Professor Michael Russell, the President of the SNP, will deliver this year's Thomas Muir Lecture, which celebrates the 18th century figure renowned as the “father of Scottish Democracy”.
The lecture was established by the University of Glasgow in order to "highlight traditions of democratic thought in Scotland as they link with the wider world”.
Muir, who was born in August 1765 in a flat above his father's shop in Glasgow's High Street, studied law at the University of Glasgow and went on to become an advocate as well as a passionate campaigner for political reform, freedom of speech, and voting rights for all. His activities, however, made him something of a marked man and led to a trial for sedition, as a result of which he was sentenced to 14 years transportation to Australia. The four judges at the show-trial were dominated by the fifth, the "notorious" Lord Braxfield.
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Muir eventually escaped from Australia and endured a remarkable series of adventures before his death in France in 1799.
The Martyrs' Monument in Edinburgh's Old Calton Burial Ground commemorates Muir and four other campaigners for parliamentary reform - Thomas Fyshe Palmer, William Skirving, Maurice Margarot and Joseph Gerrald - who were also sent to Australia.
Muir is known as 'Muir of Huntershill' after Huntershill House, the property near Bishopbriggs where the family lived.
Alex Salmond, the former First Minister and leader of the SNP, selected Muir as his subject for the BBC Radio 4 series, Great Lives, in 2016. Salmond had previously called for a posthumous pardon for Muir, saying: "The trumped-up charge by the notorious Lord Braxfield of ‘unconscious sedition’ still stands against the names of Muir, Palmer, Skirving, Margarot and Gerrald. It is time to set the record straight".
Professor Russell’s lecture entitled “It shall ultimately prevail”, pursuing the "good cause” of democratic consent” will be held at the University of Glasgow on Thursday, November 2.
He will examine the link between democratic consent and campaigns for independence in a range of places including Scotland. He will then ask if Westminster's refusal to outline a clear route to constitutional change in Scotland is creating circumstances in which democratic consent may be put at risk.
The title of the speech borrows from the climax of Muir's lengthy address to the jury at his trial in August 1973, in which he said: "From my infancy to this moment, I have devoted myself to the cause of the people. It is a good cause - it shall ultimately prevail - it shall finally triumph".
Professor Russell said: “I am delighted to have been asked to deliver this lecture.
"Thomas Muir was a courageous and determined advocate of democracy but the threats to democracy did not disappear with the establishment of a universal franchise. They still exist and one of the most severe in terms of securing the democratic consent of the governed in Scotland is the refusal of the UK political system to agree the way in which public opinion on constitutional change can be tested and can prevail if it is in the majority. That refusal is of course not unique to the UK, with the same phenomenon being found in other places, and it needs a resolution.”
Professor Russell, a former MSP and Scottish government minister, is a writer and Honorary President of the European Movement in Scotland. He was part-time Professor in Scottish Culture & Governance in the University between 2015 and 2023, and is now an Honorary Professor in the College of Arts & Humanities.
The lecture series is a collaboration with the Friends of Thomas Muir Society and the University’s Centre for Robert Burns Studies (CRBS), who have a research interest in Scottish Radicalism. It is also supported by the Centre for Scottish and Celtic Studies.
Dr Ronnie Young, one of the organisers of the lecture series, said: “We’re honoured to have Michael deliver this year’s Muir lecture. As a prominent political figure, his insights into issues surrounding democratic consent will be of great value, particularly as they come at a time when democracy itself often appears embattled.”
Tickets (free) can be booked at: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-thomas-muir-lecture-professor-michael-russell-tickets-725987948497?aff=oddtdtcreator
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