THE

MONTHLY REVIEW,

For JULY, 1786.

ART. I. The Hiftory of Wales. With an Appendix. By the Rev. William Warrington, Chaplain to the Earl of Besborough. 4to. 11. 1s. Boards. Johnson. 1786.

THE

HE moft brilliant pages of hiftory are, unquestionably, those which record the ftruggles of independence againft oppreffion; and thefe ftruggles have commonly been exerted with the greateft vigour and fuccefs in the earlier ftages of civilization. It is while the principles of a free people remain uncorrupted by avarice, and their manners not enervated by luxury, that the focial paffions have full scope, and a masculine virtue is produced, which gives birth to glorious deeds, and furnishes the nobleft themes for the hiftoric mufe. The detail of court intrigues, and military manœuvres, in a more refined state of society, may be very useful to the Statesman and the General, and may ferve to amufe the ordinary reader; but the narrative of the great exploits of heroes, who have facrificed every private intereft to the Public weal, warms the heart with exalted fentiments, and fofters all the virtues of the man and the citizen. The world has doubtless owed much of that generous ardour with which the best friends of mankind have devoted themselves to the ser◄ vice of their country, to the early impreffions which they had received from the Grecian and Roman ftory. It is for this reafon devoutly to be wifhed, that men may never arrive at fuch a degree of falfe refinement, as to become incapable of relihing the narrative of heroic deeds in defence of liberty. By the honeft and generous fuch tales, whatever be the scene of action, will be read with delight.

"Wherever nature, though in narrow space,
Fofters, by freedom's aid, a liberal race;
Sees Virtue fave them from Oppreffion's den,
And cries with exultation, "These are men;"
Though in Bæotia or Batavia born,

Their deeds the ftory of the world adorn."

HAYLEY.

The hiftory of Wales is a narrative of this kind. It exhibits a people, who for feveral ages defended the rights of nature in the bofom of their native mountains. The fpectacle is fo interefting, that it is furprifing it fhould fo long have lain, in a great VOL. LXXV. measure

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measure, obfcured. Much labour has been employed upon the antiquities of Wales; but, till this time, the interesting facts which form the hiftory of the ancient Britons, except fo far as they have made a part of the English hiftory, have lain dormant in Welsh manuscripts, or been barely compiled, in a work feldom read, the Chronicle of the Monk Carodoc of Llan

carvon.

Mr. Warrington has the merit of being the firft writer, who has attempted to cloath the hiftory of Wales in an agreeable drefs; and we have pleasure in adding, that, in our judgment, the undertaking is very fuccefsfully executed. The materials of this history, which the Author has judiciously authenticated by numerous references, appear to have been collected with much industry. They are arranged, if not with a fcrupulous regard to chronological order, with a more ufeful attention to that method which arifes from the connection of caufes with their effects. Valuable obfervations are occafionally interfperfed: and the whole is written, in a ftyle, which is neither, on the one hand, tedious, through a careless and flovenly prolixity, nor, on the other, difgufting by a uniform difplay of ornament. The Author defignedly avoids a minute inquiry into the antiquities of the country, as not properly falling within the province of the hiftorian; but inftead of this, he has given, what will be much more generally acceptable, an agreeable and well-written narrative of hiftorical facts.

A few fpecimens must be added, to enable our Readers to form fome judgment of the merit of this work.

After a concife but perfpicuous and entertaining fummary of the British hiftory, before the Britons were driven into Wales, &c. the Author relates at large the wars between the Saxons and Welfa, in the course of which relation, he records the fol-` lowing example of fuperftitious weakness in the conduct of Cadwalader:"

After refiding fome time in the court of Bretaigne, Cadwalader prepared to return into Wales; having heard that the famine and peftilence had ceafed, and that the Saxons, with increasing power, were endeavouring to extend their conquefts *. With this view, he collected an army compofed of his own fubjects and his allies the Bretons, with a fuitable feet to transport them across the channel t. In fuch a fituation, a magnanimous prince would either have refcued his country from its danger, or would have buried himself in its ruins. But just at the time that Cadwalader was going to embark, he was warned in a vifion, which he fancied to be a fudden impulfe from heaven, which directed him to lay afide the cares of the world, and go immediately to Rome, to receive holy orders from the hands

*Baker's Chron. p. 4. Weifh Chron. by Carodoc of Llancarvon, and republifhed by Dr. Powel, p. 3.

† Ibid.

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