Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 3.djvu/50

36 and James was more than ever intractible as to business. After the departure of Vaudemont, however, he consented to meet his parliament. The great business of parliament now for several sessions, that is, from 1604 to 1607, was that of discussing James's proposition for the union of the two kingdoms. This very proposition, so immediately brought forward, was a glaring proof of James's want of solid judgment. The least reflection might have satisfied the least reflecting mind, that two nations which had for so many ages been inflamed against each other by wars, injustice, mutual cruelties, political jealousies, and the taunts which the most embittered passions had caused them to fling on each other, would require a long time to reconcile them to the idea of entire amalgamation. The centuries of attempted usurpation on the part of the English, and the determined resistance, even to the death, on the part of the Scots, made the latter people sensitively apprehensive of the union. They saw in it only the accomplishment of the same end by different means. They felt assured that the stronger nation in such a coalition would seek to domineer, and they had no intention to wipe out all the glories of their more than Spartan valour in defence of their independence, all the cherished fame of their Wallace and their Bruces, by a tamely accepted yoke of diplomatic subtlety. They were the more indisposed by the foolish boastings of James of his absolute power. His high notions of prerogative appeared to have grown wonderfully since his accession to the English throne. He compared himself to a god upon earth, and had already given out his style and title as king of Great Britain. The Scotch were, therefore, naturally apprehensive of a union which would wonderfully augment his powers. Still more, his new and excessive leaning towards episcopacy alarmed the Scots. They saw nothing but its attempted imposition on them in the union of the kingdoms, and they were not inclined thus easily to give up their freedom of conscience which they had fought out at so much cost. On the other hand, James's imprudent lavishment of posts and honours on Scotchmen in England, offended and disgusted the English. They asked whether they were to be overrun by a regular inundation of proud and hungry adventurers from the north. In the commons the expressions of contempt and aversion to the Scottish race grew to the height of insolence and insult, and were sure to excite the most indignant feeling in that people. Sir Christopher Pigot, the member for Buckinghamshire, especially distinguished himself by the vituperation of Scotchmen. He professed the utmost horror at the idea of union betwixt a rich and fertile country like England, and a sterile and poor one like Scotland; betwixt a people wealthy, frank, and generous, and one at once haughty, beggarly, and penurious. This put the climax to the patience of Scotland, and James declared he could no longer tolerate language which insulted himself as a Scot.



Cecil at the command of the king took up the matter warmly, and the house of commons, persuaded by him, expelled Pigot, and he was committed to the Tower. Defeated in the commons, James betook himself to the courts of law. He had proposed to the commons to pass an act, naturalising all Scots, even those born before his accession to the English throne; but when they rejected this, he obtained a decision from the judges sanctioning the admission of the inhabitants of each kingdom to all the rights of subjects in both. This would in a few years have made the Scots as much subjects of the English crown as the English themselves, but James was not content with this. He used very angry and impudent