ed by a counter petition the free intercourse of trade allowed them by the treaty, without breach of which, they affirmed, they could not be refused the liberty of importing any goods from Scotland which were not contraband by law in the latter country previous to the treaty; since having paid all the duties due in Scotland, they were entitled, as Scottish property, to be freely admitted to every port in England; they therefore added a saving clause, unless it could be proved they were the bona fide property of Scottishmen in Scotland, and not merely purchased or provided for the occasion, but to counteract its value they made the onus probandi lie upon the importer, to whom was left the vexatious and often impracticable task of satisfying the custom-house officers. The Lords, upon the representations of the Scots, hesitated the commons then expressed themselves still more strongly, and declared, that the importation of goods the growth of France through Scotland to avoid the English duties, was a "notorious fraud," and the London merchants re-echoed the assertion; but the lords persisted in considering the interference of the English parliament as illegal, and ultimately rejected the bill, referring the subject to the British legislature.

While the affair was in dispute, the merchants continued their speculations, and when the commencement of the union arrived, an immense quantity of foreign produce had accumulated in Scotland, which, in the middle of June, was shipped for London, with certificates of having been fairly imported into Scotland, and having regularly paid all exigible duties before the 1st of May. But no sooner had they entered the Thames, than the custom-house officers made a general seizure of both ships and cargoes.

What aggravated this occurrence, was the entire subversion of all their former modes of collecting the trifling sums raised by customs and excise; and along with the new system, the introduction of crowds of English revenue officers, and the stagnation of trade and confusion that accompanied their introduction. The taxes had before the union been usually farmed, and not unfrequently were compromised between the tacksman and the merchant, so that the

small trade which was carried on was overlooked by only a few officers whose salaries were insignificant, and whose services were not over-rigorously performed; even in these circumstances, it had been no uncommon case to run great quantities of goods; but when the enormous duties imposed in England began to operate, the temptation was too great to resist, and the whole country threatened to become one den of smugglers. The common people, not yet broke into obedience, acting upon the principle that the union was not legal, nor the English laws binding upon them, forcibly resisted the custom-house officers, and in many instances retook their seizures, which they considered recovering their own property, and treated the captors as common robbers; in spite of all the efforts of the latter, many thousand ankers of brandy were secretly landed from the first Dutch fleet that arrived after the union, and their attempts to enforce the new laws were openly obstructed.

As force, however, soon became hazardous, advantage was taken of the creeks and coves with which the Firths of Forth and Clyde abound to land the cargoes they did not choose to enter, or they entered part, and run part. In this case, boats were stationed at different places, particularly in the Firth of Forth, and certain signals agreed upon between them and the "runners." Whenever a vessel appeared at a distance, the concerted flag was hung out to the confederates, who immediately came off, and received the contraband articles; or replied by signal from the shore, if the officers were in the neighbourhood; when the ship tacked and made for another quarter; and having the whole Firth to range in, they shifted from side to side, and port to port, till they found the coast clear and accomplished their purpose; while the custom-house officers had the satisfaction

Lockhart, who hated these gentry most cordially, relates with much glee," that about this time a Scots merchant travelling in England, and showing some apprehensions of being robbed, his landlady told him he was in no hazard; and, upon his inquiring how that came about, and where were all the thieves? why truly,' replied she, they are all gone to your country to get places.'" Memoirs, p. 224.

of being spectators of the manoeuvring, without being able to prevent the landing.

Few or no Scottishmen could be found who would incur the disgrace of enforcing the new regulations, and it was therefore necessary to employ others, who cared little for the contumely, and had courage to face the danger of such an employment. At first the service was severe, and a species of custom-house cavalry was raised for superintending the coasts, and a new marine for guarding the creeks and the bays. Four general riding surveyors, with twelve officers attached to them, formed the staff of the establishment, who divided the country into districts, and reviewed and kept to their duty the various corps of under agents, almost the whole of whom consisting of Englishmen, executed without merey the oppressive exactions of the revenue laws. The guarda costa consisted of what had never been known in Scotland, small armed cutters and boats, who cruized of the mouths of the Firths, and searched every vessel that entered. These too were manned chiefly by their newly united brethren, and exercised their office with that blunt disregard of ceremony which has always distinguished an English tar. Of the whole employed in this odious business, only two Scottishmen were admitted into the lucrative department of commissioners, and these were active treaters, sir Robert Dickson and a brother of the earl of Glasgow.

A guager had never been heard of in the country till the new regiment of excisemen invaded it, and their manner of levying the tribute was as unintelligible as the thing itself was abhorrent to the native brewers. Like the customs, the excise had been generally settled amicably between the farmer of the tax and the payer, and that by a kind of "rough guess" which the brewer himself was in most cases allowed to make; not a person in the whole business had seen a guaging rod, or could use it, and were therefore utterly amazed at "the bringing sticks to their barrels ;" nor was it till nearly a twelvemonth had elapsed, that they were even partially introduced, and in consequence of the total unacquaintedness of the Scots, and their stubborn unwillingness to learn,

the whole of this department also was intrusted chiefly to Englishmen.

Provision had been promptly made by the English parliament for payment of the equivalent, but by some means it had been delayed to be forwarded to Scotland, and was afterwards transmitted in such a manner as tended still farther to exasperate the people at what they execrated as the price of their independence. When the money did not arrive at the stipulated time, reports were assiduously spread that it would never arrive at all, or, if it did, that the English having now obtained the sole object of their wishes, would act with their usual deceit, and distribute the wages of iniquity as upon a former occasion, with large deductions, and to purchase services of still deeper infamy. Some of the more violent patriots insisted, that, as the purchase money had not been paid, the bargain was null, and a party, at whose head the duke of Hamilton was said to have marched, paraded to the cross of the deserted capital, and protested at midnight, in name of the Scottish nation, that the conditions of the treaty not being fulfilled, the whole was void, and Scotland free, whenever her children chose to assert her freedom. When the money did arrive in the month of August, it was carried to the castle in twelve waggons guarded by dragoons, amid the hootings and howlings of the mob, who, in the violence of their vituperation, after abusing the soldiers and the drivers, reproached the vehicles that carried, and the horses that drew" the accursed thing."

But when the sum came to be examined, it was found that only one hundred thousand pounds had been remitted in specie, and the remainder had been sent down in exchequer bills and immediately a new and more violent clamour arose that the English had tricked them, and instead of money had sent paper! And this was the advantage the nation was to receive from the large influx of gold and silver to supply the deficiency of their circulation, and raise the va lue of their new coin-three-fourths of the golden equivalent in bills payable three hundred miles off, and in London!

Nor were the charges of fraud entirely groundless. The bank of England had that year advanced to Government a

sum of one million two hundred thousand pounds upon exchequer bills bearing interest. These passed in London for cash, as they were payable on demand, and in extensive concerns were more convenient than specie; but it was widely different in Scotland, where there were no funds to meet them, and where they were not needed in large money transactions. As they could neither be used, nor bore interest, the claimants on the Darien scheme would not take them, and the commissioners were reduced to a perplexing dilemma, from which they were only extricated by prolonging the period of payment, prevailing on some to take half cash and half bills, and others to accept of bills of exchange on London; by which some lost a half, some three quarters of a year's interest on their dividends, while the bank of England gained in proportion upon a sum of upwards of three hundred thousand pounds.*

All the money being called in at the same time, although the recoinage issues appear to have been very expeditiously `managed, yet, from the quantity of specie in circulation, the whole could not be overtaken till considerable inconvenience had added this as another to the list of evils originating from the union. Uniformity in weights and measures was re

Annals of Commerce, 1707. De Foe's Hist. 592. The equivalent cleared up, Ed. 1707.

· † Ruddiman, in his preface to Anderson's Diplomata, states the amount brought to the mint at four hundred and eleven thousand, one hundred and seventeen pounds sterling; but as the English money passed in Scotland at an advance of 1d. per shilling before the union, and all that was brought to the bank was re-issued at par, government making good the loss, it is probable that a considerable quantity might be brought from England for the purpose of obtaining this gain: He conjec tures that nearly as much more might be hoarded up by the whimsical, disaffected, and timorous, who were strongly prepossessed against the union, and expected a speedy rupture, besides what was retained by silversmiths for plate: so that he thinks the gold and silver currency in the kingdom could not be less than nine hundred thousand pounds sterling. De Foe states that two hundred thousand pounds in silver was issued shortly after the arrival of the equivalent: but the jacobites and discontented hoarded it as much as possible to embarrass the government. Annals of Commerce, v. ii. p. 737. De Foe, p. 897.

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