Loyalist Ideology

The final chapter of this book explores the pro-government argument presented in Scotland in the 1790s, under the heading of loyalist ideology. The chapter focuses on the central elements in this argument, such as the conservative defence of the British constitution, and the attack mounted on the British radicals and French revolutionaries, arguing that loyalist ideology in Scotland was much in line with that presented elsewhere in Britain. Ministers of the Church of Scotland, however, played a prominent part in writing of loyalist pamphlets, and in their writings, a clearer Scottish voice can sometimes be detected. Some pamphleteers also included more specifically Scottish elements in their texts – such as arguing that the Union and its political system was to the particular benefit of the Scots – but, overall, such Scottish adaptations were rare, and no concerted attempt seems to have been made to develop a separate Scottish loyalist ideology.