Welsh Journals

A HISTORY OF WALES, 1660-1815. By E. D. Evans. University of Wales Press, Cardiff, 1976. Pp. vi, 267. £ 3.50. This is the second in the series of Welsh History Text Books and, like its predecessor, is to be warmly welcomed. Neither can be said to supersede Professor David Williams's A History of Modern Wales, now happily reprinted. In general, the aim has been to supplement rather than to replace and in presenting the fruit of recent research the author has performed a real service. He writes clearly and interestingly and his judgments are just and balanced; he is particularly good on educational movements and the cultural background, whilst his very readable chapter on Social Life could profitably have been extended; he gives due attention to economic development and no more than is necessary to those tedious manipulations preceding elections which have too often passed for political activity in Wales. The one substantial omission is the absence of a systematic treatment of law and order and of the workings of local government, which intimately affected the lives of ordinary people. The author does touch upon riots and deals rather well with aspects of poverty in the section on Social Life, but his few words on the Court of Great Sessions are insufficient, and if it be true that after 1688 'the Quarter Sessions and Great Sessions acquired more importance as the volume of business then increased' (p. 186), it follows that more importance should have been given to their proceedings in this book. It is strange that the most thorough study of local government yet undertaken for this period, the introduction to A Calendar of the Merioneth Quarter Sessions Rolls, Vol. I, 1733-65, is not included in the otherwise admirable lists of suggested reading. Again, the one passing reference to Quakers in the section on the Penal Code is inadequate; amongst Protestants they were the greatest sufferers and the unsatisfactory index, which does not include Quakers (as opposed to the Quaker Company), cannot therefore direct our attention to the author's useful comments upon them in the chapter on Welshmen Overseas. Good though his chapter on Methodism is, he has not quite succeeded in conveying what was meant by 'enthusiasm', which released such dynamic and disturbing forces. To say without qualification that 'the status of the Welsh clergy was much lower than that of the English clergy' (p. 73) is to perpetuate the Home Counties view of English history which cannot be applied indiscri- minately to the condition of the parish clergy in several parts of England. The standard of accuracy in this volume is high. Bishop Henry Lloyd (p. 30), however, is a newcomer to the purple; of the four Lloyds who reached the episcopal bench in Wales during Charles II's reign, Henry was not one of them and the reference must be to the notable William of St. Asaph. But such trifles are rare and the author is to be congratulated upon a work which will bring pleasure and profit to many. J. GWYNN WILLIAMS Bangor