We confess that we should be sorry to see any language impaired, much
less forgotten: they constitute some of the great marks which the
Almighty has impressed upon the various tribes of his children--not
lightly to be neglected nor set aside. They form some of the surest
grounds of national strength and permanence; and they are some of
those old and venerable things which, as true conservatives, we are by
no means desirous to see obliterated or injured. As, however, it is
obviously impossible that the whole literature of the Anglo-Saxon race
should be translated into Welsh, it is essential to the Cambrians that
they should no longer hesitate as to qualifying themselves for reading,
in its own tongue, that literature which is exercising so great an
influence over a large portion of the globe; and the possession of the
two languages will tend to elevate the character, as well as to remove
the prejudices, of the people that shall take the trouble to acquire
them.
The social condition of Wales is gone into by the author at some
length; but he confines his observations principally to the
manufacturing and mining population of Glamorgan and the southern
counties. Upon this part of the subject he has compiled much valuable
information which, though not exactly new, tells well in his work when
brought into a focus and reasoned upon. He introduces the subject
thus:--
"The social condition of the inhabitants is influenced by
the configuration of the country, for the most part abrupt,
and broken into hill and valley; the elevation of the upper
mountain ranges, which are the loftiest in South Britain, and
the large proportion of waste and barren land; the humidity
of the climate; the variety and extent of the mineral riches
in certain localities; and the great length of the sea-coast,
forming numerous bays and havens; and thus there is presented
much variety in the occupation, and remarkable contrasts in
the means of subsistence and habits of life, of the people.
Monmouthshire, Glamorganshire, and the southern extremity
of Breconshire, are the seat of the iron and coal trades.
In the western part of Glamorganshire, around Swansea, and
in the south-eastern corner of Carmarthenshire, copper ore,
imported from Cornwall, as well as from foreign countries, is
smelted in large quantities; and the same neighbourhood is
the seat of potteries, at which an inexpensive description of
earthenware is made. Coal, in limited quantities, and of a
particular description, is exported from Carmarthenshire and
Pembrokeshire; and lead ore and quarries of slate are worked in
Cardiganshire. In North Wales, considerable masses of people
are collected around the copper mines of Anglesey; amidst the
slate quarries opened in the lofty mountains of Caernarvonshire
and Merionethshire, as well as in some of the sea-ports of
those counties; amongst the lead mines of Flintshire, and the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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