Despite signing the Act of Union in 1707, Scotland remained very much a law unto herself, economically, politically, socially and culturally. This work explores the basis of government, law politics, education, religion and ideology in this fertile period, and offers explanations for some of the cultural and economic achievements this "semi-independent country" witnessed in the 18th century.

The study of police history in Scotland has largely been neglected. Little is known about the Scottish police's origins, development and character despite growing interest in the machinery of law enforcement in other parts of the United Kingdom. This book seeks to remedy this deficiency. Based on extensive archival research, its central aim is to provide an in-depth analysis of the economic, social, intellectual and political factors that shaped police reform, development and policy in Scottish burghs during the 'Age of Improvement'. The key issues addressed include: the workings of traditional forms of law enforcement and why these were increasingly deemed to be unsuitable by the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries; why, and in what ways, the pattern, nature and origins of police development in urban Scotland differed from elsewhere in Britain; in what ways the Scottish police model compared and contrasted with other British models; the impact of police reform on urban governance and the struggle between social groups for control of the local state; the concerns and priorities behind police policy. In addressing these questions, Police in the Age of Improvement moves beyond many of the 'problem-response' interpretations which have preoccupied many police historians, and locates reform within the wider contexts of urban improvement, municipal administration and Scottish Enlightenment thought. It will be essential reading for anyone interested in the history of policing, urban management and social change in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Originally published in 1976, this book discusses the relationship of the age of intellectual enlightenment in Scotland to the age of economic improvement and analyses the Scottish Enlightenment from a more sociological point of view. It describes the intense period of high intellectual endeavour and activity that took place in the resorts of the cultural social Scottish elite in 18th and early 19th Century Scotland. It discusses the crucial place of lawyers in 18th Century Scottish society and examines the intellectual features of the Scottish university system, charting the rise of the societies, clubs and other institutions such as the Encyclopaedia Britannica and The Edinburgh Review.

The first applied research volume in Scottish Romanticism, this collection foregrounds the concept of progress as 'improvement' as a constitutive theme of Scottish writing during the long eighteenth century. It explores improvement as the animating principle behind Scotland’s post-1707 project of modernization, a narrative both shaped and reflected in the literary sphere. It represents a vital moment in Romantic studies, as a 'four-nations' interrogation of the British context reaches maturity. Equally, the volume contributes to a central concern in the study of Scottish culture, amplifying a critical synthesis of Romanticism and Enlightenment. Chapter 9 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.