This paper shows how the proliferation of Scottish newspapers and pamphlets in 1704-5 contributed to an international crisis in Anglo-Scottish relations over the Worcester piracy case and influenced the chain of events leading to the Union of 1707. It considers how far a Habermasian concept of the modern public sphere can be applied to this case. It finds that while newspapers helped to shape public opinion and events in what might be termed a public sphere, there is not a strong fit with the Habermasian model and the case is better understood in terms of an early modern public sphere
