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A57287
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Scotland's grievances relating to Darien &c., humbly offered to the consideration of the Parliament
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Ridpath, George, d. 1726.
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1700
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Wing R1464; ESTC R1580
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53,913
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60
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Scotland and a desire to advance their Well-fare and Prosperity and is very sensibly touched with the loss His Subjects of that Kingdom have sustained by their late unhappy Expeditions in order to a Settlement at DARIEN His Majesty does apprehend that difficulties may too often arise with respect to the different Interest of Trade between his two Kingdoms unless some way be found out to unite them more nearly and compleatly And therefore His Majesty takes this opportunity of putting the House of Peers in mind of what he recommended to his Parliament soon after his Accession to the Throne That they would consider of an Vnion between the two Kingdoms His Majesty is of opinion That nothing would more contribute to the security and happiness of both Kingdoms and is inclined to hope that after they have lived near 100 years under the same Head some happy Expedient may be found for making them one People in case a Treaty were set on Foot for that purpose And therefore he does very earnestly recommend this Matter to the Consideration of the House This Answer is indeed something more like the Answer of a King of Scots than that to the Address of both Houses of the 17 th of December 1695. Yet the mâ—nagement of our Friends his Majesties Counsellors in Scots Affairs is still obvious to our view in this Answer the transports of Joy they were filled with upon the receipt of the Lords Address discovers it self by visible Ebullitions in the very first Line His Majesty having received a VERY DVTIFVL ADDRESS What pity 't was that new Patents of Honour were not sent to every one of those Lords that were for this Dutiful Address But when it comes to be weighed in a Scots Ballance it appears to be undutiful to the highest degree 1. Because they take upon them to advise his Majesty to act contrary to what he had promised to the Scots And 2. Because instead of owning him as an independent Sovereign of Scotland they treat him like their Vassal as he is King of Scots by pretending to direct him in the Affairs of our Nation where they have nothing to do and that also in opposition to the Sentiments of the Parliament of Scotland who must rationally be suppos'd to understand the Interest of our Nation better and to consult it more than they either can or will do Certainly they must have a very mean Opinion of the Wisdom of our Nation if they think we can be gull'd with their pretending to be sorry for our great loss of Men and Treasure when at the same time they charge themselves with advising to those measures which occasioned the loss of both and indirectly threaten us for we cannot interpret it otherwise WITH FAR GREATER DISAPPOINTMENTS IN THE PROSECVTION OF OVR DESIGN for justification of which they have already form'd their Declaration viz. That our Settlement at Darien is greatly prejudicial to their Nation and disturbs their Peace with Spain when all this while the Spaniards have never offered to make the least Reprizal upon them for it whereas they have committed actual Hostilities upon us His Majesty's declaring that he cannot but have a great Concern and Tenderness for his Kingdom of Scotland and a desire to advance our Welfare and Prosperity discovers a Paternal Affection to us but considering how he is circumstantiate is like to be of as little use to our Nation as the Affection of a Natural Father to his own Children for whom he dares not do any good Office because of a cursed ill-natured Step-mother that has him at command Thus His Majesty was graciously pleased to grant us an Act for Encouraging and Promoting our Trade but by the Malice of our Enemies who have him in their Hands was forced to Counteract it Thus he has been pleased again to promise our Colony the same Liberty of Trade that others have to the English Plantations but must be forced to recal his Word or at least to be worse than his Promise because he is told that the Sense of both his Houses of Parliament in England is against it To these straights those pernicious Counsellors have reduced His Majesty for though the Faction will promise to support him in aâ—ting contrary to Law and his Coronation Oath against us yet they will not suffer him to do any thing against what they are pleased to call the Interest of England but he is in danger of being Lop'd off or Abdicated They will not allow us to complain of our Kings when misled by Ill Council or to say that by our Ancient Constitution they were accountable to their Parliaments for Male-administration but strait they will burn our Books as False Scandalous and Trayterous yet they themselves fly in the Face of their Prince every day suffer his Administration to be tamely Libelled and his Person reflected on in all their Pampblets against a standing Army they will tell him to his Face that they who advised him to the Irish Grants had not consulted his Honour And that they who advised him to such and such Answers had done as much as in them lay to create a misunderstanding betwixt him and his People If we quote our Historians or Laws for asserting that the Supreme Power of our Government risided formerly in the Stateâ— who could dispose of the Lives and Fortunes of our Princes they strait condemn it as Trayterous but at the same time they quietly suffer Books to be published asserting their own Power of doing so by their Kings and justifie the cutting off of King Charles the I. as Milton's Works and others If their own Kings dispence with their Laws and Invade the Rights of their Church they kick them from their Thrones and then tell the World they have Abdicated yet at the same time they support them in acting Arbitrarily and contrary to Law against us and tell them that in so doing they act according to the Sense of both Houses If we complain of Injuries done us and Affronts put upon us by a Faction of theirs in conjunction with some ill Men of our own straitway we are accused of reflecting upon the Honour of both Nations and endeavouring to stir up War and Sedition and Proclamations are issued offering 500 l for discovering the Authors of such Complaints yet at the same time they suffer us to be Libelled railed upon vilified and belied and God himself and the Holy Scriptures blasphemed in Villanous Pamphlets without taking the least notice of it Thus in a Scurrilous Pamphlet called A History of Darien we are bantered and laughed at with Romantick and Foppish Stories in the Defence of the Scots Abdicating Darien the Honour of our Nation is outrag'd our Company belied and Religion blasphemed yet the Author Rewarded and Caressed by Mr. V n now a Minister of State but formerly a Licenser of Books for taking off the Penal Laws and overturning the Protestant Religion In a Villanous Lampoon called The Pedlar turn'd Merchant we are
SCOTLAND's Grievances Relating to DARIEN c. Humbly offered to the Consideration OF THE Parliament Vos quibus potior est turpis cum securitate servitus quam honesta cum periculo libertas istam quam magni estimatis fortunam amplectamini Ego in Patria saepe defensa liber libens moriar nec me prius ejus caritas quam vita relinquet Vallas ad Brussium Buchan Hist. lib. 8 Which for the benefit of those that don't understand Latin is English'd thus You who had rather like Cowards submit your Necks to a Yoke of Ignominious Slavery than expose your selves to any Danger in asserting the Public Liberty Hugg that Fortune which you value so highly For my part I shall cheerfully Sacrifice my Life to die a Free-man in my Native Country which I have so often Defended Nor will I cease to Love it till I cease to Live Wallace to Bruce when he join'd with the English against his Country Printed 1700. ERRATA OUr Nation being so Unhappy that those who Write or Act against it are Rewarded and Carested whereas those that Write or Act for it must do it at their Perril It is not to be wondred at that many Faults should escape the Press in those few Sheets when all must be done in Hurry and Fear And therefore the Readers are not only desired to Pardon but also to Amend the following Errata before they peruse the Book because they marr the Sense Page Line   9 36 read the Claim  12 18 Councellors  16 36 for too late read truly 20 24 for Wrought wrote 21 37 prove pave 44 care taken taken care 24 28 unequal equal 25 2 for made by by 14 pact pack'd 26 26 for question mention 27 43 read the Government  28 24 read that Nation  32 9 read the Parliament  PART I. SINCE our Nation bethought themselves of advancing their Trade by the Act for establishing a Company Trading to Africa and the Indies a greater Invasion hath been made upon our Sovereignty and Freedom than hath happened at any time since we were ingloriously betray'd by Baliol. 'T were needless to offer Instances to prove this had we not to do with a Sett of Men who having basely betray'd us would willingly bereave us of our Senses that we should neither perceive nor resent it The Matters of Fact being notorious we shall only mention them here with some short Reflections and take them in order of time as follows The Addresses of both Houses of Parliament in England against our Act above-mentioned was such an Invasion as to which it may be a proper Enquiry for our Parliament Whether those Addresses were not Contriv'd and Promoted by some about the K. as the last Address of the House of Lords was and whether any Native of Scotland was concern'd in Contriving or Promoting the same In the next place it will appear That the Parliament of Scotland has as much Right to signifie to the King by Address or otherwise that the said Addresses were contrary to the Law of Nations and an Intrenchment upon the Sovereignty of Scotland as the English Parliament had to present the said Address to him against our Act. They that Advis'd the King's Answer to the said Address are guilty of such an Invasion as to which it would seem that the Parliament of Scotland have as much Right to Resolve That whoever Advis'd His Majesty to the said Answer had done as much as in them lay to create a misunderstanding betwixt him and his People of Scotland as the Commons of England had to Resolve so upon His Majesty's Answer to their Resolves about the Irish Forfeitures The Memorial given in to the Senate of Hamburgh April 7th 1697. against our Company 's making any Convention or Treaty with that City for Promoting our Commerce was such an Invasion This may certainly be a just Cause of Enquiry to the Parliament of Scotland Whether the said Memorial was not a breach of the Law of Nations since the King of England has no Right to take Cognizance of what is done by the Subjects of Scotland out of the Dominions of England If the Faction say he did it as King of Scots let them produce their Authority In the next place they have Cause to enquire whether the Assertion in that Memorial that the Commissioners of our Company were no ways Authorized by His Majesty to make the said Treaties was not false And whether the said Memorial was not an actual Dispensing with and acting contrary to the Law Establishing our Company which Empowers them to Treat for and to procure Exemptions and other Grants as may be convenient for Supporting Promoting and Enlarging their Trade and Navigation from any Foreign Potentate or Prince whatsoever in Amity with his Majesty It would also seem to be a proper Enquiry for the Parliament of Scotland Whether all the Dammages the Company has sustained by the said Memorial and other Opposition made them by the Court ought not to be made good out of the Estates of those who gave His Majesty those Advises and that in order thereunto His Majesty be Address'd to know who they were or else that he would be pleased to make good the said Dammages some other way for effecting of which he stands obliged by the said Act to interpose his Authority upon the Publick Charge Since in the Close of the said Memorial His Majesty's Ministers threaten the Hamburghers with the Consequences of a breach of Friendship and good Correspondence with England if they did not put a stop to the proceedings of our Commissioners in that City This together with the before-mentioned Proceedings of the Parliament of England gives the Parliament of Scotland a more just ground to Address His Majesty to put a stop to those Intrenchments made by an English Faction for we don't charge it upon the whole Nation upon the Sovereignty and Freedom of Scotland than the English Parliament had to Address His Majesty against our Act. It may also deserve the Enquiry of the Parliament of Scotland Why the King of England's Ministers should dare to have call'd themselves Ministers to the King of Great Britain in that Memorial which was in direct opposition to a Scots Act of Parliament and Letters Patents Granted by the King of Scotland Since our Country is included in the Denomination of Great Britain and that His Majesty as King of Scots neither did nor could give them any Authority to present that Memorial This deserves their Enquiry so much the more that by this means our own Authority and Name may always be made use of against our selves as it was in this Case if care be not taken to prevent it and besides it may in future Ages be made use of as an Argument by the English Historâ—â—ns to prove that the Scots were Subject to England as their former Historians ignorantly made use of it as an Argument to prove the same thing that some of their Kings