As Liberal MP for Edinburgh, Duncan Mclaren (1800–86) Was Nicknamed ‘Member for Scotland’ Because He Was So Assiduous in Pursuing All Manner of Scottish Causes
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the ‘mEmber foR scotlanD’ Duncan mcLaren anD the LiberaL DominancE of vicToRian scotlanD As Liberal MP for Edinburgh, Duncan McLaren (1800–86) was nicknamed ‘Member for Scotland’ because he was so assiduous in pursuing all manner of Scottish causes. The tag may also, however, reflect the crucial nature of his contribution to the creation of the Liberal Party that dominated late Victorian and Edwardian Scotland. Willis Pickard asks why the role he played in creating the Liberal dominance of Victorian Scotland has been so ignored. 20 Journal of Liberal History 69 Winter 2010–11 the ‘mEmber foR scotlanD’ Duncan mcLaren anD the LiberaL DominancE of vicToRian scotlanD n general histories of Scot- established in his twenties a drap- subsidised Church of Scotland no land, Duncan McLaren is er’s business in the High Street longer commanded the adherence little more than a footnote. of Edinburgh opposite the High of a majority. McLaren’s support- He did not become an MP Kirk of St Giles. By the time of ers were not yet a fully formed until he was sixty-five and the reform of local government in group of political Radicals – and Inever held office. He was a leader 1833, he was well enough estab- certainly they had no time for the around whom men gathered but lished to afford the time to sit on Chartists – but the power of con- he was also a divisive figure. the town council that replaced the gregations of religious Dissenters So what did McLaren achieve self-perpetuating oligarchs who formed into a national committee and why has history served him had run the capital of Scotland could make life uncomfortable for so ill? Politically, McLaren’s life into bankruptcy. He soon became a Whig government. In Novem- was a series of challenges to the treasurer and largely made the ber 1837 Andrew Rutherfurd, the Whig domination of Scotland. deal with the government that Solicitor General, wrote to a fel- Although he started representing restored the city’s finances. But low junior minister that the Com- his home city of Edinburgh two he and his allies on the council mittee of Dissenters had been years before the second Reform were increasingly frustrated by to see him and made clear that Act, the bedrock of his support the refusal of Lord Melbourne’s there was ‘a very lukewarm and came from the working men Cabinet to maintain an agenda of partial support, if not abandon- enfranchised in 1867 – the elec- reform – and in particular to abol- ment of the Whigs’.1 Rutherfurd torate who, in neighbouring Mid- ish the tax that paid the stipends recognised McLaren as ‘an able lothian, were to be so enthused by of Church of Scotland ministers. and excellent man’.2 That recog- William Gladstone. The Grand McLaren argued that the tax was nition was soon to be turned by Old Man was always suspicious unfair to the many thousands the Whigs into suspicion of his of self-proclaimed Radicals but who worshipped in Presbyte- motives and fear for their contin- he would not have won his mar- rian churches that had seceded ued domination of Edinburgh and ginal seat in 1880 and become the from the Established Church of Scottish politics. The men who ‘people’s William’ without the Scotland. had defeated the ‘Dundas des- allegiance of voters whom the potism’ in Scotland were landed proudly Radical McLaren, more gentry and advocates at the Scot- than anyone, made into a formi- Pressure on the Whigs Duncan McLaren tish Bar. They were happy to dable Scottish force. The argument was the same as (1800–86), from have prosperous shopkeepers run Duncan McLaren was born to made against church rates in Eng- a photograph town councils but not to chal- a family of Argyll crofters that land, and similar groups were by J. G. Tunny lenge the Whig leadership within had moved to the developing brought into public life to rally (picture the loosely organised Liberal textile industry of Dunbarton- opposition. McLaren’s skill was in reproduced by party. McLaren, using resentment shire. Apprenticed at twelve to a marshalling facts and in particular kind permission against slights by the government shop-keeping uncle in Dunbar, he the statistics that showed how the of Scran) and the Established Church to Journal of Liberal History 69 Winter 2010–11 21 the ‘mEmber foR scotlanD’: Duncan mcLaren anD the LiberaL DominancE of vicToRian scotlanD show the power of organised Dis- The cam- McLaren’s abilities made him held almost all the burgh seats and sent, began to pose a real threat. more than just the League’s eyes most of the counties, MPs contin- Not that he displayed open paign to and ears in Scotland. His judg- ued to be returned from the upper ambition himself. His supporters ment was valued among Radi- reaches of society. Even a pros- had no one to challenge Thomas abolish the cal thinkers and campaigners perous merchant like McLaren Babington Macaulay, whom the – just as his motives were ques- doubted whether he could sup- Whigs imposed on Edinburgh corn Laws tioned by the Whig establish- port six months’ unpaid life in in an 1839 by-election. McLaren ment. Macaulay, in particular, Westminster as well as a home in interfered in a hotly disputed was tak- had a difficult relationship with Edinburgh. Like other constitu- election for Lord Provost in 1840, his disputatious constituent. The encies in Britain that returned but only from the sidelines. He ing root in MP’s tentative approach to Corn two members, Edinburgh gave an had left the town council to look scotland, Law reform led to a tetchy cor- opportunity for the Liberal fac- after his business and his grow- respondence, and his reluctance tions to share the spoils. A Whig ing family. His first wife had died and mcLaren to appear at meetings in Edin- and a Radical (or Independent leaving him responsible for three burgh was widely resented. In the Liberal, as the term usually was children. His second wife, Chris- (aided by his wake of the Disruption, political in Edinburgh) might each take a tina Renton, was a member of a allegiances were tangled up with seat. That could give the Radicals prominent Dissenting family who Renton rela- sectarian differences. Within a representation that was usually encouraged his involvement in the supposedly Liberal fold there denied them in single-member church politics but she failed to tives) saw a were factions belonging to the constituencies. McLaren and his recover from the birth of a third Free Church, the Dissenters (a friends did try to find sympathetic child. McLaren’s unmarried sisters way of har- majority of whom, including candidates to challenge Whigs rallied to the young family, and McLaren’s core supporters, were elsewhere, but not often success- success in business allowed him nessing his soon to coalesce in the United fully. One seat in which McLaren to keep his commitment to public Presbyterian Church), and the took an interest was Stirling affairs and polemical journalism. supporters Church of Scotland, whose mem- Burghs which, in the 1847 par- The campaign to abolish the bers included both Liberals and liament, was represented by John Corn Laws was taking root in to the new Tories. As elsewhere in Britain, Benjamin Smith, the Manches- Scotland, and McLaren (aided by the government’s grant to the ter free trade businessman, with his Renton relatives) saw a way of cause. Roman Catholic Maynooth Col- whom McLaren formed a close harnessing his supporters to the lege in Ireland became a focus for alliance.5 new cause. The self-regarding sectarian squabbling. Macaulay claims of Dissenting churchmen refused to join the bulk of his faded from public attention as voters in opposing the grant and Bright as brother-in-law splits in the Church of Scotland in whipping up religious intol- McLaren was encouraged in culminated in the cataclysm of the erance – although McLaren’s broadening his Radical agenda Disruption and the founding of church supporters could at least be from religious to wider issues the Free Church in 1843. McLaren excused from purely anti-Catho- by both Cobden and Bright, the marshalled the army of Dissent- lic prejudice because they opposed latter in his role from 1849 as ers to help Richard Cobden and grants by the state to all religions, brother-in-law. McLaren took John Bright in the Anti-Corn including Protestant good causes. as his third wife Bright’s sister Law League. In January 1842, At the general election of Priscilla, herself ardently com- McLaren organised a large con- 1847, Macaulay was defeated, and mitted to advanced causes. She ference of Dissenting ministers McLaren was chief among those was a Quaker who on marrying a in Edinburgh. Of 494 who were blamed for creating the coalition non-Quaker was expelled, to her asked their opinion, none was in of United Presbyterians and Free brother’s fury. McLaren and John favour of the existing Corn Laws Churchmen who brought shame Bright formed a lifelong work- and 431 wanted total repeal. The on the city by removing a national ing partnership, with McLaren next month saw McLaren lead an statesman and writer. The Scotsman deferring to Bright’s oratorical Anti-Corn Law League march newspaper, in particular, had by skills and national reputation, along the Strand in London to the now turned against McLaren and and Bright relying on McLaren’s House of Commons, where MPs embarked on a campaign of deni- assiduity in delving into par- were about to vote on the annual gration and misrepresentation that liamentary papers and drafting repeal motion by Charles Villiers.