Union of Parliaments 1707
The Negotiations - Part of the History of Scotland
Some of the negotiations for union of scotland took place in Parliament House, now part of Edinburgh High Court. Essential Edinburgh history for those who visit Scotland
In 1705, Queen Anne in an effort to make progress in the Union ‘debate’ asked the Scottish Parliament to consider selecting Commissioners to negotiate terms with the English Parliament.
Responding to that request, during a poorly attended parliamentary session, the man who led the opposition to Union, the Duke of Hamilton, suddenly and inexplicably proposed that the nomination of the Commissioners should be left to the queen.
Seizing the opportunity the Scottish pro-Union group forced a vote, and the Commissioners were chosen.
English historian G M Trevelyan said subsequently, “Hamilton was the chief instrument of the almost miraculous passage of the Union.” Others argued that Hamilton had been bribed and was playing a double game.
James Johnstone, the Lord clerk Register wrote from London, “ I have had suspicions, but now I am certain, that the Duke of Hamilton is tampering by way of Harley (English minister) with the Lord Treasurer…He must have his debts paid.”
There was now no real chance of serious negotiations; only one of the Scottish Commissioners appointed was not pro-Union. He was George Lockhart of Carnwarth, included only because he was related to one of the English Whig Lords. It was thought he could be won over, in the end he was not.
The so-called negotiations in London lasted from 16 April to 22 July 1706 and unsurprisingly the Scots gave in to English demands.
Scotland was to have 45 members of a joint (Westminster) House of Commons and England with five times the population would have 513.
Scotland now reduced to political impotence was offered a number of measures aimed at different classes within the Scottish Parliament.
They would retain their own legal system; the rights of the Royal Burghs and the hereditary privileges of landowners were preserved.
The Scottish Lords were given all the privileges of English peers, including exemption from debt, a measure welcomed by many of them. However they did not automatically get a seat in the House of Lords.
But perhaps the most astute offer was the Equivalent, a sum of £398,000 to compensate for Scotland accepting a share of the English National Debt. In essence the money found its way in to the pockets of those who had suffered financially in the Darien fiasco.
It was, “Creative accounting of the highest order,” said contemporary historian Paul Scott.
Eighteenth century Scotland was not a democratic country and ordinary people had no vote or other legitimate opportunity to influence their politicians. Instead they took to the streets in violent protest.
The Glasgow riots threatened armed rebellion and militant Covenanters joined disaffected Jacobites and planned to assemble seven or eight thousand men and march on the capital.
The plan was only abandoned after the Duke of Hamilton warned of an English army gathering on the border at Berwick.
To ensure Westminster was kept up to date on all current Scottish thinking they employed a network of spies, the best known was writer Daniel Defoe who was plucked from Newgate prison in London and forced to spy for his country.
Some evidence of his work still remains in the shape of pamphlets directed at Scottish merchants extolling the virtues of trade with the English. Today we might simply call his work ‘spin’.
The Union of Parliaments came into effect on 1 May 1707 and the bells of St Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh rang out to the tune of “why am I so sad on my wedding day”.
