He assented to the acts of the Assembly at Glasgow and of the Parliament of 1640: he gave up the bishops in Scotland and submitted without further hesitation to those claims of parliamentary power against which he had striven so long and desperately: he ratified the treaty already concluded by touching it with his sceptre. But all was not yet over. On September 16 a new act was read, by which the nomination to the most important offices in the administration of the state and of justice was made dependent on the approval of Parliament. The King said that he accepted it in order to supply a need which the country might experience through his absence: he would in future let his Privy Council consist of a fixed number of members, never to be exceeded, according to the advice of the Estates: he would lay before them a list of those to whom he thought of confiding the great offices of state, and hoped that it would meet with their approval. ‘At this gracious answer,’ says the old journal, ‘one and all rose and bowed themselves to the ground[268].’ The King’s chief object was to content the Scots, and [A.D. 1641.] separate their cause from the English. The events of the last year had convinced him that the connexion of Scottish and English affairs had involved him in all his troubles. The late projects, which were so contrary to his views, especially the attack made by Parliament on the bishops, he ascribed to Scottish influence. He believed that he could manage to resist in England if he could only pacify Scotland, but for this purpose concessions were indispensable. Even those royalists who followed Montrose, and had long sought to ally themselves with him, demanded these as absolutely necessary. Even by these however his chief opponents were not won. The party in religion and politics which depended on Argyle, and had alone wielded the supreme power, was unwilling to lose it through new appointments, or even to share it with those who had hitherto opposed them: they accepted the King’s concessions, but at every fresh step opposed him again.