The Early History of the Scottish Union Question Part 6

In England the Union, if not unpopular, was regarded with indifference.

In the Protector's "House of Lords" there were three Scotsmen, Lord Ca.s.selis, Sir William Lockhart, and Johnston of Warriston, the last of whom seems to have wearied the House with long and frequent speeches. In the House of Commons the members from Scotland gave no trouble, and are said, indeed, never to have opened their lips. The commercial advantages, however, which Scotland had secured by the Union caused great jealousy among the English merchants; and on the English side of the border the establishment of free trade between the countries was viewed with disfavour. But, on the whole, the broad current of English life flowed on, undisturbed by the existence of the Union.

FOOTNOTES:

[70] Act. Parl. Scot. VI. ii. 771.

[71] _Letters and Journals_, iii. 174.

[72] _Calendar of State Papers, Domestic_, 1651-52, p. 485.

[73] _Calendar_, 1653-54, p. 12.

[74] _Calendar_, 1653-54, p. 258.

[75] Order of Council, Whitehall, 12th April 1654.

[76] Order of Council, 27th June 1654.

[77] Baillie's _Letters and Journals_, iii. 289, 318, 357; Thurloe, _State Papers_, v. 366.

[78] Act. Parl. Scot. VII. ii. 784.

[79] _Letters and Journals_, iii. 315.

[80] Report by Thomas Tucker upon the revenue of Excise and Customs in Scotland, 1656, in the _Scottish Burgh Society's Miscellany_.

[81] Act of Cla.s.ses for purging the Judicatories and other Places of Public Trust. Act. Parl. Scot. VI. ii. 143.

[82] _Letters and Journals_, iii. 225.

[83] Orme's _Life of Owen_, p. 128; Whitelocke, July 1650.

[84] Letter to the Council of State, 25th September 1650.

[85] _Letters and Journals_, iii. 291.

[86] _Calendar of State Papers, Domestic_, 1659-1660, p. 35; Act. Parl.

Scot. VI. ii. 587.

[87] _Letters and Journals_, iii. 249, 288, 357, 360, 387.

[88] Kirkton's _True and Secret History of the Church of Scotland_ (edited from the original MS. by Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, 1817), pp.

64, 65. In Law's _Memorialls_ (edited from the MS. by Mr. Sharpe in 1818) there is a pa.s.sage which, if it is to be relied on, shows that during this period the course of religion had been advanced by the policy of preventing the clergy interfering so constantly in politics.

"It is not to be forgotten," Law says, "that, from the year 1652 to the year 1660, there was great good done by the preaching of the gospell in the West of Scotland, more than was observed to have been for twenty or thirty yeirs before; a great many being brought in to Christ Jesus by a saving work of conversion, which was occasioned through ministers preaching nothing all that tyme but the gospell, and had left off to preach up parliaments, armies, leagues, resolutions, and remonstrances, which was much in use before, from the year 1638 till that time 52, which occasioned a great number of hypocrytes in the Church, who, out of hope of preferment, honour, riches, and worldly credit, took on the form of G.o.dliness, but wanted the power of it."

[89] _History of the Union_, section ii. p. 10, first edition, published in 1709. Defoe's _History of the Union_ was reprinted in 1712 and 1786, and again in 1787 "with an introduction, in which the consequences and probability of a like union with Ireland are considered."

[90] January 1658, Carlyle's _Cromwell_, Speech XVII.

CHAPTER IV

FROM THE RESTORATION TO THE REVOLUTION

At the Restoration the advisability of continuing the Union was discussed. In England it was maintained that the smaller country must give up its Parliament and its separate system of laws, or that it must, at all events, make the first advance, and say definitely on what terms it would unite. In Scotland it was foreseen that not only would the native Parliament and the native laws be destroyed in the event of a union, but that also, in all probability, the Church would be sacrificed. But the prosperity which the country was beginning to enjoy might have reconciled many of the people to these changes.[91]

The Restoration was hailed with joy by the n.o.bles, who hoped that they would again have their Parliament and their Privy Council, by means of which their families were aggrandised, and their hereditary jurisdictions and feudal rights, which gave them so much authority over their tenants and retainers. The clergy, smarting under the indignities to which they had lately been subjected, and believing that Charles would keep faith with them and establish Presbytery, welcomed the change, and at once began to pray again for the king. Clarendon, however, was of opinion that the majority of Scotsmen were in favour of the continuance of the Union. He himself was in favour of leaving things as they were. "But the king," he says, "would not build according to Cromwell's models, and had many reasons to continue Scotland within its own limits and bounds, and sole dependence upon himself, rather than unite it to England with so many hazards and dangers as would inevitably have accompanied it, under any government less tyrannical than that of Cromwell."[92]

Lauderdale, whose influence in Scottish affairs was now well-nigh supreme, was strongly in favour of removing all traces of the Commonwealth government. To begin with, he insisted that the fortresses which Cromwell had built should be demolished and their garrisons withdrawn. The time might come, he told the king, when he would be in need of Scottish garrisons in England, and to maintain an English army in Scotland would alienate the affections of the Scottish people. The fortresses were, accordingly, dismantled, and the army of occupation was disbanded. Every trace of the Union soon disappeared. The Estates met in the Parliament House once more; and the judges took their places on the bench of the Court of Session.

On the question of the Church, Lauderdale's advice was not followed. His view was that, instead of aiming at an Union, either civil or religious, between the two countries, the object of the Government should be to disunite them by all possible means, and, at the same time, to keep the people of Scotland in good humour by giving them whatever form of Church government they wanted, in order that they might be willing to serve the king, if necessary, against the Parliament of England. Such was the advice of Lauderdale. Charles himself, though he detested Presbytery, was at first inclined to take it. But, in the end, the intrigues of the Episcopal faction prevailed; and it was resolved to establish an Episcopal Church in Scotland. The Chancellor explained to Lauderdale that it was intended to set up only a modified form of prelacy. "My Lord," he sternly answered, "since you are for bishops and must have them, bishops you shall have, and higher than ever they were in Scotland."

These words came true. If the statesmen of England had asked, By what means shall we most easily irritate and exasperate the Scottish people?

how can we alienate them from England? how can we render the royal family unpopular? how can we destroy the trade of Scotland, which is beginning to improve? how can we throw the country, which is settling down, back into anarchy and confusion? how can we most successfully unite against the Church of England the whole body of the Scottish people? how can we produce a profound distrust in all measures which are proposed by the Council in London? by what means, in short, can we best make the people of Scotland disloyal, poverty-stricken, and rebellious?--if these questions had been asked, some evil councillor might have answered them thus: Pa.s.s, he might have said, an Act of Parliament which will destroy their commerce; abolish the Union, and thus destroy free trade between them and the English; restore to the owners of the soil the jurisdictions by means of which they tyrannised over their dependants in the past, and by means of which they will be able to tyrannise over them in the future; restore the tenure of lands by military service, and thus you will, in a few years, people every hamlet over a large portion of the country with restless and idle clansmen, whose only business in life is to foment feuds between their masters, and to seek plunder for themselves; above all things, let the king destroy the Presbyterian Church which he swore to establish when he took that solemn vow, on the faith of which the crown of Scotland was placed upon his head; let the great n.o.ble whose hands performed the act of coronation, and to whom a Dukedom and a Garter were promised, be accused of treason for a tardy compliance with the usurper, and let the rules of legal procedure be strained in order to procure his condemnation; eject from their livings the clergy whom the people trust; let enormous fines, far in excess of what the country can bear, be inflicted on every cla.s.s for the offence of nonconformity; punish with death those who listen to the clergy preaching in the fields because you have driven them from the churches. All this, and a great deal more, was done. The years which followed the Restoration were the most miserable in the history of Scotland. The great source of misery was the desperate contest between the Episcopal and the Presbyterian Churches; but the commercial policy of the English Parliament is what chiefly bears on the question of the Union.

Scotland had not suffered from the Navigation Act of 1651, which forbade foreign ships to import goods into England, or to trade with the colonies, or even to visit them without special leave. This statute was pa.s.sed, in the words of Blackstone, "to punish our rebellious colonies, and to clip the wings of the Dutch." It kept the colonial trade in the hands of England, and increased the value of English shipping. The terms of the Union during the Commonwealth had exempted Scotland from its provisions. But now the Union was at an end, and Scotland was once again a separate kingdom. The Parliament of England proceeded to pa.s.s a new and even more stringent Navigation Act, which inflicted a deadly blow upon the trade of Scotland.[93]

Sir George Mackenzie traces the origin of this, and other laws hostile to Scottish commerce, to the fact that Clarendon and other English politicians were piqued by the way in which Lauderdale prided himself on having induced the king to withdraw the army from Scotland against their advice. "This excessive boasting," he says, "that he had prevailed in this over Hyde, Middletoun, and all the English, did somewhat contribute to renew the old discords which had formerly been entertained between the two nations; and occasioned the making of those severe Acts, whereby the Parliament of England debarred the Scots from freedom of trade in their plantations, and from enjoying the benefit of natives in the privilege of shipping."[94]

The new law was so rigorous that no goods nor produce, of any country, could be imported into the colonies except from England or Wales. Irish goods could not go from Ireland, nor Scottish goods from Scotland.

Moreover, the most important products of a colony could enter England, or another colony, only on payment of duty. English ships alone were allowed to carry goods to and from the colonies. The sugar, the tobacco, the cotton, in fact all the most useful produce of the colonies, could be shipped to England only, and could not enter an English port except in an English vessel. Nor could goods be imported into England from the continent of Europe except in English ships, or in ships belonging to the country which actually produced them.

This monopoly, under which the colonies could trade with England alone, was a grievance to the colonies. They, however, had at least the privilege of trading with England. But to the colonial trade of Scotland the Navigation Act was ruinous.

Other laws, hostile to the industries of Scotland, were enacted. On some Scottish goods duties were paid equal to, or above, their value. On others a duty was charged very much greater than the duty levied on the same articles when they came from abroad. For instance, the duty on Scottish salt was sixteen times that imposed on foreign salt. Linen imported from Scotland was now so heavily taxed that it hardly paid the producer to bring it into England. In Northumberland and c.u.mberland heavy customs were levied on horses which came from Scotland; and, on the plea that a great part of the richest pasture land in England would fall in value if the graziers of Scotland were allowed to find a free market in England, Parliament was induced to cripple one of the most important branches of Scottish industry by imposing a fine of two pounds for every head of cattle which crossed the border between the 24th of August and the 20th of December.[95] And there were many other enactments framed for the purpose of excluding Scottish merchants, whose operations were further embarra.s.sed by a law under which all goods sent from Scotland to England must pa.s.s through either Berwick or Carlisle.[96]

The commercial freedom which had been enjoyed during the period of the Commonwealth had quickened the commercial instincts of the Scottish people, and had given them some idea of what their country might become if they were permitted to extend their traffic to the colonies, those highly-favoured regions of the earth from which so large a portion of the wealth of England came. The recent Union had been attended by circ.u.mstances which were humiliating; but for many of these compensation had been found in the prosperity which the Union had brought along with it. The sudden change which the Restoration had produced was, therefore, bitterly resented; and the Scottish merchants persuaded the Estates to retaliate by pa.s.sing a Navigation Act for Scotland, similar to the English Act, and by imposing heavy duties on English goods.[97] But retaliation could not put Scotland in the same position as England; and at length, after repeated complaints and demands, an Act was pa.s.sed under which commissioners from the two countries were to meet and confer on the subject of a commercial treaty.[98]

In January 1668 the commissioners met. The Scotsmen demanded that Scotland should enjoy the privilege of trading to the English colonies which was granted, by the Act of Navigation, to the Irish and to the Welsh, and that they should be allowed to bring in goods as freely as the English, with no other restrictions than those laid on Ireland and Wales. They were willing to give a.s.surances that goods transported from English colonies would be brought to England, except the small quant.i.ties which were consumed in Scotland. A number of papers, containing these and other demands, were presented by the Scottish commissioners, and to these the English commissioners returned written answers.

Apparently the conferences were on the point of terminating abruptly within less than a month; for, on the 29th of January, the Scottish commissioners refused to go further until the question of the Navigation Act was settled, and the English refused to act until the whole of the Scottish demands were laid before them. The Scottish commissioners gave in, and presented a doc.u.ment in which their grievances were set forth.

The repeal of the Navigation Act was what they chiefly insisted on; but, in addition to this, they complained of the whole of those Acts of Parliament by which free trade between England and Scotland had been abolished, and by which excessive duties had been imposed on Scottish produce. "Thus," they said, "your lordships have now the full scheme of all that is demanded by us in this treaty. But because what we have given in, relating to the Act of Navigation, was the first in time, and is the greatest obstruction of our trade, and indeed without which our trade cannot be carried on, we still insist upon an answer to it in the first place, and then we shall be willing to proceed to treat on all the rest in order."[99]

After a long delay the English commissioners returned their answer. They refused, in peremptory terms, to allow Scotland to trade with the colonies. The colonies, they said, were founded by Englishmen, and Scotsmen had no right to benefit by them. They were prepared, however, to permit Scotsmen to go and settle as merchants in the colonies; but they refused to allow Scottish ships to carry foreign produce into English ports. "The kingdom of Scotland," they said, "being wholly independent, and not subject to the Crown of England, we cannot have reasonable security and satisfaction that the said kingdom will keep up, and tie itself, to the strict observation of the restrictions and limitations set down in the Act of Navigation, with relation to this matter."

They offered, nevertheless, to make some concessions, on condition that those Acts of the Scottish Parliament which imposed a tariff hostile to English trade were repealed. If that were done, Scottish ships might import fish into England free of duty, and also tar, hemp, flax, raisins, and grain of any sort, on payment of the duty levied on aliens.

They might also import timber into England for six years; and the reason for this concession was frankly stated to be that since the great fire of London there had been a scarcity of wood for rebuilding the city.

They also offered to give Scottish ships the right, for six years only, of exporting goods from England, on payment of the same customs as English ships paid.

These terms were refused by the Scottish commissioners, who objected to the limitation of six years, and declared that the Scots wished to be, as they had been during the Union under Cromwell, in a position to compete, on equal terms, with the merchants of England. But the English commissioners would not yield; and the negotiations terminated without any result.

It was now evident that, so long as the two countries remained separate, there could be no genuine commercial prosperity in Scotland. It was, therefore, natural that the question of Union should be again revived.

The project was first suggested by a Scottish peer, whose advice in other matters, if it had been taken, would have saved the Privy Council of Scotland from much of the blood-guiltiness which it incurred during these years. John, second Earl of Tweeddale, had been sworn of the Council at the Restoration, but had frequently raised his voice on behalf of the persecuted Presbyterians; and he had often endeavoured to discover some means by which peace could be restored to Scotland. His proposal now was that the Scottish Parliament should be called together, and invited to consider what steps should be taken to unite the kingdoms. To this Charles readily agreed, for he thought that if the two Parliaments were merged in one, the Lords and Commons who represented Scotland would, as a rule, support the measures of the Court. The Duke of Buckingham and the Lord Keeper Bridgeman were also in favour of this proposal.[100]

It was, indeed, the interest of all whose fortunes were bound up with the fortunes of the Royal Family that Scotland should be conciliated.