has been a constant source of surprise and bewilderment, causing the same people to bless and to denounce him in turns, and, on some occasions, to bless him in unison. The 334 THE WAR AND wales riddle still remains. But no body of men, whatever their opinions, or whatever may be the complexion of their political convictions, has been able to ignore or to suppress him. As Lord Lansdowne once said, " The Chancellor of the Exchequer offers a large field for criti- cism, not only in his Parliamentary statements, but in his speeches out of doors." If he has not always added to the amenities, he has always added to the interest of public life ; he has succeeded in making himself the perpetual talk of the political world. In some Welsh estimates of him he has been ranked with Chatham and Gladstone — greater than Gladstone in some respects. He has been classed with Burke, and more than favourably compared with all the great British statesmen during the past two centuries, because, as it is claimed, " his character and principles will bear keener scrutiny and sifting than most, if not all of them." His purposes, we have been told, are purer than those of Fox and Sheri- dan, and his tactics cleaner, more creditable, and less unscrupulous than those of Disraeli's. Though these estimates are, in a large measure, the fruit of racial pride and uncontrolled emotionalism, they are not without their significance, for the reason that Lloyd George himself has, apparently, not been uninfluenced by them. They have emboldened him in his course of action, and they form one of the sources of the superb disregard which he has so often shown of English opinion. He has studiously culti- vated the goodwill and good opinion of his fellow-country- men ; he knows their foibles and their weaknesses, as well as their strength, and how to mould them to his own way of thinking. Their intense devotion to him goes far to explain his undismayed fortitude in moments of crisis and in the face of censures from without. As to the comparison with Disraeli, there is undoubtedly a striking resemblance in some important respects. Judg- ing them by their deliverances during the earlier years of their political career, we find the same peculiar way of looking at political questions, the same inventiveness, and the same seeming independence of their respective LLOYD GEORGE AND THE WAR 335 parties. As Disraeli had to drop a few of his old tenets when he finally made his choice, so Lloyd George found it convenient to modify his distinctively Welsh attitude, and to take his regular place in the main Liberal army, when he was advised by Sir William Harcourt to recede from his position as a free lance and prepare himself for higher things. This sudden break with the past on the part of Lloyd George was far from being a natural develop- ment. To set it down as a want of principle would be too severe a criticism. But it was mainly due to self- interested considerations and to political calculations. Mr. Asquith has had, on many occasions, to lean heavily upon him, as Lord Derby had to lean on Disraeli, and both men entered the House of Commons at a time when their respective parties were in need of fresh blood. Indeed, this was one of the subsidiary causes that contributed to the rapid rise of both. Neither Disraeli nor Lloyd George had the advantages of a collegiate or a university training, and had to rely entirely on their own intelli- gence and self-confidence. The aristocracy have been as suspicious of Lloyd George as they once were of Disraeli, and he did not at first find it easy, any more than did Disraeli, to induce certain sections of his party to assimilate some of his ideas. Like Disraeli, he has the innate gift of making himself agreeable, and of imparting his spirit of hopefulness to those who are politically associated with him. Both found it necessary to draw public atten- tion to themselves. The close affinity between Disraeli's mentality and the rest of his character, which was one of the main sources of his power, is one of the charac- teristics that distinguishes Lloyd George. His courage has been equal to the keenness of his intellect, his will power has been equal to the greatness of the tasks that he has undertaken, and his endurance has kept pace with his emotions. Without this harmonious blend of mental powers and personal qualities it would have been impossi- ble for him to preserve his balance, and to retain, much less increase, his influence. Thus it is that Lloyd George has been able to maintain an unshaken front in the face 336 THE WAR AND WALES of overwhelming odds, and to reappear even with added strength, after periods of eclipse and apparent humiliation. Like Disraeli, Lloyd George possesses that form of ambition that cannot afford to be too scrupulous. We would not go bail for his methods, to say nothing of his urbanity, in case he were contradicted or any serious attempts were made to thwart him. Defied or defeated one way, he would resort to another, and he would not be as mindful of his language as conventional observance would require, or of his tactics as the traditions of public life would demand. If old associates, and even those who had been his helpers in the days of small things, stood in his way or failed to go the whole length, he would discard them with the same agility as he would turn his face towards new friendships. This is one of the defects of his character, due to his ambition. Not that he is devoid of the genius for friendship, as the lucrative posi- tions occupied by those who have benefited through it, testify ; so that he is always followed and surrounded by sycophants who reflect and glorify him, and that more often than not from self-interested motives. He has strong intuitive powers, and he is quick to discover the persons and the opinions that may help him — to go further. Not that he is wanting in independence, for he can fight his friends when their plans and wishes tend, in his judgment, to circumvent his own projects, and to hamper the Government. He has the art of concealing or of only partly revealing the real nature of his immediate or ultimate object according to the exi- gencies of his case ; he can reconcile differences in his own mind and can reconcile them in others, which makes him comforting to himself as well as to bewildered dis- putants. When there is an irreconcilable conflict of opinions or of interests, he has the gift of persuading or of enforcing both sides into a course of action or of inaction that seems, at the moment, practicable and commendable, though on reflection and in the light of further develop- ments, the parties to the understanding may have cause to feel that the settlement after all was only a partial or a LLOYD GEORGE AND THE WAR 337 fictitious settlement. Yet, it would be highly dangerous to accuse him of prevarication, or inconsistency, or want of straight-forwardness, for he would have no difficulty in showing that he had never said or done anything precise enough to justify such a charge ; hence the many apologies which he has, from time to time, been able to extract from his critics, and the utter collapse of many an antagonist whose indictment was not altogether without foundation, but which, if formulated and pressed home by a critic of equal resource with the assailed, especially one of his own race and temperament, the honours would, probably, be more equally divided. It is here that we come across his egotism, or his faith in himself, which reminds one of the saying of Napoleon Bonaparte that the bullet that would kill him had not been moulded. Viewing his career as a whole it would be difficult to find a more striking example of superlative egotism, an egotism almost amounting to megalomania. Many interesting and pertinent examples could be given. Yet his egotism has been generally acceptable because it has generally gone with such political activity, such ap- parent earnestness, and such a felicitous manner. Some have thought, in years past, that this abnormal egotism was the driving belt of his restless propagandas, but it was an exaggeration. Egotism is not unbecoming in a great nature, it is in a small nature. There is a healthy egotism that makes men great, and that enriches their surroundings. The Lloyd- Georgian egotism, though often intolerable to his opponents, has been accepted with a kind of indulgence by the commonalty ; so has his dogmatism, which is part of his egotism or one of its effects, and which has served him in good stead and saved the unreflective a lot of trouble, because it made it unnecessary for them to do any thinking for themselves. It was said of Disraeli that the " non-ratiocinative quality of his thinking was a source both of strength and of weakness." This is eminently true of Lloyd George. He reaches his conclusions through his imaginative facul- ties rather than by a process of hard and close reasoning. 338 THE WAR AND WALES Of logic he knows but little, and when he attempts, which he seldom does, to establish his case by logic, he seldom scores. But if he cannot demonstrate the truth, the soundness, or the rationality of his propositions, he can make it difficult very often for his adversaries to disprove them. He has the gift of raillery, of invective, and of conciliation, that enables him to appease his opponents for the time being, or to cover them with ridicule, and to give the impression that whatever may be the defects of his own schemes, they are better than any- thing his critics have to offer as a substitute. When he cannot grapple with his opponents' argument, he can take refuge in irrelevancy, and switch off the discussion in some other direction. He has the capacity of exhibiting acquaintance with matters beyond his reach, and of conveying the impression that he possesses greater knowledge than is warranted either by his training or by his experience or by his achievements. This is an art that has to be cultivated, and which comes with long Parliamentary discipline. Like Disraeli, he has the knack of impressing his audience with the power of his own personality, and he is uncontrolled by fear either of foe or of failure. He has no more regard for the principles of political conduct than Disraeli had ; he is in himself a violation of precedent and of principle. He has not made a reputation for himself for accuracy, and in spite of the most energetic efforts on his own part, and on the part of those who accept with astound- ing credulity every interpretation that he gives, he has, so far, failed to remove the suspicion of exaggera- tion which has always attached to his presentation of a case, especially a case of a controversial character. Not that there is a want of inherent truthfulness — far from it ; it is the Celtic temperament ; it is the desire to give the most attractive colour to his case ; it is the poetry of his imagination. Neither would we attribute this impres- sion of extravagance, which he so often produces, to a relative deficiency of intellect, for one of the most remark- able things about him is the symmetrical development of LLOYD GEORGE AND THE WAR 339 his mind. What may appear inconsistent to a conserva- tive mind may appear splendid iconoclasm to the reformer or to the missionary politician. A man of might and a master of men, must have a good deal of flesh and blood in him. All the great names in history bulge here and there with excrescent faults. But apart from natural or temperamental weaknesses, the reformer in advocating the cause in which he is particularly interested, is often blind to the merits or claims of other causes ; it is the way that he accomplishes his task. The law of the golden mean is not for him, so he never or seldom moves along the middle line of human effort. A man who, like Lloyd George, has a vast generic and individual sympathy, must of necessity have in him elements that are faulty, and faulty on the side of extravagance in pleading his cause, and his extravagance is often in proportion to his combativeness and his earnestness. Thus it is not difficult to explain the conspicuously intemperate manner in which Lloyd George conducted his campaign against the Church in Wales. He said and did many things that were profoundly offensive to many moderate Liberals, as well as to churchmen who retained and revered their ancestral faith. He is now, it is thought, somewhat removed, in his feelings, from the days when he carried on his propaganda for disestablishing and disendowing the Anglican Church in Wales under something like the conditions under which the crusade against the Established Church was carried on in the days of Wickcliffe, Henry VIII, and Queen Mary, in England, and under the conditions that Sir David Lyndsay (1490-1555), the famous Scottish poet, carried on his propaganda against the Romish Church in Scotland, that is, by laughing at the weaknesses of the Church, by breaking down the historic reverence for the priesthood, and by heaping indignity upon the interior religious life and organization of the Church. Satire is often more effective than argument, contempt more serviceable than reason, and hissing a more formidable weapon than education. Not that Lloyd George is wanting in the sense 340 THE WAR AND WALES of reverence, or in affinity with higher things, for noble, indeed, are some of the strains of his spiritual dispositions. Also, not that he is wanting in the sense of right and wrong ; he has a strong sense of right and wrong, notably so when attacking the privileged classes and vested interests. He has a stronger sense of fair play and of the propriety of language when he is attacked than when he attacks. Having won his spurs in opposition, he would be the first to resent opposition. When nothing can be gained by conciliation, and he has his war-paint on, he hits hard, and is not very choice in his weapons or expressions. In criticizing the action of Lord Londonderry, as Minister of Education, he called him a " plucked Marquis," because, it appears, he had failed to pass an examination in college. Speaking of Mr. Brodrick, now Lord Midleton, he said, " Why, there is not a little grocery store in Cardiff that would engage Mr. Brodrick as an assistant." Vitupera- tion, we are told, seldom succeeds, but it has succeeded in the case of Lloyd George. It has served to draw attention to himself, which was partly a necessity in his case. It served to impress his individuality upon the people. Nothing so fascinates the masses as to see a man equal to every fortune and able to maintain himself against superior powers and numbers. Like Disraeli, he has great faith in the power of words, and he has to such an extent become the victim of his own phrases and epigrammatic sentences that he has more often than not looked at facts in the light of the meaning which his words have attached to them. He has great love of merry mischief, which has been part of his charm with the democracy. His interests are more human than philosophic or literary — in men and as they relate to men's interests. He has not pursued knowledge, and what knowledge he has is of a general and practical kind. He values it in so far as it can be made effective in practical politics. As Disraeli suffered from his Hebrew, so has Lloyd George claimed to have suffered from his Welsh origin ; he has the same burning, exultant pride of race as Disraeli had. LLOYD GEORGE AND THE WAR 341 Blood is the groundwork of character and intelligence, and Lloyd George cannot be understood apart from his origin and early environment. He once complained in one of his speeches that he had been attacked on the ground of his nationality. Speaking at Plymouth, January 8th, 1910, he said : " My Welsh nature is my best inheritance. The crown of ignomy which some place on my head is the fact that I am a Welshman. I glory in it ! I am a Welshman before everything. I am indebted to my ancestors for my love of the people. Democracy has been in our blood for twelve centuries, and it will take more than twelve centuries to have it out." We have been asked, " Why should Lloyd George have resented being called a Welshman ? " Because, we pre- sume, of the reproach that it has, in the past, implied. The attributes that have given Lloyd George his strength and his career its peculiar effectiveness are his Cymric attributes. By these we mean his sensitive imagination, his gift of ready and expressive speech, his humour, his reforming zeal, his intense passion, and his personal interest in religion or in the poetic side of religion, and his ardent ethical spirit. We were once criticized for using the term ethical in reference to Lloyd George, but it has been more than justified by the circumstances of this war. The ethical and the other qualities which we have named are peculiarly Welsh qualities, and they are the qualities which Lloyd George has brought into play in the domain of British politics. The novelty and the charm of these qualities, of which he has been so eloquent an exponent, greatly heightened the interest that he created. If his advent into the realm of British statesmanship taught anything, it taught, or rather em- phasized, the truth that our common Empire is Anglo- Celtic, not Anglo-Saxon. His root-power lies in a certain fund of aboriginal force — a purely Welsh force. When we come to examine the quality and furnishing of Lloyd George's intellect, it is eminently interesting and practical. It is not an intellect that can be referred to any category, being exceptionally peculiar in its way 2A 342 THE WAR AND WALES of looking at questions, and in its method of application. So much of Lloyd George's time has been spent in attacking institutions, in abusing dukes and landlords, in disturbing vested interests and existing social conditions, that not a few considered his intellect purely destructive. The Insurance Act, however, affords ample evidence that there is a positive and a constructive side to his intellect. Whatever views may prevail as to its inferiority to the German system, from which he undoubtedly borrowed his ideas, and what differences of opinion there may be as to the manner in which it was brought into action, and rushed through the Commons, and sent to the Lords at a time when discussion was impossible, no such social scheme was ever before presented to the British public, nothing so vast and so complex. It was so complex and so altered in its form during its passage through Parliament that it is questionable whether many members really understood it, or whether Lloyd George himself had a full grasp of all the interests that were involved when it became law. Whatever its defects and limitations, and whatever its ultimate fate, the ideal will remain as an enduring monument to the genius and constructive ability of its author. If Lloyd George's intellect is interesting and practical, having, in the past, been mainly directed to controversial issues, it is not likely to suffer from the load of learning it has to carry, for the burden of real knowledge is very light. His erudition is neither profound nor extensive. Lloyd George has never had a good acquaintance with English political philosophers, and he has had practically no opportunity of familiarizing himself with the arts and the history of other nations, hence his historical un- acquaintance with foreign affairs and foreign politics. For the pursuit of abstract truth he has neither the taste nor the aptitude. He does not generally give the impres- sion of being an uneducated man, but it is always clear that the range of his cultural interest is narrow. He makes up for unreliability, for want of completeness, and for lack of appreciation of the whole phenomena of his LLOYD GEORGE AND THE WAR 343 case, by the brilliancy of his ornamentation. Such is his native shrewdness, his political sagacity, and his gift for manoeuvre, that he can circumvent and ultimately defeat far weightier, abler, and more experienced, though less dexterous statesmen than himself. He is a direct refutation of the belief than once pre- vailed — a belief amounting almost to a superstition — that unless a man has been to one of our great public schools or to a university, he is unfitted to cope with State problems. Throughout the eighteenth and a great part of the nineteenth century, young men of abilities who aspired to political eminence were carefully trained for their task. Most of the pre- Victorian states- men of first rank were historically educated, though in later years a few historically ignorant men occupied prominent public positions. But the leaders on both sides have generally been versed in the history and political development of England. The problems are vaster to-day, and the facts more numerous. What is true of English or British politics is also true of the European politics, only on an infinitely larger scale. Lloyd George has not shown that knowledge of European politics which is, or ought to be, essential to a man who was in a position to partly decide whether his country was in a state of preparedness for war or not. But the English people in general to-day do not concern themselves as to what education political leaders have received, or as to the extent of their acquaintance with the historical development of their own country, or as to how far they have mastered the general politics of Europe, or are qualified by temperament and experience to handle delicate and complicated diplomatic situations. Times have changed, and the democracy of this genera- tion does not measure a man's fitness for a prominent political position by his education, or education in its technical sense. This has its good as well as its bad side. Education is necessarily limited by the inherent nature of the educated material. Whatever environ- ment education may create, it cannot make a " silk purse 344 THE WAR AND wales out of a sow's ear." The function of education is to cause to be expressed the potential elements inherent in the individual. Education cannot command genius, and cannot negotiate it. Education restricts genius, so does Christianity — in certain directions. Education in itself is not a completely adequate instrument of individual or of race culture. The belief is that it rests upon the Lamarckian theory of the transmission of acquired characteristics by heredity. But the Lamarckian theory does not cor- respond with the broad facts. It is considered possible for acquired constitutional changes to be transmitted, or to produce secondary effects upon the offspring. Education makes no definite contribution ; it merely multiplies or divides the potentialities, and these potentialities constitute limited conditions, which no amount of educa- tion can transcend. It is when we consider the potentia- lities given by inheritance that we come to the root of the matter, and it is here that we touch the essence of the problem which Lloyd George presents. He owes nothing to wealth or station in life. In his youth he had no access to what is commonly called " good society " ; he was not privileged to exchange views with eminent and polished men. His library was small and his means scanty. Rumour has given very interesting accounts of the fraternal loyalty, affection, and self-sacrifice by which Mr. William George — the Chancellor's brother- has contributed to the Chancellor's course of action and his rise to eminence. Lloyd George owes nothing to his early environment in the sense in which environment is here used. How, therefore, are we to account for his success and his rapid rise to fame ? We account for it on the ground that he was born with the right material — the silver and the diamonds were there. By silver and diamonds, we mean brains, the gift of eloquence, resolution, adroitness, imperturbable confidence, the power to diffuse his ideas, ambition, tenacity of purpose, a vehement individuality, that is to say, a consciousness of his own powers and a determination to assert them, and to claim his length and LLOYD GEORGE AND THE WAR 345 breadth of rights, and length and breadth of rights for his countrymen. These are priceless gifts, and when worked upon by religious influences, as was the case in his youth and early manhood, and strengthened by wise domestic surroundings, they make the possessor of such gifts invincible. The interest he has taken in Welsh religion is more than an imaginative interest, or what may be called an historical interest ; it has been, and is, personal. Thus it is that his development has not been purely on intellectual lines, and that he has not been entirely wanting in religious reverence. There are several important examples one might quote in refutation of the belief that education, in the sense that education has been understood, is essential to those who aspire to be the rulers and arbiters of the destiny of their country. Lincoln had barely six months' education ; he never attended a college or university. He studied grammar by the fitful gleam of the open fire, and mastered Euclid after he had attained his majority. His library consisted of few books — the Bible, Shakespeare, Pilgrim's Progress, and JEsop's Fables. On such reading he founded a pure and classical style. It is related of him that he would ride fifty miles after the day's work was done to borrow a book which he wanted to read. The hearts of all nations have been touched by the career and the mar- vellous achievements of the man who was a common labourer, rail-splitter, clerk in a village store, deputy surveyor — for which position he qualified himself after receiving the appointment — captain in the Black Hawk War, postmaster of such an insignificant village that he said he carried the office in his hat, a member of the State Legislature, and so poor when he first entered that body that the clothes he wore and the horse he rode as he journeyed were paid for with borrowed money, and a country lawyer with a library of about twenty-two volumes when he was elected to the Presidency. He held no creed, he was not even associated with any form of religion, yet his noble character was modelled upon the Sermon on the Mount, and there was about him a strange 346 THE WAR AND WALES mystery— something remote, almost supernatural. One marvels at the perfection of his style, its exquisite literary quality, its strength and simplicity, and its tremendous sweep — scriptural, instructive, free from indiscretion, pretence, and ambiguity. The speech which he delivered on that grey November day, on that bloodstained field of Gettysburg, only took three minutes to deliver, but, as an English writer said, it is the one masterpiece of the nineteenth-century oratory which will stand the classic test of time. Examples could be multiplied from the history of our own country in the case of such men as John Bright, Cobden, Lord Beaconsfield, and Asquith, the present Prime Minister. He entered Parliament while only an ordinary " junior " at the Bar, at the age of thirty- four, and he did not take " silk " until the year 1890 ; and yet in 1892, without any previous experi- ence of official life, he found himself Home Secretary ! Asquith is not, however, such a conspicuous example as Lloyd George, and two statesmen with less affinity in character and in temperament it would be difficult to rind. A comparison of the two recalls the interesting speculation of Lord Rosebery regarding the influence of temperament as affecting success in political life. The comparison which suggested this psychological reflection was one between the two great Sir Roberts — Walpole and Peel. " Walpole," Lord Rosebery writes, " belonged to the school of the cold blood, and Peel to the warm." ' This," he adds, " is perhaps the most important touch- stone in the character of statesmen, and success usually is with the colder temperament." To this general con- clusion there are exceptions — notably Gladstone. The rule has been again betrayed in the case of Lloyd George. Where, therefore, are we to look for the sources of his charm and power ? In answering this question we have to take into account both the secondary and primary causes. As to the former it may be said that his entrance into political life coincided with a period when his own party was in need of a man of his stamp ; all the fight had gone out of it, and its leaders were practically helpless. LLOYD GEORGE AND THE WAR 347 New forces were forging to the front. Socialism was fast issuing in despotism, the re-action against Cobdenism was making rapid headway, and the old Liberalism had become practically insolvent. The choice had to be made between Socialism and a new type of Liberalism. The measures that were discussed in the Commons when Lloyd George entered it were measures that appealed to a man of his mentality and temperament, and he soon made himself indispensable to his party. Even Sir William Harcourt took the unusual step of singling him out in the House of Commons, at the same time complimenting him upon his contribution to the discussion on the Agricultural Rating Bill after the election of 1895. It was a piece of luck for which far abler and weightier men would have been grateful. "It is so lucky," wrote Lloyd George, " that this has turned out to be the great Bill of the Session." But, in one sense, the compliment which Mr. Balfour paid Lloyd George during the discussion on the Education Bill, did more to help to establish a reputation for him than the compliment of Sir William Harcourt. From this time Lloyd George went on " sailing before the wind," to use a phrase which he himself used in a letter after he had been chosen as Gladstonian candidate for the Carnarvon Boroughs. Lloyd George needed friends, and they grew in number and importance as the years passed. But Fortune has been his greatest friend, and true to her nursling, she has never failed to come to his rescue. She has watched over him and wrought light out of darkness even when his undoing seemed a certainty. Indeed, it seemed as if Lloyd George could not help himself any more than cork or wood can help coming to the surface of water. Among the primary causes is his undoubted gift of oratory. It is difficult to define what constitutes true oratory — aptness of speech, quickness of wit, wealth of imagery, humour, irony, satire, invective — all these qualities, desirable and important though they may be, are not sufficient of themselves to move audiences and to arouse men to action. An orator must touch the 348 THE WAR AND WALES emotions ; he must be able to convince, to convey the impression that he himself acts from conviction, and that he speaks out of the fullness of his own heart. These characteristics are the characteristics of Lloyd George's oratory — when at his best. He possesses in an eminent degree the truest index of eloquence, viz., the power of touching the emotions. It is this rather than the literary merits of his speeches that constitutes his power as a speaker, brilliant as many of them are. Some of them contain a few choice phrases which writers of dis- tinction might well wish they could have coined ; when judged by their immediate influence, especially among the people, and the votes they have won, they will take first rank, but as literature they have no permanent value ; they are not of enduring interest, in this respect, either to the philosopher or to the literary student. The magic power is in the fascination of his personality, and in the brilliancy of his presentation of his subject. It is said that a man once complained to the younger Pitt of the attention paid in the House of Commons to the speeches of Charles James Fox. It did not seem to him, in reading them, that they deserved the praise which men of all parties combined to bestow upon them. " Ah," said Pitt, " but you have never been under the magician's wand." Lloyd George is not justly free from the reproach of having unduly nattered the multitude for personal and party ends. He understands the mood of an English audience as well as he understands the mood of a Welsh audience, and he knows that the one can be as emotional as the other. He also knows the political value of moral forces, and how to use them to the best advantage. They are the counters, as are his phrases, his jests, his satires, and his boisterous fun, with which he has so often fought his battles, and carried his audiences with him. Not that we would question his moral earnestness ; it is his moral earnestness that has invested him with the glamour of a social and political reformer. It is here where his Puritanism comes in ; no diagnosis which omits to take LLOYD GEORGE AND THE WAR 349 the puritanical element that is in Lloyd George into account, can be satisfactory or complete, for it is one of the main elements of his power and success. It is his puritanism that accounts for his earnestness to have things equitable in the State, to secure justice for the oppressed, to build up the poor, to defend the friendless from mischief, to conform the laws of the land to the divine standard. It has been made a criticism that he is unflinching, un- compromising, when he seeks to carry out his notions in the community ; that is because he is a Puritan. It has been made a criticism that he cannot, under such circumstances, be daunted or made to yield by threats or persuasion ; that is because he is a Puritan. It is very largely in virtue of his puritanism that he has made his mark upon his age ; let those who believe, or who affect to believe, that puritanism is a spent force in England, or that it is no longer an element of power in statesman- ship, look to the personality and career of Lloyd George. Added to his gift of oratory is his supreme gift as a debater. He is one of the rare men who is as effective in debate as he is on the platform. He has almost an instinctive perception of the weakest point in his adver- sary's armour, and when he cannot prove his own case, he can make it difficult for his opponent to show that he has no case. He knows exactly what to say to disconcert his critics. He never fears to give or to accept battle, and is quick to see the political significance of any incident or movement. He has the knack of making the best and the most of every issue that may be raised, however sudden or unexpected. His capacity for feeling is very strong, and the susceptibility of his imagination is very keen, and when deeply moved he can invest his treatment and clothe his utterances with dignity and with elevation. He has the capacity of throwing the whole weight of his intense nature into the pursuit of his object, and never dismayed by opposition, never disheartened by difficulties, never at a loss for a suitable repartee, which he can give with crushing force, always able to switch off the main point when very hard pressed, clinging with grim tenacity 350 THE WAR AND WALES to his object, even when that object seems unattainable. His humour has been one of his main assets, so has his gift of satire, his good spirit, his rapid Parliamentary judg- ment , his imperturbability in the face of derision, his training in legal subtleties, his mastery of the business side of any given question, his adaptation in calling up any one of his faculties to accomplish any kind of work which he may be called upon to undertake. Henry Ward Beecher said once, that man is like a many-bladed knife. One uses one particular blade, another uses another blade ; all the other blades are useless, because each man has only skill enough to utilize one blade. Man should be trained to open and to use every one of the blades ; when he is educated to that he increases his power and usefulness a hundredfold. This is what Lloyd George can do, as his record shows ; it is thus he becomes dominant in any unexpected sphere or office which may be allotted to him. He is the ten-talented man who can put his ten talents to use whenever and wherever their services are required ; he is in constant touch with each, and they are his obedient servants. As to his genius, there can be no doubt. The average man thinks of genius as it relates to the intellect alone, but it is in vain that we seek to discover the genius of Lloyd George by confining ourselves within the compass of his intellectual faculties, though within its range his intellect is a very powerful weapon ; it is keen, incisive, adaptable, and highly ingenious, and its imaginative quality gives it a certain force and picturesqueness. A man may be a genius, in directions other than that of the intellect ; he may be a genius in the realm of faith, or of conscience, and of faith and conscience alone — that is, in the latter sense, in the region of equity and purity and disinterestedness. A man may be a genius in the sense of being sagacious, inventive, original, tactful in adminis- tration and in executive power, without having the light of the moral element within him. The intellectual and moral elements do not always run together in the same genius ; they are often widely apart and even antagonistic. LLOYD GEORGE AND THE WAR 35 1 It is the presence of the moral element that gives reforma- tive power and immortality to genius. It is this combina- tion that constitutes the genius of Lloyd George, that invests it with a power that borders, occasionally, on the magical, and that gives it its peculiar brilliancy. Lloyd George possesses that insight into human character and into the character of the problems with which he has to deal, that vein of heroic romance, those great ideals and deep moral emotions, necessary in a genius of the first water. As to that aspect of Lloyd George's genius to which we have alluded, namely, its adaptability, it will be conceded that it has been greatly developed in this war. He has taken to munitions with the same alacrity as he took to oratory. It was suggested that he should be appointed Minister of Orations, whose duty would be to arouse the enthusiasm of the country for the war. " To make an orator," it was said, " to work upon munitions, was like putting a razor on a grindstone." But there was then and is now enough of enthusiasm in the country among those who believe in the war. As in America during the Civil War the nation is ahead of the Government in more than one respect ; so are Canada and Australia, especially with regard to the necessity for a Customs agree- ment in view of the general reversal of opinion regarding our present fiscal system, and the declared determination of Germany to establish a Customs Union of the Central Powers on aggressive lines after the war is over, which means that Germany will follow up the present war by an economic war. It is actions, not orations, that the country demand. The policy of sending speakers to tour the constituencies was a fruitless policy ; they had practically no effect on recruiting, they did not reach the very people that were putting difficulties in its way. So far as the public could judge, the only benefit that could result from such a policy was to the speakers themselves. The appointment of Lloyd George as Minister of Munitions was one on which public opinion settled with remarkable unanimity, and the appointment has been 352 THE WAR AND WALES amply justified. It would, of course, be idle to contend that the improvement in the supply of munitions is altogether due to him ; much had already been done and was maturing at the time. But the preceding activity was limited in scope and totally inadequate to the growing requirements. It left many sources of production untouched ; it had failed to fully develop those it did touch. What Lloyd George did was to accelerate production in existing works and to open up new sources of supply. What stands to his credit is the fact that he realized the necessity of mobilizing the whole of our industries, and that he found a way of doing it. Having planned his course, he executed it with cour- age and resolution, and his success is in no small measure due to the men whom he placed on his staff. A well-known professor in his prefatory apology excused himself by pleading " his unexpected calling ' to a part where he had " to adapt himself to learning that he might teach. ' ' We are not aware that Lloyd George has ever asked for any indulgence after having been called upon, within a period of eleven years, to occupy three totally different and important posts in the State, for neither of which he had received any previous training. First, as President of the Board of Trade ; second, as Chancellor of the Exchequer ; third, as Minister of Munitions ; fourth, as War Minister. While at the Board of Trade he showed a surprising mastery of the details of his department ; deputations that waited upon him found that they had little to teach and some- thing to learn. At the Exchequer he made himself notorious through his terrifying Budgets. He marred what reputation he had made for himself by convert- ing his Department into a spending Department, not for the strengthening of the defences of the country, but, partly, to maintain a large army of commissioners, in- spectors, auditors, and land-valuers, which he had ap- pointed, and which were advertised as evidence of the substantial strides which Democracy had made. His success as Minister of Munitions— the most LLOYD GEORGE AND THE WAR 353 thankless of all the posts he has so far occupied — has dissi- pated rather than confirmed the common notion of the im- passable gulf between the rhetorician and the man of action. He had to face opposition from Trade Unions to the suspension of those rules that were in force in time of peace ; opposition to the dilution of skilled by semi- skilled and unskilled labour ; opposition to the transfer of workers from one industry to another ; opposition to the employment of women and girls. Then he had some difficulty respecting wages, also difficulties arising from the supply of some of the base metals, such as spelter, for instance, due to the fact that Germany had been able, through the abuses connected with our fiscal system, to gain control of the metal trade, as she had been allowed to gain control of other British industries. The ever-recurrent charge of exaggeration was once more levelled against him, not by his former critics, but his former friends. He charged a minority of the workers in the munition factories with impeding the supply of munitions through the " lure of drink," and with being physically unfit for their work on their return. His charge was wrongly interpreted as an imputation upon working men in general, and it was spoken of as " unjust and injudicious." But having told the truth, he man- fully adhered to it, as did John Stuart Mill, who, when asked at a political meeting, composed of the working classes, which was held at Westminster during his can- didature, whether he had written a passage in one of his books, in which he stated that the working classes of England, though ashamed of lying, were yet generally liars, answered, without hesitation or apology, " I did." A nation should feel itself under an obligation to anyone who has the boldness to tell the working classes, or to tell any class, of anything in themselves which he sincerely believes to require amendment. Here, again, has Lloyd George presented the student in personal psychology with an interesting field for study. We are not aware that he ever before told his old friend " the people " a single unpalatable truth. No statesman 354 THE WAR AND wales of this generation has pandered to the prejudices and weaknesses of the working classes to such an extent as Lloyd George, and that to their own detriment as well as to the detriment of the State. The irony of it is, that he should live to see himself denounced by the very class he once pitted against the employer, the capitalist, and those who " toil not neither do they spin," and accused of having shown a taint of the slave-driver in his Munitions Act, and in the regulations which he had enforced in the munition factories. Well might he say in the language of Burke, only in another sense, " I live in an inverted order." We hold no brief for Lloyd George. But, having regard to the reversion of feeling among a large section of the working classes with respect to him since he became Minister of Munitions, we desire to record that what has always appeared to us to be true, is still true, namely, that it is in the range of his moral and humanitarian sympathies that we find the main indications of his genius. The great statesman, or great ruler, is he who finds himself evoked and impelled by the necessities and many-sidedness of his age. This is Lloyd George. His dictum that " Conscription is not anti-democratic " came as a great shock to many of his supporters and admirers. To proclaim publicly, as he did, that if the Government could not get the men and the munitions necessary by voluntary efforts, it would have to resort to compulsion, was anathema to them. They began to shake their heads ; political correspondents who had benefited through his friendship, editors who had been in constant touch with him for information, politicians who had basked in his sunshine, began to throw hints about his supposed reactionary tendencies, his loss of control over the House of Commons, and his intrigues against the Prime Minister. These suggestions were circulated by a garrulous Lobby even a few hours before it was announced that he was going to Cardiff, accompanied by Mr. Walter Runciman and Mr. Arthur Henderson, LLOYD GEORGE AND THE WAR 355 to deal with the coal strike. Yet, the announcement that he was going buoyed them up wonderfully. One Welsh M.P. took it upon himself to speak on behalf of Wales by telling the Prime Minister that the majority of the Welsh constituencies would go against compul- sion ; but, as he had occasion to discover afterwards, he was not speaking for the majority in his own consti- tuency, much less for Wales. The feeling was rapidly growing in the Principality that the Voluntary system was inequitable and the supply uneven and incalculable, and that if Lloyd George had any doubts on the matter, there must have been some grave reason for it. Indeed, the final attitude of Wales on this question would very largely depend upon the action of Lloyd George, partly for the reason that the people a? a whole were ceasing to regard it as a party question. We venture to state that if he had made a pronouncement on the matter as he did at the commencement of the war, that is, if it had been made a national issue, Wales on the whole would have supported him. Lloyd George's critics seemed to have forgotten that when he introduced, with their commendation, his Insurance Act, which he copied en bloc from Germany, an Act which affected almost every section of the country, he introduced at the same time into this country a system of compulsion compared with which compulsory military service for the period of the war, and compulsory work in munition shops, was of insignificant dimensions. The principle of German compulsion was by implication held by Lloyd George to be superior to that of British voluntary action. Not only so, it was by compulsion that he pressed it through the House of Commons, leaving a large number of its provisions undiscussed. He subsequently confessed that if his Insurance Act had been referred to the electorate he would have been defeated. When a statesman finds himself compelled by the exi- gencies of the hour to recognise the truth that all social and political life is a compromise between the voluntary and the compulsory principle, and that unaccustomed 356 THE WAR AND WALES measures have become matters of necessity from expediency, it should not be laid to his charge that he has falsified his former self, or falsified his principles. His critics seemed also to have forgotten that it was by an arbitrary use of his power that Lloyd George allocated to himself, as well as to every member of the House of Commons, a salary of £400 a year, and that without legal authority and without the sanction of the people, while at the same time arranging that they should pay income tax on £300 instead of /400. As to Lloyd George's famous " Too Late " speech in the House of Commons, when he gave an account of the work of the Ministry of Munitions, he did not succeed in excusing himself. He summed up the position in these mournful terms : " Ah, fatal words ! Too late, in moving here, too late in arriving there, too late in coming to this decision, too late in starting with enterprise, too late in preparing. In this war the footsteps of the Allied Forces have been dogged by the mocking spectre of ' Too late,' and unless we quicken our movements damnation will fall on the sacred cause for which so much gallant blood has flowed." His implied reflections on certain authorities were : First, that they either did not know of or did not inform the Cabinet respecting the shortage of machine guns which, according to Lloyd George, was first discovered by the Prime Minister on his personal visit to France, though, as a matter of fact, the shortage had been common knowledge at the front for six months before the Prime Minister paid his visit ; secondly, that in June, 1915, the supply of high- explosive shells was reduced to 2,500 only every day, while no substantial orders had even then been given out for big guns. In casting this reflection upon his colleagues, Lloyd George was, unwittingly, casting a reflection upon himself. In the first place, if he had carried his inquiry a little further back, as he might have done, he would have found that at the beginning of the war this country was producing about 2,500 shells a week, and that in spite of the fact LLOYD GEORGE AND THE WAR 357 that Lord Haldane, according to himself, had been warning his colleagues ever since 1911 of the German menace. In the second place, Lloyd George was himself a member of the War Committee of the old Cabinet which was set up soon after the outbreak of hostilities. What is even more important still is, that he was Chairman of a special Munitions Committee. Again, Lloyd George concluded one of his speeches by pointing out to his audience how Germany had been preparing for the war. " Their entire industry," he said, " was organized in preparation for it. Their steel indus- tries, copper industries — above all, their chemical indus- tries — were ready at a moment's notice to distil poison — subtle, deadly, cruel poison — in order to destroy the enemy with the greatest torture, pain, and anguish. Britain may not have been ready, but Britain means to make up for lost time now." When did Lloyd George make this important discovery ? All the facts go to prove that he was — to use an American phrase — " asleep at the switch ,: when Germany was making these preparations. Mr. Balfour confessed in the House of Commons that at the beginning of the war we had not a single naval base on the East Coast that was safe from submarine attacks ; and that the trade routes were very improperly policed by fast eastern cruisers. Lloyd George, as is now well known, was, at first, against our intervention in the war ; a few months before the war began he told us that we had then the best opportunity which had occurred for the past twenty years to reduce our expenditure upon armaments. He also said, in another speech, that Europe was ripe to consider the question of disarmament. It would be easy to produce — it has already been done by some writers — the most categorical evidence to prove that Lloyd George cannot wash his hands and say, " This blood is not upon me." Not only did he and his colleagues conceal the facts from the public, but they chloroformed the country into a false security. Not only so, they seemed utterly devoid of the power of divination. 2B 358 THE WAR AND WALES It is surprising that a race so gifted with political intelligence as the British have proved themselves to be, should have had so few statesmen endowed with the sagacity to anticipate the future with any degree of accuracy. As the statesmen in possession of power in 1 91 4 grossly miscalculated the military, economic, and financial strength of Germany, as well as her intentions, so the British statesmen in possession in 1870, miscal- culated the efficiency of the Prussian organization. With the exception of a few military experts, English politicians felt sure that France would win in the early stages of the struggle. Every map of the seat of war published in London proved to be useless in less than a week. " You," said Heine, the most French in feeling of Germans, "have more to fear from liberated'" (i.e., united) " Germany, than from the whole Holy Alliance, together with all the Croats and Cossacks." Heine was right, and his prediction affords another illustration of the truth that the judgments and prognostications of publicists whose philosophy disqualifies them for party politics, are more often than not more reliable than those of the politicians. It was the same in regard to the American Civil War. " Your policy," said Sir George Cornewall Lewis, to the Northerners, "is to recognize the Secession." Even Gladstone utterly failed to divine the situation ; he went so far as to say that the Southern President had created a nation. It is now known that our statesmen— those statesmen who were in power at the time — were as faulty in their judgment of the policy of Germany and of impending changes as was Gladstone in his judgment of the American War. The events which led up to the war in which we are now engaged affords an additional illustration of the lesson taught by history, that the predictions of British politi- cians are the least and the last to be seriously regarded, and that it is unsafe for a nation to place its entire trust in the prophecies of even statesmen of the highest rank, when they relate to problems of international import. True, no human being can be absolutely certain of the LLOYD GEORGE AND THE WAR 359 future, but it is given to those who possess an under- standing of the unchanging laws of history, and to those who concern themselves with the political devlopment and economic resources and necessities of foreign countries, to have a reasonable measure of certainty as to the future. The German menace had been hanging over Europe like a pall for some years, and every statesman on the Con- tinent did what was possible to anticipate it, and to protect the interests of the country. But Lloyd George and the members of the Cabinet to which he belonged, had their eye only on the day's need ; they went on busying them- selves with immediate speculations concerning the machin- ery of Government. The future destiny of the country and of the Empire seemed to them quite unimportant by the side of the measures in which they were then so deeply interested, that even when they appeared to have some glimmering of the coming storm, and were implored by men who knew the facts to prepare and to make a political sacrifice for the sake of the vast issues at stake, they had not the moral courage to make the effort. Students of political history are acquainted with Lord Shelburne's notable prediction, that whenever the indepen- dence of America should be granted, " the sun of England would set, and her glories be eclipsed for ever. ' ' They also know of the disgraceful treatment meted out to Adams and Jefferson when, after the war, they visited England in their official capacity. There was no doubt an element of poetic justice in the fact that Lord Shelburne himself was the man to whose lot it fell to negotiate peace with America by which American independence was recognized. There is also an element of justice in the fact that those who refused to prepare for this war, when they knew, or ought to have known, that it was coming, should find themselves compelled to wage it. Lloyd George's statement that " when Britain comes to the bar of judgment in regard to this war, her defence and justification (the italics are ours) will be that she was utterly unprepared for it — thus prov- ing that she never contemplated any attack on Germany," 360 THE WAR AND WALES comes as near to impious sophistry as anything that he ever uttered. It will prove more repulsive to the moral sense of the future historian than it can prove at present, for the reason that the dust which blinds the eye of this generation to the responsibility of Britain's statesmen for the war, will have been removed. It is a relief to turn from so painful a page to reflect upon the manner in which Lloyd George has, since the com- mencement of hostilities, consumed his life in endeavour- ing to undo the mischief which his pre-war attitude may have caused, especially among that section of the public to whom he had always been a sort of " pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night," and among those who had been accustomed to look up to him as to a master from whose lips they gathered political wisdom. He is the only one among the members of the late Government who has evinced any feeling akin to contrition, though we have to interpret it for him. He is the one man, who, above all others, seems to have faced the facts since the war began, and who has had the courage to tell the people the truth about the situation. No other statesman has, in this war, shown greater sturdiness, velocity, momentum, and executive tact. The thrill of its in- spiration has been felt not only in Britain, but in every British Dominion and in every part of every Dominion. It is certain that he has never been so universally popular in Wales ; to-day, his popularity rests on a differ- ent and a broader foundation. Never before could it be properly said that he was a national hero, for he only appealed to a certain section — politically, and certain groups — religiously. Now he appeals to a much larger public. The Socialists and the Independent Labour Party, and the conscientious objectors, will never forgive him. But the vast majority of the people of all classes and creeds have been moved by the feeling that he is the one man who is fully up to the courage of the common people. He has always been a good name to conjure with, and more so now than ever. A woman who was recently brought before the magistrates on a charge of drunken- LLOYD GEORGE AND THE WAR 361 ness, was reported to have begged them to let her off, on the plea that she had been in Lloyd George's service as a cook at Criccieth about thirty years ago. Equally striking is the change of feeling and opinion among those visitors from beyond the border, who are attracted by the beauty of the country. He is no longer a merely romantic figure, or merely a sectarian or party idol, but the most dominant exponent of the national mind, the truest and most heroic embodiment of the passionate determination of the masses of the Kingdom to carry the war to a successful conclusion. Broadly speaking, what are the results of his actions upon the course of events in Great Britain ? This is the real test of his power and place in history. How would it have been if he had not lived, or had not been associated with British politics. We have sum- marized his genius and his character, and his pre-war and pro-war attitude ; it now remains for us to deal briefly with the results in so far as they can at present be traced. They are far-reaching and in some respects momentous. British politics will never again be the same, and the historian will mark a new epoch from the date of his advent to office and power. He re-habilitated Liberalism when its fortunes were at a low ebb, and when all the s courage and the hope seemed to have gone out of its accredited leaders. He made a new application of Liberal principles, or, as he himself would state it, he carried Liberal principles to their logical issue, while at the same time augmenting the desires of the people, and increasing their dissatisfaction with their social and political environment. He made a political issue of our national economy, and created fresh sources of wealth by the introduction of an entirely new system of taxation. He prolonged the life of the Free Trade system by dis- covering new sources of revenue for the State, and stemmed the inroads of Socialism upon Liberalism by the adoption of a philosophy of politics lying midway be- tween Socialism and Individualism, and by enlarging the sphere of the State over areas which had hitherto been 362 THE WAR AND WALES sequestrated and zealously guarded by the theory of the rights of property, thus intensifying the natural antago- nism between the aristocracies of privilege and wealth and industrial society. He gave legal sanction to the policy of robbing one class in order to help another, or, as he would put it, and as he once implied, he restored to the community what it had been deprived of by those who, like Ananias, had made a false return of their property in order to reduce their contribution to the community, and who had acquired an abundance, though they " toiled not neither did they spin." He aimed at a kind of State landlordism by a progressive land-tax, and by taxing unearned as well as earned incomes, and unimproved as well as improved land. He also sought to provide, and, in a measure, succeeded in providing, a higher standard of comfort for the aged poor. By the irony of events, he has been called upon to smooth and to solve economic troubles to which his own speeches in the country on land, capital, class privileges, and the rights of the working classes, largely contributed. He has negotiated many an industrial settlement, and he has had the credit of successfully arranging agreements, which were in reality no agreements, and which left some of the most important controversial points to be settled after- wards. Such was his settlement of the coal strike in 19*5- He has been an instrument in changing the machinery of government. If he did not create, he precipitated the constitutional crisis which ended the veto of the House of Lords. His soul he has thrown with the most com- mendable emphasis of energy into the prosecution of this great war. Known as the friend, champion, and confidant of the people, yet he never thought it necessary to warn them of the near approach of the mightiest conflict in history, a conflict which vitally affected their interests and their liberties. Yet , the war has increased his prestige with the nation as a whole, and added to the lustre of his name abroad. He has earnestly laboured to remove social evils LLOYD GEORGE AND THE WAR 363 and to check the spread of misery and want and un- employment ; yet, he has at the same time, by the char- acter of his legislation, discouraged thrift ; in solving one problem, or in attempting to solve it, he raised other problems equally serious and complicated. Such has been his great reforming zeal that he has neglected to consider the effect of his measures upon institutions and interests with which by temperament and education he has no affinity, or to give their claims the consideration which their traditions and even their usefulness demanded. Indeed, there does not appear to us to have been a statesman since the days of Caius Gracchus, in whom there is combined so much strength and so much weakness, or whose activities provide such a wide field for the severest criticism, and such a wide field for the most unstinted admiration, or whose legislation has been pervaded with such conflicting aims, inasmuch as on the one hand it aimed at the public good, and on the other hand ministered to purely party objects, personal ambi- tion, and vengeance on those whose reign and power and political influence had, as he thought, lasted too long. That, like Caius Gracchus, Lloyd George was aware of what he was doing there can be no doubt, and that like him, the formal shape which he has projected for his great work may be variously conceived, there can also be no doubt ; neither can there be any doubt that when old con- troversies will be revived, as they will certainly be revived after the war and in a more acute form, it will be more variously conceived than at present. If we were asked how we would make these conflicting tendencies in Lloyd George's work chargeable, we would answer by saying that they are chargeable to himself personally, that is, to his psychology, to his political environment, and to the exigencies of the party whose fortune depended so much upon his eloquence and his strategy. That he has a measure of greatness in him is unquestionable, for gifts rarer than the gifts of courage, or of strategy, or the possession of a penetrating and a flexible intellect are needed to enable a man to stand the 304 THE WAR AND WALES trying test to which he has been subjected. Not only has he held his own, but he has actually strengthened his character, and has compelled his generation to judge him by a standard different from that which is ordinarily applied. How great he will become depends upon how long he will live, upon the nature of the problems that will come up for settlement while he lives, upon what mysteries there are still concealed beneath the wizard robe of Fortune, and upon whether and how far he can persuade himself to tolerate men who differ from him or who are not as able as himself, and to co-operate with men who are abler and more experienced in particular departments of administrative work, and in which their co-operation is essential to his own efficiency and to the success of his undertakings. Herein is one of the cardinal defects of his character and the root-cause of some of his later difficulties. It is significant, in this connection, that only three members of the Welsh Parliamentary Party supported him on the platform at Conway on Saturday, May 6th, only two of whom— Mr. Ellis J. Griffiths and Mr. Herbert Lewis — carry any weight in the Principality. But the reaction against him covers a far wider area ; he is now a broken idol in many Welsh circles. At Haverfordwest — one of the strongholds of Lloyd Georgism in Pembrokeshire — a staunch Noncon- formist Liberal and admirer of Lloyd George for many years, took his photo, in May last, down from the place of honour which it had occupied, and consigned it to the flames. The war has put him to a severer test than he has hitherto experienced ; but if his nature had been less honest, his keenness on the war less pronounced, and his courage in facing all the facts less frank, he would have been spared much of the criticism to which he had been subjected, and would not have left such a heritage of bitterness among a certain class of politicians, Liberal journalists, conscientious objectors, and pro- Germans, with which he will have in future to reckon. We hold no brief for Lloyd George ; we have never at any time indulged in that fulsome and indiscriminate LLOYD GEORGE AND THE WAR 365 laudation of his views, attributes, and achievements which his friends and present betrayers and traducers have lavished upon him for a number of years. We have, and in some respects to our disadvantage, been at pains to remind him that while he roused the enthusiasm of his countrymen on behalf of himself and his policy, he never attempted to educate them ; that while he fed and cultivated their chauvinistic tendencies, he indirectly encouraged them to remain oblivious of their racial and national weaknesses, though he was well aware of their existence ; that his idea of what befitted local patriotism was neither logical nor worthy of the times in which he lived and of the influence which he wielded ; that he failed to teach the Welsh that the fortunes and existence of Wales were bound up with the fortunes and existence of the Kingdom and of the Empire ; that while he rightly appraised the great part which Welsh Nonconformity had played in the modern development of the Princi- pality, he neglected to remind it of its duty to the State and to inoculate it with that Imperialistic spirit of the value of which he has now become so conscious, leaving that part of their political culture to the Anglican Church, the Conservative Party and the few Welshmen who are not particularly allied to either, but who, though they are ardent patriots, look beyond the confines of their own country and who never have subscribed to that doctrine of " Ourselves Alone " which has found favour among extreme Welsh Nationalists, and which has had its counterpart among the Sinn Feiners of Ireland, which movement was the offshoot of what was originally known as the Gaelic Movement, and which has had so many admirers in Wales. The Nonconformist conscientious objector in Wales is very largely the offspring of Lloyd George's past speeches and attitude in regard to some national movements in Wales, especially the character of his agitation against Mr. Balfour's Education Act. Pamphlets have been distributed, with the consent of the authorities, in some Nonconformist chapels on Sundays with a view to discourage enlistment and enthusiasm for the war. 366 THE WAR AND WALES But we have no sympathy with the present epidemic of anti-Lloyd Georgism which has manifested itself among Liberal journalists, and especially the atrocious attacks that have been made upon him by the editor of the Daily News and Leader, ostensibly because of his alleged intrigue against the Prime Minister, but really because in this war he has forgotten all about party and class, and has had his mind set on victory, and because he frankly told the country that a fair measure of general compulsion was the only alternative to defeat. There appears to be no gratitude in politics. This editor charges Lloyd George with having conspired against his chief in order that he himself might become Prime Minister ; he bases that charge upon gossip and upon the fact that Lloyd George refrained from defending his chief. He further tells us that Mr. Asquith's loyalty has saved Lloyd George in the past. We know not to what this refers ; but we know, as the world knows, that Lloyd George saved the Liberal Party from disaster twice in twelve months, once when he was Chancellor of the Exchequer at the beginning of the war, and when the money position was the most serious that confronted them. Another time when the munitions position had become so alarming that the country demanded the appointment of Lloyd George as Minister of Munitions. We believe that he has for the third time saved the situation by forcing the Cabinet and Parliament to organize the whole available manhood of the country. If he had misunderstood his countryman, as his journalistic denouncer claims, Lloyd George could never have accomplished this. Indeed, he seems to us to be one of the few men who has shown real insight into the heart and soul of the problem which the war presents, and it is obvious that he could not defend the policy of his chief with which, in so far as enlist- ment is concerned, he did not and could not agree. We submit that Lloyd George's great opportunity as a ' political intriguer " came when he was at variance with his Chief on the question of Compulsion ; if he had resigned on that issue he would have carried the nation with him. LLOYD GEORGE AND THE WAR 367 But from the point of view of an " intriguer," he has lost his opportunity, and because of what we call his loyalty, and certainly his patriotism and his courage, he has placed himself at such a disadvantage with certain Liberal politicians and Liberal journalists, that it will be more difficult for him, when the war is over, to exercise the same control over official Liberalism, or to attain the highest position under the Crown, to which his new-born enemies once believed him to be destined. It is a sad fate for a statesman around whose strong personality the whole existence of the Liberal Government during its tenure of office, and the whole existence of the Coalition Government has centred. Where he will ultimately drift under the force of new circumstances, it would not be safe to predict, for no politician of modern times has so humorously disregarded the predictions of the prophets. But a statesman who stands where all great democracies have stood in times of great peril, who trusts the people when in the throes of a mighty war by asking them to face the facts, and who openly declares that he would rather be driven out of the Cabinet, out of Parliament, and out of public life, rather than acquiesce in methods and policies which in his judgment were futile and ineffective for the successful prosecution of the war, is a man of whom his countrymen should be proud, who deserves the respect of every patriotic Briton, and the gratitude of the brave men who are in the trenches under perpetual menace from bullets and shells, who have surrendered not only their businesses, their homes, and all that are near and dear to them, but their own lives in the prime of manhood as a sacrifice for country and liberty, and for the greatest of all causes that mortal man has ever been called to fight. CHAPTER VIII WILLIAM MORRIS HUGHES — HIS CAREER AND WORK Born Sept. 25th, 1864 ; son of late William Hughes, of the Vale of Clwyd, and Jane, daughter of late Peter Morris, a Montgomeryshire farmer ; educated at Llandudno Grammar School and in London ; was a pupil-teacher at St. Stephen's Church of England School, Westminster, founded by the late Baroness Burdett-Coutts, and subsequently school- teacher at Liverpool ; left for Australia in 1884, settling in Queensland, where he had a varied experience and studied the labour problems of the day ; entered the New South Wales Parliament as Labour member for the Lang division of Sydney, in 1894, and was re-elected three successive parliaments ; elected to the House of Representatives for West Sydney on Labour Party's platform, in 1901, a seat which he has held ever since ; admitted to the New South Wales Bar, in 1903 ; declined a portfolio of Attorney-General offered him in 1904, in the first National Labour Government in the world, under Mr. J. C. Watson, but subsequently accepted the position of Minister of External Affairs in the same government, which lasted only four months ; Chair- man of the Royal Commission on Navigation, in 1905 ; delegate to the Imperial Navigation Conference in London, in 1907 ; became Attorney- General in the second Labour Administration in 1907 with the Hon. Andrew Fisher, the present High Commissioner for Australia in London, as Prime Minister; acted as Prime Minister for ten months in 1910-ir, when Andrew Fisher represented Australia at the opening of the South African Parliament, and at the Imperial Conference in London ; eradicated German influence in Australian trade, reorganizing the metal industry by establishing a Government-controlled Metal Ex- change in Melbourne ; and organized the Maritime Unions, and the Waterside Workers' Federation, which has now a membership of about 200,000 ; was elected President of the Carters' Union of New South Wales and General Secretary of Wharf Labourers' Union ; chosen Prime Minister of Australia on October 27th, 1914, when Andrew Fisher resigned the Premiership on his appointment as High Commissioner ; arrived in England in March, 1916, in re- sponse to the request of the Imperial Government, in order to dia uss questions relating to the organization of trade within the Empire and with the Allies, including the question of sea power in the Pacific, and the terms of peace in so far as they may affect the interests <>l Australia, New Zealand and Canada, after having had conferences with Mr. Massey, Prime Minister of New Zealand, and with Sir Robert Borden, Prime Minister of Canada ; sworn a member of the Canadian Privy Council on February 18th, 1916, when he attended a meeting of the Canadian Cabinet ; sworn a member of the Privy Council before the King, on March 26th, 1916 ; received the Freedom of the City of 368 WILLIAM MORRIS HUGHES 369 London, April 18th; the Freedom of the City of Cardiff, March 24th 1916 ; the Freedom of the City of Edinburgh and the honorary degree of LL.D. from the University of Edinburgh, April 26th; the Freedom of the City of Glasgow and the honorary degree of LL.D. from the University of Glasgow, April 27th; Freedom of the City of Bristol, May 20th; Freedom of the City of Liverpool, May 25th ; Freedom of the City of Manchester, May 26th ; Freedom of the City of York, May 27th ; Freedom of Sheffield, May 29th ; Freedom of Birmingham, and honorary degree of LL.D., May 30th; received the degree of Doctor of Civil Laws Honoris Causa from the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, June 15th; elected a Bencher of Gray's Inn, May nth, 1916; attended Economic Conference of the Allies at Paris, June 14th to June 17th, at the request of the British Government ; returned to Australia, June 26th. Historically speaking, Wales and Welshmen have — in the United Kingdom — been too long at a discount in the broad field of life ; and Englishmen of all grades have been too prone in the past, as many are now, to judge their merits, whether political or literary, in the light of the prejudices which have traditionally surrounded their nationality, or their racial history and attributes. It has been assumed that the Welsh nation has no tradition of any substance and that Welshmen have nothing of interest to say to the world of thought outside, or that if they have, they lack the style and education necessary to express it, or that what has been termed their " emotional minds " are deficient in that symmetrical development which, as we are told, is so characteristic of the English. This, in part, explains why editors and publicists in authority in England have been so indisposed to consider what a Welshman has to say. True, greatness is more exceptional in Wales and among the Welsh than it is in England or among the English and the Scots. Yet, Wales can claim to have produced a few men of distinction and of solid merit in the sphere of politics and statesmanship, and who have good British as well as Welsh grounds for being re- membered and understood — John Williams, the seven- teenth-century Lord Keeper of the Great Seal (Lord Chancellor) and Archbishop of York, who knew Welsh and spoke it, and who was lineally descended from Welsh on both sides. He was the first Welshman to occupy Cabinet rank, i.e., the " Cabinet," as then known, 370 THE WAR AND WALES because he was in the Star Chamber, and in all the secret councils and cabals of the King and State. Sir William Williams, Bart., born in 1634, at Nantanog, Llantrisant, Anglesey, represented Chester, the Borough of Beaumaris, and the county of Carnarvon, in Parlia- ment. He acted as Speaker of the House of Com- mons, 1679-81. When Sir John Trevor, the son of John Trevor, of Brynkinallt, in the county of Denbighshire, went to London as clerk to his uncle, Arthur Trevor, who was a barrister, he could not speak a correct sentence in English. Yet, at the age of forty-one, he was King's Counsel ; and having obtained a seat in the House of Commons, was elected Speaker in 1685 in James II's only Parliament ; and at the accession of William III he was re-elected. On being reported to the House of Commons for having accepted a bribe for interesting himself in a Bill promoted by the City of London, he was obliged to resign, and was expelled from the House ; but was permitted to retain the office of Mastership of the Rolls. There have been four Speakers who have been claimed to be W T elsh — Robert Harley ; Sir John Pickering ; and Sir Thomas Hamner, Bart. ; but, as we have shown in a former work, not one of them deserves the title of Welsh- man. Charles Watkin Williams Wynn, the son of Sir Watkin Williams Wynn, who was born at Wynnstay, near Wrexham, in 1775, was nominated for the Speaker- ship in 1817, but he was defeated by Mr. Manners Sutton, the Ministerial candidate. Sir John Ambrey, Bart., a native of Glamorgan, was made First Lord of the Admiralty in 1782, and Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1783, and a member of the Cabinet. There is some doubt as to whether Ambrey could speak W 7 elsh, being regarded as a Normanized Vale of Glamorgan man. He was, however, a Welshman, and a scion of an aristocratic family. There was nothing characteristically Welsh in Sir George Cornewall Lewis, Bart., and his knowledge of Welsh was only colloquial. He was the son of Sir WILLIAM MORRIS HUGHES 371 Thomas Frankland Lewis, of Harpton Court, Radnor- shire, and was born in 1806. When Gladstone resigned his position as Chancellor of the Exchequer in Lord Palmerston's Administration, Sir George Comewall Lewis took his place on March 5th, 1855, remaining in office for three years. Palmerston was defeated in the early part of 1858, but the Conservative Government which came into power in February of the same year, only lasted till the spring of 1859. In the new Parliament Palmerston again became Prime Minister. Cornewall Lewis was invited to become Chancellor of the Exchequer, and he consented to act, but withdrew when Gladstone announced that he was prepared to take the office. Lewis was unquestionably the most learned man of his generation, and one of the most learned men of any time. He was a skilful Parliamentarian and a sound statesman. He found himself in sharp conflict with Gladstone on all matters of finance. Gladstone seemed bent upon leading Lewis a weary life ; but as Charles Greville wrote in his diary : " Lewis is just the man to encounter and baffle such an opponent." It is not unworthy of note that a Welshman in the person of Lloyd George was Chancellor of the Exchequer during the first stages of this war, and that a Welshman in the person of Sir George Cornewall Lewis found himself compelled, as Chancellor of the Exchequer in Palmerston's Cabinet, to provide for the inevitable expenses of the Crimean War, which was not then near its end. The deficiency which Lewis had to meet was twenty-three millions ; he asked for a loan of sixteen mil- lions, and decided to find the rest by taxation. Lewis was considered a sound though not a brilliant financier. In introducing his Budget in the session of 1856, when peace was practically declared, he estimated the total cost of the war at seventy-seven millions, leaving what was then considered a " frightful debt " to be wiped off. Gladstone's grievance seemed to be that Lewis had made no attempt at revising the Income Tax, though during the many years when Gladstone himself was Chancellor as Prime Minister, he left the Income Tax severely alone. 372 THE WAR AND WALES When Lewis introduced his third and last Budget early in 1857, Gladstone made common cause with the Radicals and Tories, and assailed him with a vehemence that might have delighted the heart of the Psalmist of old. Lord Morley in his Life of Gladstone puts a complexion on this controversy which an impartial student of political history might regard as evidence of that pre-disposition which the famous author is not ashamed to own. " On February 13th, 1857, the Government presented their Budget. In introducing his plan Lewis rashly quoted, and adopted as his own, the terrible heresy of Arthur Young, that to multiply the number of taxes is a step towards equality of burden, and that a good system of taxation is one that bears lightly on an infinite number of points. The reader will believe how speedily an impious opinion of this sort kindled volcanic flame in Gladstone's breast. ... He told his friends that the shade of Peel would appear to him if he did not oppose such plans with his whole strength." Lewis, however, kept both his head and his temper. Gladstone's vehemence was overdone ; a reaction followed, and the Budget passed, leaving Lewis triumphant. A treatise on the comparative merits of the two Welsh Chancellors of the Exchequer — Cornewall Lewis and Lloyd George, and the method of the one in meeting the expenses of the Crimean War, and of the other in providing for the financial requirements of the country in the present war, would be very interesting. There are two other Welshmen of note of whom mention should be made in this connection — Henry Richard and Thomas E. Ellis. Richard was the pioneer of Welsh Nationalism in the British Parliament, and the ablest and most conspicuous exponent of International Peace in his own generation. He was the author of the first resolution — July 9th, 1873 — ever carried in the House of Commons in favour of a general and permanent system of arbitration. Ellis was part-founder of the Welsh Univer- sity ; Liberal Whip in Lord Rosebery's Administration ; the chief instrument in the appointment of a Royal Commissioner to inquire into the condition of the Welsh WILLIAM MORRIS HUGHES 373 agricultural labourers, as well as of the Land Commission. Because Wales had thrown in her lot with Ireland, and labouring under the mistaken idea that the great current was sweeping towards Nationalism, Ellis pleaded in his speech at Bala, North Wales, on September 18th, 1890, for a National Parliament for Wales, but his appeal fell on an irresponsive nation, and the event marks the end of his work as a Welsh national leader. His mantle has fallen on the shoulders of a Welshman of conspicuous ability, pertinacity, and perspicuity, in the person of Mr. E. T. John, M.P.' But of all who occupy a place on the head-roll of those Welshmen who have distinguished themselves in the sphere of politics and statesmanship, none will shine with greater lustre than William Morris Hughes, the present Premier of Australia ; one of the most trenchant cham- pions of freedom and one of the most powerful exponents of the genius of Empire whom this war brought to light. He arrived in England only in March, 1916 ; his name and achievements in the Antipodes were com- paratively unknown to the great masses of the people here ; yet, in the short space of a few months, " his name," as Lloyd George said at Conway, " is not merely a household word throughout the British Empire, but his speeches have been ringing through Europe and have been a source of inspiration to the Allies." It is curious to note how these two Welshmen have been linked together in the public mind during the last few months ; they have been thought of as the " Castor and Pollux" in the Imperial firmament of this period — shining with equal lustre, though, perhaps, in different ways. It is an interesting task to study the points of identity and difference in two such capable and aggressive personalities ; and the manner in which their personalities have developed. These similarities and diversities are made clear to us when we examine their reigning moods ; the peculiarities of their personal constitutions, the tex- ture of their minds, the intensity of their emotions and the manner in which their emotions have been called out by 2C 374 THE WAR AND wales different interests ; the vicissitudes of their careers ; their specific natural talents and the directions in which they have employed their talents, and their relative absorption in their subjective feelings. There is much in common between the two men. They are leading actors in the storm and stress period — the greatest of all storm and stress periods — in the life of the Empire, and they will go down to posterity as two of the most constructive forces in the history of this war. None can question their patriotism, though some may consider our estimate of Mr. Hughes too high. Both have studied law — Lloyd George is a solicitor and the Premier of Australia is a barrister — and their knowledge of law has stood them in good stead ; both have the qualities necessary for a successful Parliamentary life. They have had much to do with industrial disputes, though Lloyd George has never been so closely or so vitally connected with the industrial classes as William Morris Hughes, nor has he had so much practical experience in this direction. The latter's contribution to the cause of Labour has been more direct, and, as we think, more wholesome. Not only has he organized Australian Labour, but he has achieved for the industrial classes largely increased wages and improved conditions by legislation. William Morris Hughes is no sycophant. He has had perpetual fights to maintain among the trade unions, sometimes fighting against them, sometimes fighting for them, but always in their interest, especially when pleading against strikes and for Parliamentary action against violence. He has faced a seething mass of angry men in the Sydney Trades Hall ; when he began to speak they howled at him as a traitor, but they ended by cheering him as a friend, and the workers of Australia have come to see that he is their friend and that sympathy does not necessarily involve acquiescence in all their emotional outbursts. Both have kept the spirit of the rebel alive and have fanned the flame of reform. They have been in their day WILLIAM MORRIS HUGHES 375 attacked by the Conservative Press in their respective countries. The pugnacious element has displayed tre- mendous virility in both men, they are born fighters and have fought a life-long battle for supremacy over the limitations of their early life, and for the supremacy of the principles in which they believe. Both men afford a striking example of the old martial propensities of their race, a race which has lived so large a part of its life in tumult and emotional tension in the effort to preserve its own existence and entity, and to realize its own racial and ethical ideas. But Lloyd George has had an easier royal road to success than the Premier of Australia, not because of superior gifts, but because William Morris Hughes has had far greater difficulties to overcome ; difficulties which necessarily involved harder work and slower progress. But the memory of his early priva- tions and struggles is to William Morris Hughes a source of strength rather than of weakness, of inspira- tion rather than of discouragement, for it even aug- ments his progress by a conviction of his own capacity and strength. William Morris Hughes is a slender and fragile-looking man, diminutive in stature, a mere bantam in weight — weighing less than seven stone; very hard of hearing, and a bundle of nerves ; frank, open, unpretentious, and unas- suming. 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. So William Morris Hughes has no thought of self, or of how his utterances and efforts are likely to affect his political prospects; he thinks of what is greater than himself — of the issues that are at stake. Yet, what brain power the frail and diminutive body carries ! What spirit, decisive resolution, perception, enthusiasm, and power of organiza- tion ! What withering sarcasm, incisiveness, concentra- tion of purpose, tenacity in the midst of difficulties, and courage in distress ! He is a more romantic figure than Lloyd George ; the latter was never poor in the sense that William Morris Hughes was poor; he never found the world 376 THE WAR AND WALES so cold and so bitter a place. It is in his conduct and fortitude in these trying experiences, even more than in his successful wrestling with industrial and national questions, that we see the real nature of William Morris Hughes's personal character and his will power. By will we do not mean any specific mental element, for there is no event or mental element to which the term will may be properly applied ; all states of consciousness are in their entirety the will. The psychologist would say that mentally there is nothing but will, which is a convenient term to denote the whole range of mental life. Neither is there such a thing as the freedom of the will, for no will is free from physical and social environment, from the twin forces of interest and desire and inherited tendencies. Unlike the Premier of Australia, Lloyd George had powerful friends, he had a growing practice and a strong official organization to support and to finance him. He entered public life at the psychological moment, that is, when the ideas that had been fermenting in the minds of the people were coming into congruities, combining and crystallizing ; when the spade-work had been done ; when national opinion had been organized by men whose great abilities, heroism, sacrifice and devotion to their country's good, and the great part they played in the making of modern Wales have not been recognized as they should. They are the men who gave Lloyd George and our politicians and educationists their vantage ground, though a stranger unacquainted with the inner history of Wales might think that the aspirations of this hour are a fresh consignment born and bred with the birth of Lloyd George, or out of the exigencies of this generation. True, while the pioneers were filled with courage and hope, they had none of that vehement braggart passion which has characterized Welsh political and religious life of more recent years. It was under the escort of public opinion, and of the organized action of democratic forces, that Lloyd George was carried into public life. When he entered the House WILLIAM MORRIS HUGHES 377 of Commons he had a Welsh Parliamentary Party to greet him, and a Welsh community to encourage him. There were many besides the Welsh representatives who said, " That's Lloyd George," but there was none to say, "That's Hughes," when the present Premier of Australia entered the New South Wales Parliament as Labour member for the Lang division of Sydney in 1894, as one of a small party of Trade Unionists — the first political effect of the great maritime strike — which formed the first Labour Party. William Morris Hughes is the product of a harder, sadder, and a more strenuous life than Lloyd George. When the latter entered Parliament he had the appearance of prosperity, at any rate ; but Hughes, as he passed in and out of the New South Wales Parliament, was shabbily garbed, looking forlorn and miserable ; highly sensitive, but lacking self-assurance. His deafness was against him, so was his poverty, so were the limitations of his early career, a career marked with a good deal of un- easiness and uncertainty. The story of his life reads like a romance — it is romance and tragedy combined. To read how he had to fight his way to keep his family out of debt by means of the most extraordinary diversity of manual occupations — first a school teacher, then wharf- lumping, rough station work, cooking, painting, saw- setting — is to bring one's self into touch with the great under-world of sorrow and privation, and in his case, into touch with manhood at its best. It is not of many Prime Ministers that it can be said that they have been railway labourers, boundary riders, stockmen, fencers, coastal sailors, or shopkeepers, selling books, and repairing locks while debating and expounding economic and revolutionary doctrines with customers and acquaintances. Australia is not considered a good friend to the new- comer to its shores, especially to a newcomer who arrives unknown and lonely and with nothing to help him save a ready tongue and an unflinching determination. The Northern State, we are told, has always had an attraction 37S THE WAR AND WALES to oversea wanderers; its sunny skies are a boon to all who are in search of health. The subject of our sketch drifted to Queensland, and, strangely enough, obtained work in the same locality which first employed the other great figure in Australian labour politics and Hughes's trusted leader for so many years in the Parliament of the Commonwealth — Andrew Fisher, the present High Com- missioner for Australia. He worked for a time in a factory in Maryborough. In a short time he set out to walk to Brisbane through the dense tropical scrub which forms some of the roughest country in Australia, where he arrived with but few clothes and without any money. Bush life is never easy, and in most forms requires health and a good right arm. Health he had not, and but for the fact that the divinity that shapes our ends had an eye on William Morris Hughes, the career of the embryo Prime Minister might have ended in the wide Bay of Brisbane, famishing, bootless, subsisting on a few fishes which had of necessity to be eaten raw. Hearing that conditions were better at Gympie, which is one hundred and sixteen miles north of Brisbane, he decided to tramp it there ; but losing himself for a week and without anything to eat for three days, he eventually reached the town of Troosa, from where he worked his passage back to Brisbane. Becoming tired of his wanderings and of bush life, a life that seemed to lead to nowhere definitely, he turned his face to Sydney, where by the wharves he found occupation. It is here that he began his public life. Moving about among the wharf labourers he quickly became identified with trade unionism, which was then in an embryonic stage in Australia. He settled in the Sydney suburb called Balmain as a small shopkeeper, selling books and repairing locks and umbrellas. At this time Henry George, author of Progress and Poverty, visited Sydney, which visit led to the formation of land tax associations, with which William Morris Hughes and W. A. Holman, now Premier of New South Wales, became actively con- nected. W. A. Holman was one of the first with whom William Morris Hughes struck up a friendship, the early WILLIAM MORRIS HUGHES 379 warmth of which was diminished in later years when both men became leaders. With acute perception William Morris Hughes rightly- gauged the possibilities of militant unionism, and became the secretary of the Union formed by the Waterside Workers, to whom then organized labour was a phrase sig- nifying fury and disturbance, but meaning nothing. He took hold of this restless, inchoate and inarticulate move- ment, and made it a living, practical force. The workers had been looking for a leader, and his caustic criticism, wit, coolness, brain-power, and organizing genius, appealed to them, and they were neither deceived nor disappointed ; he secured more for them by negotiations than they expected. It was when the Australian Federation of Labour was formed in 1889, and when in the following year Australian industrial democracy was stirred to its depth by the maritime strike, that his name began to be spread abroad. At the New South Wales general elections in 1891, forty-five Labour candidates presented themselves, and thirty-six were elected. In 1894 he was elected for the Lang division, and he made an immediate impression on the New South Wales Legislative Assembly. His ability as a speaker — witty, vitriolic, coloured by a delightful sense of humour and brightened by apt illus- trations — won for him the respect and admiration of the Assembly. To his efforts, mainly, are due many of the progressive measures which followed the entry of labour into politics — such, for instance, as the Early Closing Act, one of the greatest achievements in industrial legislation in Australia. With his entry into the Commonwealth Parliament and the first Federal elections in 1901, the first important phase of his career began. He became closely identified with the controversy over the form of the new Constitution, and he has since been the leader of the movement to amend it. Seeing that the fast-growing movement would require legal assistance, William Morris Hughes began to study law, which but few men do after passing the age of thirty. This qualification proved of great value to him when in 380 THE WAR AND WALES 1904 (he was admitted to the Bar in 1903) he became Minister for External Affairs in the first Labour Govern- ment, headed by Mr. J. C. Watson, and especially when he accepted the portfolio of Attorney-General in the second Labour Government, led by Andrew Fisher ; also in the third Labour Cabinet formed in 1910, in which position it may be said that he made his mark in the history of Australia. Mr. J. C. Watson's Government being in a minority in the House, broke up in August of the same year, when it was succeeded by the Reid-McLean Administration, which in turn gave way to the second Deakin Administra- tion, which survived the elections of 1906, and held office with the support of the Labour Party. He co-operated with Mr. W. A. Holman in founding The New Order, which had for its object the overthrow of capitalism, but the project was a failure. Then William Morris Hughes began a series of contributions — which extended over five years — to the columns of the Sydney Daily Telegraph, under the heading "The Case for Labour," in which he expounded the cause of labour and denounced his oppo- nents ; these articles greatly strengthened his position and exercised a profound influence on the Australian mind, partly for the reason that they disclaimed any sympathy with the methods of Syndicalism and favoured constitu- tional means in preference to strikes. He was instrumental in settling the New South Wales coal strike of 1910, which threatened to paralyse industry throughout Australia. Labour gradually won its way to political authority, so that to-day its nominees hold the reins of Government in the Commonwealth and in five out of six of the State Parliaments. When the Hon. Andrew Fisher resigned the Premiership in 1915, to take the High Commissionership, William Morris Hughes became Prime Minister, though he had previously acted in that capacity in 1911, when the Hon. Andrew Fisher represented Australia at the opening of the South African Parliament, and attended the Coronation and the Imperial Conference, 1911. It is conceded that his WILLIAM MORRIS HUGHES 381 now famous, unauthorized, offer of a political truce, during the war, to the Liberal Party through Mr. Cook, on the eve of the war elections, greatly increased his prestige and greatly influenced the result. The terms of the truce were that the old Parliament should return to power as it was before the dissolution, the Liberals holding office and a majority of the Speaker's vote in the House of Represen- tatives, and the Labour Party controlling the Senate. The offer was rejected by the Liberals, with the result that William Morris Hughes, as the head of the Labour Party, was returned to power. This is the lad who landed in Brisbane in 1884, alone and friendless, frail in body and poor in circumstances ; who, twenty-three years later — 1907 — was sent as a delegate to the Imperial Navigation Conference in London, where he was the object of mildly respectful solicitude from the permanent officials of the Colonial Office, and passed through London unhonoured and unknown. He came nine years later as the Premier of Australia, at the invitation of the British Government, " to exchange," as he himself said, " views with regard to the war and matters arising therefrom," and at a period in the history of the Empire which marks a turning-point not merely in the economic and political evolution, but in the fortunes and destiny of the British Empire, and the destiny o civilization as we have known it. Truly, it is a tale worth recording, and worthy of the careful study of every Labour leader, and of every young Welshman, not only in Wales, but throughout the world, for he has added to the lustre of his race, and he has revealed to us some of the noblest elements in human nature. It is also worthy of study as an example of the various typical forms in which personality reveals itself, which is one of the most instructive and interesting tasks with which the psycho- logist of the future will have to deal. There are in Cymric history a few of these great types, but none in whom the various elements are more conspicuously represented than in the two Welshmen who are playing such a great part in this war — William Morris Hughes and Lloyd George. 382 THE WAR AND WALES Something has been said of late about the impulsive nature of the Celt, and by implication, of the perils of Welsh racial impulsions, as they are alleged to have manifested themselves in the career of Lloyd George, more especially in the controversy over Conscription during this war. An indirect attempt has been made to set the men of the " Saxon fringe " in antagonism to the men of the " Celtic fringe." The Celt, or the Welshman, as he is represented in Lloyd George, possesses, it is said, ample power of volition, and an ample fund of enthusiasm, but he lacks judgment and understanding of the people. He acts impulsively, that is, without due reflection and deliberation. So notorious, we are told, is this Celtic or Cymric instinct or impulsion, or what some psycho- logical authorities prefer to call " instinct feeling," that we can actually anticipate the acts and the consequences to which it inevitably tends. The English mind, we are further told, is less emotional, less impatient in the face of difficulties ; it is more stable, more trustworthy ; but the Welsh mind lacks the phlegm and steadiness and the obstinate patience of the English mind, and it seizes too readily on the idea of dictatorship as a royal road to victory. But to say that a Celt or a Welshman naturally acts precipitately is equivalent to saying that he is either a genius or a fool — most probably and commonly the latter. But he who acts precipitately may be, often is, far more efficient, and accomplishes greater things, than the hope- lessly careful person who spends his life in balancing points and in reconciling incongruities. As our views on this particular question are indicated in the chapter on " Celticism " in our Philosophy of Welsh History, which we published two years ago, we shall only observe here that a writer who says that a Welshman is naturally and inevitably and habitually impulsive what- ever his immediate feeling, or whatever decision he may have to make, or whatever difficulty he may have to encounter, and who implies that an Englishman has no instinct feeling, or racial impulsions, and that he is naturally and inevitably circumspect, deliberate, well WILLIAM MORRIS HUGHES 383 balanced, patient and tolerant, especially in times of stress, is not on safe ground. It would be untrue to the facts of racial history to say that an Englishman is not impulsive, for all conditions of consciousness are naturally impulsive in character ; all mental states are intrinsically impulsive, and there is no exception. True, all mental states do not reveal this impulse, or impulsion, in the same manner or to the same degree ; nor do all races ; nor do all the members of the same race ; nor do the same men reveal it always under certain or the same conditions, or to the same extent. Impulse is a psychical factor in the Saxon as well as in the Celt, in the Englishman as well as in the Welshman, in child life as well as in adult life. Impulse is an instinct, and it is as definitely instinctive in the one as in the other, and the Englishman is as aware of his impulsive nature as is the Welshman when he is thwarted, or when his movements are im- peded. All that is needed for its translation into action is conditions. Not that he can be said to be conscious of the impulse as an impulse, in any real sense ; the time when he becomes conscious of his impulsive nature is when its expression is checked ; and the time when he loses consciousness of his impulsive tendencies is when under certain emotions they are allowed to act without restraint. What we have to recognize is a difference in the sus- ceptibility of this impulsive element in different races and different mental states. There are degrees of impulsiveness. We are made more vividly aware of it in the Celt, or in the Welshman, because it is more intrinsic- ally impulsive in him than in the Englishman ; it is more intense ; therefore its manifestations are more acute, distinct and distinctive. It is in the actual operation of their hereditary racial instincts and habits that we observe the difference between Lloyd George and William Morris Hughes. In the case of the former they have retained what may be described as a prodigious vitality and intensity, so much so that they have almost become sophisticated, though Mr. Hughes, in his speech at the 384 THE WAR AND WALES London-Welsh complimentary banquet given in his honour, showed strong and distinct traces of his Welsh racial impulsions. If his lot had been cast in Welsh instead of Australian politics, he would, in all probability, be an ardent Welsh Nationalist. Referring to the English, he said : " They have persecuted us, they drove us out of some of the fairest land of this our native Britain, they compelled us to fly to the hills — to those glorious parts where we sucked in the precious fluid of liberty at every breath, and now they have called us together to the counsels of their nation in the supremest hour of the nation's need. This is the answer of the Celt after a thousand years. We have turned to them the other cheek. Though they have oppressed and persecuted us we remember nothing only that they are in trouble and we come out to help them." Still, he is more of an Australian than a Welshman. His purely Cymric characteristics have been somewhat shaded under the modifying or ameliorating conditions of new environments and a new civilization, which partly explains the eminently adaptive character of his activities. Racial instincts are not always easily fitted into variations in environment, and the more pronounced the instincts the more liable they are to intrude themselves in the face of circumstances fatal to their own issue and to co-operation and forbearance. In the case of Lloyd George they have constantly intruded themselves and not always to his own good, or to mutual sympathy between him and those with whom his duties and his administrative work bring him into contact. Not that William Morris Hughes has been, as we have just indicated, either ashamed or afraid to avow his origin, or his Cymric sentiments and attributes, but a new environment and the exigencies of his life abroad have exercised certain modifications in his racial instincts, so that their normal expression has not been so easily elucidated ; he has been less consciously guided than Lloyd George by the fact that he is a Welshman. He has now no concern with Welsh Nationalism, neither WILLIAM MORRIS HUGHES 385 would he, if we understand him rightly, have Welsh children taught to say that Australia is part of the Mother Country because a few Welshmen have made Australia their home. That is not the philosophy of his patriotism ; his patriotism, in so far as it is local in complexion, has been transferred to the land of his adoption, and in that sense the transfer is complete. He is an Australian out and out ; it is his unflinching Australianism that has endeared him to Australians. He still keeps up his interest in the Welsh language and in Welsh movements in Australia, such as Welsh Eisteddfoddau, where, as in Wales, more English than Welsh is to be heard. Welshmen in Australia have few opportunities of keeping alive Welsh associations and their native language. His mind has trained itself to observe realities, and what imagination he has is never indifferent to fact, and there is an entire absence of vulgarity in his habit of thinking. A Democrat and a Socialist, yet no blind mouth of democracy who repeats what he is told to repeat, or who panders to the passions of the multitude or of those who recognize him as their leader, or who talks about what he does not see or of what he sees but not understand. His speeches do not consist of political tags and catch-phrases. There is nothing equivocal in his words, no effort after mere effect ; nothing which is an offence to good taste or to right feeling. The speeches which he has delivered in England are as admirable in spirit as they are in substance and style. He strikes an exalted note and strikes where the peril is gravest and most imminent. When he appeals it is to the higher motives, and when he deals with men he deals with them not as a species but as individuals. If he has been a stranger to anything it is to the political habit of appealing to the lower motives, either for personal or party ends ; he has never assumed that self-interest always rules the mob. No leader has shown a better understanding of human nature, or a better understanding as to how to move the multitude ; but because he has considered their interest above his own he has refrained from pandering to their prejudices or passions. His 386 THE WAR AND WALES psychology is right because it is based upon his experience of himself and not upon theories regarding other people which are contrary to experience. He has the qualities of true leadership, and by leadership is meant the gift of giving expression to the needs, ideas, and ideals of a people, and the power to give them force and cohesion. The true leader is he who stands for great human and democratic ideas. Thus it is that supremacy has been thrust upon rather than sought by him. He has never misapplied the confidence reposed in him by using it for self-aggrandizement, and he has never been afraid to tell working men the truth because it is unpalatable, or because it might jeopardize his own political prospects. This is one of the reasons why he has become a man of such high and great authority in the Commonwealth of Australia. He can diagnose a situation, crystallize his conclusions, and make them clear to the meanest intelli- gence ; and what is more, he can prescribe an appropriate remedy. The talent to diagnose the ills of nations and classes grows like other talents by constant use, and those who have studied his public utterances both in England and Australia, and who have examined the character and purport of his legislation, and the judgments which he has pronounced on matters of domestic and Imperial interests, cannot fail to observe how well and how quickly he can bring his gifts of insight and wide generalization to bear on a new and unfamiliar situation. This is one of the distinctive qualities of genius ; in this sense William Morris Hughes is undoubtedly a man of genius. We have seen how, during a brief but very busy sojourn in England, he has been able by observation, by reading, by inter- views, and by the impressions which he has gathered, to provide himself with sufficient raw material for the judgments which he has pronounced for the instruction of England and of the listening nations. One of the most notable characteristics of his speeches is that they are pruned of all excrescences and possess a true literary merit. He has spoken often during his brief stay in England, and spoken on many subjects and WILLIAM MORRIS HUGHES 387 on more than one aspect of the same subject, but never twice in the same phraseology. He does not shirk an awkward point, and does not multiply words for the want of ideas. When he speaks he is as real as he is resplendent, and he always wears an atmosphere of seriousness. Senti- ment he has, but no sentimentality. He is no flippant, globe-trotting politician who dogmatizes about what he does not know ; his talents are as versatile as they are attractive. His brain is in his tongue, and his tongue is as eloquent as his brain is productive, and his presentation of his theme is an interesting as it is instructive. It was thought that all that could be said about the war had been said ; but in his hands, as Wordsworth says of Milton and the sonnet, " the thing became a trumpet whence he blew," and without entering into any invidious compari- sons, it is truth to tell, that no other seer has reached and touched so wide and so diverse a circle. Not only has he a fertile brain and an eloquent tongue, but he has a productive or a reproductive imagination. By this we mean that he has the capacity to weave together, in a new and arresting way, materials of a familiar kind. It is impossible to create absolutely fresh material for ideas or to beget thoughts that are wholly new ; but where his genius reveals itself is when it invests familiar ideas with a new significance, and endows them with a new inspiration ; and when it discerns and demonstrates the mutual relation and inter-applica- tion of different interests, which have escaped general notice. This partly accounts for what we may properly designate as the sensations which his speeches have created. People of all grades and shades of opinion feel as if they had suddenly and unexpectedly come into possession of something very precious to themselves and to the Empire, and they desire to retain it as long as it is possible, and to utilize it to the fullest extent. Of the high character of his intelligence there is ample evidence. By this we mean his ability to recognize the meaning of all that he hears, reads, observes, and can recall, as well as of the images in his mind. Without this 388 THE WAR AND WALES peculiar endowment, memory and imagination are prac- tically abortive. Not only is his mind stored with a fund of varied knowledge, but it has been so well trained that he can recall promptly and accurately what facts, figures, or phases of experience may be of service to him at the moment, and he can bring all that is relevant to his subject to bear upon his treatment of it, and bring it effectively. This, in part, explains the secret of his efficiency, an efficiency which even far more learned men, who lack this endowment, cannot achieve, or, at any rate, very seldom achieve. His proficiency in acquiring, retaining, and utilizing what information and knowledge he has gathered, to forget what is worthless or irrelevant, and to remember what is useful and pertinent, is one of his richest possessions as a speaker, debater, and thinker. Some minds learn very quickly, but cannot retain for long what they have learned ; others can acquire only very slowly and partially, but can retain very firmly. An examination of the career of William Morris Hughes shows that he can learn quickly and retain as well as express effectively what he has learned. This accounts for his readiness and aptness in speech, in negotiation, and in controversy. Thus it is that he cannot easily be thwarted or discomfited — he has seldom been. Whatever subject he has studied, he has studied it in the light of all the available facts, and in the light of all the results that are conceivable. This is a characteristic of an ideally perfect mind, a mind trained to concentrated logical reflections upon all the data, and to make the most feasible application of them and for practical ends. ^Such is the type of mind that can achieve the maximal efficiency of which it is capable. He also possesses the capacity to give prolonged atten- tion to certain definite trains of thought, which is always a sign of intellectual maturity. Not that there is anything to suggest a morbid fascination of one particular idea or group of ideas, or that he is the victim of some sporadic impulse ; his reasoning faculty is always in command, and his conclusions are the outgrowth of experience and WILLIAM MORRIS HUGHES 389 knowledge and a well-balanced judgment. By the com- mon consent of educated and patriotic persons he stands out revealed as about the strongest, sanest, and most soundly progressive statesman on the horizon of the Empire at this moment ; and progress to him consists in the harmonized action of wider and wider interests — social, industrial, political, and Imperial. Theoretically, he is neither a Free Trader nor a Protectionist, but a practical statesman of eminently adaptive activities, who has no use for old and accepted views, however strongly entrenched, if it can be shown that they have no application to the exigencies of the hour. Another great characteristic and achievement of his mentality — which is a mark of true genius — is the associa- tive process in his reasonings ; that is, the association by similarity which is of the highest value and importance to a thinker or a statesman. It is a rare gift, but the Premier of Australia possesses it; he has the ability to explain and to solve complex problems by the application of facts and principles which really have no direct con- nection with such problems in themselves, except as a link and a bond of similarity. It needs a genius to discern these similarities or relations, and to apply them constructively to the need of the day. He possesses one gift which Lloyd George lacks, that is, the administrative gift. He is a dynamic personality ; some would say somewhat erratic — in the earlier phases of his career. His record shows that he has supreme gifts as an electioneering tactician, and that he has been something of a free-lance in his day ; yet, his conduct in a crisis has proved his sanity and his statesmanship. He has a biting tongue, and he can scourge his opponents with effect. He has studied the speeches and the style of the world's most famous orators, and his own oratory is as effective as it is spontaneous. He has read widely and deeply and to a purpose. Loquacity is not one of his attributes ; he has the genius for condensation — a most valuable gift. His dialectic armoury is well stored with ammunition, and he has an abundance of the saving grace of humour. He 2D 390 THE WAR AND WALES knows his own weaknesses, and he is not too good to keep company with himself. He does not give us the impression that he is overpowered with the sense of his own abilities or success in life, or that he is con- scious that he has mastery, yet he is masterful, and compels recognition. He has acquired an aversion, which amounts almost to hatred, of capitalism — on its oppressive and expressive side ; though oddly enough he has a personal horror of strikes. He is as stern as he looks ; still, there is a Bohemian element in his nature which adds a gleam to the circle in which he moves. He has grown a little more tolerant with his years and with the responsibilities of his office, though it is con- sidered that his nature lacks that sympathetic touch which is an aspect in the character of most great men. This is one of the signal defects of his nature. Power and sympathy do not always go together, they seldom do. A noted French writer said that no man could understand and really pity the sufferings of the unfortunate and hungry unless he himself had known what it was to undergo the same experience. He meant that in the human mind there must be acute memory of physical suffering and destitution to make sympathy with such suffering genuine. But we doubt, despite a good deal of strong evidence to the contrary, that only the man who has known sorrow and defeat can sympathize with those who are now in a similar condition, or that one may safely look for sym- pathy to those who have known sorrow and privation. For instance, Ruskin's best thoughts and deepest sym- pathies have always been with the poor. So with that great and noble character, Mr. Gladstone. Lloyd George has this endowment. Yet, when we examine the legislative achievements of William Morris Hughes, we find that his motives are eminently ethical and ameliorative. They also show that much of the strictly impulsive element in his character is constructive ; this is the mould in which his political activi- ties have been cast, and his influence with the working classes has always been good and of a restraining character. WILLIAM MORRIS HUGHES 391 A healthier or a more solid intellect has never been devoted to the cause of labour, and what may be said of him in this respect may also be said of the activities of his intel- lect in the realm of Imperial politics. He has shown a wonderful grasp of the sources of our Imperial difficul- ties, and there is ample evidence that he has voiced the predominant sentiment that prevails not only in the Colonies, but in Great Britain. True, a certain sub-acid has been detected, in certain sections of the Press, and among a certain class of politicians. " Do not," they tell us, " let the tables of exchange be brought into the Temple. We entered the war from righteous and dis- interested motives in defence of little nations and for the overthrow of Prussian militarism ; to forge a tariff weapon against the enemy would be to stultify our prin- ciples, it would be odious hypocrisy. To rob Germany as the Germans robbed Belgium would be to surrender to the evil spirit of the hour." "The notion," says the South Wales Daily News in its issue of April 17th, 1916, " that Mr. Hughes, the Aus- tralian Premier, has been sent by Providence to the Mother Country to reorganize the Empire on a Pro- tectionist basis has been short-lived. This lofty mission is indeed regarded very coldly in influential quarters in the Commonwealth, and Canada and South Africa will have none of it. The fact is that the Overseas Dominions have been considerably annoyed, as we expected they would be, by the extravagant lionizing of Mr. Hughes by our re- actionary Press, and particularly by the suggestion that he must be regarded as the spokesman for the whole of the Over- seas Dominions. We doubt not that our distinguished visitor suspects that many of the compliments that have been lavished upon him by political partisans are too extravagant to be sincere, and naturally as a sound democrat it must be disconcerting to find himself idolized by the most reactionary groups in this country. But it has been left to General Botha and Mr. Burton, the South African Minister of Finance, to administer a cold douche to his flatterers. Both statesmen deprecate a hasty decision on the fiscal question. They would prefer to leave it until after the war, when there will be ample time to deal with it. They are not prepared to be committed by Mr. Hughes or anybody else at the Paris Conference, and although Canadian statesmen have not spoken so plainly 3g2 THE WAR AND WALES there is a good deal of evidence that public feeling in the Dominion is flowing in the same direction as at the Cape." No reference whatever was made in this paper to the important speech which the Premier of Australia delivered at the Queen's Hall on May nth, to a Labour demonstra- tion organized by the British Workers' National League ; a speech dealing with the industrial problems raised by the war, and which vitally concern the working classes. In its issue of May 18th, it referred to Mr. Hughes as follows : " An Australian Premier may understand Australian affairs, or he may owe his position to the party accident of a popular temporary movement, but the fact of his Premiership gives him no qualification, or special know- ledge of home affairs." Referring, in the same issue, to the Premiers of the oversea States, it said : " What British statesmen cannot achieve ... is not within the competence of neophytes imported for show sake." (The italics are ours.) " There are some people in this country to-day," said the Premier of Australia, " calling themselves British citizens, who would rather we lost the war than that German trade with England and German influence in English trade should be lost." " If," he again observed, " Britain is simply going to get what it wants from Germany as it did before the war the matter is very simple. But if not, then the producers of Britain and the Empire ought to be told what the trade policy of Britain after the war is going to be, so that they may make their arrangements accordingly." In giving examples of the " stupendous folly " of Free Trade, he says : ' We allowed Germany to obtain the monopoly of tungsten powder, essential for hardening our steel, and the control of the metals which enter into the warp and woof of our industrial life . . . can any words sufficiently castigate a nation who permitted the dyes without which the (textile) industry is clipped of its wings to be in the hands of our enemy ? The Empire is capable of providing all the sugar consumed in Britain, yet we placed ourselves in bondage to Germany and Austria, eating an inferior article because it was cheap, while fertile sugar-producing lands throughout the Empire were allowed to lie idle. This war has rung the death-knell of a policy of cheapness that took no thought for the social and industrial welfare of the workmen, that mistook mere wealth for great- WILLIAM MORRIS HUGHES 393 ness, no matter whether the wealth was in our hands or those of German Jews." His position is that those papers and politicians who are willing to fight Germany in a military sense, but not in an economic sense, are fighting a war of compromise, which will place us in a worse position than before the war, and that they are really Germans beneath the surface. To pretend otherwise he says is to throw dust in the eyes of the people, to play the game of Germany, to prolong the war and indelibly to stamp Britain as a nation of men no longer fit to carry the burden of Empire ; and to delay the public declaration of what our trade policy is to be, or to delay dealing with the problem until after the war, would show not only a want of courage and of insight, but a lack of true statesmanship, for this, as he says, is our hour, our opportunity, which, being let slip, will pass for ever. The hope, he again says, that still buoys Germany up, is the hope that after this war she will be able to win back that position in our commerce and industry which enabled her to exact tribute from us in the way of profits, to oust our manufacturers from many trades, and to make many more absolutely depen- dent upon her for the raw materials of their industries, and to imperil our national safety. It is no longer a secret that the Premier of Australia speaks not only for himself and for Australia, but for New Zealand and Canada, on the question of our trade system after the war. He rests on the Trade Union vote of the Australian working man, whose confidence he retains, and of whose support of his campaign in England he is assured. His right to speak is strengthened by the fact that what he asks Great Britain to do, he himself has partly done in Australia. He was Attorney-General when the war broke out, and what powers he possessed — and they were considerable — he used to the greatest advantage of the Empire in this direction. Not only did he take a prominent part in calling up the manhood of Australia to fight Prussian militarism, but in eliminating 394 THE WAR AND wales German influences in Australian trade and commerce. Germany had secured a monopoly of the products of Australian mines, but he took prompt and decisive action by declaring all contracts null and void ; and by arranging that the metals might be treated either in Australia or the United Kingdom. He established a Metal Exchange in Melbourne and Sydney, which is an association controlled by the Government of persons engaged in the production, buying and selling of metals and minerals. It has for its objects the promotion of the interests of Australia and the British Empire in relation to the purchase and sale of metals and minerals, and it provides for the registration of all metal contracts. None except the nominated representatives of a British firm, or British company dealing in metals, are eligible for membership. At one of the Conferences convened for the purpose, it was objected by some metal buyers that it would mean the taxing of the producer, whereupon the Premier of Australia replied, " Of course it would be a tax on the producers, but don't you think that the manipulation of the prices in London by a German ring was a tax on the producers ? ' On January, ist, 1915, when he was Prime Minister, he called attention to the fact that the great mining companies were tied with long-dated German contracts and that the industry was on the verge of collapse, and that the matter had to be dealt with vigorously and immediately. How thoroughly he did his work may be gathered from the fact that by the end of the year 1915, every German contract had been can- celled, and the mining companies freed from German influence. New channels have been opened up, and markets have been established with Britain and her Allies and with friendly neutrals. Germany will never again, at any rate not so long as William Morris Hughes lives, secure a foothold in the metal market of Australia. Again, Australia's wheat crop has also been submitted to systematic treatment along the lines laid down by William Morris Hughes. Instead of allowing a few WILLIAM MORRIS HUGHES 395 individuals to rob the farmers and to take advantage of the exceptional demand, the Government took over the whole harvest, arranged for ocean carriage for the export- able surplus, and provided that the results of the sale of the harvest should be pooled and the returns divided according to the quantities of wheat supplied. How far he will succeed in inducing British statesmen to take the necessary steps to foster and maintain inter- Empire trade and in crushing German schemes remains to be seen. The country is with him, but there is an ominous silence in certain eminent quarters, and an effort in other quarters to defeat the movement of which he is the head and front by delaying any action until the war is over, when the reaction will take place, and party controversies will be renewed, and renewed with added bitterness. Even Lloyd George does not seem to be making concessions to public opinion on this matter. He said in the House of Commons, in referring to the Con- ference of the Allies called by the French Government to consider a joint or mutual trade policy for the future, " that it is not really a question of Tariffs." " There are," he said, " very much bigger questions if I may say so." If there are, then William Morris Hughes will have to confess that he has studied economic history in vain, and that he has entirely misread the signs of the times. " To have two rival commercial confederations in Europe," Lloyd George further tells us, " will simply be per- petuating war." " We must not mix business with revenge." But if there is any statesman in Europe who has mixed legislation with revenge, and legislation directly bearing upon business and thrift, as well as upon privileged interests, that statesman is Lloyd George. What William Morris Hughes holds is that an adjustment of tariffs is a great and fundamental part of commercial treaties between nations, that Germany was tempted into this war by our economic weakness, and that it is in its origin and purport and results as much of an economic as of a military war. Lloyd George is trying to reconcile Free Trade with Protection, but they cannot be reconciled. What the 396 THE WAR AND WALES Premier of Australia proposes is a national policy based on the economic strength and independence of the British Empire, with favoured treatment, if possible, for our Allies. It is a practical policy ; it is a policy that appeals to the great majority of the British nation. Even the working classes are beginning to see that the enormous strength which enables Germany to fight three-quarters of Europe was partly derived from the wealth which she drew from the British Empire, and that the policy of free entrance into our markets must stop if we are to maintain our position as a first-class Industrial Power in the future. The Premier of Australia argues that it is as important to lay the foundation of a true union in the way of a common trade policy designed to keep Germany and German influences out of the British Empire, as it is to conquer Germany by force of arms. If Germany is to be conquered — not merely defeated — she must not be left omnipotent in commerce. This he says not as a Pro- tectionist, for he is not a Protectionist in the common acceptation of the term, but as a practical statesman. It is in the treatment of this aspect of the war that we see the weakness of Lloyd George's statesmanship as compared with the statesmanship of William Morris Hughes. It is a peculiarity of Lloyd George's mentality to be obsessed by one particular aspect of a public ques- tion; he often seems to fail to grasp the inter-relation of different problems, or to recognize the claims of the vari- ous interests that must be affected by certain policies and political enactments. It was suggested at one Welsh gathering that the difference between Lloyd George and William Morris Hughes is, that whereas the former has set himself to the task of destroying the power of Prussian militarism, the latter has concentrated all his energies on constructing the future. Not only is such a comparison untrue to fact, but it does the Premier of Australia an injustice, for, unlike Lloyd George, the Premier of Australia has concentrated his energies on both objects, and his conten- WILLIAM MORRIS HUGHES 397 tion is, as we have already stated, that to crush German militarism means not only to beat the Germans in arms, but to beat them economically. While Lloyd George was confining his talents to promoting all sorts of domestic and socialistic legislation, and to the machinery of Government, at a time when the Prussian menace was hanging like a pall over Europe, William Morris Hughes, who realized that the titanic conflict could not be long delayed, was struggling to place the defences of Australia on a better footing, and to prepare the manhood of the country to take an effective part in the defence of the Empire in the approaching conflict ; and this he did while occupied in domestic politics. It was through his instrumentality, chiefly, that Australia adopted her system of compulsory military training. He believes that there is but one way by which a nation, being free, can remain so, and that is, that every man should not only be willing to defend his own country, but be able to do so the moment the necessity arises. Lloyd George has come at last to where the Premier of Australia has stood from the first . Hughes has never varied from the belief that life in a free democracy carries with it the obligation of defending that democracy, and that there can be no sound society that does not train its manhood physically, as well as morally and intellectually, both for its own good and for the protection of its defences. He had to wait long and to suffer many rebuffs. His motions in the Federal Parliament, of which he was one of the first members, were either talked or voted out. But after nine years of strenuous work as the apostle of compulsory military service and national preparedness, he lived to see the institution of a compulsory Australian cadet organization and citizen army on the lines he had prepared, and the coming of the small but opportune Royal Australian Navy to Australian waters. Truly he was a voice crying in the wilderness. With- out the Military College at Duntroon (for the training of officers), the Non-Commissioned Officers' Schools, the machinery of the training areas, the Small-Arms Factory 398 THE WAR AND WALES at Lithgow, N.S.W., the ammunition and cordite works, woollen mills, saddlery and clothing establishments, etc., Australia could have done comparatively little to help the Mother Country in this great crisis. When he began to agitate for these things and for compulsory military service, he had only two supporters, and the prejudices and interests with which he had to contend would have crushed a man with less daring and resourcefulness. The following passage from an address delivered by him to the Trade Unionists, shows how his mind was bent on the destruction of Prussian militarism : "I appeal to the people of this country to join the Expedi- tionary Forces. I appeal to them to join that heroic band of men who have cast an eternal lustre on the name of Australia. I ask them to strike a blow for their family, for this great Australia of ours, which has done so much for them. I appeal to those men : I appeal to the manhood of Australia. I do not appeal to those men who, posing as lovers of liberty, do what they can to prevent men from joining the Expedi- tionary Forces. These men — I must speak plainly — these men pretend to speak as the mouthpiece of Labour and Unionism. They have nothing in common with Labour or Unionism. They are foul parasites. They have attached themselves to the vitals of Labour. They seek, as it were, to take up their foul abode in the vitals of their host — to speak for him, to usurp those functions which belong to him. There is between Syndicalism — that is its name — and Unionism and Labour, as we know it in this country, a gulf as wide as hell. If the world depended upon the strength of the arms of these people who speak as lovers of liberty it would have been in chains to-day. These men sneer at patriotism, because the very sound of it cuts them to the quick — because patriotism is based upon the sacrifice of self and their religion is the apotheosis of self. Self is the beginning and ending of everything they have. These men know no nationality, religion, or principle, and in the name of Unionism and Labourism I pass them out like devils out of swine. Unionism to-day has found representatives in the Armies. One of the unions to which I have the honour to belong, containing only 5,000 members, has over 1,200 fighting at the front. The Waterside Workers have sent 4,000, and the Australian Workers' Union over 20,000. Are these men, who are the very bone and sinew of Unionism, to be told by such as these no-conscription — these peace people who babble about peace, WILLIAM MORRIS HUGHES 399 who have a good word for every country except this — that they stand for Unionism and Labour ? No. Let them stand where they will so long as they stand not with us." Australia has produced some highly capable Im- perialists ; the first and second Prime Ministers — Sir Edmund Barton and Mr. Alfred Deakin — were born in Australia. Mr. J. C. Watson, the first Labour Prime Minister, was born in Valparaiso, and at one time worked as a compositor in Sydney. Sir George Reid, M.P., a talented man and an efficient administrator, was born in Scotland, but emigrated to Australia at an early age. The Hon. Andrew Fisher, High Commissioner for Australia in England, is also a Scot, and worked as a miner before he entered politics. He found in William Morris Hughes a loyal colleague. It is true that he stood once against him for the leadership of the party when the retirement of Mr. J. C. Watson left the position open to all, but after his defeat he contentedly and energetically gave Andrew Fisher all the assistance in his power; this visit has cemented their friendship ; it has enlarged the circle of the friendship of both these remarkable men. It has done more ; it has brought, as the visit of the Prime Minister of Canada brought, the genius of the people overseas into touch with the English or British genius ; it has brought its freshness of ideas, its dash, its resource- fulness, and its enthusiasm, and Britishers are bound to benefit through this closer contact with the genius of the New World. Not that it can be said that he has succeeded in compelling the British Government — though the great mass of public and educated opinion is with him — to see the Empire as he sees it, or as it really is. Not since the days of Pitt has a statesman been so greatly honoured, and the political effect of his speeches and recommendations has been great. But he has left these shores with the feeling that very little has been or will be done to bring about real consolidation between Great Britain and the Dominions, and to organize the Empire on a sounder economic and political basis. There are 400 THE WAR AND WALES grave doubts whether the Dominions will continue to tolerate a system which leaves their destinies to be decided solely by British politicians and existing institutions. The question of taxation and responsibility without adequate representation will certainly be raised in the Dominions when the war is over. If, in this regard, the Premier of Australia has not a very encouraging message to deliver to Australians, he is not likely to relinquish the Imperial task to which he is committed, and which he has championed with such courage and frankness. In taking leave of this many-sided and richly en- dowed man, patriot and statesman, whose memory will remain green in these islands long after his departure for the land of his adoption, and whose contribution to this war and to the problems raised by the war will abide as a memorial to his gifts of initiative, insight, foresight, courage, and enthusiasm, for generations after his death, we say that of all the solid services which he has rendered us in these desolate times, not the least important to us, not the least inspiring to the daughter nations and to Britons in every land and clime, not the least confound- ing to our foes abroad as well as to the foes of our own household, will prove to be the service he has rendered in the certificate of character which he has given to the British Empire. And it does not stand alone, for it is sealed and solidified by the experience and the testimony of every community which Britain has planted beyond the seas, to the fact that colonial history is but the history of the expansion of British institutions, and British ideals of liberty and civilization, and that their prosperity is bound up with the prosperity of the Empire ; that the more autonomous they have become the more ardent their loyalty and the stronger their desire to remain as component parts of the Empire. What gives force and value to this certificate of char- acter is the character of the man who gave it, and the character of the people on behalf of whom it was given. Who and what is he ? And what are they ? By birth he is a plebeian, by political conviction a Democrat and WILLIAM MORRIS HUGHES 4OI a Socialist ; a leader whose sincerity, disinterestedness, and fearlessness — without which qualities he could not be a leader — have been weighed in the balance and found true ; a leader who believes in himself, in his mission and in the common man ; a leader who is in advance of his time, yet not too far advanced so as to become detached from the commonalty. These are his words, and they are the words of a man and a leader who has the roots of the matter in him : "If this war had been a war for the aggrandizement of Europe ; if it had been a war for wealth, or to enable us to grasp wider areas of territory in our national clutch, I would have been the last man to raise my voice in its advocacy, or to advise the despatch of a solitary man to take part in it." And what of the country on behalf of which this certifi- cate of character has been given? It is the most demo- cratic country within the ambit of the Empire ; the country that founded the first National Labour Govern- ment in the world ; the country, and the only country, that can boast that all the members of the Commonwealth have worked with their hands at trades or afield ; the country that can claim that all six State Premiers and nearly all State Ministers have risen from the ranks of manual workers. It would be passing strange if William Morris Hughes did not believe in such a country — in its people, its achievements, and its potentialities ; in the fitness of its people for self-government ; and by fitness we mean a people that possess the qualities of justice, manliness, self-reliance, intelligence and loyalty to the Motherland. But he is no separatist, for he knows from experience that British rule, broadly speaking, is eminently just, humane, competent, and progressive ; he knows, notwithstanding the imperfections of our national character, the shortcomings of our statesmen — political and personal — and the defects of our present national Constitution, or absence of Constitution, which cannot be the final form of our political relations with one another within the Empire, that British rule, whether in Australia, or Canada, or Egypt, or India, or in tropical 402 THE WAR AND WALES and sub-tropical Africa, has, on the whole, been a blessing rather than a curse to mankind, because it has been con- ducive to the growth of these races and communities ; because it has made them more rather than less conscious of their entity and of their mission in the world ; because it has cultivated their latent forces and developed the spirit of nationality among them ; because it has made them freer on the side of industry, liberty, and equality. APPENDIX THE UNIVERSITY COLLEGES OF WALES AND THE WAR THE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF WALES, ABERYSTWYTH In 1900 a College Volunteer Company was formed, E (Uni- versity Co.), 5th V.B., South Wales Borderers, and some 800 students had passed through its ranks, when, in July, 1908, it was converted into an Officers' Training Corps, consisting of one Company with three officers and a sergeant-instructor. Since 1908 the Officers' Training Corps has generally main- tained its maximum strength of 100, and by August, 1914, about 250 students had been or were still members of the contingent. Of these 80 had passed the examination for Certificate A ; 32 had qualified for Certificate B. Only 10, however, had taken commissions in the Special Reserve of officers, or in the Territorial Force, chiefly because the special circumstances of the students made it exceedingly difficult for them to fulfil the conditions of this service. But when the war broke out, and the War Office sent out its appeal for junior officers, nearly half of the cadets and ex- cadets offered their services, and many of those who did not receive commissions at once, enlisted in the ranks, and in some cases were subsequently gazetted as officers. Since Michaelmas term, 1914, the Officers' Training Corps has been almost continuously at work, giving students, and also a considerable number of extra-mural members, military training and preparing suitable candidates for commissions. During this period the contingent has usually been much over strength, and a constant stream of men has been passing through it and entering the Army as officers or privates. As a result of this work, 75 cadets and 75 ex-cadets have been gazetted to commissions since August, 1914 ; while 81 are known to be serving as N.C.O., or privates. At present, as a result of the General Service Acts, the work of the contingent has been considerably reduced : there remain 403 404 APPENDIX on the roll only about 25 cadets, students who are under mili- tary age or whose service has been postponed. The total number of men enrolled in the contingent up to the present time is 432 : of these 250 are at present engaged in military duty ; of the remainder many it has been impossible to trace ; many are abroad, several who were in Canada or South Africa have returned and are now on active service ; many again, being trained chemists, are engaged in munitions or other similar work. Again, apart from and in addition to the cadets of the Officers' Training Corps, more than 100 past students of the College are now serving in H.M. Forces. A large number of these had been members of the Old College Volunteer Company, and some of them now occupy positions of considerable importance in the Territorial or the new armies. Of members of the staff, three have been engaged on the work of the Officers' Training Corps : Capt. J. W. Marshall ; Lieut. T. C. James, acting-adjutant of the contingent (on whom has devolved the bulk of the training of the Corps) ; and Lieut. C. L. Walton. Lieut. H. H. Paine, at the beginning of the war, was transferred to a combatant unit and is now a senior captain in the 16th R.W. Fusiliers on service in France. Mr. Whitehouse, who holds the rank of sergeant in the con- tingent, and is College lecturer in geography, rendered valuable service to the contingent by his lectures on military topo- graphy, and also acted as lecturer on this subject to the officers of the Welsh Reserve Division when it was billeted in the town. Besides Capt. Paine, there are on active service, of present members of the staff, Lieut. C. R. Bury, nth Batt. Gloucester Regt. ; Capt. Malcolm Lewis, 9th Batt. R.W.F. ; Major Robert D. Williams, A.V.C. ; Lieut. E. D. T. Jenkins, 12th Batt. K.O. Yorkshire Light Infantry ; Lieut. Reginald Grant, 4th Batt. Welsh Regt. ; Second-Lieut. F. H. Newman, 12th Royal Warwickshire Regt. ; Second-Lieut. William King, 9th Batt. S.W. Borderers ; Pte. Tom Jones, R.A.M.C. Professor Barbier is in the French Army Administrative Service ; Mr. E. E. Bibby in the Friends' Ambulance Corps. Of past members : Lieut. G. C. Cheshire, 6th Batt. Cheshire Regt. ; Major J. R. Ainsworth Davis, unattached list. The following have been killed in action : Lieut. P. M. Young, 3rd Batt. King's Liverpool Regt. ; Second-Lieut. Tom Roberts, 3rd Batt. Cheshire Regt. ; Pte. D. H. Francis, Notts APPENDIX 405 and Derby Regt. ; Capt. Edward Dickinson, nth Batt. Yorkshire Regt. ; Capt. E. W. Lloyd Jones, 7th Batt. R.W.F. ; Capt. E. Guy Harries, 7th Batt. R.W.F. ; Capt. W. J. Howells, 8th Batt. Welsh Regt. ; Major J. Llewellyn Davies, nth Batt. Essex Regt. ; Second-Lieut. N. D. Morris, 6th Batt. S.W. Borderers ; Sergt. Edwin Griffith Jones, 15th Batt. R.W. Fusiliers ; Second-Lieut. G. L. Griffiths, Northumberland Fusiliers. The following have been reported missing, and are believed to have been killed in action : Lieut. Charles S. Reed, 3rd Batt. Monmouthshire Regt. ; Second-Lieut. Charles G. Rumsey, 3rd Batt. S.W. Borderers; Lieut. A. J. Hinxman, 5th Batt. Wiltshire Regt. ; Capt. H. Mortimer Green, 4th Batt. Welsh Regt. Two died during training : Pte. A. V. Porter, Essex Regt., and Pte. Percy Lewis, Royal Welsh Fusiliers. The following have been awarded honours or mentioned in despatches : The Military Cross, Capt. Cecil Phillips, 4th Batt. Welsh Regt. ; Lieut. J. E. Dixon, 8th Batt. S. Staffordshire Regt. D.S.O., Capt. Goronwy Owen, 15th Batt. R.W.F. ; Capt. Childs Evans, R.A.M.C. Mentioned in Despatches, Capt. E. W. Lloyd Jones, 7th Batt. R. W. Fusiliers ; Capt. S. F. Thomas, 6th Batt. King's Shropshire Light Infantry. THE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF SOUTH WALES AND MONMOUTHSHIRE, CARDIFF The College Authorities have endeavoured to establish an Officers' Training Corps, but without success. For a period extending over nearly five years correspondence took place with the War Office with the object of instituting a corps at the College, and the result was that in October, 1914, the Army Council accepted conditionally the offer of the College to form an infantry contingent of the senior division, Officers' Training Corps, but stated that owing to the exigencies of the service they were unable at present to appoint a suitable officer to supervise the training, or to detail a sergeant-instructor for duty with the contingent, or to provide any arms or equipment. Notwithstanding the fact that there has been no military atmosphere in the College, and that students have had no prospect of commissions, it is considered that in the circum- 2E 406 APPENDIX stances the number of students who have been embodied for naval or military service has been satisfactory, not less than forty-five students who entered the College in 1913 joined the Army within the first years of the war. The following particulars are given : With In the Total. Commissions. Ranks. Present students 37 205 242 Past students 103 116 219 140 321 461 As far as can be ascertained the following have lost their lives while on active service : Lieut. A. S. Cohen, R.A.M.C. ; Lieut. F. W. M. Dunn, i/5th Batt. Welsh Regt. ; Lieut. H. A. F. Dunn, Royal Monmouth, R.E. ; Lieut. Emrys Evans, Irish Brigade (mentioned in despatches) ; Lieut. Col. Frank Gaskell, O.C., Cardiff City Batt. (16th Welsh) ; Pte. D. Idloes Jones, R.E. (chemical section) ; Pte. A. J. Latham, 21st Batt. Royal Fusiliers ; Corporal D. Macdonald Taylor, 21st Batt. Royal Fusiliers ; Engineer-Lieut.Commander D. J. McGregor, H.M.S. Hawke ; Pte. A. Palmer, Prince of Wales Company, Welsh Guards ; Lieut. J. Wimperis Parker, R.A.M.C, attached to nth Batt. Manchester Regiment ; Surgeon F. H. Rees, Drake Batt., R.N.D. ; Captain L. A. P. Harris, Welsh Regiment. Captain D. B. Chiles-Evans, R.A.M.C, has been mentioned in despatches and has had the D.S.O. conferred upon him by H.M. the King. Lieut. D. G. Richards, 173rd Company R.E., has received the Military Cross. As regards the teaching staff, the following fourteen mem- bers are engaged in naval or military service : Pte. Frank Dixey, 2/4 Electric Co. R.E. ; Capt. E. Emrys-Roberts, 38th (Welsh) Division, R.A.M.C. ; Pte. H. T. Flint, 2/4 Electric Co., R.E. ; Sub-Lieut. W. J. Gruffydd, R.N.R. ; Col. D. Hepburn, V.D., O.C 3rd Western General Hospital ; Major E. J. Maclean, Adjutant and Registrar, 3rd Western General Hospital ; Second-Lieut. J. H. Lloyd, A.S.C ; Interpreter P. N. de Puybusque, ge Corps, Secteur Postal 64 ; Capt. A. A. Read, Recruiting Officer ; Pte. M. H. Renall, R.A.M.C ; Major W. Mitchell Stevens, R.A.M.C ; Mr. J. H. Shaxby, Civilian Radiographer, 3rd Western General Hospital ; APPENDIX 407 Second-Lieut. F. C. Thompson, R.F.A. ; Captain C. F. J. Galloway, Monmouthshire R.E. (resigned his position at the College in consequence of the war) ; Lieut. W. J. Hartley, Royal Dublin Fusiliers, who was a member of the staff, also resigned his position at the College and has lost his life while on active service. In addition to the above the following seven members of the staff are engaged in service in connection with the war : Lieut. -Col. E. J. Evatt, Welsh Field Ambulance, R.A.M.C. ; Lieut. R. J. Mackenzie-Wallis, R.A.M.C. ; Corporal M. Y. Orr, 7th Batt. Royal Scots Regt. ; Major D. R. Paterson, R.A.M.C. ; Capt. H. A. Scholberg, R.A.M.C. ; Lieut. D. E. Thomas ; Lieut. W. F. Watkins, Gloucestershire Regt. (mentioned in despatches and received the D.C.M.). Eleven members of the administrative staff are engaged in naval or military service. The manufacture of shell gauges for the Ministry of Muni- tions is carried on in the Department of Engineering, and its buildings and equipment are almost entirely given up to this purpose. The Professor of Engineering is engaged in this work, and also some mechanics of the College. The Principal is the Chairman of the Central Munitions Committee at Cardiff. Many students are occupied in munitions works, and two members of the staff are at work in Government-controlled establishments. Last autumn the Department of Physics conducted a series of preliminary tests of optical instruments at the request of the Ministry of Munitions. THE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF NORTH WALES, BANGOR The Volunteer Corps was formed in 1900, being attached to the Royal Garrison Artillery, the Principal, Sir Harry Reichel, acting as Captain and O.C. In 1908 it was converted into an Officers' Training Corps under the Act of 1907. The war has amply justified the departure. Up to the beginning of opera- tions in August, 1914, 150 cadets had passed through the O.T.C. ; the strength at that moment was 63. Of these 63, 53 applied for commissions at once. At the end of April, 1915, it was reported to the Military Education Committee that 101 former students, most of whom had been cadets, had obtained commissions ; by October this number had reached 139, and so far as can be ascertained now stands at 178, of whom 150 408 APPENDIX have been members of the contingent. These numbers, of course, include those who joined the contingent after the opening of the war. In addition, 48 former students had enlisted in the ranks during the first year of the war. Principal Sir Harry Reichel has acted as O.C. since the original formation of the Volunteer Battery. Mr. Richard Williams, the Assistant-Registrar, has been lieutenant, and immediately war was declared, in the middle of the vacation, when the O.C. was in Australia, began a course of whole-time training, a number of past members and many fresh ones coming to Bangor to prepare for commissions. The battery had lost its guns, and so, whereas the pre-war cadets have mainly entered artillery, the post-war training has been for infantry, and the younger recruits have mainly joined that branch of the service. The sergeant-instructor, Sergeant- Major MacCracken, had also gone, being awarded a justly- deserved commission in the R.G.A. Four stages may be distinguished in the activity of the corps since hostilities began. The first was the few months when, the corps deprived first of its guns, then of its rifles, and finally of its instructor, with its members receiving commissions every few days and new ones coming, Mr. Williams's enthusiasm surmounted all difficulties. The junior subaltern, Mr. H. S. Wortley, soon transferred to the R.G.A. , and was at the front by January with a mountain battery. He was mentioned in despatches on New Year's Day, 1916, and is now at Salonika. The second stage was after the return of the O.C, when the whole body of students who had not been members in peace time practically joined en masse to the number of over 100, helping to swell the number of subsequent commissions, and the rest — for com- missions were now becoming harder to get — joining the ranks. During this period there were still plenty of men students left, but the College had become something of a camp, and the students of that session are now mostly in France and at other fronts. The third stage was the autumn term of 1915. The corps was then to start with composed almost entirely of ' freshers " ; but soon the students of the adjoining Normal College joined, and the numbers were full (the establishment had been enlarged to 120 by the War Office). At this stage commissions were still harder to get, but the Derby scheme began before the term was over, and the last three weeks of whole-time training was with attested men, who had already APPENDIX 409 taken the military oath. Everyone was working hard for the stripes which were felt to be the only way to a commission. Lieut. Richard Williams had already been gazetted captain in the Welsh Territorial (Carnarvonshire) R.G.A., and shortly after left to take up his duties at Morn Hill Camp, Winchester. The fourth stage in the work has been mainly with senior pupils of the County Schools and others just approaching military age, as the College is now denuded of almost all its male students who are physically fit, the usual entering age being about the nineteenth birthday. Two new officers have been appointed to the contingent since the war, Mr. R. L. Archer, Professor of Education, and Mr.. J. Williams, of the Normal College ; but the latter was speedily transferred to the 22nd Royal Welsh Fusiliers. During the three later stages the corps has enjoyed the advantages of a regular instructor in Sergeant Hexter, and has received back a certain amount of rifles. The casualty list has so far not been heavy. The following have lost their lives in the service of their country : Second- Lieut. B. G. N. Watkin, R.F.A., died of wounds, January 28th, 1915 ; Second-Lieut. Oswald Griffith, R.F.A., killed in action, February 27th, 1915 ; Second-Lieut. D. Claud G. Davies, R.F.A., died of wounds, May, 1915 ; Pte. F. S. Jennings, 14th Montreal, killed in action, July 6th, 1915 ; Second-Lieut. F. T. Harris, R.F.A., died of wounds, September 20th, 1915 ; Second-Lieut. Vernon E. Owen, 9th R.W.F., died of wounds, December 1st, 1915 ; Corporal L. J. Williams, 10th R.W.F., killed in action, December 22nd, 1915 ; Pte. R. Jervis, 13th R.W.F., accidentally killed, January, 1916 ; Pte. Rowland Edwards, R.A.M.C, died, May, 1916 ; together with the following former students of the College who had not been cadets : Pte. J. W. Parry, 23rd London, died of wounds, November 16th, 1915 ; Capt. K. R. Habershon, 12th Rifle Brigade, killed in action, February, 1916 ; Pte. G. A. Thomas, 13th R.W.F., killed in action, January, 1916 ; Naval-Instruc- tor T. Elwyn Jones, H.M.S. Defence, killed in Battle of Jut- land ; Ship's Schoolmaster T. J. Thomas, H.M.S. Defence, killed in Battle of Jutland. Wounded (list probably incomplete). — 1915 : Second-Lieut. W. Arnold, 9th Welsh, October ; Second-Lieut. F. M. Coven- try, Highland R.F.A., July ; Second-Lieut. E. E. Catchside, 3rd Rifle Brigade, November ; Lieut. W. H. Cadman, 1/6 410 APPENDIX Manchester, June ; Pte. T. Rigg, Canadians, May ; Pte. R. R. Surtees, Grenadier Guards, September ; Second-Lieut. E. Wall work, ioth Manchester, May. 1916 : Second-Lieut. T. H. Baylis, 19th R.W.F., April ; Second-Lieut. H. L. Brock, June ; Capt. R. T. Evans, 13th S.W.B., March ; Pte. E. A. Evans, R.E. ; Lieut. D. A. Jones, A.S.C. ; Second-Lieut. R. H. Morris, 12th R.W.F., February and May ; Second-Lieut. A Newitt, ioth R.W.F., April. Military Cross. — Second-Lieut. J. R. Davies, R.G.A., June, 1915 ; Second-Lieut. A. Nevitt, ioth R.W.F., April, 1916. Mentioned in Despatches. — Second-Lieut. W. G. Dyson, R.F.A., June, 1915 ; Second-Lieut. R. H. Morris, 12th R.W.F., June, 1916 ; Second-Lieut. A Nevitt, ioth R.W.F., June, 1916 ; Lieut. R. Stirrup, R.W.F., May, 1916 ; Second-Lieut. R. A. Williams, June, 1916 ; Second-Lieut. J. W. Pullen, R.F.A., June, 1916 ; Lieut. H. A. S. Wortley. R.G.A., January, 1916. ST.^DAVID'S COLLEGE, LAMPETER Though the number of its students is small, St. David's College has a good war record ; over a hundred have volunteered for service with His Majesty's Forces. When it is borne in mind that practically all Lampeter students are ordained at the end of their College career, this must be con- sidered very satisfactory. Some years before the war broke out, it was found imprac- ticable to establish an Officers' Training Corps for this same reason, but since the outbreak of war about twenty-five Lampeter men have gained commissions. The following members of the College have been killed in action : The Rev. E. G. E. Davies, R.N. ; Mr. E. W. Davies, 39th Field Ambulance, R.A.M.C. ; Mr. D. J. R. Davies, Colour- Sergeant, Australian E.F. ; Mr. R. A. Gallen, 16th Batt., R.W.F. ; Mr. Lewis Reginald Hughes, Second-Lieutenant, 4th N. Staffs ; Captain E. Long Price ; Mr. Edmund Oswald Griffith Meyrick-Williams, Lieutenant, R.W.F. It is feared that the same fate has befallen Mr. E. H. D. Whitfield, the Lecturer in Mathematics, who had a commission in the York and Lancaster Regt. He was reported wounded and missing in Gallipoli, and has not since been heard of. APPENDIX 411 ST. DAVID'S COLLEGE SCHOOL The College School, the " Junior Department " of the College, as it used to be called in the old days, has also done well ; 158 members of the School volunteered for service, fifty-five of whom have gained commissions. In addition to Mr. D. J. R. Da vies, whose name appears in the list of College students, the School has to mourn the loss of its English Master, Captain W. J. Howells, Welsh Regt., and Second-Lieutenant D. C. Parry Davies, South Wales Borderers, at one time Junior Classical Master. NORMAL COLLEGE, BANGOR The number of Normal College students, past and present, known to be with the colours, is 247, of whom over thirty have obtained commissions from the ranks. Of the ninety-two students in residence at the beginning of the College session in 1915 over eighty joined the O.F.C. and sixty-nine of these enlisted in January, 1916, since when the " Normal " has become very largely a Woman's Training College. The great majority of the men are now at the front, though some are still in training. Many of them have been wounded in action, and the following have been killed in action : George Thomas ; I. H. Jones ; Henry Owen ; Harold Tyler ; Torworth Roberts. The Military Cross has been won by Captain J. Colwyn Jones. Since the outbreak of the war the staff and students have contributed over £150 to various War Charities, including the Serbian Hospital Fund, Serbian Relief Fund, the Belgian Fund, and the Red Cross, and women students have, during their spare time, done much for the comfort of the troops at the front. CHRIST COLLEGE, BRECON Total serving. — 282. Killed in action. — Lieut-Commander P. A. Kell, R.N.R. ; Capt. C. G. Lyall, Lincolnshire Regt. ; Second-Lieut. C. G. R. Hunter, King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry ; Major C. H. Lewis, A.S.C. ; Corporal H. D. Dempster, King's Royal Rifles ; D. M. Griffiths, Australian Light Horse ; Second- Lieut. D. C. Thomas, Royal Welsh Fusiliers ; Lieut. S. W. Bell, 90th Winnipeg Regt. ; Second-Lieut. C. G. Boothby, 412 APPENDIX 8th South Staffs ; Second-Lieut. H. B. Davies, West Yorks Regt. ; Lieut. C. P. Hazard, Shropshire Light Infantry ; Capt. E. W. Lawrence, R.A.M.C. Died of disease and accident. — E. D. Lloyd, Army Veterinary Corps ; Second-Lieut. C. H. Broadbent, K.O. Y.L.I. Missing. — Second-Lieut. N. Grant, Lancashire Fusiliers. Prisoners of War. — Capt. A. L'E. Le Gallais, Royal Scots Fusiliers ; Capt. G. Le Huquet, Wiltshire Regt. Mentioned in despatches. — Lieut. W. M. Howells, R.A.M.C. ; Capt. Hanmer J. Miers, 2nd Monmouthshire Regt. ; Lieut. - Col. C. E. Budworth, M.V.O., R.H.A. (twice) ; Capt. J. T. Field, A.S.C. ; Lieut. A. C. Hincks, R.A.M.C. ; Lieut-Col. C. A. Evill, ist Monmouthshire Regt. Distinctions.— Lieut.-Col. C. E. Budworth, M.V.O., R.H A., Distinguished Service Order ; Lieut. A. C. Hincks, R.A.M.C, Military Cross; Lieut.-Col. (and Acting-Brigadier-General) C. E. Budworth, Brevet-Colonel. Note. All the information that we have been able to obtain from the authorities of Llandovery College is to the effect that between 500 and 600 old boys are serving. LITERARY WORKS OF THE REV. J. VYRNWY MORGAN, D.D. " LIFE AND WORKS OF KILSBY JONES." Welsh Edition, 3/6 (Hughes & Son, Wrexham). English Edition, 2/6 (Elliot Stock), 1896. " LIFE AND WORKS OF REV. EDWARD ROBERTS, CWMAVON." 3/6 (Free Press, Llanelly), 1904. a THE CAMBRO-AMERICAN PULPIT." 8/- (Funk and Wagnalls, New York and London), 1899. "THEOLOGY AT THE DAWN OF THE 20TH CEN- TURY." 10/- (Small, Maynard & Co., Boston, U.S.A.), 1900. " WELSH RELIGIOUS LEADERS IN THE VICTORIAN ERA." 12/6 net (Nisbet & Co., London), 1905. "WELSH POLITICAL AND EDUCATIONAL LEADERS IN THE VICTORIAN ERA." 16/- (Nisbet & Co., London), 1908. "THE WELSH REVIVAL OF 1904— A CRITICAL REVIEW." 3/6 (Chapman & Hall), 1909. "A STUDY IN NATIONALITY." Introduction by Dr. Andrew Lang. 15/- (Chapman & Hall), 191 1. «« THE PHILOSOPHY OF WELSH HISTORY." 12/6 (John Lane, The Bodley Head), 19 14. . t Selection from the O^otices by the Tress of some of the Works by the same Author. The Life of Kilsby Jones. South Wales Daily News. " Mr. Vyrnwy Morgan deserves well of his countrymen for the excellent volume which he has prepared. He has succeeded admirably in presenting us with a vivid, lifelike portraiture, written in a style eminently calculated to charm and interest the reader. . . . An adequate biography of Kilsby must needs be a historical review of Wales for the last half century ; hence it is all the more gratifying that Mr. Vyrnwy Morgan, in courageously attempting what most people would regard as a Herculean task, has succeeded in giving us, within the compass of 250 pages which make up his book, a comprehensive outline of the career of one of the most remarkable geniuses produced in Wales during the nineteenth century. The biographer has been gleaning far and near, and the abundant materials, which by much labour and research have been brought together, are here treated with that artistic skill that every page is of entrancing interest, and brings us face to face, as it were, with Kilsby himself. . . . The volume is an honest attempt to depict Kilsby, as all knew and loved him, and as a result Mr. Morgan has produced a fascinating volume which we believe will have a wide and ready sale." Liverpool Daily Post. " Mr. Morgan could not have had a more interesting subject. We are given a fine picture of a remarkable character. We heartily commend Mr. Morgan's compact and pleasing memorial to the notice of those who would know more of the great lecturer, preacher, politician, educationist, and controversialist, who, it is or ought to be generally acknowledged, has done so much in the fight for social and religious and political liberty in Wales, and who has proved such an inspiration to younger thinkers and workers." The Presbyterian, August 20th, 1896. " There are many really good things in the book, and some insight into the causes of Welsh Nonconformity and Radicalism. ... A selection from his sermons and lectures, if one may judge from the specimens given here, would be well worth publication. . . . The author cordially acknowledges that the revival of religious life in Wales in the end of the last century was in a large measure due to the Welsh Presbyterians — the Calvinistic Methodists as they are called. . . . The book is of great interest, and will abundantly pay perusal. . . . Homely and telling expositions of St. Paul's ' righteous ' and ' good ' men are amongst the gems of the book." British Weekly, August 20th, 1896. " It is easy to see that Mr. Morgan has done the best he could ; that he has carefully collected all the available traditions ; and that he has been bent on giving a true portrait of a man for whom he has a true admiration and regard. . . . Mr. Morgan gives us some interesting particulars of education in Wales. . . . The impression which this biography leaves is that Jones was a man of restless, independent spirit, and of considerable talent, which, through defects of character and cultivation, never had its proper reward. . . . There is no difficulty in reading Mr. Morgan's book, and it may be commended to the many who would fain understand a little better the heart of the Welsh people." The Sword and Trowel, September, 1896. " A delightful book, about a choice subject. There is not a sleepy page in the whole volume, and scarcely a paragraph but is all-alive. The able and gracious Welsh preacher here described was as full of originality and holy humour as he could be, and his biography was well worth telling. Incidents abound, all of them effective for sermon and speech, so we may be sure that other preachers will eagerly peruse them. Fire, force and fun seem to divide the book between them, and a very pleasant blend it is. Well done ! Mr. Morgan ; try again ! " The Celt {Welsh), June 17th, 1896. " This book is exceptionally readable and edifying. The hero of this biog- raphy was an extraordinary man in every sense, and to read this biography will certainly convince all that the author also is by no means an ordinary man. Probably it will not be possible to agree with his inferences and his judgment upon public movements, but it will be impossible to set aside the book without reading it through. The reader will be constantly moved either to condemn or to approve the author's statements ; but it is of no importance which of the two, inasmuch as both inspire thought, which is the great achievement." The Baptist. " This is the life of a genius. We see him in the sketchy articles in this book as a man and a friend, a humorist, a Nonconformist, a man of letters, a preacher, a lecturer, and a friend of education. We think our Welsh brethren will be delighted with such a bright, cheery volume of reminiscences of a man who was greatly beloved. Striking anecdotes, full of mother wit, abound in these pages." Welsh Religious Leaders in the Victorian Era. Extract from leading article, by Sir Edward Russell, in Liverpool Daily Post and Mercury, March 7th, 1906. " Welshmen everywhere will be quick to appreciate the obligation under which Dr. Vyrnwy Morgan has placed them by his successful portrayal of the development of Wales during the Victorian era. ... In one of the three remarkable contributions which Dr. Vyrnwy Morgan, as editor, makes to the volume, there is a graphic and touching picture of the condition of Wales generally at the beginning of the time covered by his history. . . . These men are represented in Dr. Morgan's book with a fulness and yet with a skill of compendious treatment that render it of engrossing interest, as well as of invaluable reference utility to all who care for Welsh topics. A collection of very fine portraits adds greatly to the interest and value of the work. . . . Most of the great ones who are treated separately come under review in his own excellent general survey of the Victorian era, and not a single point, personal or national, is omitted which could throw light on his subject. Nine- teenth century Wales, in all its aspects, lives again in his pages. His words throb with the spirit of ardent nationality. . . . Our duty is to recommend both Welsh and English readers to explore Dr. Morgan's book for themselves. In it will be found matter for indefinite discussion, much sound advice from various points of view, a mine of valuable information, and food for very serious reflection and national introspection." The Right Hon. Sir John Rhys, M.A., D.Litt., Professor of Celtic, and Principal of Jesus College, Oxford, October 14th, 1905. " This work of many colours speaks for itself : it requires no formal intro- duction. No thoughtful Welshman can take it up without finding in it chapters that will deeply interest him. For even when the subject of the biographical sketch fails to enlist his entire theological sympathy, he will probably be attracted by a skilful delineation of character or by a feat of psychological anatomy. I am free to confess that I have perused the whole without any lagging of interest from the beginning to the end. " It was a most happy thought on the part of Dr. Vyrnwy Morgan to bring together to a neutral arena so many able representatives of so many widely different opinions ; and the volume seems calculated to act as an eirenicon on a people which is just now divided on the question of religion and education. He will, if I am not greatly mistaken, soon prove to have earned the cordial thanks of the Welsh people in all parts of the world." Rev. John Clifford, D.D., LL.D. October 17th, 1905. " This book, besides being full of charm for Welshmen, will go far to explain the Welsh people to others. It traces the life of the Welsh race to its springs, describes the leading characteristics of the people — their ideas, their capacities, their service, and their mission. It is a cogent defence of the Welsh nationality and of its aspirations and ambitions, because it is a careful and comprehensive explanation of the roots and fruits of Welsh life. "It is concerned, as the title states, with leaders ; with men who have gathered into themselves the thoughts and yearnings, the faith and hope, of the people ; embodied them, manifested them, and so led the people by them. The leaders of a people are the best pictures of a people. They show not only themselves, but those they lead. For who are they ? Powerful, great, and original they may be, but apart from the commonality amongst whom they live and from whose condition they derive their inspiration and impact, they are impotent. It is the function of a leader to interpret and express the con- sciousness of his race, and to aid, as far as he can, in the realization of his nation's best self. " Some of the leaders I knew, and it has been a sincere pleasure to renew my acquaintance with Kilsby Jones, etc. For some reason I instinctively turned first of all to the paper on Kilsby Jones. I remembered his coming to London, the ' great expectations ' raised, the confused and contradictory talk about him ; his fine hatred of all hypocrisies, his splendid defiance of crippling conventionalities, his originality of thought and poetic expression. This sketch of him by the Editor is a fine piece of work. To read it is to be instructed and roused, infected and inspired. Even the record of his enthusiasm is con- tagious, and the greatness of his service is indescribable." Professor J. E. Lloyd, M.A., Bangor. October 19th, 1905. " I have greatly appreciated the privilege, so kindly accorded to me, of reading in proof Dr. Vyrnwy Morgan's Welsh Religious Leaders in the Victorian Era. It was a happy thought to attempt to give a survey of the religious life of Wales during this most important period by means of biographies of care- fully selected leading preachers. It seems to me that Dr. Morgan has worked out his plan with great success. Not only has he recognized the importance of including representatives of each of the leading bodies of Christians working in Wales, but he has also contrived to introduce the element of variety into his denominational panels. " A great deal of light is incidentally thrown, by this book, upon the early struggles of Welsh preachers, the sources of their pulpit power, and the mani- fold activities in which they engaged. It is a pleasant feature of most of the writing that the spirit of humour has not been banished from it, as though these mighty masters of the assemblies were not sometimes to be presented to us in the guise of men. I feel sure that Dr. Morgan's book is one which every lover of Wales will be glad to have, and that it will prove a most useful intro- duction to those across the border who wish to gain an insight into the temper and recent history of Welsh religion." The Scottish Review. " This book is a study of nationality by compartments. Among the subjects treated are Thirlwall, the historian of Greece ; Sir George Cornewall Lewis, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whose budgets were wont to rouse the Olym- pic wrath of Gladstone ; Sir Lewis Morris, the poet ; Lord Aberdare ; and others less known to fame. In particular, Sir George Cornewall Lewis may claim to be most generally known, and his good luck in finding so apt a penman as Mr. G. W. E. Russell to be his portrayer will give Dr. Morgan's volume an additional interest in education and politics during the Victorian era." The Bristol Times. " This book is a serious contribution to the educational and political history of Wales, and there is no doubt that it will take its place as a serious and com- prehensive review of the schools and shades of thought which made their presence felt in the Victorian era." Y Goleuad (Welsh Calvinistic Methodist Weekly). " This work shows that the spirit of enterprise has not departed from the land. It is a credit to both editor and publisher. It is well worth 16s., and it is a worthy monument of those Welsh heroes who are in peril of being forgotten. " Welsh Political and Educational Leaders in the Victorian Era. Extracts from a leading article by Sir Edward Russell in the Liverpool Daily Post and Mercury. " One of the most interesting and valuable books of the opened year. What the Peerage is said to be to many Englishmen, this ought to be to Welshmen. It has the attraction of an authoritative collection of portraitures of men who have good British as well as Welsh grounds for being remembered and understood. Dr. Morgan himself writes ably, and he has selected his contributors with judgment and spirit. Turn the pages where you will, there is not one dull or unprofitable." The Standard. " We think it is the introduction, written by the Editor himself, which will be generally regarded as the best part of the book. This fills ninety pages, and is an elaborate disquisition on what may be called concisely ' The Welsh Question,' which means really a group of questions, including Education, Disestablishment, Home Rule, and other issues. Dr. Morgan handles the question of Disestablishment with marked ability and judgment. We have seldom seen the arguments for and against it so admirably summed up with so firm a grasp, and in so judicial a spirit. There are considerations which must turn the scale in the eyes of every sincere Churchman, but these being in the background, the balance is held with very even, full justice within these limita- tions to the Church of England. On most of the questions discussed in the introduction we find much good sense and a quality of candour not commonly met with in comparisons between the Church and Nonconformity." The Scotsman. " Dr. Morgan has made a special study of the history of Wales in the Victorian Era, and the work now sent forth is a companion volume to his Welsh Religious Leaders in the Victorian Era. Dr. Morgan in an exceedingly able introduction draws a faithful picture of the schools of thought that have made their influence felt in the Principality. To the student of the present day Political and Educational movements in Wales, the work is very suggestive." The Christian. " A work specially strong in its appeal to such as appreciate the character- istics of the warm-hearted people of the Principality. The pages supply sketches of several men, of whom few biographical particulars are avail- able, and on this account the book will be found useful for reference, while at the same time, because of its intrinsic interest, it will be treasured in the library of many a friend of Wales." Professor T. Witton Davies, B.A., Ph.D., D.D., Bangor. " A valuable volume. Much that is here preserved would have been lost for ever had not Dr. Morgan taken the trouble to bring together these articles 5 and portraits. He has placed Wales under a very great debt to him. The work is a serious contribution to the educational and political history of Wales." The Right Hon. G. W. E. Russell, LL.D. " This is a wonderful collection of eminent characters and lives, and will be quite new to those who are not familiar with the history of the Principality. Many of the patriots, especially the older ones, are very interesting." Rev. John Clifford, M.A., D.D., B.Sc. " This is a massive, most interesting, and instructive volume. Dr. Morgan's introduction is acute, penetrating, and stimulating ; and forms an admirable setting of the ideas and persons, the forces and institutions, of Wales in the Victorian Era. This volume will greatly aid in feeding the faith and realizing the best ideals of the Welsh people." The Welsh Religious Revival of 1904-5— A Critical Review. Extract from leading article by Sir Edward Russell in Liverpool Daily Post and Mercury, August 17th, 1909. " The striking achievements in the past of the Rev. Dr. Vyrnwy Morgan in the field of Welsh criticism and biography warrant an eager anticipation of anything new from his pen, and bespeak for his views the earnest consideration of all thoughtful persons. . . . Dr. Morgan's facile pen has filled 270 pages, many of them fresh and fascinating, and full of nervous criticism, bold dog- matism, and useful historical perspective ; but a careful perusal of the whole leaves the impression that the author, after all, has either not been able to make up his mind about the Revival as a whole, or has not cared fully and candidly to unburden himself." Review of Reviews, September, 1909. " The Welsh Revival of 1904-5 has at last found a critical and sympathetic historian in the Rev. J. Vyrnwy Morgan, D.D. He recognizes the value of the Revival, which he regards as God's last call to Welsh Nonconformists to drop politics and regrasp the old spiritual ideals. Dr. Morgan's book will stir much controversy, and will be bitterly resented by many upon whose fervour his calm, somewhat severe judgments will fall like a spray of iced-water. Broadly speaking, it is the critics rather than the converts who will welcome Dr. Morgan's book. ... It is, however, a very careful study of one of the most remarkable phenomena of the religious life of the twentieth century." The Church Times, September 10th, 1909. " We have read a good deal of the literature evoked by the Revival, but nothing better than this for clearness of perception, and, with some exceptions, fairness of presentation. The author includes in his purview the whole religious condition of Wales, and helps outsiders to form an idea of the place which religion occupies in the minds of true Welshmen. The weak points are laid bare, the strong traits sympathetically dwelt upon. ... Of the central figure of the Revival — Evan Roberts — it is rightly said that he neither created nor was created by the Revival, he was simply its living embodiment, its recognized symbol. . . . The chapter on children should be read by every lover of children; it has permanent value for all teachers. . . . The chapter on the revival and Confession of Sin is admirable throughout. . . . The picture of the conditions of religious life in Wales is one that none but a cultivated, experienced, and sympathetic Welshman could have drawn. ... If, as we hope, the book leads to heart searching, to reconsideration of methods and aims, to less reliance upon statistics and boastings, to greater devotion to the faith and all that it involves, it will indeed have rendered a lasting and tri- umphant service to religion in Wales." Edinburgh Evening News, August loth, 1909. " This is a very interesting criticism of a very remarkable movement, which attracted widespread attention. In most cases the accounts published at the time and since were more descriptive or appreciative than critical, and, gener- ally speaking, they tended to glorification of the Revivalist, Evan Roberts. This book is altogether wider in its scope. Dr. Morgan deals with the main characteristics of Welsh nationality, and shows how these have been influenced by the past history of the Principality and by former revivals." The Daily Graphic, August 14th, 1909. " The book has evidently been prepared with a desire to be scrupulously fair to the Revival and to those who assisted its progress, though the knife is freely used. It is able, detached, and informative. There is no hero-worship, and no beating of the big drum. In addition — and this is a distinct gain — sectarian bitterness does not obtrude itself in the pages. We do not even obtain a glimpse of the author's ecclesiastical view-point. . . . On the whole we seem to get a more all-round view in Dr. Morgan's book than has yet been presented to the public." Belfast Evening Telegraph, August 13th, 1909. " This publication of the late Welsh Revival several years after the event, while it may fit in admirably to the present Jubilee of the '59 Revival, also ensures a treatment and criticism well removed from the emotionalism that was an inseparable accompaniment of a time of religious fervour and excite- ment. ... It is not so much a history as a very candid criticism by a man of independent thought, of a remarkable year in the history of Welsh revivals . . . The book is one that deserves careful study. . . . Dr. Morgan, who does not hold by the most rigid orthodoxy, proceeds to the heart of his subject, after a most careful and well-thought-out examination of revivals in their relation to modern civilization, and of the special nationality that was the sea-bed of the Revival of 1905. . . . It is an important contribution to revival literature." Dundee Courier, August 18th, 1909. " Dr. Morgan has the courage of his convictions. . . . His criticism is conducted in a purely catholic spirit. . . . His contentions are reasonable, and will have the heartiest support of all who have the moral and spiritual welfare of the Principality at heart." The Outlook, August 14th, 1909. " Dr. Morgan takes a particularly sane view of his countrymen. He under- stands the peculiar blending of mysticism, insularity and harsh individuality Which goes to make up the typical Welshman. He says rightly enough that the vitality of the Welsh nation lies in its religious consciousness. . . . The movement may have had permanent results for good, but we agree with Dr. Morgan that it was magnified out of all proportion to its right significance, and that the better elements in it were lost sight of in the theatrical and hysterical licence which it encouraged." Eastern Morning News, August 27th, 1909. " Dr. Morgan is a Welsh minister of high repute, who, having written with ability on various aspects of religious life in the Principality, brings excellent credentials to his latest work. Possessing the interpretative faculty, combined with a real appreciation and love of the Welsh character, he is well fitted to point out the message of the Revival to all the churches. The chief merit of the work is its sane criticism. We find in it a real discrimination between the abiding value of the Revival and its surface emotionalism. . . . The style is clear and forceful. ... It is a very readable and useful work." The Young Man, September, 1909. " This is a very frank and full examination of the origination, course, and sequence of the strange outburst of religious fervour in Wales during 1904-5. It is a very thoughtful and fair piece of work." Central Presbyterian Association Monthly Magazine, September, 1909. " This is an intensely thoughtful and discriminating examination of the recent Revival in Wales. . . . The author has brought to his work a keen insight into men and motives and a historical faculty of high order, and the result is a well-balanced account of this remarkable movement. . . . The title of the book gives no adequate idea of the ground it covers, nor of the benefit to be derived from a study of it. There is material psychological, theological, homiletical, pastoral, etc., in it, for a whole series of volumes. There is one chapter which we really must draw special attention to, and that is the one entitled, * Children and the Revival.' It is a justification of the Revival in itself." The Aberdeen Journal, August 23rd, 1909. " Dr. Morgan is well qualified for his task. He is evangelical in theology without narrowness ; he has wide culture, and, what is more important, he believes that the Church is not an institution for comforting saints, but for seeking and saving the lost. . . . The symptoms of the Revival, its physical and psychical concomitants, and the relation to it of the Church and the ordinary ministry are fully and sympathetically described by Dr. Morgan ; and if his praise is judicious rather than indiscriminate, and his condemnation of its histrionic extravagances quite frank, this merely adds to the scientific value of his work. ... It is a contribution to the study of the influences of the Revival which is weighty and cannot be neglected by the student of that religious phenomenon." A Study in Nationality. Dr. Andrew Lang. October 20th, 1911. " His lucidity of style, candour, and tolerance, and his wide and minute knowledge of his native country, make him a trustworthy enlightener of Scot- tish and English ignorance of the Wales of the past, and of the tumultuous to-day." Sir Gilbert Parker, M.P. October 8th, 191 1. " At this moment the book is a god-send to the political student. Home Rule for Ireland and Welsh Disestablishment are two gravely critical questions which are to be dealt with by the Government. Here is a light on both ques- tions. The religious and other problems are handled in this book with rare lucidity, intuition, fair-mindedness, and a sympathy which cannot antagonize those who hold different views, and must vividly impress and influence those who hold the same views with less knowledge. ... A little crowded as are some of the chapters with detailed information, others rise to an excellence of form and style which any man of literature might well envy. No member of Parliament should be without it, and every political student and patriot should read it." T.P.'s Weekly, December 1st, 191 1. " With skill does the author build up an historical concept of a nation. By comparison and analogy he surveys the social life and religions of each ; he builds up a picture of the organic life of a people. Upon his structure he sets up an ideal life of Wales, of the Welsh character and Welsh government. So far as Wales seeks to be true to her own inherited tradition there can be no ultimate quarrel, religious or secular, with England. The presence of such a book in every club and library of the Principality would do much to focus the national mind. That is the need of every people to-day." 8 Extracts from leading article by Sir Edward Russell in the Liverpool Daily Post and Mercury, December gth, 1911. " This trenchant Welsh author has combined his national knowledge with a detachment such as Cambrians seldom attain. The scheme of the book is clear and popular. . . . The author would probably not have been so illuminating if he had not lived a good deal out of Wales ; but if anyone not a Welshman had tried to do what he has done, many false lights would have been drawn across the puzzling page. As it is, many of the statements will be resented ; but we doubt whether many will be successfully controverted. . . . Nothing that anyone can say in praise of his research in the chapters on Greece, Holland, Switzerland, and Scotland, can be too eulogistic. His treatment of Calvin and Knox, for instance, is especially able. As to Wales, there is as much research as is necessary, but the glory of the book is in its piercing insight into the Wales of the last and present age. Here Dr. Vyrnwy Morgan is not only competent, but triumphant ; not that we go bail for all his conclusions, but because they are positive and have such a brilliancy of flashing exposition. . . . Dr. Morgan has the boldness to say that a nation's religion is not always reflected in its morals. . . . The book is abundant in thought, in recorded and weighed observation, and in challenges to all thinkers on national affairs." The Times, December 21st, 191 1. " Dr. Morgan's dispassionate review of the faults and virtues of his own race will come as a surprise to the mere Saxon who is by now more than accustomed to the essential superlativeness of everything Celtic in the eyes of the Celt. . . . In modern ecclesiastical matters Dr. Morgan speaks with a wide and intimate knowledge both of Nonconformity and of the Establishment. He remarks upon two points in Church history worthy of investigation — the part played in preserving the Welsh spirit of nationality by the Cistercians after the Conquest, and the interesting struggle between the religious conservatism of the Cymry and their racial pride in the Tudor dynasty during the later stages of the English Reformation. . . . For the man who tries to grasp the great questions which now agitate the Principality in religion and in politics, the book will prove a mine of information and no mean guide to the understanding of the complex Cymric character, the hopes and aspirations, the virtues and shortcomings of those who possess that character." Aberdeen Free Press, December 21st, 191 1. " Dr. Morgan has already written largely on the ecclesiastical history of Wales, and he is very full of the subject. . . . Probably his is the fullest account hitherto published of the present ecclesiastical, political, and economic conditions of Wales." Church Family Newspaper, December 21st, 1914. " Within the limits at our disposal it would be impossible to deal exhaustively with this interesting book. Its author displays a wide range of reading, and it would be a marvel if he had not included matter that is open to criticism. One fascination about this book is its fearless criticism where to the author it appears to be deserved. . . . The short chapter on Greece, to which the writer gives premier place in his book on account of its extraordinary influence on art and literature, breathes the spirit of a nationalist who would instil into his readers some of the spirit of that most gifted of nations. . . . The chapter on 1 The Netherlands Republic,' dealing with the tragic and gory period centreing around William Prince of Orange (1533-84), is depicted in a forceful and realistic style, and createsTa "desire to read again the romantic and epoch-making history of that marvellous community. Following almost in chronological sequence after the Netherlands comes the adoption of the Helvetian Republic in 1798 by Switzerland, of which Dr. Morgan treats in the next chapter. ' In no other part of Europe were such diverse religious, racial, and linguistic elements in contact as in Switzerland at that period — Lombards, Burgundians, 9 2F Italians, Alamannians, Rhactians, and Celts.' And the chapter describes the welding together of these jarring elements into a united nation which, without any great advantage derived from mineral wealth or navigation or richness of soil, has proved itself in many ways to be a model for larger nation- alities, ' its militia, the most perfect in Europe, having supplied the model for Britain's Territorial Force.' We must draw this to a close by expressing one regret — we only wish the book could have been produced in a form more accessible to the general reader. The chapters on ' The Religious Problem ' and ' Disestablishment and Discndowment ' are interesting. A new revised and cheaper edition should command an extensive sale." Pall Mall Gazette, December 22 nd, 191 1. " Dr. Morgan has written a learned and enlightening book on small nation- alities. He wields a brilliant pen. His essay on Greece, all too short, is an eloquent survey of the achievements of that incomparable land. ... As for Wales, it will be a very good thing for her sons if they will read what Dr. Morgan has to say. ... Of the book as a whole we cannot do better than quote Sir Gilbert Parker : ' At this moment the book is a god-send to the political student.' " Sheffield Daily Telegraph, December 23rd, 1911. " A really valuable contribution to history and psychology." Aberdeen Daily Journal, December 25th, 1911. " One of the three most notable works issued this season." The Dundee Advertiser, December 28th, 1911. " The book is a rich store-house of knowledge and a valuable contribution to contemporary politics." The Daily Telegraph, December 29th, 191 1. " A courageous, eloquent, and thorough-going study of modern Wales. The book is broad-minded and comprehensive. It starts its survey with a general consideration of the part played by little nations in the civilizing of the world, with particular reference to Greece, Holland, Switzerland, and Scotland. . . . Dr. Morgan knows Wales by heart, and seems to have studied every side of its social and political development. . . . He has an unusually powerful grip upon the question of Disestablishment and Disendowment. He succeeds in an eminent degree in handling a ticklish question with tact and toleration. . . . The cold and searching analysis of Mr. Lloyd George's political character is among the most effective of Dr. Morgan's many brilliant pictures. ... In this strongly individual and far-reaching monograph, Dr. Morgan has given both to his fellow-countrymen and to the world at large a picture of national life and character full of sound judgment, overflowing sincerity, and the truest enthusiasm for the best qualities and opportunities of his generation. Welsh- men who know the things that belong to their own peace, will appreciate that they owe a deep debt of gratitude to Dr. Morgan's penetrating vision and fearless eloquence." The Standard. " Dr. Vyrnwy Morgan, in this work, stands out revealed as a philosophic and independent thinker." The Morning Post, January 8th, 191 1. " Dr. Vyrnwy Morgan — a well-known authority on Welsh life and literature — is a Welsh patriot par sang ; he has done as much as any Welshman to inspire us with the sympathy which comes of knowledge and understanding for Wales and its people. Several of his books are indispensable to the student of the history and life of the Principality. ... In dealing with the perplexing history of Welsh ecclesiastical affairs, of which he has a wide and profound knowledge, Dr. Morgan is as impartial as he is painstaking. The merits and demerits of the Church and of Nonconformity are analysed without fear and favour." The Morning Leader, January 15th, 1912. " A learned, clear, vigorous and suggestive piece of work." Notts Guardian, January 23rd, 1912. " The volume in every sense constitutes a thoughtful and important survey of Welsh psychology and achievements." The Spectator, February 24th, 1912. " The book as a whole makes so excellent an impression, and is informed with so sane, so discriminating, and so kindly a spirit, that we are very sorry to criticize any part of it. . . . Everyone is talking about ' Home Rule,' which is the burning question of the hour, but very few understand anything of the ultimate issues involved. It is upon these that Dr. Morgan's luminous analysis of the elements of Welsh, and incidentally of Irish, national issues throws so helpful a light. . . . The book should be read by everyone who has a mind to make up about these fateful questions of the hour." The Lady, April nth, 191 2. " It is impossible in the space of a few lines even to attempt to deal adequately with the remarkable volume by the Rev. J. Vyrnwy Morgan, D.D., entitled A Study in Nationality, as it is also impossible to over-estimate the value of the book, which, though it deals principally and avowedly with the history and modern conditions of Wales, is in reality an extraordinarily able and compre- hensive review and criticism of the religious, social, and political history of these islands from the Reformation to the present day — a review extending, in fact, to the eve of the book's publication, a few weeks ago. The first part con- sists of an introductory series of essays on ' The Evolution of Smaller Nations,' treating of ancient Greece, the Netherlands Republic, Switzerland, and Scot- land, while Part II, which constitutes the bulk of the big volume, is headed ' Contemporary Wales,' but deals with the whole country as, directly or in- directly, it concerns the Principality, which is a part of the whole, and of late has assumed a political significance quite disproportionate to its actual size and importance. The book is an astonishing one. It reveals the author as a master- mind, as a scholar, thinker, and critic of the first order, one who has the rare faculty of viewing a vast subject whole, selecting its salient points and present- ing them judicially, exhibiting neither fear nor favour in his consideration and criticism of men and matters. It is a book that ought to be seriously and re- flectively studied by every intelligent man and woman in the nation ; and as the bulk and the price will alike render it almost impossible of attainment by the very people who will most appreciate it — those who have more brains than money or leisure — we should like to see certain parts of it issued in separate cheap and handy volumes, more especially the sections dealing with Religion, Language, Education, the Agrarian Problem, Wales and Ireland — which includes an able summary of national finance and politics during the past year of unrest — and on ' Thought Energy.' " The Philosophy of Welsh History. The Scotsman (Edinburgh), April 27th, 1914. " Dr. Morgan's book is ably written, with a wide knowledge of Welsh life and history." The Right Hon. Arthur J. Balfour, M.P. April 28th, 1914. " I feel confident that the work is likely to be of advantage, both to the student and to the general reader." 11 The Times (London), April 30th, 1914. " This book is worth reading, especially for those who are interested in the growth of nationalities. The author is troubled by the thought that his com- patriots have misread the history of their country. He fears that, unless they adopt a sounder theory, they cannot be trusted to govern it wisely by them- selves. . . . Modern philosophy seems to justify Dr. Morgan's protest that national, like personal, development is provoked and maintained by inter- communication. ... So far from arresting, the contact with England has been the principal cause of Welsh development. The author dates its progress from Edward I's reign. To that monarch Wales owes its initiation into the art of government, the blessings of borough life, and the potentialities of trade. . . . The policy of segregation is really impossible, even if it were desirable. . . . Dr. Morgan has first-hand knowledge of Wales and its people. . . . Whether we agree with his reading of history and his arguments or not, he has produced a useful and suggestive book." The Outlook, May 2nd, 1914- " Although we are not prepared to endorse all Dr. Morgan's views with regard to the facts he records, we believe he has set these facts very fairly before his readers, and we further believe that no student of history can afford to ignore the book." Dublin Daily Express, May 1st, 1914. " The author frames his powerful indictment of the Celtic race in his philo- sophy of Welsh history. His book is eloquent, and it is well informed. The agreeableness of Dr. Morgan's style does not disguise the fact that he has the happy art of giving his conclusions in fascinating English. His arguments are powerful, but we have not found a single fact twisted or distorted. ... It is plain that Dr. Morgan's book is an indication that the reaction against its exaggerations of the Celtic spirit is rapidty coming." The Cambridge Review, May 20th, 1914. " The book before us is one of those refreshing works in which the author is out to tell what he believes to be the truth, and to strip a portentous sham of false sentiment, by which it is rendered attractive to those who behold it, especially from afar. It needs courage in a Saxon and something more for a gentleman with so distinctively Celtic a name as Dr. Morgan's to unmask the Celt. . . . What is needed is for the Teutonic peoples of this island to realize that their traditions and ideals are being imperilled by a flood of Celticism, which must be dammed if England is to be saved." The Saturday Review, June 20th, 1914. " Dr. Morgan's criticism of his fellow-countrymen is severe. He knows them. ' The average or typical Welshman is a man of large self-esteem, large reflective powers, and large conscientiousness, but comparatively small benevolence.' ' The Welshman 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.' On the other hand, Dr. Morgan admits the rapid spread of the intellectual movement in Wales at the present time ; but he ascribes this new activity largely to the power of foreign and outside influences. His general thesis may be said to be that Wales has on the whole gained rather than lost by the action of English and other non-Celtic forces upon her develop- ment. This is a view which is always strongly controverted by Celtic nationalist historians ; and yet the historians of greater nations are always willing to recognize that their people owe much to other races. It is against the little- ness of Welsh ideals that Dr. Morgan writes ; but while he criticizes weaknesses he is fully alive to the importance of democracy and Nonconformity as the dominant factors in Welsh life. He pays a generous tribute to the good work done by Nonconformists, and he has some very wise and trenchant things to iz say about the folly of official Conservatism in Wales. Why, he asks, has there been no advance in Conservatism to correspond with the proved advance of the Church ? The historical portions of Dr. Morgan's book are excellently written, and there is a very useful chronological table." Contemporary Review, July, 1914. " A trenchant book in which a strong prose style sets forth strong convic- tions is always a pleasure to read, and Dr. J. Vyrnwy Morgan's bulky volume will, we think, find many readers. He attacks the whole theory or doctrine of Pan-Celticism. . . . We are inclined to agree that language is not a proof of purity of race, but it is one of the greatest begetters of nationality, and un- doubtedly the awakening of the Welsh language is a sign of the growth of the sense of nationality. We think that the conception of nationality is growing in Wales whether it is or is not historically justifiable. Environment not race creates nationality, and it is creating it in Wales. . . . The book is entitled to full and careful hearing. . . . For our own part, we do not believe that ' Wales was never poorer than she is to-day in men of the prophetic type, or in men of independent thinking,' for this book is proof to the contrary. . . . We look on with detached interest and congratulate Dr. Morgan on the best fighting prose style that we have met for some time past." Liverpool Post and Mercury, July 1st, 1914. " In this volume on his nation the author has given great scope to his talent for incisive analysis, and it is not necessary to endorse all the judgments of Dr. Morgan before commending his book as deserving serious consideration by his countrymen and by the increasing numbers of outsiders who take an interest in Wales. The Philosophy of Welsh History will, no doubt, cause many to think furiously, for the preface, dated last St. David's Day, introduces a book which contains little on the lines of nationalist after-dinner speeches. But the writer's views will stimulate thought. ... If this attempt at giving a scientific analysis of the Welsh had been made by a non- Welshman one might be tempted to take a gloomy view of the capacity of the Cymry. But the fact that a Welshman has put his own nation under a sociological microscope, and dis- sected its characteristics with such evident skill will do much to reassure those whose feelings are most concerned. The student of history needs to be a man of great faith and clear vision to perceive that, just as in the case of individuals so with nations, whatever has been is for the ultimate good. The English have been destined to be disciplinarians of India in the East and of Wales in the West. In proportion, he tells us, to the self-discipline of the Welsh . . . and in proportion to their greater aptitude for civic administration . . . there has been a disposition on the part of British statesmen to admit to a larger share of political power. Herein lies the secret of the higher potentialities which are inherent in a Welsh society as it exists to-day. This is the key-note of Dr. Morgan's reading of Welsh history from the time of Edward I to the present day. His survey of history is very inter- esting, but the most valuable is that which chronicles present-day impressions of Wales. And we can imagine a research student at the National Library of Wales in the year 2014 turning to this book and desiring therefrom enlighten- ment on the Welsh nation of the early twentieth century. The book is in harmony to a large extent with the teaching of Le Bon, the French sociologist, that people are guided in the main not by institutions and governments, but by the genius of their race, that inherited residue of quality which is a mys- terious master-cause ruling our destiny. . . . However much room there may be to differ from many of his strongly-expressed judgments, the detached attitude of the author gives a peculiar value to this interesting volume." The Morning Post, July 2nd, 1914. " Dr. Morgan is a Welshman and a patriot himself, but he thinks — like many others who have the best interests of Wales at heart — that separation, whether expressed in religious or political or social terms, can but narrow the *3 scope and functions of Welsh mentality. . . . The root of the matter is found in him and those who wish to understand modern Wales — Wales in the making and remaking — must follow out his arguments to their conclusion. . . . Nobody who wishes to understand modern Wales can afford to ignore it." The AthencBum, September 5th, 1914. " For his opening chapter the author finds a text in the statement contained in a well-known history of Wales, that ' the Welsh people . . . have steadily progressed by the side of their conquerors, in regard to all that goes to make up civilization.' This he controverts with much vigour. . . . The author's treatment of Welsh Nonconformity as a social and educative movement, shows an intimate knowledge of Welsh life and a just appreciation of some of the obscurer factors that influence it." Y Tyst (Welsh Congregational Weekly), July 15th, 1914. " The time has arrived when the Welsh should pay more attention to the philosopher ; hitherto the bards, musicians, and the preachers, with all their superficiality, have monopolized our attention. It is, therefore, not surprising that philosophers should be scarce in such a land as Wales. Here, however, we are face to face with the sovereign work which gives a philosophical complexion to Welsh history. . . . The author lays down many bold, even fearful proposi- tions, but he does it with firmness and urbanity, and he produces facts and reasons to fortify his reasons. . . . We commend this book to the serious attention of the critical historians of our race and country as well as to our leaders, our professors of education, and our moral and social reformers. The works stands supreme both for its charm and constructive ability." «4 THE LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Santa Barbara THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE STAMPED BELOW. Series 9 i 82 UC SOUTHERN R Fr ,n*M, t/l l/I'/']/' // // /IP 1 ' 1 ' ' '•""-"■■■ AC,L ' rv 'wIIIIwL ** 000 263 678