Welsh Journals

time in several newspapers, for the author, while too modest to disclose his real name, is intent on making his voice heard through- out the land. These letters are not without merit; there is enough old- fashioned Victorian wit in them to make them interesting. Every letter contains a good deal of sound advice based on common sense; unfortunately the effect is often marred by narrow prejudices and warped views of life. Take, for instance the 12th letter: "To Mr. and Mrs. Thomas, on Welsh or French." Atwebyd here takes for granted that a child must choose one of the two languages and drop the other. But why, in the name of common sense, cannot every brilliant child in Wales learn both? A knowledge of Welsh is of the utmost advantage in learning French. Then his remarks on French life and French literature are most unfair and untrue, as everyone acquainted with the French people knows. Sir Owen Edwards lately said that France has always been the vanguard of civilisation in Europe. We have lived in France and know how true this is. It is not true that the standard of social morality in France is lower than in other civilised countries. It is true that super- stition is dying faster in France than in other lands, because she is almost a century in advance of all others in civilisation but the love of honest truth, which, after all, is the devoutest of all prayers, is possibly stronger there than anywhere else. This is only one instance out of several which might be quoted from other letters. The book is excellent Welsh journalese it is not quite up to the standard of present day Welsh literature. The author probably never meant it to be. He preferred rather to appeal to the people in what he would call their own everyday Welsh, forgetting that the great writer is the maker of the intellectual language of the future. The author has at least done one new thing he has invented a new word. His nom de plume was a mystery to everyone until he deigned to explain it in the press the other day. We are told that Atwebyd is an artificial and arbitrary contraction of the phrase At wella byd "-for the purpose of improving the world. We appreciate his good intentions, and sincerely hope that his next venture will be more successful. But who is Atwebyd?" It is always dangerous, and as a rule unprofitable, to hazard a guess in a case of this kind. Internal evidence, however, suggests that the writer is a Nonconformist, probably Congregational minister, and that he lives at Cardiff. Further than that the evidence cannot take us. Notwithstanding its shortcomings, its challenges, and its warped views, the book is worth reading, and whoever spends a shilling upon it will get value for his money. The Transactions of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion. Session 1915-16." London, issued by the Society, New Stone Buildings. pp. xlvii., 260. This volume of Transactions of the Cymmrodorion is of unusual interest. It begins with a report on the Society's activities during the year, which shows that in spite of the war great work is being done in Welsh scholarship and research by the Society; its financial position is also sound. Two of its members have lost their lives in the war during the last year. Mr. C. R. Peers, M.A., contributes a long thesis on Carnarvon Castle, with illustrations and maps. The reader is conducted in the company of one of the greatest authorities in the land on ancient monuments through the story of this old stronghold of Eryri from the earliest times to the present day. After that, Professor H. J. Fleure, D.Sc., publishes the results of his great survey of British anthropological evidences, with special reference to Ancient Wales. This study of our origin was undertaken by Dr. Fleure some years ago. He has carried on the work on modem and soundly scientific lines, with the result that he is now universally regarded as one of the chief authorities on the subject. Mr. William Rees, M.A., contributes a paper on the Mediaeval Lordship of Brecon, and Mr. R. Arthur Roberts another on Welsh Records, and a Record Office for Wales. It is impossible in the space at our disposal to do more than refer to the important and interesting contents of this bulky volume. As a matter of fact, each paper would make a handsome volume by itself. To know who's who in Welsh scholarship and research to-day it is essential to be a member of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion, which is flourishing greatly and doing most valuable work under the guidance of its genial and courteous secretary, Sir E. Vincent Evans. "Woman's Effort." A Chronicle of British Women's Fifty Years' struggle for citizenship (1865-1914). By A. E. Metcalfe. Oxford, B. H. Blackwell. Price 3s. 6d. In his eloquent introduction to this book, Mr. Lawrence Housman says: The fundamental error revealed in the following pages of suffrage history was the inability of Govern- ment to take seriously, when it arose, a movement which is des- tined to be permanent in the world's history." The inability of Governments to take things seriously has often been the cause of revolutions and political disasters, and, to say the least, this inability is as great a fault as any sordid deed perpetuated in a revolutionary movement against injustice. The author of Woman's Effort chronicles such deeds of the Suffrage Movement with their causes and results in a dispassionate work, her facts gathered from documentary evidence and ranging from the earliest days of the first petitions to Parliament to the Women's Enfranchisement Bill of 1914. The subject matter is neatly formulated, the type clear and the paper good. The book contains 366 pages and the labour spent in securing accuracy of detail should appeal to all who desire to know the progress of this struggle so significant in modern history. The battle-scenes are relieved by a flash of humour in the reproduction of some of Bernard Partridge's cartoons from the pages of Punch. We compliment the author on this human touch. A. F. "History of Serbia." By Capt. Harold W. V. Temperley. London, G. Bell and Sons, Ltd. 1917. The British attitude towards Serbia may be said to have passed of late years through three phases. In the Summer of 1914, at the outbreak of the great War, the menace to Serbia, which was the prime occasion of the conflict did not in itself greatly move us; we thought, to use the words of Sir Edward Grey, that, if this ultimatum to Serbia did not lead to trouble between Austria and Russia, we need not concern ourselves about it" (To Sir F. Bertie, July 24, 1914). As the struggle developed, the vigour and boldness of the Serbian resistance and the signal victories won over the might of Austria compelled our admiration and enlisted our active support; Serbian heroism became a popular theme among us. Since the disastrous events of the Autumn of 1915, we have had a new feeling with regard to Serbia, a sense of humiliation that this brave and gifted race, attached by a thousand ties to its ancestral soil, should have been overwhelmed by a foreign foe, while we could not put forth the strength that was needed to save it. Captain Temperley's book,