Edinburgh Politics: 1832-1852

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EDINBURGH POLITICS: 1832-1852 by Jeffrey Charles Williams Doctor of Philosophy University of Edinburgh June 1972 Contents Preface Abbreviations One Social and Religious Groups in Early Victorian Edinburgh Two Political Groups in Early Victorian Edinburgh Three Whiggery Triumphant: 1832-1835 Four The Growth of Sectarian Politics: 1835-1841 Five The Downfall of the Whigs: 1841-184 7 Six The Breakdown of the Liberal Alliance: 184 7-1852 Seven Conclusion A!;)pendices 1. A Statistical Comparison of the Edinburgh Electorates of 183 5 and 1866 11. Electioneering in Edinburgh, 1832-1852 111. An Occupational Analysis of Town Councillors IV. An Occupational Analysis of the Edinburgh 'Radical Vote' of 1834 Bibliography ********* (i) Preface The Scottish Reform A~t of 1832 and the Scottish Municipal Reform Act of 1833 destroyed the domination of the Tory party over Edinburgh politics. The champions of reform, the Edinburgh Whig lawyers, emerged as the triumphant new political leaders of the new, overwhelmingly liberal electorate. But by the late 1830s a large number of middle class electors had grown critical of the Whigs. Some radicals resented the domination of a legal clique over the constituency and attacked the Whig govern- ment for its slowness in dealing with outstanding grievances, such as the corn laws and the desire for further franchise reform. Another dissident group were the Dissenters who called for the abolition of the state church relationship and the annuity tax (the Edinburgh property tax maintaining the Established Church clergy). The Non-Intrusionist (later Free Church) movement was strong in Edinburgh and from 1840 onwards increasingly hostile to the Whigs. In 184 7 an alliance fashioned out of these three disgrun- tied groups by the Dissenter leader, Duncan McLaren, achieved the h"..lmiliating defeat of the Whig candidate, T. B. Macaulay. The Liberal party that emerged out of this election wa.s aiming at the complete overthrow of the Edinburgh Wnigs, but due principally to the inability of the Dissenters and Free Churchmen to reconcile their ideological differences over voluntaryism and their jealous (ii) rivalry for control of the Liberal party, the alliance collapsed in 1852. In the election of that year, Macaulay was triumphantly re-elected and McLaren was defeated. Although the latter 's attenpts to replace the Whig oligarchy with a broadly based Liberal party of alienated sectarians and middle class radicals failed in 1852, Me Laren 's efforts can be seen as one of the earliest and most significant attempts to create the basis of the Gladstonian Liberal party. This thesis describes in detail the local socio- economic, religious and political circumstances which crucially affected McLaren's activities, while trying to isolate those aspects of Edinburgh politics which reflect national political developments in early Victorian Britain. I have used the terms Tory and Conservative interchangeably in this thesis since in newspapers, private letters and public speeches both terms were used interchangeably throughout the early Victorian period. The use of the term liberal in the 19th century was subject to much variation. Many Whigs styled themselves Liberals after 1832, but in Edinburgh at least, this change was never very popular and most j ournalists and letter writers continued to speak of the Whigs as Whigs, especially after McLaren's coalition of Dissenters and middle class radicals began to term themselves Liberals. Since this group did have a separate party structure and a self-conscious sense of independence from the Whig oligarchy, I have used the term Liberal for McLaren's (iii) party and not for the Whig party. Confusion may be avoided by pointing out here that the Whig party structure was called the Liberal Aggregate Committee, but functioned very much for \Alh.iggish purposeso When the terms liberal and conservative are used without capitalization, they are used in an ideological rather than party sense. This is particularly relevant when discussing the Whigs among whom were politicians with conservative and liberal attitudes towards further reform after 1832; these differences are dealt with in Chapter Two below. For their help in supervising the research for this thesis, I am grateful to Dr. Wo Ferguson and Dro No Phillipson of the University of Edinburgh. Professor G. Best has taken a very kind interest in my work and I am happy to thank him for thato I owe thanks as well to the staff of the Edinburgh Room of the Edinburgh Public Library, the National Library of Scotland and the Scottish Record Office for their assistance in introducing me to my sources. I am glad to be able to offer this thesis as partial acknowledgement of the generosity of the University of Edinburgh in providing me with a studentship for two years. ( iv) Abbreviations DNB Dictionary of National Biography EPL Edinburgh Public Ltbrary NLS National Library of Scotland (Edinburgh) PRO Public Record Office (London) SRO Scottish Record Office (Edinburgh) s. s. c. Society of Solicitors in the Supreme Courts U. P. United Presbyterian w. s. Writer to H. M. Signet ( v) CHAPTER ONE Social and Religious Groups in Early Victorian Edinburgh On the 19th and 20th of December 1832, several thousand citizens of Edinburgh went to polling places throughout the city to vote for two Parliamentary representatives. In the process, a new political age dawned in Edinburgh, whose political affairs had, until 1832, been dominated by the Tory influence of the Dandas family o The Town Council, a self-perpetuating oligarchy under the direct control of the Dundas interest, had elected Edinburgh 1 s sole M .. P. in previous times. The Reform Act (Scotland) of 1832 transferred that power to the top seven per cent of Edinburgh 1 s male citizenry; in 1833 the old Town Council was replaced by a new Council elected by a somewhat smaller electorate (based on the same new qualifications but limited to the central city area). The Dundas influence abruptly disappeared and political developments henceforth reflected the interests and ambitions of the new electorateo In this chapter, the most impor- tant social and religious interests and conflicts of the electorate will be discussed, and in the chapter that follows, the political groups and parties that took shape in the years after 1832 will be described. With the new franchise limited to male occupiers and owners of buildings or lands of the yearly value of at least £10 , only app- roximately 5, 000 of Edinburgh's 137,000 citizens registered to form ( 1) the new electorate o The vast rnajority of the population continued to have no direct influence upon political decision- making in party councils or elections. Since this thesis is concerned with parties and elections, it necessarily concentrates upon the electorate and its particular desires and motivations. A study of the Edinburgh working class and its evanescent politically- oriented organizations in the early Victorian era would be valuable although difficult to construct-, due to the shortage of promising research material (see bibliographical essay). In any case, this thesis, based largely upon middle class newspapers and correspondence, deals with the mainly middle-to-upper class elec- to rate and the issues and conflicts which animated it -- specifically, the struggle for political supremacy between the Edinburgh lawyers and merchants and between the various denominational groups. The Edinburgh of the 1830s continued to resemble the Edinburgh of the early 19th century in its prevailing social charac- teristics: the city's prominence was based on professional groups and functions rather than on industrial or commercial trp- 1 portance. The city t s law courts, university, churches and elegant residential districts continued to attract men of professional or social distinction who comprised a professional elite. This elite's needs were catered for by a large population of retailers and crafts men, creating and selling high quality consumer goods which were served and maintained by a large servant population. (2) There was also another army of dependents on upper class pat ronage -- coachmen, washerwomen, milliners, gardeners, painters, upholsterers, messengers, porters, masons, etc o Casual labouring jobs on building sites and in warehouses and unskilled labour in the workshops of the craftsmen and manufacturers formed the major occupations of the rest of the working class o No large industrial enterprise, no particular product distinguished Edinburgh r s economyo The major industries were printing and its allied trades, brewing, coach making, leather manufacture, jewellery and glassmakingo All of these were traditional industries organ- ized on a small firm scale a nd none expanded dramatically in the 2 mid-century period o In fact, Edinburgh r s economic and social structures changed scarcely at all during the early Victorian periodo Nor did Edinburgh 1 s population grow with anything like the pheno menal speed of such industrial centres as Glasgow. 3 Although Edinburgh lacked a class of industrial enterpreneurs, tre city had an abundance of retail merchants, skilled craftsmen and light manufacturers who gained gradually in economic impor tance throughout the period and came into a political position of considerable power in 1832.

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