208 II. CHAPTER IV. EFFECT OF THE KING'S REJECTION OF THE PRO- THE SCOTS. - RIANS OVER THE INDEPENDENTS. BOOK THE Commissioners of parliament arrived in London with the king's answer on the tenth of August, which, as not being comformable to the the king's instructions they had received, was not permitted the proposi- to be read to the house of commons by their 1646. Effects of rejection of tions. Triumph of the inde pendents. clerk a The refusal thus conveyed from the captive monarch had a memorable effect. When the thanks of the house of commons were voted to the commissioners for the way in which they had conducted themselves, one of the independent a Journals, Aug. 12. party asked, Nay, are not our thanks rather due to the king, who has rejected our offers b? CHAP. IV. 1646. Extremi them. The twelfth of August was the day of a stormy debate. It was moved, that no more addresses should be made to the king, that his person should gested by be demanded, and that Fairfax's army should march into the north to inforce the application c. "We know not at what hour," says Baillie, in his letters written to the moment", "they will close their doors, and declare the king fallen from his throne." by The Scots' commissioners in London had fore- Remedies proposed seen this crisis; and they exerted themselves to the avert its effects. Argyle, Loudon and Dumferline Scots. had come up with the commissioners of the parliament. A paper was put in on the part of Scotland the same day that they made their report, expressing the entire willingness of the government there, to surrender the garrisons they held in England, and to withdraw their army; desiring at the same time that reasonable satisfaction might be given for the arrears due to them, and that a competent portion of these arrears might be paid them previously to disbanding. It was therefore resolved by the house of lords, Burnet, Memoirs of Hamilton, p. 283. • Ibid. Baillie, Vol. II, p. 226. Hollis says, § 58, the movers of these questions were Haselrig, Marten, and sir Henry Mildmay. d Vol. II, p. 225. Journals of Lords, Aug. 12. VOL. II. e Guthry, p. 227. BOOK 1646. Reaction of the moderate party ment. that some way should be devised to express their thankfulness to the Scots for their affection and fair carriage in the business; and a conference was proposed with the commons for that end 5. Thus the immediate evil was prevented. The presbyterians, as we have seen, were bent with singular earnestness upon the king's being in parlia- prevailed on to accept the propositions; and they felt terrified by anticipation at the consequences that might result from a refusal. The event however turned out in many respects different from what had been apprehended. The triumphant tone and the vehemence of a powerful party in the house of commons, operated in some measure in favour of Charles. The public was not prepared for the extremity of throwing off the king, and declaring him an enemy. They desired to see a further experiment tried; they were unwilling that a nation's welfare should be committed to untried ways and a voyage unexplored; and they revolted at the idea of an abrupt and open breach with the Scots, who had been engaged with them in the same cause, and had fought the same battle. Two measures were judged now to be specially the retreat of the Scottish army into necessary, their own country, and the surrender that was required from them of the person of the king into the power of the parliament. These were steps Measures immedi ately necessary. IV. 1646. Presbyte rians best qualified to accomplish them. that all parties implicated in the war against CHAP. Charles, considered as urgent; and the presbyterians, from the good understanding which had at all times subsisted between them and the Scots, were particularly qualified to negociate these points successfully. From these causes some members of the house of commons fell off at this time from the independents to the presbyterians; and, as new members had in several instances been sent up from places which had most zealously adhered to the king, these conceived they could not for the present do better service to their master, than by reinforcing with their numbers the votes of the presbyterians. dred thou pounds army. On the nineteenth of May, when the indepen- One hundents had carried the vote, that this kingdom had sand no further use for the Scots' army continuing voted to within the territory of England, they added two the Scots' further propositions; first, that one hundred thousand pounds should be paid for the use of this army, fifty thousand upon the delivery of the garrisons, and the remaining fifty when they should have retreated into the borders of Scotland: to which they subjoined, secondly, a desire, that the Scots' commissioners would send in to the house of commons an account of the arrears of their army, in which case the amount that was found due to them should be discharged according to treaty h. h Journals. BOOK 1646. Amend presbyte rians. Demands The presbyterians in parliament, assisted by Loudon and Argyle, who had come to London for this purpose, now undertook to conduct the ment by the affair to an efficacious conclusion. On the fourteenth of August they proposed and carried a resolution that one hundred thousand pounds should be forthwith paid to the Scots upon their marching. At the same time they demanded from the Scots' commissioners, as their opponents had done before, an account of the arrears due. Four of the Scots. days after, this account was rendered, by which the Scots represented their gross demand as about two millions sterling, this amount being reduced, according to the Scots, by an in part payment of seven hundred thousand pounds, and according to the English, of fourteen hundred. The commissioners however expressed their willingness, in consideration of the necessities of the kingdom, and the state of Ireland, to accept the sum of five hundred thousand pounds, two hundred in immediate payment, and the remainder within a year, in liquidation of their entire demands *. This statement formed the basis of a question, which the two great parties in the house of upon commons respectively tried their strength. Two days after its being produced, a long and earnest debate took place on the subject, the issue of which was that it was voted, without a division, that two hundred thousand pounds should be Two hundred thousand pounds voted. |