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Thus this doctrine neceffarily leads to the inference, that the prefent Legiflature of this country has no legitimate authority; that the powers it exercifes are mere ufurpation; and that no man, either in Scotland or England, is bound to fubmit to any of the laws which have been enacted for near a century.

2d. When, perceiving that this argument of acquiefcence fails by leading to fuch a dangerous abfurdity, Gentlemen refort to fome fuppofed fpecial delegation from the people or conftituent body to the Parliament of Scotland, it will be recollected, as I have already fhewn, that the electors could not, by the conftitution-in this refpect the fame in that kingdom as in England-make any such delegation, fo as to give it any force or validity; nor grant to the elected any peculiar powers, not incident to the mere character of reprefentatives duly chofen. I will now prove, that in 1707 no fuch delegation was in fact attempted in Scotland.

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There is undoubtedly a paffage or two in De Foe's History of the Union, which feem to indicate fomething special in the appointment of the members of the Parliament of Scotland, which concluded that Treaty ;* and a fuppofed specific authority, in that inftance, though very little taken notice of in this Houfe, has been much relied on in several speeches, and in various pamphlets, in the fifter kingdom. This circumstance induced me to beftow fome pains in the investigation of the matter, the refult of which has been, as I was well perfuaded it would be, what I have juft afferted, that no fuch authority was

*Stockdale's Edit. p. 230, 289.

in contemplation, 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 pe riod, or who has written fince, having ever mentioned or alluded to fuch a fact, if we except those short and obfcure paffages in De Fee 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 speaking, of the poflibility of fuch a reference to, and the delegation from the freeholders and burgeffes,--forming themfelves, as they must have done, into what, in the modern French vocabulary, would be called primary affemblies,—ever seems to have been entertained by any projector, politician, lawyer, member of parliament, minifter, or sovereign whatever.

I will now, Sir, fhortly ftate 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 those Estates 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 representatives.

The fixth English Parliament of King William, which had been called by the ufual procefs (no fpecial authority being pretended as to England,) was fitting on Queen Anne's acceffion; and on the 6th of May, 1702 a had paffed an act, enabling the Queen to appoint commiffioners for treating of an 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 measure, on their part, recommended; and, in confequence thereof, a like act was paffed on the 23d of June 1702.b

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 Conventien, was prorogued (30th June,) and foon afterwards diffolved, as was the Englith Parliament on the 2d of July 1702. But the commiffions were not to determine by this diffolution of the respective 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 those commiffioners had in fact proceeded to the conclufion of a treaty, no furmife could ever have been made, that

Anne, cap. 14.

Scotch Acts ift Parliament of Q. Anne, c. 7. p. 686,

on the part of Scotland any special mandate had ferved as a foundation for the powers exercifed 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:

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Whereas the late Parliament of that our ancient kingdom of Scotland is by our authority diffolved, and confidering that we are at prefent engaged in a most juft and neceffary war; and that by acts paffed both in the Parliament of England and Scotland we are em. powered, and have accordingly nominated commiffioners * to treat of an Union betwixt these 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 lasting ⚫ peace and welfare of both kingdoms; for which caufes, and that we judge it neceffary there should 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,'

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This paffage, in an inftrument of which, after a good deal of refearch, 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 circumftance and fource to which I can trace the fuppofi tion 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 reft upon some 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 ftated, is fo loosely, generally, and shortly 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 observed, 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 representatives how they were to act in the enfuing Parliament, as to granting or refufing fupplies? If it had been all at once discovered, that all former Parliaments which had entertained the question of Union, had exceeded the power and authority incident to their constitution, would there not have been some more folemn and specific recital to that effect in the proclamation itself? Would that fubject have been lumped, as it were, with so common and usual a cause 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 neceffarily vefted in them by the act of election and confequent commiffion, appointing them members of the Legiflature? Would not the proceedings at the fubfequent elections, the fummons, the returns,

or,

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