Page:Brief historical relation of the life of Mr. John Livingston Minister of the Gospel.pdf/42

( 42 ) find it thereafter a diſadvantage, for ordinarily Lothian, Libbertoun, and Sir John Smith agreed in one voice, and that ſometimes ſuch as ſome of us were not well pleaſed with. Now there were to be of a contrary opinion only Brody and Jaffray, and thus three being against two carried it, the preſident not having liberty to give his vote, except where there is an equality. Some of our number urged once, that the treaty might be by word of mouth, and not by papers; but that was rejected. The drawing up of the papers to be preſented to the king, was committed by theſe of the State to Brody and by theſe of the church to Mr. James Wood; wherein this overſight was committed in the very firſt papers, that the words and purpoſe of the instructions were not fully kept to; but both in the order and matter, ſomewhat was altered or left out by them that drew them up, and more thereafter was altered upon debate in the meetings, whether for exornation of the language, or to ſeem not to be tied to the words and order of them, or to make things ſmooth in the beginning, or if there were a deſign in ſome that debated the alterations, that ſome things might not be mentioned at firſt, which they having founded the mind of the court, found would not be eaſily granted, I cannot certainly ſay. But we found it did great harm thereafter, when theſe of the court alleged, that we behoved to reſt finished with what was in our firſt papers. We had acceſs to the king on Tueſday, yet no papers of the treaty were delivered to him till the Monday after; which was ſome neglect of diligence, the parliament having limited the treaty to thirty days, and only granting ten days more, in caſe there were appearance of agreement at theſe thirty days end. And after the delivering of theſe firſt papers, Lothian, Libbertoun, and Sir John Smith, went to Antwerp and Bruſſels, and ſtaid eight or ten days, ſo that when the king had given us his firſt papers the Saturday following, no return could be made to them through their abſence, till Wedneſday or Thurſday of the following week. We found the king of a courteous and tractable like diſpoſition, which made ſome of us ſuſpect that if all had dealt alike earneſtly, eſpecially Lothian and Libbertoun, who moſt frequently