Unlike the “grey metropolis of the north,” Glasgow shows rather poorly in the history of Scotland. Its own real history—the history of its commerce and industries—can hardly be dated farther back than the beginning of the last century, when the union of England and Scotland roused into extraordinary activity the trading spirit of its inhabitants. And yet Glasgow is an old city. Its foundations were laid when the half-mythical Kentigern sat down by the banks of the Molendinar, to teach the rough Celts of Strathclyde the truths of Christianity. It was about the middle of the 6th century that this apostle of truth made his appearance in the west of Scotland, and built his little wooden church on the spot upon which some centuries later his successors reared the noble cathedral which still stands in perfect beauty. One can only guess that the inhabitants of this portion of Strathclyde gathered round the abode and church of St Mungo, and that as the site was pleasant, and the Molendinar and the Clyde supplied ample store of trout and salmon, the village under the fostering care of the monks grew slowly till it became a place of importance. Of that growth, however, nothing is really known till we reach the 12th century. In the year 1115 an investigation was ordered by David, then prince of Cumbria, of the lands and churches belonging to the bishopric of Glasgow, and from the deed which still exists it is evident that at that time a cathedral had been endowed. A few years later David succeeded to the Scottish throne on the death of his brother, Alexander I., and among the many endowments he made for religious purposes, we find that he gave to the see of Glasgow the lands of Partick, besides restoring many possessions of which it had been despoiled. Jocelyn w as bishop of Glasgow for a long period, and is memorable for the efforts he made to rebuild the cathedral which had been destroyed by fire. He collected funds with so much success that in 1197 the new structure was sufficiently advanced to be dedicated. The next bishops of note were Bodington and Wisheart. The former carried on the building work of Jocelyn; the latter was a patriotic Scot who resisted the conquering army of Edward I., and was among the first to join in the revolt of Wallace, and to receive Robert Bruce when he was proscribed by Edward and lay under the ban of the church for the murder of the Red Cornyn. Wisheart was a prisoner from the year 1306 to the battle of Bannockburn, and he lived to see Bruce firmly established upon the Scottish throne. Bishop Rae deserves mention for having built a stone bridge over the Clyde (1345). Bishop Turnbull was the greatest benefactor the city had till then found; for he was the founder of Glasgow university (1450). He also received a charter from James II. in 1420, erecting the town and the lands of the bishops into a regality. In 1491 the see was made metropolitan through the influence of James IV,, who had been a canon of the cathedral in early life. The last Roman Catholic archbishop of Glasgow was James Bethune, consecrated in 1552. At the Reformation in 1560 the archbishop fled to France, carrying with him all the relics, documents, and valuables belonging to the see. The cathedral, upon which so much care had been bestowed by the successors of Bishop Jocelyn, very nearly suffered the devastation which was inflicted upon so many abbeys and churches by the more bigoted of the Reformers. It was saved by the craftsmen of Glasgow turning out in their strength and chasing away the destroyers of the “rookeries,” who had already begun to lay sacrilegious hands upon the venerable building. After the Reformation, and till the Revolution of 1688, which re-established Presbyterianism as the religious form of worship in Scotland, the see of Glasgow was occupied by a number of archbishops, the tenure of whose office in many cases was precarious. The most notable fact after the Reformation in the history of the Glasgow Church was the Assembly of 1638 which was held in the city, when Episcopacy was energetically abjured, the Solemn League and Covenant accepted, and its signature made binding upon all who claimed the ordinances of the Presbyterian Church. The fact that the craftsmen were zealous for the preservation of their fine old cathedral indicates probably that the Reformation doctrines were not received so enthusiastically in Glasgow as in many other places in Scotland; but they took deep root latterly, and in the struggles for religious and civil liberty in the 17th century the inhabitants were among the foremost to assist and endure in the good cause.

Glasgow owed its erection into a burgh to its ecclesiastic lords. One of these obtained a royal charter from William the Lion in the last quarter of the 12th century (between the years 1175 and 1178), which made the town a burgh, and gave it a market with freedom and customs. Another charter, it is supposed, was granted in 1190, and according to a deed dated 1268 the town was governed by a provost and bailies, and had courts of justice for settling disputes among the inhabitants. There are no records, however, till almost quite recent times. A few incidents of national history with which Glasgow was connected may be noted, to fill up the blank from the period when it was an ecclesiastical town to the date at which it started its great career as the capital of Scottish industry and commerce. Wallace fought one of his successful battles for Scottish liberty in the High Street of Glasgow in the year 1300. In 1350 the plague raged in the city, and returned thirty years afterwards, though not in so severe a form. About 1542 the bishop’s castle, which was garrisoned by the earl of Lennox, was besieged by the earl of Angus, then regent, and after its surrender on terms which were dishonoured, a skirmish took place between the parties at the Butts to the east of the town. The regent’s troops were successful, and to punish the inhabitants for their devotion to the Lennox family the town was pillaged. The unfortunate Queen Mary visited her husband Darnley when he lay ill at his father’s house Limmerfield, near Glasgow—a visit which afterwards was made of fatal significance to her when her case was heard before Queen Elizabeth in council. The inhabitants of Glasgow had no liking for the fair queen, for many of them fought against her at the battle of Langside, where she lost her crown and kingdom. Glasgow seems to have been fairly prosperous after the accession of James VI. and the union of the crowns of England and Scotland. It was recovering from the loss which it sustained by the Reformation through the dispersion of the wealth of its ecclesiastical lords. A little trade was springing up with foreign parts, chiefly with the Low Countries. But the city suffered somewhat severely in the reign of Charles I. Its inhabitants had become fiercely anti-prelatical, and were obnoxious to the ruling powers. When Montrose in his victorious course marched into the city after the battle of Kilsyth he levied a heavy contribution, although the city was suffering at the time from one of the periodical visits of the plague. In 1648 the provost and his bailies were deposed for contumacy to Charles I., and were imprisoned for a few days, while four regiments of foot and horse were quartered on the magistrates, council, and session. Plague and famine prevailed during the following year; in 1652 there was a great fire which destroyed about a third of the town and £100,000 worth of property. After the restoration of Charles II., and during the persecutions of his and his brother’s reign, Glasgow suffered severely. It wa3 a centre of disaffection against the Government, the headquarters of the Whigs of the west of Scotland. Glasgow prison was filled to overflowing with the rebels, as they were called, and it is a proof of the sympathy with which they were regarded by the citizens that on the occasion of another great fire in 1678 the doors of the prison were thrown open, and the prisoners set at liberty. The Government retaliated by sending an army of wild Highlanders to the city, who savagely oppressed the inhabitants and roused up the spirit of resistance which vented itself at Loudon Hill and Bothwell Bridge. With the Revolution peace and prosperity came to Glasgow, only to be partially interrupted by the risings in 1715 and 1745. A regiment of 500 men was raised in Glasgow to support William and Mary and Presbyterian rights and privileges; and in return the city was declared free by a charter, the citizens having the right of electing their own municipal rulers.

Glasgow was not aware of the vast benefits that were conferred upon her by the union of England and Scotland in 1707. The measure was stoutly resisted by the inhabitants, and its proclamation nearly led to a riot; but the merchants very soon saw that by the water highway which flowed through the town they could have access to the profitable trade that had been opened up in North America. Glasgow’s situation for the western foreign traffic was the best in Scotland, and inferior to none of the great towns of England. The Treaty of Union put every Scottish port,"so far as trade was concerned, on an equal footing with the English ports; and there was no reason why Glasgow should not share in the wealth which in ever-increasing amount was yearly coming across the Atlantic. As has been already stated, after the troublous times of the Reformation the trade prosperity of Glasgow was considerable. In the middle of the 16th century there were ten towns in Scotland above it in population and importance, but by the close of the 17th century it had risen to the second rank, with a population of about 10,000 or 11,000. This increase is to be ascribed to the monopoly which the inhabitants had secured in the middle of the 17th century of the sale of raw and refined sugars for the most of Scotland. Besides this they had the right of distilling spirits from molasses free of duty; they conducted a considerable trade in cured herrings and salmon, were manufacturers of soap, and sent to the English ports hides and linen, bringing back in exchange tobacco and manufactured goods, which they distributed north of the Tweed. Bristol was then the great emporium of tobacco, and Glasgow’s commercial connexions with it naturally turned the attention of its traders to that lucrative branch of commerce. When it became possible for Glasgow merchants to enter into competition with the merchants of Bristol, companies were formed to carry on the trade with the North American colonies, and a large trade was soon established. Ships were chartered, and as wealth poured in were built, and sailed regularly for Virginia, Maryland, and Carolina, taking out goods in barter for cargoes of tobacco. In 1760 Glasgow had completely rivalled Bristol in the tobacco trade, and in 1772 its importations were more than half of the entire quantity brought into the United Kingdom. The Virginian trade being exceedingly lucrative, Glasgow flourished under it. The town rapidly extended westward, handsome mansionhouses for the “tobacco lords” were erected, and the austerity of manners which had come down from the covenanting days was somewhat relaxed. The money made by tobacco found its way into other branches of commerce and stimulated new industries. The tobacco trade however received a crushing blow at the outbreak of the American War,—a blow from which it never wholly recovered, for after the war was over, and the thirteen colonies had become the United States of North America, Glasgow was engaged in other commercial enterprises. The distress in the city was keen during the first years of the war, and Glasgow capitalists turned their attention to the West Indies and the cultivation of the sugar cane. The manufacture of cotton goods was introduced also about this time, and proved a new source of wealth and prosperity. Calico printing, which was soon to develop into a great industry employing thousands of persons, was started at Pollokshaws in 1742; the inkle loom was set up in 1732; glass-making was established in a feeble way in 1730; and the brewing of beer and ale on a large scale was attempted with success. In 1764 James Watt perfected his first model of a steam engine in a small workshop, which had been granted to him by the senatus of the university, within the college walls. From the Treaty of Union down to the end of the 18th century, the progress of the city had been remarkable. In 1708 the population was estimated to be upwards of 12,000; at the end of the century it was close upon 80,000.

The Harbour.—The energies of the traders of Glasgow were naturally somewhat confined by having a port so far away as Port-Glasgow, and there is little wonder that, when their commerce began to extend, they should have cast about for plans to deepen the water-way and enable them to bring their merchandise to their own warehouses in the city. The task which lay before them was one involving numerous difficulties. “A hundred years ago,” says Mr Deas, the engineer of the Clyde trust, in his interesting sketch of The Rise and Progress of the Harbour of Glasgow, “the river was almost in a state of nature, and was fordable on foot at Dumbuck Ford, more than 12 miles below Glasgow.” As early as 1566 the authorities of the towns of Glasgow, Renfrew, and Dumbarton endeavoured to remove a sandbank, a little above the latter town, and though operations were intermittingly carried on for some years, they do not appear to have been very successful. Prior to 1658 the shipping port of Glasgow was Irvine in Ayrshire, but the passage of lighters from that place was tedious and the land carriage expensive. It was determined in 1658 by the magistrates of Glasgow to purchase ground at Dumbarton, and construct a spacious harbour there. The magistrates of thath - oyal burgh, however, objected, on the plea that “the great influx of mariners and others would raise the price of provisions to the inhabitants.” The Glasgow authorities, however, were determined to have a harbour nearer than Irvine, and in 1662 they purchased 13 acres of ground on the south side of the river (now Port-Glasgow), where they built harbours and constructed the first graving dock in Scotland. In 1688 a quay was built at the Broomielaw, although nothing had yet been done lor the deepening of the river. It was only after the city had experienced the vast importance of foreign traffic that the magistrates, most of whom were “tobacco lords,” seriously turned their attention to the question. In 1740 the town council authorized the expenditure of £100 in making a deepening experiment below the Broomielaw quay, and fifteen years later they employed Smeaton the well-known engineer to report on the subject. He found the two shallowest places at the Pointhouse Ford, now the western boundary of the harbour, and at Hirst, now within the harbour. The depth at low water at the former was 15 inches and at the latter 18 inches, while at high water it was 3 feet 3 inches and 3 feet 8 inches respectively. Smeaton proposed a lock and dam, four miles below Glasgow Bridge, so as to secure 4 feet 6 inches of water at the Broomielaw quay. Fortunately his report was not adopted. In 1768 the first beginnings were made on the report of Mr John Golborne, who suggested the contraction of the river by the construction of rubble jetties and the removal of the shoals by dredging. James Watt reported in 1769 to the magistrates on the declivity of the bed of the Clyde from Broomielaw quay to that obdurate obstacle Dumbuck Ford. In 1773 Mr Golborne contracted with the town council to make this ford 6 feet deep at low water and 300 feet wide, and carried out his contract successfully in 1775. Rennie reported on the river in 1799, and recommended “the shortening of some of the jetties, the construction of new ones, and the building of low nibble walls from point to point of the jetties so as to render the channel uniform, and prevent the accumulation of shoals.” His suggestions were carried out, and upwards of 200 jetties were constructed between Glasgow and Bowling, the result being a considerable improvement in the navigation, and reclamation of land to the proprietors on both banks from the alveus of the river, the greater portion of which has since had to be purchased at high prices for other improvements. Telford reported in 1806, and Rennie again in 1807, and the deepening process went on without pause. In 1836 the engineeι of the Clyde Trust reported to the trustees that there was then from 7 to 8 feet of water at the Broomielaw quay at low water, that the lift of a neap tide, which was only sensible in 1755, was 4 feet, and of a spring tide 7 or 8 feet, making a depth of 12 feet at high water of a neap and of 15 feet of a spring tide. The river had become capable of taking craft of 400 tons to Glasgow. In 1840 parliament sanctioned an Act for carrying out plans for the further improvement of the navigation of the entire river under the jurisdiction of the trustees. Upon the lines then laid down the improvements have ever since proceeded, with only very slight modifications, but the result may probably be best expressed in the following figures. In 1839 vessels of 17 feet draught of water were safely navigated to and from the harbour, in 1854 of 19 feet draught, in 1861 of 20 feet draught, in 1862 of 21 feet draught, and in 1870 of 22 feet draught. Only a few years ago vessels of 15 feet draught were two and often three tides in the river in their passage up and down, but now vessels of 22 feet draught leaving Glasgow two or three hours before high water get to sea in one tide. The rapidity of the deepening process has been due almost entirely to the powerful steam dredgers employed by the trustees, to the use of the diving bell for blasting purposes, and latterly to the introduction of steam drilling and dynamite. The quantity of dredged matter taken from the river every year is somewhere about a million and a quarter of tons, which is carried off by barges and deposited in Loch Long, an...