The Liberal Party in Scotland, 1843- 1868: Electoral Politics and Party Development
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https://theses.gla.ac.uk/ Theses Digitisation: https://www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/research/enlighten/theses/digitisation/ This is a digitised version of the original print thesis. Copyright and moral rights for this work are retained by the author A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge This work cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Enlighten: Theses https://theses.gla.ac.uk/ [email protected] The Liberal party in Scotland, 1843- 1868: electoral politics and party development Gordon F. Millar Departments of Scottish and Modern History University of Glasgow Presented for the degree of Ph.D. at the University of Glasgow © Gordon F. Millar October 1994 ProQuest Number: 10992153 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a com plete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest ProQuest 10992153 Published by ProQuest LLC(2018). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States C ode Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 'tL.f'f loo^b GpI GLASGOW UNIVERSITY LIBRARY CONTENTS Acknowledgements iii Abstract v Introduction 1 PART ONE, THE NATURE OF THE CONSTITUENCY 1 The Electoral Landscape in Scotland, 1832-1868 23 PART TWO, THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE PARTY IN SCOTLAND 2 Disruption and Repeal, 1843-1849 47 3 The Liberal party in Scotland, 1850-1856 Part I: The 1852 Election and Strains in the Free 88 Church/Voluntary Alliance Part I I : The Effects of the Education Issue, 116 the Scottish Rights Movement and the Modernisers Part III: The Crimean War, the Peace Movement, 157 the Scottish Peelites and the Palmerston Premiership 4 The Liberal Party in Scotland, 1857-1859 Part I: The 1857 Election. Redressing the Balance in Favour of the Whigs and Moderates. The Palmerston Factor. 175 Part II: Issues for the Liberal Party in the Late 1850's, Nationalism Abroad and Reform. The 1859 Election. 220 5 County Revolt and Reform. Towards Liberalism for a larger electorate, 1860-68 231 PART THREE, THE PARTY IN INDIVIDUAL CONSTITUENCIES Introduction 257 6 A Burgh District. Falkirk Burghs, 1846-1859 258 7 A County. Ayrshire, 1852-1857 297 8 A Single Burgh. Edinburgh, 1843-1865 332 PART FOUR, CONCLUSION Conclusion 386 APPENDICES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY Appendices 1 Maps showing burgh and county seats under the 1832 and 1868 Reform Acts 390 2 County maps showing general election results, 1841-1868 394 Bibliography 402 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Writing a thesis about the mid-nineteenth century Scottish Liberal party proved to be a much larger undertaking than I had ever anticipated. The work has been interrupted, at one time for a period of over three years, by personal and professional commitments. I believe on balance, however, that it has benefited from being the product of a repeated determination to have one more attempt at completion and from the maturing of the ideas I started out with. My debts of gratitude are many. The first is to two people who have passed on from this life. Without the assistance of my aunt, Olive Gratton-Brunt, I would not have started out on this thesis. The same can be said of Geoffrey Finlayson, whose encouragement in the early days and belief that I would see the project though in the years when I was otherwise engaged were unshakeable. John McCaffrey has been an invaluable source of inspiration, good advice and sheer common sense. He has reined in my flights of fancy with the repeated injunction to "keep it simple Gordon”, and how right he has been! My thanks also go to Prof. H.C.G. Matthew for suggesting in the first place that I look at mid-nineteenth century politics in Scotland and to Dr. John H. Davis for providing early and continuing general encouragement. Mr. B.R.W. Lockhart and Dr. G.J. Ellis retained an interest in their former pupil and student respectively and I am deeply grateful to both. The staffs of the following libraries and archives deserve thanks for providing me with access to their holdings, some with accompanying and unexpected refreshment!: the National Library of Scotland; Glasgow University Library; Edinburgh University Library; the Scottish Record Office; the Public Record Office; Clwyd County Record Office; Room 132 of The Bodleian Library; Glasgow University Archive and Business Record Collection; Heriot-Watt University Archive; the Manuscripts Departments of the following libraries, Nottingham University Library, Strathclyde University Library; Cambridge University Library, Southampton University Library, Liverpool City Libraries, Manchester Central Library, the British Library; the Colindale Newspaper Library; Edinburgh City Libraries; the Mitchell Library, Glasgow; Aberdeen Central Library; the Wellgate Library, Dundee; the Carnegie Reference Library, Ayr; Falkirk Public Library; Stirling Reference Library; Dumbarton Central Library; the Dick Institute, Kilmarnock; the Ewart Library, Dumfries; the Watt Library, Greenock; Westminster City Libraries; Zentralbibliothek, Zurich; Strathclyde Regional Archives; Central Regional Archive; Somerset Record Office; The House of Lords Record Office; Sheffield Record Office. The assistance of the staff of the National Register of Archives (Scotland) was also invaluable. The following people also deserve special mention: Mrs. Margaret Deas (National Library of Scotland); Mrs Irene Innes (Kelbum Castle); Dr. Norman Reid (Heriot-Watt University Archive); Mrs. Jill Gill (Beaulieu); Mr. Colin Johnstone and Mrs. Jane Hill (NRA(S)); Mrs Grace Wilson (The Glen); Mrs. Margo Longley (Haddo House). I am grateful also to the following persons for granting me access to the collections in their possession: June, Marchioness of Aberdeen (Haddo House MSS.); Lord Moncreiff of Tullibole; His Grace the Duke of Buccleuch; His Grace the Duke of Hamilton; the Earl of Glasgow; the Earl of Derby; the Earl of Dalhousie; the Earl of Wemyss and March; Mr. Keith Adam (Adam of Blair Adam MSS.); Mr. Tom Duncan (Glen and Henderson MSS.); Lord Glenconner (Tennant MSS.); Mr. Archibald Stirling; Lord Montagu of Beaulieu. I am indebted to the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland for providing me with financial assistance. Likewise I owe thanks to Mr. Hans Liitolf, Rector, and Mr. Pius Muff, Depute-Rector, for making possible a period of leave in the spring of 1993 from teaching at the Lucerne School of Economics and Business Administration. Mrs Ruth Edward-Collins Benz was good enough to step in for me at that time and to her also I offer my thanks. Personal thanks go to my parents for putting up with the eternal student; to my sister Gillian, for reminding me that there was a world outside of nineteenth century Scotland; to Betty Jamieson for support and a ready telephone at a time when I restarted work in 1990; to Gabi Scholtz and Dr. Ray Milne for reminding me constantly that the idea was to finish this piece of work; and lastly to my wife, Regula, who not only has put up with years of working holidays in Scotland and given me the benefit of her excellent talents as a cartographer, but has also been a tower of patience and support. Thalwil and Balemo, 14th October 1994 ABSTRACT The Liberal party in Scotland in 1843 was, in both burghs and counties, Whig and moderate Liberal dominated. The Corn Law repeal controversy and, in Scotland of longer-lasting significance, the Disruption in the Church of Scotland changed this situation. In the counties the split in the Conservative party began a process that was to make these constituencies increasingly receptive to the Liberal party. In the late 1840s this was largely a function of Conservative weakness. The Protectionists, Free Trade and Peelite Conservatives maintained their position overall, but were no longer able to mount any challenge to the Liberals. As the Conservatives were identified with the Established Church of Scotland, the Liberals gained from Free Church support, especially in the far north of Scotland. Corn Law repeal had shown in the burghs that the Scottish Whigs, T.B. Macaulay in Edinburgh was a prominent example, were not prepared to move in step with the desires of the growing commercial and professional middle-class for further reform. This situation was made acute by the existence of the Free Church after 1843 whose membership largely came from this social group. They felt little loyalty to either Whigs or Conservatives and were Liberal out of their desire for change, by which they meant either purification or dismantling of the Establishment. Those who wanted purification tended to be moderate politically, those who wanted a dismantling were more radical. These Free Churchmen were energised by the increase in the Maynooth Grant in 1845. This provided a rallying point round which Free Church and Voluntary members could gather to exercise political influence, while forgetting their differences over the question of an Establishment. This alliance was successful in 1847 in winning significant victories in the Scottish burghs and in defeating leading figures in the Scottish Whig establishment. The election of 1852 generally confirmed what had happened five years previously. In the counties it was obvious that Protection was a dead issue.