From the Revolution in 1689 up to the Present Time; the Union of Scottish and English Parliaments (1707) The Jacobite Risings; Subsequent Privileges; Modem Development.— For Scotland as for England the Revolution marks the beginning of the mod ern time. Throughout the foregoing period theological considerations had dominated the public mind equally in affairs of Church and State; henceforward secular interests become more and more the impelling motives that de termine the action at once of the State and of the individual. The immediate result of this changed attitude was the union of the England and Scottish Parliaments in 1707. In the pre vious century ecclesiastical differences had been a bar to this union; now considerations of reciprocal interests determined both nations to accept it. For Scotland the union was a necessity if she was to take her place among the nations. Hitherto she had labored under disadvantages which, in spite of the strenuous efforts of her people, had impeded her free development. Her remote situation, her limited area of arable soil, her long antagonism to England, her political and religious distractions, and, as the result of all these concurrent disadvantages, the meagreness of capital, had crippled her in all her efforts to develop her resources and to compete with more fortunate nations. The immediate consequences of the union, however, did not give promise of the future that was in store for her. The old jealousies between the two partners increased rather than abated, and for fully half a cen tury Scotland sullenly acquiesced in a union into which (such was the feeling generally ex pressed) she had been entrapped by unscrupu lous statesmen, and from which she had only received insult and injury. The Jacobite risings of 1715 and 1745 are the significant commentary on the state of feeling even in the Lowlands, but, as the issue of both enterprises proved, the heart of the nation was too deeply committed to the new order to revert to a regime that would have been inherently opposed to the spirit of the new time.
By the middle of the 18th century the advantages that accrued from the union were no longer doubtful, and henceforward the industrial and commercial progress of the country exceeded the expectations of its most sanguine advocates. Manufactures multiplied; the mineral wealth of the country and the riches of its seas were utilized for the first time on an extensive scale. Foreign trade had hitherto been almost entirely re stricted to the exchange of commodities with the countries bordering on the German Ocean and the Baltic Sea, but by the opening up of trade with America, Glasgow, Greenock, and Paisley— mere villages at the time of the union — grew into great towns and important com mercial centres. Hitherto, also, the three types of burghs, peculiar to Scotland — Burghs of Barony, Burghs of Regality, and Royal Burghs —only the last had enjoyed the privilege of foreign trade in staple commodities, but this privilege gradually fell into abeyance, and every burgh with sufficient enterprise was at liberty to compete with its neighbors. In con nection with the burghs a further progress has to be noted. In Scotland, as in other countries during the Middle Ages, trade and commerce had been shackled by conditions, necessary at the time but which were incompatible with free national development. Only Royal Burghs had
possessed the privilege of being the homes of the great industrial crafts; in all the three types of burghs only burgesses had the right of pur suing any form of trade; jealous rivalry pre vented free commercial intercourse between the different towns of the kingdom; and finally, the fixing of the prices of commodities by the town councils or by the state obstructed the natural competition which is the life of trade. Later than in England, though not later than in France and Germany, these restrictions grad ually ceased to be operative, and in 1846 "ex clusive privileges" in trade and commerce were formally abolished by an Act of Parliament.
Thus by the awakened spirit of her people and the surprising development of her resources, Scotland, for long a thorn in the side of her more powerful neighbor, came to be England's valuable ally in the building up of empire. To the growth of the British colonies it is admitted that she has contributed even more than her relative share : the number of pioneers whom she has sent to New Zealand, to Australia and Canada is relatively greater than has proceeded from England, and equally out of proportion is the number of rulers and soldiers she .has given to India and the other dependencies. In science, philosophy and literature it is sufficient to recall the names of Watt, Adam Smith, Hume, Burns, Scott and Carlyle, to prove that she has contributed her own quota to the com mon stock of material and spiritual wellbeing.
In the rapid development of the country the Lowlands of the south and east were the principal agents, but the Highlands also were powerfully affected by the transformation of the rest of the kingdom. The risings of 1715 and 1745 may be regarded as the last efforts of the Celtic population of Scotland against the Teutonic element, to which it had been in per manent antagonism since the time of Malcolm Canmore. Through the .action of the govern ment after the last attempts of the Stewarts to recover their heritage the Highlands ceased to be a source of danger, but became a source of economic perplexity. The social conditions under which the Highlanders had hitherto lived now came to an end: the time-honored raids into the Lowlands were no longer possible, and the Highland chieftain ceased to he a feudal lord and became a proprietor interested in the produce of his land. Thus arose the problem, even yet imperfectly solved, how under their conditions of climate and surface and soil the Highlands might be made a tolerable abode for their populations and a partaker in the general prosperity of the country. But, though in the past debarred by physical conditions from playing a main part in the material development of the country as a whole, the Highlander is yet a con stituent element of the Scottish nation. The nature of his home, the romance that has come to surround his character and his history are valuable assets among the national possessions. The natural complements the one of the other, the Lowland Scot supplies the cautious per sistency, the sure hold of the fact indispensable in the conditions of modern life, while his Highland fellow-countryman by his quicker emotions and his natural grace is a standing re minder that there are other ideals than those of mere material prosperity.