THE HISTORY OF JOHN GALT: PAST AND PRESENT IN THE WAKE OF THE ENLIGHTENMENT THE INSTITUTE OF ECONOMICS AND SOCIAL SCIENCES OF BILKENT UNIVERSITY BY ÖZLEM ÇAYKENT IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN HISTORY IN THE DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY BILKENT UNIVERSITY ANKARA, SEPTEMBER 2003 I certify that I have read this thesis and found that it is fully adequate, in scope and quality, as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History. ________________ Asst. Prof. Cadoc D. A. Leighton Supervisor I certify that I have read this thesis and found that it is fully adequate, in scope and quality, as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History. ________________ Asst. Prof. Paul Latimer Examining Committee I certify that I have read this thesis and found that it is fully adequate, in scope and quality, as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History. ________________ Asst. Prof. David Thornton Examining Committee I certify that I have read this thesis and found that it is fully adequate, in scope and quality, as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History. ________________ Asst. Prof. Anthony Lake Examining Committee I certify that I have read this thesis and found that it is fully adequate, in scope and quality, as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History. ________________ Assoc. Dr. Gümeç Karamuk Examining Committee Approval of the Institute of Economics and Social Sciences ________________ Prof. Dr. Kürşat Aydoğan Director of the Institute of Economics and Social Sciences ABSTRACT THE HISTORY OF JOHN GALT: PAST AND PRESENT IN THE WAKE OF THE ENLIGHTENMENT Özlem Çaykent Ph.D., Department of History Supervisor: Dr. C. D. A. Leighton September 2003 The placing of the history of Enlightenment ideas and their implications in a wider social context has been an important characteristic of Enlightenment studies for some time. This thesis offers John Galt, the early nineteenth-century Scottish historical novelist, as an example of this wider reception of the Enlightenment. It investigates his novels and gives an account of Galt’s attitudes to the ideas of his times, on the historical, socio-political and other matters. It returns the novels to their immediate Scottish intellectual and cultural contexts, speaking of Galt’s Greenock, contemporary Scottish literary circles and London politics, all of which played important parts in Galt’s formation. His works are interesting in showing a belief in the expediency of reason, learning and the possibility of human progress within an organic society and history, placing an emphasis on Divine Providential as the ground of a universal system. Galt supported progress, in so far as it brought advance of a merely practical nature; but he reached back to the moral values of the past as the true guides to living. iii The thesis delineates Galt’s ideas as composite, melding together traditional and new liberal/conservative notions. Thus a progressive understanding of history became, in the hands of Galt, a major element of his conservative stance in relation to radical reform and change. Using some contemporary theories such as historical inevitability and stadialism, he constructed a Scottish identity which highlighted the Calvinist traditions of the Lowlands. In brief, with Galt the dichotomy between Enlightenment and Counter- Enlightenment was disappearing. Keywords: John Galt, Enlightenment, Historiography, Scottish Enlightenment, Covenant, Historical Novel iv ÖZET JOHN GALT‘IN TARİHİ: AYDINLANMANIN PEŞİNDEN GEÇMİŞ VE BUGÜN Özlem Çaykent Doktora, Tarih Bölümü Tez Yöneticisi: Dr. C. D. A. Leighton Eylül 2003 Aydınlanma fikirlerinin daha geniş bir çerçevede incelenmesi bir süredir gelişmekdedir. Bu tez, aydınlanma fikirleri ve bu fikirlerin daha geniş sosyal çerçevedeki etkilerininin araştırmasından yola çıkarak, erken ondokuzuncu yüzyıl İskoç romancılarından John Galt örneğinini irdelemekdedir. Galt’ın kendi zamanının sosyopolitik ve entellektüel zeminlerdeki fikirleri karşısındaki tutumu ve tarih anlayışı tartışılmaktadır. Romanlarında uslup ve dili gerçekçi bir şekilde yansıtmayı seçen Galt, tarihsel kaçınılmazlık ve etajizm (stadiyalizm) gibi çağdaş teorileri kullanmış; aklın yararına, öğrenmeye ve organik bir toplum ve tarih içinde insanın ilerlemesinin olabilirliğine inanmıştır. İlerlemeyi pratik sonuçlara götürdüğü ölçüde desteklerken, ilahi öngörülü akıl yürütmeye ve evrensel sisteme vurgu yapmıştır ve sonuçta doğru yaşam rehberi olarak geleneksel presbiteryen ahlaki değerleri vurgulamıştır. Galt’ın eserleri geleneksel ya da yeni liberal muhafazakar fikirlerlerle, aydınlanma düşüncesini biraraya getirmesi açısından iletken özellik taşır. Aydınlanmanın ilerlemeci yaklaşımı Galt’ın ellerinde radikal reform ve değişime karşı temel dayanağı oluşturmuştur. Bu yaklaşım, yerel gelenekle Britanya geleneğini karşı karşıya v getirmeden kalvinist geleneği öne çıkaran bir Lowland İskoç kimliğiyle bağlanmıştır. Sonuçta, Galt’da aydınlanmacı-karşı aydınlanmacı ikiliği ortadan kalkmıştır. Anahtar Kelimeler: John Galt, Aydınlanma, Tarih Yazımı, İskoç Edebiyati, Akit, Tarihsel Roman vi Acknowledgements Certainly, those who are acquainted with a thesis project will know that it is more than simply the preparation of work for submission to receive a Ph.D. degree. Although it seems to be a job for one person, it requires many to bring it into being and it is sometimes easier to see the project as both a test of patience and a spiritual quest. For me the result was a personal achievement that reached beyond the topic itself. Indebted I am to many who helped me through it with their intellectual, psychological and material support. After my family, especially my mother and Merih, I have had the good fortune to have many beautiful friends: Özge and Ayşe, who many times, without complaint, listened to the errant speculations of my mind; Bahar and Akça, with whom I shared not only an office. Not to be forgotten are İskender, Semih Aksoy and Seher whose unfailing support in the most desperate hour of these years (when I lost my laptop). A special place in my acknowledgements goes to my dear friend Derya, who has been always, even in the worst times, there for me. Another of the great experiences with which this research provided me was the chance to go to Edinburgh in Scotland. Beyond its research facilities, it is a place that has fascinated me with its beauty and with the people I met there. Especially, I would like to thank to all my flatmates in Livingstone Place, friends in Edinburgh who made it my second home and life enjoyable. For many evenings of exhausting days I sat in the kitchen over a bottle of wine with Maysan and Victoria, who amazed me with their vii endurance in listening to and reading the results of my research. I received many useful pieces of advice from members of Edinburgh University, notably Nicholas Phillipson. I would also very much like to thank Robert Irvine for his friendship and encouragement. I express my gratitude to Cadoc Leighton, my supervisor throughout the years at Bilkent University. It has been years of study, both Masters and Ph.D., through both difficult and nice times, but surely I have learned a few things. Special thanks to the other members of my thesis supervision committee, Anthony Lake and David Thornton, who have been greatly supportive with their readings and comments on various drafts. And to Paul Latimer and Oktay Özel I thank especially for their trust, friendship and support throughout the years. And lastly I have to thank the friendly and helpful staff of the National Library of Scotland, who helped me through many manuscripts; Bilkent Library; the Mitchell Library; Edinburgh University Library, the British Library and the Bodleian Library in Oxford. I am also grateful for the economic support of the Department of History, Bilkent University, without which the research would have not been possible. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT iii ÖZET v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS vii TABLE OF CONTENTS ix ABBREVIATIONS xi CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION John Galt and the Scottish Enlightenment: Sciences of Man 1 1.1 John Galt 1 1.2 The Scottish Enlightenment: the Science of Man 10 1.2.1 Reason and Morality 15 1.2.2 Acumulative Forces in History 23 1.3 Galt and Context 26 CHAPTER 2 Literature on Galt: Galt and His Critics 33 2.1 Galt’s Reception During His Lifetime 37 2.2 Galt and the Kailyard: approaching the Twentieth Century 47 2.3 Galt in the First Half of the Twentieth Century 55 2.4 Contemporary Galt Critics 64 CHAPTER 3 The Making, Prime and Death of Mr. Galt 75 3.1 The Making of a Character 78 3.2 Prime 102 3.3 Death 115 CHAPTER 4 Conservativism and Enlightenment: Dichotomies? 118 4.1 Politics and Galt 118 4.2 Political Economy and Stadialism 124 4.3 Law, Society and Social Order 135 4.4 Reform in Penal Law 138 4.5 Crime, Sin and Punishment 143 CHAPTER 5 The Historical Novel and History Writing 152 5.1 Historical Writing and the Novel 153 5.2 Mannerism and Propriety 166 5.3 Authorial Voice and Historical Source 178 ix CHAPTER 6 The Covenant Revisited: Enthusiasm, Choice and Inevitability 189 6.1 Ringan Gilhaize and Old Mortality 190 6.2 Inevitability and Historicism 196 6.3 The Long Reformation and the Covenant 208 6.4 Justification of Resistance 215 6.5 The Radicalisation of Ringan 218 CHAPTER 7 Change, Stages and Society 226 7.1 Progress of Commerce and Transition 229 7.2 Classes 235 7.3 Improvement 238 7.4 Cities, Towns and Parishes 240 7.5 Religion 242 7.6 Bad and Good Effects of Progress 246 7.7 The Colonies and the Levant 251 CHAPTER 8 CONCLUSION John Galt: a Perception of the Scottish Enlightenment Views and History 259 BIBLIOGRAPHY 265 APPENDICES 295 Appendix 1 A chronology of John Galt’s Life and Some Highlights of His Period 295 Appendix 2 a.