■WILLIAM AND MADY.

255

become one people with the English. The Parliament whichhad hitherto sate at Edinburgh must be incorporated with the -Parliament which sate at AVestminster. The sacrifice could notbut be painfully felt by a brave and haughty people, who had,during twelve generations, regarded the southern dominationwith deadly aversion, and whose hearts still swelled at thethought of the death of AVallace and of the triumphs of Bruce.There w'ere doubtless many punctilious patriots who w'ould havestrenuously opposed an union even if they could have foreseenthat the effect of an union would be to make Glasgow a greatercity than Amsterdam, and to cover the dreary Lothians withharvests and woods, neat farmhouses and stately mansions.But there w r as also a large class which was not disposed tothrow away great and substantial advantages in order to pre-serve mere names and ceremonies; and the influence of thisclass was such that, in the year 1G70, the Scotch Parliamentmade direct overtures to England.* The King undertook theoffice of mediator; and negotiators were named on both sides;but nothing was concluded.

The question, having slept during eighteen years, wassuddenly revived by the Revolution. Different classes, im-pelled hy different motives, concurred on this point. AA r ithmerchants, eager to share in the advantages of the AA r est IndianTrade, were joined active and aspiring politicians who wishedto exhibit their abilities in a more conspicuous theatre than theScottish Parliament House, and to collect riches from a morecopious source than the Scottish treasury. The cry for unionwas swelled hy the voices of some artful Jacobites, who merelywished to cause discord and delay, and who hoped to attainthis end hy mixing up with the difficult question which it wasthe especial business of the Convention to settle another ques-tion more difficult still. It is probable that some who disliked* Act. Pari. Scot., July 30. 1670.

CHAP,

XHI.

1689 .

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