Author: Anon

Publication: Aberdeen Observer, A Commercial and Political Journal

Published: 7 December 1832

Place of publication: Aberdeen, Scotland

Publication type: Newspaper/Periodical

Featured individuals:
Michael Bruce (1797-1862)
Robert Bruce (1274-1329)
James Carnegie (1799-1849)
William Gordon (1784-1858)

No full copy of this poem is available.

Archive/Library: Aberdeen Central Library
Classmark(s): Reel no. NP12285
Pages(s): 4

This poem concerns Michael Bruce, a candidate for the 1832 Aberdeenshire General Election seat who had supported reform.  True to the Aberdeen Observer's anti-reform stance, he is portrayed as one who is only out 'for his own glory'.  We are also told that he was once a Tory but that he no longer affiliates with either Tory or Whig.  Bruce converses with constituents in the poem and states that he is very much supportive of the Reform Bill.  He references Robert the Bruce as one of his ancestors and stylises himself as a liberator.  However, he alienates the farmers he converses with in the poem by proposing a 'fixed duty'.  Bruce eventually lost the election to the anti-reform William Gordon.  The poem appears as part of the Aberdeen Observer's 'Dramatic Interludes' series.  This is the seventh in the series and the scene is 'The Library of Monkbanks'.