The Union of England and Scotland Act 1603 (1 Jac. I c.2), full title An Act authorizing certain Commissioners of the realm of England to treat with Commissioners of Scotland, for the weal of both kingdoms, was an Act of Parliament of the Parliament of England enacted during the reign of James I. It appointed a commission led by the Lord Chancellor, Lord Ellesmere, to meet and negotiate with a commission which would be appointed by the Parliament of Scotland. The aim of the discussions was to look into the possibility of arranging a formal political union between England and Scotland, going beyond the existing Union of Crowns, and to report back to Parliament. The commission was not effective, however, and similar subsequent proposals also fell flat. The two kingdoms were eventually united over a century later, by the Acts of Union 1707. The Act was repealed by the Statute Law Revision Act 1863, being by this point entirely obsolete.
Famous quotes containing the words union, england, scotland and/or act:
“My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that.”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)
“While England endeavors to cure the potato-rot, will not any endeavor to cure the brain-rot, which prevails so much more widely and fatally?”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Four and twenty at her back
And they were a’ clad out in green;
Tho the King of Scotland had been there
The warst o’ them might hae been his Queen.
On we lap and awa we rade
Till we cam to yon bonny ha’
Whare the roof was o’ the beaten gold
And the floor was o’ the cristal a’.”
—Unknown. The Wee Wee Man (l. 21–28)
“To perceive means to immobilize ... we seize, in the act of perception, something which outruns perception itself.”
—Henri Bergson (1859–1941)