peace. Sir Arthur Wellesley's victory of Assaye and the crowning battle of Lassawaree terminated a war directed with an energy and fertility of resources that gave good and true augury of the future career of the commanding officer on a more important and conspicuous field. Without undervaluing the political wisdom of the Marquess Wellesley, it may safely be said that had he not possessed so able a general as his brother, the result of the war might have been less favourable; and that, had it been less favourable, his policy would have been judged of very differently from what it has been.

After six or seven years of service in India, the Marquess Wellesley became desirous of returning to England. Such however was the estimation in which his services were held at home, that some years elapsed before he procured his recal. Even a change of ministry failed to obtain the release he solicited. At last he was allowed, in 1805, to resign the government of India, and he embarked for Europe in the month of August. He was received with every demonstration of respect and approbation by the government and the East India Company. plaints were indeed heard that his administration had been unwarrantably expensive, and that he had been guilty of oppression towards the native powers, especially the Nabob of Oude. Articles of impeachment were presented against him (without effect) in the House of Commons by Mr. Paull. But the judgment of the public then (and the time which has since elapsed, with all its gradual disclosures, has only confirmed that judgment) was, that without adopting all the exaggerated eulogies of the panegyrists of the Marquess Wellesley, his policy was, in the circumstances of our Eastern empire, the wisest and most just that could have been adopted. His government marks the commencement of a better æra of English rule in India.

draw loss of respect and influence along with them. The distinction between the parties of that day was still too strongly marked to admit of their being fused together, and their leaders were too wise or too honest for a coalition. In three days Lord Wellesley saw that the undertaking was hopeless, and resigned his charge.

On the 8th of June, Lord Liverpool announced in parliament that he was at the head of the government. On the 1st of July Lord Wellesley brought forward a motion favourable to Roman Catholic claims in the House of Peers, similar to that which Mr. Canning had carried a few days earlier in the House of Commons. It was lost by only one vote, and that vote a proxy. He continued for ten years from this time to offer a modified opposition to government. During the Peninsular war he had repeated occasions to attack ministers for their inadequate support of his brother. In 1815 he condemned in unqualified terms the disregard to commercial interests that marked the treaties by which the peace of Europe was consolidated. In December, 1821, he accepted the appointment of Com-lord-lieutenant of Ireland, an office which he continued to hold till March, 1828. The nomination of the Marquess Wellesley, a well-known advocate of the Roman Catholic claims, to this high office, raised on the one hand the expectations of the professors of that religion, and excited on the other great discontent among the Protestant ascendeney party. His arrival was the signal for an outburst of the fiercest party spirit. The Orangemen of Dublin insulted the lord-lieutenant in the theatre, and the southern counties became the scene of insurrectionary movements. The viceroy commenced his administration with an attempt to adopt a conciliatory policy, but the times did not admit of its being followed up. It was deemed necessary to have recourse to an Insurrection Act and other coercive measures. Yet the personal character of the Marquess Wellesley continued to command respect; his impartiality and kindly disposition escaped imputation. The Earl of Liverpool's retirement from public life had no effect upon the position of Lord Wellesley, for both Mr. Canning and Lord Goderich were favourable to the Roman Catholic claims. But when the Duke of Wellington came to assume the reins of government, the first declaration which he made upon the subject left the lord-lieutenant of Ireland no alternative but to resign.

The Marquess Wellesley on his return from India again took part in the proceedings of parliament. He had no great sympathy with the opposition; that could scarcely be expected from one who might almost be regarded as the personal friend of the king. But he was far from being a strenuous supporter of Mr. Perceval's government, or even, at a subsequent period, of Lord Liverpool's. The Pitt party had been disorganized by his death at the time that Lord Wellesley returned from India, and it was not again consolidated until Lord Liverpool was placed at the head On the formation of the Grey ministry the Marquess of affairs. Besides, the Marquess's position as governor of Wellesley accepted office under it. In 1831 he was apa distinct empire, and his protracted absence from Eng-pointed lord-steward. In September, 1833, he resigned land, had impressed him with a feeling of personal con- that office, and was once more appointed lord-lieutenant of sequence which ill qualified him to perform a subordinate Ireland. On Sir Robert Peel's brief accession to office part under any of the sectional leaders of the predominant (1834-5), the Marquess Wellesley resigned, though urged party, and had to a great extent emancipated his mind by his brother to remain. He accepted the office of lordfrom the mere party conventionalities of this country. He chamberlain on the formation of the second Melbourne in so far concurred with the general policy of administra- ministry, in April, 1835, but resigned it in the course of the tion that he was a zealous advocate of the war against same year, and never afterwards filled any public employBonaparte, but his mind was much too liberal to sympa- ment. He died at his residence, Kingston-house, Brompthize with narrow-minded and oppressive views in home ton, on the morning of Monday, the 26th of September, politics; although, bred under Mr. Pitt and matured in 1842, in the 83rd year of his age. India, he cared little for the constitutional views which were then popular.

In 1807 Lord Wellesley evaded the urgency of the king, who wished him to become a secretary of state in the duke of Portland's cabinet. In 1808 he rendered ministers efficient

service by his vindication of the expedition to Copenhagen. He was soon afterwards appointed ambassador to Spain. A short residence in Spain convinced him that, if Bonaparte were to be driven out of the Peninsula, it must be by Britain ceasing to play the part of a mere auxiliary, and taking the lead in the war. On the death of the duke of Portland he was recalled, and was with difficulty persuaded by the king to accept the appointment of secretary of state for foreign affairs with Mr. Perceval. He held his office from December, 1809, till January, 1812, when he resigned on account of the difference of opinion existing between him and his colleagues on different points, especially respecting the Roman Catholic claims and the inefficient conduct of the war.

After the assassination of Mr. Perceval, in May, 1812, Lord Wellesley undertook, at the request of the Prince Regent, to form a coalition government. Such a task is alike difficult and unprofitable: when party distinctions are becoming obsolete, parties may be fused with advantage; but coalitions, which are alliances of parties, each retaining its distinctive character, when effected necessarily

The Marquess Wellesley was twice married. His first wife, Hyacinthe Gabrielle Roland, he married on the 1st of November, 1794. They had had several children who died young, but none after marriage. They separated soon, and were not again reconciled. The first Lady Wellesley died in 1816. On the 29th of October, 1825, at the advanced age of 65, the Marquess Wellesley again married. His second wife was an American lady, daughter of Mr. Richard Caton (granddaughter of the eminent revolutionary patriot Carroll of Carrollston), and widow of Mr. Robert Patterson. By this lady, who has survived him, he had no children.

Lord Wellesley was a man of superior powers and of enlarged views. His administration in India was brilliant and productive of lasting good; though part of the credit must be attributed to the high cast of official talent developed in the East India Company's service under the judicious arrangements of that body, and part to the efficient assistance he derived from his brother and the other generals in the field. The marquess was an elegant scholar, of a disposition too delicate to stand the ruder shocks of party warfare. His prosperous career of civil service was more flattering to his ambition than productive of emo lument. His father's debts were paid by him voluntarily, but he was unable to preserve the family estates. 1837 the directors of the East India Company passed a resolution to the effect that they had reason to believe the

In

Marquess Wellesley was involved in pecuniary difficulties, and that therefore they deemed it their duty to offer him some further acknowledgment of his distinguished services. The resolution proceeded to state that, on the fall of Seringapatam, the sum of 100,000l. was set apart for the Marquess Wellesley-a grant which on his suggestion was abandoned to the army. It was afterwards determined to vote him an annuity of 5000/., which had ever since been paid; but the Court of Proprietors believed that the Marquess derived very little advantage from the grant, and under these circumstances it was resolved that the sum of 20,000/. be placed in the hands of trustees for his use and benefit. This grant his lordship accepted.

Some Latin poems by the Marquess were published early in life. In 1805 a thin quarto was published in London, purporting to be a history, by the Marquess, of all the events and transactions which have taken place in India during his administration.' It is a mere translation from a French version of some of his intercepted despatches, published at Paris. In 1836 Mr. Montgomery Martin published, in five volumes, 8vo., at the expense of the East India Company, Despatches, Minutes, and Correspondence of the Marquess Wellesley, during his Administration in India;' and in 1838, the same gentleman republished, in a thin 8vo. volume, from Parliamentary papers, Despatches and Correspondence of the Marquess Wellesley, during his Mission to Spain.' His lordship also published a number of occasional pamphlets :- Substance of a Speech in the House of Commons on the Address in 1794;' Notes relative to the Peace concluded with the Mahrattas;' Letters to the Government of Fort George, relative to the new form of government established there; Letters to the Directors of the East India Company on the India Trade;' &c.

This sketch has been compiled from the publications mentioned above; the Annual Register,' and the Parliamentary Debates; and from a memoir of the Marquess Wellesley which appeared in the Times' newspaper soon after his death.

5171. arose from borough and gaol rates; 1497. from tolls and dues; and 1707. from rents and fines on renewal of leases. The borough expenditure for the same year was 13097., of which 1717. was for police and constables; and 600!. for public works, repairs, &c. The amount of borough rate levied was 442/.; and in the same year there were 3437. levied under local acts. The corporation was 17007. in debt.

The limits of the borough have been extended, so as to comprise the actual city and suburbs, and they now coincide with the limits of the parliamentary borough, which were enlarged when the Reform Act was passed in 1832, but only include that part of the out-parish of St. Cuthbert adjoining the city which is built on. The number of parliamentary voters on the register in 1839-40 was 414: in 1837 there were 103 freemen, who were not burgesses, though they were entitled to vote for the members of the city. Wells has returned two members to Parliament since the reign of Edward I., and the Reform Act made no alteration of the number.

The city is situated in a large parish called St. Cuthbert, which contains many hamlets, and extends in every direction beyond the city: the parish of St. Andrew, which comprises the precincts of the cathedral, is extra-parochial. The population, according to the census of 1831, was as follows:St. Andrew, extra-parochial. (St. Cuthbert, in

Parish of

St. Cuthbert, out

381

3,430

2,838

6.649

The Corporation Commissioners in 1835 remarked that Wells was not then so flourishing as it used to be, and that there were fewer persons of property living in it than there were 25 years before. The silk trade had been wholly given up, but there was still one large stocking manufactory, which within the two preceding years had employed as many as 1500 persons. The corn market had decayed; but the market for cheese was still the largest in the west of WELLESLEY, PROVINCE OF. [PENANG.] England. Wells is cleansed, lighted with gas, watched, WELLINGBOROUGH. [NORTHAMPTONSHIRE.] and supplied with water, under local acts. The January WELLINGTON. [SHROPSHIRE.] quarter-sessions for the county are held at Wells, and the WELLINGTON. [SOMERSETSHIRE.] summer assizes are alternately held there and at BridgeWELLINGTON. ZEALAND, NEW.] water. There is a gaol to which felons and others are temWELLS. [ARTESIAN WELLS; SPRINGS.] porarily committed, and in which the prisoners are lodged WELLS, MINERAL. [WATER, p. 111.] who are brought for trial at the assizes. The town-hall WELLS, an antient city and bishop's see, and parlia- was built in 1780, and stands on one side of an extensive mentary and municipal borough, 120 miles from London, area which communicates by an antient gateway with the in the hundred of Wells-Forum, in the county of Somerset. cathedral close. The cathedral, which is one of the finest It is situated in a valley at the foot of the Mendip Hills, structures of the kind in England, forms a striking object near the source of the river Ax, and also near that of an- as seen from all the great roads leading to the city. It is in other spring, called St. Andrew's Well, from which the the usual form of a cross, the principal limb or bar, which place is supposed to derive its name. Hills rise at a little extends from east to west, being 371 feet in length, and distance nearly all round the city. The founder of the first the transept measuring 135 feet from north to south. The church at Wells is said to have been Ina, king of Wessex, tower, which is over the junction of the nave and transept, in 704. In the reign of Edward the Elder, in the begin- rises to the height of 160 feet from the floor; and two ning of the tenth century, the town became the seat of a other massive towers, each 126 feet in height, crown the bishopric. About 1091 John de Villula, who, by the prac- extremities of the west front. This façade is remarktice of physic at Bath, and by other means, is said to have able for its tracery and sculptured figures: there are earned the means of purchasing the see from William about 150 statues of the size of life, and above 300 Rufus, obtained the bishopric, and removed the episcopal others of smaller size; and although many of them seat to Bath, and called himself bishop of Bath only. This are a good deal mutilated, the effect is very striking. led to bitter disputes, which were settled by Bishop Ro- The present cathedral was begun in the early part of berts, the successor of Villula, who, about 1139, determined the reign of Henry III. (1216-1272) by Bishop Joceline that the diocesan should be styled bishop of Bath and de Welles, who also made Wells his place of residence, Wells, and be enthroned on his admission in both churches. and in other respects restored it to the precedence which, He repaired the cathedral, which his predecessor had in everything except the name of the see, it has since allowed to go to decay. In 1202 King John granted & enjoyed. The entire body of the church, from the west charter erecting the town of Wells into a free borough, end to the middle of the present choir, is supposed to constituting the men free burgesses, and granting a Sun- have been the work of this bishop. The two western towers day market and five annual fairs. The governing char- were added about the end of the 14th century, that at the ter, up to the time of the passing of the Municipal Cor- south end by Bishop John de Harewell, and that on the poration Act in 1835, was the 31st of Elizabeth, under north by Bishop Bubwith, twenty years later. The church which the corporation, a self-elected body, consisted of a had been previously completed to its eastern extremity, mayor and recorder, seven masters or aldermen, sixteen and the great central tower erected, soon after the comcapital burgesses, and an indefinite number of burgesses. mencement of the 14th century. The Ladye chapel is In 1835 the number of freemen was 460, and the mayor, the glory of Wells cathedral, and by many it is said recorder, and senior master acted as justices for the bo- to be the most beautiful specimen of ecclesiastical archirough. The remodelled corporation consists of four alder-tecture in England. There are several antient and other men and twelve councillors, and the number of burgesses remarkable monuments deserving of notice. The cloisters on the roll at the first open election was 325. The borough form a quadrangle attached to the south side of the cathemagistrates are now the mayor, ex-mayor, and another. dral, the sides severally measuring from 150 to 160 feet. The income of the corporation in 1840 was 1088/., of which The chapter-house is a handsome octangular building, 52

gether to the night-air. The consequence was, that it brought on attacks of disease from which he never ultimately recovered, and he died on the 18th of September, 1817. Dr. Wells was an accurate observer and an acute reasoner, and all his productions bear marks of a superior mind. In an edition of his works published in 1821 is an autobiography written a short time previous to his decease, from which this notice has been chiefly drawn.

WELSH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE.-Literature.-The Welsh language is that which is now spoken, and has been so far back as historical records extend, in the principality of Wales. The name of Welsh' was first given to the people who speak it by the Anglo-Saxons, and the same term or a similar one seems to have been used in many of the Germanic and even of the Slavonic languages to denote the Italians, or other nations whose languages resembled the Latin. Welschland' was the name for Italy in German of the middle ages, and is not yet entirely superseded in the language of the common people; the name of that country in Polish is Wlochy,' and the appellations of the Walloons and the Wallachians appear to be derived from the same root. The Welsh are probably indebted for the name to their being looked upon by the Saxons as sub

feet diameter in the interior, the roof being supported by a single central pillar. The episcopal palace stands at a short distance south from the cathedral, and with its lofty and embattled wall, enclosing an area of about seven acres, and surrounded by a broad moat filled with water, resembles an old baronial castle. The deanery-house is northwest from the cathedral, and beyond are twenty houses called the Vicar's College or Close, an establishment consisting of two principals and twelve vicars. The net revenue of the see of Bath and Wells for the three years ending 1831, was 5946. For the number and value of the benefices in the diocese see BENEFICE. The parish church of St. Cuthbert is a large and handsome edifice in the later pointed style. The living is a vicarage, in the gift of the dean and chapter, of the gross annual value of 688/., net annual value 564. The Independents, Methodists, and Baptists have places of worship: the number of Sundayschool children belonging to the different denominations in 1833 was as follows:-Church, 122; Independents, 90; Methodists, 43; and Baptists, 40. The endowed charities are numerous, and in 1840 they amounted to 1853/., administered by nine trustees. The principal are an almshouse for thirty men and women, with a chaplain; several other almshouses on a smaller scale; two schools, called the Bluejects of a Roman province. Schools, for 34 boys and 20 girls, twenty of each being clothed, the boys apprenticed, and an outfit being provided for the girls on going to service or otherwise entering upon some occupation. The collegiate grammar-school is partly supported by the dean and chapter, who allow the master a salary of 30%. a-year, with apartments, and a school-room in the cathedral cloisters. In 1829 an infant-school was established, which in 1833 was attended by 52 males and 53 females.

The market-days are Wednesday and Saturday; and there are fairs in May, July, October, and November. (Collinson's History of Somersetshire, vol. iii.; Britton's Cathedrals; Municipal Reports, &c.)

WELLS, CHARLES WILLIAM, physician, was born at Charlestown in South Carolina, in May, 1757. His father and mother were natives of Scotland, and emigrated in 1755. He was sent by his father to Dumfries and afterwards to Edinburgh, for the purpose of being educated, and returned to Carolina in 1771. The revolutionary movements shortly after commenced in America, and his father, who espoused the royalist party, was obliged to flee to Great Britain, where he was followed by his son in 1775. He then went to Edinburgh, and commenced the study of medicine, and here formed an intimacy with David Hume, and William Miller, afterwards lord Glenlee. After acting as surgeon in a Scotch regiment in Holland, he graduated at Edinburgh, in 1780. He returned to America the same year, and with the remains of his father's and brother's property went to St. Augustine, in East Florida, where he conducted a newspaper in his brother's name. On the preliminaries of peace being signed in 1783, he again went to Charlestown, where he was seized and thrown into prison, and continued there for three months, having escaped further confinement by paying a ransom. On returning to St. Augustine he was shipwrecked, and only saved his life by swimming on shore. He returned to London and commenced practice as a physician in 1785. In 1790 he was appointed physician to the Finsbury Dispensary, and in 1795 was elected assistant-physician to St. Thomas's Hospital, and full physician in 1800.

Dr. Wells was a fellow of the Royal Society, and published the following papers in their Transactions:-1, In 1795, On the Influence which incites the Muscles of Animals to contract, in M. Galvani's Experiments.' 2, In 1797, Experiments on the Colour of the Blood. 3, In 1811, 'Experiments and Observations on Vision.' In the 2nd and 3rd volumes of the Transactions of a Society for the Promotion of Medical and Surgical Knowledge,' he published several papers on various departments of medicine. His contributions to newspapers and magazines were very numerous, embracing politics, general literature, and biography. His last work, and the one on which his reputation as a philosopher must rest, is his Essay upon Dew,' which was published in 1814. The demonstration of the nature of dew in this work is an extremely fine application of the principles of induction in philosophical inquiry, and has deservedly given the author a wide-spread reputation. The experiments involved in this inquiry were such as to lead him to expose himself frequently for long intervals to

The name which the Welsh give to themselves is Cymry,' and to their language 'Cymreig,' the obvious resemblance of the sound of which to Cimbri' has led many to identify them with the Cimbri of Roman history. The prevalent opinion however with regard to their origin is that they are a Celtic tribe, and of the same blood and language as the native Irish and the Scottish Highlanders. They also claim the appellation of antient Britons, and for their language the honour of having been the first spoken in this island, which they support, among other grounds, by the signification of the word Cymry,' which is said to denote primitive.' It is probable that most of these opinions are well-founded, as some have been ascertained to be, but nearly all are subject to some degree of doubt, and all have been warmly contested of late years, during which more attention has been directed to the subject. The meaning now affixed to the word Cymry' does not seem to have occurred to any Welsh scholar before the Rev. John Walters, who first published it about the middle of the eighteenth century. Even the claim of the Welsh to the appellation of Celts has been disputed. Their having been the primitive inhabitants of Britain is denied by Sir William Betham, who contends that the earliest known appellations of places in England can only be satisfactorily derived from the Gaelic or Irish, and that the Welsh are a foreign tribe, the Belgæ of Caesar, who had only made their first appearance in the island not very long before the date of Cæsar's own invasion. In the Gentleman's Magazine' for June, 1843, a work is announced by the Rev. R. Williams of Llangadwaladr, a Dictionary of the Antient Cornish Dialect of the Celtic, with the Synonyms in all the Celtic Dialects,' in which an attempt will be made to prove that the antient names of places, not only in England, but in Scotland and Ireland, are clearly derivable from the Welsh, and that therefore the Welsh were the original inhabitants of all these countries. The most singular dispute however that has arisen connected with the Welsh language is that on the affinity subsisting between it and the Gaelic and Erse. The general and almost undisputed opinion for a long time had been that they were dialects bearing a close resemblance: Schlözer and Adelung hinted suspicions of the correctness of this view; and Sir William Betham, in his Gael and Cymri,' asserts that they are wholly dissimilar and unconnected. Professor Forbes, of King's College, London, whose native tongue is Gaelic, maintained the same views as Sir William in an animated correspondence on the subject, which was carried on in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1836 and 1838. The main fact which he announced, that the most intimate knowledge of the Gaelic language would not enable a person to master a single verse of the Bible in Welsh, was certainly new to people in general, and would never have been suspected from the tone in which most Celtic scholars were accustomed to speak of the affinity of the languages; but the inference which he drew from it, of a total want of connection between the two, was satisfactorily refuted by other facts. The Rev. Richard Garnett, of the British Museum, who was induced to search into the ques tion by the statements of Professor Forbes, reports in the

Derived from the Latin, Saxon, &c., repetitions and
compound terms.
Peculiar to the Gaelic

140

40

40

The Welsh language in its present state is one of the oldest in Europe: it is in fact among spoken languages the most antient of which any written monuments are preserved, unless we regard the Romaic as to a certain degree identical with the antient Greek. The Welsh has poems now in existence, the origin of which is referred with probability to the sixth century. It is true that the language of these is so antiquated that the best scholars differ about the interpretation of many passages, and we observe that, in Price's 'Hanes Cymru,' it is deemed proper to subjoin a modern version even of a poem by Gwalchmai, in the twelfth century, for the information of the common reader; but, generally speaking, the body of poetry which the Welsh possess from the year 1000 downwards, is intelligible to those who are acquainted with the modern language after a very slight study. The same observation is perhaps applicable to no other living European language except the Icelandic.

50 He adds that, in the Grammar prefixed to Armstrong's Gaelic Dictionary there is a list of about two hundred verbs in common use. Seventy, or more than one-third of the whole, are unequivocally cognate with Welsh and Armoric, and twenty more probably so.' 'In Stewart's Gaelic Grammar we have a list of twenty-four simple prepositions (omitting mere varieties of form), and about forty improper, or compound. Of the former, fourteen are Welsh, and three Cornish; and of the latter, eighteen, or nearly onehalf, radically Welsh.' Mr. Garnett adds with justice, that The Welsh has long been an object of study to those who the amount of resemblance is hardly so great between speak it. There are,' says Owen Pughe (Archæologia, Icelandic and German,' and these are unquestionably cog-xiv., 220), 'about thirty different old treatises on Welsh nate languages. grammar and prosody preserved. Of these one is particuOn the whole therefore, it may be stated that the Celtic larly deserving of notice as a curious relic; it was comfamily of languages consists of two distinct branches, the posed by Geraint about 880, revised by Einion about 1200, first comprising the Irish, the Gaelic, and the Manks, which and again by Edeyrn about the year 1270, and regularly are in fact merely dialects-all three intelligible to any privileged by the different sovereigns who then exercised person who is master of one; and the second comprising authority in Wales.' The first printed grammar is genethe Welsh, the Armoric or Bas-Breton, and the Cornish. rally said to be that of Griffith Roberts, published at Milan The affinity between the members of the latter branch is in 1567, but this statement is hardly correct: the work of not so close as that between the members of the former, or Roberts, Dosparth byrr ar y rhan gyntaf i Ramadeg,' is a so close as it has often been asserted to be. The best evi- treatise on orthography only, and the book itself contains dence on this point is that of the Rev. Thomas Price, a no indication of its having been printed or published in distinguished Welsh scholar, who made a tour through Italy, which indeed the character of the type would seem Brittany in the summer of 1829, and published a very en- to contradict. Of the grammars which have since been tertaining and instructive narrative of it in the Cambrian published, Davies's Antiquæ Lingua Britannica nune Quarterly Magazine.' I may,' he says (Cambrian Quar- communiter dictæ Cambro-Britannica Rudimenta is the terly Magazine,' vol. ii., p. 197), 'be asked a question most esteemed. It was first published at London in 1621, which I should myself have proposed to another upon a has since been frequently reprinted, and has appeared in similar occasion, had I never visited Brittany, and that is, an English translation. The best dictionary is that of if the Welsh and Breton languages bear so near a resem- Owen, afterwards Owen Pughe, Geiriadur Cynmraeg a blance to each other as is generally understood, where was Saesoneg-A Welsh and English Dictionary,' 2 vols. 8vo., the necessity of having recourse to the French as a medium London, 1793, a new edition of which appeared in 1829, of communication? Why not converse with the Bretons and is much more convenient for use than the former, in the Welsh at once? To this I answer that, notwith- from having been divested of the writer's peculiar orthostanding the many assertions which have been made re-graphy, which, whether preferable or not to the common specting the natives of Wales and Brittany being mutually system, was a serious obstacle to the learner. It is still intelligible through the medium of their respective lan- indeed burdened with useless compounds, by which the guages, I do not hesitate to say that the thing is utterly number of words is swelled to above 100,000, but the twelve impossible; single words in either language will frequently thousand quotations which it contains, accompanied by be found to have corresponding terms of a similar sound translations, form an invaluable feature. This dictionary in the other, and occasionally a short sentence deliberately comprises Welsh and English only, not English and pronounced may be partially intelligible, but as to holding Welsh. The want of the latter is supplied by the excela conversation, that is totally out of the question.' lent English-Welsh dictionary of the Rev. John Walters, of which also a new and improved edition was published about 1825. An account of all the dictionaries previous to Owen's is given in the preface to that work. One of the most valuable books in the language is Lhuyd's Archæologia Britannica,' published at Oxford, in one volume, folio, in 1707. It contains, among other matter, a comparative vocabulary of the original languages of Britain and Ireland, an Armoric grammar and vocabulary, a Cornish grammar, and a catalogue of Welsh manuscripts.

There have been numerous unfounded statements with regard to the affinity of Welsh to other languages than those which have been enumerated as composing the Celtic stock. Dr. Owen Pughe and others appear to have adopted an opinion that Welsh was closely connected with the Slavonic family of languages, on the ground of a casual resemblance between some words of Welsh and of the Wendish dialect spoken in Lusatia. It is scarcely necessary to add that the slightest further investigation of the subject would have convinced them that it has less affinity to Wendish than to English. Its connection with Hebrew has also been strongly asserted by many, but the true state of the case was pointed out long ago by Llewellyn, in his Historical and Critical Remarks on the British Tongue. It is commonly said,' he observes, that the British and the Hebrew are similar languages, but by this must be understood not that they seem to be derived the one from the other, or that there are a great many radical words the same in each, but only that there is a similarity of sound in certain letters of both alphabets, and that they are alike in many peculiarities of construction, especially in the change incident to several letters in the beginning of words.' The Welsh is now generally referred to the great Indo-European family, or rather nation, of languages, which embraces English, Greek, Latin, and Sanscrit. Its affinities with the Sanscrit, which had been denied by Kennedy, Bopp, and Schlegel, have been made the subject of research by Prichard, in his Eastern Origin of the Celtic Nations,' and by Pictet, in his treatise De l'Affinité des Langues Celtiques avec le Sanscrit.'

The Welsh language is distinguished for the beauty of the compounds, which it possesses the capacity of forming to an almost unlimited extent. It has often been praised for energetic brevity; but, on the contrary, its general character, as it is now written, is that of tameness and diffuseness. Many of the phrases most constantly occurring require a greater number of words to express them in Welsh than in English. The most remarkable peculiarity of the Welsh among European languages (for it has a parallel in the Sanscrit) is what is called its system of permutation, which has often been praised as a beauty, but can only appear so in the eyes of those who consider complexity as an absolute advantage. The principle of permutation is this-that the initial letters of certain words are changed when they follow certain other words. Thus 'ci' in Welsh signifies a dog. To signify my dog,' it is necessary to say 'vy nghi, not only prefixing the word 'vy, or my,' but altering the initial c into ngh; for thy dog, the expression is dy gi;' for her dog,'ei chi, &c. A word beginning with a different letter undergoes a different mutation. Pen,' a head, is changed into 'vy mihen,'' dy

quidem mihi satis eruditi videntur quibus nostra ignota sunt.' The history of the literature of Wales is strikingly different from that of every other in Europe, and the apathy which has allowed the subject to remain in obscurity and neglect can hardly be explained.

ben, ei phen,' &c., and there are a number of complex | rules for these singular changes, the main, or rather the sole object of which is to promote the harmony of a language, which after all has never been considered harmonious by those of whom it was not the mother tongue. The use of a language so different from English by a The effect of this apathy has been that the most inteportion of the inhabitants of the country has often been resting points of the history of Welsh literature still remain considered an evil, but no active measures appear to have to be subjected to investigation and criticism. The Welsh been taken against the peculiar speech of Wales. The claim to be in possession of a body of poetical compositions fate of its neighbour, the Cornish, which gradually perished extending from the sixth century to our own times, a period of mere neglect, has led to the supposition that the of thirteen hundred years. Till within the last half-century Welsh would also disappear from the same cause; and the proofs on which this assertion rests-the compositions indeed Mr. Wynn, the president of the Asiatic Society, for which this antiquity is claimed-remained buried in himself a Welshman, referred to the progressive extinction the libraries of colleges and of individuals, some so difficult of Welsh as a proof of the efficacy of the non-interference of access, that Lhuyd, the celebrated Welsh antiquary of system in such cases, in a discussion on the subject of en- the eighteenth century, who spent his life in researches deavouring to introduce the English in the place of some into Celtic literature, had never been able to obtain a sight of the native languages of India. The same idea was pre- of some of the most interesting. This reproach was revalent a century ago, when Goronwy Owen, the Welsh moved, after ineffectual appeals to the patriotism of the poet, relates in one of his letters (printed in the Cam- gentry of Wales, by the liberality of Owen Jones, a furrier brian Register,), that in a discussion on the Welsh lan- in Thames Street, who, at the expense, it is said, of more guage with another Welshman, Owen, the translator of than a thousand pounds, collected and published, in 1801 Juvenal into English, 'the wicked imp, with an air of com- and subsequent years, in three volumes, under the title of placency and satisfaction, said there was nothing in it worth The Myvyrian Archaiology of Wales,' the chief producreading, and that to his certain knowledge the English tions of Welsh literature for nearly nine hundred years, from daily got ground of it, and he doubted not but in a hun- about 500 to 1400. In this task Owen Jones was assisted dred years it would be quite lost.' The hundred years that by Edward Williams, better known by the name of Iolo have since elapsed have not confirmed this opinion. Morganwg, or Edward of Glamorgan, and by Dr. Owen, For upwards of ten centuries,' says the Rev. W. J. Rees, in afterwards Dr. Owen Pughe. This enterprise was by no an address delivered in 1821 on the formation of the Cam- means undertaken too soon. A number of manuscripts brian Society in Gwent, 'since the reign of Offa, who made equal to what now remains,' says Owen, in the fourteenth his celebrated dyke to prevent incursions of the Welsh volume of the Archæologia of the Antiquarian Society, into his territories, the Welsh language has receded com-hath perished through neglect within the last two hunparatively but little within the boundary, especially in dred years, that is to say, since the higher ranks of Welshsome parts of North Wales; and in other districts, where men have withdrawn their patronage from the cultivation the long lapse of time since the conquest by Edward I. and of the literature of their native country. We have still the intimate incorporation by Henry VIII., and the great upwards of two thousand manuscript books of various ages encouragement given for the attainment of the English from the beginning of the ninth to the close of the sixlanguage are considered, it has gained less ground than teenth century.' By the publication of the Myvyrian could be expected. An Englishman travelling the public Archaiology' a vast mass of materials was preserved, but it roads of the principality often meets with persons who did not comprise the whole of what Jones intended to pubspeak English, and those whom he has occasion to address lish-in the library of the Welsh school at London, no less at the inns are able to accommodate themselves to his than eighty volumes of transcripts were deposited which language: the gentry he may visit speak English, and were intended for a continuation of the work. After the those who call upon them probably use the same language cessation of Jones's exertions, the old apathy returned, and in his hearing; and from these slight facts which come to continued till within the last two or three years. Dr. his knowledge, he erroneously concludes that the English Owen exerted himself for several years to obtain support is the prevailing language of the country. It is only one for the publication of the Mabinogion,' or prose tales of who has resided a long time in the interior, having inter- the Welsh, but died without accomplishing his purpose, course with the common people, that can form a true esti- which is now being carried into execution by Lady Charmate of the extent of the Welsh language; and most per- lotte Guest. At present the prospects of Welsh literature sons will readily assent to the truth of the assertion, that are more favourable than on any previous occasion. The the Welsh is the sole living speech not only of thousands, Cymmrodorion Society has issued the works of the antient but of tens of thousands, and even of some hundreds of thou- poet Lewis Glyn Cothi, and has other publications in the sands of the inhabitants of the principality.' (Cambro-Bri- press. Another association has recently been instituted, on ton, vol. iii., p. 229.) The Welsh language has not only be- the model of the Camden and similar societies, for the purcome more firmly rooted in the Old World in recent times, pose of publishing manuscripts, whether in Welsh or other but, like the Gaelic, has acquired a prospect of flourishing languages, connected with Wales; and these are to be in the New. While Dr. Macleod, in the preface to his accompanied with translations. It also announces a trans'Leabhar nan Cnoc,' exults in the hope that if Gaelic is lation, by the Rev. J. Williams, of the Myvyrian Archaiodestined to perish in the Highlands, it will survive beyond logy,' which had nothing English about it but its prefaces. the Atlantic in the living speech of numbers greater than In the latter portion of the plan of this society the ever spoke it in Europe, the Rev. T. Price, in his Hanes second step is taken of the three which are requisite to Cymru, relates with similar exultation that he has received bring the literature of Wales fairly before the world. The from America some numbers of a Welsh periodical, the first is, the publication of its monuments, as indispensable Cyfaill yr Hen Wlad,' or Friend of the Old Country,' materials for all that is to follow; the second, the rendering now publishing at New York. The only bad sign of late of them accessible, by translations, to those who have not years for the prosperity of the Welsh language is that an the opportunity of acquiring, in addition to the knowledge Essay on the means of Promoting the Literature of Wales,' of the Welsh language as it now is, that of all its variations by the Rev. J. Bray, has received the prize of the Cymrei- during a period of thirteen hundred years. The third will gyddion Society, and been published by them, in which the be, that of applying a judicious criticism to these materials; adoption of the language of England is recommended as of comparing, elucidating, and investigating; separating the best method of promoting literary cultivation. It is evi- the genuine from the spurious; and deciding its value. dent to those who peruse the essay, that it can only be the When all this has been done, and not before, it will be matter, not the treatment of the subject, which secured the possible to take a satisfactory survey of the history of prize; and the Cymreigyddion Society, which thus bestows Welsh literature, in which is involved the history of two of its approbation upon it, was expressly instituted, in 1795, the most interesting points of modern literature in general, for the delivery of lectures in the Welsh language on that of the introduction of rhyme and the origin of romanscientific and useful subjects,' and the translation of tic fiction. At present the want of published materials in scientific treatises into Welsh.' some cases and of adequate criticism upon them in others renders speculation on these subjects peculiarly vague and unsatisfactory.

4

Literature. The quotation which was prefixed to a magazine entitled The Cambro-Briton,' devoted to the cultivation of Welsh literature, is peculiarly happy: 'Nulli

The Welsh, it has been already stated, claim to be in