Gusto fuelled by anger at a ruinous union

Association for Scottish Literary

Studies, #25

THE Laird of Carnwath had a ringside seat at events leading up to the Union of the Scottish and English Parliaments in 1707. As a member of the Parliament in Edinburgh from 1703, George Lockhart was present throughout the debates which ended in its demise. He also served as one of the Scottish commissioners - the only one hostile to the Union - appointed to negotiate the Union treaty with their English counterparts. He then sat as a member of the British Parliament until the sneak publication of these memoirs in a pirated edition brought his political career officially to a close in 1714.

But he continued to promote the Jacobite cause vigorously in extra-parliamentary ways. At the time of the Fifteen he raised a troop of horses in Midlothian and for his pains was jailed for a spell in Edinburgh Castle (his brother was shot), after which he continued at the centre of Jacobite intrigue. He died from wounds received in a duel in 1732; who killed him and what the cause of the quarrel was are both unknown.

The vehemence of his opinions are patently clear in these pages and Lockhart makes no attempt to hide the bias, admitting that his ``indignation against the betrayers of my country is so great I never could, nor will, speak otherwise of them''. Cool and objective it is not; but it rings true.

These memoirs grew from the notes and copies of documents Lockhart made in the heat of the moment and later expanded into narrative form, sensing that they would provide a valuable record of a turning point in history. Intending it to be seen at the time by his eyes only and those of his confidants, he wrote freely and incautiously, and when a leaked copy was maliciously printed in 1714 he found himself in considerable dismay and some danger.

The date is significant. In that year the first Hanoverian ascended the throne of the United Kingdoms (the succession to Queen Anne was one of the vexed questions running through the Union debates; it was always possible that Scotland would prefer the Old Pretender to German Geordie, whose claim was muddy), and the following year the Jacobite standard would be raised in the Fifteen.

Lockhart then revised the text, answered his critics in a new preface, and laid down instructions that it should not be published until the year 1750, by which time he reckoned that the dust would have settled. Not so. The immediate aftermath of the Forty-five was no time to broadcast his explosive polemic, and it remained out of print until 1817. This volume marks the belated reappearance of a long-neglected text.

Lockhart's tale is told with gusto fuelled by anger, even rage, and spiced with a relish of blunt vigour. He had no doubt that the Union would be Scotland's ruin (an apt title for the book, though the cautionary quotation marks seem redundant). ``My accusations,'' he writes, ``I am sure are so well founded that was there (as we say in Scotland) a right-sitting sheriff, I would not doubt to see some gentlemen string'' (ie, hang).

Some extended passages bring the drama of the times vividly to life, notably the description of Edinburgh in turmoil as the debates reached a climax, and of the ill-fated expedition of 1708 which brought the would-be James III (king already in the eyes of Lockhart and an unknown number of sympathisers) from Dunkirk to the Forth with a French squadron and some thousands of French soldiers, only to be frustrated by ill-luck, the caution (or disaffection) of the French admiral, and the vigilance of the English Admiral Byng.

It's an engrossing account which, if the like happened today, would promptly be turned into a TV documentary, with reconstructions of the intrigues, the shifts, the bribery, plus video clips of the actuality: the heated debates in Parliament House, the mob escorting their hero the Duke of Hamilton down the Royal Mile or running amok in murderous search of their reviled former Lord Provost, the hundreds of country gentlemen riding into Edinburgh for a mass lobby to the commissioners against the treaty, the sighting of the French fleet off Crail; with a rich cast of interviewees from the nobly eloquent Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun to ``that vile monster and wretch Daniel Defoe'' (who spied for the English Government).

In spite of plain words, vinegar phrases, and sharp character sketches, the book will not be easy reading for anyone not steeped in the period. Lockhart, not unnaturally considering the circumstances, assumed a familiarity with contemporary events among his readers. In his eagerness to convince he quotes verbatim and at length from dry speeches and petitions. Fortunately the editor, Daniel Szechi - an American specialist in Jacobite history who is currently preparing a biography of Lockhart - provides an excellent key in his discreet and succinct annotations, and Paul Scott's introduction is a valuable guide.

Lockhart's memoirs are particularly apposite now. Not only is a parliament for Scotland again on the political agenda, but in the wider world the question of national identities jostling within the larger context of the European commonwealth is a major concern.

Might-have-beens are fertile ground for speculation, and there is plenty of opportunity for retrospective crystal ball-gazing this story. The balance could easily have tipped the other way.

For well over two centuries the accepted wisdom has been that the Union, whatever the chicanery which led to it, has been ultimately beneficial for Scotland. The fact that such an assumption can't be disproved, chapter and verse, is not a sufficient reason to swallow it whole. Generations have been fed on a partial version comfortably handed down as history. Lockhart helps to set the record straight.