Cease to do
evil, learn to do good, was the upshot of its exhortations to the
Welsh; by evil, the Times understanding all things Celtic, and by
good, all things English. 'The Welsh language is the curse of Wales.
Its prevalence, and the ignorance of English have excluded, and even
now exclude the Welsh people from the civilisation of their English
neighbours. An Eisteddfod is one of the most mischievous and selfish
pieces of sentimentalism which could possibly be perpetrated. It is
simply a foolish interference with the natural progress of
civilisation and prosperity. If it is desirable that the Welsh
should talk English, it is monstrous folly to encourage them in a
loving fondness for their old language. Not only the energy and
power, but the intelligence and music of Europe have come mainly from
Teutonic sources, and this glorification of everything Celtic, if it
were not pedantry, would be sheer ignorance. The sooner all Welsh
specialities disappear from the face of the earth the better.'
And I need hardly say, that I myself, as so often happens to me at
the hands of my own countrymen, was cruelly judged by the Times, and
most severely treated. What I said to Mr. Owen about the spread of
the English language in Wales being quite compatible with preserving
and honouring the Welsh language and literature, was tersely set down
as 'arrant nonsense,' and I was characterised as 'a sentimentalist
who talks nonsense about the children of Taliesin and Ossian, and
whose dainty taste requires something more flimsy than the strong
sense and sturdy morality of his fellow Englishmen.
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