By a curious irony of fate, the
Scottish Episcopalians were forced by their Jacobite leanings to act
with the extreme Presbyterians, and to oppose the scheme of amalgamation
with an Episcopalian country. The legal interest was strongly against a
proposal that might reduce the importance of Scots law and of Scottish
lawyers, while the populace of Edinburgh were furious at the suggestion
of a union, whose result must be to remove at once one of the glories of
their city and a valuable source of income. There was still another body
of opponents. The reign of William had been remarkable for the rise of
political parties. The two main factions were known as Williamites and
Cavaliers, and in addition to these there had grown up a Patriot or
Country party. It was brought into existence by the enthusiasm of
Fletcher of Saltoun, and it was based upon an antiquarian revival which
may be compared with the mediaeval attempts to revive the Republic of
Rome. The aim of the patriots was to maintain the independence of
Scotland, and they attempted to show that the Scottish crown had never
been under feudal obligations to England, and that the Scottish
Parliament had always possessed sovereign rights, and could govern
independently of the will of the monarch. They were neither Jacobites
nor Hanoverians; but they held that if the foreign domination, of which
they had complained under William, were to continue, it mattered little
whether it emanated from St.
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