Napoleon Bonaparte
Stirling Castle
author says they have ‘only assumed the liberty to warn and instruct, THAT THEY MIGHT BE FREE’.
Stirling Council Assistant Archivist Neil Dickson, who wrote a blog on the pamphlet, explains the pamphlet was amongst papers found within the Murray of Polmaise family estate in Stirling. While unaware as to why the family would have the document, he says: “It is a propaganda piece. The author is trying to make people aware of the threat that could face the country. The words speak for themselves. The printer would have allowed it to go through on the proviso that the author would remain anonymous. It was quite common in the 19th Century to write anonymously, under an alias or with a fictitious name in a puff piece.”
He adds: “It is a rallying cry, it is pro-war and saying ‘let’s get our act together people’. It goes into detail of what might happen to the country and to our women and children, with pillage and death and so on.”
These are powerful words. But words are indeed powerful tools. The use of words in everyday language can be used to build bridges, but can
52 February 2016
Te use of words in everyday language can be used to build bridges, but can equally divide. Tey can liſt spirits, and they can crush them.
equally divide. They can liſt spirits, and they can crush them. This is where the anonymous pamphlet of 1803 is ironically similar to modern-day social media tools such as Facebook, Twiter and chat rooms. Everyone from politicians, pop stars, business leaders, news channels and regular Joes have access to puting their thoughts, experiences and photographs out to the world at large.
Positive use of social media can bring important issues to the fore or help raise cash for charity. In 2014 the ‘Ice Bucket Challenge’ went viral, raising $98.2 million for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) in the US and £2.7 million for the Motor Neuron Disease Association in the UK within days. More than 2.4 million videos of people, including celebrities, pouring icy cold buckets of water over themselves appeared on Facebook in July and August 2014, with 28 million people responding to the posts.
In contrast, a hugely negative online presence, oſten carried out anonymously, is cyberbullying – according to Bullying UK, 28 per cent of young people have reported incidents of cyberbullying on Twiter, with a further 26 per cent on
Ask.fm, with an astonishing 3 per cent admiting atempted suicide as the direct result of cyberbullying. The term ‘cyberbullying’ includes forms of harassment, denigration, inflaming reaction, and intimidation.
So while the anonymous ‘rally cry’ is as prevalent today as it was 200 years ago, listening to others’ viewpoints, exchanging opinion and giving careful consideration to the impact of comment put out on the world wide web may also be advisable traits to adopt in this modern age of communication.
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