A MUSICAL SCHOLARSHIP FOR WALES. BY THE EDITOR.

IN the choice of their future profession, we consult our children's tastes and inclinations. To act otherwise would argue a want of judgment, if not feeling. Who would compel his boy, stout though his arm might be, to row against the stream, if the voyage could be made, and the destination attained, by floating with the current? In the same spirit should a nation be educated. Peoples, as well as individuals, have their peculiar bent. Englishmen delight in the manly exercises of cricket, football, boating, and other athletic pastimes. Our Irish neighbours are never so happy as when brandishing their shillelahs at Donnybrook Fair. While our Gallic friends, across the Straits of Dover, have their tastes and predilections consummated in their innumerable fêtes and Saints' days. Welshmen, however, turn to poetry and music for the staple of their recreations. It is to the Eisteddfod that they wend their way for

"Their feast of reason and their flow of soul."

With the harp for his national instrument of music, and a collection of melodies unsurpassed, if not unrivalled, by those of other nations, the Welshman possesses an innate love of music, which may be almost termed his national temperament. In addition to this, he has a language which is at one moment rich in sounds as it is at another musical and soft. If the inclinations, therefore, of a people veer with the advantages they possess, and their tastes incline them to legitimate and worthy objects, by all means let the sails be trimmed and

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the helm directed, to give the ship a bearing that will best develope her sailing qualities.

If this love of music by the Welsh people be doubted, enter the Crystal Palace at Sydenham, where, on a certain day, amid the applause of crowded thousands, five hundred men and women of Wales-miners, colliers, quarrymen, artisans, and farm-labourers, with a working blacksmith for their leader are making the pile to echo with the martial strains of The Men of Harlech', or the pathos of Ar hyd y Nos'. And why are they there? They have come, and have succeeded in their enterprise, to carry away the one thousand guinea prize, offered by the Directors of the Palace for the best choral singing. They retire to their homes; and where a few years afterwards do we discover some of these same musical competitors? In the depths of an inundated coal mine; amid peril that might shake the stoutest heart and unnerve the strongest arm; fighting hand to hand with death; and, for once, tearing the crown from the old mower's brow, as they help to deliver their entombed brethren out of his ruthless grasp. The terrible accident at the Tynewydd Colliery needs no repetition here. It is indelibly stamped, with its incidents of heroism, on every Cymric heart. One of the rescuers, Gwilym Thomas, the brave coadjutor of Isaac Pride and Abraham Dodd, was present a few weeks ago, for the second time, at the Crystal Palace, taking part in a concert which, through the patriotic and untiring exertions of Mr. Brinley Richards, was given in aid of these same miners' fund. Doffing the collier's dress and donning that of a gentleman, Gwilym Thomas sang a song that might have ranked him as a no mean singer of the day. What country we would ask, besides Wales, could turn out colliers and miners such as these? and what higher proof could we offer, that our mountain land continues

"To be one bright sea of song."

Not only are Welsh men and Welsh women constitutionally lovers of music, but they have proved their capabilities of rising to the highest ranks of vocalists. Madame Edith Wynne, a genuine daughter of Cymru, has held her own for years among the prime donne of English singers. Miss Mary Davies, Miss Lizzie Evans, Miss Marian Williams, Miss Mary Jane Williams-we class them alphabetically-are not only fast rising into eminence, but have already distinguished themselves at the Royal Academy. The last mentioned young lady has made rapid strides of late. Eos Morlais and Mr. James Sauvage, with others of our countrymen, are also giving proofs that there is no degeneracy in our Celtic blood. And there are many and many others at this moment in Wales, who are but waiting for the helping hand to bring them out of their retirement, and provide them with suitable training, to become vocalists of a superior if not of the highest order.

Of the advantages of a Scholarship at the Royal Academy of Music for young men and women of Wales, we have convincing proof in our experience of the last few years. Miss Mary Davies, during the three years she enjoyed its emoluments, became an accomplished vocalist. We are enabled to point her out to future aspirants as their model, and bid them follow in her wake. Her success shows the necessity of making the Scholarship a permanent institution. Once established, it will give an impetus to musical education throughout the Principality.

It is to this end that Mr. John Thomas (Pencerdd Gwalia) -all honour to him for the work-has issued the prospectus which will be found in our advertising sheets. He proposes

1 "Mor o gân yw Cymru i gyd."

The form of the English line may seem awkward; but it arises from the rendering of it into cynghanedd Sain.

to raise a thousand pounds by the contributions of the Welsh people; and to devote the interest to found a permanent Scholarship at the Royal Academy, tenable for three years; during which its holder will receive an education of the highest kind, and such as could be had nowhere else. At the end of his tenure, another would be elected for a similar period. And thus Wales would never be without a permanent representative at the Academy.

Fears have been expressed lest this Scholarship should interfere with the success of the Musical Department of the University College of Wales. We apprehend no such untoward event. On the contrary, we feel sure that much benefit will arise to the College from the establishment of a Scholarship at the Royal Academy. The prize will not only give an impetus to college teaching, but it will act as a beacon which, ever kept in the scholar's view, will incite him to new exertions, and to a more devoted practice and study. But were it otherwise, the benefit that would result to Wales in general, by holding out a prize of such importance, and the high advantages it would give the musical student, would more than counterbalance the evil, even if it did take place. To give the sons and daughters of Wales the same advantages as those of England, it is necessary that they should be trained where a staff of professors, consummate in their several departments, are ever at hand, and where the scholars would receive the most classic kind of training.

We trust Mr. John Thomas will meet with the success he so richly deserves, and that a generous and cheerful response will be made to his appeal throughout the length and breadth of the land.

THE PROSPECTS OF EDUCATION IN WALES.

Ar a meeting of the Cymmrodorion Society held at the Freemasons' Tavern, on Tuesday Evening, February 20th, of the present year, for the purpose of hearing a Lecture on "The Educational Wants of Wales", by Mr. Marchant Williams, one of the Inspectors under the London School Board, the Reverend Mark Pattison, Rector of Lincoln College, Oxford, took the Chair and spoke as follows:

"My business on this occasion is very easy and short-in fact, nothing more than to introduce the reader of the paper of the evening. The duty of a chairman is to efface himself as much as he can. A chairman is very much in the position of an editor of the classics. Dutch editors seemed in times past chiefly to aim at overlaying the text by bringing into prominence their own learned effusions. Well, I propose, on the contrary, to present my classic with as little comment as possible. I feel it difficult to give any rational account of how I came to occupy the chair at this meeting. I regret to confess that I have not the honour of being a native of the Principality. I have no Cymric blood in my veins, and although my ancestors were not English, it is now such a long time since they came into England, that I must admit myself guilty of the crime-which I suppose is not participated in by any of my audience-of being a Saxon. In my youth, it is true, I was acquainted with your beautiful country, its rivers, hills, and valleys, which are still as ever the charm of artists and poets. At that time, however, I never thought of the people who inhabited that part of the