The King received the first tidings of the Irish rebellion while in Scotland; he immediately informed the Scottish Parliament and begged their aid. The Scots declared themselves ready, but delayed to see what would happen in England. The King, who regarded the cause as his own, in spite of his distressed circumstances contrived out of his own means to send over a small force of 1500 men under experienced commanders: this was the first succour which the Protestants received, and it gave them courage, and contributed greatly to make the strong places that had not surrendered in the mean time hold out to the end. False as it is to accuse Charles I of having himself secretly taken part in this Irish movement, it is undeniable that it was not altogether hostile to him. It was above all a reaction against the form of government derived from the Puritan parliamentary principles in England. The Irish Catholics told the King, that it was because he, in the fulness of [A.D. 1641.] his princely love, granted them some religious liberty, that the English Parliament, envious of their good fortune, diminished his prerogative: it desired to call the Scots to its assistance, and with the Bible in one hand and the sword in the other to extirpate Catholicism in Ireland. It is obvious that Ireland in its native condition could exist very well under a monarchy clothed with extensive prerogatives, but never under a parliamentary government with predominant Puritan sentiments, such as existed and daily grew stronger in the present Parliament. We turn our attention to England, to those parliamentary discussions long before proposed, and now again resumed, to which the course of things in Scotland, and still more the events in Ireland, furnished a new and powerful impulse. FOOTNOTES: [268] The diurnall of the second parliament of our sovereign lord, King Charles. In Balfour, Annals iii. 65. [269] Relation of the Incident, for so this event is termed. ‘5-600 following his coach, amongst whom were all those that were cited to the Parliament, and likewise those that were accused to have been of this plot against us.’ [270] Despatch of the French minister Sabran, 20 March, 1645. The King assured him, ‘qu’il avait tiré serment sur leur foi et leur honneur du chancelier d’Ecosse, du comte d’Argyle et de Leslie, que jamais ils ne se mêleroient de la religion d’Ingleterre et ne l’assisteroient jamais à ce sujet.’ [271] Narrative of Macguire, in Nalson ii. Carte, who denies it, tries in vain to clear the old English Catholics of all participation. [272] Sanderson 438. ‘A gentleman of a meer Irish family, but a true Protestant by a long conversation with the English.’