estly recommending the settlement of the
succession in the protestant line, and an act for a commission to treat
of an union between the two kingdoms. The marquis of Annandale proposed
that the parliament should proceed on the limitations and conditions
of government: that a committee should be appointed to consider the
condition of the coin and the commerce of the nation. The earl of Mar
moved that the house would, preferable to all other business, consider
the means for engaging in a treaty with England. After a long debate
they resolved to proceed on the coin and the commerce. Schemes for
supplying the nation with money by a paper credit were presented by Dr.
Hugh Chamberlain and John Law, but rejected. The house resolved that
any kind of paper credit, by the circulation of bills, was an improper
expedient, and appointed a council to put the laws relating to trade in
execution. The duke of Hamilton proposed that the parliament should not
proceed to the nomination of a successor until the treaty with England
should be discussed, and the limitations settled. This proposal being
approved, a draft of an answer to her majesty's letter was presented by
the marquis of Tweedale. Two different forms of an act for a treaty
with England were offered by the earl of Mar and the marquis of Lothian:
others were produced concerning the elections of officers of state, and
the regulation of commerce.

{1705}

ACT PASSED FOR A TREATY OF UNION.

The chief aim of the cavaliers was to obstruct the settlement of the
succession, and with that view they pressed the project of limitations,
to which they knew the court would never assent. A motion being made
to grant the first reading to an act of commission for a treaty with
England, the duke of Hamilton insisted on the limitations, and a vote
being stated in these terms, "Proceed to consider the act for a treaty
of limitation," the latter was carried in favour of the cavaliers. On
the twenty-second day of August an act for this purpose was approved;
and next day an act for a triennial parliament, which the courtiers
were enabled to defeat. They likewise passed an act, ordaining, that the
Scottish ambassadors representing Scotland should be present when the
sovereign might have occasion to treat with foreign princes and states,
and be accountable to the parliament of Scotland. Fletcher of Saltoun,
presented a scheme of limitations that savoured strongly of republican
principles. He a