Vice-Regal Saint: Not One Petition in Favour of Union with England
"A Scots rabble is the worst of its kind, for every Scot in favour there is 99 against"
- Daniel Defoe, English writer and spy leading up to the Acts of Union (Sir John Clerk on Defoe: "He was a spy among us, but not known as such, otherwise the Mob of Edinburgh would pull him to pieces.")
Even though prevailing public opinion in Scotland was overwhelmingly against it, three hundred years ago today on January 16, 1707, the Scottish Parliament ratified the Treaty of Union with England and dissolved itself by a majority vote of 110 to 69 (England ratified the previous year, and the Kingdom of Great Britain came into effect on May 1, 1707). Many petitions were sent against Union, and there were massive protests in Edinburgh and several other Scottish towns on the day it was passed. Threats of widespread civil unrest resulted in the imposition of martial law.
The 1707 Treaty of Union creating the Kingdom of Great Britain
Sir John Clerk, an ardent pro-unionist and Union negotiator, observed that the treaty was "contrary to the inclinations of at least three-fourths of the Kingdom". Sir George Lockhart, a Jacobite and the only member of the Scottish negotiating team who was not pro-incorporation, noted that "The whole nation appears against the Union". Public opinion against the Treaty as it passed through the Scottish Parliament was voiced through petitions from Scottish localities. Anti-union petitions were received from shires, burghs, presbyteries and parishes. Not one petition in favour of an incorporating union was received by Parliament. - Wikipedia
Walter Thomas Monnington's 1925 painting called Parliamentary Union of England and Scotland 1707 hangs in the Palace of Westminster, depicting the official presentation of the law that formed the Kingdom of Great Britain.
Posts
1915.jpg){kind=small}
.gif)
.gif)
3 comments:
It was either Union or invasion! The Scots should be grateful. (Seriously, amalgamation of some sort had to occur for geopolitical progress; can you imagine if both England and Scotland had remained even more engrossed than they did in bitter rivalry, if not enmity? To look outward we had largely to stop looking so constantly inward. Our horizons shifted entirely. No British Empire, no English or Scottish Empire either, without the Act of Union; no modern day USA, Canada, Australia, NZ, really.)
If we part ways, and Britain is over, then Oz and NZ flags will change (along with Ontario, etc, etc, etc). If the flags change, the demolition of Monarchy is advanced one step further, for one more link in the golden chains that bind us, will have been severed.
Actually he Instrument of Government was released in 1653, under The Big C
The flags will not change. The flags of NZ, Australia, Ontario, etc are the independent creations of those territories, not mere placeholders. Whatever their respective legislatures enshrined as their national flag will remain their national flag regardless of what happens in the UK.
Post a Comment