The hydraulic press., 1860-07-07


seventy times. He says :"Cadwallon. before
he was slain, fought for fair Britain fourteen
pitched battles and sixty skrmishes." The
poet-prince, Llywarch Hen, also gives us q
striking picture of the energy of British
warrior. He says: "This is my shield on
my left shoulder. Though l am old, yet
while am able, I will keep watch en- the
encampment of Morlasb
These were the spirits which maintained
their liberties and their territory. But what
could stand againsteuch inundation Even
the Roman legions gave way, and saw their
glory trodden to the ground and well might
they retire when whole nations of ferocious
barbarians left their native countries and
poured down in successive torrents. The
Roman iegicns fed before them, and great
Rome became barbarian settlement. Yet,
strange and unusual as it may seem, the ter
ritory of Wales, small as it was, not only
resisted the Gothic invasion, but afforded a
secure refuge to others.
Again; when the Danes conquered the
Saxon inhabitants of England, and annexed
that nation to the crown of Denmark; and
when moving bodies of those barbarians
traversed the country, depressing the inhab-
itants like pestilence, yet they never were
able to gain a footing in Wales, or even
lauding, except in marauding parties along
the coast.
Again in later times, when the Norman
armies landed in that country, the people of
England submitted to their dominion after
an ill-fought battle; nor did they ever prop
erly attempt to assert their liberties, though
yoked under the most CALLING oppression of
curfew-bell and forest-laws; but the natives
OF Wales never submitted to Norman yoke,
nor submitted at all, until after two hundred
years of incessant warfare. they were so re.
duced by the continued powers Of England,
as to be no longer capable of exertion; and
yet, then their submission was but short and
exceedingly precarious. So uneasily did
conquest sit upon them, nor did they ever
remain tranquil until they were admitted to
general participation of the privileges of
the English nation.
/ should exceedingly lament, if anything
may have advanced should in any way tend
to revive feelings, or to renew prejudices,
which ought long ago to have been forgotten;
and, whatever feelings of this description
may still survive in some secluded spots be-
yond the Atlantic, | am confident that those
whom l have now the honor of addressing,
are not under their influence. And whatever
wrongs our forefathers may have sustained
in the Saxon invasion, beyond doubt they
they were most justly merited, and right
eous dispensation Of the judgments of Prov
idence. But whatever the injuries may have
been, those times are now gone by-our an
cient enemy no longer exists the Saxon
people have undergone change more than
half their blood is British; and Saxon, Gale
and Celt have contributed so extensively
towards making an American people, that
those nations are now so blended together,
and their mutual welfare established by COM
munity of rights, and by identity of interests,
that they may be virtually called the same
people; and the only emulation now should
be, that of patriotic devotion and public
spirit
Having experienced your indulgence while
noticing these subjects, if | have incurred
the disapprobation of any one, through an
injudicious adverting to topics which might
be consigned to oblivion or if in these times
of peace and serenity, have excited ideas
of too martial tone, | must exceedingly
lament my imprudence. l would willingly
have selected others of IA more peaceable
nature; but the character of those turbulent
times to which have adverted, is almost
entirely one of war and conflict. Among
the early bards the spirit of slaughter is
more frequently breathed forth than the ac-
cents of peace the screaming of the eagle,
and the feeding of the wolf and the raven,
are among their most frequent images:
'sEagle of Eli loud is his cry this night
he delights in the blood of men, and thirsts
for the blood of warriors"
With such images constantly presenting
themselves to our observation in the review
of those remote times, it must not be won
dered at, if have dwelt so long upon them;
and perhaps they are not i'll adapted for
illustrating that fact which have been en-
deavoring to establish-which is, the intrep-
i'd and pertinacious spirit of our Cymreig
race, which, through so many successive
ages retained its character unaltered and
which, like the steel from the hand of the
cutler, though the substance may be dimin
ished by wearing-though it may lie idle in
rust, or be blunted through neglect-yet it
will never lose its high wrought temper; but
will always recover its polish and its edge,
whenever its qualities are proved.
If it should be thought that,in the ferven-
cy of national partiality, | have overrated
my countrymen, have only to appeal to
facts; and though those days of martial
virtue have gone by, yet the spirit of the
people is evidently the same and that ener-
gy of soul which has been displayed among
them under so many arduous circumstances
IN times of trial and peril-in times of vig-
orous action and persevering endurance
that national spirit still exists, and is ready
at all times to manifest itself, as it did in the
seventeen Welsh representatives who signed
that world-lasting document, the DEcLARA-
TIoN OF AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE! AS it did
IN the actions of hundreds of Cambria's
sons, who struggled for the inalienable rights
of American freemen. AS it did in the pub
lie career of that great and never-to- be for
gotten statesman, DANIEL WEBSTER; who,
on the mothers side, descended from our
people; and as it does in the genius, talent,
integrity and originality of the, greatest
statesman of to-day WlLLIAM H. SEWARD
who is proud of being descendant Of the
people Of Gwalia