The coming of English justice

Blogging Rob Roy chapters 29 and 30
The usual complaint about books like Rob Roy is that they are plot-driven instead of character driven. But what is so bad about being driven by a plot as good as what we see unfurl in these two magnificent chapters. If anything, we have to wish there was more of this and less set up.

Again, let me compare with Jane Austen. Austen could never write this plot; she just didn't have the life experience to do so and even then she might not have been able to. But Austen would have gotten right into the plot. She'd have summarized everything that has happened up to now in maybe three chapters and then plunged us into what is the twenty-sixth chapter of Scott's book.

And the reason she'd do this is straightforward: this is where the good stuff is. This is good reading.

Some lore
We finally "learn" here that Robert Campbell is indeed Rob Roy. Or rather, Frank finally learns it courtesy of Andrew Fairservice and, as he does, we realize that Frank has never heard of Rob Roy before. That is a nice touch because the legend was as yet unknown during MacGregor's own life. Frank, had be been a real person, would have needed it explained to him.

MacGregor was forced into the role of being an outlaw by a debt he couldn't repay by his creditor the Duke of Montrose, James Graham, and not for his participation in the 1715 rebellion. He was only 18 at that time. We should note the parallel here, though. For Jarvie also holds debt against Rob Roy and yet he has been more forgiving. Again, Sir Walter is reminding us that there is often very little real honour among the nobility while there is often considerable honour in bourgeois capitalism.

And when we consider the current disdain that Scott is held in among modern academics, we should probably keep that in mind. Today's university professors are very much like  a corrupt aristocracy.

(Graham, by the way, would be an entirely forgotten figure today if it weren't for his association with Rob Roy just as the Archbishop of Salzburg would be entirely forgotten expect for his running across Mozart. This would come as a huge surprise to both men who regarded their respective victims as little more than troublesome servants. There is a poetic justice in this.)

Anyway, to get back to Rob Roy, I trust those who objected to my "spoiler" in suggesting that we were all supposed to figure out who he was quite early now understand why I said so.

Before leaving the subject, we should touch on the second independent woman in the person of Helen Campbell who seemingly leads the ambuscade (great word that) against the British troops who have taken Jarvie and Frank prisoner. Frank, as his creator does also, has a passion for wild women. I suspect most men do. I don't think many women do however and the percentage of women under the age of 19 or over the age of 25 who like wildness in women is very tiny indeed.

One interesting thing to note is that Helen shouts, "Ye have left me neither name nor fame ..." at the British troops. That is literally true. The English dealt with the rowdiness of clan MacGregor by suppressing the name. It would have been a crime to enter a contract and simply signing your name as "MacGregor".

This is a now forgotten aspect of the English revolution and an aspect of the rise of the modern world that people of Scott's time liked to soft pedal: that those who represented progress and freedom as they saw it felt quite comfortable simply suppressing the aspects of people's identity that they felt stood in the way of progress.

Contradictions
The illegality of the name is worth remembering because the person who says the name MacGregor out loud, thereby proving himself  a hypocrite, is Captain Thornton come to arrest him. Scott is exaggerating nothing in his creation of the murderous swine who is Thornton. His practices, including extracting evidence through death threats, was common practice by English authorities of the era.

And there is a little detail about Thornton and his allies that I would like to finish up on. When Thornton shows up at the tavern, Major Galbraith who is there to meet him commits what is unquestionably an act of treason. He openly supports the Stuart claim to the throne. And Captain Thornton lets that ride.

Again, Scott is quietly reminding the English of something they already know: that the management of their empire was considerably messier than the ideals that supposedly motivated it would suggest. Too often, men like Graham used the responsibilities of office to ruthlessly pursue their own interest and men like Thornton simply played divide and conquer with local chieftains rather than stand up for justice.

Nowadays, we know this a little too well and have gone to far the other way. We forget that the world is a much better place for the coming of the British empire and that life is usually much more fair, much more peaceful and much more comfortable in former British colonies than in the former colonies of any other European nation. It is also infinitely better in these places than it would have been had the English never come along. Sir Walter, as I say, is not unaware of this, and he shows us this by having Jarvie be a better advocate for British law and British capitalism than the man who was supposed to officially represent it.