Welsh Journals

VOLUME XV THE NUMBER I WELSH OUTLOOK Where there is no vision the people perish NOTES OF THE MONTH LORD Kenyon was a national figure of genuine significance, and his death has left a serious gap in that small group of our national leaders who prefer to do silent, solid work for the public weal than to devote their energies to the search for fame or personal gain. According to his strength, here was a man whose pride it was to help, and by helping to lead. He would have been the last to claim a profound knowledge, or a direct experience, of the intrica- cies and refinements of university organization. but he was ready at all times to give ear to those who knew. It was this great gift, combined with his geniality, good humour and good sense, and with his sincere devotion to the task, that enabled him to reach and to keep for many years of crucial importance his posi- tron as the accepted lay reader of the Uni- versity of Wales. Time was, as we well know, when our leaders in almost every walk of life were to be found among the "goreugwyr". Lord Kenyon showed himself to be a true de- scendant of the old Welsh aristocracy, from which he took his roots. In this he did not, of course, stand absolutely alone among the aris- tocracy of our own day. But how few of his compeers have yet seen as clearly as did he that modern Wales, too, is worthy of the best service that her most highlv favoured sons can offer! His life's work was worth much to Wales. His life's example may eventually prove to be worth even more. What is needed is that those of his own class should read aright the lesson of his life. Next month we hope to publish an apprecia- tion of Lord Kenyon bv Sir Harry Reichel, than whom no one has a more intimate knowledge of the great work accomplished by the late Pro- Chancellor. JANUARY 1928 THE Deposited Prayer Book, much to the surprise of most people who think con- ventionally, after an easy passage through the House of Lords has been rejected by a com- fortable majority in the House of Commons. We believe that most of its friends feared complica- tions in the Upper House, but easy acquiescence in the Lower. Things, however, never are what they seem. In the subsequent torrent of Press correspondence a great deal has been made of the fact that it was rejected in effect by the votes of Scotch and Welsh members. On the broad con- stitutional issue there is no substance in this argument, as some of the most eminent sup- porters of the Prayer Book have quite clearly declared even in the hour of their black disap- pointment. As long as a Church accepts what in the old days were the generous privileges of Establishment, but which for generations have been becoming leaner and leaner, it must also at the same time accept on occasion quite brutal interference by the representatives of the people generally in the State Legislature. Some of us might be inclined to say that Wales, having secured disestablishment within its own borders, might have stood aside in this conflict. But the fact remains that, rightly or wrongly, the repre- sentatives of Wales still assemble not in Glyn- dwr's Parliament House at Machynlleth, but in the Royal Palace at Westminster. There they had the right, and, indeed, if they considered an issue of constitutional principle was involved, the obligation to take a side. Most of those who voted were avowed Liberationists, and as they obviously thought that the question of Establish- ment was, at any rate, indirectly involved, they followed Sir William Joynson-Hicks into this lobby. It was unfortunate that they went into the