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GREAT REFORM AGITATION- THE
BURGH PRONOUNCES IN FAVOUR OF REFORM -SELF-DENYING SUPPORT GIVEN TO IT BY
THE SEVEN TRADES-COUNTY REFORM MEETING-GENERAL SHARPE, IN THE LIBERAL
INTEREST, OPPOSES MR. KEITH DOUGLAS, THE TORY MEMBER FOR THE
BURGHS-UPROARIOUS ELECTION MEETING IN THE COURT-HOUSE-VARYING FORTUNES OF
THE REFORM BILL-SERIOUS DISTURBANCES IN THE BURGH ON ACCOUNT OF ITS
REJECTION BY THE PEERS-ULTIMATE SUCCESS OF THE MEASUREGREAT `REFORM
JUBILEE AND BANQUET -RETIREMENT OF MR. KEITH DOUGLAS -- ELECTION CONTEST
BETWEEN GENERAL SHARPE AND MR. DAVID HANNAY.
BEFORE the generation that
was contemporary with Burns had passed away, the very liberality in
politics for which he was tabooed began to prevail, till the once Tory
town again became Whiggish, if not something more. Throughout the country
at large, a feeling had risen up against every thing that savoured of
monopoly and exclusive privilege. So early as 1818, we find some faint
traces of it in Dumfries, as manifested by the refusal of persons, when
made burgesses, to pay the customary fines, and by non-freemen beginning
business within the Burgh in defiance of the deacons and the dean of
guild. [Town Council Minutes.] No doubt the financial mismanagement from
which the town suffered so much, tended to make the inhabitants
increasingly dissatisfied with the existing order of things, and prepared
them to join heartily in the national cry that was soon afterwards raised
for Parliamentary and Burgh Reform. Mr. David Staig, influenced by failing
health, and the embarrassments of 1817, finally withdrew from public life
that year-the last of the old provosts whose word was law; and with him
the inveterate Conservatism of which he was at once the guardian and
representative disappeared from the Council.
During his magisterial era,
the Dumfriesians were accustomed to look upon the British Constitution as
perfect, or nearly so, and the close burgh system as a worthy pendicle to
it, which none save rash fools would interfere with; but in 1830 such a
change had come over both the people and their rulers, that they with an
almost unanimous voice repudiated the Duke of Wellington's memorable
declaration to his fellow-peers, on the 26th of October, when he said, " I
am thoroughly convinced that Britain possesses, at this moment, a
Legislature which answers all the good purposes of a legislature in a
higher degree than any scheme of government whatever has been found to do
in any country in the world; that it possesses the confidence of the
country; that it deservedly possesses that confidence; and that its
decisions have justly the greatest weight and influence with the people."
This anti-Reform manifesto of the Conservative Premier gave a mighty
impulse to the popular countermovement. Enthusiastic meetings to protest
against it, and pronounce in favour of the Reform Bill brought into the
House of Commons by Lord John Russell, were held all over the country.
Annan took the lead in Dumfriesshire; the County town followed soon after;
and before 1831 was many weeks old, all the Royal Burghs, and numerous
other places in the south of Scotland, had given in a hearty adhesion to
the Reform cause.
The Dumfries meeting, held
in the Court-house on the 2nd of December, 1830, was the greatest
political gathering that had ever, up till that date, taken place in the
town, at least in modern times. It was densely crowded, comprised most of
the principal burgesses, and, to give it increased influence and eclat,
the Provost, Mr. John Fraser, though a Conservative, presided-seemingly
not unwilling to be carried with the current of the prevailing tide. The,
resolutions, eight in number, declared the dissatisfaction of the
inhabitants with the existing mode of election, as not affording "a full,
free, and equal representation of the people" in the Commons House of
Parliament; and they especially pointed out the defective nature of the
Scottish representative system, inasmuch as "the whole number of voters
for all the burghs in Scotland was conform to a Parliamentary report of
1825," according to which "the right of voting is exercised by delegates
from the several burghs, who are chosen by the Town Councils themselves,
being self-elected bodies, and uncontrolled by their nominal constituents,
the great body of the inhabitants." Among those who took a prominent part
in the business were the following gentlemen: Mr. Robert Murray, writer,
afterwards provost; Mr. Thomas Harkness, writer; Mr. David Hannay, banker;
Mr. William M'Gowan, writer, afterwards provost; Mr. John M'Diarmid,
editor of the Dumfries Courier; Mr. Benjamin Oney, clothier; Mr. Miles
Leighton, merchant, afterwards provost; Mr. William M'Gowan, builder; Mr.
Robert Wallace, writer; Mr. James M'Whir, merchant; Mr. Robert M'Harg,
merchant; Mr. Archibald Hamilton, writer; Dr. M'Cracken, and Captain
M'Dowall; making up in themselves-not to name others of the same standing
present-no inadequate representation of the worth, intelligence, and
material interests of the town. All the resolutions, with a petition to
the House of Commons based upon them, were unanimously adopted. Mr. Adam
Rankine, a gentleman noted for his fervid temperament and public spirit,
was so pleased with the meeting, that he forwarded an account of it by
express to Lord Advocate Jeffrey, the substance of which was communicated
by Mr. Gibson Craig to a great Edinburgh Reform meeting, and elicited from
it a round of cheers in honour of "the judicious resolutions and patriotic
example of the citizens of Dumfries."
Patriotic and unselfish the
movement certainly was, so far as men of the councillor stamp were
concerned. They had long enjoyed a monopoly which gave them exclusive
political and municipal power, and trading privileges; and now they united
with their less-favoured fellow-countrymen in demanding its abolition. The
Incorporated Trades of Dumfries manifested the same self-denying spirit.
The pending Reform Bill was rife with a more sweeping revolution for them
than even for the merchants of the guild; and it would not have been
wonderful if they had obstinately opposed the measure, or given to it a
sullen, passive resistance. Were the bill to pass, farewell then to their
time-hallowed heritage of seven seats at the Council Board, with all the
political influence, social status, and (more precious than any thing else
to some) all the pleasant hobnobbing with nobility which these involved;
whilst, following fast in the wake of the bill, were coming kindred
measures by which their ancient incorporation was to be broken up as if it
had never been. Rising above such selfish considerations, the Seven Trades
met in their own Hall on the 4th of March, 1831, under the chairmanship of
their chief, Mr. James Thomson, convener, and voted a unanimous address to
his Majesty, William the Fourth, expressing their sincere approval of, and
gratitude for, "the liberal, safe, equitable, and comprehensive Bill of
Reform which has been lately introduced into the House of Commons." [Seven
Trades' Minutes.]
On the 15th of the same
month, a general meeting of the inhabitants was held, presided over by
Provost Fraser, at which the Reform Bill was approved of with the same
cordiality and unanimity that characterized the first Dumfries meeting.
Mr. Robert Murray, after explaining its chief provisions, was warmly
cheered when he exhorted those present to be up and doing in support of
the Throne and the Cabinet at the present crisis; and he took occasion to
pay a high compliment to the Trades, whose address to the King, he said,
had been read by him with the liveliest pleasure; and proud he felt in
being the townsman of persons who, unlike the great borough-mongers, were
willing to waive their exclusive privileges, and sacrifice their private
interests for the good of the public. [Dumfries Courier.]
Even the County of Dumfries
could not help having its Reform meeting. It took place on the 18th of
March - Vice-Admiral Sir Robert Laurie in the chair. A series of
resolutions was proposed by Sir William Jardine of Applegarth, and
seconded by Mr. Leny of Dalswinton, approving of the Bill so far as it
affected the Scottish burghs, but disapproving of it on the ground that it
fixed the franchise for counties too low, and dealt too sweepingly with
the English pocket boroughs. Major-General Matthew Sharp of Hoddam,
[General Sharpe was of the old Kirkpatrick line, whose ancestor Ivon held
lands in Annandale in the middle of the twelfth century. The Kirkpatricks,
as we have seen, possessed the estate of Closeburn for centuries; but in
1780 it was sold to Mr. Menteath by Sir James Kirkpatrick, whose son, Sir
Thomas Kirkpatrick, sheriff-depute of Dumfriesshire, married Jane,
daughter of Charles Sharpe of Hoddam, descended from John Sharpe, who
purchased that estate from the Earl of Southesk in 1690. William
Kirkpatrick of Ellisland, grand-son of Sir Thomas, married a daughter of
Lord Justice-Clerk Erskine; and their son Charles succeeding to the estate
of Hoddam, assumed the name of Sharpe. Burns, in 1791, addressed to Mr.
Sharpe a humorous epistle under a fictitious signature, enclosing three
stanzas written by him to what he calls a charming Scots air of Mr.
Sharpe's composition, and complimenting him on his being an exquisite
violinist (as he was). Mr. Sharpe married a daughter of Renton of
Lamberton, a lady whose beauty is celebrated in "Humphrey Clinker." Their
eldest son was General Sharpe; their second, Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe,
the celebrated wit, artist, and antiquary. Another son, William Sharpe, is
the present proprietor of Hoddam.] "the coming man" for the Dumfries
District of Burghs, then stepped forward on behalf of the whole bill,
thereby fluttering the timid Volscians of the Shire. His amendment to that
effect was seconded by Mr. Monteath of Closeburn, and lost by the narrow
majority of one vote; eighteen gentlemen having supported the resolutions,
and seventeen the amendment.
Three days afterwards, the
second reading of the bill was carried in the House of Commons by the same
small majority of one; the minority including the member for the Dumfries
Burghs, Mr. Keith Douglas. [Mr. William Robert Keith Douglas was the fifth
son of Sir William Douglas of Kelhead, M. P. for the Dumfries burghs, by
Grace Johnstone of Lockerbie. He represented the Burghs from 1812 till
1832.] In the following month an amendment was adopted in committee which
was deemed fatal to the integrity of the measure. That ministers might
appeal to the country on its behalf, Parliament was forthwith dissolved;
and a large majority of members pledged to support the bill were returned.
Dumfries was bent on giving a practical rebuke to its peccant
representative; so was Annan. No doubt was entertained as to what these
two burghs could and would do in the matter; but there was no such
certainty as regarded the other three " carlines," they being still
largely pervaded by the old exclusive leaven. On the 20th of May the
Dumfries Council met in their chamber for the purpose of choosing a
delegate to vote for them at the ensuing election. As the public were
admitted, the place was packed to suffocation, and the proceedings were
gone through under circumstances of great excitement. General Sharpe was
present with the view of promoting the candidature on which he had fairly
entered. Mr. Keith Douglas was also there to defend his obnoxious vote,
and endeavour to placate the fierce opposition which it had aroused. His
explanations were received with impatience; and when he went on to say
that he could not engage to support the Reform Bill when next brought
forward, the audience greeted the intimation with hisses and groans -sweet
music to the honourable gentleman's rival, who on rising afterwards, and
giving an unhesitating approval of the bill, received in return a
boisterous ovation from the crowd. Bailie Thomson moved that Provost
Fraser be appointed delegate, seeing that he had always acted
consistently, and would vote for the Liberal candidate, General Sharpe.
The motion was seconded by Bailie Corson, and carried unanimously; not a
vote being proffered or voice raised in favour of the Tory candidate,
though he had represented the burghs for eighteen years. Bailie Thomson,
with the view of preventing any mistake as to the delegate's intentions,
begged to ask if he accepted the office on the condition proposed.
"Undoubtedly," was Provost Fraser's reply, "I shall be happy to give
effect to the intentions of the Council;" [Dumfries Courier. ] and with
this satisfactory assurance the meeting quietly dispersed.
Annan, with the same
unanimity, elected a commissioner pledged to vote for the Reform
candidate; Lochmaben was divided on the subject, but eventually chose a
pro-Douglas delegate by a majority of seven votes to six; and delegates of
the same stamp were elected unanimously by Sanquhar and Kirkcudbright : so
that, however much the populace might rage and storm, the old member was
sure of being once more returned. The parliamentary election took place on
Monday the 23rd of May, at Dumfries, and was preceded by a demonstration
which, for numbers, scenic effect, and enthusiasm, was quite
unprecedented.
Early in the morning, the
Trades and many of the other inhabitants mustered in great force, and with
flags, emblematic devices, and music, marched out to Gastown with the view
of giving an imposing welcome to General Sharpe, and Mr. Scott, banker,
the Annan delegate. On the hero of the day being descried advancing in an
open carriage, accompanied by several of his friends, a shout was raised
which made the welkin ring. Mr. Scott, who followed with Provost Irving of
Annan in another vehicle, was also warmly greeted. As if by magic, the
horses were loosed from the carriages, and the latter drawn townwards by a
stud of stout lads and men, only too glad to honour in this questionable
way the gallant champion of Reform. The procession, with this curious
cavalcade in the van, occupied more than a mile of the road, each marcher
having a knot of ribbons at his breast of the true-blue colour, whilst no
fewer than forty-three banners fluttered overhead. It passed up a portion
of English Street, then by Loreburn Street and Townhead into the main
thoroughfare. As the magnificent procession defiled down High Street, the
voice of the Mid-Steeple bells ringing welcome could scarcely be heard for
the deafening cheers with which its leading figure was saluted. After a
brief breathing time in the King's Arms Hotel, the General, with a large
retinue of supporters, walked to the scene of contest, receiving
flattering salutes by the way; whilst there was none so poor or polite as
to do any reverence to the rival candidate as he also passed up to the
place of meeting-the Court-house -already filled to overflowing with an
impassioned multitude.
The preliminaries are
conducted in a pantomimic style; for no sooner does Mr. Keith Douglas take
his seat, than a tumultuous uproar begins. Shouts of "Bribery!" "Perjury?"
mingle with the inarticulate din; and, as thunder-clouds answer each
other, hoarse voices from Buccleuch Street swell responsive to the Babel
sounds within. During a slight lull in the tempest, Mr. Murray, writer,
protests, on technical grounds, against the delegates from Sanquhar and
Lochmaben being permitted to vote; and Mr. Patrick Robertson, advocate,
who is present with Mr. Douglas, contends that their commissions are quite
valid, and must be received, which opinion is supported by the sheriff who
presides. The votes are taken. Provost Fraser of Dumfries and Mr. Scott of
Annan give their suffrages for General Sharpe, and are loudly cheered.
Major Crichton of Sanquhar votes for Mr. Keith Douglas; so do Provost
Shand of Kirkcudbright and Mr. John J. Henderson of Lochmaben, amid a
chorus of hisses and yells. The returning officer thereupon announces, or
is understood to announce, that William Robert Keith Douglas, Esquire, has
been duly elected as representative of the Dumfries District of Burghs in
the Commons House of parliament. The honourable gentleman must, of course,
rise to return thanks. He need not. He may feel grateful to the small
majority of the Lochmaben councillors, who sent a commissoner to turn the
scale in his favour; but he owes nothing to the audience he now endeavours
to address. They reject him will have none of his thanks - his eloquence
is reduced to dumb, fantastic show; the noise that greeted him being, says
an earwitness, so terrific that it "would have utterly overwhelmed the
voice of the most stentorian-lunged orator that ever fretted his hour on a
hustings." [Dumfries Courier.] On the contrary, the defeated candidate,
though but a poor speaker, is listened to, not with patience merely, but
delight. Though beaten to-day, he sees with prophetic eye that victory
will be his within the next six months; and there is tremendous cheering
when he makes an oracular declaration to that effect.
The meeting has put down
Douglas, but is not yet done with him; for the indomitable Annan delegate
rises, intent on giving him a "heckling." "Will Mr. Douglas support those
parts of the ministerial measure, Schedules A and B, which disfranchise
the rotten boroughs? Let him say yes or no to this plain question." The
honourable gentleman does not wish to be made further sport of by the
Philistines of Reform. He keeps his seat, and makes no sign, intending to
reserve his answer till a more convenient season, and for the safer
latitude of Westminster; and the inquisitorial Annanite, on tendering the
same question to the worthy hero of Hoddam, receives a reply that will
fall like a bomb-shell on the camp of the borough-mongers. He means to
give these pestilent gentry no quarter, and goes for the whole alphabet of
Reform, from A and B down to Z; and thus elicits a fresh acclamation from
the audience. The newly-elected member now moves as if he wished to
speak-under what impulse, none can tell; but there is as little
disposition as ever to hear him. He gives up the vain attempt; and as the
sheriff declares the business finished, the populace slowly retire, with
loud cries of "Let him no gang back to Parliament and say he is oor
member?" "Bribery and corruption!" "Let us have a look at the Lochmaben
delegate!" Mr. Douglas, with the commissioners who voted for him, retired
by a back door leading to a street in the rear of the Court-house, and,
entering the carriage of Mr. Peter Johnston of Carnsalloch, that was kept
waiting for him, drove off to that gentleman's residence with the utmost
speed. This arrangement was fortunately kept secret, otherwise the
exciting scenes of the Hare hunt of 1829 might possibly have been repeated
with higher game in view. General Sharpe's procession back to his hotel
was like that of a triumphant conqueror. It was even more brilliant and
imposing than his entry into the Burgh on that eventful day.
Dumfries showed
conclusively that it had become Whiggish once more, as in the period
before and long subsequent to the Revolution. Forty years ago, poor Burns
was forced to tremble at his own audacity in hinting that a better "creed
of British liberty" would by-and-by be obtained than the British
Constitution as expounded by De Lolme; now the member for the Burghs is
ostracized for adhering too closely to De Lolme, and there is an earnest,
importunate, all but universal cry raised in Dumfries for an extensive
reform of the Constitution. In the national agitation for this purpose,
the Burgh, according to its size, took a full share. Every critical stage
of Lord John Russell's bill was watched with feverish anxiety: bonfires
blazed at the Monument or the Cross when it made any decided advance;
indignant meetings were convened in the Town Hall or Court-house when its
progress was arrested by opposing factions. More especially was the Burgh
stirred to its utmost depths when, on the 10th of October, 1831, the
astounding intelligence arrived that the bill, which had been read a third
time in the House of Commons on the 21st of September by a majority of
109, had been rejected in the Upper House by a majority of 41.
"Yesterday," says the Courier of the 11th, "was a doleful day in
Dumfries-by far the most doleful we ever remember. ... At the post-office
and other parts of the town, particularly High Street, the greatest
anxiety prevailed to obtain a peep of the newspapers or hear the news.
Before eleven o'clock a.m. a number of our townsmen-some of them men of
extensive property-had assembled together, each enquiring of his neighbour
what was to be done. Despondency was altogether out of the question; and
in all our experience we never saw men more confident of the high
vantage-ground on which they stand. A public meeting was of course
determined on, which, having been called by the Provost on a requisition
addressed to him, passed a series of strong resolutions regretting the
fate of the bill, expressing a hope that his Majesty would still retain
the Reform ministry in office, and that he would take such constitutional
steps as they might advise for ultimately securing the success of the
measure."
The bill, in a somewhat
altered form, was reintroduced next session; its second reading was
carried in the Lower House by 32-I to 162, a majority of two to one ; and
on the 19th of December it passed its final stage in the Commons by the
reduced majority of 116. When, in the following April, the bill was
allowed to be read a second time in the Upper House without opposition,
the country was agreeably surprised; but that feeling gave way to
indignation when the tactics of the Tory peers came to be understood. The
Opposition, led by Lord Lyndhurst, opened an ambuscade upon the measure
when in committee: they insisted upon deferring the disfranchising clauses
till after the enfranchising clauses had been considered -a device which
was supported by 151 votes to 116; and the result was looked upon as
indicative of such inveterate hostility to the bill on the part of their
lordships, that Earl Grey and his colleagues at once resigned office.
Never in modern times has the country been nearer the verge of revolution
than during the few days which intervened between the noble lord's
surrender of the seals, and his reacceptance of them after the Duke of
Wellington failed in his endeavours to form a ministry.
In full sympathy with the
feeling of the times, a political union was established in Dumfries "to
preserve the peace," "to guard the people from being betrayed into acts of
disorder," and to use every effort for the purpose of obtaining "a full
and efficient representation of the people" in Parliament; whilst the
Council and the general public voted addresses to the King, urging him to
recall Earl Grey, and signed petitions to the Commons, adjuring them to
"withhold all supplies" until the Reform Bill should be clothed with the
authority of law. Hitherto the political meetings in the Burgh had been
always closed with a round of cheers in honour of Royalty; but there was
no such sequel to the demonstration in the Court-house on this occasion.
The vocation of the gallant officer, Captain M`Dowall, who invariably
acted as fugleman, was for once in abeyance. "In anticipation of a
different state of things," says the Courier of May 15th, "a great dinner
was projected for the King's birth-day, but the order has been
countermanded, and bids fair to be postponed sine die. The addresses
[adopted at the meeting] were extended as speedily as possible, and in the
course of ten hours were signed by 2,002 persons; being 800 more names
than were attached to any previous petition, even where they remained for
signatures at least an equal number of days."
Dumfries thus manifested
its steadfast adhesion to the principles of Reform; and it is to be
regretted that the mob of the town insisted on supplementing the
constitutional movement by a manifesto of its own. On the evening of the
14th of May, a pot-orator held forth in the market-place; the burden of
his harangue being the iniquity of the borough-mongers, and the threatened
ruin of the kingdom by the stubbornness of the anti-Reform King and the
Tory peers. So much was the speaker's eloquence relished by the listening
crowd, composed mostly of boys, that they paraded him shoulder high
through the principal streets; and then, after dropping him on terra
firma, they, seized by a destructive impulse, broke the windows of a house
in George Street, and of another elsewhere, whose inmates were believed to
belong to the unpopular party which the speaker had denounced. This
affair, trifling in itself, would have received no notice here, had it not
been the prelude of a more serious disturbance. The tribune of the streets
having resumed his dangerous vocation next day at dusk, he was, in virtue
of a magisterial sentence, committed to "durance vile." On Thursday the
good news arrived that the reins of power had been once more put into the
hands of Earl Grey; and whilst the populace were busy burning tar-barrels
in honour of this event, the thought of the imprisoned orator - a martyr
in the cause of Reform-darted across their minds, and turned their joy
into rage. As if with one consent, they, to the number of fifteen hundred
or more, hurried to Buccleuch Street, assailed the prison door with
stones, tried to destroy it by fire when the missiles proved ineffectual;
and a fearful night, like that in which Hare was besieged, seemed about to
set in, when a powerful body of constables charged the rioters, and off
they set, reluctantly leaving the captive demagogue to his fate.
In the course of a few
weeks afterwards, the Burgh presented quite a different aspect with
reference to the battle for Reform. The Opposition, overawed by the Prime
Minister's resolution to recruit his ranks by an extensive creation of new
peers, at length gave way, and allowed the bill to be read a third time,
by a majority of 106 to 84, and the royal assent was given to it on the
7th of June. As a necessary pendant to it, the measure for Scotland was
passed by the Lords, and became law in the following month. It increased
the number of the Scotch members from forty-five to fifty-three; but its
value consisted chiefly in the change it made in the class of electors,
which, as Sir Archibald Alison remarks, "was so great as to amount to a
total revolution. The old town councils, in great part self-elected, were
succeeded by a host of ten-pound shopkeepers and householders, actuated by
different interests, and swayed by different influences; while the old
parchment freeholders, who followed their directing magnate to the poll,
were superseded by a multitude of independent feuars in villages, and of
tenants in rural districts." A jubilee, to celebrate this great
constitutional triumph, was resolved upon by the Dumfriesians; and
rejoicings worthy of that imposing title were held on the 11th of August.
The old town itself was daintily bedizened for the gala-day. Flags
floating from windows and pinnacles-garlands crossing from street to
street-triumphal arches rising in all the principal thoroughfares, made
the place look quite grand and gay. "In walking along the streets it was
difficult to get quit of the impression that Birnam or some other woods
had mistaken Dumfries for Dunsinane. We have witnessed many anniversaries
of Waterloo, but never within our recollection were the gardens and groves
laid under contribution to anything like the same extent." [Dumfries
Courier.] And then there was such a procession! For centuries the Seven
Trades had been famed for this sort of pageant; and now, when inaugurating
a new political era, fraught with ruin to all their peculiar privileges,
they seemed bent on making their last public march under the old close
system the most imposing one that had been seen in modern times. The
incorporated craftsmen were well supported by other operatives; and the
great civic regiment formed by these bodies was wound up by a juvenile
company just as eager as their elders to take part in the parade and in
the triumph. But this processing through the crowded town, occupying as it
did from one o'clock till three, made the marchers hungry and
thirsty-ravenous, in fact, for the goodly supplies of meat and drink
provided for them at their own firesides, in taverns or public halls; and
before gloamin' vanished in the mirk, and for hours afterwards, Convener
Grainger's huge punch-bowl was in extraordinary request, and all and
sundry were busy refreshing their wearied frames and toasting the good
cause in brimming cups, illustrating that connection which, according to
the national poet, exists between freedom and whisky.
Besides many private
parties, there were at least eight public dinners on the evening of this
joyous day. The people were exhilarated to an unexampled pitch by the
success that had been achieved, and their faith in a practical Utopia that
was to follow in its wake, though it has never yet arrived. In such a rosy
and inspiring atmosphere, liberally-we do not say intemperately-moistened
with mountain dew, it was natural that they should be hearty in their
revels, and also exuberant in their eloquence. We are told by the local
chronicler of the jubilee, that "never before did Dumfries hear so many
speeches spoken-see so many merry hearts met together." The elevated
nature of the oratory, which elicited deafening after-dinner plaudits from
sympathizing listeners, may be gathered from the following extract of a
speech given by Mr. M`Whir when presiding at the merchants' meeting in the
old Assembly Rooms, crowded by the presence of more than a hundred and
fifty gentlemen. After showing that the British people had encountered the
conqueror of Napoleon and the hero of a hundred fights, the chairman said:
" Such, my countrymen, such was the high and gallant bearing of the men of
Britain; and what is their reward? They have gained a victory and a
triumph unparalleled in the history of the world; and they have gained
them in peace. The victory and the triumph they would at all events have
gained - no power under heaven could prevent it; but it might have been a
victory won at the cannon's mouth - a triumph cradled on the bloody
battlefield. And what are the consequences? Listen, my countrymen-listen
to the words of Henry Brougham, thirty months ago, when on his canvass in
Yorkshire. 'Take,' says he, 'all broad Scotland-from east to west, from
north to south, in her cities and in her provinces-she is one vast rotten
burgh:' And what is broad Scotland now? Why, the beams, the radiant beams
of the glorious sun of liberty are now shining, and showering, and
streaming over every hill and every vale, every mountain, every strath,
and every glen, in our beloved native land; and you have the pleasure, the
indescribable delight, of knowing that, in common with your countrymen,
you have secured to yourselves, to your children, to your children's
children, those rights and privileges to which as free-born Britons you
are justly entitled. And to whom, to whom are you indebted for this mighty
boon? You know it well: it is to the high-minded, the united, the brave
British people. Pledge me, then, in a flowing, in a brimless bumper, and
drain it off to the very lees--to the people, to the brave British
people!" [Dumfries Courier.]
Pretty good, that; though
it may on cool reflection seem rather too highly poised. But it suited the
taste and temperature of the meeting, and the sentiment was rapturously
responded to with that highest of festive numbers, "three times three." In
a district where such sentiments prevailed, Mr. William Robert Keith
Douglas, M.P., could expect no more favours. Feeling himself to be
foredoomed, lie quietly withdrew into private life.
Though this was the case,
General Sharpe did not get leave to walk the course. A new rival of
liberal politics, Mr. David Hannay of Carlinwark House, agent for the
National Bank in Dumfries, entered the field and received a considerable
amount of support. The first election for the Five Burghs under the new
Act took place on the 18th of December, 1832. It was a scene of intense
excitement. Once more General Sharpe, who continued to be the popular
candidate, was met by a grand procession in the English road, and escorted
to the hustings which were erected in Queensberry Square. Mr. Hannay
having also reached the arena, accompanied by a goodly retinue of
gentlemen, the business was proceeded with. Provost Corson, seconded by
Mr. M'Diarmid, proposed General Sharpe; and the other candidate was
nominated by Mr. Sinclair, bookseller, and seconded by the provost of
Maxwelltown, Mr. John Hairstens. Both candidates addressed the immense
crowd assembled in the Square; but it was long before Hannay, who was a
capital speaker, could command a hearing. On a show of hands being called
for, the presiding officer, Sheriff Kirkpatrick, said: " It seems almost
impossible for me to decide which party has the majority; but my
impression is that General Sharpe's is the most numerous." Provost Corson,
on being consulted on the point, cried, " Two to one, and far more, in
favour of General Sharpe!" [Dumfries Courier.] "Then," said Mr. Hannay, "I
demand a poll;" and accordingly the battle was fought out in the polling
booths on the following Thursday and Friday. From the first it was looked
upon as a matter of certainty by all save a few sanguine Hannayites, that
Sharpe would be returned; yet, as the voting went on, the parties seemed
to be well-balanced in the chief burgh; and Kirkcudbright, with a clannish
feeling for the Galloway candidate, supported him so well, that had it not
been for the powerful muster made by his Annanite opponents he would have
borne away the prize. But, as on a previous memorable contest,
"Up sprang Bess o'
Annandale,
And a deadly aith she's taen,
That she wad vote the Border knight,
Though she should vote her lane."
So fully and faithfully did
the Annan electors carry out this resolution, that they soon and finally
decided the wavering balance in favour of General Sharpe.
At half-past twelve o'clock
on Friday, a return was issued as follows:- For Sharpe, 229; for Hannay,
225. This was but a small majority for the former gentleman; shortly
afterwards, however, a messenger from the General's citadel burgh, "fiery
red with haste," he having ridden sixteen miles in seventy minutes,
brought a despatch couched in these terms:- "Annan," half-past twelve
o'clock, Friday,-For General Sharpe, 143; for Mr. Hannay, 16; majority,
127; nine only to poll." This news was not simply discouraging to Mr.
Hannay's committee-it was overwhelmingly crushing. Fight as you may, stout
burghers of Kirkcudbright, you cannot, unless doubled in number, change
the fortunes of the day. Seventy-nine of them supported the squire of
Carlinwark : twice seventy-nine, with Annan so dead against him, could not
have secured his success. It was known late on Friday night in Dumfries,
that not only had Sharpe been returned, but that his majority was most
decided; and the public sentiment found vent, as usual, in bell-ringing
and barrelburning outside-in convivial gatherings within. Next morning
printed returns, which proved to be nearly correct, were issued, as
follows:- "Close of the poll. For General Sharpe: Dumfries, 275; Annan,
144; Kirkcudbright, 28; Sanquhar, 22; Lochmaben, 19. For Mr. Hannay:
Dumfries, 265; Annan, 17; Kirkcudbright, 79; Sanquhar, 18; Lochmaben, 10."
At twelve o'clock, the sheriff, in the audience of a rejoicing multitude,
declared the state of the poll: that in all the burghs General Sharpe had
received 487 votes, and Mr. Hannay 375; and that General Sharpe had been
duly elected by a majority of 112.
Thus the honest,
unvarnished chief of Hoddam rose to the summit of his earthly ambition. He
was worthy of the honour awarded to him, and was proud and grateful for
having received it. In tendering his thanks, he warmly repudiated the
charge brought against him by his opponents, of a want of interest in the
County town; and closed by saying, "Some of my ancestors repose in St.
Michael's churchyard; and as further proof of my alleged want of sympathy,
it is my wish that my ashes shall rest in the same spot. Provided I do my
duty to the satisfaction of the constituency, I hope some surviving
friend, after my course is run, will inscribe on my tombstone-for I can
desire no prouder epitaph-'Here rest the remains of the first
representative of the Independent Constituency of the Dumfries District of
Burghs."' [The old monument of the Sharpe family, erected at the
south-western corner of the cemetery, is enriched with fine carved work,
and two mourning cherubs, beautifully executed. General Sharpe died in
1841, and was buried in the churchyard of Hoddam.] |
