Union. The crowns of England and Scotland were united under one sovereign on the accession of James VI. of Scotland to the English throne as James I. in 1603; but for above a century longer each country continued to be ruled by its respective parliament, the interest of the one often coming into collision with that of the other. After various fruitless proposals for a closer connection of the countries, the Scots were in 1702 prevailed on to send twenty commissioners to London, who, with twenty-three English commissioners, should deliberate on the terms of union. Their proceedings, after being broken off, were resumed in 1706. The union, though popular in England, was the subject of great dissatisfaction in Scotland, being regarded by the bulk of the community as a surrender of national independence to a powerful rival. The treaty was, however, after strenuous opposition, ratified by the Scottish as well as the English parliament, and ultimately completed on May 1, 1707. Its principal condition was the incorporation of England and Scotland into the United Kingdom of Great Britain, the succession of whose monarchs was to be the same as that of England. There was to be one parliament, in which the peers of Scotland would be represented by sixteen of their number elected each parliament, and forty-five Scottish members were to sit in the House of Commons (see PARLIAMENT, NOBILITY). All rights and privileges were to be common between the subjects of both kingdoms, unless when otherwise agreed. The Episcopal Church was confirmed in England, and the Presbyterian in Scotland. Scotland was to retain her Courts of Session and Justiciary, and to have a separate seal for private rights and grants. While the parliament was to raise £2,000,000 by land-tax, Scotland would contribute £48,000 of that sum. The laws of trade, customs, and excise in Scotland were to be assimilated to those of England, and the coinage, weights, and measures of the two countries were to follow a uniform standard. In other matters the laws of Scotland were to remain in force, but might be altered by the parliament of Great Britain. The separate Privy Council of Scotland, which the Act of Union left untouched, was abolished the following year. See SCOTLAND, and books cited there; also FLAG.
Ireland remained a distinct kingdom till 1801, when it was united with Great Britain into the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. By the terms of the union the separate parliament of Ireland was done away with, and Ireland was represented in the parliament of the United Kingdom by four lords spiritual and twenty-eight lords temporal in the House of Lords, and 100 members of the House of Commons. For the arrangements as to Irish peers, see NOBILITY. The churches of England and Ireland were united into one Protestant Episcopal Church (see under IRELAND the section IRISH CHURCH). The subjects of Ireland were placed on the same footing as those of Great Britain in respect of trade and navigation, and in all treaties with foreign powers; and the law-courts of Ireland were to continue, subject to the regulations of parliament, writs of error and appeals being decided by the House of Lords of the United Kingdom. See IRELAND, GRATTAN, O'CONNELL, PITT, PARNELL, and works there cited.