the privy council; and lord Cutts was sent to command the troops in Ireland, under the duke of Ormond.

6.XXIX. The ministry of Scotland was now entirely changed. The marquis of Tweedale and Johnstone, having been found unequal to the undertaking, were dismissed.. The duke of Queensberry resumed the management of affairs in that kingdom under the title of lord privy seal; and the office of commissioner was conferred upon the young duke of Argyle, who succeeded to his father's influence among the presbyterians. He was a nobleman possessed of good natural talents, which had not been neglected; candid, open, and sincere; brave, passionate, and aspiring had he been indued with a greater share of liberality, his character would have been truly heroic. At this juncture he was instructed to procure an act of the Scottish parliament, settling the protestant succession: or to set on foot a treaty for the union of the two kingdoms. At the opening of the session in June, the members were divided into three parties, namely, the cavaliers or jacobites, the revolutioners, the squadrone volante, or flying squa-' dron, headed by the marquis of Tweedale, who disclaimed the other two factions, and pretended to act from the dictates of conscience alone. The parliament was adjourned to the third day of July, when her majesty's letter was read, earnestly recommending the settlement of the succession in the protestant line, and an act for a commission to treat of an union between the two kingdoms. The marquis of Annandale proposed that the parliament should proceed on the limitations and conditions of government; that a committee should be appointed to consider the condition of the coin and the commerce of the nation. The earl of Mar moved, that the house would, preferably to all other business, consider the means for engaging in a treaty with England. After a long debate they resolved to proceed on the coin and the commerce. Schemes for supplying the nation with money by a paper credit were presented by Dr. Hugh Chamberlayne and John Law; but rejected. The house resolved, that any kind of paper credit, by the circulation of bills, was an improper expedient; and appointed a council to put the laws relating to trade in execution. The duke of Hamilton proposed that

the parliament should not proceed to the nomination of a successor, until the treaty with England should be discussed, and the limitations settled. This proposal being approved, a draft of an answer to her majesty's letter was presented by the marquis of Tweedale. Two different forms of an act for a treaty with England were offered by the earl of Mar and the marquis of Lothian: others were produced concerning the elections of officers of state, and the regulation of commerce.

§ XXX. The chief aim of the cavaliers was to obstruct the settlement of the succession; and with that view they pressed the project of limitations, to which they knew the court, would never assent.* A motion being made, to grant the first reading to an act of commission for a treaty with England, the duke of Hamilton insisted on the limitations, and a vote being stated in these terms, "Proceed to consider "the act for a treaty of limitation," the latter was carried in favour of the cavaliers. On the twenty-second day of August an act for this purpose was approved : and next day an act for a triennial parliament, which the courtiers were enabled to defeat. They likewise passed an act, ordaining, that the Scottish ambassadors representing Scotland, should be present when the sovereign might have occasion to treat with foreign princes and states, and be accountable to the parliament of Scotland. Fletcher, of Saltoun, presented a scheme of limitations that savoured strongly of republican principles. He afterwards enlarged upon every article, endeavouring to prove that they were absolutely necessary to prevent the consequences of English influence; to enable the nation to defend its rights and liberties: and to deter ministers of state from giving bad advice to their sovereign; to preserve the courts of judicature from corruption, and screen the people from tyranny and oppression. The earl of Stair having argued against these limitations, Fletcher replied, "It was no wonder he opposed the scheme; for, "had such an act subsisted, his lordship would have been hanged for the bad counsel he had given to king James; "for the concern he had in the massacre of Glencoe; and for his conduct since the revolution.". The next subject

* An. 1705.

on which the parliament deliberated was the conspiracy. A motion being made that the house might know what answer the queen had returned to their address in the last session, the chancellor delivered to the clerk register the papers relating to the plot, that they might be perused by the members: but these being copies, and the evidences remaining at London, no further progress was made in the affair. Yet the duke of Athol in a distinct narrative of the pretended conspiracy, boldly accused the duke of Queensberry of having endeavoured to mislead the queen by false insinuations against her good subjects. When the act for a treaty of union fell under consideration, a draft for that purpose, presented by the earl of Mar, was compared with the English act, importing, that the queen should name and appoint not only the commissioners for England, but likewise those for Scotland. Fletcher did not fail to inveigh against the imperious conduct of the English parliament in this affair. He exhorted the house to resent such treatment, and offered the draft of an address to her majesty on the subject; but this the house rejected. Duke Hamilton proposed that a clause might be added to the act, importing, that the union should no ways derogate from any fundamental laws, ancient privileges, offices, rights, liberties, and dignities of the Scottish nation. This occasioned a long debate; and the question being put, was carried in the negative. Another clause was proposed, that the Scottish commissioners should not begin to treat until the English parliament should have rescinded their clause, enacting, That the subjects of Scotland should be adjudged and taken as aliens after the twenty-fifth day of December. The courtiers, considering the temper of the house, would not venture to oppose this motion directly, but proposed that the clause should be formed into a separate act; and the expedient was approved. Though the duke of Athol entered a vigorous protest, to which the greater part of the cavaliers and all the squadrone adhered, comprehending four-and-twenty peers, seven-and-thirty barons, and eighteen boroughs, the act for the treaty of union was, after much altercation, finished, empowering commissioners to meet and treat of an union; but restraining them from treating of any alterations of the church government as by law

established. Whilst this important subject was under consideration, the duke of Hamilton, to the amazement of his whole party, moved that the nomination of the commissioners. should be left to the queen. Fourteen or fifteen of the cavaliers ran out of the house in a transport of indignation, exclaiming that they were deserted and basely betrayed by the duke of Hamilton. A very hot debate ensued, in the course of which the duke was severely handled by those whom he had hitherto conducted: but, at length, the question being put, whether the nomination should be left to the queen or to the parliament, the duke's motion was approved by a very small majority. He afterwards excused himself for his defection, by saying, he saw it was in vain to contend; and that since the court had acquired a great majority, he thought he might be allowed to pay that compliment to his sovereign. He was desirous of being in the commission, and the duke of Argyle promised he should be nominated. The queen refusing to honour him with that mark of distinction, Argyle would not suffer himself to be named, and threatened to oppose the union: but means were found to appease his resentment.

Two drafts

of an address being presented by the earl of Sutherland and Fletcher of Saltoun, beseeching her majesty to use her endeavours with the parliament of England to rescind that part of their act which declared the subjects of Scotland. aliens; and an overture of a bill being offered, ordaining that the Scottish commissioners should not enter upon the treaty of union until that clause should be repealed; the courtiers moved, that the parliament should proceed by way of order to their commissioners, and by address to her majesty. After some debate, the house assenting to this proposal, the order and address were drawn up and approved. The great and weighty affair of the treaty being at length happily transacted, though not without a protest by Athol and his adherents, the parliament granted a supply of fifty thousand pounds, and the house was adjourned to the twentieth day of December; then the queen declared the earl of Mar secretary of state in the room of the marquis of Annandale, who was appointed lord president of the council.

6 XXXI. In Ireland the parliament met at Dublin on the fifth day of March, and voted one hundred and fifty thousand pounds for the support of the necessary branches of the establishment. A dispute arose between the commons and the lower house of convocation, relating to the tithes of hemp and flax, ascertained in a clause of a bill for the better improvement of the hempen and flaxen manufactures of the kingdom. The lower house of convocation presented a memorial against this clause as prejudicial to the rights and properties of the clergy. The commons voted the person who brought it in guilty of a breach of privilege and ordered him to be taken into custody. Then they resolved, that the convocation were guilty of a contempt and breach of the privilege of that house. The convocation presuming to justify their memorial, the commons voted, that all matters relating to it should be rased out of the journals and books of convocation. The duke of Ormond, dreading the consequences of such heats, adjourned the parliament to the first day of May, when the houses meeting again, came to some resolutions that reflected obliquely on the convocation, as enemies to her majesty's government and the protestant succession. The clergy, in order to acquit themselves of all suspicion, resolved in their turn, that the church and nation had been happily delivered from popery and tyranny by king William at the revolution: That the continuance of these blessings were due (under God) to the auspicious reign and happy government of her majesty queen Anne: That the future security and preser. vation of the church and nation depended wholly (under God) on the succession of the crown as settled by law in the protestant line: That if any clergyman should by word or writing declare any thing in opposition to these resolutions, they should look upon him as a sower of divisions among the protestants, and an enemy to the constitution. They leyelled another resolution against the presbyterians, importing, that to teach or to preach against the doctrine, government, rites, or ceremonies of the church, or to maintain schools or seminaries for the education of youth, in principles contrary to those of the established church, was a contempt of the ecclesiastical laws of the kingdom; of pernicious consequence: and served only to continue and