acted with equal prudence and resolution. They argued
strenuously against the objections that were started in the house.
They magnified the advantages that would accrue to the kingdom from the
privileges of trading to the English plantations, and being protected
in their commerce by a powerful navy; as well as from the exclusion of
a popish pretender, who they knew was odious to the nation in general.
They found means, partly by their promises, and partly by corruption, to
bring over the earls of Roxburgh and Marchmont, with the whole squadron
who had hitherto been unpropitious to the court. They disarmed the
resentment of the clergy, by promoting an act to be inserted in the
union, declaring the presbyterian discipline to be the only government
in the church of Scotland, unalterable in all succeeding times, and a
fundamental article of the treaty. They soothed the African company with
the prospect of being indemnified for the losses they had sustained.
They amused individuals with the hope of sharing the rest of the
equivalent. They employed emissaries to allay the ferment among the
Cameronians, and disunite them from the cavaliers, by canting, praying,
and demonstrating the absurdity, sinfulness, and danger of such a
coalition. These remonstrances were reinforced by the sum of twenty
thousand pounds, which the queen privately lent to the Scottish
treasury, and which was now distributed by the ministry in such a manner
as might best conduce to the success of the treaty. By these practices
they diminished, though they could not silence, the clamour of the
people, and obtained a considerable majority in parliament, which
out-voted all opposition. Not but that the duke of Queensberry at one
time despaired of succeeding, and being in continual apprehension for
his life, expressed a desire of adjourning the parliament, until by time
and good management he should be able to remove those difficulties that
then seemed to be insurmountable. But the lord-treasurer Godolphin, who
foresaw that the measure would be entirely lost by delay, and was no
judge of the difficulties, insisted upon his proceeding. It was at this
period that he remitted the money, and gave directions for having forces
ready at a call, both in England and Ireland. At length the Scottish
parliament approved and ratified all the articles of the union with some
small variation. Then they prepared an act for regulating the election
of the sixteen peers and forty-f