Historians have recently investigated the inter-relationship between Scotland and various parts of the British Empire. Francis Humberston Mackenzie of Seaforth (1754–1815) was a Highland proprietor in what has become known as ‘The First Phase of Clearance’, was governor of Barbados (1801–6) in the sensitive period immediately before the abolition of the British slave trade and was himself a plantation owner in Berbice (Guiana). He overcame his profound deafness to become an energetic public figure. The article compares his attitudes and actions to establish how far there was a consistency of approach in each of his capacities. It is suggested that his concern for his Highland small tenants was paralleled by his ambition in Barbados to make the killing of a slave by a white a capital offence, by his attempts to give free coloureds the right to testify against whites and by his aim to provide good conditions for his own enslaved labourers in Berbice. It is argued that he had a conservative world view which led him to support slavery and the slave trade (for which he can be criticised), but which also gave him a concern for the welfare of people for whom he felt responsible. The balance between humanitarianism and more pragmatic considerations in his decision-making is considered. Another parallel between the Highlands, Barbados and Berbice is that his good intentions were often of short-term or limited advantage to the intended beneficiaries. The reasons for this are investigated. A comparison is also made between Seaforth's authority and influence as a Highland proprietor and the restrictions and the frustrations he experienced as an active Caribbean governor.
The ownership and management of Scotland’s foreshore has been a matter of a prolonged controversy; rights over the foreshore were contested for much of the nineteenth century, most notably between the Crown and private proprietors, and concerns over how, and by whom, the Crown-owned foreshore should be managed became prominent in the mid-nineteenth century and remain an active issue today. The paper discusses the management during the period between 1833 and the present, and especially the changes brought about by the Crown Lands Act 1866, culminating in the devolution of the Scottish Crown-owned foreshore to the Scottish Government in 2017. The paper shows how the management was switched over the period between various government departments passing successively from the Barons of His Majesty’s Court of Exchequer in Scotland to the Office of Woods and Forests, the Board of Trade, the Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Shipping and finally back to the successors of the Office of Woods, the Crown Estate Commissioners. A theme runs through the paper: whether the public interest should be the touchstone for how the foreshore should be managed or whether it should be managed so as to realise the greatest amount of revenue that can legitimately be obtained, and how, if at all, these two principles can be reconciled or whether there is an inherent conflict between them; and indeed whether, given the virtual monopoly which the Crown has over the foreshore, its management should be treated in a different way from all the other Crown estate assets.
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