Almost every section had special
reasons for opposing the measure. For the Jacobites an Act of Union
meant that Scotland was irretrievably committed to the Hanoverian
succession, and whatever force the Jacobites might be able to raise
after the queen's death must take action in the shape of a rebellion
against the _de facto_ government. It deprived them of all hope of
seizing the reins of power, and of using the machinery of government in
Scotland for the good of their cause--a _coup d'etat_ of which the Act
of Security gave considerable chance. On this very account the
triumphant Presbyterians were anxious to carry the union scheme, and the
correspondence of the Electress Sophia proves that the negotiations for
union were looked upon at Hanover as solely an important factor in the
succession controversy. But the recently re-established Presbyterian
Church of Scotland regarded with great anxiety a union with an
Episcopalian country, and hesitated to place their dearly won freedom at
the mercy of a Parliament the large majority of whom were Episcopalians.
The more extreme Presbyterians, and especially the Cameronians of the
west, were bitterly opposed to the project. They protested against
becoming subject to a Parliament in whose deliberations the English
bishops had an important voice, and against accepting a king who had
been educated as a Lutheran, and they clamoured for covenanted
uniformity and a covenanted monarch.
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