
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.« I
begged he would at least allow, that by the union the Scots were admitted to all
the privileges and immunities of English subjects; by which means multitudes of
them were provided for in the army and navy, and got fortunes in different parts
of England, and its dominions. »All these, (said he) become English subjects to
all intents and purposes, and are in a great measure lost to their
mother-country. The spirit of rambling and adventure has been always peculiar to
the natives of Scotland. If they had not met with encouragement in England, they
would have served and settled, as formerly, in other countries, such as Muscovy,
Sweden, Denmark, Poland, Germany, France, Piedmont, and Italy, in all which
nations their descendents continue to flourish even at this day.«
    By this time my patience began to fail, and I exclaimed, »For God's sake,
what has England got by this union which, you say, has been so productive of
misfortune to the Scots.« »Great and manifold are the advantages which England
derives from the union (said Lismahago, in a solemn tone). First and foremost,
the settlement of the protestant succession, a point which the English ministry
drove with such eagerness, that no stone was left unturned, to cajole and bribe
a few leading men, to cram the union down the throats of the Scottish nation,
who were surprisingly averse to the expedient. They gained by it a considerable
addition of territory, extending their dominion to the sea on all sides of the
island, thereby shutting up all back-doors against the enterprizes of their
enemies. They got an accession of above a million of useful subjects,
constituting a never-failing nursery of seamen, soldiers, labourers, and
mechanics; a most valuable acquisition to a trading country, exposed to foreign
wars, and obliged to maintain a number of settlements in all the four quarters
of the globe. In the course of seven years, during the last war, Scotland
furnished the English army and navy with seventy thousand men, over and above
those who migrated to their colonies, or mingled with them at home in the civil
departments of life. This was a very considerable and seasonable supply to a
nation, whose people had been
