Before the next session of the Scottish Parliament there had been a change in the Scottish Ministry. The ‘Scots Plot,’ in connection with which Queensberry had played such a sorry part, had proved to Godolphin that a new Commissioner must be appointed; and Queensberry was discarded in favour of Tweeddale, who formed a Ministry in which Johnston of Warriston was Lord Register, Cromartie was Secretary of State, and Seafield Chancellor. He succeeded, moreover, in securing the support of several members of the Country Party, among whom Rothes, Roxburghe, Belhaven, and Dundas of Arniston were prominent. This party took the name of the New Party; and the Government in London hoped that the Opposition would now be so far weakened that nothing more would be heard of the Act of Security.
Parliament met in the beginning of July 1704. The Queen’s Speech urged the necessity of settling the Protestant Succession in Scotland, and, at the same time, promised that the royal assent would be given to any proper means of securing the liberties and the independence of Scotland; but it was soon found that the Estates were as intractable as ever. Hamilton at once moved ‘that this Parliament will not proceed to the nomination of a successor to the Crown until we have had a previous treaty with England in relation to our commerce, and other concerns with that nation.’
On this subject there were long debates, in which Fletcher, says Lockhart, ‘did elegantly and pathetically set forth the hardships and miseries to which we have been exposed since the Union of the two Crowns of Scotland and England in one and the same Sovereign.’ At last Hamilton moved that the Act of Security and an Act granting supplies to the Crown should be tacked together. When this proposal was discussed, Johnston said that the plan of ‘tacking’ was reasonable in England where there were two Houses, and where the Commons might be forced to bring the Lords to reason by sending up a Money Bill along with some measure which the Upper House would not otherwise pass. Such a system, he argued, did not suit the Scottish Parliament, which consisted of only one chamber. It was, moreover, ‘a straitening of the Queen, who might possibly consent to the one and not to the other.’
‘Now,’ said Fletcher, ‘it appears there must be a bargain, and unless the Parliament go into the measures laid down in England, nothing must be done; and he who spoke last has undertaken to obtain these measures to be performed here. I know,’ he went on, ‘and can make it appear that the Register has undertaken to persecute the English designs for promotion to himself.’
On this some of the members called out that Fletcher should be sent to the bar of the House for using such language.
Fletcher, backed up by Hamilton, then declared that the Queen’s letter had been written when no Scotsman was with her, and must, therefore, have been concocted under English influence. Johnston denied this, and said that the draught of the letter had been sent up from Scotland.
Fletcher still maintained that he was right; and on this Sir James Halket called out that Saltoun was impertinent. To this Fletcher’s reply was that any member who used such words of him was a rascal.
‘The House,’ says Sir David Hume, ‘being alarmed at such expressions, Sir James Erskine moved both should be sent to prison.’ The incident ended by the Chancellor giving a ‘sharp rebuke’ to both the honourable members, who were forced to express their regret, and to promise, upon their word of honour, that they would not take any notice elsewhere of what had happened.
In the end the House decided that the Act of Security should be read a first time, and should, along with the Act of Supply, lie on the table until it was known whether it was to receive the royal assent. It was soon found that the Scottish Parliament had at last gained the day; and in the beginning of August the Act of Security received the royal assent. On this the Estates voted the supplies.
During the rest of the session Fletcher spoke frequently. He was especially indignant against the House of Lords for an address which they had presented to the throne on the subject of the Scots Plot; and he went so far as to move that ‘the House of Peers in England their address to the Queen to use her endeavours to get the succession of England settled in Scotland, and inquiring into the plot, so far as it concerned Scotland and Scotsmen, was an undue intermeddling with our affairs, and an encroachment upon the sovereignty and independency of Scotland; and that the behaviour of the House of Commons in these matters was like good subjects of our Queen, and as neighbourly friends of this nation.’