He also suggested, as a cure for the depressed state of agriculture, the crude remedy that lending money on interest should be forbidden. By this means, he says, ‘men who have small sums at interest will be obliged to employ it in trade or the improvement of land.’
Proposals such as these, which nowadays some will say were in advance of his time, and others will regard as impracticable and absurd, were not taken seriously at the time he made them. ‘Mr. Fletcher’s schemes,’ says Sir John Clerk, a commonplace man, but a shrewd and cautious observer, ‘had but very little credit, because he himself was often for changing them; though, in other respects, a very worthy man. It used to be said of him, that it would be easy to hang by his own schemes of government; for, if they had taken place, he would have been the first man that would have attempted an alteration.’[4]
[4] MS. note on Lockhart, quoted in Somerville, p. 204.
The Italian essay on the affairs of Spain was apparently suggested by the Partition Treaty of 1698. In the editions of Fletcher’s collected works there is an ‘Auviso,’ or advertisement, prefixed to this pamphlet, in which the author explains that he has written the discourse in order to show how easily any prince who succeeds to the throne of Spain may acquire the empire of the world; and in the Speech upon the State of the Nation, he deals with the same topic. The letter of the Treaty, he urges, speaks of keeping the peace of Europe by breaking up the Spanish monarchy, but the spirit of it throws that monarchy into the hands of the Bourbons. The result will be that the balance of power will be upset, a war will follow, civil and religious liberty will be endangered. Williamiii., he hints, may offer to support the Spanish policy of France, if Louis will assist him to become an absolute monarch in England and Holland. ‘This treaty,’ he says, ‘is like an alarum-bell rung over all Europe. Pray God it may not prove to you a passing-bell.’[5]
[5] The 1749 edition of Fletcher’s Works contains an English translation of the Discorso di Spagna.
This manifesto, though described as a speech, was probably never delivered. But it may be regarded as an election address; for on the dissolution of the Convention Parliament, Fletcher was returned, at the general election, for the county of Haddington, with Adam Cockburn of Ormiston as his colleague.
CHAPTER V
The First Session of the Union Parliament—Fletcher proposes his Twelve Limitations on the Crown—The Act of Security—The Supplies are refused.
The Estates met at Edinburgh on the 6th of May 1703. The forms of the opening ceremony were similar to those which had been used for at least a hundred years. But it was observed that on this day the preparations were more elaborate than usual. Queensberry, who was Lord High Commissioner, occupied the royal apartments in Holyrood House. On the evening of the 5th the crown, the sceptre, and the sword of state, known as the ‘honours,’ and regarded with peculiar veneration as the symbols of the ancient monarchy, were carried from the castle to the palace by the officials of the Treasury, and presented to the Commissioner. Next morning, at an early hour, Lord Errol, the hereditary High Constable of Scotland, waited upon the Commissioner to receive his last instructions, and then proceeded to the Parliament House, for the arrangements of which he was responsible during the sittings of the Estates. In the meantime, the long steep street which still leads from Holyrood to the Parliament House, and which was then the fashionable quarter of the city, had been cleared of traffic, and lined with wooden railings, to keep back the crowd which assembled to witness the Riding of the Parliament, as the procession of members to the place of meeting was called. The tall houses, with their picturesque gables and projecting balconies, were hung with tapestry, and the windows were filled with gay parties of gentlemen and ladies. The street was lined by a regiment of foot-guards, under the command of General Ramsay, then commander-in-chief of the forces in Scotland, and by the members of the town-guard.