The government did not allow itself to be driven from its course in either of the affairs in which it was engaged. It both kept down the English Puritans, and continued to collect the tax to which exception was taken. But opposition and agitation increased daily in the country. The Scots stirred up this feeling with various pamphlets. They sought to make the English conscious that the cause of [A.D. 1638.] both countries was the same. And their example itself produced a still greater effect. From time to time anxiety was felt lest the Scottish uprising should spread over England[116]. While already, apart from other considerations, there was much to be said for the necessity of contending against the rising in Scotland in open war, it was also seen that the same course was necessary for the preservation of order in England. Hamilton, the mediator of peace, who had returned from Scotland after failing in his attempt, the Lord Deputy of Ireland, and the Primate of the English Church united their voices in favour of war. Without doubt their counsels were what determined the King. But it is also clear that no one could think of claiming the help of the English Parliament in the conduct of this war, however important it might have been under other circumstances. The King indignantly rejected the advice to summon a Parliament; for what could he have found in that body but a combination of Puritans and men who had refused to pay ship-money, with those who supported on principle the rights and claims of Parliament? His intention was to carry on the war upon the strength of the prerogative of the crown with those forces which his income, that had just now been increased, as well as the voluntary offerings of the friends of his system should supply. And his position in general depended upon his success in this undertaking. If the enterprise against Scotland prospered, the validity of the prerogative in England also was for ever established. The King’s hierarchical and monarchical system of government would have acquired double force through a victory won by his own strength. Thus in former times Philip II had first become completely master of his own kingdom by his victory over the Aragonese. Charles I was not without a prospect of a like success.