The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-12-06 00:00:00

!MON OF SCOTTISH RIGHTS.

" Tax Scotch Lion is a mere imposter—a begging-letter
writer, as one might say." With this phrase the' Times
of Wednesday last opened a leading column. In the same
number of that journal, appeared an adiertisement, setting
forth the fact, that one of its patrons is desirous of impart-
ing to the world "the art of forming designs." How far
the professor of this noble art may have profited by, or
communicated the science which guides the policy of the
Times, it would be no easy task to determine, nor shall
we at present attempt a solution of the riddle ; neither
shall we tarry to inquire whether, as regards the practice
of the Times, it might not be expressed by the almost
equivalent phrase, "the art of stating a case as it does not
exist." In the meantime we shall content ourselves with
the simpler inquiry—whether is the Scotch Lion or the
Times the mere imposter ?

For many years past, Scotland has been made severely
to feel the progress and evil effects of that system of cen-
tralisation which, locating all public boards and business in
London, (and of which we of the English provinces, as well
as our Scottish brethren, are made to feel the disadvan-
tages,) subjected her to numerous national privations, and
entailed upon her inhabitants many individual inconveni-
ences and hardships. Complaints of these, from time to
time, found public utterance, :which, gathering strength
from accumulated number, and-attaining weight by their
aggregate importance, an association was recently formed,
whose object and whose voluntary duty it was to mar-
shal the various incidents of which national complaint had
been made, and, bringing these into a concentrated form,
place them before the nation, and appeal to British justice
for the restitution of rights alleged to be withdrawn, and
the protection of institutions threatened with extinction.
The thorough catholicity of such a movement secured for
it ready sympathy and many adherents. In a body so
numerously constituted, it is little to be wondered if some
individuals were found more sensitive to theoretical indig-
nities than alive to the influence of practical grievances.
Among the contumelies, real or imaginary, which afflicted
this class, a supposed degradation of the Scottish arms
assumed the magnitude of a national grievance. The
ease of dealing with trivial, as compared with im-
portant matters, was manifested in the celerity with
which this armorial dispute was stated and discussed,
even before the association was called into existence. To
those in favour of the centralising system, of which the
Times has ever been a more consistent than a disinterested
supporter, it was more in accordance with their general
policy to seize upon and expose the weakness of extraneous
matters, than grapple with the questions at issue. Hence,
the opponents of the Scottish movement, headed by the
.Times, have confined their arguments, and directed the
shafts of their ridicule towards the armorial portion of
the dispute, secure in the knowledge that, among busied
practical men, that branch of the complaint would meet
with but small favour and little study. A highly respect-
able Scottish contemporary, the Edinburgh Courant,
from some occult cause, probably not very difficult to
unravel by the hangers-on in the Edinburgh Parliament--
house, has deemed it prudent to play the same game. It
has accordingly put forth a well-written article, demon-
strating that the alleged armorial grievance is, in reality,
no grievance at all; at the same time, however, with
characteristic Scottish caution, averring that its argu-
ments are directed to confute the assertion of a new
London weekly journal, that the "National Association
for the Vindication of Scottish Rights" derives " its birth
from the affair about the lion." While its hand is in, the
Courant likewise demolishes another heraldic grievance,
of which, for our own parts, we had not previously- heard,
namely, that of " uncrowning the Scottish unicorn ;"
which crowning our northern brother assures us is a
modern invention, dating no further back than the acces-
sion of JAMES IV to the English throne; he very curi-
ously, however, does not condescend to inform us how
much earlier it could have appeared, at all' events, in
connexion with the royal arms of England'; a singular
omission, no doubt, on the part of so erudite' a herald, so
painstaking an antiquary, and so communicative an in-
structor. On the armorial point, trivial as it unquestion-
ably is, it may be worth while stating as a factrtliat from
a period antecedent to the commencement of the present
century, to within comparatively a few years, the Scottish
contingent of the imperial arms was quartered ant the
royal standard, habitually displayed above the battlements
of Edinburgh Castle, as claimed by those whom. the
Courant represents as being in error : nay, further, that
on the Scottish Privy Seal, executed at the accession•of
Her present NIA.-Tzsry, and daily used by her appointed
officers, the device is the effigy of Queen VICTORIA on the
one side; on the other, the dexter or CHIEF SUPPORTER,
is the unicorn with the crown ON : on the shield the lion'
of Scotland occupies the first and fourth quarters, the
emblematic ensigns of England and Ireland being placed'
in the second and third. So much for past and present-
practice, as opposed to newly promulgated theory.
Rejoicing in the heraldic learning of the Courant, and'
partially aware of the value attached to bold assertion,
whether true or false, ;the Times gives utterance to the-
sally which we have quoted at the commencement of"
these observations ; and waxing audacious on the strength
of his northern affiance, our friend the thunderer adven-
tures a flash of his theatrical lightning, wherewith to,
scathe the Scottish claims,—with over-weening arrogance-
he launches his leaden bolt,—a ribbald sneer at BANNOCK-
BURN, and triumphantly assumes that he has laid the-
agitation and the agitators for ever in the dust. The bad
taste of such an escapade is not more conspicuous than
is its divergence from the usual caution which regulates
the movements of the Times. On many a blood-stained
field—on many an ensanguined deck, since the day on
which the Scottish Marathon was fought, have our Cale-
donian brethren proved how sensitively, how devotedly
they are alive to the sentiment of national honour—side.
by side with Albion's sons, in many a fray they have-
proudly sustained the glory of the British arms ; and;
every true-hearted Englishman will join in indignant-
condemnation of so unworthy an allusion to that field,
on which Scottish men wrote in our country's bravest
blood an interpretation of their national motto, !IRMO MK:
IMPUNE LA.CESSIT, in characters which the sunshine
and the showers of nearly six centuries have been unablb
to efface.

Whether the subject of heraldic precedency of the
Scottish arms in Scotland is to be looked on as a question
of courtesy, or maintained as a matter of right,—whether
such claim shall be gracefully conceded or churlishly
withheld, the quartering of the Scottish contingent upon
the imperial shield is not the point, nor one even of the
chief points at issue in this controversy. The grievances
complained of by the Scottish National Association,.besides
the heraldic one, are of an eminently practical and easily-
understood character. It complains that Scottish national
business is neglected in the imperial legislature. chiefly
because there is no public officer connected with govern-
ment, whose peculiar province it shall be to attend exclu-
sively to Scottish affairs ; and partly because Scotland has
too few representatives in the legislature. The Associa-
tion, likewise, complains that the Scottish crown revenues
are applied to imperial uses, while Scotland is not allowed
her fair share inAhe expenditure of the imperial revenue ;
it complains of the general neglect of Scottish public '
institutions, as compared with those of the other two por-
tions of the United Kingdom. To remove these grounds
of complaint, the Association, backed by nine-tenths of
the Scottish people, demands the appointment of a chief
secretary for Scotland, whose business it shall be to attend
to the peculiarities of Scottish affairs ; and it asks for such
an augmentation in the number of Scotland's parliamen-
tary representatives as shall place her on terms of rela-
tive equality with England and with Ireland. These, the
real points at issue, the Times, after having ridiculed the
heraldic, which it represents as the only view of the case,
contrives to smother ander the following surly growl:—
" As for others" (grievances) " which may have more foun-
dation, we have our own grievances to attend to, as well
as our Scottish fellow-subjects, and so must leave them to
conduct their own business in their own way." If this is
not the conclusion of " a mere impostor"—the paltry sub-
terfuge of " a begging letter-writer"--we confess our utter
ignorance of what should be so construed. Why not have
left them to conduct all their business in their own way ?
Above all, why first distort and misrepresent their case,
and then sneak out of the contention with all the gruff-
ness of a detected cut-purse ? Why quit the arena of its
own selection, with the mien and aspect of a baffled bully ?
It is curious to note how smaller wits jump in a wrong
direction after greater; the chief disparity between the
performers being the wider divergenz.y erom the question
at issue and the comparative punt of stride. Thus,
our contemporary the Courier, aeavouring to mystify
the subject, as the Times has tried, falls into a shallow
pit of its own scooping out. The Courier, in this mission,
has discovered that a certain gentleman, whom it desig-
nates JOHN STEILL, of Glasgow, has perpetrated a ridicu-
lous pamphlet, in which he advocates a severance of the
Union between England and Scotland. Who our neigh-
bour's Mr. JOHN STEILL may be, we know not ; some
knowledge, indeed, we do possess of a gentleman whose
surname is akin to that given, but his Christian patro-
nymic is of a weightier calibre—a man whose flow of
social glory would warm the cold blood of our torpid
brother, and set its tide dancing in so genial a current,
as would shake his sides and make his ears tingle