the first, that the Scots were aware of the strength of their position. Loudoun, who took the lead on the Scottish side, said plainly that his countrymen would not be content without taking into Scottish consideration events which had happened since the demands. Pacification; and he also took objection to the presence of six persons who had been named as assistants to the English lords, especially as one of the number was the obnoxious Traquair, who was pointed out by the Scots as one of the incendiaries at whose trial and punishment they aimed.' Oct. 3. between Loudoun, ville. The Scots seem to have been surprised at the tenacity with which Bristol, without contradiction from his fellow-commissioners, fought them inch by inch. They had entered England under the belief that they had received from seven of the commissioners present a positive offer of armed assistance, and they could not understand how those very men should be found supporting the arguments against their claims. That evening, Loudoun and Johnston applied anxiously to MandeMeeting ville for an explanation, charging him and the other six peers with a breach of their signed engagement. and Mande. To this unlooked-for accusation Mandeville answered that he knew nothing about the matter. Loudoun and Johnston replied that the whole negotiation had passed through Savile's hands, and that he would be certain to bear witness to the truth. The next day, accordingly, Savile was sent for and interrogated. Prevarication in such confession of company was useless, and he boldly acknowledged the forgery. He declared himself to have acted as he had from motives of patriotism, and he now said that the only thing to be done, since his falsehood had been discovered, was to take advantage of its results for the common good. Savile's treachery was easily condoned. It was not likely that he would ever be trusted again by those whom he had tricked; but if, as is probable, he had been the medium through whose hands genuine as well as forged writings had passed, it is easy to understand 'Borough's Treaty of Ripon (Camd. Soc.), 1-17. Commissioners to the King, Oct. 2, Rushworth, iii. 1289. Savile's forgery. Savile's treachery condoned. 1640 STATE OF LONDON 211 the mixed motives of those who concurred in passing over so odious a treachery. Naturally, too, the English lords were anxious to obtain from the Scots the incriminating paper. The Scots refused to give it up, but they cut out the supposititious signatures and burnt them in Mandeville's presence.1 Oct. 5. Progress of the negotia. tion. The In the open discussions which followed, the question of the assistants was settled by the compromise that they might give advice without showing themselves at the public conferences. Then came a debate on the terms on which a cessation of arms was to be granted. Scots declared that nothing short of 40,000l. a month would satisfy them during their occupation of the northern counties, and that this payment must last until the conclusion of peace. The English Commissioners referred the demand to the King. Sept. 29. State of London. Before Charles gave his answer he was in possession of better news from London than he had been accustomed to receive. In the last days of September the exasperation of the citizens had been daily growing. At the election of the new Lord Mayor, they shouted out that they would have none who had opposed the petition to the King, and set aside the aldermen who stood highest on the list, and one of whom, according to the usual custom, would have been elected without further difficulty. The greater part of the votes were divided between Geere, who had given his support to the petition, and Soames, who had been sent to prison for his resistance to the loan. Riots, too, broke out in two of the City churches, where Dr. Duck, the Bishop's Chancellor, had irritated the people by calling upon the churchwardens to take the usual oath to present offenders against the ecclesiastical law. In one of them the summons was received with shouts of 1 Nalson, ii. 427. The story is extracted from Mandeville's own Memoirs. Dr. Burton commented on it, that 'the doubts that any such affair ever occurred are strengthened by the absence of any reference to it in Mr. Bruce's Ripon Papers. Surely he could not have been serious in supposing it likely that the official note-taker of the Conference would be invited to be present at this interview! The passage in question is to be found in a fragment now known as Add. MSS. 15,567, which is thus identified as a portion of the long-lost Memoirs of the Earl of Manchester. Its importance will be seen when the narrative reaches Strafford's arrest. 'No oath no oath!' from the crowded assembly. An apparitor, who unwisely spoke of the disturbers as a company of Puritan dogs, was hustled and beaten, and was finally carried off to prison by the sheriff, who had been summoned to restore order. The Chancellor was glad enough to escape in haste, leaving his hat behind him.1 Oct. 2. The City agrees to a loan. All this was changed for a time by the arrival of the peers from York. On October 2 an informal meeting was held, in which a number of the richer citizens appeared in the midst of the Common Councillors. As Bristol had anticipated, the declaration of a Parliament carried all before it. The Lord Mayor was invited to write to the City Companies to ask them to lend 200,000. on the security of the peers. Oct. 6. Debate in the Great Council on demand. The news of the success of the application to the City reached York on the 6th,3 the day on which the Great Council met to take into consideration the Scottish demand. The King had no certain advice to give. He hesitated between the risk of exasperating the Scots, the Scottish and the indignity of buying off the vengeance of rebels. Strafford had no such hesitation. "This demand," he said, "hath opened our eyes. Nothing of religion moves in this business." "The Londoners' example," he added, "hath much turned my opinion." Once more he was beginning to think that the Scottish exorbitance would give the King the support that he needed. He was for taking the defensive, and leaving the Scots to do their worst. Some, indeed-Lord Herbert of Cherbury, amongst them-were equally prepared to proceed to extremities. But the general feeling of the peers inclined the other way, and on The negotia the following day the King proposed that the negotiation should be removed to York, apparently with the intention of bringing his personal influence to the Scottish Commissioners.4 Oct. 7. tion to be removed to York. bear upon Rossingham's News-Letter, Oct. 7, Add. MSS. 11,045, fol. 122. Windebank to the King, Sept. 30, Clar. S. P. ii. 125. 2 The Peers' deputation to the King, Oct. 3. S. P. Dom. cccclxix. 32. 3 Vane to Windebank, Oct. 6, /ardwicke S. P. ii. 193. Hardwicke S. P. ii. 241. 1640 Oct. 8. The Scots refuse to come. A RUTHLESS PROJECT. 213 The answer of the Scots to the Royal command was a blank refusal to obey it. They had not forgotten how some of their number had been detained in London when employed on a similar negotiation. They would not, they said, trust themselves in the midst of an army of which Strafford was the commander. They were empowered to name him 'as a chief incendiary.' In the Irish Parliament he had had no better name for them than traitors and rebels, and he was now doing his utmost to bring the negotiation to an end.' Strafford proposes to drive out the Scots from Ulster. Doubtless the Scots had received tidings from their friends at York of the speech delivered by Strafford two days before. They could not know of a proposal fiercer still which he was that very day penning, to be submitted to Radcliffe. His thoughts in these days of trouble must often have passed over the Irish Channel to that army which, but for the want of money, he would have brought over the sea to join in the attack upon the invaders. He knew, too, that there were in the North of Ireland 40,000 able-bodied Scots, and that if Argyle chose, as had been threatened, to go amongst them he would find an army ready to his hands. In desperation he clutched at the notion of rousing the Irish House of Commons, which had met again at Dublin on the 1st, against these intruders upon Irish soil. If the Irish Parliament were to declare for the banishment of these men, the Irish army would be strong enough, armed though the Scotchmen were, to carry its behest into execution.2 Wisely indeed did Radcliffe give his word against this terrible project. It would have filled the North of Ireland with carnage, with the sole result of rousing the indignation of England against the perpetrators of such a crime. The habit of driving straight at his object, undeterred by the miseries which would be wrought in attaining it, had been growing upon Strafford. To crush the Scots was the one object for which he now lived. On the 6th he had proposed to deliver up the populations of Northumberland and Durham to the tender mercies of the invaders. On the 8th he proposed to give over the province of The Scotch Commissioners' answer, Oct. 8, Rushworth, ii. 1292. 2 Whitaker's Life of Radcliffe, 206. Ulster to blood and flame. It was not for nothing that the Scots had named him as the chief incendiary. Oct. 14. Treaty resumed at Ripon. Oct. 21. Strafford was not to have his way. The refusal of the Scots to come to York was meekly accepted. The negotiation was renewed at Ripon with the sole object of obtaining a modification of their demands. At last they agreed to accept for two months a continuance of the 850/. a day, or about 25,000l. a month, which they were drawing from the two counties, on condition that the first month's payment should be secured to them by the bonds of the leading gentry of the counties, given on assurance that the King would recommend their case to Parliament; and that the second month's payment should be provided for in a way to be hereafter settled-a stipulation which plainly pointed to a parliamentary engagement. Oct. 22. tion to be London. On these terms, a cessation of arms was granted. The two northern counties were to remain in the possession of the invaders till the conclusion of the treaty. As soon as this arrangement was made, Henderson blandly informed the English Commissioners that they had the best of the bargain, as it was 'more blessed to give than to receive.' As the The negotia- day for the meeting of Parliament was now approachremoved to ing, it was arranged that further negotiations should be carried on in London, and on the 26th the Commissioners of the two countries met for the last time at Ripon. The resolution to accept the Scottish demands in their modified form, had probably been influenced by unsatisfactory news from London. The election of the Lord Mayor Last sitting indeed, had ended in a compromise. Neither Acton, who was supported by the King's Council, nor Soames, the candidate of the popular party, had been chosen. The choice of the electors had fallen upon Alderman elected Lord Wright, the second on the list. But Charles cared far less about the London mayoralty than he did about the London loan, and it must have been a real 50,000l. shock to his mind when he learned that the City companies would only lend him a quarter of the sum for which Treaty of Ripon, 27. Oct. 26. at Ripon. Oct. 28. Wright Mayor. The loan reduced to 1 |