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In the Britain of King William III,
turning up late could get you killed.
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00:00:10,655 --> 00:00:13,647
State business was meant
to run like clockwork.
3
00:00:13,815 --> 00:00:16,807
Time was money. Money was power.
4
00:00:22,375 --> 00:00:27,403
In the Highlands of Scotland, though, the
timeless tradition of the clans still ruled.
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00:00:28,255 --> 00:00:32,009
To William's annoyance, some clans
remained obstinately loyal
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00:00:32,175 --> 00:00:38,171
to his predecessor, James II,
the Stuart king driven out in 1688.
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00:00:39,655 --> 00:00:44,729
Even worse, those Jacobites had won
a short-lived victory over William's troops
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00:00:44,895 --> 00:00:47,204
at the Battle of Killiecrankie.
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00:00:58,255 --> 00:01:01,247
William's right-hand man in Scotland,
the Lord Advocate,
10
00:01:01,415 --> 00:01:06,125
believed it was high time
to teach the clans a lesson in loyalty.
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00:01:06,295 --> 00:01:12,768
The chiefs were given a deadline to pledge
an oath of allegiance - January 1st, 1692.
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00:01:13,695 --> 00:01:16,368
Acknowledge William
as your lawful king.
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00:01:16,535 --> 00:01:20,926
Those who make the pledge will be
rewarded, those who don't, punished.
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00:01:21,095 --> 00:01:25,054
The Chief of the MacDonald clan
of Glencoe missed his appointment
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00:01:25,215 --> 00:01:27,649
by five days.
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00:01:32,855 --> 00:01:36,291
At dawn on February 13th, 1692,
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00:01:36,455 --> 00:01:41,210
Williamite troops from the Argyle Regiment,
already quartered in Glencoe,
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00:01:41,375 --> 00:01:43,935
were ordered to carry out a massacre.
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They butchered 38 of the clan
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00:01:46,655 --> 00:01:49,852
and the rest of the village -
old men, women and children,
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00:01:50,015 --> 00:01:53,894
some half-naked -
fled into a raging snow storm
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00:01:54,055 --> 00:01:57,047
where many of them died.
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00:01:58,775 --> 00:02:02,404
In London and Edinburgh,
news of the massacre at Glencoe
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00:02:02,575 --> 00:02:05,647
was greeted
with pious professions of shock,
25
00:02:05,815 --> 00:02:10,843
especially, of course, from those who'd
had the responsibility of organising it.
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00:02:11,015 --> 00:02:14,724
An enquiry was held
but, needless to say, it was a sham.
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00:02:16,895 --> 00:02:20,808
If the intention had been
to cow the Jacobites into submission,
28
00:02:20,975 --> 00:02:23,284
it had all gone horribly wrong.
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00:02:23,455 --> 00:02:27,812
The massacre was a public relations
disaster for William's government.
30
00:02:27,975 --> 00:02:31,763
The Scottish parliament voted it
an act of murder.
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00:02:32,855 --> 00:02:37,007
How could victim and perpetrator
ever be reconciled now?
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00:02:37,175 --> 00:02:39,814
How could Scotland,
stricken with poverty,
33
00:02:39,975 --> 00:02:42,694
with its national pride deeply wounded,
34
00:02:42,855 --> 00:02:46,848
ever come together
with its rich and ruthless neighbour?
35
00:02:47,935 --> 00:02:50,927
But come together they did,
and the two countries,
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00:02:51,095 --> 00:02:54,405
for centuries divided
by politics and religion,
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00:02:54,575 --> 00:02:59,171
would make a future together
based on profit and interest.
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00:02:59,335 --> 00:03:03,044
What began as a hostile merger
would end as a full partnership
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00:03:03,215 --> 00:03:08,812
in the most powerful going concern
in the world - Britannia Incorporated.
40
00:03:08,975 --> 00:03:13,207
It was one of the most astonishing
transformations in European history
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00:03:13,375 --> 00:03:15,969
and this is how it happened.
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00:03:54,335 --> 00:03:57,771
(FANFARE)
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00:03:57,935 --> 00:04:03,168
In England, the 1690s were the years
when the victors of 1688
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00:04:03,335 --> 00:04:07,328
congratulated themselves
on a "Glorious Revolution".
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00:04:11,615 --> 00:04:15,005
In Scotland,
there'd be years of purgatory.
46
00:04:19,055 --> 00:04:23,526
After the massacre at Glencoe
came famine and pestilence.
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00:04:23,695 --> 00:04:27,529
For several summers in a row,
the sun refused to appear.
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00:04:27,695 --> 00:04:29,686
Torrential rains poured down.
49
00:04:29,855 --> 00:04:33,291
Cattle and sheep became diseased
with foot rot.
50
00:04:33,455 --> 00:04:36,891
Fields of barley and oats
turned into mildewed slurry.
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00:04:37,895 --> 00:04:41,570
The Jacobite clergy
said this was God's wrath
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00:04:41,735 --> 00:04:44,852
for turfing out the rightful king.
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00:04:47,815 --> 00:04:51,569
In all this darkness,
there were some who saw the light,
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00:04:51,735 --> 00:04:56,934
a light that was going to shine
hot and strong on Scotland.
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00:04:57,095 --> 00:05:02,044
A plan that would transform the country
from impotence and destitution
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00:05:02,215 --> 00:05:05,605
into riches and power
beyond anyone's wildest dreams.
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00:05:06,215 --> 00:05:11,573
It would make Scotland - or its colonial
trading post, New Caledonia -
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00:05:11,735 --> 00:05:14,807
the hub of the universe.
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00:05:14,975 --> 00:05:19,287
And where was that to be?
Well, of course, in Panama.
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00:05:21,895 --> 00:05:25,570
A group of merchants and bankers,
including William Paterson,
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00:05:25,735 --> 00:05:28,203
Scottish founder of the Bank of England,
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00:05:28,375 --> 00:05:31,526
had the idea of creating
a Scottish trading post
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00:05:31,695 --> 00:05:34,687
on the Isthmus of Darien in Panama.
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00:05:34,855 --> 00:05:38,609
At first sight, the idea sounds
like the purest lunacy,
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00:05:38,775 --> 00:05:42,768
but look at the map of world trade
and it becomes visionary.
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00:05:42,935 --> 00:05:45,324
A major obstacle to east-west trade
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00:05:45,495 --> 00:05:51,172
was the long, dangerous, and ruinously
expensive journey round Cape Horn.
68
00:05:51,335 --> 00:05:55,487
A trade route that cut through Panama
was an obvious boon.
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00:05:55,655 --> 00:05:59,807
At Darien, the distance between
the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans
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00:05:59,975 --> 00:06:02,125
was only 40 miles.
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00:06:02,295 --> 00:06:07,608
Goods could be carried across the narrow
strip of land to waiting merchant ships.
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00:06:10,575 --> 00:06:14,488
The trading economy of the world
would be revolutionised
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00:06:14,655 --> 00:06:16,850
and Scotland would run it.
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00:06:24,415 --> 00:06:29,011
The Darien scheme instantly captured
the imagination of the Scottish people.
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00:06:29,175 --> 00:06:32,531
Men and women
from all over Scotland
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queued up to invest in the venture.
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00:06:43,735 --> 00:06:50,129
When the first fleet sailed from the Firth
of Forth in July 1698, flying the Saltire
78
00:06:50,295 --> 00:06:54,208
and the extraordinary company flag
of Indians, llamas,
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00:06:54,375 --> 00:06:57,651
towered elephants
and the beaming rising sun,
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00:06:59,295 --> 00:07:04,244
it was carrying more than the 1,200 people
selected to be the lucky colonists.
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00:07:04,415 --> 00:07:07,407
It was carrying the hopes
of an entire nation.
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00:07:10,415 --> 00:07:13,964
But the only information the Company
of Scotland had about Darien
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00:07:14,135 --> 00:07:17,605
was from a pirate surgeon
called Lionel Wafer,
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00:07:17,775 --> 00:07:20,653
who claimed
he knew the Caribbean very well
85
00:07:20,815 --> 00:07:24,364
and had convinced them
the place was paradise.
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The climate was mild, he said,
the soil fertile
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00:07:27,615 --> 00:07:29,606
and the natives friendly.
88
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They were also vain, spending much
of the day combing their long hair
89
00:07:34,815 --> 00:07:39,730
so, naturally, the ship's cargo
included combs - thousands of them.
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00:07:39,895 --> 00:07:43,285
The rest of the cargo says something
about the conditions
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they were expecting to encounter.
92
00:07:46,095 --> 00:07:50,566
Crate-loads of catechisms and Bibles
for converting the pagans.
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00:07:50,735 --> 00:07:54,284
1,400 hats,
an even greater supply of wigs.
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00:07:54,455 --> 00:07:59,051
The Darienites were expecting
to live like lairds of the lagoon!
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00:08:00,615 --> 00:08:03,209
But before the ship
got anywhere near Darien,
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00:08:03,375 --> 00:08:05,935
the dream had turned into a nightmare.
97
00:08:07,335 --> 00:08:11,965
Forty crew and passengers died
on the long voyage,
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00:08:12,135 --> 00:08:15,730
and when they found
their golden island, it was, of course,
99
00:08:15,895 --> 00:08:18,887
a mosquito-infested swamp.
100
00:08:19,055 --> 00:08:23,810
The natives did not, it seemed,
want their combs or anything else.
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00:08:23,975 --> 00:08:25,966
In a sweltering, rainy jungle,
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00:08:26,135 --> 00:08:29,605
all the colonists' efforts
went into lugging cannon
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00:08:29,775 --> 00:08:35,532
into a primitive stockade
bravely christened Fort St Andrew.
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00:08:35,695 --> 00:08:38,767
They were dying now
of disease and hunger
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00:08:38,935 --> 00:08:43,611
at a rate of ten a day,
and their supplies ran with maggots.
106
00:08:46,095 --> 00:08:48,211
And there was no outside help.
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00:08:48,375 --> 00:08:53,165
Tropical New Caledonia was a direct
threat to the English trading empire
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00:08:53,335 --> 00:08:57,726
and the government in Westminster
was determined it should fail.
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00:08:59,095 --> 00:09:01,529
A law was passed making it illegal
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00:09:01,695 --> 00:09:04,334
for any Englishman
to invest in the scheme
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00:09:04,495 --> 00:09:08,374
or give assistance
to the desperate Darienites.
112
00:09:08,535 --> 00:09:10,810
When a second
Scottish expedition arrived
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00:09:10,975 --> 00:09:15,969
at New Edinburgh, all they found
were hundreds of graves.
114
00:09:21,335 --> 00:09:25,408
Back home, when the full extent
of the disaster sunk in,
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00:09:25,575 --> 00:09:29,807
the fate of the Darien expeditions
became a national trauma.
116
00:09:29,975 --> 00:09:33,934
They consumed a full third
of Scotland's liquid capital,
117
00:09:34,095 --> 00:09:36,689
but the most serious casualty
of the fiasco
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00:09:36,855 --> 00:09:40,325
had been the last, best hope
of a national rebirth -
119
00:09:40,495 --> 00:09:42,725
Scotland going it alone.
120
00:09:42,895 --> 00:09:47,252
That hope died
in the malarial swamps of Darien.
121
00:09:48,535 --> 00:09:52,323
Many laid the failure of Darien
squarely at England's door
122
00:09:52,495 --> 00:09:55,328
for its deliberate sabotage
of the scheme.
123
00:09:55,495 --> 00:09:58,089
A wave of Anglophobia swept the country
124
00:09:58,255 --> 00:10:01,770
startling the men
who ran things in Westminster.
125
00:10:01,935 --> 00:10:05,769
They became more worried
when it looked likely that Queen Anne,
126
00:10:05,935 --> 00:10:08,495
who had succeeded William in 1702,
127
00:10:08,655 --> 00:10:10,850
would die childless.
128
00:10:11,015 --> 00:10:13,609
A crisis over the succession loomed.
129
00:10:13,775 --> 00:10:16,847
For the defenders
of the revolution of 1688,
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00:10:17,015 --> 00:10:21,327
whoever succeeded her
simply had to be Protestant.
131
00:10:21,495 --> 00:10:24,692
In Scotland,
after the humiliation of Darien,
132
00:10:24,855 --> 00:10:30,691
many Scots favoured Anne's half-brother,
the Catholic James Edward Stuart,
133
00:10:30,855 --> 00:10:35,690
who was living in exile
with England's old enemy - France.
134
00:10:35,855 --> 00:10:38,892
Westminster could not tolerate
these kinds of threats
135
00:10:39,055 --> 00:10:41,694
from its own back yard.
136
00:10:41,855 --> 00:10:48,488
It had to take away Scotland's independence
and insist on full political union.
137
00:10:48,655 --> 00:10:52,694
The creation of a single British state
under a single parliament
138
00:10:52,855 --> 00:10:56,404
was now a matter of immediate urgency.
139
00:10:56,575 --> 00:10:58,770
(SHOUTING AND DRUMS BEATING)
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00:10:58,935 --> 00:11:03,053
The politicians knew they needed
a sweetener to make the Union
141
00:11:03,215 --> 00:11:06,366
more palatable... and this is it.
142
00:11:06,535 --> 00:11:09,447
In this chest was deposited
The Equivalent,
143
00:11:09,615 --> 00:11:12,732
the exact amount
lost in the Darien adventure,
144
00:11:12,895 --> 00:11:16,729
all �398,000 of it.
145
00:11:16,895 --> 00:11:21,491
You can almost hear the advocates
of union saying, as they beamed broadly,
146
00:11:21,655 --> 00:11:25,045
"Now, this is what union means.
147
00:11:25,215 --> 00:11:28,207
"You seem to be
a little hard pressed for funds.
148
00:11:28,375 --> 00:11:32,084
"Well, now Scotland's debts
will be Britain's.
149
00:11:32,615 --> 00:11:35,573
"Sink or swim, we shall do it together."
150
00:11:37,055 --> 00:11:40,491
The Equivalent money, along with
favourable trade concessions,
151
00:11:40,655 --> 00:11:45,683
was the carrot dangled before
members of the Scottish parliament.
152
00:11:45,855 --> 00:11:49,245
By now, there were many
who were already looking south,
153
00:11:49,415 --> 00:11:52,851
saw reality, smelled the profits.
154
00:11:53,015 --> 00:11:56,007
But behind the carrot,
of course, lay the stick.
155
00:11:56,175 --> 00:11:59,770
Westminster threatened
to block Scottish exports to England
156
00:11:59,935 --> 00:12:03,814
unless Scotland entered
union negotiations.
157
00:12:06,895 --> 00:12:09,455
The writing was on the wall.
158
00:12:09,615 --> 00:12:14,484
Distraught, Lord Belhaven delivered
a lament over the funeral pyre
159
00:12:14,655 --> 00:12:16,850
of Scottish independence.
160
00:12:18,295 --> 00:12:20,331
I see our mother Caledonia,
161
00:12:20,495 --> 00:12:24,249
like Caesar sitting in the midstof the Senate,
162
00:12:24,415 --> 00:12:29,091
attending the final blowand breathing out her last.
163
00:12:30,415 --> 00:12:35,364
We are an obscure, poor people,though formerly of better account,
164
00:12:35,535 --> 00:12:38,845
removed to a remote cornerof the world
165
00:12:39,015 --> 00:12:41,973
without name and without alliances.
166
00:12:43,655 --> 00:12:47,170
In 1707, the deed was done.
167
00:12:47,335 --> 00:12:50,054
A Treaty of the Union had been drafted.
168
00:12:50,215 --> 00:12:53,685
It took just ten weeks
to go through the Scottish parliament,
169
00:12:53,855 --> 00:12:56,244
six through Westminster.
170
00:12:57,815 --> 00:13:02,206
Scotland and England
were now joined at the hip.
171
00:13:08,735 --> 00:13:12,444
What kind of nation
was this Great Britain?
172
00:13:15,015 --> 00:13:20,692
To answer that, all you needed to do was
to go to the new Royal Naval Hospital,
173
00:13:20,855 --> 00:13:24,165
a palatial retirement home
for pensioned-off servicemen,
174
00:13:24,335 --> 00:13:26,326
in Greenwich.
175
00:13:28,495 --> 00:13:33,285
It was a triumphal statement
of how Britain saw its place in the world
176
00:13:33,455 --> 00:13:35,889
in the early 18th century.
177
00:13:48,655 --> 00:13:51,727
On the ceiling,
painted by Sir James Thornhill,
178
00:13:51,895 --> 00:13:57,447
a jubilant allegory celebrates the reign
of William of Orange and his wife Mary.
179
00:14:01,735 --> 00:14:06,934
Thornhill's design is a shameless steal
from the Hall of Mirrors in Versailles,
180
00:14:07,095 --> 00:14:11,088
but the artistic larceny is,
of course, making a point.
181
00:14:12,055 --> 00:14:17,846
Here, Apollo the sun god shines not
on the Catholic Sun King, Louis XIV,
182
00:14:18,015 --> 00:14:20,483
but on the British monarchs.
183
00:14:20,655 --> 00:14:24,933
Over there, in France -
despotism and popery.
184
00:14:25,095 --> 00:14:29,646
Over here, thanks to William -
liberty and Protestantism.
185
00:14:29,815 --> 00:14:34,650
Over there - the curses of serfdom,
misery and superstition.
186
00:14:35,175 --> 00:14:39,054
Over here -
the blessings of navigation, trade
187
00:14:39,215 --> 00:14:41,888
and science.
188
00:14:42,055 --> 00:14:46,810
But, of course, you don't go to ceiling
paintings for the unvarnished truth.
189
00:14:47,535 --> 00:14:51,528
The truth was that we had been at war
for almost 25 years,
190
00:14:51,695 --> 00:14:54,414
give or take a few intermissions.
191
00:14:54,575 --> 00:14:59,695
And during that time, Britain had been
transformed by the experience.
192
00:15:00,415 --> 00:15:04,613
It was no longer a case of gallant little
England defending the sceptr'd isle
193
00:15:04,775 --> 00:15:07,892
against the serried ranks of despots.
194
00:15:08,055 --> 00:15:13,925
Now, we sat at the heart
of the greatest war machine in the world.
195
00:15:18,335 --> 00:15:22,851
That machine couldn't work
without the lubrication of money,
196
00:15:23,015 --> 00:15:27,327
so along came a national debt
needed to pay for it all.
197
00:15:27,495 --> 00:15:32,171
And this debt needed servicing,
so enter the armies of money men -
198
00:15:32,335 --> 00:15:36,248
accountants, tax assessors,
Customs and Excise officers.
199
00:15:38,215 --> 00:15:42,413
Buried inside all the crowing
propaganda of the Greenwich ceiling,
200
00:15:42,575 --> 00:15:45,135
there was one crucial nugget of truth.
201
00:15:45,295 --> 00:15:49,004
Louis XIV could demand money
for his wars,
202
00:15:49,175 --> 00:15:51,894
William III had to ask for it.
203
00:15:52,615 --> 00:15:54,606
Almost everywhere else in Europe,
204
00:15:54,775 --> 00:15:59,974
the more military the state,
the stronger the king, except in Britain.
205
00:16:00,135 --> 00:16:03,445
Here parliament, not the monarchy,
signed the cheques.
206
00:16:03,615 --> 00:16:08,530
The longer the war went on, the stronger
parliament became, as the purse it had
207
00:16:08,695 --> 00:16:11,255
grew bigger and bigger.
208
00:16:11,415 --> 00:16:14,885
What's more, the kind of politics
raging in Britain,
209
00:16:15,055 --> 00:16:17,728
we can recognise as distinctly modern.
210
00:16:17,895 --> 00:16:22,411
Two parties - the Whigs and Tories -
diametrically opposed, not just about
211
00:16:22,575 --> 00:16:27,774
the policies of the day, but about the
entire political character of the nation
212
00:16:27,935 --> 00:16:32,167
and the upheaval of 1688
that had created it.
213
00:16:32,855 --> 00:16:37,565
Whigs and Tories were not two parties
who, when the barracking was done,
214
00:16:37,735 --> 00:16:40,772
could meet up for a drink
and a bawdy joke.
215
00:16:40,935 --> 00:16:44,211
They went to different taverns,
coffee houses and clubs.
216
00:16:44,375 --> 00:16:47,253
They were two armed camps.
217
00:16:49,615 --> 00:16:54,166
And the artillery barrages that flew
between them were often red hot.
218
00:16:56,615 --> 00:16:59,812
250,000 votes
were at stake in elections,
219
00:16:59,975 --> 00:17:03,012
more than 20%
of the adult male population.
220
00:17:03,175 --> 00:17:09,364
And nothing was spared to grab them -
money, drink, libels, gangs of toughs.
221
00:17:10,095 --> 00:17:12,734
This was all-out war at the hustings.
222
00:17:12,895 --> 00:17:15,887
(SHOUTING AND SCREAMING)
223
00:17:17,215 --> 00:17:21,731
Tories accused the Whigs of being
fanatics, the dregs of the populace,
224
00:17:21,895 --> 00:17:24,614
atheists, Commonwealth men.
225
00:17:25,935 --> 00:17:31,373
Whigs accused Tories of being willing
tools of the Jesuits and the French.
226
00:17:34,735 --> 00:17:38,728
Since the Revolution said there should be
an election every three years,
227
00:17:38,895 --> 00:17:42,251
this guaranteed
an awful lot of politics.
228
00:17:45,255 --> 00:17:47,291
The political temperature
reached fever pitch
229
00:17:47,455 --> 00:17:52,654
in 1714 when Queen Anne died
with no heir.
230
00:17:52,815 --> 00:17:55,409
To make sure of a Protestant successor,
231
00:17:55,575 --> 00:18:00,569
no fewer than 57 individuals with
blood ties to Anne were passed over
232
00:18:00,735 --> 00:18:03,932
to arrive at the next King of England -
233
00:18:04,095 --> 00:18:08,566
an uncharismatic, middle-aged man
who didn't speak English.
234
00:18:08,735 --> 00:18:14,731
George, Elector of Hanover,
now King George I of Great Britain.
235
00:18:16,255 --> 00:18:18,974
The Whigs backed his arrival in Britain
236
00:18:19,135 --> 00:18:23,287
and were rewarded when the new king
appointed a Whig government.
237
00:18:23,455 --> 00:18:28,290
In response, the Tories ridiculed
the new king as a lecherous dolt.
238
00:18:28,455 --> 00:18:32,573
His coronation was greeted
with rioting in twenty towns.
239
00:18:42,575 --> 00:18:46,011
(SKIRL OF BAGPIPES)
240
00:18:46,175 --> 00:18:51,454
But by far the most serious trouble
now came from across the border.
241
00:18:51,615 --> 00:18:56,689
The Union failed to dampen enthusiasm
in Scotland for the Jacobite cause.
242
00:18:56,855 --> 00:18:58,846
In fact, quite the opposite.
243
00:18:59,015 --> 00:19:04,169
The promise of trade and abundance
had failed to cross the Firth of Forth,
244
00:19:04,335 --> 00:19:07,725
and all of Scotland was suffering
from high taxes
245
00:19:07,895 --> 00:19:10,363
imposed by Westminster.
246
00:19:10,535 --> 00:19:14,608
The Jacobite leader, the Earl of Mar,
buoyed up by promises of support
247
00:19:14,775 --> 00:19:17,448
from English Tories and Jacobites,
248
00:19:17,615 --> 00:19:20,812
declared James the rightful king
at Braemar
249
00:19:20,975 --> 00:19:23,443
and proceeded to raise an army.
250
00:19:25,695 --> 00:19:29,813
The Jacobite slogan of "King James
and no Union" meant support
251
00:19:29,975 --> 00:19:33,968
from both the Highlands
and Lowlands came swiftly.
252
00:19:34,135 --> 00:19:37,286
10,000 men joined the rebellion.
253
00:19:43,095 --> 00:19:46,644
When news came through
of a Jacobite rising in Lancashire,
254
00:19:46,815 --> 00:19:50,205
the government knew
it was in serious trouble.
255
00:19:51,655 --> 00:19:55,728
But the Earl of Mar set new records
for military ineptness.
256
00:19:55,895 --> 00:19:59,683
After the Battle of Sheriffmuir,
which ended in a draw,
257
00:19:59,855 --> 00:20:02,767
and with his troops outnumbering
the Hanoverian army,
258
00:20:02,935 --> 00:20:06,689
Mar moved energetically into retreat!
259
00:20:06,855 --> 00:20:11,485
By the time James Edward Stuart
landed at Peterhead on December 22nd,
260
00:20:11,655 --> 00:20:13,646
it was all over.
261
00:20:20,295 --> 00:20:23,014
The Hanoverian dynasty remained,
262
00:20:23,175 --> 00:20:27,487
but the Jacobite rising was yet another
demonstration of just how unstable
263
00:20:27,655 --> 00:20:29,850
the new political order was.
264
00:20:30,015 --> 00:20:32,927
After this stormy start to the 18th century,
265
00:20:33,095 --> 00:20:37,293
if anyone would've predicted it would be
followed by decades of calm,
266
00:20:37,455 --> 00:20:40,253
they would've been thought
an absurd optimist,
267
00:20:40,415 --> 00:20:43,248
yet that's exactly what happened.
268
00:20:45,135 --> 00:20:50,528
It came about through the efforts not
of a king, a religious leader, or a general,
269
00:20:50,695 --> 00:20:53,892
but a political manager of uncanny genius.
270
00:20:58,935 --> 00:21:03,929
He'd been, like his father and grandfather
before him, a Norfolk squire and an MP.
271
00:21:04,095 --> 00:21:08,611
He'd moved smoothly through
the big-money jobs - Paymaster-General,
272
00:21:08,775 --> 00:21:10,766
Chancellor of the Exchequer.
273
00:21:10,935 --> 00:21:15,372
He'd come to dominate British political life
for a quarter of a century.
274
00:21:16,095 --> 00:21:19,371
He was... Robert Walpole.
275
00:21:21,335 --> 00:21:24,088
Although he never actually had the title,
276
00:21:24,255 --> 00:21:27,565
Walpole was, in effect,
Britain's first Prime Minister
277
00:21:27,735 --> 00:21:33,605
and, under his leadership, the British
economy boomed as never before.
278
00:21:43,415 --> 00:21:46,771
Walpole's appeal
was to shameless self-interest.
279
00:21:46,935 --> 00:21:51,087
From the pursuit of it, he believed,
would come the country's greater good.
280
00:21:51,255 --> 00:21:53,815
"Which do you prefer?" he might've said.
281
00:21:53,975 --> 00:21:57,331
"A battle over principles
and religious convictions?"
282
00:21:57,495 --> 00:22:01,966
That was only going to lead to war,
turmoil and poverty.
283
00:22:02,135 --> 00:22:08,324
"Or would you rather have what I offer you?
Peace, political stability and low taxes."
284
00:22:08,495 --> 00:22:12,204
What today we'd call
"a healthy business environment".
285
00:22:13,215 --> 00:22:17,925
From the beginning, Walpole,
nicknamed "Cock Robin", had made a bet
286
00:22:18,095 --> 00:22:22,486
that the politics of the future
would be about portfolio management
287
00:22:22,655 --> 00:22:26,409
rather than religious passion
or legal debate.
288
00:22:26,575 --> 00:22:29,885
In 1712, he'd been sent to prison
for embezzlement
289
00:22:30,055 --> 00:22:32,774
and the experience gave him
a painful lesson
290
00:22:32,935 --> 00:22:37,929
in how tightly intertwined
were political and financial fortunes.
291
00:22:39,095 --> 00:22:41,655
But perhaps his greatest asset
292
00:22:41,815 --> 00:22:46,730
was his unerring grip
on the psychology of loyalty.
293
00:22:46,895 --> 00:22:48,886
Walpole made a point of taking
294
00:22:49,055 --> 00:22:52,604
every new Whig member of the House
out to dinner.
295
00:22:52,775 --> 00:22:57,849
Tete-a-tete. And there, with a glass
of his best claret in your fat little hand,
296
00:22:58,015 --> 00:23:01,610
and a haunch of mutton
juicily oozing on the trencher
297
00:23:01,775 --> 00:23:04,243
and Cock Robin's glittering eyes
298
00:23:04,415 --> 00:23:10,285
twinkling amiably at you, assuring you that
the life of the party, the state of the nation,
299
00:23:10,455 --> 00:23:14,448
depended on you, the new member
from Little Mucking-on-the-Wold.
300
00:23:14,615 --> 00:23:21,168
How could you not express undying
devotion and loyalty to his interest?
301
00:23:22,135 --> 00:23:27,971
Walpole sat at the controlling centre
of a vast empire of patronage.
302
00:23:28,135 --> 00:23:33,163
The jobs at his disposal conferred
honour as well as cash on the holder
303
00:23:33,335 --> 00:23:37,886
and they were dangled on a string
by the great political puppeteer.
304
00:23:40,015 --> 00:23:44,293
In retrospect, we can see that Walpole
built Britain's, in fact the world's,
305
00:23:44,455 --> 00:23:47,652
first modern party political machine.
306
00:23:47,815 --> 00:23:52,013
He had placemen in parliament
primed to vote as he directed.
307
00:23:52,175 --> 00:23:54,769
He had George I and then George II
308
00:23:54,935 --> 00:23:57,608
eating out of the palm of his hand.
309
00:23:57,775 --> 00:24:01,814
And in case anyone was tempted
to flirt with the opposition,
310
00:24:01,975 --> 00:24:06,287
he had the kind of information that could
make life really difficult for them.
311
00:24:06,455 --> 00:24:10,084
In short, Walpole had the goods.
312
00:24:12,175 --> 00:24:15,611
The goods, in fact,
in every sense of the word.
313
00:24:15,775 --> 00:24:18,243
As well as looking after the country's interest,
314
00:24:18,415 --> 00:24:21,885
Walpole made sure
he looked after his own.
315
00:24:22,055 --> 00:24:26,810
Just how much of a fortune he made
for himself is spectacularly on view
316
00:24:26,975 --> 00:24:30,729
here at his country house in Norfolk,
Houghton Hall.
317
00:24:33,055 --> 00:24:37,970
Houghton was the Whig Xanadu,
the last word in opulence.
318
00:24:38,135 --> 00:24:41,207
Anything that riches could buy,
Walpole bought.
319
00:24:41,375 --> 00:24:44,014
Marble, mahogany, figured damask,
320
00:24:44,175 --> 00:24:47,645
shimmering silks and satins,
classical sculpture,
321
00:24:47,815 --> 00:24:50,204
glorious Renaissance and Baroque art,
322
00:24:50,375 --> 00:24:54,084
all shipped to his East Anglian
pleasure dome.
323
00:25:02,095 --> 00:25:07,294
But Houghton was not just about living the
good life, much as its master revelled in it,
324
00:25:07,455 --> 00:25:12,165
it was also a statement of grandeur
meant to stun sceptics
325
00:25:12,335 --> 00:25:15,452
into recognising
that only someone truly in command
326
00:25:15,615 --> 00:25:20,211
of the nation's fortunes
could possibly afford something like this.
327
00:25:21,455 --> 00:25:27,007
King George may have had the throne,
but Cock Robin had the palace.
328
00:25:27,175 --> 00:25:31,373
There's no doubt that Walpole's appeal
to self-interest was infectious.
329
00:25:32,095 --> 00:25:35,246
With the glittering prizes dangled
before their noses,
330
00:25:35,415 --> 00:25:41,365
the governing class of the country -
180 peers and 1,500 country gentry -
331
00:25:41,535 --> 00:25:46,404
lined up to trade in party passion
for Palladian houses.
332
00:25:46,575 --> 00:25:49,931
They stopped shouting
and started building.
333
00:25:56,415 --> 00:26:00,328
And what they built was designed
to insulate them from the grubbiness
334
00:26:00,495 --> 00:26:05,250
of the real world -
and Robert Walpole showed them the way.
335
00:26:06,815 --> 00:26:10,808
This stone column marks the spot
where the village of Houghton stood.
336
00:26:10,975 --> 00:26:15,127
It had been here for centuries,
but now it was just an inconvenience.
337
00:26:15,295 --> 00:26:19,891
It was too close to Walpole's house
and it definitely spoiled the view,
338
00:26:20,055 --> 00:26:24,014
so he simply had it demolished
and moved down the road.
339
00:26:26,255 --> 00:26:29,327
Of course, they could tell themselves,
and they did,
340
00:26:29,495 --> 00:26:35,127
that their houses and parks were not just
monuments to wealthy self-indulgence.
341
00:26:35,295 --> 00:26:41,052
They were also a testimony
to the greatness and glory of the nation.
342
00:26:43,495 --> 00:26:48,011
Stephen Switzer, one of the leading
landscape architects of the day,
343
00:26:48,175 --> 00:26:51,326
certainly saw this as his duty.
344
00:26:51,495 --> 00:26:57,092
Magnificent gardens, statuesand waterworks complete the grandeur.
345
00:26:57,255 --> 00:27:01,533
It is then that we may hope to excelthe gardens of the French
346
00:27:01,695 --> 00:27:06,610
and make that great nation give wayto the superior beauties of our gardens,
347
00:27:06,775 --> 00:27:11,326
as her late prince hasto the invincible force of British arms.
348
00:27:14,215 --> 00:27:18,413
This was the kind of battle the rich
and powerful in Hanoverian Britain
349
00:27:18,575 --> 00:27:22,488
really liked to fight - war by gardening.
350
00:27:28,055 --> 00:27:32,606
Stourhead in Wiltshire is one of the great
18th-century landscape gardens.
351
00:27:33,375 --> 00:27:35,889
Taking inspiration
from ancient Roman villas,
352
00:27:36,055 --> 00:27:39,934
aristocrats like Sir Henry Hall,
who built Stourhead,
353
00:27:40,095 --> 00:27:43,974
even thought of their parks
as a kind of public education
354
00:27:44,135 --> 00:27:48,925
and encouraged locals to pay a visit,
provided they stuck rigidly
355
00:27:49,095 --> 00:27:52,292
to the designated tour route.
356
00:27:52,455 --> 00:27:56,130
That route would not just meander
between ponds and trees,
357
00:27:56,295 --> 00:27:58,286
but towards classical buildings
358
00:27:58,455 --> 00:28:03,654
designed to kindle feelings of virtue
and patriotism in their breast.
359
00:28:13,215 --> 00:28:16,366
But sharing
all this pastoral graciousness
360
00:28:16,535 --> 00:28:18,526
only went so far.
361
00:28:20,095 --> 00:28:23,929
For the ruling class,
their land was now a money pump.
362
00:28:24,095 --> 00:28:27,565
Big profit-yielding farms
replaced strip farming,
363
00:28:27,735 --> 00:28:30,647
and smallholders
were turfed off their land.
364
00:28:30,815 --> 00:28:36,094
Too bad. Landowners needed all the money
they could get to keep up appearances,
365
00:28:36,255 --> 00:28:40,214
not just in the country, but in the town,
and above all in the place
366
00:28:40,375 --> 00:28:46,166
which was the biggest, brashest,
fastest-growing city in Europe - London.
367
00:28:50,335 --> 00:28:55,728
Here, the winners and losers
of Walpole's Britain jostled side by side.
368
00:28:56,255 --> 00:28:58,689
700,000 of them.
369
00:28:58,855 --> 00:29:00,846
One in ten Englishmen.
370
00:29:01,495 --> 00:29:04,407
Foreign visitors were astounded
at the noise,
371
00:29:04,575 --> 00:29:09,126
the hectic throngs packing the streets,
the tireless hucksterism,
372
00:29:09,295 --> 00:29:12,173
the glittering greediness of it all.
373
00:29:14,215 --> 00:29:18,049
The modern morality tales of painter
and engraver William Hogarth
374
00:29:18,215 --> 00:29:22,367
are peopled by innocents
arriving dewy-fresh from the country...
375
00:29:23,895 --> 00:29:27,092
...surrendering to the temptations
of the city
376
00:29:27,255 --> 00:29:33,728
and falling hopelessly into a deep, dark,
sink of iniquity and disease.
377
00:29:38,375 --> 00:29:43,495
But however much moralists frowned on
the new consumerism gripping the city,
378
00:29:43,655 --> 00:29:47,125
economic realists knew
it was the way forward.
379
00:29:47,295 --> 00:29:50,412
(WOMAN) # Come buymy greens and flowers fine
380
00:29:50,575 --> 00:29:54,284
# Your houses to adorn #
381
00:29:54,455 --> 00:29:59,483
There had been other great emporium
cities in Europe, but nothing like this.
382
00:29:59,655 --> 00:30:02,488
London had invented serious shopping
383
00:30:02,655 --> 00:30:06,648
and it had something
like 20,000 shops to prove it.
384
00:30:07,975 --> 00:30:12,446
Its shops would lure the customer to buy
something they'd never thought of acquiring.
385
00:30:12,615 --> 00:30:15,448
Novelty items like oriental goldfish,
386
00:30:15,615 --> 00:30:18,083
which became an aristocratic marvel.
387
00:30:18,815 --> 00:30:21,727
Caged canaries, finches and parrots.
388
00:30:23,335 --> 00:30:25,724
Unheard-of luxuries
became commonplace,
389
00:30:25,895 --> 00:30:28,455
priced to appeal to the middle class.
390
00:30:28,615 --> 00:30:32,608
China from Holland
from which to sip your tea.
391
00:30:32,775 --> 00:30:36,370
Exotic fruits like pomegranates
and pineapples.
392
00:30:37,415 --> 00:30:39,883
The first commercially available
condoms.
393
00:30:40,055 --> 00:30:45,766
Lambskin for the rich, linen soaked
in brine for the not-so-rich.
394
00:30:46,335 --> 00:30:50,726
London's consumer culture
was Mephistopheles winking an eye,
395
00:30:50,895 --> 00:30:54,126
crooking a finger, and proffering credit.
396
00:30:56,735 --> 00:31:02,207
But terrible things could happen to those
who ran out of credit and ran out of time.
397
00:31:07,135 --> 00:31:11,811
A debt of just �2 would get you
locked up in a debtor's prison.
398
00:31:11,975 --> 00:31:16,844
The prison, like almost everything else in
greedy, managerial, Hanoverian Britain,
399
00:31:17,015 --> 00:31:21,008
was a business - a matter
of pounds, shillings and pence.
400
00:31:22,135 --> 00:31:25,810
�5,000 was the price
one John Huggins paid
401
00:31:25,975 --> 00:31:28,330
for the wardenship of the Fleet Prison,
402
00:31:28,495 --> 00:31:31,692
the equivalent of
half-a-million pounds today.
403
00:31:31,855 --> 00:31:36,610
The way he could recoup his investment
was to charge inmates for their stay.
404
00:31:36,775 --> 00:31:42,054
The hotel from hell, including, of course,
the rent for their shackles.
405
00:31:42,215 --> 00:31:44,775
A fiver would get you your own cell,
406
00:31:44,935 --> 00:31:48,530
a few shillings more,
something approximating food.
407
00:31:48,695 --> 00:31:52,688
Less than that, you took your chance
in the packed common prison,
408
00:31:52,855 --> 00:31:56,450
sleeping on the floor,
no air, no sanitation...
409
00:31:58,655 --> 00:32:01,647
...and smallpox waiting to get you.
410
00:32:05,015 --> 00:32:09,611
"Who are the real criminals?" was
the cry on the streets, in coffee houses,
411
00:32:09,775 --> 00:32:11,970
and in the newspapers of London.
412
00:32:12,135 --> 00:32:16,845
Everywhere you looked, the line between
the law enforcers and the law breakers
413
00:32:17,015 --> 00:32:19,165
seemed arbitrary.
414
00:32:19,735 --> 00:32:25,571
In 1725, the Lord Chancellor
was convicted of embezzling �80,000.
415
00:32:25,735 --> 00:32:28,090
People had had enough.
416
00:32:29,375 --> 00:32:33,573
In the 1730s, satires and essays
and poems and pictures
417
00:32:33,735 --> 00:32:36,488
documented a rising wave of revulsion
418
00:32:36,655 --> 00:32:39,692
at the world Walpole
had brought into being.
419
00:32:42,255 --> 00:32:46,407
A sense that beneath all the platitudes
about peace and stability
420
00:32:46,575 --> 00:32:49,169
lay squalor and corruption.
421
00:32:52,895 --> 00:32:57,252
A walk through London, for example,
was a walk over prostrate bodies,
422
00:32:57,415 --> 00:32:59,610
big and little.
423
00:33:00,055 --> 00:33:04,412
Infants, whose mothers were unable,
or sometimes unwilling, to raise them,
424
00:33:04,575 --> 00:33:06,964
were abandoned on the streets.
425
00:33:11,375 --> 00:33:14,845
But there came a point
when someone was tired enough
426
00:33:15,015 --> 00:33:18,087
of stepping over half-dead babies
found in the gutter
427
00:33:18,255 --> 00:33:20,849
to do something about it.
428
00:33:24,015 --> 00:33:28,725
That someone was a 53-year-old
retired merchant sea captain
429
00:33:28,895 --> 00:33:30,886
called Thomas Coram.
430
00:33:33,295 --> 00:33:35,684
Coram had made his fortune
in Massachusetts
431
00:33:35,855 --> 00:33:37,846
from the Transatlantic timber trade.
432
00:33:38,015 --> 00:33:41,803
All he wanted was to have
a quiet life in Rotherhithe
433
00:33:41,975 --> 00:33:44,773
where he could smell
the Thames and the sea.
434
00:33:44,935 --> 00:33:49,963
But the sight of all those tiny abandoned
corpses wouldn't leave him in peace.
435
00:33:50,135 --> 00:33:54,208
Worse, he knew that the mortality rate
for infants born in the workhouse
436
00:33:54,375 --> 00:33:58,607
and sent out to wet nurse
was close to 100%.
437
00:33:58,775 --> 00:34:00,970
(BABIES CRYING)
438
00:34:01,135 --> 00:34:05,686
So Thomas Coram determined
to tap some of that new-found wealth
439
00:34:05,855 --> 00:34:08,130
to create a foundling hospital,
440
00:34:08,295 --> 00:34:12,288
a place where babies could be deposited,
legitimate or illegitimate,
441
00:34:12,455 --> 00:34:16,004
and would be given
a decent chance of survival.
442
00:34:17,375 --> 00:34:21,527
For nearly 20 years, he made himself
a nuisance to his friends,
443
00:34:21,695 --> 00:34:26,052
petitioning the king and everyone else
until the funds got raised.
444
00:34:26,215 --> 00:34:30,925
In 1741, the hospital opened its doors
to its first children.
445
00:34:31,095 --> 00:34:33,734
Not surprisingly,
it couldn't cope with demand.
446
00:34:33,895 --> 00:34:37,251
To decide which children
could and couldn't get places,
447
00:34:37,415 --> 00:34:39,849
there was a heartbreaking lucky dip.
448
00:34:40,015 --> 00:34:43,405
Mothers lined up
to draw wooden balls out of a bag.
449
00:34:43,575 --> 00:34:48,854
A white ball, and your baby was in.
A red ball, you were on the reserve list.
450
00:34:49,455 --> 00:34:53,926
A black ball...
Well, you were back on the streets.
451
00:34:54,095 --> 00:34:57,292
Inside this cabinet
are some of the saddest things
452
00:34:57,455 --> 00:35:00,288
left to us by the 18th century.
453
00:35:00,455 --> 00:35:05,404
These are the keepsake tokens given
to their babies by desperate mothers
454
00:35:05,575 --> 00:35:09,284
just at the point when they'd leave them
to the tender mercies
455
00:35:09,455 --> 00:35:11,650
of the Foundling Hospital.
456
00:35:12,855 --> 00:35:16,450
There's a whole world
of sorrow and love
457
00:35:16,615 --> 00:35:18,845
in this extraordinary cabinet.
458
00:35:19,015 --> 00:35:21,324
It speaks not just of the destitute.
459
00:35:21,495 --> 00:35:25,966
Some of the pieces, like this beautiful
mother-of-pearl heart
460
00:35:26,135 --> 00:35:29,764
with the initials,
presumably of the baby,
461
00:35:29,935 --> 00:35:33,132
suggest that some of these mothers
were quite well-to-do.
462
00:35:33,295 --> 00:35:37,891
But in many other cases,
the pieces speak of real hardship.
463
00:35:38,055 --> 00:35:42,333
They were just the things the mothers
happened to have on them
464
00:35:42,495 --> 00:35:45,532
when they had to get rid of the children.
465
00:35:45,695 --> 00:35:49,165
Some of these mothers had nothing
at the last minute
466
00:35:49,335 --> 00:35:54,648
to offer their little babies except a nut -
a nut meant to be worn as a pendant.
467
00:35:54,815 --> 00:35:58,933
There's a little hole where the string
was supposed to be strung through.
468
00:35:59,535 --> 00:36:05,929
Sometimes things that had a little work
on them - like this beautiful sewn heart.
469
00:36:06,095 --> 00:36:08,370
Or, most desperate of all perhaps,
470
00:36:08,535 --> 00:36:11,413
just this flimsy little piece of ribbon.
471
00:36:11,575 --> 00:36:15,409
Imagine a mother saying goodbye
for the last time to her baby
472
00:36:15,575 --> 00:36:19,363
just taking a bit of ribbon
from her hair or her wrist
473
00:36:19,535 --> 00:36:22,686
and giving it, as she hoped,
to her child.
474
00:36:23,695 --> 00:36:28,246
Now, if this wasn't heartbreak enough,
it only gets worse when you know
475
00:36:28,415 --> 00:36:33,569
that none of these things
ever found their way to the children.
476
00:36:33,735 --> 00:36:35,726
(BABY CRIES)
477
00:36:35,895 --> 00:36:40,969
The Foundling Hospital couldn't hope
to work miracles overnight.
478
00:36:41,135 --> 00:36:44,491
Nearly half the babies died
in the first year,
479
00:36:44,655 --> 00:36:48,614
but that was a huge improvement
over the usual figures.
480
00:36:50,135 --> 00:36:52,933
This was the middle-class parish at work -
481
00:36:53,095 --> 00:36:55,484
well off, busily charitable
482
00:36:55,655 --> 00:36:58,965
and as much interested
in virtue as in wit.
483
00:36:59,135 --> 00:37:03,811
There had been philanthropy before, but
this was the first time that businessmen
484
00:37:03,975 --> 00:37:08,366
came together with high-profile artists,
writers and sculptors
485
00:37:08,535 --> 00:37:12,574
in a campaign of conscience
to attack a hideous evil
486
00:37:12,735 --> 00:37:17,251
in what was supposed to be
a Christian modern metropolis.
487
00:37:22,655 --> 00:37:27,490
The charges of the hospital would be
employed in the service of the nation.
488
00:37:27,655 --> 00:37:32,251
In the Navy if they were boys
or in domestic service if they were girls.
489
00:37:32,415 --> 00:37:36,374
The Foundling Hospital
was philanthropy with a purpose.
490
00:37:40,935 --> 00:37:44,769
Its charges would be
model Britons of the future,
491
00:37:44,935 --> 00:37:46,926
not gin-soaked, syphilitic rakes.
492
00:37:47,095 --> 00:37:52,215
They were going to be sober,
educated, industrious, God-fearing
493
00:37:52,375 --> 00:37:54,605
and, above all, patriotic.
494
00:37:54,775 --> 00:37:56,970
# Rule, Britannia... #
495
00:37:57,735 --> 00:38:00,727
This was Britannia's time.
496
00:38:00,895 --> 00:38:07,004
# Britons never will be slaves
497
00:38:07,175 --> 00:38:09,484
(CHOIR) # Rule, Britannia
498
00:38:09,655 --> 00:38:12,567
# Britannia rule the waves
499
00:38:13,135 --> 00:38:18,687
# Britons never will be slaves #
500
00:38:18,855 --> 00:38:23,406
The lyrics for this chest-thumping song
were written by two Scots
501
00:38:23,575 --> 00:38:27,011
for a play about Alfred the Great,
and they were sung
502
00:38:27,175 --> 00:38:31,612
by merchants and businessmen
who saw Britain's future lay
503
00:38:31,775 --> 00:38:34,528
with the blue water empire of trade.
504
00:38:37,775 --> 00:38:41,734
But someone was in the way
of this prosperous future -
505
00:38:41,895 --> 00:38:44,648
and that someone was Robert Walpole.
506
00:38:44,815 --> 00:38:49,605
Merchants felt Walpole and his cronies
cared too much about land
507
00:38:49,775 --> 00:38:53,165
and not enough about business.
508
00:38:53,335 --> 00:38:56,407
So they were not amused
when Walpole raised taxes
509
00:38:56,575 --> 00:39:00,170
on things that made money for them -
beer and coal -
510
00:39:00,335 --> 00:39:04,089
while making damn sure
to keep the land tax low.
511
00:39:07,735 --> 00:39:13,332
What would be the only thing that could
raise those land taxes? War, of course.
512
00:39:13,495 --> 00:39:18,091
So no wonder Walpole, unforgivably,
pussyfooted around the Spanish
513
00:39:18,255 --> 00:39:22,214
when they presumed
to interfere with our ships.
514
00:39:23,815 --> 00:39:28,730
When he signed a treaty with Spain
that was seen as an unpatriotic sell-out,
515
00:39:28,895 --> 00:39:32,046
the merchants
were even more incensed.
516
00:39:36,455 --> 00:39:42,052
Walpole's effigy was burned in the streets
by crowds roaring for his political head.
517
00:39:43,095 --> 00:39:46,087
Walpole's allies and time-servers
in parliament
518
00:39:46,255 --> 00:39:49,167
were suddenly nowhere to be seen.
519
00:39:49,335 --> 00:39:53,123
His political enemies closed in
gleefully for the kill.
520
00:39:53,975 --> 00:39:58,844
To deprive them of the satisfaction,
Walpole walked, a broken man,
521
00:39:59,015 --> 00:40:02,405
back to his wine
and his dogs at Houghton.
522
00:40:04,495 --> 00:40:06,963
It was the end of an era.
523
00:40:12,375 --> 00:40:15,731
Now the gung-ho patriots could have
their get-rich war,
524
00:40:15,895 --> 00:40:19,171
and they must have thought
it would be a breeze.
525
00:40:22,575 --> 00:40:26,966
Britain could fight abroad
because it was so united at home.
526
00:40:27,975 --> 00:40:31,126
But in 1745, that unity
527
00:40:31,295 --> 00:40:34,367
would prove a bitter illusion.
528
00:40:50,055 --> 00:40:52,933
The Jacobite cause had refused to die,
529
00:40:53,095 --> 00:40:55,973
especially amongst the clans
of north-west Scotland,
530
00:40:56,135 --> 00:40:59,571
where it fed off
continued opposition to the Union.
531
00:41:01,935 --> 00:41:04,369
What the Jacobites needed
was a figurehead
532
00:41:04,535 --> 00:41:07,003
and, in 1745, they got one,
533
00:41:07,175 --> 00:41:11,088
a leader many saw as a model
of virile fearlessness.
534
00:41:11,255 --> 00:41:13,644
The son of James Edward Stuart,
535
00:41:13,815 --> 00:41:18,650
the man known to us and to posterity
as Bonnie Prince Charlie.
536
00:41:18,815 --> 00:41:20,806
The fact the Prince's full name
537
00:41:20,975 --> 00:41:26,174
was Charles Edward Louis Casimir
Silvester Severino Maria Stuart
538
00:41:26,335 --> 00:41:28,644
should tell us that the Prince was less
539
00:41:28,815 --> 00:41:31,807
the incarnation
of the old Scotland of the clans
540
00:41:31,975 --> 00:41:35,524
and much more a fully-fledged graduate
of the pan-European
541
00:41:35,695 --> 00:41:40,291
Italo-Polish-Franco-Irish-Catholic
international community.
542
00:41:42,815 --> 00:41:44,885
But still, he was a Stuart,
543
00:41:45,055 --> 00:41:48,252
and that blood certainly mattered
to the Prince himself
544
00:41:48,415 --> 00:41:53,808
who, at 24, sailed from France to Scotland
to win back the throne for his father.
545
00:41:58,735 --> 00:42:02,967
On the 19th August, 1745,
Prince Charles Edward Stuart
546
00:42:03,135 --> 00:42:07,890
stood here at Glenfinnan,
watched his family standard being raised,
547
00:42:08,055 --> 00:42:12,367
and told the assembled clansmen
he'd come to make Scotland happy.
548
00:42:12,535 --> 00:42:17,051
That would've been news to some
of the crofters who'd been threatened
549
00:42:17,215 --> 00:42:20,764
with having their cottages burned
unless they joined the Jacobites.
550
00:42:20,935 --> 00:42:25,486
But the sight of Bonnie Prince Charlie -
and compared to George II
551
00:42:25,655 --> 00:42:30,251
and to his own embittered, ageing father,
he certainly was bonny -
552
00:42:30,415 --> 00:42:35,091
standing here in the glen at the head
of Loch Shiel in his tartan plaid
553
00:42:35,255 --> 00:42:40,454
did seem to promise, if only
for a moment, a new Scottish future.
554
00:42:40,615 --> 00:42:45,325
Or, at the very least, the end
of the miserable captivity of the Union.
555
00:42:45,495 --> 00:42:50,250
But happiness? Well, that was going
to prove a lot harder to come by.
556
00:42:51,455 --> 00:42:56,483
The structure of clan society meant that
support for the prince gathered quickly.
557
00:42:57,655 --> 00:43:01,045
In England, families were becoming
a kind of business.
558
00:43:01,215 --> 00:43:06,335
In the Highlands of Scotland, kinship
was much more a matter of blood.
559
00:43:06,495 --> 00:43:10,807
Clan loyalty was built around the idea,
even when it was a mythical idea,
560
00:43:10,975 --> 00:43:13,535
of a common ancestor.
561
00:43:13,695 --> 00:43:18,132
The grandest landlords in the Highlands,
like their Lowlands counterparts,
562
00:43:18,295 --> 00:43:23,050
were becoming connoisseurs
of fine claret and chamber music.
563
00:43:23,215 --> 00:43:27,686
But the local laird had a lot
in common with his crofters.
564
00:43:27,855 --> 00:43:31,814
They both spoke Gaelic,
they wore tartan plaid and sporran,
565
00:43:31,975 --> 00:43:37,288
and they ensured they had broadswords
and daggers ready when the chieftain called.
566
00:43:44,695 --> 00:43:48,404
Buoyed by the prince's claim
that the French were behind them
567
00:43:48,575 --> 00:43:50,770
and planned an imminent invasion,
568
00:43:50,935 --> 00:43:53,927
Bonnie Prince Charlie and his army
moved swiftly,
569
00:43:54,095 --> 00:43:57,644
catching the inadequate
Hanoverian forces in Scotland
570
00:43:57,815 --> 00:44:00,329
completely unprepared.
571
00:44:00,495 --> 00:44:04,488
But when the prince finally took
what was the big prize, Edinburgh,
572
00:44:04,655 --> 00:44:07,453
he hadn't won over
the whole of Scotland.
573
00:44:07,615 --> 00:44:11,085
The Lowlands were overwhelmingly
loyal to King George.
574
00:44:11,255 --> 00:44:15,567
It's quite possible that more Scots
fought against Bonnie Prince Charlie
575
00:44:15,735 --> 00:44:17,726
than for him.
576
00:44:20,775 --> 00:44:25,087
Nonetheless, it seemed that the prince
couldn't put a foot wrong.
577
00:44:25,255 --> 00:44:29,646
When his army faced the Hanoverians
at the Battle of Prestonpans,
578
00:44:29,815 --> 00:44:32,204
they won a resounding victory.
579
00:44:36,855 --> 00:44:41,292
At Holyroodhouse, debate raged
as to what to do next.
580
00:44:41,455 --> 00:44:44,731
The Highland chiefs,
sceptical of finding support in England,
581
00:44:44,895 --> 00:44:48,774
advised Charles to make the Stuarts
masters of the north,
582
00:44:48,935 --> 00:44:50,926
but to go no further.
583
00:44:51,095 --> 00:44:55,293
But for Charles, nothing less
than a conquest of England would do
584
00:44:55,455 --> 00:44:58,447
and he won the day by a single vote.
585
00:44:59,695 --> 00:45:02,846
The Jacobites were on their way south.
586
00:45:03,975 --> 00:45:08,730
In rapid succession, Carlisle,
Lancaster, Preston and Manchester
587
00:45:08,895 --> 00:45:14,253
all fell to the prince's army without
a shot being fired in their defence.
588
00:45:14,415 --> 00:45:17,851
With the Jacobites approaching Derby
at the beginning of December
589
00:45:18,015 --> 00:45:21,405
and the bulk of His Majesty's forces
fighting in Europe,
590
00:45:21,575 --> 00:45:25,648
there was close to pandemonium
in London and the south.
591
00:45:25,815 --> 00:45:31,253
There was a run on the Bank of England
and all the shops in London closed.
592
00:45:31,415 --> 00:45:34,771
The few soldiers left to protect
the capital were not,
593
00:45:34,935 --> 00:45:40,612
shall we say, of the kind of calibre
to inspire much confidence.
594
00:45:40,775 --> 00:45:46,054
But just as in 1715, it could be said
the Jacobites defeated themselves.
595
00:45:46,215 --> 00:45:50,970
They didn't do it on the field of battle,
but in this room at Exeter House in Derby,
596
00:45:51,135 --> 00:45:54,411
on December 5th, 1745.
597
00:45:56,135 --> 00:46:02,131
The prince and his chiefs argued bitterly
whether to go forward or retreat.
598
00:46:02,295 --> 00:46:05,765
"London is just 130 miles away,"
said the prince.
599
00:46:05,935 --> 00:46:09,007
"Move on the capital
and the French will come.
600
00:46:09,175 --> 00:46:11,530
"Besides, we've got precious little time.
601
00:46:11,695 --> 00:46:15,324
"The Redcoats will be back
from Europe soon."
602
00:46:16,895 --> 00:46:21,093
"No," said Lord George Murray,
joint commander of the prince's army.
603
00:46:21,255 --> 00:46:24,053
"I no longer believe
the French are coming.
604
00:46:24,215 --> 00:46:28,174
"It's time to cut our losses.
It's time to go home."
605
00:46:29,255 --> 00:46:34,170
This time, the prince lost the vote
by a substantial margin.
606
00:46:36,335 --> 00:46:39,407
The Jacobites turned about
and headed north,
607
00:46:39,575 --> 00:46:42,328
beginning the long tramp
back to Scotland
608
00:46:42,495 --> 00:46:48,092
through dreadful winter weather, pursued
by the newly-returned British regiments.
609
00:46:48,255 --> 00:46:50,894
Their retreat turned into a nightmare.
610
00:46:52,455 --> 00:46:55,094
It's hard to know
which was more murderous -
611
00:46:55,255 --> 00:46:59,248
the snows of December and January
or the vengeful, pursuing troops
612
00:46:59,415 --> 00:47:03,010
of George II's son,
the Duke of Cumberland.
613
00:47:04,735 --> 00:47:09,570
Cumberland gave a taste
of what he was capable of at Carlisle.
614
00:47:09,735 --> 00:47:13,614
The garrison had been captured
by Jacobites on their march south,
615
00:47:13,775 --> 00:47:18,166
but they were unable to hold out
against Cumberland's advance.
616
00:47:23,735 --> 00:47:29,332
Into this tiny space were crammed
hundreds of Jacobite soldiers,
617
00:47:29,495 --> 00:47:33,886
locked up without any air
or any water.
618
00:47:34,055 --> 00:47:38,845
What they did have
were these shiny stones.
619
00:47:39,015 --> 00:47:44,089
Smooth, damp, slimy -
a terrible memento of their distress.
620
00:47:45,095 --> 00:47:47,973
To this day,
they're called "licking stones"
621
00:47:48,135 --> 00:47:53,687
because the prisoners were brought
to such horrible extremities
622
00:47:53,855 --> 00:47:56,164
that they were forced and reduced
623
00:47:56,335 --> 00:47:59,327
to sliding their tongues
in these cavities
624
00:47:59,495 --> 00:48:04,410
to try and collect the pathetic amount
of moisture gathered on the rock.
625
00:48:05,495 --> 00:48:10,250
This really was Hanoverian Britain's
Black Hole of Calcutta.
626
00:48:18,015 --> 00:48:21,212
By the time winter turned into spring
in the Highlands,
627
00:48:21,375 --> 00:48:25,129
it was unmistakably clear that,
whatever its temporary successes,
628
00:48:25,295 --> 00:48:27,365
the Jacobite war was lost.
629
00:48:27,535 --> 00:48:33,724
With every passing week, the Hanoverian
advantage in men, money and guns told.
630
00:48:36,215 --> 00:48:41,289
The armies eventually faced each other
at Culloden, near Inverness.
631
00:48:41,455 --> 00:48:45,084
Cumberland's force was only
a third as big again as the prince's,
632
00:48:45,255 --> 00:48:47,689
but it was lethally better equipped.
633
00:48:47,855 --> 00:48:51,564
A new verse of the National Anthem
proved to be prophetic
634
00:48:51,735 --> 00:48:54,693
as the big guns began to fire.
635
00:48:57,295 --> 00:49:00,970
(WOMAN SINGS)
636
00:49:48,895 --> 00:49:51,887
Just an hour after the firing had started,
637
00:49:52,055 --> 00:49:56,333
there were 1,500 Jacobite Highlanders
lying slaughtered.
638
00:49:56,495 --> 00:50:00,283
Only 50 of the Hanoverians
had perished.
639
00:50:00,455 --> 00:50:04,892
It was perhaps better to be
one of those felled by Hanoverian guns.
640
00:50:05,055 --> 00:50:09,845
It spared you the sight of British soldiers
coming at you, while you lay wounded,
641
00:50:10,015 --> 00:50:13,724
to finish you off
with their newfangled bayonets.
642
00:50:13,895 --> 00:50:16,568
As one Hanoverian officer noted:
643
00:50:16,735 --> 00:50:20,091
Our men, killing the enemy,dabbling their feet in blood
644
00:50:20,255 --> 00:50:22,644
and splashing it about one another,
645
00:50:22,815 --> 00:50:27,605
look like so many butchersrather than Christian soldiers.
646
00:50:29,855 --> 00:50:33,450
Charles Edward survived the battle
and gave the order:
647
00:50:33,615 --> 00:50:35,810
Every man for himself.
648
00:50:35,975 --> 00:50:40,571
He went on the run until it was safe
to be shipped back to France.
649
00:50:42,015 --> 00:50:45,894
In England,
the victory was riotously celebrated.
650
00:50:46,055 --> 00:50:49,650
Effigies of Bonnie Prince Charlie
were burned at the stake.
651
00:50:49,815 --> 00:50:53,603
Many Scots, too, were pleased
to see the end of the Jacobite threat,
652
00:50:53,775 --> 00:50:55,970
delighted the prince had gone.
653
00:50:56,135 --> 00:50:59,445
But in the heartland of his support,
north-west Scotland,
654
00:50:59,615 --> 00:51:02,812
Charles Edward left behind
a population prostrate
655
00:51:02,975 --> 00:51:05,967
before the avenging army
of the Duke of Cumberland,
656
00:51:06,135 --> 00:51:10,174
determined to break
the Jacobite clans for ever.
657
00:51:21,535 --> 00:51:26,006
Villages were burned to the ground,
captured men hanged or shot.
658
00:51:26,175 --> 00:51:30,054
Cattle were stolen,
thousands driven from their homes.
659
00:51:30,215 --> 00:51:32,934
Even the wearing
of Highland dress was banned,
660
00:51:33,095 --> 00:51:38,727
in an effort to strip the clans not just of
their possessions, but of their identity.
661
00:51:44,495 --> 00:51:49,523
The hopes and dreams of the Jacobites
had to live in the secret world of things,
662
00:51:49,695 --> 00:51:52,892
things that could be hidden
or disguised -
663
00:51:53,055 --> 00:51:55,615
a lock of Bonnie Prince Charlie's hair
664
00:51:55,775 --> 00:51:59,131
or the mysterious emblems
engraved on wine glasses.
665
00:51:59,295 --> 00:52:01,490
Take a look at this board.
666
00:52:01,655 --> 00:52:06,206
At first sight, it seems
an indecipherable smudge of paint.
667
00:52:06,375 --> 00:52:09,685
But if you look at it the right way -
reflected against
668
00:52:09,855 --> 00:52:12,050
the silvered mirror of a cylinder,
669
00:52:12,215 --> 00:52:16,208
it turns into The Lost Love,
the boy born to be king,
670
00:52:16,375 --> 00:52:18,764
the saviour across the water.
671
00:52:21,775 --> 00:52:24,608
Unhappily for the keepers
of the Jacobite flame,
672
00:52:24,775 --> 00:52:28,609
Charles Edward in exile
went rapidly downhill.
673
00:52:28,775 --> 00:52:32,973
Too many mistresses,
far too much drink, years of indolence,
674
00:52:33,135 --> 00:52:35,285
made him prematurely decrepit.
675
00:52:38,175 --> 00:52:44,330
(WOMAN) # Will ye no' come back again? #
676
00:52:44,495 --> 00:52:46,725
But the romantic myth of the prince
677
00:52:46,895 --> 00:52:50,490
would survive the wreckage
of his real history.
678
00:52:50,655 --> 00:52:53,965
It would live in the poems
and popular ballads,
679
00:52:54,135 --> 00:52:58,731
where he would always be
the dashing, charismatic boy prince.
680
00:53:02,015 --> 00:53:09,808
# Will ye no' come back again? #
681
00:53:11,695 --> 00:53:15,893
But Jacobitism as a political force
was spent.
682
00:53:16,055 --> 00:53:18,046
In the decades following Culloden,
683
00:53:18,215 --> 00:53:21,525
a transformation
would take place in Scotland.
684
00:53:22,535 --> 00:53:26,130
The Jacobite warriors
who'd been unable to break Britannia
685
00:53:26,295 --> 00:53:31,767
were given an alternative to returning
to their old obsessions of clan loyalty -
686
00:53:31,935 --> 00:53:35,723
join the future,
join the army of the British Empire.
687
00:53:35,895 --> 00:53:38,250
Many thousands took the offer.
688
00:53:38,415 --> 00:53:43,887
Instead of being the perennial victims
of that empire, they now colonised it.
689
00:53:44,055 --> 00:53:48,412
In the cities, too,
a new Scotland was being born.
690
00:53:49,175 --> 00:53:51,609
In just 20 years or so after Culloden,
691
00:53:51,775 --> 00:53:56,769
it became common to refer to Edinburgh
and Glasgow as hotbeds of genius.
692
00:53:57,535 --> 00:54:01,210
The collapse of the backward-looking
cult of honour made room
693
00:54:01,375 --> 00:54:05,527
for the flowering of
the forward-looking cult of modernity.
694
00:54:07,295 --> 00:54:11,686
In the academies, drawing rooms
and reading clubs of Scottish cities,
695
00:54:11,855 --> 00:54:15,131
hopeless dreams
were replaced by the appetite
696
00:54:15,295 --> 00:54:18,367
for hard facts and hard cash.
697
00:54:21,895 --> 00:54:26,446
The first British theory of progress was
sketched out by Scottish philosophers
698
00:54:26,615 --> 00:54:29,493
like Adam Ferguson and David Hume.
699
00:54:29,655 --> 00:54:32,089
They looked at their own country's tragedy
700
00:54:32,255 --> 00:54:36,726
and saw in its history the entire arc
of human social evolution,
701
00:54:36,895 --> 00:54:39,329
from hunting and gathering societies
702
00:54:39,495 --> 00:54:43,568
to settled farmers and, finally,
to true civilisation -
703
00:54:43,735 --> 00:54:46,295
the world of commerce,
science and industry,
704
00:54:46,455 --> 00:54:48,650
the world of the towns.
705
00:54:54,935 --> 00:54:57,244
It was another Scot, Robert Adam,
706
00:54:57,415 --> 00:55:01,328
who became the first British king
of architectural style.
707
00:55:01,495 --> 00:55:06,205
Less than 20 years after Bonnie Prince
Charlie had retreated from Derby,
708
00:55:06,375 --> 00:55:10,254
a different Scottish conqueror
came to Derbyshire and, this time,
709
00:55:10,415 --> 00:55:12,724
he was invincible.
710
00:55:23,655 --> 00:55:27,250
At Kedleston Hall,
Robert Adam built in a new style
711
00:55:27,415 --> 00:55:29,690
for a new kind of aristocrat.
712
00:55:29,855 --> 00:55:33,689
Its owner, the first Lord Scarsdale,
was a true new Briton -
713
00:55:33,855 --> 00:55:38,292
rich, not just from land,
but from the coal mines of Derbyshire.
714
00:55:40,175 --> 00:55:44,168
What he wanted was a house
that would not overpower the visitor
715
00:55:44,335 --> 00:55:47,566
with vulgar displays
of swaggering wealth,
716
00:55:47,735 --> 00:55:51,091
but somewhere that would speak
of Roman grandeur,
717
00:55:51,255 --> 00:55:56,693
of noble classical austerity,
of loftiness of mind, of purity of taste,
718
00:55:56,855 --> 00:56:00,894
a palace of contemplation,
a temple of virtue.
719
00:56:05,535 --> 00:56:11,132
Could the accumulation of private riches
be a force for general happiness?
720
00:56:14,935 --> 00:56:20,293
The Scot who made the deepest mark on
the future of Britain certainly thought so.
721
00:56:20,455 --> 00:56:24,164
In 1746, while the last survivors
of Cumberland's butchery
722
00:56:24,335 --> 00:56:28,533
were being hunted down,
Adam Smith, son of a customs officer,
723
00:56:28,695 --> 00:56:31,448
had an exhilarating vision of the future.
724
00:56:31,615 --> 00:56:35,733
That vision was based on
Smith's rejection of guilt and sin.
725
00:56:35,895 --> 00:56:39,092
But it would his revolutionary book,
"The Wealth of Nations",
726
00:56:39,255 --> 00:56:44,045
which would mark Scotland's farewell
to sentimental self-destruction.
727
00:56:44,215 --> 00:56:48,003
Upbeat and optimistic
about the happiness of material life,
728
00:56:48,175 --> 00:56:51,372
Smith laid out,
as a matter of scientific fact,
729
00:56:51,535 --> 00:56:55,323
mankind's natural drive
to self-betterment.
730
00:56:56,575 --> 00:56:58,770
Allowed to follow their natural urges,
731
00:56:58,935 --> 00:57:03,053
men would create, without even
willing it, a better world.
732
00:57:03,215 --> 00:57:05,934
Richer, freer, more educated.
733
00:57:06,095 --> 00:57:09,644
The best thing government could do
was get out of the way
734
00:57:09,815 --> 00:57:13,774
and allow the "invisible hand
of the market" to do its work.
735
00:57:18,455 --> 00:57:21,492
The economic world
was like a watch, he wrote,
736
00:57:21,655 --> 00:57:24,249
its springs and wheels
all admirably adjusted
737
00:57:24,415 --> 00:57:27,134
to the ends for which it was made.
738
00:57:27,295 --> 00:57:30,890
So, too, the countless movements
of men would perfectly interact
739
00:57:31,055 --> 00:57:34,172
for the purposes
for which God had made them.
740
00:57:35,015 --> 00:57:39,725
That purpose was progress, and it was
one of history's sweetest ironies
741
00:57:39,895 --> 00:57:44,173
that it had fallen to Scotland -
poor, bloodied, mutilated Scotland -
742
00:57:44,335 --> 00:57:46,803
to show Britannia the way ahead.
743
00:57:47,495 --> 00:57:49,486
If you want to see the future,
744
00:57:49,655 --> 00:57:52,931
forget the pompous monuments
of England's past.
745
00:57:53,095 --> 00:57:57,247
Come north instead to the new towns
of Glasgow and Edinburgh
746
00:57:57,415 --> 00:58:00,168
and see the future of Britain.
747
00:58:00,335 --> 00:58:03,930
The future, perhaps, of the world.
69141
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