英國史第十集：Britannia Incorporated（1690——1750）

[00:00.00] [00:03.48] [00:05.69]In the Britain of King William III, turning up late could get you killed. [00:10.48] [00:10.65]State business was meant to run like clockwork. [00:13.64] [00:13.81]Time was money. Money was power. [00:16.80] [00:22.37]In the Highlands of Scotland, though, the timeless tradition of the clans still ruled. [00:27.40] [00:28.25]To William's annoyance, some clans remained obstinately loyal [00:32.00] [00:32.17]to his predecessor, James II, the Stuart king driven out in 1688. [00:38.17] [00:39.65]Even worse, those Jacobites had won a short-lived victory over William's troops [00:44.72] [00:44.89]at the Battle of Killiecrankie. [00:47.20] [00:58.25]William's right-hand man in Scotland, the Lord Advocate, [01:01.24] [01:01.41]believed it was high time to teach the clans a lesson in loyalty. [01:06.12] [01:06.29]The chiefs were given a deadline to pledge an oath of allegiance - January 1st, 1692. [01:12.76] [01:13.69]Acknowledge William as your lawful king. [01:16.36] [01:16.53]Those who make the pledge will be rewarded, those who don't, punished. [01:20.92] [01:21.09]The Chief of the MacDonald clan of Glencoe missed his appointment [01:25.05] [01:25.21]by five days. [01:27.64] [01:32.85]At dawn on February 13th, 1692, [01:36.29] [01:36.45]Williamite troops from the Argyle Regiment, already quartered in Glencoe, [01:41.21] [01:41.37]were ordered to carry out a massacre. [01:43.93] [01:44.09]They butchered 38 of the clan [01:46.48] [01:46.65]and the rest of the village - old men, women and children, [01:49.85] [01:50.01]some half-naked - fled into a raging snow storm [01:53.89] [01:54.05]where many of them died. [01:57.04] [01:58.77]In London and Edinburgh, news of the massacre at Glencoe [02:02.40] [02:02.57]was greeted with pious professions of shock, [02:05.64] [02:05.81]especially, of course, from those who'd had the responsibility of organising it. [02:10.84] [02:11.01]An enquiry was held but, needless to say, it was a sham. [02:14.72] [02:16.89]If the intention had been to cow the Jacobites into submission, [02:20.80] [02:20.97]it had all gone horribly wrong. [02:23.28] [02:23.45]The massacre was a public relations disaster for William's government. [02:27.81] [02:27.97]The Scottish parliament voted it an act of murder. [02:31.76] [02:32.85]How could victim and perpetrator ever be reconciled now? [02:37.00] [02:37.17]How could Scotland, stricken with poverty, [02:39.81] [02:39.97]with its national pride deeply wounded, [02:42.69] [02:42.85]ever come together with its rich and ruthless neighbour? [02:46.84] [02:47.93]But come together they did, and the two countries, [02:50.92] [02:51.09]for centuries divided by politics and religion, [02:54.40] [02:54.57]would make a future together based on profit and interest. [02:59.17] [02:59.33]What began as a hostile merger would end as a full partnership [03:03.04] [03:03.21]in the most powerful going concern in the world - Britannia Incorporated. [03:08.81] [03:08.97]It was one of the most astonishing transformations in European history [03:13.20] [03:13.37]and this is how it happened. [03:15.96] [03:54.33](FANFARE) [03:57.77] [03:57.93]In England, the 1690s were the years when the victors of 1688 [04:03.16] [04:03.33]congratulated themselves on a "Glorious Revolution". [04:07.32] [04:11.61]In Scotland, there'd be years of purgatory. [04:15.00] [04:19.05]After the massacre at Glencoe came famine and pestilence. [04:23.52] [04:23.69]For several summers in a row, the sun refused to appear. [04:27.52] [04:27.69]Torrential rains poured down. [04:29.68] [04:29.85]Cattle and sheep became diseased with foot rot. [04:33.29] [04:33.45]Fields of barley and oats turned into mildewed slurry. [04:36.89] [04:37.89]The Jacobite clergy said this was God's wrath [04:41.57] [04:41.73]for turfing out the rightful king. [04:44.85] [04:47.81]In all this darkness, there were some who saw the light, [04:51.56] [04:51.73]a light that was going to shine hot and strong on Scotland. [04:56.93] [04:57.09]A plan that would transform the country from impotence and destitution [05:02.04] [05:02.21]into riches and power beyond anyone's wildest dreams. [05:05.60] [05:06.21]It would make Scotland - or its colonial trading post, New Caledonia - [05:11.57] [05:11.73]the hub of the universe. [05:14.80] [05:14.97]And where was that to be? Well, of course, in Panama. [05:19.28] [05:21.89]A group of merchants and bankers, including William Paterson, [05:25.57] [05:25.73]Scottish founder of the Bank of England, [05:28.20] [05:28.37]had the idea of creating a Scottish trading post [05:31.52] [05:31.69]on the Isthmus of Darien in Panama. [05:34.68] [05:34.85]At first sight, the idea sounds like the purest lunacy, [05:38.60] [05:38.77]but look at the map of world trade and it becomes visionary. [05:42.76] [05:42.93]A major obstacle to east-west trade [05:45.32] [05:45.49]was the long, dangerous, and ruinously expensive journey round Cape Horn. [05:51.17] [05:51.33]A trade route that cut through Panama was an obvious boon. [05:55.48] [05:55.65]At Darien, the distance between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans [05:59.80] [05:59.97]was only 40 miles. [06:02.12] [06:02.29]Goods could be carried across the narrow strip of land to waiting merchant ships. [06:07.60] [06:10.57]The trading economy of the world would be revolutionised [06:14.48] [06:14.65]and Scotland would run it. [06:16.85] [06:24.41]The Darien scheme instantly captured the imagination of the Scottish people. [06:29.01] [06:29.17]Men and women from all over Scotland [06:32.53] [06:32.69]queued up to invest in the venture. [06:35.25] [06:43.73]When the first fleet sailed from the Firth of Forth in July 1698, flying the Saltire [06:50.12] [06:50.29]and the extraordinary company flag of Indians, llamas, [06:54.20] [06:54.37]towered elephants and the beaming rising sun, [06:57.65] [06:59.29]it was carrying more than the 1,200 people selected to be the lucky colonists. [07:04.24] [07:04.41]It was carrying the hopes of an entire nation. [07:07.40] [07:10.41]But the only information the Company of Scotland had about Darien [07:13.96] [07:14.13]was from a pirate surgeon called Lionel Wafer, [07:17.60] [07:17.77]who claimed he knew the Caribbean very well [07:20.65] [07:20.81]and had convinced them the place was paradise. [07:24.36] [07:24.53]The climate was mild, he said, the soil fertile [07:27.44] [07:27.61]and the natives friendly. [07:29.60] [07:29.77]They were also vain, spending much of the day combing their long hair [07:34.64] [07:34.81]so, naturally, the ship's cargo included combs - thousands of them. [07:39.73] [07:39.89]The rest of the cargo says something about the conditions [07:43.28] [07:43.45]they were expecting to encounter. [07:45.92] [07:46.09]Crate-loads of catechisms and Bibles for converting the pagans. [07:50.56] [07:50.73]1,400 hats, an even greater supply of wigs. [07:54.28] [07:54.45]The Darienites were expecting to live like lairds of the lagoon! [07:59.05] [08:00.61]But before the ship got anywhere near Darien, [08:03.20] [08:03.37]the dream had turned into a nightmare. [08:05.93] [08:07.33]Forty crew and passengers died on the long voyage, [08:11.96] [08:12.13]and when they found their golden island, it was, of course, [08:15.73] [08:15.89]a mosquito-infested swamp. [08:18.88] [08:19.05]The natives did not, it seemed, want their combs or anything else. [08:23.81] [08:23.97]In a sweltering, rainy jungle, [08:25.96] [08:26.13]all the colonists' efforts went into lugging cannon [08:29.60] [08:29.77]into a primitive stockade bravely christened Fort St Andrew. [08:35.53] [08:35.69]They were dying now of disease and hunger [08:38.76] [08:38.93]at a rate of ten a day, and their supplies ran with maggots. [08:43.61] [08:46.09]And there was no outside help. [08:48.21] [08:48.37]Tropical New Caledonia was a direct threat to the English trading empire [08:53.16] [08:53.33]and the government in Westminster was determined it should fail. [08:57.72] [08:59.09]A law was passed making it illegal [09:01.52] [09:01.69]for any Englishman to invest in the scheme [09:04.33] [09:04.49]or give assistance to the desperate Darienites. [09:08.37] [09:08.53]When a second Scottish expedition arrived [09:10.81] [09:10.97]at New Edinburgh, all they found were hundreds of graves. [09:15.96] [09:21.33]Back home, when the full extent of the disaster sunk in, [09:25.40] [09:25.57]the fate of the Darien expeditions became a national trauma. [09:29.80] [09:29.97]They consumed a full third of Scotland's liquid capital, [09:33.93] [09:34.09]but the most serious casualty of the fiasco [09:36.68] [09:36.85]had been the last, best hope of a national rebirth - [09:40.32] [09:40.49]Scotland going it alone. [09:42.72] [09:42.89]That hope died in the malarial swamps of Darien. [09:47.25] [09:48.53]Many laid the failure of Darien squarely at England's door [09:52.32] [09:52.49]for its deliberate sabotage of the scheme. [09:55.32] [09:55.49]A wave of Anglophobia swept the country [09:58.08] [09:58.25]startling the men who ran things in Westminster. [10:01.77] [10:01.93]They became more worried when it looked likely that Queen Anne, [10:05.76] [10:05.93]who had succeeded William in 1702, [10:08.49] [10:08.65]would die childless. [10:10.85] [10:11.01]A crisis over the succession loomed. [10:13.60] [10:13.77]For the defenders of the revolution of 1688, [10:16.84] [10:17.01]whoever succeeded her simply had to be Protestant. [10:21.32] [10:21.49]In Scotland, after the humiliation of Darien, [10:24.69] [10:24.85]many Scots favoured Anne's half-brother, the Catholic James Edward Stuart, [10:30.69] [10:30.85]who was living in exile with England's old enemy - France. [10:35.69] [10:35.85]Westminster could not tolerate these kinds of threats [10:38.89] [10:39.05]from its own back yard. [10:41.69] [10:41.85]It had to take away Scotland's independence and insist on full political union. [10:48.48] [10:48.65]The creation of a single British state under a single parliament [10:52.69] [10:52.85]was now a matter of immediate urgency. [10:56.40] [10:56.57](SHOUTING AND DRUMS BEATING) [10:58.77] [10:58.93]The politicians knew they needed a sweetener to make the Union [11:03.05] [11:03.21]more palatable... and this is it. [11:06.36] [11:06.53]In this chest was deposited The Equivalent, [11:09.44] [11:09.61]the exact amount lost in the Darien adventure, [11:12.73] [11:12.89]all ?98,000 of it. [11:16.72] [11:16.89]You can almost hear the advocates of union saying, as they beamed broadly, [11:21.49] [11:21.65]"Now, this is what union means. [11:25.04] [11:25.21]"You seem to be a little hard pressed for funds. [11:28.20] [11:28.37]"Well, now Scotland's debts will be Britain's. [11:32.08] [11:32.61]"Sink or swim, we shall do it together." [11:35.57] [11:37.05]The Equivalent money, along with favourable trade concessions, [11:40.49] [11:40.65]was the carrot dangled before members of the Scottish parliament. [11:45.68] [11:45.85]By now, there were many who were already looking south, [11:49.24] [11:49.41]saw reality, smelled the profits. [11:52.85] [11:53.01]But behind the carrot, of course, lay the stick. [11:56.00] [11:56.17]Westminster threatened to block Scottish exports to England [11:59.77] [11:59.93]unless Scotland entered union negotiations. [12:03.81] [12:06.89]The writing was on the wall. [12:09.45] [12:09.61]Distraught, Lord Belhaven delivered a lament over the funeral pyre [12:14.48] [12:14.65]of Scottish independence. [12:16.85] [12:18.29]I see our mother Caledonia, [12:20.33] [12:20.49]like Caesar sitting in the midst of the Senate, [12:24.24] [12:24.41]attending the final blow and breathing out her last. [12:29.09] [12:30.41]We are an obscure, poor people, though formerly of better account, [12:35.36] [12:35.53]removed to a remote corner of the world [12:38.84] [12:39.01]without name and without alliances. [12:41.97] [12:43.65]In 1707, the deed was done. [12:47.17] [12:47.33]A Treaty of the Union had been drafted. [12:50.05] [12:50.21]It took just ten weeks to go through the Scottish parliament, [12:53.68] [12:53.85]six through Westminster. [12:56.24] [12:57.81]Scotland and England were now joined at the hip. [13:02.20] [13:08.73]What kind of nation was this Great Britain? [13:12.44] [13:15.01]To answer that, all you needed to do was to go to the new Royal Naval Hospital, [13:20.69] [13:20.85]a palatial retirement home for pensioned-off servicemen, [13:24.16] [13:24.33]in Greenwich. [13:26.32] [13:28.49]It was a triumphal statement of how Britain saw its place in the world [13:33.28] [13:33.45]in the early 18th century. [13:35.88] [13:48.65]On the ceiling, painted by Sir James Thornhill, [13:51.72] [13:51.89]a jubilant allegory celebrates the reign of William of Orange and his wife Mary. [13:57.44] [14:01.73]Thornhill's design is a shameless steal from the Hall of Mirrors in Versailles, [14:06.93] [14:07.09]but the artistic larceny is, of course, making a point. [14:11.08] [14:12.05]Here, Apollo the sun god shines not on the Catholic Sun King, Louis XIV, [14:17.84] [14:18.01]but on the British monarchs. [14:20.48] [14:20.65]Over there, in France - despotism and popery. [14:24.93] [14:25.09]Over here, thanks to William - liberty and Protestantism. [14:29.64] [14:29.81]Over there - the curses of serfdom, misery and superstition. [14:34.65] [14:35.17]Over here - the blessings of navigation, trade [14:39.05] [14:39.21]and science. [14:41.88] [14:42.05]But, of course, you don't go to ceiling paintings for the unvarnished truth. [14:46.81] [14:47.53]The truth was that we had been at war for almost 25 years, [14:51.52] [14:51.69]give or take a few intermissions. [14:54.41] [14:54.57]And during that time, Britain had been transformed by the experience. [14:59.69] [15:00.41]It was no longer a case of gallant little England defending the sceptr'd isle [15:04.61] [15:04.77]against the serried ranks of despots. [15:07.89] [15:08.05]Now, we sat at the heart of the greatest war machine in the world. [15:13.92] [15:18.33]That machine couldn't work without the lubrication of money, [15:22.85] [15:23.01]so along came a national debt needed to pay for it all. [15:27.32] [15:27.49]And this debt needed servicing, so enter the armies of money men - [15:32.17] [15:32.33]accountants, tax assessors, Customs and Excise officers. [15:36.24] [15:38.21]Buried inside all the crowing propaganda of the Greenwich ceiling, [15:42.41] [15:42.57]there was one crucial nugget of truth. [15:45.13] [15:45.29]Louis XIV could demand money for his wars, [15:49.00] [15:49.17]William III had to ask for it. [15:51.89] [15:52.61]Almost everywhere else in Europe, [15:54.60] [15:54.77]the more military the state, the stronger the king, except in Britain. [15:59.97] [16:00.13]Here parliament, not the monarchy, signed the cheques. [16:03.44] [16:03.61]The longer the war went on, the stronger parliament became, as the purse it had [16:08.53] [16:08.69]grew bigger and bigger. [16:11.25] [16:11.41]What's more, the kind of politics raging in Britain, [16:14.88] [16:15.05]we can recognise as distinctly modern. [16:17.72] [16:17.89]Two parties - the Whigs and Tories - diametrically opposed, not just about [16:22.41] [16:22.57]the policies of the day, but about the entire political character of the nation [16:27.77] [16:27.93]and the upheaval of 1688 that had created it. [16:32.16] [16:32.85]Whigs and Tories were not two parties who, when the barracking was done, [16:37.56] [16:37.73]could meet up for a drink and a bawdy joke. [16:40.77] [16:40.93]They went to different taverns, coffee houses and clubs. [16:44.21] [16:44.37]They were two armed camps. [16:47.25] [16:49.61]And the artillery barrages that flew between them were often red hot. [16:54.16] [16:56.61]250,000 votes were at stake in elections, [16:59.81] [16:59.97]more than 20% of the adult male population. [17:03.01] [17:03.17]And nothing was spared to grab them - money, drink, libels, gangs of toughs. [17:09.36] [17:10.09]This was all-out war at the hustings. [17:12.73] [17:12.89](SHOUTING AND SCREAMING) [17:15.88] [17:17.21]Tories accused the Whigs of being fanatics, the dregs of the populace, [17:21.73] [17:21.89]atheists, Commonwealth men. [17:24.61] [17:25.93]Whigs accused Tories of being willing tools of the Jesuits and the French. [17:31.37] [17:34.73]Since the Revolution said there should be an election every three years, [17:38.72] [17:38.89]this guaranteed an awful lot of politics. [17:42.25] [17:45.25]The political temperature reached fever pitch [17:47.29] [17:47.45]in 1714 when Queen Anne died with no heir. [17:52.65] [17:52.81]To make sure of a Protestant successor, [17:55.40] [17:55.57]no fewer than 57 individuals with blood ties to Anne were passed over [18:00.56] [18:00.73]to arrive at the next King of England - [18:03.93] [18:04.09]an uncharismatic, middle-aged man who didn't speak English. [18:08.56] [18:08.73]George, Elector of Hanover, now King George I of Great Britain. [18:14.73] [18:16.25]The Whigs backed his arrival in Britain [18:18.97] [18:19.13]and were rewarded when the new king appointed a Whig government. [18:23.28] [18:23.45]In response, the Tories ridiculed the new king as a lecherous dolt. [18:28.29] [18:28.45]His coronation was greeted with rioting in twenty towns. [18:32.57] [18:42.57](SKIRL OF BAGPIPES) [18:46.01] [18:46.17]But by far the most serious trouble now came from across the border. [18:51.45] [18:51.61]The Union failed to dampen enthusiasm in Scotland for the Jacobite cause. [18:56.68] [18:56.85]In fact, quite the opposite. [18:58.84] [18:59.01]The promise of trade and abundance had failed to cross the Firth of Forth, [19:04.16] [19:04.33]and all of Scotland was suffering from high taxes [19:07.72] [19:07.89]imposed by Westminster. [19:10.36] [19:10.53]The Jacobite leader, the Earl of Mar, buoyed up by promises of support [19:14.60] [19:14.77]from English Tories and Jacobites, [19:17.44] [19:17.61]declared James the rightful king at Braemar [19:20.81] [19:20.97]and proceeded to raise an army. [19:23.44] [19:25.69]The Jacobite slogan of "King James and no Union" meant support [19:29.81] [19:29.97]from both the Highlands and Lowlands came swiftly. [19:33.96] [19:34.13]10,000 men joined the rebellion. [19:37.28] [19:43.09]When news came through of a Jacobite rising in Lancashire, [19:46.64] [19:46.81]the government knew it was in serious trouble. [19:50.20] [19:51.65]But the Earl of Mar set new records for military ineptness. [19:55.72] [19:55.89]After the Battle of Sheriffmuir, which ended in a draw, [19:59.68] [19:59.85]and with his troops outnumbering the Hanoverian army, [20:02.76] [20:02.93]Mar moved energetically into retreat! [20:06.68] [20:06.85]By the time James Edward Stuart landed at Peterhead on December 22nd, [20:11.48] [20:11.65]it was all over. [20:13.64] [20:20.29]The Hanoverian dynasty remained, [20:23.01] [20:23.17]but the Jacobite rising was yet another demonstration of just how unstable [20:27.48] [20:27.65]the new political order was. [20:29.85] [20:30.01]After this stormy start to the 18th century, [20:32.92] [20:33.09]if anyone would've predicted it would be followed by decades of calm, [20:37.29] [20:37.45]they would've been thought an absurd optimist, [20:40.25] [20:40.41]yet that's exactly what happened. [20:43.24] [20:45.13]It came about through the efforts not of a king, a religious leader, or a general, [20:50.52] [20:50.69]but a political manager of uncanny genius. [20:53.89] [20:58.93]He'd been, like his father and grandfather before him, a Norfolk squire and an MP. [21:03.92] [21:04.09]He'd moved smoothly through the big-money jobs - Paymaster-General, [21:08.61] [21:08.77]Chancellor of the Exchequer. [21:10.76] [21:10.93]He'd come to dominate British political life for a quarter of a century. [21:15.37] [21:16.09]He was... Robert Walpole. [21:19.37] [21:21.33]Although he never actually had the title, [21:24.08] [21:24.25]Walpole was, in effect, Britain's first Prime Minister [21:27.56] [21:27.73]and, under his leadership, the British economy boomed as never before. [21:33.60] [21:43.41]Walpole's appeal was to shameless self-interest. [21:46.77] [21:46.93]From the pursuit of it, he believed, would come the country's greater good. [21:51.08] [21:51.25]"Which do you prefer?" he might've said. [21:53.81] [21:53.97]"A battle over principles and religious convictions?" [21:57.33] [21:57.49]That was only going to lead to war, turmoil and poverty. [22:01.96] [22:02.13]"Or would you rather have what I offer you? Peace, political stability and low taxes." [22:08.32] [22:08.49]What today we'd call "a healthy business environment". [22:12.20] [22:13.21]From the beginning, Walpole, nicknamed "Cock Robin", had made a bet [22:17.92] [22:18.09]that the politics of the future would be about portfolio management [22:22.48] [22:22.65]rather than religious passion or legal debate. [22:26.40] [22:26.57]In 1712, he'd been sent to prison for embezzlement [22:29.88] [22:30.05]and the experience gave him a painful lesson [22:32.77] [22:32.93]in how tightly intertwined were political and financial fortunes. [22:37.92] [22:39.09]But perhaps his greatest asset [22:41.65] [22:41.81]was his unerring grip on the psychology of loyalty. [22:46.73] [22:46.89]Walpole made a point of taking [22:48.88] [22:49.05]every new Whig member of the House out to dinner. [22:52.60] [22:52.77]Tete-a-tete. And there, with a glass of his best claret in your fat little hand, [22:57.84] [22:58.01]and a haunch of mutton juicily oozing on the trencher [23:01.61] [23:01.77]and Cock Robin's glittering eyes [23:04.24] [23:04.41]twinkling amiably at you, assuring you that the life of the party, the state of the nation, [23:10.28] [23:10.45]depended on you, the new member from Little Mucking-on-the-Wold. [23:14.44] [23:14.61]How could you not express undying devotion and loyalty to his interest? [23:21.16] [23:22.13]Walpole sat at the controlling centre of a vast empire of patronage. [23:27.97] [23:28.13]The jobs at his disposal conferred honour as well as cash on the holder [23:33.16] [23:33.33]and they were dangled on a string by the great political puppeteer. [23:37.88] [23:40.01]In retrospect, we can see that Walpole built Britain's, in fact the world's, [23:44.29] [23:44.45]first modern party political machine. [23:47.65] [23:47.81]He had placemen in parliament primed to vote as he directed. [23:52.01] [23:52.17]He had George I and then George II [23:54.76] [23:54.93]eating out of the palm of his hand. [23:57.60] [23:57.77]And in case anyone was tempted to flirt with the opposition, [24:01.81] [24:01.97]he had the kind of information that could make life really difficult for them. [24:06.28] [24:06.45]In short, Walpole had the goods. [24:10.08] [24:12.17]The goods, in fact, in every sense of the word. [24:15.61] [24:15.77]As well as looking after the country's interest, [24:18.24] [24:18.41]Walpole made sure he looked after his own. [24:21.88] [24:22.05]Just how much of a fortune he made for himself is spectacularly on view [24:26.81] [24:26.97]here at his country house in Norfolk, Houghton Hall. [24:30.72] [24:33.05]Houghton was the Whig Xanadu, the last word in opulence. [24:37.97] [24:38.13]Anything that riches could buy, Walpole bought. [24:41.20] [24:41.37]Marble, mahogany, figured damask, [24:44.01] [24:44.17]shimmering silks and satins, classical sculpture, [24:47.64] [24:47.81]glorious Renaissance and Baroque art, [24:50.20] [24:50.37]all shipped to his East Anglian pleasure dome. [24:54.08] [25:02.09]But Houghton was not just about living the good life, much as its master revelled in it, [25:07.29] [25:07.45]it was also a statement of grandeur meant to stun sceptics [25:12.16] [25:12.33]into recognising that only someone truly in command [25:15.45] [25:15.61]of the nation's fortunes could possibly afford something like this. [25:20.21] [25:21.45]King George may have had the throne, but Cock Robin had the palace. [25:27.00] [25:27.17]There's no doubt that Walpole's appeal to self-interest was infectious. [25:31.37] [25:32.09]With the glittering prizes dangled before their noses, [25:35.24] [25:35.41]the governing class of the country - 180 peers and 1,500 country gentry - [25:41.36] [25:41.53]lined up to trade in party passion for Palladian houses. [25:46.40] [25:46.57]They stopped shouting and started building. [25:49.93] [25:56.41]And what they built was designed to insulate them from the grubbiness [26:00.32] [26:00.49]of the real world - and Robert Walpole showed them the way. [26:05.25] [26:06.81]This stone column marks the spot where the village of Houghton stood. [26:10.80] [26:10.97]It had been here for centuries, but now it was just an inconvenience. [26:15.12] [26:15.29]It was too close to Walpole's house and it definitely spoiled the view, [26:19.89] [26:20.05]so he simply had it demolished and moved down the road. [26:24.01] [26:26.25]Of course, they could tell themselves, and they did, [26:29.32] [26:29.49]that their houses and parks were not just monuments to wealthy self-indulgence. [26:35.12] [26:35.29]They were also a testimony to the greatness and glory of the nation. [26:41.05] [26:43.49]Stephen Switzer, one of the leading landscape architects of the day, [26:48.01] [26:48.17]certainly saw this as his duty. [26:51.32] [26:51.49]Magnificent gardens, statues and waterworks complete the grandeur. [26:57.09] [26:57.25]It is then that we may hope to excel the gardens of the French [27:01.53] [27:01.69]and make that great nation give way to the superior beauties of our gardens, [27:06.61] [27:06.77]as her late prince has to the invincible force of British arms. [27:11.32] [27:14.21]This was the kind of battle the rich and powerful in Hanoverian Britain [27:18.41] [27:18.57]really liked to fight - war by gardening. [27:22.48] [27:28.05]Stourhead in Wiltshire is one of the great 18th-century landscape gardens. [27:32.60] [27:33.37]Taking inspiration from ancient Roman villas, [27:35.88] [27:36.05]aristocrats like Sir Henry Hall, who built Stourhead, [27:39.93] [27:40.09]even thought of their parks as a kind of public education [27:43.97] [27:44.13]and encouraged locals to pay a visit, provided they stuck rigidly [27:48.92] [27:49.09]to the designated tour route. [27:52.29] [27:52.45]That route would not just meander between ponds and trees, [27:56.13] [27:56.29]but towards classical buildings [27:58.28] [27:58.45]designed to kindle feelings of virtue and patriotism in their breast. [28:03.65] [28:13.21]But sharing all this pastoral graciousness [28:16.36] [28:16.53]only went so far. [28:18.52] [28:20.09]For the ruling class, their land was now a money pump. [28:23.92] [28:24.09]Big profit-yielding farms replaced strip farming, [28:27.56] [28:27.73]and smallholders were turfed off their land. [28:30.64] [28:30.81]Too bad. Landowners needed all the money they could get to keep up appearances, [28:36.09] [28:36.25]not just in the country, but in the town, and above all in the place [28:40.21] [28:40.37]which was the biggest, brashest, fastest-growing city in Europe - London. [28:46.16] [28:50.33]Here, the winners and losers of Walpole's Britain jostled side by side. [28:55.72] [28:56.25]700,000 of them. [28:58.68] [28:58.85]One in ten Englishmen. [29:00.84] [29:01.49]Foreign visitors were astounded at the noise, [29:04.40] [29:04.57]the hectic throngs packing the streets, the tireless hucksterism, [29:09.12] [29:09.29]the glittering greediness of it all. [29:12.17] [29:14.21]The modern morality tales of painter and engraver William Hogarth [29:18.04] [29:18.21]are peopled by innocents arriving dewy-fresh from the country... [29:22.36] [29:23.89]...surrendering to the temptations of the city [29:27.09] [29:27.25]and falling hopelessly into a deep, dark, sink of iniquity and disease. [29:33.72] [29:38.37]But however much moralists frowned on the new consumerism gripping the city, [29:43.49] [29:43.65]economic realists knew it was the way forward. [29:47.12] [29:47.29](WOMAN) # Come buy my greens and flowers fine [29:50.41] [29:50.57]# Your houses to adorn # [29:54.28] [29:54.45]There had been other great emporium cities in Europe, but nothing like this. [29:59.48] [29:59.65]London had invented serious shopping [30:02.48] [30:02.65]and it had something like 20,000 shops to prove it. [30:06.64] [30:07.97]Its shops would lure the customer to buy something they'd never thought of acquiring. [30:12.44] [30:12.61]Novelty items like oriental goldfish, [30:15.44] [30:15.61]which became an aristocratic marvel. [30:18.08] [30:18.81]Caged canaries, finches and parrots. [30:21.72] [30:23.33]Unheard-of luxuries became commonplace, [30:25.72] [30:25.89]priced to appeal to the middle class. [30:28.45] [30:28.61]China from Holland from which to sip your tea. [30:32.60] [30:32.77]Exotic fruits like pomegranates and pineapples. [30:36.37] [30:37.41]The first commercially available condoms. [30:39.88] [30:40.05]Lambskin for the rich, linen soaked in brine for the not-so-rich. [30:45.76] [30:46.33]London's consumer culture was Mephistopheles winking an eye, [30:50.72] [30:50.89]crooking a finger, and proffering credit. [30:54.12] [30:56.73]But terrible things could happen to those who ran out of credit and ran out of time. [31:02.20] [31:07.13]A debt of just ? would get you locked up in a debtor's prison. [31:11.81] [31:11.97]The prison, like almost everything else in greedy, managerial, Hanoverian Britain, [31:16.84] [31:17.01]was a business - a matter of pounds, shillings and pence. [31:21.00] [31:22.13]?,000 was the price one John Huggins paid [31:25.81] [31:25.97]for the wardenship of the Fleet Prison, [31:28.33] [31:28.49]the equivalent of half-a-million pounds today. [31:31.69] [31:31.85]The way he could recoup his investment was to charge inmates for their stay. [31:36.61] [31:36.77]The hotel from hell, including, of course, the rent for their shackles. [31:42.05] [31:42.21]A fiver would get you your own cell, [31:44.77] [31:44.93]a few shillings more, something approximating food. [31:48.53] [31:48.69]Less than that, you took your chance in the packed common prison, [31:52.68] [31:52.85]sleeping on the floor, no air, no sanitation... [31:56.45] [31:58.65]...and smallpox waiting to get you. [32:01.64] [32:05.01]"Who are the real criminals?" was the cry on the streets, in coffee houses, [32:09.61] [32:09.77]and in the newspapers of London. [32:11.97] [32:12.13]Everywhere you looked, the line between the law enforcers and the law breakers [32:16.84] [32:17.01]seemed arbitrary. [32:19.16] [32:19.73]In 1725, the Lord Chancellor was convicted of embezzling ?0,000. [32:25.57] [32:25.73]People had had enough. [32:28.09] [32:29.37]In the 1730s, satires and essays and poems and pictures [32:33.57] [32:33.73]documented a rising wave of revulsion [32:36.48] [32:36.65]at the world Walpole had brought into being. [32:39.69] [32:42.25]A sense that beneath all the platitudes about peace and stability [32:46.40] [32:46.57]lay squalor and corruption. [32:49.16] [32:52.89]A walk through London, for example, was a walk over prostrate bodies, [32:57.25] [32:57.41]big and little. [32:59.61] [33:00.05]Infants, whose mothers were unable, or sometimes unwilling, to raise them, [33:04.41] [33:04.57]were abandoned on the streets. [33:06.96] [33:11.37]But there came a point when someone was tired enough [33:14.84] [33:15.01]of stepping over half-dead babies found in the gutter [33:18.08] [33:18.25]to do something about it. [33:20.84] [33:24.01]That someone was a 53-year-old retired merchant sea captain [33:28.72] [33:28.89]called Thomas Coram. [33:30.88] [33:33.29]Coram had made his fortune in Massachusetts [33:35.68] [33:35.85]from the Transatlantic timber trade. [33:37.84] [33:38.01]All he wanted was to have a quiet life in Rotherhithe [33:41.80] [33:41.97]where he could smell the Thames and the sea. [33:44.77] [33:44.93]But the sight of all those tiny abandoned corpses wouldn't leave him in peace. [33:49.96] [33:50.13]Worse, he knew that the mortality rate for infants born in the workhouse [33:54.20] [33:54.37]and sent out to wet nurse was close to 100%. [33:58.60] [33:58.77](BABIES CRYING) [34:00.97] [34:01.13]So Thomas Coram determined to tap some of that new-found wealth [34:05.68] [34:05.85]to create a foundling hospital, [34:08.13] [34:08.29]a place where babies could be deposited, legitimate or illegitimate, [34:12.28] [34:12.45]and would be given a decent chance of survival. [34:16.00] [34:17.37]For nearly 20 years, he made himself a nuisance to his friends, [34:21.52] [34:21.69]petitioning the king and everyone else until the funds got raised. [34:26.05] [34:26.21]In 1741, the hospital opened its doors to its first children. [34:30.92] [34:31.09]Not surprisingly, it couldn't cope with demand. [34:33.73] [34:33.89]To decide which children could and couldn't get places, [34:37.25] [34:37.41]there was a heartbreaking lucky dip. [34:39.84] [34:40.01]Mothers lined up to draw wooden balls out of a bag. [34:43.40] [34:43.57]A white ball, and your baby was in. A red ball, you were on the reserve list. [34:48.85] [34:49.45]A black ball... Well, you were back on the streets. [34:53.92] [34:54.09]Inside this cabinet are some of the saddest things [34:57.29] [34:57.45]left to us by the 18th century. [35:00.28] [35:00.45]These are the keepsake tokens given to their babies by desperate mothers [35:05.40] [35:05.57]just at the point when they'd leave them to the tender mercies [35:09.28] [35:09.45]of the Foundling Hospital. [35:11.65] [35:12.85]There's a whole world of sorrow and love [35:16.45] [35:16.61]in this extraordinary cabinet. [35:18.84] [35:19.01]It speaks not just of the destitute. [35:21.32] [35:21.49]Some of the pieces, like this beautiful mother-of-pearl heart [35:25.96] [35:26.13]with the initials, presumably of the baby, [35:29.76] [35:29.93]suggest that some of these mothers were quite well-to-do. [35:33.13] [35:33.29]But in many other cases, the pieces speak of real hardship. [35:37.89] [35:38.05]They were just the things the mothers happened to have on them [35:42.33] [35:42.49]when they had to get rid of the children. [35:45.53] [35:45.69]Some of these mothers had nothing at the last minute [35:49.16] [35:49.33]to offer their little babies except a nut - a nut meant to be worn as a pendant. [35:54.64] [35:54.81]There's a little hole where the string was supposed to be strung through. [35:58.93] [35:59.53]Sometimes things that had a little work on them - like this beautiful sewn heart. [36:05.92] [36:06.09]Or, most desperate of all perhaps, [36:08.37] [36:08.53]just this flimsy little piece of ribbon. [36:11.41] [36:11.57]Imagine a mother saying goodbye for the last time to her baby [36:15.40] [36:15.57]just taking a bit of ribbon from her hair or her wrist [36:19.36] [36:19.53]and giving it, as she hoped, to her child. [36:22.68] [36:23.69]Now, if this wasn't heartbreak enough, it only gets worse when you know [36:28.24] [36:28.41]that none of these things ever found their way to the children. [36:33.56] [36:33.73](BABY CRIES) [36:35.72] [36:35.89]The Foundling Hospital couldn't hope to work miracles overnight. [36:40.96] [36:41.13]Nearly half the babies died in the first year, [36:44.49] [36:44.65]but that was a huge improvement over the usual figures. [36:48.61] [36:50.13]This was the middle-class parish at work - [36:52.93] [36:53.09]well off, busily charitable [36:55.48] [36:55.65]and as much interested in virtue as in wit. [36:58.96] [36:59.13]There had been philanthropy before, but this was the first time that businessmen [37:03.81] [37:03.97]came together with high-profile artists, writers and sculptors [37:08.36] [37:08.53]in a campaign of conscience to attack a hideous evil [37:12.57] [37:12.73]in what was supposed to be a Christian modern metropolis. [37:17.25] [37:22.65]The charges of the hospital would be employed in the service of the nation. [37:27.49] [37:27.65]In the Navy if they were boys or in domestic service if they were girls. [37:32.25] [37:32.41]The Foundling Hospital was philanthropy with a purpose. [37:36.37] [37:40.93]Its charges would be model Britons of the future, [37:44.76] [37:44.93]not gin-soaked, syphilitic rakes. [37:46.92] [37:47.09]They were going to be sober, educated, industrious, God-fearing [37:52.21] [37:52.37]and, above all, patriotic. [37:54.60] [37:54.77]# Rule, Britannia... # [37:56.97] [37:57.73]This was Britannia's time. [38:00.72] [38:00.89]# Britons never will be slaves [38:07.00] [38:07.17](CHOIR) # Rule, Britannia [38:09.48] [38:09.65]# Britannia rule the waves [38:12.56] [38:13.13]# Britons never will be slaves # [38:18.68] [38:18.85]The lyrics for this chest-thumping song were written by two Scots [38:23.40] [38:23.57]for a play about Alfred the Great, and they were sung [38:27.01] [38:27.17]by merchants and businessmen who saw Britain's future lay [38:31.61] [38:31.77]with the blue water empire of trade. [38:34.52] [38:37.77]But someone was in the way of this prosperous future - [38:41.73] [38:41.89]and that someone was Robert Walpole. [38:44.64] [38:44.81]Merchants felt Walpole and his cronies cared too much about land [38:49.60] [38:49.77]and not enough about business. [38:53.16] [38:53.33]So they were not amused when Walpole raised taxes [38:56.40] [38:56.57]on things that made money for them - beer and coal - [39:00.17] [39:00.33]while making damn sure to keep the land tax low. [39:04.08] [39:07.73]What would be the only thing that could raise those land taxes? War, of course. [39:13.33] [39:13.49]So no wonder Walpole, unforgivably, pussyfooted around the Spanish [39:18.09] [39:18.25]when they presumed to interfere with our ships. [39:22.21] [39:23.81]When he signed a treaty with Spain that was seen as an unpatriotic sell-out, [39:28.73] [39:28.89]the merchants were even more incensed. [39:32.04] [39:36.45]Walpole's effigy was burned in the streets by crowds roaring for his political head. [39:42.05] [39:43.09]Walpole's allies and time-servers in parliament [39:46.08] [39:46.25]were suddenly nowhere to be seen. [39:49.16] [39:49.33]His political enemies closed in gleefully for the kill. [39:53.12] [39:53.97]To deprive them of the satisfaction, Walpole walked, a broken man, [39:58.84] [39:59.01]back to his wine and his dogs at Houghton. [40:02.40] [40:04.49]It was the end of an era. [40:06.96] [40:12.37]Now the gung-ho patriots could have their get-rich war, [40:15.73] [40:15.89]and they must have thought it would be a breeze. [40:19.17] [40:22.57]Britain could fight abroad because it was so united at home. [40:26.96] [40:27.97]But in 1745, that unity [40:31.12] [40:31.29]would prove a bitter illusion. [40:34.36] [40:50.05]The Jacobite cause had refused to die, [40:52.93] [40:53.09]especially amongst the clans of north-west Scotland, [40:55.97] [40:56.13]where it fed off continued opposition to the Union. [40:59.57] [41:01.93]What the Jacobites needed was a figurehead [41:04.36] [41:04.53]and, in 1745, they got one, [41:07.00] [41:07.17]a leader many saw as a model of virile fearlessness. [41:11.08] [41:11.25]The son of James Edward Stuart, [41:13.64] [41:13.81]the man known to us and to posterity as Bonnie Prince Charlie. [41:18.65] [41:18.81]The fact the Prince's full name [41:20.80] [41:20.97]was Charles Edward Louis Casimir Silvester Severino Maria Stuart [41:26.17] [41:26.33]should tell us that the Prince was less [41:28.64] [41:28.81]the incarnation of the old Scotland of the clans [41:31.80] [41:31.97]and much more a fully-fledged graduate of the pan-European [41:35.52] [41:35.69]Italo-Polish-Franco-Irish-Catholic international community. [41:40.29] [41:42.81]But still, he was a Stuart, [41:44.88] [41:45.05]and that blood certainly mattered to the Prince himself [41:48.25] [41:48.41]who, at 24, sailed from France to Scotland to win back the throne for his father. [41:53.80] [41:58.73]On the 19th August, 1745, Prince Charles Edward Stuart [42:02.96] [42:03.13]stood here at Glenfinnan, watched his family standard being raised, [42:07.89] [42:08.05]and told the assembled clansmen he'd come to make Scotland happy. [42:12.36] [42:12.53]That would've been news to some of the crofters who'd been threatened [42:17.05] [42:17.21]with having their cottages burned unless they joined the Jacobites. [42:20.76] [42:20.93]But the sight of Bonnie Prince Charlie - and compared to George II [42:25.48] [42:25.65]and to his own embittered, ageing father, he certainly was bonny - [42:30.25] [42:30.41]standing here in the glen at the head of Loch Shiel in his tartan plaid [42:35.09] [42:35.25]did seem to promise, if only for a moment, a new Scottish future. [42:40.45] [42:40.61]Or, at the very least, the end of the miserable captivity of the Union. [42:45.32] [42:45.49]But happiness? Well, that was going to prove a lot harder to come by. [42:50.25] [42:51.45]The structure of clan society meant that support for the prince gathered quickly. [42:56.48] [42:57.65]In England, families were becoming a kind of business. [43:01.04] [43:01.21]In the Highlands of Scotland, kinship was much more a matter of blood. [43:06.33] [43:06.49]Clan loyalty was built around the idea, even when it was a mythical idea, [43:10.80] [43:10.97]of a common ancestor. [43:13.53] [43:13.69]The grandest landlords in the Highlands, like their Lowlands counterparts, [43:18.13] [43:18.29]were becoming connoisseurs of fine claret and chamber music. [43:23.05] [43:23.21]But the local laird had a lot in common with his crofters. [43:27.68] [43:27.85]They both spoke Gaelic, they wore tartan plaid and sporran, [43:31.81] [43:31.97]and they ensured they had broadswords and daggers ready when the chieftain called. [43:37.28] [43:44.69]Buoyed by the prince's claim that the French were behind them [43:48.40] [43:48.57]and planned an imminent invasion, [43:50.77] [43:50.93]Bonnie Prince Charlie and his army moved swiftly, [43:53.92] [43:54.09]catching the inadequate Hanoverian forces in Scotland [43:57.64] [43:57.81]completely unprepared. [44:00.32] [44:00.49]But when the prince finally took what was the big prize, Edinburgh, [44:04.48] [44:04.65]he hadn't won over the whole of Scotland. [44:07.45] [44:07.61]The Lowlands were overwhelmingly loyal to King George. [44:11.08] [44:11.25]It's quite possible that more Scots fought against Bonnie Prince Charlie [44:15.56] [44:15.73]than for him. [44:17.72] [44:20.77]Nonetheless, it seemed that the prince couldn't put a foot wrong. [44:25.08] [44:25.25]When his army faced the Hanoverians at the Battle of Prestonpans, [44:29.64] [44:29.81]they won a resounding victory. [44:32.20] [44:36.85]At Holyroodhouse, debate raged as to what to do next. [44:41.29] [44:41.45]The Highland chiefs, sceptical of finding support in England, [44:44.73] [44:44.89]advised Charles to make the Stuarts masters of the north, [44:48.77] [44:48.93]but to go no further. [44:50.92] [44:51.09]But for Charles, nothing less than a conquest of England would do [44:55.29] [44:55.45]and he won the day by a single vote. [44:58.44] [44:59.69]The Jacobites were on their way south. [45:02.84] [45:03.97]In rapid succession, Carlisle, Lancaster, Preston and Manchester [45:08.73] [45:08.89]all fell to the prince's army without a shot being fired in their defence. [45:14.25] [45:14.41]With the Jacobites approaching Derby at the beginning of December [45:17.85] [45:18.01]and the bulk of His Majesty's forces fighting in Europe, [45:21.40] [45:21.57]there was close to pandemonium in London and the south. [45:25.64] [45:25.81]There was a run on the Bank of England and all the shops in London closed. [45:31.25] [45:31.41]The few soldiers left to protect the capital were not, [45:34.77] [45:34.93]shall we say, of the kind of calibre to inspire much confidence. [45:40.61] [45:40.77]But just as in 1715, it could be said the Jacobites defeated themselves. [45:46.05] [45:46.21]They didn't do it on the field of battle, but in this room at Exeter House in Derby, [45:50.97] [45:51.13]on December 5th, 1745. [45:54.41] [45:56.13]The prince and his chiefs argued bitterly whether to go forward or retreat. [46:02.13] [46:02.29]"London is just 130 miles away," said the prince. [46:05.76] [46:05.93]"Move on the capital and the French will come. [46:09.00] [46:09.17]"Besides, we've got precious little time. [46:11.53] [46:11.69]"The Redcoats will be back from Europe soon." [46:15.32] [46:16.89]"No," said Lord George Murray, joint commander of the prince's army. [46:21.09] [46:21.25]"I no longer believe the French are coming. [46:24.05] [46:24.21]"It's time to cut our losses. It's time to go home." [46:28.17] [46:29.25]This time, the prince lost the vote by a substantial margin. [46:34.17] [46:36.33]The Jacobites turned about and headed north, [46:39.40] [46:39.57]beginning the long tramp back to Scotland [46:42.32] [46:42.49]through dreadful winter weather, pursued by the newly-returned British regiments. [46:48.09] [46:48.25]Their retreat turned into a nightmare. [46:50.89] [46:52.45]It's hard to know which was more murderous - [46:55.09] [46:55.25]the snows of December and January or the vengeful, pursuing troops [46:59.24] [46:59.41]of George II's son, the Duke of Cumberland. [47:03.01] [47:04.73]Cumberland gave a taste of what he was capable of at Carlisle. [47:09.57] [47:09.73]The garrison had been captured by Jacobites on their march south, [47:13.61] [47:13.77]but they were unable to hold out against Cumberland's advance. [47:18.16] [47:23.73]Into this tiny space were crammed hundreds of Jacobite soldiers, [47:29.33] [47:29.49]locked up without any air or any water. [47:33.88] [47:34.05]What they did have were these shiny stones. [47:38.84] [47:39.01]Smooth, damp, slimy - a terrible memento of their distress. [47:44.08] [47:45.09]To this day, they're called "licking stones" [47:47.97] [47:48.13]because the prisoners were brought to such horrible extremities [47:53.68] [47:53.85]that they were forced and reduced [47:56.16] [47:56.33]to sliding their tongues in these cavities [47:59.32] [47:59.49]to try and collect the pathetic amount of moisture gathered on the rock. [48:04.41] [48:05.49]This really was Hanoverian Britain's Black Hole of Calcutta. [48:10.25] [48:18.01]By the time winter turned into spring in the Highlands, [48:21.21] [48:21.37]it was unmistakably clear that, whatever its temporary successes, [48:25.12] [48:25.29]the Jacobite war was lost. [48:27.36] [48:27.53]With every passing week, the Hanoverian advantage in men, money and guns told. [48:33.72] [48:36.21]The armies eventually faced each other at Culloden, near Inverness. [48:41.28] [48:41.45]Cumberland's force was only a third as big again as the prince's, [48:45.08] [48:45.25]but it was lethally better equipped. [48:47.68] [48:47.85]A new verse of the National Anthem proved to be prophetic [48:51.56] [48:51.73]as the big guns began to fire. [48:54.69] [48:57.29](WOMAN SINGS) [49:00.97] [49:48.89]Just an hour after the firing had started, [49:51.88] [49:52.05]there were 1,500 Jacobite Highlanders lying slaughtered. [49:56.33] [49:56.49]Only 50 of the Hanoverians had perished. [50:00.28] [50:00.45]It was perhaps better to be one of those felled by Hanoverian guns. [50:04.89] [50:05.05]It spared you the sight of British soldiers coming at you, while you lay wounded, [50:09.84] [50:10.01]to finish you off with their newfangled bayonets. [50:13.72] [50:13.89]As one Hanoverian officer noted: [50:16.56] [50:16.73]Our men, killing the enemy, dabbling their feet in blood [50:20.09] [50:20.25]and splashing it about one another, [50:22.64] [50:22.81]look like so many butchers rather than Christian soldiers. [50:27.60] [50:29.85]Charles Edward survived the battle and gave the order: [50:33.45] [50:33.61]Every man for himself. [50:35.81] [50:35.97]He went on the run until it was safe to be shipped back to France. [50:40.57] [50:42.01]In England, the victory was riotously celebrated. [50:45.89] [50:46.05]Effigies of Bonnie Prince Charlie were burned at the stake. [50:49.65] [50:49.81]Many Scots, too, were pleased to see the end of the Jacobite threat, [50:53.60] [50:53.77]delighted the prince had gone. [50:55.97] [50:56.13]But in the heartland of his support, north-west Scotland, [50:59.44] [50:59.61]Charles Edward left behind a population prostrate [51:02.81] [51:02.97]before the avenging army of the Duke of Cumberland, [51:05.96] [51:06.13]determined to break the Jacobite clans for ever. [51:10.17] [51:21.53]Villages were burned to the ground, captured men hanged or shot. [51:26.00] [51:26.17]Cattle were stolen, thousands driven from their homes. [51:30.05] [51:30.21]Even the wearing of Highland dress was banned, [51:32.93] [51:33.09]in an effort to strip the clans not just of their possessions, but of their identity. [51:38.72] [51:44.49]The hopes and dreams of the Jacobites had to live in the secret world of things, [51:49.52] [51:49.69]things that could be hidden or disguised - [51:52.89] [51:53.05]a lock of Bonnie Prince Charlie's hair [51:55.61] [51:55.77]or the mysterious emblems engraved on wine glasses. [51:59.13] [51:59.29]Take a look at this board. [52:01.49] [52:01.65]At first sight, it seems an indecipherable smudge of paint. [52:06.20] [52:06.37]But if you look at it the right way - reflected against [52:09.68] [52:09.85]the silvered mirror of a cylinder, [52:12.05] [52:12.21]it turns into The Lost Love, the boy born to be king, [52:16.20] [52:16.37]the saviour across the water. [52:18.76] [52:21.77]Unhappily for the keepers of the Jacobite flame, [52:24.60] [52:24.77]Charles Edward in exile went rapidly downhill. [52:28.60] [52:28.77]Too many mistresses, far too much drink, years of indolence, [52:32.97] [52:33.13]made him prematurely decrepit. [52:35.28] [52:38.17](WOMAN) # Will ye no' come back again? # [52:44.33] [52:44.49]But the romantic myth of the prince [52:46.72] [52:46.89]would survive the wreckage of his real history. [52:50.49] [52:50.65]It would live in the poems and popular ballads, [52:53.96] [52:54.13]where he would always be the dashing, charismatic boy prince. [52:58.73] [53:02.01]# Will ye no' come back again? # [53:09.80] [53:11.69]But Jacobitism as a political force was spent. [53:15.89] [53:16.05]In the decades following Culloden, [53:18.04] [53:18.21]a transformation would take place in Scotland. [53:21.52] [53:22.53]The Jacobite warriors who'd been unable to break Britannia [53:26.13] [53:26.29]were given an alternative to returning to their old obsessions of clan loyalty - [53:31.76] [53:31.93]join the future, join the army of the British Empire. [53:35.72] [53:35.89]Many thousands took the offer. [53:38.25] [53:38.41]Instead of being the perennial victims of that empire, they now colonised it. [53:43.88] [53:44.05]In the cities, too, a new Scotland was being born. [53:48.41] [53:49.17]In just 20 years or so after Culloden, [53:51.60] [53:51.77]it became common to refer to Edinburgh and Glasgow as hotbeds of genius. [53:56.76] [53:57.53]The collapse of the backward-looking cult of honour made room [54:01.21] [54:01.37]for the flowering of the forward-looking cult of modernity. [54:05.52] [54:07.29]In the academies, drawing rooms and reading clubs of Scottish cities, [54:11.68] [54:11.85]hopeless dreams were replaced by the appetite [54:15.13] [54:15.29]for hard facts and hard cash. [54:18.36] [54:21.89]The first British theory of progress was sketched out by Scottish philosophers [54:26.44] [54:26.61]like Adam Ferguson and David Hume. [54:29.49] [54:29.65]They looked at their own country's tragedy [54:32.08] [54:32.25]and saw in its history the entire arc of human social evolution, [54:36.72] [54:36.89]from hunting and gathering societies [54:39.32] [54:39.49]to settled farmers and, finally, to true civilisation - [54:43.56] [54:43.73]the world of commerce, science and industry, [54:46.29] [54:46.45]the world of the towns. [54:48.65] [54:54.93]It was another Scot, Robert Adam, [54:57.24] [54:57.41]who became the first British king of architectural style. [55:01.32] [55:01.49]Less than 20 years after Bonnie Prince Charlie had retreated from Derby, [55:06.20] [55:06.37]a different Scottish conqueror came to Derbyshire and, this time, [55:10.25] [55:10.41]he was invincible. [55:12.72] [55:23.65]At Kedleston Hall, Robert Adam built in a new style [55:27.25] [55:27.41]for a new kind of aristocrat. [55:29.69] [55:29.85]Its owner, the first Lord Scarsdale, was a true new Briton - [55:33.68] [55:33.85]rich, not just from land, but from the coal mines of Derbyshire. [55:38.29] [55:40.17]What he wanted was a house that would not overpower the visitor [55:44.16] [55:44.33]with vulgar displays of swaggering wealth, [55:47.56] [55:47.73]but somewhere that would speak of Roman grandeur, [55:51.09] [55:51.25]of noble classical austerity, of loftiness of mind, of purity of taste, [55:56.69] [55:56.85]a palace of contemplation, a temple of virtue. [56:00.89] [56:05.53]Could the accumulation of private riches be a force for general happiness? [56:11.13] [56:14.93]The Scot who made the deepest mark on the future of Britain certainly thought so. [56:20.29] [56:20.45]In 1746, while the last survivors of Cumberland's butchery [56:24.16] [56:24.33]were being hunted down, Adam Smith, son of a customs officer, [56:28.53] [56:28.69]had an exhilarating vision of the future. [56:31.44] [56:31.61]That vision was based on Smith's rejection of guilt and sin. [56:35.73] [56:35.89]But it would his revolutionary book, "The Wealth of Nations", [56:39.09] [56:39.25]which would mark Scotland's farewell to sentimental self-destruction. [56:44.04] [56:44.21]Upbeat and optimistic about the happiness of material life, [56:48.00] [56:48.17]Smith laid out, as a matter of scientific fact, [56:51.37] [56:51.53]mankind's natural drive to self-betterment. [56:55.32] [56:56.57]Allowed to follow their natural urges, [56:58.77] [56:58.93]men would create, without even willing it, a better world. [57:03.05] [57:03.21]Richer, freer, more educated. [57:05.93] [57:06.09]The best thing government could do was get out of the way [57:09.64] [57:09.81]and allow the "invisible hand of the market" to do its work. [57:13.77] [57:18.45]The economic world was like a watch, he wrote, [57:21.49] [57:21.65]its springs and wheels all admirably adjusted [57:24.24] [57:24.41]to the ends for which it was made. [57:27.13] [57:27.29]So, too, the countless movements of men would perfectly interact [57:30.89] [57:31.05]for the purposes for which God had made them. [57:34.17] [57:35.01]That purpose was progress, and it was one of history's sweetest ironies [57:39.72] [57:39.89]that it had fallen to Scotland - poor, bloodied, mutilated Scotland - [57:44.17] [57:44.33]to show Britannia the way ahead. [57:46.80] [57:47.49]If you want to see the future, [57:49.48] [57:49.65]forget the pompous monuments of England's past. [57:52.93] [57:53.09]Come north instead to the new towns of Glasgow and Edinburgh [57:57.24] [57:57.41]and see the future of Britain. [58:00.16] [58:00.33]The future, perhaps, of the world. [58:03.93] [58:06.33]The End! [58:47.93]

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