Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 4.djvu/248

594 tended their summons to swell the ranks of the remonstrants, dispersed to their homes, chagrined and disappointed.

Hamilton next assembled the leaders of the opposition, recommended that they should forget former jarrings, and endeavour to repair previous mismanagement by a vigorous and united effort for the defeat of the obnoxious treaty. He proposed that a motion formerly made for settling the succession in the house of Hanover should be renewed, in conjunction with a proposal fatal to the union; and that, on its being rejected, as it was sure to be in such circumstances, a strong protest should be taken, and the whole of their party should publicly secede from parliament. The consequence of this step, he argued, must be, that the government would abandon further proceedings, as they could not pretend to carry through a measure of such importance with a mere handful of the national representatives, whose opinions were so conspicuously at variance with the wishes of the great mass of the people. The Jacobites objected to the preliminary motion, but the duke overcame their scruples by representing, that as it must necessarily be rejected, it could not entangle them in any obligation inconsistent with their principles. Finally, he assured them, that if this plan failed of its effect, and the English should still press on the union, he would join them to recall the son of James II. The purpose of the anti-unionists having come to the knowledge of the duke of Queensberry, he sought an interview, it is said, with the leader of the popular party, and assured him that if the measure miscarried, his grace should be held accountable for its failure, and be made to suffer for it in his English estates. Whether intimidated by this threat, or that his own understanding did not approve of the course which his feelings prompted, Hamilton was the first to fail in the performance of the scheme which he had taken so much pains to persuade his coadjutors to consent to. "On the morning appointed for the execution of their plan," says Sir Walter Scott, "when the members of opposition had mustered all their forces, and were about to go to parliament, attended by great numbers of gentlemen and citizens, prepared to assist them if there should be an attempt to arrest any of their number, they learned that the duke of Hamilton was so much afflicted with the toothach that he could not attend the house that morning. His friends hastened to his chambers, and remonstrated with him so bitterly on this conduct, that he at length came down to the house ; but it was only to astonish them by asking whom they had pitched upon to present their protestation. They answered, with extreme surprise, that they had reckoned on his grace, as the person of the first rank in Scotland, taking the lead in the measure which he had himself proposed. The duke persisted, however, in refusing to expose himself to the displeasure of the court, by being foremost in breaking their favourite measure, but offered to second any one whom the party might appoint to offer the protest During this altercation, the business of the day was so far advanced, that the vote was put and carried on the disputed article respecting the representation, and the opportunity of carrying the scheme into effect was totally lost. The members who had hitherto opposed the union, being thus three times disappointed in their measures by the unexpected conduct of the duke of Hamilton, now felt themselves deserted and betrayed. Shortly afterwards most of them retired altogether from their attendance on parliament, and those who favoured the treaty were suffered to proceed in their own way, little encumbered either by remonstrance or opposition."

Such is the story of the duke of Hamilton's share in these two great measures. It presents a curious view of perseverance and firmness of purpose at one time, and of the utmost instability at another in the same person, both concurring to produce a great and important change in the feelings and interests of two na-