. September.]
[Sidenote f: A.D. 1649. October.]
conditions proposed by their former commissioners; but the latter, in
language unceremonious and insulting, laid before him the sins of his
youth; his refusal to allow the Son of God to reign over him in the pure
ordinances of church government and worship; his cleaving to counsellors
who never had the glory of God or the good of his people before their eyes;
his admission to his person of that "fugacious man and excommunicate rebel,
James Graham" and, above all, "his giving the royal power and strength to
the beast," by concluding a peace "with the Irish papists, the murderers of
so many Protestants." They bade him remember the iniquities of his father's
house, and be assured that, unless he laid aside the "service-book, so
stuffed with Romish corruptions, for the reformation of doctrine and
worship agreed upon by the divines at Westminster," and approved of the
covenant in his three kingdoms, without which the people could have no
security for their religion or liberty, he would find that the Lord's anger
was not turned away, but that his hand was still stretched against the
royal person and his family.[1]
This coarse and intemperate lecture was not calculated to make a convert
of a young and spirited prince. Instead of giving an answer, he waited to
ascertain the opinion of Ormond; and at last, though inclination prompted
him to throw himself into the arms of his Irish adherents, he reluctantly
submitted to the authority of that officer, who declared, that the only way
to preserve Ireland was by provoking a war between England and Scotland[2].
Charles now condescended[a]
[Footnote 1: Clar. State Papers, iii. App. 89-92. Carte's Letters, i. 323.
Whitelock, 439. The address of the kirk was composed by Mr. Wood, and
disapproved by the more moderate.--Baillie, ii. 339, 345.]
[Footnote 2: Carte's Letters, i. 333, 340.]
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1650. Jan. 11.]
to give to the convention the title of estates of parliament, appointed
Breda, a small town, the private patrimony of the prince of Orange, for
the place of treaty; and met[a] there the new commissioners, the earls of
Cassilis and Lothian, with two barons, two burgesses, and three ministers.
Their present scarcely differed from their former demands; nor were they
less unpalatable to the king. To consent to them appeared to him an
apostasy from the principles for which his father fought and died; an
abandonment of t
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