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For the latest news from Scotland see our ScotNews feed at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/
Electric Scotland News
Wishing you all a Very Happy New Year.
This month will see many Burns Suppers all over the world so do check in your local area to see if there is one you can go to and thus get a taste of some haggis and a wee dram.
I tried to find some footage on the New Year's celebrations in Scotland but all I found was the London one. I watched other news channels like CNN but again didn't see anything on Scotland. Frankly I think this is a missed opportunity and Scotland should do something to help folk from around the world watch our events. However there are quite a few videos on YouTube for you to watch.
Continuing my work on the Scottish Innovation Party and have added extra information to our Health section and also created a page to look at the Universal Basic Income which shows promise to also benefit our health as well according to research.
This year is going to be very interesting with Donald Trump as the new US President and Brexit starting and also the Scottish Council Elections. So lots to look forward to.
Scottish News from this weeks newspapers
Note that this is a selection and more can be read in our ScotNews feed on our index page where we list news from the past 1-2 weeks. I am partly doing this to build an archive of modern news from and about Scotland as all the newsletters are archived and also indexed on Google and other search engines. I might also add that in newspapers such as the Guardian, Scotsman, Courier, etc. 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.
Most-watched videos of 2016
Watch a compilation of the most-watched videos on the BBC Scotland News website in 2016.
View these at:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-38408436
Andy Murray knighted in New Year Honours
The tennis star rounds off a landmark year in which he won a second Wimbledon title, retained Olympic gold and finished the year as world number one.
Read more at:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-38467970
Scots honoured in 2017
Andy Murray was far from the only Scot to be named in the New Year Honours list.
Read more at:
http://www.scotsman.com/giving-back/...2017-1-4329054
First baby boxes handed out
Nicola Sturgeon has handed out Scotland’s first baby boxes to parents, filled with essentials such as nappies, clothes and books.
Read more at:
http://www.scotsman.com/news/first-b...gins-1-4329839
Universal basic income trials being considered in Scotland
Two councils, Fife and Glasgow, are investigating idea of offering everyone a fixed income regardless of earnings
Read more at:
https://www.theguardian.com/politics...ed-in-scotland
Majority of Scots oppose second independence vote in 2017, poll shows
61.5 per cent said they were against a new vote in 2017.
Read more at:
http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/1...s/?ref=mr&lp=1
Publishing group DC Thomson in £20m dividends bonanza
Chairman Andrew F Thomson said the year had seen stability in publishing revenues, adding: “Our newspaper and magazine businesses continue to perform well in the current market
Read more at:
http://www.scotsman.com/business/com...anza-1-4330055
Stage Formula 1 in Scotland and show we are still in Europe
by Jonathan Stanley
Read more at:
http://www.scotsman.com/heritage/peo...wide-1-4330392
More than 1.1m jobs available
Job vacancies have topped 1.1 million, the highest for a year, although salaries continue to stagnate
Read more at:
http://www.scotsman.com/business/mar...back-1-4330082
Historic bagpipes returned to homeland
A Campbeltown teenager has been gifted a vintage set of bagpipes with an extraordinary history
Read more at:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-...-west-38403623
Scots urged to give indyref2 bill views
Members of the public have been urged to give their views on the Scottish government's draft independence bill as the consultation enters its final week.
Read more at:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-...itics-38504898
A Harder border with England?
Here's how it could happen.
Read more at:
http://www.scottishreview.net/BrianWilson123a.html
Universal basic income is not a magic solution, but it could help millions
The current system of welfare and employment simply isn’t working. Scotland, Canada and the Netherlands are right to explore this misunderstood option
Read more at:
https://www.theguardian.com/commenti...da-netherlands
Scotland's 2017 council elections
Scotland goes to the polls again in 2017 - this time for local authority elections
Read more at:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-...itics-38518557
Sir Tim Barrow: UK's new ambassador to EU
Downing Street has called the UK's new ambassador to the European Union a seasoned and tough negotiator, who will bring energy to Brexit talks.
Read more at:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-38512901
Electric Canadian
Chronicles of Canada
Added Volume 12: The Father of British Canada: A Chronicle of Carleton
I might add that I've found text copies of these volumes so have added a link to them on the page.
You can read this at: http://www.electriccanadian.com/hist...les/chronicles
The Annals of the Town of Guelph 1827 - 1877
Compiled under the direction of C. Acton Burrows, Editor of the Guelph Herald (1877) (pdf)
You can read this at: http://www.electriccanadian.com/hist...nalsguelph.pdf
Electric Scotland
Clan Leslie Society of New Zealand & Australia
Got in their January 2017 newsletter which you can read at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/fami...slie/index.htm
The Story of the Otago Church and Settlement
By Rev. C. Stuart Ross (1887) (pdf)
An interesting account of this Scots church which you can read at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...tagochurch.pdf
Reminiscences of a Country Doctor 1840-1914
By David Pride, M.D., J.P. (1914) (pdf). The first chapter is about the Bread Riot in Glasgow.
You can read this at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...tishdoctor.pdf
Sport in New Zealand
By Lieut.-Col. Montagu Cradock, C.B. (1904) (pdf)
You can read this at: http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...newzealand.pdf
A Handbook for Travellers in New Zealand
By F.W. Pennefather, LL.D. (1893) (pdf)
You can read this at: http://www.electricscotland.com/History/nz/otago6.pdf
Life in the Sick-Room
Essays by Harriet Martineau (1845) (pdf)
You can read this at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...insickroom.pdf
SIP - Universal Basic Income
Added a page to explore this idea which would replace social security.
You can read this and view some videos on the topic at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/inde...sic_income.htm
Robert Burns Lives!
Edited by Frank Shaw.
Ronnie Jack and Robert Burns: An Appreciation by Patrick Scott
Patrick Scott has been extremely kind and generous to Robert Burns Lives! in the past but particularly during the last few months. His latest contribution is an article honoring a dear friend of his (and mine) known affectionately by his many colleagues as Ronnie Jack. I had heard many of my Burnsian friends speak of Ronnie with great respect and kindness, and I finally met him at a Burns conference at the University of South Carolina in April 2009. As I recall, we sat together that night and he was everything I had heard about him - a gentleman in the first degree! Ronnie contributed an article to the pages of Robert Burns Lives! later on and you can find it in our website index. Since then, when my thoughts would make rounds of the different friends I had made in Scotland, he would always come to mind. He was the man I always remembered with a smile and a warm look on his face. Although his body had aged, his mind never did and much wisdom was shared with his friends. (FRS: 1.5.17)
You can read this at: http://www.electricscotland.com/fami...s_lives249.htm
The Story
This story is chapter 1 from the book "Reminiscences of a Country Doctor 1840-1914"
THE BREAD RIOTS IN GLASGOW, 1848.
By the passing of the great Reform Bill of 1832, with its sweeping enfranchisement of the people, the subsequent repeal of the Corn Laws, 1846, and introduction of Free Trade, 1848-9, it was hoped that prosperity would visit our country; that the suffering and panic incident to dull trade and partial famine, which from time to time had continued to visit us, would be at least mitigated if not entirely removed. Many things, however, contributed to delaying the fulfilment of these expectations. Concurrently with the passing of the latter of these measures, a great famine began in the land, due to the failure of the potato crop through disease in 1845. In Ireland, this disease had been already raging for some time, everywhere causing much distress, and even starvation was experienced by masses of the Irish people, who were largely dependent on the potato for their support. This terrible blight upon what was an almost universal article of diet continued with more or less disastrous consequences until 1848, when the distress experienced with such severity in Ireland gradually extended to this country and came to be participated in by the labouring classes here, and also in other parts of the United Kingdom, aggravated in their case by bad harvests and destitution from want of work.
The disturbed state of Europe, moreover, which in this same year culminated in the second French Revolution, contributed largely to unsettle men’s minds. Louis Philippe, the King, had just escaped to England with his Queen Consort, having arrived at Newhaven, 3rd March, 1848. The boulevards had been seized by the mob of Paris, who had marched with torches flaring, flags waving, singing and vociferating on their way to the Foreign Office, where, in consequence of some real or imaginary insult given to a Colonel stationed there, the troops were rashly ordered to fire on the crowd, when over half a hundred of them were killed. Great excitement immediately everywhere prevailed. The tocsin was rung from the bell of Notre Dame at midnight, and by 24th February, 1848, Paris was in arms and the capital in their hands. The news of this upheaval amongst our neighbours across the Channel had no doubt a disturbing influence upon some of our communities at home. But the calmer and more stable judgment of our people saved us from scenes and consequences such as were witnessed on the Continent, our saner proceedings being further strengthened by the consciousness on our part that the hopes raised in France of increased prosperity had not followed the election of the composite Government under the revolutionary leaders so quickly as was expected. This Government consisted of Despont De L’Eure, President, with Lamartine the poet, Louis Blanc, socialist, Ledru-Rollin, statesman, and Arago, scientist, in his Cabinet. Great hopes were entertained by the French socialists from the experiment of establishing national workshops, in which artizans were to be employed at the expense of the State. This it was thought would give work to all; yet the expected prosperity did not come. Still, though the calmer temperament of our race saved us from the excesses here referred to, terrible suffering and distress were being experienced in different parts of our country, and many local riots took place in England, and even Scotland did not escape during this trying period.
Glasgow, with its large and varied population, the centre of numerous artizan and labouring classes, had through this unsettled period experienced a protracted time of dull trade. The potato rot had cut off a staple article of diet; bread was dear, and, in consequence of bad harvests, scarce, and disease haunted the homes of the poor, for that dread plague, Asiatic Cholera, that hangs on the skirts of insanitation, defective feeding, and slum crowding, had made its appearance in the city. Men were heart-stricken, daily witnessing their wives and little ones in destitution and suffering; children crying for bread, and “ weeping ere their sorrow comes with years.” The tendency in the columns of some of the press was to belittle the suffering and destitution said to exist at this period. But this was only the ostrich policy of some writers who, because the head was out of sight, imagined all was well, and tended to mischief rather than otherwise in the present instance; the destitution and the suffering being stern and real was not to be shaken off, and had already extended over a lengthened period.
In these circumstances, and'within certain limits at the outset, the people resolved to rise above the law which had made no provision for them and their helpless ones, and help themselves. Accordingly, on Monday, 6th March, 1848, a crowd of men, women, and some boys, met in the Public Green of Glasgow to the number, it was said, of about 5,000, and having armed themselves so far by tearing up the railings at the Green, marched off in great excitement in different directions towards the centre of the city. At this stage of the movement, I got mixed up in it. I was then a lad of
about ten years of age, and my object here is to narrate what came under my personal observation and experience. I was busy watching some soldiers at drill in the square of the old Barracks, then in the Gallowgate, when some boys hurrying past gave the information that a crowd of people were smashing shop windows and breaking into shops down the street. I distinctly recollect that the news flashed through me like an electric shock, and I put off little time in hurrying to the scene of riot; and that when I arrived amongst the crowd, I was in a state of great open-eyed earnestness and excitement bordering almost on fear. The mob numbered possibly about two to three hundred, and was spread fully half way across the Gallowgate just opposite the foot of Kent Street, and I could see that the attention of the mass of the rioters was entirely taken up with what was going on in a shop on the north side of the street, the window of which, I observed, had been smashed, there being no glass in it, and the door burst open. Inside the shop I saw two or three men very busy throwing out loaves and breadstuffs of various kinds to the crowd gathered on the foot-path round the door, and that, in a very short time, the shop was looted and all disposed of. The shop belonged to J. & H. Black, bakers.
Next door to the baker’s was a boot and shoe shop, belonging to Malcolm Martin, shoemaker. The door of this shop had been closed at the beginning of the disturbance, and the window shuttered. But these afforded small protection, and were soon summarily disposed of by the rioters in front of the crowd, they being the only parties in possession of weapons at this early stage of the irruption. This shop was also entered and looted in a manner similar to the baker’s. Boots and shoes were pitched out as loaves had been in the former case, and were as eagerly grasped at by the people around.
I was now on the outer edge of the crowd, an excited and timorous on-looker, and could see people hurrying away, some carrying loaves and others shoes, whilst others more fortunate had secured both loaves and shoes. These mostly seemed anxious to get off and out of sight, possibly home to their families, as if not belonging to the rioters, but drawn to the scene only in hope of getting share of the bread for the children; others, seemingly famishing, I observed hurrying away, having a loaf under their arm, from which they were tearing handfuls, and devouring eagerly as they went along, such seemed their hunger. The crowd was not specially a noisy one at this stage. It seemed too earnest for that. But many of them wore a haggard expression of countenance, such as I have since learned to associate with suffering, destitution, and partial starvation. There was, however, considerable excitement and evidently a good deal of suppressed feeling, which could have been readily enough, if occasion were given, turned into an element of great danger.
A very short time, as we have seen, served to loot these shops; and now the outside crowd, led on by those who had been inside the shops, began to march down the Gallowgate towards the Cross; I followed with the mob. So far as I could discern, there seemed no disposition on the part of the rioters to wantonly destroy property for destruction’s sake; they seemed rather at this stage earnest, anxious, and possessed of a certain amount of restraining timidity, as if quite conscious of the position they, had placed themselves in as regards the law. On arriving at the statue of King William—this statue then stood alongside the kerb of the north footpath, facing the east and looking up Gallowgate, not as now in the middle of Trongate and looking westward, and was just in front of what were the Old Tontine Arches, all of which have now disappeared, while the quaint mask faces which served as their keystones—interesting relics of a byegone age— which, it appears, have been entirely lost sight of by the City Fathers, were looking down on our strange and excited gathering—the leaders of the party suddenly stopped here as if reflecting, bethinking themselves of something. After a hurried consultation, they turned towards the north footpath and marched to Musgrove’s, gunsmith and ironmonger (near the old Tontine Close, now happily removed). Here again the crowbar bearers were requisitioned, and the shop though closed was soon burst open and entered.
By this time the crowd had assumed much larger proportions than when in the Gallowgate, and it was not so easy for me to follow what was going on amongst the ring-leaders. But when next I observed them, I could discern they were carrying guns and other firearms, which gave them a more formidable appearance. I have no recollection, however, of any wanton, defiant, or bravo shots being fired off, although I have since learned that such had been done by other sections of rioters. Having satisfied their wants at Musgrove’s, the rioters now returned to the Cross, which was only a short distance off, and here again a pause took place, and there seemed to be some further deliberation as to future procedure. When next they began to move off I observed the mob—which had now got to be a very considerable one—divided, and whilst one section of it went along London Street towards the Green, the other turned down Saltmarket Street in the direction of the jail bridge, and I, still hanging on to the skirt of the crowd, a keenly interested spectator, went with the latter. Another gunsmith’s shop, W. Paton’s, was entered, in Saltmarket Street, from which a further supply of fire-arms was obtained. The march was then continued on past the jail and across the bridge to Crown Street and Clyde Place, on the South side.
The rioters being now possessed of a large hammer or other similar weapon—how obtained I had no means of knowing, probably from some of the ironmongers' premises they had been in—before interfering with any of the shops, went deliberately to work breaking down the spiked iron railing alongside the river with their hammer. They first snapped the iron balusters at their junction with the low stone coping, and then pulled them up out of the iron rail that held them together at the top. In this way the active members of the mob—and they were now getting more numerous and bolder— very soon became armed with formidable weapons. The shops and business places in Clyde Place and Crown Street had been all closed in anticipation of our arrival; but now with the pikes the men possessed, the doors and window shutters proved feeble defences and the shops were entered almost as easily as if they had been left open. Here again began a repetition of what I had before witnessed in Gallowgate—the shops were entered, dried fish, cod, and ling, loaves, etc., were thrown out and hurriedly carried off, those just outside the windows and doors throwing the articles to others further back in the crowd. At one shop, a grocer's, the intruder, having entered by the window, plunged into a basket of eggs, with the result that yolks were flowing in a golden stream to the footpath. In Clyde Place, Bishop’s shipchandler’s premises were entered and more fire-arms and some knives obtained, and from Yuill’s jeweller’s shop, Main Street, Gorbals, a quantity of watches and jewellery were carried off. This, however, and similar jewellery robberies were not necessarily the work of the rioters, but appeared rather that of the regular thief availing himself of the opportunity the nature of the disturbance afforded him.
Hitherto the proceedings on the part of the rioters had been all one sided, the police having wisely refrained from any attempt at repression where the force was obviously inadequate. But now a change came over the aspect of affairs, and the attention of the surging mass became arrested by observing one of Menzies’ ’buses, with its green tartan body, approaching from the direction of Jamaica Street or Broomielaw Bridge. On reaching the outskirts of our large crowd—now, however, beginning, as I thought, to get a little less dense as the ’bus neared us—several gentlemen were seen seated on the top near the driver. These, I could hear, were magistrates, and as soon as the horses were stopped, the hurried rub-a-dub of a kettle drum was heard, and immediately thereafter one of the magistrates stood up and read aloud what I afterwards learned was the “Riot Act,” in which all well disposed persons are implored to betake themselves to their homes, etc., etc. This at once put us all, rioters and non-rioters, outside the protection of the law. The work of the rioters, however, still went on, though not so briskly or with so much zeal, and they seemed to shift their operations more into Gorbals and away from the river-side.
Up till this stage, I had been a much interested young observer, but after what had taken place 011 the ’bus, I had somehow become aware that the procedure, though exciting, was not quite so innocent and safe as had at first been taken for granted, and consequently I began to move away in the direction of Jamaica Bridge, with the object of going home. But scarcely had I arrived at Carlton Place, then quite a superior residential quarter, when I became conscious of a jangle, jangling noise, accompanied by the tramping of numerous horses from the direction of Bridge Street, and before I could fully realise what was happening, or reach the corner to ascertain what it meant, my heart sank almost to my boots—if I had any on, which I am not quite sure of—on observing a large body of horse soldiers, the 3rd Dragoons, swing round Carlton Place corner in all their glitter and resplendent order, swords drawn, and quite filling the street, carrying all before them. It seemed to me as if the end not only of the riot but of the w-orld had come upon us, and, observing some servant girls standing at the open entrance to one of the houses in Carlton Place, evidently out to admire the gallant troopers, the rioters not having been near their end of the street, I plunged in between them to their no small consternation, and was quite content to remain there till the horsemen were well out of the way.
Emerging from my place of hiding almost immediately afterwards, I ran with what haste I could across to Jamaica Bridge, in hope of placing the river between us, but only to discover that there was 110 passage that way, that the ends of the bridge were guarded and all traffic stopped by the Old Pensioners, the “Foggies,” as they were styled, who had been called out to aid in confining the rioters to the districts they were then in, and so limiting their movements. These old veterans, dressed in their unique uniform, broadhats, large greatcoats, and armed with gun and bayonet, presented such a stern front to me that if my condition at sight of the horsemen was bad, I am afraid it was not improved at the bridge by the appearance of the pensioners. Fortunately, my dilemma did not last long. The veterans, influenced doubtless by my very disconsolate appearance and my age, shortly after allowed me to pass, with the peremptory order “to go home at once,” which I was only too pleased to do, and I witnessed no more of either the riot or the rioters.
The movement, however, soon collapsed. The troopers, pensioners, and other agencies quickly succeeded in breaking up the rioting party by limiting and restricting their movements, and though the destruction of property had been considerable, it was so far satisfactory that no lives were lost—on the south side of the river at least— among the crowd with which I had been associated.
Matters proceeded very differently, however, as I afterwards learned, with those rioters who left us at the Cross to go by London Street for the Green. Getting ultimately into Bridgeton, the process of shop-wrecking went on with them as with the South-side body. But at John Street, the "Riot Act” having been read, through some ill-considered haste, the troops were ordered to fire upon the mob, with most deplorable consequences. Seven innocent persons were shot, the affair ending in six deaths.
Throughout the whole of this alarming day the spirit of the orderly citizen was admirable. Henry Dunlop, of Craigton, a prominent railway director of the period, afterwards Lord Provost of Glasgow •—when he resided at Carlibar, Barrhead—with the object of limiting or, if possible, preventing the spread of information to other populous centres of what was being enacted in the city of St. Mungo, advised that no telegrams be allowed out of the city unless first signed by a magistrate. This wise expedient was the more easily managed at this period as the telegraph system was then entirely in the hands of the railway companies, not having been bought by the Government till 1868 by the "Electric Telegraph Act.” The evening newspaper, now so usefully and universally established, was then, and for long after this, a thing of the future; yet by six o’clock in the evening of the same day, the position of affairs had become so well known in the city that large numbers of the general community came forward and were voluntarily sworn in as special constables, in front of St. George’s Church, Buchanan Street, with the object of strengthening the hands of the magistrates, if required for night duty. Happily their services were not called for; and as there was no attempt made to renew the disturbance next day, order was soon established throughout the bounds of the municipality.
Since those gloomy days the whole social fabric of our country has been revolutionized, and that, too, without the disastrous consequences that followed the frightful upheaval in France. But the great object lesson of the occasion has never since been lost sight of. And in periods of bad trade—and it would almost seem that times of trade depression come round periodically—suffering and distress are never allowed to become so acute as on this memorable occasion, although relief works of a kind, as soup kitchens and distributions of meal, were provided even then—the magistrates now adopting the wiser policy of instituting schemes of relief by labour colonies and other agencies adequate to the necessities of the distress, and so minimising and making bearable the miseries of the suffering people.
You can read the other chapters in this book at: http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...tishdoctor.pdf
And that's it for this week and wish you all a Happy New Year.
Alastair
http://www.electricscotland.com/
Electric Scotland News
Wishing you all a Very Happy New Year.
This month will see many Burns Suppers all over the world so do check in your local area to see if there is one you can go to and thus get a taste of some haggis and a wee dram.
I tried to find some footage on the New Year's celebrations in Scotland but all I found was the London one. I watched other news channels like CNN but again didn't see anything on Scotland. Frankly I think this is a missed opportunity and Scotland should do something to help folk from around the world watch our events. However there are quite a few videos on YouTube for you to watch.
Continuing my work on the Scottish Innovation Party and have added extra information to our Health section and also created a page to look at the Universal Basic Income which shows promise to also benefit our health as well according to research.
This year is going to be very interesting with Donald Trump as the new US President and Brexit starting and also the Scottish Council Elections. So lots to look forward to.
Scottish News from this weeks newspapers
Note that this is a selection and more can be read in our ScotNews feed on our index page where we list news from the past 1-2 weeks. I am partly doing this to build an archive of modern news from and about Scotland as all the newsletters are archived and also indexed on Google and other search engines. I might also add that in newspapers such as the Guardian, Scotsman, Courier, etc. 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.
Most-watched videos of 2016
Watch a compilation of the most-watched videos on the BBC Scotland News website in 2016.
View these at:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-38408436
Andy Murray knighted in New Year Honours
The tennis star rounds off a landmark year in which he won a second Wimbledon title, retained Olympic gold and finished the year as world number one.
Read more at:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-38467970
Scots honoured in 2017
Andy Murray was far from the only Scot to be named in the New Year Honours list.
Read more at:
http://www.scotsman.com/giving-back/...2017-1-4329054
First baby boxes handed out
Nicola Sturgeon has handed out Scotland’s first baby boxes to parents, filled with essentials such as nappies, clothes and books.
Read more at:
http://www.scotsman.com/news/first-b...gins-1-4329839
Universal basic income trials being considered in Scotland
Two councils, Fife and Glasgow, are investigating idea of offering everyone a fixed income regardless of earnings
Read more at:
https://www.theguardian.com/politics...ed-in-scotland
Majority of Scots oppose second independence vote in 2017, poll shows
61.5 per cent said they were against a new vote in 2017.
Read more at:
http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/1...s/?ref=mr&lp=1
Publishing group DC Thomson in £20m dividends bonanza
Chairman Andrew F Thomson said the year had seen stability in publishing revenues, adding: “Our newspaper and magazine businesses continue to perform well in the current market
Read more at:
http://www.scotsman.com/business/com...anza-1-4330055
Stage Formula 1 in Scotland and show we are still in Europe
by Jonathan Stanley
Read more at:
http://www.scotsman.com/heritage/peo...wide-1-4330392
More than 1.1m jobs available
Job vacancies have topped 1.1 million, the highest for a year, although salaries continue to stagnate
Read more at:
http://www.scotsman.com/business/mar...back-1-4330082
Historic bagpipes returned to homeland
A Campbeltown teenager has been gifted a vintage set of bagpipes with an extraordinary history
Read more at:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-...-west-38403623
Scots urged to give indyref2 bill views
Members of the public have been urged to give their views on the Scottish government's draft independence bill as the consultation enters its final week.
Read more at:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-...itics-38504898
A Harder border with England?
Here's how it could happen.
Read more at:
http://www.scottishreview.net/BrianWilson123a.html
Universal basic income is not a magic solution, but it could help millions
The current system of welfare and employment simply isn’t working. Scotland, Canada and the Netherlands are right to explore this misunderstood option
Read more at:
https://www.theguardian.com/commenti...da-netherlands
Scotland's 2017 council elections
Scotland goes to the polls again in 2017 - this time for local authority elections
Read more at:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-...itics-38518557
Sir Tim Barrow: UK's new ambassador to EU
Downing Street has called the UK's new ambassador to the European Union a seasoned and tough negotiator, who will bring energy to Brexit talks.
Read more at:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-38512901
Electric Canadian
Chronicles of Canada
Added Volume 12: The Father of British Canada: A Chronicle of Carleton
I might add that I've found text copies of these volumes so have added a link to them on the page.
You can read this at: http://www.electriccanadian.com/hist...les/chronicles
The Annals of the Town of Guelph 1827 - 1877
Compiled under the direction of C. Acton Burrows, Editor of the Guelph Herald (1877) (pdf)
You can read this at: http://www.electriccanadian.com/hist...nalsguelph.pdf
Electric Scotland
Clan Leslie Society of New Zealand & Australia
Got in their January 2017 newsletter which you can read at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/fami...slie/index.htm
The Story of the Otago Church and Settlement
By Rev. C. Stuart Ross (1887) (pdf)
An interesting account of this Scots church which you can read at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...tagochurch.pdf
Reminiscences of a Country Doctor 1840-1914
By David Pride, M.D., J.P. (1914) (pdf). The first chapter is about the Bread Riot in Glasgow.
You can read this at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...tishdoctor.pdf
Sport in New Zealand
By Lieut.-Col. Montagu Cradock, C.B. (1904) (pdf)
You can read this at: http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...newzealand.pdf
A Handbook for Travellers in New Zealand
By F.W. Pennefather, LL.D. (1893) (pdf)
You can read this at: http://www.electricscotland.com/History/nz/otago6.pdf
Life in the Sick-Room
Essays by Harriet Martineau (1845) (pdf)
You can read this at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...insickroom.pdf
SIP - Universal Basic Income
Added a page to explore this idea which would replace social security.
You can read this and view some videos on the topic at:
http://www.electricscotland.com/inde...sic_income.htm
Robert Burns Lives!
Edited by Frank Shaw.
Ronnie Jack and Robert Burns: An Appreciation by Patrick Scott
Patrick Scott has been extremely kind and generous to Robert Burns Lives! in the past but particularly during the last few months. His latest contribution is an article honoring a dear friend of his (and mine) known affectionately by his many colleagues as Ronnie Jack. I had heard many of my Burnsian friends speak of Ronnie with great respect and kindness, and I finally met him at a Burns conference at the University of South Carolina in April 2009. As I recall, we sat together that night and he was everything I had heard about him - a gentleman in the first degree! Ronnie contributed an article to the pages of Robert Burns Lives! later on and you can find it in our website index. Since then, when my thoughts would make rounds of the different friends I had made in Scotland, he would always come to mind. He was the man I always remembered with a smile and a warm look on his face. Although his body had aged, his mind never did and much wisdom was shared with his friends. (FRS: 1.5.17)
You can read this at: http://www.electricscotland.com/fami...s_lives249.htm
The Story
This story is chapter 1 from the book "Reminiscences of a Country Doctor 1840-1914"
THE BREAD RIOTS IN GLASGOW, 1848.
By the passing of the great Reform Bill of 1832, with its sweeping enfranchisement of the people, the subsequent repeal of the Corn Laws, 1846, and introduction of Free Trade, 1848-9, it was hoped that prosperity would visit our country; that the suffering and panic incident to dull trade and partial famine, which from time to time had continued to visit us, would be at least mitigated if not entirely removed. Many things, however, contributed to delaying the fulfilment of these expectations. Concurrently with the passing of the latter of these measures, a great famine began in the land, due to the failure of the potato crop through disease in 1845. In Ireland, this disease had been already raging for some time, everywhere causing much distress, and even starvation was experienced by masses of the Irish people, who were largely dependent on the potato for their support. This terrible blight upon what was an almost universal article of diet continued with more or less disastrous consequences until 1848, when the distress experienced with such severity in Ireland gradually extended to this country and came to be participated in by the labouring classes here, and also in other parts of the United Kingdom, aggravated in their case by bad harvests and destitution from want of work.
The disturbed state of Europe, moreover, which in this same year culminated in the second French Revolution, contributed largely to unsettle men’s minds. Louis Philippe, the King, had just escaped to England with his Queen Consort, having arrived at Newhaven, 3rd March, 1848. The boulevards had been seized by the mob of Paris, who had marched with torches flaring, flags waving, singing and vociferating on their way to the Foreign Office, where, in consequence of some real or imaginary insult given to a Colonel stationed there, the troops were rashly ordered to fire on the crowd, when over half a hundred of them were killed. Great excitement immediately everywhere prevailed. The tocsin was rung from the bell of Notre Dame at midnight, and by 24th February, 1848, Paris was in arms and the capital in their hands. The news of this upheaval amongst our neighbours across the Channel had no doubt a disturbing influence upon some of our communities at home. But the calmer and more stable judgment of our people saved us from scenes and consequences such as were witnessed on the Continent, our saner proceedings being further strengthened by the consciousness on our part that the hopes raised in France of increased prosperity had not followed the election of the composite Government under the revolutionary leaders so quickly as was expected. This Government consisted of Despont De L’Eure, President, with Lamartine the poet, Louis Blanc, socialist, Ledru-Rollin, statesman, and Arago, scientist, in his Cabinet. Great hopes were entertained by the French socialists from the experiment of establishing national workshops, in which artizans were to be employed at the expense of the State. This it was thought would give work to all; yet the expected prosperity did not come. Still, though the calmer temperament of our race saved us from the excesses here referred to, terrible suffering and distress were being experienced in different parts of our country, and many local riots took place in England, and even Scotland did not escape during this trying period.
Glasgow, with its large and varied population, the centre of numerous artizan and labouring classes, had through this unsettled period experienced a protracted time of dull trade. The potato rot had cut off a staple article of diet; bread was dear, and, in consequence of bad harvests, scarce, and disease haunted the homes of the poor, for that dread plague, Asiatic Cholera, that hangs on the skirts of insanitation, defective feeding, and slum crowding, had made its appearance in the city. Men were heart-stricken, daily witnessing their wives and little ones in destitution and suffering; children crying for bread, and “ weeping ere their sorrow comes with years.” The tendency in the columns of some of the press was to belittle the suffering and destitution said to exist at this period. But this was only the ostrich policy of some writers who, because the head was out of sight, imagined all was well, and tended to mischief rather than otherwise in the present instance; the destitution and the suffering being stern and real was not to be shaken off, and had already extended over a lengthened period.
In these circumstances, and'within certain limits at the outset, the people resolved to rise above the law which had made no provision for them and their helpless ones, and help themselves. Accordingly, on Monday, 6th March, 1848, a crowd of men, women, and some boys, met in the Public Green of Glasgow to the number, it was said, of about 5,000, and having armed themselves so far by tearing up the railings at the Green, marched off in great excitement in different directions towards the centre of the city. At this stage of the movement, I got mixed up in it. I was then a lad of
about ten years of age, and my object here is to narrate what came under my personal observation and experience. I was busy watching some soldiers at drill in the square of the old Barracks, then in the Gallowgate, when some boys hurrying past gave the information that a crowd of people were smashing shop windows and breaking into shops down the street. I distinctly recollect that the news flashed through me like an electric shock, and I put off little time in hurrying to the scene of riot; and that when I arrived amongst the crowd, I was in a state of great open-eyed earnestness and excitement bordering almost on fear. The mob numbered possibly about two to three hundred, and was spread fully half way across the Gallowgate just opposite the foot of Kent Street, and I could see that the attention of the mass of the rioters was entirely taken up with what was going on in a shop on the north side of the street, the window of which, I observed, had been smashed, there being no glass in it, and the door burst open. Inside the shop I saw two or three men very busy throwing out loaves and breadstuffs of various kinds to the crowd gathered on the foot-path round the door, and that, in a very short time, the shop was looted and all disposed of. The shop belonged to J. & H. Black, bakers.
Next door to the baker’s was a boot and shoe shop, belonging to Malcolm Martin, shoemaker. The door of this shop had been closed at the beginning of the disturbance, and the window shuttered. But these afforded small protection, and were soon summarily disposed of by the rioters in front of the crowd, they being the only parties in possession of weapons at this early stage of the irruption. This shop was also entered and looted in a manner similar to the baker’s. Boots and shoes were pitched out as loaves had been in the former case, and were as eagerly grasped at by the people around.
I was now on the outer edge of the crowd, an excited and timorous on-looker, and could see people hurrying away, some carrying loaves and others shoes, whilst others more fortunate had secured both loaves and shoes. These mostly seemed anxious to get off and out of sight, possibly home to their families, as if not belonging to the rioters, but drawn to the scene only in hope of getting share of the bread for the children; others, seemingly famishing, I observed hurrying away, having a loaf under their arm, from which they were tearing handfuls, and devouring eagerly as they went along, such seemed their hunger. The crowd was not specially a noisy one at this stage. It seemed too earnest for that. But many of them wore a haggard expression of countenance, such as I have since learned to associate with suffering, destitution, and partial starvation. There was, however, considerable excitement and evidently a good deal of suppressed feeling, which could have been readily enough, if occasion were given, turned into an element of great danger.
A very short time, as we have seen, served to loot these shops; and now the outside crowd, led on by those who had been inside the shops, began to march down the Gallowgate towards the Cross; I followed with the mob. So far as I could discern, there seemed no disposition on the part of the rioters to wantonly destroy property for destruction’s sake; they seemed rather at this stage earnest, anxious, and possessed of a certain amount of restraining timidity, as if quite conscious of the position they, had placed themselves in as regards the law. On arriving at the statue of King William—this statue then stood alongside the kerb of the north footpath, facing the east and looking up Gallowgate, not as now in the middle of Trongate and looking westward, and was just in front of what were the Old Tontine Arches, all of which have now disappeared, while the quaint mask faces which served as their keystones—interesting relics of a byegone age— which, it appears, have been entirely lost sight of by the City Fathers, were looking down on our strange and excited gathering—the leaders of the party suddenly stopped here as if reflecting, bethinking themselves of something. After a hurried consultation, they turned towards the north footpath and marched to Musgrove’s, gunsmith and ironmonger (near the old Tontine Close, now happily removed). Here again the crowbar bearers were requisitioned, and the shop though closed was soon burst open and entered.
By this time the crowd had assumed much larger proportions than when in the Gallowgate, and it was not so easy for me to follow what was going on amongst the ring-leaders. But when next I observed them, I could discern they were carrying guns and other firearms, which gave them a more formidable appearance. I have no recollection, however, of any wanton, defiant, or bravo shots being fired off, although I have since learned that such had been done by other sections of rioters. Having satisfied their wants at Musgrove’s, the rioters now returned to the Cross, which was only a short distance off, and here again a pause took place, and there seemed to be some further deliberation as to future procedure. When next they began to move off I observed the mob—which had now got to be a very considerable one—divided, and whilst one section of it went along London Street towards the Green, the other turned down Saltmarket Street in the direction of the jail bridge, and I, still hanging on to the skirt of the crowd, a keenly interested spectator, went with the latter. Another gunsmith’s shop, W. Paton’s, was entered, in Saltmarket Street, from which a further supply of fire-arms was obtained. The march was then continued on past the jail and across the bridge to Crown Street and Clyde Place, on the South side.
The rioters being now possessed of a large hammer or other similar weapon—how obtained I had no means of knowing, probably from some of the ironmongers' premises they had been in—before interfering with any of the shops, went deliberately to work breaking down the spiked iron railing alongside the river with their hammer. They first snapped the iron balusters at their junction with the low stone coping, and then pulled them up out of the iron rail that held them together at the top. In this way the active members of the mob—and they were now getting more numerous and bolder— very soon became armed with formidable weapons. The shops and business places in Clyde Place and Crown Street had been all closed in anticipation of our arrival; but now with the pikes the men possessed, the doors and window shutters proved feeble defences and the shops were entered almost as easily as if they had been left open. Here again began a repetition of what I had before witnessed in Gallowgate—the shops were entered, dried fish, cod, and ling, loaves, etc., were thrown out and hurriedly carried off, those just outside the windows and doors throwing the articles to others further back in the crowd. At one shop, a grocer's, the intruder, having entered by the window, plunged into a basket of eggs, with the result that yolks were flowing in a golden stream to the footpath. In Clyde Place, Bishop’s shipchandler’s premises were entered and more fire-arms and some knives obtained, and from Yuill’s jeweller’s shop, Main Street, Gorbals, a quantity of watches and jewellery were carried off. This, however, and similar jewellery robberies were not necessarily the work of the rioters, but appeared rather that of the regular thief availing himself of the opportunity the nature of the disturbance afforded him.
Hitherto the proceedings on the part of the rioters had been all one sided, the police having wisely refrained from any attempt at repression where the force was obviously inadequate. But now a change came over the aspect of affairs, and the attention of the surging mass became arrested by observing one of Menzies’ ’buses, with its green tartan body, approaching from the direction of Jamaica Street or Broomielaw Bridge. On reaching the outskirts of our large crowd—now, however, beginning, as I thought, to get a little less dense as the ’bus neared us—several gentlemen were seen seated on the top near the driver. These, I could hear, were magistrates, and as soon as the horses were stopped, the hurried rub-a-dub of a kettle drum was heard, and immediately thereafter one of the magistrates stood up and read aloud what I afterwards learned was the “Riot Act,” in which all well disposed persons are implored to betake themselves to their homes, etc., etc. This at once put us all, rioters and non-rioters, outside the protection of the law. The work of the rioters, however, still went on, though not so briskly or with so much zeal, and they seemed to shift their operations more into Gorbals and away from the river-side.
Up till this stage, I had been a much interested young observer, but after what had taken place 011 the ’bus, I had somehow become aware that the procedure, though exciting, was not quite so innocent and safe as had at first been taken for granted, and consequently I began to move away in the direction of Jamaica Bridge, with the object of going home. But scarcely had I arrived at Carlton Place, then quite a superior residential quarter, when I became conscious of a jangle, jangling noise, accompanied by the tramping of numerous horses from the direction of Bridge Street, and before I could fully realise what was happening, or reach the corner to ascertain what it meant, my heart sank almost to my boots—if I had any on, which I am not quite sure of—on observing a large body of horse soldiers, the 3rd Dragoons, swing round Carlton Place corner in all their glitter and resplendent order, swords drawn, and quite filling the street, carrying all before them. It seemed to me as if the end not only of the riot but of the w-orld had come upon us, and, observing some servant girls standing at the open entrance to one of the houses in Carlton Place, evidently out to admire the gallant troopers, the rioters not having been near their end of the street, I plunged in between them to their no small consternation, and was quite content to remain there till the horsemen were well out of the way.
Emerging from my place of hiding almost immediately afterwards, I ran with what haste I could across to Jamaica Bridge, in hope of placing the river between us, but only to discover that there was 110 passage that way, that the ends of the bridge were guarded and all traffic stopped by the Old Pensioners, the “Foggies,” as they were styled, who had been called out to aid in confining the rioters to the districts they were then in, and so limiting their movements. These old veterans, dressed in their unique uniform, broadhats, large greatcoats, and armed with gun and bayonet, presented such a stern front to me that if my condition at sight of the horsemen was bad, I am afraid it was not improved at the bridge by the appearance of the pensioners. Fortunately, my dilemma did not last long. The veterans, influenced doubtless by my very disconsolate appearance and my age, shortly after allowed me to pass, with the peremptory order “to go home at once,” which I was only too pleased to do, and I witnessed no more of either the riot or the rioters.
The movement, however, soon collapsed. The troopers, pensioners, and other agencies quickly succeeded in breaking up the rioting party by limiting and restricting their movements, and though the destruction of property had been considerable, it was so far satisfactory that no lives were lost—on the south side of the river at least— among the crowd with which I had been associated.
Matters proceeded very differently, however, as I afterwards learned, with those rioters who left us at the Cross to go by London Street for the Green. Getting ultimately into Bridgeton, the process of shop-wrecking went on with them as with the South-side body. But at John Street, the "Riot Act” having been read, through some ill-considered haste, the troops were ordered to fire upon the mob, with most deplorable consequences. Seven innocent persons were shot, the affair ending in six deaths.
Throughout the whole of this alarming day the spirit of the orderly citizen was admirable. Henry Dunlop, of Craigton, a prominent railway director of the period, afterwards Lord Provost of Glasgow •—when he resided at Carlibar, Barrhead—with the object of limiting or, if possible, preventing the spread of information to other populous centres of what was being enacted in the city of St. Mungo, advised that no telegrams be allowed out of the city unless first signed by a magistrate. This wise expedient was the more easily managed at this period as the telegraph system was then entirely in the hands of the railway companies, not having been bought by the Government till 1868 by the "Electric Telegraph Act.” The evening newspaper, now so usefully and universally established, was then, and for long after this, a thing of the future; yet by six o’clock in the evening of the same day, the position of affairs had become so well known in the city that large numbers of the general community came forward and were voluntarily sworn in as special constables, in front of St. George’s Church, Buchanan Street, with the object of strengthening the hands of the magistrates, if required for night duty. Happily their services were not called for; and as there was no attempt made to renew the disturbance next day, order was soon established throughout the bounds of the municipality.
Since those gloomy days the whole social fabric of our country has been revolutionized, and that, too, without the disastrous consequences that followed the frightful upheaval in France. But the great object lesson of the occasion has never since been lost sight of. And in periods of bad trade—and it would almost seem that times of trade depression come round periodically—suffering and distress are never allowed to become so acute as on this memorable occasion, although relief works of a kind, as soup kitchens and distributions of meal, were provided even then—the magistrates now adopting the wiser policy of instituting schemes of relief by labour colonies and other agencies adequate to the necessities of the distress, and so minimising and making bearable the miseries of the suffering people.
You can read the other chapters in this book at: http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...tishdoctor.pdf
And that's it for this week and wish you all a Happy New Year.
Alastair
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