Welsh Journals

did not enable the weaver 'to do the work of two'; it enabled him to dispense with a helper in weaving broad fabrics but in no way lessened the time spent by the weaver in setting up the work on the loom. The statement that no new railway lines were opened between 1839 and 1843 will surprise those familiar with the history of the Taff Vale Railway, a line which contributed significantly to the development of the Aberdare and Rhondda valleys. More careful proof reading could have eliminated trivial slips and errors: the Black Death (1381), Steuart's Principles of 1767 ascribed to Stewart and 1769, a Bank of England note circulation of £ 171/2 millions instead of f,171 millions, the 'reverbatory' furnace-errors that may reverberate in undergraduate scripts for some time to come. Yet despite all this, Miss Deane's book makes an important contribution to our understanding of British economic development. It will deservedly be in wide demand, and it is to be hoped that this demand will soon be met by a revised edition rather than a reprinting. JOHN MORRIS. Aberystwyth. FREEDOM OR SACRILEGE? A HISTORY OF THE CAMPAIGN FOR WELSH Disestablishment. By Kenneth O. Morgan. Church in Wales Publications, Penarth, 1966. Pp. 37. 5s. In this essay, Dr. Morgan has gathered together some of the material used in his invaluable work on Wales in British Politics, 1868-1922 (Cardiff, 1963), and presented it from a different angle for a wider public. There are no footnote references, though there is a useful bibliographical note, and the author clearly has in mind 'the general reader' -in this case, anyone interested in the religious institutions and social history of his country. Such a reader will find here a clear, balanced account of the campaign for the disestablishment of the Church of England in Wales. Dr. Morgan has succeeded in being informative without overburdening his narrative with detail, and (despite his disclaimer at the end) he stands well above the battle, neutral yet sympathetic to both sides. In ten orderly sections, he traces the development of Nonconformity in nineteenth-century Wales and the progress of the movement for disestablishment. The various disestablishment Bills (four in all from 1894 to 1914) are briefly sketched, as is the Amending Act of 1919 which brought the long struggle to an end. This narrative is accompanied by a constant flow of comment and argument, placing the story in its historical context and perspective. The author is concerned to uncover the social causes of the disestablishment agitation, and also to show how,