The National Association for the Vindication of Scottish Rights was established in 1853. The first body to publicly articulate dissatisfaction with the Union since the Highland Potato Famine and the nationalist revolts in mainland Europe during the 1840s, it was closely associated with the Tories and was motivated by a desire to secure more focus on Scottish problems in response to what they felt was undue attention being focused on Ireland by the then Liberal government. The short-lived body attracted few notable figures and was wound up in 1856. [1]
The Treaty of Union is the name usually now given to the agreement which led to the creation of the new state of Great Britain, stating that England and Scotland were to be "United into One Kingdom by the Name of Great Britain", At the time it was more often referred to as the Articles of Union.
The Highland Potato Famine was a period of 19th century Highland and Scottish history over which the agricultural communities of the Hebrides and the western Scottish Highlands saw their potato crop repeatedly devastated by potato blight. It was part of the wider food crisis facing Northern Europe caused by potato blight during the mid-1840s, whose most famous manifestation is the Great Irish Famine, but compared to its Irish counterpart it was much less extensive and took many fewer lives. The terms on which charitable relief was given, however, led to destitution and malnutrition amongst its recipients. A government enquiry could suggest no short-term solution other than reduction of the population of the area at risk by emigration to Canada or Australia. Highland landlords organised and paid for the emigration of more than 16,000 of their tenants and a significant but unknown number paid for their own passage. Evidence suggests that the majority of Highlanders who permanently left the famine-struck regions emigrated, rather than moving to other parts of Scotland. It is estimated that about a third of the population of the western Scottish Highlands emigrated between 1841 and 1861.
The Revolutions of 1848, known in some countries as the Spring of Nations, People's Spring, Springtime of the Peoples, or the Year of Revolution, were a series of political upheavals throughout Europe in 1848. It remains the most widespread revolutionary wave in European history.
The Association claimed that Ireland received more generous treatment than Scotland. It argued that the United Kingdom should always be designated 'Great Britain' and that Scotland ought to send more MPs to Westminster. These were relatively minor issues, and presented no serious challenge to the Establishment. Nevertheless, the Association was an important preliminary step in the campaign for Scottish Home Rule.
The Establishment is the dominant group or elite that holds power or authority in a nation or organisation. It may be a closed social group which selects its own members or specific entrenched elite structures, either in government or in specific institutions.
Public supporters of the movement included Lord Eglinton, who moved a petition on behalf of the Association in the House of Lords in April 1854, and Professor William Aytoun of the University of Edinburgh.
Archibald William Montgomerie, 14th Earl of Eglinton, DL was a Scottish noble and member of the House of Lords.
The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is granted by appointment or else by heredity or official function. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster. Officially, the full name of the house is the Right Honourable the Lords Spiritual and Temporal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in Parliament assembled.
The University of Edinburgh, founded in 1582, is the sixth oldest university in the English-speaking world and one of Scotland's ancient universities. The university has five main campuses in the city of Edinburgh, with many of the buildings in the historic Old Town belonging to the university. The university played an important role in leading Edinburgh to its reputation as a chief intellectual centre during the Age of Enlightenment, and helped give the city the nickname of the Athens of the North.
