Welsh Journals

to its doctrines nor its constitutions, nor to its form of worship, but to the ridiculous and wicked policy under which for a century and a half only men ignorant of the Welsh language and sentiment were appointed to be its Bishops. Assuming that to be correct, the system which denied Home Rule to Wales must be held responsible. It is impossible to conceive that any sort of Welsh Parliament, however narrow might have been the franchise on which its members were elected, would have tolerated an abuse fatal to the success of the Welsh Church as a spiritual body and grossly unjust to the Welsh Clergy themselves. I pass to another question. But for the introduction of English law into Wales, under the statutes of Henry VIII., to which I have referred, the Welsh land question would have developed on lines conformable to ancient Welsh custom. The result of the introduction of the English land laws into Wales, with its logical sequence of enclosure Acts, has been that of the 1 ,698,827 acres of un- claimed land, which existed Wales in 1795, only 693,828 remain, while a Royal Commission in 1895 reported that the legal relations between landlord and tenant in Wales called urgently for remedial legislation, legislation which the Imperial Parliament has not yet effected. The question of Education presents an even clearer case. Here the Imperial Parliament has passed legislation, but the system which it established has failed to give satisfaction. It is felt that it is too much bound by irrational red tape to the English Board of Education at Whitehall, and a more national system is demanded. Only a Welsh Parliament can supply that system. When we contrast the failure of the ecclesiastical land and educational system, which have been under the control of English administrators, with the success of institutions worked purely in Wales by Welsh- men, like the Eisteddfod and the Sunday School, we are forced to the conclusion that Wales can manage her local affairs better than they can be managed for her. When these affairs are managed from English Government offices, there is confusion, dissatisfaction, failure. When the sole responsibility for them is with the Welsh people, there is success and satisfaction. There remains the question of the future. Among all parties it is agreed that after the War there must be social reconstruction. The question is shall Wales undertake its work of reconstruction, or shall it be undertaken for it SIANI. O benyd pob trybini-ac alaeth Colyn pob caledi, Mae'n swynion mynwes Siani Hafan deg i fenaid i. by a bureaucracy in London ? If the latter course is adopted, certain high placed persons will see that Wales gets what they think is good for it, whether she likes it or not. Is it probable that an English Office will realise the position of the Welsh farmer who has purchased his homestead, of the Welsh miner who has other ideals than the state nationalisation of the mines ? Would not both the farmer and the miner, and may I add the landowner and the capita- list, come to a more satisfactory and permanent settlement of differences if they discussed these matters among them- selves, than if a solution was forced upon them by the young aristocratic proteges of Lord Milner riding rough shod over Welsh sentiment from the English bureaucratic fortresses of Whitehall. The attempt to reconstruct Welsh social life after the Napoleonic war produced the discontent that culminated in the Rebecca riots. The principles of the servile state, borrowed from Germany, are the alterna- tive to Welsh Home Rule, and if Wales does not get self- government, she has nothing to which to look forward, politically, except on the one hand the Prussian bureau- cratic system of Lord Milner, or the socialistic bureaucratic system of Mr. Sidney Webb, either of which if seriously tried will bring back the days of Rebecca and her daughters. J. Arthur Price. Postcript.-Since this article was written several events have occurred. The Prime Minister has visited Wales and received a well-deserved ovation. Unhappily he did not use the opportunity to explain away his unfortunate reply to the Brassey deputation, and to apply the principles of the Allies' War aims to the national problems of the British Isles. Meanwhile the claims of the Czech-Slovaks of Bohemia to independence have been recognised as one of the Allies' War aims. At the same time the Govern- ment pursue in Ireland precisely the same policy as Count Czernin adopted in Bohemia, governing the majority of the population by martial law and favouring the loyalist minority. Meanwhile, no promise is made to Wales that she shall receive after the War the limited amount of autonomy that the Czech-Slovaks in Bohemia enjoyed in theory before the War commenced. Those who, like the present writer, have supported the War as a war for little nations cannot view the situation with equanimity. It reminds one too much of Mr. Jellaby. Rhosyr. Y MEDDWYN ANEDIFEIRIOL. Ddoe yn gwatwar a gwario,-meddw oedd, Meddw heddyw eto A meddw fydd, medda fo. Nes i bridd ei sobreiddio. Gwilym Deudraeth.