Was there a Law of Sedition in Scotland? Baron David Hume’s Analysis of the Scottish Sedition Trials of 1794

Abstract

This chapter examines debates over whether the crime of ‘sedition’ had any meaning within Scots law, focusing on David Hume's analysis of the sedition trials of 1794. In 1794, Maurice Margarot of the London Corresponding Society was charged with the crime of sedition. Margarot was one of the very few English delegates who had been present at the so-called British Convention, held in Edinburgh in 1793. Together with his fellow Englishman Joseph Gerrald, and William Skirving of the Edinburgh Friends of the People, Margarot had taken on a leading role at the Convention. It was for this that he had been put on trial. The chapter considers how Margarot's trial initiated a discussion about sedition as a crime under Scots law and discusses the use of ‘authoritative writings’ on Scots law in the trials, along with Hume's views about the trials.