people, that hereafter your Majesty may reign as king, and inflict the due punishment on such as have so infinitely offended against your Majesty's sacred authority."

The Scottish leaders, if they knew what was passing in the King's mind, as there can be little doubt that they did, had every reason to make the breach irreparable. They were not likely to have much difficulty with their followers. Large bodies of men, when once they are set in motion, acquire a momentum of their own, and every scrap of news which reached them from England confirmed them in the belief that the King meditated an attack upon Scotland, whether his terms were accepted or not. It was known that Hamilton had purchased from Mar the command of Edinburgh Castle; and that it was only owing to the strict watch kept upon it by the citizens that it had not been provided with those warlike stores without which its garrison would be unable to stand a siege. It was known, too, that a trusty officer had been despatched to take charge of Dumbarton, that preparations had been made for holding Berwick and Carlisle in force, and for creating a magazine of military stores at Hull. There had also been widely circulated a forged speech, which the Duke of Lennox was said to have delivered in defence of his native country, in the English Privy Council, from which the inference was drawn that the English Council entertained designs hostile to Scotland.

As had usually happened in the course of these distractions, the Covenanters took the aggressive. On October 24, they appeared, in due legal form, before the Edinburgh Presbytery, to charge the pre

1 Hamilton to the King, Oct. 15. Hamilton Papers, 42.

CHARLES EXPECTS WAR.

IV.

171

1638.

Oct. 22.

tended Bishops with having overstepped the limits of CHAP. their powers, and even with acts of dishonesty and profligacy, and requested the Presbytery to refer their cases to the Assembly. As might have been expected, this request was at once complied with, and the accusation was ordered to be read publicly in all the churches of Edinburgh.1

The step thus given induced Charles to resort to threats. "You may take public notice," he wrote to Hamilton," and declare that, as their carriage hath forced me to take care to arm myself against any insolence that may be committed, so you may give assurance that my care of peace is such that all those preparations shall be useless, except they first break out with insolent actions." As for the threatened proceedings against the Bishops, it was never heard that one should be both judge and party.' The very legality of the constitution of the Assembly was at issue, and that was no matter to be determined by the Assembly itself. He was still ready to perform everything that he had promised, and was prepared to summon a new Assembly upon the amendment of all the faults and nullities of this.' 2

6

The Assembly, too, might well have asked whether Charles himself was not a party rather than a judge. It preferred action to recrimination. On November 21, it met in the Cathedral of Glasgow, the only one amongst the Scottish cathedrals which had been saved from destruction and decay by the affectionate reverence of the townsmen, and which had survived to witness the new birth of Presbytery. In spite of Hamilton's efforts to take the lead into his hands, the Assembly remained master of itself. The speech

1 Large Declaration, 209.

2 The King to Hamilton, Nov. 17. Burnet, 99.

Nov. 17.

The King

announces

that he is

preparing

for war.

CHAP.
IV

1638.

Nov. 21.

Nov. 22. Hamilton's report.

which he had prepared for the occasion remained unspoken.1 His demand that the question of the elections should be immediately taken up, was promptly refused. His proposal that the Bishops' Declinator should be read was received with contempt. The Assembly asserted its right to exist by proceeding to the choice of a Moderator.2 That Moderator was Alexander Henderson. The clerk was Johnston of Warriston.

The question being thus decided against him, Hamilton's only object was to put off the evil hour of dissolution as long as possible. The account which he gave the King was gloomy beyond measure. "Yesterday, the 21st," he wrote, " was the day appointed for the downsitting of the Assembly. Accordingly we met, and truly, sir, my soul was never sadder than to see such a sight; not one gown amongst the whole company, many swords but many more daggers-most of them having left their guns and pistols in their lodgings. The number of the pretended members are about 60; each one of these hath two, some three, some four assessors, who pretend not to have voice, but only are come to argue and assist the Commissioners; but the true reason is to make up a great and confused multitude, and I will add, a most ignorant one, for some Commissioners there are who can neither write nor read, the most part being totally void of learning, but resolved to follow the opinion of those few ministers who pretend to be learned, and those be the most rigid and seditious Puritans that live. What, then, can be expected but a total disobedience to authority, if not a present

1 Compare Burnet, 94, with Baillie, i. 124.

2 Answering to the Speaker in the English House of Commons.
3 This probably refers to some of the lay members of the Assembly.

HAMILTON'S DISSATISFACTION.

rebellion? Yet this is no more than that which your Majesty hath had just reason this long time to look for, which I would not so much apprehend if I did not find so great an inclination in the body of your Council to go along their way; for, believe me, sir, there is no Puritan minister of them all who would more willingly be freed of Episcopal governance than they would, whose fault it is that this unlucky business is come to this height.":

By general confession, Hamilton played well the part which he had undertaken. His attempt to get up a clerical movement against the lay elders failed entirely. On the 27th, the Assembly declared itself duly constituted, and set aside three scantily signed petitions against the lay elders as unworthy of notice.

173

СНАР.

IV.

1638.

Nov. 22.

His conAssembly.

duct in the

Nov 27.

The Assem

bly consti

tuted.

account of

Hamilton knew that the breach could not be Hamilton's averted much longer. "So unfortunate have I been the Assemin this unlucky country," he wrote to the King, "that bly. though I did prefer your service before all worldly considerations yet all hath been to small purpose; for I have missed my end in not being able to make your Majesty so considerable a party as will be able to curb the insolency of this rebellious nation without assistance from England, and greater charge to your Majesty than this miserable country is worth." In his annoyance at the approach of that open quarrel in which he expected to be the first to suffer, he dealt his blows impartially around. Everyone, excepting himself and the King, appeared to have been in His attack fault. The Bishops had done things which were not Bishops. justifiable by the laws.' 'Their pride was great, but their folly was greater.' Some of them were not ' of the best lives." Others were inclined to simony.' He then, with characteristic confidence in schemes

1 Hamilton to the King, Nov. 22. Hamilton Papers, 59.

on, the

CHAP.

IV.

1638.

Nov. 27.

His advice

on the con

duct of the

war.

Nov. 28. The Bishops'

presented.

Question between Hamilton and the

as yet untried, assured the King that success would be easily secured. By blockading the seaports he would ruin the commerce of the country. So far he was of one mind with Wentworth. But he believed, what Wentworth did not believe, that it was still possible to raise a force in Scotland to fight on Charles's side. Huntly, he argued, should be named as the King's Lieutenant in the North. Traquair or Roxburgh should hold the same authority in the South. There should be a Royal Commissioner—no doubt, himself-at the head of both. It would be difficult to carry arms and ammunition into Edinburgh Castle, but it would be easy to secure Dumbarton by sending soldiers from Ireland. "I have now only one suit to your Majesty," he ended by saying, "that if my sons live, they may be bred in England, and made happy by service in the Court; and if they prove not loyal to the Crown, my curse be on them. I wish my daughters be never married in Scotland." 1

On the 28th, the day after this letter was written, the crisis arrived. The Bishops' Declinator was preDeclinator sented. Henderson put it to the vote whether the Assembly was a competent judge of their cause, notwithstanding their assertion to the contrary. Before the answer was given, Hamilton rose. He read the King's offer, that all their grievances should be Assembly. abolished, and that the Bishops should be responsible to future Assemblies. But he refused to acknowledge the legality of the Assembly before him. The only Assembly which he would acknowledge was one elected by ministers alone, and composed of ministers alone. In a long speech Henderson ascribed to the King very large powers indeed, even in ecclesiastical matters. The constitutional point raised by Hamilton

1 Hamilton to the King, Nov. 27. Hardw. St. P.,

ii. 113.