1706.]

MEETING OF COMMISSIONERS OF EACH NATION.

315

pass that very good which they were prepared to destroy, even so it was here; for these confusions were the very things that brought both the nations to their senses; I mean, brought them both to better temper. The consequences of a bloody war just breaking out in the bowels of their native country, in the ruin and certain desolation of which they must necessarily have a great share, opened the eyes of the most thinking people on both sides, even of those who in themselves had no real inclination to the conjunction of the kingdoms, and thus the necessity of taking new measures began to appear both ways."

In the spring of 1706, thirty-one Commissioners were nominated on the part of each kingdom, for negotiating the terms of Union. The nomination of the Scottish Commissioners was left to the queen, after a violent opposition by those who desired the nomination to be in the Estates of Parliament. To the surprise of many, that nomination included several violent opposers of the Union-a "courageous policy," as Mr. Burton truly observes. On the 16th of April, the Commissioners assembled in the Cockpit at Whitehall. The Lord Keeper, Cowper, delivered an Address on the part of England, and the Scottish Chancellor on the part of Scotland. The success of these negotiations may be attributed in no small degree to the wisdom and justice of Lord Somers, one of the Commissioners, although he held no office. His ruling principle was that of acting with perfect fairness to Scotland. The Commission sat till the 22nd of July, when the Articles of Union were finally agreed upon.

A complete union of two independent nations, to be brought about by common consent, and the terms to be settled as in a commercial partnership, was an event which seems natural and easy when we look to the geographical position of the two nations, and to the circumstance that they had been partially united for a century, under six sovereigns wearing the crown of each kingdom. But when we look to the long-standing jealousies of the two nations their sensitive assertions of ancient superiority-the usual haughty condescension of the wealthier country-the sturdy pride of the poorer-the ignorance of the bulk of each people of the true character of the otherthe differences of the prevailing forms of religion-the more essential differences of laws and their modes of administration-we may consider the completion of this Union as one of the greatest achievements of statesmanship. "If those continental nations which had been for centuries accustomed to see annexations, partitions, and the enlargement of empires by marriage and succession, had been told how many different parties and interests it was necessary to bring to one set of conclusions, before the desired end could be accomplished, they would have deemed the project utterly insane, as, indeed, it would have been, if laid before two nations less endowed with practical sense and business habits." + At the very outset of the treaty, the vital principle of Union was to be debated; that fundamental article upon which all other articles were to be based-an entire Union of the two kingdoms-one kingdom, one crown, one parliament. This article was proposed at the opening of the negotiations, by the English Commissioners. The Scottish Commissioners demurred. The descent of the crown of Scotland might go according to the Act of Settlement; mutual free-trade-mutual "History of the Union," p. 80 + Burton, vol. i. p. 398.

316

ARTICLES AGREED UPON BY THE COMMISSIONERS.

[1706. rights-a federal union. The English Commissioners declined to proceed upon such terms, "convinced that nothing but an entire Union of the two kingdoms will settle perfect and lasting friendship." The Scottish Commissioners yielded; but at the same time demanded reciprocity of citizenship and of privileges of trade. Unquestionably so, replied the English Commissioners. It was "a necessary consequence," they said, of the first great condition.

The fundamental principle of the Union was thus settled, in the words of the resolution of the English Commissioners, to be "an entire and incorporating Union, by which the two nations should be formed into one Government, be under one sovereign head, in one represented body, standing upon one foundation, enjoying equal privileges, and in common bearing one general proportion of burdens, the same in end and mean, having but one common interest, one name, and being for ever hereafter but one people."* How to carry out this amalgamation, in the several relations of "one represented body"-" one general proportion of burdens,"-might have presented insuperable difficulties to any set of negotiators who were not thoroughly convinced of the necessity of making a compromise of many supposed particular interests. The question of " proportion of burdens" claimed precedence of that of "one represented body." The English Commissioners cleared away many objections, by proposing an equivalent to Scotland in a money payment, for any disadvantages she might be subjected to in a joint principle of finance. By a system of equal duties upon imports and exports, the freedom of trade was established, and to that system no objection could be rationally offered. There were long discussions about duties of excise-about malt, and salt, and ale,-which were satisfactorily adjusted. The Land Tax was arranged in a manner eminently favorable to Scotland. All these matters were got over, when the complex question of representation arose. The English Commissioners proposed that Scotland should have thirty-eight members in the united House of Commons. The Scottish Commissioners proposed fifty. The number was settled at forty-five-about one-twelfth of the whole House. The system of electing Peers to sit in Parliament was also settled; sixteen being taken out of the hundred and fifty-four who were then Peers of Scotland. The laws of Scotland, with the exception of those relating to trade, customs, and excise, were to remain in force, though subject to alterations by the Parliament of Great Britain, as the united kingdom was to be called; it being provided " that laws relating to public policy are alterable at the discretion of the Parliament; laws relating to private right are not to be altered, but for the evident utility of the people of Scotland." The standards of the coin, of weights, and of measures, were to become uniform with those of England. For removing national distinctions, the crosses of St. George and St. Andrew were to be conjoined when used in flags, banners, standards, and ensigns. "The coat armorial was to be quartered according to heraldic rules, so that in its employment for Scottish national purposes, the arms of Scotland might have the dexter, or pre-eminent side-a privilege for some time adopted, and not lightly esteemed." In the negotiations of the Commissioners all matters relating to the Church of Scotland were excluded. The preservation intact of the constitution and rights of that * Defoe, "History of the Union," p. 107.

Blackstone, Kerr's edit. vol. i. p. 79.

Burton, vol i. p. 423.

CHARGES OF CORRUPTION.

317

Church was provided for in the Acts of Parliament under which the Union was established.

1706.]

The history of these negotiations has been told by Sir Walter Scott with a bias which can only be attributed to that nationality which, in its intensification, may cease to be a virtue. He, who in the political questions of his own time was strenuously opposed to what may be called democratic principles, complains that the population of Scotland being as one to six, if the rule of population, "which seems the fairest that could be found, had been adopted, Scotland would have sent sixty-six members to the united Parliament," instead of forty-five.* The Whig, Hallam, takes a very different view from the Tory, Scott: "The ratio of population would indeed have given Scotland about one-eighth of the legislative body, instead of something less than one-twelfth; but no government, except the merest democracy, is settled on the sole basis of numbers; and if the comparison of wealth and of public contributions was to be admitted, it may be thought that a country which stipulated for itself to pay less than one-fortieth of direct taxation, was not entitled to a much greater share of the representation than it obtained."+ Scott, again, takes occasion to accuse the Scottish commissioners of having "sold their own honour and that of Scotland," upon "being given to understand that a considerable sum out of the equivalent money would be secured for their especial use." He then goes on to state, in the most precise way, from the papers of Lockhart, a furious Jacobite, the names of the many recipients of the sum distributed, being £20,540 17s. 7d.; and says, "it may be doubted whether the descendants of the noble lords and honourable gentlemen who accepted this gratification, would be more shocked at the general fact of their ancestors being corrupted, or scandalized at the paltry amount of the bribe. One noble lord accepted of as low a sum as eleven guineas." Mr. Burton has shown that the sum which was unquestionably "Tales of a Grandfather," chap. lx. +"Constitutional History," chap. xvii.

318

DEMONSTRATIONS AGAINST THE UNION.

[1706

advanced by the English government was "employed in paying arrears of salary, or other debts... The general fact that at that time all classes of public creditors in Scotland were in arrear is too palpably notorious." The mere circumstance that arrears were paid out of an advance by England does not imply that there was a previous promise to pay, if the statesman should give a vote against the interests of his country. We lament, with the more sober historian of Scotland, that "Sir Walter Scott's national pride seems to have been so entirely overwhelmed by his prejudice against the Union, that no tale against its supporters is too degrading to secure his belief." *

It was on the 12th of October, 1706, when the Estates of Scotland began to consider the Articles of Union. Immense pains had been taken by the opponents of the measure to rouse the people to a tumultuous opposition. They were in some degree successful. There was a riot in Edinburgh on the 23rd of October, when the populace broke the windows of Sir Patrick Johnson, who had been Lord Provost, and one of the Commissioners of the treaty. They were dispersed without any loss of life. Those who consider that the outbreak of a mob-that appears to have been really very harmless-is evidence of the opinions of a nation, may agree with Lockhart that this midnight riot made "it evident that the Union was crammed down Scotland's throat." Unprecedented pains had been taken to rouse the passions of the people; and yet any tumult making an approach to insurrection cannot be traced, even in the most exaggerated narratives of those who represent the Union as hateful to the Scottish people. Addresses, indeed, came from many places to the Parliament against the incorporating principle of the Union. Defoe, who was busily engaged in Edinburgh, in a sort of semiofficial capacity-chiefly from his knowledge of commercial matters, on which he had made useful suggestions-had represented these Addresses as got up by the political opponents of the treaty. Lockhart writes: "That vile monster and wretch, Daniel Defoe, and other mercenary tools and trumpeters of rebellion, have often asserted that these Addresses, and other evidences of the nation's aversion to the Union, proceeded from the false glosses and underhand dealings of those that opposed it in Parliament;" and then he admits that "perhaps this measure had its first original as they report." Such arts were natural to be used, especially by the Jacobites. They saw that the Union would go far to destroy their hopes of a Stuart king for Scotland, if England persisted in her resolution of having no more rightdivine sovereigns. The Cameronians held that the wicked Union was a breach of the Solemn League and Covenant, they having been sworn to do their endeavour to reform England in doctrine, worship, and discipline. But these were very far from representing the opinions of the dispassionate middle classes. Edinburgh shopkeepers were alarmed at the possible loss of customers; but calculating merchants saw very clearly the opening for successful enterprise, when the commerce of the two nations should be put upon an equal footing. The popular arguments against the Union were chiefly appeals to nationality, which has always its amiable side, however it may sometimes exhibit a want of judgment in exact proportion to its enthusiasm.

Burton, vol. i. p. 494.

Quoted in Burton, note vi. p. 447.

+ Lockhart Papers, quoted by Scott.

1706.]

DEBATES IN THE SCOTTISH PARLIAMENT.

319

There was an interval in the proceedings of the Scottish Parliament when the parties for or against the Union were gathering up their strength for a mortal conflict. The first great oratorical display was made by a young man, Lord Belhaven a speech, says Defoe, "which, being so much talked of in the world, I have also inserted here." * It was, indeed, "much talked of in the world," being wholly addressed to "the world;" and not very much fitted for a sober Scottish audience. Yet the "bended knees," and the choking passion of tears, of this orator, have had imitators in other solemn assemblies. The speech "was circulated in all known shapes among the people, passed through unnumbered editions, and was so plentifully dispersed that a bookcollector seldom buys a volume of Scottish political pamphlets of the early part of the eighteenth century, which does not contain 'The Speech of the Lord Belhaven on the subject-matter of an Union betwixt the two kingdoms of Scotland and England.'"+ This singular production has many of the characteristics of a noble eloquence; it has also not a few of those qualities which are most acceptable to a false taste. But it is not our province here to criticise this oration. It is desirable, however, to look at it, as indicating the topics which were then best calculated to rouse and embitter the popular passions and prejudices. We therefore print the exordium, which will at least amuse our readers. It may, perhaps, incline most of them to say, as Lord Marchmont said when the speaker sat down, "Behold, he dreamed, but lo, when he awoke, he found it was a dream." Lord Belhaven thus commenced his oration:

"My Lord Chancellor : when I consider the affair of an Union betwixt the two nations, as it is expressed in the several Articles thereof, and now the subject of our deliberation at this time; I find my mind crowded with variety of melancholy thoughts, and I think it my duty to disburden myself of some of them, by laying them before, and exposing them to, the serious consideration of this honourable house. I think I see a free and independent kingdom delivering up that, which all the world hath been fighting for since the days of Nimrod; yea, that for which most of all the empires, kingdoms, states, principalities, and dukedoms of Europe are at this time engaged in the most bloody and cruel wars that ever were, to wit, a power to manage their own affairs by themselves, without the assistance and counsel of any other. I think I see a national Church, founded upon a rock, secured by a claim of right, hedged and fenced about by the strictest and most pointed legal sanction that sovereignty could contrive, voluntarily descending into a plain, upon an equal level with Jews, Papists, Socinians, Arminians, Anabaptists, and other sectaries, &c. I think I see the noble and honourable peerage of Scotland, whose valiant predecessors led armies against their enemies, upon their own proper charges and expenses, now divested of their followers and vassalages, and put upon such an equal foot with their vassals, that I think I see a petty English exciseman receive more homage and respect than what was paid formerly to their quondam Macallamores. I think I see the present peers of Scotland, whose noble ancestors conquered provinces, over-ran countries, reduced and subjected towns and fortified places, exacted tribute through the greatest part of England, now walking in the Court of Requests like so many English

* "History of the Union."

+ Burton, vol. i. p. 450.