A great M.P. gave an address about education a week or so ago, and said our system was all wrong, that facts were no use, and that thinking was what they wanted. I totally disagree with him. Facts are wanted, for it is from facts you get on to thinking. One examiner was much amused by the notion of a boy who said that what struck him most was the toughness of wood, the wetness of water, and the magnificent soapiness of soap. That boy was going to get on; he was thinking more about facts than anything else.
Another great school question is with regard to punishment, whether it is good to order a boy or girl to write out a certain number of lines or learn so many lines of poetry. A well known gentleman of the world, politically and otherwise, when at school was what they called "a devil of a chap to jaw." That was the expression of a fellow pupil. He was constantly in the playground jawing, and they sentenced him to run around the ground five times when he spoke for more than three minutes. That was supposed to cure him, but it did not. He speaks now more than anyone in the House of Commons.
Pontywaun School Prize Distribution,
March 17th, 1911.
[A HYBRID COUNTY.]
We in Monmouthshire are in a sort of hybrid county. A great many people think we are in Wales and a great many people think we are not. Cardiff is very jealous of us—jealous because we can get drunk on Sundays and they can't. I hope we shall continue to be a county of ourselves, and when this great Home Rule question, which is so much talked about, is settled we shall, no doubt, have a Parliament at Newport-on-Usk, or else at Monmouth-upon-Wye.
Newport Athletic Club Dinner,
April 27th, 1891.
[INTEREST IN EXPLORATION.]
I wish to renew interest among the people of the neighbourhood in the exploration work at Caerwent. The reason, perhaps, why some of the interest has fallen off, is the illness and death of the late Vicar of Caerwent, who always took the greatest possible delight in explaining to visitors the history of the ancient city and the nature of the work of excavation.