UNION, a junction, coalition, or assemblage of two or more different things in one.

Union, or The Union, by way of eminence, is more particularly used to express the act by which the two separate kingdoms of Scotland and England were incorporated into one, under the title of the kingdom of Great Britain. This union, in vain attempted by James L, was at length effected in the year 1707, 6 Ann. when twenty-five articles were agreed to by the parliaments of both nations; the purport of the most considerable being as follows:

1. That on the first of May 1707, and for ever after, the kingdoms of England and Scotland shall be united into one kingdom, by the name of Great Britain. 2. The succession[7:21:449] to the monarchy of Great Britain shall be the same as was before settled with regard to that of England. 3. The united kingdom shall be represented by one parliament. 4. There shall be a communication of all rights and privileges between the subjects of both kingdoms, except where it is otherwise agreed. 9. When England raises L.2,000,000 by a land-tax, Scotland shall raise L.48,000. 16. 17. The standards of the coin, of weights, and of measures, shall be reduced to those of England throughout the united kingdoms. 18. The laws relating to trade, customs, and the excise, shall be the same in Scotland as in England. All the other laws of Scotland shall remain in farce, but alterable by the parliament of Great Britain; yet with this caution, that laws relating to public policy arc alterable at the discretion of the parliament; laws relating to private right are not to be altered but for the evident utility of the people of Scotland. 22. Sixteen peers are to be chosen to represent the peerage of Scotland in parliament, and forty-five members to sit in the House of Commons. 23. The sixteen peers of Scotland shall have all privileges of parliament; and all peers of Scotland shall be peers of Great Britain, and rank next after those of the same degree at the time of the union, and shall have all privileges of peers, except sitting in the House of Lords, and voting on the trial of a peer.

These are the principal of the twenty-five articles of union, which are ratified and confirmed by statute 5 Ann. cap. 8, in which statute there are also two acts of parliament recited; the one of Scotland, whereby the church of Scotland, and also the four universities of that kingdom, are established for ever, and all succeeding sovereigns are to take an oatiι inviolably to maintain the same; the other of England, 5 Ann. c. 6, whereby the acts of uniformity of 13 Eliz.. and 13 Car. 11, (except as the same had been altered by parliament at that time), and all other acts then in force for the preservation of the church of England, are declared perpetual; and it is stipulated, that every subsequent king and queen shall take an oath inviolably to maintain the same within England, Ireland, Wales, and the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed. And it is enacted, that these two acts “shall for ever be observed as fundamental and essential conditions for the union.”

Upon these articles and act of union, it is to be observed, 1. That the two kingdoms are so inseparably united, that nothing can ever disunite them, except the mutual consent of both, or the successful resistance of either, upon apprehending an infringement of those points which, when they were separate and independent nations, it was mutually stipulated should be “fundamental and essential conditions of the union.” 2. That whatever else may be deemed “fundamental and essential conditions,” the preservation of tire two churches of England and Scotland, in the same state that they were in at the time of the union, and the maintenance of the acts of uniformity which established the liturgy, are expressly declared so to be. 3. That the municipal laws of Scotland are ordained to be still observed in that part of the island, unless altered by parliament; and as the parliament has not yet thought proper, except in a few instances, to alter them, they still, with regard to the particulars unaltered, continue in full force.

For an account of the union of Ireland with Great Britain, thus forming the united kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, see Βritiain.