will promote an universal desire in this kingdom to become one in hearts and affections, as we are inseparably joined in interest with our neighbour nation. My lords and gentlemen :—I have a very deep sense of the assistance and respect I have met with from you in this session of parliament, and I shall omit no occasion of showing to the utmost of my power the grateful remembrance I have of it." The parlia ment was then adjourned till the 22d of April,* and on the 28th was dissolved.

It is impossible to record or to read without a feeling somewhat akin to sadness, of the breaking up of a venerable institution, identified with all the ancient glory of our country; but from the facilities which an English ministry possessed after the union of the crowns to influence its deliberations, from the readiness with which it was rendered the tool of despotism under the Stewarts, and from the danger to which it was exposed of again crouching beneath the same burden, it would be foolish to think with regret upon the decease of the Scottish estates, or with other sentiments than those of satisfaction, upon the stability which was insured to real freedom under the protection of the British parliament. The queen expressed her gratitude to the Scottish nobility, who had been chiefly instrumental in promoting the union, by titles and pensions; Montrose and Roxburgh were created Scottish dukes-the highest and last honours of the ancient kingdom-the earls of Mar and Seafield were admitted of the privy council, and Queensberry, with the whole patronage of Scotland, was afterwards raised to the first rank of the British peerage. Her majesty went in procession to St. Paul's on the first of May, to offer thanksgiving for the auspicious conjunction. Addresses of congratulation were presented to her from every quarter of the whole English nation, who were enraptured at the union, which they considered as the commencement of a new era of national felicity, So thought not the Scottish. When their national legislature was lost, a spirit of sullen discontent succeeded

• "Seafield the chancellor's observation in adjourning the parliament was, 'there is an end of an auld sang' to his immortal memory." Hist. of the Revolution in Scotland.

to the hopes and fears by which they had been so long agitated, and that was increased by an unfortunate circumstance connected with mercantile speculation. As the import duties upon foreign commodities were trifling in Scotland, but heavy in England, and both were to continue on the same footing till the first of May, the interval before the operation of the union treaty was employed by a number of merchants in landing valuable cargoes of brandies, wines, &c. at Leith and other ports, to be brought into England after the union had commenced, when all merchandise from Scotland would be admitted duty free :-this was undoubtedly a fair advantage offered in the lottery of trade, of which every Scottishman who had it in his power had a right to avail himself, and of which no Englishman had a right to complain. Another method of gain proposed was probably not quite so unimpeachable :-tobacco when exported from England, had a drawback of sixpence per lb. allowed; some English traders, therefore, sent immense quantities to Scotland for the sole purpose of obtaining the bonus, with the intention of bringing it back, so soon as they could do so in virtue of the treaty.

No provision had been made to guard against such equivocal transactions, and it was even alleged that some of the treaters themselves were engaged in them; but as all could not partake in the gain, those who were necessarily left out in the arrangement raised the loudest outcries at the danger to which the honest dealer and the revenue were exposed; and the London merchants addressed the house of commons, then sitting, complaining of the intolerable inequality and injustice of allowing any such immunities. The commons entered into these views, and voted in reply, "that the importation of goods and merchandize, the growth and produce of France and other foreign parts, into Scotland, in order to be brought from thence into England after the first of May, and with the intention to avoid the payment of the English duties, will be to the damage and ruin of the fair traders, to the prejudice of the manufactures of England, a great loss to her majesty's revenue of the customs, and a very great detriment to the public;" and a bill was accordingly introduced, and passed the house, enacting that all foreign goods

brought from Scotland after the union should be liable to the same duties as those imported direct from France or Spain, under pain of seizure.

The Scottish merchants in London demanded by a counter petition the free intercourse of trade allowed them. by the treaty, without breach of which, they affirmed, they could not be refused the liberty of importing any goods from Scotland, which were not contraband by law in the latter country previous to the treaty; since having paid all the duties due in Scotland, they were entitled, as Scottish property, to be freely admitted to every port in England; they therefore added a saving clause, " unless it could be proved they were the bona fide property of Scottishmen in Scotland, and not merely purchased or provided for the occasion;" but to counteract its value they made the onus probandi lie upon the importer, to whom was left the vexatious and often impracticable task of satisfying the custom-house officers. The lords, upon the representations of the Scots hesitated: the commons then expressed themselves still more strongly, and declared, that the importation of goods the growth of France through Scotland to avoid the English duties, was a "notorious fraud," and the London merchants re-echoed the assertion; but the lords persisted in considering the interference of the English parliament as illegal, and ultimately rejected the bill, referring the subject to the British legislature.

While the affair was in dispute, the merchants continued their speculations; and when the commencement of the union arrived, an immense quantity of foreign produce had accumulated in Scotland, which, in the middle of June, was shipped for London, with certificates of having been fairly imported into Scotland, and having regularly paid all exigible duties before the 1st of May. But no sooner had they entered the Thames, than the custom-house officers made a general seizure of both ships and cargoes. What aggravated this occurrence, was the entire subversion of all their former modes of collecting the trifling sums raised by customs and excise; and along with the new system, the introduction of crowds of English revenue officers, and the

stagnation of trade and confusion that accompanied their introduction. The taxes had, before the union, been usually farmed, and not unfrequently were compromised between the tacksman and the merchant; so that the small trade which was carried on was overlooked by only a few officers whose salaries were insignificant, and whose services were not over-rigorously performed. Even in these circumstances, it had been no uncommon case to run great quantities of goods; but when the enormous duties imposed in England began to operate, the temptation was too great to resist, and the whole country threatened to become one den of smugglers. The common people, not yet broke into obedience, acting upon the principle that the union was not legal, nor the English laws binding upon them, forcibly resisted the custom-house officers, and in many instances retook their seizures, which they considered recovering their own property, and treated the captors as common robbers;* in spite of all the efforts of the latter, many thousand ankers of brandy were secretly landed from the first Dutch fleet that arrived after the union, and their attempts to enforce the new laws were openly obstructed.

As force, however, soon became hazardous, advantage was taken of the creeks and coves with which the Firths of Forth and Clyde abound, to land the cargoes they did not choose to enter, or they entered part, and run part.. In this case, boats were stationed at different places, particularly in the Firth of Forth, and certain signals agreed upon between them and the "runners." Whenever a vessel appeared at a distance, the concerted flag was hung out to the confederates, who immediately came off, and received the contraband articles; or replied by signal from the shore, if the officers were in the neighbourhood, when the ship tack

* Lockhart, who hated these gentry most cordially, relates with much glee, "that about this time a Scots merchant travelling in England, and showing some apprehensions of being robbed, his landlady told him he was in no ha. zard; and, upon his inquiring how that came about, and where were all the thieves? why truly,' replied she, 'they are all gone to your country to get places."" Memoirs, p. 224.

ed and made for another quarter, and having the whole Firth to range in, they shifted from side to side, and port to port, till they found the coast clear and accomplished their purpose; while the custom-house officers had the satisfaction of being spectators of the manœuvring, without being able to prevent the landing.

Few or no Scottishmen could be found who would incur the disgrace of enforcing the new regulations, and it was therefore necessary to employ others, who cared little for the contumely, and had courage to face the danger of such an employment. At first the service was severe, and a species of custom-house cavalry was raised for superintending the coasts, and a new marine for guarding the creeks and the bays. Four general riding surveyors, with twelve officers attached to them, formed the staff of the establishment, who divided the country into districts, and reviewed and kept to their duty the various corps of under agents, almost the whole of whom consisting of Englishmen, executed without mercy the oppressive exactions of the revenue laws. These guarda-costas consisted of what had never been known in Scotland-small armed cutters and boats, who cruized off the mouths of the Firths, and searched every vessel that entered. These too were manned chiefly by their newly united brethren, and exercised their office with that blunt disregard of ceremony which has always distinguished an English tar. Of the whole employed in this odious business, only two Scottishmen were admitted into the lucrative department of commissioners, and those were active treaters, sir Robert Dickson and a brother of the earl of Glasgow.

A gauger had never been heard of in the country till the new regiment of excisemen invaded it, and their manner of levying the tribute was as unintelligible as the thing itself was abhorrent to the native brewers. Like the customs, the excise had been generally settled amicably between the farmer of the tax and the payer, and that by a kind of "rough guess" which the brewer himself was, in most cases, allowed to make; not a person in the whole business had seen a gauging rod, or could use it, and were therefore utter