Betrayal is the theme here. For the shekels.
"The Treaty was, in truth, illegal as those parliamentarians signed away a right which was not theirs to give and the entire Union of Great Britain rests squarely upon a fraud against the Scottish people."
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From the original poem by Scotland’s greatest poet Robert Burns (a freemason):
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Farewell to all our Scottish fame
Farewell our ancient glory
Farewell even to our Scottish name
Sae fam’d in martial story
Now Sark runs over the Solway sands
And Tweed runs to the ocean
To mark where England’s province stands:
Such a parcel of rogues in a nation!
What force or guile could not subdue
Through many warlike ages
Is wrought now by a coward few
For hireling traitor’s wages
The English steel we could disdain
Secure in valour’s station
But English gold has been our bane:
Such a parcel of rogues in a nation!
I would, or I had seen the day
That treason thus could sell us
My auld grey head had lain in clay
Wi’ Bruce and loyal Wallace!
But pith and power, till my last hour
I’ll make this declaration
We were bought and sold for English gold:
Such a parcel of rogues in a nation!
Dick Gaughan sings Such a Parcel o’ Rogues in a Nation
Fareweil tae aa our Scottish fame
Fareweil our ancient glory
Fareweil e’en tae our Scottish name
Sae famed in martial story
Nou Sark rins ower the Solway sands
An Tweed rins tae the ocean
Tae mark whaur England’s province stauns
Sic a parcel o rogues in a nation!
What force or guile could not subdue
Thro many warlike ages
Is wrocht nou by a coward few
For hireling traitor’s wages
The English steel we could disdain
Secure in valour’s station
But English gold has been our bane
Sic a parcel o rogues in a nation!
O wad, ere I had seen the day
That Treason thus could sell us
My auld gray heid had lain in clay
Wi Bruce an loyal Wallace
But pith an pouer, till my last hour
I’ll mak this declaration –
We’re bocht an sold for English gold
Sic a parcel o rogues in a nation!
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https://mainlynorfolk.info/steeleye.spa ... ation.html
Written by Robert Burns as a reflection on the signing of the Treaty of Union (1707) which theoretically dissolved the parliaments of Scotland and England/Wales, replacing them with the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain. The Scottish Parliamentarians who signed the Treaty were literally bribed to sign it, with only a handful of them having the backbone to dissent, notably Fletcher of Saltoun. The principle of the Sovereignty of the people over government enshrined in the Declaration of Arbroath was completely set aside in favour of personal advancement. The Treaty was, in truth, illegal as those parliamentarians signed away a right which was not theirs to give and the entire Union of Great Britain rests squarely upon a fraud against the Scottish people.
It is interesting that the Declaration of Arbroath, written in 1320, refers explicitly to the elected nature of the Scottish monarch and to the principle of Sovereignty resting absolutely with the people—this principle was eventually incorporated into the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States of America. The debt which those documents owe to the Declaration of Arbroath is one which is still not as widely recognised as it should be (the ‘he’ refered to is Robert Bruce, King of Scots):
Yet if he should give up what he has begun, and agree to make us or our kingdom subject to the King of England or the English, we should exert ourselves at once to drive him out as our enemy and a subverter of his own rights and ours, and make some other man who was well able to defend us our King; for, as long as but a hundred of us remain alive, never will we on any conditions be brought under English rule. It is in truth not for glory, nor riches, nor honours that we are fighting, but for freedom—for that alone, which no honest man gives up but with life itself.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Such_a_Pa ... n_a_Nation