Welsh Journals

482 WALES. rejoice in the realisation of so many dreams of the past. The mass of the Welsh people will not be touched directly by University or intermediate school. The best system of University extension will be practically useless without strong local help. As before, the chief power in the intellectual advancement of Wales will be the voluntary worker,—minister or doctor or tradesman or farmer,—who has the time and the ability to lead his neighbours to better things. As in the past, so in the future, men of the stamp of Griffith Jones of Llanddowror and Charles of Bala and Sir Hugh Owen will be required. The other consideration that comes forcibly home to me is the importance of giving the Guild a definite policy and definite work from the beginning. The Guild now is but a small thing compared with what it will be. In time it will have a member in each locality in Wales, often more. The clergyman, the minister, the doctor, the schoolmaster, and many others, will be attracted towards each other by membership of the same Guild. It is our duty to make the Guild active from the beginning. We should not allow an organ¬ ization, that will in time embrace every graduate in Wales as its member, to remain inactive in the days of its weakness. Inactive when weak, it will probably be inactive when strong ; and we of the present generation will be condemned for missing a golden opportunity, and of al¬ lowing to fall into disorganized inactivity what might have been a new power in Wales. The duties of an active Guild seem to me to be three only. First, it should meet. Secondly, it should criticise. Thirdly, it should encourage and guide. The first duty of the Guild is to meet. So far there was no means by which members of the same college, let alone members of different colleges, could meet. My own experience is that, even of my intimate friends during my residence at a Welsh University College, I lost sight of nine out of ten entirely on the day I left the college, and the tenth man I met only by the merest chance. At the same time nothing is so pleasant and invigorating as meeting an old college friend. Comparing notes with old fellow students is the best education I know. Our paths have been different, the knowledge each has attained is new to the other; and the comparing of lives is more interesting even than the resuscitation of glorified college memories, more interesting than recollections of college lectures. There is nothing that encourages me so much in my work, nothing that gives me new views of life and a new determination to do my duty, like meeting an old fellow-student and comparing notes. If the Guild meets, a man will not cast away his interest in the University or in education as he casts away his tattered undergraduate's gown. The meetings of the Guild will make him a life-long student, and relieve the monotony of life in ^a dull district by reviving every year the memories of what ought to have been the happiest years of his life. The Guild should criticise from the beginning. It is evident from the Charter that it is understood that the Guild will watch the proceedings of Court and Senate. The voice of the Guild will become more and more powerful every year, until at last it will be the voice of the whole of educated Wales. The members of the Senate are present in it, and will be kept informed by it of what the country needs, it will be the link between the University and the people. The Court, composed largely of non-academic men, will gladly listen to the voice of so powerful a body, and a body which, thoroughly loyal to the University, protests against any action on the part of its governors that will diminish its power or impair its usefulness. From the be¬ ginning, a day should be set apart to discuss the work of Senate and Court. This would at least enable every graduate to know thoroughly what is being done. In time, I believe that the Guild, by encouraging and guiding individual effort, will become the greatest power in Wales. There are many Welsh students who have taken an interest in some subject or other, and papers read by them before the Guild, followed by a discussion, would give them encouragement and followers at the same time. Reading a paper before the Guild would be regarded as a great honour; and