Welsh Journals

THE CAMBRIAN QUARTERLY MAGAZINE AND No. 8.-OCTOBER 1, 1830.—Vol. II. SIR WILLIAM JONES, AND THE EMINENT BRITISH LAWYERS.* The rapid strides that education has taken within the last few years over the minds of the people, and the consequent increase of the well- informed among- the members of society, has given a stimulus to lite¬ rature greater than was ever known before. There has certainly never been such an immense number of books printed in any ag-e, as the press now throws off. Daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly publica¬ tions are continually increasing; and increasing to an astonishing- extent; while the vast multitude of elementary works, on all subjects, which are offered to those who thirst after knowledge as the stepping- stone to its hallowed font, and the many and various guides in the shapes of cyclopaedias and libraries, that offer to disclose to all seekers the innermost sanctuary of the holy temple, have become so nume¬ rous, that we are likely to get confused in a maze of many roads, from whence no friendly ball of silk is likely to extricate us. The peasantry of Scotland and Wales have long been known for their superior intellectual organization; there have been men among them who have raised themselves merely by self-tuition to no contemptible scholarship. In Wales, you seldom enter a cottage without seeing one or two of the many excellent periodicals that are published in the Welsh language, for the improvement of those who do not understand English, lying about the room, with evident symptoms of their having- been well read; while in Scotland, even in the highlands, the same passion for knowledge may be observed. In London, two colleges have been founded, for the purpose of giving- to those who cannot afford the expense of a classical education at either of our ancient * Lives of eminent British Lawyers, by Henry Roscoe, esq. barrister at law ; forming vol. vi. of Dr. Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopaedia. Longman and Co., Paternoster row. no. viii. y y