No, my lord, God forbid! man’s extremity is God’s opportunity; he is a present help in time of need, and a deliverer, and that right early.  Some unforeseen Providence will fall out, that may cast the balance; some Joseph or other will say, “Why do ye strive together, since ye are brethren?” None can destroy Scotland, save Scotland itself; hold your hands from the pen, you are secure.  Some Judah or other will say, “Let not our hands be upon the lad, he is our brother.”  There will be a Jehovah-Jireh, and some ram will he caught in the thicket, when the bloody knife is at our mother’s throat.  Let us up then, my lord, and let our noble patriots behave themselves like men, and we know not bow soon a blessing may come.

My lord, I wish from my heart, that this my vision prove not as true as my reasons for it are probable.  I design not at this time to enter into the merits of any one particular article; I intend this discourse as an introduction to what I may afterwards say upon the whole debate as it falls in before this honorable house; and therefore, in the farther prosecution of what I have to say, I shall insist upon few particulars, very necessary to be understood, before we enter into the detail of so important a matter.

I shall, therefore, in the first place, endeavor to encourage a free and full deliberation, without animosities and heats.  In the next place I shall endeavor to make an inquiry into the nature and source of the unnatural and dangerous divisions that are now on foot within this isle, with some motives showing that it is our interest to lay them aside at this time.  Then I shall inquire into the reasons which have induced the two nations to enter into a treaty of union at this time, with some considerations and meditations with relation to the behavior of the lord’s commissioners of the two kingdoms in the management of this great concern.  And lastly, I shall propose a method, by which we shall most distinctly, and without confusion, go through the several articles of this treaty, without unnecessary repetitions or loss of time.  And all this with all deference, and under the correction of this honorable house.

My lord chancellor, the greatest honor that was done unto a Roman was to allow him the glory of a triumph; the greatest and most dishonorable punishment was that of parricide.  He that was guilty of parricide was beaten with rods upon his naked body till the blood gushed out of all the veins of his body; then he was sewed up in a leathern sack, called a culeus with a cock, a viper, and an ape, and thrown headlong into the sea.

My lord, patricide is a greater crime than parricide, all the world over.

In a triumph, my lord, when the conqueror was riding in his triumphal chariot, crowned with laurels, adorned with trophies, and applauded with huzzas, there was a monitor appointed to stand behind him, to warn him not to be high-minded, not puffed up with overweening thoughts of himself; and to his chariot were tied a whip and a bell, to mind him that for all his glory and grandeur he was accountable to the people for his administration, and would be punished as other men, if found guilty.