Volume 1 - Electric Scotland

THE TRKATY OK U.NIOX HATIFU'D BY rAKLlAMKNT, 1707. cccix
adhered to Ainmnd.Uc's pvolesL. Tho tliird article of the treaty was
approved of by parliament.' In the case of the remaining articles of union,
Annandale for the mo.^t part voted aj^'ainsL them. Indeed, in otiier matters
whicli came before this parliament, unless in a very few instances, his
lordship voted witli the opposition.
The treaty of union was ratified by parliament, and touched ^vitil the
scejjtre on ICth January 1707. Loclchart tells a story about a project of the
Duke of Hamilton that Annandale sliould renew his motion to settle the
succession of the crown on the house of Hanover, and upon its rejection that
a protest be made against the union, and thereafter that the protestors should
leave the house in a bc>dy. Tlie protest, Lockhart says, was actually put into
the duke's hands by .Vunandalc. After surmounting a difficulty that arose
about any acknowledgment of the succession of the house of Hanover, which
the Duke of Hamilton insisted upon, it was agreed to present the protest,
and great numbers of eminent citizens flocked about the parliament hou.se
but the duke was suddenly seized with a violent tootliache, and though he
was dragged to the pcirliament house by his friends, he refused to deliver the
protest, and inquired who the concert had agreed on to do so. Lockhart
insinuates this was done in consoqueuce of a visit of the commissioner the
night before, who told him if the treaty was let fall, England would lay the
blame upon him, and he woidd suffer for it.
Though Annandale opposed the union when in parliament, he resolved to
do his best to render it beneficial to the country after it hac actually become
law. I^e was not chosen one of the sixteen representatives of the Scottish
peerage by the parliament in 1707. Tlie election to the parliament of Great
Britain which took place at Ilolyrood on 17th June 1708, gave him an
opportiuiity of becoming a candidate. He was present in Holyrood, and
oflered a i)rotest against receiving the I'^.iil of Aberdeen's list, because the
' Acts uf tlie rarliaiiienti of .Suotl.ui.l, vol. .\i. ii>. 3\lS-iJ0. The Lockliait I'ai.(.i.->, vol. i.
PI.. ISO, UIO.
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