submit to the pretensions of the malecontents, (besides
that the prelacy must be sacrificed to their religious prejudices,) such
a check would be given to royal authority, which had very lately, and
with much difficulty, been thoroughly established in Scotland, that
he must expect ever after to retain in that kingdom no more than the
appearance of majesty. The great men, having proved by so sensible a
trial the impotence of law and prerogative, would return to their former
licentiousness: the preachers would retain their innate arrogance: and
the people, unprotected by justice, would recognize no other authority
than that which they found to domineer over them. England also, it was
much to be feared, would imitate so bad an example; and having already
a strong propensity towards republican and Puritanical factions, would
expect, by the same seditious practices, to attain the same indulgence.
To advance so far, without bringing the rebels to a total submission,
at least to reasonable concessions, was to promise them, in all future
time, an impunity for rebellion.

On the other hand, Charles considered that Scotland was never before,
under any of his ancestors, so united and so animated in its own
defence; yet had often been able to foil or elude the force of England,
combined heartily in one cause, and inured by long practice to the use
of arms. How much greater difficulty should he find, at present, to
subdue by violence a people inflamed with religious prejudices; while he
could only oppose to them a nation enervated by long peace, and lukewarm
in his service; or, what was more to be dreaded, many of them engaged in
the same party with the rebels?[*]

* Rush. vol. iii. p. 936.

Should the war be only protracted beyond a campaign, (and who could
expect to finish it in that period?) his treasures would fail him; and
for supply he must have recourse to an English parliament, which,
by fatal experience, he had ever found more ready to encroach on the
prerogatives, than to supply the necessities of the crown. And what if
he receive a defeat from the rebel army? This misfortune was far from
being impossible. They were engaged in a national cause, and strongly
actuated by mistaken principles. His army was retained entirely by pay,
and looked on the quarrel with the same indifference which naturally
belongs to mercenary troops without possessing the discipline by which
such troops are commonly distinguished. And the co