a great speech, full of fire and courage; a psalm was sung; the benediction was pronounced, and then Henderson uttered his last words to the Assembly: "We have now cast down the walls of Jericho let him that rebuildeth beware of the curse of Hiel the Bethelite." 15

And now many of the Scotch officers who had left their country to fight for the cause of Protestantism under Gustavus Adolphus returned to stand by the cause of Protestantism at home. Leslie was appointed commander-in-chief. The Committee of Estates were the real governors of Scotland, and they had an army to sustain their power. Their treasury was enriched from many quarters; the citizens of the great towns and Scottish merchants settled in foreign countries sent in voluntary contributions for the purchase of arms and ammunition; some of the nobility are said to have coined their plate for the same purpose.

To thwart the policy of England abroad, France had always been quick to favour any movement in Scotland which embarrassed England at home, and Richelieu now engaged to send to Leslie 100,000 crowns.

Early in March the Covenanters seized Edinburgh Castle. The next day they obtained possession of the Castle of Dumbarton. Traquair, the Lord Treasurer, surrendered to them the Castle of Dalkeith, with the regalia, and with a store of ammunition and arms. The Marquis of Huntley, who had raised 7,000 men for the King, was defeated and carried off by Leslie to Edinburgh. The Marquis of Hamilton with a fleet and 5,000 men attempted to rescue him. But the shores of the Forth were lined with Covenanters; every port was defended by batteries; and it was impossible for him to effect a landing. On March 30 Charles himself was at York, with 20,000 men. He was resolved, at all costs, to crush the outbreak which menaced his whole policy in England as well as in Scotland. Six weeks later he was on the border; but Leslie was waiting for him with an enthusiastic army, ready to resist his progress. On June 3 a body of the King's troops under

15" In his days did Hiel the Bethelite build Jericho: he laid the foundation thereof with the loss of Abiram his firstborn, and set up the gates thereof with the loss of his youngest son Segub: according to the word of the Lord, which he spake by the hand of Joshua the son of Nun." I Kings xvi. 34.

the Earl of Holland crossed the Tweed to attack the Scotch at Kelso; but Holland returned without striking a blow-his men had no heart to fight. Leslie was encamped on Dunse Law within a few miles of Berwick; but Charles did not dare to attack him. The King saw that for the moment the attempt to break the force of the Scotch revolt was hopeless, and on June 18 he signed a treaty in which he left all ecclesiastical questions at issue between himself and his Scotch subjects to be determined by the General Assembly of the Church, and all civil questions by the Scotch Parliament. It was also agreed that a free General Assembly should meet at Edinburgh on August 6, and a free Parliament a fortnight later. The Tables and all unlawful committees were to be dissolved, and the royal castles in the hands of the Covenanters were to be restored to the officers of the King. Then the King returned to London.

The Assembly, when it met, was barred by the treaty from making any formal reference to the Glasgow Assembly of the preceding year, but it confirmed all its acts. The instructions given by the King to Traquair, the Royal Commissioner, authorised him to allow the abolition of Episcopacy, the Service-Book, and the Canons, and to sanction the signing of the national Covenant.16 Parliament subscribed the Covenant and then confirmed all the acts of the Assembly. It was prorogued by Traquair, to arrest an attempted encroachment on the royal prerogative.

Charles had returned from the north, humiliated by the Treaty of Berwick, and resolved to seize the first chance of breaking it. The discovery of the correspondence between the Scotch leaders and France gave him what he thought would be an irresistible appeal to the passion, the pride, and the patriotism of the English people." He resolved to call a

16 There was some modification of the terms of the Covenant as sanctioned by the Commissioner. Peterkin, Records of the Kirk of Scotland, 235; and Burton, History of Scotland, vi. 271–272.

17 It seems certain that the letter on which Charles relied, which bore the signatures of seven Scotch lords and asked for the aid of the King of France, was never sent. It was written before the Treaty, and appears to have been stopped by the unwillingness of the Covenanting ministers and the common people to apply for assistance to a foreign and Catholic sovereign. The letter is given by Rushworth, ii. (2), 1037, 1119-1120. See also S. R. Gardiner, Fall of the Monarchy, i. 299, note 2, with the references there given; and Clarendon, History, i. 183.

Parliament, and to ask for heavy subsidies that he might punish the Covenanters for their treasonable correspondence with the ancient enemy of England.

Parliament met on April 13, 1640. The letter of the Scotch lords was read, and Finch, the Lord Keeper, made a passionate speech against the "sons of Belial" who had resisted the King's authority and were conspiring with a foreign State against their true and lawful sovereign. Large promises were given that, when the subsidies were voted, his Majesty would join with them in redressing all just grievances.

But England had been for eleven years under the personal government of Charles and his Ministers; and now that a Parliament was once more assembled, the House of Commons was not disposed to lose the chance which had come to it of defending the liberties and the religion of the nation. They insisted that according to ancient custom grievances must take precedence of supply. They appointed committees for considering the affairs of the Church and of religion, the privileges of Parliament, and alleged violations of the rights of the subject. They discussed ship-money and the judgment against Hampden.18 It became apparent that no subsidies would be granted unless the King consented to reverse his whole policy; and on May 5 this Parliament-the Short Parliament-was dissolved. It had sat for only three weeks.19

18 See Whitelock's summary, 38-40. The judgment against Hampden was given in 1638.

19 Convocation continued to sit after the dissolution of Parliament, and adopted additional canons-the canons of 1640-which were severely dealt with in the next Parliament. One (i.) of these exalts the prerogatives of the Crown; another (vi.) imposes an oath never to consent to alter the government of the Church " by archbishops, bishops, deans, and archdeacons, etc., as it stands now established ; another (iii.) is directed to the suppression of Popery; another (v.) decrees that all those proceedings and penalties mentioned in the canons against Popish recusants shall, as far as they are applicable, stand in force against Anabaptists, Brownists, Separatists, Familists, and all other sects that refuse to worship and to receive the communion at the parish church. Wilkins, Concilia, iv. 543-553. Before separating, Convocation granted the King six subsidies at the rate of four shillings in the pound, to be paid within six years. They "did many things," says Clarendon, "which in the best times might have been questioned, and therefore were sure to be condemned in the worst . . . and drew the same prejudice upon the whole body of the clergy, to which before only some few clergymen were exposed." Clarendon, History, i. 209.

II

But Charles did not escape from his troubles by dissolving the English Parliament. The Parliament of Scotland published a series of manifestoes which maintained and increased the hostility of the Scottish people to the King's policy. They formally entrusted the whole executive power of the kingdom to the Committee of Estates, and levied heavy taxes for the support of the army. Leslie recaptured the castle of Edinburgh, which had been surrendered to Charles under the terms of the pacification of Berwick. The war had broken out afresh, and the Covenanters resolved to enter England with a force strong enough to compel the King to concede all their demands. Charles himself started again for the north to take command of his army; but before his arrival, the King's troops at Newburn on the Tyne under Lord Conway were put to the most shameful and confounding flight that was ever heard of" 20 (August 28, 1640). (August 28, 1640). The next day Newcastle was evacuated, and the English army was in full retreat, pursued by Leslie and his victorious Covenanters. In a few days, with the loss of less than twenty men, the four northern counties were in Leslie's power.

Fresh negotiations were now commenced. The Covenanters demanded that a firm and lasting peace between the two kingdoms should be settled by the English Parliament. Charles asked for a statement of specific grievances, and called a meeting of peers at York. The peers met; and, the first day of their meeting, as he had discovered that they would recommend him to call another Parliament, he anticipated their advice by the announcement that he had already determined that a new Parliament should meet on November 3. The Scotch invasion was discussed, and sixteen English peers were sent to Ripon to arrange with Leslie for the suspension, if not the termination, of hostilities. On October 23, within ten days of the meeting of Parliament—a final settlement not having been effected—it was agreed that the negotiations should be removed to London. For the present, the Scotch were to hold Newcastle, Durham, and all the towns on the eastern coast beyond the Tees, with the exception of

20 Clarendon, History, i. 205.

Berwick. They were to receive £850 a day until the treaty was closed.

The disasters of Charles in what was popularly called “the Bishops' War" excited the hopes of all the enemies of his ecclesiastical policy in England. If the Scottish Covenanters were strong enough to get rid of their bishops, English Puritans might break the tyranny of Laud and save the English Church from Popery.