understand the effect of the Act of Union upon the hopes of
the Jacobite party, it is necessary to take into consideration the
following facts. The Act of the English Parliament, by which the Crown
had been settled on Queen Mary and her sister, extended only to the
Princess Anne and her issue. After the death of the Duke of Gloucester,
and about the end of the reign of William the Third, another settlement
was made, by which the Crown was settled on the House of Hanover; but no
similar Act was passed in Scotland. And at the beginning of Queen Anne's
reign, and until after the Union, the Scottish Parliament were legally
possessed of a power to introduce again the exiled family into Great
Britain.[31]

During the course of the negotiations for the Treaty of Union, the Earl
of Mar formed an alliance with the celebrated Duke of Hamilton. In the
consideration of public affairs at this period, it may not appear a
digression to give some insight into the character of one who headed the
chief party in the Scottish Parliament, and with whom the Earl of Mar
was, at this period of his life, in frequent intercourse.

James Duke of Hamilton was at this period nearly fifty years of age. His
youth had been passed in the gay court of Charles the Second, as one of
the Gentlemen of the Bedchamber of that monarch,--an office which he
only relinquished to become Ambassador Extraordinary to France, where he
remained long enough to serve in two campaigns under Louis the
Fourteenth. Upon the death of Charles the Second, Louis recommended the
young nobleman, then termed Earl of Arran, strongly and essentially to
James the Second, who made him Master of his Wardrobe, and appointed him
to other offices.

Under these circumstances it is not surprising that in the honest and
warm feelings of the Duke of Hamilton, affection for the Stuarts should
form a principal feature. He had the courage to adhere firmly to James
the Second, amid the general obloquy, and to accompany the monarch on
his abdication to his embarkation at Rochester. "I can distinguish," he
said, at a meeting of the Scottish nobility in London, over which his
father, the Duke of Hamilton presided, "between the King's popery and
his person. I dislike the one, but have sworn to do allegiance to the
other, which makes it impossible to withhold that which I cannot forbear
believing is the King my master's right: for his present absence in
France can no more affect my duty, than his lon