Chapter X (1)

I seemed to myself to have made a leap in life when I returned to school. I no longer felt as a boy. Uncle Jack, out of his own purse, had presented me with my first pair of Wellington boots; my mother had been coaxed into allowing me a small tail to jackets hitherto tailless; my collars, which had been wont, spaniel-like, to flap and fall about my neck, now, terrier-wise, stood erect and rampant, encompassed with a circumvallation of whalebone, buckram, and black silk. I was, in truth, nearly seventeen, and I gave myself the airs of a man. Now be it observed, that that crisis in adolescent existence wherein we first pass from Master Sisty into Mr Pisistratus, or Pisistratus Caxton, Esq.--wherein we arrogate, and with tacit concession from our elders, the long envied title of "young man"--always seems a sudden and imprompt up-shooting and elevation. We do not mark the gradual preparations thereto; we remember only one distinct period in which all the signs and symptoms burst and effervesced together;--Wellington boots, tail, stiffener, down on the upper lip, thoughts on razors, reveries on young ladies, and a new kind of sense of poetry.

I began now to read steadily, to understand what I did read, and to cast some anxious looks towards the future, with vague notions that I had a place to win in the world, and that nothing is to be won without perseverance and labour; and so I went on till I was seventeen, and at the head of the school, when I received the two letters I subjoin.

1.--FROM AUGUSTINE CAXTON, ESQ.

"MY DEAR SON,--I have informed Dr Herman that you will not
return to him after the approaching holidays. You are old
enough now to look forward to the embraces of our beloved
Alma Mater, and I think studious enough to hope for the
honours she bestows on her worthier sons. You are already
entered at Trinity,--and in fancy I see my youth return to
me in your image. I see you wandering where the Cam steals
its way through those noble gardens; and, confusing you with
myself, I recall the old dreams that haunted me when the
chiming bells swung over the placid waters. 'Verum
secretumque _Mouseion_, quam multa dictatis, quam multa
invenitis!' There, at that illustrious college, unless the
race has indeed degenerated, you will measure yourself with
young giants. You will see those who, in the Law, the
Church, the State, or the still cloisters of Learning, are
destined to become the eminent leaders of your age. To rank
amongst them you are not forbidden to aspire; he who in
youth 'can scorn delight, and love laborious days,' should
pitch high his ambition.

"Your Uncle Jack says he has done wonders with his
newspaper,--though Mr Rollick grumbles, and declares it is
full of theories, and that it puzzles the farmers. Uncle
Jack, in reply, contends that he creates an audience, not
addresses one,--and sighs that his genius is thrown away in
a provincial town. In fact, he really is a very clever man,
and might do much in London, I dare say. He often comes over
to dine and sleep, returning the next morning. His energy is
wonderful, and--contagious. Can you imagine that he has
actually stirred up the flame of my vanity, by constantly
poking at the bars? Metaphor apart--I find myself collecting
all my notes and common-places, and wondering to see how
easily they fall into method, and take shape in chapters and
books. I cannot help smiling when I add, that I fancy I am
going to become an author; and smiling more when I think
that your Uncle Jack should have provoked me into so
egregious an ambition. However, I have read some passages of
my book to your mother, and she says "it is vastly fine,"
which is encouraging. Your mother has great good sense,
though I don't mean to say that she has much
learning,--which is a wonder, considering that Pic de la
Mirandola was nothing to her father. Yet he died, dear great
man, and never printed a line,--while I--positively I blush
to think of my temerity!

"Adieu, my son; make the best of the time that remains with
you at the Philhellenic. A full mind is the true Pantheism,
_plena Jovis_. Wherever there is knowledge, there is God. It
is only in some corner of the brain which we leave empty,
that Vice can obtain a lodging. When she knocks at your
door, my son, be able to say, 'No room for your
ladyship,--pass on.'--Your affectionate father,

"A. CAXTON."

* * * * *

2.--FROM MRS CAXTON.

"MY DEAREST SISTY,--You are coming home!--My heart is so
full of that thought that it seems to me as if I could not
write any thing else. Dear child, you are coming home;--you
have done with school, you have done with strangers,--you
are our own, all our own son again! You are mine again, as
you were in the cradle, the nursery, and the garden, Sisty,
when we used to throw daisies at each other! You will laugh
at me so, when I tell you, that as soon as I heard you were
coming home for good, I crept away from the room, and went
to my drawer where I keep, you know, all my treasures. There
was your little cap that I worked myself, and your poor
little nankeen jacket that you were so proud to throw
off--oh! and many other relics of you when you were little
Sisty, and I was not that cold formal 'Mother' you call me
now, but dear 'Mamma.' I kissed them, Sisty, and said 'My
little child is coming back to me again!' So foolish was I,
I forgot all the long years that have passed, and fancied I
could carry you again in my arms, and that I should again
coax you to say 'God bless papa.' Well, well! I write now
between laughing and crying. You cannot be what you were,
but you are still my own dear son--your father's son--dearer
to me than all the world--except that father.

"I am so glad, too, that you will come so soon: come while
your father is really warm with his book, and while you can
encourage and keep him to it. For why should he not be great
and famous? Why should not all admire him as we do? You know
how proud of him I always was; but I do so long to let the
world know _why_ I was so proud. And yet, after all, it is
not only because he is so wise and learned,--but because he
is so good, and has such a large noble heart. But the heart
must appear in the book too, as well as the learning. For
though it is full of things I don't understand, every now
and then there _is_ something I do understand--that seems as
if that heart spoke out to all the world.

"Your uncle has undertaken to get it published; and your
father is going up to town with him about it, as soon as the
first volume is finished.

"All are quite well except poor Mrs Jones, who has the ague
very bad indeed; Primmins has made her wear a charm for it,
and Mrs Jones actually declares she is already much better.
One can't deny that there may be a great deal in such
things, though it seems quite against the reason. Indeed
your father says, 'Why not? A charm must be accompanied by a
strong wish on the part of the charmer that it may
succeed,--and what is magnetism but a wish?' I don't quite
comprehend this; but, like all your father says, it has more
than meets the eye, I am quite sure.

"Only three weeks to the holidays, and then no more school,
Sisty--no more school! I shall have your room all done
freshly, and made so pretty; they are coming about it
to-morrow.

"The duck is quite well, and I really don't think it is
quite as lame as it was.

"God bless you, dear, dear child!--Your affectionate happy
mother,

"K. C."

The interval between these letters and the morning on which I was to return home, seemed to me like one of those long, restless, yet half dreamy days which in some infant malady I had passed in a sick-bed. I went through my task-work mechanically, composed a Greek ode in farewell to the Philhellenic, which Dr Herman pronounced a _chef-d'œuvre_, and my father, to whom I sent it in triumph, returned a letter of false English with it, that parodied all my Hellenic barbarisms by imitating them in my mother tongue. However, I swallowed the leek, and consoled myself with the pleasing recollection that, after spending six years in learning to write bad Greek, I should never have any further occasion to avail myself of so precious an accomplishment.

And so came the last day. Then, alone, and in a kind of delighted melancholy, I revisited each of the old haunts. The robbers' cave we had dug one winter, and maintained, six of us, against all the police of the little kingdom. The place near the pales where I had fought my first battle. The old beech stump on which I sate to read letters from home!

With my knife, rich in six blades, (besides a cork-screw, a pen-picker, and a button-hook,) I carved my name in large capitals over my desk. Then night came, and the bell rang, and we went to our rooms. And I opened the window and looked out. I saw all the stars, and wondered which was mine--which should light to fame and fortune the manhood about to commence. Hope and Ambition were high within me;--and yet, behind them, stood Melancholy. Ah! who amongst you, readers, can now summon back all those thoughts, sweet and sad--all that untold, half-conscious regret for the past--all those vague longings for the future, which made a poet of the dullest amongst you on the last night before leaving boyhood and school for ever!

EDUCATION IN WALES.[2]

[2] _Reports of the Commissioners of Inquiry into the State of
Education in Wales, appointed by the Committee of Council on
Education._ Parts I. II. III. 1847.

That it is the duty of a wise and foreseeing government to inquire into the condition of whatever affects the well-being of the people, is almost a political truism, and may certainly be received as a political axiom. More especially, however, when the subject is one of such vital importance as education, does such an inquiry become necessary: and, in truth, the leaders of the state cannot be considered as doing their duty, unless they make themselves acquainted with the practical bearings and results of the system, whatever it may be, that exists. Not that the government of this country, until very recent periods at least, ever troubled themselves with such matters: the more direct political business of the state, the clash of parties, and the struggle for power, absorbed their whole attention; and education was left, as a matter of private and local concern, to the clergy and the gentry exclusively. The voluntary system, superinduced upon the country by the indolence or neglect of those who held the reins of authority, was allowed to remain in unaided operation as far as education was concerned; and until the establishing of National Schools, as they are commonly termed, and for some time after that event, the governments that followed each other in the dingy recesses of Downing Street cared no more for village schoolmasters, and knew no more about them, than they did about village blacksmiths. It was enough if the people went on tolerably well, and paid their taxes; whether they learned any thing at school, or whether they had schools in which any thing might be learned, was, at head-quarters, a matter of no moment. Most of the upper classes of the nation were of the same feeling--the middle classes, too, folded their arms and looked on.[3] Had it not been for the force of events, and the efforts of a few energetic men, education had been shelved, as a musty useless topic, for an indefinite period.

[3] This, it will be understood, does not apply to Scotland,--where
education has been a very popular interest for nearly two centuries
back.

Now, however, in this forty-eighth year of the nineteenth century, it is viewed in a far different light. The middle classes have begun to take up the matter as they had never done before,--"purging and unsealing their long abused sight" to the manifold advantages involved in it for themselves; while the upper classes look more to how it fares in this respect with the very poor or the profligate. And so much pressed on this subject, from many quarters, is the government, that neither Lord John Russell, as long as he remains on the Treasury Bench, nor any body else, who may get there, can ever hope to avoid doing something for the education of the people.

There has been a growing sense of the importance of this subject on the part of the nation at large, which has acted on the nervous sensibilities of all occupants of office in later years; and the very force of events themselves, apart from all theoretic reasoning as to expediency or the contrary, has compelled each successive government to look after the schoolmaster, and even to send him abroad in the world, though at the risk of making him the laughing-stock of his scholars for want of due preparation.

We do not purpose to write the history of the educational movement of this realm since the middle of the eighteenth century--volumes might be compiled on the topic, and it would still remain unexhausted.

There are, however, two things which we would point out to the attention of our readers. The first is, that the constituted authorities of this country and the legislature, ever since the time of the Reformation, have acted too much upon the principle that the ecclesiastical establishments of the nation, aided by the Foundation schools of the land, not only were sufficient to attend to the moral and religious welfare of the community, but that they actually did effect this end, and that they did bring up the people in the right way; whereas we now know, that not only has the constitution of the ecclesiastical revenues and administration been lamentably unequal and ineffective, but that provisions for teaching, upon a general and effective plan, could hardly be said to exist. At all events, when the population began to increase rapidly--when the great movement of the Methodists took place in England--and later, when religious dissent not only reared its hydra head, but became encouraged in high places--the nation seemed all at once to start from its lethargy, and to inquire into what means it possessed for enlightening and civilising the humblest classes of its children; and, when it did so inquire, those means were found wanting.

Again, in these our own days, when crime is shown to be increasing in a much faster ratio than either the enormous wealth or the already great population of the country; and when legal inquirers have traced back adult crime to puerile and even infantine neglect and ignorance; when the brutality of the people shows itself at every man's door and homestead, in the burning of farming-stock or the destruction of machinery and dwelling-houses, and makes itself to be paid for in the form of constantly increasing poor-rates,--in times such as these, it behoves every man, who has any thing to dread from the insurrectionary rising of the lower classes, to look sharply around him, and to see how best the sources of the evil torrent may be dried up; where the strongest dam may be thrown across its impetuous course, and into what side-channels its blind strength may be diverted. It behoves every thoughtful lover of his country to consider well how the innate national energies of his fellow countrymen may be improved, humanised, and directed to proper objects; and how the mass of the people, instead of being dreaded as a mob of hungry, savage levellers, may come to be looked on as the broad basis and support of the whole national edifice. And this is to be effected by attending, not merely to the physical and material well-being of the people, but by giving well directed and unceasing diligence to the promotion of "true religion and sound knowledge" among them. We maintain that hitherto, and even at the present time, the public constituted means for attaining this important end have been, and are, altogether insufficient; and we further maintain, that the necessity of making some adequate provision is increasing every day, and cannot long be postponed without imminent danger to the community.

We would also beg our readers to observe that, in the case of these commissions of inquiry into the existing state of education in any given district, but especially in Wales, the commissioners had not got to look into what the existing government, or previous governments, had done, nor into how their systems acted--those governments had done nothing, and they had no system; but they rather went to see what the people, abandoned to their own resources by the state, which ought to have aided them, had been able to effect out of their own means and goodwill, and to witness the results of the voluntary and fortuitous systems which were then in full and unaided operation. Whatever causes of blame and offence the commissioners might meet with--whatever imperfections, and shortcomings, and ill doings, they might perceive--these could not so much be laid to the blame of the people, as they might in fairness be attributed to the neglect and apathy of the nation at large. It was entirely owing to the private efforts of the people in their various localities, unconnected with each other--to their desultory and varying efforts--that any thing had been done at all. It was obviously better that something should have been done rather than nothing; but the debt of gratitude for the "something" was due to the people--the blame of the "nothing" lay with the legislature and the nation at large.

It would, therefore, be highly unbecoming in such commissioners, to show any flippant petulancy in their animadversions on the generally defective results which the isolated operations of the several parishes and districts might evince. It would behove them to look on with rather a benevolent eye, and to speak with a guarded tongue concerning the evils they might witness. We think they have not altogether shown these qualifications in the Reports now before us; and after perusing them, we rise with the feeling that the commissioners seem to have thought themselves authorised to find out how far the various teachers, &c., had neglected duties imposed on them by the public, and that they had expected to find perfection pervading the country; whereas they should have anticipated that imperfection and neglect would prove to be the rule--perfection and care the few and distant exceptions.

It is by no means so easy to inspect a school, or to find out the knowledge and the modes of thinking of young people, as might be supposed. It is not to be done by any one stalking stiffly into a school-room, giving himself the airs of a Dr Busby, and putting questions with the consequence of an examiner in the schools at Oxford. The very idea of a stranger being in the room, and much more of one authorised to examine, is enough to dislocate the thoughts of children, older and riper than village boys and girls commonly are; and the mere interruption of the usual formalities of class arrangement and class work is sufficient to break up the discipline which, in all parochial schools at least, rests upon a very precarious and doubtful basis. Much less is it possible, by a flying visit of one, or two, or three hours, to get at a true perception of what the average knowledge of children may be fairly rated at: it is only by repeated and patient inspection that the ordinary amount of work done, and knowledge gained, can be discovered. The young mind, too, does not commonly retain facts--it rather receives general impressions, and, though this is not produceable knowledge, it is, nevertheless, information, and cultivation of the mental powers, and formation of the character, not without great value. But because a child cannot answer certain questions at a certain time and place, it does not therefore follow that it is ignorant of the subject. The thoughts cannot be concentrated, the powers of the memory and of expression have not been sufficiently cultivated; the faculty of reproduction, and the method of arrangement and classification of ideas, do not exist. It is impossible for such a child to pass through the ordeal. And yet the common expression of young people, when the question they could not answer is explained for them--"Oh yes! I knew that--only I could not remember it," tells the whole truth, and reveals at once the constitution and the weakness of their minds. Examinations, unless they immediately follow the subject learnt, are not suited to young children, and may tend to give a false idea of their real acquirements. But, if to this dread of answering questions be added the awe arising from an examiner's--a strange examiner's presence, the physical impossibility of obtaining satisfactory replies is thereby confirmed. We remember it in our own case at school; in the presence of the university examiner, who periodically visited us, it was

"Obstupui, steteruntque comæ; vox faucibus hæsit;"

and even in the schools of adolescent life, the examiners put us many a stiff question in Plato and Aristotle at which we hung our heads and stammered out nonsense; but which, as soon as we got back to our rooms in college, came to our memory in provoking vividness.

The commissioners seem to have hoped for unimpeachable examinations--and in almost every case they were disappointed: they could often hardly get a reply to the commonest questions. Much of this arose from their examining chiefly in subjects that were taught in a foreign language. But of this more anon.

The nature and object of this inspection of Welsh schools are sufficiently explained in the instructions from Mr Kay Shuttleworth, the secretary to the Committee of Council, which preface the first of the three goodly volumes to which these Reports extend. These instructions say:--

"Attention was called, during the last session of
parliament, to the state of education in Wales, by a motion
in the house of commons, for an address to the Queen,
praying her majesty 'to direct an inquiry to be made into
the state of education in the principality of Wales,
especially into the means afforded to the labouring classes
of acquiring a knowledge of the English language.'

"The secretary of state for the home department undertook on
that occasion, on behalf of her majesty's late government,
that such an inquiry should be instituted, and he intimated
that it should be conducted under the authority of the
committee of council on education.

"The object of your commission is, to ascertain, as
accurately as circumstances will permit, the existing number
of schools of all descriptions, for the education of the
children of the labouring classes, or of adults--the amount
of attendance--the ages of the scholars--and the character
of the instruction given in the schools; in order that her
majesty's government and parliament may be enabled, by
having these facts before them, in connexion with the wants
and circumstances of the population of the principality, to
consider what measures ought to be taken for the improvement
of the existing means of education in Wales."

It will be perceived from this portion of the instructions, that the inquiries of the Commissioners were to be limited to the schools intended for the lower classes only; and therefore that they would have to look for the workings of the voluntary and the isolated system in its fullest extent. The further definition of the object of the Commission is thus specified:--

"The schools for the instruction of the poorer classes in
Wales have chiefly been erected by private beneficence, and
some have been endowed from the same source; such of them as
have no permanent endowment are supported by the small
payments of the poor, by collections in religious
congregations, and by voluntary subscriptions.

"Their lordships cannot confer on you any absolute authority
to enter into and examine schools, nor to require from any
persons information respecting them which they may be
unwilling to communicate.

"If no objection is made to your visit, you will personally
examine, where practicable, the condition of the school,
keeping in view the following particulars, as those on which
it will be important to obtain correct information:--The
tenure of the school, whether held under a mere temporary
occupation, or secured by deed for ever, or for a term of
years--the capacity of the school-room--the state of the
school furniture and apparatus--the number of the children
on the books--the average attendance--the organisation of
the school, and the methods used--the subjects professed to
be taught--the time allotted to each--the books
used--whether the children are instructed in the Welsh
language, or in the English, or in both--whether in each
case in the grammar or not--the actual condition of their
instruction on all subjects professed to be taught. You will
ascertain the amount and sources of the annual income
available for the necessary expenses; the number of
teachers--their ages--whether trained at a normal school or
at a model school--for what period, and when. At what age
they commenced their vocation as teachers; their previous
occupation--the salaries of each teacher--their income from
school pence, and other emoluments. Whether they follow any
trade, or hold any other office. Whether they have a house
rent-free, a garden rent-free, fuel, or other emoluments.

"Numerous Sunday-schools have been established in Wales, and
their character and tendencies should not be overlooked, in
an attempt to estimate the provision for the instruction of
the poor. The Sunday-school must be regarded as the most
remarkable, because the most general, spontaneous effort of
the zeal of Christian congregations for education. Its
origin, organisation, and tendencies, are purely religious."

So far so good; the spirit of these instructions is wise and humane; we can only regret that such a commission had not been issued a century earlier. But shortly after, there follows a sentence which, to any one tolerably well acquainted with Wales, must appear at first sight absolutely trivial, and then highly extraordinary:--

"In some parts of the country it will probably be necessary that you should avail yourselves of the services of persons possessing a knowledge of the Welsh language."

Why, of course, when Welsh is the living spoken language of three-fourths of the whole district to be examined, and when English is essentially a foreign language, imperfectly understood in those portions,--in some parts, indeed, hardly at all known,--the very least of the qualifications that we should suppose a commissioner or school inspector ought to possess, would be a good knowledge of the Welsh language. Did, then, the lords of the privy council, composing the committee of education, know so little of the country they wished to have inspected, that they thought it only "probable" that in "some parts" of the country a knowledge of Welsh would be necessary? If they had been sending travelling commissioners to the Continent to inquire into the state of public education in France or Germany, would they then have sent to the former country those who knew no other foreign language than German, and to the latter those who knew none but French? This is a regular piece of official oversight, betraying one-sided and crude views of the subject to be treated; and showing that the examination of it was begun in a hasty and somewhat inconsiderate manner. It might have been predicted that any one not thoroughly conversant with Welsh could never obtain original information for himself, but would have to speak through other people's mouths, hear with their ears, and even see with their eyes. He would never gain the confidence of the people, but would return with an imperfect, and all but a second-hand report. He would resemble the honest tar who, on his return from Cherbourg, gave it as his opinion that the French were the dullest nation on the face of the earth, since they could not speak common English. And so it has actually proved to be the case with these very Commissioners. Not only do we find the main grievance in their reports to be the ignorance of the children in the English language, but the prevalent feeling, all over Wales, is, that these gentlemen have gone out of it nearly as wise, concerning the actual knowledge of the people, as they came into it: and that, could the examinations have been conducted by them in the Welsh tongue, their reports would have assumed a very different character. What? complain of children not twelve years of age for not comprehending questions addressed to them in a foreign language? Bring a French Government inspector of schools from Paris, and set him to examine all the boarding-schools round London in the French tongue, he himself using it all the while for his questions; and then let him go home and declare that not one child in ten knew any thing about what he said to them,--and he would come near the truth;--and very like this is the result of this inspection of Welsh schools by English examiners. The Government, however, do not seem to have learnt wisdom in this respect, for they have very recently appointed, as permanent inspectors for Wales, a gentleman named Morell, and one of the authors of this very report, Mr Symons; neither of whom, we will bet a leek to a potato, can hold a conversation in Welsh.

One of the main difficulties in the way of education in Wales, if not the principal difficulty of all, results from the circumstance that the language of the principality is not that of the rest of the kingdom. To understand this difficulty fully, it must be remembered that the Welsh belong to a race of men essentially and altogether distinct from those that inhabit the lands eastward of Offa's dyke; that the peculiarities of national character which subsist among them have been only in a very small part removed by amalgamation of the two races; and that these differences are so wide, and so deeply seated, that here, as elsewhere--wherever, indeed, the Celtic and Teutonic races have been brought into contact,--a struggle and an opposition, a repulsive tendency, more or less open and active, have ever existed, and have brought about the subjugation, the inferiority, and, to a certain degree, the degradation of the former. The Saxons produced few or no results of importance by their attacks on the Welsh; the hardy mountaineers generally gave them as much as they brought; and, had they been doomed to meet with no men of sterner stuff, they would still have held their own in unbroken integrity. But the energy of the Normans, their fire and gallantry, animating and directing the slower impulses of their Teutonic vassals, made the monarch of England at length the conquering sovereign of Wales; and, from that moment, with the transient exception of Owen Glyndwr's bright resistance, Wales not only became the conquered and suffering country, but showed all the symptoms of it, and brought forth all its fruits. The higher classes either became replaced by Anglo-Norman nobles, or imitated both their customs and their language;--many of the largest landed proprietors no longer resided in the principality; and those who did, held themselves far above their Celtic vassals in proud and domineering exclusiveness. The common people--the mass of the nation, including the petty free-holders and the remains of the conquered native nobles--formed a national party, ever opposed to their haughty masters; adhered to their national language with the greater devotion, as it was to them the only relic of their former independence; retained their ancient national customs and superstitions; and were content to turn their backs upon the progress of that nation whose power they could not throw off, though the desire to do so remained, and is not, even at the present day, extinguished. The Welsh still call themselves "the Cymry," and the English "the Saeson." They still look on the English as foreigners; and this fact alone speaks volumes as to the antagonism that still subsists between the two races. It is not our intention to go into any discussion upon the political bearings of this state of things: we will only observe, that the gentry and clergy of Wales having mainly carried on their studies in the English language, and having been anxious to do so as a mark of distinction from their humbler neighbours, not only has the Welsh language remained almost stationary since the time of the conquest, but the national mind, the intelligence of the common people, has never kept pace with that of England. Nearly all the literature and science, all the poetry, history, and belles-lettres of the English nation, have been to the Welsh totally unknown. They have never been translated; and, for that very reason, the middle classes of the country, and of course all the lower ones, are, it may be said, almost totally ignorant of them.

Another circumstance tending to this comparative isolation, is the physical formation of the country, which, by keeping the people, down to the present time, fixed to their bleak hills and extensive moorlands, and by discouraging the growth of large towns, has retained the people in a state of primitive agricultural simplicity, which, while it may make them enjoy a certain amount of happiness not inferior to that of their trade-enslaved neighbours, retards them in what we suppose to be the _summum bonum_--the march of civilisation.

The language, the feelings, the aspirations of the Welsh are different from those of the English--altogether different: and the million of inhabitants, who are of Celtic race--just like the two millions of Celts in France who retain the name of Britons; and the seven millions of the Erse in Ireland, who also differ altogether in sympathies, and to a great extent in language, from their conquerors--never will unite with the Saxon race so far as to keep pace with them in what is called "improvement" and "knowledge." This fundamental difference is alone sufficient to account for the different degrees of education in the two countries, even supposing that, after all, this difference should turn out to be less than it is actually supposed to be by her Majesty's inspectors; and it will also account for the immense preponderance of dissent in Wales, and for the pining state of the church. Ever since the time of Henry VIII., the English church has been the church of the conqueror. The conquered have been left to form their own religious creed; and, at the present moment, the Welsh adhere with all the warmth of national enthusiasm, and with all the devotion of a conquered people, to any form of worship but that which they see adopted by the upper classes--by their Anglo-Norman lords and masters. The limits of a review do not allow of our pursuing this portion of the subject to the extent we might wish; but we know that what we have here asserted is at the bottom of some of the main differences between the Welsh and the English characters; and we do not know of any means whereby these causes can be removed, except through the soothing and permuting influence of time. We appeal to the knowledge and experience of the more intelligent of the Welsh gentry for a confirmation of these views; we find ample evidence in support of them in the pages of these very reports. All through these volumes--in almost every page--there is the same complaint that the difference of language impedes the communication of knowledge; and, indeed, we very much doubt whether any _English_ parent or schoolmaster, who wished to convey all ideas of religious and secular knowledge to his children through the medium of the _Welsh_ language,--to be taught them by an _Englishman_,--from the age of eight years old and upwards, would not arrive at the same negative result as the _Welshman_ who makes the same experiment by means of the _English_ tongue.

We may here quote the following important observations from the report of Mr Lingen--by far the most able, and the best digested of the three. And we take the opportunity of pointing out this gentleman's introductory remarks, as conveying the most valuable information which we have met with concerning the actual state of Wales,--as well as for the highly enlightened and philosophic spirit in which they are conceived.

Mr Lingen observes:--

"My district exhibits the phenomenon of a peculiar language
isolating the mass from the upper portion of society; and,
as a further phenomenon, it exhibits this mass engaged upon
the most opposite occupations at points not very distant
from each other; being, on the one side, rude and primitive
agriculturists, living poorly, and thinly scattered; on the
other, smelters and miners, wantoning in plenty, and
congregated in the densest accumulations. An incessant tide
of immigration sets in from the former extreme to the
latter, and, by perpetuating a common character in each,
admits of their being contemplated under a single point of
view. Whether in the country, or among the furnaces, the
Welsh element is never found at the top of the social scale,
nor in its own body does it exhibit much variety of
gradation. In the country, the farmers are very small
holders, in intelligence and capital nowise distinguished
from labourers. In the works, the Welsh workman never finds
his way into the office. He never becomes either clerk or
agent. He may become an overseer or sub-contractor, but this
does not take him out of the labouring and put him into the
administering class. Equally in his new, as in his old,
home, his language keeps him under the hatches, being one in
which he can neither acquire nor communicate the necessary
information. It is a language of old-fashioned agriculture,
of theology, and of simple rustic life, while all the world
about him is English.

"Thus his social sphere becomes one of complete isolation
from all influences, save such as arise within his own
order. He jealously shrinks from holding any communication
with classes either superior to, or different from, himself.
His superiors are content, for the most part, simply to
ignore his existence in all its moral relations. He is left
to live in an under world of his own, and the march of
society goes so completely over his head that he is never
heard of, excepting when the strange and abnormal features
of a revival, or a Rebecca or Chartist outbreak, call
attention to a phase of society which could produce any
thing so contrary to all that we elsewhere experience.

"Cut off from, or limited to a purely material agency in,
the practical world, his mental faculties, so far as they
are not engrossed by the hardships of rustic, or the
intemperance of manufacturing, life, have hitherto been
exerted almost exclusively upon theological ideas. In this
direction too, from causes which it is out of my province to
particularise, he has moved under the same isolating
destiny, and his worship, like his life, has grown different
from that of the classes over him. Nor has he failed of
tangible results in his chosen province of independent
exertion. He has raised the buildings, and maintains the
ministry of his worship over the whole face of his country,
to an extent adequate to his accommodation."

"On the manifold evils inseparable from an ignorance of
English, I found but one opinion expressed on all hands.
They are too palpable, and too universally admitted, to need
particularising. Yet, if interest pleads for English,
affection leans to Welsh. The one is regarded as a new
friend to be acquired for profit's sake; the other as an old
one, to be cherished for himself, and especially not to be
deserted in his decline. Probably you could not find in the
most purely Welsh parts a single parent, in whatever class,
who would not have his child taught English in school; yet
every characteristic development of the social life into
which that same child is born--preaching--prayer-meetings--
Sunday-schools--clubs--biddings--funerals--the denominational
magazine (his only press), all these exhibit themselves to
him in Welsh as their natural exponent, partly, it may be,
from necessity, but, in some degree also, from choice. 'In
the Cymreigyddion (benefit societies) it is _a rule_ that no
English shall be spoken.' It is true that the necessities of
the world more and more force English upon the Welshman; but,
whether he can speak no English, or whether he speaks it
imperfectly, he finds it alike painful to be reminded of his
utter, or to struggle against his partial, inability of
expression. His feelings are impetuous; his imagination
vivid; his ideas (on such topics as he entertains) succeed
each other rapidly. Hence he is naturally voluble, often
eloquent. He possesses a mastery over his own language far
beyond that which the Englishman of the same degree possesses
over his. A certain power of elocution (viz., to pray
'doniol,' as it is called, _i. e._, in a gifted manner), is
so universal in his class that to be without it is a sort of
stigma. Hence, in speaking English, he has at once to forego
the conscious power of displaying certain talents whereon he
piques himself, and to exhibit himself under that peculiar
form of inability which most offends his self-esteem. From
all those favourite scenes of his life, therefore, which can
still be transacted without English, he somewhat eagerly
banishes it as an irksome imposition.

"Through no other medium than a common language can ideas
become common. It is impossible to open formal sluice-gates
for them from one language into another. Their circulation
requires a net-work of pores too minute for analysis, too
numerous for special provision. Without this net-work, the
ideas come into an alien atmosphere in which they are
lifeless. Direct education finds no place, when indirect
education is excluded by the popular language, as it were by
a wall of brass. Nor can an old and cherished language be
_taught down_ in schools; for so long as the children are
familiar with none other, they must be educated to a
considerable extent through the medium of it, even though to
supersede it be the most important part of their education.
Still less, out of school, can the language of lessons make
head against the language of life. But schools are every day
standing less alone in this contest. Along the chief lines
of road, from the border counties, from the influx of
English, or English-speaking labourers, into the iron and
coal-fields--in short from every point of contact with
modern activity, the English tongue keeps spreading, in some
places rapidly, but sensibly in all. Railroads, and the
fuller development of the great mineral beds, are on the eve
of multiplying these points of contact. Hence the
encouragement vigorously to press forward the cause of
popular education in its most advanced form. Schools are not
called upon to impart in a foreign, or engraft upon the
ancient tongue a factitious education conceived under
another set of circumstances (in either of which cases the
task would be as hopeless as the end unprofitable), but to
convey in a language, which is already in process of
becoming the mother tongue of the country, such instruction
as may put the people on a level with that position which is
offered to them by the course of events. If such instruction
contrasts in any points with the tendency of old ideas, such
contrast will have its reflex and its justification in the
visible change of surrounding circumstances."

We find the same statements amply corroborated by the evidence of Mr Symons, another of her Majesty's inspectors. He observes:--

"The Welsh language is a vast drawback to Wales, and a
manifold barrier to the moral progress and commercial
prosperity of the people. It is not easy to overestimate its
evil effects. It is the language of the Cymri, and anterior
to that of the ancient Britons. It dissevers the people from
intercourse which would greatly advance their civilisation,
and bars the access of improving knowledge to their minds.
As a proof of this, there is no Welsh literature worthy of
the name. The only works generally read in the Welsh
language are the Welsh monthly magazines, of which a list
and description are given in the Appendix lettered H. They
are much more talented than any other Welsh works extant,
but convey, to a very limited extent, a knowledge of passing
events, and are chiefly polemical and full of bitter
sectarianism, and indulge a great deal in highly-coloured
caricatures and personality. Nevertheless they have
partially lifted the people from that perfect ignorance and
utter vacuity of thought which otherwise would possess at
least two-thirds of them. At the same time, these
periodicals have used their monopoly as public instructors
in moulding the popular mind, and confirming a natural
partiality for polemics, which impedes the cultivation of a
higher and more comprehensive taste and desire for general
information. This has been conclusively proved by Mr Rees,
the enterprising publisher at Llandovery. He commenced the
publication of a periodical similar to the Penny Magazine,
in the Welsh language, but lost L.200 by it in a year. This
was probably too short a trial of the experiment; but it
sufficiently evinces the difficulty of supplanting an
established taste, by means however inoffensive.

"The evil of the Welsh language, as I have above stated, is
obviously and fearfully great in courts of justice. The
evidence given by Mr Hall (No. 37) is borne out by every
account I have heard on the subject; it distorts the truth,
favours fraud, and abets perjury, which is frequently
practised in courts, and escapes detection through the
loop-holes of interpretation. This public exhibition of
successful falsehood has a disastrous effect on public
morals and regard for truth. The mockery of an English trial
of a Welsh criminal by a Welsh jury, addressed by counsel
and judge in English, is too gross and shocking to need
comment. It is nevertheless a mockery which must continue
until the people are taught the English language; and that
will not be done until there are efficient schools for the
purpose."

The Reverend Mr Griffiths, of the Dissenting college, Brecknock, says:--

"It (the English language) is gaining ground in the border
counties, but not so fast as Englishmen are apt to suppose.
Very few pulpits or Sunday-schools have changed languages
within the memory of man. Until that is done, the English,
however employed in ordinary matters of business, can have
little effect on the formation of character. As to the
desirableness of its being better taught, without entering
on considerations of commerce or general literature,
confessedly important as they are, perhaps you will forgive
my taking an extract from the address published by the
Llandovery conference" [from which the following passage may
be cited]:--"'Hallowed by religion and rich with the magic
of genius and associations of home, it (the Welsh language)
cannot be otherwise than dear to our hearts. It has done
good service in its day, and the sooner that service is
acknowledged, the better for all parties concerned. If die
it must, let it die fairly, peacefully, and reputably.
Attached to it as we are, few would wish to postpone its
euthanasy. But no sacrifice would be deemed too great to
prevent its being murdered. At the best, the vanishing for
ever of a language which has been spoken for thousands of
years is a deeply touching event. There is a melancholy
grandeur in the very idea, to which even its bitterest
enemies cannot be wholly insensible. What, then, must the
actual fact be to those who have worshipped and loved in its
accents from the earliest hours of childhood, and all whose
fondest recollections and hopes are bound up in its
existence?'"

Mr Johnson, the third inspector, publishes a most curious list of all the books now circulating in the Welsh language. They are only 405 in number, and out of these 309 relate to religion or poetry, 50 to scientific subjects, and only the remaining 46 to general subjects. What can be done for the education of a people with such a literature? Evidently nothing, until one of these two contingencies shall take place: either that the people forsake their own language, and adopt English exclusively, or that a very considerable number of the best elementary and educational books in the English language be translated into Welsh, and the people taught in them. Neither of which contingencies are likely to fall out for many generations yet to come; though the latter is clearly possible and desirable; and the former not only impossible except in the lapse of ages, but also, for reasons that we shall advert to hereafter, highly to be deprecated even if it lay within the limits of feasibility.

We now address ourselves to the main features of the reports themselves; and shall begin by observing that each volume consists of an introductory report, followed and supported by an immense mass of detailed evidence, accounts of the examination of each school, and elaborate tables, enough to confound the diligence of the most indefatigable reader, and amply sufficient to satisfy the statistical appetites of Mr Kay Shuttleworth, the secretary of the committee, and Mr Williams, late M.P. for Coventry, in whose motion these volumes originated.

The first volume (Mr Lingen's) contains 62 pages of introductory report, and 492 of evidence and tables. The second volume, (Mr Symons's,) 68 of report, and 266 of evidence, &c.; and the third, (Mr Johnson's,) which is the volume devoted to North Wales, has also 68 of report, and 358 of evidence.

The reports of nearly all the schools, with very few and widely-scattered exceptions, run all on the same themes; the inability of the children to answer the examiner's questions, and their ignorance, bad pronunciation, bad syntax, &c., of the English language. We know for a fact, on the other hand, that the returns of the inspectors are disputed in a great number of cases by competent judges residing in or near the parishes where the examinations took place; and that the inspectors are accused of having conducted their examinations not only in an off-hand flippant manner, with much precipitancy, but with a method so decidedly English, and therefore foreign, as at once to unnerve both the children and the schoolmasters, and thus to have produced the most negative and unfavourable results possible. In a great many instances, too, the inspectors are accused of having made erroneous returns. We have been ourselves at the pains to make inquiries into these points, but for the very obvious reason of not wishing to involve ourselves in controversy, we abstain from discussing the evidence, especially with three lawyers for our antagonists: we leave this task to the Welsh local press, which has been for some time past running a-muck at them, and is disposed to devour them--reports, pens, ink, wigs, gowns, and all. We shall content ourselves with stating, that we know of one instance in which the inspector has sent in a very unfavourable report of a considerable school, which had been thoroughly and patiently examined only a few weeks before by one of the Welsh bishops, aided by some local clergymen, in the presence of a large concourse of the laity, and when the result had turned out to be highly creditable both to the teachers and the scholars. In the latter case, the children had been questioned both in Welsh and English by Welsh people, and by people whom they knew and were not afraid of. In the former, they had been examined by one of her Majesty's inspectors, learned in the law, but not in the Welsh language, nor in the art of conciliating the Welsh people. We shall take instances from each of the three reports, diving into these parliamentary folios quite at hazard, and fishing up the first returns that meet our eye: they will give some idea of the inspectors' skill, and of the condition of the schools.

Mr Lingen reports as follows of a school in the parish of Llangwnnor, Carmarthenshire.