The Early History of the Scottish Union Question / Bi-Centenary Edition

s separate system of laws, or that it must, at all events, make the first advance, and say definitely on what terms it would unite. In Scotland it was foreseen tha

beginning to enjoy might have reconcile

ch they had lately been subjected, and believing that Charles would keep faith with them and establish Presbytery, welcomed the change, and at once began to pray again for the king. Clarendon, however, was of opinion that the majority of Scotsmen were in favour of the continuance of the Union. He himself was in favour of leaving things as they were.

shed and their garrisons withdrawn. The time might come, he told the king, when he would be in need of Scottish garrisons in England, and to maintain an English army in Scotland would alienate the affections of the Scottish people. The fortr

g them whatever form of Church government they wanted, in order that they might be willing to serve the king, if necessary, against the Parliament of England. Such was the advice of Lauderdale. Charles himself, though he detested Presbytery, was at first inclined to take it. But, in the end, the intrigues of the Episcopal facti

l destroy their commerce; abolish the Union, and thus destroy free trade between them and the English; restore to the owners of the soil the jurisdictions by means of which they tyrannised over their dependants in the past, and by means of which they will be able to tyrannise over them in the future; restore the tenure of lands by military service, and thus you will, in a few years, people every hamlet over a large portion of the country with restless and idle clansmen, whose only business in life is to foment feuds between their masters, and to seek plunder for themselves; above all things, let the king destroy the Presbyterian Church which he swore to establish when he took that solemn vow, on the faith of which the crown of Scotland was placed upon his head; let the great noble whose hands performed the act of coronation, and to

"to punish our rebellious colonies, and to clip the wings of the Dutch." It kept the colonial trade in the hands of England, and increased the value of English shipping. The terms of the Union during the Commonwealth had exempted Scotland from it

aw the army from Scotland against their advice. "This excessive boasting," he says, "that he had prevailed in this over Hyde, Middletoun, and all the English, did somewhat contribute to renew the old discords which had formerly been entertained

f a colony could enter England, or another colony, only on payment of duty. English ships alone were allowed to carry goods to and from the colonies. The sugar, the tobacco, the cotton, in fact all the most useful produce of the colonies, could be s

ievance to the colonies. They, however, had at least the privilege of trading wi

hat it hardly paid the producer to bring it into England. In Northumberland and Cumberland heavy customs were levied on horses which came from Scotland; and, on the plea that a great part of the richest pasture land in England would fall in value if the graziers of Scotland were allowed to find a free market in England, Parliament was induced to cripple one of the most important branches of Scot

England came. The recent Union had been attended by circumstances which were humiliating; but for many of these compensation had been found in the prosperity which the Union had brought along with it. The sudden change which the Restoration had produced was, therefore, bitterly resented; and the Scottish merchants persuaded the Estates to retaliate by passing a N

uld be allowed to bring in goods as freely as the English, with no other restrictions than those laid on Ireland and Wales. They were willing to give assurances that goods transported from English colonies would be brought to Engl

n which their grievances were set forth. The repeal of the Navigation Act was what they chiefly insisted on; but, in addition to this, they complained of the whole of those Acts of Parliament by which free trade between England and Scotland had been abolished, and by which excessive duties had been imposed on Scottish produce. "Thus," they said, "your lordships have now the full s

re prepared, however, to permit Scotsmen to go and settle as merchants in the colonies; but they refused to allow Scottish ships to carry foreign produce into English ports. "The kingdom of Scotland," they said, "being wholly independent, and not subject

ee of duty, and also tar, hemp, flax, raisins, and grain of any sort, on payment of the duty levied on aliens. They might also import timber into England for six years; and the reason for this concession was frankly stated to be that since

e Scots wished to be, as they had been during the Union under Cromwell, in a position to compete, on equal terms, with th

he blood-guiltiness which it incurred during these years. John, second Earl of Tweeddale, had been sworn of the Council at the Restoration, but had frequently raised his voice on behalf of the persecuted Presbyterians; and he had often endeavoured to discover some means by which peace could be restored to Scotland. His proposal now was that the Scottish Parliament should be ca

s true that the more powerful nation was master of the field, and could, by obstinately opposing the demands of her weaker neighbour, debar her from the trade in which she was so anxious to obtain a share. But the lessons of the great Civil War had not been altogether forgotten at the Court; and, in the secret conclave of the king's advisers, there always had been, ever since the R

erdale was Commissioner. A letter from the king was read, in which the Union was recommended to the favourable consideration of the Estates; and his Majesty's servants proposed that an answer should at once be returned, announcing that the Parliament of Scotland was in favour of the Union. Some opposition was offered by Sir George Gordon of Haddo, then member for Aberdeenshire, and

and ecclesiastical; the uniting of the two kingdoms into one monarchy; the reducing of both parliam

esentation of Scotland in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The Scottish commissioners proposed that all the members of the Scottish Est

of Rosebery, and Sir John Nisbet, then Lord Advocate, for walking on foot when they had a handsome allowance for expenses, and called them "damned lawyers." They were heard to express their resentment at this; whereupon Lauderdale, who bore them a grudge as supporters of Tweeddal

country, an inheritance from the long years of international warfare, found vent in abusive descriptions of Scotland and the Scottish people, which were circulated all over the island, causing laughter in England and rousing bitter indignation beyond the Tweed. "The country," says one writer, "is full of lakes and loughs, and they are well stocked with islands; so that a map thereof looks like a pillory coat bespattered all over with

heir bed-clothes pinned about their shoulders, and their children have nothing else on them but a little blanket. Those women that can purchase plaids need not bestow much upon other

enage and theft are in perfection among them, and they are perfect English-haters. They show their pride in exalting themselves and depressing their neighbours. When the palace at Edinburgh is finished they exp

tion was being treated in a manner which the majority of the English nation would not have tolerated for a single week. Even those Englishmen who had the best means of knowing the truth had been totally deceived as to the number and determination of the Presbyterians. At the Restoration, Sharp had told the Government that if Episcopacy was established not more than twenty ministers would refuse to conform. As a matter of fact, more than three hundred gave up their livings. The parish churches were deserted in many places by the people, and meetings were held in private houses. Not only was this declared to be illegal, but mere nonconformity was made a crime; and the madness of the Scottish Privy Council may be seen from the fact that any landowner who failed to attend his parish church was fined a fourth of his rents for the year in which he was convicted; while for t

Scottish history during the reigns of Charles the Second and James the Second shows that nothing less than that sweeping removal of every trace of Prelacy which took place at the Revolution could have restored peace and order to the country. It is, therefore, well that the Unio