An Enlightenment Tory in Victorian Scotland: The Career of Sir Archibald Alison PDF
Preview An Enlightenment Tory in Victorian Scotland: The Career of Sir Archibald Alison
AN ENLIGHTENMENT TORY IN VICTORIAN SCOTLAND The Career of Sir Archibald Alison An Enlightenment Tory in Victorian Scotland is a political and intellectual biography of Sir Archibald Alison (1792-1867), historian, social critic, criminal lawyer, and sheriff of Lanarkshire. The first author to examine the full range of Alison's writings and activities, Michael Michie reveals a significant link between the Scottish Enlightenment and Victorian con- servatism. Michie argues that Alison's conservative ideas were deeply influenced by the social and political thought of the Scottish Enlightenment. He contends that Alison was the embodiment of the High Tory appropria- tion of the legacy of Adam Smith particularly evident in the belief that an agrarian capitalist society was the most appropriate form for both the maintenance of order and the practice of virtue. Developing the suggestion that a conservative interpretation of the enlightened legacy was possible for the succeeding century, Michie's study offers a useful corrective to the received wisdom that Victorian Liberalism was the true heir of the Scottish Enlightenment. MICHAEL MICHIE is associate professor of political science, Atkinson College, York University. MCGILL-QUEEN'S STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF IDEAS AN ENLIGHTENMENT TORY IN VICTORIAN SCOTLAND The Career of Sir Archibald Alison Michael Michie McGill-Queen's University Press Montreal & Kingston • London • Buffalo © McGill-Queen's University Press 1997 ISBN 0-7735-1025-7 Legal deposit fourth quarter 1997 Bibliotheque nationale du Quebec Published simultaneously in the European Union by Tuckwell Press Ltd. Printed in Canada on acid-free paper This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Humanities and Social Sciences Federation of Canada, using funds provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. McGill-Queen's University Press acknowledges the support received for its publishing program from the Canada Council's Block Grants program. Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data Michie, Michael Hugh, 1944- An Enlightenment Tory in Victorian Scodand: the career of Sir Archibald Alison (McGill-Queen's studies in the history of ideas; 25) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-7735-1025-7 i. Alison, Archibald, Sir, 1792-1867 - Political and social views. 2. Conservatism - Scotland - History - igth century. 3. Enlightenment - Scotland. 4. Scodand - Politics and government — 19th century. 5. Scodand — Intellectual life - 19tii century. II. Title. III. Series. KDC313.A4M53 1997 32o.5'2'og2 097-900688-0 This book was typeset by Typo Litho Composition Inc. in 10/12 Baskerville. For my father John James Michie and in memory of my mother Catherine Johnson This page intentionally left blank Contents Acknowledgments xi Introduction 3 1 "Persevering Virtue" 13 2 "Laborious Lawyer" 35 3 "Riding at Them with a Squadron of Dragoons" 64 4 "A Little Aristocracy of Freeholders" 92 5 "Mr. Wordy's History" 130 6 "The Oldest of the Tories" 159 Conclusion 198 Bibliography 203 Index 225 This page intentionally left blank Acknowledgments In the planning and writing of this book I have been helped and inspired by a number of people. It was John Dwyer who first suggested that a study of Alison was viable and who gave me the benefit of his wide knowledge of Scottish Enlightenment sources and debates. My dissertation supervi- sor, Nicholas Rogers, deserves thanks; his knowledge of eighteenth- and early-nineteenth-century British social and political history was invalu- able in setting my subject in a wider context, and his comments and sug- gestions for chapter revisions were thorough and extremely useful. David McNally gave me the benefit of his original and stimulating research on Adam Smith, Thomas Mai thus, and political economy in general. I thank Douglas Hay for many fruitful suggestions for research in the area of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century criminal law. My colleagues in the Political Science Department of Atkinson College, York University, and our secretary, Louise Jacobs, have demonstrated their support and friendship through many years. I have received much encouragement from Leslie Sanders, a dear friend and colleague. I am grateful for the financial support received from the CUEW (now CUPE) Part-time Research Fund and the Atkinson College Research Fund. Those grants enabled me to travel to Britain, where my experience of the courtesy and professionalism of the staffs of the Public Record Office (Kew), the Scottish Record Office, the National Library of Scot- land, Edinburgh University Library, and the Mitchell Library, Glasgow, was entirely positive. The staffs at York University Libraries and the staff at the Robarts Library, University of Toronto, were also extremely helpful, as was Hazel O'Loughlin-Vidal of Atkinson College. This book would not have progressed far from the dissertation stage without the encourage- ment and advice of Peter Blaney, Philip Cercone, and Joan McGilvray of
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