An Enlightenment Tory in Victorian Scotland: The Career of Sir Archibald Alison

John Walker is a professor of Spanish studies at Queen’s University.

The subject of this latest addition to the McGill-Queen’s Studies in
the History of Ideas series is self-proclaimed political philosopher Sir
Archibald Alison (1792–1867). Besides being the sheriff of Lanarkshire
and an important influence on 19th-century Scottish justice, Alison was
a prolific writer, historian, and critic. He represents an important
link between the Scottish Enlightenment of the 18th century and early
Victorian British (not just Scottish) conservatism. Although a High Tory
and an Episcopalian, Alison owed much to Adam Smith’s “ethic of
improvement” and other Scottish Enlightenment ideas.

The six chapters in this balanced and interesting biography deal,
respectively, with the situation of the Alison family; Alison’s career
as a criminal lawyer; his work as sheriff-depute and his attacks on
political reform; his writing on population, political economy, and
state solutions; his literary career, especially his History of Europe;
and his conservatism in its 19th-century context. Despite his strong
law-and-order approach, his anti-Irish and anti-Catholic bigotry, his
anti-Reform and anti–free-trade stance, Alison made a valuable
contribution to 19th-century British political thought.

This solid and attractively produced study is supported by extensive
notes and by a 20-page bibliography.