fterwards enlarged upon every article, endeavouring to
prove that they were absolutely necessary to prevent the consequences
of English influence; to enable the nation to defend its rights and
liberties; to deter ministers of state from giving bad advice to their
sovereign; to preserve the courts of judicature from corruption, and
screen the people from tyranny and oppression. The earl of Stair having
argued against these limitations, Fletcher replied, "It is no wonder he
opposed the scheme; for, had such an act subsisted, his lordship would
have been hanged for the bad counsel he had given to king James; for the
concern he had in the massacre of Glencoe; and for his conduct since the
revolution." The next subject on which the parliament deliberated was
the conspiracy. A motion being made that the house might know what
answer the queen had returned to their address in the last session, the
chancellor delivered to the clerk register the papers relating to the
plot, that they might be perused by the members: but these being copies,
and the evidences remaining at London, no further progress was made
in the affair. Yet the duke of Athol, in a distinct narrative of the
pretended conspiracy, boldly accused the duke of Queensberry of having
endeavoured to mislead the queen by false accusations against her good
subjects. When the act for a treaty of union fell under consideration, a
draft for that purpose, presented by the earl of Mar, was compared with
the English act, importing, that the queen should name and appoint not
only the commissioners for England, but likewise for Scotland.

Fletcher did not fail to inveigh against the imperious conduct of the
English parliament in this affair. He exhorted the house to resent such
treatment, and offered the draft of an address to her majesty on the
subject, but this the house rejected. Duke Hamilton proposed that a
clause might be added to the act, importing, that the union should
nowise derogate from any fundamental laws, ancient privileges, offices,
rights, liberties, and dignities of the Scottish nation. This occasioned
a long debate; and a question being put, was carried in the negative.
Another clause was proposed, that the Scottish commissioners should not
begin to treat until the English parliament should have rescinded their
clause enacting that the subjects of Scotland should be adjudged and
taken as aliens after the twenty-fifth day of December. The courtiers,
considering th