Glimpses of old Glasgow

Part I. Historical

Miscellaneous

TRAVELLING. - Sixty-five years ago travelling by railway was on a very small scale compared with what it is now. Going from Glasgow to Edinburgh then took nearly five hours; the canal-boat six to seven hours; to Aberdeen, twelve to fourteen hours; and to London, forty-eight to fifty hours! Owing to the length of time taken, and the expense, relatives had few opportunities of visiting one another. They can now see each other often, for the train runs from Glasgow to Edinburgh in sixty to seventy minutes; to Aberdeen, in four to five hours; and to London in less than nine hours. Besides this improvement in railway travelling at home and abroad, what a vast change has also taken place in ocean sailing!

In every mode of communication "Advance" has been the motto. Fifty or sixty years ago we had no telegraph or cablegram system-far less that of the telephone. Necessarily cities were at a disadvantage in the matter of news. Since these modes of communication have come into operation for every-day use, truly marvellous are the social and commercial changes which have taken place.

POLITICAL AND MUNICIPAL REFORM. - Sixty-one years have passed since the citizens of Glasgow had the privilege of first electing members for the Town Council and Members of Parliament - gained by the passing of the Reform Bill. Many thought that this exercise of the franchise would prove destructive to the weal of the nation; but their fears have proved unfounded, and trade, commerce, and the social welfare of the nation have greatly profited by the measure.

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Till the Reform Bill became law, there was only one Member of Parliament for the burghs of Glasgow, Rutherglen, Kilmarnock, and Dumbarton. Now our city has seven members to represent its nearly 700,000 citizens. The two members returned for Glasgow under the Reform Bill were Lord Provost James Ewing, LL.D., and James Oswald, whose statue is in George Square. The first political address I heard was in the autumn of 1836, the speaker being Dr. Bouverie, a leading Radical of his day and Member of Parliament for the Kilmarnock burghs.

On the 5th November, 1833, occurred the first municipal election in Glasgow. Two days afterwards the Council met to choose magistrates and appoint members of Council for the management of the different Trusts and Institutions of the city. Robert Grahame, of Whitehill, writer, was chosen Lord Provost.

POLITICAL REFUGEES. - Glasgow has ever had a warm side to the foreign patriot who visits the city. When Kossuth in 1856 addressed a midday meeting in the City Hall a great and enthusiastic audience assembled to hear him. His English was perfect - a fact which he attributed to a close study of the English Bible and the "many sided Shakespeare." He commenced by saying that he was born at the foot of a mountain, and he congratulated Scotland on being a land of lofty mountains, and therefore a land of heroes. It was also the home of liberty, and his object was to make his native Hungary as free as was Scotland. Dr. Anderson also addressed the meeting. A feast of strawberries finished the proceedings.

This city would also have been honoured by a visit from Garibaldi, when he would have been the guest of the late Robert M'Tear. A continental intrigue, however, detained him in England. That his reception would have pleased the Italian patriot may be judged from this extract from a letter of Louis Kossuth: "Glasgow to me was a stronghold. The same thing could be said by Garibaldi, by Mazzini, and by many others whose names are connected with the struggles for liberty on the Continent."

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THE "FIR PARK," OR THE GLASGOW NECROPOLIS. - In my boyhood I used to wend my way with my father to this northern part of Glasgow. The Molendinar stream was then visible, and in earlier times was used as a motive power for propelling a corn mill. Here, in the year 584, Kentigern and Columba met, and sang together portions of Psalms 84 and 138. The streamlet was crossed by an apology for a bridge, which barely allowed two persons to cross it side by side. Looking across and upward, all that could be seen was John Knox's monument and numerous fir trees. This memorial pillar was erected in 1826 to the great and noble Scotsman, to whose actions his native country is indebted for ecclesiastical, educational, and religious liberty. On the day on which the foundation stone was laid a religious service was held in St. George's Crunch. Dr. Chalmers was the preacher, and delivered one of his ablest discourses. At the close, the large company walked in procession along George Street and then up the High Street to the Fir Park. Not long after this memorable event operations were set agoing to convert the old Fir Park into a city of the dead. Some thought this scheme was too Utopian, but the wisdom of those who started this undertaking has been well rewarded. The Necropolis was, what it still is, one of the favourite resorts of strangers.

BREAD RIOTS IN GLASGOW IN 1848. - Mr. Wallace, in his interesting "History of Glasgow," gives a graphic description of these note. When they took place it was the general opinion that the rioters were more bent on plunder than anxious to obtain the staff of life, but to a large extent they succeeded in both their aims.

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Their leaders at meetings held on Glasgow Green fired their minds with dangerous ideas as to the rights of men to take what was not theirs, and the result was that the bazaar suffered much from the outbreak of these frenzied men. Wherever the rioters went the people trembled for their lives and property, and in the conflict blood was shed in Bridgeton, and Mr. Alexander, shopkeeper, died from the wounds he received. I saw a gang of the rioters when at the height of their fiendish work in the Trongate and Argyle Streets. Many windows were broken and their contents carried off. The authorities had to pay £7,000 as compensation to the sufferers from the riots.

The late Captain Smart, then in the service of the Calton police force, did valiant work. Although unable, from the small force of policemen under his charge, to quell the riot in his district, yet he so impressed them by his cool determination and resource that they soon left the Calton, and processed in their riotous way by East George Street, Queen Street, and Buchanan Street. Had Captain Pearce, the chief constable, shown the same energy and tact, the rioters would probably have been sooner dispersed, or would have been so cowed that comparatively little damage would have happened within the bounds. The clamours of the citizens for his removal as chief of the police force, led to the dismissal of Captain Pearce, and the appointment of Captain Smart as chief-constable - an appointment which gave great satisfaction to Glasgow citizens. I recollect when Captain Smart joined the Barony of Gorbals police as a day constable. He resided in Wallace Street, Tradeston. and even then he showed that there was in him that which would lead to his occupying a more prominent position than a humble day policeman's.