perity of two nations. The magistrates were waiting at the gate of every large town to conduct the distinguished guest to his lodgings. A circumstance still more demonstrative of the turn English feeling had taken was the marks of friendliness which persons of all ranks delighted in paying to the numerous Scotchmen who accompanied Queensberry. For the first time since the two kingdoms had been brought under one Crown, the natives of the northern part of the island found that a Scottish face and a Scottish accent could be seen and heard without provoking insult. The Commissioner's entry into London resembled a triumphal procession. The road from Barnet to Highgate was covered by the coaches of the nobility and by gentlemen on horseback. All the Whig peers, all the members of the House of Commons who had voted for the Union, assembled to do honour to the man who had brought the project safely through so many dangers.* Since the Act of ratification passed, Anne had been overwhelmed with addresses from almost every corporation in England, complimenting her in loyal strains upon having performed a work so difficult that it had been the glory of her predecessors merely to attempt it.† It was ordered by proclamation that the 1st of May, the day from which the Union was to commence, should be observed as a day of public thanksgiving, and throughout England the rejoicings were in full accordance with this order. Once more the Londoners had an opportunity of witnessing the pageant, now grown familiar, of the sovereign repairing in state to St. Paul's, to return thanks for the signal mercies of Providence. The text from which the Bishop of Oxford preached was the very appropriate one from the Psalms, "Behold, how good and pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!" In Scotland, on the other hand, the day from which it was destined that the country should enter on a career of prosperity almost as brilliant as that predicted for it by such seers as Law and Chamberlayne, was, by the care of the clergy, kept as a day of national mourning with the object of propitiating an incensed God, who must surely have inflicted the

• Boyer.

+ London Gazette; Lettres Historiques; Boyer. The University of Oxford distinguished itself by its silence on this occasion.

Union upon the Scottish people as a just punishment for their sins.*

The difficulties which now engaged the attention of both Houses, were brought on by the eagerness of sharp traders, not only in England and Scotland, but even upon the Continent, to take advantage of an unguarded point in the treaty of Union. It had been agreed that, until the 1st of May, each kingdom should retain its existing scale of customs; but that, after that period the English scale should be extended to Scotland. The existing Scottish customs on wine, spirits and other foreign productions were trifling in comparison with the heavy tax demanded in England. An importer, therefore, of commodities, ultimately designed for the English market, if he wished to obtain a cargo at the lighter rates, had but to direct its shipment to a Scottish instead of to an English port. The cargo would be landed, after payment of the Scottish customs, might remain in Scotland until the Union, and might then be brought free into England. There was, moreover, another way in which money could be made with little difficulty and no risk whatever. Under certain statutes any person who sent tobacco, pepper, and some other descriptions of colonial produce into Scotland, was allowed a drawback of sixpence in the pound upon the duties he had paid when they were landed in England. It was an easy thing for a merchant, who had on hand a stock of such commodities, to pass them into Scotland before the 1st of May, to pocket the drawback, and then to bring them back into England as soon as the Union had commenced.

Such being the state of the case, it is not strange that, from the moment the news was received that the Union had passed the Scottish Parliament, the smaller fry of traders should have been everywhere on the alert. An amount of business quite unprecedented was during three months transacted in the seaports of Scotland. Ships were arriving every day from France with cargoes of wines and silks; coffee and spices, luxuries which never could have been intended for the markets of an impoverished people, were set on shore from Holland; while tobacco, in most unusual quantities, kept the officers of the custom-houses on the border continually employed in refunding

• Boyer.

the drawback. At length the more respectable members of the trading community, too honourable to stoop to such sources of profit themselves, yet infuriated at the gains which their less scrupulous brethren were making, petitioned for the interference of Parliament on the grounds that, not only did these transactions inflict serious losses upon themselves, but that the public revenue would be materially affected. The Commons responded by passing resolutions denouncing the practices complained of, and by ordering a bill to be brought in to rectify the evil. The main provision of that bill was that, even after the commencement of the Union, goods passing from Scotland into England should be liable to duty, unless it could be proved that they were in Scotland before the 1st of February, or had been imported into that kingdom after the 1st of May. It is no slight evidence of the superior wisdom of the Peers that this bill, which passed the Lower House, was rejected in the Upper by a great majority. It was pointed out that the remedy was far more mischievous than the evil. To disappoint a few cunning men who hoped to derive profits at the expense of the revenue, would be no doubt an advantage; but it would be an advantage dearly purchased by legislation which was in itself an infraction of the treaty, which would necessitate the continuance of the custom-houses on the border, and keep the subjects of the two kingdoms wrangling with each other for some time to come.

But another point speedily arose which, but for the liberal spirit which the Parliament was disposed to apply to all matters in issue with Scotland, might have excited a fearful outcry among a people jealously on the watch for subject of offence. The kingdom of Great Britain was scarcely a month old before a fleet of forty sail came crowding into the Thames from the northern ports. The ships were boarded by the officers of the Custom House. Each skipper was prepared to show that his cargo had been landed in Scotland before the date of the Union, that he had brought it directly from thence; and so far his right to set the goods on shore without any further payment of duty was clear. But the officers saw that a great portion of the cargoes consisted of articles which, since the

* Defoe, History of the Union; Boyer; Lettres Historiques; Burnet.

prohibition of trade with France, were contraband in this country, and conceived it to be their duty to take possession of the ships. The matter was laid before the Privy Council. The board thought it prudent to resort to a decision of the Parliament. Prosecutions were instituted against the owners of the vessels, who were, however, permitted, upon giving security, to land the cargoes. The judgment of the Commons was a marked indication of their wish to soothe and conciliate the people of the north by a large and liberal construction of the terms of the treaty. It was unanimously agreed to request her Majesty that she would instruct her law officers to desist from all further proceedings in regard to these ships.*

Some further legislation was resorted to with the view of rendering the Union more complete. Those two famous Acts, the Act of Security and the Act anent peace and war, in which the hostile feelings of Scotland against England had formerly found vent, it was thought advisable to repeal by an express enactment. But another subject upon which it was necessary to adjudicate aroused strong passions. A bill was introduced to abolish the Privy Council of Scotland, and to assimilate the powers of justices of the peace in that kingdom to those possessed by English justices. The measure met with opposition in the Lower House, and was encountered with still greater determination when it was sent up to the Lords. The arguments for retaining the Privy Council were indeed not contemptible. While the kingdom was full of disaffection, while the agents of France and of the Pretender were passing busily from one nobleman's house to another's, while tidings might each day be brought of an insurrection of the Cameronians or the Highlanders, it was surely for the public advantage that a commission should always be on the spot, armed with the fullest powers, and upon the fidelity of whose members the Government at home could implicitly depend. Nor was there the certainty that, if the powers now exercised by the Privy Council were suddenly transferred to justices of the peace, those persons would comprehend them sufficiently to discharge their duties. Nay, it might be found impossible to obtain the requisite number of gentlemen whose fidelity to the existing

Boyer; Lettres Historiques.

Government was beyond suspicion. But strong as were these arguments, they failed to convince the majority of the Peers. The bare mention of the Privy Council of Scotland was sufficient to excite in most minds an unconquerable desire to abolish its existence. It was impossible to forget that that institution had been, ever since the days of the infamous Cabal, the convenient instrument of tyranny in the hands either of wicked and corrupt ministers or of a cruel sovereign. It had been constantly instigated to ruin, torture, and murder God's creatures, and had performed its iniquitous tasks with apparent delight. Was it not, therefore, advisable that an institution, whose past history was a reproach to England, and upon whose deeds Scotland could not think without indignation, should be swept away, whatever temporary disadvantage its loss might occasion? Cowper, Somers, Halifax, Sunderland, all spoke on this side, but the bill was carried by a majority of only five votes. In the opinion of Godolphin, the services of the Council were too valuable to be dispensed with at so critical a time. It is possible, however, that his judgment may have been biassed by reflecting upon the assistance its members might afford to the Government in Parliamentary elections.

*

From the consideration of these weighty affairs it becomes necessary to pass to a consideration of the state of mind of that august lady upon whose prejudices, religious and political, depended in large measure the future of most European commonwealths. Seldom or never has a sovereign of this country occupied so proud a position in the community of nations as Anne. She was the real chief of the most formidable confederacy that had ever yet been organized against France. The armies of that confederacy were inspirited by almost unvarying success, and were directed by a man who, if not the greatest military genius, was the most reliable commander the world had seen for centuries. There can be little doubt that the war, notwithstanding the inconvenience to trade, the high prices, and heavy taxation which it occasioned, was popular with the great majority of the English people. So great was already the exhaustion and distress of France, that nothing but a steady determination on the part of the English sovereign

* Boyer; Lettres Historiques.