om the Scots. Ashburnham was instructed to sound Pierpoint, one of
the parliamentarian commissioners, but Pierpoint refused to confer with
him.--Ashburn. ii. 78.]

[Sidenote a: A.D. 1646. August 2.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1646. August 11.]

the nations; many charges on both sides were disputed and disallowed; and
at last the Scots agreed[a] to accept four hundred thousand pounds in lieu
of all demands, of which one half should be paid before they left England,
the other after their arrival in Scotland.[1]

At this moment an unexpected vote[b] of the two houses gave birth to a
controversy unprecedented in history. It was resolved that the right of
disposing of the king belonged to the parliament of England. The Scots
hastened to remonstrate. To dispose of the king was an ambiguous term;
they would assume that it meant to determine where he should reside until
harmony was restored between him and his people. But it ought to be
remembered that he was king of Scotland as well as of England; that each
nation had an interest in the royal person; both had been parties in the
war; both had a right to be consulted respecting the result. The
English, on the contrary, contended that the Scots were not parties, but
auxiliaries, and that it was their duty to execute the orders of those
whose bread they ate, and whose money they received. Scotland was certainly
an independent kingdom. But its rights were confined within its own

[Footnote 1: Journals, viii. 461, 485. Baillie, ii. 222, 223, 225, 267.
Rush. vi. 322-326. To procure the money, a new loan was raised in the
following manner. Every subscriber to former loans on the faith of
parliament, who had yet received neither principal nor interest, was
allowed to subscribe the same sum to the present loan, and, in return, both
sums with interest were to be secured to him on the grand excise and the
sale of the bishops' lands. For the latter purpose, three ordinances were
passed; one disabling all persons from holding the place, assuming the
name, and exercising the jurisdiction of archbishops or bishops within the
realm, and vesting all the lands belonging to archbishops and bishops
in certain trustees, for the use of the nation (Journals, 515); another
securing the debts of subscribers on these lands (ibid. 520); and a
third appointing persons to make contracts of sale, and receive the
money.--Journals of Commons, Nov. 16.]

[Sidenote a: A.D. 1646. Sept. 5.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1646. S