smaller River runneth into a greater it loseth both his Name and Stream And hereof to conclude wee see an excellent example in the Kingdoms of Judah and Israel The Kingdom of Judah contained two Tribes the Kingdom of Israel contained ten King David raigned over Judah for certain years And after the death of Isbosheth the Son of Saul obtained likewise the Kingdom of Israel This Union continued in him and likewise in his Son Salomon by the space of seventy years at least between them both But yet because the Seat of the Kingdom was kept still in Judah and so the lesse sought to draw the greater upon the first occasion offered the Kingdoms brake again and so continued ever after Thus having in all humbleness made oblation to your Majesty of these simple Fruits of my Devotion and Studies I do wish and do wish it not in the nature of an impossibility to my apprehension That this happy Union of your Majesties two Kingdoms of England and Scotland may be in as good an hour and under the like Divine Providence as that was between the Romans and the Sabines CERTAIN ARTICLES OR CONSIDERATIONS Touching the Union of the Kingdoms of England and Scotland Collected and dispersed for His MAJESTIES better Service YOur Majesty being I do not doubt directed and conducted by a better Oracle then that which was given for light to Aeneas in his peregrination Antiquam exquirite Matrem hath a Royal and indeed an Heroical desire to reduce these two Kingdoms of England and Scotland into the Unity of their ancient Mother Kingdom of Britain Wherein as I would gladly applaud unto your Majesty or sing aloud that Hymn or Anthem Sic itur ad Astra So in a more soft and submiss voice I must necessarily remember unto your Majesty that Warning or Caveat Ardua quae pulchra It is an action that requireth yea and needeth much not only of your Majesties Wisdom but of your Felicity In this Argument I presumed at your Majesties first entrance to write a few Lines indeed Scholastically and Speculatively and not Actively or Politickly as I held it fit for me at that time when neither your Majesty was in that your desire declared nor my self in that Service used or trusted But now that both your Majesty hath opened your desire and purpose with much admiration even of those who give it not so full an approbation and that my self was by the Commons graced with the first Vote of all the Commons selected for that Cause Not in any estimation of my ability for therein so wise an Assembly could not be so much deceived but in an acknowledgement of my extream labours and integrity in that business I thought my self every wayes bound both in duty to your Majesty and in trust to that House of Parliament and in consent to the matter it self and in conformity to my own travails and beginnings not to neglect any pains that may tend to the furtherance of so excellent a work Wherein I will indeavour that that which I shall set down be Nihil minus quam verba For length and ornament of Speech are to be used for perswasion of Multitudes and not for information of Kings especially such a King as is the only instance that ever I knew to make a man of Plato's opinion That all knowledge is but remembrance and that the mind of Man knoweth all things and demandeth only to have her own Notions excited and awaked Which your Majesties rare and indeed singular gift and faculty of swift apprehension and infinite expansion or multiplication of another mans knowledge by your own as I have often observed so I did extremely admire in Goodwins Cause being a matter full of Secrets and Mysteries of our Laws meerly new unto you and quite out of the path of your Education Reading and Conference Wherein nevertheless upon a spark of light given your Majesty took in so dexterously and profoundly as if you had been indeed Anima Legis not only in execution but in understanding The remembrance whereof as it will never be out of my mind So it will alwayes be a warning to me to seek rather to excite your Judgement briefly then to inform it tediously and if in a matter of that nature how much more in this wherein your Princely cogitations have wrought themselves and been conversant and wherein the principal Light proceeded from your Self And therefore 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 then to grace them and authorize them as propounded from themselves But unto your Majesties private consideration to whom it may better sort with me rather to speak as a Remembrancer then as a Counceller I have thought good to lay before you all the Branches Lineaments and Degrees of this Union 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 imbraced and which to be rejected And of these which are to be accepted which of them is 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 Policies 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 that the Statutes which were made touching Scotland or the Scots 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 Countrey Other Laws consider it as a Forraign Countrey only As for example the Law of Rich. 2. Anno 70. which prohibiteth all Armour or Victual to be carried to Scotland And the Law of 70. of K. H. the 7. that Enacteth all the Scots Men to depart the Realm within a time prefixed Both these Laws and some others respect Scotland as a Countrey of hostility But the Law of 22. of Ed. 4. that endueth Barwick with the Liberty of a Staple where all Scots Merchandizes should resort that should be uttered for England And likewise all English Merchandizes that should be uttered for Scotland This Law beholdeth Scotland
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
THE UNION OF THE TWO KINGDOMS OF SCOTLAND AND ENGLAND OR The elaborate Papers of Sir Francis Bacon Lord Verulam Viscount of St. Alban sometime High Chancellor of England The greatest Sates-man of his Nation and Schollar of his Age concerning that Affair Published in this form for publick satisfaction Nullum numen abest Edinburgh Printed in the year 1670. FOR The Right HONOURABLE Sir ANDREW RAMSAY KNIGHT Barron of Abbots-hall c. Lord Provost of Edinburgh and one of His Majesties most Honourable Privy Council My Lord OF the Union of the two Kingdoms now happily intended these being the Elaborate and most Learned Thoughts and Resolutions of that great States-man yet more great Lawyer but most of all the far greatest Schollar of his Age and Nation Sir Francis Bacon Lord Verulam Viscount of St. Alban presented to our sometimes Great SOVERAIGN King James the most Wise and Learned I have advised them again to the Press for the satisfaction of divers Noble and Worthy Persons the Book in which they first came to light being too voluminous for ordinary use and rarely to be found in this Kingdom And now my Lord I have made bold to give you the trouble of this Address and present these few Papers though small in bulk yet vast in matter to your hands both upon my own and the Authors account Upon mine own who have ever been your most humble Client and have had your noble Friendship and Favour to countenance me in all my private concerns And moreover you do as Chief Magistrate govern that City in which I was first educate in the Peripatetickwalks and under and in which I have for divers years profest Letters or practised Chyrurgery and Physick and with the rest of my fellow Citizens have found such refreshment under your Shade and Care that I thought it my duty to signifie it by this small testimony of my thankfulness And I am sure that upon the Authors account there is not a fitter Person to whom these Papers could be committed The great prudence and knowledge he had in State Affairs made him very acceptable to the Kings and People of his own Nation and the great moderation watchfulness and wisdom you have used in governing this City one of the greatest Interests of this Kingdom hath endeared you to all the Princes and Chiefs of this People What labour and trouble you put upon your self to preserve it under the late Usurpers your very enemies do acknowledge and praise How your care and resolution preserved it from ruine when the VVest Male-contents came marching to its very Gates all that were faithful to His Majesties Service are ready to witness And with what sweetness and calmness you have keeped together the Union of the Burgesses who were ready through heat and unadvisedness to divide themselves your late appearance before the Right Honourable Committee of Trade and your oppose to those that were ready to violate the old Sett of the Good-Town is a testimony above exception I could add many more evidences of your great Prudence and Moderation but I will rather forbear them then give the least blush or trouble to your modesty Only this I must add that as your Lordship hath been a great Preserver of the Union of this Burgh So I do not doubt but you who are the most eminent Member of a Party not least concerned in this Affair I mean the Burroughs will with your good advices endeavour such an Union of the two Kingdoms as shall most advance the Glory and Prerogative of our Gracious King and promove most the Honour Trade and Safety of both People This and your Preservation shall ever be the sincere Devotion of My Lord Your most humble Servant C. Irvin A Speech used by Sir Francis Bacon in the Lower House of Parliament 50. Jacobi concerning the Article of general Naturalization of the Scots Nation IT may please you Mr. Speaker Preface I will use none but put my self upon your good Opinions to which I have been accustomed beyond my deservings Neither will I hold you in suspence what way I will choose but now at the first declare my self that I mean to counsel the House to Naturalize this Nation Wherein nevertheless I have a request to make unto you which is of more efficacy to the purpose I have in hand then all that I shall say afterwards And it is the same which Demosthenes did more then once in great Causes of Estate to the people of Athens Ut cum calculâ— Suffragiorum sumant Magnanimitatem Reip. That when they took into their hands the Balls whereby to give their Voices according as the manner of them was They would raise their thoughts and lay aside those considerations which their private Vocations and Degrees mought minister and represent unto them And would take upon them cogitations and minds agreeable to the Dignity and Honour of the Estate For Mr. Speaker as it was aptly and sharply said by Alexander to Parmenio when upon the Recital of the great offers which Darius made Parmenio said unto him I would accept these offers were I as Alexander He turned it upon him again So would I saith he were I as Parmenio So in this cause if an honest English Merchant I do not single out that State in disgrace for this Island ever held it Honourable but only for an instance of a private profession If an English Merchant should say Surely I would proceed no further in the Union were I as the King It mought be reasonably answered No more would the King were He as an English Merchant And the like may be said of a Gentleman of the Countrey be he never so worthy and sufficient Or of a Lawyer be he never so wise and learned Or of any other particular condition in this Kingdom For certainly Mr. Speaker if a man shall be only or chiefly sensible of those respects which his particular Vocation and Degree shall suggest and infuse into him and not enter into true and worthy considerations of Estate he shall never be able aright to give counsel or to take counsel in this matter So that it this request be granted I account the cause obtained But to proceed to the matter it self All Consultations do rest upon Questions comparative For when a question is de Vero it is simple for there is but one Truth But when a question is de Bono it is for the most part comparative For there be differing degrees of Good and Evil and the best of the Good is to be preferred and chosen and the worst of the Evil is to be declined and avoided And therefore in a Question of this nature you may not look for Answers proper to every inconvenience alledged For somewhat that cannot be specially answered may nevertheless be encountred and overweighed by matter of greater moment And therefore the matter which I shall set forth unto you will naturally receive this distribution of three parts First an Answer unto those inconveniences which
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