WALES.

A NATIONAL MAGAZINE FOR THE ENGLISH SPEAKING
PARTS OF WALES.

INTRODUCTION TO VOLUME II.

IN CARMARTHENSHIRE.

WALES, old and new, will be the subject of the third volume as it has been the subject of the first and second. But the third volume will differ materially in many points to be noticed later.

As far as my original aim was concerned, WALES has succeeded beyond my expectations in some directions, but not in all. It has succeeded in bringing into communication with each other a number of Welshmen, of all shades of political opinions and religious creeds, whose love of their country and of their countrymen is deeper and stronger than even their devotion to their political convictions. There must be something wrong with the life of a people where there is no patriotism at all; happy is that people where this potent power for union is stronger than the desire to insist on surface differences. The pages of WALES reflect, I sincerely hope, not the hopes and aspirations of any one party, but the hopes and aspirations of all who see, in the past or in the present or in the future of Wales, a power working for the good of mankind. A glance at the names of the writers of this volume will show that love of Wales, and belief in the future of Welshmen, are not confined to any one of the political parties or religious sects which, each in its own way, are working so energetically for the advancement of Wales to-day.

In one respect my fears as to the future of this magazine have been realized. The farmers, the artisans, and the labourers of the English-speaking parts of Wales have not welcomed it with the enthusiasm that their Welsh brethren showed when Cymru and the Llenor were offered them. WALES is gradually, but very slowly, making its way to the peasant homes of the Severn Valley, and to the cottages of the great industrial centres of South Wales. I desire, above all things, to see the peasants of eastern and southern Wales becoming readers; no man is too poor to enter into the glorious world of thought which is around him and within him. For this purpose, the third volume will be of a more popular character; while, at the same time, its interest to scholars will be kept up. Short striking stories, illustrative of phases of Welsh life, will be a feature of the new volume. An attempt will be made at illustrating the humour and the pathos of typically Welsh life.

Much space will be given to the history of Wales. But, while the first two volumes were concerned with the earlier history of Wales, the third will be devoted almost entirely to modern