XI. 1703. BOOK proposed to counteract this obvious design; that it should be high treason to question, not only her majesty's title, but the exercise of her government, since the commencement of her reign. The presbyterians concurred with the court party to support the amendment, which was carried by a large majority; and the Jacobites, who still adhered to the commissioner, endeavoured, by their ostentatious services, to merit favour from the queen. The carl of Home, their leader, proposed a supply; the earl of Strathmore an act of toleration, to exempt the episcopal ministers from the oaths to government: but their views extended to the revival of patronage, and to the introduction of their clergy into the benefices of the church. The presbyterians, and the court party, attached to the revolution, were alarmed at their unwonted zeal in support of government. The commission of assembly petitioned against an iniquitous toleration. Argyle and Marchmont awakened the commissioner's jealousy at the growing power and ambition of Hamilton, to whom the Jacobites, when their present objects were once accomplished, would continue to adhere. They introduced two acts, the first to confirm the presbyterian government, and the second to declare it high treason to impugn the authority of the convention parliament, or even to attempt an alteration in the claim of rights. As the abro7 Ridpath, 5. 38. XI. 1703. gation of prelacy and of ecclesiastical pre-eminence BOOK constituted an article of the claim of rights, the presbyterian religion, from the concurrence of the presbyterians with the court party, was thus indirectly sanctioned by the penalties of treason, and all hopes of episcopal government were finally repressed. The Jacobites, who had stipulated that no confirmation should be bestowed on the revolution, abandoned the commissioner, by whose connivance their religion was proscribed; and continued afterwards invariably attached to the country party 8. of the par the nation. These preliminary disputes were subordinate to Disposition a more important question with which the nation liament and was agitated, productive of an ultimate union between the two kingdoms. Ever since the pro-. jected settlement at Darien, the genius of the nation had acquired a new direction; and as the press is the true criterion of the spirit of the times, the numerous productions on every political and commercial subject, with which it daily teemed, had supplanted the religious disputes of the former age. As the loss of Darien was invariably ascribed to the servile dependence of ministers on the English cabinet, whatever misfortunes the nation had sustained since the union of the crowns, the increase of the prerogative, and the exaltation of the hierarchy by James VI. the introduction of the liturgy 8 Ridpath, 44. Boyer, ii. 36. Lockhart, 41. Proceedings XI., 1709. BOOK by Charles I. the civil wars which it produced in Scotland, and the furious persecution under Charles II. were aggravated and ascribed to the same cause by the public discontent. The commerce of the nation, as it was far less progressive than in other countries, was supposed to have declined since the accession of James. A share in the plantation trade was considered as a just equivalent, due to a nation impoverished during the preceding century, by the attendance of its nobility at the English court, and by the loss of its commercial privileges in France. But the Scots were excluded from the plantations by the navigation act. Their shipping had been seized and confiscated in the plantations; and their trade with England was discouraged, since the restoration, by the same restrictions that were imposed upon aliens. Every attempt to extend their commerce, or to establish a settlement in the cast or in the west, was repressed by the predominating influence of the English cabinet; and it was supposed that the worst, and most servile statesmen were selected for the administration of Scotland. Every opportunity to improve their country, or to redeem their constitution from a foreign influence, had been disappointed, it was said, by the delusive offer of an union till the danger had subsided; and the nation lamented the improvidence of its ancestors, who neglected to secure the inde 9 Ridpath's Discourse on the Union, 1702. pendence of their government, by limitations pre- BOOK vious to the union of the crowns. The source of every preceding disaster was felt at once, on the loss of Darien, in the pernicious influence of the English cabinet over the sovereign, which it became the duty of every true born Scot to resist. The country party was formed, like every opposition, of an independent interest, with the discontented of every description intermixed; but their professed object was to procure redress for the loss of Darien, and to emancipate their country from the English yoke. -XI. 1703. parties. A fairer opportunity than the present could Views of never have occurred. At the close of the last reign, when the settlement of the crown of England was extended to the princess Sophia, Dowager of Hanover, the next protestant descendant of the elector palatine, and of Elizabeth, daughter of James VI. the estates of Scotland were not once consulted, and no provision was yet made to preserve the union of the crowns. The most salutary measure that originated in England, would have been rejected by the discontented of all ranks; and an incorporating union was recommended by William, in order to establish the same protestant succession in Scotland, and to prevent the final separation of the kingdoms. The security of England required that the protestant succession should be received in Scotland, but it was the ob BOOK XI. 1703. Act of se curity. should remain undetermined till their grievances were redressed, or till the benefit of an union were first obtained. To secure the independence of government, the country party determined to impose limitations on the successor to the crown. The court party were inclined to postpone the succession, or rather to introduce it by a previous union; but it was the interest of the Jacobites to leave the succession open for the last prince of the house of Stuart. Hamilton, who maintained a strict correspondence with the exiled family, was instructed to persuade the queen, if possible, to admit her brother to the crown of Scotland during her life, that his accession might be secured in England after her death. But the country party in general, the marquis of Tweedale, the earls of Rothes, Haddington, Roxburgh, Hyndford, Marchmont, lord Belhaven, Baillie of Jerviswood, and Fletcher of Salton, were indifferent, or more probably irreconcileable to the pretender's interest, and never meant to renounce their attachment to the protestant succession 1o. According to these views of the different par tics, the settlement of the crown was industriously evaded. The consideration of supplies was post 10 Macpherson, and other late historians, erroneously represent the country party as all Jacobites. It is now difficult to ascertain the numbers of each in parliament: but after the defection of the Squadrone, which consisted of more than thirty members, Lockhart is still careful to discriminate the Jacobites from the country party. |