English commissioners appointed by the Privy Council, none of whom had any knowledge of the Welsh language, Nonconformity or elementary education. The findings of the report were immensely detailed and were damning towards not only the state of education in Wales but drew a very critical picture of the Welsh as a people, labelling them as immoral and backwards. Within its pages Welsh women were labelled as licentious and "cut off from civilising influences by the impenetrable Welsh language". The report drew questions over the chastity of the poor and was just as damning to the wealthier women of the country; claiming that English farmers’ daughters were respectable; while their Welsh counterparts Wales were in the "constant habit of being courted in bed". The result of the report led to a concerted effort to ensure that Welsh women would in future be above rebuke, and several Welsh periodicals were launched in the decades following aimed at improving housekeeping and to improve the morality of the Welsh readership. One of the first periodicals to launch after the publication, and in direct response to, the 'Blue Books' was Y Gymraes (The Welshwoman). Its editor Evan Jones (1820-1852) known by his bardic name of "Ieaun Gwynedd" was seen as a champion of Welsh women following his detailed defence of their morality following the controversy surrounding the Report. Y Gymraes, launched in January 1850, set out to create the 'perfect' Welshwoman, a virtue of morality, sobriety and thrift, a beacon that would see the Welsh nation above all future criticism. As early as the autumn of 1851, with the health of its editor failing, Y Gymraes was merged with the monthly penny periodical Y Tywysydd (The Guide), and became Y Tywysydd a'r Gymraes in early 1852. Despite its title the majority of the contributors were men, and the publication continued to emphasise the importance of high moral standards rather than give practical advice. Although the publication continued into the 1880s, it eventually made way for Y Frythones (The Female Briton) under the editorship of Sarah Jane Rees. Although these periodicals had their roots in the temperance movement, and many of the articles within their pages were frivolous, by the 1880s they began broaching the topic of female emancipation. Jane Aaron in 1994 described how the desire for Welsh womanhood to be seen as respectable in the eyes of its "colonial" neighbour endured even when