Series 4 > Scottish industrial history

HENRY KALMETEr’s TRAVELS IN SCOTLAND
9
English, as they likewise go more abroad. Their learning is most in
the Law, which to study the better they go to Leyden. Them that
travell farther see commonly Italy and France. Their women are
civil and beautifull.
Before the Union, as I told, they had their own Parliament,
consisting of 160 Peers, which were hereditary, and the Representa¬
tives of the Shires and Royal Boroughs were 155, which did not sit
in two houses as in England, but in one house or Parliament.1 But
now in the Parliament of Great Britain they have only 16 Peers, all
elective, and 45 Representatives, viz. 30 Barons and 15 Burgesses.
Because now this Union has made such a noise in Scottland, and
so many malcontents, so it will be fit to speak a little about it. The
rest may be seen in the Memoirs concerning the Affairs of Scottland from
Queen Ames accession to the Throne till the Union, etc. whose author
is a Scotsh Gentleman Lockart of Carnwath.2
It hath been observed, that since the Scots Kings accession to the
English Crown (either that the Kings living still in England were
not informed sufficiently about the affairs concerning the utility of
Scottland, or, there being a natural jealousie betwixt the two
nations, they followed more the interest of the English, who
allways endeavour’d to keep the Scots low, and out of a condition
to do them harm) Scottland hath been on the decaying hand, so that
when at die Union of the two Crouns the Odds betwixt England
and Scottland was computed but at one to six, at the Union of the
two Kingdoms (anno 1707) it was at about one to fifty.3 See the
foretold book, pag. 400.
However the English not thinking themselves secure enough, so
long as the Scots could withdraw themselves from going in to the
'Attendances in the Scottish Parhament were much smaller than Kalmeter suggests;
e.g. in the first session of 1702, 38 peers and 81 representatives of the shires and burghs
were present, and in 1706, 67 peers and 132 representatives of the shires and burghs
voted on the first Article of Union. Acts of Parliament of Scotland: xi, pp. 3-5, 313-15.
2 George Lockhart, Memoirs concerning the Affairs of Scotland (London, 1714).
3 There was no computation at the time of the Union of Crowns of the relative wealth
of England and Scotland. Before the Union of Parliaments, ‘ The ratio of wealth, as
reflected in customs and excise revenue, was 36:1, and, as is indicated in the land-tax
yield, 41:1; the overall figure is rather more than 38:1.’ G. S. Pryde, The Treaty of
Union of Scotland and England 1707 (London, 1957), p. 44. But of course even this was
a very imperfect measurement of the ratio between the national incomes of the
two countries.
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