have known that no attention could be paid to such a rabble. What right had they to representation? I could have told them that the parliament would never listen to their petition. How could they think of it? A government in every country should be just like a corporation, and in this country it is made up of the landed interest, which alone has a right to be represented. As for the rabble, who have nothing but personal property, what hold has the nation of them? What security for the payment of their taxes? They may pack up all their property on their backs and leave the country in the twinkling of an eye, but landed property cannot be removed." 4 Muir, as a matter of course, was found guilty, and sentenced to transportation for a period of fourteen years. Other persons were tried this year and the following one for similar offences, and every one of them for a first offence were sentenced to transportation. Amongst those were Gerald, Hargarot, and Palmer. Political discussion and political meetings were completely suppressed for a considerable time in Scotland. But these trials left a deep impression upon the popular mind, and on the minds of all thinking men. 1844, a stone monument was erected to their memory on the Calton Hill burying ground, Edinburgh. In The Government employed a set of spies, who often brought innocent and unsuspecting persons into the iron grasp of the criminal law. After the trials of 1793 and 1794, the Government seems to have imagined that Glasgow was the chief revolutionary centre in Scotland, although, in fact, there was no such thing in the nation, save what the Government itself was creating. When any Government purposely employs and pays men to discover sedition among a peaceful community, these men, in the interest of their trade, will soon create a show of the article required by their employers. This was what occurred in Glasgow between 1816 and 1820; that there was distress, and consequently discontent, in Glasgow, is well-known ; but that there was anything like an organised conspiracy against the Government there is no evidence whatever. By the operations of the spies and paid agents of the Government, three or four men were arrested and imprisoned in the Castle of Edinburgh in 1816, where they were kept for a considerable time. When the trial of these men began, it at once became evident that the whole affair had been manufactured to order; and it was shown in open court that the Advocate-depute had tampered with a witness, The Martyrs of Reform in Scotland, by A. H. Millar, F.S. A. Scot. and endeavoured to corrupt him. The trial broke down, and "the prison and castle gates were instantly opened, and all the kindred prisoners walked forth." But in the year 1820, three men, Hardie, Baird, and Wilson, were executed for political offences which they were led into by the agents of the Government of the day; and other fifteen men were, at the same time, and for the same offence, sentenced to transporta tion. Liberal principles in politics, and freedom of discussion, slowly advanced in Scotland; and incidents occasionally happened to convince the party in power that they were not quite immortal. The younger class of Whigs, represented by the Edinburgh Review, fought bravely and effectually, and by and by the clouds began to disperse, and the political atmosphere became clearer. The calm and reasonable teaching of Adam Smith and of Dugald Stewart had begun to tell; the press, too, was beginning to gather some influence; but the most powerful wave which was rapidly increasing in volume and momentum issued from the commercial and trading class. The wealth of this class was increasing, and it was them especially which rendered the first Reform Bill, not a matter of choice to be decided by this or that party, but a matter of absolute necessity. The new bill, therefore, gave this class power, and free trade won the day; but, though this great measure of reform swept off innumerable abuses, and introduced a better system of representation, it was far from satisfactory. The body of the people were still left outside the Constitution, and outside the legislature; they had no vote or voice in the government of their country. Hence, agitation for political reform, instead of being abated, shortly became more general and intense than it had ever before been, and the Chartist movement arose. As might have easily been foreseen, the Chartist movement commenced almost immediately after the passing of the Reform Bill. They were, however, more troublesome in England than in Scotland. Their programme of reform was enounced in distinct terms and published to the world, and consisted of the following points :-(1) Universal Suffrage; (2) Vote by Ballot; (3) Annual Parliaments; (4) Payment of Members; (5) Abolition of the Property Qualification; and in 1848, they adopted the principle of equal electoral districts or proportionate constituencies. The more important of these points have already been embodied in the political system of the country; and the Chartists are, therefore, entitled to be considered as the real and only fruitful political reformers since 1833. From about 1843 to 1851, they had associations, clubs, and meeting-houses in Scotland; and many of their lecturers travelled through the country and delivered speeches at public meetings in the centres of population. One of their last meetings was a Democratic Conference, held in Edinburgh, in 1852. In fact, many of the workmen in the chief towns of England: Manchester, Birmingham, Nottingham, Newcastle, and the chief seats of industry in Lancashire and Yorkshire, as well as in the chief towns of Scotland, were extremely disappointed with the Reform Bill of 1832; as it was merely drawn to admit the commercial and middle class to political rights and power. So the cry for political reform was continued; and one responsible statesman ventured, about 1862, to announce that, in his opinion, the time had arrived when an extension of the franchise might safely be made. The announcement was received by many of the organs of public opinion with utter amazement, and by some it was treated with scorn and contempt. But shortly after the death of Lord Palmerston, the subject of representative reform was taken up by Earl Russell's Administration, and in the spring of 1866, a measure called "The Representation of the People Bill" was introduced in parliament. It proposed a £7 franchise for burghs, and some other forms of qualification for a vote; the Government, a little later in the session, also introduced "The Redistribution of Seats Bill;" but, properly speaking, the two halfs were intended to form one measure. The whole measure was fiercely assailed in its principle and its details by Mr. Robert Lowe, then member for the burgh of Calne. In the course of the debates on the measure, he delivered three or four powerful and long speeches against it; in one of which his peroration was as follows: "I have said that I am utterly unable to reason with the Chancellor of the Exchequer for want of a common principle to start from; but there is happily one common ground left to us, and that is the second book of the Eneid of Virgil. My right honourable friend, like the moth which has singed its wings in the candle, has returned again to the poor old Trojan horse, and I shall, with the permission of the House, give them one more excerpt from the history of that noble beast. The passage which I am about to quote is one which is, I think, worthy the attention of the House, because it contains a description not only of the invading army of which we have heard so much, but also a slight sketch of its general: 'The fatal horse pours forth the human tide, The gates are burst; the ancient rampart falls, And swarming millions climb its crumbling walls' I have now traced, as well as I can, what I believe will be the natural results of a measure which, it seems to my poor imagination, is calculated, if it should pass into law, to destroy one after another, those institutions which have secured to England an amount of happiness and prosperity which no country has ever reached, or is ever likely to attain. Surely the heroic work of so many centuries, the matchless achievements of so many wise heads and strong hands, deserve a nobler consummation than to be sacrificed at the shrine of revolutionary passion, or the maudlin enthusiasm of humanity! But, if we do fall, we shall fall deservedly. Uncoerced by any external force, not borne down by any internal calamity, but in the full plethora of our wealth and the surfeit of our too exuberant prosperity, with our own rash and inconsiderate hands, we are about to pluck down on our own heads the venerable temple of our liberty and our glory. History may tell of other acts as signally disastrous, but of none more wanton, none more disgraceful." A considerable number of the Liberal members followed Mr. Lowe in his opposition, and on a division the measure was thrown out; and Earl Russell's ministry resigned. The country was soon in a flame of agitation. Demonstrations in favour of parliamentary reform were held in every city and town of any importance throughout Scotland. This time the manifestations were determined and unmistakable, and it was seen that longer resistance to the united voice of the people was hopeless. Accordingly, the Conservatives introduced a Reform Bill, which, as every one knows, was worked into form by the Opposition in committee, and in its reamended state finally passed. But I have perhaps come down far enough, and shall only observe that at present a single division of Lanarkshire or of Aberdeenshire contains twice as many voters as all the counties of Scotland put together had at the end of the last century. At the beginning of the present century, the position of the working classes with respect to civil, municipal, and political rights were very different from the status in which they now stand. In short, as we have seen, the people had no political rights, nor political freedom, till a recent period. The struggle to obtain those rights was a long and severe one; but various influences and circumstances have contributed to place the people in the commanding position which they at present enjoy. The gradual diffusion of education and intelligence, and organisation and association among themselves for mutual benefits and ends, have done much to advance the body of the people. Trades unions have been viewed from very different standpoints; but without entering into a discussion or endless details, by attempting to justify the principles and the action of those unions in all the varied directions of their operation, I take them as a whole, and consider their results. When the liberty of the subject was so restricted that it was a crime to unite or associate for mutual benefits and ends, the effect of this was that Trades Unions in the early part of the present century were unlawful associations, and treated as such. injustice always begets injustice in some form. It is not surprising, therefore, that in their early stages trades unions were not always reasonable and fair in their proceedings. The Combination Laws were only partly repealed in 1825. Now Upon the lines just indicated, there can be no doubt that those unions have done a vast amount of good. They have enabled workmen in some degree to hold their own, to obtain equal justice, and civil and political rights. In short, in the intense struggle of competition during the last fifty years, workmen could not have existed. without their unions. |