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 bail and retired to Scotland, where he lived quietly, with the exception that in March 1696 he surrendered on a warrant being issued against him for conspiracy, and was acquitted without trial. The death of his father in 1694 had brought no accession of honour or estate to Arran, the title and property being both hereditary in his mother. In 1698, however, Anne, duchess of Hamilton, by permission of the king, resigned her honours in favour of her son, who was created Duke of Hamilton, Marquis of Clydesdale, &c., with the precedency of the original creation, to the natural surprise of those who remembered the relations between the new duke and the sovereign

On 21 May 1700 the Duke of Hamilton took his seat for the first time in the Scotch parliament, the immediate cause of his entry into public affairs being the promotion of the African company, in which he was largely interested, on the failure of the Darien expedition. His activity on behalf of the company, and the position he assumed as leader of the parliamentary party which vainly supported it, earned for him great popularity, and once his arrival in Edinburgh was made the occasion of a triumphal progress. On the accession of Anne, Hamilton took up a defined position as leader of the national party. In company with other nobles he went to London to urge on the queen the desirability of calling a new Scotch parliament. Notwithstanding this appeal the old parliament was convened, and on the first day of the session Hamilton opened the proceedings by a speech against the legality of their meeting, and, after entering a written protest on behalf of himself and his followers, withdrew with seventy-nine members, to be greeted outside by the acclamations of an infinite number of people of all degrees and ranks (, Memoirs, p. 14, ed. 1799)

In the new parliament which met in May 1703, Hamilton moved the act for recognising the queen's authority and title to the crown, but was unable to prevent the addition of a clause which frustrated his intention of raising the question of the legality of the former parliament. In the ensuing session he moved a resolution providing for a treaty with England in relation to commerce before the parliament proceeded to the nomination of a successor to the throne, which was carried conjointly with another providing for prior consideration being given towards securing the independence of the kingdom. Though a day was named for the nomination of commissioners to treat in England, the project fell through, according to Lockhart (ib. p. 127), on account of the animosity of the Dukes of Hamilton and Atholl towards the Duke of Queensberry and the Earl of Seafield, whom they wished to exclude from the commission. The act for a commission to treat with England was passed in the July session, and, to the consternation of his party, Hamilton supported the vote that the nomination of commissioners should be left to the queen. He had virtually promised to insist that the choice should be left with parliament, and could only allege that since it was no use to struggle further against the majority he thought he might be allowed to pay the queen a compliment. But it afterwards appeared that the Duke of Argyll had promised he should be named one of the commissioners if he would support the vote. Argyll, however, was unable to fulfil his promise, the Duke of Roxburghe successfully urging his belief that if Hamilton were appointed, though England should yield all that's reasonable, yet he would find out something to propose as would never be granted, and so popular in Scotland as would break it for ever (Jerviswoode Correspondence, p. 44). When the treaty of union came up for discussion in the last session of the last parliament of Scotland, Hamilton spoke and voted against every article. His speech on the first article is said to have moved to tears many of those who heard it, including some who were resolved to vote, and did actually vote, against the speaker (, p. 253). His opposition, however, was confined to constitutional methods. A plan by which eight thousand men from the west of Scotland were to meet under arms in Edinburgh, the details of which were arranged and carried out by Cunninghame of Eckatt, was foiled by Hamilton sending expresses throughout the country two days before the appointed time, announcing the postponement of the design. By this step he undoubtedly was the means of preventing serious bloodshed, but he also lost in a great measure the confidence of his party. The scheme for a rising having broken down, the opponents of the union, with the approval of Hamilton and other leaders, summoned to Edinburgh some hundreds of country gentlemen, with the object that they should wait in a body on the commissioners with an address to the queen praying for a new parliament. On the day before that fixed for carrying out this measure Hamilton insisted that unless a clause were added to the address expressing the desire of the memorialists that the succession to the throne should be settled in the house of Hanover, he would have no more to do with the affair. The dissension provoked by this proposal was not conciliated when a