Welsh Journals

Mr. Brown is at his best when he describes how local attitudes to union meshed in with the national debate on the establishment. The story is more familiar, but it has never been so well told. What is now required, it seems to me, is a more detailed study of how the agitation in the localities was organized, and to what extent it contributed to that heightened self-consciousness which lies at the heart of reform in the two dioceses. Mr. Brown also makes an interesting contribution to the study of political pressure groups and shows clearly how effective local petitioning could be when skilfully organized around deeply felt local grievances. This was a campaign sustained over a long period of time, against seemingly impossible odds in Church and state, and when the offending clauses were repealed in 1847 more had been achieved than the survival of the ancient dioceses and the extension of the episcopate: the Church had also learned how to defend itself, and the struggle against disestablishment, sustained over an even longer period of time, could look upon this earlier struggle as an exemplar. There were also strong nationalistic overtones which appealed to Welshmen whatever their religious affiliations. Mr. Brown is right to suggest that this episode contributed significantly to the growth of nationalistic feeling not only within the Church but in Wales generally. Whether, as he suggests, it contributed as much as the so-called Treachery of the Blue Books is a more doubtful proposition and a matter for debate. A close reading of periodicals such as Seren Gomer might indeed support this view. What is certain is that Mr. Brown's modest-looking book makes a lively and interesting contribution to our understanding of the Anglican Church in the early stages of its reform and of the Welsh Church on the eve of its transformation. I. G. JONES Aberystwyth NATIONAL IDENTITY IN THE BRITISH ISLES. Edited by Neil Evans. Coleg Harlech Occasional Papers in Welsh Studies, No. 3, 1989. £ 3.00 paperback. Neil Evans has brought together the papers from a Coleg Harlech day school held in April 1988, supplemented by two additional, but related, contributions. The theme, National Identity within the British Isles, is one of great relevance to those concerned with the relationship between the constituent parts of these islands. This is a topic which has been much neglected in conventional history, sociology and political science, yet so clearly demands an inter-disciplinary interpretation. The resulting collection is rather uneven, doubtless reflecting the inevitable nature of such conferences. Notwithstanding this, however, it is entirely appropriate that this interesting set of papers should be given a wider audience through their collective publication. Bernard Crick addresses the central, and most elusive, issue of what it is to be English within the British Isles. Although constituting the dominant culture and identity within these islands, Englishness is rarely examined. For many the concept