Page:Works of Thomas Carlyle - Volume 06.djvu/419

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1648]
LETTER LXXVI. EDINBURGH
385

Scotland, and that some of the heads of those Malignants were raising new forces in Scotland to carry on the same design; and that they will certainly be ready to do the like upon all occasions of advantage: And forasmuch as the Kingdom of England hath lately received so great damage by the failing of the Kingdom of Scotland in not suppressing Malignants and Incendiaries as they ought to have done; and in suffering Persons to be put in places of great trust in the Kingdom, who by their interest in the Parliament and the Countries, brought the Kingdom of Scotland so far as they could, by an unjust Engagement, to invade and make War upon their Brethren of England:

“Therefore,” my Lords, I hold myself obliged, in prosecution of my Duty and Instructions, to demand, That your Lordships will give assurance in the name of the Kingdom of Scotland, that you will not admit or suffer any that have been active in, or consenting to, the said Engagement against England, or have lately been in arms at Stirling or elsewhere in the maintenance of that Engagement, to be employed in any public Place or Trust whatsoever. And this is the least security I can demand. I have received an Order from both Houses of the Parliament of England[1], which I hold fit to communicate to your Lordships; whereby you will understand the readiness of the Kingdom of England to assist you who were dissenters from that Invasion; and I doubt not but your Lordships will be as ready to give such farther satisfaction as they in their wisdoms shall find cause to desire. Your Lordships’ most humble servant,

OLIVER CROMWELL.[2]

This was presented on Thursday to the Dignitaries sitting in the Laigh Parliament-House in the City of Edinburgh. During which same day came, ‘the Lord Provost to pay his respects’ at Moray House; came ‘old Sir William Dick,’ an

  1. Votes of September 28th; Commons Journals, vi. 37: ‘received the day we entered Edinburgh’ (Rushworth, ubi supra).
  2. King’s Pamphlets, small 4to, no. 392, § 19: Printed by order of Parliament.