CHAPTER LVI.

PROSTRATION OF TRADE-MOVEMENT IN THE TOWN FOR BURGH REFORM--THE FIRST ELECTION UNDER THE NEW MUNICIPAL SYSTEM-THE SEVEN TRADES: "LAST SCENE OF ALL," SALE OF THEIR GOODS AND CHATTELS-NEW POLICE ACT-AGITATION FOR A NEW MARKET-LAPSE OF THE ALE-DUTY, AND ABOLITION OF THE PETTY CUSTOMS-RETROSPECT OF THE PRECEDING SIXTY YEARS.

As may easily be supposed, the trade of the town was injured for years by this visitation. The Highland occupation occasioned directly and indirectly a loss of at least £5,000; but probably four times that amount would not cover the expenditure and loss arising from the cholera. Yet, appalling and exhaustive though the epidemic was, it did good in one respect, by originating a great sanitary movement, having for its main objects street sewerage and improved water supply: the former was partially obtained; for the latter the town had unfortunately to wait nearly twenty years. It was very near securing the boon. One of the town clerks, Mr. James Broom, a gentleman of great talent, energy, and public spirit, whose memory is held dear in Dumfries, was one of its principal advocates. Provost Corson, Mr. James Swan, and other members of the Town Council, were anxious for it, but somehow or other the efforts put forth by them failed; and a scheme prepared by Mr. Jardine, civil engineer, in 1833,* for introducing the water of Nunland springs, from the neighbouring Galloway hills, figured on paper, but went no farther. It may be a mere fancy on our part, that the desire for municipal freedom was also stimulated by the disease; but we incline to the opinion that the inhabitants became more anxious to acquire the right of self-government, from a belief that they would thereby be able so to improve the town, as to render it less likely to be ravaged by epidemics in future.

* Town Council Minutes.

Certain it is that they exhibited much zeal in the matter; and that their rulers, self-elected though they were, manifested a praiseworthy desire to get rid of the old close system. On the 5th of April, 1833, the Council discussed the Burgh Reform Bill, that had been brought into Parliament by the Lord Advocate. It was generally approved of; and the Provost was commissioned to attend a special meeting of the Convention of Royal Burghs, for the purpose of expressing the Council's views on the subject. These were extremely Liberal-Radical almost, as shown by the instructions given to Mr. Corson. On the motion of Mr. Allan Anderson, seconded by Mr. David M'Gill, the commissioner was enjoined to move, "That in regard to the qualification clause for voting for Council and magistrates, the whole shall be vested in the resident householders of a certain rent; and the right proposed to be conferred on freemen, and guilders or burgesses, merely as such, shall not form a part of the bill."* This blow at monopoly was followed by another heavier one at classprivilege-Mr. William Nicholson (afterwards provost) moving that the commissioner be also instructed to propose, "That in regard to this Burgh, and burghs of a similar right and population, the rent qualifying a voter be five pounds”—a motion which, like the first one, was unanimously agreed to.

Whilst the Council called on the legislative Hercules to help the municipal waggon out of the mire, they set their own shoulders manfully to the wheel. Without waiting for Parliamentary action, they, on the 12th of the same month, at the instance of the Provost, resolved with one accord to lay open the privileges of the town to all and sundry. Since the days of Robert Bruce, if not before, no one could begin business as a merchant or as a tradesman in the town, without first being made a burgess or freeman, at considerable expense. If the applicant was the son or son-in-law of a burgess or freeman, he was required to pay a smaller "composition" sum; but in other cases the "fine," as it was called, was often a serious affair, amounting latterly to £13 6s. 8d.-a heavy tax on young shopkeepers and craftsmen, and hindering many altogether from commencing business in the Burgh. A few days afterwards, at a crowded meeting of the inhabitants, a vote of thanks

to the Council was passed, and petitions to Parliament were adopted, praying for the abolition of burgh incorporations in Scotland; the petitioners setting forth that these had outlived their time; “that the prosperity of towns where no such incorporations exist, and the decay of towns where they do exist, sufficiently prove that they are equally unprofitable to their members as to the public; and that from its local circumstances this truth has been specially exemplified in the case of the town of Dumfries." The chief speech on the occasion was made by the deacon of the shoemakers, "Orator Wilson," a fluent tribune of the people, who did good service in the agitation for Reform. He proclaimed himself to be a Radical politician, eager to lay the symbolic axe at the root of all abuses. He held up to ridicule the idea of people, before they could open shop in the Burgh, having to pay down £13 6s. 8d. for a paltry piece of "sheepskin;" and he asked how they could petition Parliament to give up the East India monopoly if the Seven Trades' monopoly was maintained unbroken. But the Trades themselves would be as honest as they were brave, and co-operate with the Council in breaking down the exclusive system. As for the magistrates and Council of Dumfries, "they will live in the hearts of their townsmen for the noble concession they have made, and fame will carry their names and actions to distant posterity. Their fame," continued the speaker, rising with his subject-" their fame, I say, will be as lasting as the pyramids of Egypt. Time will never shake it, and imperishable laurels will deck their brow."*

Some little laughter mingled with the applause which greeted this peroration; but the soaring eloquence of the worthy deacon did not go a bit too high for the majority of his hearers. It was a time of vast expectations, as well as of much excitement; and big words-what the Americans term "bunkum," or "tall talk”—were much in vogue.

The Scotch Burgh Reform Bill received the royal assent in September, 1833, and took effect on the first Tuesday of the following November. Greatly to the disappointment of the Dumfries Town Council and community, the qualification for voters was fixed at double the figure they had proposed. Instead Dumfries Courier.

*

of a five-pound rent, one of ten pounds was adopted. The new mode of election was, however, such a vast improvement on the delegate system, that it was warmly welcomed in the Burgh; and the proceedings on the 6th of November, when it was put in force, excited great interest. Numerous candidates were started, in all the four wards into which the town had been divided by a royal commission. We append the names of the gentlemen who received the honour of being the first councillors of the Burgh chosen by popular suffrage. First ward: Robert Murray, writer, 72 votes; Thomas Hairstens, tanner, 57; Captain M'Dowall, 47; Thomas Milligan, plumber, deacon of the smiths, 45; George Dunbar, cabinet-maker, deacon of the squaremen, 45; Samuel Blaind, jun., draper, 38. Second ward: William Gordon, writer, 72; John Barker, banker, 71; Robert Thomson, merchant, 71; James Walker, wine merchant, 53; James Dinwiddie, painter, 50; John Anderson, bookseller, 49; Thomas Lonsdale, ironmonger, 32. Third ward: Robert M'Harg, merchant, 68; Robert Scott, hosier, 57; William Nicholson, chair-maker, 46; Joseph Beck, coach-builder, 42; Christopher Smyth, writer, 40; George Kerr, cabinet-maker, 35. Fourth ward: Robert Kemp, writer, 56; Thomas Harkness, writer, 47; Thomas Kennedy, seedsman, 46; Alexander Lookup, skinner, 45; Benjamin Oney, clothier, 41; Robert Kerr, tanner, 40. As the burgess fine, though condemned, was still exacted, Captain M'Dowall declined on principle to qualify for his seat by paying it. A new election for the vacancy was therefore ordered, which resulted in the return of Mr. George Montgomery, draper. The Council being now quite made up, elected Mr. Murray, writer, a gentleman of great ability and moral worth, as the first Reform Provost of Dumfries; Messrs. Kemp, M'Harg, and Harkness were elected bailies; Mr. Walker was appointed dean of guild; and Mr. Barker treasurer and chamberlain. A banquet in the Commercial Hotel appropriately crowned the inauguration of the new municipal system in the Burgh.*

By an Act of Parliament passed in 1846, the chief of the exclusive privileges possessed by the Dumfries Trades, and all similar incorporations, were abolished; and long before that year the Seven Trades had become virtually defunct-a frag

* Town Council Minutes, and local newspapers.

ment of the body remaining, but all its original spirit gone. The few remaining members continued to hold the property of the Trades, till, in March, 1852, they adopted a unanimous resolution to sell the movable portion of it, except the Silver Gun, which was handed over to the Town Council for preservation. Against this resolution, so far as the convener's gold chain was affected, Mr. Adam Rankine, as a subscriber for the badge, applied for an interdict. The case thus raised excited much interest. The sheriff-substitute, Mr. Trotter, decided it in favour of the pursuer: Sheriff Napier, on appeal, reversed the decision; and his interlocutor, on being advocated, was sustained by the Lord Ordinary Rutherford. Accordingly, the chain and the other articles were disposed of by public auction, in the Trades' Hall, on the 8th of April, 1854. Altogether, a melancholy sight it must have been-one that is rather depressing to reflect upon, though it was but the natural sequence of the wise reform that had been effected. Think of these historical relics being knocked down like vulgar chattels! Even the venerable quarto Bible which the syndic of the craftsmen used at church, passed into other hands, and that for the paltry sum of seventeen shillings. The little silver seal with which the documents of the brotherhood had been stamped for nearly two centuries, was, for a sorry equivalent of ten shillings, deprived of its official caste, so to speak, in spite of its lion, fierce, crowned, and rampant, and its motto, "God save the King and the Craft!" A sword once owned, according to tradition, by the Red Comyn, and seemingly old enough to have been worn by him on the day of his fatal rencontre with Bruce, brought £3 3s. The great Grainger punch-bowl, first brimmed with rum toddy in 1806, under the merry conditions we have previously related, and which so often afterwards replenished glasses that were drained in drinking the toast it bears, "Success to the Incorporations!" lapsed into the moderate seclusion of private life for £2; the accompanying silver divider being separated from it, and sold for fifteen shillings. The wonderful snuff-mull presented by Captain M'Dowall, brought to an unexpected pinch, drew £3 3s. For the ebony staff of office, now that the convener's occupation was gone, £2 18s. was realized; and the gold chain * The punch-bowl is now in the possession of Mr. David Dunbar, Dumfries.