1 dale was appointed commissioner; and as the BOOK offices of state were reserved for his numerous friends, the country party was broken and divided by the change. An administration chosen from the popular party was expected to establish the protestant succession, at present the undisguised object of the English court; and to gratify the spirit of national independence, the queen was persuaded to yield to every limitation on the successor to the crown. But the change was neither so timely nor so general as to enable the new ministers, before the session commenced, to acquire a majority in parliament, where the duke of Hamilton was ambitious to preside. Men of approved principles, long accustomed to opposition, are not suddenly reconciled to the measures of court; and the prevailing report, that the administration was still subservient to the English cabinet, was generally believed. A more injurious surmise was entertained, that the queen was secretly adverse to the succession of the house of Hanover, of which she affected to approve. The adherents of the late administration were persuaded that the present was intended only as a temporary change; and Queensberry, when dismissed from office, entered into a secret compromise with Hamilton, that if no serious inquiry were made into the Scotch plot, his friend sshould join in opposition to the settlement of the crown 19. 19 Burnet, v. 225. Boyer's Annals, iii. 88. Lockhart, 102. XI. 1704. BOOK XI. The administration was certainly unconscious of its own weakness at the commencement of the session, when the protestant succession, which sion of par-had been delayed so long, was recommended by 170 Second ses liament. July 13. the queen. The most soothing expressions were employed in her letter; the most specious limitations were proffered by the commissioner; and if national independence were the only object, the nomination of ministers, or rather the supreme power under a protestant successor, might have been transferred to the estates. But it was the interest of the Jacobites to prevent the settlement of the crown; and when Hamilton, to evade the declaration of a successor, demanded a previous treaty of commerce with England, the country party were again deluded by the vast prospect of a colonial trade. Ministers represented in vain, that the queen would accede to every constitutional demand; but that without the authority of the English parliament, she could never dispense with the navigation act, nor admit their shipping to the English plantations. Whatever the opposition had lost by the defection of ministers, was gained by the accession of Queensberry's friends. They inveighed at the late interposition of the English peers in the affairs of Scotland: they deplored pathetically the unhappy situation to which the country was reduced; and after the most violent debates, they determined, by a large majority, not to appoint a successor till a commercial XI. 1704. treaty were obtained with England; but to pro- BOOK ceed to previous limitations on the throne. From the profession of those free sentiments which they secretly abhorred, the Jacobites were received by the people with unexpected applause; but the resolution designed to obstruct the protestant succession, contrary to their intentions, proved the first step towards an union of the kingdoms 20. The country party were elated with the triumph. Act of sew curity reInstead of proceeding to frame limitations, or to vived. appoint commissioners of their own for the treaty, they addressed the queen against the undue interference of the English peers: they requested the documents of the plot to be transmitted to the estates; and revived the act of security, which, with some alterations, was conjoined with the supplies, in order to insure its success. Nothing more was requisite to reduce the administration to the utmost distress. The supplies provided by the convention parliament had been long exhausted. A large arrear was incurred to the army, which was unable to subsist without immediate pay. The treasury was notoriously exhausted; and such was the spirit of national independence, that the remittance of pay from England, which it was impossible to conceal, would have excited dangerous tumults, and might have been rejected as a foreign, and therefore an ignominious subsidy, by the troops themselves. The alternative 20 Lockhart, 106-21; and Sir J. Clerk's Notes, MS. XI. 1704. BOOK was unavoidable; to confirm the act of security or to disband the army; but when the queen was consulted, her English ministers were also perplexed. The act of security, which was replete with danger, provided conditionally for a separate successor, and threatened to arm the whole kingdom in his defence. But the danger in disbanding the army was immediate. The disaffected formed a numerous part of the nation; and the discoveries respecting the late plot excited serious apprehensions of an invasion from France. The highlanders, almost the only part of the nation possessed of arms, were the most disaffected; and, as they might be expected to revolt, the chief argument for arming the people under the act of security, operated with additional force against disbanding the troops. The act of security was preferred, however, as a contingent evil, the inconveniences of which might be removed in time2. But Godolphin the treasurer, whom the queen chiefly consulted, is supposed to have recommended the act from a refined policy, that the English, alarmed at the probable separation of the two crowns, might accede with less reluctance to an union with the kingdoms, in order to preserve the protestant succession and the empire entire 22. 21 Burnet, v. 227. Cunningham's Hist. i. 413. Lockhart, 125. 22❝ The queen was advised to give her consent to the act, as the most effectual measure to bring about the union, for it XI. 1704. and passed After a short adjournment, the act of security BOOK was accordingly passed. The estates, in return for six monthly assessments, were authorized to meet on the queen's death; and were enjoined to declare a successor of the royal line, and of the protestant faith; but not the same who should succeed to the throne of England, unless the religion, the liberties, and the trade of the nation were previously secured 23. When the princess Sophia and her descendants were thus conditionally excluded, the next prince of the royal line and the protestant faith was Hamilton himself, who was descended in the seventh generation from a daughter of James II. and from this moment it,is supposed that a gleam of distant royalty burst upon his mind. The attachment which he had hitherto maintained towards the exiled family, was shaken and subverted, if we may believe the Jacobites, by the remote and visionary expectation of a crown 24. It is certain that his future efforts so terrified the English that they easily came into it; that thereby the succession might be settled in the house of Hanover, and so all dangers were removed which by this act were threatened. This observation I make from very good authority, and that it was the earl of Godolphin who advised the queen to consent for the above purpose." Sir J. Clerk's Notes on Lockhart's Mem. 23 The clause relative to the freedom of the plantations was read and voted, but by some artifice was omitted in the act. Sir J. Clerk's Memoirs and Hist. of the Union, MS. 24 Macpherson's Hist. ii. 359. Hooke's Negociations. 1 |