e of them
are at the present time students at Bala College. One got a situation
in the Glasgow Post Office as letter-carrier. During his leisure hours
he attended the lectures at one of the medical schools of that city,
and in course of time gained his diploma. He is now practising as a
surgeon, and I understand with signal success. This gentleman worked
in the Penrhyn Quarry until he was twenty years old. I could give many
more instances of the resolute and self-denying spirit with which the
young quarrymen of Bethesda sought to educate themselves. The teachers
of the other schools in that neighbourhood could give similar examples,
for during the winter months there used to be no less than 300 evening
scholars under instruction in the different schools. The Bethesda
booksellers could tell a tale that would surprise our English friends.
I have been informed by one of them that he has sold to young quarrymen
an immense number of such works as Lord Macaulay's, Stuart Mill's, and
Professor Fawcett's; and it is no uncommon sight to find these and
similar works read and studied by the young quarrymen during the dinner
hour."

"I can give," proceeds Mr. Cadwalladr Davies, "one remarkable instance
to show the struggles which young Welshmen have to undertake in order
to get education. The boy in question, the son of 'poor but honest
parents,' left the small national school of his native village when he
was 12 1/2 years of age, and then followed his father's occupation of
shoemaking until he was 16 1/2 years of age. After working hard at his
trade for four years, he, his brother, and two fellow apprentices,
formed themselves into a sort of club to learn shorthand, the whole
matter being kept a profound secret. They had no teachers, and they
met at the gas-works, sitting opposite the retorts on a bench supported
at each end with bricks. They did not penetrate far into the mysteries
of Welsh shorthand; they soon abandoned the attempt, and induced the
village schoolmaster to open a night school.

"This, however, did not last long. The young Crispin was returning
late one night from Llanrwst in company with a lad of the same age, and
both having heard much of the blessings of education from a Scotch lady
who took a kindly interest in them, their ambition was inflamed, and
they entered into a solemn compact that they would thenceforward devote
themselves body and soul to the attainment of an academical degree.
Yet they