of the better uniting of the nations, we have thought good by the advice of our Counsel to take the same upon us by our proclamation, being a course safe and free from any of the perils or scruples aforesaid. And therefore we do by these presents publish, proclaim, and assume to ourselves from henceforth, according to our undoubted right, the stile and title of King of Great Britany, France, and Ireland,1 and otherwise as followeth in our stile formerly used. And we do hereby straitly charge and command our Chancellor, and all such as have the custody of any of our seals, and all other our officers and subjects whatsoever to whom it may in any wise appertain, that from henceforth in all commissions, patents, writs, processes, grants, records, instruments, impressions, sermons, and all other writings and speeches whatsoever, wherein our stile is used to be set forth or recited, that our said stile, as is before by these presents declared and prescribed, be only used, and no other. And because we do but now declare that which in truth was before, our will and pleasure is, that in the computation of our reign, as to all writings or instruments hereafter to be made, the same computation be taken and made, as if we had taken upon us the stile aforesaid immediately after the decease of our late dear sister. And we do notify to all our subjects, that if any person, of what degree or condition soever he be, shall impugn our said stile, or derogate and detract from the same by any arguments, speeches, words, or otherwise, we shall proceed against him as against an offender against our crown and dignity, and a disturber of the quiet and peace of our kingdom, according to the utmost severity of our laws in that behalf. Nevertheless our meaning is not that where in any writ, pleading, or other record, writing, instrument or speech, it hath been used for mention to be made of England or the realm of England, or any other word or words derived from the same, and not of our whole and entire stile and title, that therein any alteration at all be used by pretext of this our proclamation, which we intend to take place only where our whole stile shall be recited, and not otherwise, and in the other cases the ancient form to be used and observed. A proclamation to this effect, and probably founded upon this 1 So corrected in Bacon's hand from "Great Britany, Ireland, and the islands adjacent, and of France;" which had been written first. Upon which point see above, p. 226. draft, though almost wholly re-written, was published on the 20th of October; the day on which the Commissioners for the Union. were to meet and the kingdoms were thenceforth united in the King's style and title, without any contestation, difficulty, or inconvenience and so remained. 3. The rest of the work was not so easily accomplished; though it began with fairer auspices than could have been looked for. A council of forty-eight Englishmen and thirty-one Scotchmen, meeting on terms of perfect equality to make a bargain-a bargain involving interests so vast and so various-might have seemed to have no easy task before them: yet in less than six weeks they had come to an agreement all but unanimous; and the work, so far as it depended upon them, was prosperously concluded. The reputation which Bacon brought with him from the House of Commons as the man in whose hands any business of delicacy or difficulty was always found to prosper best, would naturally give him great influence and authority in the Commission; and the order of proceeding, to which the harmonious progress of their deliberations was probably in great part due, was probably in great part due to him. Twenty years after, in revising his Essay on Counsel, he referred to this Commission as an example of good order. "The counsels at this day in most places" (he says) "are but familiar meetings, where matters are rather talked on than debated. And they run too swift to the order or act of counsel. It were better that in causes of weight the matter were propounded one day, and not spoken to till the next day: In nocte consilium. So was it done in the Commission for Union between England and Scotland; which was a grave and orderly assembly." This is confirmed by a Journal of the proceedings of the Commission, preserved among the manuscripts in the Library of Lincoln's Inn: which contains however only a record of the business debated at each meeting, without any account of the debates themselves; and though it appears to be an original and authentic record, and was very likely drawn up by Bacon himself, the following notes contain all that I thought worth extracting from it for the purpose of this work. Oct. 20, 1604. The Commissioners meet: but the Scottish Commissioners not having all arrived, adjourn till the 29th. Oct. 29. Sub-committees of both nations for collection of hostile laws. Nov. 2. Report made severally, first by Sir Francis Bacon, and 1 Lit. and Prof. Works, vol. i. p. 426. then by Sir T. Hamilton, Lord Advocate of Scotland, of the services performed by the Sub-committees. "Agreed by a full consent that every time of assembly, after the matters concluded at that sitting, there shall be propositions made of such particular questions and matters as shall be debated at the next sitting and that after any matter debated, if the resolution be clear and without question, the votes may be given readily and publicly; but if the number of voices be doubtful, either part may retire and withdraw themselves to take knowledge of the voices in particular, and afterwards make known publicly the resolution of the major part." Nov. 15. Matter of Naturalization debated from two till past nine P.M., and then the meeting adjourned.1 Nov. 24. Agreed to recommend the naturalization both of the Post nati and the Antenati. "This day all the articles that have been concluded since the first meeting of the Commissioners until this time were read accordingly as the same were set down and placed in the Journal book, and according to the times when they were concluded. And thereupon direction was given to Sir Francis Bacon and the Lord Advocate of Scotland to review the said articles, and to reduce and join them together in such form and method as was meet and agreeable in coherence of matter, and would be fit to be set down in the instruments themselves to be propounded to the Parliaments. And this to be done against Tuesday the 27th of this instant. "Moved also and assented, that the Lord of Cranbourne and the Lord Fivye2 would confer against that day of some preface meet to be set before the articles of the said instrument." Nov. 27. "This day the articles were presented in writing, in such sort as they had been reduced into form and method according to the direction at the last sitting to Sir Francis Bacon and the Lord Advocate of Scotland; and likewise a preface to be set before the said articles in the instrument was presented by the Lord Cranbourne, as the same had been agreed by himself and the Lord Fivye; which preface and the said articles being presently read were allowed by the Commissioners, and thereupon order given for the engrossing of the in 1 At this point it seems that the opinion of the Law Officers of the Crown was taken on some questions relative to the naturalization of the Post nati: who declared that all persons born in Scotland after the accession of James were already naturalized. See S. P. Domestic, x. 15. 2 Lord Fivye [Fife, I suppose] was President of the Council in Scotland. Sir Robert Cecil had been created Baron Essendon on the 13th of May, and Viscount Cranbourn on the 20th of August. VOL. III. R struments against Saturday the 1st of December, being the day appointed for the signing and sealing of the instruments." The final meeting was afterwards deferred till Thursday, December 6, when the instruments were signed and sealed.1 4. It will be observed that the charge of digesting the articles of the resolutions into their ultimate form was entrusted (on the English side) to Bacon; but that the composition of the preamble or prefatory introduction was undertaken by Cecil in conjunction with Lord Fivye. It appears, however, that Bacon had made provision for this part of the work also, had it been wanted. For among the papers left by him, and by himself thought worth preserving, is a draft of precisely such a preface as was wanted for the occasion; and whatever reasons there may have been (personal or other) for preferring the production of the two great officers of state, there can be no doubt that for the modern purpose of throwing light upon the meaning and history of the business, Bacon's is much to be preferred. It is indeed a page of history ready written, and makes it unnecessary to offer in this place any further explanation of the results of the Commissioners' deliberations; the disputed points in which will not fail to force themselves upon our notice at a later time. This was first printed in Stephens's second collection (1734), from a copy with a few interlineations in Bacon's own hand, now in the British Museum: from which copy it is here taken. TO THE MOST We the commissioners for England and Scotland respectively named and appointed, in all humbleness do signify to his most excellent Majesty, and to the most honourable high Courts of Parliament of both realms, that we have assembled ourselves, consulted and treated according to the nature and limits of our commission; and forasmuch as we do find that hardly within the See Lincoln's Inn MSS. 83. 2 Harl. MSS. 6797, fo. 16. 3 These words are inserted in Bacon's hand. In the left-hand corner, at the top, is written in the same hand, "prepared not used." memory of all times, or within the compass of the universal world, there can be shewed forth a fit example or precedent of the work we have in hand, concurring in all points material, we thought ourselves so much the more bound to resort to the infallible and original grounds of nature and common reason, and freeing ourselves from the leading or misleading of examples, to insist and fix our considerations upon the individual business in hand, without wandering or discourses. It seemed therefore unto us a matter demonstrative by the light of reason, that we were in first place to begin with the remotion and abolition of all manner hostile, envious, or malign laws on either side, being in themselves mere temporary, and now by time become directly contrary to our present most happy estate; which laws, as they are already dead in force and vigour, so we thought fit now to wish them buried in oblivion; that by the utter extinguishment of the memory of discords past, we may avoid all seeds of relapse into discords to come. Secondly, as matter of nature not unlike the former, we entered into consideration of such limitany constitutions as served but for to obtain a form of justice between subjects under several monarchs, and did in the very grounds and motives of them presuppose incursions and intermixture of hostility all which occasions, as they are in themselves- now vanished and done away, so we wish the abolition and cessation thereof to be declared.1 Thirdly, for so much as the principal degree to union is communion and participation of mutual commodities and benefits, it appeared to us to follow next in order, that the commerce between both nations be set open and free, so as the commodities and provisions of either may pass and flow to and fro without any stops or obstructions into the veins of the whole body, for the better sustentation and comfort of all the parts; with caution nevertheless, that the vital nourishment be not so drawn into one part, as it may endanger a consumption and withering of the other. Fourthly, after the communion and participation by commerce, which can extend but to the transmission of such commodities as are moveable, personal, and transitory, there succeeded naturally that other degree, that there be made a mutual endowment and donation of either realm towards other of the abilities and capacities to take and enjoy things which are permanent, real, and fixed; as namely freehold and : The words 'as they' and the last clause are inserted in Bacon's hand. |