The volume under review comes from the venerable publishing society, the Scottish History Society, established by the Victorian Scottish Liberal politician, Lord Rosebery, with the remit of making available in published form the most important sources for the academic study of Scotland's history. This volume more than fulfils this remit, being a substantial piece of scholarship, handsomely produced by the publishers. The nature of these volumes is to present and interpret important archival material currently in unpublished form, hence MacAskill's designation as editor. It constitutes far more than simply transcribed sources, however; the editor provides a meaty Introduction which places the sources presented here into their historiographical context, and the sources themselves are liberally referenced to provide interpretation and context. Overall, this is a very valuable resource for the rural historian, particularly those interested in economic and social change in nineteenth-century Britain, Ireland and Europe.
As the editor points out in his Introduction, ‘The Highlands and Islands of Scotland, with their climatic variability and low crop yields, were no strangers to recurrent subsistence crises and famines during the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries’ (p. xxiii). The subject of this book, the 1837 destitution, was one of these crises, and the editor very effectively places it into its rightful position in rural historiography. Important themes such as the nature and structure of poverty; destitution, famine and responses to them and the debates over demographic change and emigration are all explored in this superb volume.
It begins with a detailed and extensive ‘dramatis personae’ section, which provides the reader with biographical notes on all the key persons of relevance. These are well researched and adroitly written with a wry sense of humour. Indeed, MacAskill is able to correct a long standing misinterpretation and confirm the identity of one of the chief players in the 1837 Highland destitution, Robert Graham of Redgorton, long mistakenly thought to be Robert Graham, professor of Botany at the University of Glasgow. This is followed by a very substantial Introduction by the editor, which constitutes a major piece of scholarship in its own right. Here, MacAskill has two main objectives: first, to ‘put flesh on the bones of what is known’ (p. xxiv); a very necessary exercise given the historiographical dominance of the Highland Famine of 1847–8, and the Great Irish Famine of the same decade. Secondly, the editor places the 1837 destitution within the context of attempts to diagnose and ‘treat’ the Highland Problem in the 1830s and 1840s, that is, a ‘redundant population’, and the response from the state.
The volume is then divided into five sections and the two most substantial come first. We start with the letters of Robert Graham of Redgorton, who was commissioned to undertake a tour of the distressed districts of the Highlands and Islands and provide recommendations for the government response. Some letters are to his mother and sister so they are an absorbing mix of public and private, providing the historian with a detailed commentary on conditions in the region, and his analysis of the root causes of the distress, as well as remedies for their short and long term amelioration. His letters are followed by the letters and journals of Captain Hill, a Navy officer commissioned by the government for four months to administer the public funds raised for the immediate relief of the region. These are the records of an eminently practical man, but one not without sympathy.
Part three consists of a selection of representations and petitions to government and charitable societies from those in the Highlands and Islands seeking aid, and the reports and resolutions drawn up in response. This includes material from the destitution committees set up in Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow and London, and provide a fascinating insight into the machinery of extraordinary relief. Lastly, part four provides the government correspondence and part five the Treasury minutes relating to the destitution, illuminating the inner workings of government on this issue. All of these sections are liberally referenced to allow the reader to follow the text, understand who is who and place the sources into their historiographical context. Overall, this is a superb volume which makes a real contribution to Scottish, rural and nineteenth-century British history. Even more, it makes a claim for painstaking scholarship of undoubted longevity in our REF-dominated academic world.
