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THE EARL OF EGLINTON, SCOTTISH CONSERVATISM, AND THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE VINDICATION OF SCOTTISH RIGHTS*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2010

ALEX TYRRELL
ALEX TYRRELL*
Affiliation:
La Trobe University
*
History Programme, La Trobe University, Bundoora, Victoria, Australia, 3088a.tyrrell@latrobe.edu.au
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Abstract

This article re-evaluates the role and importance of the thirteenth earl of Eglinton as president of the National Association for the Vindication of Scottish Rights (NAVSR). Departing from the established historiography, which depicts his career as a romantic absurdity because of his organization of a medieval tournament in 1839, it shows Eglinton to have been a political figure of substance, who played a significant role in public life during the mid-Victorian era. The article emphasizes the importance of ‘administrative devolution’ as a feature of long-term Conservative political thought and points to activities of Eglinton and his circle as an example of the need to give more weight to the importance of Conservatives in modern Scottish history.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 53 , Issue 1 , March 2010 , pp. 87 - 107
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

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Footnotes

*

I thank the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland for the grant which enabled me to conduct much of the research for this article.

References

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11 Graeme Morton, ‘Scotland is Britain: the union and unionist nationalism, 1807–1907’, Journal of Irish and Scottish Studies, 1 (2008), p. 135. Morton briefly lists some of Eglinton's activities.

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29 Ibid., pp. 10, 64–6, 72–8, 83–8, 136, 142–4.

30 Chris Brooks, The Gothic revival (London, 1999), pp. 130–52.

31 Peter Buchan, The Eglinton tournament and gentleman unmasked (1840), quoted by Sara Stevenson and Helen Bennett, Van Dyck in check trousers: fancy dress in art and life, 1700–1900 (Edinburgh, 1978), p. 114.

32 The topographical, statistical, and historical gazetteer of Scotland (2 vols., Edinburgh, 1848), i, pp. 57–8; Newcastle Courant, 27 Nov. 1840, p. 1; Times, 3 Apr. 1848, p. 6, and 2 Oct. 1849, p. 5.

33 Freeman's Journal, 2 Sept. 1852, p. 3.

34 Alexander Baillie-Cochrane, Ernest Vane (2 vols., London, 1849), i, pp. 20, 35, 44, 69–72.

35 Jackson's Oxford Journal, 20 Feb. 1841, p. 3.

36 Hanham, ‘Mid-century Scottish nationalism’, p. 145.

37 Tyrrell, ‘Queen's “little trip”’, p. 68; Ian Anstruther, The knight and the umbrella: an account of the Eglinton tournament, 1839 (London, 1963), plate 13.

38 John Burnett, Riot, revelry and rout: sport in Lowland Scotland before 1860 (East Linton, 2000), pp. 176–98; Tolson, John, ‘The thirteenth earl of Eglinton (1812–1861): a notable Scottish sportsman’, Sport in History, 28 (2008), pp. 472–90CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

39 David Roberts, Paternalism in early Victorian England (London, 1979), ch. 2, relates their ideas to his model of early Victorian paternalism. See also Gerald Warner, The Scottish tory party: a history (London, 1988), pp. 108–9.

40 Tyrrell, Alex, ‘Paternalism, public memory and national identity in early Victorian Scotland: the Robert Burns festival at Ayr in 1844’, History, 90 (2005), pp. 42–61CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

41 F. W. Fetter, quoted by Walter E. Houghton, ed., The Wellesley index to Victorian periodicals, 1824–1900 (Toronto, 1966), p. 8.

42 [Aytoun, W. E.], ‘Letter from a railway witness in London’, Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, 62 (1847), pp. 74, 78–9Google Scholar.

43 Eglinton to William Mure, 16 Dec. 1846, National Library of Scotland (NLS), MS 4950, fos. 124–5.

44 George Crosby, Crosby's parliamentary record: containing debates in the Lords and Commons on the corn laws, in the memorable session of 1846 (2 vols., Leeds, 1848), ii, p. 531.

45 Eglinton's closeness to Derby can be traced through their correspondence in the Scottish and Liverpool archives. For example, Derby to Eglinton, 30 Jan. 1855, Scottish Archives (SA), GD3/5/1361, 15; Eglinton to Derby, 14 June 1859, Derby papers, Liverpool Record Office (LRO), 920 DER (14) 148/2a. See also John Hogan, ‘Party management in the House of Lords, 1846–1865’, Parliamentary History, 10 (1991), pp. 127–34.

46 Hanham, ‘Mid-century Scottish nationalism’, p. 163.

47 Times, 5 Aug. 1846, p. 3.

48 Scotsman, 22 Mar. 1851, p. 1.

49 Times, 24 Apr. 1847, p. 2.

50 Ibid., 22 Mar. 1851, p. 4, and 3 Dec.1852, p. 8.

51 Angus Hawkins, The forgotten prime minister: the 14th earl of Derby (Oxford, 2007), pp. 153, 191; Archibald Alison, Some account of my life and writings (2 vols., Edinburgh, 1883), ii, pp. 34–5.

52 ‘Ian’ [John Grant], ‘The government of Scotland: to the editor of the Caledonian Mercury’, 9 Apr. 1852, in Scottish Rights Association, ‘Scottish Rights Association’, Newscuttings and pamphlets, NLS, NE 20, fos. 13–14 (hereafter Newscuttings).

53 ‘The Lyon king of arms’, Morning Post, 11 July 1866, in ibid.

54 John Grant, ‘The royal arms of Scotland’, 26 Nov. 1853, in ibid.

55 Glasgow Gazette, 7 Oct. 1854, p. 2; Glasgow Constitutional, 7 Oct. 1854, p. 2.

56 Murray Pittock, Scottish nationality (Houndmills, 2001), p. 94.

57 Hansard, House of Lords Debates, 15 Feb. 1856, 3rd ser., cxl, 807.

58 Morning Chronicle, 23 Mar. 1857, p. 2.

59 Eglinton to James Grant, 19 Mar. 1853, NLS, MS, ACC 8715.

60 ‘Scottish Rights Association’, in Newscuttings.

61 Eglinton to W. E. Aytoun, 25 Oct. 1853, 25 Jan. 1854, NLS, Blackwood's Collection, MS 4896, fos. 117–18 and 125–6; [W. E. Aytoun], ‘The late earl of Eglinton’, Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, 90 (1861), p. 643.

62 Glasgow Constitutional, 5 Nov. 1853, p. 1. See also Eglinton to James Grant, 24 July 1853, NLS, MS, ACC 8715.

63 Glasgow Constitutional, 17 Dec. 1853, pp. 2–3; Glasgow Gazette, 7 Oct. 1854, p. 2.

64 Hansard, House of Lords Debates, 6 Apr. 1854, 3rd ser., cxxxii, 496–504.

65 Michael Fry, ‘Alison, Sir Archibald’, Oxford dictionary of national biography (Oxford, 2004); Michael Michie, An Enlightenment tory in Victorian Scotland: the career of Sir Archibald Alison (Montreal, 1997), pp. 47, 50, 177–81, 190–1.

66 Anna Gambles, Protection and politics: Conservative economic discourse, 1815–1852 (Woodbridge, 1999), pp. 16, 132.

67 Glasgow Constitutional, 7 Oct. 1854, p. 2.

68 W. E. Aytoun, Norman Sinclair (3 vols., Edinburgh, 1861), i, pp. 68, 338.

69 Morton, ‘Scottish Rights and “centralisation”’, p. 270. Joshua Toulmin Smith, the advocate of English local rights, endorsed Hungarian, not Scottish or Irish, national rights in his Parallels between the constitution and constitutional history of England and Hungary (London, 1849).

70 Brian Jenkins, ‘The chief secretary’, in D. George Boyce and Alan O'Day, eds., Defenders of the union: a survey of British and Irish unionism since 1801 (London, 2001), p. 42. James Mitchell misses Ireland in his Strategies for self-government: the campaigns for a Scottish parliament (Edinburgh, 1996), p. 40, where he refers to the Scottish Office as the ‘only example of … administrative devolution’ during the nineteenth century.

71 Flanagan, Kieran, ‘The chief secretary's office, 1853–1914: a bureaucratic enigma’, Irish Historical Studies, 24 (1984), pp. 201, 203–4CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

72 For Eglinton's viceroyalty see the present author's ‘A card king? The thirteenth earl of Eglinton and the viceroyalty of Ireland’ (unpublished paper).

73 Quoted by A. P. Donajgrodzki, ‘Sir James Graham at the Home Office’, Historical Journal, 20 (1977), p. 103. See also Russell's Recollections and suggestions, 1813–1873 (London, 1875), pp. 336, 362.

74 Hansard, House of Lords Debates, 27 June 1850, 3rd ser., cxii, 459–70.

75 Freeman's Journal, 28 Jan. 1851, p. 2, 25 Feb. p. 2, 21 June 1851, p. 3.

76 Lindsay Paterson, The autonomy of modern Scotland (Edinburgh, 1994), p. 24, describes trusteeship as a form of representation where there are ‘rulers responsive to the electorate without being accountable to them’.

77 Robert Blake, The Conservative party from Peel to Thatcher (London, 1985), p. 93.

78 Angus Hawkins, Parliament, party and the art of politics in Britain, 1855–1859 (London, 1987), p. 275, refers to Derby's ‘moderate progressivism’. See also Gambles, Protection and politics, p. 3, for the Conservatives' ‘alternative political economy’.

79 Tyrrell, ‘A card king?’.

80 Reformers' Gazette, 9 July 1853, p. 1.

81 Glasgow Gazette, 7 Oct. 1854, p. 2.

82 Eglinton to Derby, 17 Feb. 1859, LRO, Derby papers, 920 DER (14) 148/3.

83 Scotsman, 5 May 1847, p. 4.

84 See, for example, Spencer H. Walpole to Eglinton, 3 Apr. 1852, SA, GD3/5/1356, 6. Hawkins, The forgotten prime minister, p. 388, refers to Derby's indebtedness to the ‘immense influence’ of Scottish peers.

85 David McCrone and Angela Morris, ‘Lords and heritages: the transformation of the great lairds of Scotland’, in T. M. Devine, ed., Scottish elites (Edinburgh, 1994), pp. 170–5.

86 Grant Jarvie, Highland games: the making of the myth (Edinburgh, 1991), p. 13.

87 Anne E. Whetstone, Scottish county government in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries (Edinburgh, 1981), pp. 98, 114.

88 Eglinton to Sir James Graham, 4 Aug. 1842, British Library, Peel papers, Add. MS 40,513, fo. 115.

89 Constitutional and Perthshire Agricultural and General Advertiser, 7 May 1856, p. 2.

90 Glasgow Herald, 20 Nov. 1857, p. 2; Morning Chronicle, 15 Mar. 1854, p. 4.

91 Glasgow Constitutional, 7 Oct. 1854, p. 2.

92 Address to the people of Scotland, and statement of grievances (2nd edn., Edinburgh, 1853), p. 8.

93 Glasgow Herald, 2 Oct. 1854, p. 1.

94 Cowan's Reminiscences (privately printed, 1878) omit the movement.

95 Glasgow Constitutional, 27 Sept. 1854. But see Hansard, House of Commons Debates, 22 June 1855, 3rd ser., cxxxix, 19–20, for Macgregor's attempt to introduce a motion for a secretary of state for Scotland.

96 Scotsman, 5 Nov. 1853, p. 2, and 4 Jan. 1854, p. 3; Morning Chronicle, 4 Nov. 1853, p. 3.

97 Eglinton to Aytoun, 25 Oct. 1853, SA, MS 4896, fos. 117–18.

98 Glasgow Constitutional, 17 Dec. 1853, p. 3.

99 Glasgow Herald, 20 Mar. 1854, p. 10; Glasgow Constitutional, 1 Mar. 1854, p. 2.

100 Reformers' Gazette, 24 Dec. 1853, p. 2.

101 ‘Ian’ [John Grant], ‘Justice to Scotland: to the editor of the Times’, n.d., in Newscuttings.

102 Hansard, House of Lords Debates, 6 Apr. 1854, 3rd ser., cxxxii, 496–504. See also ‘Presentation of the petition of the Association for the Vindication of Scottish Rights’, in Newscuttings.

103 John Vincent, ed., Disraeli, Derby and the Conservative party: journal and memoirs of Edward Henry, Lord Stanley, 1849–1869 (Hassocks, 1978), p. 11.

104 Glasgow Constitutional, 5 Nov. 1853, p. 1.

105 Times, 19 Dec. 1853, p. 6; Glasgow Constitutional, 17 Dec. 1853, pp. 2–3.

106 ‘Presentation of the petition of the Association for the Vindication of Scottish Rights’, n.d., in Newscuttings.

107 Theodore Martin, Memoir of William Edmonstoune Aytoun, DCL (Edinburgh, 1867), p. 142. See also Alison, Some account, ii, p. 31.

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109 [John Grant], ‘English aggression on Scotland: to the editor of the Edinburgh News’, 16 June 1854, in Newscuttings.

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111 P. E. Dove, The theory of human progression and natural probability of a reign of justice (London, 1850), pp. 139, 162, 167, 200, 374–7, 379, 388.

112 Nation, 12 Nov. 1853, p. 153, 26 Nov. 1853, p. 184, 10 Dec. 1853, pp. 211, 216–17; Alison, Some account, ii, p. 30.

113 Michie, An Enlightenment tory, p. 172.

114 Hansard, House of Commons Debates, 7 June 1848, 3rd ser., xcix, 478.

115 Hanham, Scottish nationalism, p. 78.

116 For example, James Begg, The ecclesiastical and social evils of Scotland, and how to remedy them (Edinburgh, 1871).

117 Hansard, House of Commons Debates, 25 Mar. 1858, 3rd ser., cxlix, 741, 749, 15 June 1858, 3rd ser., cl, 2118–50.

118 Caledonian Mercury, 25 June 1855, p. 4.

119 Press, 5 Nov. 1853, p. 627, 12 Nov. 1853, p. 651, 24 Dec. 1853, pp. 795–6.

120 M. G. Wiebe et al., eds., Benjamin Disraeli letters (7 vols., Toronto, 1993), vi, p. 223 n. 2.

121 W. F. Monypenny and G. E. Buckle, The life of Benjamin Disraeli (2 vols., London, 1929), i, pp. 1437–40.

122 Eglinton to Derby, 17 Mar. 1858, LRO, Derby papers, 920 DER (14) 148/3.

123 Caledonian Mercury, 4 June 1855, p. 2.

124 Eglinton to Derby, 17 Mar. 1858, LRO, Derby papers, 920 DER (14) 148/3.

125 Derby to Eglinton, 15 Mar. 1858, SA, GD3/5/1388, 5.

126 Globe, quoted by Caledonian Mercury, 7 Oct. 1861, p. 3.

127 James Mitchell, Conservatives and the union: a study of Conservative party attitudes to Scotland (Edinburgh, 1990), pp. vii, x, 17–19.

128 H. J. Hanham, ‘The development of the Scottish Office’, in J. N. Wolfe, ed., Government and nationalism in Scotland (Edinburgh, 1969), p. 51.

129 Lindsay Paterson, A diverse assembly: the debate on a Scottish parliament (Edinburgh, 1998), pp. 26–30, 51–7.