The Works of Thomas Carlyle/Volume 6/Letter 72
FOR THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE COMMITTEE OF ESTATES FOR THE KINGDOM OF SCOTLAND: THESE
Right Honourable,—Being upon my approach to the borders of the Kingdom of Scotland, I thought fit to acquaint you of the reason thereof.
It is well known how injuriously the Kingdom of England was lately invaded by the Army under Duke Hamilton; contrary to the Covenant and “to” our leagues of amity, and against all the engagements of love and brotherhood between the two Nations. And notwithstanding the pretence of your late Declaration[1], published to take with the people of this Kingdom, the Commons of England in Parliament Assembled declared the said Army so entering, Enemies to the Kingdom; and those of England who should adhere to them, Traitors. And having[2] received command to march with a considerable part of their Army, to oppose so great a violation of faith and justice,—what a witness God, being appealed to,[3] hath borne, upon the engagement of the two Armies, against the unrighteousness of man, not only yourselves, but this Kingdom, yea and a great part of the known world will, I trust, acknowledge. How dangerous a thing is it to wage an unjust war; much more, to appeal to God the Righteous Judge therein! We trust He will persuade you better by this manifest token of His displeasure; lest His hand be stretched out yet more against you, and your poor People also, if they will be deceived.
That which I am to demand of you is, The restitution of the Garrisons of Berwick and Carlisle into my hands, for the use of the Parliament and Kingdom of England. If you deny me herein, I must make our appeal to God; and call upon Him for assistance, in what way He shall direct us;—wherein we are, and shall be, so far from seeking the harm of the well-affected people of the Kingdom of Scotland, that we profess as before the Lord, That (what difference an Army, necessitated in a hostile way to recover the ancient rights and inheritance of the Kingdom under which they serve, can make[4]) we shall use our endeavours to the utmost that the trouble may fall upon the contrivers and authors of this breach, and not upon the poor innocent people, who have been led and compelled into this action, as many poor souls now prisoners to us confess.
We thought ourselves bound in duty thus to expostulate with you, and thus to profess; to the end we may bear our integrity out before the world, and may have comfort in God, whatever the event be.
Desiring your answer, I rest, your Lordships humble servant,
The troubles of Scotland are coming thick. The ‘Engagers,‘ those that ‘engaged’ with Hamilton, are to be condemned; then, before long, come ‘Resolutioners’ and ‘Protesters’; and in the wreck of the Hamilton-Argyle discussions, and general cunctations,—all men desiring to say Yes and No instead of Yes or No,—Royalism and Presbyterianism alike are disastrously sinking.
The Lordships here addressed as ‘Committee of Estates’ can make no answer, for they do not now exist as Committee of Estates;—Argyle and Company are now assuming that character the shifting of the dresses, which occasions some complexity in those old Letters, is just going on. From Argyle and Company, however, who see in Cromwell their one sure stay, there are already on the road conciliatory congratulatory messages, by Lairds and Majors, ‘from Falkirk,‘ where the Whiggamore Raid and Lanark are making their Armistice or Treaty. Whereupon follows, with suitably vague Superscription, for Argyle and Company:
- ↑ To be found in Rushworth; read it not!
- ↑ The grammar requires ‘I having,‘ but the physiognomy of the sentence requires nothing.
- ↑ on Preston Moor.
- ↑ Means: ‘so far as an Army, necessitated to vindicate its country by War, can make a discrimination.‘ The ‘ancient rights and inheritance’ are the right to choose our own King or No-King, and so forth.
- ↑ Thuroe, i. 105