I INTRODUCTORY NOTE PRESENT this work to the public as an attempt to analyse some of the elements that have contributed to the making of small nations. It is addressed to English as well as Welsh readers. To the former it may facilitate a more correct judgment of a people that have suffered from unreasonable expectations on the one hand and unreasonable exaggerations on the other. As to the latter, I shall probably disappoint many and satisfy few. There are, however, two claims that I make. I have not disregarded the convictions of those who belong to different schools of thought, and I have exercised the inestimable right to the freedom of thought and opinion which is the heritage of every individual. How to reconcile the rights of the individual with the rights of the masses is a problem that is fast pressing itself upon the attention of statesmen and political scientists, and upon its solution will depend the scope and character of future legislation both in England and on the Continent. 7th November 1911. J. V. M. 267241 PREFACE DESIRE to state that in addition to the research work which a volume of this character necessarily entails, I have consulted, among others, the following authorities:Grote's History of Greece; Evelyn Abbot's History of Greece; The Cambridge Modern History; Motley's Rise of the Dutch Republic; Webb's Switzerland of the Swiss; Draper's Intellectual Development of Europe; The Principles of Religious Development by Galloway; The History of Scotland by Andrew Lang; Dr. Hume Brown's History of Scotland to the Accession of Mary Stewart; Edward Lhuyd's Archæologia Britannica (1707), Myvyrian Archaiology (Denbigh edition, 1870); The Reformation in Scotland by Dr. Hay Fleming; The Celtic Church in Wales by Willis Bund; The Welsh People by Sir John Rhys and Sir David Brynmor Jones, M.P.; Frederick Seebohm's Tribal System in Wales; The Church under the Commonwealth by Dr. William Shaw; and Anglo-Saxon Britain by Grant Allen. I am greatly indebted to Mr. Hector Macpherson of Edinburgh for his uniform kindness and his great assistance in verifying dates and references in that portion of my work dealing with Scotland. My grateful thanks are due to the Rev. J. H. Lloyd, M.A., Rector of Aberedw, and Mr. Ifano Jones, Welsh librarian, Cardiff. To the latter gentleman I owe much. Mr. John Ballinger, M.A., has also placed me under obligation to him in permitting me to reproduce impressions of the two unique copies of the first piece of printing executed within the borders of the Principality. Lastly, I must not omit the opportunity of expressing my debt to my wife for her invaluable services as well as the advantage of her knowledge and impressions of Scotland-the land of her birth. 7th November 1911. J. V. M. |