Welsh Journals

eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and on the exploitation, for example, of their mineral resources. It is worth remembering, however, that a number of the families involved had no connection with Wales apart from their titles of peerage. Apart from these big categories, the specialist in the fields of Law, Education, and the Church will find much to interest him in the sections which cover these topics. Finally, in his introduction, the editor refers to the group of Acts which contain clauses relating to the Welsh language; he seems, however, to underestimate the completeness of his lists when he states (p. xii) that the earliest relevant Act in his collection is that of 1860 (No. 2456) which made provision for church services in Welsh. Four earlier Acts which refer to the use of the language are listed in the volume. An Act of 1732-33 (No. 1628) in effect reiterated the Tudor insistence on the use of English in courts of law. Over a century later an Act of 1836 (No. 2446)-modified by an Act of 1838 (No. 2448)-aimed at preventing the appointment of clergymen not familiar with Welsh to parishes where the majority of the inhabitants did not understand English. As far back as 1773 the dean of Arches had held, in the case of Dr. Bowles and the parishes of Trefdraeth and Llangwyfan, that Welsh-speaking incumbents should be appointed to Welsh-speaking parishes, but his view received legislative approval only with the Act of 1836. In 1837 a further Act (No. 2447) authorized the use of a 'true and exact' translation of the 'form of words provided to be used in the case of marriages' under the Marriage Act of 1836. The volume is well indexed and it should prove of value to the general and the local historian. GLYN ROBERTS. Bangor. IRON IN THE MAKING: DOWLAIS IRON COMPANY LETTERS, 1782-1860. Edited by Madeleine Elsas. Published by Glamorgan County Records Committee and Guest Keen Iron and Steel Company Ltd. London, 1960. Pp. xix, 247. 'As there are Publick Houses nearer dowlais Furnaces than Dowlais Inn, Why are orders for Beer (allowed to workmen on some occasions) sent to billy teague. Trust, Sir, that you will be pleased to make enquiries about it, for I am afraid that there is something rotten in the state of Denmark.' So 'John Wareteg' to Josiah John Guest in April 1829. There may have been substance in the complaint. William Teague, keeper of the 'Swan', was to be one of Guest's electoral caucus. John Griffiths, dismissed furnace-keeper, was more manly in his complaint, to William Taitt, thirty years earlier. 'Now Sir another thing I have to Lay before you is: we had made at No 3 Something above