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ADGOFION AM DR. JOSEPH PARRY.

LORD JUSTICE VAUGHAN WILLIAMS…

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LORD JUSTICE VAUGHAN WILLIAMS ON WELSH NATIONALITY. Lord Justice Vaughan Williams delivered an eloquent address at the banquet of the Cardiff Cymmrodorion the other day. He thought," he said, that they must all rejoice that the Principality was at the present moment in this, one of the greatest Empires that the world had ever seen, still a partner exercising an effective initiative, at all events, as to things that par- ticularly concerned Wales. "It might not seem to some of them very wonderful or very difficult that Wales should have attained such a position, but he thought they would see that it was not easy for Wales to attain such a position. Wherever they had got a composite state consisting of several different sections, they were perfectly certain to find a strong tendency to centralisation, and he thought centralisation was a bad thing for the empire or state in which it existed. It was not only true of autocracies, but it was equally true of a con- stitutional Government and of a Republic. It was a wonderful thing that Wales, notwithstand- ing its tendency to centralise, should still have .P: Retained its Position as an effective power for initiative in this Empire. He claimed that the fact that Wales had such an initiative was not only good for the Welsh as being the best means for improving their local needs, but it was good for the Empire at large. He was going to point out to them the instances in which that Welsh initiative had already shown that it was useful, both in respect of the benefit of the Welsh and of the benefit of the Empire. To begin with, there was the subject for which the Welsh had the chief ground for Pride and Satisfaction- he meant Education. They had got the Univer- sity of Wales, and, in the next place, they had the system of intermediate education, and he did believe that if they were to ask anywhere in the United Kingdom for an instance of the suc- cessful conduct of intermediate education, the answer would be 'Well, after ourselves, Wales.' "Then he would take as another instance as a matter in which, whether they took the view that what had been done had been wisely or unwisely done, yet they would all agree that in the great cause of temperance it was desirable that temperance should not be treated as a matter which was to be dealt with centrally, but was a local matter which affected local people, and ought to be in their hands and not in the hands of a central authority. Then he should like to ask why it was that Wales had been so successful in achieving such a position. He took it that nearly all of them would answer that Wales had achieved that posi- tion because the Welsh were a Nationality. Naturally, the next question that came to one's mind was, how and why had Wales, after the lapse of all these centuries, been able to achieve such a position as a partner in the greatest empire of the day. The first and obvious reason was one which some of them might think was exaggerated by those who dwelt upon it—he meant Welsh blood. But beyond that they had got constantly in their minds a feeling of affec- tion and reverence for their ancestors. Look at the nation which was astonishing the whole world at the present moment. What" were the two great characteristic Features of the Japanese? Education and reverence for their ancestors. He did not know that he had read anything finer of late in the newspapers than the address of Admiral Togo at Tokio in memory of the ancestors of the brave men who had fallen in defence of their country. He would suggest another cause for The Bonds of Welsh Nationality. It was the strong religious feeling of the Welsh. He did say this of all the religious bodies in Wales, whether Church of England or the various Nonconformist bodies who did such excellent work, that there was this common feeling among them of a strong reverence for religion. If they put a Daily Telegraph question in Wales, Do we believe ?' could any one doubt that the answer of the majority of Welsh- men would be 'Yes, we do?' Then he sug- gested that the Welsh should have a genuine love for art, a genuine love for poetry, and a genuine love for the beautiful. And he took as an instance of that the delight which the Welsh took in their hymns. There they had beauty and poetry."

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