Industry and commerce became more free. In Tudor times piracy was
repressed, the march lordships were abolished, the privileges of the
towns ceased to fetter manufacture, trade with England became free.
In Stuart times roads were made, the industries depending on wool
revived, and the industries of Britain began to move westwards
towards the iron and the coal. In the Hanoverian period waste lands
were enclosed, the slate mines of the north and the coal pits of the
south were opened.
The Tudors succeeded in getting the upper classes to speak English,
and to turn their backs on Welsh life. The peasant was left supreme:
he knew not what to do at first, but light soon came.
Pass through Wales, and you will see the life of both periods--the
ruined castles and the ruined monasteries of the old; the quarries
and pits, the towns and ports, the churches and chapels, the schools
and colleges of the present.
CHAPTER XXI--HOWEL HARRIS
It is difficult to write about religion without giving offence.
Religion will come into politics, and must come into history. It has
given much, perhaps most, of its strength to modern Wales; it has
given it many, if not most, of its political difficulties.
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