[A1641/7/18]¹

[Letter from the parliament to their commissioners at London]

Letter from the parliament of Scotland to their commissioners at London, 30 July 1641²

Right honourable,

The letter from you to the general, showing the desire of the English for disbanding the army and delay of payment of the £80,000, was sent to us by his excellency, to which we have returned these enclosed instructions subscribed by our president at our command, which you are to observe as the rule of your proceedings regarding these points, and are the utmost to which we can stretch ourselves without insufferable prejudice. We have expressed the same briefly, and only touched some considerations which you are to expand in the expression and confirm by further arguments our desire to retain at Newcastle 7,000 or 8,000 foot and 1,000 horses until the payment of the £80,000 is grounded, upon the general necessity that all the army must be paid before their disbanding, and the particular consideration that the same £80,000 being computed with the £120,000 of bygone arrears will answer very near in proportion to the payment of the said 7,000 or 8,000 foot and 1,000 horses and the arrears to the payment of the rest of the army which is to retire in case the English embrace that part of the alternative. The other particulars of your letter to [Alexander Leslie of Balgonie], general, regarding the accounts, damages and losses, we remit to the answer to be sent to you by him, and to the former three letters written to you relating thereto, the one by us, the other by his excellency and the third by those who were appointed for us to meet with the English upon these accounts with the English, for it is impossible to us to set down an express reason against every particular demand. So recommending all particulars to your care, we rest,

Your loving friends, Edinburgh, 30 July 1641.

We have sent you a commission for examination of witnesses against incendiaries, which you must use according to the instructions to be sent you by the procurators.

30 July 1641

Read and approved in parliament and ordered to be subscribed, 30 July 1641.³