has endeavoured, by moving a resolution, to reduce the inordinate length
of the speeches in the House as the only way of saving time to get
through the yearly increasing work of legislation, and he has proposed
some other resolutions for facilitating the business of the House.
SIR JAMES CAMPBELL.
Glasgow cannot lay claim to a hereditary aristocracy. She has, however,
what is infinitely better for the purposes of commercial, political, and
social progress--an aristocracy of energy, talent, and moral worth.
There are very few of her merchants and manufacturers who have not been
the architects of their own fortune. The pioneers of her industrial
prosperity do not build their aspirations and hopes upon a few broad
acres, or a pedigree stretching backwards to the time of William the
Conqueror. These maybe fine things in their way, and, like an antique
jewel, they may serve very well to wear on special occasions, or to
treasure as an antiquary would do some rare coin or "auld nick-nacket."
But the magnates of Glasgow have a juster and more legitimate cause for
pride; their ambition is of a less ornamental, but far more useful kind.
The Youngs, the Napiers, the Elders, the Campbells, and the Bairds are,
after all, your true and permanent nobility. All that is not the direct
result of merit and industry can only induce vanity and vexation of
spirit. It is no uncommon thing to hear men who have been pitchforked
into an affluent position--whose progenitors may have taken part in the
"forty-five"--to go no further back--look with disdain upon the
pretensions of those who have, within the short span of a single
lifetime, realised a colossal fortune. But Catullus has truly said that
there's "nothing so foolish as the laugh of fools," and many men still
require to be taught that--
"Honour and fame from no condition rise,"
although the fact is every day patent to the most casual observation.
Sir James Campbell belongs to a family who have secured a right to a
permanent place in the annals of the West of Scotland. In commerce, in
politics, in matters ecclesiastical, they have been alike conspicuous.
Born at the Port of Menteith, in Perthshire, Sir James is one of three
brothers who went forth into the world and distinguished themselves, not
less by their success as merchants, than by the honour and integrity of
all their transactions. The father of the family was a farmer, who
occupied the small farm of Inchanoch, in Menteith--as his ancestors for
three generations before him had done--the produce accruing from which
was scarcely sufficient to provide in an adequate degree for the
maintenance of a numerous family. While his sons were yet young, he
removed with his family to Glasgow, which was even then considered an
inviting field for all who possessed energy, industry, and ability to
work. Here James became connected in partnership with a tailor named
Paterson, the father, we believe, of a well-known tradesman now in
Glasgow. For some years they carried on business together in Brunswick
Street, but fortune frowned upon their efforts, and the firm was
dissolved. Subsequently James entered into partnership with his brother
William, who had been engaged for some years in a small drapery shop in
High Street, and the brothers established themselves in business in the
Saltmarket. Their business was at this time in a very humble way--their
operations being confined for the most part to supplying basket-women
and hawkers with cotton goods, such as handkerchiefs and pinafores. By
dint of unwearied energy and attention to business the brothers were
enabled, in course of time, to extend their ramifications so far as to
build a large warehouse in Candleriggs, which they continued to occupy
for many years, and in which they conducted an extensive wholesale
business as well as retail. The eldest brother, John, who had been for
some years in America, had charge of the retail department of the
concern. There are several features of the business as carried on at
this time that deserve to be noticed. In the first place, they were the
first to set their face against the objectionable system of "prigging,"
which up to that time had prevailed to a greater or less extent in every
description of retail business. Their goods were all ticketed with a
certain figure, the lowest that they could possibly be sold at so as to
leave a fair margin of profit, and from this price nothing would induce
them to make any abatement. Adopting the Horatian maxim, they "kept one
consistent plan from end to end." The result was that goods which in
another establishment would be quoted at 2s 6d or 2s 8d, were sold by
Messrs. Campbell for 1s 6d or 1s 9d, being less than they could generally
be obtained for elsewhere, even after a customer had spent his ingenuity
and breath in half-an-hour's "prigging." The advantages to be obtained
at Messrs. Campbell's establishment soon became known, and although it
required a great effort to induce thrifty housewives to desist from
attempting to cheapen and "prig" down their goods, Messrs. Campbell
ultimately succeeded in putting a stop to the practice, so far at least
as their own establishment was concerned. Since then, their example has
been followed by all the other respectable drapers and warehousemen
throughout the city, so that a child of tender years can now be
entrusted to make a purchase without the slightest risk of being
overcharged or imposed upon. In connection with their warehouse in
Candleriggs, the firm for many years carried on warping mills in the
upper flats, being thus manufacturers as well as merchants. Before
leaving Candleriggs, however, and entering upon their present extensive
premises in Ingram Street, which they opened in 1856, they had abandoned
the manufacturing department of their business, and confined themselves
exclusively to buying and selling. Such were the beginnings of a concern
which, at the present day, is surpassed by none, and equalled by few in
the city of Glasgow, and such were the circumstances under which the two
brothers laid the foundations of a reputation for sterling integrity and
worth, which has given their family a leading place in the West of
Scotland. It may be mentioned that in 1842 they opened an additional
retail warehouse in Buchanan Street, under the firm of Campbell &
Co.--a business afterwards disposed of to Neilson, Shaw, & M'Gregor; and
that the retail business in Candleriggs Street was disposed of to Donald
& Sellar.
With reference to Sir James's public career a great deal might be
written, and yet the gist of it might be comprised in a few sentences.
Both he and his brother William, so well known as Mr. Campbell of
Tillichewan, were for a long time members of the Town Council, and Sir
James occupied for the statutory period of three years--from 1840 to
1843--the position of Lord Provost. It was while Sir James filled the
civic chair that the heir apparent to the Throne was born, and to mark
the occurrence of such an important event, as well as in recognition of
the active part which he took in connection with the festivities and
demonstrations that happened in Glasgow to celebrate the same, he
received from her Majesty the honour of knighthood. In 1837, he had come
forward as a candidate for the representation of the city, conjointly
with Mr. Monteith of Carstairs; but as he stood in the Conservative
interest, and as Glasgow, even at that distance of time, was a Radical
constituency, he was, despite his great local influence, defeated by a
considerable majority. His opponents on this occasion were Lord William
Bentinck, Mr. John Dennistoun, and Mr. Robert Monteith; and after a hard
struggle the election terminated with the following result:--
Lord William Bentinck, 2767
John Dennistoun, 2743
Robert Monteith, 2121
James Campbell, 2090
Again in 1841, while Lord Provost, he was an unsuccessful candidate for
the representation of the city, the poll terminating as follows:--
James Oswald, 2776
John Dennistoun, 2728
James Campbell, 2416
George Mills, 355
In every movement having for its object the promotion of the interests
and well-being of Glasgow, Sir James has taken an active and useful
part. Politically, his support and influence have had an important
bearing upon the fortunes of the Conservative party in the West of
Scotland; and to the Established Church, of which he has all along been
a steadfast and warm adherent, he has contributed unwearied service.
On the 14th January, 1868, Sir James was entertained at a banquet in the
Corporation Galleries in recognition of his private worth and his public
services as a citizen of Glasgow. The banquet was so far official that
the Lord Provost occupied the chair, and he was supported by most of the
leading men of Glasgow. In proposing the health of Sir James, the Lord
Provost (Sir James Lumsden) declared that he had "for many years taken
an active part, and still takes a deep interest in all municipal
affairs;" and added, "he is well known as a warm and attached friend, a
judicious counsellor, ever ready not only to lend his name and open his
purse in the furtherance of all measures leading to the improvement of
his fellow-citizens, but by taking such an active part in their
management as shows his earnestness in accomplishing whatever he takes
in hand." In the course of his speech, the Lord Provost also mentioned
the interesting fact that, entering the Council in 1831, Sir James was
one of the four surviving members of that body who presided over
municipal affairs prior to the passing of the Borough Reform Bill--Mr.
William Smith, Mr. William Brown, and Mr. Thomas Douglas being the other
three.
Lady Campbell is a daughter of the late Mr. Henry Bannerman of
Manchester, founder of the well-known firm of Henry Bannerman & Sons. It
is a coincidence worthy of notice that the progenitors of the Bannerman
family, with whom throughout the greater part of his life Sir James has
been so closely identified, were also Perthshire farmers, occupying a
comparatively humble rank in life.
Of Sir James Campbell's family, the eldest son, Mr. James A. Campbell,
younger of Stracathro (who is married to a daughter of Sir Morton Peto,
the eminent contractor), now administers his father's interest in the
business. His other and younger son, Mr. Henry Campbell, has, since 1868,
represented the Stirling Burghs in Parliament, and now occupies a
responsible post in the Government of his country as Financial Secretary
in the War Office.
In his private capacity, Sir James is genial, accessible, and full of
dry, pawky humour. He is in his proper element when entertaining a
company of his friends, either at his town residence in Bath Street, or
at his more delightful country mansion of Stracathro, near Brechin.
Although upwards of eighty years of age, he is in the full possession of
all his faculties, his sight alone excepted, and even his sense of
vision is sufficiently retained to enable him to find his way in the
most crowded thoroughfares of the city.
MR. JAMES YOUNG OF KELLY.
The whole range of industrial biography does not present a more signally
successful career than that of Mr. James Young; nor can we find, in all
the annals of aspiring genius, a more wonderful example of the ultimate
triumph of mind over matter.
The origin of the inventor of paraffin oil was comparatively obscure. He
was born in the Drygate of Glasgow--a street on which the operations of
the City Improvement Trust have effected a wonderful
transformation--where his father was a working cabinetmaker. After
receiving what little schooling his parents were able to afford, Mr.
Young commenced to assist his father--who had by this time established
himself as his own master in the Calton--and while so employed he took
to the study of Chemistry. For some time he attended the lectures of
Professor Graham, the late Master of the Mint (to whom a monument has
been erected by his illustrious pupil in George Square) at the
Andersonian University, and he showed such aptitude for science, that in
a remarkably short time he became Mr. Graham's class assistant. In this
capacity Mr. Young continued for seven years, and, as his subsequent
career amply showed, he did not fail to improve his opportunities. After
leaving the Andersonian, he followed Mr. Graham to London, when the
latter was appointed to the Professorship of Chemistry in London
University, and he continued to be associated with his old friend and
master until he accepted the position of manager of Muspratt's Chemical
Works at Newton, near Liverpool. Here he continued for four-and-a-half
years, improving, of course, his acquaintance with the practical
bearings of his favourite science, especially in regard to the
manufacture of alkali and bleaching powder, the staple products of
Muspratt's works. Mr. Young afterwards removed to Manchester, where he
undertook a responsible position in Tennant's Chemical Works--a branch
of Tennant's of Glasgow. This would be in the year 1843. While employed
in Manchester he received from Dr. Lyon Playfair, whose acquaintance he
had made while in the Andersonian University, a communication with
reference to the existence of a petroleum spring in Derbyshire. This may
almost be said to have been the turning point in Mr. Young's career. Dr.
Playfair stated that in his brother-in-law's coal mine in Derbyshire
there was a large quantity of petroleum, and he proposed that Mr. Young
should investigate the mine, and judge if anything could be made out of
it. A commission so responsible, and involving the exercise of so much
scientific skill, was just suited to Mr. Young's fancy. He went and
examined the springs, found petroleum dropping from the roof of the mine
over the coal, and the result was that he took a lease of the spring,
and worked the petroleum with the view to making it profitable. We may
here explain that petroleum is of different kinds, although in all its
diverse forms it retains the same qualities. It is an oleagenous
substance, naturally evolved from the earth, and may be found in all
degrees of thickness, from a very light substance found in some parts of
Persia, to a thick viscid substance more indigenous to Britain. Before
taking a lease of the petroleum spring, Mr. Young suggested the
advisability of Tennant's people taking it up, but they said it was too
small a matter for them. Mr. Young, however, in 1848, commenced to work
the spring for himself, producing two different oils--one a thick oil
for lubricating, and the other a thin oil for lamp burning. In course of
time it became evident that the petroleum was almost worked out, and Mr.
Young directed his attention to finding an artificial substitute for the
natural oil. He had previously held the idea that the petroleum might be
produced by the action of heat on the coal and the vapour going up into
the sandstone to be condensed. He made a great many experiments in
retorts, with the view of testing the practicability of this idea, and
the results obtained were very various. He had no fixed data to guide
him, and he sometimes got one thing, sometimes another. At last,
however, success rewarded his labours, and he was entitled to
exclaim--"Eureka!" Out of a cannel that came to be mixed with soda ash
he obtained a quantity of liquid that contained paraffin. In the
beginning of 1850, Mr. Bartholomew, of the City and Suburban Gas Works,
Glasgow, showed Mr. Young some specimens of the Boghead coal, with which
he renewed his experiments, distilling the mineral at a low temperature,
until he evolved a considerable quantity of crude paraffin. Ultimately,
Mr. Young, Mr. Meldrum, and Mr. Binney, to whom the discovery was
imparted at the Edinburgh meeting of the British Association, in 1850,
resolved on erecting works at Bathgate, in the centre of the Torbanehill
coal district, for the manufacture of paraffin. Before setting out on
this venture, however, Mr. Young took care to protect his invention by
securing a patent. In 1851 the Bathgate works, which originally
consisted of only two or three retorts, were set agoing, and from that
time until the present hour their success has been uninterrupted. It is
worth while mentioning that Mr. Young, during the whole course of his
experiments, derived no advice or assistance whatever from the
experience or conclusions of others who had preceded him in the same
phase of chemical science, and that he had never either heard of or seen
Reichenbach's letter to Dumas, upon which the claims of the German
chemist to have been the original discoverer of paraffin were based. It
is now generally admitted that Reichenbach was the real discoverer of
paraffin. He found it as an ingredient in the tar obtained by distilling
beechwood, as far back as 1830. What Reichenbach only dreamed about and
hoped for, however, Mr. Young practically realised; and to our townsman
is due the credit of having been the first to prepare paraffin as a
commercial article from mineral sources.
The exact nature and properties of shale was the subject of a remarkable
trial in the Court of Session soon after Mr. Young began to work the raw
material at Bathgate. The proprietor of the estate of Torbanehill, Mr.
Gillespie, disputed with the lessee, Mr. Russell, of Falkirk, affirming
that the valuable mineral called shale was not _coal_, and that the
working of it was therefore not included in Mr. Russell's lease.
Subsequently, Mr. Young had several lawsuits against parties who had
infringed his patent, one being an action against the Clydesdale
Chemical Company, in which, the jury gave a unanimous verdict for Mr.
Young, the defendants paying large sums as costs and damages. Another
was an action against Mr. E. W. Ferney, of Saltney, near Chester, who
had established works on Mr. Young's principle, and would not be bound
by the decisions pronounced in previous cases. In the spring of 1864,
after a trial which lasted nearly forty days, judgment was again given
in favour of Mr. Young, who claimed L15,000 of professional expenses
alone, in addition to a royalty of 3d. per gallon of oil made in
contravention of his patent rights.
The monopoly carried on by Mr. Young and his partners was broken down in
October, 1864, by the expiry of the patent rights, and the dissolution
of the partnership, and the Bathgate works subsequently passed into the
hands of a limited liability company, by whom they are still owned and
controlled, Mr. Young continuing to hold a large share, and the position
of general manager. The amount paid for the works and plant by the new
company was L450,000, and we believe Mr. Young took shares to the extent
of one-fourth of that amount; Mr. Pender, of Minard, the next largest
shareholder, holding stock to the extent of L70,000 more. The idea of
erecting new works on a larger scale, and with more improved and modern
appliances, in the West Calder district, was meanwhile conceived by Mr.
Young. He selected a site on the estate of Addiewell, a mile west from
the village of West Calder, extending to fully fifty acres of ground.
Here he erected works that are still unrivalled in point of extent, and
of which it may be said that they form an apt commentary on their
projector's energy, intelligence, and enterprise. There being no
accommodation in West Calder for a large body of workpeople, Mr. Young's
first care was to erect suitable dwelling-houses. Very soon a new
village of respectable proportions sprang into being, and the chemical
works were pushed forward with equal celerity. The arrangement of
Addiewell Chemical Works is admirably calculated for their purpose. They
cover nearly a half of the entire site, the buildings as well as the
mechanical appliances being on a gigantic scale. The retort sheds are
upwards of 200 yards in length taken together, and each shed contains a
double row of retorts. Altogether, there are no less than 354 retorts,
capable of distilling more than 3000 tons of shale per week, and
producing 120,000 gallons of crude oil, which yields 50,000 to 60,000
gallons of burning oil, in addition to about 12 tons of refined paraffin
oil and a large quantity of lubricating oil. Each of the condensers
contains several miles of piping. The main pipe, which collects the
vapours from the retorts, is nearly a yard in diameter. One and a
quarter million cubic feet of gas are manufactured at the works every
day. Upwards of 1000 hands are employed. In the shale-pits adjoining,
four hundred miners are regularly at work. The pits are conveniently
near to the Addiewell Works, none of them being more than two miles off.
A network of railway lines communicate with the various shale-pits, and
five locomotives are regularly employed in the transit of minerals. A
school, under Government inspection, is attached to the works, and the
employes are exceptionably well off for house accommodation.
Within the limits of this article we cannot do full justice to the
enormous industry of which Mr. Young is the founder. It is even claimed
for Mr. Young's little factory at Alfreton that it was the parent, not
only of the Scotch mineral oil trade, but also of that of America; for
oil had never been distilled to produce an article of commerce until he
commenced to work his patent there. From such a small beginning has
arisen, within the short space of twenty-three years, one of the most
important and extensive industries in the world. At the present time
there are in Scotland altogether 65 oil-works, at 17 of which crude oil
is manufactured and refined ready for the market. At 38 other works the
crude oil alone is produced, and although most of the crude oil so made
is refined at other works in Scotland, a not inconsiderable quantity is
sent to the Welsh refiners, while some of it is sent to the Continent.
Of the remaining works, 16 refine the crude oil only. There are
altogether 3804 retorts in operation, both vertical and horizontal. It
is a moot point, which is now engaging the attention of those in the
trade, whether vertical or horizontal retorts are the best suited for
the purposes in view. At Mr. Young's works, which are the largest and
most important in Scotland, nothing but vertical retorts are used, it
being considered that they possess an advantage over the horizontal kind
in respect of their continuous feeding, but the latter are likewise very
largely used. Of the 3404 retorts, however, there are seldom more than
3000 at work together. The remainder are usually standing idle, on
account of repairs or some other cause. The average weekly production of
crude oil at the Scotch works is nearly 120,000 gallons, and the number
of men engaged in the trade in its various departments is estimated at
little short of 6500. Assuming, as we may fairly do, that 3000 retorts
are regularly at work, they will yield 21,800,000 gallons of crude oil,
and distil 730,000 tons of shale annually; or, in other words, they will
distil 13,000 to 14,000 tons of shale weekly. From the crude oil thus
distilled there will be produced something like 10,000,000 gallons of
refined burning oil annually, besides crude solid paraffin, and other
products, such as naptha and lubricating oils. It is further calculated
that the average wages paid in connection with this industry will reach
between L400,000 and L500,000 per annum. The districts in which the
manufacture is carried on are situated in Midlothian, Ayrshire,
Lanarkshire, Fifeshire, and Linlithgowshire. The largest works are in
the Midlothian and Linlithgowshire districts, the Fifeshire and Ayrshire
works being comparatively limited in extent, and chiefly confined to the
manufacture of crude oil. Some of the principal works have been
considerably extended of late.