KETCHES. 



SI8TORIC BKBTOHB& MX. 



HOW ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND BECAME ONE. -PART II. 



WITH an army at bin command, Wallace availed himself 

 of hia intimate knowledge of the country, and effected a 

 series of surprises on the Eiiglitih garrisons, which full before 

 him like huts before an avalanche. Ormesby, Earl Warenne'a 

 deputy, fled from Scone on hearing that an attempt would be 

 made to take him there, and he carried to his chief the news of 

 the rifting of the Soots. 



With 40,000 men Earl Warenne marched northwards, and, 

 meeting Wallace at Cambuskeuneth, near to Stirling, thought 

 to crush him by sheer weight; but the Scotch captain, who 

 had meantime been joined by Sir William Douglas and many 

 other noblemen, so skilfully conducted himself that he wan 

 able to fall on the English piecemeal, and utterly to defeat 

 them ere their whole strength could be displayed. Earl 

 Warenne retreated across the border, and Wallace, flushed 

 with victory, carried the war into England, and ravaged and 

 plundered the whole bishopric of Durham. 



Edward, on receiving this news, came over from Flanders, 

 and hastily marched to the north with an army computed at 

 100,000 men. At Falkirk, on the 22nd of July, 1298, he en- 

 countered the Scots' army under Wallace, and entirely routed 

 it, with an enormous loss in killed and wounded. So exhausting, 

 however, was the effort, that Edward retreated instead of 

 following up his success, and the Scots employed the interval 

 in trying to get help both from the French king and the pope. 

 The former refused the slightest assistance, but the pope, 

 Boniface VIII., took up the matter by ordering Edward to refer 

 his claims to the papal arbitration, seeing that the pope was 

 lord paramount of all the kingdoms in the world. The English 

 king, however, quickly disposed of this claim by informing the 

 pope that " neither for Zion nor Jerusalem would he depart 

 from his just rights while there was breath in his nostrils ; " and 

 the English Parliament, before whom the pope's bull was laid, 

 resolved with one voice, " that in temporal matters the King of 

 England was independent of Rome, and that they would not 

 permit his sovereignty to be questioned." 



The war with Scotland went on for two years with changeable 

 fortune, the Scots on the whole getting the best of it, when in 

 1302-1303 Edward took the matter in hand himself, and entering 

 Scotland with a powerful army, applied himself vigorously to 

 the campaign. Town after town succumbed to him, the magic 

 of his skill made the strong places yield, and the heart of Scot- 

 land became chilled, as stroke after stroke of his heavy sword 

 fell upon her devoted children. The English dominion was 

 re-asserted in almost every part, and when in 1304 William 

 Wallace was betrayed by Sir John Monteith, and subsequently 

 beheaded in London as a traitor, hope itself seemed to be dead 

 within the Scottish breast. 



In 1305-6, however, Robert Bruce, Earl of Carrick, grandson 

 of the competitor of Baliol, and one of those to whom Edward 

 chiefly looked to secure his Scotch conquests for him, awoke to 

 a sense of his duty, and entered into a plot for the overthrow of 

 the Anglo-Scotch tyranny. Accident suddenly compelled him 

 to declare himself; the principal Scotch nobles espoused his 

 cause, and so strong did Bruce find himself that in March, 

 1306, he caused himself to be crowned king at Scone, the 

 ancient coronation-place of the Scottish kings. 



Overwhelming were the preparations made by Edward to 

 crush the rebellion, as he called it. The Earl of Pembroke and 

 other commanders invaded the country, and defeated Bruce and 

 his friends in many encounters ; so that by the winter of 1306 

 many of the chiefs were taken and executed, and Bruce himself 

 was a wanderer. Nevertheless, in the spring of 1307, Bruce 

 with a small band of followers appeared in Arran, and, passing 

 into Ayrshire, was soon enabled to show a front. Sir James 

 Douglas joined him, and hia success became so marked and 

 signal, that Edward found himself under the necessity of 

 marching in person against him. 



How Edward did march, and how he died on his way in night 

 of the Scottish border, and how before he died he mode his son 

 promise to carry his nnbnried corpse with the army till Soot- 

 land should have been subdued, are matters of history. So is 

 it matter of history how, six years afterwards, in 1313-14, that 

 son marched with an enormous army, and how at Bannockbnrn, 

 on the 25th of June, 1314, Bruce overthrew him, and routed 



with irretrievable loss, both of men and prestige, the whole 

 Kiixlinh army, inflicting a greater blow than the English arms 

 had suffered sine* the Conquest, and tsiaMiflhmg one* and for 

 ever the independence of the kingdom of Scotland. 



Several futile attempts were subsequently made to a*s*rt 

 the English supremacy over Scotland, and the English kitigH 

 for some time consoled themselves with the barren comfort of 

 refusing to recognise the kings of Scotland as independent ; but 

 sinoo the well-won battle of Bannockbnrn was fought the ques- 

 tion was never put practically to Scotland, as it had been 

 done before, which of the realms should be the greater. The 

 same inconveniences which the policy of Edward I. sought to 

 remove continued to present themselves ; Scotland lomshnil a 

 source of danger, a thorn in the side, to England ; national anti- 

 pathies, aggravated by constant provocations, and finding vent 

 perennially in border warfare, were fostered between the two. 

 countries, till the death of Queen Elizabeth opened the way to a 

 community of interest, and a unity of state policy. Whenever, 

 after Bannockbnrn, there was fighting between England and 

 Scotland, it was always conducted on the principle of equality 

 in status in the belligerents; the words "lord paramount" and 

 " vassal " were no longer heard ; and the Soots, jealous of any, 

 the slightest dictation, whether from Southron or any other, were 

 always ready to " fight for the liberty which was dearer to them 

 than life." 



It is a common error to suppose that when James VL of 

 Scotland and I. of England ascended the English throne, the 

 crowns of the two countries resting upon one head, united the 

 two kingdoms. England and Scotland remained separate and 

 distinct in every respect, save as to their king ; they had sspa 

 rate parliaments, separate laws, a distinct religion, different 

 social customs. There was not, of course, the same danger to 

 either country as there had been before the power of peace or 

 war centred in one man ; but the national antipathies -And pre- 

 judices became probably stronger for being brought more closely 

 into contact. All through the English civil war the Soots acted 

 as an independent people, and refused to meet the English in a 

 common council, though they were engaged in a common cause. 

 It was not till 1707, when Queen Anne was on the throne, that 

 the union of England and Scotland into one kingdom under the 

 name of Great Britain, was accomplished. Not without much 

 difficulty, much delicate negotiation, much giving and taking, 

 was the union effected ; but the conditions, contained in twenty- 

 five articles, having been agreed to, the two realms were so in- 

 separably united that nothing short of successful revolution 

 could ever sunder them again. The principal conditions of 

 the union are appended, not only in justification of this asser- 

 tion, but because they are not themselves generally known. 



The Parliaments of the two countries agree that 



1. On the 1st of May, 1707, and for ever after, the kingdom* 

 of England and Scotland shall be united into on* kingdom, 

 under the name of Great Britain. , 



2. The succession to the monarchy of Great Brurvin shall be 

 the same as was before settled with regard to that of England. 



3. The united kingdom shall be represented by one Parlia- 

 ment. 



4. There shall be a communication of all rights and privilege* 

 between the subjects of both kingdoms, except where it is other 

 wise agreed. 



5. When England raises 2,000,000 by a land-tax, Scotland 

 shall raise 48,000. 



16, 17. The standards of the coin, of weights, and of laeasuios, 

 shall be reduced to those of England throughout the united 

 kingdoms. 



18. The laws relating to trade, customs, and the excise, shall 

 be the same in Scotland as in England. But all the other laws 

 of Scotland shall remain in force, although alterable by the Par- 

 liament of Great Britain. 



22. Sixteen peers are to be chosen to represent the peerage of 

 Scotland in Parliament, and forty-five members to sit in the 

 House of Commons. [The Reform Act of 1888 added sight 

 members.] 



23. The sixteen representative peers of Scotland shall have 

 all privileges of Parliament ; and all peers of Scotland shall be 

 peers of Great Britain, and rank next after those of the same 

 degree at the time of the union, and shall have all privileges of 

 peers, except sitting in the House or Lords, and voting on the 

 trial of a peer. 



