Search Results

This chapter focuses on the Earl of Bute's acceptance of George III's proposal to become prime minister. Though Bute was a good Parliamentary speaker and a conscientious administrator, he was hesitant to accept the position and made it clear to George III that he was doing so only on a temporary basis. The chapter discusses the initial problems in the formation of Bute's ministry and highlights his accomplishments.

This chapter focuses on the actions of George III in relation to the Seven Years' War. It discusses George III's suggestion that the Earl of Bute should take ministerial office, and William Pitt's objection to the appointment of Bute as Head of the Treasury and his threat to resign if there was any change in war policy. The chapter also considers the financial expenditure of the Seven Years' War.

This chapter discusses the changes in the University of Glasgow under the guidance of a new set of outsiders, initially men associated with John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute (1713–10 March 1792). It reports that Bute was Argyll's nephew and was a more notable amateur scientist whose specialties were botany, astronomy, mineralogy, and chemistry, fields which his uncles had also pursued. It further reports that the Earl helped the Moderates in the Kirk not because it was expedient to do so but because he agreed with them. It notes that Bute followed his uncle's system in the management of Scotland and wanted an Edinburgh manager to whom supplicants would write and one in London who could do what the Duke had done himself or delegated to his secretaries.

This chapter begins with a discussion of the protests unleashed by the decision of the Earl of Bute, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sir Francis Dashwood, to seek revenue via an Act designed to raise the excise duty payable upon cider and perry. It then discusses tax and the Colonies, focusing on the issue of ‘no taxation without representation’.

This chapter discusses the appointments at St Andrews during Principal Tullideph's regime. It notes that Principal Tullideph became the dominant figure at St Andrews after his appointment as principal at St Leonard's in 1739. It observes that during his tenure at St Leonard's and then as principal of the United College, the level of government involvement with the University steadily increased. It reports that after 1747, valuable places ensured the attention of political managers such as Ilay, his nephews, John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute, and James Stuart Mackenzie, and William Mure of Caldwell, Baron of the Exchequer. It observes that these four men were all more interested in seeing university positions go to those best qualified to serve in them than had been the Squadrone politicians.

This chapter examines popular opposition and symbolism related to the implementation of the cider tax in mid-Hanoverian England. It explains that a 1763 Act gave sweeping powers to the collectors of the excise and generated a concerted and powerful opposition which touched all classes and severely threatened the stability of administration of the Earl of Bute. The analysis indicates that the common people of Hanoverian England possessed a vibrant and easily drawn-upon culture of opposition which was effectively and meaningfully expressed through symbolic display.

This chapter analyses John Arbuthnot’s The History of John Bull (1712), an allegorical satire of the War of the Spanish Succession. As well as introducing the figure of John Bull, who became a recognizable symbol of the English people, Arbuthnot featured Bull’s sister Peg, who represents Scotland. With these characters, Arbuthnot provided an insightful interpretation of the passage of the Anglo-Scottish Union. The chapter goes on to discuss the many eighteenth-century imitators of Arbuthnot’s satire. Few featured Sister Peg or commented on Scotland’s place in the Union. The main exceptions were works by Scots, notably Adam Ferguson’s History of the Proceedings in the Case of Margaret, Commonly called Peg (1761), and other literary works and visual satires of the early 1760s, a time of intense Anglo-Scottish rivalries.