way,

of other nations. His task is indeed laborious, and time and leisure sufficient for its performance are rarely accorded to any one; still every man is bound to labour in his own little each for the same end; and would we make our individual efforts profitable to the common cause, we should associate ourselves together, allot our particular labours to each other, according to our several inclinations and capabilities; and, as industrious bees, bring home the sweets of our operations and our excursions, to be elaborated and distributed for the good of the whole community.

It is not enough, however, that a man be possessed with even the most profound respect for his country's monuments, nor with the most ardent desire for their investigation; this would indeed lay the foundation of his antiquarian character, and would furnish him with the animus, without which nothing good of this kind can be effected. He must not only be fond of studying and preserving objects of antiquity, but he must also know how rightly to do so. No one, in fact, must expect to do much towards the real elucidation of ancient things without long previous study-long prac tice and great patience. It has been for want of qualities such as these that too many amateur-antiquarians have been led to theorize instead of to observe, and, having amused the world with their speculations rather than their discoveries, have sometimes brought their own well intended labours into contempt. Just as, in the scientific world, there are no more useless labourers than those who build up theories of fancy instead of theories of proof, and who attempt to cosmogonize when they should content themselves with observing; so in antiquarian matters, he who allows his imagination to run too far ahead of his facts, and plunges into generalizations without documents or monuments to support them, stands not only in his own light, but also in that of others, and hinders, instead of forwarding the general work. On the other hand, the antiquarian, who limits his enquiries too much to any one particular class of objects, is always in danger of allowing them to usurp a more important place in his estimation than they are perhaps entitled to. Not but that to make real progress in antiquarian study, and especially to be a really useful member of an antiquarian body, a man cannot do better than work hard and long at some definite division of the subject; still it must not be forgotten that the village

antiquarian is as real a character as the village politician, and that one-sidedness is a quality only too liable to implant itself in his mind. Hence the value of those public societies now established in most European countries for the study and preservation of national antiquities: they seem to correct the tendency complained of, and they bind into one useful and harmonious bundle the various and often ill assorted sticks which each member picks up. We cannot, as British antiquaries, complain of the lack of such societies in our own state; and though we have unfortunately seen that archæologists, like other classes of men, have their petty rivalries, and can quarrel about straws when other pretexts are wanting; and though our government, in the over-abundance of its abnegating spirit, still refuses to follow the example of every other enlightened government in the civilized portion of the world, and does nothing officially for the general preservation of national monuments; yet we may hope for better times. From the spirit, indeed, that now animates the upper classes, we are inclined to augur well for the advancement of the cause we advocate, and even fancy that we can dimly foresee the day when the needless and wanton destruction, or mutilation, of any ancient monument shall be considered as a public offence, and shall be repressed by public authority. For, what right has any single person to do violence to the feelings of all the best amongst his fellow countrymen, and, for the sake of gratifying his own passing fancy, rashly injure or destroy that which all others look upon with a certain kind of affection? It makes no difference whether the venerable object be his own, or public property: the associations of the past belong to the nation, their maintenance affects the commonwealth; every man is more or less directly interested in the due preservation of every thing, small or great, that confers historical dignity and interest upon his native country. Did men but reflect how valuable an ingredient of national character is the spirit-we will not say of blind and indiscriminate but of intelligent and reflecting veneration for what has constituted the pride and glory of other times; and how indispensably necessary for the due education of the public mind is that great and well furnished museum of history, which a country, rich in historical objects and monuments, constitutes of itself, they would hesitate ere they allowed a single stone to be thoughtlessly displaced from any

moss-grown tower or ancient fane. They would neither plough up the encampments of their rude ancestors, nor destroy their cairns and tombs to make walls, or to mend roads withal; their simple time-hallowed churches and oratories would not be quickly changed for buildings characterized only by the want of architectural knowledge, and by the absence of all that can inspire devotion. The lords of frowning castles would no longer dismantle them for the sake of their lead and stone and timber; nor would the owners of ancient civic mansions though boasting of no higher ornament than sculptured timber and trimly plastered panels-pull them down for the sake of building in their stead brick and cast iron shops, that will crumble about their tenants' ears long before the century is closed. Manuscripts would no more be sold to the bookbinder, to serve as braces for his volumes; nor would illuminated pages be defaced, in order that their spoils might grace some fair lady's album. Old family plate would be preserved, not sent to the silversmith's to be melted into more fashionable forms: - men would, in fact, learn to revere their ancestors, and would pay some little regard to their memory. And at the same time, if this good spirit of reverence prevailed, men would not be betrayed into those aberrations of taste which have led too many of our contemporaries into sham imitations of the style of the olden time, and to make a kind of masquerade of their houses and their furniture, equally unsuited to their social position and to the requirements of the days in which they live. For, let it be understood, we do not go to the absurd length of contending that all old things are to be imitated,-we argue only that they should be respected. Were it otherwise, we should be libelling that glorious order of things which our all-good Creator has placed us amidst, and of which one of the most obvious laws is that of perpetual renovation and decay. To every age its own characteristics growing out of its own peculiar constitutions; but to each its own due respect: and let not the men of one epoch of this world's existence presume to obliterate the traces of an antecedent æra, lest they be accused, by those that come after, of overweening self-conceit, and an undue estimation of their own temporary importance. Time's scythe mows quickly and surely enough; let not man lend his hand to aid in the work of destruction.

Any person not practically acquainted with the subject

would say, that, to caution the public against the mutilation and destruction of works of antiquity, is, at the present day, a superfluous labour. We cannot agree with such an opinion; we have witnessed, and we almost daily hear of, such unaccountable injuries inflicted on old remains of every kind, that we feel confident of much warning being still necessary, ere the public can become generally aware of the damage their national and individual property is constantly sustaining. There are many classes of destroyers:-needy or tasteless owners of property are in the first class, those who, for want of funds to repair an ancient building, allow it to fall into ruin, or who, from a change of fancy, sell it or pull it down, and erect some gew-gaw in its stead. Government and municipal corporations constitute a second category, and one of a more hopeless description than the first; for family pride and private honour may act upon individuals, whereas an abstraction of the law a mere ideal embodying of persons into a corporate society—is as pitiless and ruthless a monster as any that the antiquary has to deal with. The third, and most obnoxious, because the most selfish and most impudently clamorous, class is that of public companies, whether for railroads, canals, or any other similar works. Only let a certain number of private speculators obtain, by any means more or less pure, the easy sanction of the legislature to their projects, forthwith they arm themselves with the whole authority of the empire, as conveyed by an act of parliament, and then woe to any relic of antiquity that may stand in their way! What care they for the monuments of the country? The object of their devotion is money. What are stones and turfen mounds compared with this? What are private, what are local, or even national feelings? We may truly congratulate ourselves that our great national monuments have not suffered more than they have done by this class of legalized depredators.

There is, however, a fourth class of Vandals more honest in their intentions, but not less fatally destructive than the other three-we allude to the beautifiers, the repairers, the restorers, the new-builders, and all that category of well meaning, yet oft-times misled, individuals. Let a worthy churchwarden conceive the idea of immortalizing his office by "doing up" the parish church; let the new mayor of some petty borough take it into his head that the town

year

of

wants improving; let a stirring busy builder and contractor think that it would improve his practice, could he get half a dozen new churches, and a mansion or two, to build; and presently shall be seen such a metamorphosis in the archæological features of any district, that its quondam friends shall recognize it no more. Look at our cathedrals-look at most of the residences of our nobles - look at the topography of our corporate towns, and see whether injudicious friends have not done their full proportion of mischief to the monuments of the land.

The antiquary, therefore, has two kinds of enemies to combat, open foes and false friends; but the only plan of doing good battle against them is by endeavouring to spread a knowledge of, as well as a taste for, antiquities, as widely as possible. The first and most obvious way for effecting this is the establishing of local societies, for the examining and the guarding of local antiquities. There are few parts of the country in which a district may not be formed for the gentry to meet within, and to enrol themselves into a body for this desirable purpose:- we have societies for the whole empire, but we want more numerous local associations. Wales in particular, though rich in antiquities, is peculiarly defective in her organization for their study and their preservation; and if we except the Society for the Publication of Welsh MSS., there is hardly any antiquarian body to be found in the Principality possessing features of vitality and activity. Wherever an antiquarian society can be formed, there also ought a museum for the reception of local antiquities to be established. For the want of a place of deposit, how many valuable objects have been lost to the locality where they have been discovered, or have been destroyed by falling into improper hands! Nothing is more easy than the formation of such institutions, if only good will and a little activity be present; and when once started, they have the excellent faculty of tending to support themselves. There are at least twelve towns, amongst the twelve counties of the Principality, where public museums for the preservation of local antiquities might be formed, and wherein local antiquarian societies might either be set up on their own foundation, or engrafted on previously existing bodies. The great desideratum, however, would be an association for the whole Principality, acting in concord with a more general asso