Welsh Journals

A NEW POWER IN WALES. 483 it would soon, I venture to predict, be an honour keenly sought after. Some subject in Welsh literature, in astronomy, in education, or even in philosophy or theology, might be selected, for example, as the subject of a paper and of a discussion. A variety of papers might be read on the day or days of meeting, in order that each member might have a subject that interests him. I would not consider papers on architecture, on statuary, and on painting, as in any way the least important. When the Guild has at least one member in each district,—say Parish Council dis¬ trict,—it can have each year a valuable account of the intellectual activity of Wales. Meanwhile, such an account should be made as complete as possible even now,— the Guild should ask members to report on their own localities. These reports might be read, or summaries of them might be read, and then they should be kept in the University Office or as the Guild may direct. Members of the Guild within given areas should be encouraged to meet, say within District Council areas, and to foster and to superintend any local effort. There are many voluntary institutions that would greatly profit by a word of help and cheery encouragement from graduates, such as the Welsh History class at Ffestiniog or the wood-carving class at Bala. Graduates might do much in the way of raising the standard of eisteddfodic competitions and, especially, in guiding committees in their choice of subjects. The graduates of a district might form a kind of standing committee for receiving an extension lecturer sent by the University of Wales, or they might appeal to the Guild for the services of any member who Would be willing to give an occasional lecture without remuneration. In short the guild, by means of associations of its members, guided by it and reporting to it, might be the means of encouraging and guiding those voluntary institutions which nave done so much, and will do so much, for Wales. A parallel to the future of the Guild may be found in the work done by the nonconformist bodies in Wales. Those bodies have made every Welshman a more or less earnest student of theology. Why should the Guild not do the same, and by means of a like machinery, for secular education ? I mention the organization of the Nonconformist bodies, rather than that of the Established Church, because it is of later growth and more easily understood. The general assembly of any sect can get in¬ formation, organize lectures, publish books, because it has delegates from all the districts into which, for its own purposes, it has divided Wales. The Guild of Graduates can become equally powerful. Lecture rooms will, in time, be as plentiful as chapels in Wales, and the love for secular education as strong as the love for religious instruction is to-day. The graduates of Wales, working as a great voluntary as¬ sociation, can make Wales as truly the home of literature and science as it is now the home of religious knowledge and of singing. Welshmen's eyes would be opened ; they would see the beauties of this world and of this life. And, like the Genevese, their gratitude to learning would be unbounded. I feel no anxiety myself for the life of the Guild, if only it can be got to meet. It has a status, it has work, it is only the apathy of its members that can make it fail. It must meet in order to live. There is a danger of its becoming so disunited and shadowy that, like the old French estates general, it would be looked upon as having no voice and no strength. Th>re is a bare possibility that the members of the Guild will only remember its existence when reminded by post card; and even then, knowing nothing about the can¬ didates, they may forget or neglect to vote. If it comes to this, the Guild will be too feeble to make its voice heard in the Court, and it will be paralysed as far as the possibility of doing any educational work is concerned. It would be a thousand pities if the Guild refused to do anything. It is offered an opportunity that was never offered before to those who love the intellectual welfare of Wales, an opportunity that the students of any other time in our history would have jumped at. Let us not shrink from the honour and responsibility offered us. Let us make the Guild a new power in Wales.