"Teaceor oP Tus Woncestea."
Straggle" between' England 10s. Av 'Episode in the, Long Scotland for' Union as Great Briain, 10081707 With " Soltion fered by Lit To appreciate the injustice perpetrated by the Scots High Court)
Sea Be a he Werte Sel ile ats a of the trial between England and Solin tobe for Soto ere a see faite for eastars sat inten coe te ne i a perms' dames T" Gates Sectland) had not brought peace) between them, Efforts were made for over one hundred years to effect: the union of the two Kingdoms but} obstacles, principally religious, intervened. Some progress waa made in the reign of James I in that inter course was permitted between! the border peoples and in the rule of Cromwell which by the abolition of Customs dues allowed free trade between the tivo countries, However tense the racial and religious feelings were between the two peoples a deeper cause of disunion may be traced to the economic position. England, thanks to her adventurers. fever sea and to the command of that element. was in comparison to Scotland a rich country, one add a very rich country, not permit the latter share in the trade by which that] wealth was being accumulated. The Navigation Act 1660 effectually barred Scotland, then treated as foreign country. from participate ing in trade with England and her colonies. And the Scotch were wise enough to see how England's wealth was obtained and how they were prevented in obtaining any: share in that commerce. was an age of monopoly ud in the East India Company found a corporation which religiously reserved to itself the monopoly, of all trade to the Far East and hampered in every way the efforts of any rivals to encroach on its preserves. The only opposition encountered was that from the ships of the Separate Stock Companies which were permitted by Act of] Parliament, This debarring from entry into lucrative trade aroused the animodity of the Scotch who founded' the Darien Company for trading to Africa and the East Indies. The) necessary capital was first attempt~ ed to be raised jointly in Scotland and England but again the East India Company interfered and capital could be obtained from England. "The whole capital was consequently raised in Scotland and was subscribed by every class in that country. The whole nation' had an interest in the success of the company, failure to make good meant the impoverishment of all classes. And the enterprise did fail, till but one ship the Annandale was left and this was seized i be early 1704 in the Downs at the intigation of the East India Company and condemned to confiscation by the English Court of Admiralty. The whole Scotch nation was. inflamed and bitter were the feelings aroused against the English, the supposed authors of all the" misfortunes of the Darien Company. which in truth were due to the mismanagement of the directors of, the Company, At this juncture there arrived at Leith this unfortunate English ship the Worcester. The Secretary of the Darien Company seized the opportunity to arrest her in reprisal for the seizure of the Annandale.
The cargo was by common report a very rich one and this no doubt lead the Company to believe that opportunity to recoup losses at the hands rivals. The arrest was} effected in August 1704 in the belief that the Worcester was a vessel of the East India Compan; When it was discovered she was in fact a Separate Stock ship other methods had to be adopted. Matters dragged on, then the Scots: Privy Council, basing their action on statements' alleged to have been made by the crew, instructed the Scots High Court of Admiralty to bring the captain, <fficers and crew to trial as pirates in December of that year. In March 1705 the trial took place and all those _indicted were condemned to be hanged and the ship directed to be confiscated, to the Crown, This result caused indignation in England and efforts were made to have the men re-brieved. The Scots Privy Council declined to: give way, procrastinated and finally in fear of the Edinburgh mob handed over three men, the: Captain Green, Chief Officer Ma der and Simpson the gunner, to be hanged on Leith sands to appease the passions of the mob, As th author says "if ever a man the victim of circumstances over which he had no control that man was Thomas Green." The actual evidence on which these men were jecndemned was slight. But one of the witnesses spoke as to having} seen the actual alleged piracy, the other two could only speak from hearsay. The prosecution bolstered up their case by calling witnessea_who spoke to statements: made by some of the accused in the. interval between the seizure of! their ship and their trial, and other witnesses as to the state of the} eon available the other evidence dealt with in this volume but racial prejudice has prevented a fair pro sentation of the facts, It is signifi-meant that the verdict was "majority one" not unanimous and that once these three unfortunate men had been sacrificed to the mob, the others condemned to be hanged were quietly released, The Scot Privy Council afterwards issued statement apparently for the benefit Of the English public which is rather in the nature of an apologia, contains confessions of three meti" bers of the crow after sentence had been passed on them and made no doubt in the hopes of a reprieve, Against this can be set many aff davits of persons cognizant of the facts and which prove conclusively, that the Worcester could not have pirated the Speedy Return, But out ofall this evil arose good, The authorities of both countries aroused by the necessity of prevent ing a similar ccuronce and in fear that a continuance of the high tone jon would lead to civil war pressed fon the Act of Union which even tuated in March 1107, Apart from the historical import= ea of the case of the Worceoter 50 graphically related this book has 4 peculiar interest in that it depicts the life and the manners and cus toms of merchants and others in those days. The correspondence of Thomas Bowery, who was one of the freighters of the Worcester, and who tried for years to obtain compensation for the loss of the shin Hlusteates how merchants conduct= their business. The diary of Henry Smith one of his agents sent to Edinburgh in 1707 depicts they People of various ranks in that city. Altogether a mest interesting book cargo. It has been hitherto an article of faith of Secttish writers) to assume the guilt of the accused, of English writers their innocence. But even the Scottish writers have never asserted that Captain Green and his crew were guilty of the piracy of the Scottish vessel The Speedy Return a vessel of Dairen Company which popular} rumour attributed to them; these writers fall back on the general sertion that they were guilty some acts of piracy; rather a vague assumption. No definite charge of piracy of the Speedy Return was, made at the trial, The discovery of the papers of Thomas Bowery in 1913 throw light on many circumstances, and make clear the innocence of these men.
They. determine the fact that the Worcester was a Special Stock ship diso for such a voyage, that the charter parties and insurance were use in ordinary mercantile ventures, In particular must be noted the friendly. relations of the ship in India with their trade rivals the East India Company, It is not. conceivable that the Company who had full opportunity of hearing anything detrimental to the ship would have helped the captain if he or his crew had been guilty of piracy on the Malabar coast. Apart from the new evidence set cut in Thomas Bowery's Papers there has always The establishment of a regular dirigible service between Europe fand the Dutch East Indies waa forecast by Dr. Eckener in an interview given just before leaving for the United States. from where he will probably continue his trip to Java and Sumatra to investigate the feaxibitity of such a service especially with regard to the meter logical conditions precoiling there and-en route. Dr. Eekener also stated that certain Dutch quarters are evincing great, interest in the project of an Amnsterdam-Java_aic~ route and it is understood that these circles are prepared to, subs scribe 40 million Marks towards the realization of such a project.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.