for the purpose of diverting the stream of popular excitement from factious objects, and permanently directing it in an useful channel, amply justify the general applause with which it was received by contemporaries, and the praise bestowed upon it by historians. Its effect upon the nation was astonishing. Both houses of parliament presented animated and affectionate addresses to the king, and the commons immediately voted ample supplies with a degree of zeal and unanimity which were without example since the revolution. The whole nation,' says Mr. Burke, in allusion to this general enthusiasm, split before into an hundred adverse factions, with a king at its head evidently declining to his tomb, -the whole nation, lords, commons, and people, proceeded as one body, informed by one soul.' In the mean time the arrangements for the formation of a whig administration were proceeding; but before they could be completed, the death of the king, in March, 1702, put an end to the project, and on the accession of Queen Anne, a sort of mixed administration was formed, compounded of the elements of both parties, but in which the tory interests prevailed, and from which Lord Somers and the most eminent leaders of the whigs were wholly excluded. The state of parties for several years after the accession of Queen Anne prevented Lord Somers from taking any managing part in the government. He spent much of his time at this period in retirement at his seat near Cheshunt, in Hertfordshire, and employed his leisure in antiquarian pursuits, and general literature and science. He was very learned,' says Burnet, in his own profession, with a great deal more learning in other professions-in divinity, philosophy, and history. He is said to have possessed an extensive collection of medals and other historical curiosities, and to have expended large sums of money in the purchase of rare books, prints, and pamphlets.

But though he was excluded from the administration, Lord Somers was a regular and punctual attendant upon his duties in the house of lords. His name is rarely absent from the list of peers who are recorded daily on the journals as present in their places; and he appears, by the same authority, to have been a member of almost all the lords' com

Letters on a Regicide Peace.

mittees appointed at this period. He took a prominent part, during the first parliament of Queen Anne, in the year 1702-3, in the debates upon the bill against occasional conformity. By this bill it was proposed to enact that persons who had only occasionally conformed to the church of England, by taking the sacrament and tests, required by the statute of Charles II., previously to entering upon offices of trust, and had afterwards frequented any meeting of dissenters, should be disabled from holding their employments, and be subjected to a penalty of 1007., and 51. for every day in which they acted in their offices, after having been at such a meeting. This bill, after much discussion, passed the house of commons by a considerable majority, but the measure met with a warm, and eventually a successful opposition in the lords. The majority of the bishops, including Burnet, who made a powerful speech against it, objected to the bill on a conscientious persuasion that the principles upon which it proceeded were unjust to the dissenters, and would have the effect of promoting injurious hostility between that body and the church of England. In consequence of this opposition various alterations were suggested, to which the commons refused to agree, and demanded a free conference. Lord Somers was one of the managers for the lords at this conference, and supported the proposed amendments. After much altercation each house adhered to its opinion, and the bill was consequently lost. It was, however, revived in the following session, with some modifications, and again passed the house of commons, but in the house of lords it was rejected at the second reading by a majority of twelve voices; Lord Somers, on this occasion, expressing a strong opinion against the policy and justice of the measure, and voting in the negative. Swift says, that Lord Somers told him that, if he had the least suspicion that the rejecting this bill would hurt the church, or do a kindness to the dissenters, he would lose his right hand rather than speak against it.'

In the following year, 1704, the popular project of appropriating the revenue of first-fruits and tenths to the increase of the incomes of the poorer clergy was proposed by the queen to parliament, and though the name of Lord Somers does not expressly appear, there is rea

son to believe that he was mainly in strumental in carrying it to a successful issue. This branch of the revenue was derived from an impost paid in catholic times to the pope upon each admission to a benefice, which, upon the Reformation, was vested in Henry VIII., and from that time formed a part of the income of the crown. It was not, how ever, collected as other parts of the royal revenue, but was received from the clergy by the archbishops and bishops, and set apart as a fund from which pensions to court favourites were paid. At the time it was given up by Queen Anne, Lord Sunderland was in the enjoyment of a pension of 20007. a-year for two lives, charged upon this fund. Bishop Burnet had long directed his attention to this means of increasing the incomes of the poorer clergy, and had frequently, though unsuccessfully, urged upon King William the measure now adopted by the queen; and it appears from the following letter to Burnet, written during the progress of the arrangement of the change of ministry immediately before the king's death, that he found in Lord Somers an active coadjutor in his enlightened and benevolent scheme :

-

Nov. 22, 1701. 'MY LORD,-I acknowledge the honour of your lordship's letter of the 17th, with great thankfulness; I wish it may be in my power to contribute to the excellent design you propose. No man will enter into it more willingly, nor shall labour in it more heartily. The point of the first-fruits and tenths is what I have proposed several times, with much earnestness, but without success. When I have the happiness of seeing your lordship, we shall, I hope, discourse at large upon the whole subject. In the mean time allow me to assure you, that I am, with great and sincere respect, my lord,

Your Lordship's most obedient
Humble Servant,
'SOMERS.

Soon after the meeting of the new parliament, called in October, 1705, a motion was made in the house of lords, by Lord Haversham, whom the Duchess of Marlborough calls a great speechmaker and publisher of his speeches,' for an address to the queen, praying her majesty to invite the Princess Sophia,

no

the presumptive heir to the crown, to reside in England. Though this proposition was in fact a mere manœuvre of faction, and intended by the tories to drive their opponents into the dilemma of offending the queen by acquiescing in it, or of injuring their reputation with the princess and the electorate family by opposing it, arguments of great plausibility were used in its support. It was urged that there were means so effectual to secure the peaceable succession to the throne, as by having the successor on the spot to assume and maintain his right. In answer to this, the whig speakers in the house of lords, among whom was Lord Somers, represented the inconveniences and jealousies which must arise from the establishment of rival courts in the same country; suggesting also the policy and propriety of retaining the successor in some degree in a state of dependence on the reigning sovereign. In the end, the Earl of Wharton brought in a bill empowering a council of regency to act upon the contingency of a demise of the crown, until the arrival of a successor, which was received with much applause by the people generally; and though a factious opposition was raised to it by the tories, it passed through both houses of parliament without a division. The Electorate family were fully satisfied by the introduction of another bill by the same party, which naturalized all the descendants of the Princess Sophia, wherever born; and the Earl of Halifax being despatched to Hanover with these acts after they had passed, Lord Somers and several other whig peers sent letters to the Electoral Court, in vindication of their conduct, which entirely secured an amicable understanding. The princess said that she was charmed to see the respect and affection shown by the parliament to her majesty; and Lord Somers, with much dexterity, suggested, that if the invitation had been assented to with reluctancy on the part of the queen, it might have given rise to unkindness which in the end might have proved very fatal. Thus, the scheme of the tories to embroil their opponents with the queen or the electress totally failed; and on the contrary, the queen, who was present during the debates, was so offended at the disrespect to her person displayed in the speeches of some of the tory lords, that from that moment (ac

C

cording to the representation of the Duchess of Marlborough) she began to indicate a disposition to become really reconciled with the whigs. She had previously to this period introduced several persons into the ministry who were notoriously attached to that party; and it was about this time that she commissioned Lord Godolphin to assure the leaders of the whigs that she intended to place herself and her affairs in such hands as they should approve.

A cry of danger to the established church having been raised in the course of the debates in parliament on Lord Haversham's motion, Lord Halifax moved in the house of peers that a day should be appointed to inquire into the grounds of this pretended danger. Upon this motion a warm debate ensued, in which Lord Somers delivered a manly and impressive speech, censuring the authors of such reports as actuated solely by the design of embroiling the nation at home, and impeding the judicious policy of the government abroad. He concluded his speech by an animated eulogium upon the conduct of the existing administration. The debate ter minated in a resolution, carried by a majority of 61 to 30 voices, that the church of England, as by law established, which was rescued from the extremest danger by King William III. of glorious memory, is now in a most safe and flourishing condition, and that those who spread reports to the contrary are enemies of the queen and her government.' This resolution was also adopted by the commons, and the effect of it was incorporated in an address to the queen, who declared her satisfaction at finding both houses ready to concur with her in putting a stop to these false and malicious reports.

Lord Somers had, since his retirement from office, applied himself with his characteristic industry to the arrangement of the details of a measure intended to remedy several gross defects and abuses in the practical machinery of the courts of chancery and common law; and towards the end of this session of parliament he introduced into the house of lords a Bill for the amendment of the Law and better advancement of Justice.' The particulars of this valuable enactment are of too technical a nature to be interesting, or even

* Coxe's Memoirs of Marlborough,

perhaps intelligible, to unprofessional readers. Its general object is to prevent a delay or failure of justice in consequence of formal objections; and in comparison with the previous condition of our courts it must be acknowledged that it introduced most important improvements into the municipal law of England by cutting off, or applying to useful purposes, a vast number of excrescences which previously disfigured the administration of justice. It appears, however, that Lord Somers experienced in no small degree the difficulties and embarrassments which have impeded those who, in more modern times, have employed themselves in legal reforms. The measure, as at first introduced, was of much more extensive operation; it readily passed the house of lords, and received the approbation of the Lord Keeper and the Judges; but in passing through the commons, it was found, says Burnet*, that the interest of under officers, clerks, and attorneys, whose gains were to be lessened by the bill, was more considered than the interest of the nation itself; several clauses, how beneficial soever to the subject, which touched on their profit, were left out by the commons. This statute is particularly mentioned in terms of approbation in the queen's speech at the conclusion of the session in March, 1706+.

In the course of this session of parliament the way was opened to the final arrangement of the union with Scotland, a measure of infinite importance to both countries, which had been long considered and discussed by the most enlightened writers and statesmen, and was at length conducted to its successful completion principally by the learning, activity, and wisdom of Lord Somers.

About a century before the time of which we are speaking, the accidental union of the crowns of England and Scotland under James I. naturally suggested the notion of a permanent consolidation of the two countries. It seems, indeed, extraordinary that a measure of this kind should not have been effected, or at least attempted, at an earlier period in the case of countries so peculiarly pointed out by nature for union; for, to use the words of Bacon, There be no mountains nor races of

* Own Times, vol. ii. p. 439. Chandler's Commons' Debates, vol. iii. p. 473.

hills, there be no seas or great rivers, there is no diversity of tongue or language that hath invited or provoked this ancient separation and divorce*.* The value of a complete political union to countries naturally united by climate, language, contiguity of situation, and consequent identity of interest with respect to foreign enemies, is admirably illustrated by Bacon in his several Memorials on this subject; and his practical arguments upon the increase of power produced by union in such circumstances amply justify his expression to the king, that England, Scotland, and Ireland, well united, were such a trefoil as no other prince weareth in his crown.' In conformity with this opinion, a proposal for an union with Scotland was laid by James I., before his first and second parliaments, and commissioners were appointed to arrange its details; but though urged forward with the utmost zeal and even impatience by the king, and earnestly and actively promoted by the powerful intellect of that great man whose writings had suggested and matured the scheme, and who says, that the labour of the commission rested most upon his hand,' the project of an incorporating union entirely failed, and nothing resulted from the attempt beyond the abolition of the hostile laws previously subsisting between the two kingdoms.

The practicability of the union had also been frequently debated since the reign of James I. It was much discussed in the Scotch Parliament or Convention assembled at Edinburgh, upon the arrival of the Prince of Orange; and at that time commissioners were appointed in Scotland to arrange the terms of a treaty. Various obstacles impeded the progress of the measure during the whole reign of William; but the last public act of his life was to send a message to his parliament, recommending to them, in the most earnest manner, to proceed with the treaty. The reader will remember that at this time Lord Somers was in the most intimate confidence of the king. William died eight days after this message was delivered; and his successor, in her first speech to the same parliament, strongly urges the subject upon their attention. An act

Brief Discourse of the Happy Union of the Kingdoms,' &c.

+ Letter to the King on Presenting his Discourse touching the Plantation of Ireland.

Chandler's Commons' Debates, vol. iii. p. 189.

was accordingly passed without delay, appointing commissioners to conduct the treaty on the part of England.

The state of parties in both countries, however, prevented the further progress of the measure at that period; but in March, 1705, an act of parliament was passed, entitled An act for the effectual securing of the kingdom of England from the apparent dangers that may arise from several acts lately passed in the parliament of Scotland*. By one of the provisions of this act, the queen was enabled to appoint commissioners for England to treat with commissioners for Scotland, for an union between the two kingdoms. The proceedings of these commissioners were directed by the statute to be reduced into writing and submitted to the queen and the parliament of each kingdom, to whom the entire consideration of them, and the allowing or disallowing the whole or any part thereof, were expressly reserved. In her speech at the opening of the ensuing parliament in October, 1705, the queen again referred to the subject, stating, that commissioners had lately been appointed by the Scottish Parliament, and that she intended in a short time to cause commissions on the part of England to be made out. Accordingly, commissioners were soon afterwards appointed by the queen, and the name of Lord Somers appeared in the commission amongst those of the wisest statesmen of the time, though he was not then a member of the administration. The delegates for both countries assembled at Whitehall on the 15th of April, 1706, and commenced their deliberations with the solemnity which the magnitude of the occasion deserved. The Scottish commissioners, and, indeed, a considerable party in Scotland, were strongly impressed in favour of a federal union similar to that which then existed in the United Provinces and in the cantons of Switzerland. The English commissioners, on the other hand, insisted upon a substantial incorporation, by which the national interests should be consolidated and identified into one kingdom, and all distinctions between the two countries, with respect to representation and government, should be entirely and for ever abolished. This was the main point of discussion between the two parties; but in the end, the Scotch commissioners agreed to

3 and 4 Anne, cap. vii.

the proposal of an incorporating union. On the 23d of July, 1706,the articles being fully arranged and completed, with entire unanimity on both sides, were formally presented to the queen, who expressed her acquiescence and satisfaction, declaring, that she should always look upon it as a particular happiness, if a project, which promised so great a security and advantage to both kingdoms, could be accomplished in her reign*.*

The stipulations of this treaty are well known; and as the part taken by Lord Somers in the discussion of them by the commissioners is not recorded, it would be quite unnecessary to repeat them in this memoir.

Generally speaking, the articles seem to be highly favourable to Scotland in all substantial respects, though in some points they were thought to derogate from the national dignity and independence. In the sharing of the public burdens assigned to Scotland, that country had a decided advantage; less than the fortieth part of the public taxes were to be levied in Scotland; and yet, contrary to the maxim generally received, that in framing a government representation should be in proportion to taxation, the Scotch were offered nearly one-eleventh part of the legislature. On the other hand, the Scotch peerage, as an independent body, were deprived of their privileges as lords of parliament, the whole community being in future to be represented in the English parliament by sixteen elective peers and forty-five members in the house of commons. The debates in the parliament of Scotland upon the ratification of this treaty, displayed exertions of eloquence and argument rarely excelled in any deliberative assembly. The speeches of the celebrated Fletcher of Saltoun, and Lord Belhaven, against the union, and that of Seaton of Pittmedden in favour of it, are the most remarkable. At length, however, by the great personal address of the Duke of Queensberry, the opposition of some of the most influential objectors to the measure was removed, and the treaty, as originally framed, and without any material alterations, received the solemn sanction of the Scottish parliament.

The English parliament met on the 3d of December, 1706; and on the 28th

Chandler, vol. iii. p. 479.

of January following, the queen announced in the house of lords the ratification of the treaty of union by the parliament of Scotland. Very shortly afterwards, a bill was introduced into the house of commons, ratifying the same on the part of England, which passed through the commons with great facility and very little discussion; so much so, that Burnet says it was thought they interposed not delay and consideration enough, suitable to the importance of so great a transaction." The debates in the house of lords, in which Lord Somers acted the most conspicuous part, in the defence of the union, were longer and more solemn ; but all the articles were carried by large majorities, and on the 6th of March, 1706, the bill received the royal assent.

Thus was this great work, of the accomplishment of which most of the wisest politicians of that day despaired, and which none expected to see effected without a lingering negotiation of many years, commenced and completed within the compass of a single year. In her speech to the lords and commons before the passing of the bill, the queen expresses herself in the following terms :- I consider this union as a matter of the greatest importance to the wealth, strength, and safety of the whole island; and, at the same time, as a work of so much difficulty and nicety in its own nature, that till now all attempts which have been made towards it in the course of above a hundred years have proved ineffectual; and therefore I make no doubt but it will be remembered and spoken of hereafter to the honour of those who have been instrumental in bringing it to such a happy conclusion.'

In truth, the incorporation of two sovereign kingdoms, not by force or hostile aggression on the part of either, but by the express consent of both, founded upon the conviction of mutual advantage, was without a precedent in the history of the world; but the success of the experiment, now practically confirmed by the experience of more than a century, depended almost entirely upon the skilful arrangement of the details. The merit of projecting the scheme has been generally ascribed to Lord Somers; but it was in the laborious discussion of particular articles, upon which the political and

• Burnet's Own Times, vol. ii. p. 458.