so much on account of the object stated in their commission as an account of the nature of the authority on which it [A.D. 1639.] was based. Thereupon the principal member of the Commission, Lord Loudon, did not hesitate to turn to the French ambassador with a declaration that Scotland reckoned upon the support of the crown of France in the event of a breach with Charles I. A Scot of the name of Dishingtoun was the agent of the negotiations between Lord Loudon and the ambassador. The Scots announced their intention of requesting the King of France, if their dispute with Charles I were not shortly adjusted, to take cognisance of it according to the terms of their old alliance, and to mediate between them and their sovereign; and, in case this was impossible, to afford them protection against him. They remarked, that they would easily have been able to come to an understanding with the German sovereigns or with the Dutch instead, but that they were convinced their petition would not be rejected by France; and, if they were right in this, that they were determined to conclude no agreement with their King which did not allow full restoration of the alliance between France and Scotland. We cannot help asking how this alliance could have been contemplated after the crowns of England and Scotland had been united on one head. The ambassador had himself intimated that the participation of the Scots in Charles’ Council for the management of foreign affairs would be necessary to effect that object. The Scots not only caught up this notion, but turned it into a demand for a high degree of political independence. They wished that the King should henceforward not be allowed to proclaim war without applying to the Scottish Parliament on the subject; the Scots must be conceded a regular place, not only in the management of foreign affairs in the Council, but also about the King’s person in the offices of his household; they must have liberty even to keep plenipotentiaries in France as well as at the Hague[162]. Not until these designs were accomplished [A.D. 1639.] could those political results be achieved, which the General Assembly and the Parliament had desired to bring about, in order to promote the independence of the Church, and the change of the constitution, by which the previous influence of the crown was to be excluded. The independence which the Parliament demanded in the conduct of internal affairs was now to be extended to its relation with foreign powers as well.