, was abolished upon the accession of King William III., with
many other oppressive and despotical powers, which had rendered our
nobles abject slaves to the Crown, while they were allowed to be tyrants
over the people. But if King James or his son had been restored, the
government he had exercised would have been re-established, and nothing
but the union of the two kingdoms could have effectually prevented that
restoration. We likewise owe to the union the subsequent abolition of
the Scotch privy council, which had been the most grievous engine of
tyranny, and that salutary law which declared that no crimes should be
high treason or misprision of treason in Scotland but such as were so in
England, and gave us the English methods of trial in cases of that
nature; whereas before there were so many species of treasons, the
construction of them was so uncertain, and the trials were so arbitrary,
that no man could be safe from suffering as a traitor. By the same Act
of Parliament we also received a communication of that noble privilege of
the English, exemption from torture--a privilege which, though essential
both to humanity and to justice, no other nation in Europe, not even the
freest republics, can boast of possessing. Shall we, then, take offence
at some inevitable circumstances, which may be objected to, on our part,
in the Treaty of Union, when it has delivered us from slavery, and all
the worst evils that a state can suffer? It might be easily shown that,
in his political and civil condition, every baron in Scotland is much
happier now, and much more independent, than the highest was under that
constitution of government which continued in Scotland even after the
expulsion of King James II. The greatest enemies to the union are the
friends of that king in whose reign, and in his brother's, the kingdom of
Scotland was subjected to a despotism as arbitrary as that of France, and
more tyrannically administered.

_Douglas_.--All I have heard of those reigns makes me blush with
indignation at the servility of our nobles, who could endure them so
long. What, then, was become of that undaunted Scotch spirit, which had
dared to resist the Plantagenets in the height of their power and pride?
Could the descendants of those who had disdained to be subjects of Edward
I. submit to be slaves of Charles II. or James?

_Argyle_.--They seemed in general to have lost every characteristic of
their natural temper, except a desi