Welsh Journals

standing. It goes back to the report of the Aberdare departmental committee in 1881. That, it will be remembered, in addition to recommending the establishment of a network of much-needed secondary schools in Wales, proposed that two new university colleges should be opened, one in south Wales, the other based on the existing college at Aberystwyth or at a town in north Wales. With this proposal, which was accepted by the government, Wales gave up the hope of the establishment, in time, of one large unitary university at Aberystwyth or some other agreed location. Received opinion in the twentieth century has been, generally, that the Aberdare committee's concession to parochialism, or rather to an inveterate regionalism, has been unfortunate in academic terms. It led to the appearance of three (with others following) relatively weaker university colleges with an inevitable costly duplication in some disciplines. Nor did the establishment of the University of Wales, in which the colleges were federated, some years later improve the position. The new University, as Professor J. Gwynn Williams says, was designed 'to coordinate not to dominate' the colleges, which have continued to cherish and defend their considerable autonomy. This determined individualism is exemplified by the different commemorative accounts that the colleges have published to celebrate their foundation. Aberystwyth settled for a one-volume formal history; Cardiff decided on a 'Book of Occasion .a family album' of essays by old students, published (in an excellently produced edition) by the college's own Press, not that of the University. A latter-day echo perhaps of Cardiff s old urge for a separate identity. St. David's College, Lampeter, a modern addition to the University, celebrated its 150-year-old history with the publication in 1977 of the first of a projected two-volume account. Bangor has now followed suit with the appearance of Volume I of Professor Williams's study. His account of the first forty-two years of the College contains a spirited justification of its establishment, and that of Cardiff. He argues that 'local colleges were the order of the day' in the 1880s, as the foundation of the civic colleges in large English cities made plain. Moreover, even the Board of Education, not hitherto notably forthcoming or helpful in this matter, accepted the principle. 'Wales', said A. J. Mundella of the Board in 1882, 'requires local colleges' which would provide opportunities cheaply to the many, as in Scotland. These are persuasive arguments, not lightly to be set aside. And it is fair to say that, whatever the long-term academic disadvantages of separately located colleges, there is no question that Wales, as O. M. Edwards said, did have a 'Peasants' University' which provided higher education for many more students from a much wider social range than was customary in England at that time, not least because of the proximity of the colleges and the very low cost to the student; Professor Williams calculates that, down to 1914, Oxbridge was three times more expensive for a student. It was this relative cheapness, too, that enabled Bangor (along with its sister institutions) to attract women students (one in three of the student body in 1884) and thereby make an important contribution to the higher education of woman in Victorian Britain. The period covered by this volume is that of H. R. Reichel's tenure as Principal. It was a remarkable appointment. His antecedents were German Moravian, although