Wales: the language, social condition, moral character, and religious opinions of the People considered in their relation to Education: with some account of the prvision made for education in other parts of the Kingdom

Preface

. H^HE present work originated in a conviction, that the Reports of the Commissioners of Inquiry into the state of Education in Wales, had given currency to very erroneous impressions regarding the character of the native inhabitants of that Principality : an opinion which led to the composition, in the early part of the last year, of that chapter of the Work to which the title Moral Character has been given, and which was intended to be then published in the form of a pamphlet. It was, how ever, suggested to me, that although English readers might be interested by a description of Welshmen by one of themselves ; yet that it would be of but little benefit to establish, negatively, that they did not deserve the unfavourable character which they had received from the Commissioners of Inquiry.

Yielding to that opinion, I resolved to undertake a description of the condition of Wales, and to present to Englishmen an estimate of the character of the people of that country, as influenced by language, social position, religious worship, and educa tion. The work has been often interrupted by the claims of duty ; and has been resumed at distant intervals, when leisure and opportunity for the task could be insured : circumstances which are not mentioned in order to de-

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. IV precate that criticism to which all are amenable who seek to influence public opinion, but to account for those deficiencies which are inseparable from undertakings executed under such disadvantages. The opinions expressed by the Commissioners on the language of the country, to which they attribute injurious influences on the character and condition of the people, have provoked much controversy, and are opposed to the views of competent judges ; but no complaint will be made by me of the theories which they have promulgated on a subject, respecting which opposite views may be entertained by men every way qualified to decide upon that difficult and oftcontroverted question. Whilst, however, speculations on the evil influences of a particular language may be disregarded, imputations upon moral character, especially such as affect the repu tation of the women of a whole district, demand a rigid inquiry and a prompt refutation.

Such imputations, in stead of being cast at random in public Reports, which, from their character, give force and poignancy to the charge, should be conveyed in language carefully weighed, and strictly limited by the extent and character of the evil. When indiscriminately scattered abroad, they excite a strong sense of injustice ; and no act in the stormy life of the late Mr. O'Connell provoked so much indignation in this country, as that of imputing general unchastity to the wives and daughters of English men. It is the admission of men, who have travelled far and seen much, that in no country have they found women of greater gentleness and interest than the pea-

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. V sant girls of Wales ; and yet it is of those young women the language is employed, — " that so far from won dering that they are almost universally unchaste, the wonder would be if they were otherwise." I deplore the extent to which unchastity prevails in Wales; and, although there are reasons for believing that it is not of so frequent occurrence in that country as in some parts of England, it is yet humiliating, to those who love the Principality through good report and evil, to be told, that the vice prevails there amongst classes of people raised above that condition of female society to which it is ordinarily confined in England. Amongst the mischievous results which the temper and spirit of the Reports have provoked in Wales, I regard with discomfort and anxiety a spirit of isolation from Eng land, to which sectarian agencies, actively working through various channels, have largely ministered.

In ordinary times this result might be disregarded ; but at a period of the world's history when the process of decomposition is active amongst nations, and phrases which appeal to the sympathies of race become readily mischievous, it behoves those very excellent persons, who claim Wales for the Welsh, to consider whether they are prepared to give up England to the English, and to relinquish the advantages which a poor Province enjoys by its union with a rich Kingdom. For generations, Welsh men have been admitted to an equal rivalry with Englishmen, as well in England as in those colonial possessions of the British Crown, which have offered so wide a field for enterprise, and secured such ample VI

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. rewards to provident industry — and, whether at the bar or in the senate, or in the more stirring feats of war, they have obtained a fair field, and have won honourable distinction. There are offices in the Principality, the duties of which demand a knowledge of the Welsh language, and for them such knowledge should be made a condition of eligibility, in the same manner as a knowledge of English would be required, under analogous circumstances, in England. In the law these offices will be few, and pro bably confined to the local judges; as it will not be seriously proposed that, in our assize courts, the pleadings of the advocate, and the address of the judge, shall be delivered in the Welsh language ; and even in the courts of quarter sessions, which are composed of local magis trates, most of whom were born and reside in the country, but few of those gentlemen could address a jury in their own tongue.

A remedy for the inconvenience occasioned by an ignorant or imperfect acquaintance, on the part of the people, of the language employed in courts of justice, must be looked for in that instruction in the English language which is intended to be provided for all, and which is necessary to qualify men to appear as witnesses, or to serve as jurors, in courts wherein the proceedings are conducted in that tongue. The difficulties arising from language are principally felt in the Church : and it seems a truism to affirm, that where Welsh is the ordinary lan guage of public worship, and the common medium of con versation, the language should be known to those who are to teach and exhort the people, and to withstand and con vince gainsayers. The nomination of foreign prelates to

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. VII English sees before the Reformation occasioned great dissatisfaction in the minds of the English clergy, and tended to alienate them from the papacy ; and yet men who are prompt to recognise that grievance, are insensible to the effect produced on the Welsh clergy, by their general exclusion from the higher offices of the Church. The ignorance of Welsh in men promoted to bishoprics in Wales maybe more than compensated for by the possession of other qualifications; and a rigid exclusion from the episcopal office in the Principality of every man who is unac quainted with the language of the people, might be incon venient, if not injurious, to the best interests of the Church. The selection, however, for the episcopal office of men conversant with the language of the country, when other wise qualified to bear rule in the Christian ministry, would give a living reality to the episcopate in the Principality, and might materially aid in bringing back the people into the fold of the Church.

English readers may consider the Chapter on Dissent longer than the occasion required ; but I would remind them, that the position of Wales cannot be understood, nor can Welsh questions be fitly disposed of, without a thorough acquaintance with the origin, progress, and pre sent position of Welsh Dissent. There are two prevailing modes of describing the influence of Dissentin thatcountry; of which one consists in attributing to the Welsh people more gross immorality and fanatical ignorance, joined to lofty spiritual pretensions, than is found in any other part of Europe ; and the other, of claiming for them an amount of piety, good morals, and religious information unequalled

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. in any other country. Neither of those methods is satisfactory: aud, whilst I deplore immoral practices which prevail in Wales, and am grieved by religious divisions and subdivisions, of which no country presents more painful examples than may be there found, and to which no limit can be assigned when Christian congregations dis regard injunctions to Christian unity; — I cannot affirm the superior purity of conduct, and holiness of life, of the English peasantry, over those Dissenting worshippers who inhabit the mountain-fastnesses of my own land. I have endeavoured to do justice to the earnest spirit of the early Nonconformists, and to the labours of those good men who, in the last century, struggled with that irreligion which threatened to overwhelm the land. The Church of the early ages was the link which con nected the civil and social polity of Rome with the habits, manners, and customs, of the barbarians by whom the Western Empire was overthrown; and that Church supplied the only moral power which could struggle with an over whelming physical force, by which civilization was then en dangered.

The growth in the Christian Church, of a spiritual power, separated from temporal authority, contributed to, if it did not originate, the opinion, that moral truth is beyond the domain of earthly rulers; but the corruptions of doctrine and discipline in the Church of Rome led to a claim of authority by the spiritual power, not only over temporal governors, but over the human mind, from which we were happily freed at the Reformation. From that era the Church of England has encouraged the cultivation of science, and the investigation of the mysteries of the na-

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. IX tural world; manifesting in this respect — her assurance, that the God of revelation is one with the God of nature — her willingness to encourage all increase of natural knowledge, because it contributes to the glory of God, — and her con viction that, although a little philosophy inclines men's minds to atheism, yet that depth in philosophy brings them back to religion. Whilst, however, she has discarded superstition on the one hand, and fanaticism on the other, and, appealing to the good sense and moderation of her worshippers, has nobly vindicated the reasonable character of the worship she enjoins; she has not adequately exercised the intelligence of the mass of the people, nor raised their understandings to the level of her services, which presuppose in the worshipper an intellectual culture and moral elevation, that can only be supplied by a large measure of Christian teaching.

The release of the human mind from the restraints of authority, and the intellectual activity thus aroused, imposed on Reformed Churches corresponding duties ; and whilst, for three centuries, the works of God have been investigated as the interpreters of his power, the Bible has been made acces sible to all as the revelation of His will ; and the intellectual character of our own country has been influenced, by familiar acquaintance with the Bible, to an extent of which we are not adequately sensible. The reformation of religion has largely contributed to the better order and rapid progress of modern society, and to that equality of condition and increase of civil rights, which have so re markably characterized our own country ; and those results must, in their turn, influence the character of the education X

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. which the people require at our hands. This consideration was presented to his hearers by Bishop Butler, in a sermon preached before the Corporation of London in 1740, wherein he remarked, that the equality of condition and of civil rights, secured by our constitution and laws to the lower people, require that a more particular regard should be had to their education with us, than in countries where they enjoy less liberty; and that unless care be taken to provide them with that knowledge which is suitable to the privileges they possess, and to furnish them with those motives which are needed to discharge the duties appropriate to their condition, the liberties they enjoy will rather prove a curse than a blessing. The exertions of the Church of England to educate the people, by the foundation of grammar and other schools, and especially by the establishment of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge — and more recently, of the National Society for Promoting the Education of the Poor — have not merely an historical interest, but a practical value ; because, if the charge sometimes objected to her were true, that she had been a reluctant agent in the work of education, urged thereto by rivalry with other religious communities, or by a jealous antagonism to the interposition of the State, and not actuated by the Chris tian obligation to instruct the ignorant members of her flock, her present efforts, unparalleled as they are in magnitude and importance by those of any other Chris tian communities, might be distrusted, instead of being regarded, as they deserve to be, with affectionate solici tude and hopeful confidence. The narrative of the labours

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. XI of our forefathers is an act of justice to men, whose ser vices are sometimes overlooked or forgotten, and may be a useful lesson to extreme parties in our own day. By one of those parties, popular education is feared as dangerous to social gradations and political institutions, in rearing up idle and wanton people, unfitted for that condition of life in which their lot is cast ; whilst, by the other, it is regarded as a certain and speedy means of greatly ele vating the social condition of the working classes ; and by both, very exaggerated opinions are entertained of the influence of that amount and species of school in struction which can be given to the children of the poor. The Chapters on the state of education in Ireland, Scotland, and the Isle of Man, and on the present con dition of the Celtic Population of Brittany, embrace two subjects, — namely, the character of the school instruction provided in those countries, and the present condition of races of kindred origin to, and speaking cognate dialects with, the people of Wales.

Scotland has long enjoyed a parochial system of education, by which religious teach ing has been combined with a large measure of intellec tual culture ; and whilst the authority of the Church has been there fully recognised, an active co-operation has been secured on the part of her lay-members, on whom, as heritors, the burden was imposed of supporting schools. The Isle of Man owes to Bishops Barrow and Wilson numerous petty or parochial schools, which, although defective when tested by the standard of school instruction that now prevails, present the foundation of a system of elementary education, in which the proper

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. influence of the authorized religious instructors of the people will be fitly guaranteed, and their harmonious co-operation with the lay-managers of schools will receive proper encouragement. In Ireland alone a national system of education is found, in which the National Church occupies no recognised position. Members of that Church may, indeed, if the administration of the day should so please, have a seat at the Board of Education for that country ; and grants may be made to schools of which Churchmen are patrons and teachers, although, from those schools, the distinctive or dogmatic teaching of the Church is excluded. That system originated in a desire to afford a literary education to children of different religious persuasions, to whom definite or distinctive religious instruction could not be given in common ; or, in the words of a former Chief Secretary for Ireland, " a combined literary, and a separate religious education."

I do not inquire under what social and religious conditions such a system may be desirable, but will simply state a con clusion at which I arrived from personal investigation, — that the object sought has not been commonly attained ; and that in the schools of the National Board children of different religious persuasions are rarely combined. In casting my bread upon the waters, I part with a work which has entailed considerable labour, and has not been devoid of anxiety, especially on those occasions when I have described what seem grave abuses. I ask for a fair and temperate construction of any passages which imply censure of individuals. Earnestness of purpose, I well know, is impatient of delay — oftentimes undervalues diffi-

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. XIII culties by which administrative reforms are obstructed, and is sometimes unjust to those by whom evils are permitted to continue. To all, of whatever class, the command is, however, given, " Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest." Inner Temple, St. David's Day, 1849. CONTENTS. PART THE FIRST.

WALES.

Chapter I. The Welsh People

ON the western side of our Island, in a mountainous country, washed on three sides by the Bristol and St. George's Channels and the Irish Sea, is found a people, distinguished by peculiar characteristics, and speaking a language of their own, cognate to the dialects which anciently prevailed over a large part of Europe, and, in the main, with due allowance for changes un avoidable in the lapse of many centuries, identical with that which was spoken by the early inhabitants of Britain. This people is descended from a tribe of the Celts, a name by which the Greeks designated the inhabitants of Western Europe ; but when Cæsar invaded Gaul, that appellation was there confined to the people who inhabited the country between the Garonne and the Seine, and who (called Celts in their own language) were named Gauls by the Romans.

To those who regard the peculiarities of race and language as the most lasting of the influences which distinguish communities and individuals, it will be in teresting to inquire, how this people was regarded by the Romans two thousand years ago, when their Empire comprehended the fairest part of the earth, and the most civilized portion of mankind: and the materials for our inquiry are furnished in the writings of a warrior, who, I! in his conflicts with the inhabitants of Britain, had learnt to respect their valour, and whose sagacity and appre ciation of character have not been excelled by any writer of antiquity. In the fifth book of the Commentaries on the wars in Gaul, Cæsar narrates his second invasion of Britain ; and he tells us that the inland parts were in habited by those whom fame reported to be natives of the soil, but the sea-coast was peopled with Belgæ, drawn thither by the love of war and plunder ; that the island was well peopled, full of houses built after the manner of the Gauls, and that it abounded in cattle.

That the natives were a martial people, is shown by the graphic descrip tion given by the Roman General of the obstinate resist ance offered to his landing and advance into the country : and that they were not without civilization is apparent, from their chariots of war and their cavalry; their money and their commerce; and the address, ingenuity, and quickness of apprehension, with which they adapted their resistance to the vast resources of the Roman people. Amongst the Celts there existed a remarkable order of men, known by the name of Druids, whose separation from, and influence over, the rest of the community, indicated a peculiar social condition. The Druidical order was divided into the three classes, of Priests, Phi losophers, and Poets. The Priests were not only the interpreters of the will of the gods, to whom they offered sacrifices, and the supreme administrators of the law, but to them was also entrusted the direction and education of the young, by whom they were held in great honour.

We are told by Cæsar that the system of Druidism was originally instituted in Britain, and passed thence into Gaul, and that such persons amongst the Gauls as were desirous of being perfect in the science, travelled for instruction into Britain. He says, the disciples of Druidism learn by rote a very great number of verses, and spend many years in this employment, a method which the Druids seem to practise for two reasons ; to hide their mysteries from the vulgar, and to exercise the memory of their scholars, which would be otherwise neglected, as is often found to be the case in those who trust to letters. It is one of their chief maxims that the soul never dies, but passes from one body to another after death, a belief which they think contributes greatly to exalt men's courage by disarming death of his terrors.

They likewise discourse of and teach their scholars many things relating to the stars and their motions; the magni tude of the world and our earth; the nature of the universe; and the power and authority of the immortal gods. The conquest of South Britain, begun by Cæsar, and continued by Claudius and Suetonius, was completed, A.D. 80, by Agricola, whose triumphs are recorded by Tacitus ; and it was not until the reign of Honorius, in the early part of the fifth century, that the Roman forces being withdrawn from Britain, that province ceased to form a part of the Roman Empire. When the Romans departed, the country was ruled by the authority of the clergy, the nobles, and the municipal towns ; and the artificial fabric of the civil and military government of the country is described by Zosimus, and is thus alluded to by Gibbon, in the thirty-first chapter of his history. 1st. Zosimus very accurately observes, that the letters of Honorius were addressed to the cities of Britain.

Under the protection of the Eornans, ninety-two considerable towns had arisen in the several parts of that great province ; and among these, thirty-three cities were distinguished above the rest by their superior privileges and importance. Each of these cities formed a legal corporation, for the purpose of regulating their domestic policy ; and the powers of municipal government were distributed among annual magistrates, a select senate, and the assembly of the people, according to the original model of the Eoman constitution. B 2nd. The jurisdiction of each city over the adjacent country was supported by the patrimonial influence of the principal senators ; and the smaller towns, the villages, and the proprietors of land, con sulted their own safety by adhering to the shelter of these rising republics. 3rd.

The British Church might be composed of thirty or forty bishops, with an adequate proportion of the inferior clergy. Within a century after the Roman legions were with drawn, large portions of the Island were conquered by the Saxons ; and many of the ancient inhabitants, rather than support the yoke of the stranger, abandoned the plain country, and sought a refuge in those mountain fast nesses on the western side of the Island, beyond the lands washed by the Wye, where their posterity is still found. To those recent English writers who attribute the civilization of this Island to its Saxon invaders, we may oppose the language of Hume, in the first chapter of his history. The Britons, under the Eoman dominion, had made such ad vances towards arts and civil manners, that they had built twenty eight considerable cities within their province, besides a great number of villages and country seats.

But the fierce conquerors by whom they were subdued threw every thing back into ancient barbarity. Again : — Hence, there have been found in history few conquests more ruinous than that of the Saxons, and few revolutions more violent than that which they introduced. It should be remembered that, whilst the Britons had for centuries received the Christian faith, their Saxon enemies were pagans, whose superstition was of the grossest and rudest description, who reduced the private and public edifices of the native inhabitants to ashes, slaughtered the priests on the altars, and butchered alike the noble and vulgar, sparing neither age, sex, nor condition. For five centuries, Saxons and Danes alternately lorded over the fertile plains of England ; but neither their conflicts nor their alliances exercised any perceptible influence on the character or the language of the original inhabitants.

The Saxon, in his turn, passed under the yoke of the Norman conquerors, whose descendants acquired por tions of the Welsh territory; but notwithstanding the great power of the monarchs of the Norman race, the Princes of Wales long preserved in their own country an independent authority. Weakened, however, by intestine divisions, Wales was reduced into subjection in the reign of our first Edward, from whom the people accepted as their chief his infant son, Edward of Caernarvon, the first English Prince of Wales. Before they submitted to the arms of Edward, Llewelyn, the last of their Princes, (to whom his countrymen looked as the predestined restorer of their ancient pre-eminence, and to whom they applied an old prophecy, which imported, that a Prince of Wales should be crowned in London,) was treacher ously slain; and in mockery of the hopes of his countrymen, his head, surmounted by a crown, was fixed on the Tower of London; whilst his brother David, having been taken alive, was hanged and quartered, and his head being placed beside that of his brother, they both whitened together in the wind and sun.* Mackintosh, speaking of Llewelyn, says — Thus perished the last sovereign of one of the most ancient ruling families of Europe ; and the case of David was probably the earliest instance of that horrible punishment afterwards appointed for treason, which continued for 500 years.

Although the Principality of Wales was annexed to the crown of England by the first Edward, the laws and customs of the native inhabitants were preserved until the time of Henry the Eighth ; who, by a statute passed in * Hen. Knyghton and Matt. Westr. the twenty-seventh year of his reign, gave to Wales the same laws and liberties which were enjoyed by his natural-born subjects of the realm of England; and from that time the Principality has become an integral part of the Kingdom, represented in the Parliament, and bound by the laws of England. The counties of Wales, at the time of the union, were eight in number ; namely, Glamorgan, Carmarthen, Pem broke, and Cardigan, in South Wales ; and Flint, Car narvon, Anglesey, and Merioneth, in North Wales. The following counties were then created out of the marches within the dominion of Wales, namely, Brecknock and Radnor added to South Wales; Montgomery and Den bigh added to North Wales ; and Monmouth, which was made an English county, but which, on account of the origin, language, and character of the native inhabitants, and for other reasons which will become apparent here after, it will be convenient to consider in the present work as a portion of the Principality.

In 1570, the population of Wales was estimated at 300,000,and that of Monmouthshire at 25,000 persons only; and, if from these numbers be deducted, the descendants of the Flemings, — who colonized the sea-coast of Pembroke shire, Carmarthenshire, and Glamorganshire, and who spoke English in the sixteenth century as they still do, and of the Saxons, — inhabiting Radnorshire and the fron tier portions of North Wales, by whom English has been always spoken, it may be doubted whether 250,000 Welsh men existed at that time in the whole Island ; a circumstance to be had in remembrance, when we regard the continuance of their language, and the preservation of what remains of their literature. Even in 1801, the enu merated population of the Principality was only 541,526, being less than the population of Kent in 1841; but, during the present century, the population of Wales and Monmouthshire has increased very rapidly, as will appear by the following numbers, taken from the census of 1841 : — North Wales 396,320 South Wales, excluding Glamorgan . . . 344,095 Monmouth and Glamorgan 305,543 Total 1,045,958 A large part of the population of the counties of Monmouth and Glamorgan is not Welsh, but consists of immigrants from England and Ireland ; who have greatly contributed to the remarkable increase of population in those counties since the beginning of the present century.

Thus — In 1801 the population of Monmouthshire and Glamorganshire was 117,107 1811 147,194 1821 173,570 1831 224,742 1841 305,543 The Welsh or native population in the whole of the Principality may be estimated at present at 700,000 persons — less than one half the population of either of the counties of York or Lancaster, or than the population of both the counties of Devon and Dorset. These, however, are not the only remains of the Celtic people, who are still found in parts of Ireland, in the Highlands of Scotland, in the Isle of Man, and in that part of the ancient Kingdom of Brittany, which is included in the remote promontory that juts forward into the Atlantic, and is terminated by the well-known headland of Finisterre. It was estimated by the Commissioners of Irish Education Inquiry, in 1825, that the number of Irish who employed the Erse language was not less than 500,000; and that a million more, who understood English, and could employ it for the ordinary purposes of traffic, made use of their native tongue on all other occasions, as the chosen medium of familiar conversation.

The number of persons by whom Erse is spoken has probably decreased since that time ; and when the writer visited Ireland in 1846, in order to investigate personally the character of the education afforded in the national schools, he found, that of 70 pupil teachers, then in training at the Dublin model schools, in order to be employed as masters of schools in various parts of that country, and who were collected from all parts of Ireland, — there were only two young men, and those from remote corners of the diocese of Tuam, to whom the English language was not native. Erse is understood in particular districts of the country only, whilst, throughout the principal part of the Island, English is the language spoken by the people. The Gaelic population of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, is confined to the western and northern portions of the country.