The political awakening in Wales came considerably later than the religious and the educational awakening; and when it did come it was largely as a consequence of the others. We have seen how, in the period of the Civil War, the Principality was almost wholly Royalist; and when two distinct political parties came to be formed at Westminster, in the closing years of the seventeenth century, it gave its steady support to the Tories. It is with shame that the historian is forced to admit that Welsh lawyers like the infamous {232} Judge Jeffreys were among the most brazen and unscrupulous agents of Stuart tyranny. But just as there were a few Parliamentarians in Wales in the reign of Charles I, so also in the reign of James II there were a few prominent Welshmen, who gave strong support to the Revolution and the Bill of Rights. With the reign of Anne Wales settled down to the quiet Toryism from which it was not roused for over a hundred years. It is interesting to note that, as in the case of France, the first note of discord was heard among the men-of-letters. We hear it in the writings of Jack Glan-y-Gors, and in those of Iolo. But their rebellious sentiments found no echo in the hearts of the people; and the great leaders of the Revival were either strictly non-political, or else Tory. Nor did the French Revolution do much to rouse the country. An almost solitary exception was the philosopher-preacher Richard Price, the supporter of the American rebels, and the defender of the rights of man. He does not occupy a prominent place in history; but the man who occasioned the _Reflections on the French Revolution_ of Burke, and who earned an able vindication from the pen of John Morley, certainly merits a passing allusion. {233}