In other respects, I conceive the Scots were losers by
the union. -- They lost the independency of their state, the
greatest prop of national spirit; they lost their parliament, and
their courts of justice were subjected to the revision and
supremacy of an English tribunal.'
'Softly, captain (cried I), you cannot be said to have lost your
own parliament, while you are represented in that of Great-Britain.'
'True (said he, with a sarcastic grin), in debates of
national competition, the sixteen peers and forty-five commoners
of Scotland, must make a formidable figure in the scale, against
the whole English legislature.' 'Be that as it may (I observed)
while I had the honour to sit in the lower house, the Scotch
members had always the majority on their side.' 'I understand
you, Sir (said he), they generally side with the majority; so much
the worse for their constituents. But even this evil is not the
worst they have sustained by the union. Their trade has been saddled
with grievous impositions, and every article of living severely
taxed, to pay the interest of enormous debts, contracted by the
English, in support of measures and connections in which the
Scots had no interest nor concern.
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