THE PEOPLE OF EDINBURGH ESCORTING THE DUKE OF HAMILTON TO HOLYROOD PALACE. (See p. [571].)

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But though the Articles of the Union had received the sanction of the Commissioners, they had yet to receive that of the Scottish and English Parliaments, and no sooner did the matter come before the Scottish one than a storm broke out in Scotland against the Union, which convulsed the whole country, and threatened to annihilate the measure. The Jacobites and discontented, because unemployed, nobles set to work in every direction to operate on the national pride, telling the people they would be reduced to insignificance and to slavery to the proud and overbearing English, and arousing the odium theologicum by representing that no sooner would the Union be complete than the English hierarchy would, through the English Parliament, put down the Presbyterian religion and set up Episcopacy again, and that the small minority of Scottish members in each House would be unable to prevent it.

On the 3rd of October the Duke of Queensberry, as Lord Commissioner for the queen, opened the last Session of the Scottish Parliament. Queensberry, who with the Earl of Stair, had been on the Commission, and had laboured hard to bring it to a satisfactory issue, now laid the Treaty before the Parliament, expressing his conviction that the queen would have it carried out with the utmost impartiality and care for the rights of all her subjects. He read a letter from Anne, assuring them that the only way to secure their present and future happiness, and to disappoint the designs of their enemies and her Majesty's, who would do all in their power to prevent or delay the Union, was to adopt it with as little delay as possible. The Commissioner then said, to appease any fears on account of the Kirk, that not only were the laws already in existence for its security maintained, but that he was empowered to consent to anything which they should think necessary for that object. He then read the Treaty, and it was ordered to be printed, and put into the hands of all the members of Parliament. No sooner were the printed copies in the hands of the public than the tempest broke. The Dukes of Athol and of Hamilton, the Lords Annandale and Belhaven, and other Jacobites, represented that the project was most injurious and disgraceful to Scotland; that it had at one blow destroyed the independence and dignity of the kingdom, which for two thousand years had defended her liberties against all the armies and intrigues of England; that now it was delivered over by these traitors, the Commissioners, bound hand and foot, to the English; that the few members who were to represent Scotland in the English Parliament would be just so many slaves or machines, and have no influence whatever; that all Scotland did, by this arrangement, but send one more member to the House of Commons than Cornwall, a single county of England; and that the Scots must expect to see their sacred Kirk again ridden over rough-shod by the English troopers, and the priests of Baal installed in their pulpits.

Defoe, who had the curiosity to go to Scotland and watch the circumstances attending the adoption of this great measure, has left us a very lively account of the fury to which the people were worked up by these representations. Mobs paraded the streets of Edinburgh, crying that they "were Scotsmen, and would be Scotsmen still." They hooted, hissed, and pursued all whom they knew to be friendly to the Treaty, and there was little safety for them in the streets. "Parties," he says, "whose interests and principles differed as much as light and darkness, who were contrary in opinion, and as far asunder in everything as the poles, seemed to draw together here. It was the most monstrous sight in the world to see the Jacobite and the Presbyterian, the persecuting prelatic Nonjuror and the Cameronian, the Papist and the Reformed Protestant, parley together, join interests, and concert measures together; to see the Jacobites at Glasgow huzzahing the mob, and encouraging them to have a care of the Church; the high-flying Episcopal Dissenter crying out the overture was not a sufficient security for the Kirk."

From the 3rd of October, when the Parliament opened, to the 1st of November, the fury of the people continued to increase, and the utmost was done to rouse the old Cameronian spirit in the West of Scotland by alarming rumours of the intention of England to restore Episcopacy by force. The whole country was in a flame. Under such circumstances the Articles of the Treaty had to be discussed in the Scottish Parliament. The opponents did not venture to denounce any Union at all, but they insisted that it ought only to be a federal one, by which they contended Scotland would still, whilst co-operating with England in everything necessary for the good of the realm at large, maintain her ancient dignity, retain her Parliament, her constitution, and ancient sovereignty. When they found themselves in a minority even on this point they contended that it was not in the power of Parliament to settle so momentous a question; that the Session ought to be adjourned for a short time, in order that members might go down to their constituents, and thus learn what was really the mind of the nation. Failing in this, they exerted themselves to get a host of petitions sent up from the boroughs, claiming to have a right on the part of the constituents to instruct and limit their representatives, and warning them, above all things, to go no further than a federal Union.

In order to lead to a popular demonstration, the opponents moved that there should be a day set apart for public prayer and fast, therein seeking the will of God as to the Union. The Parliament did not oppose this, and the 18th of October was settled for this purpose; but it passed off very well both in town and country, and the incendiaries were disappointed. Another mode of overawing the Parliament was then resorted to. Rumours were set afloat that the people would turn out all together, and come to the Parliament House and cry, "No Union!" They would seize on the regalia, and carry them to the castle for safety. And in fact a great mob followed the Duke of Hamilton, who was carried to and from the House in a chair, owing to some temporary lameness; but the Guards stopped them at the gates of Holyrood, whereupon they declared that they would return the next day a thousand times stronger, and pull the traitors out of their Houses, and so put an end to the Union in their own way. And the next day, the 23rd of October, they did assemble in dense crowds, filling the Parliament Close, and crowding the door, so that members had much difficulty in getting out at the close of the sitting. As soon as the Duke of Hamilton entered his chair, they raised loud hurrahs, and followed his chair in a body. But the alarm was given, a troop of soldiers appeared, cleared the street, and seized half a dozen of the ringleaders. More soldiers were obliged to be called out, and a rumour being abroad that a thousand seamen were coming up from Leith to join the rioters, the City Guard was marched into the Parliament Close, and took possession of all the avenues. A battalion of Guards was also stationed at the palace, the garrison in the castle was kept in readiness for action, and a troop of dragoons accompanied the Ministers wherever they went.

Defeated in their object of overawing the Parliament, the opposition now cried mightily that the Parliament was overawed by soldiers, and that the Treaty was being rammed down the throat of the public by bayonets; that this was the beginning of that slavery to which the country was about to be reduced. But Queensberry and his friends replied that there was much greater danger of coercion from an ignorant and violent mob than from the orderly soldiery, who made no attempt whatever to influence the deliberations. Every Article indeed was resisted seriatim. Hamilton, Athol, Fletcher of Saltoun, Belhaven, were vehement and persevering in their opposition; but still, with some modifications, the Articles were carried one after another. In the midst of the contention Hamilton was confounded by receiving a letter from Lord Middleton, at the Court of St. Germains, desiring, in the name of the Pretender, that the opposition to the Union should cease; for that his Grace (the Pretender) had it much at heart to give his sister this proof of his ready compliance with her wishes, nothing doubting but that he should one day have it in his power to restore Scotland to its ancient weight and independence. Hamilton was desired to keep this matter, however, a profound secret, as the knowledge of it at this time might greatly prejudice the cause and the interests of his master both in Scotland and England. Hamilton was thus thoroughly paralysed in his opposition, and at the same time was in the awkward position of not being able to explain his sudden subsidence into inaction.

On the other hand, the English Government saw the advantage of distributing a liberal sum of money amongst the patriots of Scotland; and the grossest bribery and corruption were unblushingly resorted to. Twenty thousand pounds were sent down for this purpose, and the passage of the Union aided by a still more profuse distribution of promises of places, honours, and of compensation to those who had been sufferers in the Darien scheme. By these means the opposition was sufficiently soothed down to enable the Ministers to carry the Treaty by a majority of one hundred and ten. An Act was prepared for regulating the election of the sixteen peers and forty-five commoners to represent Scotland in the British Parliament; and on the 25th of the following March, 1707, the Scottish Parliament suspended its sittings. Amongst those who contributed mainly to the carrying of this great measure, and that against an opposition which at one time appeared likely to sweep everything before it, were the Dukes of Queensberry and Argyll, the Earls of Montrose, Seafield, and Stair, assisted by the Earls of Roxburgh and Marchmont, who had come over from the opposite party through promises of favour and distinction.