The Liberal party in Scotland in 1843 was. in both burghs and counties, Whig and moderate Liberal dominated. The Corn Law repeal controversy and, in Scotland of longer-lasting significance, the Disruption in the Church of Scotland changed this situation. In the counties the split in the Conservative party began a process that was to make these constituencies increasingly receptive to the Liberal party. In the late I 840s this was largely a function of Conservative weakness. The Protectionists, Free Trade and Peelite Conservatives maintained their position overall, but were no longer able to mount any challenge to the Liberals. As the Conservatives were identified with the Established Church of Scotland, the Liberals gained from Free Church support, especially in the far north of Scotland. Corn Law repeal had shown in the burghs that the Scottish Whigs, T.B. Macaulay in Edinburgh was a prominent example, were not prepared to move in step with the desires of the growing commercial and professional middle-class for further reform. This situation was made acute by the existence of the Free Church after 1843 whose membership largely came from this social group. They felt little loyalty to either Whigs or Conservatives and were Liberal out of their desire for change, by which they meant either purification or dismantling of the Establishment. Those who wanted purification tended to be moderate politically, those who wanted a dismantling were more radical. These Free Churchmen were energised by the increase in the Maynooth Grant in 1845. This provided a rallying point round which Free Church and Voluntary members could gather to exercise political influence, while forgetting their differences over the question of an Establishment. This alliance was successful in 1847 in winning significant victories in the Scottish burghs and in defeating leading figures in the Scottish Whig establishment. The election of 1852 generally confirmed what had happened five years previously. In the counties it was obvious that Protection was a dead issue. The Free Trade Conservatives had begun returning to the Derbyite fold. Significant pockets of Peelite influence remained, especially in Ayrshire and wherever the Duke of Bucc1euch was powerful. In the burghs there were some signs of strain in the Free Church/Voluntary alliance, most obviously in Edinburgh, where Duncan McLaren had to stand without Free Church support, and in Perth, where the Free Church chose to support the Whig, Arthur Kinnaird. These strains became at times outright hostility thanks to the Education issue. Between 1854 and 1856 Lord Advocate James Moncreiff tried three times to open up the parish school system in Scotland to other Presbyterian denominations and to otherwise increase the level of educational provision. He failed partly because of the expected opposition of the Established Church of Scotland and the Conservative party, but also in the end because of Voluntary opposition to proposals which appeared to give too much power to the State and to the Free Church. This made co-operation between the Free Church and especially hard-line Voluntaries impossible at the 1857 general election. The mid 1850s also witnessed the Cri mean War, the resultant collapse of the Aberdeen ministry and the coming to power of Palmerston. The demand for administrative and structural reform which arose at this time found expression in Scotland even before the disasters experienced in the Crimea. Movements such as the Scottish Rights Movement and the National Education Association appeared which expressed a wish for change in the structures of Scottish society. These were to take place within the context of improving the Union, to match those which had taken place economically and socially. Scottish Liberals were involved in these organisations and individuals and sections of the party participated fully in debate on the issues, often using their position on one or more to define their position in the party and those of others. In addition, therefore, to the disillusionment with sectarianism in Education, a more tolerant, secular, moderate political current began to make itself felt, above all in the burghs. This manifested itself at the 1857 election in the return of more moderate Whig Liberals and in the defeat of candidates who had stood out for religious intolerance. The Free Church, alienated from the Voluntaries by the experience of the Education issue, was an important factor in this development as were voters brought on to the rolls by the 1856 Burgh Registration Act. In the counties Conservative satisfaction with Palmerston's foreign and ecclesiastical policies, the so-called Palmerston factor, led to these constituencies becoming even more receptive to the Liberals. With the collapse of the Aberdeen ministry, the remaining Scottish Peelites either returned to the Conservatives, for instance the Duke of Buccleuch, or maintained an independent position sympathetic to Palmerston. A few joined the Liberals. The election of 1859 was quiet in terms of contests and confirmed, where they took place, the Whig and moderate Liberal recovery in the burghs and the Liberal ascendancy in the counties. Beneath the surface new issues were already emerging, most importantly Reform of the electoral system. The reactions to this issue in particular helped to define where individual Liberals belonged in the spectrum of the Liberal party.The period to the passage of the Second Reform Act for Scotland in 1868 was marked by further pressure on the Liberal party to respond to groups in society which were looking to it to provide an answer to their concerns. In the burghs this concerned the working-class and especially that section of it which. thanks to a rise in rents. the efforts of housing co-operatives and the Burgh Registration Act already had the vote under the old system. Through opposition to the Master and Servant Law. the demand for the ballot and organisations like the Reform League, this group became politicised and looked to the Liberal party for political representation. They were interested in integration into the political system and in influencing the direction which the Liberal party was taking. A parallel can be drawn between this and the impact of the Free ChurchNoluntary alliance on the Liberal party in the I840s and early 1850s. In the counties pressure came most of all from the tenant farmers disturbed by the Game Laws and the law of Hypothec. The former allowed the landlord to shoot game over a tenant's field, the latter allowed distrainment of goods even if they had been sold to a third party. This brought the economic interests of the tenant farmers into conflict with the existing system. Their political solution in the 1860s was to turn out Conservative M.P.s in favour of Liberals in the hope of getting a modification or abolition of these laws. In 1868 the electoral system was reformed in Scotland. With household suffrage, burgh electorates increased greatly in size which changed the nature of politics. A personal canvass was no longer possible. This led to co-operation in two or threemember seats like Dundee and Glasgow between moderate Liberals and representatives of the working class to ensure that a split Liberal vote did not let a Conservative in. The Liberal party in this period shows itself to be a very flexible body. It was able, not without internal battles, to take in new groups as they emerged in mid-nineteenth century Scotland. Where it proved less immediately responsive to some groups was in the nature of the representatives who could be elected under the 1832 franchise.

In an unprecedented act of peaceful, albeit contentious, statesmanship, the 1707 Treaty of Union joined Scotland and England into one sovereign country. Now governed by the Parliament of Great Britain, Scotland was allowed forty-five parliamentary members divided between the country's counties and burghs. Relinquishing its own Parliament, Scotland was obligated to adapt and to accept a seismic shift in the political management of its government. Not only were Scottish politics affected by this shift at a national level, but local elections were also significantly impacted by this change. Due to its physical size, peculiar demographics, and politically-active gentry, the county of Fife has proven to be an ideal subject for studying this process. By providing a comprehensive examination of the impact of the Union on the local government and electoral politics of one Scottish county, this study shows that while the Union fundamentally altered the manner in which local politics functioned, the localities not only adapted to the new electoral procedures, but party politics in particular were allowed to grow and flourish. Fife's county records have proven to be a particularly rich and underused resource for this study. The minute books of town council meetings for each of Fife's major royal burghs, covering the years 1707-1747, have been examined, along with a complete set of minutes from the Commissioners of Supply, the county body responsible for the collection of the land tax and, crucially, for determining electoral qualification. Correspondence, in the form of letters and memoranda from Fife's leading politicians, has allowed the reconstruction of several important elections which in tum provide evidence for the argument that party politics in Scotland not only survived after Union but also thrived in an era of unparalleled electoral competition. Partially owing to the reduction in parliamentary representation at Westminster, the political parties in Scotland experienced tremendous growth. Contrary to recent historiography, however, no significant evidence of corruption was found in the operations of the county franchise from the first Fife elections held in 1708 through to 1747, the end of the present study's span. The burgh electoral structure, conversely, both permitted and experienced gross manipulation by the parties competing for the few parliamentary seats now allocated to the Scottish burghs. This study demonstrates that political parties thrived in the new era of Scottish partisan politics ushered in by Union. Fife, in particular, adapted creatively to the new order. This suggests that an increasingly vibrant culture oflocal political competition and argument in the early eighteenth century was actually a likely consequence at the local level of Scotland's national integration into the new state of Great Britain.

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This thesis examines the impact of the occupation of Scotland by the English army in 1650 and 1651, and the subsequent political union that lasted from 1652 until the Restoration in 1660. It concentrates on smaller burghs, which were treated differently by the English authorities than the major burghs of Edinburgh and Glasgow, which were of more strategic importance. From the earliest times of the occupation the Scottish burgh officials followed a practical policy of co-operation with the English authorities, in order to protect their own burgh's welfare, and to retain the burghs' traditional rights and privileges under the new regime, thus, safeguarding the integrity of Scottish urban government. There was little change in the personnel in the burgh councils during the 1650s and this provided continuity in urban government from the previous Covenanting regime of the 1640s, and continued into the 1660s. This continuing link helped to minimise the disruption the English occupation brought to Scotland, and the traditional civic leaders' experience helped the burghs deal more effectively with the problems the occupation brought. These included increased financial demands by the English authorities, and the financial and social problems of quartering English soldiers, the main burden of which fell on the towns. All these brought increased poverty to an already impoverished country and increased the workload on the burgh officials. The burgh councils' effective management of these problems, and their willingness to co-operate, helped to build a good relationship with the English authorities, both at local and national levels. This was important as they found themselves distanced from the centre of political influence, which had shifted to London. The loyalty of the burghs to the English regime was based on practicality and self-interest, and they welcomed the return of the monarchy in 1660. The existence of an experienced urban leadership was important to the overall stability of the English regime, as their control of urban affairs reduced disorder in the towns and increased the effectiveness of quartering and collection of tax. In return for co-operation the English authorities proved unwilling to interfere in the internal working of the burghs. The retention of the traditional burgh structures and leaders resulted in normality returning quickly to the towns, despite the continued disruptive presence of the army. The 1650s also saw attempts by the civic leaders to tighten their control over the internal working of the burghs, as normal burgh life had become disrupted in the years of war and occupation, particularly in the areas of trade and justice.

This thesis at tempts to clarify the career of one of the most remarkable politicians in Scotland's history, William Maitland of Lpthingion, Scotlond's Machiavelli and Principal Secretary of State from 1558-73. His influence has long been acknowledged but never adequately explained. This thesis attempts to remedy that defect by investigating the source of Maitland's power, the Scottish Secretariat. The full extent of Maitland's responsibilities ties are explained to show that he exemplifies the notion of the sixteenth century not only as the age of the council and of the Secretary but also of the royal court. Maitland's consistent awareness of the wider European dimension in which Scotland's affairs wen:' invariably cast at. this time - one of the major themes of this thesis - is Sf.:!€n to be due primarily to his control of foreign policy through his position as Secretary. Maitland was the only Scottish representative present at the closing stages of the Treaty of Cateau-Cambresis. It was little wonder that he was able to view Scotland's affairs in a wider context than most of his countrymen. The renaissance background of the Maitland family is traced in detail and is acknowledged as a major contributing factor to Maitland's success in the government of Mary Stewart, renaissance Queen of Scots. New light is shed on Maitland's involvement in all the major episodes that so conspicuously colour his fifteen-year Secre1.arllit. His role in the Reformation crisis is critically extlmined and his articulation of the most radical unionism ever voiced by a pre-Union Scottish official explained. Maitland's volte-face following his immediate realization of Mary's likely return in January 1561 is noted and the traditional notion of the amity from 1561-65 challenged. Maitland's leading role in the attempted coup d'etat of 1566, his major part in Mary's downfall in 1 ~67 and his subsequent leadership of the Queen's party is critically reappraised. Maitland's religious, political and cultural leanings are examined and the popular- notion of Maitland as an anglophile politique rejected in favour of an image more in keeping with the new evidence uncovered during the course of this research. The image of Maitland as Scotland's Machiavelian is refined. The crude image of Maitland as a Machiavelian atheist and chameleon is rejected. Instead, the notion of Maitland as a sophisticated political scientist, thoroughly acquainted with the principles of the Discourses and The Prince and much else besides and driven by an over-riding regard for the commonweal is promoted.

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