George W. T. Omond

“ Could you be content that our lad should marry your lass, and so be King of England?” And when Sadler answered that he would, the Scotsman shook his head. “I cannot believe,” he said, “that your nation could agree to have a Scot to be King of England. And likewise I assure you that our nation, being a stout nation, will never agree to have an Englishman to be King of Scotland. And though the whole nobility of the realm would consent to it, yet our common people, and the stones in the street, would rise and rebel against it.” ”

“ Gay young men, like Lord Dalgarno in The Fortunes of Nigel, looked forward to the amusements and dissipation of London, and to the chance of filling their empty pockets by marriages with English heiresses. And among the humbler members of the royal retinue there were not a few adventurers who were glad to visit England, and share the spoil with their betters. So great, indeed, was the rush of Scotsmen to England, that soon after the accession a proclamation was issued that no Scotsman was to cross the Tweed, or sail for England, without a passport from the Privy Council. ”

“ There was to be freedom and equality of trade between England and Scotland. The subjects of both kingdoms were to be allowed to intermarry. If the Scots wished it, the name of England would be abolished, and “the indifferent old name of Britains” taken again. “If we two,” the proclamation declared, “being made one by amity, be most able to defend us against all nations; and, having the sea for the wall, mutual love for garrison, and God for defence, should make so noble and well-agreeing a monarchy, that neither in peace we may be ashamed, nor in war afraid of any worldly or foreign power ”

“ So long as Mary of Guise was Regent, so long as Frenchmen governed Scotland, so long as Scotland, like France, adhered to the Catholic Faith, the power of the house of Stuart was hardly, if at all, impaired by the absence of the queen. But now all this was at an end. Mary of Guise was dead. An English army had expelled the soldiers of France. The government of Scotland was in the hands of Scotsmen. The Scottish nation was no longer Catholic. To celebrate the mass was an offence against the law; and the Scottish clergy were using the Prayer-book of Edward the Sixth. ”

“ However popular an Union might have been among the Scottish merchants, it would have been most unpopular in England. The English merchants, who had exulted in the failure of the Commission on Trade, were up in arms against the idea of giving to Scotland the privileges which she would have secured by the Union; and the majority of Englishmen still hated and despised the very name of Scotland. ”

“ There was a general fear that every district, and every calling, would be overrun with needy Scotsmen. The Articles of Union, it was said, would open to Scotsmen not only trade, but [77] the Church, the universities, and the highest offices of State. They would fill, it was predicted, the best stalls in every cathedral in England; Latin would be taught at Oxford and Cambridge by the countrymen of Buchanan, whose scholarship not even English jealousy could venture to deny; and the tireless energy of ambitious Scottish politicians would secure the most lucrative places in the Government. ”

“ The Estates, in language not usually to be found in the statute-book, declare that the Act is passed in order that “as the present age is ravished in admiration with an so fortunate [67] beginning, so that the posterity may rejoice in the fruition of such an effectual Union of two so famous and ancient Kingdoms, miraculously accomplished in the blood and person of so rare a monarch.”
But the Estates, while ready to lavish praise on the king, were determined that the Union was not to interfere with the independence of Scotland. ”

“ But with the object to which he devoted the rest of his life even those Englishmen who doubted the wisdom of his policy were inclined to sympathise. The Scottish Reformation, unlike that of England, had been the work of the aristocracy, in opposition to the Crown. It had, at the same time, been a [88] deeply religious movement; and these two forces, working together, had developed, as the distinguishing features of the Reformed Church of Scotland, a denial of the royal supremacy in ecclesiastical affairs, and the assertion of the spiritual independence of the Church. ”

“ It was, indeed, the interest of all whose fortunes were bound up with the fortunes of the Royal Family that Scotland should be conciliated. The recent conferences had shown how strong the feeling of Scotland was on the subject of trade; and no candid-minded Englishman could deny that the grievances complained of by the commissioners from beyond the Tweed were real grievances. It was true that the more powerful nation was master of the field, and could, by obstinately opposing the demands of her weaker neighbour, debar her from the trade in which she was so anxious to obtain a share. ”

“ This inequality, Bacon declared, consisted only in gold and silver, the external goods of fortune. “In their capacities and undertakings,” he said, “they are a people ingenious, in labour industrious, in courage valiant, in body hard, active, and comely.” If Scotland was, after all, to gain by the Union, then England might find that it was more blessed to give than to receive.
Having thus answered the objections to naturalisation, he next maintained that if naturalisation did not follow the Union of the Kingdoms under the same Crown, danger would be the result. ”

“ The competition for the Scottish Crown; the arbitration of Edward; his claim to the title of Lord Superior; the invasion of Scotland; the occupation of Scottish strongholds, and of large portions of Scottish territory, by English garrisons; the homage paid to the English king by the competitors for the Crown; the spectacle of Englishmen filling many great offices of State;—all tended to exasperate the Scottish nation. But Edward [11] never seems to have doubted that he would succeed no matter at what a cost of blood and treasure in joining the kingdoms. ”

“ From the first, many in Scotland doubted the wisdom of these alliances; and now the eyes of [32] all were opened. They saw the inordinate ambition of France, and wished to form a league with England. [21] The fear of conquest made the Scots hate England and love France. Now the case is changed; “Shall we not hate them and favour you?” If we have been so faithful to France, from whom we have received so little, can you not trust us to be faithful to you, who of all nations are most able to bestow benefits upon us? ”

“ The Opposition, led by Hamilton, desired to pass an Act asserting the right of Scotland to the settlement at Darien, which was the favourite scheme of the country, and which the Estates had lately been told from the pulpit was “that great, laudable, and glorious design and undertaking of the nation, for the advancement of foreign trade, which if it be altogether crushed, Scotland is never like to enjoy such a fair opportunity again, for promoting her outward wealth and welfare.” ”

“ The new law was so rigorous that no goods nor produce, of any country, could be imported into the colonies except from England or Wales. Irish goods could not go from Ireland, nor Scottish goods from Scotland. Moreover, the most important products of a colony could enter England, or another colony, only on payment of duty. English ships alone were allowed to carry goods to and from the colonies. The sugar, the tobacco, the cotton, in fact all the most useful produce of the colonies, could be shipped to England only, and could not enter an English port except in an English vessel. ”

“ Every Episcopal clergyman in Scotland, with scarcely an exception, was a Tory and a Jacobite. On the eve of the Revolution, when the bishops of England were opposing, with dignified firmness, the arbitrary pretensions of the [154] king, the Scottish bishops had addressed him in terms of the most servile eulogy. They assured him that they regarded a steadfast allegiance to the throne as an essential part of their religion. They declared that the line of Stuart was the greatest glory of Scotland. ”

“ Henceforth the policy of extending the Anglican system to Scotland became the hereditary policy of the Stuarts. Three years after the Union of the Crowns, the boldest leaders of the clergy having been driven into exile, the Scottish Parliament acknowledged the royal supremacy over all persons and all causes. ”

“ Bacon led on the other side. The grand idea of an orderly and well-balanced Union of the two kingdoms had fascinated his imagination. In moderate language, and in his most lucid manner, he answered his opponents, and expounded his own reasons for advising the Parliament of England to naturalise the Scottish nation. There were, he said, three objections to doing so. In the first place, it was thought that if the Scots were no longer aliens, they would settle in England in such numbers that the country would be over-populated. ”

“ As no heir had been born to the Queen of Scots, and as she was absent from her kingdom, the nobles [29] and commons of Scotland ought, under the guidance of the Hamiltons, who were the next heirs to the Crown, to free the land of idolatry by such a Reformation as had already taken place in England; and, “before the French grew too strong and insolent,” a number of abuses which threatened to ruin the country should be remedied. If the Queen did not agree to these reforms, then she must be held to have forfeited the Crown. ”

“ In England, though James himself was received with demonstrations of loyalty, his Scottish followers were regarded with mingled contempt and hatred. Scotland, it was said, was a land where the nobles were beggars, and the merchants were pedlars. ”

“ But no one who looks below the surface, or reads the history of that period with an impartial mind, can fail to perceive [93] that what brought the people of Scotland into a position of such stern antagonism to the English system of Church government, and, still more, what kept them there, was the fact that to accept Episcopacy was to give up spiritual independence, to admit the royal supremacy, and to abandon the principle of a divine head of the Church. ”

“ If England was invaded at a point at a distance from Scotland, an army of seven thousand Scotsmen was to march to assist her. If Scotland was invaded at any place distant from England, twelve thousand Englishmen were to help her. If the invasion took place near the Borders, James was to send as many troops as he could muster to the spot. If any trouble arose in Ireland, none of the inhabitants of Scotland were to be permitted to go thither. Neither kingdom was to shelter rebels fleeing across the Border. ”

“ The Scottish Church was willing to receive Charles the Second, if he would declare himself a Presbyterian and sign the Covenants. “If his Majesty,” Baillie writes, “may be moved to join with us in this one point, he will have all Scotland [95] ready to sacrifice their lives for his service.” Charles consented. He subscribed the Covenants, and bound himself, by an oath, to maintain the Presbyterian Church. But the royal cause was hopeless. Cromwell’s victory at Dunbar was a crushing blow; and the battle of Worcester left Scotland at the mercy of the English army. ”

“ On the 20th of October, the Commissioners on Union met at Westminster. “A grave and orderly assembly,” is the account which Bacon gives of them. On the English side the lead was taken by Bacon and Cecil; while of the Scottish commissioners, Sir Thomas Hamilton and Lord Fyvie seem to have been the most prominent. It was soon evident that the Scottish peers were afraid that the Union would diminish their own power, and indifferent to the commercial advantages which it would confer upon their country. The commoners from Scotland also had their doubts about the Union. ”

“ Instead of sinking into apathy and indolence, or allowing their hatred of England to drive them into violence, they became more active than ever in forming plans for bringing solid material prosperity to their country. The air was full of projects; and soon these projects took a definite [182] shape. All Scotland was to became one great trading company. The subscribers to the African Company were to be repaid in full. A sum of money greater than that which had been lost was to be raised within two years. In spite of English opposition, colonies were to be founded by Scotsmen. ”

“ If you once allow the French to become masters of Scotland, is there a man whose judgment is so much at fault as not to show him that France, having once conceived the image of so great a conquest as that of England, will endeavour to accomplish it?
Nor must you believe those who call us rebels. We maintain the queen’s right. We study to preserve the liberty of her realm at the hazard of [34] our lives. ”