**]

* Sir Edward Walker's Historical Discourses, p. 178.

** Whitlocke, p. 404, 408.

*** Whitlocke, p. 396, 418.

The advance of the English army under Cromwell was not able to appease
or soften the animosities among the parties in Scotland. The clergy were
still resolute to exclude all but their most zealous adherents. As soon
as the English parliament found that the treaty between the king and
the Scots would probably terminate in an accommodation, they made
preparations for a war, which, they saw, would in the end prove
inevitable. Cromwell, having broken the force and courage of the Irish,
was sent for; and he left the command of Ireland to Ireton, who governed
that kingdom in the character of deputy, and with vigilance and industry
persevered in the work of subduing and expelling the natives.

It was expected that Fairfax, who still retained the name of general,
would continue to act against Scotland, and appear at the head of the
forces; a station for which he was well qualified, and where alone he
made any figure. But Fairfax, though he had allowed the army to make use
of his name in murdering their sovereign, and offering violence to the
parliament, had entertained unsurmountable scruples against invading
the Scots, whom he considered as zealous Presbyterians, and united to
England by the sacred bands of the covenant. He was further disgusted
at the extremities into which he had already been hurried; and was
confirmed in his repugnance by the exhortations of his wife, who
had great influence over him, and was herself much governed by the
Presbyterian clergy. A committee of parliament was sent to reason with
him; and Cromwell was of the number. In vain did they urge, that the
Scots had first broken the covenant by their invasion of England under
Hamilton; and that they would surely renew their hostile attempts, if
not prevented by the vigorous measures of the commonwealth. Cromwell,
who knew the rigid inflexibility of Fairfax, in every thing which he
regarded as matter of principle, ventured to solicit him with the utmost
earnestness; and he went so far as to shed tears of grief and vexation
on the occasion. No one could suspect any ambition in the man who
labored so zealously to retain his general in that high office, which,
he knew, he himself was alone entitled to fill. The same warmth of
temper which made Cromwell a frantic enthusiast, rendered him the most
dangerous of hypocrites; and i