Welsh Journals

The pose represents its subject, as should always be the case with statues of statesmen and orators, in standing attitude. It portrays Mr. Richard holding his eye-glasses in one hand, and leaning slightly forward, as if the orator had just removed them from his eyes and was bent on pressing home some particular point in his oration. The right hand grasps a folio of notes, upon which the word Peace stands forth conspicuous. The unveiling ceremony was performed by the late Sir George Osborne Morgan, m.p., whose father was a Cardiganshire man and an old pupil of Edward Richard's school at Ystrad Meurig. The streets were decorated with flags and banners bearing such appropriate inscriptions as Welcome," Peace," Arbitration but none was more felicitous or moved the imagination more deeply than that which bore Hiraethog's famous couplet- Segurdod yw clod y cledd, A rhwd yw ei anrhydedd." Sir G. O. Morgan was singularly successful in his address on that occasion. He quoted appropriately the description given in those days of Mr. Richard as the member for Wales," and recalled how on Henry Richard's entrance into Parliament, it was considered that at last Wales had a real representative. After recounting the many beneficent labours of Mr. Richard, he added and now having given you this imperfect sketch of the life and career of my dear and honoured friend, I will ask you to turn to the statue, in which our distinguished friend has with rare skill and fidelity depicted those features which were so familar to most of us-those features which, in so marked a manner, revealed the character of the man-a character which was well drawn by the great leader whom he served with no blind or slavish devotion, and who, though some years his senior, is still, thank God, spared to guide the destinies of this great nation." Then he quoted Mr. Gladstone's letter written a fortnight after Mr. Richard's death- There was in him an inner peace which was the secret of his outer self-command and of his gentleness as well as of his courage. It was impossible to see him, without seeing that he was not only a professor of Christianity, but that his mind was a sanctuary of Christian faith, of Christian hope and of Christian love and that all these great powers and principles radiated forth from the centre, and let his light shine before men." Henry Richard was born at Tregaron, in a house which still stands, on April 3, 1812. He was a worthy son of worthy forbears. His father, the Rev. Ebenezer Richard, whose tomb with its inscrip- tion, a beautiful piece of Welsh composition by Gwilym Hiraethog, is in Tregaron Churchyard, was amongst the very foremost of preachers in a generation noted for its preachers. His father's brother, the Rev. Thomas Richard, of Fishguard, when at his best, was also primus inter pares." Henry obtained his early education at Llangeitho, and at John Evans' Commercial and Mathematical