Welsh Journals

vants in London that have caused great pain to many an honest and Christian Welsh girl in London, and have exposed them to cruel taunts from their fellow English servants. A Welsh Labour M.P., to his honour, made a protest in the Commons on the matter, Mr. Saunders Lewis of the little Welsh Nationalist Party, sent a spirited protest to the Home Office, but the Welsh Liberal M.P.'s remained dumb. Their bigotry, it would seem, so enthralls their minds that they have no time for chivalry. What, I may ask in conclusion, have they done for Welsh Home Rule, to which most of them are pledged, or what word have they said in support of the demand of the Educational Commission for the use of the Welsh language in schools? I think that I have proved my case. The Welsh University Colleges have sent men to Parliament, who, in the main, have proved themselves more bigoted, more reactionary and less patriotic than the members whom the older ecclesiastical system trained. But here one exception must be made. My friend, Major John Edwards, a distinguished alumnus of Aberystwyth, a gallant soldier, and a former Member of Parliament, has, by his acceptance of membership of the Welsh Nation- alist Party, proved that the Welsh University can educate a man who cares for Wales as the men of olden times cared for her. I recognise STUDIES OF RURAL WALES-IV by R. Alun Roberts, Ph.D. THE Wars of the Roses and the close of the fifteenth century saw the passing of much of the power that had grown around the Baron and his landed interest since the Conquest. With his decline the Church in turn acquired strength and power, arrogating unto itself many of the privileges that hitherto had been the pre- rogative of the territorial lord. With the rise of the bishop and the lesser church dignitaries in this displacement, we find by the beginning of the six- teenth century that many of the old dues levied upon commote and township under the laws were in the hands of the Church. Meanwhile the monastic institutions in Wales had been slowly undergoing a change. And the manner of the change over from the old order of the primitive Celtic change to the regime of Rome under the Normans is no less eloquent of Norman statesmanship, and no more alien to our main thesis in these articles, than the parallel imposition of the manorial system of land tenure instituted by them, and already outlined in a previous num- ber of this journal. the possibility that the Welsh University will, after all, rally to the Welsh Nationalist Party, and that the present Parliamentary representa- tion of Wales may be remembered by men and women of tolerance and culture as only an un-- happy aftermath of the war. But I am dealing with the present of Mr Hopkin Morris and not with the future of Mr Saunders Lewis. At the same time, that I may not be misunderstood, let me say that in my view the new Welsh educa- tional system has generally conferred untold blessings on the Welsh people. In particular, its services to women's education are above praise. But the hard fact remains, that so far as the Welsh University is represented in Par- liament, it is, in the main, represented by men who, to judge by their votes and their actions, are as deficient in Welsh patriotism as they are conspicuous by religious intolerance. I have spoken plainly on this matter because I feel deeply. My hope still is that the defect to which I have drawn attention may soon pass away, and that in the days to come, so long as Wales is represented in the House of Commons, its University may send men who will combine with the religious tolerance and culture of men like Mathew Arnold and Caird, the patriotism of Tom Ellis and Llewelyn Williams. The Norman order favoured the larger and more powerful monastic institution. A multi- plicity of small houses, widely scattered amongst a subject people, was not conducive to solidarity, neither did it contribute to that loyalty which was difficult to win and to maintain where ground had to be gained and held along a broken front in a heterogeneity of provinces. The manner of the conversion and amalgamation is surpassing strange, but we cannot enter into details of it here. It maybe happened that many of the lesser institutions were, from time to time, suppressed on the score of disloyalty and subversiveness on the apparent pretence of being merged in the larger ones. In passing, it may be mentioned that in time the Norman monastic orders felt 't was fitting that they should be possessed of a worthy deed of title to these smaller territorial accretions. The charters purporting this convey- ance by the authority of Llewelyn the Great are more eloquent of eagerness for completion than they are of regard for the strict historical implica- tions involved.