Scots have played an important part in the
development of Canada, as the subsequent chapters in this book will
show, but in order to understand why this has been the case we must look
beyond Canada to Scotland itself. The traits of character, the ways of
thinking, the prejudices and the biases with which the Scottish
immigrants came to this country and which they passed on to their
descendants even to the third and fourth generations, found their
origins in the homeland which they had left. It is therefore necessary
that we should commence our survey of the Scottish tradition in Canada
by looking at the Scottish background in order to gain some
comprehension of the place which the Scot has made for himself in
Canada.
Two basic forces which have made the Scot what he is
are Scotland's geography and Scotland's history. The physical character
of the land itself has wielded a powerful influence on Scottish
development; along with that has gone the influence of its geographic
position in the world. At the same time, history which includes the
human development in this environment has played an even more important
role in shaping the Scottish character. We must, therefore, take both
these factors into account when we attempt to understand the Scot and
his contributions to the New World.
Scotland, like Caesar's Gaul, is divided into three
geographical areas: the far north, including Caithness, Sutherland and
the Orkneys, which are flat, windblown and not very fertile; the middle
portion, containing the Highlands lying north of the Firth of
Forth-Firth of Clyde line, which are mountainous, rugged and on the west
coast come down to the sea's edge with cliffs sometimes over two hundred
feet high, with long coastal indentations or sea-lochs, deep valleys and
poor soil; the southern area or Lowlands with a broad belt of fertile
land running between Edinburgh and Glasgow, and the more southerly
portion having low hills or uplands and relatively good soil. The
Lowland area has always been the wealthiest part of the country, and
since the eighteenth century and the beginning of the Industrial
Revolution it has tended to dominate Scotland, drawing off much of the
population from the northern areas to its factories and workshops. It
has also had a further advantage in that it has the best ports on both
the east (Aberdeen, Dundee, Perth, Leith) and west (Ayr, Ardrossan,
Glasgow) coasts, and is closer to England than the other regions, which
means that its opportunities for commerce are considerably greater.
Although Scotland did not begin to develop as a
nation-state until Kenneth MacAlpine, King of Dalriada in Argyllshire,
succeeded to the throne of Pictland in 843, it had a long history before
that date. Successive invasions and settlements of Stone Age, Bronze Age
and Celtic peoples had populated the country. In the fifth century
Celtic Scots from Ireland had landed in modern Argyllshire to found the
Kingdom of Dalriada and probably about the same time the Picts, made up
of a mixture of Celts and Bronze Age peoples, had established their
kingdom in the central and eastern Highlands. Consequently, when King
Kenneth I succeeded to the Pictish throne he began a process of
unification which took place at first north of the Forth and Clyde line,
but which eventually included the Britons of the Kingdom of Strathclyde
in the southwest and the Angles who had pushed north from Northumbria to
found Edinburgh (Edwin's Burgh) and settle the south centre and east.
Many factors helped to bring about the coalescence of
these diverse elements into one nation. One of the most important was
the Christian Church. Although at first Celtic Christianity from
Ireland, which dated back to the third century, had begun the conversion
of the various peoples, it was eventually ousted by Roman Christianity
which, with its urbanized approach and highly structured organization,
was able to set up a unified church which tended to bring the various
parts of the country together. Another important factor was the advent
of the Anglo-Normans after the Norman Conquest of England, for they
brought with them the ideas of feudalism, centralization of government
and nationalism, which came to dominate the Lowlands although they did
not affect so strongly the clan-oriented society of the Highlands.
One other force which brought about the unification
of Scotland was pressure from outside. From the eighth to the twelfth
centuries the north of Scotland constantly suffered under attacks from
Scandinavians who settled in the Orkneys, the Hebrides, and Caithness
and Sutherland. This experience had forced the other parts of the
country to draw closer to each other to resist the invaders. More
significant in this process, however, was the Scottish resistance to the
attempts of the English kings to make Scotland a vassal state. William
the Conqueror had forced King Malcolm I (Canmore) to do some form of
homage; Henry II had made William the Lion his
prisoner and forced him to become his vassal, although Richard I sold
him back his independence; and Edward, rightly known as "the hammer of
the Scots," made the most determined effort to bring the Scots to heel. At first Edward almost succeeded, but as a
result of English oppression, the church, the nobility and the burghs
joined together in resistance, the principal leadership being given at
first by one of the lairds, William Wallace of Elderslie, and then by
Robert deBrus, Earl of Carrick, who became King Robert I. Edward I was
succeeded by his son Edward II, who through
ineptitude and problems at home was forced after the Battle of
Bannockburn (1314) to give up any hope of conquering Scotland. As a
result of this ordeal by fire Scotland had become a nation.
Yet the country still suffered from an internal
division between the Highlands and the Lowlands which was to endure down
to the eighteenth century. For one thing, there was a language
difference. The Highlander spoke Gaelic or "Old Celtic" which differed
even from the language of the Celts of southwest Wales and Ireland, and
was completely different from the Anglo-Norman language spoken in the
central and eastern Lowlands. Added to this was the difference of social
organization. In the Highlands the land was regarded as the property of
the clan as a whole through the chief. Each crofter had his own
"in-field" or plot and might also cultivate an "out-field," but his
principal interest was the pasturing of his cattle, which grazed upon
the common land. The Lowlander, on the other hand, tended to follow the
English practice of relatively intensive arable cultivation of strips of
land scattered throughout the lord of the manor's fields. While in the
Lowlands the tendency by the beginning of the modern period was towards
the consolidation of land into individual farms, in the Highlands the
farming methods changed little until the eighteenth century. The
linguistic and socio-economic patterns also had their political effects.
In the north the chief of the clan was the ruler, often a kind of petty
monarch who was supposed to take good care of his clansmen, who in turn
were obliged to follow him in war, usually carrying a broadsword or
Lochaber axe. In the Lowlands the country was organized along feudal
lines with the vassals of the king serving both as his civil service and
the heavy cavalry of which his feudal army consisted. Added to this
force on occasion during the War of Independence and later, he called
out the peasants as a whole, who formed the "schiltrons" of pikemen
which defeated the English cavalry at Bannockburn and other battles. The
Scottish monarch's power in the north varied very much according to his
own ability, power and capacity to win the support of powerful clans
such as the Gordons in the northeast and the Campbells in the west. The
one constant unifying element in the country seems to have been the
church with its monasteries, its bishoprics, its parishes and its
services in a common Latin.
Yet while the Scots had maintained their independence
and autonomy against English encroachments in the early part of the
fourteenth century, they were not suffered to live in peace. During the
War of Independence they had become allied to France, who constantly
sought to use them as a cat's paw to cause England trouble during the
Hundred Years War which began in 1337. The English for their part
repeatedly attempted to add Scotland to the empire which they hoped to
establish by the conquest of France. In the fifteenth century these
difficulties were further compounded by the fact that from 1406 until
the union of the crowns of England and Scotland in 1603, every Scottish
monarch came to the throne as a minor. This gave full scope to
aristocratic intrigue and conflict, resulting at times even in civil
war. Yet despite, or perhaps because of their difficulties, the Scots
during this period became increasingly conscious of their identity as a
nation. To this was added a radical change in the church in the
sixteenth century which gave further strength to the Scottish sense of
uniqueness.
The Protestant Reformation began in 1517 when Martin
Luther in Wittenberg, Saxony, made his protest against ecclesiastical
corruption. This movement spread to other areas of Europe, particularly
Switzerland, where Ulrich Zwingli and Henry Bullinger in Zurich, and
somewhat later Jean Calvin in Geneva, led in the development of the
reform movement. In Scotland the condition of the church, which had
reached a low ebb, and the social and economic changes which were taking
place prepared the way for the advent of the new religious thought and
ideas. The church itself was in considerable disarray theologically,
morally and socially, with the result that many of the rising
bourgeoisie seem to have been becoming disillusioned and rather cynical.
One has only to read the acts of the last two or three synods of the
church before 1560 to gain an impression of its condition. At the same
time, Scottish merchants, sailors, soldiers and scholars were bringing
in the new ideas from Germany, France and Switzerland. These were taken
up first of all in the port towns of Aberdeen, Perth, Dundee and Leith
but soon spread into the hinterland to gain the support of the lairds or
landed gentry and some of the nobles. By 1555 the Protestant movement
had gained a considerable amount of support, although it was still
without any effective organization.
The man who pulled the whole movement together was
John Knox who, from 1549 to 1553, had been a refugee in England because
of his beliefs and, on the Roman Catholic Mary Tudor's accession to the
English throne, had found it necessary to move to Geneva where he became
the pastor of the English refugee congregation. In 1555 he returned to
Scotland for some nine months to encourage and help organize those
pressing for ecclesiastical reform. Then in 1559, after Elizabeth, who
favoured Protestantism, succeeded her sister Mary as Queen of England
and his English congregation consequently departed to their homes, Knox
went back to Scotland. There he quickly became the spiritual leader of
the reform movement. Largely through his influence, in 1560 the Scottish
Estates or parliament abolished papal authority and the recital of the
Mass, while at the same time establishing a Protestant church which Knox
believed to be "the best reformed church in the world," his sentiments
being echoed by many of those who sat in the church's General Assembly.
Thus by the time of Knox's death in 1572 the groundwork had been laid
for a distinctively Scottish Protestant religious outlook.
Central to the doctrine of the Reformation was the
basic Christian paradox of the depravity of man and the overflowing
abundance of the grace of God in Jesus Christ, the Redeemer. Knox and
his supporters were uncompromising Calvinists who believed that man's
whole life is to be lived to the glory of God. This, however, could be
done only by the way in which the Christian knew God's will for him
through the guidance of the Holy Spirit speaking in Holy Writ.
Consequently, the church had the tremendous responsibility of expounding
faithfully the Word of God in the Old and New Testaments, of
administering the sacraments and of "uprightly" enforcing Christian
discipline. This in turn meant that the church must be autonomous, free
from the control of the nobility, the government and even the
universities. Nevertheless, the ministers of the church had the duty of
admonishing the rulers concerning their obligations since they too were
also citizens of the Kingdom of Christ, and of guiding the schools and
universities that they might train the youth to take their proper places
in both church and commonwealth. These ideas, set forth in the "Scots
Confession" of 1560 and in the first Book of Discipline, became
the foundation of Scottish Protestantism producing what one author has
called "a nation of aggressive thinkers and enquirers into the truth."1
Once the new church, with the support of the
government, had established itself firmly in the country and the
Reformation had been more or less generally accepted, a noticeable
change took place. The Scots, who had never been particularly noted for
religious devotion or even high moral conduct, seemed to experience
something of a change of heart. A new and deep religious feeling seemed
to develop among the people, including the Roman Catholic minority.
Theology became a matter of consuming interest to many, and attendance
at sermons almost a national pastime. Yet withal, we do not see the
intense bitterness of conflict between Protestant and Catholic that
appeared at the same time in other countries. The deposition of the
young Queen Mary in 1567 probably forestalled a civil "war of religion"
similar to that which plagued France for years. No Catholics were
executed for their beliefs after the Reformation came into effect in
1560. Controversy was common, but systematic persecution was not. This
may be partly because most of the Roman Catholic minority were either
located in the Highlands or were to be found among the lower classes in
the towns, but also because the Scot usually felt that argument was more
effective than terror. Religion and religious controversy in this way
came to provide another dimension to Scottish national identity.
Knox's work was carried on after his death in 1572 by
those who had come under his influence: James Melville, Robert Pont, and
Robert Bruce, but especially Andrew Melville who, influenced also by the
thinking of Theodore Beza, Calvin's successor in Geneva, sought to set
up a completely articulated presbyterian system of church government
with an ascending hierarchy of church courts made up of elected members,
from the session at the congregational level through presbyteries and
synods to the national general assembly. Under the influence and drive
of such men the Reformation spread across the country not only in the
Lowlands but into the Highland glens and straths, with the result that
by the end of the century the Reformed Church of Scotland was indeed
truly national, wielding a broad and powerful influence upon the whole
of Scottish life. From this point on Scottish character and life would
be closely involved with a strong Calvinistic Protestantism. Even those
opposed to it because of conflicting religious beliefs or simply because
they did not like its practical effects would, nevertheless, have to
take it into account.
Scotland throughout the latter part of the sixteenth
century, however, was by no means a peaceful or prosperous country. Not
only was she affected by the constant conflicts in Europe which damaged
her trade, but she also suffered from the internal anarchy fostered by
an unruly aristocracy. Nevertheless, some progress was made towards
peace as James VI gradually took control of
the government. Yet even he, though hailed as the "Scottish Solomon" and
entertaining grandiose ideas of Divine Right, was not able to bring
peace until he ascended the English throne in 1603 on the demise of
Elizabeth.
The advent of James to the throne of England came as
the result of the foresight of Henry VII who
had married his daughter Margaret to James's great grandfather, James
IV, who died fighting the English in 1513.
Henry seems to have seen the ultimate outcome of this move as the union
of the two countries; and although it took a century to bring about the
preliminary step of the union of the crowns, it was on the way to
achieving its purpose. The move, however, was by no means an unmixed
blessing to Scotland. The Scottish court forsook Edinburgh for London,
which resulted in Scottish interests being placed repeatedly in a
secondary position to those of England. Furthermore James, who had been
obliged to wage a continual campaign against his nobility and who had
sought by every means to dominate the democratically governed Reformed
Church, now had behind him the power which enabled him to control both,
as he said, with a stroke of his pen from Whitehall.
It was the conflict with the Scottish church which
finally led to an explosion which ushered in the Civil War between
Charles I and the English Parliament. As a result of James's imposition
of episcopacy on the Church of Scotland there had been growing
discontent in its ranks. But when Charles I and Bishop Laud attempted in
1637 to impose an English form of liturgy on the congregation of St.
Giles, Edinburgh, and Jenny Geddies tossed her stool at the dean's head
for saying 'mass at her lugs,' not only did the other ladies follow
Jenny's example, but the nation also rose in revolt. The result was the
"First Bishop's War" which forced Charles to call his Parliament to pay
off the Scottish forces encamped in the north of the country. From that
time on one move led to another, until war broke out in England, to be
followed by the formal alliance of the Scottish and English rebels in
the Solemn League and Covenant of 1643. Yet, although the Scots proved
to be valuable allies for the English parliamentary party, when they refused to accede to Charles's execution
and gave their support to his son, the English parliamentary armies in
1651 moved into the country upon which they imposed an unequal union for
close to a decade. This union, although it brought prosperity to some of
the Scots, left a considerable legacy of antipathy to English rule, even
among the church leaders who had so much in common with the Puritans.
Although many of the Puritan clergy had agreed with
the Scots in their ideas of doctrine and church government, and as a
result had drawn up the strongly Calvinistic Westminster Confession of
Faith, the Larger and Shorter Catechisms, The Directory of Worship and
the Form of Church Government, the English Parliament had rejected these
documents while the Scottish Estates adopted them wholeheartedly. "The
Westminster Standards" in this way became the hallmark of Scottish
Presbyterianism which was opposed to both English Congregationalism and
English Episcopacy. The rule of Cromwell's Independents, however, was
relatively mild compared to that of the bishops who returned with the
restoration of Charles II to the thrones of
the two countries in 1660. Charles, whose principal interest was in
ruling as an absolute monarch similar to his cousin Louis
XIV in France, attempted to force even by
musket, boot and thumbscrew the Scottish Presbyterians to accept an
episcopal church order. The result was the rise of the Covenanters, who
demanded the restoration of the National Covenant of 1638, but all that
resulted was the "killing days" under "Bluidy Clavers" (Graham of
Claverhouse). The outcome was the growth of an anti-Stuart, radical
Protestant element in the country which was violently opposed to England
and everything for which it seemed to stand.
Religion, however, was not the only cause for
discontent with the unequal marriage to the English. Although Scotland
had been given freedom to trade within the English Empire during the
Cromwellian occupation, with the Restoration the English merchant lobby
saw that this was brought to an end. Thenceforward, Scots might go as
colonists to Virginia and similar places, a few Scottish articles of
trade might be shipped to the colonies, but otherwise Scots were
strictly foreigners. At the same time, Scotland had its own trade
destroyed by being involved against its will in the English wars with
the Dutch and the French, two of their best European customers.
Gradually the Scots came to depend almost entirely upon trade with
England, who was prepared to give no presents in return.
When the English rose in revolt against James
II and placed William of Orange and his wife
Mary, James's daughter, on the throne, the Scots went along with the
move although with no great enthusiasm. One thing that did reconcile
many to the new regime was the final establishment of presbyterianism
and the abolition of episcopacy. William, however, soon wiped out the
benefits of the favour obtained through this move by the massacre of the
MacDonalds of Glencoe and his involvement in the failure of the Scottish
attempt to establish a colony at Darien on the Isthmus of Panama. The
feeling in most quarters was that they had returned to 'square one,' for
the English, while insisting that the Scots were foreigners, did not
recognize the rights of the Scots to independent action.
Although Scottish discontent did not come to a head
during the reign of William and Mary, probably due to a constant threat
of the return of the Roman Catholic Stuarts, it did during the reign of
James II's second daughter Anne. Scots were
becoming so frustrated with the situation in which they felt themselves
always subordinated to English interests that they believed that the
only answer was total independence of England, under a Scottish monarch.
Although Roman Catholics, the Stuarts would be the only possible
candidates for this position, a point of view adopted by even a good
many Protestants. Anne's answer was complete union of the two countries
by an amalgamation of their parliaments. After much argument and
negotiation this was finally brought about in 1707. The maintenance of
the presbyterian character of the Church of Scotland as established and
the continuance of Scottish law were guaranteed, although both promises
were soon forgotten by England once the union was effected. At the same
time, Scots were given complete freedom of trade within the Empire, a
privilege of which they took immediate advantage.
The eighteenth century was a century of very mixed
feelings in Scotland. The mercantile community, particularly in Glasgow,
came into sudden prominence, since by virtue of their geographic
position they were favourably placed to enter the North American
markets, in which they gained almost a monopoly of the tobacco trade.
Thus, despite increased taxes resulting from the union, certain sections
of the country began to prosper. Other elements in the population, on
the other hand, were not so happy. The 48 members of the House of
Commons and the 16 elected peers had little influence in Parliament, the
MPs being usually under the control of some "manager" such as Lord
Dundas. Increasing discontent within the Church of Scotland over the
abrogation of the congregation's right to choose its own minister (1712)
led to two secessions, one under Ralph and Ebenezer Erskine (1733) and
the other under Thomas Gillespie (1761). At the same time, for a mixture
of reasons, religious, economic, political and social discontent came to
expression in the Highlands in the Rebellions of 1715 and 1745 in favor
of complete independence under a Stuart monarchy. Many Scots were by no
means prepared to have their country swallowed up by the English, either
culturally, religiously or politically.
Despite the resistance to change, however, both
Highlands and Lowlands underwent many modifications as a result of the
union with England. The Highlanders during this period experienced what
was probably the most drastic alteration to their social structure and
way of life. As a result of the ruthless suppression of the rebellions,
particularly of the '45, the Highlands were "pacified." Every effort was
made to destroy the clan system by wiping out the authority of the
chieftains, by banning the wearing of the kilt, by calling in all
firearms and by building roads throughout the whole area. These measures
were followed by the enlisting of whole regiments of clansmen to fight
overseas in the Empire's wars, and by the beginning of the clearance of
people from the Highland glens. These uprooted Highlanders either
migrated to Lowland cities such as Glasgow or crossed the sea to
America, bearing with them the traditions, sentiment, nostalgia and
often anger of a displaced people.
While the pacification of the Highlands was enacted
and enforced as the result of government legislation, "the clearances"
took place because the chieftains, now deprived of their former
authority and independence, sought to recoup themselves by becoming
sheep graziers who could sell their wool to the growing textile industry
in the south. Simultaneously the Lowlands, particularly in the region of
Glasgow, which were developing industrially were quite prepared to take
the influx of migrants who could find jobs in the burgeoning tobacco
industry, in the cotton and linen factories, and in the building of
ships or in the mining of coal. The English Industrial Revolution was
radically altering the whole face of Scotland.
Yet the economic changes were by no means the only,
nor perhaps the most important, changes affecting Scottish identity
during the eighteenth century. One of the reasons for Scotland's
development was its unique emphasis upon education ever since the
establishment of the Reformed Church which had
sought to set up a nationwide parish school system. G. M. Trevelyan
believes that at the Union of 1707, the Scots were the best educated
people in Europe. The eighteenth century saw a growth of education
particularly at the post-secondary level. The universities under the
leadership of men such as Dr. William Robertson, Principal of Edinburgh
University, flourished as they never had before. Furthermore, the
growing interest in science and technology owing to the expanding
industrialization found the Scottish universities, much more than their
English counterparts, prepared to develop the sciences. Chemistry and
physics advanced under the direction of teachers and scientists such as
Joseph Black of Edinburgh. What we now call economics was first set
forth systematically by Adam Smith, Professor of Moral Philosophy at
Glasgow; and technology expanded as the result of the work of
inquisitive craftsmen such as James Watt, an instrument-maker, and the
improver of the steam engine. The result was Scottish intellectual
expansion and development which sometimes produced the scepticism of the
philosopher David Hume and at others the piety and religious vigour of
the preacher Robert Haldane, but laid a large part of the foundations
for the development of English-speaking Canadian education in the
nineteenth century.
With all these changes, Scottish identity became
somewhat dimmed and the Scot tended to become increasingly anglicized.
Political life under Lord Bute and Lord Dundas, who became First
Viscount Melville, was centred in London, while English influence,
economic, intellectual and religious, extended its hold on the Scottish
outlook. Reaction came in the religious sphere with the founding of the
Associate Presbytery (1733) and the Relief Presbytery (1761), but these
were indirect manifestations since these bodies' primary interests were
in maintaining the spiritual freedom of the church from the control of a
frequently rationalistic or Anglican nobility and parliament. Added to
this, the Associate Presbytery divided in 1747 over the issue of whether
a Christian could take the oath of allegiance when he became a burgher
of a Scottish burgh. The oath required the one taking it to promise his
loyalty to the form of the Christian Church established in the land.
Some believed that the oath could be taken by members of the Associate
Presbytery, others said, "No." This was to have important repercussions
in Canada as both the "Burgher" and "Anti-Burgher" synods were among the
earliest churches to send missionaries to the British North American
colonies. By 1820 these two bodies had reunited in Scotland to form the
United Associate Secession Church and in 1847 they joined with the
Relief Church to form the United Presbyterian Church which rejected any
type of civil church establishment. Much more important to national
identity, however, was the revival of Scottish self-consciousness under
the influence of Robert Burns, Sir Walter Scott and John Galt who by
their poetry and their novels reminded the Scot of his difference from
the Englishman - indeed from all other men. It was the Romantic Revival
in Scotland which brought about the effective resurgence of the feeling
of Scottish identity and uniqueness.
This rebirth of Scottish consciousness came just in
time, for the end of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth
centuries saw Scotland experiencing a revolution unlike any she had
known before. The Wars of Independence and the Protestant Reformation
had both been important for the wide influence which they had exercised,
but the increasing pace in the industrialization of the country was
equally, if not more, far-reaching. To be sure, the Industrial
Revolution was not a specifically Scottish phenomenon, seeing that its
main centre was in England, but it did have important effects in
Scotland that extended far beyond the walls of the factories and shops.
It brought about radical changes which have left their impress not only
upon Scotland, but also upon other countries such as the United States,
Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Canada.
The immediate impact was felt in the Lowlands.
Scientific farming had become important shortly after the opening of the
nineteenth century with the farmers of Lothian gaining the reputation of
being some of the best agriculturalists in the world. But parallel with
the agricultural development went the development of heavy industry
based on Scottish mineral resources: ship-building, railway
engine-building, general engineering. These were principally centred on
Glasgow and the surrounding area. At the same time, light industry such
as the production of cotton goods and other textiles became active in
other parts of the country. J. and P. Coates, the sewing thread
manufacturers, commenced operations in Kilmarnock. Swan and Co. in
Kirkcaldy began with the production of jute bags, but soon turned to
linoleum. Dundee, Aberdeen and other cities were likewise caught up in
industrial development, while distilling, an ancient industry, expanded
all over the country from the valley of the Spey in the east to Islay
and Skye on the west. By the end of the nineteenth century new industry
had begun to manufacture electrical equipment, chemicals and other
products needed for an increasingly complex society.
The financing for all these developments was largely
Scottish, for the Scots had already developed a banking system which
gave monetary stability to the economy. Instead of following the English
example of having one central government bank with individual banks set
up all over the country, the Scots had relatively few banks, some going
back to the early eighteenth century, but many bank branches. Thus the
dangers of failure were minimal, while the possibility of bank
investment in and financial support of industry was much greater.
Although the government tried to make the Scots conform to the English
pattern, it was defeated largely through the attacks by Sir Walter Scott
on the idea in his Letters of Malachi
Malagrowther. There were, of course, booms and busts throughout the
century and although there were bank failures such as that of the City
of Glasgow Bank in 1878, in general Scottish financial houses weathered
the storms as well as if not better than their English or American
counterparts. Usually such periods of depression led to outflows of
immigrants to the colonies and United States.
Naturally, these economic changes brought about
radical social changes. Class division became more marked and obvious as
not infrequently '' the rich got richer and the poor got poorer," to
quote the song of the 1930s. Gradually also English capital began to
flow northward to buy up Scottish industries and often to move them to
England. But even when the industries were left in Scotland the profits
were taken south, coming back in the form of money to purchase Scottish
estates, which were used mainly for the deer or grouse hunting of the
English capitalist and his aristocratic English and Anglo-Scottish
friends. This in turn led to more clearances and the resulting migration
of the ousted crofters either to the industrial Lowlands and England or
overseas.
Along with these changes went an alteration of the
whole ecclesiastical pattern. With its parish system in which one church
served a fixed geographic area, the Church of Scotland was unable, and
in some cases unwilling because of the cost involved, to take steps to
meet the needs of the migrant workers moving into the industrial
centres. Added to this, many of its leaders had so imbibed the
eighteenth century rationalism that they had nothing to say to their
working class parishioners who lived in poverty, squalor and degradation
in the narrow dead-end side streets of Edinburgh, Glasgow and other
industrial cities. As one critic put it, "they read cold moral essays to
cold, but none too moral congregations." The reaction to this came
through the work of men such as the Haldane brothers who brought about
an evangelical revival within a segment of the established church. Their
work was carried on by the Rev. Dr. Thomas Chalmers, a brilliant
mathematician and economist, who sought to bring about the spiritual,
moral and social reform of the whole country. His great problem,
however, was that of obtaining churches for evangelical minis-ters since
the power of appointment lay in the hands of the heritors, usually the
local landlords, not in those of the congregations. After a ten-year
struggle over the issue, the General Assembly backed by the civil courts
refused to make any change and 451 ministers, followed by nearly
one-third of the Established Church's membership, walked out in 1843 to
found The Free Church of Scotland. This church, along with the United
Presbyterians formed in 1847, did much to help solve the spiritual
problems of the "lower classes" both in the Highlands and in the
industrial areas of the country. At the end of the century the United
Presbyterians and a majority of the Free Church merged to found the
United Free Church, although the strongly Calvinistic wing of the Free
Church refused to go into the union, continuing, principally in the
Highlands, down to the present day.
Intellectually Scotland in the nineteenth century was
influenced strongly by winds blowing from outside while at the same time
keeping its own particular characteristic outlook. The impact of the
Reformation continued strong in most areas of life showing its power in
such movements as the ecclesiastical disruption of 1843, in the
development of such bodies as the Free Presbyterian Church, and in
strong Sabbatarianism coupled with independence of thought and a liking
for metaphysical and theological discussion. In the universities,
however, with the rising influence of physical science, the acceptance
of Darwinian evolution and similar trends, the Reformation doctrines
were beginning to lose their hold, although the basic attitudes often
remained. From Adam Smith and David Hume down to the end of the
nineteenth century, Scotland produced its quota, if not more than its
quota, of philosophers, scientists, doctors and others active in
intellectual fields. At the same time the Scottish literary tradition
was carried on by Thomas Carlyle, R. L. Stevenson, J. M. Barrie, "Ian
MacLaren," Andrew Lang, George Brown and numerous others.
The changes in Scotland were not limited in their
effects to Scotland alone however, for the nineteenth century was the
century of imperialism, colonization and missionary activity, with
people from the western world flowing out to the uttermost parts of the
earth. And the Scots were in the vanguard of the movement. One one hand,
there were soldiers such as "Chinese Gordon" who ended his days as a
victim of the Mahdi in Khartoum, and David Livingstone, the
missionary-geographer who fought the slave trade to his dying day. On
the other, there were the nameless and almost countless immigrants who
set sail from Glasgow and other west coast ports to seek their fortunes
and to find free lands "down under" or in the New World of the Americas.
Scots went everywhere, settling in the "outback" of Australia, on the
veldt of Matabeleland in Africa, on the pampas of Argentina and in the
wilds of the Yukon or the North West Territories in Canada. One Canadian
newspaper in the 1920s even went so far as to say that when the first
official flight was made to the moon, a Scot would be waiting to welcome
it. While this was hardly possible, it is well to note that the first
man to set foot on the moon bore the name of Armstrong, long associated
with the clans on the Scottish borders!
Yet while separated from their "ain folk," the Scots
have not changed radically. Their attitudes, prejudices and points of
view have continued strong. Their nationalism, albeit no longer
specifically Scottish, has been usually transferred to their new heath,
as we can see for instance in the influential part they played in
bringing about Canadian Confederation. Their aggressiveness in every
field of activity into which they have entered has manifested itself
repeatedly. In the areas settled by Highlanders the use of Gaelic has so
continued that there are probably as many speakers of "the language" in
Cape Breton today as there are in Scotland, and Scottish customs,
particularly Highland dancing, have become so popular that one even
finds Dutchmen and Germans happy to wear the kilt, although genuine
Scots may sometimes object to such a profanation of their national garb.
Usually the Scot also maintains a religious background which keeps
coming to the fore, even when he likes to proclaim himself a freethinker
or an agnostic. But above all one might say that he has not lost his
clannishness. Robert Louis Stevenson was quite right when he said:
The fact remains: in spite of the differences of
blood and language the Lowlander feels himself the sentimental
countryman of the Highlander. When they meet abroad, they fall upon each
other's neck in spirit; even at home there is a kind of clannish
intimacy in their talk.2
Because of this continuance of characteristics even
through three and four generations, Scots are usually quite identifiable
within even a cosmopolitan population. If one is asked to speak at a
Scottish Masonic Lodge in Toronto, to a Highland Dance Society in
Durham, North Carolina, to the St. Andrews Society in Montreal or to one
of the dozen other Scottish organizations across Canada or the United
States, one finds that there is a basic similarity and, consequently,
understanding. The sense of humour, which is most important, and very
different from English or American humour, is the same; the background
traditions are similar and the reactions vary little. Even the
differences between Protestant and Roman Catholic seem to have had their
rough edges smoothed considerably by the removal from the old battle
grounds to the new lands of conquest. They are all "brither Scots"
together facing an uncomprehending and sometimes a sneering and often
hostile, but obviously inferior world.
Yet the Scots have also been adaptable, making some
of the best settlers history has known. Like the Jews they have been
able to move into new situations, face new hazards and difficulties and
by a power of adaptation overcome, while at the same time maintaining
their identity. Various explanations have been offered for this
capacity, but it would seem that the reason is the history of Scotland
itself, the traditions which it has devel-°ped from the days of Wallace,
Bruce, Knox, Burns, Scott to the present. It is this Scottish tradition
which has played such an important part in the development of Canada and
the Canadians.3
NOTES
1. W.Notestein, The Scot in History (London:
Cape, 1947), p. 123.
2. R. L. Stevenson, "The Foreigner at Home," in
Memories and Portraits (London: Collins, n.d.), p. 36.
3. For a more detailed account of the Scottish
background the reader should turn to the New Edinburgh History of
Scotland by W. C. Dickinson and G. Pryde, 2 vols. (Edinburgh:
Nelson, 1961-2), or to the Edinburgh History of Scotland in four
much larger volumes, edited by Gordon Donaldson (Edinburgh: Oliver &
Boyd, 1971 ff.).