Broadside entitled 'A Second Defence of the Scotish Vision'

Commentary

This broadside begins: 'HOW stronge's thy Sense! How charming are thy Strains! / Who by soft Numbers moves our Northern Swains : / In gently Treating, with mild Words, a Peer, / Whom for unbyass'd Truth we all admire.'

The National Library of Scotland's broadside collection also includes 'A Scots Answer to a British Vision' and Daniel Defoe's 'A Reply to the Scots Answer to a British Vision'. The 'Second Defence' seen here was written in response to Defoe's 'Reply'. All three were written in 1706, the year before the union of the Scottish and English parliaments. Defoe, who spent the early years of the eighteenth century in Scotland, was a great supporter of the union and did much to promote it. As can be seen by this rebuttal, however, his efforts were often treated with contempt by the Scottish people.

Broadsides are single sheets of paper, printed on one side, to be read unfolded. They carried public information such as proclamations as well as ballads and news of the day. Cheaply available, they were sold on the streets by pedlars and chapmen. Broadsides offer a valuable insight into many aspects of the society they were published in, and the National Library of Scotland holds over 250,000 of them.

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