ACT PASSED FOR A TREATY OF UNION.

The chief aim of the cavaliers was to obstruct the settlement of the succession, and with that view they pressed the project of limitations, to which they knew the court would never assent. A motion being made to grant the first reading to an act of commission for a treaty with England, the duke of Hamilton insisted on the limitations, and a vote being stated in these terms, “Proceed to consider the act for a treaty of limitation,” the latter was carried in favour of the cavaliers. On the twenty-second day of August an act for this purpose was approved; and next day an act for a triennial parliament, which the courtiers were enabled to defeat. They likewise passed an act, ordaining, that the Scottish ambassadors representing Scotland should be present when the sovereign might have occasion to treat with foreign princes and states, and be accountable to the parliament of Scotland. Fletcher of Saltoun, presented a scheme of limitations that savoured strongly of republican principles. He afterwards enlarged upon every article, endeavouring to prove that they were absolutely necessary to prevent the consequences of English influence; to enable the nation to defend its rights and liberties; to deter ministers of state from giving bad advice to their sovereign; to preserve the courts of judicature from corruption, and screen the people from tyranny and oppression. The earl of Stair having argued against these limitations, Fletcher replied, “It is no wonder he opposed the scheme; for, had such an act subsisted, his lordship would have been hanged for the bad counsel he had given to king James; for the concern he had in the massacre of Glencoe; and for his conduct since the revolution.” The next subject on which the parliament deliberated was the conspiracy. A motion being made that the house might know what answer the queen had returned to their address in the last session, the chancellor delivered to the clerk register the papers relating to the plot, that they might be perused by the members: but these being copies, and the evidences remaining at London, no further progress was made in the affair. Yet the duke of Athol, in a distinct narrative of the pretended conspiracy, boldly accused the duke of Queensberry of having endeavoured to mislead the queen by false accusations against her good subjects. When the act for a treaty of union fell under consideration, a draft for that purpose, presented by the earl of Mar, was compared with the English act, importing, that the queen should name and appoint not only the commissioners for England, but likewise for Scotland.

Fletcher did not fail to inveigh against the imperious conduct of the English parliament in this affair. He exhorted the house to resent such treatment, and offered the draft of an address to her majesty on the subject, but this the house rejected. Duke Hamilton proposed that a clause might be added to the act, importing, that the union should nowise derogate from any fundamental laws, ancient privileges, offices, rights, liberties, and dignities of the Scottish nation. This occasioned a long debate; and a question being put, was carried in the negative. Another clause was proposed, that the Scottish commissioners should not begin to treat until the English parliament should have rescinded their clause enacting that the subjects of Scotland should be adjudged and taken as aliens after the twenty-fifth day of December. The courtiers, considering the temper of the house, would not venture to oppose this motion directly, but proposed that the clause should be formed into a separate act, and the expedient was approved. Though the Duke of Athol entered a vigorous protest, to which the greater part of the cavaliers and all the squadrone adhered, comprehending four-and-twenty peers, seven-and-thirty barons, and eighteen boroughs, the act for the treaty of union was, after much altercation, finished, empowering commissioners to meet and treat of an union; but restraining them from treating of any alterations of the church government as by law established. Whilst this important subject was under consideration, the duke of Hamilton, to the amazement of his whole party, moved that the nomination of the commissioners should be left to the queen. Fourteen or fifteen of the cavaliers ran out of the house in a transport of indignation, exclaiming that they were deserted and basely betrayed by the duke of Hamilton. A very hot debate ensued, in the course of which the duke was severely handled by those whom he had hitherto conducted: but at length the question being put whether the nomination should be left to the queen or to the parliament, the duke’s motion was approved by a very small majority. He afterwards excused himself for his defection, by saying he saw it was in vain to contend, and that since the court had acquired a great majority, he thought he might be allowed to pay that compliment to his sovereign. He was desirous of being in the commission, and the duke of Argyle promised he should be nominated. The queen refusing to honour him with that mark of distinction, Argyle would not suffer himself to be named, and threatened to oppose the union, but means were found to appease his resentment. Two drafts of an address being presented by the earl of Sutherland and Fletcher of Saltoun, beseeching her majesty to use her endeavours with the parliament of England to rescind that part of their act which declared the subjects of Scotland aliens; and an overture of a bill being offered, ordaining that the Scottish commissioners should not enter upon the treaty of union until that clause should be repealed; the courtiers moved that the parliament should proceed by way of order to their commissioners, and by address to her majesty. After some debate, the house assenting to this proposal, the order and address was drawn up and approved. The great and weighty affair of the treaty being at length happily transacted, though not without a protest by Athol and his adherents, the parliament granted a supply of fifty thousand pounds, and the house was adjourned to the twentieth day of December; then the queen declaring the earl of Mar secretary of state in the room of the marquis of Annandale, who was appointed lord president of the council.