THEY PASS THE ACT OF SECURITY.

The duke of Hamilton again moved, that the parliament should proceed to the limitations, and name commissioners to treat with England previous to all other business, except an act for a land tax of two months necessary for the immediate subsistence of the forces. The earl of Marchmont proposed an act to exclude all popish successors; but this was warmly opposed, as unseasonable, by Hamilton and his party, A bill of supply being offered by the lord justice Clerk, the cavaliers tacked to it great part of the act of security, to which the royal assent had been refused in the former session. Violent debates arose; so that the house was filled with rage and tumult. The national spirit of independence had been wrought up to a dangerous pitch of enthusiasm. The streets were crowded with people of all ranks, exclaiming against English influence, and threatening to sacrifice as traitors to their country all who should embrace measures that seemed to favour a foreign interest. The commissioner and his friends were confounded and appalled. Finding it impossible to stem the torrent, he, with the concurrence of the other ministers, wrote a letter to the queen, representing the uncomfortable situation of affairs, and advising her majesty to pass the bill encumbered as it was with the act of security. Lord Godolphin, on whose council she chiefly relied, found himself involved in great perplexity. The tories had devoted him to destruction. He foresaw that the queen’s concession to the Scots in an affair of such consequence, would furnish his enemies with a plausible pretence to arraign the conduct of her minister; but he chose to run that risk rather than see the army disbanded for want of a supply, and the kingdom left exposed to an invasion. He therefore seconded the advice of the Scottish ministers; and the queen authorized the commissioner to pass the bill that was depending. The act provided, that in case of the queen’s dying without issue a parliament should immediately meet and declare the successor to the crown, different from the person possessing the throne of England, unless before that period a settlement should be made in parliament of the rights and liberties of the nation, independent of English councils; by another clause they were empowered to arm and train the subjects, so as to put them in a posture of defence. The Scottish parliament having, by a laudable exertion of spirit, obtained this act of security, granted the supply without further hesitation; but not yet satisfied with this sacrifice, they engaged in debates about the conspiracy, and the proceedings of the house of lords in England, which they termed an officious intermeddling in their concerns, and an encroachment upon the sovereignty and independency of the nation, They drew up an address to the queen, desiring that the evidence and papers relating to the plot might be subjected to their examination in the next session. Meanwhile, the commissioner, dreading the further progress of such an ungovernable ferocity, prorogued the parliament to the seventh day of October. The act of security being transmitted to England, copies of it were circulated by the enemies of Godolphin, who represented it as a measure of that minister; and the kingdom was filled with murmurs and discontent. People openly declared, that the two kingdoms were now separated by law so as never to be rejoined. Reports were spread that great quantities of arms had been conveyed to Scotland, and that the natives were employed in preparations to invade England. All the blame of these transactions was imputed to lord Godolphin, whom the tories determined to attack, while the other party resolved to exert their whole influence for his preservation; yet, in all probability, he owed his immediate support to the success of his friend the duke of Marlborough.