Liberty, Property and Popular Politics Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures and Tables
- Acknowledgements
- H. T. Dickinson: An Appreciation
- Introduction
- Part I Parliament and Political Cultures
- 1 ‘The Press Ought to be Open to All’: From the Liberty of Conscience to the Liberty of the Press
- 2 ‘Could the Scots Become True British?’ The Prelude to the Scottish Peerage Bill, 1706–16
- 3 Parliament and Church Reform: Off and On the Agenda
- 4 Liberty, Property and the Post-Culloden Acts of Parliament in the Gàidhealtachd
- 5 Political Toasting in the Age of Revolutions: Britain, America and France, 1765–1800
- Part II Beyond Liberty and Property
- Part III The Long and Wide 1790s
- Selected List of H. T. Dickinson's Publications, 1964–2015
- Notes on the Contributors
- Index
2 - ‘Could the Scots Become True British?’ The Prelude to the Scottish Peerage Bill, 1706–16
from Part I - Parliament and Political Cultures
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 September 2016
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures and Tables
- Acknowledgements
- H. T. Dickinson: An Appreciation
- Introduction
- Part I Parliament and Political Cultures
- 1 ‘The Press Ought to be Open to All’: From the Liberty of Conscience to the Liberty of the Press
- 2 ‘Could the Scots Become True British?’ The Prelude to the Scottish Peerage Bill, 1706–16
- 3 Parliament and Church Reform: Off and On the Agenda
- 4 Liberty, Property and the Post-Culloden Acts of Parliament in the Gàidhealtachd
- 5 Political Toasting in the Age of Revolutions: Britain, America and France, 1765–1800
- Part II Beyond Liberty and Property
- Part III The Long and Wide 1790s
- Selected List of H. T. Dickinson's Publications, 1964–2015
- Notes on the Contributors
- Index
Summary
Then let us all to the treatie, For they will do wonders there;
For Scotland is to be a bryd, And maried by the Earle of Stair.
Ther's Q[ueensber]ry, Seafield and Marr, And Morton comes in by the by
Thers Loudoun, Leven and Weems And Sutherland frequently dry
Ther's Roseberry, Glasgow and Duplin, Lord Archbald Campbell and Ross,
The President, Francie Montgomery Who ambles like any paced horse.
Ther's Johnston, Campbell and Stewart Whom the Court holds still on the hinch;
Ther's solid Pitmedden and Forglan Who designs to jump on the binch.
Ther's Ormiston and Tillicoutrie And Smollet for the toun of Dumbarton
Ther's Arniston and Carnwath, Put in by his uncle Lord Wharton
Ther's yong Grant and yong Pennicook Hugh Montgommery and David Dalrimple
And ther's one who will surely leen bulk Prestongrange who inded is not simple
Now the Lord bless the glimp one and thirtie If they prove not traitors in fact,
But see the bryd well drest and pretty, Or else the De'il take the pact.
This anonymous ballad recites the names of the thirty-one Scottish commissioners for the Treaty of Union between England and Scotland. The commissioners met their English counterparts in June 1706 and, after heated discussions, they succeeded in making a framework for the Union. But did the so-called ‘bryd’ named ‘Scotland’ really live a happy married life? Even before the ratification of the Union, Scotland's approach to the nuptials was fraught with numerous challenges, one of which was the Scottish peerage question. In 1719 the Whig ministry expected that a Peerage Bill would answer it, by turning the notorious system of representative peers into one based on heredity, but the government failed to pass the legislation. Even before this, however, there had been numerous controversies around the Scots peers in the House of Lords. This essay aims to reconstruct these controversies, which involved ongoing questions surrounding the Union negotiations of 1706–7 and provided a crucial and instructive prelude to the crisis around the Peerage Bills in 1718–19.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Liberty, Property and Popular PoliticsEngland and Scotland, 1688-1815. Essays in Honour of H. T. Dickinson, pp. 26 - 38Publisher: Edinburgh University PressPrint publication year: 2015