was not yet ripe. The blood of Glencoe and the graves of Darien had taught Scotland what she had to look for, apart from the stronger south, and also served to exasperate her into a highly inflammable state.

The temper of the Scottish nation was shown in 1704 by the Act of Security, which declared that in the event of the queen's death without issue, the Estates should appoint a successor of the royal line and a Protestant, but that this should not be the person succeeding to the English crown, unless during Anne's reign the honour and independence of the kingdom, the authority of Parliament, and the religion, trade, and liberty of the nation were secured against the encroachments or the impediments of English influence. The English Parliament retaliated with a counter Act of Security, in which the Scots were declared to be aliens, and the importation of Scottish sheep and cattle, coal and linen, was forbidden.

Under such circumstances the ministry of Anne resolved that Articles of Union should be drawn up by commissioners chosen from both countries (1705). At the Cockpit in West

minster the sittings opened on April 16, 1706, thirty1706 one members representing each kingdom. They toiled at the great work of peace-making till the 22nd of July-Daniel Defoe, afterwards author of Robinson Crusoe. acting as their secretary. When the articles were completed, it became necessary to lay them before the two Parliaments. Upon Godolphin's recommendation, Defoe went to Edinburgh to aid in conducting the negotiations there--a mission which supplied him with material for his History of the Union.

Opening the Scottish Parliament on the 3rd of October by reading a letter from Queen Anne in favour of the union, the Duke of Queensberry, who acted as Lord High Commissioner, spoke weightily on the same side. Chancellor Seafield followed. Both stated distinctly that there was no intention on the part of England to meddle in the least with the Presbyterian system

so dear to the nation. In spite of this assurance the spirit of the people revolted at the thought of union. Riotous mobs filled the streets of Edinburgh with noise and terror. But beneath the surface of affairs a continuous sapping wore away the strength of the opposition. Gold from Queensberry's hand found its way into many Scottish pouches, as the price of union votes. Many votes which gold could not buy were given by Jacobites, who hoped that the union would breed a rebellious spirit, favourable to the hopes of the king that was over the water. A letter from St. Germains, written in this spirit, induced the Duke of Hamilton, the leader of the Jacobite faction, to withdraw his opposition to the measure. Presbyterianism being then secured as the national form of church government, the act which sealed this great treaty was passed in the Scottish Parliament on January 16 by a majority of 41 votes (110 for, 69 against). On the 25th of the following March the last Scottish Parliament was dissolved by a speech from the victorious Queensberry.

Jan. 16, 1707

When the treaty came to be debated in the English Parliament, many voices were raised against this "marriage without consent of parties." The Tories cried out that there could never be any peace between two rival Established Churches. Some of the Lords objected to fixing the land-tax on Scotland at the low sum of £48,000, without respect to the probable increase of her national wealth. Opposition, however,

died away.

The weaker party yielded, as they had Mar. 4. already done in the north; and Queen Anne, by her royal assent, completed the stroke of statesmanship which gives the brightest lustre to her reign.

After stating that on the 1st of May 1707 the island should form the United Kingdom of Great Britain, represented by a single Parliament, the treaty goes on to repeat the arrangements of the Act of Settlement regarding the succession. In respect of commerce and navigation, the two countries were

placed on an equal footing. The excise and customs were similarly arranged. The coins, weights, and measures of both countries were to follow a uniform standard. The Presbyterian and Episcopal systems were confirmed in their respective lands, as national establishments. Scotland was to retain her Court of Session and Justiciary, was to have a special seal for private rights and grants, was to send sixteen peers and forty-five commoners to the Imperial Parliament, and was to protect by unaltered laws all hereditary offices, superiorities, jurisdictions, and offices for life. The taxation of North Britain formed the subject of special conditions. One of these enacted that, when the Imperial Parliament should raise £2,000,000 as a land-tax, Scotland was to contribute only £48,000 of that sum. For the purpose of reconciling the people of Scotland to the heavier taxation into which they were required to plunge at once, before any commercial benefits could accrue, a sum called the Equivalent was to be spent in Scotland, in the payment of arrears and in compensation for losses at Darien and elsewhere.

CHAPTER IV.

THE WHIG AND TORY CONTEST.

Nature of the struggle-The Occasional Conformity Bill-The Whig junto -Abigail Hill-Trial of Sacheverell-Fall of the Whigs-Marlborough -Accession of George the First.

H

ALLAM sums up the essential difference between those two great parties in this comprehensive sentence: "Though both admitted a common principle-the maintenance of the constitution--yet this (the Whig) made the privileges of the subject, that (the Tory) the crown's prerogative, his peculiar care." It must not be forgotten, however, that the names have been loosely used at various times in our history.

Anne had undoubtedly strong Tory leanings, and began her reign with a ministry which she and others called a Tory one. Of this Marlborough and Godolphin were the leading members --the former wielding the national sword; the latter, as Lord High Treasurer, controlling the finances. The helm of the state was in reality held by the Duchess of Marlborough. Queen Anne obeyed every beck of "Mrs. Freeman.”

From her accession to the year 1708 the ministry of Anne was mixed, being mainly Whiggish, but with some of the Tory leaders in it too. Marlborough and Godolphin veered round in no long time, and showed the Whig colours peeping under a vanishing cloak of Toryism. The splendid success of the war floated them up and gave them for a time the ascendency over their political opponents. From 1708 to 1710 a pure Whig

ministry held sway, the Tory members being driven out by a combination to be noticed presently. Then came a crash. Whigs went down : Tories stepped into place and power over the ruins of their fall. Marlborough, last of a once omnipotent band, clung to office for a year or two, until, stripped of command and branded with a shameful accusation, he was forced, as we have seen, to hide his diminished head abroad. Faction between rival chiefs broke the strength of the Tory triumph before Anne's death. Such were the leading features in this conflict, probably the fiercest bout in the great struggle which is always going on between the rival forces of order and of change.

Raising a cry of danger to the National Church, the Tories struck a series of heavy blows at the principle of toleration by their repeated efforts to pass the Occasional Conformity Bill. First introduced in 1703, it was three times floated through the Commons, only to be swamped by adverse storms in the Lords. It proposed that all who took the sacrament and test as qualifications for office, and who afterwards went to the meetings of dissenters, or any meeting for religious worship not according with the Liturgy or the practice of the Church of England, were to be heavily fined, and dismissed from their offices. The infidel St. John was the principal promoter of this bill, which did not pass till 1711, after the fall of the Whig ministry.

The most brilliant and powerful pens of the day fought on the Whig side, where we find Addison, Steele, Defoe, and for some time Swift. There was then no newspaper-press to influence the public mind; but in the pamphlets and lampoons, which poured from the booksellers' shops in great numbers, there was a political engine of which the contending statesmen made the fullest use.

It has been said that the cabinet became purely Whig in 1708. That was owing to the exertions of a junto composed