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Oliver Brown
The Union of 1707


"That part of the country now called England - that part of the country now called Scotland." These phrases from Clause 9 of the Treaty show that its drafters actually intended to destroy even the memory of such names as "England" and "Scotland". To describe yourself as a "Unionist" and a "Scotsman" is therefore impossible, since the first term implies the abolition of the second.


While Scotland became North Britain, England never became South Britain.


The Treaty was essentially a suicide pact. According to English law the sole survivor of such a pact is guilty of murder.


"We’re bought and sold for English gold such a parcel of rogues in a nation" according to a popular song to which Burns gave renewed currency.

This is true but unjust. A good proportion of Scots refused to be bribed. Moreover, men like Sir John Hume, Lord of the Treasury: the Earl of Marchmont with his pension of £400 a year; Lord Lauderdale with a post in the Mint of £600; Lord Torphichen, the Earl of Glencairn and others risked severe losses by refusing to support the Treaty.

The Scottish Parliament had a much higher standard of morality than that of Walpole into which it later so unhappily merged. Nor did it have such an unscrupulous manager of puppets as Dundas was to become.


There have been a good number of UKs. There was one of England and France which ended in 1801 when the British monarch renounced the title King of France. (The French had started to guillotine their monarchs.) There was the UK of Britain and North America, dissolved by the Colonials 200 years ago.

Then there was the UK of Britain and Ireland, dissolved in 1916, the signatories being thereafter shot for treason to George V. It was reaffirmed in 1949, when the signatories received a telegram of congratulations and good wishes from George VI.


They have all one thing in common: they came to an end.


At the beginning of this century there were three United Kingdoms in Europe - this one, Norway and Sweden (dissolved in 1905) and Austria and Hungary (dissolved in 1918). These four countries, now separated, are now on better terms than during their association and on much better terms than are the English and Scots today. (S.I.June 1976)


The Queen’s Coat of Arms still bears the so-called Irish Harp, despite the Republic. It ought to show 26 of the 32 strings broken, the other six being out of tune.


One writer in "Peace News" has pointed out that the Union of 1707 put an end to centuries of war between England and Scotland and used this fact in his plea for a politically united Europe. It is true that the raids which ruined Scotland for centuries ceased - apart from Cumberland’s repression of the Highlands. We then enjoyed the Pax Britannica which rneant we fought the French, the Spaniards, the Dutch, the Germans, the Japanese, the Chinese, the Americans, the Russians, the Africans, the Maoris, the Indians, the Italians, the Austrians and here I must stop because the SI is not an eight-page paper. (The SI was then, January 1971, a four page weekly - Ed.)


The Tories and Labourites are determined to maintain "the unity of the United Kingdom". Why were the Kingdoms united? Henry VIII contracted syphilis so that his children were barren and had no heirs.

I have not such a respect for V.D. as to defend one of its regrettable consequences.


The Lord in his wisdom gave us the Cheviots as a defensive barrier. We really need the Alps.


Gibraltar was stolen from the Spanish when Spain was not at war. It was given to England by the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713. It remains English because treaties are sacred and must not he violated.

That does not apply to the treaty of 1707 which the English violate when they wish.

Obviously between 1707 and 1713 something happened which completely changed the character of treaties. What on earth was it?


 

 


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