Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 3.djvu/192

178 of Scotland should be abandoned, would have settled the matter at once but Charles had so utterly lost character for truth and good faith, that it was believed throughout the country that he was still only deluding them, and seeking time ultimately to come down resistlessly upon them. And we know from his own correspondence preserved in the Strafford Papers that it was so. These words addressed to Hamilton, "Your chief end is to win time, that they may commit public follies, until I be ready to suppress them," are an everlasting proof of it. Besides, they had ample information from friends about the court in England that this was the case, and that in a few months the king meant to visit them with an irresistible force. The people of England were suffering too much from the same species of oppression not to sympathise warmly with the Scotch patriots, and to keep them well informed of what was going on there. We find it stated in the Hardwicke State Papers that the government was very jealous of the number of people who went about England selling Scotch linen, and it was recommended to open all letters going betwixt the countries at Berwick.

The covenanters therefore determined to hold together and be prepared. On the 22nd of September, 1638, the marquis of Hamilton caused the royal proclamation to be read at the market-cross at Edinburgh, abandoning the Anglican service and the High Commission Court; but as it required subscription to the old confession of faith, there was no rejoicing on the occasion. There were two particulars in this proclamation which fully justified the Scots in refusing to comply with it. It stated that the vow of the covenant was unauthorised by government, and therefore illegal, and it professed to grant a pardon for that act to all who signed the confession, which would have acknowledged that the nation had been guilty of a crime in accepting the covenant, a thing they were not likely to admit, for in that case they could not have refused the readmission of the very liturgy against which it was at war. They therefore published a protest against it, founded on these reasons.

The marquis having obtained the signature of the lords of the secret council to the new bond, which Charles had previously signed, though it contained many clauses repugnant to Arminianism, issued the proclamation for the meeting of the assembly in Glasgow on the 21st of November, and for that of the parliament on the 17th of May next. In a few days after the lords of the council published an act discharging the book of common prayer, the book of canons, &c., and called for the subscription of all his majesty's subjects. The municipal bodies, the ministers, and the people hastened to thank the council, and to express their joy in the revocation of the obnoxious orders, but they refused to sign the confession.

The marquis wrote to Charles, informing him of the determined spirit of the people, and advising him to hasten his military preparations. He also represented to him the protests of the bishops against the holding the assembly; but the king bade him persist in holding it, so that he might not appear to break faith with the public, and thus precipitate matters, but to counteract the effect of the assembly by sowing discord amongst the members, and protesting against their tumultuary proceedings.

But the Scots did not give Hamilton much time for such, machinations before the meeting of the assembly. They were warned by a trusty correspondent—notwithstanding the waylaying of the post was carried into effect—that vigorous preparations were making to invade Scotland. There were arms for twenty thousand men, including forty pieces of ordnance, and forty carriages; but the writer did not believe they would get two hundred men for the service, such was the desire of all parties—nobles, gentry, people, for their success; which, if obtained, he said, would lead many of all ranks to settle in Scotland for freedom of conscience. He added that Wentworth had made large offers of assistance to the king from Ireland, but that the Irish were themselves so injured, that he doubted any great, help from Wentworth against them; yet if Charles could; muster sufficient force, they might expect no terms from him but such as they would get at the cannon's mouth.

At the end of October the earl of Rothes demanded from Hamilton a warrant, citing the bishops, as guilty of heresy, perjury, simony, and gross immorality, to appear before the approaching assembly. The marquis refused, on which the presbytery of Edinburgh cited them. Charles had ordered, as a sign of his favour, the restoration of the lords of session of Edinburgh, but on condition of their signing the confession of faith. Nine out of the fifteen were induced with much difficulty to sign, but from that moment they were in terror of their lives from the exasperation of the people.

When Hamilton arrived on the 17th of November in Glasgow, to open the assembly, he found the town thronged with people from all quarters, in evidently intense excitement. The Tables had secured the most popular elections of representatives to the assembly, sending one lay elder and four lay assessors from every presbytery. The marquis therefore found himself overruled on all points. In his opening speech he read them the king's letter, in which Charles complained of having been misrepresented, as though he desired innovations in laws and religion! and to prove how groundless this was, he had granted this free assembly, for settling all such matters to the satisfaction of his good subjects. He then of himself protested against the foul and devilish calumnies against his sacred majesty, purporting that even this grant of the assembly was but to gain time whilst he was preparing arms to force on the nation the abhorred ritual. The marquis, whilst he was making these solemn asseverations, being well assured, as were most of his hearers, that the king was all the while casting cannon and ball, and mustering soldiers for this "foul and devilish purpose," the assembly must have been perfectly satisfied that no good was to be expected but from their own firmness. They at once proceeded to elect Alexander Henderson as their moderator, and Hamilton protested as vigorously against it, but in vain. They next elected as clerk-register Archibald Johnstone, the clerk of the Edinburgh Tables, against which Hamilton again protested with as little effect, Johnstone declaring that he would do his best to "defend the prerogative of the Son of God."

Defeated on these important points, the marquis the next day entered a protest against the return of lay members to the assembly; and the proctor on behalf of the bishops added