580 



B R I T A I N. 



Negocia- 

 tion witli 

 the Scotch 

 commis- 

 sioners. 



August 8. 

 "Sept. 9. 



The king 

 visits Scot 

 'and. 



with regard to a farther loan, declaring, that though 

 they willingly trusted the parliament, they wished 

 for the continuance of their sitting as a security for 

 their repayment ; and on this pretence the bill for 

 continuance was voted and passed. 



Among the demands of the Scottish commission- 

 ers, there were two to which Charles felt most reluc- 

 tant to accede, the tacit confirmation of the late acts 

 of the Scottish parliament, including almost every 

 civil and religious demand ; and the punishment of in- 

 cendiaries, i. e. of such civil ministers and prelates as 

 were thought to have advised the king to hostilities 

 with the Scottish nation. The prosecution of incen- 

 diaries was at last referred to the English parliament, 

 and tacitly reserved to the king ; it being understood 

 that they were to be for ever excluded from his per- 

 son, and from offices of trust. Of 300.000/. which 

 the English parliament voted as a brotherly assistance 

 to the Scotch, and which the Scotch claimed as an 

 indemnification for their share of losses by the war, 

 a fourth part was advanced. Ecclesiastical confor- 

 mity was referred to the English official arrange- 

 ments, and to the Scottish parliament. The king 

 had already announced his intention of visiting Scot- 

 land once more ; a journey of which the commons 

 were afraid, as it would lead him directly through . 

 the heart of both armies. * As he refused to defer 

 hU departure, they ordered the arrears to be provi- 

 ded, and both armies to be withdrawn. 



A small committee of both houses attended the 

 king, in reality to act as observers of his conduct. 

 These were the Earl of Bedford, Lord Howard, Sir 

 Philip Stapleton, .Sir Wm. Armyne, Fiennes, and 

 Hambden. 



Amidst this variety of distracting affairs, the king 

 concluded the marriage of the Princess Mary with 

 William, Prince of Orange. The parliament assent- 

 ed to this measure with satisfaction. 



On the King's arrival in Scotland, he had the mor- 

 tifieation to find Montrose, and others of his friends, 

 imprisoned for that detected correspondence which 

 they had maintained with him during the treaty of 

 Rippon. Scotland now beheld, perhaps for the first 

 time, a parliament, whose deliberations, instead of 

 being limited as formerly to a single day, were pur- 

 sued for months without interruption in the presence 

 of the king. The lesser barons, hitherto restrained 

 to a single suffrage for each county, now assumed, 

 for the first time, each a separate and independent 

 vote. Since the detection of Montrose's treachery, 

 the parliament were more inclined than ever to ad- 

 here to t.-eir accusations against the incendiaries ; 

 with a patriotic desire also of rendering their govern- 

 ment independent of the English cabinet, they wish- 

 ed to possess influence in the nomination of ministers ; 

 a last sinew of his prerogative, of which Charles was 

 naturally tenacious. By mutual accommodation, the 

 number of incendiaries was reduced to five, both 

 plotters -f- and incendiaries were released from prison, 

 and their sentence was to be referred to the king. 



Charles, on his part, submitted to choose his minis- B 

 ters, with the approbation of the Scotch estates while " 

 they sat, and of his privy council, who themselves 

 were chosen with the approbation of the estates, when 

 the estates should be adjourned. He agreed to de- He tri 

 prive of their seats, four judges who had adhered to soften 

 his interests, and others were chosen more agreeable 

 to the ruling party. Several of the Covenanters were P romi 

 sworn into the privy council. The king bestowed 

 pensions and preferments on Henderson, Gillespie, 

 and other popular preachers, and practised every art 

 to soften his enemies. Argyle was created a mar- 

 quis, the Lords Loudon and Lindsay earls, and the 

 thle of the Earl of Leven was bestowed on Lesly. 

 The Earl of Lanerk continued Secretary, Roxburgh 

 Lord Privy Seal, and the Trtvsury was put tri com- 

 mission. Argyle was preferred by parliament as 

 candidate for the office of Chancellor ; but the king, 

 though he bestowed on him A new title, wished not 

 to aggrandiseso popular and powerful a nobleman with 

 new power. 



Argyle and Hamilton held, at this time, the prin- Argy 

 cipal ascendency in the Scottish parliament. The Hami 

 latter had entered the covenant as a spy from the deu01 

 king ; but, according to Clarendon, Montrose, in re- as 

 vealing the secrets of the Covenanters, imparted, that 

 Hamilton was as hearty in the covenanting interest 

 as Argyle. Montrose had already denounced both 

 Hamilton and Argyle, as traitors ; and had communi- 

 cated, there is little doubt, intelligence of the secret 

 correspondence of those noblemen with the parlia- 

 mentary leaders in England. Their guilt he offered 

 to assert and prove in parliament ; but rather advised, 

 that they should be assassinated, and undertook the 

 assassination himself. 



The plot for the arrestation of Hamilton and Ar- Plot 

 gyle, an event in Scottish history commonly deno- restii 

 minated the incident, has been frequently called sup- 

 posititious ; but that their arrest was intended by 

 the earls ot Crawford and Cochrane, axlmits of no 

 dispute. They were to have been conveyed, it was 

 said, under guard of Cochrane's regiment, stationed 

 near Leith, where a frigate was ready, in the roads, 

 to convey them off. The two noblemen, however, 

 fled to Kinncil, the seat of Hamilton's brother. The 

 king, who came next day to the Scottish parliament 

 with 500 men in arms, complained of the injurious 

 surmises excited by their flight. The leaders of the 

 English parliament understood this affair oi the in- 

 cident, to which so many historians who have record- 

 ed it have been blind. They knew, that Montrose 

 had betrayed their late correspondence with the Co- 

 venanters ; that Charles, wishing to revive obsolete 

 treasons, intended to impeach them, and bring them 

 to execution ; and that the seizure of Argyle and 

 Hamilton was the forerunner of his intentions. When 

 the news of the incident, therefore, reached England, 

 the commons applied immediately for a guard, and 

 obtained it from Essex, whom the king had left ge- 

 neral in the south. 



them 



* It was not without reason thatthe commons were jealous of the king's personal influence witli the armies, as an associa- 

 tion was discovered this year, (16410 headed by some principal officers, Piercey, Jermyn, Oneale, &c. whose object was to get 

 the army to petition (that is demand) a restitution of the power assumed by parliament. The king had countersigned a rougfc 

 draught of the intended petition. 



f The plotters were those concerned in Montrosc's late treachery to the covenant. 



