ACT FOR THE UNION OF THE TWO KINGDOMS OF ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND (1707).
Reading edition
Source.—Statutes of the Realm. Vol. viii., pp. 566-577.
The Act recites:—
I. That the two kingdoms of England and Scotland shall, upon the first day of May, which shall be in the year one thousand seven hundred and seven, and for ever after, be united into one Kingdom by the name of Great Britain; and, that the ensigns armorial of the said United Kingdom be such as her Majesty shall appoint, and the crosses of St. George and St. Andrew be conjoined in such manner as her Majesty shall think fit, and used in all flags, banners, standards, and ensigns, both at sea and land.
II. That the succession of the monarchy of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, and of the dominions thereunto belonging, after her most sacred Majesty, be, remain, and continue to the most excellent Princess Sophia, Electoress and Duchess Dowager of Hanover, and the heirs of her body being protestants.
III. That the United Kingdom of Great Britain be represented by one and the same Parliament, to be styled, The Parliament of Great Britain.
IV. That all the subjects of the United Kingdom of Great Britain shall, from and after the union, have full freedom and intercourse of trade and navigation to and from any port or place within the said United Kingdom, and the dominions and plantations thereunto belonging; and that there be a communication of all other rights, privileges, and advantages, which do or may belong to the subjects of either kingdom; except where it is otherwise expressly agreed.
V.-XV. (These articles deal with Trade chiefly.)
XVI. That from and after the union, the coin shall be of the same standard and value throughout the United Kingdom; as now in England, and a mint shall be continued in Scotland, under the same rules as the mint in England, and the present officers of the mint continued, subject to such regulations and alterations as her Majesty, her heirs or successors, or the Parliament of Great Britain shall think fit.
XVII. That from and after the union, the same weights and measures shall be used throughout the United Kingdom, as are now established in England, and standards of weights and measures shall be kept by those burghs in Scotland to whom the keeping the standards of weights and measures, now in use there, does of special right belong: All which standards shall be sent down to such respective burghs, from the standards kept in the Exchequer at Westminster, subject nevertheless to such regulations as the Parliament of Great Britain shall think fit.
XVIII. That the laws concerning regulation of trade, customs, and such excises to which Scotland is, by virtue of this treaty, to be liable, be the same in Scotland, from and after the union, as in England; and that all other laws in use within the kingdom of Scotland, do after the union, and notwithstanding thereof, remain in the same force as before (except such as are contrary to, or inconsistent with, this treaty), but alterable by the Parliament of Great Britain; with this difference between the laws concerning public right, policy, and civil government, and those which concern private right, that the laws which concern public right, policy, and civil government may be the same throughout the whole United Kingdom; but that no alteration be made in laws which concern private right, except for evident utility of the subjects within Scotland.
XIX. (Scottish Courts of Law to remain as before, the right, however, of the United Parliament to make regulations and alterations being recognised.)[29]
XX.-XXI. (Concern Heritable Offices and the rights of Royal Burghs.)
XXII. That, by virtue of this treaty, of the peers of Scotland, at the time of the Union, sixteen shall be the number to sit and vote in the House of Lords, and forty-five the number of representatives of Scotland in the House of Commons of the Parliament of Great Britain; and that when her Majesty, her heirs or successors, shall declare her or their pleasure for holding the first, or any other subsequent, Parliament of Great Britain, until the Parliament of Great Britain shall make further provision therein, a writ do issue under the great seal of the United Kingdom, directed to the Privy Council of Scotland, commanding them to cause sixteen peers, who are to sit in the House of Lords, to be summoned to Parliament, and forty-five members to be elected to sit in the House of Commons of the Parliament of Great Britain.
XXIII. That the aforesaid sixteen peers of Scotland mentioned in the last preceding article, to sit in the House of Lords of the Parliament of Great Britain, shall have all privileges of Parliament, which the peers of England now have, and which they, or any peers of Great Britain shall have after the union.... And in case that any trials of peers shall hereafter happen, when there is no Parliament in being, the sixteen peers of Scotland who sat in the last preceding Parliament, shall be summoned in the same manner and have the same powers and privileges at such trials, as any other peers of Great Britain; and that all peers of Scotland, and their successors to their honours and dignities shall, from and after the union, be peers of Great Britain, and have rank and precedency next and immediately after the peers of the like order and degrees in England at the time of the union.
XXIV. (Deals with the Seals.)
XXV. (Scots to retain the Presbyterian system of Church Government and English to retain the Episcopalian.)
PROCEEDINGS ON THE IMPEACHMENT OF DR. SACHEVERELL (1710).
Source.—The Parliamentary History of England from the Earliest Period to the Year 1803. Vol. vi., pp. 806, 809. London, 1810.
P. 806. Complaint in the Commons of Dr. Sacheverell's Sermons. Dec. 13. A complaint being made to the House of Commons, of two printed Books; the one intituled, "The Communication of Sin; a Sermon, preached at the Assizes, held at Derby, August 15, 1709, by Dr. Henry Sacheverell;" and the other intituled, "The Perils of false Brethren, both in Church and State; set forth in a Sermon preached before the Right Hon. the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and Citizens of London, at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul, on the 5th of November, 1709;" preached also by the said Dr. Henry Sacheverell; and both printed for Henry Clements, which Books were delivered in at the clerk's table; where several paragraphs in the epistle dedicatory, preceding the first-mentioned Book, and also several paragraphs in the latter Book, were read:
Resolution thereon.] Sir Peter King and others having made speeches against the audaciousness of the Doctor, who had advanced positions directly opposite to Revolution principles, to the present government, and to the Protestant Succession, and consequently tending to cherish factions, and stir up rebellion: those, who favoured the Doctor's cause, were surprised at this sudden attack, and, no member offering to speak in his defence, it was resolved, "That the two Sermons were malicious, scandalous, and seditious libels, highly reflecting on the queen, the late Revolution, and the Protestant Succession, tending to alienate the affections of her majesty's subjects, and to create jealousies and divisions among them."
The Doctor was ordered to attend at the bar of the House the next day, and, being examined, owned the two Sermons. He likewise told them, what encouragement he had from the lord-mayor to print "The Perils of False Brethren." Sir Samuel Garrard, being a member of the House, was asked, whether the Sermon was printed at his desire or order? if he had owned it, he would have been expelled the House: but he denied, that he ever desired, or ordered, or encouraged, the printing thereof. Though the Doctor offered to prove it, and brought witnesses for that purpose, yet the House would not enter upon that examination, but it was thought more decent to seem to give credit to their own member, though few indeed believed him.
The Doctor standing to what he had said, without expressing the least consciousness of having done amiss, he was directed to withdraw; and it was resolved, "That he should be impeached of high crimes and misdemeanours, and Mr. Dolben was ordered to do it at the bar of the House of Lords, in the name of all the Commons of Great Britain." At the same time a Committee was appointed to draw up the Articles against him, and the Doctor was taken into custody of the Serjeant at Arms.
[The Charge against Sacheverell.]
P. 809. I. "He, the said Henry Sacheverell, in his said Sermon preached at St. Paul's, doth suggest and maintain, 'That the necessary means used to bring about the said happy Revolution, were odious and unjustifiable; that his late majesty, in his Declaration, disclaimed the least imputation of resistance; and that to impute resistance to the said Revolution, is to cast black and odious colours upon his late majesty and the said Revolution.'
II. "He, the said Henry Sacheverell, in his said Sermon preached at St. Paul's, doth suggest and maintain, 'That the aforesaid toleration granted by law is unreasonable, and the allowance of it unwarrantable;' and asserts that he is a false brother, with relation to God, religion or the church, who defends toleration and liberty of conscience; that queen Elizabeth was deluded by archbishop Grindall,' whom he scurrilously calls a false son of the church and a perfidious prelate, 'to the toleration of the Genevan discipline; and that it is the duty of superior pastors, to thunder out their ecclesiastical anathemas against persons entitled to the benefit of the said Toleration;' and insolently dares or defies any power on earth to reverse such sentences.
III. "He, the said Henry Sacheverell, in his said Sermon preached at St. Paul's, doth falsely and seditiously suggest and assert, 'that the church of England is in a condition of great peril and adversity under her majesty's administration;' and, in order to arraign and blacken the said Vote or Resolution of both Houses of Parliament, approved by her majesty as aforesaid, he, in opposition thereto, doth suggest the church to be in danger; and, as a parallel, mentions a Vote, that the person of king Charles the 1st was voted to be out of danger, at the same time that his murderers were conspiring his death; thereby wickedly and maliciously insinuating, that the members of both Houses, who passed the said vote, were then conspiring the ruin of the Church.
IV. "He, the said Henry Sacheverell, in his said Sermons and Books, doth falsely and maliciously suggest, 'that her majesty's administration both in ecclesiastical and civil affairs, tends to the destruction of the constitution; and that there are men of characters and stations, in church and state, who are false brethren, and do themselves weaken, undermine, and betray, and do encourage, and put it in the power of others, who are professed enemies, to overturn and destroy the constitution and establishment;' and chargeth her majesty, and those in authority under her, both in church and state, with a general maladministration: and, as a public incendiary, he persuades her majesty's subjects to keep up a distinction of faction and parties, instils groundless jealousies, foments destructive divisions among them, and excites and stirs them up to arms and violence. And, that his said malicious and seditious suggestions may make the stronger impressions upon the minds of her majesty's subjects, he, the said Henry Sacheverell, doth wickedly wrest and pervert divers texts and passages of holy scripture."