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For Diana, read Mary Stuart

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From: The Spectator
Date: 19970906
Author:West, Richard

Richard West on how the Princess's death could add to Scottish passions beyond the referendum

THE PROUDEST achievement of Daniel Defoe was helping to get the Scots to abolish their parliament and join in a union with England. He went up to Edinburgh in 1706 as an agent of the secret service, as it was called, a pamphleteer and dispenser of bribes to the politicians and ministers of religion. 'I have my spies and my pensioners in every place,' he boasted to Robert Harley, the Secretary of State, `and I confess 'tis the easiest thing in the world to hire people here to betray their friends.' ...

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