Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 21.djvu/542

Rh 518 SCOTLAND [HISTORY. carried the necessary measures for the transfer of the government of Scotland to William and Mary. It declared in bolder terms than the English parliament that James had forfeited the crown and that the throne was vacant. The fifteen articles which contained the reasons for this resolution were included in a Declaration and Claim of Right, a parallel to the English Declaration and Bill of Rights. Besides the declarations against the Papists with which it commenced that no Papist could be king or queen, that proclamations allowing mass to be said, Jesuit schools and colleges to be erected, and Popish books to be printed were contrary to law it detailed each of the un- constitutional acts of James and pronounced it contrary to law. This formidable list included imposing oaths without the authority of parliament ; grants without the consent of parliament ; employing officers of the army as judges throughout the kingdom; imposing exorbitant fines; imprisoning persons without expressing the reason, and delaying trials ; forfeiture upon insufficient grounds, especi- ally that of Argyll ; the nomination by the king of the magistrates of burghs ; sending of royal letters to courts of justice with reference to pending cases ; granting pro- tections for debt; forcing the lieges to depone against themselves in capital crimes ; the use of torture without evidence in ordinary crimes; quartering of an army in time of peace upon any part of the kingdom ; the use of law-burrows at the king's instance ; putting garrisons in private houses in time of peace without the consent of the owners and of parliament ; and fining husbands for their wives. It closed with asserting that Prelacy and the superi- ority of any office in the church above presbyters were insupportable grievances and ought to be abolished, and that it was the right and privilege of subjects to protest to parliament for "remeid" of law and to petition the king, and that for redress of grievances it was necessary parlia- ment should frequently be called, with freedom of speech secured to members. As a conclusion from these premises the estates resolved that William and Mary should be de- clared king and queen of Scotland during their lives, but with the right of exercising regal power in William alone as long as he lived. After their death the crown was to pass to the heirs of the queen's body, and failing her to Anne of Denmark and her heirs, failing whom to the heirs of William. Commissioners were despatched to London to present the declaration and statement of grievances and take the royal oath to the acceptance of the crown on their terms. This was done at Whitehall in the following March (1689) ; but William, before taking the oath, required an assurance that persecution for religious opinion was not intended and made a declaration in favour of toleration. By desire of William the convention was superseded by a parliament which met in June ; but, with the exception of an Act abolishing Prelacy, it transacted no business of importance. The parliament of 1690 was more fruitful. It abolished the committee of the Articles, which had become an abuse inconsistent with the freedom of parlia- ment, and, while it retained a committee on motions and overtures in its place, declared that the estates might deal with any matter without referring it to this committee. The Act of Supremacy was rescinded. The Presbyterian ministers deposed since 1661 were restored and the West- minster Confession approved, though not imposed as a test except on professors. With more difficulty a solution was found for the question of church government. The Presby- terian Church was re-established with the Confession as its formula, and patronage was placed in the heritors and elders with a small compensation to the patrons. These prudent measures were due to the influence of Carstares, the chief adviser of William in Scottish ecclesiastical matters. He was not so well advised in the conduct of the civil government by the master of Stair, who became sole secretary for Scotland. The proclamation for calling out the militia may have been a necessary precaution, but it raised much opposition amongst the landed gentry, and the militia was not then embodied. The massacre of the Glencoe. Macdonalds at Glencoe by Campbell of Glenlyon was con- trary to the spirit of the indemnity offered to the High- landers. While the treachery with which it was executed may be attributed to Glenlyon, it was too plainly proved before the committee of inquiry which the Scottish parlia- ment insisted on that it had been designed by Stair and Breadalbane, and, now that the whole documents have been published, it is also proved that it had been sanctioned by William. It was intended to strike terror ; but its partial success was dearly bought, for it kept alive the Jacobite disaffection and gained for it much sympathy. The unfair Darien. treatment of the Scots in the matters of free trade and navigation, in which the new Government appeared to follow the policy of Charles rather than that of Cromwell, and acted with an exclusive regard to the prejudices and sup- posed interests of England, reached a climax in the abandon- ment of the Scottish settlement at Darien when attacked by the Spaniards. The over-sanguine hopes of Paterson and the Scottish colonists and capitalists who supported his enterprise, so suddenly transformed into a financial disaster overwhelming to a poor country, accompanied by the loss of many lives, embittered the classes on which the Revolution settlement mainly depended for its support. It was the anxious wish of William to have effected the legislative union ; but, although he twice attempted it, the last time a month before his death, the temper of the English parliament and of the Scottish people appeared to give small chance of its realization. 9. The Union and its Consequences. The reign of Anne, Union o: so far as it relates to Scotland, centred in the accomplish- parlia- ment of the union. In spite of the disparity of num- ments< bers, both nations now met to treat on equal terms. Still there were grave difficulties, and it required all the wisdom of the ministers of the early years of Anne, aided by the glory of Marlborough's arms, to overcome national preju- dices and secure an object plainly for the benefit of both. The memories of Glencoe and Darien and the refusal of equal rights of trade led the Scottish parliament, the year after Anne's accession, to pass an Act of Security, by which, if the queen died without issue, the Scottish estates were to name a successor from the Protestant descendants of the royal line; but the successor to the English crown was expressly excluded unless there were "such conditions of government settled and enacted as may secure the honour and sovereignty of the crown and kingdom, the freedom, frequency, and power of parliament, the reli- gious freedom and trade of the nation from English or any foreign influence." Political economy had not yet taught the reciprocal advantage of free trade, and the English jealousy of Scottish traders was intense. An incident about this time warned the English ministers that Scot- land might easily revert to its old attitude of enmity. A Scottish ship of the African or Darien Company having been seized in the Thames at the suit of the English East India Company, the " Worcester," an English East India- man, was taken in the Forth by way of retaliation, and Green, its captain, with two other officers, was executed at Leith on a charge of piracy insufficiently proved. An attempt had been already made to complete the union by a commission, which sat from 10th November 1702 to 3d February 1705; but this miscarried through the refusal to grant free trade between the kingdoms. But again in 1705 the English parliament sanctioned the appointment of other commissioners, and new officers of state were nominated for Scotland with the express purpose of press-