Go

The Bard.

OODMORROW to thee, sweet and beauteous
bird!

Once more thy cheerful song at morn is heard!
Late, roaming o'er the primrose-spotted plain,
I paused and listened for thy wished-for strain;
I asked-nor I alone-Why sleeps the note
Which oft as spring-tide smiled was wont to float?
The earth is fresh and green, the fields rejoice,
And yet no valley echoes to thy voice;

The genial sun rolls through the cloudless skies,
And flowers spring up; arise, sweet bird, arise!'"

The Cuckoo.

"Thou gentle bard! oh! why should I obey
The voice that chides me for my lingering lay,
Nor wait his just command, whose awful name
None save with deep-felt reverence may proclaim?
For his I am, to him my strains belong,
Who gave that voice, who swells that vernal song!
Like me, in deep humility of mind,

Yield grateful homage, to his will resigned;
Thou canst not learn of earthly things the cause;
Be mute and lowly, and revere his laws!"

The Bard.

"Bird of the dark-brown hue! and art thou come
With summons stern to tear me from my home?
Say, dost thou chant thy monitory lay
In sounds prophetic of my life's last day?
And must those tones, just welcomed with delight,
Heralds of death, my trembling soul affright?
Say, must I now, while spring is revelling here,
Quit these bright scenes, so lovely and so dear?
Oh, let me still, while yet the joy remains,
Gaze on these sunlit woods, these flowery
plains!"

The Cuckoo.

"Fair is the earth, and glorious are the skies! Yet seek not pleasures which thy God denies! In him alone repose thy hopes and fears, And mark, oh mark! how fleet thy numbered years!

Already threescore springs and three are past, And life is short-then think, how near thy last! Yes, at this age, oh bard! the blessed Maid, Christ's holy Mother, in the grave was laid; Grim death smote her, who gave th' Immortal birth,

The Judge of all, the Saviour of the Earth!"

The Bard.

"And ere that time be come, no more the form,
Erect and firm, resists as once the storm!
And ere those years be fled, the failing eye
And shrunken sinew tell us 'Man must die!'
Deign, bounteous bird! to guide my erring ways;
How shall I learn the number of my days?
Vast is my debt, and empty is my hand;

I dare not thus before my Saviour stand!
How, when the trumpet breaks the death-like
trance,

Shall I, a sinner, meet his piercing glance?"

The Cuckoo.

"For every foolish thought, for every crime,
Repent while yet for penitence is time!
Leave fancied pleasures, leave earth's tinsel toys,
For endless rapture, and undying joys!
So shall true virtue soothe thy tranquil end,
So Christ himself shall on thy steps attend;
And, victor o'er thy spiritual foes,

Heaven shall be thine and Zion's blest repose.
One boundless bliss, one stream of deep delight.
While seraphs waft thee to thy Master's sight!"

The Bard.

"Oh, God! behold me, by thy mercy moved, Regret the hateful faults which once I loved! That I have sinned and spurned thy bounties high,

I can not and I would not now deny!
Look on me, Father, for I am but weak;
Crushed with the weight of woes, thy aid I seek!
Not through the merit of my own vile deeds,
But lo! for me the blessed Saviour pleads!
Oh! by his latest pangs, his dying love,
Receive thy suppliant to the realms above!"

March 17, 1894.

TO many, if not to most, of the graduates

who came to the Raven Hotel at Shrewsbury on the seventeenth of March, the first meeting of the Guild must have been very disappointing. The graduates came from a long distance, at a considerable sacrifice of time and money, and they probably expected to find the proceedings at the first meeting of the Guild stately, impressive, inspiring. They expected to be told what the plans of leading Welsh educationalists were; they had dreamt, perhaps, that they would be roused by eloquent speeches ; speeches unfolding before them vast plans for the immediate regeneration of Wales. And when Principal Jones rose to propose that an old Aberystwyth graduate should take the chair, his words, -the first words uttered in the first meeting of the Guild, -strengthened the belief that the "historic occasion" would, in some way or other, be made memorable. . The first meeting of the Guild will be famous, however, for what it did not do

plans were foiled. It was that energetic march of Henry the Fourth to Shrewsbury, and the battle fought without the walls on Saturday, July 20, 1403, that destroyed the certainty of Glendower's success. Had it not been for the disaster, Owen Glendower would have had a friend and an ally on the English throne, dependent upon his support. Tradition has given Owen Glendower an impossible friendship with Dante; his

tory acknowledges that he was one of the first to welcome the revival of letters. Had he succeeded, Wales would have had a University five hundred years ago; had he succeeded, Wales would have been one of the first to welcome and harbour learning, instead of being one of the last. The University of Wales would have been older than the Universities of St. Andrews or Glasgow or Aberdeen, older than those of Leipzig or Upsala or Geneva. Wales might have been, of the smaller countries, the greatest benefactor of Europe. Its thought, then in its Golden Age, might have been strengthened and organized by a University, and placed at the service of the world. But the battle of Shrewsbury made it impossible for Owen Glendower to carry his plans out. His poets,-the immediate successors of Dafydd ab Gwilym and Dafydd Nanmor,--were condemned by a harsh English law as "rhymers, minstrels, and wasters." The great literary meetings, which were to have been developed into a

rather than for what it did. The future historian of institutions will be tempted to compare the Guild of Graduates with the English Parliament in one point,-its first meeting has no history.

Still, there was much to arouse sentiment, and to give material to patriotic speeches. The Welsh graduates had their first meeting in the place where Owen Glendower's

University under Owen Glendower's guiding hand, were prohibited by the English king who stands in our annals as the champion of intolerance and of ignorance. The great awakening of the fourteenth century, when prince and ploughman alike

ST. MARY'S CHURCH, SHREWSBURY.

had high ideals, was followed by the iron age of our history. Tudur Aled was soon to mourn over the last patriotic prince; the peasant fell to the lowest stage in the history of Welsh thought, he hated his oppressor and despised his priest, but had found no new guide. The Welshman had almost realized a great hope,-the thought of his country was to be developed in the universities of a great and enlightened prince, literature was to receive its strength from

patriotism, and its purity from a regenerated church. But when he looked for light, darkness came. He was disarmed, disfranchised, and subjected to the most brutal, most ignorant, and most selfish oligarchy that have ever oppressed a peasant or extinguished thought.

And for many centur

ies, no one dreamed Glendower's dreams

again.

The graduates assembled at the Raven Hotel were an insignificant sight when one thinks what the roll of a Welsh University might by this time have been. Still, when one remembers that the oldest of the constituent colleges has not been in existence for more than twenty two years, the roll of three hundred names read by Ivor James may well be a cause of pride. Of these, one hundred and twenty answered to their names. They had come from all parts of Wales, and from many parts of England, they represented all creeds and all professions. Their number was swelled by the professors, lecturers, and teachers connected with the University Colleges. These represented every branch of knowledge, from Moral Philosophy to the mystery of dressmaking, from Physics to cookery, from Music to bread making. The graduates and teachers had sacrificed in order to come; they were expectant and enthusiastic, but patient. They heard little, they did less. But a glance at the assembly would have shown what possibilities of enthusiastic and interesting meetings there are in the Guild of Welsh Graduates.

THE FONT.

The first meeting might have found in

spiration in this,-it marks the crowning triumph of the cause of Welsh education. The fabric is now complete. The movement which began with Griffith Jones' circulating schools,-maintained in the first instance by the communion half-pence of

TOWER IN SHREWSBURY WALLS.

and some suggested that we should sing, if not the "March of the men of Harlech," or the "Battle Song of Glamorgan," at least the "Land of my Fathers."

The reasons why the meeting was not inspiring, in spite of all these causes of

THE MARKET PLACE.

BUTCHER ROW.

the church of Llanddowror, has at last found its rightful form in a University of Wales. A little demonstration of sentiment would have been pardonable. Dr. Joseph Parry and David Jenkins were present;

enthusiasm, are not difficult to see. For one thing the chairman and secretary had an unexpected honour thrust upon them, and had determined upon nothing to suggest to the meeting. No one knew what was to be done, who would speak, what was to be proposed. No one knew during one minute what would be done the next. Another cause of the uneventful character of the meeting was this, some of those present had the shadow of a suspicion that one or other of the constituent colleges might be thinking

OLD HOUSE.

of its own interests rather than of those of the Guild generally. No one knew, exactly, where he was.

Two dangers, however, were before us. The meeting might have been taken up by an academic discussion on the question whether a member of the Guild must be present at its meetings in order to record his vote. Professor Holman and Principal Roberts stated the old arguments clearly and forcibly on the one side; Professor Conway and Dr. Elliot stated the equally old arguments, with equal clearness and force, on the other side. It was determined, by a substantial majority, that no member of the Guild is to record his vote without being present. This decision, undoubtedly, will help to swell the number of those present at future meetings of the Guild.

elected without any difficulty. It is note worthy that the great majority are old students of the University Colleges, and that two out of the thirteen are women.

The actual work done may be briefly summed up. W. Cadwaladr Davies,-the associate of Sir Hugh Owen and Ceiriog,— read the Privy Council notice which convened the meeting, and a letter of greeting and congratulation from Lord Aberdare. Ivor James read the roll of graduates, and teachers, from lists furnished to the Privy Council by the registrars of the three constituent colleges.

Thirteen members were elected to represent the Guild on the University Court, five for three years, four for two years, and four for one year. These thirteen members, with the Principals of the colleges, were appointed a committee to prepare a revised list of graduates, to determine what matters are to be submitted to the next meeting of the Guild, and to draft such regulations as are required by the Charter in order to submit them to the Guild at its next meeting.

was

The first meeting, then, a purely business meeting. It was unfortunate, but absolutely necessary, that it should be so. Now that the election of members of the Court is over, the Guild is free to choose its own work.

The other danger was that the meeting might have degenerated into a struggle between the colleges for the preponderance of power. A resolution was brought forward by one who declared that he did not bring it in the interest of any one college, to ensure to the graduates of each constituent college a representation on the University Court proportionate to their number. Some prepared for a fight, many held their breath, the chairman was the picture of fear and anxiety. Before much harm was done, Principal Jones rose to state that the Cardiff graduates had not even fixed upon the names of candidates for the University Court, and he strongly appealed to the graduates to regard the Guild as one body, and not as a group of warring divisions. Principal Reichel made the same appeal, with great earnestness and unusual warmth. Principal Roberts spoke to the same effect, and it was soon evident that the danger was over. The thirteen representatives of the Guild on the University Court were

This first, or rather preliminary, meeting suggests many questions. Will the Guild of Graduates become a power in Wales? It will, undoubtedly; it is a power already. It will bring the united opinion of the men who have been educated at our University Colleges to bear upon the development of the education of our country. It will keep all graduates of the University in touch with it; the life of the University and the life of its graduates will beneficially act upon each other. The Guild is so constituted,-owing, in a great measure, to Dr.