End of the Scottish Parliament
Last business
By agreeing to the Union, the Scottish Parliament had also voted for its own extinction. However, during the last weeks of its existence a few remaining matters relating to the Union still had to be finalised.
Glossary
- Burghs
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Scottish cities and towns that returned members to the Scottish Parliament.
- Equivalent
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A sum of money granted to Scotland in compensation for its liability to the English national debt after union.
Family Tree
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Family tree of the English and Scottish royal dynasties.
• © National Library of Scotland
After the ratifying act, the Scottish Parliament passed legislation concerning the representation of Scotland in the Parliament at Westminster. This Act was also made part of the Treaty. They decided to elect members of the first Parliament of Great Britain from the membership of the Scottish Parliament, avoiding an election during which Scotland's small electorate would probably express strong dislike of the Union. Not surprisingly, this produced much heated debate.
Redrawing the electoral map
The electoral map of Scotland was substantially redrawn. In future 30 MPs would represent the Scottish counties, and 15 would represent new 'burgh districts'. No longer was each burgh to have its own representative as under the old system. For elections to the Westminster parliament the 66 burghs were grouped into districts, each containing four or five burghs, and each district would have a single MP. This was felt to be unfair given that the English county of Cornwall alone had no fewer than 44 MPs representing the county and its 21 boroughs.
The 16 Scottish peers were to be voted for by the entire body of 154 Scottish peers. The Court party simply agreed on a list of its chief supporters which was canvassed among the rest.
One of the last acts of the Scottish Parliament was to take care that the commissioners who negotiated the Articles of Union were paid their expenses. It also decided to pay those who had participated in the abortive negotiations of 1702-3. Each peer was to receive £1000 (sterling), and others to receive £500. The payments were to be made from the 'Equivalent' funds.
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