in the beginning of the session of Parliament, the Earl of Mar
presented the draught of an Act for appointing Commissioners, to treat
of an Union of the two kingdoms of Scotland and England. Thus was he the
instrument of first presenting to the Scotch that measure so revolting
to their prejudices, so singularly distasteful to a proud and
independent people. It is impossible to judge how far Lord Mar was
convinced of the expediency of the Treaty, or whether he was, in secret,
one of those who feigned an affection for the measure, whilst, in their
hearts, they wished for the preponderance of the votes against it. The
Treaty of Union was espoused by those in whose opinions Lord Mar had
been nurtured,--and originally, according to De Foe, it had been mooted
by William the Third, who declared that this Island would never be easy
without an union. "I have done all I can in that affair," he once
observed; "but I do not see a temper in either nation that looks like
it: it may be done, but not yet."[26]

The Treaty, retarded by many interests, clashing between nations, but,
more especially, by the burning recollections of massacred countrymen in
the blood-stained valley of Glencoe, was now brought into discussion
just when the Earl of Mar was at that age when a thirst for gain, or an
ambition to rise is unquenched, in general, by disappointment. Differing
in one respect from many Cavaliers, in being of a family strictly
Protestant, Lord Mar had not the inducement which operated upon the
Catholics, in their undiminished, ardent desire to restore the young
Prince of Wales to the throne. Differing, again, in another respect from
many of the Jacobites, Lord Mar had not the tie of a personal knowledge
of the exiled King to fix his fidelity; or, what was considered far more
likely to have sealed his, or any adherent allegiance, he had enjoyed no
opportunities of cultivating the favour of the enthusiastic, bigoted,
and yet intelligent Mary of Modena, whose exertions for her family kept
alive the spirit of Jacobitism during the decline of her royal devotee
and the childhood of her son. Lord Mar seems to have been reared
entirely in Scotland, and he might perhaps come under the description
given by the eloquent Lord Belhaven of a Whig in Scotland:--"A true,
blue Presbyterian, who, without considering time or power, will venture
all for the Kirk, but something less for the State;"[27] but that his
subsequent conduct contradicts this suppos