The adjustment of financial obligations was admitted to
involve some injustice to Scotland, and an "equivalent" was allowed, to
compensate for the responsibility now accruing to Scotland in connection
with the English National Debt. It remained to adjust the representation
of Scotland in the united Parliament. It was at first proposed to allow
only thirty-eight members, but the number was finally raised to
forty-five. Thirty of these represented the shires. Each shire was to
elect one representative, except the three groups of Bute and Caithness,
Clackmannan and Kinross, and Nairn and Cromarty. In each group the
election was made alternately by the two counties. Thus Bute,
Clackmannan, and Nairn each sent a member in 1708, and Caithness,
Kinross, and Cromarty in 1710. The device is sufficiently unusual to
deserve mention. The burghs were divided into fifteen groups, each of
which was given one member. In this form, after considerable difficulty,
the act was carried both in Scotland and in England. It was a union much
less extensive than that which had been planned by James VI or that
which had been in actual force under Cromwell. The existence of a
separate Church, governed differently from the English Establishment,
and the maintenance of a separate legal code and a separate judicature
have helped to preserve some of the national characteristics of the
Scots. Not for many years did the union become popular in Scotland, and
not for many years did the two nations become really united.
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