st, in giving up their independent constitution, and he would
leave it to the judgment of the house, to consider whether or not men
of such principles were fit to be admitted into their house of
representatives. He observed that her majesty, by the coronation oath,
was obliged to maintain the church of England as by law established;
and likewise bound by the same oath to defend the presbyterian kirk of
Scotland in one and the same kingdom. Now, said he, after this union is
in force, who shall administer this oath to her majesty? It is not the
business of the Scots, who are incapable of it, and no well-wishers to
the church of England. It is then only the part of the bishops to do it,
and can it be supposed that those reverend persons will, or can act a
thing so contrary to their own order and institution, as thus to promote
the establishment of the presbyterian church government in the united
kingdom? He added, that the church of England being established _jure
divino_, and the Scots pretending that the kirk was also _jure divino_,
he could not tell how two nations that clashed in so essential an
article could unite; he therefore thought it proper to consult the
convocation about this critical point. A motion was made, that the
first article of the treaty, which implies a peremptory agreement to
an incorporating union, should be postponed; and that the house should
proceed to the consideration of the terms of the intended union,
contained in the other articles. This proposal being rejected, some
tory members quitted the house; and all the articles were examined and
approved without further opposition. The whigs were so eager in the
prosecution of this point, that they proceeded in a very superficial
manner, and with such precipitation as furnished their enemies with a
plausible pretence to affirm, that they had not considered the treaty
with the coolness and deliberation which an affair of this importance
required.

Before the lords began to investigate the articles of the union, they,
at the instance of the archbishop of Canterbury, brought in a bill for
the security of the church of England, to be inserted as a fundamental
and essential part of that treaty. It passed through both houses without
opposition, and received the royal assent. On the fifteenth clay of
February, the debates concerning the union began in the house of
lords, the queen being present, and the bishop of Sarum chairman of
the committee. The earls o