Weekly Mail

NOTEWORTHY I MEN AND WOMEN OF WALES, THE MARQUESS OF BUTE AND CARDIFF. By 0. WILKIN 3, F.G.S. T' charne has brought about few greater Bute f 11 those in connection with the u. pa .7- Notable in the time of George *n reign of George IJ I,, iDB ?7as then regarded as the lead- oh>ra ,au the political world, the and f w,(or Churchili to lampoon, toags°M ^^68, in his "North Briton," Bent. 0ne w^om k's bitterest oppo- hona=<.never cease<i to regard as other than an "?8t man aOQal°kt*lat t*me fjrans^ion °f the Bute finnan 8 ^sen comP'ete—^from political pro- fal w 'lV° u^0r isolation, and from the fret- of int ii of Party to the calm and the seclusion Ho l °tual life. The head of the family i °nger figures in statesmanship, but, ePhe ^eing allied with services often by ^rical an(* invariably questioned to# section of greater or less ^id?n!?«e' .,he Bute of our day public labours of far greater ftilriess. His session" has the duration fou a gneration, and the broad, industrial atl0? he has been instrumental in form- the ^r°m^8es a superstructure before which d e n10numents of warriors and statesmen F'+i Iri^° ins:gnifioance. it to grasp the achievements of his life v*rip^riPOes,ar^ *° view him in one of the 4s i asPects presented to us. Not ggjji ^0rc^ Bute at l'othes ,y, the repre- iVe of the old .Scottish barons, r0Q the remnant of feudal sur- not 1^RS which modern life has spared ke quiet worker in a lone avenue of Wand^ effort; not as a pilgrim, a periodic OQJ. to a land of holy associations, with- by si! our °iv^'sation would bo replaced the i^rna'e raida of Hun and Goth; but as Q&r^ige^act°r in the great industrial drama of rp, ^ar<iuess of Bute, linked with his heh '.an(* strcmS with the strength which re wisely surrounded himself, may be abided as the dominating, the inspiring LIFE OF CARDIFF. LIFE OF CARDIFF. >U awa*> mentally, the Bute family and •tid Uen°eS ^rom the metropolis of Wales, see simply the little fishing creek of #8 the humble place—for it could not ^hih ca^e^ a Port—to which, and from Uythe early days of our history the *nd t° Vaders sailed, coming in with goods yRi ak'og away the scanty produce of our ^and of our mountain land. i*° .the hardy venturer was who first q0J » I'ke our own Prince Madoc, or later tan° ^S' c'0Qd-like land in the dis- Ce 5e; now never be known. One fact i3 0^ain» that the navigator was imitated by ciellt ,and for a long time there was snfIi- Vallp P°Pu^&tion at the creek, and in the pr-eys trending thereto, to encourage enter- Wo~l-' 'ron n°t even a particle was and up to the time when Smithlield trj8]1 martyr fires our indus- ^o^nt*1'63 n°^ 'Je^un *° I'S^t up our the there bad been early iron making in ]nj. °f Ionian occupation is certain from tim'0^10113 -After that, until about the Wa "^ood Q°een Bess,'r little or nothing 4q8 anywhere in Wales. As for coal as tb art'c'e even of use, much less of commerce, e people of the fishing village and the enter- 8J8ln £ > Voyagers from the land on the other i e of the sea were oblivious. It is an old ^e> one that has often been told, of quiet beginning of the huge lnlng, manufacturing, and social world th D0W*8' and 8'0W '3U^ 8teady grovvth da& place up to the boundaries of our own v» t ^^en» the more rapid pulse and the w bound. It would have been a subject deieneral satisfa°ti on if materials for further intlIleation of progress had existed. Ilow -festing to learn that long previous to j £ *Con 8 appearance, or the dynasty of the iron Ui^ bad begun, some far-advanced moun- WALES, THE MARQUESS OF BUTE AND CARDIFF. By 0. WILKIN 3, F-G.3- rjv i" ^0D81" about few greater Bute f 11 those in connection with the u. pa .7- Notable in the time of George *n reign of George IJ I,, iDB ?7as then regarded as the lead- oh>ra ,au the political world, the and f w,(or Churchili to lampoon, toags°M ^^68, in his "North Briton," Bent. 0ne w^om k's bitterest oppo- hona=<.never cease<i to regard as other than an "?8t man aOQal°kt*lat t*me fjrans^ion °f the Bute finnan 8 ^sen comP'ete—^from political pro- fal w 'lV° u^0r isolation, and from the fret- of int ii of Party to the calm and the seclusion Ho l °tual life. The head of the family i °nger figures in statesmanship, but, ePhe ^eing allied with services often by ^rical an(* invariably questioned to# section of greater or less ^id?n!?«e' .,he Bute of our day public labours of far greater »f a Dess* His session" has the duration ^°Und ^nera^on> and the broad, industrial atl0? he has been instrumental in form- the ^r°m^8es a superstructure before which <W?10,lament8 wan'i°r8 an^ statesmen F'+i Iri^° ins:gnifioance. it to grasp the achievements of his life v*rip^riPOes,ar^ *° view him in one of the 4s i asPects presented to us. Not ggjji ^0rc^ Bute at l'othes ,y, the repre- iVe of the old .Scottish barons, r0Q the remnant of feudal sur- not 1^RS which modern life has spared ke quiet worker in a lone avenue of Wand^ effort; not as a pilgrim, a periodic OQJ. to a land of holy associations, with- by si! our °iv^'sation would bo replaced the i^rna'e raida of Hun and Goth; but as Q&r^ige^act°r in the great industrial drama of rp, ^ar<iuess of Bute, linked with his heh '.an(* strcmS with the strength which re wisely surrounded himself, may be abided as the dominating, the inspiring LIFE OF CARDIFF. >U awa*> mentally, the Bute family and •tid Uen°eS ^rom the metropolis of Wales, see simply the little fishing creek of #8 the humble place—for it could not ^hih ca^e^ a Port—to which, and from Uythe early days of our history the *nd t° Vaders sailed, coming in with goods yRi ak'og away the scanty produce of our ^and of our mountain land. i*° .the hardy venturer was who first q0J » I'ke our own Prince Madoc, or later tan° ^S' c'0Qd-like land in the dis- Ce 5e; now never be known. One fact i3 0^ain» that the navigator was imitated by 0je^rs> ai^d for a long time there was imffi- Vallp P°Pu^&tion at the creek, and in the pr-eys trending thereto, to encourage enter- Wo~l-' 'ron n°t even a particle was and up to the time when Smithlield trj8]1 martyr fires our indus- ^o^nt*1'63 n°^ 'Je^un *° I'S^t up our the ^ere keen early iron making in ]nj. °f Ionian occupation is certain from tim'0^10113 -After that, until about the Wa "^ood Q°een Bess,'r little or nothing 4q8 anywhere in Wales. As for coal as tb art'c'e even of use, much less of commerce, e people of the fishing village and the enter- 8J8ln £ > Voyagers from the land on the other i e of the sea were oblivious. It is an old ^e> one that has often been told, of quiet beginning of the huge thl'?' manufacturing, and social world th D0W*8' and 8'0W '3U^ 8teady grovvth da& place up to the boundaries of our own v» t ^^en» the more rapid pulse and the w bound. It would have been a subject deieneral satisfa°ti on if materials for further intlIleation of progress had existed. Ilow -festing to learn that long previous to j £ *Con 8 appearance, or the dynasty of the iron Ui^ bad begun, some far-advanced moun- vill *6r orouKbt down to the slumbering la^ a^e stone which contained iron, and, stili ex|j5'-0ne who astonished his neighbours by *)Qrn7nient other stones that would Coylh*re must have been some such early dis- tries preceding the authenticated annals daw*' ^n^U3tr^a^ days. Faint streaks of the pj n' /t is easy for the imaginative mind to pre it. To note the growth of the village, '.nR by the place where the ofttimes turbu- 8ea ri\er from the mountains blended with the t0 Close by, relics in roads and possibly of Itoman occupation the latter after- Mth associated with native, and then Norman, rule. To trace the 'r°nment of the Norman in brotherhood brought in the Christian mercies to de P8r a rough warlike character, and to fro *k0 seclusion of monastic ceil oth*1 t^'6 Pon<^er'ngs °f thoughtful minds 0^ier cravings than those for pillage, and re er promptings than those of bate and fQ e^e- While the manhood of Wales yooth exercise in the battlefield and the »ir 'on^nS to imitate or surpass the there went on in the rotation of *0J18^0 life the tutelage of art, literature, *nd 9c*ence—Pany in its young day, strong th iVast 'ti present, and still greater in \y 6 be< Hot 6 8tride mentally over the centuries. We t^ee rapidly the beginning of the iron era, Ur ^riin^ive ironworks—like smithies on a *o H 8Ca'e—the clearing away of the loxuriant ih • ^°.r ^ron*making> the formation of a road jjinstitution for the mule track from the the 3 the making of a canal for the C?nveyance °f large loads of coal, and 1 the loading of sloops in a fashion akin Vyal e tardy work at the little harbours of lit p88' even now cirriedon like that of slates an .Pr^adoc and Carnarvon. We pass over c0ft, > '6ach word of description a text, and ijjj, ? to a Per^°d our osvn century not »10^, ^ore than sixty years ago, when the and insignificant honse-coal trade be- 'X'jj e' from the enterprise of Mrs. Lucy the ttlas* Very secondary in degree to that of a SxEAM-COAL TliAT)R, Vest? "creek" lapsed into a be**6 of ancient history, and the port ajjj n its era, and dock succeeded dock, l4g 0n the site of the fishing vil- #e another Liverpool. Study the cjee_ lop" of a colliery sinking, or go into a ra'lway cutting, or by the side of a cliff, Hp V56 how the island has been literally built hej* rorn the time when our metals were the elaborated by volcanic action until iti„g anitlic ribs of the earth had their coat- Gtrth0* yan^» °f mud, of deposited minerals, 1 Interesting this, but far more so to 0w OQr township has bean developed. Pkc-4t Weekly l>oat from Bristol and other othQp8' an<^ the sloops that followed, brought nt 11 ver from the mountains blended with the t0 Close by, relics in roads and possibly of Itoman occupation the latter after- Mth associated with native, and then Norman, rule. To trace the 'r°nment of the Norman in brotherhood brought in the Christian mercies to de P8r a rough warlike character, and to fro *k0 seclusion of monastic ceil oth*1 t^'6 Pon<^er'ngs °f thoughtful minds 0^ier cravings than those for pillage, and re er promptings than those of bate and f eYenge. While the manhood of Wales yooth exercise in the battlefield and the »ir 'on^nS to imitate or surpass the there went on in the rotation of *0J18^0 life the tutelage of art, literature, *nd 9c*ence—Pany in its young day, strong th iVast 'ti present, and still greater in \y 6 be< Hot 6 8tride mentally over the centuries. We tthe beginning of the iron era, Ur ^riin^ive ironworks—like smithies on a *o H 8Ca'e—the clearing away of the loxuriant ih • ^°.r ^ron*making> the formation of a road jjinstitution for the mule track from the the 3 to Cardiff, the making of a canal for the C?nveyance °f large loads of coal, and 1 the loading of sloops in a fashion akin W the tardy work at the little harbours of lit p88' even now cirriedon like that of slates an .Pr^adoc and Carnarvon. We pass over c0ft, > '6ach word of description a text, and ijjj, ? to a Per^°d our osvn century not »10^, ^ore than sixty years ago, when the and insignificant honse-coal trade be- 'X'jj e' from the enterprise of Mrs. Lucy the ttlas* Very secondary in degree to that of a SxEAM-COAL TliAT)R, Vest? "creek" lapsed into a be**6 of ancient history, and the port ajjj n its era, and dock succeeded dock, l4g 0n the site of the fishing vil- #e another Liverpool. Study the cjee_ lop" of a colliery sinking, or go into a ra'lway cutting, or by the side of a cliff, Hp V56 how the island has been literally built hej* rorn the time when our metals were thing elborated by volcanic action until iti„g anitlic ribs of the earth had their coat- Gtrth0* yan^» °f mud, of deposited minerals, Interesting this, but far more so to 0w OQr township has bean developed. Pkc-4t Weekly l>oat from Bristol and other othQp8' an<^ the sloops that followed, brought '"Then. matters than articles of commerce, and the Inen whom Cardiff of to-day, '• OUr e l^ople of the hills, fittingly regard as °f fchft^ran(^atherB," Then came the ancestors *Hore v°°.mmerc'al men of to-day, who had a aried collection of articles in their basra» and less plausibility and skill to work them 11 off than are possessed by their descendants. ||Cardi ff then must have been primitive in its I' aboriginal simplicity, and the Cymro and Saxon stood aloof in that stern antagonism 1 which the rears since have pretty nearly 1 brushed away. To get a similitude of that 1 early society, one must have some acquain- tance with the diggins or the settlements < which have sprung up in various parts of the i world, where gold, silver, or diamonds have 1 been the allurement, and the aborigine has had to vanish before, or to have become i blended with, the intruders. And just as in those places so here, the deviation from mere labour to higher industry, to trading, and even professional pursuits was simply a question of time. One would sell stores, another turn smith, and a third become the bctcher. Likely enough one of the migrants re-called his recollections of endorsing and fragments of homely justice-long before" Burns," and became the lawyer of the community. Another, with dim perceptions of early doctor's boy days and immature graduation in the dispensary, ministers to the human ills and evils of fellow exiles. The news of wondrous wealth at Cardiff tempted men from all parts of the island. The tongue-tied North Walian, and the Ilerefordian, with cheek tinted like his apples the cider-loving Devonian, from his pastures, redolent of cream—representatives, in fact, of every county. A greater diversity of speech one could not find in any other place in the land -the broad Doric of the Scotch, inherited from his Scandinavian ancestors; the sleepy patois of Gloucestershire, the doury of German or Flemish days, and the sharp, American-like ring of the Bristolian, ( derived from a Semitic and money-loving race. Mingled with these the South Walian, with his hair bleachad by the storms nourished i amongst his mountains, and his speech rugged with obstructive consonants. And just as our island owes its proud pre- eminence to the heterogeneous character of its people, the Ancient Briton and the Roman, Dane, Saxon, Iberian, and Northmen of all shades, so the elements of Cardiff life, fused by time, animated by a common impulse, obeyed the law of progress, and in their amalgamation have won a status in the world's industrial history of which ttipy may well be proud. Here, then, we have something like a bird's eye view over the historio landscape, and see a condition of things which, strongly aided by the father of the present Lord Bate, and continued by the iiustees, has since the rule of the Marquess of Bute been simply one long. unvarying career of development. The Bute coniiection 'with Cardiff was< more to the ''accident" of marriage than to the ancestral lineage of the lords of Glamor- gan, but, fortunate for the land that the rule of such as Rhys, or Iestyn, which only aroused bardic laudation, was varied by that of men who saw in the mineral riches of the country the materials for converting villages into townships, and making the lone valleys amid the bills, where the echoes of strife lingered, populous scenes of homely comfort. We owe much to the sagacity of the second marquess, in whose time the beacon lights of Dowlaia attained their meridian, and still more to the third marquess, who has lived to see the coal level succeeded by the deep shaft, and a simple collier fleet by a steam armament surpassing in tonnage that of any country in the world. Into the varied social life of Cardiff, formed of such diversities as we have pictured, it would have been difficult for any man to enter and to have literally rubbed along without some degree of friction. In ev> ry community a section will be found vi o, lacking the industry to win, crave t'. e results gained by others, and where these are supplemented by the bigotry of an intoler- ance which refuses the right of private judg- ment, either in religion or polities, the diffi- culty is enhanced. It has been well for Cardiff that even its milJority" of various sects and parties have constituted a formi- dable number, and that throughout a long term of years there has only been an occa- sional exhibition of animus, which the general good sense of the community has quickly smothered. By those who have understood him, and we repeat the number is a formidable one, which the years are steadily multiplying, the mar- quess has gained the highest respect. IlIs refined and his generous views have obtained their regard, and his attention to Welsh literature and traditions even attracted the isolated mountaineer, who dates his ancestry from Brutus, and claims to have had a religion when Saxon England was steeped in serfdom and ignorance. While the practical side of bis character has been shown in sanctioning the carrying out of an administration second to none in its efficiency and foresight, he has devoted hours which his compeer have whiled away on the coarse or in battue, to classic toils and ornate art. It is a matter of speculation yet wheth" the acute mindof Disraeli had him in view i) the delineations of the philosophic ■ which forms the prominent figure in 1.0: hai The probability is that he linked great learn- ing with abstruse and metaphysical yearnings in the character he pourtrayed, and, if he had a living model as his subject, paid a deference to our phase of mental development woich the formation of his own mind, great as it was, could not fully comprehend. The early impressions formed by the mar- quess of Wales were very pleasing. We remember well, many years ago, when he made one of his earliest appearances J at a banquet given by the Iron Institute, Let inquiring minds turn to the annals of the society and read for themselves, given in ] poetic and picturesque language, the first public utterances of one who aimed to earn j the gratitude of the country, not in the council-ohamber, not in the fence of dip!o- macy, but in bringing to bear the intellect < and the energy of man in develop- ing into full usefulness for general good the mineral riches of his domain. The patrimony of Adam was the grassy field and the laden fruit tree, fish which swam in the sea, and the fowl of the air. The needs of patriarchal days were scant. But the All Wise has diverted the foundations of the earth with the requirements for a peopled world, and the work of creation goes on with the mental and social development until the subtlest mind is at a loss to oonceive a limit to the aids which man cannot wrest from the earth or the elements around him. It will be well for the generations which succeed us, if a mind, similarly cultured and far-seeing as that of the present marquess, take up the role and preside, as he has done so well, over the advanced requirements of the coming time. Cardiff Castle, the Welsh home of the marquess, has its dark back- ground in feudal history. It may not be that the place of exile to Robert of Normandy was also that of torture, but at one time it was the scene of the dominating rule of one who had no sympathy with the native, and whose harsh imposts led the impulsive mountaineer to gain, by night attack and force, concessions which had been denied to their urgent appeals. But with the entry of the Bute upon the scene the armour has been relegated to the hall, and the s word to the scabbard, and the aim of the Lord of Glamorgan has been to aid the industrial and the higher aspirations of the blended nationalities who have been gathered hither. The Castle of Berkeley, on the oppo- site coast, retains its old and darkened history and its grim exterior, but Cardiff Castle has put aside its gloomy days and its gloomier traditions, and its new era is illustrated by all, that artistic genius can delineate in elevating I the mind and gratifying the taste and the eye. The period during which the marquess for- iook the allurements of his quiet study, and threw himself heartily amongst the councils of the town will be long remembered. It brought tiim'nearer, and made him dearer, to his people, md many will echo the wish that some day re the meridian of life is passed, or the mind withdraws itself from the con- templation of the present to that of the future and the ideal, he will again identify himself practically with those great interests he has done so much to aid and be first citizen of his oity. The pessimist may imagine that Cardiff has reached its highest point. That the hill top bas been gained, and that the descent now will begin. For such a conclusion there is no substantial ground. A big future yet awaits as if industrial Wales, avoiding democracy and the unrest of labour, to herself do prove but true."