The Speculative Society

The Speculative Society is a Scottish Enlightenment society dedicated to public speaking and literary composition, founded in 1764.^[1] It was mainly, but not exclusively, an Edinburgh University student organisation. The formal purpose of the Society is as a place for social interchange and for practising of professional competency in rhetoric, argument, and the presentation of papers among fellow members. While continuing to meet in its rooms in the university's Old College, it has no formal links to the university.

History

The founding group, in November 1764, consisted of John Bonar, the younger, John Bruce, William Creech, Henry Mackenzie, and a Mr Belches of Invermay. They were encouraged by William Robertson.^[2][3] A split occurred in the Society in 1794, when Francis Jeffrey and Walter Scott urged the inclusion of contemporary politics in the scope of permitted debating topics.^[4] At this period, of political repression, the Society was a venue appreciated by young Whigs.^[5] They included Henry Brougham and Francis Horner.^[6] The National Library of Australia holds a rare limited edition (50 on large paper, 250 on small paper) copy of the History of the Speculative Society (1845) printed for the Society.^[7] Apparently subsequent editions were considered (1864, 1892) but it was not until 1905 that a further history was produced by a Committee of the Society, including a detailed list of ordinary members and Honorary members.^[8]

Halls in Old College

The Society continues to meet in the rooms set aside for it when Edinburgh University's Old College was built.^[9] The A-listed rooms were designed by Robert Adam and fitted out by William Henry Playfair.^[10]

Influence

The Edinburgh Review (second series) was founded in 1802 by a group of essayists who knew each other first in the milieu of the Speculative Society.^[11]

The University of Cambridge had a Speculative Society in the early years of the 19th century; it was one of the clubs that merged to form the Cambridge Union Society.^[12] Around 1825 Utilitarians and Owenites in London engaged in debates, and a formal Debating Society consciously modelled on the Speculative Society of Edinburgh was set up by John Stuart Mill. It was ambitious, but proved short-lived.^[13]

Modern activities

The functioning of this private society as at 2003 was described by Scottish judges as a group of 30 individuals (at that time all men) joining after private invitation and subject to a blackballing procedure; ordinary membership for three years of academic study required the production of three essay papers and the presentation of them for approximately 15 minutes duration for the purposes of a debate, which is voted on; members are offered the opportunity for dinners with occasional guests; after the period of ordinary membership has been completed, the member becomes an extraordinary member with the right to attend debates if desired.^[14] The organisation was in practice limited to membership by men through until 2015, when by a majority of three to one women were permitted to become members.^[15] Judges when trying cases are not required to declare to the litigants whether they are members of this society; the society was held to be “neither secret nor sinister”; membership could not reasonably be thought to influence the outcome of a case.^[16]

Membership

Past members of the Speculative Society of Edinburgh include:

• Henry Brougham, 1st Baron Brougham and Vaux^[9]
• Arthur Melville Clark, President of the Society 1926-29^[17]
• Lord Cullen
• William Douglas of Almorness
• Rev Henry Duncan
• Alexander Colquhoun-Stirling-Murray-Dunlop
• Sir Nicholas Fairbairn
• Cyrus Griffin
• Francis Horner^[9]
• John Playfair^[9]
• Sir Walter Scott^[9]
• William Shee^[9]
• Robert Louis Stevenson^[9]
• Anthony Todd Thomson^[18]

See also

• The Lunar Society of Birmingham

References

1. Alex Benchimol (10 April 2010). Intellectual Politics and Cultural Conflict in the Romantic Period: Scottish Whigs, English Radicals and the Making of the British Public Sphere. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. p. 56. ISBN 978-0-7546-6446-8. Retrieved 9 December 2012.
2. Macleod, Emma Vincent. "Bonar, John". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/2817. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
3. Fry, Michael. "Bruce, John". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/3739. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
4. Marvin B. Becker (1994). The Emergence of Civil Society in the Eighteenth Century: A Privileged Moment in the History of England, Scotland, and France. Indiana University Press. p. 149 note 15. ISBN 978-0-253-31129-0. Retrieved 9 December 2012.
5. Boyd Hilton (16 February 2006). A Mad, Bad, and Dangerous People? : England 1783-1846: England 1783-1846. Oxford University Press. p. 349. ISBN 978-0-19-160682-3. Retrieved 9 December 2012.
6. Thorne, Roland. "Horner, Francis". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/13802. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
7. History of the Speculative Society of Edinburgh from its institution in M.DCC.LXIV, (Edinburgh : T. Constable) https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/1024085
8. The History of the Speculative Society (1764-1904) Edinburgh, printed for the Society by D A. Constable 1905 https://archive.org/stream/historyofspecula00specuoft/historyofspecula00specuoft_djvu.txt
9. The history of the Speculative society, 1764-1904, Speculative Society of Edinburgh, Edinburgh 1905
10. "Edinburgh, South Bridge, University Of Edinburgh, Old College, Rooms Of The Speculative Society - Canmore".
11. Barton Swaim (31 March 2009). Scottish Men of Letters and the New Public Sphere, 1802-1834. Associated University Presse. p. 94. ISBN 978-0-8387-5716-1. Retrieved 9 December 2012.
12. Ward, W. R. "Sumner, Charles Richard". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/26784. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
13. Bruce Mazlish (1 November 1988). James and John Stuart Mill: Father and Son in the 19th Century. Transaction Publishers. p. 200. ISBN 978-0-88738-727-2. Retrieved 9 December 2012.
14. Lord Gill (the Lord Justice Clerk), Lords Kirkwood and Wheatley in Robbie the Pict, Petitioner (No.2) 2003 J.C. 78, 13 March 2003; (2003) SCCR 299, Judgment Paragraphs 20-24
15. "The Speculative Society opens its doors to women". BBC News. 19 May 2015. Retrieved 6 March 2023.
16. Lord Gill (the Lord Justice Clerk), Lords Kirkwood and Wheatley in Robbie the Pict, Petitioner (No.2) 2003 J.C. 78, 13 March 2003; (2003) SCCR 299, Judgment Paragraph 26
17. C D Waterston; A Macmillan Shearer (July 2006). Former Fellows of The Royal Society of Edinburgh, 1783–2002: Part 1 (A–J) (PDF). ISBN 090219884X. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 January 2013. Retrieved 18 September 2015. {{cite book}}: |website= ignored (help)
18.  "Thomson, Anthony Todd". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.