Scottish Parliament and Sanquhar Representation. 127 



appears only to have expressed the idea that Presbyterianism was 

 akin to Republicanism, a fact which few to-day would venture to 

 deny. It appears, however, that there was more behind this than 

 appears on the surface. Bishop Burnet declares that when the 

 Parliament was proceeding to ratify all the former Acts in fa\our 

 of Presbyterian Government Sir Alexander Bruce moved that 

 these should be read, peradventure some of them might be found 

 inconsistent with monarchy and that for this he was expelled the 

 House (Burnet's History, Vol. HI., p. 353). The Parliament 

 which expelled Bruce was presided over by the Cuke of Queens- 

 berry. It was something of the nature of a " Rump," for before 

 it commenced its deliberations the Duke of Hamilton, with seventy- 

 four of his followers, seceded on the ground that owing to the 

 death of King William since the last election they no longer had 

 any right to continue to sit as a Parliament. This makes Bruce's 

 expulsion all the more strange, since Hamilton and his followers 

 were Whigs, while the sentiments which Bruce ga^'e utterance to 

 might have been expected to give but little offence to the Tories. 

 Be that as it may, Bruce was expelled. He, however, was not to 

 remain long outside the House, for in 1705 he took his seat as 

 the Earl of Kincardine. On the death of the third Earl 

 (Alexander), his second cousin, he claimed the title, and was 

 allowed, strangely enough, to sit and vote in the House before 

 the title was confirmed to him. Lady Mary Cochrane, sister of 

 the third Earl, claimed the title by declarator in the Court of 

 Session, her claim being based on a resignation in her favour by 

 the late Earl not completed by a Crown charter, but which it was 

 legally held to be in the power of the Crown to accept and com- 

 plete. Lady Mary protested at the elections of 1707, 1708, 

 1710, but the Queen did not interfere, and so it was held that 

 Sir Alexander's title was quite valid. Perhaps Parliament had 

 regretted his hasty expulsion in 1702 when they allowed him to 

 ■sit while his claim to the title was being disputed in the Court of 

 Session. Sir Alexander married his cousin Christian, by whom 

 he had four sons and five daughters. His three eldest sons, 

 Robert, Alexander, and Thomas, were fifth, sixth, and seventh 

 Earls of Kincardine respectively. His great-grandson, Charles, 

 ninth Earl of Kincardine, became fifth Earl of Elgin in 1747, 

 and since then the two titles have been united. The ex-member 

 for Sanquhar was succeeded in his representation of the Burgh 



