The Scottish Press, the Union and Civil Society after 1707: The Glasgow Advertiser and the General Assembly Test Act Debate of 1790. Issue 1 (February 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Benchimol, Alex
• Is Part Of: Scottish affairs. Volume 27:Issue 1(2018)
• Page Start: 82
• Page End: 91
• Publication Date: 2018-02
• Subjects: Glasgow Advertiser -- Test Act -- Church of Scotland -- national identity -- Union of 1707; Scotland -- Politics and government -- Periodicals; 320.941105
• DOI: 10.3366/scot.2018.0226
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0966-0356

Abstract

Abstract : Constitutional debate in the twenty-first century Scottish media is often presented by reporters and commentators as a uniquely contemporary feature of the nation's civil society. The present article will explore how the Scottish press and eighteenth-century Scotland's highest profile civil society institution – the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland – interacted to facilitate constitutional debate around the legal, social and ecclesiastical meaning of the Union for Scots, some eighty years after the settlement of 1707. The article examines the Glasgow Advertiser 's coverage of the 1790 General Assembly debate over a motion to repeal the Test Act (which stipulated a confessional qualification in the Church of England for Kirk members seeking to hold British office) to illustrate how the eighteenth-century Scottish newspaper press sought to uphold the constitutional interests of the nation through extensive coverage of a central institution of Scottish civil society.