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For the right honourable the committee of estates of the kingdom of Scotland met at Edinburgh
May it please your lords,
This day we have received your lords' letter of 19 December, wherein, for our direction in the managing of affairs, you do refer to the instructions given by you on 6 December, but the state of affairs being much altered from what it was supposed by your lords to be when these instructions were framed, both in relation to the condition of the king and the houses of parliament, to whom we are directed by our commission and instructions to make our addresses, we have found it necessary for us, by this express, to add this further account of the state of affairs to what your lords have already received, and, upon the whole, to crave your lords' particular directions.
Upon the 6 December, the army having sent some forces to the houses of parliament, did by officers appointed for that purpose seize upon the persons of above 40 members of the house of commons and denied to set them at liberty again, though it was twice desired by order from the members that were permitted to sit, who also refused to act until this force was removed and their members set at liberty. The following day about 50 or 60 of those who were permitted to sit the day before were by force debarred from entering the house. Some did forebear to come to the house, that they might avoid imprisonment, and others abstained because they will not sit in the house as long as it is under force. What the number in total may be we know not, but we have sent your lords a list of those who were imprisoned and of others appointed to be debarred from entering into the house, which does amount to around 200, yet no charge has been given in against them. There was a paper given in by the army to the house, wherein it was affirmed that it appeared upon a division of the house that around 90 were against declaring the Scots who invaded this kingdom enemies, but upon trial and search of the books, it was found that the house was not at all divided about that question. The number of those who now sit in the house is usually between 40 and 50 and sometime between 50 and 60, amongst which number we have few or no friends. We have also sent a list of their names who were once imprisoned and are now at liberty but do not come to the house.
Amongst the lords [Algernon Percy], earl of Northumberland, [Edward Montagu], earl of Manchester, [William Fiennes], lord Saye [and Sele] and others forebear to come to the house of peers, and the number who do come is usually three or four of these six, namely: [Philip Herbert, earl of] Pembroke, [Basil Feilding, earl of] Denbigh, [Charles Howard, earl of] Nottingham, [Henry Grey, earl of] Kent, [Edmund Sheffield, earl of] Mulgrave and [Sir William Grey, lord] Grey of Wark. Upon Friday 11 December, a private fast was kept in the house of commons, after which, all former votes relating to a treaty with the king and the ordinance concerning the militia were revoked. Upon Friday last, they had another fast, which they kept publicly in the little church in Westminster, and the next day this vote for proceeding against the king and other capital offenders passed, there being few above a quorum present. A committee of 38 was first appointed to consider of the way of proceeding, but after so many were named, the whole house was appointed to be of the committee, as will appear to your lords by the copy of the vote herewith sent. Some say they will proceed to the trial of the king by a commission from both houses under the great seal, but the debate of the committee, as we are informed, tended most to a proceeding against him as a prisoner of war by a court martial. He was brought to Windsor on Saturday last at night.
We have also sent your lords a paper called The Agreement of the People, which generally for the substance, we hear, is approved by the council of war. The greatest alteration we can learn of is in that part of it which is called 'The First Reserve' and relates to matters of religion, concerning which there has been much debate between the Levellers and others, and at length is thus composed: that the representatives shall have power in things natural and civil, and those only. The word 'moral' was once offered but upon the question was rejected, because it might be supposed to extend to matters of religion, which is equivalent to an universal toleration. Your lords will likewise receive Mr Ashhurst's observations in print upon that Agreement.
We have further to represent to your lords that if we shall be silent at these things, it will be taken as an approbation of them, or at the best will be understood to be a compliance with the army's proceedings upon private and underhand agreements; and upon the other part, if we make addresses to the lords and commons who are permitted to sit and acknowledge them to be the houses of parliament, it will be looked upon by others as a wronging of the cause and a breach of the covenant, which obliges us to preserve the rights and privileges of the parliaments and liberties of the kingdoms, unless it be done with a salvo to the privileges of parliament and taking notice of the force upon the houses. In these difficult and ticklish affairs, which are of so great importance and dangerous consequence to religion and to the peace and union between the kingdoms, we have judged it most necessary for us to desire your lords' speedy and positive directions upon the whole particulars represented. In expectation whereof, we rest,
Your lords' most humble servants, Covent Garden, 22 December 1648, [William Kerr, earl of] Lothian; John Chiesley [of Kersewell]; W[illiam] Glendinning [of Gelstoun]
In the list of members which we have sent, we desire your lords to observe that all those who are marked with a cross were designed by the army to imprisonment, and those who are marked with an 'O' are now released.
The letters from Newcastle came here yesterday, but the letters from Edinburgh came not until this day.
Met at Edinburgh, 5 January 1649
Produced by [John Campbell, earl of Loudoun], lord chancellor, and read in audience of the parliament.