The commissioners, who had thus been appointed by the Parliaments, were summoned to meet in the Painted Chamber at Westminster in October.[53] But James, too impatient to await the result of their deliberations, and resolved to carry matters with a high hand, issued a long and wordy proclamation, in which he stated that he thought fit to abolish the names of England and Scotland, and to assume, “by the force of our royal prerogative,” the title of King of Great Britain, France, and Ireland.[54] This title was to be used in all public documents. The Borders were in future to be known as the Middle Shires. A flag was to be prepared bearing the Cross of Saint George and the Cross of Saint Andrew. New coins, with such mottoes as “Quæ Deus conjunxit nemo separet,” and “Henricus rosas Jacobus regna,” were to be struck at the Mint in honour of the Union.
This proclamation was most unpopular in both England and Scotland. The judges were of opinion that the adoption of the title of King of Great Britain would invalidate all legal processes.[55] The king soon found that he had gone too far; and, after a time, he consented to wait until his wishes could be accomplished with the sanction of Parliament.
On the 20th of October, the Commissioners on Union met at Westminster. “A grave and orderly assembly,” is the account which Bacon gives of them. On the English side the lead was taken by Bacon and Cecil; while of the Scottish commissioners, Sir Thomas Hamilton and Lord Fyvie seem to have been the most prominent. It was soon evident that the Scottish peers were afraid that the Union would diminish their own power, and indifferent to the commercial advantages which it would confer upon their country. The commoners from Scotland also had their doubts about the Union. They entirely failed to appreciate the benefits of the colonial trade which it would open up; and they seem to have resented, to an extent which blinded their judgments, the removal of the Court to London.
The English commissioners also put obstacles in the way of an agreement. Against the advice of Bacon, but with the support of the judges, they insisted on an uniform system of laws for the two countries; a proposal to which the representatives of Scotland would not listen.[56] They also maintained that it was unreasonable that Scotsmen should be made capable of holding offices under the Crown in England; and on this point there was a keen argument.
After a series of discussions, which lasted for about five weeks, Bacon and Sir Thomas Hamilton were instructed to embody the findings of the commissioners, in the form of a Treaty of Union, for the approval of the Parliaments. “It is curious now,” says Professor Masson, “to imagine the great English philosopher and ‘Tam o’ the Cowgate’ thus seated together, for perhaps two or three evenings, over the document which was to descend to posterity as the draft Treaty of Union between England and Scotland, and to speculate how shrewdly ‘Tam o’ the Cowgate’ must have looked after the substance of the document, while he may have deferred to Bacon’s superior expertness in strictly English idiom and wording.”[57]
The Articles of Union, as finally settled, stood thus. All hostile laws, and, in particular, the Border laws, were to be repealed. The name of the Borders was to be abolished. There was to be complete freedom of trade between England and Scotland; and as regarded foreign commerce both countries were to stand on the same footing. On the difficult point of naturalisation, the commissioners recommended that an Act should be passed to declare that all subjects of both countries born since the death of Elizabeth, that is to say the “post-nati,” were, by common law, entitled to the privileges of subjects in both countries. The “ante-nati,” or subjects born before the death of the late queen, were to enjoy the same privileges, not at common law, but under an Act of Parliament passed on their behalf. But the ante-nati were not to be capable of holding offices under the Crown or sitting in Parliament, except in the country of their birth. In short, the post-nati were to be fully naturalised; but the ante-nati were not to have a share in the government or the legislature.
This question of naturalisation, with the distinction drawn between the post-nati and the ante-nati, is, in our day, only one of faint antiquarian interest; but it was then a question of practical everyday importance. The law officers of the Crown had given an opinion that the post-nati of Scotland were not aliens in England, but that the ante-nati were; and this had led the Union Commissioners to suggest that both should be placed on the same footing, with the exception, which has just been mentioned, that the ante-nati should be declared incapable of holding office. At this point James raised an objection. He protested that he had no desire to give offices of State except to the natives of the country in which the office was to be exercised. He agreed to the proposal of the commissioners; but, at the same time, he insisted that the clause dealing with the question of naturalisation should be so worded as to recognise a right on the part of the sovereign to grant letters of denization. This, of course, was a palpable evasion of the proposed finding, and would leave him free to do as he pleased. Nevertheless, the commissioners recommended that, in the Articles of Union, the prerogative of the Crown as to appointing to offices in either kingdom, and as to granting letters of denization, should be specially reserved.
The Articles of Union were signed and sealed by the commissioners on the 6th of December, and at once presented to the king. James was in high spirits. He thanked the commissioners warmly for their services, and especially for their conduct in reserving his prerogative of appointing to offices in either kingdom. “Among other pleasant speeches,” says Bacon, “he showed unto them the laird of Lawreston,[58] a Scotchman, who was the tallest and greatest man that was to be seen, and said, ‘Well, now we are all one, yet none of you will say, but here is one Scotchman greater than any Englishman’; which was an ambiguous speech, but it was thought he meant it of himself.”
The Governments in both countries began to make arrangements for the approaching Union. A warrant was issued for destroying the Great and Privy Seals of Scotland; and new seals were made with the arms of England, Scotland, and Ireland quartered on them.[59] Agents were sent to France to investigate the privileges held by Englishmen and Scotsmen as to the French trade, and arrange for the future. An order was issued which illustrates the position of affairs between the countries. Scotsmen were constantly going abroad to serve in the foreign armies. They were in the habit of passing through England, and, on their way, they often were guilty of disorderly conduct, such as robbing on the highways, and committing other outrages, which raised a bad feeling against their country. It was therefore ordered that, in future, all Scotsmen going abroad were to embark from Scotland, instead of passing through England.[60]