atents 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, w