[17] See _post_, pp. 102, 103. This book had just been published at Oxford. Two volumes of selections from Canon Jenkins's MSS. writings were issued in 1879, after his death. [18] Colonel James Frederick Crichton Stuart, Liberal for Cardiff from 1857 to 1880. {83} CHAPTER V THE WESTERN MAIL--ROME AND THE COUNCIL--RETURN TO MOUNTSTUART 1869-1871 Although Bute's attraction towards a life of simplicity and retirement was, even in his early manhood, as it remained throughout his life, one of his most marked characteristics, he never allowed this to interfere with such public duties as he conceived to be rendered incumbent on him by the responsibilities of his position. His first public appearance in Cardiff, apart from the celebrations connected with his majority, seems to have been in his capacity as chairman of the local Benefit and Annuitants Society, when he acquitted himself to the general satisfaction. In 1869 he accepted the honorary colonelcy of the Glamorgan Artillery Volunteers. "It seemed to be expected of me," he wrote to a friend, "and though there was never a man of less military proclivities than myself, I regard the Volunteer movement as an excellent one, and desire to encourage it.[1] I look forward also, under proper guidance, to learning something about {84} guns, though I fear ours can hardly be said to be altogether up-to-date. But I hope to be instrumental in bringing about some improvement in that respect." On November 11, 1869, he appeared in uniform at the inspection of the regiment at the new drill-hall, which he had just erected at a cost of over £10,000. A few months previous to the date just mentioned, Bute had, not without serious consideration, embarked on an enterprise which, while entailing heavy expenditure on himself, was to have a considerable and permanent effect on the industrial and political life not only of the rapidly-growing town of Cardiff, but of the whole of South Wales. This was the launch of the _Western Mail_ newspaper, of which the first number was published in May, 1869. At this time the principal paper in the district was the Liberal (weekly) _Cardiff Times_, started in 1857, the year in which Colonel James Frederick Crichton Stuart was first elected M.P. for Cardiff. Bute was entirely out of sympathy with the political views of his kinsman, and had openly declared himself on coming of age an adherent of the Conservative party. He wrote to a friend at Oxford after the formation of Mr. Gladstone's first Ministry: I suppose I may call myself--you would certainly call me--an old-fashioned Tory. The inclusion of Bright in the Cabinet shows that the new Government is Radical, naked and unashamed. And whatever else I am, anyhow I am not a Radical. [Sidenote: 1869, Launching a newspaper]