COSTUMES OF THE REIGN OF ANNE.

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So ended the year 1706; and the English Parliament was informed by the queen, on the 28th of January, 1707, that the Articles of the Treaty, with some alterations and additions, were agreed upon by the Scottish Parliament, and should now be laid before them. She said, "You have now an opportunity before you of putting the last hand to a happy Union of the two kingdoms, which, I hope, will be a lasting blessing to the whole island, a great addition to its wealth and power, and a firm security to the Protestant religion. The advantages which will accrue to us all from a Union are so apparent that I will add no more but that I will look upon it as a particular happiness if this great work, which has been so often attempted without success, can be brought to perfection in my reign."

But the Tories did not mean to let it pass without a sharp attack. They saw the immense accession of strength which the Whigs, the authors of the measure under King William, would obtain from it. Seymour and others denounced it, not merely with vehemence, but with indecency. The High Churchmen took particular offence at Presbytery being established in Scotland, and insisted much on the contradiction of maintaining one religion in Scotland and another in England, and the scandal of the queen, who was a Churchwoman, being sworn to maintain Presbyterianism in opposition to it. The Lords Grey, North, Stowell, Rochester, Howard, Leigh, and Guildford, protested against the low rate of the land-tax charged in Scotland, complaining, with great reason, that it was fixed at only forty-eight thousand pounds, which was never to be increased, however the value of property might rise in that country; and Lord Nottingham said that it was highly unreasonable that the Scots, who were by the Treaty let into all the branches of the English trade, and paid so little towards the expense of the government, should, moreover, have such a round sum by way of equivalent. The Lords North, Grey, Guernsey, Granville, Abingdon, and others, supported that view.

But the discussions on the various Articles were cut short by a clever stratagem adopted by Government in the House of Commons. There, as the same arguments were being urged, and Sir John Packington was declaring that this forced incorporation, carried against the Scottish people by corruption and bribery within doors, by force and violence without, was like marrying a woman against her consent, Sir Simon Harcourt, the Solicitor-General, introduced a Bill of ratification, in which he enumerated the various Articles in the preamble, together with the Acts made in both Parliaments for the security of the two Churches, and, in conclusion, wound up with a single clause, by which the whole was ratified and enacted into a law. The Opposition was thus taken by surprise. They had not objected to the recital of the Articles, which was a bare matter of fact; and when they found themselves called upon to argue merely on the concluding and ratifying clause, they were thrown out of their concerted plan of action of arguing on each point in detail, and lost their presence of mind. The Whigs, on the other hand, pressed the voting on the clause of ratification with such vehemence that it was carried by a majority of one hundred and fourteen before the Opposition could recover from their surprise, occasioned by the novel structure of the Bill. Being then hurried up to the Lords, the fact that it had passed the Commons seemed to take the edge off their hostility. The Duke of Buckingham, indeed, expressed his apprehensions that sixteen Scottish peers, thrown into a House where there were rarely a hundred peers in attendance, might have occasionally a very mischievous effect on English interests. Lord North also proposed a rider, purporting that nothing in the ratification of the Union should be construed to extend to an approbation or acknowledgment of Presbyterianism as the true Protestant religion; but this was rejected by a majority of fifty-five. The Bill passed, but under protests from Nottingham, Buckingham, and seventeen other lords.

On the 4th of March Anne gave the Royal Assent to the Bill, and expressed, as well she might, her satisfaction at the completion of this great measure, the greatest of her reign or of many reigns. On the 11th of March both Houses waited on her Majesty to congratulate her on the "conclusion of a work that, after so many fruitless endeavours, seemed designed by Providence to add new lustre to the glories of her Majesty's reign." No man had more contributed, by his wise suggestions and zealous exertions, to the completion of this great national act than Lord Somers.

As the Act did not come into effect till the 1st of May, numbers of traders in both kingdoms were on the alert to reap advantages from it. The English prepared to carry quantities of such commodities into Scotland as would entitle them to a drawback, intending to bring them back after the 1st of May; and the Scots, as their duties were much lower than those of England, intended to import large quantities of wine, brandy, and similar articles, to sell them into England after the Union. Some of the Ministers were found to have embarked in these fraudulent schemes, which so alarmed the English merchants that they presented a remonstrance to the Commons. The Commons began to prepare a Bill on the subject, but it was discovered that the previous resolutions of the House sufficiently provided against these practices; and, as the 1st of May was now so near, the matter dropped.

CHAPTER XVII.