WALES. 



of government was prcyalcnl among the early Britons. The 

 ifland was divided into fcveral petty fovereignties, each fub- 

 jeft to a feparate prince ; but in time of emergency and 

 danger, they were united in one, under an offict-r, fimilar 

 to a dictator among the Romans, called a ')endragt.n. I'o 

 him, l»y joint confent, was committed the whole military 

 governmtiit of the independent Hates. Nor was this dignity 

 temporary, like the power ; for though the latter appe.-rs 

 to have ceafcd with the neceflity that demanded it, yet the 

 former continued for lif?, and was heredi ary to the male 

 heir. But the right of fucceflion to the feparate govern- 

 ments does not feem to be ftriclly indefcaiible ; for, in fome 

 inftances, the lineal fucceflion was violated by the rule of 

 tanillry. By tliis the king's fon, brother, or nephew, be- 

 came the cuftomary inheritor of the crown ; the particular 

 perfon being feletted by the reigning monarch, with the 

 advice of his nobles. This fovereign eleft was denominated 

 by the law the tanill, or fecond in dignity. The Britons 

 were not unacquainted with that rational rellraint on mo- 

 narchical defpotifm, parliamentary fuffrage ; for a decifive 

 arguaient in favour of the exiftence of Britifli parliaments 

 is found in the preface or introduftion to the laws of the 

 great Cambrian Icgillator, Howel Dda. Six of the moft 

 intelligent and powerful perfons were fummoned out of 

 every cantreff, or hundred, to affill the king in the great 

 work of legiflation. This parliament being aflembled, pro- 

 ceeded to examine the ancient laws, cancelled fome, reformed 

 others, enafted new ones, and digeiled all into one regular 

 code of jurifprudence. This rcvifion they prefented to 

 good king Howel, who liaving approved it, gave the rati- 

 fying fanftion of royal authority. Both the monarch and 

 parliament then imprecated the power of the flate and the 

 ^vrath of heaven upon any perfons who (hould violate, or at- 

 tempt to abrogate, any of tiiefc inflitutes, unlefs they (hould 

 be conftitutionally annulled in a national council, fimilar to tlie 

 one in which they had been recently decreed. From the 

 circumflances of this revifion, many of thofe in the code of 

 Howel Dda were pre-exiftent ftatutes, by which the early 

 Britons had been regulated in previous times. From thefe 

 it appears, that immediately below the fovereign ranked the 

 Uchelwyrs, or great men holding their lands from the crown, 

 and each prefiding as lord over his particular domain. As 

 immediate tenants of the king, they were obliged to per- 

 form certain fervices. Inferior to thefe, and holding from 

 them as feudatory lords, were the general mafs of the com- 

 munity, being in a Hate of villainage, but divided into two 

 clafFes : firft, fuch as might retain or relinquifli their lands 

 at difcretion, poffefTed the power of buying and felling, and 

 whofe feignorial fervice was the Icaft degrading of the menial 

 kind ; the other, denominated Caeths, were confidered the 

 property of the lord, attached to the foil, and faleable with 

 the ellate. Thefe were bound to fcrvices the moll ferviie, 

 to build or repair honfcs for the Uchelwyr, and perform all 

 the drudgeries of hulbandry. Both were fubjfft, like the 

 chiefs, to military attendance in time of war, and to contri- 

 butions in money or kind. Such were the tenures of lands 

 in Wales, prior to the introduftion of Englifh culloms, as 

 appears by the laws of Howel Dda, not formed by him, 

 but referable to previous inftitutes, afcribed to the early 

 Britons. And as they were evidently feudal in their cdence, 

 and military in their defign, the opinion of antiquaries, who 

 deduced the introduftion of afyftem of feuds into this ifland 

 from the Normans, mull be erroneous ; for the laws in 

 which it is found to have exifted in Wales were coUeftcd 

 into a digell, in the early part of the tenth century. The 

 moft prominent feature in the Howellian code is the law of 

 inheritance, denominated save! kind, by which the property 

 Vol. XXXVn. 



was divided iiniong the Ions ; the icmalcs uf every degree 

 being excluded till the utter extinAion of the males, among 

 whom 110 diftinftion was made between the legitimate and 

 the f;;urious. While the Welfh preferved their independence, 

 this law of defcent univerfally prevailed ; but on the con- 

 quell of the country by king Edward I., he dir»>fted cer- 

 tain comniiffioners to inquire upon oaih into all the former 

 laws and ufages of the principality ; and the firft law pro- 

 mulgated by that moiia'ch for the ufc of Wales was the 

 celebrated ftatute of RhyJdlan. By this he permitted tht 

 ancient item to continue, but lopped off two of its principal 

 branches, mix. the admifiion of fpurious offspring to the in- 

 heritance, and the preclufion of females. But in the 34tk 

 year of Henry VIII., the venerable trunk was for ever 

 levelled with the ground, all the lands in Wales having beea 

 required " to be holden as Englifh tenures to all intents." 

 Since wliich period the laws of England, with the exception 

 of a few formal peculiarities, have continued to form the 

 jurifprudence of Wales. 



Ecclejiajlical H'lfiory, Religion, l^c. — The religion of the 

 Britons, when Cxfar firft vifited the ifland, was of a kind 

 pecuhar to them, and to the kindred tribes of Gaul. It 

 abounded with flngular tenets, and the mode of worfhip 

 comprifed numerous fuperftitious rites, the remaining vef- 

 tiges of which form fome of the moft interefting antiquities 

 in the country. Bardijm, or the Druidical fyftem as it is 

 generally called, has been varioufly reprefented ; and th.e 

 term lard, given to the Welfti poets who were not of the 

 Bardic order, has tended to increafe the confufion on the 

 fubjoft. What may be confidered as the foundation of the 

 order was the principle of univerfal benevolence, fo that a 

 bard was prohibited by his tenets from bearing arms ; and 

 being recognifed as the herald of peace, he could pafs, when 

 clad in his azure robe, unmoleiled from one hoftile country 

 to another. The bards were divided into three claflcs, the 

 hard brainl, ovydd, and dcrivydd. To the bards braint be- 

 longed the perpetuation of the cuftoms and privileges of the 

 fyflein, and of its moral and civil inftitutes ; the ovyddon, 

 or ovates, particularly attended to the cultivation of the arts 

 and Iciences ; the derwyddon, or druids, were the prieft* 

 who officiated in religion : from which circumftance, and 

 from the great influence they confequently obtained over 

 fociety, this clafs was moft confpicuous, and became the 

 general denomination of the whole. 



Their origin, learning, religion, authority, revenues, de- 

 cline, and extinftion, have been fully detailed in this work 

 under the article DiiUiDS. 



In the fixth century, the archiepifcopal feat of Wales was 

 removed from Cacrleon to Menevia, which was fubfequently 

 known by the appellation of St. David's. At that time the 

 archbifhop had under him tiiree fuffragans, the bidiops of 

 St. Afaph, Bangor, and Landaff. In the tenth century, 

 St. David's loft its archiepifcopal honours; and in iioi, it 

 became fubjeft to the metropolitan fee of Canterbury ; to 

 which, on the fiibjugation of the country by Edward I., 

 the whole of Wales, as to ecclefiallical affairs, fubmittcd ; 

 and at the diffohition of monafteries, the Welfli having been 

 fubjefted to the Englifh laws, the clergy in Wales were 

 brought under the fame regulations as thofe in England. 

 And from the clofe incorporation of the two countries, the 

 hiilory of the church, after that lime, is nearly fimilar in 

 both. In Wales are many fefts of what are confidered regular 

 Proteftanl dilfenters from the eft.ibliflied church, which had 

 their rife in the reigns of .lame; I. aiui Ch.irlcs I., and more 

 efpecially during tlie proteftorate of Oliver Cromwell. But 

 the grcatell number of feccders from the eflablifhed church 

 are the different defcriptions of Mcthodifts, whofe places of 

 4 N affcmbling, 



