XI.

1707.

completed,

The union was not yet complete, unless the BOOK same government were established in the united kingdoms, with the same laws against state crimes. Union The motives of the Scottish statesmen in acceding to an union, to govern by means of the privycouncil exempt from the opposition of the country party, or the control of parliament, have been sufficiently explained. A new commission was issued for the privy-council, excluding such as opposed the union. A subordinate, yet distinct administration, was delegated by Godolphin, and engrossed by Queensberry, Seafield, Mar, and others; through whom alone access was obtained to the queen. Twenty-five members, chiefly their own creatures, were appointed commissioners to distribute the equivalent according to their instructions; and as the writs were directed, and the returns made to the privy-council, the management of elections, and the nomination of the representatives to both houses, were placed in their hands. They promised Godolphin the most unreserved support; but the Squadroné party applied to the whigs, to dissolve the administration of the privy-council from which they were excluded themselves 83. The situation of Scotland would have been infinitely worse than before the union, if an institution were preserved which was at once a court of justice and a council of state, wherein policy must ever predominate over the 83 Cunningham, ii. 71. 79.

XI.

1708.

BOOK laws. While the legislature remained entire, its oppression was restrained, but if a distinct administration were permitted to subsist, there was no power in the nation to procure the redress of grievances from the British parliament: the complaints and the applications of the people would have been intercepted; and to suppress their murmurs, the privy-council must have soon degenerated into the tyranny practised in former reigns 84. From the same disinterested and enlightened views which produced the union, the abrogation of the privy-council was concerted by by the dis- lord Somers, with the principal whigs. A bill, was the privy introduced to render the union more entire and complete. The same privy-council was proposed for the whole island; the returns of elections were to be transferred to the sheriffs; and the jurisdiction of the Scottish council was to be supplied by justices of peace, an institution often attempted but never accomplished, and by regular circuits of the justiciary court, twice a year. The administration opposed the bill, against which the Scottish statesinen endeavoured to excite a clamour at home; but there, the public discontent at the union was gratified by every disappointment which they sustained 85. At that distance from the seat of government, they maintained that the disaffection

solution of

council,

Hardwick's State Papers, ii. 473. Burnet, v. 300-78.

5 Letters from the Earl of Mar to his Brother, MS. in the Archives of the Family.

of the highlanders and principal families, incensed at an union, required the vigilant inspection of the privy-council; but their real design was to retain the nation in a miserable dependence on themselves and on the crown. The antipathy to the union was expected to subside the sooner, if every national distinction were once obliterated. An amendment, to prolong the duration of the privy-council till October, was rejected, as a device to secure the approaching elections for a new parliament; and the first of May was prefixed for its dissolution, that the anniversary of the union might introduce the same government through the whole island. So variously are our feelings. modified and affected by our personal interest, that the loss of a venerable institution was deplored by those who had sacrificed the constitution and the independence of their country without a pang of regret 8. The concluding labours of the privycouncil were usefully employed in recalling the coin, and in altering its denomination; when it was discovered, from the quantity of silver brought to the mint, that the species in circulation was little less than a million sterling 7.

XI.

1708.

introduc

It was from a singular train of events, and after and the an obstinate struggle, that the same laws were in- tion stituted against state crimes. The importunities.

86 Letters from the Earl of Mar to his Brother, MS.

87 Ruddiman's Preface to Anderson's Diplomata Scotiæ. Sir J. Clerk's MSS.

of the Jacobites, and the apparent discontent of Scotland, had roused the attention of the French court. A naval expedition was prepared at Dunkirk; but its destination was prematurely discovered by the pretender's arrival; and at the prospect of an invasion, England, unaccustomed, from its insular situation, to a war on the frontiers, was filled with alarm. A fleet was fitted out with the utmost dispatch; but the French squadron escaped from Dunkirk, and was prevented only by overshooting the Forth in the dark, from landing the pretender, with five thousand regular forces, at a juncture the most favourable for a descent on Scotland which has since occurred. Not above two thousand five hundred troops remained in the country, natives deeply imbued with the national discontent. The national for tresses were entrusted to persons of doubtful fidelity, and the equivalent was lodged in Edinburgh castle, which was unprovided for defence. No care had been taken to appease the nation, exasperated at the union; and the presbyterians, the only support of government since the revolution, were rather disposed to promote than resist the invasion. The northern nobility, Gordon, Athol, Errol, Panmure, and others, had engaged to take arms; but the French, on regaining the Forth, descried the approach of the English fleet, and escaped with the loss of a single ship. The prisons were immediately crowded with suspected

XI.

1708.

persons of all ranks; among whom Belhaven, BOOK Fletcher, and the principal opponents of the union were included. As the authority of the privy-council was about to expire, the prisoners were ordered, for examination, to London; and the prostrate nation was unnecessarily insulted with an afflicting spectacle, of its nobility, its gentry, and its most distinguished patriots, led in ostentatious triumph to the English capital. Ha. milton, who had retired to England to avoid the insurrection, was also arrested; but by a negociation with the whigs, to support the Squadroné party at the approaching elections, he procured his own release and the discharge of his friends. Belhaven had already survived his country; but at this unworthy treatment, the generous patriot expired of grief and indignation as soon as he was released. A few gentlemen who had appeared in arms, were remanded to Scotland, to be tried and condemned for treason; but by the connivance of Stewart, the queen's advocate, who neglected to furnish a list of witnesses, which the judges, equally dissatisfied with government, deemed indispensable, they were unexpectedly absolved by the justiciary court 88.

88 Lockhart, 383. Cunningham, ii. 159. Burnet, vi. 6. Boyer. The removal of the prisoners to England was falsely ascribed to the earl of Mar, whom the queen, in a confidential letter to that nobleman, exculpates from the imputation. Mar's Papers, MS.