Everything about The Treachery Of The Blue Books totally explained
The
Treachery of the Blue Books or
Treason of the Blue Books (
Welsh:
Brad y Llyfrau Gleision) was the name given in
Wales to the
Reports of the commissioners of enquiry into the state of education in Wales published in
1847. The term
Brad y Llyfrau Gleision was coined by the author
R. J. Derfel in response to the Reports' publication.
The
public inquiry was carried out as a result of pressure from
William Williams,
Radical MP for
Coventry, who was himself a Welshman by birth and was concerned about the state of
education in Wales. The enquiry was carried out by three
English commissioners, R. R. W. Lingen, Jellynger C. Symons and H. R. Vaughan Johnson. The commissioners visited every part of Wales during 1846, collecting evidence and statistics. However, they spoke no
Welsh and relied on information from witnesses, many of them
Anglican clergymen at a time when Wales was a stronghold of
Nonconformism.
The work was completed by 3 April 1847, and Lingen presented his report to the Government on 1 July of that year in three large blue-covered volumes. Their report was detailed. It concluded that schools in Wales were extremely inadequate, often with teachers speaking only English and using only English text-books in areas where the children spoke only Welsh, and that Welsh-speakers had to rely on the Non-conformist Sunday Schools to acquire literacy. But it also concluded that the Welsh were ignorant, lazy and immoral, and that among the causes of this were the use of the
Welsh language and
nonconformity. This resulted in a furious reaction in Wales; it didn't have any immediate political implications, although it was instrumental in the genesis of the modern
Welsh self-government movement. A measure of the anger aroused by the report in Wales is the subtext of the name
Brad y Llyfrau Gleision. It is a reference to the infamous "
Treachery of the Long Knives," with which, according to
Nennius and
Geoffrey of Monmouth, the Saxons began their campaign of conquest against the
native Britons.
The report wasn't entirely antagonistic to Welsh culture: much of the comment was compassionate and constructive. The commissioners often simply reported verbatim the prejudiced opinions of landowners and local Anglican clergy. The more bilious editorial attacks on Welsh culture mostly emanated from Commissioner Lingen. The Books remain an invaluable, although slanted, source of information on mid-19th century Welsh society.
Saunders Lewis, in
Tynged yr iaith, maintained that the Blue Books were for Welsh history "the most important nineteenth-century historical documents we possess".
Digital scans of the Blue Books are available at the
National Library of WalesFurther Information
Get more info on 'Treachery Of The Blue Books'.
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