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Electric Scotland News
It will be interesting to see how the Labour party will run the UK in the coming years. I confess I don't have much faith in politions in the UK or Scotland for that matter.
I do however like the ideas of the Conservative Party in Canada.
And I'm a bit worried about the USA's political future.
-------
Thermonuclear Blasts and New Species
Inside Elon Musk’s Plan to Colonize Mars. SpaceX employees are working on plans for a Martian city, including dome habitats, spacesuits and researching whether humans can procreate off Earth.
Read more about this at:
https://archive.is/HeUcA#selection-461.0-461.185
Scottish News from this weeks newspapers
I am partly doing this to build an archive of modern news from and about Scotland and world news stories that can affect Scotland and as all the newsletters are archived and also indexed on search engines it becomes a good resource. I might also add that in a number of newspapers you will find many comments which can be just as interesting as the news story itself and of course you can also add your own comments if you wish which I do myself from time to time.
Here is what caught my eye this week...
Nigel Farage becomes an MP for first time
Nigel Farage has won a seat in the House of Commons in the first time. The Reform leader took Clacton with 21,225 votes.
Read more at:
https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/g...tland-33165693
Sir Keir Starmer gives first speech as prime minister
Sir Keir Starmer has given his first speech as prime minister, saying, "our country has voted decisively for change". He paid tribute to his predecessor Rishi Sunak and directly addressed voters who had not voted for the Labour Party.
Watch this at:
https://www.bbc.com/news/videos/ckdg1w5eye7o
Scotland's general election explained in numbers
The obvious election headline in Scotland is Labour’s comeback amid an SNP collapse.
Read more at:
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cpv3ydex017o
The most Scottish town in Australia that hosts its own annual Highland games
If you ever find yourself in Australia, you need to head to the small rural destination of Maclean which has the unique honour of being the most Scottish town in the Oceanic country.
Read more at:
https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/scotla...hosts-33176746
We joined the inaugural Air Greenland flight to Canada!
Today we’re in Greenland flying the first flight between Nuuk and Iqaluit in Nunavut, Canada. We're behind the scenes for the celebrations on both sides, we're in the cockpit for the takeoff and then in the passenger cabin for the second half of the flight.
Watch this at:
https://youtu.be/O0FeM4oB_w8?si=byExqsSnnW4FKMUa
Andy Murray's Emotional Farewell Interview
Watch Andy Murray's farewell interview in full as he's joined by Sue Barker on Centre Court to celebrate his career and time at Wimbledon over the years.
Watch this at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JS77JeXjA8Y
My 20-year challenge to play every Scottish golf course
Phil Booth has just completed a challenge he has been working towards for almost 20 years - to play at every registered golf course in Scotland
Watch this at:
https://www.bbc.com/news/videos/c51yg25ekeqo
Eric Liddell: The Olympic champion who still inspires 100 years on
The opening scene of the Oscar-winning 1981 film Chariots of Fire is one of the best known and most imitated in movie history.
Read more at:
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ced3201zxngo
Also read more about him at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...ic_liddell.htm
Conrad Black:
U of T president should resign over his contemptible handling of the encampment
Read more at:
https://archive.is/SM2ct
Canada faces pressure at Nato summit for riding on coattails
Canada is under mounting pressure to increase its military spending as it continues to fall short of the target set out for Nato members, raising fears that the country is becoming an outlier among its allies.
Read more at:
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cl4ygzlz4mzo
A better way to help the homeless
The soaring cost of temporary accommodation for homeless families is pushing local authorities into bankruptcy. Labour’s housebuilding plans, while welcome, won’t solve this. Cash grants via personalised budgets are a proven way to increase the financial resilience of at-risk families, while saving the taxpayer millions.
Read more at:
https://capx.co/housebuilding-alone-...-homelessness/
The world wants our food – let them have it
Food was always going to be the export trade hardest hit by Brexit, since food production is what the EU most closely protects and controls. But this doesn't mean that we need a trade rapprochement with them. Rather, we should follow Norway's example and focus on exporting to East Asia.
Read more at:
https://capx.co/the-world-wants-our-...t-them-have-it
Electric Canadian
The Canals of Canada
An historic and modern view of the canals of Canada
You can read about them at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/life...lsofcanada.htm
Royal Military College of Canada
Added the June, 1956 edition
You can read this edition at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/forc...arycollege.htm
The Emigrant's Pocket Companion
Containing what emigration is, who should be emigrants, where emigrants should go; a description of British North America, especially the Canadas; and full instructions to intending emigrants by Robert Mudie (1832)
You can read this at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/pion...tcompanion.htm
The Canadas
Comprehending topographical information concerning the quality of the land in different districts and the fullest general information for the use of emigrants and capitalists compiled from origional documents furnished by John Galt, Esq., late of the Canada Company, and of the British American Land Association (second edition) (1836) (pdf)
You can read this at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/hist...adas00pick.pdf
Thoughts on a Sunday Morning - the 7th day of July 2024 - Considering Tomorrow
By the Rev. Nola Crewe
You can watch this at:
http://www.electricscotland.org/foru...ering-tomorrow
The Beaver Magazine
Added Volume 1 No. 1 (1920) (pdf)
You can read this first issue at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/tran...beaver0101.pdf
A Pedestrian Tour
Of Two Thousand Three Hundred Miles, in North America to the Lakes, The Canadas, And the New-England States performed in the Autumn of 1821 by P. Stansbury (pdf)
You can read this book at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/life...00stangoog.pdf
The Canadian Annual Review of Public Affairs
Added the 1935-36 edition
You can read this edition at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/hist...nual/index.htm
Electric Scotland
Information for John Campbel Eldest Lawfull Son to the Deceast Robert Campbel of Glenlyon Against The Earl of Tullibardin (pdf)
You can read this at:
https://electricscotland.com/webclan...ell1696old.pdf
The History of the Reformation of Religion in Scotland by John Knox
To which are appended several other pieces of his writing including the First book of Discipline, complete, and his dispute with the Abbot of Crossraguel, not given with any former edition with a memoir, historical introduction, and notes, by William M'Gavin, Esq. (1831) (pdf)
You can read this book at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...ma00knox_0.pdf
Travellers’ Tales of Scotland
By R. H. Coats, M.A. (1913) (pdf)
You can read this book at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...00coatuoft.pdf
A True Relation of the Actions of the Inniskilling Men
From their first taking-up of Arms in December, 1688. for the Defence of the Protestant Religion and their Lives and Liberties, Written by Andrew Hamilton, Rector of Kilskerrie and one of the Prebends of the Diocese of Clogber, in the Kingdom of Ireland, an Eye-witness thereof, and Actor therein (1690) (pdf)
You can read this old account at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...ofac00hami.pdf
Twenty-Five Years of St, Andrews
September 1865 to September 1890 in two volumes by Andrew Kennedy Hutcheson Bond (third edition) (1892). Added this set to the foot of our St. Andrews page.
You can get to this at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...rews/index.htm
Tracts Illustrative of the Traditionary & Historical Antiquities of Scotland
Including A Vindication of Elizabeth More From the Imutation of being a concubinel and her children from the tache of bastardy confuting the critical observations of the publisher of the carta autheentica, and of some other late writers by Richard Hay, of Drumboote, C. R. In the body of this Book, and the Appendix subjoined, there are several ancient and valuable Charters, which serve to illustrate the Origin and Descent of the most considerable Families in Scotland (1836) (pdf)
You can read this at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...00buchgoog.pdf
Ulster Biographies
Relating Chiefly to the Rebellion of 1798 by W. T. Latimer, B.A. (1897) (pdf)
You can read these at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...phie00lati.pdf
A History of the Irish Presbyterians
By W. T. Latimer, B.A. (1893) (pdf)
You can read this book at
https://electricscotland.com/history...shpr00lati.pdf
Astoria of the Fur Traders
A Chronology 1542-1846 by Virginia Jenson (1961) (pdf)
You can read this at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...ology.1959.pdf
McLean, Alexander Grant
Surveyor-General of Australia.
You can read about him at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...-alexander.htm
Vines and Vine Culture
By Archibald F. Barron (third edition) (1892) (pdf)
You can read this book at:
https://electricscotland.com/agricul...00barrrich.pdf
Contribution to the Vital Statistics of Scotland
By James Stark, M.D., F.R.S.E., F.R.S.S.A., Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, Edinburgh (1851) (pdf)
You can read this at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...ofscotland.pdf
The Royal Order of Scotland
By Harold V. B. Voorhis, with a Foreword by Marvin E. Fowler, Provincial Grand Master, United States of America (1960) (pdf)
You can read this at:
https://electricscotland.com/lifesty...20Scotland.pdf
Story
Two George MacKenzie's
George R. MacKenzie, Glasgow
The name of Mr. George R. Mackenzie is well-known and highly respected not only in Glasgow, the city of his adoption, but in all parts of the world, for there are few remote places where he has not established business connections. His father was John Mackenzie, a native of the Island of Skye, and the subject of our sketch was born at Broadford, Eilean a’ Cheo, where he was educated at the local school, and afterwards at Madras College, St. Andrews. Equipped with a sound education, he sailed for Chili and Peru, where he spent several years, and had his own share of adventures. He was in Callao during the celebrated bombardment, and saw Valparaiso reduced to wreckage. Returning to Scotland in 1867, he entered the service of the famous British India S.N. Coy. (the present chairman of which is that popular Highlander, Mr. Duncan Mackinnon), where he remained ten years, during which his duties took him to every part of the Indian and Chinese coasts, and brought him in contact with many nationalities. On his return to the old country, he was appointed manager of the Shandon Hydropathic, a position he held for three years, after which he purchased the Royal Restaurant in Glasgow, and entered into the purveying business on a large scale, in which he proved very successful.
The great events, however, which brought Mr. Mackenzie’s name most into public notice, was his connection with the great Glasgow Exhibitions of 1888 and 1901, in both of which he held the purveying and refreshment contracts. On each occasion his conduct of these very difficult undertakings gave the greatest satisfaction to the promoters and the public alike. It was at this time he founded the very successful wholesale wine and spirit business of G. R. Mackenzie, Ltd., which has now developed into such a world-wide concern, and of which Mr. Mackenzie still remains the managing director. A glance at the third page of our cover will give more particulars of Mr. Mackenzie’s business than we have space to detail here.
There is hardly a part of the world which Mr. Mackenzie has not trodden, and when the Lusitania made her recent maiden voyage, the subject of our sketch was among her passengers. Such a new experience in ocean travelling was more than the clansman could resist.
Mr. Mackenzie married in 1871, and has four sons and three daughters living. His eldest son, John, who is associated with his father in the business, seems to have inherited the roving spirit of the family. He holds an extra master’s certificate in the merchant service, and was connected for many years with the British India S. N. Coy., Orient Coy., Pacific Steam Navigation Coy., and other great Shipping concerns. Thomas, now resident in Montreal, took part in the Boer War, was present at 17 engagements, and was wounded at Jacobsruust, that memorable engagement in which the gallant Captain Towse of the Gordons lost his eyesight by a rifle bullet. George is in Seattle, Washington State, U.S.A., and the youngest, Robert resides at Portage la Prairie, Canada.
It will thus be seen that the adventurous spirit is strong in the younger generation of this pushful branch of the Clan Coinneach, and the new world will be all the better of their presence.
Physically, Mr Mackenzie is a splendid representative of his race, tall and handsome, with a kindly, courteous and cheerful manner, which doubtless helps to explain his great popularity at home and abroad, and the great success which has attended his business career.
MacKenzie, George
Lawyer; b. 1795, probably in Dingwall, Scotland; m. 19 May 1829 Sarah Mackenzie in Ernestown (Bath), Upper Canada, the ceremony being performed by the Reverend John Machar; they had no children; d. 4 Aug. 1834 in Kingston, Upper Canada.
George Mackenzie immigrated to British North America from Scotland before 1823. He settled at Kingston in the mid 1820s after a brief stay in Lower Canada and Ernestown. In 1828 he was called to the bar of the province and immediately went into private practice. Within a couple of years his practice was flourishing and he had staked out a prominent place for himself in Kingston society.
Along with other leading figures in the town, Mackenzie decried the monopoly of the Bank of Upper Canada and asserted the need for an independent bank in Kingston. At a public meeting there in January 1830, a committee was formed to draft rules and regulations for a Kingston bank and to petition the government for a charter; Mackenzie was secretary. A bill to charter the Kingston bank was soon after brought before the legislature, but it was defeated by the Legislative Council, most of whose members were directors and stockholders of the Bank of Upper Canada. Mackenzie persevered during the next year, speaking at public meetings on the advantages that would accrue to eastern Upper Canada from a Kingston bank, articulating the complaints of the growing non-tory commercial interest group to which he belonged, and galvanizing popular support behind a bank independent of the tory compact’s control.
In February 1831 a second bill chartering the proposed bank passed the House of Assembly and was lost in the council, but the growing discontent over the Bank of Upper Canada’s monopoly, combined with the assembly’s refusal to pass a bill authorizing an increase in its stock, caused the supporters of the bank in council to relent. In the fall session of 1831 a bill to charter the Commercial Bank of the Midland District was passed by the assembly and the council. Only the extreme radicals – who objected that the new bank would be fashioned too much in the image of the hated Bank of Upper Canada – and the extreme tories – who warned that the establishment of another bank would impair the credit of the Bank of Upper Canada – voted against it. The first president of the new bank was John Solomon Cartwright*; its first solicitor was Mackenzie.
Although obviously not a tory, Mackenzie did not sympathize with the reformers. In February 1832 he attended a reform meeting held in Fredericksburgh by assembly representatives Peter Perry* and Marshall Spring Bidwell*. He expressed his opposition to a resolution denouncing the Legislative Council and, chiding the reform members of the assembly, spoke long and effectively on the need for moderate reform without disloyalty to the crown. He then moved support for the government. Mackenzie later claimed that his motion had carried and that the meeting had been dissolved, but others, including the meetings chairman and secretary, disputed his version of events.
Whatever happened, the fate of Mackenzie’s resolution is not as important as the political ideas expressed in his two-and-a-half-hour speech. He disagreed with the expulsion of William Lyon Mackenzie* from the assembly and entered into a detailed account of the privileges of the legislature which did not follow the hard line of the tory partet in phrases redolent of the tory spirit he dismissed Mackenzie as ill mannered and ill fitted to be a representative of his constituency. His moderate position regarding the clergy reserves steered directly and reasonably between the tory and reform camps. Most reformers by this time advocated the sale of the reserves, the endowment to be used to support secular education. John Strachan* and the high tories would have preferred little change in the existing situation. Mackenzie argued, as William Henry Draper* would advocate four years later, that the reserves should be used to support clergymen of all “respectable denominations.” He disagreed with the more conservative elements in denying that the Church of England was or had ever been the established church in Upper Canada. The administration of Sir Peregrine Maitland*, he added, had done much that was injurious to various religious denominations, but he felt that Sir John Colborne*’s government “was on a conciliatory, moderate path.”
As a lawyer Mackenzie was known to accept liberal causes, perhaps the most controversial of which was his defence of George Gurnett*, the editor of the Courier of Upper Canada (Toronto), who was alleged to have libelled tory John Elmsley* over the latter’s conversion to Roman Catholicism. The case came before the Court of King’s Bench in April 1834. Elmsley was able to retain five of the most renowned lawyers in Upper Canada – Draper, Marshall Spring Bidwell, Robert Baldwin Sullivan*, Allan Napier MacNab*, and Robert Baldwin*. Mackenzie, assisted by three other lawyers, represented the defendant and he alone spoke for the defence. After his four-and-a-half-hour speech, which was lauded throughout the Upper Canadian press as one of the most eloquent defences of freedom of the press ever voiced in the province, the jury returned a verdict for Gurnett. Mackenzie was the real victor, since his firm was now known throughout the province.
Mackenzie was a leader of the Scots community in Kingston: he was a member of the temperance society, the Emigration Society of the Midland District, and the bible society; he had been a lay commissioner at the Kingston convention of June 1831 which established the synod of the Presbyterian Church of Canada in connection with the Church of Scotland, and he often served as legal adviser to the church. He was actively associated with various committees important to the administration of town affairs, such as the committee to reform municipal government and another established in 1832 to alleviate the effects of the cholera epidemic. His name was put forward in 1834 as the Frontenac County candidate for election to the legislature, and he was widely supported throughout the campaign that summer as a moderate non-tory candidate. It seemed as though he would be elected, but his political career was cut off by his sudden death of cholera on 4 Aug. 1834.
In the early spring of 1830, 15-year-old John A. Macdonald* had been articled to Mackenzie as a student-at-law. For the next three formative years of his life he studied under Mackenzie and for most of that period boarded at the Mackenzie home. He gained his earliest understanding of the law and commerce under Mackenzie; he developed his first clientele and business contacts through him. In 1839 Macdonald became solicitor to the Commercial Bank of the Midland District, as Mackenzie had been, and on the verge of the public career denied to Mackenzie, Macdonald would also be a corporate lawyer and businessman, a moderate conservative whose fortunes and interests were tied to Kingston and to the commercial development of Upper Canada. At the time when Macdonald was articled to Mackenzie’s law firm, the increasingly populous, clannish Scots community was infiltrating the positions of tory authority, was beginning to control commerce, and was laying the basis of a liberal-conservative faction whose stress on economic expansion would present an alternative to William Lyon Mackenzie’s hope of establishing a rather traditional agrarian order. It was largely this same social and political group which would coalesce and gain prominence as an emerging capitalist class in the late 1830s and 1840s. Then, it would be largely led politically by Macdonald, Mackenzie’s former student.
END
Weekend is almost here and hope it's a good one for you.
Alastair
It will be interesting to see how the Labour party will run the UK in the coming years. I confess I don't have much faith in politions in the UK or Scotland for that matter.
I do however like the ideas of the Conservative Party in Canada.
And I'm a bit worried about the USA's political future.
-------
Thermonuclear Blasts and New Species
Inside Elon Musk’s Plan to Colonize Mars. SpaceX employees are working on plans for a Martian city, including dome habitats, spacesuits and researching whether humans can procreate off Earth.
Read more about this at:
https://archive.is/HeUcA#selection-461.0-461.185
Scottish News from this weeks newspapers
I am partly doing this to build an archive of modern news from and about Scotland and world news stories that can affect Scotland and as all the newsletters are archived and also indexed on search engines it becomes a good resource. I might also add that in a number of newspapers you will find many comments which can be just as interesting as the news story itself and of course you can also add your own comments if you wish which I do myself from time to time.
Here is what caught my eye this week...
Nigel Farage becomes an MP for first time
Nigel Farage has won a seat in the House of Commons in the first time. The Reform leader took Clacton with 21,225 votes.
Read more at:
https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/g...tland-33165693
Sir Keir Starmer gives first speech as prime minister
Sir Keir Starmer has given his first speech as prime minister, saying, "our country has voted decisively for change". He paid tribute to his predecessor Rishi Sunak and directly addressed voters who had not voted for the Labour Party.
Watch this at:
https://www.bbc.com/news/videos/ckdg1w5eye7o
Scotland's general election explained in numbers
The obvious election headline in Scotland is Labour’s comeback amid an SNP collapse.
Read more at:
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cpv3ydex017o
The most Scottish town in Australia that hosts its own annual Highland games
If you ever find yourself in Australia, you need to head to the small rural destination of Maclean which has the unique honour of being the most Scottish town in the Oceanic country.
Read more at:
https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/scotla...hosts-33176746
We joined the inaugural Air Greenland flight to Canada!
Today we’re in Greenland flying the first flight between Nuuk and Iqaluit in Nunavut, Canada. We're behind the scenes for the celebrations on both sides, we're in the cockpit for the takeoff and then in the passenger cabin for the second half of the flight.
Watch this at:
https://youtu.be/O0FeM4oB_w8?si=byExqsSnnW4FKMUa
Andy Murray's Emotional Farewell Interview
Watch Andy Murray's farewell interview in full as he's joined by Sue Barker on Centre Court to celebrate his career and time at Wimbledon over the years.
Watch this at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JS77JeXjA8Y
My 20-year challenge to play every Scottish golf course
Phil Booth has just completed a challenge he has been working towards for almost 20 years - to play at every registered golf course in Scotland
Watch this at:
https://www.bbc.com/news/videos/c51yg25ekeqo
Eric Liddell: The Olympic champion who still inspires 100 years on
The opening scene of the Oscar-winning 1981 film Chariots of Fire is one of the best known and most imitated in movie history.
Read more at:
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ced3201zxngo
Also read more about him at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...ic_liddell.htm
Conrad Black:
U of T president should resign over his contemptible handling of the encampment
Read more at:
https://archive.is/SM2ct
Canada faces pressure at Nato summit for riding on coattails
Canada is under mounting pressure to increase its military spending as it continues to fall short of the target set out for Nato members, raising fears that the country is becoming an outlier among its allies.
Read more at:
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cl4ygzlz4mzo
A better way to help the homeless
The soaring cost of temporary accommodation for homeless families is pushing local authorities into bankruptcy. Labour’s housebuilding plans, while welcome, won’t solve this. Cash grants via personalised budgets are a proven way to increase the financial resilience of at-risk families, while saving the taxpayer millions.
Read more at:
https://capx.co/housebuilding-alone-...-homelessness/
The world wants our food – let them have it
Food was always going to be the export trade hardest hit by Brexit, since food production is what the EU most closely protects and controls. But this doesn't mean that we need a trade rapprochement with them. Rather, we should follow Norway's example and focus on exporting to East Asia.
Read more at:
https://capx.co/the-world-wants-our-...t-them-have-it
Electric Canadian
The Canals of Canada
An historic and modern view of the canals of Canada
You can read about them at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/life...lsofcanada.htm
Royal Military College of Canada
Added the June, 1956 edition
You can read this edition at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/forc...arycollege.htm
The Emigrant's Pocket Companion
Containing what emigration is, who should be emigrants, where emigrants should go; a description of British North America, especially the Canadas; and full instructions to intending emigrants by Robert Mudie (1832)
You can read this at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/pion...tcompanion.htm
The Canadas
Comprehending topographical information concerning the quality of the land in different districts and the fullest general information for the use of emigrants and capitalists compiled from origional documents furnished by John Galt, Esq., late of the Canada Company, and of the British American Land Association (second edition) (1836) (pdf)
You can read this at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/hist...adas00pick.pdf
Thoughts on a Sunday Morning - the 7th day of July 2024 - Considering Tomorrow
By the Rev. Nola Crewe
You can watch this at:
http://www.electricscotland.org/foru...ering-tomorrow
The Beaver Magazine
Added Volume 1 No. 1 (1920) (pdf)
You can read this first issue at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/tran...beaver0101.pdf
A Pedestrian Tour
Of Two Thousand Three Hundred Miles, in North America to the Lakes, The Canadas, And the New-England States performed in the Autumn of 1821 by P. Stansbury (pdf)
You can read this book at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/life...00stangoog.pdf
The Canadian Annual Review of Public Affairs
Added the 1935-36 edition
You can read this edition at:
http://www.electriccanadian.com/hist...nual/index.htm
Electric Scotland
Information for John Campbel Eldest Lawfull Son to the Deceast Robert Campbel of Glenlyon Against The Earl of Tullibardin (pdf)
You can read this at:
https://electricscotland.com/webclan...ell1696old.pdf
The History of the Reformation of Religion in Scotland by John Knox
To which are appended several other pieces of his writing including the First book of Discipline, complete, and his dispute with the Abbot of Crossraguel, not given with any former edition with a memoir, historical introduction, and notes, by William M'Gavin, Esq. (1831) (pdf)
You can read this book at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...ma00knox_0.pdf
Travellers’ Tales of Scotland
By R. H. Coats, M.A. (1913) (pdf)
You can read this book at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...00coatuoft.pdf
A True Relation of the Actions of the Inniskilling Men
From their first taking-up of Arms in December, 1688. for the Defence of the Protestant Religion and their Lives and Liberties, Written by Andrew Hamilton, Rector of Kilskerrie and one of the Prebends of the Diocese of Clogber, in the Kingdom of Ireland, an Eye-witness thereof, and Actor therein (1690) (pdf)
You can read this old account at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...ofac00hami.pdf
Twenty-Five Years of St, Andrews
September 1865 to September 1890 in two volumes by Andrew Kennedy Hutcheson Bond (third edition) (1892). Added this set to the foot of our St. Andrews page.
You can get to this at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...rews/index.htm
Tracts Illustrative of the Traditionary & Historical Antiquities of Scotland
Including A Vindication of Elizabeth More From the Imutation of being a concubinel and her children from the tache of bastardy confuting the critical observations of the publisher of the carta autheentica, and of some other late writers by Richard Hay, of Drumboote, C. R. In the body of this Book, and the Appendix subjoined, there are several ancient and valuable Charters, which serve to illustrate the Origin and Descent of the most considerable Families in Scotland (1836) (pdf)
You can read this at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...00buchgoog.pdf
Ulster Biographies
Relating Chiefly to the Rebellion of 1798 by W. T. Latimer, B.A. (1897) (pdf)
You can read these at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...phie00lati.pdf
A History of the Irish Presbyterians
By W. T. Latimer, B.A. (1893) (pdf)
You can read this book at
https://electricscotland.com/history...shpr00lati.pdf
Astoria of the Fur Traders
A Chronology 1542-1846 by Virginia Jenson (1961) (pdf)
You can read this at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...ology.1959.pdf
McLean, Alexander Grant
Surveyor-General of Australia.
You can read about him at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...-alexander.htm
Vines and Vine Culture
By Archibald F. Barron (third edition) (1892) (pdf)
You can read this book at:
https://electricscotland.com/agricul...00barrrich.pdf
Contribution to the Vital Statistics of Scotland
By James Stark, M.D., F.R.S.E., F.R.S.S.A., Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, Edinburgh (1851) (pdf)
You can read this at:
https://electricscotland.com/history...ofscotland.pdf
The Royal Order of Scotland
By Harold V. B. Voorhis, with a Foreword by Marvin E. Fowler, Provincial Grand Master, United States of America (1960) (pdf)
You can read this at:
https://electricscotland.com/lifesty...20Scotland.pdf
Story
Two George MacKenzie's
George R. MacKenzie, Glasgow
The name of Mr. George R. Mackenzie is well-known and highly respected not only in Glasgow, the city of his adoption, but in all parts of the world, for there are few remote places where he has not established business connections. His father was John Mackenzie, a native of the Island of Skye, and the subject of our sketch was born at Broadford, Eilean a’ Cheo, where he was educated at the local school, and afterwards at Madras College, St. Andrews. Equipped with a sound education, he sailed for Chili and Peru, where he spent several years, and had his own share of adventures. He was in Callao during the celebrated bombardment, and saw Valparaiso reduced to wreckage. Returning to Scotland in 1867, he entered the service of the famous British India S.N. Coy. (the present chairman of which is that popular Highlander, Mr. Duncan Mackinnon), where he remained ten years, during which his duties took him to every part of the Indian and Chinese coasts, and brought him in contact with many nationalities. On his return to the old country, he was appointed manager of the Shandon Hydropathic, a position he held for three years, after which he purchased the Royal Restaurant in Glasgow, and entered into the purveying business on a large scale, in which he proved very successful.
The great events, however, which brought Mr. Mackenzie’s name most into public notice, was his connection with the great Glasgow Exhibitions of 1888 and 1901, in both of which he held the purveying and refreshment contracts. On each occasion his conduct of these very difficult undertakings gave the greatest satisfaction to the promoters and the public alike. It was at this time he founded the very successful wholesale wine and spirit business of G. R. Mackenzie, Ltd., which has now developed into such a world-wide concern, and of which Mr. Mackenzie still remains the managing director. A glance at the third page of our cover will give more particulars of Mr. Mackenzie’s business than we have space to detail here.
There is hardly a part of the world which Mr. Mackenzie has not trodden, and when the Lusitania made her recent maiden voyage, the subject of our sketch was among her passengers. Such a new experience in ocean travelling was more than the clansman could resist.
Mr. Mackenzie married in 1871, and has four sons and three daughters living. His eldest son, John, who is associated with his father in the business, seems to have inherited the roving spirit of the family. He holds an extra master’s certificate in the merchant service, and was connected for many years with the British India S. N. Coy., Orient Coy., Pacific Steam Navigation Coy., and other great Shipping concerns. Thomas, now resident in Montreal, took part in the Boer War, was present at 17 engagements, and was wounded at Jacobsruust, that memorable engagement in which the gallant Captain Towse of the Gordons lost his eyesight by a rifle bullet. George is in Seattle, Washington State, U.S.A., and the youngest, Robert resides at Portage la Prairie, Canada.
It will thus be seen that the adventurous spirit is strong in the younger generation of this pushful branch of the Clan Coinneach, and the new world will be all the better of their presence.
Physically, Mr Mackenzie is a splendid representative of his race, tall and handsome, with a kindly, courteous and cheerful manner, which doubtless helps to explain his great popularity at home and abroad, and the great success which has attended his business career.
MacKenzie, George
Lawyer; b. 1795, probably in Dingwall, Scotland; m. 19 May 1829 Sarah Mackenzie in Ernestown (Bath), Upper Canada, the ceremony being performed by the Reverend John Machar; they had no children; d. 4 Aug. 1834 in Kingston, Upper Canada.
George Mackenzie immigrated to British North America from Scotland before 1823. He settled at Kingston in the mid 1820s after a brief stay in Lower Canada and Ernestown. In 1828 he was called to the bar of the province and immediately went into private practice. Within a couple of years his practice was flourishing and he had staked out a prominent place for himself in Kingston society.
Along with other leading figures in the town, Mackenzie decried the monopoly of the Bank of Upper Canada and asserted the need for an independent bank in Kingston. At a public meeting there in January 1830, a committee was formed to draft rules and regulations for a Kingston bank and to petition the government for a charter; Mackenzie was secretary. A bill to charter the Kingston bank was soon after brought before the legislature, but it was defeated by the Legislative Council, most of whose members were directors and stockholders of the Bank of Upper Canada. Mackenzie persevered during the next year, speaking at public meetings on the advantages that would accrue to eastern Upper Canada from a Kingston bank, articulating the complaints of the growing non-tory commercial interest group to which he belonged, and galvanizing popular support behind a bank independent of the tory compact’s control.
In February 1831 a second bill chartering the proposed bank passed the House of Assembly and was lost in the council, but the growing discontent over the Bank of Upper Canada’s monopoly, combined with the assembly’s refusal to pass a bill authorizing an increase in its stock, caused the supporters of the bank in council to relent. In the fall session of 1831 a bill to charter the Commercial Bank of the Midland District was passed by the assembly and the council. Only the extreme radicals – who objected that the new bank would be fashioned too much in the image of the hated Bank of Upper Canada – and the extreme tories – who warned that the establishment of another bank would impair the credit of the Bank of Upper Canada – voted against it. The first president of the new bank was John Solomon Cartwright*; its first solicitor was Mackenzie.
Although obviously not a tory, Mackenzie did not sympathize with the reformers. In February 1832 he attended a reform meeting held in Fredericksburgh by assembly representatives Peter Perry* and Marshall Spring Bidwell*. He expressed his opposition to a resolution denouncing the Legislative Council and, chiding the reform members of the assembly, spoke long and effectively on the need for moderate reform without disloyalty to the crown. He then moved support for the government. Mackenzie later claimed that his motion had carried and that the meeting had been dissolved, but others, including the meetings chairman and secretary, disputed his version of events.
Whatever happened, the fate of Mackenzie’s resolution is not as important as the political ideas expressed in his two-and-a-half-hour speech. He disagreed with the expulsion of William Lyon Mackenzie* from the assembly and entered into a detailed account of the privileges of the legislature which did not follow the hard line of the tory partet in phrases redolent of the tory spirit he dismissed Mackenzie as ill mannered and ill fitted to be a representative of his constituency. His moderate position regarding the clergy reserves steered directly and reasonably between the tory and reform camps. Most reformers by this time advocated the sale of the reserves, the endowment to be used to support secular education. John Strachan* and the high tories would have preferred little change in the existing situation. Mackenzie argued, as William Henry Draper* would advocate four years later, that the reserves should be used to support clergymen of all “respectable denominations.” He disagreed with the more conservative elements in denying that the Church of England was or had ever been the established church in Upper Canada. The administration of Sir Peregrine Maitland*, he added, had done much that was injurious to various religious denominations, but he felt that Sir John Colborne*’s government “was on a conciliatory, moderate path.”
As a lawyer Mackenzie was known to accept liberal causes, perhaps the most controversial of which was his defence of George Gurnett*, the editor of the Courier of Upper Canada (Toronto), who was alleged to have libelled tory John Elmsley* over the latter’s conversion to Roman Catholicism. The case came before the Court of King’s Bench in April 1834. Elmsley was able to retain five of the most renowned lawyers in Upper Canada – Draper, Marshall Spring Bidwell, Robert Baldwin Sullivan*, Allan Napier MacNab*, and Robert Baldwin*. Mackenzie, assisted by three other lawyers, represented the defendant and he alone spoke for the defence. After his four-and-a-half-hour speech, which was lauded throughout the Upper Canadian press as one of the most eloquent defences of freedom of the press ever voiced in the province, the jury returned a verdict for Gurnett. Mackenzie was the real victor, since his firm was now known throughout the province.
Mackenzie was a leader of the Scots community in Kingston: he was a member of the temperance society, the Emigration Society of the Midland District, and the bible society; he had been a lay commissioner at the Kingston convention of June 1831 which established the synod of the Presbyterian Church of Canada in connection with the Church of Scotland, and he often served as legal adviser to the church. He was actively associated with various committees important to the administration of town affairs, such as the committee to reform municipal government and another established in 1832 to alleviate the effects of the cholera epidemic. His name was put forward in 1834 as the Frontenac County candidate for election to the legislature, and he was widely supported throughout the campaign that summer as a moderate non-tory candidate. It seemed as though he would be elected, but his political career was cut off by his sudden death of cholera on 4 Aug. 1834.
In the early spring of 1830, 15-year-old John A. Macdonald* had been articled to Mackenzie as a student-at-law. For the next three formative years of his life he studied under Mackenzie and for most of that period boarded at the Mackenzie home. He gained his earliest understanding of the law and commerce under Mackenzie; he developed his first clientele and business contacts through him. In 1839 Macdonald became solicitor to the Commercial Bank of the Midland District, as Mackenzie had been, and on the verge of the public career denied to Mackenzie, Macdonald would also be a corporate lawyer and businessman, a moderate conservative whose fortunes and interests were tied to Kingston and to the commercial development of Upper Canada. At the time when Macdonald was articled to Mackenzie’s law firm, the increasingly populous, clannish Scots community was infiltrating the positions of tory authority, was beginning to control commerce, and was laying the basis of a liberal-conservative faction whose stress on economic expansion would present an alternative to William Lyon Mackenzie’s hope of establishing a rather traditional agrarian order. It was largely this same social and political group which would coalesce and gain prominence as an emerging capitalist class in the late 1830s and 1840s. Then, it would be largely led politically by Macdonald, Mackenzie’s former student.
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Weekend is almost here and hope it's a good one for you.
Alastair