Germains or from the Court of St. James's,
and they had combined with the Jacobites to pass the Act of Security.
Such was the complicated situation with which the English Government had
to deal. Their first step was to advise Queen Anne to assent to the Act
of Security, and so to conserve the dignity and _amour propre_ of the
Scottish Parliament. Commissioners were then appointed to negotiate for
a union. No attempt was made to conciliate the Jacobites, for no attempt
could have met with any kind of success. Nor did the commissioners make
any effort to satisfy the more extreme Presbyterians, who sullenly
refused to acknowledge the union when it became an accomplished fact,
and who remained to hamper the Government when the Jacobite troubles
commenced. An assurance that there would be no interference with the
Church of Scotland as by law established, and a guarantee that the
universities would be maintained in their _status quo_, satisfied the
moderate Presbyterians, and removed their scruples. Unlike James VI and
Cromwell, the advisers of Queen Anne declared their intention of
preserving the independent Scots law and the independent Scottish courts
of justice, and these guarantees weakened the arguments of the Patriot
party. But above all the English proposals won the support of the
ever-increasing commercial interest in Scotland by conceding freedom of
trade in a complete form. They agreed that "all parts of the United
Kingdom of Great Britain be under the same regulations, prohibitions,
and restrictions, and liable to equal impositions and duties for export
and import".
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