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 Onely 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 Stiles and Names the main Question is whether the Contradicted 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 inferiour Questions First Whether the Name of Britain shall not only be used in your Majesties Stile whether 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 subdivided 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 Subdivisions of South-Britain and North-Britain and the People to be South-Britains and North Britains and so in the Example aforesaid 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 than 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 that 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 lest the Alteration of the Name may induce and involve an Alteration of the Laws and Pollicies 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 The Seals that there should be but one Great Seal of Britain and one Chancellor and that there should onely 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 an Alteration internal whereof I do not now speak 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 of manifest Alteration lest there be a buz and suspect that Grants of Things in England may be passed by the Seal of Scotland or e converso Also The Standards and Stamps Moneys 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 Rumor 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 Preragative without Act of Parliament Those 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 Vnion and an Oath appropriate thereunto Internal Points of Union which is a Point likewise deserveth a Consideration So much for the External Points The Internal Points of Separation are as followeth 1. Several Parliaments 2. Several Councels of Estate 3. Several Officers of the Crown 4. Several Nobilities 5. Several Laws 6. Several Courts of Justice Trials and Pracesses 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 and Intercourse with Forraign Nations I touched them before In these Points of the straight and more inward Vnion there will intervene one principal Difficulty and Impediment growing from that Root which Aristole in his Politicks maketh to be the Root of all Division and Dissention 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
ARTICLES Touching The UNION OF England and Scotland A DISCOURSE OF THE Happy Union OF THE KINGDOMS OF England Scotland Dedicated in Private to King JAMES I. By FRANCIS Lord BACON LONDON Printed by Tho. Milbourn and Sold by A. Baldwin in Warwick-Lane 1700. A Discourse of the Happy Vnion c. OF this Discourse there is Two Parts The First Part is Philosophical and there needs this only to be Noted There are Two several Kinds of Policy says he in Uniting and Conjoyning of States and Kingdoms The one to retain the Ancient Form still Severed and only Conjoyn'd in Soveraignty The other to superinduce a New Form agreeable and convenient to both The former hath been usual and is easie But the Latter more happy Of the Form whereby States and Kingdoms are perfectly United there are besides the Soveraignty it self Four in Number viz. Union in Name Union in Language Union in Laws and Union in Employments In his Second Part waving his Complements to the King I will come to the Business and thus he writes My Purpose is only to break this Matter of the Union into certain short Articles and Questions and to make a certain kind of Anatomy or Analysis of the Parts and Members thereof not that I am of Opinion that all the Questions which I now shall open were fit to be in the Consultation of the Commissioners propounded For I hold nothing so great an Enemy to good Resolution as the making of too many Questions specially in Assemblies which consist of many For Princes for avoiding of Distraction must take many things by way of Admittance and if Questions must be made of them rather to suffer them to arise from others than to Grace them and Authorize them as propounded for themselves But unto your Majesties private Consideration to whom it may better sort with me rather to speak as a Remembrancer than as Counseller I have thought good to lay before you all the Branches Lineaments and Degrees of this Vnion that upon the View and Consideration of them and their Circumstances your Majesty may the more clearly discern and more readily call to mind which of them is to be embraced and which to be rejected And of these which are to be accepted which of them to be presently to be proceeded in and which to be put over to further time and again which of them shall require Authority of Parliament and which are fitter to be effected by your Majesties Royal Power and Prerogative or by other Pollicies or Means And Lastly which of them is liker to pass with Difficulty and Contradiction and which with more Facility and Smoothness First therefore to begin with that Question that I suppose will be out of question Whether it be not meet Statutes concerning Scotland and the Scottish Nation that the Statutes which were made touching Scotland or the Scottish Nation while the Kingdoms stood severed be Repealed It is true there is a Diversity in these For some of these Laws consider Scotland as an Enemy Country others Laws consider it as a Foreign Country only As for Example the Law of Rich. 2. Anno 7th which prohibiteth all Armour or Victual to be carrryed to Scotland And the Laws of 7th of K. H. the 7th that Enacteth all the Scottish Men to depart the Realm within a Time prefix'd Both these Laws and some others respect Scotland as a Country of Hostility But the Laws of 22. of Edward 4th that endueth Barwick with the Liberty of a Staple where all Scottish Merchandizes should resort that should be uttered for England And likewise all English Merchandizes that should be uttered for Scotland This Law beholdeth Scotland only as a Forein Nation And not so much neither For there have been erected Staples in Towns of England for some Commodities with an Exclusion and Restriction of other Parts of England But this is a Matter of the least Difficulty Laws Customs Commissions Officers of the Borders or Marches 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 discontinued 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 less Herein falleth that Question whether that the Tenants who hold their Tenant Rights in a greater Freedom and Exemption in Consideration of their Service upon the Borders And that the Countries themselves which are in the same respect discharged of Subsidies and Taxes should not now be brought to be in one degree with other Tenants and Countries Nam cessante causa tollitur Effectus wherein in my Opinion some time would be given Quia adhuc eorum Messis in Herba 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 Pounds as your Majesty termeth them And therefore it would be considered whether it were not convenient to Plant and Erect at Carlile or Barwick some Counsel or Court of Justice the Jurisdiction whereof might extend part into England and part into Scotland With a Commission not to proceed precilely or meerly according to the Laws and Customs either of England or Scotland but mixtly according to Instruction by your Majesty to be set down after the Imitation and President of the Counsel of the Marches here in England Erected upon the Vnion of Wales The Third Question is that which many will make a great Question of Further Union besides the Removing of Inconvenient and diffenting Laws and Usages 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 Vnion contenting your self with the two former Articles or Point 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 difficile medicationes ferunt It is better to make Alterations in sick Bodies than in sound 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 selt thereby hath covered many Inconveniencies which nevertheless
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 Pugitives the Case of Incest the Case of Simony and the rest But the Question that is more urgent than any of these is whether there Cases at the least be they of a higher or inferiour degree wherein the Fact committed or Act done in Scotland may prejudice the State and Subjects of England or e converso are not to be reduced into one Vniformity 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 is here in England Of this kind there are many Laws The Law of the 50th 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 into 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. K. Hen. the 8. Cap. 13. any Treason committed in Scotland may be proceeded with in England as well as Treasons committed in France Rome or elsewhere For Courts of Justice Trials Process 6 Courts of Justice and Administration of Laws 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 the 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 mean without Appeal or Errour is any Impediment at all to the Vnion of a Kingdom As we see by Experience in the several Courts of Parliament in the Kingdom of France And I have been always of Opinion that the Subjects of England do already fetch Justice somewhat far off more than 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 Councels at York and the Marches of Wales established But it may be a 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 Councel 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 than any part of Scotland is from London For Receipts and Finances I see no Question will arise 7 Receits Finances and Patrimonies of the Crown In regard it will be Matter of Necessity to establish in Scotland a Receit of Treasure for Payments and Erogations to be made in those parts And for the Treasure of Spare in either Receipts the Customs 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 Appennages of the rest of your Children Erecting likewise such Dutchies and Honours compounded of the Possessions of both Nations as shall be thought fit For Admiralty or Navy 8 Admiralty Navy and Merchandizing I see no great Question will arise For I see no Inconvenience for your Majesty to continue Shipping in Scotland And for the Jurisdictions of the Admiralities and the Profit 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 Turkie Merchants and the Muscovy Merchants if they shall be continued should not be compounded of Merchants of both Nations English and Scottish For to leave Trade free in the one Nation and to have it restrained in the other may percase breed some Inconveniency For Freedoms and Liberties the Charters of both Nations may be vevived 9 Freedom and Libertie 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 But for Imposts and Customs 10. Taxes and Imposts it will be a great Question how to accomodate them and reconcile them For if they be much easier in Scotland than 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 Scottish 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 Judgment and the Judgment 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 my own Opinion But do expect Light from your Majesties Royal Directions unto the which I shall ever submit my Judgment and apply my Travail 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