only as a Forraign Nation and not so much neither for there have been erected Staples in Towns in England for some Commodities with an exclusion and restriction of other parts of England But this is a matter of the least difficulty your Majesty shall have a Calendar made of the Laws and a Brief of the Effect and so you may judge of them And the like or reciproque is to be done by Scotland for such Laws as they have concerning England and the English Nation The second Question is what Laws Customs Commissions Officers Garrisons and the like are to be put down dis-continued or taken away upon the Borders of both Realms This point because I am not acquainted with the Orders of the Marches I can say the less Herein falleth that question Whether that the Tennants who hold their Tennant-Rights in a greater freedom and exemption in consideration of their service upon the Borders and that the Countreys themselves which are in the same respect discharged of Subsidies and Taxes should not now be brought to be in one degree with other Tennants and Countreys Nam cessante causâ tollitur effectus wherein in my opinion some time would be given Quia adhuc corum Messis in herbâ est But some present Ordinance would be made to take effect at a future time considering it is one of the greatest points and marks of the division of the Kingdoms And because Reason doth dictate that where the principal Solution of Continuity was there the healing and consolidating Plaister should be chiefly applyed There would be some further device for the utter and perpetual confounding of those imaginary Bounds as your Majesty termeth them And therefore it would be considered whether it were not convenient to plant and erect at Carleil or Barwick some Council or Court of Justice the Jurisdiction whereof might extend part into England and part into Scotland With a Commission not to proceed precisely or meerly according to the Laws and Customs either of England or Scotland but mixtly according to Instructions by your Majesty to be set down after the imitation and precedent of the Council of the Marches here in England erected upon the Union of Wales The third Question is that which many will make a great question of though perhaps your Majesty will make no question of it And that is Whether your Majesty should not make a stop or stand here and not to proceed to any further Union contenting your Self with the two former Articles or Points For it will be said That we are now well thanks be to God and your Majesty and the State of neither Kingdom is to be repented of And that it is true which Hippocrates saith That Sana Corpora difficilè medicationes ferunt It is better to make alterations in sick Bodies then in found The consideration of which point will rest upon these two Branches What inconveniencies will ensue with time if the Realms stand as they are divided which are yet not found nor sprung up For it may be the sweetness of your Majesties first entrance and the great Benefit that both Nations have felt thereby hath covered many inconveniencies Which nevertheless be your Majesties Government never so gracious and politick continuance of time and the accidents of time may breed and discover if the Kingdoms stand divided The second Branch is Allow no manifest or important peril or inconvenience should ensue of the continuing of the Kingdoms divided yet on the other side whether that upon the further uniting of them there be not like to follow that addition and encrease of Wealth and Reputation as is worthy your Majesties Vertues and Fortune to be the Author and Founder of for the advancement and exaltation of your Majesties Royal Posterity in time to come But admitting that your Majesty should proceed to this more perfect and entire Union wherein your Majesty may say Majus opus moveo To enter into the parts and degrees thereof I think fit first to set down as in a brief Table in what points the Nations stand now at this present time already united and in what points yet still severed and divided that your Majesty may the better see what is done and what is to be done and how that which is to be done is to be inferred upon that which is done The Points wherein the Nations stand already united are In Soveraignty In the Relative thereof which is Subjection In Religion In Continent In Language And now lastly by the Peace your Majesty concluded with Spain in Leagues and Confederacies For now both Nations have the same Friends and the same Enemies Yet notwithstanding there is none of the six Points wherein the Union is perfect and consummate But every of them hath some scruple or rather grain of separation enwrapped and included in them For the Soveraignty the Union is absolute in your Majesty and your Generation But if it should so be which God of his infinite mercy defend that your Issue should fail then the descent of both Realms doth resort to the several Lines of the several Blouds Royal. For Subjection I take the Law of England to be clear what the Law of Scotland is I know not That all Scots men from the very instant of your Majesties Reign begun are become Denizens And the Post-nati are naturalized Subjects of England for the time forwards For by our Laws none can be an Alien but he that is of another Allegiance then our Soveraign Lord the Kings For there be but two sorts of Aliens whereof we find mention in our Law an Alien Ami and an Alien Enemy whereof the former is a Subject of a State in amity with the King and the latter a Subject of a State in hostility But whether he be one or other it is an essential difference unto the definition of an Alien if he be not of the Kings Allegiance As we see it evidently in the precedent of Ireland who since they were Subjects to the Crown of England have ever been inheritable and capable as Natural Subjects And yet not by any Statute or Act of Parliament but meerly by the common Law and the Reason thereof So as there is no doubt that every Subject in Scotland was and is in like plight and degree since your Majesties coming in as if your Majesty had granted particularly your Letters of Denization or Naturalization to every of them and the Post-nati wholly Natural But then on the other side for the time backwards and for those that were Ante-nati the Blood is not by Law naturalized So as they cannot take it by descent from their Ancestors without Act of Parliament And therefore in this point there is a defect in the Union of Subjection For matter of Religion the Union is perfect in points of Doctrine but in matter of Discipline and Government it is imperfect For the Continent It is true there are no natural Boundaries of Mountains or
Seas or Navigable Rivers But yet there are Badges and Memorials of Borders Of which point I have spoken before For the Language It is true the Nations are unius Labii and have not the first curse of disunion which was Confusion of Tongues whereby one understood not another But yet the Dialect is differing and it remaineth a kind of mark of distinction But for that Tempori permittendum it is to be left to time For considering that both Languages do concur in the principal Office and Duty of Language which is to make a mans self understood For the rest it is rather to be accounted as was said a diversity of Dialect then of Language and as I said in my first Writing it is like to bring forth the enriching of one Language by compounding and taking in the proper and significant Words of either Tongue rather then a continuance of two Languages For Leagues and Confederacies It is true that neither Nation is now in hostility with any State wherewith the other Nation is in amity but yet so as the Leagues and Treaties have been concluded with either Nation respectively and not with both jointly which may contain some diversity of Articles of straitness with one more then with the other But many of these matters may perhaps be of that kind as may fall within that Rule In veste variet as sit scissura non sit Now to descend to the particular points wherein the Realms stand severed and divided over and besides the former six points of separation which I have noted and placed as the defects or abatements of the six points of the Union and therefore shall not need to be repeated The points I say yet remaining I will divide into External and into Internal The External Points therefore of the separation are four 1. The several Crowns I mean the ceremonial and material Crowns 2. The second is the several Names Stiles or Appellations 3. The third is the several Prints of the Seals 4. The fourth is the several Stamps or Marks of the Coins of Monies It is true that the External are in some respect and parts much mingled and interlaced with considerations Internal and that they may be as effectual to the true Union which must be the work of time as the Internal because they are operative upon the conceits and opinions of the People The uniting of whose hearts and affections is the life and true end of this Work For the Ceremonial Crowns the question will be whether there shall be framed one new Imperial Crown of Britain to be used for the time to come Also admitting that to be thought convenient whether in the Frame thereof there shall not be some reference to the Crowns of Ireland and France Also whether your Majesty should repeat or iterate your own Coronation and your Queens or only ordain that such new Crown shall be used by your Posterity hereafter The difficulties will be in the conceit of some inequality whereby the Realm of Scotland may be thought to be made an accession unto the Realm of England But that resteth in some circumstances for the compounding of the two Crowns is equal The calling of the new Crown The Crown of Britain is equal Only the place of Coronation if it shall be at Westminster which is the ancient august and sacred place for the Kings of England may seem to make an inequality And again if the Crown of Scotland be discontinued then that Ceremony which I hear is used in the Parliament of Scotland in the absence of the Kings to have the Crowns carried in solemnity must likewise cease For the Name the main question is whether the contracted Name of Britain shall be by your Majesty used or the divided Names of England and Scotland Admitting there shall be an alteration then the case will require these following Questions First whether the Name of Britain shall not only be used in your Majesties Stile where the entire Stile is recited and in all other forms the divided Names to remain both of the Realms and of the People Or otherwise that the very divided Names of Realms and People shall likewise be changed or turned into special or sub-divided Names of the general Name That is to say for example whether your Majesty in your Stile shall denominate your self King of Britain France and Ireland c. And yet nevertheless in any Commission Writ or otherwise where your Majesty mentioneth England or Scotland you shall retain the ancient Names as Secundum consuetudinem Regni nostri Angliae or whether those divided Names shall be for ever lost and taken away and turned into the sub-divisions of South-Britain and North-Britain and the People to be South-Britains and North-Britains And so in the example foresaid the Tenour of the like clause to run Secundum consuetudinem Britanniae Australis Also if the former of these shall be thought convenient whether it were not better for your Majesty to take that Alteration of Stile upon you by Proclamation as Edward the third did the Stile of France then to have it enacted by Parliament Also in the alteration of the Stile whether it were not better to transpose the Kingdom of Ireland and put it immediately after Britain and so place the Islands together and the Kingdom of France being upon the Continent last In regard these Islands of the Western Ocean seem by Nature and Providence an entire Empire in themselves and also that there was never King of England so entirely possest of Ireland as your Majesty is So as your Stile to run King of Britain Ireland and the Islands adjacent and of France c. The difficulties in this have been already throughly beaten over but they gather but to two Heads The one point of Honour and love to the former Names The other Doubt left the alteration of the Name may induce and involve an alteration of the Laws and Policies of the Kingdom Both which if your Majesty shall assume the Stile by Proclamation and not by Parliament are in themselves satisfied For then the usual Names must needs remain in Writs and Records the Forms whereof cannot be altered but by Act of Parliament and so the point of Honour satisfied And again your Proclamation altereth no Law and so the scruple of a tacite or implyed alteration of Laws likewise satisfied But then it may be considered whether it were not a Form of the greatest Honour if the Parliament though they did not enact it yet should become Suiters and Petitioners to your Majesty to assume it For the Seals That there should be but one Great Seal of Britain and one Chancellor and that there should only be a Seal in Scotland for Processes and ordinary Justice And that all Patents of Grants of Lands or otherwise as well in Scotland as in England should pass under the Great Seal here kept about your Person It is alteration Internal whereof I do not now speak
in use or effect And this is the first Answer that I give to this main inconvenience pretended of surcharge of People The second Answer which I give to this Objection is this I must have leave to doubt Mr. Speaker that this Realm of England is not yet peopled to the full For certain it is that the Territories of France Italy Flanders and some parts of Germany do in equal space of ground bear and contain a far greater quantity of People if they were mustered by the Poll. Neither can I see that this Kingdom is so much inferiour unto those forraign parts in fruitfulness as it is in population which makes me conceive we have not our full charge Besides I do see manifestly among us the badges and tokens rather of scarceness then of press of people as drowned Grounds Commons Wastes and the like Which is a plain demonstration that howsoever there may bean over swelling throng and press of people here about London which is most in our eye yet the body of the Kingdom is but thin sown with People And whosoever shall compare the ruines and decayes of ancient Towns in this Realm with the erections and augmentations of new cannot but judge that this Realm hath been far better peopled in former times It may be in the Heptarchy or otherwise For generally the Rule holdeth The Smaller State the greater Population proratd And whether this be true or no we need not seek further then to call to our remembrance how many of us serve here in this place for desolate and decayed Burroughs Again Mr. Speaker whosoever looketh into the Principles of Estate must hold it that it is the Mediterrane Countries and not the Maritime which need to fear surcharge of People For all Sea-Provinces especially Islands have another Element besides the Earth and Soil for their sustentation For what an infinite number of people are and may be sustained by Fishing Carriage by Sea and Merchandizing wherein I do again discover that we are not at all pinched by multitude of people For if we were it were not possible that we should relinquish and resign such an infinite benefit of Fishing to the Flemmings as it is well known we do And therefore I see that we have wastes by Sea as well as by Land which still is an infallible Argument that our Industry is not awaked to seek maintainance by any over great press or charge of People And lastly Mr. Speaker there was never any Kingdom in the Ages of the world had I think so fair and happy means to issue and discharge the multitude of their People if it were too great as this Kingdom hath in regard of that desolate and avasted Kingdom of Ireland which being a Countrey blessed with almost all the Dowries of Nature as Rivers Havens Woods Quarries good Soil and temperate Climate and now at last under his Majesty blessed also with obedience doth as it were continually call unto us for our Colonies and Plantations And so I conclude my second Answer to this pretended inconvenience of surcharge of People The third Answer Mr. Speaker which I give is this I demand what is the worst effect which can follow of surcharge of People Look into all Stories and you shall find it none other then some honourable War for the enlargement of their Borders which find themselves pent upon foreign parts Which inconvenience in a valourous and warlike Nation I know not whether I should term an inconvenience or no For the saying is most true though in another sense Omne solum forti Patria It was spoken indeed of the patience of an exil'd man but it is no less true of the valout of a warlike Nation And certainly Mr. Speaker I hope I may speak it without offence That if we did hold our selves worthy whensoever just cause should be given either to recover our ancient Rights or to revenge our late wrongs or to attain the Honour of our Ancestors or to enlarge the Patrimony of our Posterity We would never in this manner forget considerations of Amplitude and Greatness and fall at variance about Profit and Reckonings fitter a great deal for private Persons then for Parliaments and Kingdoms And thus Mr. Speaker I leave this first Objection to such satisfaction as you have heard The second Objection is that the Fundamental Laws of both these Kingdoms of England and Scotland are yet divers and several Nay more that it is declared by the Instrument that they shall so continue and that there is no intent in his Majesty to make innovation in them And therefore that it should not be seasonable to proceed to this Naturalization I hereby to endow them with our Rights and Priviledges except they should likewise receive and submit themselves to our Laws And this Objection likewise Mr. Speaker I allow to be a weighty Objection and worthy to be well answered and discussed The Answer which I shall offer is this It is true for mine own part Mr. Speaker that I wish the Scots Nation governed by our Laws for I hold our Laws with some reducement worthy to govern if it were the world But this is that which I say and I desire therein your attention That according to the true reason of Estate Naturalization is in order first and precedent to Union of Laws in degree a less matter then Union of Laws and in nature separable not inseparable from Union of Laws For Naturalization doth but take out the marks of a Forraigner but Union of Laws makes them entirely as our selves Naturalization taketh away separation but Union of Laws doth take away distinction Do we not see Mr. Speaker that in the administration of the world under the great Monarch God himself that His Laws are divers one Law in Spirits another in Bodies One Law in Regions Coelestial another Elementary And yet the Creatures are all one Mass and Lump without any vacuum or separation Do we not see likewise in the State of the Church that amongst people of all Languages and Linages there is one Communion of Saints and that we are all fellow Citizens and naturalized of the Heavenly Hierusalem And yet nevertheless divers and several Ecclesiastical Laws Policies and Hierarchies According to the Speech of that worthy Father In veste varietas sit scissura non sit And therefore certainly Mr. Speaker the Bond of Law is the more special and private Bond and the Bond of Naturalization the more common and general For the Laws are rather Figura Reip. then Forma and rather Bonds of Perfection then Bonds of Entireness And therefore we see in the experience of our own Government that in the Kingdom of Ireland all our Statute-Laws since Poyning-Laws are not in force and yet we deny them not the benefit of Naturalization In Gersey Guernsey and the Isle of Man our Common Laws are not in force and yet they have the benefit of Naturalization Neither need any man doubt but that our Laws and Customs must
or expedition upon the Roman Empire And came not as Rovers to carry away prey and be gone again but planted themselves in a number of fruitful and rich Provinces where not only their Generations but their Names remain till this day witness Lombardy Catalonia a name compounded of Goth and Alane Andaluzia a name corrupted from Vandelicia Hungary Normandy and others Nay the fortune of the Swizzes of late years which ate bred in a barren and mountainous Countrey is not to be forgotten who first ruined the Duke of Burgandy the same who had almost ruined the Kingdom of France what time after the Battail of Granson the Rich Jewel of Burgandy prized at many thousands was sold for a few pence by a common Souldier that knew no more what a Jewel meant then did Aesops Cock. And again the same Nation in revenge of a scorn was the ruine of the French Kings Affairs in Italy Lewis the 12 th For that King when he was pressed somewhat rudely by an Agent of the Swizzes to raise their Pensions brake into words of choller What said he will these Villains of the Mountains put a Tax upon me which words lost him his Dutchy of Millain and chased him out of Italy All which examples Mr. Speaker do well prove Solons opinion of the Authority and Mastery that Iron hath over Gold And therefore if I shall speak unto you mine own heart Methinks we should a little disdain that the Nation of Spain which howsoever of late it hath grown to Rule yet of ancient time served many Ages first under Carthage then under Rome after under Saracens Goths and others should of late years take unto themselves that Spirit as to dream of a Monarchy in the West according to that devise Video Solem Orientem in Occidente only because they have ravished from some wild and unarmed People Mines and store of Gold And on the other side that this Island of Brittany seated and manned as it is and that hath I make no question the best Iron in the world that is the best Souldiers of the world should think of nothing but reckonings and audits and Meum and Tuum and I cannot tell what Mr. Speaker I have I take it gone through the Parts which I propounded to my self Wherein if any man shall think that I have sung Placebo for mine own particular I would have him know that I am not so unseen in the world but that I discern it were much alike for my private Fortune to rest a Tacebo as to sing a Placebo in this Business But I have spoken out of the Fountain of my Heart Credidi propter quod locutus sum I believed therefore I spake So as my Duty is performed the Judgement is yours God direct it for the best A Speech used by Sir Francis Bacon in the Lower House of Parliament by occasion of a motion concerning the Union of Laws ANd it please you Mr. Speaker were it now a time to wish as it is to advise no man should be more forward or more earnest then my self in this wish That his Majesties Subjects of England and Scotland were governed by one Law And that for many Reasons First because it will be an infallible assurance that there will never be any relapse in succeeding Ages to a separation Secondly Dulcis tractus pari jugo If the Draught lye most upon us and the yoke lightest upon them it is not equal Thirdly the Qualities and as I may term it the Elements of their Laws and ours are such as do promise an excellent temperature in the compounded Body For if the Prerogative here be too indefinite it may be the Liberty there is too unbounded If our Laws and proceedings be too prolix and formal it may be theirs are too informal and summary Fourthly I do discern to my understanding there will be no great difficulty in this work For their Laws by that I can learn compared with ours are like their Language compared with ours For as their Language hath the same roots that ours hath but hath a little more mixture of Latine and French So their Laws and Customs have the like grounds that our have with a little more mixture of the Civil Law and French Customs Lastly the mean to this work seemeth to me no less excellent then the work it self For if both Laws shall be united it is of necessity for preparation and inducement thereunto that our own Laws be reviewed and compiled Then the which I think there cannot be a work that his Majesty can undertake in these times of Peace more Politick more Honourable nor more Beneficial to his Subjects for all Ages Pace datâ Terris Animum ad Civilia vertit Fura suum Legesque tulit justissimus Auctor For this continual heaping up of Laws without digesting them maketh but a Chaos and confusion and turneth the Laws many times to become but snares for the People as is said in the Scripture Pluet super eos Laqueos Now Non sunt pejores Laquei quam Laquei Legum And therefore this work I esteem to be indeed a work rightly to term it Heroical So that for this good wish of Union of Laws I do consent to the full And I think you may perceive by that which I have said that I come not in this to the opinion of others but that I was long ago settled in it my self Nevertheless as this is moved out of zeal so I take it to be moved out of time as commonly zealous motions are while men are so fast carried on to the End as they give no attention to the Mean For if it be time to talk of this now it is either because the business now in hand cannot proceed without it or because in time and order this matter should be precedent or because we shall leese some advantage towards this effect so much desired if we should go on in the course we are about But none of these three in my judgement are true And therefore the motion as I said unseasonable For first that there may not be a Naturalization without an Union in Laws cannot be maintained Look into the example of the Church and the Union thereof you shall see several Churches that joyn in one Faith one Baptism which are the points of spiritual Naturalization do many times in Policy Constitutions and Customs differ And therefore one of the Fathers made an excellent observation upon the two Mysteries the one that in the Gospel where the Garment of Christ is said to have been without seam the other that in the Psalm where the Garment of the Queen is said to have been of divers colours And concludeth In veste variet as sit scissura non sit So in this case Mr. Speaker we are now in hand to make this Monarchy of one piece and not of one colour Look again into the examples of forraign Countries and take that next us of France and there you shall find that
But the Question in this place is whether the Great Seals of England and Scotland should not be changed into one and the same form of Image and Superscription of Britain which nevertheless is requisite should be with some one plain or manifest alteration lest there be a Buz and suspect that Grants of things in England may be passed by the Seal of Scotland Or è converso Also whether this alteration of Form may not be done without Act of Parliament as the Great Seals have used to be heretofore changed as to their Impressions For the Moneys as to the Real and internal consideration thereof the question will be Whether your Majesty should not continue two Mints which the distance of Territory considered I suppose will be of necessity Secondly how the Standards if it be not already done as I hear some doubt made of it in popular rumour may be reduced into an exact proportion for the time to come and likewise the computation tale or valuation to be made exact for the Moneys already beaten That done the last Question is which is only proper to this place whether the Stamp or the Image and Superscription of Britain for the time forwards should not be made the self same in both places without any difference at all A matter also which may be done as our Law is by your Majesties Prerogative without Act of Parliament These points are points of Demonstration ad faciendum Populum But so much the more they go to the root of your Majesties intention which is to imprint and inculcate into the Hearts and Heads of the People that they are one People and one Nation In this kind also I have heard it pass abroad in speech of the erection of some new Order of Knighthood with a Reference to the Union and an Oath appropriat thereunto which is a point likewise deserveth a Consideration So much for the External Points The Internal Prints of Separation are as followeth 1. Several Parliaments 2. Several Councils of Estate 3. Several Officers of the Crown 4. Several Nobilities 5. Several Laws 6. Several Courts of Justice Trials and Processes 7. Several Receipts and Finances 8. Several Admiralties and Merchandizings 9. Several Freedoms and Liberties 10. Several Taxes and Imposts As touching the several States Ecclesiastical and the several Mints and Standards and the several Articles and Treaties of Intercourse with Forraign Nations I touched them before In these points of the straight and more inward Union there will interveen one principal difficulty and impediment growing from that root which Aristotle in his Politicks maketh to be the root of all division and diffention in Common-wealths And that is Equality and Inequality For the Realm of Scotland is now an Ancient and Noble Realm substantive of it self But when this Island shall be made Britain then Scotland is no more to be considered as Scotland but as a part of Britain no more then England is to be considered as England but as a part likewise of Britain And consequently neither of these are to be considered as things entire in themselves but in the proportion that they bear to the whole And therefore let us imagine Nam id Mente possumus quod Actu non possumus that Britain had never been divided but had ever been one Kingdom then that part of Soil or Territory which is comprehended under the name of Scotland is in quantity as I have heard it esteemed how true I know not not past a third part of Britain And that part of Soil or Territory which is comprehended under the name of England is two parts of Britain leaving to speak of any difference of Wealth or Population and speaking only of Quantity So then if for example Scotland should bring to Parliament as much Nobility as England then a third part should countervail two parts Nam si inaequalibus aequalia addas omnia erunt inaequalia And this I protest before God and your Majesty I do speak not as a man born in England but as a man born in Britain And therefore to descend to particulars 1. Parliament For the Parliaments the consideration of that Point will fall into four Questions 1. The first what proportion shall be kept between the Votes of England and the Votes of Scotland 2. The second touching the manner of Proposition or possessing of the Parliament of Causes there to be handled which in England is used to be done immediately by any Member of the Parliament or by the Prolocutor and in Scotland is used to be done immediately by the Lords of the Articles whereof the one form seemeth to have more Liberty and the other more Gravity and Maturity And therefore the Question will be whether of these shall yield to other Or whether there should not be a mixture of both by some Commissions precedent to every Parliament in the nature of Lords of the Articles and yet not excluding the Liberty of propounding in full Parliament afterwards 3. The third touching the Orders of Parliament how they may be compounded and the best of either taken 4. The fourth how those which by inheritance or otherwise have Offices of Honour and Ceremony in both the Parliaments as the Lord Steward with us c. may be satisfied and duplicitly accommodated 2. Councils of Estate For the Councils of Estate while the Kingdoms stand divided it should seem necessary to continue several Councils But if your Majesty should proceed to a strict Union then howsoever your Majesty may establish some Provincial Councils in Scotland as there is here of York and in the Marches of Wales Yet the Question will be whether it will not be more convenient for your Majesty to have but one Privy Council about your Person whereof the principal Officers of the Crown of Scotland to be for Dignity sake howsoever their abiding and remaining may be as your Majesty shall imploy their Service But this point belongeth meerly and wholly to your Majesties Royal Will and Pleasure 3. Officers of the Crown For the Officers of the Crown the consideration thereof will fall into these Questions First in regard of the latitude of your Kingdom and the distance of place whether it will not be matter of necessity to continue the several Officers because of the impossibility for the Service to be performed by one The second admitting the duplicity of Officers should be continued yet whether there should not be a difference that one should be the principal Officer and the other to be but special and subalterne As for example one to be Chancellor of Britain and the other to be Chancellor with some special addition As here of the Dutchy c. The third if no such specialty or inferiority be thought fit then whether both Officers should not have the Title and the Name of the whole Island and Precincts As the Lord Chancellor of England to be Lord Chancellor of Britain and the Lord Chancellor of Scotland to be Lord Chancellor of
Britain But with several Proviso's that they shall not intromit themselves but within their several Precincts 4. Nobilities For the Nobilities the consideration thereof will fall into these Questions The first of their Votes in Parliament which was touched before what proportion they shall bear to the Nobility of England Wherein if the proportion which shall be thought fit be not full yet your Majesty may out of your Prerogative supply it For although you cannot make fewer of Scotland yet you may make more of England The second is touching the Place and Precedence wherein to marshal them according to the Precedence of England in your Majesties Stile and according to the Nobility of Ireland that is all English Earls first and then Scots will be thought unequal for Scotland To marshal them according to Antiquity will be thought unequal for England because I hear their Nobility is generally more ancient And therefore the Question will be whether the indifferentest way were not to take them interchangeably As for example first the ancient Earl of England and then the ancient Earl of Scotland And so Alternis vicibus 5. Laws For the Laws to make an entire and perfect Union it is a matter of great difficulty and length both in the collecting of them and in the passing of them For first as to the collecting of them there must be made by the Lawyers of either Nation a Disgest under Titles of their several Laws and Customs as well Common Laws as Statutes that they may be collated and compared and that the diversities may appear and be discerned of And for the passing of them we see by experience that Patrius Mos is dear to all men and that men are bred and nourished up in the love of it and therefore how harsh Changes and Innovations are And we see likewise what Disputation and Argument the alteration of some one Law doth cause and bring forth How much more the alteration of the whole Corps of the Law Therefore the first Question will be whether it be not good to proceed by parts and to take that that is most necessary and leave the rest to time The parts therefore or subject of Laws are for this purpose fitliest distributed according to that ordinary didivision of Criminal and Civil and those of Criminal Causes into Capital and Penal The second Question therefore is Allowing the general Union of Laws to be too great a Work to embrace whether it were not convenient that Cases Capital were the same in both Nations I say the Cases I do not speak of the Proceedings or Trials That is to say whether the same Offences were not fit to be made Treason or Fellony in both places The third Question is whether Cases Penal though not Capital yet if they concern the Publick State or otherwise the discipline of Manners were not fit likewise to be brought into one degree As the case of Misprision of Treason the Case of Premunire the Case of Fugitives the Case of Incest the Case of Simony and the rest But the Question that is more urgent then any of these is Whether these Cases at the least be they of an higher or inferiour degree wherein the Fact committed or Act done in Scotland may prejudice the State and Subjects of England or è converso are not to be reduced to one uniformity of Law and Punishment As for example a Perjury committed in a Court of Justice in Scotland cannot be prejudicial in England because Depositions taken in Scotland cannot be produced and used here in England But a Forgery of a Deed in Scotland I mean with a false date of England may be used and given in evidence in England So likewise the depopulating of a Town in Scotland doth not directly prejudice the State of England But if an English Merchant shall carry Silver and Gold into Scotland as he may and thence transport it into Forraign Parts this prejudiceth the State of England and may be an evasion to all the Laws of England ordained in that case and therefore had need to be bridled with as severe a Law in Scotland as it is here in England Of this kind there are many Laws The Law of the 50. of Rich. the 2. of going over without Licence if there be not the like Law in Scotland will be frustrated and evaded For any Subject of England may go first into Scotland and thence into Forraign parts So the Laws prohibiting transportation of sundry Commodities as Gold and Silver Ordnance Artillery Corn c. if there be not a correspondence of Laws in Scotland will in like manner be deluded and frustrate For any English Merchant or Subject may carry such Commodities first into Scotland as well as he may carry them from Port to Port in England And out of Scotland to Forraign parts without any peril of Law So Libels may be devised and written in Scotland and published and scattered in England Treasons may be plotted in Scotland and executed in England And so in many other cases if there be not the like severity of Law in Scotland to restrain offences that there is in England whereof we are here ignorant whether there be or no it will be a gap or stop even for English Subjects to escape and avoid the Laws of England But for Treasons the best is that by the Statute of 26. King Hen. the 8 th Cap. 13. any Treason committed in Scotland may be proceeded with in England as well as Treasons committed in France Rome or elsewhere 6. Courts of Justice and Administration of Laws For Courts of Justice Trials Processes and other Administration of Laws to make any alteration in either Nation it will be a thing so new and unwonted to either People that it may be doubted it will make the Administration of Justice which of all other things ought to be known and certain as a beaten way to become intricate and uncertain And besides I do not see that the severalty of Administration of Justice though it be by Court Soveraign of last resort I mean without appeal or errour is any impediment at all to the Union of a Kingdom As we see by experience in the several Courts of Parliament in the Kingdom of France And I have been alwayes of opinion that the Subjects of England do already fetch Justice somewhat far off more then in any Nation that I know the largeness of the Kingdom considered though it be holpen in some part by the Circuits of the Judges and the two Councils at York and in the Marches of Wales established But it may be a good Question whether as commune vinculum of the Justice of both Nations your Majesty should not erect some Court about your Person in the nature of the Grand Council of France To which Court you might by way of evocation draw Causes from the ordinary Judges of both Nations For so doth the French King from all the Courts of Parliament in France many of which are more
remote from Paris then any part of Scotland is from London 7. Receipts Finances and Patrimonies of the Crown For Receipts and Finances I see no Question will arise in regard it will be matter of necessity to establish in Scotland a Receipt of Treasure for Payments and Erogations to be made in those parts And for the Treasure of Spare in either Receipts the custodies thereof may well be several considering by your Majesties Commandment they may be at all times removed or disposed according to your Majesties occasions For the Patrimonies of both Crowns I see no Question will arise except your Majesty would be pleased to make one compounded Annexation for an inseparable Patrimony to the Crown out of the Lands of both Nations And so the like for the Principality of Britain and for other Appenâ—ages of the rest of your Children Erecting likewise such Dutchies and Honours compounded of the Possessions of both Nations as shall be thought fit 8. Admiralty Navy and Merchandizing For Admiralty or Navy I see no great question will arise For I see no inconvenience your Majesty to continue Shipping in Scotland And for the Jurisdictions of the Admiralties and the Profits and Casualties of them they will be respective unto the Coasts over against which the Seas lye and are situated As it is here with the Admiralties of England And for Merchandizing it may be a question whether that the Companies of the Merchant-Adventurers of the Turky Merchants and the Muscovy Merchants if they shall be continued should not be compounded of Merchants of both Nations English and Scots For to leave Trade free in the one Nation and to have it restrained in the other may per-case breed some inconvenience 9. Freedoms and Liberties For Freedoms and Liberties the Charter of both Nations may be reviewed And of such Liberties as are agreeable and convenient for the Subjects and People of both Nations one Great Charter may be made and confirmed to the Subjects of Britain And those Liberties which are peculiar or proper to either Nation to stand in State as they do 10. Taxes and Imposts But for Imposts and Customs it will be a great Question how to accommodate them and reconcile them For if they be much easier in Scotland then they be here in England which is a thing I know not then this inconvenience will follow That the Merchants of England may unlade in the Ports of Scotland and this Kingdom to be served from thence and your Majesties Customs abated And for the Question whether the Scots Merchants should pay Strangers Custom in England That resteth upon the point of Naturalization which I touched before Thus have I made your Majesty a brief and naked Memorial of the Articles and Points of this great Cause which may serve only to excite and stir up your Majesties Royal Judgement and the Judgements of wiser men whom you will be pleased to call to it Wherein I will not presume to perswade or disswade any thing nor to interpose mine own opinion but expect light from your Majesties Royal Directions unto the which I shall ever submit my Judgement and apply my Travails And I most humbly pray your Majesty in this which is done to pardon my errors and to cover them with my good intention and meaning and desire I have to do your Majesty service and to acquit the Trust that was reposed in me And chiefly in your Majesties benign and gracious Acceptation FINIS Statutes concerning Scotland and the Scots Nation Laws Customs Commissions Officers of the Borders or Marches Further Union besides the removing of inconvenient and dissenting Laws and Usages Points wherein the Nations stand already united Soveraignty Line-Royal Subjection Obedience Alien Naturalization Religion Church Government Continent Borders Language Dialect Leagues Confederacies Treaties External Points of the Separation and Union The Ceremonial or Material Crown The Stiles and Names The Seals The Standards and Stamps Moneys Internal Points of Union