Cylchgronau Cymru

are the metal-working industries with which this book is exclusively concerned, even a cursory introduction to the subject is incomplete without a discussion of coal mining and slate quarrying, and some mention of the rich diversity of agricultural crafts and domestic industries which have made such a distinguished contribution to the industrial traditions of Wales. Even more significant than any particular omission is the failure of this book to give a general over-view of the development of Welsh industry, thereby providing a framework for future study. Perhaps Mr. Rees can be persuaded to return to his last to do this in another book. Few people are as well equipped as he undoubtedly is to perform such a task. R. A. BUCHANAN Bath University of Technology THE BRITISH COAL TRADE. By H. S. Jevons. David and Charles, Newton Abbot. Reprint 1969. Pp. xiv, 876. 126s. Professor Jevons, who died in 1955, packed a wide range of activity into his seventy-nine years. Lecturer at Cambridge, Sydney, Cardiff, Allahabad and Rangoon, friend of Haile Selassie and chairman of the Bombing Restriction Committee, he had an inherited interest in the coal industry, for in the 1860s his father's book, The Coal Question, had startled Gladstone into appointing a Royal Commission. While professor at Cardiff in the years before the First World War, Jevons became the organizer of a co-operative garden city movement, work which brought him into close contact with the Welsh mining community. This first-hand knowledge gave to The British Coal Trade a value beyond that of a mere textbook. While the book is still by far the most readable and comprehensive survey of the industry at its apogee, when coal was the 'foundation of nearly all the manufactures and commerce of this great Empire', much of the technical and statistic material it contains is as readily available in various official publications. Jevons's sympathetic account of the miner's life and work, however, is a basic source in itself. Wales is well served: over a third of the space devoted to a survey of the British coalfields is given to south Wales, 'in many respects the principal coalfield of the United Kingdom'. There is a brief and useful introductory note by B. F. Duckham. The book was originally published, together with a large map, in 1915 at 6s.: it is reprinted now, without the map, at 126s. JOHN DAVIES Swansea