Questions for Debate – ‘Have Europeans a Right to America, From Their Discoveries?’
ADAMSON, Andrew.
‘A Collection of Sentences, moral, divine &c &c for the Benefit off [sic], & extracted by me … Vol. 1st’. ‘Cliftonhall 1777’ [–1808].
12mo manuscript, ink on paper, pp. [iv], 123, [1], with an index and questions at the end, related notes on one leaf (of several?) at the front; in good condition; bound in contemporary quarter roan, marbled paper sides, vellum tips, edges rubbed, head- and tailcaps chipped.
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‘A Collection of Sentences, moral, divine &c &c for the Benefit off [sic], & extracted by me … Vol. 1st’.
An unusual Scottish commonplace book of sententiae and moral sayings on over 150 topics taken from various sources, not always credited but carefully indexed. Evidently compiled for Adamson’s own edification in a small format for ready consultation, it seems to have been employed over a period of many years, and a list of questions for debating societies c. 1804–8 is found at the end.
Fifteen pithy sayings from Theophrastus (pp. 10–13) are followed by a digest of ‘Dr Dodd’s Directions to Servants’. The remaining entries are organised under headings from Silence and Grief to Infidelity and Reading: ‘Many Books & many acquaintances, bring a man to Levity (i.e. Lightness) of Disposition’, he explains, quoting Seneca. Some credited sources include the Spectator and Tatler, and the Gentleman and Lady’s Monitor.
Most interesting is the series of debate topics to be found at the end: ‘What is the most rational mode of relaxation, amusement, & entertainment for social beings? This discussed on 3d Nov 1804 in the Union Club by A. A. … Is language a human invention? … Is novel reading prejudicial? … Has the mind any dependence on the body? … Ought theft to be punished by death? … Whether is sincerity or dissimulation of greatest advantage to those who practise them? … Is there original genius? … Is man a Free Agent? … Is Tyrannicide justifiable? … Have Europeans a right to America, from their discoveries?’.
A final question, on whether a blooming virgin, amiable wife, or sprightly widow is the most happy, ‘was to be discussed in Liverpool Forum on Thursday 3d Mar 1808’ by representatives of each. The Forum was a debating society founded by the actor Samuel William Ryley – it met in Marble St, admitted women, and discussed increasingly political topics until its closure in 1813.
Andrew Adamson, of Cliftonhall in Midlothian, is likely he whose birth was registered in the parish of St Cuthbert’s in 1758, son of Andrew Adamson and Agnes Lumisden. He was evidently active in the scene of debating societies that sprang up across the county in the early nineteenth century.