108 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
English supremacy. No sooner, therefore, were the articles made public, in the month of
October 1706, than a universal clamour and uproar ensued. The outer Parliament House
and the adjoining square were crowded with an excited multitude, who testified their
displeasure at the Duke of Queensberry, the Commissioner, and all who favoured the
Union. On the 23d of the month, hhe populace proceeded to more violent acts of
hostility against the promoters of the scheme. They attacked the house of Sir Patrick
Johnston, their representative in Parliament, formerly a great favourite when Provost of
the city, and he narrowly escaped falling a victim to their fury. From this they proceeded
to other acts of violence, till they had the city completely at their mercy, and were only
prevented blocking up the ports by the Duke ordering out the military to take possession
of the Nether Bow Port, and other of the most important points in the city.
Three
regiments of foot were on constant duty; guards were stationed in the Parliament Close and
the Weigh-house, as well as at the Nether Bow ; a strong battalion protected the Abbey ;
a troop of horse-guards regularly attended the Cornmissioner, and none but members were
allowed to enter the Parliament Close towards evening, on such days as the house was
sitting. His Grace, the Commissioner, walked from the Parliament House, between
a double file of musketeers to his coach, which waited at the Cross ; and he was driven
from thence at full gallop to his residence at the Palace, hooted, cursed, and pelted by the
rabble.
The mob were fully as zealous in the demonstration of their good will as of their
displeasure. The Duke of Hamilton, whose apartments were also in the Palace, was an
especial object of favour, and was nightly escorted down the Canongate by several hundreds
of them cheering him,*and commending his fidelity. It was on one of these occasions, after
seeing the Duke home, that the excited rabble proceeded to the house of the city member,
when he so narrowly escaped their fury.’ Fortunately, however, for Scotland the popular
clamour was unavailing for the purpose of preventing the Union of the two kingdoms, though
the corrupt means by which many of the votes in Parliament were secured, was sufficient
to have justified any amount of distrust and apposition. A curious ornamental summerhouse
is pointed out in the pleasure grounds attached to Moray House, in the Canongate,
where the commissioners at length assembled to affix their clignatures to the Treaty of Union.
But the mob, faithful to the last in their resolution to avert what was then regarded as the
surrender of national independence,‘ pursued them to this retired rendezvous, and that
important national act is believed to have been finally signed and sealed in a ‘‘ high shop,”
or cellar, No. 177 High Street, nearly opposite to the Tron Church.2 This interesting
locality, which still remains, had formed one of the chief haunts of the unionists during the
progress of that measure, and continued to be known, almost to our own day, by the name
of the Union Cellar. On the 16th of January 1707, the Scottish Parliament assembled for
the last time in its old hall in the Parliament Close, and having finally adjusted the Articles
of Union, it was dissolved by the Duke of Queensberry, the King’s Commissioner, never
again to meet as a National Assembly+
The general discontent which resulted from this measure, and the irritation produced by
The Commissioner, and all who abetted him, were kept in terror of their lives.
.
Lockhart’s Mem., 1799, p. 229-229.
a Tales of a Grandfather, vol. vi. p. 327.
Smollett’s Hist., p. 469. Arnot, p. 1S9.
