ng, the necessity for
a present sitting of the parliament, which was drawn in so high a
strain, as if they had resolved to pursue the effects of it by an armed
force. It was signed by a great majority of the members of parliament;
and the ferment in men's spirits was raised so high, that few thought it
could have been long curbed, without breaking forth into great
extremities.

FOOTNOTES:

[12] Curacoa.

THE UNION IMPENDING (1703).

+Source.+--_Memoirs of the Life of Sir John Clerk of Penicuik,
Baronet, Baron of the Exchequer: extracted by himself from his own
Journals, 1676-1755_, p. 46. (Edinburgh: Scottish Historical
Society, 1892.)

A Convention of Estates followed the Revolution by King William in 1688,
which was afterwards turned into a Parliament, and continued 'till the
Death of that King in 1702. The same parliament continued to sit upon
the accession of Queen Ann to the Crown, and was not dissolved till the
year 1703, when the new Parliament was called.... I have thrown together
some observations on this session of Parliament in another Manuscript
book, so shall say little here. It was divided into 3 factions, who, as
they had different views, drove different ways. The first was what was
called the Court party; they were for supporting the Crown and the
Credit of the High Commissioner, consequently they were for giving
moderate subsidies for supporting the Government against the insults of
the French, with whom we were, at that time, in war. They had the union
of the two nations in view, because they not only considered it as the
happiest thing that could be brought about for the Interest of Great
Britain, but because it was expressly recommended to them by the Queen.
The second faction was that of the Jacobites; they were to thwart and
disturb the Administration at any rate. The third faction was what went
under the name of the Squadrone Volante. These consisted of about
fifteen Lords and Gentlemen, all Whigs in their principles, but who
herded together, and kept little or no communication with the Duke of
Queensberry[13] and his Friends. They were for opposing everything which
they durst oppose, but to keep firmly in their view the succession of
the Crown in the House of Hanover. They pretended to be great Patriots,
and to stand up chiefly in defence of the rights and privileges of the
subjects; in a word, the public good and the liberty of the subjects
were still in their mo