Macmillan, David S.

English

Histoire sociale / Social History (E-Journal, York University)

COMPTES RENDUS - BOOK REVIEWS 391 compared to the decline in violence which occurred among the nobility during this same period. Dr. Prest's careful use of statistics is a model for historians of the seventeenth cen-tury. He tries to be as concrete as possible. Tables provide not only important but relative-ly straightforward information such as a list of admissions, the social rank and regional background of members and the number of bar calls, but also more elusive material such as an analysis of the side benchers supported in the first civil war and a breakdown of acts of violence occurring at the inns. Dr. Prest is, of course, very aware of the risk involved in the "use of quantitative evidence from a pre-statistical age" (p: 32). Figures are used with care and sophistication. The reader is warned of the dangers and is always made very aware of the weight the statistics will bear. Indeed the discussion of the merits of the statistics and the method of their compilation is almost as interesting as the picture Dr. Prest draws with them. Not only is Dr. Prest constantly aware of the exceptions to the trends which his statistics indicate or which they may hide because of their inadequacy, but he attempts to destroy myths and generalizations concerning the inns. Thus the tradition of the seventeenth century inns as forming a ''hotbed of puritanism" (p. 197) is replaced by a complex picture in which the support by' the common lawyers of the puritans is "at best an incomplete and temporary alliance" (p. 211) . Not only were there always Laudian and other anti-puritan elements among the profession , but the barristers were generally at-tacked as being too secular, not too puritan. Dr. Prest describes the learning exercises in detail and also considf'rs thf' othf'r aids and guides to legal education available to the law studf'nt. He Sf't>s the inns as havinf!; failed in their educational role. Their failure to provide supervision and thf'ir lack of control ovn tht> young men learning the law meant that the members of the inns were free to pursuf' any social or cultural interest which might interest them. Nt>verthdess Dr. Prest points out that the inns as such ceased to be creative centres durinf!; this pt>riod. In examining the Restoration inns I have f!;iven more weif!;ht to the tradition of benchers and senior barristers giving aid to students than Dr. Prest does. and this and other considerations has resulted in a slightly more favourable view of tht> inns as ct>ntres of legal education than that presented here for the earlier period. Dr. Prest's occasional comments on life at the inns after the Rt>storation are too general and sweeping, but this was not the area of concern of his book. At the end of his work Dr. Prest provides a valuable note on the archives of the four inns of court. However, the book does not contain a bibliof!;raphy which would havt> been useful. The Inns of Court under Elizabeth I and the Early Stuart.~ will be a basic book for thost> studying the legal profession during this period . It is SUf!;f!;t'Stive of furthf'r work and will provide background and a starting point for many other studies. Also. ht>cause of tht> importance of the Tudor-Stuart legal profession and because of thf' quality of Dr. Prest's work, this is essential reading for all those seriously interr-sted in t>arly modf'rn Enf!;land. Thomas W. EVANS, Memorial University of Neufoundland. * * * A. J. YouNGSON. - "After the Forty-Five :" The Economic Impact on the Scottish Highlands. Edinburgh: Edinburgh Unive~sity Press, 1973. A competent modern analysis of the social changes in the Highlands of Scotland in the period 1746-1825 has long been needed. Much has been written around the topic in 392 HISTOIRE SOCIALE - SOCIAL HISTORY the last sixty years as Professor Youngson points out in his Preface, but practically every study that has appeared has been coloured by emotional considerations -especially the lingering romantic preoccupation with the clan system and the Jacobite Risings and the nostalgia and bitterness connected with the Highland Clearances. This is an able and in-cisive account of what the Highland area and its society were really like, of the problems faced by its people, of the ideas and projects for change in the second half of the eighteenth century, and of the measures taken to bring the area into line with the rest of the country. It will be welcomed not only by those who work in the fields of British social, economic and business history, bur also by the increasing number of investigators in Canada, Australia, the United "States and other countries whose interest lies in the background, the motives and reasons behind the large scale Highland emigrations to other lands . The late Professor Henry .Hamilton of Aberdeen and his pupils were among the first fo apply the method of thorough archival research to the study of the state of the Highland economy. Using estate papers, and the valuable records of tbe Forfeited Estates, they presented their sober and useful conclusions in a series of articles and other works which culminated in Hamilton's An Economic History of Scotland in the Eighteenth Century (1963). On the Highlands, Hamilton's analysis presented a mass of new material, but, es-sentially he rightly viewed the region, its people, and its problems as part of the overall Scottish scene, a scene in which the Lowlands, with their rather spectacular economic development, especially in the latter part of this period, naturally predominated. His treat-ment of contemporary views on the Highlands, and of what people at the time felt might be done to accelerate material progress there, . was necessarily slight. This is whe're Professor Youngson's analysis is particularly valuable, notably his chapter on " The Aims and Principles of Economic Policy." In it, the attitudes, the hopes (often sanguine) and the concrete proposals of the men who faced up to the social and economic crisis in the area are explored and assessed. The results of their recommendations are also appraised. 'The Highland Scene," the chapter which opens the"volume, emphasizes the basic geological-geographical and hence economic and social differenct>s hetwt>t>n thr Hii.:hland" and the rest of Britain. The salient features of the remarkahlt> "ht>roic-militarv socit>tv" which survived so long in the North, with its institutions of clanship. chif'ftai.n-ship. ~II based on the need for warriors as a means of survival of thf' p;roup. art> looked at fairlv. judiciously, without romantic prejudice. The works of such acutt> ohsrrwrs from th1• outside world as Thomas Pennant, James Watt and Dr. Samuel Johnson an• drawn upon to show a civilization that was essentially poor, outmoded. and lackinp; in thf' rduc~tional and material impulses to progress. The study shows clearly that it was the impact of the commercial society of the South that was the vital catalyst which brought change after 1746, rather that the ofte·n-stressed legislation prescribing the Highland dress and the bearing of arms, or the abolition of the hereditary jurisdictions held by the chiefs aqd nobles. The p_ressures, principally the lan-downers' need for cash rather than claymores, making for emigration are carefully dis-cussed, and the pitfall of blaming all on the avarice of the chiefs and the superior profitability of sheep is carefully avojded. Professor Youngson 's discussion in Chapter Three of eighteenth century views on economic change, growth and rising wages, and of the effects of these views on the shaping of what might be called a "Highland Policy" is provocative and it will certainly stimulate further inquiry and thought. It is one of the highlights of the book, and so is the assessment of the attitudes and influence of James Anderson , David Loch and John Knox in the 1770's and l 780's. Their urging of the necessity for the establishment of t?wns, the encouragement of fisheries, and the improvc::-ment of communications by road and canal all bq_re fruit by the end of the century, as did their criticism of crippling impositions such as the iniquitous salt duties and the tax on seaborne coal. Significantly, these commentators were Lowlanders, and the British COMPTES RENDUS - BOOK REVIEWS 393 Fisheries Society, which played a key role in Highland development, as well as the Highland Destitution and Emigration Societies of the early nineteenth century, were es-sentially Lowland conceptions. The secti~ns of the study which deal with smuggling, distilling (licit and illicit) and the important kelp-burning industry are also revealing. They stress again the essential conservatism of the people of the Highlands, their reluctance to launch out on change, the backward-looking attachment to thei~ sub-divided crofts, even when these could hardly provide a subsistence. The dilemma of landlords, who received the same small rent from · crofts sub-divided many times, and carrying numerous families, as they had received from the croft when inhabited by one tenant, is clearly depicted. This is an aspect of the problem which has never been explained so clearly before. Here, as in the study as a whole, Y oungson brings out the validity of his main contention- namely that the problem W!IS deep-rooted in the conflict of cultures, and really insoluble, without drastic measures and changes in outlook among the Highlanders thems~lves, which would have been un-thinkable in the context of the time. As Youngson puts it, when examining the clearances, and the viewpoints of landowners and displaced _tenantry; that phenomenon was only "the visible crest" of a great and long-lasting wave of change. As impoverishment set in in-creasingly, between 1790 and 1820, and the fisher ies languished, and the kelp-burning in-dustry failed, and the population went on increasing relentlessly on a potato diet , there could be no recourse but emigration either abroad or to the Lowlands. In its conclusion, the book raises some interesting speculations - what if there had been minerals, as in the not unsimilar backward region of Northern Sweden? Is the "development" of the region today, in modern terms, really desirable? Could there possibly have been any successful alternative to depopulation, and must that depopulation continue? These questions are, wi.sely, left open. As for the main argument of tht> hook. it is convincing, informative, and ·enlightening, and opens up new vistas in our approach to ont' of the most interesting phenomena in the story of• Modern Western-European cultural clash and folk-movement. The volume is a remarkably fine piece of hook production. very handsomely illustrated, with over thirty fine reproductions- of contemporarv maps. drawings and engravings of Highland scenes. David S. MACMILLAN. Trent Uniiwsit\·. .• * * IVY PINCHBECK and MARGARET HEWITT. -Children in English Societ_v. Volume 2 : from the eighteenth century to the Children Act ·/948. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1973. _ In the century of the child, it is natural, desirable and inevitable that the history of the child should be written. Indeed since the child is father (oftimes, mother) to the man, a study of the child should throw considerable light upon the man; not only should one be able, through a knowledge of the circumstances of childhood, to understand better the men and women who developed in those circumstances, but also to under,stand better those who believed such circumstances were proper (or their children. A book entitled Children in, English Society, therefore, promises much. But the interests of the authors are restricted almost exclusively to pauper and/or delinquent children, and almost entirely to the handling by government artd reformers· of the problems created by these children. (There is a brief foray at the beginning into the changing legal status of women vis-a-vis their childre~ . ) Children i'il their own right rarely appear, and children above•the poverty line never appear. To criticize the book that was not written is unhelpful ; but the' reader should be aware that the title is broader than the contents. 

A. J. Youngson, "After the Forty-Five :" The Economic Impact on the Scottish Highlands

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A. J. Youngson, "After the Forty-Five :" The Economic Impact on the Scottish Highlands

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Histoire sociale / Social History (E-Journal, York University)