Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 4.djvu/158

501 train of artillery. Of this army, Alexander Leslie was again appointed commander-in-chief; lord Almond, brother to the earl of Livingston, lieutenant-general; W. Baillie, of the Lamington family, major-general; colonel A. Hamilton, general of artillery, colonel John Leslie, quarter-master-general; and A. Gibson, younger of Durie, commissary general. The nobles in general had the rank of colonel, with the assistance of veteran officers as lieutenant-colonels. Montrose, though his disaffection to the cause was now no secret, had still as formerly, two regiments, one of horse and another of foot. All these appointments were made in the month of April, 1640, but excepting some smaller bodies for suppressing local risings in the north, the army did not begin to assemble till the middle of July, and it was not till the end of that month that it was marched to Chouseley wood, about four miles to the west of Dunse, and within six of the border.

The Scots had from the beginning of these troubles determined to carry the war, should war become inevitable, into England. This was sound policy; but as they did not wish to make war upon the English people, who were suffering equally with themselves, and were making the most praiseworthy exertions to limit the royal prerogative, it required no ordinary degree of prudence to carry it into execution. The leaders of the covenant, however, possessed powers fully adequate for the occasion. Notwithstanding of their warlike preparations, which were upon a scale equal to the magnitude of the enterprise, they continued to preserve the most perfect decorum, both of language and manner, and they sent before the army two printed papers, the one entitled "Six considerations, manifesting the lawfulness of their expedition into England," the other "The intentions of the army of the kingdom of Scotland declared to their brethren of England." In these papers, which for cogency of argument and elegance of composition may safely be compared with any similar productions of any age, they set forth in strong but temperate language the nature, the number, and the aggravations of their grievances. Their representations coming in the proper time, had the most powerful effect. If there was yet, at the time the parliament was convened, in a majority of the people, some tenderness towards the power of the monarch and the dignity of the prelates, every thing of the kind was now gone. The dissolution of a parliament, which for twelve years had been so impatiently expected and so firmly depended on, for at least a partial redress of grievances, and the innumerable oppressions that had been crowded into the short space between that dissolution and this appearance, on the part of the Scots, together with the exorbitances of the convocation, that, contrary to all former precedent, had been allowed to sit, though the parliament was dissolved, had so wrought upon the minds of men, that the threatenings these remonstrances breathed against prelates were grateful to the English nation, and the sharp expressions against the form and discipline of the established church gave no offence save to the few who composed the court faction. So completely did these declarations meet the general feeling, that the Scots were expected with impatience, and every accident that retarded their march was regarded as hurtful to the interests of the public. The northern counties, which lay immediately exposed to the invasion, absolutely refused to lend money to pay troops, or to furnish horses to mount the musqueteers, and the trainbands would not stir a foot without pay.

Anxious to make good their professions, the Scots were some time before they could advance, for want of money. The small supplies with which they had commenced operations being already nearly exhausted, two of the most popular of the nobility, along with Mr Alexander Henderson, and