The Welsh people; chapters on their origin, history, laws, language, literature, and characteristics

Front matter

Glass _BMO^ Book__:S4i

THE WELSH PEOPLE

THE

Preface

The following chapters concerning the Welsh people consist partly of extracts from the Report of the Royal Commission on Land in Wales and Monmouthshire, and partly of matter which we have written since that body finished its work.

Chapters I., IV., X., XI., XII., and XIII. are based upon the Report, and were all (except some paragraphs in Chapter XII., for which the Commission was indebted to Mr. Lleufer Thomas, one of the secretaries) originally drafted by us, and were adopted with many changes by all the Commissioners. As now published they have, however, been greatly added to and altered, and though, as they appeared in the Report, they were signed by all our colleagues, we cannot hold them responsible for them in their present form.

Chapters II., III., V., VI., VII., and VIII. are new.

The greater part of Chapter IX. was written by Mr. Frederic Seebohm, LL.D., one of the Commissioners, the well-known author of "The English Village Community" and other works. This part of the Report appears to us so valuable a contribution to economic history that it ought to be made more accessible to students than it is at present. We accordingly republish it here with Mr. Seebohm's kind consent.

For permission to reprint such paragraphs of the Report viii PREFACE.

as we might deem necessary for this work, we are indebted to the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury, whose consent was courteously signified through the Right Honourable R. W. Hanbury, M.P.

In the Introduction which follows we give some necessary preliminary information, and explain briefly the scope and character of the work.

We have to acknowledge our obligation for help of various kinds to Professor Morris Jones, M.A. ; Mr. Henry Owen, B.C.L. ; Mr. Cadvvaladr Davies; Mr. Edward Owen, F.S.A. ; Lieut.-Col. Morgan, of Brynbriaiiu, Swansea ; Principal Viriamu Jones, F.R.S. ; Chancellor Trevor Parkins ; Mr. Lleufer Thomas, M.A. ; Mr. Cecil Owen, M.A. ; Mr. T. E. Morris, LL.M. ; and many other friends.

JOHN RHYS, D. BRYNMOR-JONES.

St. DaviiVs Day. looo.

NOTE TO THE READER.

In this book where we refer to "the Commission," we mean, unless the context shows the contrary, the Royal Commission on Land in Wales and Monmouthshire, appointed on March 27, 1893. The Commissioners were : — Earl Carrington, G.C.M.G. (chairman) ; Lord Kenyon ; Sir John Talbot Dillwyn Llewelyn, Bart., M.P. ; Mr. Edwin Grove, chairman of the Monmouthshire County Council ; Mr. John Morgan Griffiths, of Penally ; Mr. Richard Jones, of Pertheirin ; Mr. PVederic Seebohm, M.A., LL.D. ; and ourselves. The secretaries were Mr. Lleufer Thomas and Mr. C. E. Owen.

The Minutes of the evidence taken by the Commission are contained in five Blue-books, the references to which are as follows :— Vol. I., (1894) C— 7439 ; Vol. II., (1894) C— 7439; Vol. III., (1895) C— 7661; Vol. IV, (1895) C — 7757 ; Vol. V, (1896) C — 8222. In these volumes the questions put to the witnesses, with their answers, are numbered consecutively from the beginning to the end. So in referring to the evidence we do so by giving the number of the question and answer in these Minutes.

When we have occasion to refer to the Report of this Commission (which was signed and delivered on August 26, 1896, and is Parly. Paper (1896) C — 8221), we use the word "Report" only; and the words "Appendix to Report" mean the Appendix to that Report (Parly. Paper (1896) C— 8242).

X NOTE TO THE READER.

It has been found impossible to insure uniformity in the spelHng of Welsh names in this work, as we have not thought it advisable to depart altogether from the spellings occurring in the documents consulted. This may occasion some inconvenience to the reader, but if he should happen to be a student of English history he will readily recognise in it an inconvenience with which he has had to struggle in his own field of study. As regards, however, the history of Wales and the Welsh, the case is somewhat aggravated by the fact that not only have we to deal with names belonging to widely different centuries, carrying with them phonetic modifications, but that in not a few instances a name may have besides several Welsh spellings, several English ones too. Take, for example, that of Gruffu^ or GruffyTt, of which the most usual English spelling is Griffith : the index shows a still greater variety. It will simplify matters for the English reader if he will bear in mind the following points of Welsh orthography and phonology : —

(i) C has always the sound of k, and formerly both c and k were used, though the present Welsh alphabet does not recognise k.

(2) G has never the English sound ofy or dch as in /o/m OY James.

(3) F \s sounded v, and both letters were formerly used, but V is not included in the modern alphabet.

(4) Dd (printed D, d in this work) has the sound of th in the English words this and that, while th is confined to the sound of the same digraph in thick and thin.

(5) LI (here printed L, ft) represents the surd force of unilateral /, and its sound stands to that of / as that of th to (i or of/// to V. It is a single and simple consonant, though Englishmen sometimes seem to hear it as thl, which has now and then been their way of representing it, as, for instance, in " The Record of Carnarvon," in

Thlandrethloh for LatidriHo.

NOTE TO THE READER. x]

(6) R is trilled as in Italian, and in rh it is a surd strengthened by the aspirate.

(7) 5" is never sounded z.

(8) W may be either a vowel or a consonant, that is English 00 (approximately) and zv : a similar remark is in part applicable to the sound of i.

(9) U is sounded nearly like a thickish English z", as in the word bit, and so under certain circumstances isj. Thus Gruffyd or Gruffjfd is sounded very nearly as indicated by the English spelling Griffith, provided the final th have its soft sound. The inconsistency between Gruffyd and Maredu'd was observed too late to be corrected : the preferable spelling is Maredyd or Meredyd — the early forms were Gripp-iud and Marget-iud.

(10) The syllabic accent is ordinarily on the penultimate, except where the two last syllables of a word have been run into one in the more modern stages of the Welsh language : then the word is of course a perispomenon.-

Table Of Contents

PAGE

PREFACE . . . vii

NOTE TO THE READER . . . . ' . . . ix

Introduction

The Dominion or Principality of Wales may be described as a broad indented peninsula situated in the south-western part of Great Britain. Its greatest length from north to south is about 135 miles, and its breadth from east to west ranges from about 35 to 95 miles. On the north it is bounded by the Irish Sea and the estuary of the Dee, on the west by St. George's Channel, on the south by the Bristol Channel, and on the east by Cheshire, Shropshire, Herefordshire, and Monmouthshire. The eastern boundary was definitely fixed by the operation of the St. 27 Henry VIII. c. 26,^ though some small variations have subsequently taken place.

The Principality is divided, as is the case with England, into counties, which, including Monmouthshire, are thirteen in number. The names of these counties with their Welsh equivalents are : —

Anglesey

Carnarvonshire

Denbighshire

Flintshire .

Merionethshire

Montgomeryshire

Brecknockshire

Cardiganshire

Ynys Mon.

Sir Caernarfon.

Sir £)inbych.

. Sir Fflint.

Sir Feirionyd.

Sir Drefaldwyn.

Sir Frycheiniog.

Sir Aberteifi.

1 See below, pp. 368-74.

xvi INTRODUCTION.

Carmarthenshire

Glamorganshire Pembrokeshire Radnorshire Monmouthshire

Sir Gaerfyrdin.

. Sir Forgannvvg.

Sir Benfro.

Sir Faesyfed.

Sir Fynwy.

The first six form what is generally known as North ' Wales, and the remainder South Wales. Their boundaries preserve, to some extent, the ancient divisions of the Principality. There are also two large county boroughs- Cardiff and Swansea.

Monmouthshire is technically an English county, but it is often for administrative purposes, and sometimes by legislation, treated as part of Wales, or grouped with some of the Welsh counties. ^ This has been due partly to the

' Monmouthshire was constituted into a county or shire by 27 Henry VIII. c. 26. out of territory that was expressly stated to be part of the Dominion of Wales, but it was, however, by the same statute made subject to the courts at Westminster, while the rest of Wales was granted separate jurisdiction, which lasted until its abolition in 1830. See infra, p. 373.

The position of the county at present is in many respects anomalous. It forms part of the Oxford Circuit, and, therefore, is included in England in most matters concerned with the administration of law, but in the division of the country into county court circuits, the whole of the county, along with Cardiff and Crickhowell (in Wales) and Ross (in Herefordshire), is grouped into what may be regarded as a Welsh circuit (No. 24). Its inclusion in Wales for executive purposes has been the general, though not universal, rule. It is so recognised by the Registrar-General for statistical purposes, by the Local Government Board for poor-law purposes, and by the Home Office for the purposes of the Mines Regulation Acts, the Factory and Workshop Acts, and the Quarries Act. In all matters educational, Wales and Monmouthshire have been treated as a unit distinct from England, e.g., by the appointment of Commissioners to inquire into the state of Education in Wales in 1846, and of the Departmental Committee to inquire into Intermediate and Higher Education in Wales in 1880-81, as well as by the subsequent passing of the Intermediate Education Act of 1S89. It was similarly dealt with by the Schools Inquiry Commission of 1864, which issued a separate report (vol. xx.) on the schools of " Monmouthshire and Wales" ; by the Couft of Chancery in Schemes for the re-organization of Charitable Trusts; by the Oxford University Commissioners in Statutes made under the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge Act, 1877 ; and by the Privy Council in the granting of charters to the University College o^

INTRODUCTION. xvii

similarity of its development to that of the adjoining county of Glamorgan, and partly to the fact that a large proportion of its inhabitants are Welsh as to their origin, language, and habits. In any historical inquiry as to the Cymric people it must be looked on as Welsh, and so in this work we generally use the term Wales as including Monmouthshire.

These thirteen counties are divided into hundreds, poor-law unions, highway districts, sanitary districts, and parishes for the purposes of local government ; into petty sessional divisions, county court districts, and circuits for the administration of justice ; and into borough and county constituencies for the appointment of parliamentary representatives. There are also ecclesiastical divisions similar to those that exist in England.^ The most ancient political division of Wales about which we have any sure knowledge is that into cantrefs and cymwds. This must not be

South Wales and Monmouthshire, and to the University of Wales. Both the Education Department and the Charity Commissioners, in their superintendence and inspection of elementary and intermediate schools respectively, also include Monmouthshire in Wales, and reports specially dealing with Wales are reprinted, in separate book-form, from the annual general reports made by these two Departments. Monmouthshire was, however, treated as a part of England (and not of Wales) in the Welsh Sunday Closing Act of 1881, as it has also been in nearly all matters agricultural, e.g., by the Royal Commission on Agriculture (1880) ; by the Royal Commission on Labour (in its inquiry as to the agricultural labourer in 1892-93), and also, we believe, by the Royal Commission on Agricultural Depression (1893-6), but not by the Commission on the Employment of Children, Young Persons, and Women in Agriculture (1867). The Board of Agriculture also treats Monmouthshire as a part of England in the preparation of their agricultural returns, as well as in all other matters.

1 A list of the hundreds in each county, with the names of the parishes in each hundred, will be found in the Appendix to the Report, pp. 361 et seq. The student should compare this list with that of the Welsh parishes, according to cymwds printed in the " Myvyrian Archaiology," ii. 613-628. For a list of the poor-law unions, see the Appendix cited above, pp. 378-403, and of the highway districts, see the same Appendix, pp. 404-408. Much information as to Wales and its place names is given in Carlisle's " Topography of Wales," Lond. 181 1.

confounded with the distribution of the Cymric land among the regal or princely families which resulted in small kingdoms or principalities. It was regarded as old in the time of Howel ©a (907-950), and the boundaries of the cantrefs and cymwds were then well enough ascertained for practical purposes. We think it useful to reproduce the map of Wales according to cantrefs and cymwds made by William Owen (known later as Dr. Owen Pughe) about the end of the eighteenth century. We ought to say that this map cannot be taken as representing boundaries with absolute accuracy, but it ma}' be found of some service as showing the geographical relations of the various areas.

There is yet another division of Welsh land distinct in origin, and based on different conceptions from that into cantrefs and cymwds, which must be mentioned, though it has now little or no practical political significance — that into seigniories, lordships-marchers, lordships, manors, and fees. These feudal divisions were the result of the Norman Conquest of South Wales and the Marches, and of the final conquest of the Principality of Edward I. They are often conterminous with other areas. ^

We think it well to add a few observations as to the population of Wales at different periods, for without bearing in mind the number of persons concerned it is not possible to appreciate historical events correctly, or to see the past conditions of things in true perspective.

Beginning with the known and proceeding to the conjectural statistics, we find that according to the census returns of 1891 the population of England and Wales was 29,002,525, and that of Wales (including Monmouthshire) was 1,776,405 ; so that the population of the latter area

1 As to the lordships, etc., see the " Memorandum on the Lordships and Manors of Wales and Monmouthshire" in the Appendix to the Report, pp. 437 et seq. In the Principality, in the limited sense — the land acquired by Edward I. — the cymwds were treated as in effect lordships that passed by conquest into the hands of the Crown, See below, p. 281, n. i, 305, 256, 403.

INTRODUCTION. xix

was about one-sixteenth of that of the former.^ Coming to the first complete and systematic enumeration of England and Wales — the census of 1801 — we find that the figures for ILngland and Wales are 8,892,536, and for Wales and Monmouthshire 586,634. From them it appears that the population of Wales and Monmouthshire was a little over one-fifteenth of that of the whole of England and Wales."

Before 1801 no direct and trustworthy enumeration of the inhabitants of this country had taken place, but numerous estimates had been made from time to time. Three such estimates of the population towards the close of the seventeenth century have been made at different times by three statisticians, acting without concert, and the results differ but slightly. Perhaps the best known of these computations is that made by Gregory King. The basis of his calculation is the number of houses returned in 1690 by the officers who made the last collection of the hearth money, and the conclusion at which he arrived was that the population of England was nearly 5,500,000. We find that the number of houses in Wales (excluding Monmouthshire) according to the Hearth Book of 1690 was 77,921. Assuming that on a general average every house so returned contained five persons, the population of Wales amounted to 389,605. If we add this number to the population of England, we get a total of 5,889,605, or nearly six millions. So the population of Wales (excluding Monmouthshire) was then a little more than one-fifteenth of that of England and Wales, and if Monmouthshire be added on this basis to Wales, the population of Wales plus Monmouthshire would come out at nearly onefourteenth of that of England and Wales.'^

3 See King's "Natural and Political Observations" (1696). A second calculation was made on the basis of returns made to William III. as to the

XX INTRODUCTION.

For periods earlier than the end of the seventeenth century, estimates of the population of this country are still more speculative. McCulloch puts the population of England and Wales at the time of the Domesday survey at 2,150,000.^ Thorold Rogers came to the conclusion that from the fourteenth to nearly the end of the sixteenth century, it could not have exceeded two to twoand-a-half millions. He bases this opinion partly on the postulate that the number of persons in a country, chiefl}^ subsisting on one kind of grain, will be almost exactly equal to the number of quarters of wheat which is annually produced, and on the estimate that during that time the maximum produce of wheat in any one year could not have been more than the higher figure just given ; and partly on the direct evidence of taxing rolls, and especially records of poll taxes.- We have seen that the ratio of the population of Wales and Monmouthshire to that of the whole of England and Wales, on Gregory King's estimate, was in 1690, ri4. If we assume that ratio to have been constant (except for slight and temporary variations) from the beginning of the fourteenth century to the time of Elizabeth, and adopt the higher limit given number of the adherents of the different rehgioiis denominations, and it puts the population of England and Wales at 5,200,000. (Macaulay, " Hist, of England," c. 3.) The third important estimate is that of Finlaison, who, after subjecting the ancient parochial registers to modern tests, calculates that towards the close of the seventeenth century the number was a little under 5,200,000. (See Population Returns, 1831; Macaulay, 7ibi supra; Lecky's "Hist, of England in the Eighteenth Century," i., p 197; Macpherson's "Annals of Commerce," ii. 68, 634, 674, and iii. 134).

' McCulloch's "Statistical Account of the British Empire" (1847), ^'°^- ip. 396. Mr. York Powell estimates the population in the area covered by the survey at 2,000,000 : " Social England," vol. i. p. 240. Mr. A. L. Smith puts it at the same figure : Ibid., p. 357.

' "Dictionary of English History" (Lond. 1SS5), art. Population. See too, Rogers' " History of Agriculture and Prices in England," vol. i. pp. 50 et seq.; and " England's Industrial and Commercial Supremacy," pp. 44-64.

INTRODUCTION. xxi

by Thorold Rogers — 2,500,000, the population of Wales and Monmouthshire could not during that period have been greater than about 178,000.

We are, however, not justified in assuming that the ratio I "14 truly represents the proportion of the inhabitants of Wales and Monmouthshire to that of England and Wales at the time of the Edwardian conquest in 1282, or even in the sixteenth century. We could do so safely only if we found that the economic development of the two areas had proceeded at equal rates. The facts, however, indicate that this was not the case before the end of the great war. For instance, the total acreage of Wales and Monmouthshire is 5,121,013;^ in 1795 the waste area was 1,696,827 acres" — that is, more than one-third of the whole was wild and uninclosed. The mountainous character and the climatic conditions place the country at a disadvantage in regard to the production of cereals as compared with the greater part of England, and the progress of agriculture was very slow until the beginning of this century. These and other considerations-'' lead us to believe that the population of Wales and Monmouthshire in comparison with that of England and Wales in 1282 was proportionally smaller than it is to-day, and that the rate of its increase has been slower than that of England and Wales as a whole. We think, therefore, that the population of Wales and Monmouthshire at the end of the thirteenth century was not greater than 150,000,* and if McCulloch's estimate as to the number at the time of the Domesday survey is fairly accurate, it was still less in the eleventh century.

1 Report, p. 672.

2 App. to Report, p. 214.

3 E.g. The non-existence of any large towns. Cardiff (which had in 1891 a population of 128,915) had only 1,870 inhabitants according to the census of 1801.

•• Thorold Rogers places it as low as 131,040. " England's Ind. and Coram. Supremacy," p. 48.

xxii INTRODUCTION.

No attempt to estimate the population of Wales or of the western part of the island at times earlier than the Norman Conquest can be made with success, for we have no materials at all on which to base any exact calculation. Giraldus, writing at the end of the twelfth century, says : — "For as the mountains of Eryri could supply pasturage for all the herds of cattle in Wales if collected together, so could the Isle of Mon provide a requisite quantity of corn for all the inhabitants ; on which account there is an old British proverb, ' Mon mam Gymru,' that is, ' Mon the mother of Wales. ' "^ If the saying was then really old and this explanation is correct, we may infer that in the far distant days of Cuneda and Cadwaladr the population was very scanty. In any case the notion which was formerly widely entertained, and still lingers in some quarters, that Wales was in early times very populous is quite unfounded.

It is, however, not only in regard to their numbers in the past that the view popularly taken of their own history by the Welsh is erroneous. It is not easy to state briefly, and at the same time quite accurately, the current theory ; but we think it may be fairly expressed thus : That they are the descendants of a great homogeneous nation called Cymry or Britons (now referred to as Ancient Britons) ; that in distant centuries they formed a mighty state or empire, the dominions of which comprised not only Britain but larger territories on the Continent as well ; that they were ruled over by a line of illustrious kings which stretched up to Brutus, son of .^neas, and from him to Noah, who ordered the world anew after the Deluge ; but that they, owing to unsuccessful wars, bad government, and all sorts of mischances, lost not only their continental possessions, but also the Crown of Britain ; and at last became confined in what is now Cymru, and reduced into subjection through the " fraud and rapacity " of the Saxon.

' Giraldus Cambrensis, " Descriptio," i. c. 6.

INTRODUCTION. xxiii

Now all this is not mere nonsense, and as to every proposition that goes to make up this bundle of historical ideas there is some sound basis of fact. It is true that the determining element in the composition of the Cymry of what is now Wales was Brythonic ; that the Brythons belonged to a Celtic race which, before Caesar's time, had spread over more than half this island and a considerable part of the Continent ; that there were many British kings who were very important in their day, and who had long and well-known pedigrees ; and that a confederation of Celtic tribes — Brythonic and Goidelic — did most stubbornly resist the Teutonic tribes which invaded the island and settled in it after the departure of the Roman legions, and that for a long time it maintained its domination in the western half of Britain. Yet the representation of the early history of the Welsh given by the theory we have summarised makes a picture in which things and persons are exaggerated and distorted, and by adopting it the chain of events is thrown out of gear — that is, if our conclusions are correct. For we feel bound to repeat, in regard to the Brythons and the Cymry, what a famous Greek historian said about the Hellenes, that judging from the evidence which we are able to trust, "after most careful inquiry," we should imagine that " past ages were not great either in wars or anything else."

So far as we can make out, the beginning of the history of the Cymry, considered as a separate and independent nation, must be associated with the migration into what is now North Wales of a Brythonic tribe, whose chief was Cuneda Wledig, and which came from the North. This invasion took place not long after the time when the Roman occupation ceased. Before this, however, there were both Goidels and Brythons in Wales. A glance at the map of Roman Britain below will show the relative positions of these two Celtic races. The former were settled over xxiv INTRODUCTION.

a part of North Wales and nearly the whole of the South, while the latter had spread over the central area to the coast ; but we must add that there were in the same parts besides these Celts certain non-Aryan elements, which must be looked on as aboriginal, though more or less completely assimilated by the first Celtic conquerors. This was the position when Cuneda, who seems to have assumed the authority of the Roman military officer called the Dux Britannice, established his rule over Wales, and united the Celtic tribes of the west of Britain into a kind of confederation under his leadership, which was soon forced to defend the land against divers streams of Teutonic settlers, and which under his successors for a long time struggled to retain its supremacy.

It was during this contest that the term Cyniro (which means compatriot), became a national name covering the members of all the Celtic tribes and kindreds who acknowledged the over-lordship of the line of Cuneda. Such, if the matter is looked at, not through the mists of Neo-Druidism or the bright yet delusive atmosphere of mediaeval romance, but in the clearer light of the evidence afforded by inscriptions, language, laws, and reasonably trustworthy chroniclers, seems to us the true conclusion as to the origin of the Cymry. If we are right, the Welsh people of to-day have the satisfaction of knowing that they are not the decayed and disconsolate remnant of a once great nation, but that in the main they are the descendants of Celtic races which though absorbed into the English polity, after a prolonged struggle for independence, have steadil)' progressed by the side of their conquerors in regard to all that goes to make up civilisation, and by combining an obstinate vitality with a certain happ)- power of adapting themselves to new circumstances, have succeeded in retaining their language and some of the best characteristics of their ancestors,

INTRODUCTION. xxv

We are well aware that there are grave imperfections in our treatment of many of the problems we discuss. We have, however, tried to give them true solutions, ever keeping before our minds the motto of the new-born University of Wales — Goreu awen gwirioned {Optima inusa Veritas). That we have, as to every point, succeeded we do not of course assert ; and indeed we advance our conclusions on controverted questions in no dogmatic spirit, but in tentative fashion, though we cannot always be saying so in the text. Nor do we present this collection of chapters as a history of the Welsh people, but rather as a contribution to such a work, which may be useful to students at our national colleges and to others who are seriously interested in things Welsh. Yet there is a connecting thread of purpose running through the- book, as will be seen by a brief description of the subject-matter of each chapter.

In the first, second, and third chapters we deal with the ethnology and origin of the Cymry, and in order to justify and explain our views, discuss minutely some of the questions connected with the so-called " Picts " and the distribution of tribes in this island during the Roman occupation. Having shown that the Cymry emerge as a separate nation under the rule of Cuneda and his descendants when that occupation ceased, we pass on to state very briefly in the fourth chapter their history down to the death of Cadwaladr, when their kingdom in its more extensive sense came to an end. In the next (the fifth) chapter we treat of the history of Wales from that time to the Norman Conquest of England. Then we stop to describe the legal organisation and social condition of the Cymry in the tenth and the immediately succeeding centuries. In the seventh chapter we describe the way in which the greater part of Wales was gradually conquered by the Normans, and sketch the history of the last and

greatest Cymric principality to its transference by conquest to Edward I. From this event the history of the Welsh in regard to wars, foreign policy, and general affairs becomes so merged into that of Great Britain that it is hardly susceptible of separate treatment in a continuous narrative form. They have, however, a particular history as to many of the institutions, conditions, and activities, that create or maintain the life of a nation. It is with some of these things that our eighth, ninth, tenth, eleventh, and twelfth chapters are concerned. There we try to show how, for nearly all purposes of government, Wales has become organised in the same way as England ; how the old Cymric tribal notions of land-holding and administration (which became by natural and easy stages very like to those of the feudal system) gradually disappeared under the influence of Norman- English officials, and by degrees developed into the land tenure of to-day ; how a religious movement commencing in the sixteenth century culminated in a great revival in the eighteenth, and brought about the predominance of Nonconformity in the Welsh counties, the preservation and growth of Cymraeg, and an intellectual renaissance ; and how this movement in its turn created a demand for schools and colleges, which has resulted in the formation of a system of Welsh public education as perfect as any to be found in the United Kingclom. After that we pass on to give some information as to the language and literature of the Welsh ; and finally in the thirteenth chapter we attempt to exhibit the characteristic features of the most typical classes of the population of the Principality in our own day.