II. BOOK restrain the Scots to the counties which they noccupied beyond the Tees. At the request of the 1640. English commissioners, whose attendance was rered to Lon- quisite in parliament, the treaty was transferred to don. London by an error which the king was never Transfer afterwards able to retrieve 105. 106 May, 75. Clarend. i. 140-54. Rushw. 1236. 1310. THE HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. BOOK III. Discontent of the English, and transactions of their long Parliament.-Negociations and Treaty with the Scots concluded.-King's journey to Scotland. Accommodation there-Irish massacre-Secret policy of the King, and of the English Parliament,` explained from the History of Scotland.—Origin of the civil wars.-Mediation of the Scots-rejected.Their accession to the English Parliament. — Solemn League and Covenant. L BOOK III. 1640. Discontents OYALTY, even in the extreme, is esteemed by some an innate principle so congenial to human nature, and by others regarded as such an in England. inveterate prejudice, that the sudden transition of a people from submission to resistance, may excite surprise. But the Scots were seldom distinguished for loyalty; and in England, where the acces III. 1640. BOOK Sion of the Stuarts was a recent event, a foreign race had struck no permanent root in the soil; nor had acquired that general, submissive attachment, which an hereditary succession, long established, never fails to inspire. Since the expulsion of the Baliols, the civil wars of Scotland were invariably a contest with the sovereign, to circumscribe, yet not entirely to extirpate monarchy; but in England they sprang from the ambition of rival families, and from the claims of different competitors for the crown. But the character of the people had now sustained a material change, The accumulated abuses of two reigns demanded an extensive, and prompt reform. The grievances of the two kingdoms were nearly similar; and a similar remedy was suggested by the successful example of the Scots. The nation expected redress from a parliament summoned in consequence of the king's necessities; the parliament depended for its duration, on the friendship and co-operation of the Scottish army; and the patience with which the English acquiesced in a dis- ' graceful invasion, affords the strongest proof of the disgust which an arbitrary reign had excited. Long parliament. Nov. 3. In requiring assistance to expel the rebels, an expression which he endeavoured afterwards to soften and extenuate, Charles, at the opening of the parliament, appears to have formed a very inadequate estimate of his own situation, and of the III. 1640. Impeach spirit of the times. The uniform policy of his BOOK whole reign to divide the nation; to discredit and suppress the religious, who were adverse to the discipline or the rites of the church, and the political puritans, who were attached to the principles of civil liberty, had united and instilled into those parties, an incurable animosity against his government. The presbyterians, a numerous and formidable party, coalesced with the majority of a discontented nation; and on the election of the commons, the most pious and patriotic members were returned to parliament. The first care that ingrossed their attention, was an examination of grievances; the result was an immediate impeachment of Strafford. That unfortunate statesman, who had hastened to parliament to impeach the meat of popular leaders of a correspondence with the enemy, was not less obnoxious to the English from his early desertion of the popular cause, than to the Scots, from his active instigation of the war. As lord lieutenant of Ireland, he had anticipated the king in proclaiming them traitors; had extorted by an arbitrary oath, a disavowal of the account from their countrymen in Ulster; had procured large subsidies from the Irish parliament, and collected an army that menaced their coasts and distracted their operations. His aversion to the late treaty had been indulged so violently, or was so vehemently resented, that the Scots refused to transfer the negociations to York, where Strafford. BOOK Strafford, their implacable enemy, enjoyed the su preme command 1. III. 1640. Reception of the Scot Their commissioners, Rothes, Loudon, Johntish com ston, and others, were sent to London to conclude missioners. the treaty, and were received with the most flat com tering attention and respect. A house was ap propriated in the city for their residence, and the adjacent church of St. Antholin's was assigned for their devotions. They were attended by Henderson and other eminent divines; and from dawn till the sabbath was concluded, their chapel was crowded and surrounded with multitudes of all ranks, whom the novelty of presbyterian worship had attracted. The conflux and insatiate resort of the people, who clung to the windows, when excluded from the doors, to inhale the sanctified tone, and provincial accents of a barbarous preacher, are justly ascribed to the fanatical spirit, which had begun to predominate, and which rendered them apt recipients for the fumes of devotion. Their propensity to the presbyterian worship had suffered a long and severe restraint. The tide recurred with a violence that presaged some important change. Such is the intolerant genius of religion, that the Scots, though irreconcileable to the conformity which their monarch demanded, and arrayed in arms to oppose it, had aspired, in their turn, to a different conformity; the adaptation of I Rushworth, viii. p. 1293. iv. 494. v. 12. 17. Strafford's Letters, vol. ii. Clarendon, i. 175. Sanderson, 337. Clarendon, i. 189. Hume, ch. 54. Baillie, i. 212. |