fortunes for so many ages? Are there here none of the descendants of those worthy patriots who defended the liberty of their country against all invaders who assisted the great king Robert Bruce to restore the constitution, and avenge the falsehood of England and usurpation of Baliol? Where are the Douglases and the Campbells? Where are the peers? where are the barons once the bulwark of the nation? Shall we yield up the sovereignty and independency of the nation, when we are commanded by those we represent to preserve the same, and assured of their assistance to support us."* Fletcher of Salton was nothing behind the duke of Hamilton, either in vehemency of speech or of spirit; but the Demosthenes of the party was lord Belhaven, who melted the house with the most humiliating views, and pathetic details of that ruin which he saw treading on the heels of the treaty: "My lord chancellor," he began, "when I consider this affair of an union betwixt the two nations, as it is expressed in the several articles thereof, and now the subject of our deliberation at this time, I find my mind crowded with variety of very melancholy thoughts, and I think it my duty to disburden myself of some of them, by laying them before, and exposing them to the serious consideration of this honourable house. "I think I see a free and independent kingdom, delivering up that which all the world hath been fighting for since the days of Nimrod; yea, that for which most of all the empires, kingdoms, states, principalities, and dukedoms of Europe, are at this very time engaged in the most bloody and cruel wars that ever were, to wit, a power to manage their own affairs by themselves, without the assistance and counsel of any other. I think I see a national church, founded upon a rock, secured by a claim of right, hedged and fenced about by the strictest and pointedest legal sanction that sovereignty could contrive-voluntarily descending into a plain, upon an equal level with Jews, Papists, Socinians, Arminians, Anabaptists, and other sectaries. I think I see the noble and honourable peerage of Scotland, whose valiant predecessors led armies against their enemies upon their own proper charges and expenses, now divested of their followers and vassalages, and put upon such an equal foot with their vassals, that I think I see a petty English exciseman receive more homage and respect, than what was paid formerly to their quondam Maccallanmores. I think I see the present peers of Scotland, whose noble ancestors conquered provinces, overran countries, reduced and subjected towns and fortified places, exacted tribute through the greatest part of England, now walking in the court of requests, like so many English attornies; laying aside their walking swords when in company with the English peers, lest their self-defence should be found murder. I think I see the honourable estate of barons, the bold assertors of the nation's rights and liberties in the worst of times, now setting a watch upon their lips, and a guard upon their tongues, lest they be found guilty of scandalum magnatum. I think I see the royal state of boroughs walking their desolate streets, hanging down their heads under disappointments, wormed out of all the branches of their old trade, uncertain Lockhart Papers, vol. i. pp. 180, 181. what band to turn to, necessitated to become prentices to their unkind neighbours, and yet, after all, finding their trade so fortified by companies, and secured by prescriptions, that they despair of any success therein. I think I see our learned judges laying aside their practiques and decisions, studying the common law of England, gravelled with certioraries nisi priuses, writs of error, verdicts indover, ejectione firma, injunctions, demurs, &c. and frighted with appeals and avocations, because of the new regulations and rectifications they may meet with. I think I see the valiant and gallant soldiery either sent to-learn the plantation trade abroad, or at home petitioning for a small subsistence as the reward of their honourable exploits; while their old corps are broken, the common soldiers left to beg, and the youngest English corps kept standing. I think I see the honest industrious tradesman loaded with new taxes and impositions, disappointed of the equivalents, drinking water in place of ale, eating his saltless pottage, petitioning for encouragement to his manufactories, and answered by counter petitions. In short, I think I see the laborious ploughman with his corn spoiling upon his hands for want of sale, cursing the day of his birth, dreading the expense of his burial, and uncertain whether to marry or do worse. I think I see the incurable difficulties of the landed men, fettered under the golden chain of equivalents, their pretty daughters petitioning for want of husbands, and their sons for want of employments. I think I see our mariners delivering up their ships to their Dutch partners, and what through presses and necessity, earning their bread as underlings in the royal English navy. But above all, my lord, I think I see our ancient mother Caledonia, like Cesar, sitting in the midst of our senate, ruefully looking round about her, covering herself with her royal garment, attending the fatal blow, and breathing out her last with a et tu quoque mi fili. Are not these, my lord, very afflicting thoughts? And yet they are but the least part suggested to me by these dishonourable articles. Should not the consideration of these things vivify these dry bones of ours? Should not the memory of our noble predecessors' valour and constancy rouse up our drooping spirits? Are our noble predecessors' souls got so far into the English cabbage-stock and colliflowers, that we should show the least inclination in that way? Are our eyes so blinded, are our ears so deafened, are our hearts so hardened, are our tongues so faltered, are our hands so fettered, that in this our day, I say my lord, that in this our day, that we should not mind the things that concern the very being and well-being of our ancient kingdom, before the day be hid from our eyes? No, my lord, God forbid, man's extremity is God's opportunity. He is a present help in time of need, and a deliverer, and that right early. Some unforeseen providence will fall out, that may cast the balance; some Moses or other will say, "Why do ye strive together since ye are brethren?" None can destroy Scotland, save Scotland's self, hold your hands from the pen, you are secure. Some Judah or other will say "Let not our hands be upon the lad, he is our brother. There will be a Jehovah Jireh, and some ram will be caught in the thicket when the bloody knife is at our mother's throat, let us up then, my lord, and let our noble patriots behave themselves like men, and we know not how soon a blessing may come." This was only the exordium of his lordship's speech, intended "to encourage a free and full deliberation, without animosities and heats." Full of this happy idea he proceeds, "That I may path a way, my lord, to a full and calm reasoning this affair, which is of the last consequence unto this nation, I shall mind this honourable house that we are the successors of our noble predecessors, who founded our monarchy, framed our laws, amended, altered, and corrected them from time to time, as the affairs and circumstances of the nation did require, without the assistance or advice of any foreign power or potentate, and who, during the time of two thousand years, have handed them down to us a free independent nation, with the hazard of their lives and fortunes. Shall not we then argue for that which our progenitors have purchased for us at so dear a rate, and with so much immortal honour and glory? Shall the hazard of a father unbind the ligaments of a dumb son's tongue, and shall we hold our peace when our patria is in danger?" After much more to the same purpose, he adverts to the divisions which prevailed over the whole island, and to the immense wealth and growing prosperity of the English nation, in consequence of which, he thinks it will be hard to persuade them to a self-denial bill. "It is quite otherwise," he continues, "with us, my lord, we are an obscure poor people, though formerly of better account, removed to a remote corner of the world, without name, and without alliances, our posts mean and precarious, so that I profess I do not think any one post of the kingdom worth the briguing after, save that of being commissioner to a long session of a factious Scots parliament, with an antedated commission, and that yet renders the rest of the ministers more miserable. What hinders us, then, my lord, to lay aside our divisions, to unite cordially and heartily together in our present circumstances, when our all is at the stake. Hannibal, my lord, is at our gates! Hannibal is come within our gates! Hannibal is come the length of this table! he is at the foot of this throne! he will demolish this throne! If we take not notice, he'll seize upon these regalia, he'll take them as our spolia opima, and whip us out of this house never to return again.” * This, with a great deal more to the same purpose, delivered with all the pomp of action, for his lordship, in the course of his speech, fell upon his knees and implored, paused, and wept-could not fail to produce a very powerful effect. Seton of Pitmedden rose to reply, but was prevented by the house, as contrary to the rule, that no member should speak twice in one day upon the same subject. The altercation which this occasioned, necessarily cooled the state of feeling into which the members had been wrought, and the earl of Marchmont, being declared in possession of the floor, by a reply odd and laconic, gave it at once an entirely opposite direction. "We have heard," said his lordship, "a very long speech, but it requires only a very short answer, Behold he dreamed, but lo! when he awoke, he found it was a dream." The house was at once convulsed with laughter, and time has completely justified the severity of his lordship's remark. Other speakers, however, succeeded, and the • Defoe's Minutes of the Proceedings of the Scotish Parliament upon the Articles of Union, folio ed. pp. 33-39. debate was adjourned till Monday, the fourth of November, when the first article was carried by a plurality of thirty-three voices. The duke of Athol entered his protest against this article, "As contrary to the honour, the interest, and fundamental laws and constitution of this kingdom, the birthright of the peers, the rights and privileges of the barons and boroughs, as contrary to the claim of right, property, and liberty of the subject, and third act of her majesty's parliament, 1703," &c. &c. To this protest, there adhered twenty-one lords, thirty-three barons, and twenty-nine burgesses, in all eighty-three.* It had been previously agreed To avoid repetition of names, we shall give the following list of the Scotish parliament as they divided on the first Article of the Union, November 4th, 1706, and upon all subsequent divisions the lists were nearly the same. No. I. Those who voted for the Article. No. II.-Those who voted against it. The duke of Queensberry, being lord commissioner, had no vote, but he requested his name on every decision to be added to the list of approvers. Sir Robert Dicksone of Inverask. Sir Alexander Campbell of Cesnock. BARONS. William Morrison of Preston Grange. Sir John Johnstoun of Westerhall. Sir Patrick Johnstoun. William Dalrymple of Glenmuir. Alexander Abercrombie of Glassoch. Mr. Robert Stuart of Tillycoultry. that the state of this, and all the succeeding votes, and a list of the members as they voted, should be regularly printed. It was at this stage of the business that the act of security for the kirk was engrossed, and here the cavaliers exerted themselves for presbytery to the very utmost, offering and pressing many additional clauses to the act for its preservation, which could not be supposed to find much favour with those presbyterians who saw their meaning, which was not to secure presbytery, a system they had always considered as their bane, but to prevent the union, by irritating England, and by so stating |