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318

DEMONSTRATIONS AGAINST THE UNION.

[1706

advanced by the English government was "employed in paying arrears of salary, or other debts. . . The general fact that at that time all classes of public creditors in Scotland were in arrear is too palpably notorious." The mere circumstance that arrears were paid out of an advance by England does not imply that there was a previous promise to pay, if the statesman should give a vote against the interests of his country. We lament, with the more sober historian of Scotland, that "Sir Walter Scott's national pride seems to have been so entirely overwhelmed by his prejudice against the Union, that no tale against its supporters is too degrading to secure his belief." *

It was on the 12th of October, 1706, when the Estates of Scotland began to consider the Articles of Union. Immense pains had been taken by the opponents of the measure to rouse the people to a tumultuous opposition. They were in some degree successful. There was a riot in Edinburgh on the 23rd of October, when the populace broke the windows of Sir Patrick Johnson, who had been Lord Provost, and one of the Commissioners of the treaty. They were dispersed without any loss of life. Those who consider that the outbreak of a mob-that appears to have been really very harmless-is evidence of the opinions of a nation, may agree with Lockhart that this midnight riot made "it evident that the Union was crammed down Scotland's throat." Unprecedented pains had been taken to rouse the passions of the people; and yet any tumult making an approach to insurrection cannot be traced, even in the most exaggerated narratives of those who represent the Union as hateful to the Scottish people. Addresses, indeed, came from many places to the Parliament against the incorporating principle of the Union. Defoe, who was busily engaged in Edinburgh, in a sort of semiofficial capacity-chiefly from his knowledge of commercial matters, on which he had made useful suggestions-had represented these Addresses as got up by the political opponents of the treaty. Lockhart writes: "That vile monster and wretch, Daniel Defoe, and other mercenary tools and trumpeters of rebellion, have often asserted that these Addresses, and other evidences of the nation's aversion to the Union, proceeded from the false glosses and underhand dealings of those that opposed it in Parliament; and then he admits that "perhaps this measure had its first original as they report." Such arts were natural to be used, especially by the Jacobites. They saw that the Union would go far to destroy their hopes of a Stuart king for Scotland, if England persisted in her resolution of having no more rightdivine sovereigns. The Cameronians held that the wicked Union was a breach of the Solemn League and Covenant, they having been sworn to do their endeavour to reform England in doctrine, worship, and discipline. But these were very far from representing the opinions of the dispassionate middle classes. Edinburgh shopkeepers were alarmed at the possible loss of customers; but calculating merchants saw very clearly the opening for successful enterprise, when the commerce of the two nations should be put upon an equal footing. The popular arguments against the Union were chiefly appeals to nationality, which has always its amiable side, however it may sometimes exhibit a want of judgment in exact proportion to its enthusiasm.

Burton, vol. i. p. 494.

Quoted in Burton, note vi. p. 447.

+ Lockhart Papers, quoted by Scott.

1706.]

DEBATES IN THE SCOTTISH PARLIAMENT.

319

There was an interval in the proceedings of the Scottish Parliament when the parties for or against the Union were gathering up their strength for a mortal conflict. The first great oratorical display was made by a young man, Lord Belhaven—a speech, says Defoe, "which, being so much talked of in the world, I have also inserted here." * It was, indeed, "much talked of in the world," being wholly addressed to "the world;" and not very much fitted for a sober Scottish audience. Yet the "bended knees," and the choking passion of tears, of this orator, have had imitators in other solemn assemblies. The speech "was circulated in all known shapes among the people, passed through unnumbered editions, and was so plentifully dispersed that a bookcollector seldom buys a volume of Scottish political pamphlets of the early part of the eighteenth century, which does not contain The Speech of the Lord Belhaven on the subject-matter of an Union betwixt the two kingdoms of Scotland and England.'"+ This singular production has many of the characteristics of a noble eloquence; it has also not a few of those qualities which are most acceptable to a false taste. But it is not our province here to criticise this oration. It is desirable, however, to look at it, as indicating the topics which were then best calculated to rouse and embitter the popular passions and prejudices. We therefore print the exordium, which will at least amuse our readers. It may, perhaps, incline most of them to say, as Lord Marchmont said when the speaker sat down, "Behold, he dreamed, but lo, when he awoke, he found it was a dream." Lord Belhaven thus commenced his oration:

"My Lord Chancellor: when I consider the 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 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 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 most pointed legal sanction that sovereignty could contrive, voluntarily descending into a plain, upon an equal level with Jews, Papists, Socinians, Arminians, Anabaptists, and other sectaries, &c. 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 Macallamores. I think I see the present peers of Scotland, whose noble ancestors conquered provinces, over-ran 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

"History of the Union."

+ Burton, vol. i. p. 450.

320

LORD BELHAVEN'S ORATION.

[1706. attorneys, 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 their heads under disappointments, wormed out of all the branches of their old trade, uncertain what hand to turn to, necessitate 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, Indovar, 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 a 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 manufactures, and answered by counterpetitions. 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 employment. I think I see our mariners delivering up their ships to their Dutch partners, and what through presses and necessity, earning their bred as underlings in the English navy. But above all, my lord, I think I see our ancient mother Caledonia, like Cæsar, 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 an Et tu quoque, mi fili.” *

6

The Scottish orator was a bold imitator of him who "fulmin'd over Greece." But his rhetoric and his logic would appear to have been ill companions. He contrasts England and Scotland. Our neighbours in England are great and glorious; provinces and kingdoms are the results of their victories; the royal navy is the terror of Europe; their trade and commerce extends through the universe, encircling the whole habitable world, and rendering their own capital city the emporium for the whole inhabitants of the earth. Scotland, he says, is quite otherwise. 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 are mean and precarious. "Our all is at stake," he then exclaims: "Hannibal is at our gates. Hannibal is come within our gates. Hannibal is come

Lord Belhaven's Speech is printed at length in "Parliamentary History," vol. vi.; and in Defoe's "History of the Union."

1706.]

LORD BELHAVEN'S ORATION.

321

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." Hannibal did some of these terrible things. But Caledonia did not, "ruefully looking about her, covering herself with her royal garment," sit idly upon the oak-chest in which the spolia opima were locked up. She bestirred herself to make her obscure poor people great and glorious as their neighbours ;-to make their joint trade and commerce extend through the universe, in a generous rivalry;-to change the mean and precarious posts of Scottish administration into a more than equal participation in the greatest offices and distinctions of the British commonwealth;-to divest, indeed, the peerage of Scotland of feudal jurisdiction, of followers and vassalages, and thus to make them truly noble and honourable in their obedience to laws which should override the old local tyrannies;-to inspire the soldiery of Scotland with the true patriotism that has survived the false glory of border hatred, and made the Abercrombies, and Moores, and Campbells fight for the island as the heritage of one free people ;-to make the artisans and tradesmen of decayed royal burghs, instead of walking their desolate streets, or becoming 'prentices to their unkind neighbours, raise up factories that. might rival the proudest of Lancashire and Yorkshire, and fill the Clyde and the Forth with forests of masts ;-to cure the difficulties of the landed men by increasing their rents ten-fold, and twenty-fold;-to convert the laborious plough-man, with his patch of oats, into the most flourishing, because skilful, farmer on the face of the earth. Caledonia, with a few occasional heartburnings, has been smiling to see this process going forward for a century and a half; and though she duly believes that her younger sister had the best of the bargain of 1706, she rejoices with her inmost heart that, under that partnership, enmity gradually passed into mutual confidence, and then into reciprocal esteem and firm friendship.

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322

MATERIAL INTERESTS OF SCOTLAND.

[1706.

Standing as we now do upon the platform of a hundred and fifty years' experience, it would be manifestly unwise and unjust to speak of the convictions of such minds as those of Belhaven and Fletcher, and others of the honest patriots at this great crisis of their country's destiny, as manifesting their incapacity of looking beyond their own immediate times. They rested their opposition to an incorporating Union upon their belief that it would destroy the nationality of Scotland, without any corresponding public benefits. "Should not the memory of our noble predecessors' valour and constancy rouse up our drooping spirits," ejaculated Belhaven. "Are our noble predecessors' souls got so far into the English cabbage-stock and cauliflowers that we should show the least inclination that way?' Their watchword was "our ancient kingdom"-a kingdom with a long uninterrupted line of kings, even a hundred and twelve kings, whose veritable portraits are in Holyrood. Belhaven had a right to be proud of the great memories of his nation;—of its historical prowess blending with its mythic glories. The fables of such a nation are not to be despised. England could match Scotland in traditions of "Brutus' sacred progeny,

Which had seven hundred years this sceptre borne." *

She could match Scotland also in "fathers of war-proof." But it was the mistake of the Scottish patriots to believe that Englishmen were degeneratewholly given up to money-getting and luxurious gratification-" epicures," as they were called of old-devoted to Dutch cabbages and wheaten-bread, and despising honest kale and oatmeal. Yet if the Scots had their prejudices so had the English. Defoe told his countrymen, "Those who fancy there is nothing to be had in Scotland but wild men and ragged mountains, storms, snows, poverty, and barrenness, are quite mistaken." John Taylor, the Water Poet, had maintained, a century before, that in his "Pennilesse Pilgrimage" he had never seen more plenty or more cheap" than in Scotland. But both English and Scots knew full well that the superiority of England was not in the fertility of her land, but in the activity of her commerce. Her capital, from the days of the Tudors, had been steadily devoted to the extension of her trade. In truth, the strongest argument which the advocates of the Union could present to the sober Scottish mind,-an argument which overthrew all appeals to "free and independent kingdom," "national Church "—" noble ancestors "-was that the trade of the world should be as open to the Scot as to the Englishman. This was a concession which the Englishman long grumbled against. "It was a common apprehension in England, before the Union," says Hume, "that Scotland would soon drain them of their treasure, were an open trade allowed." The Scots were somewhat amazed when Godolphin at once consented to renounce most of the rubbish of prohibitory statutes, and when the Scotch woollen manufacture was absolutely to receive encouragement. Yet when the Articles of Union agreed to by the Commissioners were known, there were many in Scotland who maintained that the commercial advantages might be equally gained by a federal, instead of an incorporating Union. Mr. Seton, of Pitmedden, who was one of the Commissioners, contended in the Scottish Parliament that * "Faery Queen." Essay, "Of the Balance of Trade."

+ Review.

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