The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1907-03-08
Review of Lessons Taught
By Two Hundred Years
of Union.
REMOVAL or RESTRICTIONS TO
TRADE, FOLLOWING RArIFfcA-
TON OF TREATY, OF WONDER.
FHL BENEFIT TO COUNTRY OF
THE THIsTLE-eREAT oProsI-
TON TO PLAN AT.FIRsT.

Special to The Joarnai.
London, March 7.-While ireland
is straining every nerve to bring
about repeal of the legislation unit
ing her to-Grsat BRIAN In 1900. Scot
land~is notafar behind time Today
marks an extraordinary landmark in
Scotland's history as it celebrates
the 20oth anniversary of the union
between England and Scotland.
Both Kingdoms regard the<event as
cause for national rejoicing and
are emphatic -in their belief that the
union contracted just two centuries
ago has contributed not only to the
grandeur of the British Empire. as a
whole, but also TO the prosperity or
the two parties TO the agreement.
For If Glasgow Is today second only
in Great Britain to London in point
OF population. wealth and commercial
Importance. superior in those respects
even to Liverpool and Manchester, it
is owing to the removal Of those re-
strictzons of trade which existed prior
to the union. indeed, at the present
moment. when Hungary, following
the example of Ireland. Is clamoring
for independence and for separation
from Austria, as indispensable to her
economic and political development,
and when Norway has lust cceedsd
n cufttns psrzels adj 4 from Sweden
when secession. in fact. Is in the air,
It Is well worth whiie briefly to re-
view the lessons taught by the two
hundred years of union between Eng
land and Scotland
First Step Toward Union.
OF course the first step toward the
agreement between the Thistle and
the Rose was when James vi of Scot
land succeeded to the crown Of Eng
land as James I, succession brought
about by the sagacity and prescience
of Henry VII who. when nearly one
hundred years previously he gave his
daughter, Margaret. sto James w IN
marriage, foresaw the eventual union
of the crowns. and predicted that 1t
would prove an acquisition of strength
to England. For the next one hun
dred years after the accession of
James to the throne of England
Scotland retained her own Parliament
and, though owning allegiance to the
same king, was deprived of the priv
iiege of commercial equality, being
treated by England in all matters re-
lating to trade and industry as for
eign country, the attempt of the king
to govern Scotland from London
through a Scottish parliament natur.
ally furnishing abundant opportuni-
ties of unfair interference on the part
Of oficious english ministers in Scot
fish affairs. Finally the situation be
came so inIolerable that the two
kingdoms were rpaidly drifting back
to the bitter enmity which had pre-
vailed prior to the union of the
crowns, and at the beginning of the
eighteenth century we find English
merchant ships being seized in the
Forth by the Scottish government in
retaliation for the seizure of Scottish
shipping in the Thames.
Obstacles to Plan.
Shrewd and patriotic statesmen on
both sides of the Tweed became alive
to the danger and convinced of the
necessity OF closer union between
the two kingdoms: and King William
in particular devoted all the closing
years of his life to accomplishing this
end, opposed in the matter at every
step by France. which knew by her
experience of the past that with
Scotland as an enemy threatening the
northern frontier of England much
of the latter's importance as a foe
would vanish. Nor did France con.
stitute the only obstacle to the union
English manufacturers ard merchants
were intensely jealous of their Scot
fish rivals and bitterly opposed to the
removal of the restrictions placed
upon them The idea of granting
their Scotch competitors the same
advantages which they themselves
enjoyed was abhorrent to them, and