Scotland in the nineteenth century

Preface

There is an immense treasury of fascinating historical material relating to Scotland buried in Parliamentary papers. Thus the purpose of this book is to provide a detailed annotated bibliography (1) of Parliamentary papers relating solely to Scotland and (2) of material concerning Scottish affairs buried in reports pertaining to the whole of the United Kingdom. The resulting publication is similar in style and content to "Ireland in the nineteenth century: a breviate of official publications", by Arthur and Jean Maltby, Pergamon Press, 1979. (Guides to official publications, vol. 4).

A need for such a bibliography was perceived for a number of reasons.

First, the bibliography of Scottish history is manifestly inadequate. The two major Scottish bibliographies, one by Mitchell & Cash and one by Hancock, are topographical in their approach and the researcher scanning the Ford breviates for Scottish material will locate only major reports concerned with Scotland alone. Therefore, no ready method of access to material exists within other Sessional papers.

Secondly, political events in Scotland during the last two decades have led to an increase in interest in Scottish history, especially the governmental and political aspects. There has also been a notable growth of interest in local history for which Parliamentary papers are often an invaluable source. This being the case, it is hoped this bibliography will find a ready market in academic libraries and will provide a useful reference tool for librarians, historians, political scientists and anyone interested in Scottish social and economic history, Scottish education, transport, agriculture and commerce.

Thirdly, the need for researchers to have such tools available is made all the more essential because, whereas Northern Ireland has always been treated as a separate entity from the point of view of reports of Royal Commissions and similar investigations, it is only in recent years that separate reports have been published on Scottish topics with any regularity. Therefore, it is frequently necessary to scan lengthy unindexed reports in order to abstract the sections relating to Scotland.

The research for this book revealed a mass of "buried treasure": industrial statistics in appendices; local history relating to all areas; evidence from eminent men: J.A. Froude, Professor Simpson and John Blackwood. For example, much of the history of medical education in Scotland can be found in reports to Select Committees, while in a report entitled Report from the Select Committee on Pawnbrokers, 1870. Vol. VIII. Sessional no. 377, we learnt about the "wee pawns" which proliferated in Glasgow and Edinburgh.

[page vii]

The sober sounding Report from the Select Committee on Contagious Diseases Acts, 1882. Vol. IX. Sessional no. 350, turned out to be about prostitution and painted a colourful picture of these ladies at work in Glasgow. "It was a common thing to see the mistress of the house on the summer afternoons with a troop of 4 or 5 females marching in Indian file in their gaudiest array."

Memories of Dickens were evoked by reports on debtors' prisons, reformatories and industrial schools and working conditions in factories and mines. The industrial schools offered some vivid contrasts: the school on Bute had a shortage of separate beds, poor food, an unacceptable death rate and many cases of frostbite in winter, while a girls' school in Newton Stewart was a cheerful and "home-like" place where each girl spent one month per year at the sea-side through the good offices and friends of the school. Life in a Scottish debtors' prison in the 1880s had altered very little since 1855-7 when Dickens described English conditions in "Little Dorrit." If the debtor had friends, or a secret source of funds, life could be more than tolerable. Anything except wine, spirits and tobacco could be sent in including full meals from restaurants.

"Literary men have books and ... all the papers of the day. We have a hall where they meet and read, and they are also allowed to play at draughts and chess..." However, penniless debtors had to eat prison food and work for it by picking oakum alongside common criminals.

The suggestion that I should compile such a book came from Arthur Maltby HMI (SOED) who had produced the earlier companion volume on Ireland. I am grateful for his continuing advice, interest and encouragement over what turned out to be a long period. I am also grateful for the support and encouragement given me by two Heads of Department: Professor William Tyler at Strathclyde and, later, Professor Peter Havard-Williams at Loughborough.

Funding was initially supplied by the then SSRC for a pilot project which looked at 1870-1890, after which the University of Strathclyde's Research and Development Fund provided funding to continue the work. After I moved to Loughborough University I was successful in obtaining a further grant from the ESRC which enabled the remainder of the painstaking work of reading and abstracting to be completed. The two End of Grant reports were deposited with the British Library.

At Strathclyde University I had the assistance of Vivienne Batho, a qualified Librarian with a history degree who toiled ably and conscientiously in the lower depths of the National Library of Scotland. We were both grateful for the helpfulness of the staff in those early days. Later, at Loughborough, Nicholas Wilson took over the project with enthusiasm and energy.

I am also immensely grateful to Mary Edmunds Otter for tirelessly inputting the data and to numerous expert typists including Pauline Curley, Marilyn Reilly and Catherine McCord.

Finally, I owe a special debt of gratitude to my Secretary at Glasgow Caledonian University, Christine McManus, who, while at home with a broken leg, proved to be a meticulous proof reader.

The layout decisions made in assembling these entries were fairly straightforward ones. Only one major divergency from the title page of the items listed is of importance and that is that the titles of Royal Commissions were usually reversed so that endless entries did not begin with meaningless "Royal Commission of..." but rather "Endowed Schools and Hospitals (Scotland) First Report of the Royal Commissioners."

[page viii]

Command Papers and Sessional papers are treated as they are on the title pages of the Reports. Sessional papers are placed within round brackets and Command papers within square ones as follows:

1st Series
[1] - [4222] 1833 - 1869

2nd Series
[C.1] - [C.9550] 1870 - 1899

Spelling has in almost all cases been left in the form found on the title-page, therefore, for example, Shetland is sometimes Zetland but has been modernised within abstracts, for example Udston becomes Uddingston.