SCOITISH HISTORY SOCIETY PUBLICATIONS.
Papal Negotiations with Mary Queen of Scots during her Reign in Scotland, 1561-1567. Edited by John Hungerford Pollen, Si.—. The Cromwellian Union : Papers Relating to the Negotiations for an Incorporating Union between England and Scotland, 1651-1652. Edited by C. Sandford Terry. (T. and A. Constable.)—The Scottish History Society has earned fresh gratitude at the hands of careful students by publishing these two sets of papers dealing with the "external relations" (in the large sense) of Scotland at two critical periods separated from each other by almost exactly a century. Father Pollen and Mr. Sandford Terry are eminently scrupulous and painstaking editors, and the introductions they supply to the papers which they edit are themselves most luminous contributions to the elucidation of history. Father Pollen's book contains all the extant correspondence of Papal nuncios and agents who were in communication with Queen Mary during that period of her reign which she spent in Scotland,—that is, from 1561 to 1567. This correspondence has a well-defined beginning and end. Before the Queen returned in 1561 there had been a complete cessa- tion of communication between Rome and Scotland, and there was another complete break in their intercourse after she resigned her crown in 1567. The actual separation of Scotland from Rome, 1559-60, does not therefore, strictly speaking, belong to the main subject of investigation. The general turn of the correspondence may fairly enough be gathered from Father Pollen's allusion to what followed 1567 :—" For at least two years the Pope made no attempt to reopen communications with her. But Mary's trials during that period put a new face upon the whole subject. By them she became an eminent sufferer for religion, a champion of the ancient faith, and the correspondence with the Pope might be recommenced." Mr. Terry's volume deals with the period when, owing to the "thoroughness" of the Cromwellian conquest, Scotland was prostrate at the feet of England as she had never been before. As Mr. Terry puts it, "the Government was extinct, her King in exile, her destinies in the hands of her conqueror. What her treatment would be was hardly open to doubt. Her avowed hostility to the sectarian ideas dominant in England, her antagonism to the political form which the revolt against the Stuarts had assumed there, forbade generosity and encouraged coercion. From such a standpoint an offer of union appeared to be in the highest degree magnani- mous. How great a condescension it was,' writes Ludlow, ' in the Parliament of England to permit a people they have con- quered to have a part in the legislative power." At one time, indeed, it was in contemplation to treat Scotland as a conquered province. What must on the whole, however, be considered wiser counsels prevailed, and there was prepared a marvellously equitable legislative union between the two countries, on the Commonwealth basis, which would have given Scotland thirty Members at Westminster, and in many respects would have anticipated that union which at last became law in the reign of Queen Anne. The papers edited by Mr. Terry are perhaps mainly of interest as indicating the anxiety of Scotsmen to preserve Presbyterianism. Of the settlement effected by the Union Commissioners Mr. Terry writes :—" During their four month? residence in Scotland the Commissioners had methodically and effectually accomplished the work with which they had been intrusted. Besides receiving the answers of the Shires and Burghs to the Tender, they had withdrawn Scotland from the administrative chaos which had existed since Dunbar and Worcester. Municipal Government had been restored. An orderly assessment had been laid upon the Shires and Burghs. A Court of Admiralty had been created. The judicial processes had been restored by the appointment of Sheriffs and the recon- struction of the Court of Session. Commissioners had been appointed to visit and regulate the Universities: Sequestrated duld. had been placed under the control of a Board of Com- missioners at Leith. Finally, all persons in public employment had been bound by an oath of fidelity to the Commonwealth."
Previous page
