[93] Spottiswood considers that it is most necessary to repress them by ‘taking order with the deprived and exiled ministers of Ireland, that have taken their refuge hither, and are the common incendiaries of rebellioun, preaching what and where they please.’ Letter to Hamilton: Baillie, App. i. 466. [94] The letter is given in Balfour ii. 236; the proclamation in Rushworth ii. 402. [95] Baillie to Spang: Letters and Journals i. 23. ‘I think God, to revenge the crying sins, is going to give us over unto madness, that we may every one shoot our swords in our neighbours hearts.’ [96] Supplication against the Service-book, with a complaint upon bishops: in Rothes 49. [97] Rothes: ‘They might concur in the common way of supplicating against the Service-book.’ [98] I do not find any confirmation of the definite statements of Aiton, Life of Henderson 207, according to which four noblemen, three lairds from the counties, &c., were said to have constituted this small commission. Rothes names only Sutherland and Balmerino, with six barons and some citizens (p. 34). Immediately afterwards (p. 34) six or seven noblemen appear as commissioners. The nobility had certainly a great amount of independence in the commission. [99] Rothes, p. 25; but it was intended that the King’s consent should be obtained. [100] A. Correro, 5 Marzo, 1638: ‘Il regno di Scotia, rettosi per tanti secoli colle proprie leggi nel viver civile cosi bene come nel ecclesiastico soffirebbeio gia mai dichiararlo subordinato a questo, il che s’intenderebbe, quando quelle chiese ricevessero da questo arcivescovo di Canterbury le regole di laudar Dio.’ [101] ‘The least that can be asked to settle this Church and Kingdom in a solid and durable peace.’ Rothes 97. According to Balfour ii. 252 these demands are referred to the date of March 1638. [102] The King in one of his declarations characterised the difference between the old and new Covenant: the old required ‘that they should mutually assist one another, as they should be commanded by the King or any entrusted persons’; but the new bond, which he repudiated, ‘was made without our consent, and by it they swear mutually to assist one another, not excepting the King.’ St. P. O. CHAPTER VII. ATTEMPTS AT AN ACCOMMODATION. INDEPENDENT ASSEMBLY OF THE CHURCH. King Charles thought that the Scots wished to give him somewhat of the position of a Venetian Doge, but that he would not yet be reduced to the necessity of complying. He was confident that he still had a party of his own in Scotland.