cities, especially Edinburgh, the chief city of that kingdom, with the plague of pestilence so fearfully, that there is no living there, nor any commerce, trade, nor exchange of money, which increases our difficulties to maintain a war; and a parliament is indicted by Montrose, to establish all these iniquities by a law.

In this our extremity, we were forced to have our recourse to our armies in England and Ireland, to crave their aid; and for that end I am sent hither to the honourable houses of parliament, to represent to them and this honourable meeting the necessity of calling our army, for the relief and safety of their native country, and that the party who was nearest them, under the conduct of Lieutenant-General David Lesley, might with all possible speed march into Scotland, to whom the committee did earnestly write for that effect: This was the readiest remedy which did fall within the compass of their present consideration; they desire, and are confident, to find the honourable houses approbation thereof, there being no hope of assistance from our army in Ireland.

Their next desire to the honourable houses is, that the wars in Scotland, against these bloody rebels, may be carried on by the joint counsels and assistance of both kingdoms, against the common enemies of both nations, and the cause wherein we are so deeply engaged, the war and our enemies being still the same, and the place of our war only changed; and, if the King or his forces break into Scotland, that proportionable forces from the parliament may closely follow them.

No man hath conscience or honesty, but he will remember the solema league and covenant, the treaty, and the declarations of both kingdoms, which are the strongest bonds betwixt God and man, and betwixt man and man, and nation and nation, before the world: No man hath true zeal to religion, that will shrink for such adversity and opposition, as hath been ordinary in the like work, and hath been obvious to us since our first undertaking, but hath been always overcome by the assistance of God; no man that hath prudence, who will hope for a powerful and prosperous war, or any firm or true peace, but in the conjunction of both kingdoms.

How great then would the sin and shame be, if either nation, against so manifold obligations whereby we stand obliged before God and the world, should desert the other in this cause?

How great advantage would it be to our common enemy, who has still followed that Machiavilian maxim, Divide et impera, to get us divided? And the greatest favour either nation could expect in the end is, but to be the last that shall be devoured?

As in the time of your greatest distress and lowest ebb, when Scotland enjoyed peace and quietness, they did from their sympathy of your sufferings forsake their own peace for your aid, apprehending also your ruin and servitude might be a forerunner of theirs; so if this kingdom shall withdraw, or be wanting in their assistance to us, in the day of our distress, brought upon us for embarking with them, and we perish in it; will it not usher in and hasten upon you that same ruin, intended from the beginning by our common enemy? And, if the godly and honest party in that kingdom perish, for want of assistance, you may certainly

expect as great an army from thence for your destruction, as came formerly for your preservation; which God forbid.

But from our brethren of England, and the honourable houses of parliament, who are the true pilots, set at the helm in so great a storm, we expect better and greater things; that their whole authority, power, and means will in this exigent be aiding to us: And it is the firm resolution of that kingdom, by God's grace, never to forsake this, but, against all opposition, with courage and constancy to live and die with you in this cause; and although all the world should forsake us, so long as there is one drop of blood in our veins, we resolve never to relinquish this work, but to put our confidence in the justness of the cause, and in the invincible power of God, whose cause it is, till it please him by a prosperous war, or happy peace, which we still desire may by all good means be sought after, to put an end to our troubles, trusting he will strengthen us, and send deliverance to his people: But, if either nation draw back their hand, or deal treacherously in it, their judgment and doom will be harder than I desire to pro

nounce.

THE KING'S CABINET OPENED:

OR,

CERTAIN PACQUETS OF SECRET LETTERS AND PAPERS,

Written with the King's own band, and taken in his cabinet at Nasby Field, June 14, 1645, by victorious Sir Thomas Fairfax; wherein are many mysteries of state, tending to the justification of that cause, for which Sir Thomas Fairfax joined battle that memorable day, clearly laid open; together with some annotations thereupon.

Published by special Order of the Parliament.

London, printed for Robert Bostock, dwelling in St. Paul's Churchyard, at the Sign of the King's-head, 1645. Quarto, containing seventy-two pages.

It were a great sin against the mercies of God, to conceal those evidences of truth, which he so graciously, and almost miraculously, by surprisal of these papers, hath put into our hands; nor dare we smother this light under a bushel, but freely hold it out to our seduced brethren, for so, in the spirit of meekness, labouring to reclaim them, we still speak, that they may see their errors, and return into the right way: For those that wilfully deviate, and make it their profession to oppose the truth, we think it below us, to revile them

with opprobrious language, remembering the Apostle St. Jude, and that example which he gives us in his epistle. They may see here in his private letters, what affection the King bears to his people, what language and titles he bestows upon his great council; which we return not again, but consider with sorrow that it comes from a prince seduced out of his proper sphere; one that has left that seat, in which he ought, and hath bound himself to sit, to sit (as the Psalmist speaks) in the chair of the scornful;' and to the ruin, almost, of three kingdoms, hath walked in the counsels of the ungodly;' and though in our tenents we annex no infallibility to the seat of a King in parliament, as the Romanists do to the papal chair, since all men are subject to error, yet we dare boldly say, that no English King did ever, from that place, speak destruction to his people, but safety and honour; nor any that abhorred that seat and council, but did the contrary. Therefore, reader, to come now to the present business of these letters; thou art either a friend or enemy to our cause. If thou art well affected to that cause of liberty and religion, which the two parliaments of England and Scotland now maintain against a combination of all the papists in Europe almost, especially the bloody tygers of Ireland, and some of the prelatical and court faction in England; thou wilt be abundantly satisfied with these letters, here printed, and take notice therefrom, how the court has been cajolled, that is the new authentick word now amongst our cabalistical adversaries, by the papists, and we, the more believing sort of protestants, by the court. If thou art an enemy to parliaments, and reformation, and made wilful in thy enmity, beyond the help of miracles, or such revelations as these are, then it is to be expected that thou wilt either deny these papers to have been written by the King's own hand, or else that we make just constructions and inferences out of them: Or, lastly, thou wilt deny, though they be the King's own, and bear such a sense as we understand them in, yet that they are blameable, or unjustifiable against such rebels as we are. As to the first, know that the parliament was never yet guilty of such forgery; the King yet in all the letters of his, which have been hitherto intercepted, never objected any such thing, and we dare appeal to his own conscience now, knowing that he cannot disavow either his own hand-writing, or the matters themselves here written. All the cyphers, letters, all circumstances of time, and fact, and the very hand by which they are signed, so generally known, and now exposed to the view of all, will aver for us, that no such forgery could be possible. As to our comments and annotations, if there be not perspicuity and modesty in them, there is no common justice nor place for credit left amongst mankind; but indeed, most of the main circumstances want no illustration at all to the most vulgar capacities; and therefore we affirm nothing necessary to be believed, but what the printed papers will themselves utter in their own language; and yet, for that which is not so clearly warranted here, we have other papers for their warrant, were they not too numerous, and vast, and too much intermixed with other matter of no pertinence for publication at this time. Touching the last objec

tion, if thou art a perfect malignant, and dost not stick to deny, that there is any thing in these letters unbeseeming a prince, who professes himself a defender of the true faith, a tender father of his country, and has been so sanctimoniously engaged with frequent, special vows of affection, candour, sincerity, and constancy, to his particular protestant subjects of England and Scotland: Then know, that thou art scarce worthy of any reply, or satisfaction in this point. Our cause is now the same as it was when the King first took up arms, and as it was when the King made most of these oaths and professions. Our three propositions concerning the abolition of episcopacy, the settling the militia of the three kingdoms in good hands, by advice of parliament, the vindication of the Irish rebels, being all our main demands at the treaty in February last, and no other than the propositions sent in June 1642 before any stroke struck, will bear us witness, that we have rather straitened, than enlarged our complaints. But were our cause altered, as it is not; or were we worse rebels, than formerly, as none can affirm which take notice of our late sufferings, and our strange patience even now after the discovery of these papers, and our late extraordinary success in the field; yet still this clandestine proceeding against us here, and condemning all that are in any degree protestants at Oxford, as also granting a toleration of idolatry to papists, and indemnity to the murtherous Irish, in a close trading way, for mere particular advantage, cannot be defended by any, but by the falsest of men, papists; or the falsest of papists, jesuits. Hitherto the English have had commission to chastise the Irish, the Irish have had the like to chastise the English, both have spilt each others blood, by the King's warrant; yet as both have been in part owned, so both have been in part disowned, and the King himself has not appeared with an open face in the business. But now by God's good providence the traverse curtain is drawn, and the King writing to Ormond, and the Queen, what they must not disclose, is presented upon the stage. God grant the drawing of this curtain may be as fatal to popery, and all antichristian heresy here now, as the rending of the veil was to the Jewish ceremonies in Judea, at the expiration of our Saviour.

15.

Dear Heart,

Oxford, January 9.

SINCE my last, which was by Talbot, the Scots commissioners have sent to desire me to send a commission to the general assembly in Edinburgh, which I am resolved not to do; but, to the end of making some use of this occasion, by sending an honest man to London, and that I may have the more time for the making a handsome negative, I have demanded a passport for Philip Warwick, by whom to return my answer. I forgot in my former to tell thee, that Lenthall the speaker brags, That Cardinal Mazarine keeps a strict intelligence with him; though I will not swear that Lenthall says true, I am sure it is fit for thee to know. As for Sabran, I am confident, that either he, or bis nstructions, are not right for him who is eternally thine.

Even now I am advertised from London, that there are three or four lords, and eight commons, besides four Scotch commissioners, appointed to treat, and they have named Uxbridge for the place, though not yet the particular persons. I am likewise newly advertised, that General Goring prospers well where he is, and since Monday last hath taken eighty of the rebels horse; and, upon his advance, they have quitted Peterfield and Coudry.

P. S. The settling of religion, and the militia, are the first to be treated on; and be confident, that I will neither quit episccpacy, nor that sword which God hath given into my hands.

Copy to my wife, Jan. 9, 1644, by P. A.

This is a true copy examined by Edmund Prideaux.

Dear Heart,

31.

Oxford, Sunday, March 30,

SINCE my last, which was but three days ago, there are no alterations happened of moment, preparations, rather than actions, being yet our chiefest business, in which we hope, that we proceed faster than the rebels, whose levies both of men and money, for certain, go on very slowly; and I believe they are much weaker than is thought, even here at Oxford. For instance: a very honest servant of mine, and no fool, shewed me a proposition from one of the most considerable London rebels, who will not let his name be known until he hath hope, that his proposition will take effect: It is this: that, since the treaty is so broken off, that neither the rebels nor I can resume it, without, at least, a seeming total yielding to the other, the treaty shall be renewed upon thy motion, with a pre-assurance, that the rebels will submit to reason. The answer, that I permitted my servant to give, was, That thou art the much fittest person to be the means of so happy and glorious a work, as is the peace of this kingdom; but that upon no terms thy name was to be profaned; therefore he was to be satisfied of the rebels willingness to yield to reason, before he would consent that any such intimation should be made to thee, and particularly, concerning religion and the militia, that nothing must be insisted upon but according to my former offers. This, I believe, will come to nothing, yet I cannot but advertise thee of any thing that comes to my knowledge of this consequence.

I must again tell thee, that most assuredly France will be the best way for transportation of the Duke of Lorrain's army, there being divers fit and safe places of landing for them upon the western coasts, besides the ports under my obedience, as Shelsey near Chichester, and others, of which I will advertise thee when the time comes.

By my next, I think to tell thee when I shall march into the field, for which money is now his greatest want, I need say no more, who is eternally thine.

VOL. V.

18.

31.

To my wife, March 30, 1645, by Petit.

This is a true copy examined by Edmund Prideaux.

K k