the larger portion of Queen Anne's reign, but at the accession
of George I. they were compelled to give place to their rivals, and
the period 1714-1761 was one of unbroken Whig ascendancy. This was, of
course, the period of the development of the cabinet system, and
between the rise of that system and the growth of government by party
there was an intimate and inevitable connection. By the close of the
eighteenth century the rule had become inflexible that the cabinet
should be composed of men who were in sympathy with the party at the
time dominant in the House of Commons, and that the returning by the
nation to the representative chamber of a majority adverse to the
ruling ministry should be followed by the retirement of the
ministry.[43]

[Footnote 43: For references on the history of
English political parties see pp. 144, 160, 166.]

III. THE SCOTTISH AND IRISH UNIONS

*39. The Union with Scotland, 1707.*--Finally may be mentioned the
important changes in the governmental structure which arose from the
Act of Union with Scotland, in 1707, and the Act of Union with
Ireland, in 1801. Except during a brief portion of the period of the
Protectorate, the legal relation of England and Wales, on the one
side, and the kingdom of Scotland, on the other, was from 1603 to (p. 040)
1707 that simply of a personal union through the crown. Scotland had
her own parliament, her own established church, her own laws, her own
courts, her own army, and her own system of finance. By the Act of
1707 a union was established of a far more substantial sort. The two
countries were erected into a single kingdom, known henceforth as
Great Britain. The Scottish parliament was abolished and representation
was accorded the Scottish nobility and people in the British
parliament at Westminster. The quota of commoners was fixed at
forty-five (thirty to be chosen by the counties and fifteen by the
boroughs) and that of peers (to be elected by the entire body of
Scottish peers at the beginning of each parliament) at sixteen. All
laws respecting trade, excises, and customs were required to be
uniform throughout the two countries, but the local laws of Scotland
upon other subjects were continued in operation, subject to revision
by the common parliament. The Scottish judicial system remained
unchanged;[44] likewise the status of the established Presbyterian
Church.[45]

[Footnote 44: Save