The debate was managed with great ability on both sides; the Scottish peers united in defence of the duke's claim; and the court exerted its whole strength to support the patent.

Nevertheless, the question being put, whether Scottish peers, created peers of Great Britain since the union, had a right to sit in that house; it was carried in the negative by a majority of five voices; though not without a protest signed by the lords in the opposition.

The Scottish peers were so incensed at this decision, that they drew up a representation to the queen, complaining of it as an infringement of the union, and a mark of disgrace put upon the whole peerage of Scotland.

The bill against occasional conformity was revived by the earl of Nottingham, in more moderate terms than those that had been formerly rejected; and it passed both houses by the connivance of the whigs, upon the earl's promise, that if they would consent to this measure, he would bring over many friends to join them in matters of greater consequence.

On the twenty-second day of December, the queen, being indisposed, granted a commission to the lord-keeper and some other peers to give the royal assent to this bill, and another for the land-tax.