dour and impartiality, Marlborough paid the utmost defer-
ence, and by his representations was encouraged to persist
in the resolution of yielding to the Whigs as little as to the
Tories.

The intelligence, however, made a deep impression; for in
sending the letter of Harley to the duchess, he observes,
"If both parties agree that the war must not be offensive in
this country, I am very much afraid the Dutch will not think
themselves very safe in our friendship. However, I cannot
but be much concerned; for if this country is ruined, we
are undone, and then 10 (Sir Charles Hedges) and his friends
may succeed, which otherwise is next to impossible. There
are a thousand reasons for preserving our friendship with
the Dutch; for as we save them, so they must preserve us
from the arbitrary power of 19 and 1, which must be entirely
governed by 3 ( Lord Rochester). ^* "May God preserve me
and my dearest love from seeing this come to pass! ^† but if
we should quarrel with 24 (the Dutch) I fear it might
happen."

The party feuds which agitated the British parliament and
nation spread with a still more detrimental effect into Scot-
land. Soon after the accession of Anne, overtures had been
made for an union between the two kingdoms, and commis-
sioners had been finally named to carry the design into exe-
cution. But an arrangement which was so likely to produce
domestic tranquillity and public benefit was violently opposed
by the Jacobites and many of the discontented, because Tories,
it tended to weaken the interest of the Stuart family; and
their opposition was fomented by the declamations of the
same party in the English parliament. Among the
various expedients to which the enemies of the Revolution
resorted for the purpose of embroiling the two kingdoms,
was the proposal of a bill in the legislature of Scotland,
which, under the title of the Act of Security, was calculated
to abridge the established prerogatives of the crown, to limit
the choice of a successor, and to throw a vast additional

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