Page images
PDF
EPUB

POLITICAL AND SOCIAL

REMINISCENCES OF GLASGOW.

VERILY we have lived, and blessed be God, we are spared, and continue to live, in most marvellous times. It is not necessary, and indeed it is of very little consequence, that we should give any account of our own personal history in this place. That may or may not be done by others, in a small paragraph or two, after we doff this mortal coil, and are quietly laid under the green sod. Suffice it here to say, by way of introduction to what follows, that the Trials in particular of the early SCOTTISH REFORMERS of the year 1793, when GEORGE the THIRD was KING, made originally a very deep impression on our youthful minds, never effaced, and brought besides under our notice, and led to many subsequent remarkable circumstances, the narration of some of which may be deemed worthy of being published and recorded in a plain, concise, and authentic form, in these and other REMINISCENCES.

We begin now, with the TRIAL of THOMAS MUIR, Esq., Advocate, the younger of Huntershill, near Glasgow, which Trial took place before the Lords of the High Court of Justiciary, at Edinburgh, on Friday, the 30th day of August, 1793,-that is more than 70 years ago. The Judges on the Bench were the Right Honourable the Lord Justice-Clerk M'Queen, better known by the name of BRAXFIELD, with Lords Henderland, Dunsinan, Swinton, and Abercromby,-long since dead. That trial,

with the subsequent separate trials of Muir's friends, or companions, or compatriots, as they may now here properly enough be called, viz., William Skirving, Maurice Margarot, Joseph Gerald, and the Rev. Fisher Palmer, all of which trials followed the first in rapid succession before the same Court, created uncommon interest throughout Scotland at the time. They also attracted the special attention, and aroused the indignation of some of the greatest Statesmen of the age, then in both Houses of Parliament, besides creating no small sensation in quarters abroad, the effects of which we are humbly persuaded, are not yet obliterated; nor can we doubt that they had some considerable effect on the political regime or STATUS, and future destinies of this great empire, now happy at home, and yielding to none other upon the earth. We shall at least endeavour, in a few of these pages, strikingly to shew, how dread, how positively shocking and awful, was the Administration of JUSTICE in those days, in many important particulars, in this kingdom, compared with what it is providentially now (1865), under the mild and peaceful sway of our good Queen VICTORIA. Yet we will not occupy the attention of our readers, to any unreasonable degree, with dry legal disquisitions or dissertations of any kind in connection with those trials, but proceed at once to the real nature or remarkable substance of them, in so far chiefly as our departed friend, Mr. Thomas Muir, was more immediately concerned; and in so far also, as the people of these kingdoms may be concerned about it still; for it concerns their interests, if it does not touch their hearts-yea, even after the lapse of so many long eventful years.

We have, therefore, most respectfully to state, in a few words, that at a very early period of his life-perhaps

too early, not for his fame, but for his future happiness— he became an enthusiastic REFORMER "in the worst of times" at the darkest, or blackest, and most arbitrary period perhaps, of Scottish history-varied through many generations as that history has been.

And we may amuse, if we do not surprise, some of our younger readers of the present day, when we inform them, that when Thomas Muir first entered on his active political career, in the year 1792, there were then only a very few hundreds, at most-only some 5000 Parliamentary Electors altogether in, or for this entire kingdom of Scotland; whereas, they now amount to upwards of 100,000, with the prospect not certainly of diminution, but rather increase, from the obvious and growing state of the population itself. At the period above referred to, these small handful of Parliamentary Electors were called paper voters, or "Freeholders;" and it is the undoubted, and was then the most glaring fact, that many of these "Freeholders," or the pendicles, or stripes of land, or things which gave them the right to vote, were freely and unblushingly bought by, or sold to, the highest bidder, sometimes by public roup, under the hammer of an Auctioneer, for sums varying from £500 (scarcely any below that figure), to other sums varying from £1000, £2000, and sometimes as much as £5000 each, according to the political state of the market, or the agitating events of the particular county at the time. If this was truly the condition or exceptionable state of the counties of Scotland at the period referred to (some thought it was a very good and excellent condition; and so it was for many pockets and domineering parties), yet it was somewhat more glaring and reprehensible in regard to all the Burghs and cities of Scotland. For example, in this great city of

Glasgow, in the year 1793, and down to the passing of the Reform Bill, many years afterwards, namely, in 1832, there were only some thirty or forty privileged Parliamentary Electors in it altogether! whereas, we count them now as approaching to 15,000 or 20,000 bona fide registered Electors and we may here observe, that in 1793 the population of Glasgow amounted to about 70,000 or 80,000 souls; whereas, it is now (embracing the suburbs)according to the interesting and valuable statistical table published the other day by our new City Chamberlain, Wm. West Watson, Esq., whom we hail as the accomplished successor of our old departed friend, John Strang, Esq., LL.D.,-approaching the extraordinary number of 480,000 human beings, and still most rapidly on the increase, as well as every thing connected with Glasgow, whether as regards the arts and sciences, or the busy hum of men with its countless occupations.

From small events such great beginnings rise!

And it is further somewhat amusing, and we almost smile now to mention the fact, that, in 1793, and long before and afterwards, this city wherein we dwell, was absolutely annexed to, or joined, or linked with, the then rural and small or insignificant Burghs, comparatively speaking, of Rutherglen, Renfrew, and Dumbarton, in regard to the choice of its then Parliamentary representation, or rather in the choice of one single solitary representative amongst the said four conjoined Burghs to Parliament. In point of fact, Renfrew, with the two other small Burghs above-named, had as much right, nay, it sometimes had greater sway, or more absolute power, in the election of that one representative to Parliament, than Glasgow had, with its vast population exceeding them all,

by at least fifty times over! This absurd and glaring state of matters led often to the quaint observation, amongst the old quidnuncs of the city, that it was sometimes very difficult, if not impossible, to tell whether Glasgow was really represented at all; and they almost defied the Professor of Logic to define, whether any, and what part either of the head, the eyes, the legs, or the arms, or any other precise part of his mortal body, the citizens could really claim, as their legitimate share of the said member. In sober truth, and strikingly illustrative of this, we may mention this other fact connected with it, namely, that each of the Burghs above-named, viz., Glasgow, Rutherglen, Renfrew and Dumbarton, through their own particular self, elected Magistrates and Councillors, but nobody else had the absolute and undoubted power of choosing from amongst themselves one supreme functionary or "independent Delegate"-as he was called-to decide the matter. In other words, four special Delegates, chosen or nominated by themselves, were to lay their heads together in the name and behalf of the four Burghs, and to declare who was or who was not their member to Parliament, when that eventful period in the history of the Burghs arrived for declaring the same accordingly. He was truly, if we may so call him, a great man, that selfenthroned "Delegate”—a little king, exercising the most arbitrary and despotic sway in the matter, and ruling the roast pretty often in other places exactly as he pleased. In further illustration of this, let us suppose the fact, that the Parliament of Great Britain and Ireland was Dissolved, say, in the year 1792, then the election of this Wonderful one representative to Parliament behoved to take place within the Tolbooth, or Council Chambers of the allotted favourite Burgh, at 12 o'clock noon of the day, embraced

« PreviousContinue »