l the first of May, a great
number of traders in both kingdoms resolved to make advantage of this
interval. The English proposed to export into Scotland such commodities
as entitled them to a drawback, with a view to bring them back after the
first of May. The Scots, on the other hand, as their duties were much
lower than those in England, intended to import great quantities of
wine, brandy, and other merchandise, which they could sell at a greater
advantage in England after the union, when there would be a free
intercourse between the two nations. Some of the ministers had embarked
in this fraudulent design, which alarmed the merchants of England
to such a degree, that they presented a remonstrance to the commons.
Resolutions were immediately taken in the house against these practices,
and a bill was prepared; but the lords apprehending that it in some
measure infringed the articles of the union, and that it might give
umbrage to the Scottish nation, it was dropped. The frauds had been in a
good measure prevented by the previous resolutions of the house; and
the first day of May was now at hand; so that the bill was thought
unnecessary. On the twenty-fourth day of April the queen prorogued
the parliament, after having given them to understand that she would
continue by proclamation the lords and commons already assembled, as
members in the first British parliament on the part of England, pursuant
to the powers vested in her by the acts of parliament of both kingdoms,
ratifying the treaty of union. The parliament was accordingly revived
by proclamation, and another issued to convoke the first parliament of
Great Britain for the twenty-third day of October. The Scots repaired
to London, where they were well received by the queen, who bestowed
the title of duke on the earls of Roxburgh and Montrose. She likewise
granted a commission for a new privy-council in that kingdom, to be in
force till the next session of parliament, that the nation might not be
disgusted by too sudden an alteration of outward appearances. The first
of May was appointed as a day of public thanksgiving; and congratulatory
addresses were sent up from all parts of England; but the university of
Oxford prepared no compliment; and the Scots were wholly silent on this
occasion.

THE QUEEN GIVES AUDIENCE TO A MUSCOVITE AMBASSADOR.

In the course of this session the commons, in an address to the queen,
desired she would resettle the islands of St. C