5-15-53

553129

THE

CAMBRIAN

QUARTERLY MAGAZINE

AND

Celtic Repertory.

No. 9.-JANUARY 1, 1831.-VOL. III.

THE LITERARY AND TRANSLATION SOCIETY OF WALES. PREVIOUSLY to entering upon the above, in our opinion, very important subject, we feel it to be incumbent on us to offer a few explanatory remarks, on our own account, relative to our advocacy of an Institution entitled "the Literary and Translation Society of Wales," apprehensive as we are that such advocacy may be sufficient to strengthen an erroneous conclusion adopted by some of our English contemporaries, who, we have reason to suspect, have, through misconception of our motives, refrained from rendering us our fair meed of approbation; and who, in many instances, have openly taxed the "Cambrian Quarterly" with a tendency to perpetuate narrow prejudices, and to foster national antipathies by the tenor of several of its articles, and more especially, advocating the revival, or rather the preservation from total oblivion, of the ancient Welsh language; they, the said critics, having long since come to the conclusion, that the sooner this remaining mark of distinction between the two people is obliterated, the better. Upon this latter point, however, as a general proposition, we, for our part, are well contented to join issue, as will be sufficiently manifest from a perusal of our present paper; to the confutation of the minor charges we shall, in these our introductory observations, confine ourselves. The difficulty in disproving charges of the vague and general nature of those urged against us must be fully apparent: we can only meet them by challenging our accusers to point out any page in our periodical which can be justly accused of having a tendency to strengthen narrow prejudices or national antipathy: have we not argued with the black-lettered Welsh scholar upon the absurdity of continuing an exclusive system: and protested against his impatience

NO. IX.

B

at the mere introduction, in our pages, of an atom of matter foreign to his own abstruse and exclusive lucubrations? Have we not lectured the self-sufficient borderer, and taught him to grant somewhat of the attributes of humanity to his "more simple brethren of the west?" Have we not, to the utmost, controverted the mis-statements of a certain Edinburgh dictator (occasionally very clever, but always very conceited) in his indiscriminate attack upon "Celtic character? Have we not travelled into Brittany* for the gratification and, as we trust, the solid information of our readers? Have we not excluded from our pages a most important, and we may add convenient, department of literature-politics, purely because we hate uncharitableness? and have we not altogether, from similar reasons, declined controversy in matters of the sacred writings? Need we further argument to repel the charge of narrow-mindedness, or of being the advocates of national jealousies, or the apologists, much less the fosterers, of national antipathies.

Upon the late all-absorbing, all-important question, namely, the expediency of altering the judicature of Wales, we certainly objected to certain parts of the intended provisions: but this did not prevent our giving the utmost publicity to the arguments of our opponents; should there still exist a suspicion as to our motives, we, once for all, declare that our pages are open to the remarks of those who differ from us on any of these points, nor will we screen ourselves behind the inaccessibility and contemptible affectation of hauteur, so convenient to some periodicals of no mean notoriety, who endeavour to elude the just animadversions of the objects of their attacks by a trick at once unworthy of the free spirit of literary discussion, and unjust towards the community.

Having thus, as we flatter ourselves, fairly exposed the groundless nature of the charges insinuated against us, we shall now proceed to our proposed disquisition of the subject which gave rise to our introductory remarks, namely:

THE LITERARY AND TRANSLATION SOCIETY OF WALES.

This is the society alluded to in the leading article of our Number for last July, and we feel so warmly for its interests, that we shall take this opportunity of obviating a few objections that we have heard made by even intelligent and patriotic men to its proposed proceedings.

In the first place it is remarked that, to publish pamphlets in

We take this opportunity of announcing to our readers that, as we are in possession of a series of original articles on the Scandinavian Mythology, illustrative of the many points of similarity to be observed between the superstitions of the northern Celtic nations and the popular traditions of Wales, we purpose inserting the same in our future numbers, in the hope of supplying a field for the exercise of a very useful and entertaining research.

the Welsh has a tendency to perpetuate that language. To this we will reply in the words of a very acute and philosophical Gaelic grammarian; the situation of the Highlanders is, in this respect, exactly similar to that of our countrymen.

"To those who wish for an uniformity of speech over the whole kingdom, it may not be impertinent to suggest one remark: The more that the human mind is enlightened, the more desirous it becomes of further acquisitions in knowledge. The only channel through which the rudiments of knowledge can be conveyed to the mind of a remote Highlander is the Gaelic language. By learning to read, and understand what he reads, in his native tongue, an appetite is generated for those stores of science which are accessible to him only through the medium of the English language. Hence, an acquaintance with the English is found to be necessary for enabling him to gratify his desire after further attainments. The study of it becomes, of course, an object of importance; it is commenced and prosecuted with increasing diligence. These premises seem to warrant a conclusion which might at first appear paradoxical, that, by cultivating the Gaelic, you effectually, though indirectly, promote the study, and diffuse the knowledge, of the English."

We decidedly think that the advantages of this "uniformity" of languages have been very much overrated, and that, chiefly, by a sort of confusion of terms; it seems universally taken for granted, by those who advocate the abolition of old dialects, that you will thus give the peasantry of the districts in which they prevail, all the illumination that belongs to the higher ranks of England. The fact, of course, is, that you merely put them on a level with the English populace, who, according to the authority of many English tourists in Wales, are inferior in morals, and inferior in intelligence to the lower ranks in the Principality.

Whether the Welsh language should be preserved, or whether it should be forgotten, is, however, a question into which we shall not at present enter; we think that the best answer to vague and indefinite questions like this is found in the principle of the Society: "enlighten the people, and they will judge what is most conducive to their own individual interests better far than we can judge for them." If the Welsh language be a needless distinction of dialect in the empire, it is neither wicked nor dangerous, it bodes no evil to the state or to individuals; if the lower orders cling to it with what may be thought, by some, a bigotted pertinacity, the feeling with which they do so is an excellent and an amiable one, and our aim should be not to discourage their patriotic affections, but to direct them to a nobler ambition. We believe that there is scarcely one of those public-spirited gentlemen who have been represented as advocates for the preservation, and even the extension, of the Welsh language, who ever was deluded into the adoption of any such wild and sweeping proposition. Their whole argument is exclusively negative: they deny that a change

Elements of Gaelic Grammar, by Alexander Stewart, minister of the Gospel, at Dingwall.

of language can be beneficial when purchased at the expense of many of the very best feelings of the people; they have contended that such a change ought not to be wrought by teaching the people to be ashamed of their country, but by satisfying them that the adoption of a different language will enable them more effectually to do honour to her. To those who entertain these opinions, therefore, we feel that our appeal will meet with the most fervent attention; they will perceive that whatever may be the result in this respect of the labours of the Society, it cannot lead to lowering the standard of patriotic sentiment, and should increased knowledge, according to the opinion of the Gaelic philologist, lead to the abandonment of our venerable language in the common intercourse of life, our peasantry will ever look back upon it with warm veneration, not only as the dialect of their forefathers, but as the instrument of first communicating to them the elements of modern erudition: though the Cambro-British dialect may perish as a living language, it will never be regarded as a mark of barbarism.

We will now make a few observations on sentiments of a different character, though they also are sometimes entertained by men who wish well to their country. It is by them objected, "why do you not publish your pamphlets in English? the peasantry are, in many instances, taught English in the schools, and they can read works in the latter tongue with equal profit and pleasure?" Our only reply to this is in the simple fact, that the peasantry, as might naturally have been expected, read with more fondness works written in their mother tongue, as a proof of which we need only mention the well-known circumstance, that no less than fourteen periodicals in the Welsh language issue monthly from the press. We feel thoroughly convinced that this system of forcing the English language upon the people on all occasions, in season and out of season, in the service of the church and in the schools, is attended with every possible evil effect, and with no good one: it heightens their foolish prejudices against Englishmen : it makes them hate the English language itself, for the same reason that a schoolboy is taught to detest Latin: it stupifies them, and disgusts them with learning, generally, because it is presented to them, in the first instance, in a most ungracious manner, and encumbered with a wanton superfluity of difficulties.

Our Welsh witnesses are sometimes suspected of a disposition to prevaricate, because, after having declined to give testimony in English, they betray a considerable knowledge of that language. But they are all the time acting a wise and conscientious part; no man ought to trust the expression of difficult or momentous topics to any other language than his mother tongue, or to one with all the metaphysical niceties of which he is equally familiar. The same principle applies precisely to education: we have heard a gentleman of considerable scientific acquirements, and whom we