Welsh Journals

Long, however, before the series of conferences had come to an end there were diplomatic conspiracies at work which were to bathe Europe in blood. The last Congress was held in Edinburgh in 1853, but the Crimean War was in the air then within a few months it had broken out, and the prophet of Arbitration and Peace saw many a Peace Society and hundreds of Peace orators and delegates moving to a lively military march at the first blast of the trumpets of war. For many years amidst many wars, Sturge, Cobden, Bright, and Richards with their little group of devotees, had to preach their gospel to very un- willing and often angry audiences. To understand the thoroughness and pertinacity with which they pursued their object, one has only to read the scores of letters which Cobden wrote to Richard as editor of the Morning Star," recently published in Mr. J. A. Hobson's Richard Cobden, the International Man." Henry Richard's two greatest friends and supporters, Joseph Sturge and Richard Cobden, died in 1862 and 1865 respectively, and their part in the work of the great Crusade fell upon his shoulders. But he never faltered and never wavered until, at last, the great hour of his triumph struck. On Tuesday, July 9th, 1873, "the drab sentimentalist as he had been called moved in the House of Commons- That an humble address be presented to her Majesty, praying that she will be graciously pleased to enter into communication with Foreign Powers with a view to further improvement in International Law and the establishment of a general and per- manent system of arbitration." Mr. Gladstone, the Prime Minister, expressed his sympathy with the object of the resolution, but withheld his support. Richard insisted on taking the sense of the House on the question, and after the division he appeared at the Bar of the House to read the figures which gave him a majority of ten on the division. What strange emotions must have played in his heart as he thought of the weary effort and stern determination that had gone to the making of such a simple triumph. Peace circles in Europe went almost mad with joy and enthusiasm and when, in the autumn of that year, Henry Richard made a tour of the I. Safwn, fel duw, ar griman He y try Y Llwybyr Coch, wrth gopa'r Wyddfa fawr, I'r chwith yn greigffordd wastad, ac yn hy, Fel a reolo Ffawd, yn syth i lawr Y dibyn dryslyd powliais garreg fras, A gwyliwn hi'n carlamu'n sgut, a chriw 0 fan garegos yn ymryson ras A hi, pan gnociai hwynt i lawr y rhiw. Gwyddwn yn burion mai myfi fy hun, Y duw, na bo'nd ei grybwyll, a roes waith I garreg wirion, ac a ffurfiodd lun Pob tro ar 61 ei chychwyn ar ei thaith, Ond gwelais pan ddiflannodd, nad myfi Ydoedd y duw,-mai'r garreg oeddwn i. Continent he was feted everywhere, in Berlin, in Brussels, in Vienna, in Venice, in Rome, and in Paris as the triumphant Apostle of International Peace." It was said that no unofficial Englishman ever received such a welcome on the continent of Europe. A momentary victory had been won, and the laurels were undoubtedly his in that triumph. No one however knew better than he how little it meant, and he lived long enough to see the tempest of war again raging in its fury. Looking back at his work in the cause of international reconciliation from a distance of fifty years, it is easy enough to detect its weakness,-but it is well to remember that this man of simple faith and unlimited endurance and the men around him beat out across the wilderness of inter- national selfishness and conflicts a rough track, which to- day, after the experience of a war which engulfed a whole world, we see laid out with magnificent skill and artifice into the great and open highway of the covenant of the League of Nations. Their names should surely be in- scribed somewhere along the roadside. Henry Richard had his limitations. He had no philo- sophy of nationalism. He loved Wales with a great passion and found joy in her service he saw the justice of the Irish demands for self-government, but with nationalist move- ments on the Continent, his sympathies were somewhat lukewarm. Kossuth, Mazzini, and their like, he un- doubtedly found difficulty in understanding. And lacking a complete conception of nationality and its rights, his scheme of internationalism was incomplete and unbalanced; but whatever may have been his philosophic shortcomings he was one of the greatest patriots and one of the best Europeans of his generation. On his tombstone in Abney Park Cemetery are two texts from the book that made him the first in English and the second in Welsh:- Blessed are the Peacemakers; for they shall be called the children of God." Canys yr oedd yn iawr gan ei genedl, ac yn gymeradwy yn mysg lluaws ei frodyr, yn ceisio daioni i'w bobl, ac yn dywedyd am heddwch i'w holl hiliogaeth." He was one of the few men in history, of whom they are no exaggeration. SONEDAU. II. Gwn na wrthododd 'mam gardod erioed I'r haid fegerllyd a fu'n crwydro'n hir, Wyr, gwragedd, ifanc, hen a chanol oed, 0 wyrcws ac i wyrcws yn y sir. Duw a'ch bendithio meddent. Oni chaent Bob amser ganddi'r mwydion gyda'r crwst, A chig a cheiniog ? Yna, fel petaent Fonheddig, moesymgryment. Yn fy ffrwst Wrth gornel, ddoe ddiweddaf, yn y dref Gwrthodais gardod i ryw glamp o ddyn A fegiai'n eon a chwynfanllyd lef, A mynd ymlaen dan regi wrtho'i hun. Ond neithiwr,. yn fy mreuddwyd, gwelais hi, Fy mam fy hunan, yn fy ngwrthod i. T. H. Parry-Williams.