In the north, during the summer, the Marquis of Newcastle was opposed by Sir Thomas, son of Lord Fairfax, and Oliver Cromwell, two officers who were at this time rising fast into distinction. But the advan tages which were gained by the former at Wakefield, in defeating and making a prisoner General Goring, and by the latter at Gainsborough over General Cavendish, who fell in the action, were more than compensated by the rout of Lord Fairfax at Atherton Moor, (on the 3Ist of July) and the dispersion of his whole army. After this victory, the Marquis of Newcastle sat down before Hull with an army of 15,000 men, but, being beat off by a sally of the garrison, lie suffered so much that he thought proper to raise the siege. About the time Manchester had advanced from the eastern asso ciated counties, and joined Cromwell; and young Fair fax obtained a considerable victory over the royalists at Horne Castle, where the conduct and gallantry of the two rising associates were eminently displayed. Though fortune thus balanced her favours, the king's party were still superior in the north ; and, had not the garrison of Hull kept Yorkshire in awe, they might have joined their forces with those in the south. The drawn battle of Newbury put an end to the campaign of 1643, by obliging both parties to retire into winter quarters.
While the king's arms were, unhappily for his own cause, diverted from London against Gloucester, the parliament was not without alarm from divisims in the metropolis itself. Distinguished as the war had been, most honourably for the English name, by mutual cle mency in the field, it was not possible for the new go vernment to maintain itself, without arresting numbers of those who were convicted or suspected of royalty: and we need not wonder that the jails were full, and. the very ships in the river converted into prisons. But the zeal of the followers of parliament was not univer sal. Wall( r. already mentioned in the wars, an elegant poet, an eloquent speaker in parliament, and a man of great influence from his persuasive address, was in duced, either by treachery, or disgust at his party, to project an association in the city for refusing the par liamentary taxes, and obtaining peace with the king. The design was detected. Tomkins, the brother-in law of the poet, and Chaloncr, the friend of Tomkins, suffered death, while Waller saved his own life by con fessions not much to his honour, and his sentence was at last changed to a fine of 10,0001.
As Scotland could not be indifferent to the issue of the present contest, so neither party could be indiffer ent to the prospect of her aid. When hostilities had first commenced in England, offers of mediation, which had before been advanced, were renewed by the Scot tish council, and by the commissioners whom the late Scottish parliament had appointed as conservators of peace between the two countries, of whom a body pre cceded to Oxford. But the royalists refused them a
passport to London to try their mediation with the English parliament; they refused them a parliament in Scotland, and dismissed them with indignation.
Instead of a triennial parliament, which could not be anticipated in Scotland, a convention of estates was sum moned by the council and conservators of the peace. The object of their assembling was soon announced by their impatient expectation of commissioners from Eng land. These arrived from the English parliament in the June of 1643, when the state of the republican arms made it necessary to implore the fraternal aid of the Scots. The commissioner chiefly trusted among them was Vane, a man who, in an age distinguished for ac tive talents, had no equal in eloqence, address, and dis simulation. By his persuasion, was framed at Edin burgh, that solemn league and covenant, which effaced all former protestations and vows taken in both king doms, and long maintained its credit and authority. In this covenant, the subscribers, besides engaging mutual ly to defend each other against all opponents, bound themselves to endeavour, without respect of persons, the extirpation of popery and prelacy, superstition, heresy, schism, and prolaneness, to maintain the rights and privileges of parliaments, together with the king'3 authority, and to bring to justice all incendiaries and nza lignants. The subscribers of the covenant vowed also to preserve the reformed religion, as established in the church of Scotland ; but, by the artifice of Vane, no de claration more explicit was made, with regard to Eng land and Ireland, than that these kingdoms should be reformed according to the word of God, and the exam ple of the purest churches. The Scottish zealots, when prelacy was abjured, took it for granted, from this ex pression, that their own church was to be the model. But the able politician Vane had other views; and while he laughed at their simplicity, had devoted himself to the maintenance of systems still more dangerous. The solemn league and covenant was received in the Scottish convention and kirk assembly with enthusiasm and tears of joy, and transmitted to the English parliament and as sembly of divines at Westminster, where it was receiv ed with the same applause, and ordained in both king doms to be universally subscribed. By a treaty with the Scottish convention, 21,000 Scotch were to be re tained in arms at the expense of England, to be led by their own generals, and to receive orders from a com mittee of both kingdoms. No terms of peace were to be concluded without the concurrence of the Scotch, who were to evacuate England at the conclusion of the war.