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XI.

1707.

of repre

by the

estates of

Scotland.

BOOK for each district, to the British parliament. The larger counties obtained each a member, the lesser shires an alternate election: and the distribution was made with such haste and injustice, that Caithness, instead of being incorporated with Sutherland, which it exceeded in value, was conjoined with the diminutive shire of Bute 76. But and choice the parliament was supposed to violate every prinsentatives ciple of government and of public faith, when it assumed to itself the nomination of representatives, in defiance of the articles of union so recently framed. If not entitled to a new parliament, to confirm the union contracted by the present, the people, it was said, while indulged with representatives, could never, without a contradiction in terms, be deprived of the rights of election, under whatever constitution they were placed. But the ministers were desirous to secure the returns; and after subverting the constitution, the parliament was afraid to entrust the people with the choice of their own representatives. As the queen was empowered by an article of union to declare the lords and commons of the English, constituent members of the British par

76 Clerk's Hist. MS. The earl of Sutherland was a commissioner for the treaty of union, and as the electors in that county were mostly his own vassals, they procured a separate representative for themselves. The earl of Morton, another commissioner, obtained a grant of the crown lands and rents in the Orkneys.

BOOK

1707.

liament, the pretext was seized by the estates to XL appoint representatives; although the same articles provided that a writ should be issued to the privy-council for elections in Scotland. Sixteen peers and forty-five commoners were accordingly chosen by their respective estates. Hamilton, notwithstanding his solicitation and intrigues, was industriously excluded by his own order. From the influence of the court, and the resentment of opposition, few of the Squadroné were included in the nomination 77. The rest devoted to the ministers, furnished an unfavourable specimen of the future independence of Scottish members in the British parliament.

the equiva.

Nothing but the disposal of the equivalent re- Disposal of mained. Thirty thousand pounds were allotted lent. to the commissioners for the last, and the preceding treaty; and at this ample remuneration, the people indignantly exclaimed, that the motives of their concessions and the price of their votes were no longer concealed. Two hundred and thirty thousand pounds were appropriated to the Darien company; but the management and distribution of the equivalent were referred to commissioners to be appointed by the queen. The administration was thus enabled to fulfil its promises and to gratify the expectations of its friends, by a partial distribution, or by the allotment of large sums under the designation of public debts 78. Private

77 Not above three peers and fifteen commoners.
78 Id.

Minutes of Parliament.

1707.

adjourned

for ever.

BOOK grants became more numerous as the parliament XI. hastened towards a conclusion. At the approachParliament ing loss of the national legislature, such visible dejection and despair prevailed, that when the Exemplification of the union arrived from England, instead of a solemn dissolution suitable to the event, the parliament of Scotland, not to aggravate the public sorrow, was silently adjourned for a few weeks, but it was dissolved for ever 79.

Com

mencement

tion of the

union in

England.

The nobility most instrumental in promoting and recep- the union, hastened to earn their rewards at court. The duke of Queensberry, whose life had been frequently endangered in Scotland, was received and escorted through England with the respect and honour due to his success. The patronage of Scotland was placed in his hands. He was gratified afterwards with a pension, and advanced successively to the first rank of the British peerage, and to the office of third secretary of state, with Scotland for his department. Mar and Seafield were rewarded with pensions, and admitted, with other peers, to the privy-council. Montrose and Roxburgh were created Scottish dukes, as if ambitious of the last honours of an expiring state. A public thanksgiving was proclaimed through Eng

79 Clerk's Hist. MS. "Seafield the chancellor's observation on adjourning the parliament was, There is an end of an auld sang, to his immortal memory and honour."-A Short History of the Revolution in Scotland, in a Letter to a Friend at London, 1712.

XI.

1707.

land.

land; and a solemn procession was made by the BOOK queen to St. Paul's church, on the first of May, when the union commenced. Addresses from all parts of England were presented to the queen, on the success of an union which her predecessors, for a century past, had attempted in vain; and the public joy seemed to receive no abatement, except from an apprehension that it might appear immoderate or invidious to the Scots o. But a In Scotsullen and inflexible silence was observed in Scotland; a symptom of deep, undisguised discontent. No addresses were transmitted to court; no acclamations nor public rejoicings attended the union ; nor durst the queen enjoin the observance of the thanksgiving, which might have been contemned as an insult, or converted into a day of solemn fasting, tribulation, and prayer 81. The equivalent was received amidst the execrations of the people, as the price of their independence; the merchandise exported to England was seized, and their trade was suspended by new regulations, as if to exasperate their discontent. An influx of English revenue officers overspread the country, unacquainted till then with the oppressive laws of revenue; and their severe exactions perpetually incensed and admonished the people that they were no longer an independent nation. The Jacobites rejoiced at the public discontent, as condu

30 Carstairs, 760. Cunningham, ii. 79. Boyer's Annals. 81 Carstairs, 761.

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1707.

BOOK cive to the speedy recall of their king. Instead of the union, the pretender's birth-day was publicly celebrated; and the presbyterians seemed to have no choice, unless to become a province either of England or of France 82. We may conceive, but it is impossible to describe the anguish of Fletcher, Belhaven, and the sincere patriots, attached to no family or line of succession, but to the independence of their country, which they prized above the prosperity of the British empire. Wherever the independence of a nation has been subverted by conquest, the brave may obtain the mournful consolation that its fall was glorious; and the good, that no exertions of virtue or of prudence were omitted for its preservation. But they beheld their country subjected, by the corruption of its own representatives, to a foreign yoke; the people deprived of all interest or share in the constitution; the genius of Scotland bound and delivered up to the English government, and themselves deprived, by their perfidious leader, of a just and timely recourse to arms. Hamilton himself, whose consummate address had united the most opposite factions so long, had the mortification to find that he was shunned and suspected by every party; and the bitter reflection, that while deceiving others he was duped and deceived by his own intrigues, produced a severe illness that endangered his life.

2 Burnet, v. 359. De Foe, 589. Lockhart's Memoirs.

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