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
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
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