Treachery of the Blue Books
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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 public inquiry was carried out as a result of pressure from William Williams, Radical MP for Coventry, who was himself a Welshman and was concerned about the state of education in Wales. The enquiry was carried out by three English commissioners, Lingen, Symons and Vaughan Johnson. They spoke no Welsh and relied on information from witnesses, many of them Anglican clergymen whereas at the time Wales was a stronghold of Nonconformism.
Their report, published in three blue-covered volumes, was detailed. They 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 did not 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 legendary "Treason of the Long Knives" with which the Saxons began their revolt against the Britons.
Persecution of Welsh speakers in school was sometimes prevalent at this time. A board with the words Welsh Not was hung around the neck of each pupil heard speaking Welsh, the last holder of it each day being beaten. But it is not clear that this practise was really widespread.
[edit] References
- John Davies, Hanes Cymru (1993) (also in English translation as A History of Wales, Penguin, 1994, ISBN 0-1401-4581-8)
- BBC news report about the online publication of the books
- The Blue Books of 1847: scans of the books from the National Library of Wales
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