Lauderdale, who at the Restoration had supported the policy of separation, was now eager on the side of Union. No Parliament had met in Scotland since 1663. It would be necessary to summon the Estates together if the Union was to be discussed; and Lauderdale coveted the office of Lord High Commissioner. A Parliament was, therefore, summoned. It met at Edinburgh in October 1669. Lauderdale was Commissioner. A letter from the king was read, in which the Union was recommended to the favourable consideration of the Estates; and his Majesty’s servants proposed that an answer should at once be returned, announcing that the Parliament of Scotland was in favour of the Union. Some opposition was offered by Sir George Gordon of Haddo, then member for Aberdeenshire, and afterwards first Earl of Aberdeen, and by Sir George Mackenzie of Rosehaugh, who a few years later became Lord Advocate; but, in the end, a letter was despatched in which the Estates approved of the Union, and left it to the king to name commissioners to treat upon the subject. The Parliament of England took the same view; and in September 1670, the commissioners met in London.[101] Five questions were submitted to them: the preserving entire to both kingdoms of their laws, civil and ecclesiastical; the uniting of the two kingdoms into one monarchy; the reducing of both parliaments to one; the regulation of trade; and the best means of preserving the conditions of the Union. The subject of trade, the most important of all, was never reached; for, before very long, the treaty broke down on the question of the representation of Scotland in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The Scottish commissioners proposed that all the members of the Scottish Estates should be members of the Parliament. To this the English commissioners could not agree; and the proceedings came to an abrupt conclusion. During these negotiations the Scotsmen had not been on very good terms with each other. Lauderdale and Tweeddale quarrelled; and Sir George Mackenzie says that the Lord Chancellor, at dinner one day, abused two of the commissioners, Sir Archibald Primrose, father of the first Earl of Rosebery, and Sir John Nisbet, then Lord Advocate, for walking on foot when they had a handsome allowance for expenses, and called them “damned lawyers.” They were heard to express their resentment at this; whereupon Lauderdale, who bore them a grudge as supporters of Tweeddale, told them he would accuse them to the king of trying to frustrate the Union by causing bad feeling among the commissioners. “And thus,” says Mackenzie, “in place of uniting the nations, these wise commissioners disunited themselves, and returned to Scotland as men from a rout.”