Liberty Minute September 8 2014

?What force or guile could not subdue, through many warlike ages, is wrought now by a coward few, for a hireling traitor's wages.... We're bought and sold for English gold ? such a parcel of rogues in a nation!?

Scottish patriot poet Robert Burns penned those lines of lamentation in memory of the betrayal of his country's independence through the Act of Union in 1707. The Scots had famously won their independence at Bannockburn in 1314. The April 1320 Declaration of Abroath made the preservation of their nation's independence the defining task of Scottish kings.

As Burns observed, the country lost its independence through subversion, rather than military conquest. This campaign was not completed until the Battle of Culloden in 1746, when Royalist forces annihilated the refractory Scottish Highlanders.

On September 18, however, Scotland might reclaim its independence through a national referendum. This prospect has caused a seizure of panic in the British establishment, which has been pleading with foreign powers ? from Washington to Moscow and Beijing ? to pressure the Scots into rejecting independence.

Ever since the Tower of Babel, consolidation of political power has facilitated evil designs. Devolution, decentralization, and succession are valuable checks on such malign ambitions ? whether in Great Britain or the USA.

Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.