1. 1603. BOOK reigners, the national appellation of a vagrant race, Their numbers multiplied rapidly in Poland, whose plains they traversed in large caravans; whose internal trade they divided with the Jews; and by the luxury of whose nobles they were perpetually returning enriched from the continent'. But a large portion of Scotland retained the primitive ferocity of its savage state. The Isles are repre, sented as utterly barbarous; the Highlands as bar, barous, yet not insusceptible of a slight civilization. The former, an occasional asylum for pirates, scarcely acknowledged a nominal subjection to the Scottish crown; and the clans of the latter ex hausted their rude valour in mutual slaughter, or infested the adjacent lowlands with slight depre, dations. From a constant warfare, the inhabitants of the Borders were equally barbarous, and from their vicinity, far more formidable to government, From their strength and turbulence, James had early presaged that his successor, unless possessed of the whole of Britain, would soon be beren of its northern extremity, and of his own anointed head; a prediction destined to be strangely veri fied, by the acquisition of that kingdom of which he was so desirous?. * Bacon's Works, vol. ii, p. 175; from which it appears that they were, numerous in Poland before the accession, Carte (Hist. vol. iii. p. 770) asserts, that from the accession till the death of Charles I. 200,000 families had emigrated to Livonia! as if the population of the country could have sup plied an annual emigration of 4000 families, or 20,000 persons 9 King James' Works, 159, 1. 1604. The situation of Scotland had been ineffectually BOOK regretted, and the redress, or the alleviation of its miseries, was reserved by James for the pleni- Union pro tude of his power, and the harmony promised by the union of the crowns. His recent elevation exempted him from the factious control of the nobles: his revenues were sufficient, by a judicious application, to invigorate the industry, and his power to repress the disorders of Scotland, But he proposed to the Scots, as preliminary to every national improvement, and to the English, as necessary to consolidate a divided empire, that the two kingdoms should accede to an incorpo rating union, and to an equal communication of their respective rights. The measure was first recommended to the English parliament, and in a conference between both houses, Ellesmere, the chancellor, procured with difficulty the nomination of forty-four commissioners to treat with the Scots. When the Scottish parliament assembled at Perth, the nobility, on the first proposition of an union, were alarmed for their privileges, or apprehensive of their future subjection to England. Frequent consultations were privately held, and, at last, when they were admonished by the king, that their prompt obedience alone could avert his displeasure, their haste to exculpate themselves by the appointment of commissioners, announced that they were no longer equal to a contest with A parka. ment. I. 1604. BOOK their sovereign, even when absent". Thirty-six commissioners were chosen to co-operate with those of England, in concerting the union; but the independency of the Scottish monarchy was to be preserved entire, and any alteration of its fundamental laws and constitution was prohibited. The parliament was secretly averse from the union, and affected to consider it as limited to the removal of such statutes and local usages as might perpetuate the memory of past hostilities, or generate future animosity between the two kingdoms 1. Treaty of union. The commissioners assembled at Westminster; and after repeated conferences, productive only of minute regulations, their progress was interrupted by unforeseen debates. A free interchange of rights, a common legislature, the same laws against state offences, were sufficient of themselves to complete the union. But the commissioners adhered invariably to their national prejudices. The Scots were tenacious of their independence, and unwilling to descend to the secure, though subordinate station of a dependent province of the British empire. To the poverty of a proud aristocracy, commercial privileges were not objects sufficient to recompence the surrender of their personal importance, or of their share in the legislature; and expecting every benefit from the accession alone, they were apprehensive that an union "Johnst. Hist. 388. State Papers, MS. in the Advocate's Library. 12 Parl. 17 James VI. 1604. would diminish their influence, and impair their BOOK claims on the munificence of their sovereign. The commons, as yet insignificant, and, with the rest of Europe, open to their adventurers, were insensible to the advantages of a trade with England. The temptation of a colonial trade had not then an existence; and the improvement of their country, from the admission of its rude produce into the English markets, was understood so imperfectly, or so little foreseen, that in the preliminary articles, sheep and black cattle, together with wool, hides, leather and yarn, were prohibited or reserved from exportation, for the internal consumption of the respective nations. But the removal of the seat of government to England, while the absence of the court was severely felt and regretted in the metropolis, affected all ranks as a violent and a dangerous experiment, of which the detriment was certain and extensive, and the beneficial consequences precarious and remote 13. to its suc cess. Nor were the English commissioners less influ- Obstacles enced by national prejudices. Instructed perhaps by the prodigality of their sovereign, they proposed an uniformity of laws as the basis of an union, and when the Scottish commissioners rejected an ignominious servitude to the laws of England, the English refused to communicate on other terms their rights to aliens, who were recently their enemies, and still their rivals. In the 13 Spottis. Hist. 481. Journals of the Commons, vol. i. BOOK I. 1604. next century, their posterity discovered, what experience was certainly not necessary to prove, that if the relative obligations to government are the same, uniformity of religious or municipal laws is not essential to an incorporating union. To obliterate those laws which custoin and positive institutions have accumulated, is impracticable, except in a conquered country; and to substitute a different jurisprudence, unknown to the people, and irreconcileable perhaps with their private rights, would be productive of universal confusion and dismay: but the English commissioners were actuated by an obvious desire to reduce a rival state to subjection, or to oppose an insurmountable obstruction to an union. The alternative was proposed, as a rapid influx of Scots was apprehended, from a measure which opened the trade, the universities, the church, and the most lucrative, or dignified offices of government in England, to the industrious ambition of a favour. ed nation. Antipathies which the intercourse of another century was insufficient to eradicate, were then entire and vigorous; and the English, engaged in no continental wars, and ambitious of no foreign alliances, were indifferent to the additional strength, the accession of territory, and above all to the internal and profound security to be derived from an union, which in the next century, their apprehension of a separate succession to the two kingdoms was requisite to accomplish. 14 Craig, de Unione, 138, MS, |