"At Once Illogical and Unfair": Jane Williams (Ysgafell) and the Government Report on Education in Mid Nineteenth-Century Wales. Issue 4 (2nd October 2017) - Roberts, Gwyneth Tyson
ABSTRACT: Civil unrest in Wales during the first half of the nineteenth century was of great concern to the government in London; teaching the Welsh working classes loyalty to the Crown and the Anglican Church was the obvious answer. Accordingly, three commissioners were appointed to lead an inquiry into the state of education in Wales and to report on "the condition and character of the people". The commissioners—middle-class English Anglicans who knew nothing of Wales, its history, language or culture—concluded not only that most Welsh schools were inadequate, but that most Welsh people were liars, cheats, thieves and sexually promiscuous—and, further, that these characteristics were related to the fact that most of them were Welsh-speaking Nonconformists. The commissioners' report appeared in 1847 and sparked outrage in Wales; one of the most effective responses to it was Artegall (1848), a pamphlet by Jane Williams (Ysgafell). This article examines the ways in which Williams drew on material from sociology, history, literature and linguistics to argue against the commissioners' political motives, and deployed mockery to undermine their pretensions to authoritative judgement. It also analyses a contemporary response to Artegall : an 1848 cartoon by Hugh Hughes which demonstrates both his admiration for Williams' writing and his complete inability to depict her.