re to abuse the royal authority for
the gratification of their private resentments in family quarrels.

_Douglas_.--Your grandfather, my lord, has the glory of not deserving
this censure.

_Argyle_.--I am proud that his spirit, and the principles he professed,
drew upon him the injustice and fury of those times. But there needs no
other proof than the nature and the manner of his condemnation to show
what a wretched state our nobility then were in, and what an inestimable
advantage it is to them that they are now to be tried as peers of Great
Britain, and have the benefit of those laws which imparted to us the
equity and the freedom of the English Constitution.

Upon the whole, as much as wealth is preferable to poverty, liberty to
oppression, and national strength to national weakness, so much has
Scotland incontestably gained by the union. England, too, has secured by
it every public blessing which was before enjoyed by her, and has greatly
augmented her strength. The martial spirit of the Scotch, their hardy
bodies, their acute and vigorous minds, their industry, their activity,
are now employed to the benefit of the whole island. He is now a bad
Scotchman who is not a good Englishman, and he is a bad Englishman who is
not a good Scotchman. Mutual intercourse, mutual interests, mutual
benefits, must naturally be productive of mutual affection. And when
that is established, when our hearts are sincerely united, many great
things, which some remains of jealousy and distrust, or narrow local
partialities, may hitherto have obstructed, will be done for the good of
the whole United Kingdom. How much may the revenues of Great Britain be
increased by the further increase of population, of industry, and of
commerce in Scotland! What a mighty addition to the stock of national
wealth will arise from the improvement of our most northern counties,
which are infinitely capable of being improved! The briars and thorns
are in a great measure grubbed up; the flowers and fruits may soon be
planted. And what more pleasing, or what more glorious employment can
any government have, than to attend to the cultivating of such a
plantation?

_Douglas_.--The prospect you open to me of happiness to my country
appears so fair, that it makes me amends for the pain with which I
reflect on the times wherein I lived, and indeed on our whole history for
several ages.

_Argyle_.--That history does, in truth, present to the mind a long