Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 4.djvu/235

A.D. 1706.] complete union of the two kingdoms into one, with the same universal rights, declaring that nothing but such solidification would effect a perfect and lasting harmony. The Scots gave way, and the terms agreed upon were mutually signed on the 22nd of July, 1706.

The conditions of this famous treaty were—That the succession to the throne of Great Britain should be vested in the princess Sophia and her heirs, according to the act passed by the English parliament for that purpose; that there should be but one parliament for the whole kingdom; that all the subjects should enjoy the same rights and privileges; that they should have the same allowances, encouragements, and drawbacks, and lie under the same regulations and restrictions as to trade and commerce; that Scotland should not be charged with the temporary duties on certain commodities; that the sum of three hundred and ninety-eight thousand, one hundred and three pounds should be granted to the Scotch as an equivalent for such parts of the customs and excise charged upon that kingdom in consequence of the union, as would be applicable to the payment of the debts of England, according to the proportion which the customs and excise of Scotland bore to those of England; that as the revenues of Scotland should increase, a fair equivalent should be allowed for such proportion of the said increase as should be applicable to payment of the debts of England; that the sums to be thus paid should be employed in reducing the coin of Scotland to the standard and value of the English coin, in paying off the capital, stock, and interest due to the proprietors of the African company, which should be immediately dissolved; in discharging all the public debts of the kingdom of Scotland; in promoting and encouraging manufactures and fisheries under the direction of commissioners to be appointed by her majesty, and accountable to the parliament of Great Britain; that the laws relating to public right, policy, and civil government, should be alike throughout the whole kingdom, and that no alteration should be made in laws which concerned private right, except for the evident benefit of the people of Scotland. The court of session and all other courts of judicature in Scotland should remain as constituted, with all authority and privileges as before the union, subject only to the power of the parliament of the united kingdom; that all heritable offices, superiorities, heritable jurisdictions, offices for life, and jurisdictions for life should remain the same as rights and properties as then enjoyed by the laws of Scotland; that the rights and privileges of the royal boroughs in Scotland were to remain unaltered; that Scotland should be represented in parliament by sixteen peers and forty-five commoners, to be elected in a manner to be settled by the present parliament of Scotland; that all peers of Scotland and the successors to their honours and dignities should, from and after the union, take rank and precedency next and immediately after the English peers of the like orders and degrees at the time of the union, and before all English peers of the like orders and degrees as should be created after the union; that they should be tried as peers of Great Britain, and enjoy all privileges of peers of England, except that of sitting in the house of lords and the privileges depending thereon, and particularly the right of sitting upon the trials of peers; that the crown, sceptre, and sword of state, the records of parliament, and all other records, rolls, and registers whatsoever should still remain as they were in Scotland; that all laws and statutes in either kingdom inconsistent with these terms of union should cease and be declared void by the respective parliaments of the two kingdoms.

But though the articles of the union had received the sanction of the commissioners, they had yet to receive that of the Scottish and English parliaments; and no sooner did the matter come before the Scottish one than a storm broke out in Scotland against the union which convulsed the whole country and threatened to annihilate the measure. The Jacobites and discontented, because unemployed, nobles set to work in every direction to operate on the national pride, telling the people they would be reduced to insignificance and to slavery to the proud and overbearing English, and arousing the odium theologicum by representing that, no sooner would the union be complete, than the English hierarchy would, through the English parliament, put down the presbyterian religion and set up episcopacy again, and that the small minority of Scotch members of either house would be unable to prevent it.

On the 3rd of October the duke of Queensberry, as lord commissioner for the queen, opened the last session of the last parliament that ever sate in Scotland. Queensberry, who with the earl of Stair, had been on the commission, and had laboured hard to bring it to a satisfactory issue, now laid the articles of the treaty before the parliament, expressing his conviction that the queen would take care to have it carried out with the utmost impartiality and care for the rights of all her subjects. He read a letter from her majesty, assuring them that the only way to secure their present and future happiness and to disappoint the designs of their enemies and her majesty's, who would do all in their power to prevent or delay their union, was to adopt it with as little delay as possible. The commissioner then said, to appease any fears on account of the kirk, that not only were the laws already in existence for its security maintained, but that he was empowered to consent to anything which they should think necessary for that object. He then read the treaty, and it was ordered to be printed and put into the hands of all the members of parliament. No sooner were the printed copies in the hands of the public than the tempest burst forth. The dukes of Athol, of Hamilton, the lords Annandale, Belhaven, and other violent Jacobites, represented the whole affair as most injurious and disgraceful to Scotland; that it had at one blow destroyed the independence and dignity of Scotland, which for two thousand years had defended her liberties against all the armies and intrigues of England; that now it was delivered over by these traitors, the commissioners, bound hand and foot, to the English; that the few members who were to represent Scotland in the English parliament would be just so many slaves or automata—have no influence whatever; that all Scotland did but, by this arrangement, send one more member to the house of commons than Cornwall, a single county of England; and that the Scotch must expect to see their sacred kirk again ridden over rough-shod by the English troopers, and the priests of Baal forcibly installed in their pulpits.