had been experienced from the absence of the great seal, the application of which was held by the lawyers necessary to give validity to several descriptions of writs.  Of this benefit the two houses and their adherents were deprived, while the king on his part was able to issue patents and commissions in the accustomed form.  To remedy the evil, the Commons had voted a new seal;[a] the Lords demurred; but at last their consent was extorted:[b] commissioners were appointed to execute the office of lord keeper, and no fewer than five hundred writs were sealed in one day. 2.  The public administration of justice had been suspended for twelve months.  The king constantly adjourned the terms from Westminster to Oxford, and the two houses as constantly forbade the judges to go their circuits during the vacations.  Now, however, under the authority of the new seal, the courts were opened.  The commissioners sat in Chancery, and three judges, all that remained with the parliament, Bacon, Reeve, and Trevor, in those of the King’s Bench, the Common Pleas, and the Exchequer. 3.  The prosecution of the judges on account of their opinions in the case of the ship-money was resumed.  Of those who had been impeached, two remained, Berkeley and Trevor.  The first was fined in twenty, the second in six, thousand pounds.  Berkeley obtained the remission of a moiety of the fine, and both were released from the imprisonment to which they were adjudged.[1]

Ever since the beginning of the troubles, a thorough understanding had existed between the chief of the Scottish Covenanters, and the principal of the English

[Footnote 1:  Lords’ Journals, vi. 214, 252, 264, 301, 318.  Commons’ Journals, May 15; July 5; Sept. 28.  Rushworth, v. 144, 145, 339, 342, 361.]

[Sidenote a:  A.D. 1643.  July 15.] [Sidenote b:  A.D. 1643.  Oct. 11.]

reformers.  Their views were similar; their object the same.  The Scots had, indeed, fought and won; but they held the fruit of their victory by a doubtful tenure, as long as the fate of their “English brethren” depended on the uncertain chances of war.  Both policy and religion prompted them to interfere.  The triumph of the parliament would secure their own liberties; it might serve to propagate the pure worship of their kirk.  This had been foreseen by the Scottish royalists, and Montrose, who by the act against the plotters was debarred from all access to the king, took advantage of the queen’s debarkation at Burlington to visit her at York.  He pointed out to her the probability of the Scottish Covenanters sending their army to the aid of the parliament, and offered to prevent the danger by levying in Scotland an army of ten thousand royalists.  But he was opposed by his enemy the marquess of Hamilton, who deprecated the arming of Scot against Scot, and engaged on his own responsibility to preserve the peace between the Scottish people and their sovereign.  His advice, prevailed; the royalists in Scotland were ordered to follow him as their leader; and, to keep him true to the royal interest, the higher title of duke was conferred upon him.[1]