present agreeing to become security for the repayment of the loan. York was at first mentioned as the place of meeting for the commissioners, but the Scots, who were highly incensed against the earl of Strafford, for his procuring them to be declared traitors and rebels, déclined intrusting themselves in the midst of an army of which he had the command. Northallerton was next proposed, and rejected; at last, Rippon, a town about fifteen miles from York was fixed upon, where the commissioners of both nations arrived on the first of October.

After exchanging commissions, the English were for immediately proceeding to negotiate, but the Scots, previously to entering upon any discussion, insisted upon Traquair being removed as one of the incendiaries, who, by his misrepresentations to the king and his council, had incensed them against his own countrymen, nor would they consent to the other assistants acting with the commissioners, as they were not named in his majesty's commission. The English noblemen represented their ignorance of the Scottish constitution, and the necessity of persons who were acquainted with it being present. The Scots, however, still insisted, and the matter was referred to the king, who agreed that the assistants should not take any public share in the business, but only be advised with privately, which was, he said, the purpose for which they had been originally nominated. While waiting for his majesty's answer, the English commissioners, in their private interviews, reproached the Scots for their scrupulous caution, and they retorted, by accusing their tardy motions, and their failure in fulfilling the promises on which they had depended. The noblemen, astonished at the charge, denied its justice, when lord Saville's letter was produced, and the forgery detected; yet, so well had it been executed, that when the nobles whose names were attached to it, saw the fictitious signatures, they confessed they were so like their handwriting, that but for the consciousness of never having seen such a paper, they durst scarcely have affirmed that they were not their own subscriptions. This explanation removed the dis.ance and coldness which had subsisted between the parties,

who, from this time appear to have had a secret understanding with each other, and to have acted in concert.

*

Upon resuming the conference, a cessation of arms was proposed, to which the Scots professed their readiness to accede, but as the districts in which they were stationed had been impoverished, and his majesty had forbid their advancing, neither could they return home with safety, without a treaty were concluded on a firm basis, provision for the daily subsistence of their army became a necessary preliminary, as without some security for this, a truce would be to them more ruinous than a war. The English commissioners allowed the justice of the claim, and desired the others to specify the amount. The Scots demanded forty thousand pounds a month, which was immediately forwarded to the king and council of peers. The council was divided in opinion; lord Herbert strenuously advised the king to fortify York, which would obstruct the progress of the Scots from advancing. Princes, he observed, had sometimes bought a peace from their subjects, but to pay at such a rate, merely for treating, which might, or might not be productive of any beneficial result, was a thing never before heard of; to purchase liberty to treat from rebels, by supporting their army with the money which should pay his own, would be disgraceful; if they were sincere, let his majesty's commissioners propose, that the armies on both sides be disbanded, all things else remaining as they were till a treaty was concluded, but let the money be kept to pay the king's troops, or to raise re-enforcements, if necessary. By the others, the sum only was objected to, and eight hundred pounds per diem, to be paid weekly, was proposed, and accepted, what provisions or necessaries were wanted for the army, were, at the same time, allowed to be imported from Scotland, duty free, and proper persons nominated on each side, to regulate the price of what was procured in the occupied counties. The Scots agreed to be content with this maintenance, and neither molest papists, prelates, nor their adherents.

VOL. 11.

* Clarendon, vol. i. p. 152. Burnet, vol. i. p. 35.

Rushworth, pp. 1294, 1310.

4 c

Under this arrangement the commissioners proceeded, but nearly the whole month of October was consumed in discussing preliminaries, and when the day appointed for the meeting of the English parliament drew near, nothing was concluded. The English nobles, who hated Strafford and Laud scarcely less than the Scots did, and who observed the advantages the latter had reaped from the distresses of the king, hoped to obtain the removal of these ministers, and redress of their country's grievances, by increasing, rather than diminishing his difficulties; for in their intercourse with the Scots, they had imbibed all their distrust of the king's ever doing any thing voluntarily to sooth the feelings, or alleviate the sufferings of his subjects; they were not therefore anxious for the removal of the army, their desire to get rid of the despotism of their government, overcoming the disgrace of allowing a foreign force to pollute their soil. They requested the king to allow the treaty to be transferred from Rippon to London; the Scots to remain in England till it were concluded. The king hesitated; untaught by the example of the more wary committee, who would not treat in York, where only a few of their enemies could have influence, he at last yielded, to continue the discussion in a place filled with malecontents, and where the opposite party had numerous, powerful, and zealous friends.

Had the king, instead of granting this request, declared his determination to assemble no parliament till the country was evacuated, and promised, after the retreat of the Scots to their own homes, that he would then summon one, and refer the treaty to their consideration, he would in all likelihood have either forced the invaders to withdraw of their own accord, or distracted their measures, and raised such a powerful reaction among the inhabitants of the northern counties, as would even yet have enabled him to negotiate with his subjects upon equal terms but by consenting to the removal of the treaty, and the continuance of the Scots in arms, he gave up every advantage he possessed, and delivered himself hand-bound into the power of parliament.

The Scots, in agreeing to the transfer, relaxed nothing in their demands; but to prevent mistake on the most material

point-the means of keeping their army together till they had obtained their desires-they procured, from the English commissioners, the ratification of a truce, upon as favourable terms as they could have dictated, after the most decisive engagement. It was signed the 26th of October, from which time all acts of hostility by sea and land were to cease; during the treaty, both parties to retain what they then possessed; all estates situate in Northumberland and the bishopric, to be liable, without exception, for the payment of the Scottish subsistence-money, although their owners reside in his majesty's forts beyond the Tees; none of the king's forces, upon either side of the river, to obstruct the contribution, or to take any provision, except what the inhabitants bring voluntarily to them; and any restraint of corn, cattle, or forage, made by the Scots for their better maintenance, to be considered no breach. The eight hundred pounds a day to be only raised out of the counties of Northumberland, the bishopric, town of Newcastle, Cumberland, and Westmoreland. The non-payment to be no breach, but in case of failure, the Scots shall have power to raise the sum, with allowance for the charges of driving, to be set by the commissioners of the forage. No recruits to be brought into either army, and no new fortifications erected while the cessation continues. Thus ended a rash, ill planned, ill conducted campaign, entered into by the king, without the means of supporting one army, and finished by a treaty obliging him to support two.

The Scots were highly delighted with the negotiation, being transferred to London, not only relying upon the good offices of the ablest men in parliament, with whom they were in friendly alliance, but looking forward, with joyful anticipation, to the triumph of presbytery, the establishment of which in England they now considered themselves as especially called upon, by the leadings of God's providence, to attempt. They therefore appointed three of their most eminent divines, besides Henderson, to accompany their commissioners as chaplains, and to combat the prevailing errors of the times. Mr. Robert Baillie was destined to assail the doctrines of Arminius, Mr. George Gillespie to attack the rites and ceremonies of the hierarchy, and Mr. Robert Blair to wrestle

with the Independents. The ministers, who had already distinguished themselves in these various controversies, cheerfully accepted the tasks allotted them, and, along with the commissioners, set out for London, to reach the capital in time to be present at the meeting of parliament. *

The ministers were highly gratified with their journey, but they seem to have grudged the expense; they rode upon little nags, each attended by his servant. "We were by the way great expenses," says Mr. Baillie in a letter to his wife; "their inns are all like palaces; no marvel, they extortion their guests; for three meals, coarse enough, we would pay, together with our horses, sixteen or seventeen pounds Sterling-some three dishes of crevishes, [cray-fish,] like little partans, forty-two shillings Sterling."-Baillie, vol. i. p. 216. Rushworth, p. 1506. Clarendon, vol. i. p. 160. Strafford's Letters.