nditions; and they had already
provided, in the act of security, that it should be high treason to own
any person as king or queen after her majesty's decease, until he or she
should take the coronation oath, and accept the terms of the claim of
right, and such conditions as should be settled in this or any ensuing
parliament.

HE IS IN DANGER OF HIS LIFE.

Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun, a man of undaunted courage and inflexible
integrity, who professed republican principles, and seemed designed by
nature as a member of some Grecian commonwealth, after having observed
that the nation would be enslaved should it submit, either willingly or
by commission, to the successor of England, without such conditions of
government as should secure them against the influence of an English
ministry, offered the draft of an act, importing, that after the decease
of her majesty, without heirs of her body, no person being successor to
the English throne should succeed to the crown of Scotland but under
the following limitations, which, together with the coronation oath and
claim of right, they should swear to observe: namely, that all offices
and places, civil and military, as well as pensions, should for the
future be conferred by a parliament to be chosen at every Michaelmas
head-court, to sit on the first day of November, and adjourn themselves
from time to time till the ensuing Michaelmas; that they should choose
their own president; that a committee of six-and-thirty members, chosen
out of the whole parliament, without distinction of estates, should,
during the intervals of parliament, be vested, under the king, with the
administration of the government, act as his council, be accountable to
parliament, and call it together on extraordinary occasions. He proposed
that the successor should be nominated by the majority; declaring for
himself that he would rather concur in nominating the most rigid papist
with those conditions, than the truest protestant without them. The
motion was seconded by many members; and though postponed for the
present, in favour of an act of trade under the consideration of
the house, it was afterwards resumed with great warmth. In vain the
lord-treasurer represented that no funds were as yet provided for the
army, and moved for a reading of the act presented for that purpose; a
certain member observed, that this was a very unseasonable juncture to
propose a supply, when the house had so much to do for t