much lefs required or conferred, at the time of electing that Parliament. Indeed it would have been very extraordinary if the cafe had turned out otherwife, no hiftorian of that period, or who has written fince, having ever mentioned or alluded to fuch a fact, if we except thofe fhort and obfcure paffages in De Foe to which I have referred. Nay, farther, in the feveral treaties preceding that which fo happily accomplished the object, from the acceffion of James the Sixth of Scotland to the crown of England downwards, no idea of the neceffity, expediency, or, I may fay, conftitutionally fpeaking, of the poffibility of fuch a reference to and delegation from the freeholders and burgeffes,-forming themselves, as they must have done, into what, in the modern French vocabulary, would be called primary assemblies,-ever seems to have been entertained by any projector, politician, lawyer, member of Parliament, minifter, or fovereign whatever. I will now, Sir, fhortly state what really happened in Scotland on the occafion of the laft and fuccefsful treaty. The Convention Parliament, or Eftates, which had been affembled in that country on the abdication, or forfeiture, of James, and had met early in 1689, continued undiffolved through all the reign of King William, and were fummoned to meet by Queen Anne on the 9th of June 1702, a few months after her acceffion. The anomalous formation of thofe Eftates is well known; and it will not be pretended, that any measure of Union between the two kingdoms was, at the time of their nomination, mination, either agitated by the reprefented, or given in charge to their reprefentatives. The fixth English Parliament of King William, which had been called by the ufual process (no special authority being pretended as to England), was fitting on Queen Anne's acceffion; and on the 6th of May 1702 had paffed an act, enabling the Queen to appoint commiffioners for treating of a Union between England and Scotland. As foon as the Scotch Parliament met after King William's death, this circumftance was communicated to them in a letter from the Queen, and a fimilar meafure, on their part, recommended; and, in confequence thereof, a like act was paffed on the 23d of June 1702 t. Commiffioners were accordingly appointed on the part of each kingdom, and met at Westminster on the 27th of October 1702. In the mean time the Scotch Parliament, or Convention, was prorogued (30th June), and foon afterwards diffolved, as was the English Parliament on the 2d of July 1702. But the commiffions were not to determine by this diffolution of the refpective Parliaments, but to continue in force; and fuch treaty as the commiffioners might conclude was to be ratified by the fubfequent Parliaments of each kingdom. From the above deduction it is clear, that if thofe commiffioners had in fact proceeded to the conclufion of a treaty, no furmife could ever have been made, that * 1 Anne, cap. 14. + Scotch Acts 1ft Parliament of Q. Anne, c. 7. p. 686. on the part of Scotland any fpecial mandate had ferved as a foundation for the powers exercised on the occafion. A new Parliament was foon afterwards called, in the ufual way, in England, and met on the 20th of October 1702, a week previous to the meeting of the commiffioners. On the 8th of September a royal proclamation was published in Scotland: containing the following words: • Whereas the late Parliament of that our ancient • kingdom of Scotland is by our authority diffolved, and ⚫ confidering that we are engaged at prefent in a most juft and neceffary war; and that by acts paffed both in the Parliament of England and Scotland we are empowered, and have accordingly nominated commission◄ ers to treat of an Union betwixt thefe our kingdoms, and of other things, matters, and caufes relating thereto, conform to the tenours of the faid acts, the conclufion of which Union to be established and ratified in both Parliaments, will undoubtedly conduce to the lafting peace and welfare of both kingdoms; for which causes, and that we judge it neceffary there fhould be < a Parliament in being to meet on fuch occafions as may require it, we have thought fit to call a Parliament of that our kingdom, to meet at our city of Edinburgh on the 12th of November next.’ This paffage, in an inftrument of which, after a good deal of research, I have been furnished with a copy by the obliging attention of the gentleman who has the care of the public records at Edinburgh, is the only circumflance and fource to which I can trace the fuppofition of the alleged fpecial authority of which I have been been speaking. I think it is no injuftice to the Gentlemen who have pleaded that special authority, to suppose they had conceived it to rest upon fome more folid and tenable ground. Indeed I have not met with any evidence that they, or any writer or compiler, on the prefent occafion, had taken the pains I have been prompted to do (in order to fift every point of this great question as thoroughly as I could), with regard to the proceeding which may have given rife to the paffages I have referred to in De Foe. But it is no wonder the fort of argument there stated is fo loosely, generally, and fhortly expreffed, and that fo little attention feems to have been paid to it at the time, or by that very historian -the only one, as I before obferved, who has ever hinted at it. Was the mention made of the war, in the fame proclamation, a special or neceffary notice to the electors of Scotland to inftruct their reprefentatives how they were to act in the enfuing Parliament, as to granting or refufing supplies? If it had been all at once discovered, that all former Parliaments which had entertained the queftion of Union had exceeded the power and authority incident to their conftitution, would there not have been fome more folemn and fpecific recital to that effect in the proclamation itself? Would that fubject have been lumped, as it were, with fo common and ufual a caufe for holding a Parliament as the circumftance of a war? Would not the proclamation have proceeded to give new and peculiar directions for the method of communicating to the electors the notice that they were to exercise a novel and extraordinary fort of deliberation, and to communicate a new power to the elected, not necessarily vefted in them by the act of election and confequent commiffion, appointing them members of the Legislature? Would not the proceedings at the fubsequent elections, the fummons, the returns, or, as they were called, and were in fact in Scotland, the commiffions of the perfons chofen, have contained fome reference to the fubject? Would not the minutes of the election meetings, whether of counties or burghs, which in that country are drawn up with fo much form and precision, have recorded the efpecial object and purpose for calling the Parliament, and the instructions on that account given by each body of conftituents? Would there have been no trace of any thing of that fort among the entries in the corporation books of Edinburgh, or of the other cities, towns, and boroughs of the kingdom? Would there not have been fome tradition, fome memorial, fome narrative, or some hint of a formal, or at leaft of fome incidental allufion to the fubject of Union at fome of the elections? Of fome conteft founded on the known or declared opinions of different candidates, for or against the measure? And, laftly, would not the very act of the Scotch Parliament, which ratified the treaty, have recited the special power which alone warranted them in that act, and which their general character as a Parliament did not authorize? Now, Sir, not one of thofe circumftances exifts. The proclamation, the copy of which I hold in my hand, gives no particular direction as to the elections. The fummonfes for election, the commiffions, the minutes, the corporation books, bear no marks or figns of any thing fpecial. History, memoirs, tradition, are all filent; and you know, Sir, that the act of the Scotch Parliament is equally fo. It is hardly neceffary to wind up the narrative I have been giving, by ftating that the commiffioners who met by virtue of the two acts of 1702, and of whom those for |