HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 





under the chivalrously brave but eccentric Earl of 

 Peterborough, performed other services of an im- 

 portant kind. 



UNION OF ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND. 



The treatment, by English traders, of the Darien 

 expedition, had now inspired the Scottish people 

 with the most unfriendly feeling against their 

 southern neighbours, and they resolved to shew 

 their power of counter-annoyance by holding up 

 threats of dissenting from England in the matter 

 of the succession. In 1703, their parliament 

 passed the famous Act of Security, by which it 

 was ordained that the successor of her majesty in 

 Scotland should not be the same with the indi- 

 vidual adopted by the English parliament, unless 

 there should be a free communication of trade 

 between the countries, and the affairs of Scotland 

 thoroughly secured from English influence. The 

 English ministers then saw that an incorporating 

 union would be necessary to prevent the Pretender 

 from gaining the Scottish crown, and to protect 

 England from the attacks of a hostile nation. For 

 this purpose they exerted themselves so effectually 

 in the Scottish parliament, as to obtain an act 

 enabling the queen to nominate commissioners 

 for the arrangement of a union. These commis- 

 sioners, who, with scarce an exception, were friends 

 of the court, drew up a treaty which, in October 

 1706, was submitted to the Scottish parliament. 

 The principal points were these : That the two 

 nations were to be indissolubly united under one 

 government and legislature, each, however, retain- 

 ing its own civil and criminal law ; the crown to 

 be in the House of Hanover ; the Scottish Pres- 

 byterian Church to be guaranteed ; forty-five 

 members to be sent by the Scottish counties and 

 burghs to the House of Commons, and sixteen 

 elective peers to be sent to the Upper House by 

 the nobles ; the taxes to be equalised, but, in con- 

 sideration of the elevation of the Scotch imposts 

 to the level of the English (for the latter people 

 already owed ; 16,000,000), an equivalent was 

 to be given to Scotland, amounting to nearly 

 ^400,000, which was to aid in renewing the coin 

 and other objects. These terms were regarded in 

 Scotland as miserably inadequate ; and the very 

 idea of the loss of an independent legislature and 

 a place among governments raised their utmost 

 indignation. Nevertheless, by dint, mainly, of 

 bribery, the union was carried through parlia- 

 ment ; and from the ist of May 1707, the two 

 countries formed one state, under the title of the 

 Kingdom of Great Britain. 



HIGH CHURCH ENTHUSIASM. 



Since the Revolution, the Whigs might be con- 

 sidered as the predominant party in England. 

 They almost exclusively constituted the ministries, 

 and a large majority in the parliaments, of 

 King William. The sentiments of the queen 

 were of a different cast from theirs, and she 

 disliked the Revolution Settlement, by which 

 she reigned. As the remembrance of the errors 

 of King James faded from the public recollection, 

 the people began to partake more generally of the 

 Tory spirit. The parliament which they returned 

 at the beginning of the new reign, contained a 

 much larger admixture of that party than the 

 former one. The Tory feeling of both people 



and parliament chiefly took the direction of 

 a strong attachment to the Church of England, 

 which they wished, as did the queen herself, 

 to maintain in uncompromising supremacy, and 

 in all its privileges; while the Whig party, in 

 general, were favourable to the toleration called 

 for by the Dissenters. The distinction of High 

 Church and Low Church now became conspicuous, 

 the one phrase implying the ecclesiastical views of 

 the Tories, while the other referred to those of 

 the Whigs. In this parliament, the House of 

 Commons passed a bill against occasional con- 

 formity, by which penalties were imposed on all 

 persons in office who should attend dissenting 

 places of worship ; but it was thrown out by the 

 Upper House, in which the bishops created by 

 William voted against it. 



An imprudent act of the ministry raised the 

 High Church enthusiasm to an extraordinary 

 height. A High Church divine of no great ability 

 named Dr Henry Sacheverel, had preached in 

 1709 two sermons, in which he spoke violently 

 against the toleration granted to Dissenters, and 

 asserted with much vigour the Tory doctrine of 

 non-resistance, according to which nothing can 

 justify a subject in taking up arms against his 

 legal sovereign. The ministers, headed by Lord 

 Godolphin, were so weak as to give this man a 

 solemn trial, on the ground that he had spoken 

 evil of the Revolution ; but the people rose so 

 tumultuously in his favour, that, though declared 

 guilty, it was found impossible to inflict upon him 

 more than a nominal punishment. After the trial, 

 he received more marks of public reverence and 

 honour than were ever bestowed on the greatest 

 national benefactor. In proportion to the popu- 

 larity of Dr Sacheverel, was the loss of public 

 favour experienced by the Whig party. About the 

 same time, through some court intrigues, they 

 forfeited all remaining favour with their royal 

 mistress. Mrs Masham, a lady of the court, who 

 had supplanted the Duchess of Marlborough as 

 favourite of the queen, had contrived to introduce 

 into the cabinet two Tory statesmen, Mr Robert 

 Harley, afterwards Earl of Oxford, and Mr Henry 

 St John, afterwards Lord Bolingbroke. The 

 queen having dismissed the Whig ministry, Harley 

 and St John came into power in August 1710, at 

 the head of a decidedly Tory ministry. The queen 

 at the same time called a new parliament, to which 

 a larger majority of Tories were returned. 



PEACE OF UTRECHT DEATH OF QUEEN ANNE. 



The members of the new cabinet immediately 

 applied themselves, though very secretly, to the 

 business of bringing about a peace. They had a 

 majority in the Lower House, and by the creation 

 of twelve new peers, they succeeded in overpowering 

 the Upper. Among their acts was the dismissal 

 of Marlborough from his command, on a charge 

 of peculation being preferred against him. After 

 a tedious course of negotiation, Britain and Hol- 

 land concluded a peace at Utrecht (1713), leaving 

 the Emperor of Germany still at war. By this 

 arrangement, Philip V. was permitted to retain 

 Spain and the Indies, but it was provided 

 that he and his descendants should never in- 

 herit the kingdom of France, nor any future king 

 of France accede to the crown of Spain. Britain 

 obtained nothing tangible by all her exertions, 



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