Broadside entitled 'Speech of Sir Daniel Sandford'

Commentary

This broadside begins: 'SPEECH OF Sir Daniel Sandford, One of the Radical Candidates for the City of Glasgow, at Camlachie, on December 1832 - Conduct and base Plot of the Edinburgh Whigs to stifle the New-Borm Liberties of Glasgow - The Radicals triumphant.' The broadside does not carry the name of its publisher, nor its place or date of publication.

Radicals and Whigs are often regarded as been different wings of the same party, and eventually the two groups did unite to form the modern Liberal Party in 1859. However, in the 1830s and 1840s quite bitter opposition existed between Whigs and Radicals. The Whigs had been responsible for pushing through the Parliamentary Reform Bill of 1832, but many Radicals felt that it did not go far enough, and later supported the Chartists' manifesto for electoral democracy. This speech by one of the Radical candidates for Glasgow in December 1832 highlights the enmity, accusing Edinburgh Whigs of attempting to control and manipulate candidates and voting in Glasgow.

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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