trade, and other advantages.—5. The securing the conditions of the union;-but he left them to discuss them in what order, and to make what proposals on each they thought best. As the business was new to the Scottish deputies, the commissioners separated; each nation to deliberate apart. At a private meeting in Lauderdale's lodgings, the lord advocate contended that there could be no union, as proposed in the second and third articles, it being destructive of the fundamental constitution of Scotland, and tending to take away her parliament, which parliament had neither power to do themselves, nor could they empower others to do it; besides, it was declared treason, by statute, parl. 8. James VI. to attempt the alteration of the constitution of parliament, or to transfer, or alienate the kingdom. He alleged, also, that the union proposed by James VI., by which they were to be regulated, was not of this nature; but, like the union among the ancient republics, the sovereignty was preserved to each individual state. Lauderdale answered, that the United Provinces had each of them their sovereignties reserved, and yet they were united in one body by their several representatives, in a common council; and the republics of Greece were represented at the general council of the Amphictions. On the first head, it was argued, that there could be no appeals from the court of council and session, in Scottish cases, to the British parliament; a resolution, from which it is questionable, how far, at a later date, it was justifiable to depart. Respecting the proposal for reducing the two parliaments into one, the English commissioners appear to have been aware of the danger of introducing too many needy Scottish members, and required that it should be considered in two branches; first, the proportion of burdens, and then the proportion of members. In private, the earl of Lauderdale, on purpose to preserve the Scottish legislatures independent, proposed that both parliaments should be kept entire, but that a certain number of Englishmen be appointed to sit in the Scottish parliament;* and, upon great emergents concerning the monarchy, his majesty might be empowered to summon the two great councils, to meet together at

The king already possessed the power of creating Scottish noblemen, English peers, and giving them a right to sit in the house of lords.

Westminster, or wherever he chose, to deliberate and decide upon public affairs. But this suggestion was dropped, as inconsistent with the second proposition; and both English and Scottish commissioners agreed to his majesty's proposal, as it stood, for incorporating the parliaments. The English insisted that only a proportion of Scottish members should be admitted, regulated by the wealth and population of the country. The Scottish said, they had not authority for breaking down their native parliament, which consisting of lords, spiritual and temporal, commissioners of shires and burghs, all behoved to be admitted; to this the English commissioners not consenting, On the the conference was adjourned, and they met no more. 14th November, the Scottish commissioners held their final audience at Whitehall, to take leave, when the earl of Lauderdale informed his majesty of their proceedings-that in consideration of his royal interest and greatness, they had consented that both parliaments entirely should be united, and that nothing less could have satisfied the parliament of Scotland, which not being accomplished, they were about to return to their homes, but would be ready again to wait on his majesty, whenever they should receive his commands. The king told them, as at present it did not appear likely the treaty could be brought to a conclusion, he would think upon some expedient for removing the difficulties, of which he would give them due notice; and dismissed them with great professions of kindness for his ancient kingdom, to which he confessed himself under many and great obligations.

THE

HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.

BOOK XIII.

LAUDERDALE, now lord of the ascendant, determined to have no rivals. He had hitherto consented to share with Tweedale, and Sir Robert Murray, the administration of Scotland, which, under their management, was beginning to assume some appearance of regularity; the revenues were not squandered with the same wanton and thoughtless prodigality, and even a surplus was laid up in the exchequer; proposals for extending the fisheries had been encouraged, and a company formed under the sanction of government, to be divided into shares of one hundred pounds sterling, each, which had already a capital of twenty-five thousand pounds; and although the courts of justice could neither be praised for impartiality nor uprightness, they were not so outrageously and shamelessly venal as they had been, or as they afterwards became.

But lady Dysart, and the earl of Rothes, had insinuated into his grace's dark and irritable mind, that Tweedale assumed the credit of being his director, and his haughty spirit could not brook the idea of being still under tutelage. The first open appearance of the breach, however, was the pettish reply Lauderdale gave to Sir John Baird, one of the commissioners. for the union, when he asked him if he would write for Tweedale, who remained in Scotland as manager during his absence, to come up to London, " he may come, if he please," was the answer, "but I will write for no man." When Tweedale came, and was welcomed and entertained by his own friends, the earl exercised his rude raillery upon the occasion, and in

some otherwise insignificant squabbles that occurred, assumed the air of a master, and a decided opponent to the supporters of the other.*

Immediately upon this rupture, the commissioner formed new arrangements, at the head of which was his brother Hatton, whose interest the countess of Dysart espoused, as there was a treaty of marriage in agitation between her eldest daughter and his son. Whilst these changes were going forward, the countess of Lauderdale, who had retired, to avoid being witness of her husband's infidelity, died at Paris; within six weeks after her decease, the earl married lady Dysart, and Sir Robert Murray incurred the lasting displeasure of the noble pair, by having advised him against what he considered a disgraceful connexion. Thus, the only persons who were checks upon the violence of the earl's temper, being removed from his confidence, his depraved and furious passions devised, and protracted in Scotland, a more hideous tyranny than had ever desolated that wretched country.

The powerful offices of state, and in the courts of justice, were appropriated entirely by the earl and his dependants; besides, being king's high commissioner, he was president of the council, sole secretary of state, one of the commissioners of the

Sir George M'Kenzie mentions one of these, very descriptive of the times. "The chancellor dining at Blackbarrony's house, did express his dissatisfaction with the advocate and register for walking afoot on the streets, having so considerable an allowance, calling them damn'd lawyers.' This having been told them, they, but especially the advocate, resented deeply the expression, at which the commissioner considering that they were Tweedale's only supports, stormed extremely, and swore he would complain of them to the king, as persons who designed to divide the commissioners for the union by their fantastic whimsies." Hist. p. 213.

+ Lady Dysart was the eldest daughter of William Murray, who had been page and whipping-boy (i. e. a slave to endure the chastisement young master merited, an improvement in education adopted subsequent to the days of Buchanan) afterwards a gentleman of the bedchamber to Charles I., by whom he was created earl of Dysart. She was designed by her father to have been married to Sir Robert Murray, but the design was fallen through, and she married, for her first husband, Sir Leonel Talmash of Suffolk, a man of a noble family, after whose death she lived with Lauderdale till his lady died, as mentioned in the text. Burnet, vol. i. pp. 359, 360. She inherited or assumed the title after her father's decease.

treasury, captain of the castle of Edinburgh, and of the Bass,* agent at court for the royal burghs, and one of the four extraordinary lords of session; his brother, lord Hatton, was treasurer-depute, general of the mint, and one of the lords of session; Athole was lord privy-seal, justice-general, captain of the king's guard, and one of the four extraordinary lords of session; the earl of Kincardine one of the commissioners of the treasury, vice-admiral of Scotland, and an extraordinary lord of session; Sir James Dalrymple of Stair, a privy counsellor, and president of the court of session; and Sir James Lockhart of Lee, lord justice clerk, to whose court five lords of session were conjoined, instead of the deputies whom the justice-general, or the assessors whom the privy council had been accustomed to appoint; rendering, perhaps, a superficial, rather than a substantial, an apparent, rather than any real alteration in the efficient power of the judicatory; but, if possible, reducing the justiciary to a rank more devoted than even the session to the crown.

"Sir

The Bass is a high insulated rock, at the mouth of the Firth of Forth, about a mile in circumference, and was converted into a state prison. Andrew Ramsay having neither for a just price, nor by the fairest means, got a title to a bare insignificant rock in the sea, called the Bass, and to a public debt, both belonging to the lord of Wachton; my lord Lauderdale, to gratify Sir Andrew, moves the king, under the pretence of this public debt, and that the Bass was a place of strength;-like to a castle in the moon, and of great importance-the only nest of solan geese in these parts, to buy the rock from Sir Andrew, at the rate of four thousand pounds sterling, and then obtains the command and profit of it, to be bestowed upon himself." Scotland's Grievances, &c. Sir George M'Kenzie thus states the transaction," Sir Andrew Ramsay had, by obtaining 5000 lib. sterling to the duke of Lauderdale for the citadel of Leith, and other 5000 lib. to him for the new imposition, granted to the town by the king upon ale and wine, insinuated himself very far into the favour of his grace, and by his favour, had for ten successive years continued himself provost of Edinburgh, and consequently preses of the burghs: by which, and by thus having the first vote in parliament, he was very serviceable to Lauderdale, who, in requital of that favour, obtained 200 lib. sterling, per annum, settled upon the provost of Edinburgh," this seems to have been the first regular salary of the chief magistrate of the metropolis, "and caused the king give him 500 lib. sterling, for his comprising of the Bass, a rock barren and useless thus they were kind to one another upon his majesty's expenses." Hist. pp. 246, 247.