Excerpt from De Unione Regnorum Britanniae Tractatus It is curious that Sir Thomas Craig's De Unione Regnorum Britanniae Tractatus should have waited until after the three hundredth anniversary of its author's death before appearing in print. The manuscript of the Tractatus is in the Advocates Library; but the Catalogue throws no light on the history of the work, the description of which is very brief, and, as the Keeper tells me, apparently in Cosmo Inness hand. On the last page of the manuscript, however, the following note appears: 'Kal: Januarii MDCXC. Hunc libellum propria manu correxit et multis in Locis supplevit ex Autographo Exemplari MS. Christophori Irvini M.D. cujus autor est D. Thomas Craig Advocatus, qui ipse unioni interfuit, quod mihi Legenti patet. W. A., J. C.' Christopher Irvine was a well-known physician and antiquary in Edinburgh in the last quarter of the seventeenth century, and his copy of Craig's work supplied the corrections and additions made by W. A., J. C. in 1690, shortly after Irvine's death. From the Roll of Advocates, Dr. Maitland Thomson has been able to identify W. A., J. C, as William Aikman of Cairnie, who was admitted Advocate in 1672 and died in 1699. The Tractatus, or the major part of it, was written by Craig in 1605. On June 11, 1604, he had been appointed one of the Scottish Commissioners to discuss in London with those of England the closer political union which James's recent accession to the English throne encouraged him to press. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works."

Argument for union from the Scottish side, written in 1605.

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