Commentary
This broadside begins: 'An account of a Serious Outrage and Disturbance in Glasgow, on Saturday night last, 21st June, when the Military were called out, and 43 persons were apprehended and lodged in prison.' From other reports on the incident, we can ascertain that this took place in 1828. The report contained in this broadside describes how a group of Glasgow citizens were arrested for trying to tear down walls and fences that obstructed a former public footpath by the Clyde. References to 'the Proprietor' and 'the works' suggest that the walls were built as part of a new industrial complex. The phenomenal expansion of Glasgow from town to industrial metropolis between the late-eighteenth and early-twentieth centuries inevitably impinged on the living standards and recreation of many of its people. Other broadsides in the National Library of Scotland's collection report that the case went as far as the House of Lords, eventually being won by the people of Glasgow.
View Transcription | Download PDF Facsimile
|