Letters on Welsh history

Front matter

DA

CORNELL

UNIVERSITY

Preface

Whether the Author of the following pages has succeeded in supplying a deficiency long felt by those desirous of a better acquaintance with Welsh History, than they have hitherto possessed, must be left to the judgment of the intelligent among his countrymen. A pleasing amount of the expression of their approbation has already come to the Author's knowledge ; and this in fact has given encouragement to an incipient desire he had felt of publishing the work in its present form, when the " Letters " were presented to the readers of the Christian Chronicle. The Author is not unaware of the difficulty of his position, and the responsibilities he assumes in endeavouring to shed some rays of light upon the history of a people who occupied a high position, and exercised a commanding influence among the semi-oivilized nations of Europe, in the most remote periods of its history — ten centuries, at least, before Norman, Dane, or Saxon had planted their banner upon Brydaim freedom-loving soil. Taken from my native land in my early youth, my parents having emigrated to these United States in 1800, when I was thirteen years old, I have always cherished the fondest remembrance of the scenes of my childhood ; and even now, after the lapse of more than fifty years, a thousand pleasurable charms yet cling to the remembrance of those scenes of comparative innocence and joyousness. As I advanced towards maturity, I became inquisitive about everything that pertained to the country of my birth, and particularly its earlier his- 1* (5)

6 PREFACE.

torj, laws, institutions, and the national characteristics of its people. From Ei^Iish historians I gathered only the most meagre accounts, often mere caricatures, of the Welsh and their history. I was dissatisfied, and resolved, at some future period of my life, I would give this whole subject a careful and thorough investigation. Years rolled on, and becoming absorbed in business and family cares, it is a wonder I did not banish every thought of the subje9t. The interest I had felt in it however continued, and having, by the time I had counted fifty years of age, become somewhat acquainted with Welsh literature, and seen the works of several valuable and respectable authors, such as Dr. Wm. Owen Pughe, Titus Lewis, David Peter, T. Charles, Bala, &o., &c., all bearing proof of extensive knowledge, and erudite investigation into the lore of their country's history, I concluded the time was come when I should redeem the pledge made in early life, of trying to arrive at a correct knowledge and estimate of my father-land, and its peculiarities of feature — particularly in its government, laws and institutions — political, civil and religious. iPor the last fifteen years I have applied myself sedulously to accumulate a stock of material requisite to draw upon when I should attempt, if ever attempt, to embody my researches in British and Cambro-British history into a tangible work, as at present done. Some reasons will l3e found in another place why the book appears at the present juncture. I will state one reason in this place. It is notorious that the Catholics, with John Hughes, alias the Bishop of New York, at their head, are in the excess of their modesty to attribute the existence and origination also of all good to themselves, and to insist even that " Catholicity" is essential to the perpetuity of our liberties. " Heaven save the mark.'' These gentry may see in the " Letters on Welsh History,'' how a people, comparatively few in numbers, and weak in the political scale of nations, and who never bowed

PKEPACE. 7

their neck to do homage to the " Beast" — they may here see that all the germs of liberty, and of human rights, had been planted — had taken root and flourished in the 'mountains and vallies of Wales, before even the " Mystery of Iniquity" had assumed the seat of his power. And furthermore, they may learn that all th-e power, and subtlety, and machinations of the Popes of Rome never wrested from their grasp, nor untwined from their heart's core these inherent and never-to-be-too-dearly prized principles and rights of all men, as estimated by the Welshman. I will further add, by way of preface, that as there is a numerous progeny, descendants of Welsh parents or grand-parents, now found spread all over this broad continent, and their number will be constantly increasing, it is the fond hope of the author that many of these will feel an interest in this work sufficient to induce in them a desire to possess it, and hand it down as a legacy and heir-loom to their children and their children's chijdren. There has never yet been published in the English language any thing so concise, and yet conveying so ample a fund of information for the English reader as this work will furnish. I am exceedingly gratified to find this opinion voluntarily expressed by several acknowledged Welsh scholars, to whom the work in part only has been submitted, in Wales, the field of its narrations and events. The expression of unqualified praise has also been awarded to the leading principles of the work by native-born Americans. The class of our countrymen, by descent, of which I have spoken above, are hardly aware of the high praise, and the warm growing interest that is felt and cherished by native Americans in reference to the spirit and institutions of the stock we are descended from. Blended with its history I shall be able to give a lively and most graphic picture of these, drawn by an impartial hand — not a Welshman — now, and for many years past, a resident in the great Western valley. Not

PKErAOE.

wishing to forestall the reader's pleasure by a longer preface, I beg to submit the results of many a weary hour (snatched from the hours usually devoted to sleep or recreation by the man of daily toil) to the candor and favorable, yet impartial judgment of my fellow-countrymen, and of an intelligent and discriminating community.

LETTERS

WELSH HISTORY

History is a monument erected for posterity, and sacred to truth, and a reverence for what appears to be true may be considered a sufficient apology for any man or number of men giving a history of a nation or country, the history of Avhom or of ivhich may have long lain in comparative obscurity, or have become in danger of being buried in the rubbish of time. The critics will very probably take many exceptions to statements made in these "Letters," because, forsooth, they conflict with the statements heretofore received by them in relation to these ancient people, the Cymry or Welsh. We anticipate their objections, and will give them due consideration when they come before us. We here put in this caveat : the people of any nation, who have made their nation's history the study of their lives, may be permitted to know something of that history which a stranger to its language and institutions is not likely to know. An almost universal reference to Tacitus and Xenophon confirms us in this opinion. We think that the Welsh and their language strongly in point on this head. After these brief remarks the writer begs leave t-o offer the foUoTving introductory to letters on Welsh history :

Introduction

The following letters on Welsh history were written in compliance with a request on the part of the editors of the Christian Chronicle, a valuable weekly paper published in this city, and circulating chiefly among the Baptists. The immediate cause of this desire on the part of the editors, was the appearance of an able article in the Christian Review, on the Elements of Western Character, from the pen of Rev. J. M. Peck, of Rock Spring, Illinois. In reference to the Welsh, Mr. Peck says that for all the great principles that distinguish the American people they are indebted to the Welsh. No writer that I ever read has taken so correct a view of the character and principles of the Welsh as Mr. Peck, and if he understood the Welsh language we could not desire a better advocate. Moreover, coming from a native American there would be less cause of suspicion that he was biassed by national feelings and attachments. For myself, I can say that I am under many obligations to brother Peck ; and the consciousness that his object is " to make truth manifest" does not lessen the obligation, for the exhibition of truth, especially in connection with religion, human freedom, and happiness, is of far greater importance than national honour.

I have read a great number of histories, some of them expressly on Wales — others of which only incidentally mentioning something about the Welsh ; but in none of them have I been fully satisfied, as it seemed to me that none of them understood the genius of the people, nor the tendency of their institutions. The deficiency is not in the paucity of facts, but in the drawing of the right deductions. And the strength of reason is in the deductions, for the Geraians, who are indifferent reasoners, are indefatigable in their researches into the facts of history, and honest in their statement of facts. The keen desire to propagate their sentiments appears in some measure to have biassed the minds of llie great majority of British historians, both English and Welsh, for in no other part of the old world has there been two races of men, in close vicinity, whose laws and social institutions have been so diverse as those of the English and Welsh, nor where truth and error fought such fierce battles, ending in the triumph of truth. In all other parts of Europe error has triumphed, either by physical power or through mental imbecility. Britain alone stands a monument of mental power in the increase of truth, and in Britain all the nations arising out of her are included.

All the great principles of truth and individual ■ rights have obtained their first establishment in Wales, but they have made such a gradual advance on the English that they are generally supposed to have originated in England ; and as they first appear during the prevalence of Popery, there are men of that persuasion in the United States who boldly aver that they arose out of the Papal system.

It might be supposed that, with such an abundance of facts, it would be easy to write the history of Wales, but this is not the case, for the circumstances generally told of other nations have little interest in connection with Welsh history. War itself has a certain sort of interest, if the historian can muster several hundred thousand men engaged in mutual slaughter, especially if the original historians have as much knowledge of the military art as Xenophon or Polybius. But the interest is lost in the contemplation of a few thousand men defending themselves in the mountain fastnesses of Wales, and shamefully misrepresented by the aggressive nation. But Welsh history has a great interest to certain minds, and that interest is in their principles. No historian I have ever yet read has taken -what may be called philosophical views of the Welsh principles — those principles in which they diifered from all other nations.

During the whole of the middle ages there were two opposite principles at work in Europe ; these were truth and error. Truth was defended by the civil power only in Wales. In all other parts of the then known world, error was armed with power, but I shall only notice that part of the world which lay west of the empire of Alexander, which was the proper Koman Empire. In the course of the fifth and sixth centuries the Roman Empire fell, and about ten kingdoms were founded upon its ruins by the Northern barbarians. These kingdoms were by degrees brought over by the emissaries of the Bishop of Rome, to adopt the forms and ceremonies of that system of error established at the seat of abominations, Rome.

All governments have found it necessary to have some sort of religious notions to keep the ignorant and vicious within some limits, and one of the Roman kings had introduced the ancient" superstition through fraud and deception ; but it does not appear that the Romans ever had a definite idea of truth as an ingredient of religion. Accordingly, when the Emperors became Christians (nominally,) and abolished the pagan worship, the masses of the people, having received some ideas from the gospel, followed suit ; and as the inferior gods had been banished, these besotted idolaters introduced the images of saints to fill the vacuum in their system, and these stupid notions emanating from Rome, were forced upon all at the point of th© sword ; and as truth formed no part of Roman religion, they adopted all sorts of imposing forms into their barbarous worship ; and inasmuch as their religion was founded upon tradition and laws, the belief in a new religion was as much a breach of law as murder and arson. This has been in all time, and is yet the religion of Rome. Virtually it has changed nothing for the better since the appearance of the Son of God, for all the great principles of his religion have been nullified by the pagan element, leaving only the names of the saints to embellish the stolid embodiment of their system. In opposition to this inocuous, empty system, there was a body of men in Wales called Druids, who taught their people " that it was the duty of all men to seek after the truth, and to receive it against the whole world." The principles involved in this system of teaching are most important. There was an admission of the existence of a system of ■truth, or at least that there might be a system of truth to the exclusion of all error. It involved also the right of every man to receive it, for the duty always supposed the right in the Welsh system of ethics, the man himself being the judge in his own case. It appears, therefore, that whatever were the pretensions of the Druids, they did not dogmatize nor enforce their dogmas hj the infliction of pains or penalties. The natural inference is that the Welsh were a people seeking after the truth, and it is a divine aphorism, " Them that seek me shall find me." Furthermore, the Druidical order itself derived its power from the National Assembly, the members of which were elected by universal sufirage of all the men whose beards were grown, and all married women of pure blood, or who were citizens by privilege.

Moreover, after the lapse of eighteen hundred ! years that the gospel has been in Wales, at the present day the power of the people is paramount in religion, nearly all their churches being Congregational in thenorder, in which all the members, both male and female, have the elective power, the minister being only the teacher, and subject to the decision of the brotherhood, for in all matters of right, according to the principles of the Welsh, " in Welshman is included Welshwoman." Here all the difference between the sexes is that the ministry is in the male sex, where it was placed by our Lord, for he chose all the apostles 2 from among his male disciples; nor does it appear that the females had any share in the ministry under the pagan system in Wales. Nevertheless, the gospel views the female as man's equal in all matters of rights and privileges of citizenship, and such also was the case under the Welsh laws before the introduction of the gospel. Here, then, we have a people whose laws and principles of government were the opposite of all other nations, especially those of Rome. It is a fair deduction, therefore, that in these two nations, the Roman and the Welsh, existed from .an early period in history the two great antagonistic principles of despotism and freedom. Nor is it at all difficult to trace the course of these principles in their highest state of sublimation to these .two nations. To neither of them, however, is the revelation of truth attributable, even as the medium, for that was revealed mainly through the Hebrews of Abraham's posterity, for it is manifest that He who brought life and immortality to light sprang from the tribe of Judah ; but such was the obstinacy of the Jews at the time of the advent of our Redeemer, that " the light shone in darkness, but the darkness comprehended it not." And all other nations, except the Welsh, had so perverted their reason that they failed to see the excellence of these divine principles so far as to give them freedom to combat with error. And it is well known in history that it was the Welsh influence that brought unrestrained liberty of conscience in Britain and the American colonies. It was their aid to Constantino the Great that in a measure enabled him to break the persecuting pagan power in the Roman Empire, being himself the son of a Silurian lady, from whom he received instruction in the truths of the gospel, and no doubt in the liberal principles of her race.

The most liberal ideas in religion and civil government have their greatest potency among the Welsh at the present time in Europe, for the centre of Baptist and Congregational order, and their main strength, is in

Wales. How far the influence of these two denominations, in the United States, have been instrumental (especially the Baptists) in bringing about American liberty, any man may learn by a little research. The superiority of the Protestant, and especially Baptist, principles over the Popish is apparent in the very existence of such a government as that of the United States, in all that pertains to the dignity of man as a reasonable and accountable being ; and I cannot so effectually explain the subject by any other mode than by giving the history of a race of men who, for a vast period of time, have been the conservators of these great principles, and the principal propagators of the same both in the old and new world.

LETTEE I.

As a desire has been repeatedly expressed to obtain more definite information in regard to Welsh History, than is ordinarily to be obtained, the authors, in venturing upon the task of supplying such information, respectfully throw themselves upon the kind indulgence and consideration of an impartial public.

If there is any interest in Welsh history, it must arise entirely from mental and not from physical causes : the workings of the mind on the subjects of religion and civil rights. A certain writer in one of

^to'

our daily papers a few days ago, said that perfection in the fine arts, and the formation of a refined taste in that department, was the very acme of civilization. If this is a correct view of what constitutes a high degree of civilization, the Welsh are yet very deficient in civilization. But if civilization has anything to do with a clear insight into the nature and requirements of the truths of religion and political science, and a clear appreciation of the rights and duties of men in these premises, the Welsh have made some progress in civilization. I apprehend, however, that perfection in the fine arts has been attained through the influence of idolatry, and the Welsh have never sunk so low in their ideas of religion as to worship images. This fact may account for their want of perfection in these arts. Their forte has been the cultivation of the mind, and that chiefly in matters connected with religious and political science. Indeed, there is a saying among them, that these are the only subjects worthy of the human mind.

The first subject I shall treat upon, is the origin of the Welsh. They are a branch of that primitive race

LETTERS ON WELSH HISTORY. IT

called Cimbri or Kimbri, (for this is the proper pronunciation,) a people who inhabited the North of Germany and Jutland ; which region is still called Kimbria by German writers. Our ancestors crossed the German sea in coming to Britain, and this event occurred about one thousand years before the birth of our Redeemer. But being soon followed by more numerous bodies from Gaul and Belgium, and people too in some respects more civilized, they were divided by the number and pressure of these people into four districts, and were themselves distinguished into tribes. One of these tribes occupied the country on the river Clyde, in Scotland ; another the counties of Cumberland and Westmoreland, in the North of England ; another, was situated in Cornwall ; there were also three tribes in Wales ; the Ordovices occupied the region now called North Wales; the Dimetians, the counties of Pembroke, Carmarthen, and Cardigan; and the Silurians had the counties of Radnor, Brecon, Glamorgan, and Monmouth, together with Hereford, and those parts of Gloucester and Worcester that are west of the Severn. The English writers discover sad ignorance about the early history of Britain, when they tell us that the Saxons drove the ancient inhabitants of Britain into the mountains of Wales ; for Wales was well peopled when the Romans landed, as any one may infer from the stand they made against the Romans under their valiant Pirince Caractacus.

A correct view of the Welsh people, therefore, is that they have for about three thousand years inhabited a mountainous district, which may be termed the citadel of Britain ; and during all that period have cherished certain ideas in relation to the nature of truth, and the rights and prerogatives of mind, differing from all other people, except the inspired writers- It is not pretended, that before the introduction of the gospel the Welsh knew what was true religion — far from it ! for they worshipped a number of imaginary beings as gods, and considered the sun, and 2* moon, and the various constellations, as their representatives in the heavens. Their superiority over other pagans, consisted in a clearer appreciation of the immutable nature of truth ; and so far as their legislation was concerned, in leaving the important question " what is truth ?" an unsolved problem ; ancj in the fact that their religious' teachers, even in their pagan state, taught their disciples, that "it was the duty of all men to seek after the truth, and to receive it against the whole world ;" and also in their adopting as their national motto, " The Truth against the world."

Lord Bacon was immortalized by some dissertations on the laws of evidence, and other matters ; and yet, so far as the laws of evidence were involved, they were as clearly developed in Wales, a thousand or more years ago, as they are now in England. Locke gained immortal renown by his speculations on human rights ; although Roger Williams had anticipated him by fifty years-, and the same had been established by law in Rhode Island, under his influence. Dr. Beattie obtained the highest honors, and a pension from the Bi-itish Government, for his treatise on truth ; and yet, the truth of religion had already been revealed to the fullest extent by divine inspiration, and all that could be said in relation to the rights of humanity in its reception, had been fully developed in Wales from time immemorial.

In all that relates to the material world, other nations have excelled the Welsh, but if mind is superior to matter, and the soul of more importance than the body, — and religion is superior to beef and pork, and the forming of mind of more importance than cutting stone and daubing canvass, then the Welsh may claim to have made some progress in civilization.

There is some error in ascribing to Roger Williams the first insight into the rights of conscience, for that subject was clearly understood by the Baptists, both in England and Wales, as their writings prove. The gospel is very clear on these points, and if any sect undertakes to use coercion in religious matters, it is an incontestable evidence that they have introduced into their system some principles foreign to the gospel !

Nevertheless,.! believe the "Welsh Baptists had some advantages over those of England, in the circumstance that with them it was a national as well as a religious principle ; as a people they had never been subject to dictation in religious matters, and what annoyance they had suffered was from the papacy and the papists, both despised and hated; besides Avhich, the Welsh are more clear in their deductions than the English, and more fearless in carrying out their views. Exclusiveness was imderstood to be a prerogative of truth, and every man had a right to decide for himself what constituted truth, and the duty of receiving truth, and acting according to its requirements, was always inculcated in connection with religious teachings. Under these circumstances the Welsh Baptists have always maintained what is termed close communion, while the opposite practice has been advocated in England by many of the ablest men, and practiced in many of the churches; and yet the Welsh are as courteous as the English ; but the laws of politeness in Wales are not supposed to require the sacrifice of principle, at least not to the extent required in some other countries. Yet all this does not prevent the cherishing of Christian affection among the various denominations, for when a Baptist Association meets with a small church, and in the vicinity of a rich congregation of another sect, or vice versa, the hospitality of the one people is as bountiful as the other ; the members of each community seem to vie with each other in their preparation to receive strangers. A friend of mine, Mr. John Hughes, was lately in Wales ; he attended a Baptist association, and was invited to dinner at the house of a rich farmer, where a table was set for a hundred persons, supplied most abundantly with the best of food. Yet all the guests they could find were but twenty. In the evening, the ministers stated that

20 LETTEKS ON WELSH HISTORY.

a number of people in the neighbourhood had made preparation, but could not find a single guest, because others had invited so many, and requested that those that had friends would not take with them so many, that all might enjoy the company of some friends from a distance. Surely the gospel has its charms !

LETTER 11.

Before I go further with the history of Wales, I wish it to be clearly understood, that my object is to give the American people some idea of the origin of religious liberty, and the ways of God in the prese;;vation of the pure church of our Redeemer, from its &st planting in Jerusalem till the present auspicious period. The honour of a people is a small matter in such a connection, but inasmuch as Wales has been the only spot of earth, where the human mind was free to act according to its own convictions, previous to the establishment of religious freedom in the New World, on that account its history becomes important. And as I do not wish that the subject should rest on my testimony alone, I will refer to that eminent English antiquarian, Sharon Turner, who acquired the Welsh language for the sole purpose of having access to their ancient records in the original form. I have seen the testimony of several distinguished Welsh scholars, who pronounced him an accomplished scholar in the Welsh language. In his history of the Anglo-Saxons, he has a long chapter on Wales, in which he says, among other matters, that the Welsh system of ethics was the best ever produced in the world, except that of the Jews, comprised in the Holy Scriptures, a work of divine inspiration. This fact in itself speaks volumes. That a people, whose aggregate number never yet attained one million, and for twelve hundred years previous to the commencement of the eighteenth century, did not exceed three hundred thousand, should in that important particular excel the rest of mankind. Although this may be a source of pleasure to every Welshman, who has the power of mind to appreciate the beautiful and excellent in morals, still it affords no ground for boasting : "for every good and perfect gift comes down from the father of lights, with whom there is no variableness, or shadow of turning."

In this connection, I wish also to mention, that Mr. Turner expresses the fullest conviction, that the account of English writers, about the driving of the ancient inhabitants of England into Wales, is an error ; but at the same time, supposes that Wales obtained some accession to its population by that- event. His judgment in this respect corresponds with that .of every Welsh writer whose opinion is of any value. A want of discrimination is the glaring fault of English historians. In this respect they are a perfect contrast to the ancient Greeks. And I am not much better pleased with Welsh historians ; it is a department in which they are more deficient than they are in any other. I apprehend that this arises from the circumstance, that the English people and government have waged an interminable war upon their religious principles, so that the ablest minds in the principality have been incessantly engaged in religious controversy, which has thrown the department of history into the hands of men of inferior powers. The best writers in that department are Rev. Joshua Thomas, who published a history of the Baptists in Wales, in the year 1779 ; and Rev. Titus Lewis, who published a most valuable history of Grreat Britain, in 1808 ; both Baptist ministers : and Rev. Da^dd Peter, principal of the Independent Theological Seminary at Carmarthen, who, in 1816, published his history of religion in Wales — a large. volume, in which he includes both the Druidical and 'Christian systems.