On the 30th July the parliamentary commissioners arrived in Newcastle for the purpose of laying before Charles propositions for peace. Charles had already become possessed of a copy, and had long since made up his mind to reject them. The commissioners had received positive orders to allow the king ten days to give his assent, and if he failed to give his assent within that time after their arrival they were at once to return.(739) The only reply which Charles condescended to give was contained in a letter which he handed to the commissioners on the 1st August. The letter was read before the House on the 12th. It contained little more than vague promises and a request that he might be allowed to come to London to discuss the propositions at length.(740) (M357) The same day that the king’s answer was read before the Lords a letter from the Scottish commissioners was produced, in which they offered to withdraw their forces from England upon payment of expenses already incurred.(741) After a considerable amount of haggling the Scots consented to take the sum of £400,000 in full discharge of all claims, a moiety to be paid to them before leaving England and the remainder by instalments at specified dates.(742) It only remained for parliament to raise the sum of £200,000 needed for the first payment, and to whom was it more natural that application should first be made than to the City? A large deputation from the Commons, including Cromwell himself, accordingly waited on the Common Council (7 Sept.) to ask it to consider ways and means for raising the money. The committee to whom the matter was referred lost no time. On the 9th it reported to the court a scheme for raising the money on the security of the excise and sale of the Bishops’ lands, the security to extend to previous loans. Parliament accepted these terms, on the understanding that "Bishops’ lands" were not to comprise impropriations and advowsons.(743) (M358)