or on the established laws. Hamilton and his BOOK XI. 1702. 1702. BOOK The dean and faculty of advocates, who approved the protest of the eighty members, were summoned to the bar, and severely reprimanded for their seditious votes. Ten monthly assessments and a half were granted, to be raised in two years; and the queen was empowered to appoint commissioners for a treaty of union, according to the last, most earnest request of the late king. But a bill introduced by Marchmont the chancellor, to abjure her brother, the pretended prince of Wales, produced an unexpected division among the presbyterians themselves. Some were desirous to exclude the disaffected from the next parliament; others were averse to the settlement of the crown, till the redress of grievances should be obtained from England. Ministers had received no instructions to provide for the protestant succession, which the English cabinet was inclined to leave undetermined, to overawe the whigs; and the parliament was adjourned, as the opposition threatened to summon the seceding members to their aid 3. October 27. Union attempted. Commissioners were appointed from each kingdom, to treat at Westminster, where some progress was made to facilitate an union. They agreed that the two kingdoms should be incorporated into one monarchy, under the same legislature and line of succession, with a mutual communication Lockhart, ii. Parl. 1702, ch. 7. Minutes of Parl. Carstairs, 714. Boyer's Annals of Queen Anne, i. 54. of privileges, and a free trade. The English consented with reluctance to admit of a participation. in their plantation trade; the Scots were with difficulty persuaded to submit to the same imposts with England, upon home consumption; but they refused, without an equivalent, to incur a share of the national debt, or to relinquish their Darien company, in which the public faith and the wealth of the kingdom were so deeply involved. The English commissioners, who still considered the privileges of the Darien as inconsistent with those of their East India company, represented that the interference of two great and exclusive companies might prove injurious to the trade of the united kingdom; and to reconcile the discordant interests of the two opposite monopolies, such difficulties occurred that the treaty was adjourned 4. BOOK XI. 1703. ministers. But the unexampled duration of parliament, Change of which had subsisted fourteen years, excited general discontent. Originally it was elected for a convention, and if its authority were doubtful or disputable, when converted into a parliament in the preceding reign, its continuance under the present was considered as absolutely null. The people were entitled to annual elections; and, after the secession of the country party, they began to dispute the authority of the rump, as • De Foc's Hist. of Union, App. 14. Tindal's Continua. the parliament was termed, and to refuse pay-ment of the taxes which the last session had imposed. At the instigation of Queensberry, who proposed to dissolve the attachment of the Jacobites to Hamilton, and to surmount the opposition of the country party, the court embraced the opportunity to dismiss the whigs. The earls of Marchmont, Melville, Selkirk, Leven, and Hyndford, who adhered to the principles of the revolution, were displaced, and those statesmen were introduced into office who had occasionally opposed the measures of the late reign. The Jacobites were elated with the change. They availed themselves of an indemnity to return from exile; or with a secret reservation, they accepted the oaths of allegiance to the queen, as regent during the minority of her brother. The cpiscopal clergy solicited, and were promised, an ample toleration; and though the public exercise of their religion occasioned frequent riots, they. expected nothing less than an alteration in the government of the church. The presbyterians, alarmed and depressed, began to suspect the new, ministers, and the queen herself, of a secret design to supplant their religion, as the first step towards the succession of her brother, when a new par. liament was summoned, to provide for the deficiencies of the former supplies 5. 5 Lockhart, p. 21. Boyer, i. 160. 206. ii. 15. Ridpath's Account of Parl. 1703, p. 11. Cunningham's Hist. i. 320. XI. lament. The efforts of each party were exerted, at the BOOK general election, to strengthen its interest in the approaching parliament, the last which was des- 1703. tined to be held in Scotland. Lord Seafield, the New parchancellor, was employed to manage the returns; and his assurances of the queen's attachment, and of her reliance on their fidelity, persuaded many of the Jacobites to transfer their interest at elections to the crown. But the court party was divided and broken by the recent change. The adherents of the revolution were jealous of their new associates, whom the late ministers were ready to oppose. The country party were almost equally numerous; and if we except a few Jacobites, they consisted either of presbyterians, or of independent members indifferent to religious sects. The Jacobites, who assumed the name of Cavaliers, formed a distinct body, whose numbers. were still inconsiderable; but they were prepared to unite with either of the contending partics, and expected to incline the balance to which soever side they chose ". When the parliament was May 6. opened by Queensberry the commissioner, a recognition of the queen's title and authority was proposed by Hamilton, as a compliment to her, or as a decent apology for an intended motion, that the last session was an illegal convention, and that the ministers were responsible for their unconstitutional advice. An additional clause was |