from the earliest notices by the Roman writers, mingled with whatever of tradition, derivation, or record, could be supplied from other sources. Here, as might be expected, we find many particulars of Druidism, which our author strenuously defends, and with complete success, from the imputations cast upon it by Tacitus and other Romans, who have presumed to characterise it as barbarous and odious; without having acquired any adequate knowledge either of its principles or practice. In support of that striking characteristic of the druidical or bardic system, oral record, Mr. Jones says,—

"It cannot be denied that the plain undeviating rules of right and wrong are communicated in very few words; and that the eternal and immutable maxims of truth and justice require neither the aid of parchment or paper, nor even the more durable monuments of brass or stone, to be perpetuated: they are written in an universal language, and in characters equally indelible, though invisible, in the breast of the ignorant and the learned, the saint, the savage, and the sage.' P. 200.

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We cannot altogether assent to this. If it proves any thing, it proves too much; for even oral record itself would be superfluous, if these "eternal and immutable maxims of truth and justice" were really impressed within the breasts of the ignorant, as well as of the wise. That mankind, even in the lowest and most degraded state of nature, have a capacity to receive these truths, we are willing to acknowledge; but the vast diversity of opinion, as to what actually constitutes vice and virtue, which has existed in every age of the world, proves that there are no innate feelings in man to direct him in his choice of good and evil. If there be any one maxim that to a cultivated understanding would seem the most likely to be implanted in every heart, it is that which, in the language of the Mosaic dispensation, is contained in the words "Thon shalt not kill!" Yet in every part of the globe we are at present acquainted with, where man exists in a state of nature, we find that the taking away the life of a fellow-creature is scarcely held in any kind of abhorrence. To an European mind, the destruction of children is one of the greatest crimes; yet, in some islands of the Pacific Ocean, infanticide is a common custom; and in China, the exposure of infants, on whatever motives of necessity it may be justified, is known to be frequently attended with death. In Europe, filial ingratitude is held to be detestable; yet the Hindoos expose their sick parents to the waves of the Ganges, with

out a thought of guilt, or a feeling of remorse. The Indian Bramin, too-he whose trembling heart shrinks from the destruction of the meanest reptile, and who envelopes his mouth and nostrils in a thin veil, lest a poor fly should be drawn in and perish-even he can light the funeral pyre, and feel pleasure in the act, on which the living and the dead are reduced to ashes in the same flames! But what more than all, perhaps, will tend to prove the weakness of the position to the mind of him who has advanced it, is the fact stated by Caesar, that the Druids of Gaul offered sacrifices of human victims. Where then shall we seek for that all-informing sentiment that should direct the ignorant to virtue? In the untutored breast it does not, it cannot, exist. To affirm therefore that it equally animates the bosom of " the saint, the savage, and the sage," may do to "round a period;" but, alas! the frail condition of human nature most indubitably evinces that the affirmation

is untrue.

The summary of the opinions of the Druids in respect to the Divinity is given in the eloquent language of Mallet; in whose Northern Antiquities it describes the early tenets of the Scandinavians. We shall here re-quote the passage, premising only, that the words printed in italics are those of our author.

"The Druids first and principally inculcated the love of virtue and the detestation of vice, acknowledged and believed in the being of a supreme God, Master of the Universe, to whom all things were submissive and obedient. They called him the Author of every Thing that existeth; the Eternal, the Ancient, the Living and Awful Being; the Searcher into concealed Things; the Being that never changeth. They attributed to this Deity an infinite power, a boundless knowledge, an incorruptible justice. They, were forbidden from representing him in a corporeal form: they were not even to think of confining him within the inclosure of walls; but were taught that it was only within woods and consecrated groves they could serve him properly; as he seemed to reign there in silence, and to make himself felt by the respect he inspired." P. 200.

Our limits will not permit us to follow Mr. Jones in his account of the druidical religion; nor is it perhaps particularly necessary, after the ample extracts from Mr. Owen's description of the bardic system, so recently inserted in our review of Sir R. C. Hoare's translation of Giraldus*.

"See Antijacobin Review, Vol. 31. P. 130. 133.

In some few particulars the accounts vary, but the more essential features are the same. Our author seems fully inclined to acquit Edward the First of the inhuman policy ascribed to him of commanding the massacre of all the Welsh bards that fell into his hands; and we most readily accord with him in this acquittal, however widely a contrary belief has been spread, through the impression made by Gray's beautiful Ode, beginning,

Ruin seize thee, ruthless king!'

In pages 221 and 222 is inserted a petition that was presented to the Pope, from the Princes of North and South Wales, in behalf of the British Church. Among the grievances complained of in this petition, was that of "sending them English bishops, ignorant of the manners and language of the country," and who consequently "could neither preach the word of God to the people, nor receive their confessions, but through the medium of interpreters." In a note to this passage, which from its extreme illiberality we should rather suppose had been foisted in unknown to Mr. Jones, than to have proceeded from his pen, so opposite is it to the general character of the work, there is an assertion which we can almost take upon us positively to contradict from our own knowledge: but first let us give the note.

"This rule of the English court (that is, sending English bishops] is founded in wisdom and sound policy; insomuch that it has been confirmed and acted upon up to this day. There is no knowing what mischief a bishop, who can speak and preach in the British tongue, may do among an irascible people, as the Welsh undoubtedly are: besides, the soil of that country is miserably poor, and does not produce men of sufficient learning to entitle them to hold the dignity."

Now in one of our autumnal excursions through the principality of Wales, we stopt on a Sunday at Bangor, and, going into the cathedral of that small city, heard a part of the service delivered in the Welsh language, and were there informed that the person officiating was the "Bishop of Bangor." We shall not comment on the unguarded expression of the soil of Wales being too poor to produce men of sufficient learning for a bishopric, any further than by asking what the barren soil of a country has to do with learning?

The eighth chapter, which treats of the laws of Wales, is very interesting; and here, as may be imagined, Mr. Jones, who is a professional man, is quite at home."

He commences by giving a general view of the institutions which Hywel Dda, or Hywel the Good, is stated to have raised about the year 940, on the ancient basis laid down by Dyfnwal Moel-mûd, whose name has been latinized into Dunwallus Molmutius, and who is said in the Welsh Chronicles to have reigned over Britain upwards of 430 years prior to the commencement of the Christian era. These laws of Hywel Dda have been often quoted; and many of them are as remarkable for their wisdom, as others are for their whimsical singularity. We shall give some extracts, as we believe the entire code has never yet been translated into English.

"The distinguishing and general characteristic of this system was the making satisfaction, in money, cattle, or other effects, for all offences and crimes, murder not excepted; for injuries, to the person; for privation of property, to the party complaining of the grievance; for murder, to the relations of the deceased; and in this latter case, much pains were taken and labour employed, under various circumstances and in different degrees of affinity, to ascertain who were entitled to receive this compensation, which was more or less in proportion to the rank the deceased held in the community; but even on this serious subject there were now and then distinctions, to us apparently ludicrous, and certainly not at this moment to be accounted for. The learned in the laws,' says one of these ordinances, have determined, that for committing adultery with the king's consort, killing his ambassadors, or violating his protection, the offender shall forfeit to his majesty a golden cup, having a cover to it as broad as his face, as thick as the thumb of a plowman who has been nine years in that employ; a silver rod of the same height of the king, and as thick as his thumb; a hundred cows for every cantreff which the offender possessed; and a white bull* with red ears for every hundred cows; but if the cows are of a dark colour, then a black bull with every hundred. For the murder of the King of North Wales, this fine shall be tripled.'" P. 233.

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"Much pains are taken in these laws to describe what articles of household furniture and other effects shall go with the husband, and what with the wife, in case of separation; and a laborious and impracticable attempt is made to fix a specific value upon every species of property, in case it should be lost, stolen, or injured: for instance, the king's blanket (the effeminate luxury of sheets

"There was a breed of this kind and colour upon the banks of the Towi, in Carmarthenshire, which were particularly valuable. Wotton, Richard's Welsh Dict. sub. verb. Ysgafrllynnig. Bingley in his Anim. Biog, says, that all wild cattle are of this colour; and this fine being laid upon the whole of Wales, seems to prove the truth of his assertion. V. ante în note, p. 121.”

was then unknown) was worth one hundred and twenty pence; the queen's flesh-fork, twenty-four pence; the king's chess-board, one hundred and twenty pence; a bucket, one penny; a housedog, even though he was [were] the king's, only four pence; while a shepherd's dog was equal in value to an ox, if it could be proved by his owner, and neighbours, upon oath, that he was accustomed to precede the cattle to the field in the morning, and bring them home ut night. The purloining, destroying, or injuring of any of these effects or animals was punished in general by mulct, in the same manner, though in a lighter degree, with the death of the king. The legislators have proceeded to recapitulate with a tedious minuteness, and apparently with a peculiar whimsicality, the remedies in case some of these animals did any mischief to the property of those to whom they did not belong; and it should sometimes seem as if they meant to punish the fowl or beast himself, and endeavoured to make him sensible of his crime; as when they enacted that if geese were found trespassing in corn, it was lawful to kill them with a stick as long as from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger; if in a barn or rick-yard, to squeeze them to death with a forked stick placed on their necks; if a cock trespassed, one of his spurs might be cut off; if a calf, in corn, he might be kept a whole day without sucking, and then liberated; and if a hen was caught filching, she might be detained till she laid an egg. P. 234, 235.

The tenure by which the lands were universally held in Wales, in ancient times, was that of gavel-kind; which indeed from the custom of various manors in many parts of England, as well as from its general prevalence in Kent, would seem, at some distant period, to have obtained throughout the whole island. Mr. Jones supposes the word gavel-kind to be a corruption from gafael-gynt, signifying of ancient tenure; for example, "yn ol gafael yr amseroedd gynt, i.e. according to the tenure of ancient times." The English practice of "arraigning a recovery," which to the disgrace of British jurisprudence is still suffered to disgrace the code with its fictions, and unintelligible gibberish, compounded from three languages, appears to have been borrowed from the Welsh,

The account of the government of the bordering counties under the Lords Marchers, includes many particulars of much interest to all who would obtain a thorough acquaintance with the history of this country. The severe laws enacted by Henry the Fourth against the Welsh, evince how greatly that sovereign was exasperated at the rebellion of Owen Glyndw'r; and how very imperfectly the mutual interest of the two nations was then understood. In this part, Mr. Jones, in some of those flippant No. 129. Vol. 32. Mar. 1809.

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