Government

Articles tagged with the topic ‘Government’

Displaying 1 - 3 of 3

3091-5

Gary D. Hutchinson

Wigtown Burghs, 1832–1868: A Rotten Burgh District?

Recent, History, Government

TDGNHAS Series III, 91 (2017), 93(4.71 MB)

Abstract

The existence of corrupt ‘rotten boroughs’ in England is a well-documented phenomenon before the ‘Great’ Reform Act of 1832. Similarly, many Scottish constituencies possessed characteristics which made them particularly closed, even by the limited standards of the pre-Reform political system. The Wigtown District of Burghs, (hereafter the Wigtown Burghs), which was almost entirely controlled by a number of prominent local families, was one of these. By using its politics after 1832 as a case-study, it is possible to question how far the Scottish Reform Act went in creating a more open and democratic political culture. Moreover, it raises the possibility that the political culture of non-contiguous Burgh Districts, which were unique to Scotland and Wales, possessed characteristics which set them apart from other types of constituency.
 

3087-9

David Dutton

The Dumfries ‘Troublemaker’: Lord Loreburn’s Critique Of British Foreign Policy, 1899–1919

Recent, Biography, Government

TDGNHAS Series III, 87 (2013), 165(WARNING large file size: 5.67 MB)

Abstract

At the foot of the kirkyard at Mouswald, sloping down towards the Solway Firth, lie the mortal remains of Robert Threshie Reid, first and last Earl Loreburn. The simple stone cross marking his grave, lies broken on the ground, its condition a telling commentary on the evaporation of the historical reputation of one who served for more than six years as a leading and much respected member of Britain’s pre-First World War Liberal government. That distinguished administration, formed by premier Henry CampbellBannerman in December 1905, contained three future Prime Ministers – H.H. Asquith, David Lloyd George and Winston Churchill – as well as such luminaries as Edward Grey, Foreign Secretary at the start of the war, and Richard Burdon Haldane, perhaps the most accomplished War Minister of the twentieth century. But Reid’s appointment to the Lord Chancellorship was seen at the time as a step of considerable importance. Indeed, he was the first prospective minister to be approached by Campbell-Bannerman as the latter set about constructing his cabinet.