The Montgomery County Times and Shropshire and Mid-Wales Advertiser

THE UNIVERSITY OF WALES JNSTALLATIOS OF TH PFINCE OF WALES AS CHANCELLOR. The crowning institution of all the institutions of Wales is her University, which on Friday recei- Ved its due recognition, when H.R.H. the Prince of Wales was installed as the first Chancellor. The visit of the Prince, of course, marks a starting- I Point in our national history. It helps to bring home to the people of Wales, to the peer and the peasant alike, the fact that Wales at last has its OWn University, in the same way that England, Scotland, and Ireland has each its Universities. When the Royal Charter was obtained the Univer- sity Court, there is no question, acted wisely and in inviting the late Lord Aberdare to become first chancellor. His lordship had done so much- 1io ttlan had done more-for Welsh intermediate and higher education, had sacrificed so much time &nd. labour and money, that it was a graceful act On the part of the authorities to acknowledge his 8ervices. But Lord Aberdare was removed just 48 the goal of his ambition had been reached, and the chancellorship once more became vacant. yn. 1 'th praiseworthy ambition, the Conrt was in- deed to aim very high for a successor, and, as the ates would have it, it did not aim in vain. The Prince, with a graciousness which has made his bante proverbial, accepted the Court's invitation, \Vith the result that on Friday he was, as before 8tated, installed as Chancellor of the University of the country from which he derives his time- honoured title. It goes without saying that the event means quite a fortune to the Welsh University. No other circumstance, however fortunate or favourable, could, both in the imme- diate future and in the long run, prove so service- able to the University. However democratic the age may have become, however strongly King Demos may emphasise Burn's honest sentiment, A man's a man, for a' that!" it must be admitted that a Royal Prince is a Royal Prince, and even the stoutest of Radicals, as well as the silliest of Socialists, is prone to acknowledge that there is still a divinity which hedges round a King. There is not the least doubt that the acceptance of office by his Royal Highness has given the University half a century's start, which means a great deal for a poor, struggling country like ours, only just com- mencing its educational career, centuries behind the sister countries of England, Scotland, and Ireland. The Prince, therefore, has a very special claim upon the gratitude of the Welshpeople, a claim which, it is gratifying to learn, the University Court seems to fully appreciate. Friday's pageant, if for its brilliancy alone, is unique in the long history of the Principality. Wales had long been thought of by those great men who dreamed a dream of a complete system of education for Wales, reaching from the elementary school to the highest summits of learning. Men like the late Lord Aberdare, Henry Richard, Sir II ugh Owen, Dr. Lewis Edwards, and others, had striven with unyielding vigour to bring about this consummation, but the scheme of the Welsh Univer- sity had to become something more than a vision before it could be brought into crystalised form and presented to the House of Commons for its sanction, which was granted in 1894, and for this the thanks of the Principality are due to those who formed the Draft Charter Committee and other true lovers of Welsh education. During the last few years there has been in Wales a marked revival of interest in national affairs. This movement had been led by the educated and literary men of Wales, and conse- quently great attention had been paid to educational matters. Free and intermediate education having been obtained, together with three University Colleges, there was but one thing required to com- plete this national system of education, and that was a University for Wales. This Wales has at last secured, and she is the prouder and happier for it. The dignity of the nation, too, demanded that Wales should have a University. Wales did not want a University which would allow a Welshman to get a degree that would be no sure test of his worth or ability; but she wanted a University where he could obtain a valuable degree without the necessity of facing and overcoming the obstacles with which he had to contend with formerly. The educational system of Wales is to be likened to a pyramid. It had a broad founda- tion, and had been increasing symmetrically by the addition of Intermediate Education and the three University Colleges, and now finally by a University. Wales had long needed an institution of this kind to train her medical men, her theologians and her national leaders, and this having been obtained, we have every reason to believe that the Welsh will now become more truly national. Sir Lewis Morris has written a special Ode, on the installation of the Prince of Wales as the first Chancellor of the Welsh University. The Ode consists of five stanzas, in which the poet refers to Wales, past, present, and future; her yearnings for a higher life, and the consummation of her hopes in the installation of her Prince as head of her national seat of learning. The first stanza opens with the lines This is our joyous hour, The Dawn expected long, Break sea of music in a surge of song The expression sea of music" is, of course, a translation of the Eisteddfodic motto, Mor o gan yw Cymru i gyd." A courtly compliment is paid to the Prince of Wales in the couplet in which he is made to represent the national hero—Prince Llewelyn- Our lost Llewelyn seems again to come For love of learning to his ancient home. And a graceful reference is made to the fact that on this auspicious occasion the Prince is accom- panied by Our gracious Royal Lady, with her daughters twain." The ghosts of heroes who in the dead past fought and sacrificed for their country are depicted gazing with admiring eyes upon the new-built temple of knowledge, to see which they in life yearned in vain. Then, with prophetic vision, he pictures the glories of the Wales to come, when, by means of her national University, she will proudly claim her place among the nations of the empire and the world. The poet concludes thus Rise Thou dear land, on Learning's even wings, Rise in Heaven's face, and, soaring, leave behind Thy sordid outworn robe of lower Things"; The eye by grosser mists grown blind The earthly soul; the unawakened mind All jealous hates, all faithless fears, And low delights more pitiful than tears. Awake Advance! Arise Ascend at length Through wider knowledge to a fuller strength, To loftier heights, and nobler ends complete, Purge thoroughly from thy late enfranchised sight The clouds, the glooms of Time's departed night, Soar higher, higher with the increasing light, Where, throned with clouds beneath her shining feet, Sits Wisdom crowned with Right!" Sir Lewis proposes to include this ode in the new collection of songs which lie is about to publish.

"Ut WELSH UNIVERSITY AS A NATIONAL FORCE. Lord Rendel, whose portrait we give, and who *'ayed so prominent a part as a politician in securing ^or the University, contributes an article a Young Wales," in which he treats of what may inappropriately be termed the political but 1 *erthele88 non-party side of the question. His ^J^ship regards the installation of the Prince of jr .ea as the first Chancellor of the Welsh ^iversity as the crowning of the great fabric of 'ah national education. He reminds us—and -u.e n8 stood possibly in need of being reminded jj hat though the visible fabric may be new, jj, bably in no country of Western or Northern e ?r°Pe were the footings and first courses of an of'J<fltional system earlier laid. The life educational system founded, erected, com- IlidI-BRO like that of Wales may well be regarded as th ??°^ably and imperishably one with the life of .Welsh race itself. It is such a life, such an in- tanee, such an institution which is now formally fllfbled and inaugurated." After paying a grace- He C?rn lament to the late Lord Aberdare, Lord in points out how Wales, having been starved indeed despoiled of, her national educational her V1 t' P^t, is only now beginning to assert tj1j8c'ai111 and to benefit materially thereby. In Cor,nection he utters some home truths which Perhaps take English readers by surprise, and Certainly deprive many a reviler of Welsh Th'nalism a favourite weapon. He says :— tv. ^reat endowments of Wales had of old attrac- f0l,, he English politician and ecclesiastic—but not e benefit of Wales as Wales. The mineral tprftU.rees °f Wales had attracted the industrial en- the vj.8e England, but hardly for the benefit of The intellectual resources of Wales— l(w. 1Ilahenably Welsh—had been not only neg- Jljj by England, but had been deprived for i»iaeh' ^enefit of much of their ancient means and beCo 1Tlery. The edncational poverty of Wales had Ve^1116 a reproach and a byword. Yet I will lIre to assert that the true, though unrecovered, wealth of Wales lay not in coal or iron, nor in field or forest or river," but in the readier and more easily and quickly ripened intelligence of the people. In early cultivableness of the mind the Welsh far outstrip the English. Candid English- men will admit that they could not conceive of English rustics becoming bilingual. In fact, a truly bilingual Englishman is rare in any rank and in any circumstances of life. But of the whole humbler Welsh population a considerable proportion is bilingual—an irrestible evidence, possibly a con- tributory cause, of quicker early intelligence. It must be admitted that Lord Rendel does not, to say the least, lack moral courage in thus claiming as one of the highest honours for the Welsh people that which their detractors are wont to regard as a mark of inferiority, if not degradation, and as the bane and curse of the country. He follows this up with another argument based upon actual facts, the argument and the facts being, probably, alike dis- tasteful to those who have been wont to consider Welshmen as essentially inferior to the Saxon. He points out how in England, although almost every career is open to talent and the prizes brilliant and multifarious, comparatively few of the humbler English attain the top. In Wales, on the other hand," savs Lord Rendel, "cribbed, cabined, and confined as it has been for ages, no sooner has any new facility been gained or any old barrier removed than an instant uprising and response has followed in the striking academic success of Welsh lads sprung from the ranks." Having thus vindicated the Welsh nation, he proceeds to remark that almost all the Welsh people are alike susceptible of certain intellectual polish. "In this belief," he says, I have felt that almost the first duty of a Welsh public man is to recover for Wales that of which it had been too much deprived—the means of turning its best resources, its most honourable source of wealth, to full account, as well for the profit of the kingdom as for that of the Principality." He winds up by an earnest, one might almost say passionate denunciation of the past pohcy of England towards Wales. What is needed," says Lord Hendel, "is a reversal of the old and stupid policy of England in Wales; and instead of it the encouragement and development of everything Welsh in Wales, the drawing out, not the driving in, of the national life, the spreading abroad of the peculiar genius of Wales. Give to Welsh brains their free play and fair chance; restore their ancient educational endowments; repair the neglect and suppression of the past; encourage and ripen the national aims towards high thinking and plain living; and you will so spread Welshmen through every prominent calling among English-speaking peoples that they will become the more and not the less English by very reason of their Welsh nationality." Dr. Isambard Owen supplies in the same magazine a no less notable vindication of Welsh1 character. He points out that the Teutonic con- ception of the Celts is that they are a volatile unstable race, governed by sentiment rather than reflection, easily led by phrases, incapable of or- ganisation or self-government, wavering between wild license and military despotism." The task Dr. Owen has set himself is to prove that this Teutonic conception of the Welsh character is essentially incorrect, and in the history of the spread of the University movement he finds ready to his hand the necessary evidence wherewith to establish his case. Indeed, not content with vin- dicating his fellow-countrymen, the Deputy Chancellor neatly turns the tables upon their de- tractors by pointing out that, in the light of the higher education movements in England and in Wales, it is the English people, and not the Welsh, who have betrayed the weaknesses to which the Celts have been credited. It has been my fortune," says Dr. Owen, to witness, and to some extenttotakepartin,two movements proceeding at the same time, one in London and one in Wales. The contrast between the two is sufficiently re- markable for ns to dwell upon them with interest. The movement to establish a real teaching university in London began some twelve years ago, with nearly every circumstance in its favour. But the movement has hitherto resulted in a scries of failures, produced by want of cohesion, mutual distrust, and absence of free public dis- cussion. After twelve years' agitation and inquiry, assisted by the work of two strongly manned Royal Commissions, the whole future of London education is at present hanging in the fscale." He contrasts with this the case of Wales with many difficult and, some thought, insuperable obstacles in the way, the work requiring to be carried out in spite of geographical difficulties which rendered discussion and conference a matter of time and labour. Though the movement did not virtually begin till 1887, the University nevertheless, is now established, fully organised, and nearly three years old. But our methods of procedure in Wales, we may legitimately boast, showed a very different grasp of the principles of public life, and of the way public questions should be dealt with, than has been discernible in the academic world of London. Whatever may be the future of our University, we can at least look upon the history of its foundation as one in which familiarity with the methods of public work and capacity for handling them have been displayed in Wales in a manner which, for the benefit of metropolitan education, I wish my fellow-citizens in London were content to copy."

UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF WALES, ABERYSTWYTH. The installation of the Prince of Wales as Chancellor of the Welsh University taking place at Aberystwyth. it is only fitting that we should present to our readers some of the interesting features connected with that centre of Welsh education—Aberystwyth College. The College originated in a movement set on foot as the result of a strong national sentiment in favour of higher education in and previously to the year 1863. The committee issued a circular setting forth the objects and proposed constitution of the University (as it was then described). The College was opened for the admission of students