Papurau Newydd Cymru

Chwiliwch 15 miliwn o erthyglau papurau newydd Cymru

Cuddio Rhestr Erthyglau

22 erthygl ar y dudalen hon

WALES AND THE ENGLISH PRESS.

Newyddion
Dyfynnu
Rhannu

WALES AND THE ENGLISH PRESS. gIB> Some one has sent me a copy of the Cambrian News of January 31, containing a reference to a speech I made at the opening of New Jewin Chapel. A remark I dropped on that occasion is made the text for a lecture by you to Welsh members of Parliament and others, in which you charge them with administering "gross flattery and lavish and unmeaning adulation to their countrymen. If there are members of Parlia- ment who are guilty of this offence let them answer for themselves. So far as I am concerned personally I utterly deny the charge. Flattery is defined as false, venal, or insincere praise," and no man can prove that 1 have e-r-r so flattered the Welsh. I have defended them when thev have been assailed, as, I am sorry to say, they often have been very grossly and unjustly assailed, in the English press. Thirty years ago, when I first undertook their vindication, the columns of the London papers abounded with coarse and brutal attacks upon Welshmen and Welshwomen. Here are a few of the flowers of speech scattered plentifully upon us— Wales is fast set- tling down into the most savage barbarism the Welsh are sunk in the depths of ignorance and in the slough of sensuality" Their habits are those of animals, and will not bear description." Much later than that-only ten ^ears a<?o—the Conservative Press of London was reeking (iav by day with the foulest and falsest slanders upon the Welsh Dissenting ministers and the Welsh Dissenting Press Here are specimens-" The Welsh language is made the o £ evil by prejcher, other ««p- Dorters of anarchy and plunder 1 tie people are actively taught to commit arson and murder, they are re- gularly drilled into Femanism"; "Dissenting ministers are the curse of Wales"; and '^hereiss'mrceyajer- mon or lecture they deliver that is not full of sedition. And the Times never writes of Wales and Welshmen except in the most bitter and scornful spirit. I remem- ber some few vearsago, Mr. Mathew Arnold, referring to one of these articles, laid, When I read these asperities ote Time.* I said to myself as I put the newspaper down. Behold England's difficulty m governing Ire- •^It'would not be very wonderful if, in the presence of such calumnies as those I have cited, men who have the fair fame of their country at heart, should be driven to some exaggeration on the other side. But, for myself 1 have always tried to avoid that, and have founded my de- fence of mv countrymen upon unquestioned and unques- tionable facts, showing from official and other authorita- tive documents, that, instead of being m the condition described bv some portion of the English press, there is less of crime and of immorality, and more of religion and the fruits of religion in Wales than in England. I hope you don't call this coarse flattery. T™n The head and front of my offending at the Jewini meet- ing seems to have been that I complained that the Eng i»h press magnified any little local disturbance in any comer of Wales into a sweeping indictment of lawlessness against the whole country. And is not that a very just ground of complaint? You quote one passage ^omtheDail^ jYews. I will quote another. 1 he_ article opens thus "Wild Wales, as the Triad calls it. seems still to be the home of a good deal of wild feeling and of wild lojic. The name of Rebecca has been applied by an evident Scripture allusion, to all the illegal but spirited doings which date from the Welsh riots against tolls^ Rebecca is a mythical person with many children who are constantly 'giving notice,' like a once famous Dean, of their intention to break the law. The offspring of Rebecca, like the Maffei of Sicily, find their raison d etre m a con- stant and even violent protest against any laws which they do not happen to like." Now I ask, is it possible for anyone unacquainted with Wales to read these sentences without receiving this im- pression, that there is a bedy of lawless conspirators in Wales like the Sicilian Maffei, who are constantly as the writer twice repeats, giving notice of their inten- tion to violate the law. And does not everybody who knows Wales Juiow that this is utterly false those who live among the English can understand how such writing as this prejudices our neighbours against us. "What a lawless set your countrymen are," is the sort of remark that greets one's ear. And this in the face of the fact that as a rule the Welsh are much more qmetand law-abiding than the English, as the "judicial statistics abundantly prove. The English press does not treat its own countrymen like that. Disturbances of all kind are -met, much more fremient in England than in Wales. There is scarcely a week that we do not hear of some desperate and net unfrequently fatal fray connected with the game laws. This very day I read the following FATAL POACHING AFrit-ky.-At Whitmore, near Crewe, on Wednesday night, Mv. John Cotterell, accompanied by Beswick, his keeper, and two watciiers. went out to a. rest a gannot poachers. Beswick and a watcher took one direction, ^n"_l n Cotterell and another watcher another. Beswick first camei up with the poachers, and immediately one of them shouted out, Shoot the Before he could do so Beswick closed with them. The poacher, however, fired at him, and, failing to shoot him, beat his arur.-stock to pieces over his head. Beswick s skull was fractured, and he was conveyed home in a dying con- dition and expired on Thursday evening. If this had occurred in Wales it would have been made the text of a homily against the violent and lawless character of the Welsh people. But it is not thought and very properly not thought—to justify a comprehensive impeachment of the English people. When you talk of Welsh members or somebody else as telling the Welsh that "all their geese are swans," that they "are wingless engels," you exaggerate preposterously, or you have fallen in with a class of speakers such as I have never encountered. I don't think you need fear the Welsh people being spoiled by flattery, fhere has been no time within my memory when poor Wales had not plenty of devil's advocates, in the form of caustic and contemptuous critics in England and of candid friends" in Wales, to point out the failings of her sons, so that they are not in danger of being exalted above measure.-I am, &c., HENRY RICHARD. London, Feb. 4, 1879. ABERGYNOLWYN AND "THE VICE OF EXAGGERATION." Sin;—I am very much obliged to your correspondent for drawing my attention through your columns to the gross misstatement of H. Roberts in reference to the refusal to let a cottage to a man because he was a quarryman on an estate near the above village. The man was not al- lowed to have the cottage because he was a well known poacher, and for that reason alone prevented becoming a tenant, a nuisance and a disgrace to the valley. One of the best men on the property is and has been a quarryman for years. It is a pity that such a class of hard working men as Welsh quarrymen don't themselves show their contempt for the cowardly specimens of.humanity—potato stealers, women and police assaulters, poachers and foul salmon spearers, who are styled quarrymen in the charge-sheets at sessions,—and restore themselves as a body to the respect and admiration of their employers, the public, and your obedient servant, 3rd Feb. THEIR NEIGHBOUR. WHEAT GROWING ON THE WELSH COAST. SIR,-It may be interesting to some of your agricul- tural readers to see the following items of cost in growing Rent £ 1 5s. per acre; taxes 5s. ditto; ploughing 18s.; harrowing, 4s.; seed, 3 bushels at 6s. 6d., 19s. 6d.; stone gathering, Is.; rolling, 2s.; weeding, Is. 6d.; harvesting, £ 1 5s.; thrashing, cleaning at 6d. per bushel, 7s. 6d.; cart- ing six or seven miles to market, 5s.; blacksmith's account per acre, 6s. 3d.; joiner's, 5s.; ironmonger, 3s.; saddler, 3s.; 4 cwt manure at 8s., tl 12s.; interest of money laid out in horses, 5s.; loss of horses in death and loss in value, 5s.; total, P,8 123. 9d. Proceeds of crop 15 bushels at 6s., 24 10.; value of straw, 22 total, £6 10s. Loss per acre, 22 2s. 9d. Besides all the foregoing, one of the very best fields on the farm is always taken, and wheat is an exhausting crop, and leaves land full of weeds and more than all that, four months' grazing is lost because the crop must be ploughed and sown in October or November of preceding year. The Welsh farmers are playing a losing game in trying to compete with America and foreign countries in the raising of wheat.-I am, &c., FARMER. THE OLD BELLS OF TOWYN. SIR,-Alexancler Selkirk, in his solitude on the Island of Juan Fernandez, while bewailing his terrible fate, and recording his thonghts of the "Land I shall visit no w':OP, i" credited by Cowper, the poet, with having the following soul-stirring words- But the sound of the church going bell, These valleys and rocks never heard Never sighed at the sound of a knell, Nor smiled when a Sabbath appeared. The sound of the church going bell and the sweets of Goa's day of rest lived together in his fondest recollection, and undoubtedly afforded him a foretaste of the joy which is yet in store for the good. The sound of the bell is closely associated with the very first events which impress the youthful mind, especially of those brought up in small tOWRS and villages. The bells announce the birth of the heir to the wide domain of the neighbouring Baron, his coniing-of-age, his nuptials, and, alas, tolls the knell of his parting liie. They welcome the weary traveller home from long and stormy voyages and difficult explorations, and toll on while the weary are at rest. There is not a high-mmdd youth in the village but what is looking forward with pride to the day he will walk to the sound of the bells with the maid of his choice to the altar. Who forgets during life, however eventful, his mother's passing bell. I need not enumerate the claims those ancient bells have upon us, but will with your kind permission call the u, attention of all true and faithful Towynites, wherever they may be, to the desirableness of preserving the old bells and, if possible, of adding to their number. We all remember hearing those that are older than we tell how well Jerry Daniel, Amos Thomas, Griffith Jones, Hugh Richards, &c., &c., rang those bells, and the sore hands we got in trying to ring ourselves. The church is going to be restored in the Spring, and it would be worth our while to make an effort to add to the number of our bells. Here Churchmen and Nonconformists always regard the Church as their common property, and in spite of the power recent Dissent exercises over the great majority of us we yet can but look with veneration on the temple raised by our ancestors and dedicated with so much sim- plicity and devotion to the worship of God. It is only as it were yesterday that the grand fathers and mothers of all of us assembled in it to worship. We know the very seats they occupied, the names of many of them are still on the pew-doors. The hymns and psalms they most pre- ferred and their favourite carols are known to us by heart. Every lover of sacred music in the place has heard of Hugh Angel, Richard Edwards, David Daniel, William Humphrey y Gwydd, Francis Sh6n, &c., &c. The lives which many of the simple Ciirifltians of the past generation led shine brilliantly through the inter- vening space of time upon us, and act as beacons guiding us in the ways of religion and truth. Around fie church—venerable pile—our dead are sleeping—sainted mothers, noble fathers, brothers, sisters, loving children, and the treasures of many devoted lovers are there. A place which is so closely associated with recollections of such a touching and exalted character must ever retain, and deservedly so, a strong hold upon the noblest traits in our natures, and I trust we sb allland it down to posterity, bearing marks of care and attention worthy of the age we live in.—I am, &c. NOT A CHURCHMAN. THE DOLGELLEY INSPECTOR OF NUISANCES R AND MR. ltEVELEY. Sir.I am not aware that the long letter of the In- spector of Nuisances in your last paper requires any notice from me except for one remark he makes impugning the accuracy of my statement, and that is, as to the lease of Copr'owen-ucha. Now, if I used the word lease, and I do not recollect whether I did or liC, I used it in the legal 86086 of a taking, whether for one year or twenty, makes P no difference. In saying this, I believe I am correct. The man has no lease beyond a yearly one; but by that agreement he undertakes to keep his buildings in repair. I believe I may assert that the house was repaired when he took it, as is always done on my property. As for the money spent since, it may or may not have been ex- pended on the house or the buildings; the result is the same to me, a loss in consequence of the tenant's in- attention. But I understand from the tenant's wife that the story as to the hole in the roof is a perfect fiction. Anyhow, I have called my agent's attention to the matter.—I am, &c., H. J. REVELEY. CARDIGANSHIRE LIBERALISM. Sip,-The time has surely come when the Liberals of Cardiganshire should fix upon a candidate to contest the county at the next election. The candidate who ought to be asked to come forward is Mr. E. M. Richards, and he would obtain more general and hearty support than anyone who has been mentioned. Colonel Pryse has been referred to, but it is understood that the Colonel for various reasons has aban- doned the idea of contesting the county. The expenses of the contest are an obstacle in the way, and there are others the colonel does not recognize as clearly as he recognizes this. The candidate who comes out in the Liberal interest must be a thorough-going Liberal, and must not shy at the cost. There is a party in the county who think Mr. David Davies should contest the county and allow the Colonel to walk over for the boroughs. This is a proposal which Mr. David Davies will be very unwise to listen to. Why should he spend four or five thousand pounds and risk his seat to oblige anybody? There is no reason, and I believe if he did this he wauld do more harm than good. The Liberals must fight the county with the help of Go- gerddan if they can get it, but without that help if there is no other alternative. There is a good deal of wire pulling going on, but the leading liberals may depend upon it the constituency is in no mood to be played with. An out-and-out Tory would stand a better chance than a half-and-half Liberal. There ought to be no difficulty about a candidate, and it would give me and others great satisfaction to learn what is being done towards winning back the county seat.—I am, &c., LIBERAL. DOWNIE'S BEQUEST. SIB,—I am a Churchman, and have often noticed the different attitudesi observed by Churchmen towards Nonconformists. One class, to which I claim to belong, can sympathize with the views of those who differ from them, and treat every man with respect without regard to his religious belief. The other class must first ask a man what creed he pro- fesses, and what church he attends before even the common civilities of society are extended to him. This class is chiefly composed of converts from the Nonconformist sections of the community, and I have often wondered why neophytes should be bigots. The truest test to know the neophyte is to notice his bigotay and his hatred of his former creed or sect. Writers who own that they have not made themselves acquainted with all the facts of a matter should be' silent. It has been remarked that more was said at the public meeting of the scheme than of the will. What has the will to do with the carrying out of the scheme settled by the Court of Chancery. ,Nobody, save the Vicar and one or two others, will say that the will has any bearing on the object of the public meeting—no one has denied, no one can deny, that the Church Society was the Society named in Mr. Downie's will. The Vicar, with great vehemence, asserted this at the public meeting several times, but with what effect ? With no effect because it was admitted by the executors by the Attorney Geneial, by the Court of Chancery, and by the meeting addressed by the Vicar at the time. But the Vice-Chancellor found that the District Visiting Society was no society at all, there were visitors but no society, the society being a certain individual, the Vicar of Aberystwyth, who personally, under the guise of a society, nominated visitors, gave them money, and they did all the work of the District Visiting Society. And is there amongst your readers any one so simple as to believe that the Court of Chancery, having had cognizance of the matter, would direct the executors to hand over 9600 every year to the Vicar, to be applied by him as he might think tit? The Court ordered them to bring in a scheme for application of the money in aid of the District Visiting society, which th .y did—fraught with Church elements- a scheme which might well satisfy the most zealous of Churchmen, and then the fight began. Then the influential meeting of about twenty ratepayers," which was held at the Temperance Hall, commenced working, and certain persons are sore that these twenty ratepayers were successful, and it must be somewhat humiliat- ing to acknowledge the fact in the face of the strong forces at the command of the Church in the town. There seems to be some difficulty in understanding the success of the twenty ratepayers. The twenty communicated with the Attorney General, and I may tell those who do not happen to know, that the Attorney General has charge of all charities, and is their representative before the Court. He invites the public to give him information, and there have been cases where the Court has rewarded persons for information supplied to the Attorney General. In the suit respecting Mr. Downie's will the Attorney General was ordered to be made a party, and to represent the two charities benefited by the will, and the twenty ratepayers com- municated with the Attorney General's solicitor, and their representations were gladly received, as the representa- tions of any other twenty ratepayers would be. And this simple fact accounts for the scheme as it now stands. Here the Vicar made the mistake. Did he communicate with the Attorney General ? No. Instead of that he went direct to Court, and to his cost found that he was not known there as at Aberystwyth, and that the Attorney General was listened to in preference to him, supported as he was by the executors, churchwardens, and the ladies. -I am, &c., LITCIAN. [We have marked out some sentences from this letter.— ED., C.N.] DOLGELLEY STREETS, ROADS, AND FOOT- PATHS.—A SURVEYOR S VIEW. (SIK,—It rains incessantly, and as the old folks say, There will be flood somewhere." From my elevated position, the top of the tower of the Parish Church here, I took a survey of our streets and roads, and I assure you it is true that "distance lends enchantment to the view." We read of old, as an ancient Roman sings, that "The sea was everywhere, or all things were sea." Some- thing to that effect; but led mud be the word, mud, mire, or dirt instead, and it will describe accurately what I saw this (Wednesday) morning especially. Surely some poor old man could be found to scrape and cleanse the streets for a few shillings weekly, as it must be miserable for every one to trudge along through the sloppy roads, no footpaths of course as a rule, and often very little light indeed from the gas. My mate whispers, "The moon is our only certain guide," and she saw a young lady this morning trudging along with such difficulty that she pitied her, she seemed as if she would every now and then stick in the mud. At least she says, she feared every minute she would come to a worse place than common in the horrid road and leave one of her tiny boots behind her We had a Convocation this afternoon, and we feel, and every jackdaw among us said so, we ought not to re- main any longer here and our musical notes will be heard no longer in the old tower unless there is a reform and the ways are mended, we shall migrate to Barmouth, or some other pretty spot.—Yours truly. JACKDAW. Dolgelley, 5th Feb., 1879.

CORRESPONDENCE.

MR. WATKIN WILLIAMS AND SOUTHWARK.

[No title]

LLANIDLOES

KERRY

LLANFAIR CAEREINION

WELSHPOOL

HENGOED.

RUABON.

BERRIEW

NEWTOWN

LLANSAINTFFRAID

GARTHMYL

MONTGOMERY

FRON, BERRIEW

CORWEN.

LLANFECHAIN

SHREWSBURY

LLANGOLLEN

OVERTON

SARN