1.

On the interposition of James, two conciliatory BOOK propositions were adopted: 1. that the privileges 1604. of subjects should extend in each kingdom to Union post. those whose birth was posterior to the accession; poned; 2. that the present inhabitants should be received as denizens, capable of inheritance, but excluded, at least till the union were accomplished, from a voice in the legislature, from a share in the administration of justice, and from any office under the executive department of government 15. These propositions were reserved for the consideration of parliament, but an interval of two years was suf fered to elapse before the question of an union was again resumed. In the English parliament the lords were disposed to co-operate with their sovereign in promoting the union; but the commons were jealous of his Scottish favourites, tenacious of their privileges, and still actuated by national antipathies. Of the articles prepared by the commissioners, the abolition of hostile laws was alone adopted. Commercial intercourse, and a mutual naturalization, were subjects frequently agitated, and at length abandoned in despair. When we examine the debates of the commons, as their motives were of an invidious nature which it was necessary to dissemble, we discover, instead of an impartial consideration of the subject, arguments derived from the turbulent disposition of the Scots, whose government, from its extreme

Is Winwood's Memorials, vol. ii. p. 37, 38. Craig, de Uni

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BOOK freedom, was irreconcileable with that of EngI. land; or from the refusal of the Scottish parlia ment to relinquish the fundamental laws of the realm. Sir Francis Bacon, who alone seems to have comprehended the nature, or importance of an union, maintained in vain, that no uniformity was requisite in laws or religion, but that the English monarchy would become truly formidable, "with Scotland united, Ireland reduced, the Low "Countries contracted, and the navy supported." James represented in vain, that the laws, like the language of Scotland, were congenial, and would assimilate easily with those of England; that the people were more submissive to his pen than to the sword of his progenitors, and that their parliament, whose form was far from popular, deliberated on no subjects without his permission. The commons remained inflexible. Their opposition was increased by the refusal of the lords to abolish purveyance, and their speeches intimated, in a classical adage, that the Scots were an happy nation, as the presence of a court was oppressive to the country within which it was held.16

abandoned.

From the judges, however, a declaration of some importance was obtained. On the principle that an alien is born in allegiance to a foreign prince, the postnati, born since the death of Elizabeth, as their allegiance was indiscriminately due to James,

16 Procul a numine, procul a fulmine. Journals of the Commons, vol. i. 335. vii. 67. Bacon's Works, vol. ii. p. 182. James' Works, 119–22. Craig, de Unione, 84, MS.

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were declared to be freely naturalized in either BOOK kingdom." The antenati, whose birth preceded the accession, remained in their original situation of aliens. The union, a premature, and therefore an impolitic attempt, terminated thus in a federal alliance between the two kingdoms, tacitly established, by a voluntary submission to the same monarch, and a mutual suppression of all hostility.18

cal confor

posed.

To obliterate the animositics, and to incorporate Ecclesiastithe inhabitants of kingdoms, formerly hostile and mity pro still discordant, were magnificent objects, of which we may truly affirm, that the reciprocal advantages were too remote to be descried by James, or to be pursued with much solicitude by his ministers. That turbulent liberty which had raised him prematurely to the throne of Scotland, had repeatedly circumscribed his power, and controlled his prerogative. The more civilized state of the English nation, their obedience to the laws, and implicit acquiescence in the government of Elizabeth, had attracted his early notice, and inspired a vague desire to inculcate, on his accession, the imitation of their manners, in order to transfuse a portion of their submissive spirit into the untractable Scots 19. It was from a different and secret

"The postnati were naturalized, not because they were subjects of the king, as king of England, but generally, because they were subjects of the king. See this argument in Bacon's case of Calvin, vol. ii. p. 514. Lords Journals, vol. ii. p. 476. 18 Spottisw. 505. Parl. 19 James VI. unprinted acts. 19 James' Works, p. 188. "It was not his desire," he observed on another occasion, "to deprive England of its laws,

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BOOK motive, that his crude and imperfect conceptions of an union were improved and accelerated by his English ministers. His offspring was neither nu merous nor healthy; and as the crown of Scot land devolved, on the failure of his children, to the marquis of Hamilton, the eventual separation and loss of that kingdom were to be prevented by an immediate incorporation with England. That his motive was the increase and stability of the regal power, is attested by his avowed hostility to the Scottish church. A religious was superadded to a civil union, and under the pretext of a laudable conformity, episcopal government was again introduced. The consequences were so memorable in the succeeding reigns, that it is neceffary to explain, and to deduce from their origin, the form and the spirit of presbyterian discipline, long regarded as obnoxious to monarchy, hateful and ultimately disastrous to the Stuarts.

but to lay Scotland subject to the same laws:-he did desire that they should be subjected both to one rule and to one law." Journals of the Commons, vol. i. 314. "I mean of such a general union of laws as may reduce the whole island, that as they live already under one monarch, so they may be governed by one law." James' Works, 512. His intention evidently was to introduce the English law into Scotland; and although suggested by Bacon, I doubt if his ideas ex tended beyond that object, to an union of legislatures, of which no trace is contained in his works. Craig, who wrote under his directions, considered it as essential to an equal union, that each nation should retain its own parliament. De Unione, p. 257, MS.

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tive view

The forms of ecclesiastical government have BOOK been modelled, in general, after the civil establishments on which they were constructed. Thus, the gradations of episcopal jurisdiction and dignity Retrospeccoincided originally with the provincial magistra of Presbycies of the Roman Empire. After the reformation, tery. they were retained in Germany and in the kingdoms of the North, as congenial to monarchy, but rejected in Switzerland and Holland, as a domination neither consonant to the humble and fraternal parity of the primitive christians, nor compatible with the spirit of a republican government 18. Pre-eminence of sacerdotal rank was abolished; the church was established on the equality, not on the regular subordination of its pastors; and when transplanted from Geneva to Scotland, the institution was productive of a singular alliance be- An 1550. tween a republican church and a monarchical state. But the equality in the Scottish church was at first imperfect. On the death of the queen regent, when the reformation had acquired a permanent and legal establishment, ten or twelve superintendents were proposed by Knox, to inspect the deserted sees of the bishops, to repeople the churches with suitable pastors, or by their own labours to propagate the gospel in every corner of the vineyard of Christ. This institution, so fruitful afterwards as a polemical topic, has been assumed as a proof that the Scottish church was founded at first on a moderate imparity, and regulated by 12 See Robertson's Hist. of Scotland, p. 148.