Cylchgronau Cymru

Chwiliwch trwy dros 450 o deitlau a 1.2 miliwn o dudalennau

VOLUME XVIII WELSH OUTLOOK Where there is no vision the people perish NOTES OF THE MONTH THE death of His Honour ex-Judge John Bryn Roberts leaves Wales poorer. He was the last survivor of the old Welsh Liberalism, not the Liberalism of Tom Ellis or „Ytr. ILloyd George, but the older Liberalism which, at the general election of 1868, put an end to the political domination of the Tory squirearchy that in the main had directed Welsh politics since the Restoration. The theories of this Liberalism were in some short measure Whig, but in the main were derived from the philosophy of Bentham and the economics of the Manchester School. Its watch- words were Peace, Retrenchment and Reform. Bryn Roberts was a Liberal of this school, and as a Welsh member of Parliament he championed its principles. But at the same time he was, unlike many of the Benthamites, a deeply sincere and orthodox Christian. His family were among the wealthy Calvinistic Methodists, and Bryn Roberts lived and died a sincere believer in the doctrines of that Church. His Christianity strengthened and ennobled his political principles. Convinced that the imperial- ism which desired the destruction of the South African Republics was inspired by an unchristian greed of gold, he assailed in the House of Com- mons, with unqualified severity, alike the soldiers and statesmen of the hour-Roberts and Kitchener, Chamberlain, Rhodes and Milner. He spared none. As might have been expected, this attitude before a war-mad nation made him unpopular, and both friends and opponents asked how he could dare to do it. The real truth was that Bryn Roberts was hardly conscious of his bravery. He acted as he did act like Thackeray's Colonel New- THE NUMBER V MAY 1931 come, from a simple sense of duty, and could not conceive himself acting otherwise. A great Christian, Bryn Roberts was hardly a Puritan. From his boyhood he was fond of horses, and he rode with the harriers after he was in the eighties. "A Methodist Deacon who rides to hounds," was the way in which the Pall Mall Gazette summed him up. The truth is, he enjoyed life quietly, his greatest relaxations being probably arguments and chess. He was a first-rate lawyer, and for many years he practised as a solicitor in North Wales with great success. At the Bar he acquired a good junior practice, but he was no orator and never took silk. His friend, Lord Loreburn, gave him a county court judgeship in Glamorganshire, whence later on he was transferred to North Wales. As a Judge he won general respect from his legal learning and fairness. But it is as a Christian and champion of international justice in dark hours that he most deserves remembrance. WE offer no apology for reverting this month to the question of the joint steps taken by Welsh Education Authorities and leaders of the Church in Wales for dealing with the problem of religious instruction in our public elementary schools. We referred last month to the effective progress made in Caernar- vonshire and in Swansea, and to the new spirit of accommodation that prevails in Anglesey, Brecon- shire and Flintshire, which we hope may shortly lead to local settlements in those areas. It is not commonly known that at Newport there has existed for many years a concordat which has