[1706/10/293]*[print] [email] [cite] [preceding] [following]
Our soveraign lady, considering that by the twenty-second article of the treaty of union, as the same is ratified by ane act past in this session of parliament upon the sixteenth of January last, it is provided that, by vertue of the said treaty, of the peers of Scotland at the time of the union sixteen shall be the number to sit and vote in the house of lords, and fourty-five the number of the representatives of Scotland in the house of commons of the parliament of Great Britain, and that the said sixteen peers and fourty-five members in the house of commons be named and chosen in such manner as by a subsequent act in this present session of parliament in Scotland should be setled, which act is therby declared to be als valid as if it were a part of and ingrossed in the said treaty. Therfor, her majestie, with advice and consent of the estates of parliament, statuts, enacts and ordains that the said sixteen peers who shall have right to sit in the house of peers in the parliament of Great Britain on the part of Scotland, by vertue of this treaty, shall be named by the saids peers of Scotland whom they represent, their heirs or successors to their dignities and honours, out of their own number, and that by open election and plurality of voices of the peers present, and of the proxies for such as shall be absent, the saids proxies being peers and producing a mandat in writing duely signed before witnesses, and both the constituent and proxie being qualified according to law, declaring also that such peers as are absent, being qualified as aforesaid, may send to all such meetings lists of the peers whom they judge fittest, validly signed by the said absent peers, which shall be reckoned in the same manner as if the parties had been present and given in the said list. And in case of the death or legall incapacity of any of the said sixteen peers that the forsaid peers of Scotland shall nominate another of their own number in place of the said peer or peers in manner before and aftermentioned. And that of the said fourtie-five representatives of Scotland in the house of commons in the parliament of Great Britain, therty shall be chosen by the shires or steuartries and fifteen by the royall burrows as follows, viz: one for every shire and stewartry excepting the shires of Bute and Caithness, which shall choise one by turns, Bute having the first election; the shires of Nairn and Cromarty, which shall also choise by turns, Nairn having the first election, and in like manner the shires of Clackmanan and Kinross shall choise by turns, Clackmannan having the first election. And in case of the death or legall incapacity of any of the said members from the respective shires or steuartries abovementioned to sit in the house of commons, it is enacted and ordained that the shire or steuartry who elected the said member shall elect another member in his place. And [also] that the said fifteen representatives for the royall burrows be chosen as follows, viz: that the toun of Edinburgh shall have right to elect and send one member to the parliament of Great Britain and that each of the other burghs shall elect a commissioner in the same manner as they are now in use to elect commissioners to the parliament of Scotland, which commissioners and burghs (Edinburgh excepted) being divided in fourteen classes or districts shall meet at such time and burghs within their respective districts as her majestie, her heirs or successors shall appoint, and elect one for each district, viz: the burghs of Kirkwall, Week, Dornock, Dingwall and Tayne, one; the burghs of Fortrose, Inverness, Nairn and Forress, one; the burghs of Elgin, Cullen, Bamff, Inverury and Kintore, one; the burghs of Aberdeen, Inverbervy, Montrose, Aberbrothock and Breichen, one; the burghs of Forfar, Pearth, Dundee, Coupar and St Andrews, one; the burghs of Craill, Kilrennie, Anstruther Easter, Anstruther Wester and Pittinweem, one; the burghs of Dysart, Kirkaldie, Kinghorn and Burntisland, one; the burghs of Inverkeithen. Dumfermline, Queensferry, Culross and Sterling, one; the burghs of Glasgow, Renfrew, Rutherglen and Dumbritton, one; the burghs of Hadingtoun, Dumbar, Northberwick, Lauder and Jedburgh, one; the burghs of Selkirk, Peebles, Linlithgow and Lanerk, one; the burghs of Dumfries, Sanquhar, Annan, Lochmaben and Kirkcudbright, one; the burghs of Wigtoun, Newgalloway, Stranrawer and Whitehorn, one, and the burghs of Air, Irvin, Rothesay, Campletoun and Inverary, one. And it is hereby declared and ordained that where the votes of the commissioners for the said burghs, mett to choise representatives from their severall districts to the parliament of Great Britain, shall be equall, in that case the president of the meeting shall have a casting or decisive vote and that by and attour his vote as a commissioner from the burgh from which he is sent, the commissioner from the eldest burgh presideing in the first meeting and the commissioners from the other burghs in their respective districts presideing afterwards by turns in the order as the said burghs are now called in the rolls of the parliament of Scotland. And in case that any of the said fifteen commissioners from burghs shall decease or become legally incapable to sit in the house of commons, then the toun of Edinburgh or the district which choisd the said member shall elect a member in his or their place. It is always hereby expressly provided and declared that none shall be capable to elect or be elected for any of the said estates but such as are twenty one years of age compleat and Protestant, excluding all papists or such, who being suspect of popery and required, refuse to swear and subscribe the formula contained in the third act made in the eighth and ninth sessions of King William's parliament, entituled, act for preventing the grouth of popery, and also declaring that none shall be capable to elect or be elected to represent a shire or burgh in the parliament of Great Britain for this part of the United Kingdom except such as are now capable by the laws of this kingdome to elect or be elected as commissioners for shires or burghs to the parliament of Scotland. And farder, her majestie, with advice and consent forsaid, for the effiectuall and orderly election of the persons to be chosen to sitt, vote and serve in the respective houses of the parliament of Great Britain, when her majesty, her heirs and successors shall declare her or their pleasure for holding the first or any subsequent parliament of Great Britain, and when for that effect a write shall be issued out under the great seall of the United Kingdom directed to the privy counsell of Scotland, conforme to the said twenty-second article, statuts, enacts and ordains that untill the parliament of Great Britain shall make further provision therin the said write shall contain a warrand and command to the said privy counsell to issue out a proclamation in her majesties' name requiring the peers of Scotland for the time to meet and assemble at such time and place within Scotland as her majestie and royall successors shall think fit to make election of the said sixteen peers and requiring the lord clerk register or two of the clerks of session to attend all such meetings and to administer the oaths that are or shall be by law required, and to ask the votes and, having made up the lists in presence of the meeting, to return the names of the sixteen peers chosen (certified under the subscription of the said lord clerk register, clerk or clerks of session attending) to the clerk of the privy counsell of Scotland. And sicklike, requiring and ordaining the severall freeholders in the respective shires and steuartries to meet and conveen at the head burghs of their severall shires and stewartries to elect their commissioners, conforme to the order above sett doun, and ordaining the clerks of the said meetings, immediately after the said elections are over respectively, to return the names of the persons elected to the clerks of the privy counsell. And lastly, ordaining the city of Edinburgh to elect their commissioner and the other royall burrows to elect each of them a commissioner as they have been in use to elect commissioners to the parliament, and to send the said respective commissioners, at such times to such burghs, within their respective districts, as her majesty and successors by such proclamations shall appoint, requiring and ordaining the common clerk of the respective burghs where such elections shall be appointed to be made to attend the said meetings, and immediately after the election to return the name of the persons so elected (certifyed under his hand) to the clerk of privy counsell, to the end that the names of the sixteen peers, therty commissioners for shires and fifteen commissioners for burghs, being so returned to the privy counsell, may be returned to the court from whence the writ did issue under the great seal of the United Kingdom, conforme to the said twenty-second article. And whereas, by the said twenty-second article, it is agreed that if her majesty shall, on or before the first day of May next, declare that it is expedient the lords and commons of the present parliament of England should be the members of the respective houses of the first parliament of Great Britain for and on the part of England, they shall, accordingly, be the members of the said respective houses for and on the part of England, her majesty, with advice and consent forsaid, in that case only doth hereby statute and ordain that the sixteen peers and fourty-five commissioners for shires and burghs who shall be chosen by the peers, barrons and burghs respectively in this present session of parliament, and out of the members thereof in the same manner as committees of parliament are usually now chosen, shall be the members of the respective houses of the said first parliament of Great Britain for and on the part of Scotland, which nomination and election, being certified by a writ under the lord clerk register's hand, the persons so nominated and elected shall have right to sit and vote in the house of lords and in the house of commons of the said first parliament of Great Britain.