Welsh Journals

the staunch chapel member are inseparable-that there is a certain congruity between the morality he derived from his religion and the economic doctrine which underpinned his activities as the men's leader. But, if so, this should have justified a much more detailed study of his origins, and of the social milieu out of which he emerged. It may be that in the nature of things we cannot know much about the young William Abraham; but it is surely the task of the historian to attempt to describe the changing society of which he was a part. The communities of the coal-field were vastly different in the early decades of this century from those among which Mabon had moved thirty or forty years previously. Dr. Evans suggests what some of these differences were in so far as they help to explain the decline in Mabon's influence. But nowhere is there an attempt to depict this society in process of change, and to see Mabon as a reluctant part of it-a rock of conservatism in the flood-tide of socialism. There is a more serious defect than this to which attention must be drawn. The assumption underlying the sub-title seems to be that trade union affairs are intelligible without reference to politics. At one level-that of mere description-perhaps they are: but not if we regard trade unions -as we must-as an organic part of the complexity of modern industrial society. It would be grossly unfair to complain that Dr. Evans has not written a political history of the coal-field during Mabon's life-time. It is reasonable to have expected that a study of the political relations between the member for Rhondda and his constituents should have been an integral part of the book, for without it it is difficult to explain the decline in Mabon's influence during his life-time and the fading of his reputation after his death. In any case trade unions, and particularly after 1885, became increasingly preoccupied with politics not merely as seeing the need to protect their own interests, but later as a means of doing this more effectively, of changing the political system in accordance with the doctrines of socialism of one kind or another. We are left wondering what exactly were the relations between Mabon and his constituents, and between him and the major groupings and parties at Westminster. Perhaps this is to complain that Dr. Evans has not written a different book. Certainly it shows that he has written a stimulating one, and he is to be congratulated for making available so much that is new for his scholarly discussions of many obscurities in the industrial history of South Wales, and for drawing attention to the life and opinions of a very remarkable figure in nineteenth-century Wales. Swansea. IEUAN GWYNEDD JONES. SYR HERBERT LEWIS, 1858-1933. Golygwyd gan K. Idwal Jones. Gwasg Prifysgol Cymru, 1958. Pp. xii, 108. 8s. 6d. THOMAS EDWARD ELLIS, 1859-1899. By Wyn Griffith. Llyfrau'r Dryw, Llandybie, 1959. Pp. 47. 3s. 6d.