[1706/10/293]*[print] [email] [cite] [preceding] [following]
Our sovereign lady, considering that by the twenty-second article of the treaty of union, as the same is ratified by an act passed in this session of parliament upon 16 January last, it is provided that, by virtue 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 forty-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 forty-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 settled, which act is thereby declared to be as valid as if it were a part of and engrossed in the said treaty. Therefore, her majesty, with advice and consent of the estates of parliament, statutes, 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 virtue of this treaty, shall be named by the said 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 said proxies being peers and producing a mandate in writing duly signed before witnesses, and both the constituent and proxy 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 legal incapacity of any of the said sixteen peers that the foresaid peers of Scotland shall nominate another of their own number in place of the said peer or peers in manner before and after-mentioned. And that of the said forty-five representatives of Scotland in the house of commons in the parliament of Great Britain, thirty shall be chosen by the shires or stewartries and fifteen by the royal burghs as follows, namely one for every shire and stewartry excepting the shires of Bute and Caithness, which shall choose one by turns, Bute having the first election; the shires of Nairn and Cromarty, which shall also choose by turns, Nairn having the first election, and in like manner the shires of Clackmannan and Kinross shall choose by turns, Clackmannan having the first election. And in case of the death or legal incapacity of any of the said members from the respective shires or stewartries above-mentioned to sit in the house of commons, it is enacted and ordained that the shire or stewartry who elected the said member shall elect another member in his place. And also that the said fifteen representatives for the royal burghs be chosen as follows, namely that the town 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 majesty, her heirs or successors shall appoint, and elect one for each district, that is the burghs of Kirkwall, Wick, Dornoch, Dingwall and Tain, one; the burghs of Fortrose, Inverness, Nairn and Forres, one; the burghs of Elgin, Cullen, Banff, Inverurie and Kintore, one; the burghs of Aberdeen, Inverbervie, Montrose, Arbroath and Brechin, one; the burghs of Forfar, Perth, Dundee, Cupar and St Andrews, one; the burghs of Crail, Kilrenny, Anstruther Easter, Anstruther Wester and Pittenweem, one; the burghs of Dysart, Kirkcaldy, Kinghorn and Burntisland, one; the burghs of Inverkeithing. Dunfermline, Queensferry, Culross and Stirling, one; the burghs of Glasgow, Renfrew, Rutherglen and Dumbarton, one; the burghs of Haddington, Dunbar, North Berwick, Lauder and Jedburgh, one; the burghs of Selkirk, Peebles, Linlithgow and Lanark, one; the burghs of Dumfries, Sanquhar, Annan, Lochmaben and Kirkcudbright, one; the burghs of Wigtown, New Galloway, Stranraer and Whithorn, one, and the burghs of Ayr, Irvine, Rothesay, Campbeltown and Inveraray, one. And it is hereby declared and ordained that where the votes of the commissioners for the said burghs, meeting to choose representatives from their several districts to the parliament of Great Britain, shall be equal, in that case the president of the meeting shall have a casting or decisive vote and that in addition to his vote as a commissioner from the burgh from which he is sent, the commissioner from the eldest burgh presiding in the first meeting and the commissioners from the other burghs in their respective districts presiding 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 town of Edinburgh or the district which chose 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 complete 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, entitled, act for preventing the growth 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 kingdom to elect or be elected as commissioners for shires or burghs to the parliament of Scotland. And further, her majesty, with advice and consent foresaid, for the effectual and orderly election of the persons to be chosen to sit, 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 writ shall be issued out under the great seal of the United Kingdom directed to the privy council of Scotland, conforming to the said twenty-second article, statutes, enacts and ordains that until the parliament of Great Britain shall make further provision therein the said writ shall contain a warrant and command to the said privy council to issue out a proclamation in her majesty's name requiring the peers of Scotland for the time to meet and assemble at such time and place within Scotland as her majesty and royal 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 council of Scotland. And also, requiring and ordaining the several freeholders in the respective shires and stewartries to meet and convene at the head burghs of their several shires and stewartries to elect their commissioners, conforming to the order above set down, 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 council. And lastly, ordaining the city of Edinburgh to elect their commissioner and the other royal burghs 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 (certified under his hand) to the clerk of privy council, to the end that the names of the sixteen peers, thirty commissioners for shires and fifteen commissioners for burghs, being so returned to the privy council, may be returned to the court from whence the writ did issue under the great seal of the United Kingdom, conforming 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 1 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 foresaid, in that case only does hereby statute and ordain that the sixteen peers and forty-five commissioners for shires and burghs who shall be chosen by the peers, barons 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.