Scotland and the French revolution

Front matter

SCOTLAND AND THE FRENCH REVOLUTION

PUBLISHED BY

JAMES MACLEHOSE AND SONS, GLASGOW, JpnbliBhers to the antbersitg.

Preface

This study of the influence of the French Revolution on Scotland was accepted by the University of Edinburgh as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Letters. Its main theme is the political awakening of Scotland. I have therefore devoted considerable attention to the various reform movements which either originated in the political upheaval of the period or were stimulated by it. I have tried to show, more briefly, that although the dread of innovation suspended the activity of the reformers for a time, the Reform Bill of 1832 was due, in part at least, to the agitation engendered forty years before. An attempt has also been made to trace the effects of the French Revolution in other departments of the national life, chiefly social and ecclesiastical, and to describe the role assigned to Scotland in French schemes for invading the British Isles. Though I am indebted to the recent works of Professor Hume Brown, and Dr. W. Law Mathieson, the ampler space at my disposal has enabled me to draw largely on unpublished material, and to give a fuller account of a somewhat neglected aspect of Scottish history than has hitherto been possible.

I take this opportunity of acknowledging the courtesy of the officials of the British Museum, London, and of the University, Advocates', Signet, and S.S.C. Libraries, Edinburgh. In examining the Scottish manuscripts in the Public Record Office, London, I was greatly assisted by Mr.

viii

PREFACE

Hubert Hall ; and the same kindness was extended to me by M. le Sous-Directeur des Archives and his colleagues at the Foreign Office, Paris. My heartiest thanks are due to my friends. Dr. W. Law Mathieson, and Mr. Alexander Robertson, M.A., B.Litt., New College, Oxford, for their careful and suggestive reading of the proofs. In connection with the whole work. Professor Hume Brown has been to me an unfaihng source of help and encouragement.

Finally, I have to record the generosity of the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland. The research was begun during the tenure of a Carnegie Scholarship, which was supplemented by successive grants ; and the publication of the results has been facilitated by a further grant from the same Trust.

University of Edinburgh, October^ 191 2.

PAGE

Characteristics of Scottish eighteenth century history - - xv

Causes of pohtical apathy - - - - - - xvi

Political condition in 1782 ------ xviii

CHAPTER I Effects of the American War ----- i

Scotland and the Rockinghams ----- 2

Logan's Runjtainede - ^

Party spirit -------- 5

The Yorkshire Committee and Scottish reform - - - 5

Convention of county reformers ----- 8

The county franchise g

"Parchment Barons" g

Proposed legislation - - - - - - 11

Lord Buchan and the representation of the Scottish peers - 12

CHAPTER II Influence of the American Revolution - - - - 14

And of the literary revival - - - - - - 15

Letters of Zeno ------- 15

Convention of burgh reformers - - - - - 18

Grievances of the burgesses -----

Municipal Reform Bill ------ 22

Petitions in Parliament ------ 23

X

Opposition of Henry Dundas ----- 24

Dundas and Pitt's reform schemes - - - - 24

Career of Dundas ------- 27

His power in Scotland ------ 29

Reform limited to gentry and middle classes - - - 33

Popular interest in ecclesiastical affairs - - - - 34

History of the patronage controversy - - • "35

Triumph of the Moderates in 1784 - - - - 3B

Significance of the agitation . . - . , 40

CHAPTER HI THE FRENCH REVOLUTION

Progress of reform - - - - - - - 41

The centenary of 1688 41

The Scottish press on the French Revolution - - - 43

Address of the Dundee Whig Club - - - - 44

Mons. B de's Reflections - - - - - 46

Scottish enthusiasm for the Revolution - - - - 49

Burke's Reflections - - - - - - - 50

Its reception in Scotland - - - - - - 51

Christie's Letters - - - - - - - 53

Influence of Christie - - - - - - 56

Mackintosh's Vindiciae Gallicae - - - - -56

Appreciations by his Scottish friends - - - - 59

Case of Robert Haldane ------ 60

Paine's Rights of Man - - - - - - 61

The new social conditions ------ 62

CHAPTER IV POLITICAL AND SOCIAL UNREST Unrest later in Scotland than in England - - - 67

Efforts to repeal the Test and Corporation Acts - - - 67

Fall of the Bastille commemorated in Scotland - - - 70

Proceedings condemned by the authorities - - - 72

The Corn Law of 1791 ------ 72

Scottish protests ------- 73

Dundas and burgh reform ----- - 74

Dundas and the slave trade - - - - - 77

Rise of political societies in England - - - - 78 xi

PAGE

The Proclamation against Seditious Writings Riots in Scotland . - - -

Official explanations - - - -

The real causes . . - -

Reform compromised . . _

Chapter V "the Friends Of The People"

The first Scottish society -----

Growth of Scottish periodical publications The Political Review of Edinburgh Periodical Publications The Bee .......

The Edinburgh Friends of the People Branches established in the east and west Their organisation ------

Reports of H. Dundas to Pitt and Grenville Trees of Liberty at Perth and Dundee Dread of revolution in Scotland - - - -

Discontent of the lower classes - . - -

The English militia embodied . - . .

The Goldsmiths' Hall Association formed The burgh reformers and the Friends of the People The First General Convention of the Friends of the People Prominent members ------

Its proceedings

Alarm of the Government -----

CHAPTER VI Trial of Tytler - - - - - - - 112

Trials of printers and publishers - - - - - 113

Prosecution of the author of the Political Progress of Britaifi - 113

Thomas Muir arrested and liberated on bail - - - 114

Loyal addresses - - - - - - - 115

The Government and the press - - - - - 116

Anti-reform pamphlets - - - - - - 117

Macleod's Letters to the Friends oj the People - - - 118

Poems of Wilson and Burns - - - - - 120

The Friends of the People discouraged - - - - 122

Their resolutions against the war - - - - - 124

The Second General Convention of the Friends of the People - 125

Grey's reform petition rejected by the House of Commons - 126

79 81

86 86

- 87 88

- 89 91

92 93

- 96 97 99

lOI

- 105 106 107 1 10 xii

PAGE

Burgh and county reform movements suspended- - - 126

Continued protests of the Friends of the People against the war 128

Arrest of Palmer - - - - - - - 129

Return and arrest of Muir - - - - - - 129

Their trials -------- 131

Indignation at home and abroad ----- 135

The trials discussed in Parliament _ _ _ . 136

CHAPTER VII Activity of the Scottish P^riends of the People - - - I37

Proposals for an international convention - - - - 138

The Third General Convention of the Friends of the People - 139

Arrival of delegates from English societies - - - I39

Leaders arrested ------- 141

Their trials -------- 142

Their political ideals 143

Effects of the trials at home and abroad - - - - 144

Continued unrest ------- 147

Lords-lieutenant appointed - - - - - - 148

Reports of the Parliamentary Committees of Secrecy - - 149 Watt's conspiracy - - - - - - -150

Trials of Watt and Downie - - - - - 150

Reign of Terror in Scotland - - - - - i53

The Volunteer movement - - - - - - I53

Repression of liberal tendencies - - - - - ^55

Failure of crops - - - - - - - 157

Popular discontent - - - - - - - 158

The Treason and Seditious Meetings Bills - - - 158

Henry Erskine deprived of his Deanship - - - - i59

CHAPTER VIII France and the British Democrats . - . - 161

Reports of Petry and Oswald on Scotland - - - 164

Foreign policy of the Committee of PubHc Safety - - 165

The Directory and the United Irishmen - - - - 167

Mission of Mengaud to Scotland ----- 168

Failure of the expedition to Ireland - . - - 169

Preparations at the Texel - - - - - - 170

Battle of Camperdown - - - - - - 171 xiii

PAGE

Arjnee cP Angleterre formed - - - - - 171

Scots expected to welcome the French - - - - 171

Arrival of Thomas Muir in France - - - - 172

His memorials on the state of Scotland - - - - 174

Invasion of Britain abandoned ----- 177

Death of Muir ------- 177

Chapter IX The Militia Riots And The United Scotsmen

Britain's dark days - - - - - - - 178

Scotland demands a militia in 1760 and 1782 - - - 178

The Scottish Militia Act of 1797 - - - - - I79

The Tranent and other riots - - - - - 180

The Act enforced ------- 183

The Lord Advocate and the Scots Chronicle - - - 183

Disorders ascribed to Jacobinism ----- 185

Agent of the London Corresponding Society in Scotland - 186

The organisation of the United Scotsmen - - - 186

The Trial of Mealmaker ------ 188

The "United" in Britain and Ireland . - - - 189

The last of the United Scotsmen ----- 193

Chapter X The Church And The French Revolution

The Church and the political ferment - - -

Clergy rewarded by Government - - - -

Episcopal and Roman Catholic Relief Bills

Secret State aid to Scottish Roman Catholics

Seceders suspected of disloyalty - - - -

The Old and the New Lights . . - .

The failure of Moderatism - - - - -

The French Revolution and religious zeal

The General Assembly and missions

The Haldanes and the Bengal mission scheme -

The Haldanes and itinerant lay preaching

Indignation of ordained preachers - - - -

"The Pastoral Letter" - . - . -

The Seceders and lay preaching -

Robison's Proofs of a Cojispiracy - - - -

21 1

Proposed Bill against unlicensed preaching

Haldane's Address on Politics . - . - xiv

Chapter XI Conclusion. 1802-1832 Page

Fear of invasion ------- 214

Influence of the French Revolution on Scottish reform - - 215

The Edinburgh Review - - - - - - 216

Whigs in office - - - - - 217

Impeachment of Melville ------ 217

Cotton spinners' strike of 1812 ----- 218

Political societies revived - - - - - -221

State Trials of 1817 223

Renewed agitation for burgh reform . . . - 225

The "Radical War" - 226

The Scottish press - - - - - - - 231

The Beacon and the Sentinel ----- 232

The powers of the Lord Advocate . . . - 233

End of the Dundas influence . _ - - - 233

Jeffrey Lord Advocate ------ 235

Coalition of Whigs and Radicals - - - - - 235

The Reform Bill ------- 236

The memory of the " Pohtical Martyrs" - - - - 238

APPENDICES

A. The Minutes of the First General Convention of the Friends

of the People in Scotland ----- 239

B. List of Societies represented at the Second General Con-

vention of the Friends of the People in Scotland- - 274

C. Letter of Henry Dundas on the defence of Scotland, March 7,

1797 -------- 276

INDEX 308

Erratum. Page 127, line g,for '■Dundas'' read '■Montgomery.^

Scotland in the eighteenth century is characterised by a variety of interests not to be found in any other period of its history. The poverty of the country had hitherto hindered the growth of a rich civihsation such as was to be found in England or France ; but after the Union of 1707, and more especially after the Torty-Five, its material prosperity advanced by leaps and bounds. The linen and woollen manufactures received a fresh lease of life ; coal and iron mines were opened up ; Gothish methods " in agriculture gave place to a system which included the rotation of crops and the use of manures ; the modern plough and the threshing-machine were invented ; new roads, canals, and bridges increased the means of communication.

This material prosperity was accompanied by the long delayed Renaissance of Letters. The intellect of the country, freed from the turmoil of dynastic and ecclesiastical disputes, turned to the more liberal studies of literature and science. It was in this connection, indeed, that Scotland made its special contribution to the history of civilisation ; for, while industrial progress was a feature of Great Britain as a whole, in Scotland there was also a conspicuous literary activity, which, within a comparatively brief period, produced a series of works destined to enjoy a vogue not only at home but abroad. Hume and Reid in philosophy, Adam xvi

Smith in political economy, Black and Hutton in science, Macpherson in poetry, Hume and Robertson in history, all won European fame, and Edinburgh almost outrivalled Paris as the intellectual capital of the world. ^

While industrially and intellectually Scotland by 1780 was thus an awakened country, politically it was still asleep. This was largely due to the lack of a constitutional element in its history. A small country with but a scanty population, divided by racial hatred, and clan and family rivalries, scarcely afforded an opportunity for such development. The Scottish Parliament, for example, remained to the end of its existence a feudal assembly. It had little influence on the national history. In its earlier stages it was a baron court registering the decrees of whatever party happened to be in power. Later, as from 1640 to 165 1, it endeavoured to emulate the Parliament of England, but such spasmodic efforts were revolutionary rather than evolutionary, and the changes then introduced were quickly reversed. Even during this period it was much less influential than the General Assembly of the Kirk. Under the new conditions of the Revolution Settlement, it had barely time to show its capacity as a legislative and dehberative body, when it was merged in the Parliament of Great Britain.

Local institutions might still have served to arouse an interest in public affairs, but these were wanting in all but name. The freedom of the burghs had been early crushed. In 1469 it had been enacted that the old town council should choose the new, and that the two together should appoint the officers of the burgh. This Act rendered impossible any healthy political life in the towns since even the Scottish burgh representatives at Westminster were chosen

^ Hume Brown, Hist, of Scot. iii. 371 ; v. The Learning of the Scots in the Eighteenth Century., an article by the present writer in the Scot. Hist. Rev. April 1910. It is mainly a reprint of a contemporary pamphlet.

xvii by delegates from the town councils. In the counties, the franchise was of such a restricted nature that in 1788 there were only 2662 voters on the freeholders' roll. The issues at stake in the elections were mainly personal, and Wilkes is reported to have refused to interfere in a Scottish election petition on the ground that he could discern no principle in the strife of Goth against Goth."

There was little in such family politics to commend them to the nation at large. Some of the better minds of the age had welcomed the Union for the very reason that place-hunting and its attendant evils would be abolished, and that, in the language of Mar, Scotsmen would be at liberty " to live at peace and ease, and mind their affairs and the improvement of their country — a much better employment than the politics." ^ This improvement, as the Jacobite Risings had shown, was bound up with the Hanoverian succession ; so that public opinion, as reflected in the pulpit, in the teaching of the universities, and in the newspapers of the time, was strongly Revolution Whig. Politics were dynastic rather than party, and opposition to the Administration in London was denounced as disloyalty to the reigning House.

The Wilkes crisis, to which some historians have traced the rise of modern political agitation, could not appeal to Scotsmen. It was against a Scot that the invective of Wilkes was directed, and the subservient Scottish members were the supporters of the prerogative that was assailed. The people of North Britain, therefore, unanimously supported the King and their fellow-countryman, Bute, his unpopular Minister. It would be a mistake, however, to assign to this incident the conscious turning away of the Scots from participation in what was regarded as English

* Cromarty Correspond, ii. 20, cited by W. L. Mathieson, Scotland and the Union, 159.

xviii political life. In contemporary pamphlets and newspapers it is the industrial development of the country that is dwelt upon in answer to the sneers of Wilkes. This national preoccupation finds a striking illustration in the proceedings of the Select Society, a club formed avowedly on the model of the French Academy. Its debates for the year 1757 are all of an economic character, ^ and when some of the same " Literati " founded the Poker Club in 1762 " to stir up the fire and spirit of the nation,*' it was patriotic rather than political in its aims. George Dempster of Dunnichen wrote to Dr. Carlyle of Inveresk, one of its promoters, that when they got their mihtia, they ought to agitate for Parliamentary reform " so as to let the industrious farmer and manufacturer share at least in a privilege now engrossed by the great lord, the drunken laird, and the drunkener baiUie " ; but the suggestion bore no fruit. 2

Exactly twenty years later, in 1782, Mrs. Hamilton, the authoress of The Cottagers of Glenhiirnie, could thus describe the apathy prevailing in her native land. " The people here are not such great politicians as in Ireland," she wrote to her brother. " There, politics engross the greatest part of discourse in every county, and man, woman, and child, enter as zealously into every debate, as if they had been perfectly acquainted with all the hidden springs of government. The people here pretend to no such knowledge, but whatever changes happen, either in ministry or constitution, they seem to adopt the maxim of Mr. Pope, that ' whatever is, is right.' " She referred to a recent speech of a Scottish gentleman who had declared that " as that man was esteemed the best sportsman that brought down the most birds, so was he the best representative that brought the best pensions

^ J. Rae, Life of Adam Smithy no.

Edin. University MSS.^ Letters of Dr. Carlyle^ No. 90 ; Rae, op. cit. 135- xix and places to his countrymen/' ^ Yet this very year saw the beginning of a movement, which, in the fulness of time, was to lead to a vigorous political life in Scotland, and to take away the reproach thus expressed by the Encyclopedistes : " L'Ecosse a ete redoutable tant qu'elle n'a pas ete incorporee avec I'Angleterre ; mais, comme dit M. Voltaire, un etat pauvre, voisin d'un riche, devient venal a la longue ; et c'est aussi le malheur que TEcosse eprouve/' ^

^ Benger, Me7noirs of Mrs. E. Hamilton^ i. 89. The speech referred to was that of Boswell of Auchinleck ; v. CaL Mer. Nov. 16, 1782. Hume Brown, Hist, of Scot. iii. 377.

2 Diderot and d'Alembert, Encyclopedie^ art. Ecosse.

Chapter I. Signs Of Political Awakening

The American War of Independence exercised a considerable influence on the thought and action of England, Ireland, and France. To the same source may be traced the first signs of the political awakening of Scotland. There the progress of the war was closely followed. About 1779, the illsuccess of the British arms began to produce what Dr. Somerville of Jedburgh calls a great change in the sentiments of the nation at large.'' " The discussion of this subject," he says, ** not only engaged the attention of public bodies of men, but became a principal object of conversation in every company, and often excited angry debates which impaired the pleasures of social life, and weakened the confidence of friendship." ^ To judge by the resolutions of its public bodies, the war had hitherto been highly popular in Scotland, though little weight can be attached to such resolutions passed in meetings practically closed to free expression of opinion.^ It is significant, therefore, that the editor of the Caledonian Mercury, the most widely circulated Scottish journal of the time, should have inserted in the first number for 1780 a note ** To the Reader," in which he apologised for

2 " I trust that although our county meetings and borough corporations were implicit worshippers of the Ministry, the people of Scotland, in general, thought differently." Letter in Cal. Mer. April 24, 1780.

A having paid proper deference to the different views regarding the war prevaiHng * ' even on this side of the Tweed " While one of the most learned and respectable societies in Scotland refused to subscribe supplies, or testify their approbation," he wrote, it would ill become the publisher of a newspaper, however clear in his own opinion, to treat all opposition to the measures of the Government as factious and unwise." ^

There is other evidence that the issues raised by the conflict in America were rousing an unprecedented interest in public affairs. The Edinburgh Pantheon Debating Society, for example, the membership of which was on a popular basis, discussed such questions as : " Ought the present Ministry to be dismissed His Majesty's Councils ? " ** Should the American War be immediately terminated ? " ^ Less academic were the debates in the General Assembly of the Church. In May, 1782, the friends of the Rockingham Administration, led by Henry Erskine, the most popular advocate at the Bar, endeavoured to carry a motion congratulating His Majesty on the late change of Ministers, but their opponents were successful in defeating it.^ In April, the Provincial Synod of Glasgow, and the Freeholders and Commissioners of Supply of Kirkcudbright, had sent up addresses approving of the plans of economy proposed by the Government. The latter added a clause eulogising

^ The learned society was the Faculty of Advocates. They refused to vote a grant from their funds for a regiment that was being raised in Edinburgh. They, however, recommended it to the private liberality of their members. History of the Rise, Opposition to^ and EstablishjJient oj the Edinburgh Regitnent^ Edin. 1778.

^ Cat. Mer. Jan. 5, 12, 1782. For the history of this society, v. The Book of the Old Edin. Club, vol, i. Edin. 1908. The debates are not given.

' The debate was reported at unusual length in the Cal. Mer. May 29, June I, 3, 5, 1782. Adam Smith was therefore not the "one just man in Gomorrah" to speak out for the Rockinghams. Countess of Minto, Life and Letters of Sir G. Elliot, i. 84.

SCOTLAND AND THE ROCKINGHAM MINISTRY 3 the King for " making the parhamentary sentiments of his people the rule of his choice of ministers/' " These addresses," commented the Scots Magazine, " are said to be the first of the kind from Scotland since the Union. ^

The reforms of Burke, therein commended, directly affected Scotland. The Board of Police was abolished, and it was publicly affirmed that its revenues were divided into pensions to Burke and Barre. " Every gazette," says Creech, the publisher, " teemed with addresses from all quarters. The contagion ... in a short time reached the north like the influenza which accompanied it. The first loyal address (and it was the last) from Scotland on the subject proceeded from the county nearest to England. The example was strenuously urged in Edinburgh by the friends of the new Ministry, and a meeting called by public advertisement for the purpose ; and, had it carried, would probably have been followed by the counties and boroughs throughout Scotland." To prevent this, an advertisement was inserted in the local press giving a circumstantial account of a meeting in which resolutions against the Ministry were carried.^ " These," says Creech, " created much speculation, and it was not generally known that there had been no such meeting of citizens till many months after the publication. They were the subject of much controversy in the London papers, and coinciding with the general sense of the nation, put a stop to the progress of loyal addresses." ^

1 Sco^s Mag. xliv. (1782), p. 277. Cf. J. Wilde : "The American War and the events which followed it, brought in names of attachment [into Scotland] ; the first of the sort since those had fallen, that chieftainship consecrated, or which marked the zeal of Jacobites and Whigs. ... I thought the Whiggism of the Rockingham connection was beginning to take root in Scotland." An Address to the lately formed Society of the Friends of the People^ Edin. 1793.

^W. Creech, Edinburgh Fugitive Pieces, Edin. 181 5, pp. 4-9. The Pantheon Society negatived by a majority of 123 in an audience "more

In 1783, the struggles of George III. to maintain his personal influence in the Government were represented to the inhabitants of Edinburgh in dramatic form. In that year, John Logan, better known to posterity as a minor poet, produced his Runnamede in the Theatre Royal, as it had been banned from the London stage by the censure of the Lord Chamberlain. ^ The parallel between King George and King John, the Whig magnates and the mediaeval barons was sufficiently clear, and the dramatist boldly announced the theme of his play as

" One subject still a stranger to the stage, Fair liberty, the goddess of the Isle."

But to the ideas conveyed by such phrases as, " the rights of Britons and the rights of men," " the majesty of all the people," 2 a Scottish audience proved as hostile as the official censor, and the piece only ran for one night.

That the citizens of the capital faithfully reflected the feelings of the vast majority of the Scottish people was

than the room could hold," a motion on The Propriety of addressing His Majesty on the Late Change of Ministry." Cal. Mer. July 17, 1782. The debate, contrary to custom, extended over three different meetings of the society.

^ J. Logan, Poems and Runnamede^ a Tragedy^ new edition, with Life of the Author, Edin. 1805. J. Rae, Life of Adam Sfniih^ 396. For a contemporary criticism, v. Scots Mag. 1784, p. 245.

2 Act IV.

John : The majesty of kings I will sustain

And be a monarch, while I am a man.

Elvine : The rights of Britons and the rights of men, Which never king did give, and never king Can take away.

John : At whose tribunal can a king appear? Elvine : At the tribunal of the kingdom.

John : Ha !

Before whose majesty can he be brought ?

Elvine : Before the majesty of all the people.

POLITICAL AGITATION IN ENGLAND 5 shown by the general satisfaction with which Pitt's accession to office in December, 1783, was hailed. It was with astonishment that they had seen Henry Erskine appointed by Fox and North to the post of Lord Advocate. That the leaders of faction should have controlled the administration of the country ran counter to all those notions of government which had prevailed in Scotland since the 'Fifteen and the 'Forty-Five. The voting of loyal addresses was at once renewed. But the Coalition was not undefended. Lively proceedings occurred at a meeting in Glasgow where John Millar, Professor of Law in the university, urged delay in addressing the Crown. For the first time, it was noted, " hissing " was heard at a public gathering in that city,^ and when the general election took place later in the same year, the Caledonian Mercury reported that " never was there a period where the spirit of party ran so high." 2

More unmistakable evidence of the awakening of the public mind, or, as a contemporary put it, that " the spirit of liberty had taken a northern turn," ^ is to be found in the demand that arose for county and burgh reform. This demand was but an echo of the general " cry for redress of grievances," which had been raised in England owing to the disastrous course of the American War. In 1779, a committee was formed among the freeholders of Yorkshire, long the stronghold of Whig territorial influence, to agitate for administrative reforms.* By the beginning of 1780, it had established a committee of correspondence to promote its views throughout the country. Numerous counties and towns signified their approval of the scheme, and in March, 1780, deputies from similar associations met in conference in London, and drew up a series of resolutions pledging

3 Letter in Cal. Mer. April 14, 1783. * C. Wyvill, Political Papers^ i. passim.

themselves to advocate Parliamentary reform, and to support such candidates as were in sympathy with their proposals. These methods of organisation and propaganda were deemed by many unconstitutional. Would not the delegates intimidate the legislature ? Would not the associations eventually supplant Parliament ? Had not the Gordon Riots shown the danger of exciting public opinion in this way ? On these grounds, the Commons, in 1781, rejected the petition of the delegates, the Solicitor-General for Scotland reminding the House of the mischievous authority of such committees in his own country, during the religious upheaval of the seventeenth century. ^ These proceedings evoked much interest. In the pages of the Scots Magazine, prominence was given to the action of the delegates, and its legality discussed in the light of the writings of Locke and Machiavelli ; ^ while the Pantheon Society debated the question, " Does the present conduct of Opposition in procuring County Associations tend to the real advantage of the British Empire ? ^ The Yorkshire Committee did not limit its operations to England. Its aim was to enlist the help of sympathisers throughout the British Isles, and its manifestoes were circulated in Scotland and Ireland. In May, 1782, Pitt, who had espoused the cause, moved for an inquiry into the state of the representation of the country. The motion was defeated, but this only stimulated the reformers to make further efforts. In November, the Yorkshire Committee issued a circular letter recommending a plan of reform embodied in four resolutions. In the last of these it was suggested that support should be extended to " the application of any county in Scotland for setting aside nominal and fictitious votes, and for regulating elections to Parliament in that part of the kingdom in a manner agree-