SPies and smugglers
The attraction of writing about 1820 and the ‘Scottish Uprising’ is its ambivalence. First, it is claimed by certain parties to be a purely Scottish affair when, in reality, it is the follow on from Peterloo in Northern England. Secondly, it has been promoted as a general uprising of the working people of the country. There is little doubt the general population felt used by the factory owners but did they really want to overthrow the government? There is no indication they were republicans. The Scots had already taken their case for a living wage to the courts, would they have been willing to take up arms if the government had not organised Agents Provocateur and instigated the uprising?
On the Government side, why risk a real insurrection with their Agents Provocateur? They must have felt they could control the outcome. What guarantee did they have that the soldiers who would have to enforce law and order wouldn’t mutiny? They must have felt from the information they were getting from their spies, that the support for real armed rebellion was scanty and that the soldiers were angry at the ingratitude of the nation after they had fought Napoleon.
Smuggling was rife. Ships docking in the Clyde were half empty when the Revenue examined them, yet Glasgow was growing on its imports.
French privateers were raiding in the estuary under the noses of the Royal Navy. Were they pirates, or was their work organised by local merchants to avoid duty in both Britain and France?
This was 1820 and any of these is a story in its own right.