nsequences of a
defeat, while Scotland was enraged and England discontented, were so
dreadful, that no motive should persuade him to hazard it.

It is evident, that Charles had fallen into such a situation, that
whichever side he embraced, his errors must be dangerous. No wonder,
therefore, he was in great perplexity. But he did worse than embrace
the worst side; for, properly speaking, he embraced no side at all. He
concluded a sudden pacification, in which it was stipulated, that he
should withdraw his fleet and army; that within eight and forty hours
the Scots should dismiss their forces; that the king's forts should be
restored to him; his authority be acknowledged; and a general assembly
and a parliament be immediately summoned, in order to compose all
differences.[*] What were the reasons which engaged the king to admit
such strange articles of peace, it is in vain to inquire; for there
scarcely could be any. The causes of that event may admit of a more easy
explication.

* Rush vol. iii. p. 945.

The malecontents had been very industrious in representing to the
English the grievances under which Scotland labored, and the ill
counsels which had been suggested to their sovereign. Their liberties,
they said, were invaded; the prerogatives of the crown extended beyond
all former precedent; illegal courts erected; the hierarchy exalted
at the expense of national privileges; and so many new superstitions
introduced by the haughty, tyrannical prelates, as begat a just
suspicion that a project was seriously formed for the restoration of
Popery. The king's conduct, surely, in Scotland, had been in every
thing, except in establishing the ecclesiastical canons, more legal than
in England; yet was there such a general resemblance in the complaints
of both kingdoms, that the English readily assented to all the
representations of the Scottish malecontents, and believed that nation
to have been driven by oppression into the violent counsels which they
had embraced. So far, therefore, from being willing to second the
king in subduing the free spirit of the Scots, they rather pitied that
unhappy people, who had been pushed to those extremities; and
they thought, that the example of such neighbors, as well as their
assistance, might some time be advantageous to England, and encourage
her to recover, by a vigorous effort, her violated laws and liberties.
The gentry and nobility, who, without attachment to the court, without