THE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF WALES.

WITH the insertion of the following article, the Council of the Cymmrodorion desire it to be clearly understood that Y Cymmrodor will not become the advocate of any institution, or the organ of any tenets, whether religious or political, which shall savour of party. Their motto, in the conduct of their "Transactions", will be "Cymru, Cymro, a Chymraeg". The different institutions, whether collegiate or otherwise, are therefore invited to report their transactions to the Editor, who is to see that they are chronicled according to their usefulness and importance.

One of the noblest achievements of modern times in connection with the Principality has been the University College of Wales. Its dawnings may be traced to a pamphlet, written some twenty years ago, by Mr. B. T. Williams, Q.C. Very soon afterwards, others took up the question; and now that the institution has made important advancements towards success, many are vieing for the honour of being its promoters. When the Homeric poems had become famous, many a city of Greece contended for the distinction of having given birth to the poet; and now that the University College of Wales has been furnished with a staff of learned and active professors superintending a body of about a hundred young men, in a palatial residence-every penny for which has been paid-claims to the honour of having been its founder are started up on every side. But, as in the old fable of "The Cat and the Bell", the question is not who devised or planned the movement-that required no acumen; the wants of the

Principality were patent-but how and by whom has the work been brought to a successful issue.

The first impulse given to the work was a sum of £1,000 bequeathed to it by the late William Williams, M.P. With that noble gift for a basis of operations, the task was undertaken by Dr. Thomas Nicholas, and carried on by him for some years with a fair amount of success. He collected money and obtained promises amounting to several thousand pounds. But when, at length, no approach was made towards the accomplishment of the undertaking, the people of Wales became weary, the money flowed in but slowly and scantily, and the Committee felt they were in a dilemma. At this juncture, Dr. Thomas Nicholas retired, and his place was filled by the Rev. David Charles of Abercarn. He, too, laboured assiduously, but with little effect. The soil which Dr. Nicholas had ploughed seemed to have become effete. It scarcely furnished more money than was needed to pay the expenses of collection. After about four years' service, he also retired.

Disheartened by years of failure, some of the Committee began to doubt the possibility of carrying out the project. One or two even desired, on account of what they termed the pressure of private business, to have their names expunged from its directory. The prophets of non-success grew vaunting, and the opponents of the movement were beginning to exult in what they deemed a triumph, when one came forth to the rescue who, say other claimants what they will, was the pilot that steered the vessel through storm and breaker, shoal and rock, safe into harbour.

Mr. Hugh Owen had retired from his important post in the Local Government Office. Active as ever in mind and spirit, and anxious that the project for which he had already wrought so much should not end in failure, he undertook the gigantic task of completing what had been auspiciously

begun, but which had halted by the way and come to a dead lock. He travelled from place to place, induced local bodies to take up the question, organised committees, spoke at public meetings, made collections, and engaged in a correspondence that was interminable. All this was done without cost to the rising institution. And when, in October last, a general collection was made throughout the different places of worship, and a sum of near £3,300 flowed into the exchequer, it was without the mulct of any expenses. The institution, the body that was defunct or nearly so, was re-organised, clothed with thew and sinew, impregnated with life—not galvanised into the appearance of it—and endued with vigour and strength. It would be worse than affectation-it would be sheer ingratitude-were the success and completion of the work not ascribed to Mr. Hugh Owen. But it would be ungrateful also to forget the noble aid he received from such liberal donors to the College as Mr. Davies of Llandinam, the Messrs. Davies of Cardiff and Aberdare, Messrs. Parnall, who brought their thousands of pounds to bear on the undertaking. Several donors of five hundred pounds also came forward. Nor should we forget how nobly Manchester came to the rescue. It was this town that first resuscitated the hopes of the Committee, and even yet lends a most material aid.

Mr. Hugh Owen has been strenuously supported in his efforts by a hard-working and efficient Council. The constant attendance of such men as Mr. Stephen Evans of London, Canon Griffith of Neath, Professor McKenny Hughes of Cambridge, Mr. Humphreys of Garthmil, Mr. J. F. Roberts of Manchester, Captain Verney of Khianfa, and others, has had its due weight in the establishment of the institution.

The edifice, to which we have alluded a page or two back, is of a highly collegiate character. Had it been built for the purpose, it could scarcely have been more fitted for the uses to which it is devoted. Upwards of £80,000, it is said, were ex

pended upon the erection. It contains lofty and ample rooms for dining-hall, library, professors' lecture-rooms, laboratory, museums, principal's drawing-room, dining-room, and library, spacious kitchens, offices, and bed-rooms without number. Still, the building is not complete, and the efforts of the Council are being directed towards its completion.

their own.

One of the most pleasing features of the institution is the support it so marvellously derives from the working classes of the Principality. Miners, colliers, quarrymen, slateworkers, artizans of every grade, delight in regarding it as The slate quarrymen of Festiniog support, out of their hard-earned savings, a scholarship at the College. We have mentioned that near £3,300 were collected in October last in the different places of worship, but the marvel is enhanced when it is borne in mind that one-half of the amount was made up of sums averaging less than half-a-crown each.

The location of the College at Aberystwith is fortunate. There is no town large enough to be the domicile of a College so centrally situated. It commands North Wales equally with South Wales. The salubrity of its air, too, and its proximity to the sea, enhance immeasurably its value as a residence for a congregated body of young men.

There is one point more on which its promoters are anxious to speak—not in a whisper, nor yet hesitatingly, but in accents loud, clear, and unmistakeable, and that is, the catholic and thoroughly unsectarian character of the University College. It is provided unalienably and unalterably, by its constitution and by all its legal documents, that it shall remain for ever uncontrolled and uncontrollable by any party or sect, as such, whether political or religious. The institution is free to all, and to all alike. Favour and affection at the expense of justice are to be shown to neither party nor class. The work has been designed for the people of Wales; it is being carried out for the people of Wales; and the in

stitution, edifice, valuables, all that belongs to it, are the property of the people of Wales.

Long may it flourish! giving our Cymric youth an education that shall not only fit them for their several callings in after years, but enable them to cope with their English neighbours in all that humanises life and renders it noble and generous. Whether their destination be the pulpit or the bar, law or medicine, agriculture or commerce, may the teaching of the University College be clear as its own bright atmosphere, elevating as the mountains that stand around it, expansive as the ocean which laves its walls, and pure as the sparkling rills that gush on every side to the blue

sea.