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

kingdom, whether they differed from their neighbours or whether they possessed any characteristics peculiar to themselves. I had, of course, read and heard of the names of many of the old bards of Wales-Taliesin, Myrddin, Aneurin, and others. I had also studied the Latin history of the Monk of Monmouth, and other literature bearing on the ancient history of Wales, and I know that the chief English poets derive much of their inspiration from these fragments. Perhaps, however, the true account of my coming here this evening is that it is owing to the request of my friend Mr. Hugh Owen. The circumstances which two or three years ago brought me into acquaintance with Mr. Owen, are, in fact, nearly allied to the subject which will occupy your attention this evening-viz., education in Wales. When I first became associated with a number of gentlemen interested in the University College of Wales, not only was I struck by the intense love of country which they all exhibited, but I was not prepared to find such a number of gentlemen so united in a common desire to raise the people and their country by means of higher education. All of you have heard much of education in England and Scotland. I have no wish to depreciate the rest of the country, but I must say, that in much that I have heard in England and Scotland, there was mixed a large proportion of talk about education, not for its value in itself, but simply as a means of getting on. Great efforts were being made to acquire education for this purpose, and to find in it an outlet for the superfluous energy of the English race. The wish to get on carried the Anglo-Saxon all over the world, but it destroyed the purity, the simplicity, and the nobleness of the desire of education for its own sake. The just appreciation of education, for its own sake, by the gentlemen I have referred to, I have not been accustomed to find in other parts of the country. I have had a great deal to do professionally with

English youth of the higher classes. There is one thing observable in these young men-while many of them were capable of appreciating education for itself, yet in them as a class that desire was a very feeble one. I failed to find in them any just appreciation of learning as it is, or for what it will do, except as a means of getting on in the world. Referring to the debate in the House of Commons on the previous evening, I was much struck with the remarks of Sir John Lubbock, who might be regarded as the foremost representative of Science in the present day. Sir John had said that Natural Science did not receive its fair share of attention in Oxford, and he desired that the Commissioners might have special instructions to further the development of scientific teaching in the University. He also expressed his opinion that Science would never be cultivated in Oxford until Fellowships were attached to it; for no one would teach it unless he were well paid for it. That," said Mr. Pattison, cold weight, and yet the truth of it

"fell upon me like a could not be denied. Prizes have been the means by which subjects of study have been kept alive. But I refer to this by way of showing the contrast to what I became acquainted with in those gentlemen who are promoting the University College of Wales with a disinterested spirit, such as I should very much wish to see in those connected with my own University."

At another meeting of the Society, held at the Theatre of the London Institution, Finsbury Circus, on the evening of Saturday, the 18th of May, Professor Rudler, of Aberystwith delivered a Lecture on The Potter's Art in Britain".

The Chair was occupied by the Right Honourable W. E. Gladstone, M.P., who, on his entrance, was greeted with a burst of acclamation. At the close of Mr. Rudler's Lecture, Mr. Gladstone spoke as follows:

"It will certainly be our fault if we leave this place without some fair conception of this most curious art of the potter. It is a subject to which I myself have paid some attention, although not in a scientific or regular manner, but as an observer, a lover, and at one time a collector of these objects (hear, hear); and I should feel very desirous of addressing some remarks upon the subject, but that I am absolutely compelled to leave you in the course of ten minutes. I will, however, just say a word or two upon a portion of what Mr. Rudler has mentioned. I am bound to thank him for having made me acquainted with the operations of the birds of Australia (pointing to the drawing of the nest of the piedgrilling) as pioneers of industry in this great work. It is to me a most singular and interesting fact-though it does not appear that the good example they set in regard to pottery has been followed by the natives-both in connection with the present subject and likewise in connection with natural history, as indicating higher gifts than are usually possessed by birds. When we consider the limited share of the higher gifts usually possessed by birds, it would really appear that, although we may find among insects far more remarkable gifts than we generally find in that region of the animal kingdom which is occupied by birds, it will be difficult to find anything so remarkable as the exhibition of the nests made of clay, put together by birds. Passing onwards, I must quite sustain, so far as I am able, what has been said by the lecturer with regard to the potter's wheel. We have enjoyed the presence this evening of a gentleman of great distinction, Dr. Schliemann (cheers), to whom you are desirous of paying a tribute of admiration, and to whom all those who are interested in the early stages of human history and human efforts are most deeply indebted. He, like me, is apt to date the beginnings, in many instances at least, of our knowledge from the period of Homer, which may be fixed at somewhere between 1,000 and 1,200 years before Christ, and as the period at which we find the potter's