A negotiation was actually opened with this view, but was speedily broken off.

For it soon appeared that the party which was for James was really hostile to the union, and that the party which was for the union was really hostile to James.

As these two parties had no object in common, the only effect of a coalition between them must have been that one of them would have become the tool of the other.

The question of the union therefore was not raised, [303] Some Jacobites retired to their country seats: others, though they remained at Edinburgh, ceased to show themselves in the Parliament House: many passed over to the winning side; and, when at length the resolutions prepared by the Twenty Four were submitted to the Convention, it appeared that the party which on the first day of the session had rallied round Athol had dwindled away to nothing.
The resolutions had been framed, as far as possible, in conformity with the example recently set at Westminster.

In one important point, however, it was absolutely necessary that the copy should deviate from the original.