Читать книгу The History of Constitutional Monarchy in England (1689 to 1837) - James Franck Bright - Страница 11

The Union.

For several sessions the Parliament had been acting under the new title of the Parliament of Great Britain, the Union with Scotland having been completed in 1707. Quite at the beginning of the reign, in 1702, leave having been given both by the Scotch and English Parliaments, Commissioners had met to make arrangements for the Union, which had always been a favourite project of William's. Neither party were, however, much in earnest, and the members of the Commission were lax in their attendance. There was no difficulty in agreeing upon the main points, but upon trade and finance the claims advanced by the Scotch, who seemed to wish on the one hand for equality of duties, and on the other for exemption from liabilities, were regarded as untenable, and in February 1703 the Commissioners ceased to meet.

Scotch Parliament. 1703.

On the 6th of May in that year the Scotch Parliament met, under the Presidency of the Duke of Queensberry as Lord Commissioner. Its temper was anything but conciliatory. The ill feeling excited by the Darien Scheme had by no means subsided. The late futile efforts of the joint Commission had still further roused the angry feelings of the people, and there was an idea afloat, by no means without foundation, that the High Church Tories, who were just coming into power, would seize the opportunity for an assault upon the National Church. All these causes influenced the temper of the Parliament, and instead of taking measures tending towards the Union, it seemed bent upon doing all that was possible to render the kingdoms quite separate. The Queen's letter, in which she recommended toleration, was contemptuously neglected, and a strong declaration passed, confirming the Presbyterian Church, "as the only Church of Christ in the Kingdom." Politically, the conduct of the Parliament was even less conciliatory. Resolutions were passed declaring that, after the death of the Queen, no King of England should make peace or war without consent of the Scotch Parliament; though the nation was in the midst of a great war with France, restrictions on the trade in French wine were removed; Fletcher of Saltoun introduced what were known as the Limitations, by which the authority of the Crown was seriously compromised; its power of appointing to the great offices of Government was transferred to the Parliament; and finally, a Bill of Security with regard to the succession was introduced, authorizing Parliament to name a successor from among the Protestant descendants of the royal line, but asserting that whoever that successor might be he was not to be the same as the successor to the Crown of England, unless proper security was given for the freedom of religion and trade. The nomination of the Princess Sophia, hazarded by the Earl of Marchmont, was received with derision and anger. All these Bills, except the last, received the royal assent. But the refusal to pass the Bill of Security was so unpopular, that it was found necessary to adjourn the House without securing any subsidy.

In the following year the Parliament again met. It was hoped that a new Commissioner would manage it more successfully, Scotch Parliament. July 1704. and the Marquis of Tweeddale was appointed to succeed Queensberry. The policy of conciliation was carried to an extreme, and Godolphin, always a timid minister, allowed Tweeddale to give the royal assent even to the Act of Security.

English Parliament. Oct. 1704.

The hostile feeling exhibited by the Scotch Parliament only went still further to prove what the Darien Scheme had made evident, that the Union was imperatively necessary. Whigs and Tories therefore combined, when the English Parliament met, in attacking Godolphin for his weakness; and in December, Somers brought forward, and succeeded in passing through both Houses, a law which seemed to threaten war between the countries. After Christmas 1705, all Scotchmen were to be regarded as aliens, the importation into England of the chief Scotch products—cattle, coal, and linen—was prohibited; and as a still stronger threat, it was ordered that the Border towns should be fortified and put into a state of security, and the militia in the northern counties called out. This severe threat was not without its effect. But the anger of the Scotch at the time only grew more vehement. In April of the following year, 1705, Thomas Green, a captain of a ship belonging to the new East India Company, had been seized by the agents of the Darien Company, charged with piracy in the East, and with the murder of a Darien captain. It was afterwards proved that the captain was alive; nevertheless, in spite of orders from the English Council, the Scotch ministers were overawed by the popular feeling, and the unfortunate man, with some others of his crew, was hanged. But England was now determined that the Union should be effected. Tweeddale was removed from his commissionership, and Argyle, assisted by Queensberry, put in his place. This gave Tweeddale an Scotch Parliament. June 1705. opportunity of forming a third party in the Parliament, which attempted to hold the balance between those who were for the Union and those who opposed it, and was known by the name of the Squadrone Volante. On the whole, however, this party acted with the Government. The Queen had instructed the Parliament to consider the question of the settlement of the succession, and the appointment of Commissioners to treat. With regard to the first point it proved obstinate, it insisted on first discussing the condition of trade, and could not be induced to name any successor. With some slight alterations, it passed again the Limitations suggested by Fletcher of Saltoun, and added further, that a Scotch ambassador should be present at all treaties involving the two nations. But upon the second point, by the aid of the Squadrone Volante, the Government was successful. The threatened Alien Bill indeed began to have its effect; and it was ordered that the Commissioners should not begin to act till that Bill was repealed. As it seemed to have done its work, this suggestion was attended to, and in November the English Parliament repealed the Act.

The Commissioners meet. 1706.

Thus then, the chief obstacles being removed, in April 1706, the Commissioners, thirty-one on each side, met. The English Commissioners at once suggested as the prime object of negotiation, that there should be one Kingdom, one Parliament, and one Successor. The Scotch seemed first to desire a Federative Union, but yielded, on condition that their religion should be free, and that their trade should enjoy a general equality of advantage. It was the details, especially of taxation and trade, which gave the greatest trouble. The Scotch insisted on discussing them in detail. It was finally agreed that they should be exempt from terminable taxes, and receive an equivalent for any present loss they might sustain, by taking their share in the public debt of England, which was larger than their own. The revenue of England was about £5,700,000, that of Scotland about £160,000. The debts of England amounted to £17,700,000, those of Scotland, taken roughly, to £160,000; that is, England owed three and a half, Scotland only one year's revenue. The equivalent fixed was £398,000, which was employed to pay off the whole Scotch debt, to dissolve the Darien Company and indemnify its shareholders, and for other Scotch purposes. The other questions were easily settled. The title of the United Kingdom was to be Great Britain, the national flags were to be incorporated in one. The Scotch taxes amounted to little more than a fortieth of the English. Had this been observed as a basis of representation, they would have had but thirteen members of Parliament. But this being held too few, they were granted forty-five members, which was about a twelfth of the whole House of Commons. The same proportion was taken for the basis of the arrangement of the Upper House, and thus of the whole Scottish Peerage sixteen were to be elected to sit in the united House of Lords.

When the Treaty had been settled by the Commissioners, it was brought before the Scotch Parliament, where it met with violent opposition. In one way or another it was objectionable to many classes. The Jacobites saw in it the final destruction of all their hopes of a change of dynasty. The extreme Presbyterians did not believe in a Union which would leave their Church untrammelled. The views of the Revolution had gone further in Scotland than in England, and a considerable body of active spirits had adopted republican views; to them the establishment of a monarchy backed by the strength of England was distasteful, as rendering any fulfilment of their hopes impossible. And the Edinburgh tradesmen recognized to the full the loss they would sustain by the removal of Parliament to London. The discussion on the various points went on throughout Scotch Parliament. Oct. 1706. the whole of the year. The final effort of the Opposition was to be a great protest, to be produced at the debate upon the share Scotland was to have in the national legislature. This protest was to be presented by Hamilton, as premier Peer, and to be followed by a secession of the minority. But Hamilton's heart failed him at the appointed moment, the protest was not presented, and on the 16th of January 1707 the measure was finally carried by 110 votes to 69.

Having been successfully passed through the Scotch House, the Bill had now to be ratified by the English Parliament. So many changes had been made that it was possible there might be much difficulty in securing the easy passage of the Bill. But as the Whigs and the Government were determined that at all hazards it should become law, they accepted without question all the Scotch amendments. When the articles of the Treaty had thus been carried through the House, there yet remained the Act of Ratification to complete it. It was still possible for the opponents of the Bill to reopen discussion upon each article in detail. The skill of Sir Simon Harcourt, the Attorney-General, thwarted this disastrous intention, by so wording the Bill that the articles themselves were not called in question, but their ratification alone demanded. He induced all parties, who were on the whole agreed that in some shape or other the Bill had better pass, to accept it. With little opposition therefore it was carried through both Houses, and became law, and the succeeding Parliament took the name of the Parliament of Great Britain. Party feeling was at the time very high, and accusations of bribery were lavishly flung abroad, but a closer examination appears to prove that these charges were unfounded.