their own authority, settle the nation.

* Rush. vol. vi. p. 293.

** Rush. vol. vi. p. 309.

*** Rush. vol. vii. p. 319.

What the parliament was most intent upon, was not their treaty with
the king, to whom they paid little regard, but that with the Scots. Two
important points remained to be settled with that nation: their delivery
of the king, and the estimation of their arrears.

The Scots might pretend, that, as Charles was king of Scotland as well
as of England, they were entitled to an equal vote in the disposal of
his person; and that, in such a case, where the titles are equal,
and the subject indivisible, the preference was due to the present
possessor. The English maintained, that the king, being in England, was
comprehended within the jurisdiction of that kingdom, and could not be
disposed of by any foreign nation: a delicate question this, and what
surely could not be decided by precedent; since such a situation is not
any where to be found in history.[*]

* Rush, vol. vii. p. 339.

As the Scots concurred with the English in imposing such severe
conditions on the king, that, notwithstanding his unfortunate situation,
he still refused to accept of them, it is certain that they did not
desire his freedom: nor could they ever intend to join lenity and rigor
together, in so inconsistent a manner. Before the settlement of terms,
the administration must be possessed entirely by the parliaments of both
kingdoms; and how incompatible that scheme with the liberty of the king,
is easily imagined. To carry him a prisoner into Scotland, where
few forces could be supported to guard him, was a measure so full of
inconvenience and danger, that, even if the English had consented to it,
it must have appeared to the Scots themselves altogether uneligible: and
how could such a plan be supported in opposition to England, possessed
of such numerous and victorious armies, which were, at that time at
least seemed to be, in entire union with the parliament? The only
expedient, it is obvious, which the Scots could embrace, if they
scrupled wholly to abandon the king, was immediately to return, fully
and cordially, to their allegiance; and, uniting themselves with the
royalists in both kingdoms, endeavor, by force of arms, to reduce the
English parliament to more moderate conditions: but, besides that this
measure was full of extreme hazard, what was it but instantly to combine
with their old enemies ag