Major J. W. POWELL, LL.D.,
Of Harvard and Heidelberg,
Chief of the Geological Survey of the United States, Director of the Bureau of Ethnology, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C.
Sir,—
You inherit the name and possibly the blood of one of the great lawgivers of Europe,—Howell Dda, or Howell the Good, of Wales. The name has come down to us in three forms, I believe,—Powell (shortened from Ap Howell, son of Howell), Howell, and Howells.
The Welsh or Kymric people, whether at home, or abroad, are famous for devotion to letters and the effectual and tender care with which they have guarded and cherished the language of their fathers,—a language which contains so much that is beautiful, so much that it would be a sin to let die.
In many States of our Union the Kymri meet at great festivals, where they contend for rewards of literary excellence with a spirit which gives them a place of peculiar distinction among men who have settled America.
In their native land, Welshmen have maintained their intellectual integrity with such resolution and success that
