THE LAST ANSWER February 22. of the LONDON and SCOTS COMMISSIONERS, TO HIS majesties Commissioners at Uxbridge; WITH HIS majesties said Commissioners last Reply, being a Summary of the whole TREATY.  
OXFORD, Printed by LEONARD LICHFIELD, Printer to the University. 1644.   

The last Answer of the London and Scots Commissioners to His MAJESTIES Commissioners at Uxbridge. 22. February 1644.  
YOur Lordships Papers of the 1, 3, and 10, of February, whether We had any Instructions concerning His Majesties Propositions and power to Treat for a Cessation, as also your Papers of the 14, and 20, of February, concerning His Majesties Letter for an addition of Time to this Treaty, with your Lordships desire there vpon, have been by us sent up to both Houses of Parliament from time to time as We received them, together with our Answer given to them, and in our Answers we have from time to time declared to your Lordships, That when the Houses shall be satisfied in the good progress of the Treaty, upon their Propositions concerning Religion, Militia, and Ireland, they will give an addition of time for the Treaty: And we do conceive that if your Lordships Answers to our demands concerning Religion, the Militia, and Ireland, had been such as to have given satisfaction in the good progress of this Treaty mutually consented for 20. dayes, upon the said Propositions, We should have before this been enabled with power to continue the Treaty, as well upon His Majesties as the rest of the Propositions: But your Lordships having not given full and satisfactory answers concerning Religion, the Militia and Ireland, you cannot, for the reasons above mentioned, expect an addition of time, neither have we received any Instructions to continue this Treaty longer then the 20 dayes, of which this is the last: And as for your Lordships safe Conduct, we conceive the three sundays last past being not accounted any dayes of the Treaty, so this next Sunday is not to be esteemed one of the two dayes allowed after the Treaty in your Lordships safe Conduct, but your Lordships are to have two dayes besides this next Lords-day.   

The Reply of His MAJESTIES Commissioners to the said Answer of the London and Scots Commissioners.  
WE cannot express the great sadness of our hearts, that all our earnest endeavours to give your Lordships satisfaction in all particulars of this Treaty, have produced no better effects towards a blessed Peace, which His Majesty, and we who are trusted by him, do so hearty pray for, and that so many and great offers made by us to your Lordships in the particulars we have treated upon, should not be thought a good progress on our part in the said Treaty, as we find by your Lordships last paper( to our great grief) they are not; and therefore that this must be the last day of the Treaty, we desire your Lordships to consider that we being entrusted by His Majesty to Treat with your Lordships for a safe and well grounded Peace, have upon the matter of your Lordships Propositions, consented to so many particulars and alterations of very great importance, and that your Lordships, who were to Treat with us, have not abated one tittle of the most severe and rigorous of your Propositions, saving what you were pleased the last night to propose in the point of time concerning the Militia, which though it seems to be limited to seven yeares, in truth leaves it as unlimited as it was before in your Propositions, for at the end of seven years it must not be exercised otherwise then shall be settled by His Majesty and the two Houses of Parliament: so that all the legal power now in His Majesty is taken away, and not restored after the seven years expired. Nor have your Lordships offered to us any prospect towards Peace, other then by submitting totally to those Propositions the which if we should do, we should consent to such alterations as by constructions and consequences may dissolve the whole frame of the present Government, both ecclesiastical and Civill, in this kingdom. And though the particulars proposed by your Lordships have by debate appeared not only evidently unreasonable, but literally considered, to comprehend things, to be extended to powers not intended by yourselves, yet your Lordships have not been pleased either to restrain or interpret any particular in any other manner, then is set forth in the said Propositions.  
In the matter of Religion we have offered all such alterations as we conceive may give satisfaction to any objections that have been or can be made against that Government, and have given your Lordships reasons not only why we cannot consent to your Lordships Propositions, but that even those Propositions, if consented to, could not be in order to a Reformation, or to the procuring the public Peace. And we must desire your Lordships to remember, that though you do not only in your Covenant( which you require may be taken by His Majesty & enjoined to be taken by all His Subjects) undertake the Reformation in point of Government, but even in point of Doctrine too, thereby laying an imputation upon the Religion itself, so long professed in this Kingdom with the general approbation of all reformed Churches; yet your Lordships have not given us the least argument, nor so much as intimated in your debate, the least Prejudice to the Doctrine of the Church of England, against which we presume you cannot make any colourable objection, nor have you given us the view in particular of the Government you desire should be submitted to, in the place of that you propose to be abolished; & therefore we propose to your Lordships, if the alterations proposed by us do not give your Lordships satisfaction, that so great an alteration as the total abolition of a Government established by Law, may for the importance of it, and any reformation in Doctrine, for the scandal of it, be suspended, till, after the disbanding of all Armies, His Majesty may be present with the two Houses of Parliament, and calling a national Synod, may receive such advice both from the one and the other, as in a matter of so high concernment is necessary; And we are most confident that His Majesty will then follow the advice which shall be given him. And as any Reformation thus regularly and calmly made, must needs prove for the singular benefit and Honour of the kingdom, so we must appeal to your Lordships, whether the contrary, that is an alteration even to things though in themselves good, can, by the principles of Christian Religion, be enforced upon the King or Kingdom?  
In the business of the Militia, though your Lordships do not deny that the jealousies and apprehensions of danger are mutual, and that the chief end of depositing the Militia in the hands of certain Persons, is for security against those jealousies and possible dangers, yet your Lordships insist, That all those Persons to be entrusted shall be nominated by the two Houses of Parliament in England, and the Estates of the Parliament in Scotland, and that the time for that great general, and unheard of Trust, shall be in such manner, that though it seem to be limited to seven yeares, yet in truth after those seven yeares, it shall not be otherwise exercised then His Majesty and the two Houses of Parliament shall agree, and His Majesty may thereby be totally, and for ever divested of the power of the Sword, without which He can neither defend himself against foreign Invasions, or domestic Insurrections, or execute His Kingly Office in the behalf of His Subjects, to whom He is sworn to give Protection: And to both these your Lordships add the introducing a Neighbour Nation, governed by distinct and different laws( though united under one sovereign) to a great share in the Government of this kingdom. Instead of consenting to these Changes we have offered and proposed to your Lordships, That the Persons to be Trusted with the Militia of the Kingdom, may be nominated between us; or if that were refused, That an equal number shall be name by you, and the other number by His Majesty, and that half the Forts and places of strength within the Kingdom shall be in the custody of those whom you think fit to be trusted therewith, and the other half in such hands as his Majesty please to commit the same to. And all persons, as well those nominated by your Lordships, as by His Majesty, to take an oath for the due discharge of the said trust, which being considered as the security is mutual, so neither part can be supposed to violate the agreement, without very evident inconvenience and danger to that part who shall so violate it, the whole kingdom being likely and indeed obliged to look upon whosoever shall in the least degree violate this agreement, as the Fathers of all the miseries which the kingdom shall thereby suffer. And as it is most reasonable, that for this security His Majesty should part with so much of his own power as may make him even unable to break the agreement, which should be now made by him and on his part, so it is most necessary, that all apprehension & danger of such breach being over, that sovereign power of the Militia should revert into the proper channel, and be, as it hath always been, in His majesties proper & peculiar charge And therefore we have proposed that the time limited for that trust, should be for three years, which by the blessing of God will produce a perfect understanding between His Majesty and all His people; and if there should be any thing else necessary to be done in this argument, either for power or time, that the same be considered after the settlement of Peace in Parliament, but whatever is now or hereafter shall be thought necessary to be done, we desire may be so settled that this Kingdom may depend upon itself and not be subject to the laws or advice of Scotland, as we think fit that Scotland should not receive rules or advice from this, having offered the like for Scotland as for England.  
In the business of Ireland your Lordships propose not only, that His Majesty disclaim and make void the Cestation made by royal Authority, and at the desires of the Lords Iustices & council of that kingdom, and for the preservation of the remainder of His poor Protestant Subjects there, who were in evident danger of destruction, both by Famine and the Sword, but also to put the whole managery of that war and disposal of the Forces within that Kingdom, and consequently the Government of that kingdom, into the hands of the Scots general, to be managed by the advice of a joint Committee of both kingdoms, wherein each should have a Negative Voice; In Answer to which, we have acquainted your Lordships with the just grounds of His Majesties proceedings in the business of Ireland, which we are confident being weighed without prejudice, may satisfy all men of His Majesties Piety & Iustice therein, And we are very ready & desirous to join with your Lordships in any course which may probably preserve and restore that miserable Kingdom.  
Having put your Lordships in mind of these particulars, as they have a general reference to the public good of the kingdoms, we beseech your Lordships to consider, that we have this great Trust reposed in us by His Majesty, and to remember how far these Propositions trench upon His peculiar Kingly Rights, without any, or any considerable recompense or compensation.  
In the business of Religion, your Lordships propose the taking away His whole ecclesiastical jurisdiction, His Donations, and Temporalties of bishoprics, His first Fruits, and Tenths of Bishops, deans and Chapters, instead whereof your Lordships do not offer to constitute the least dependence of the Clergy upon His Majesty; and for that so considerable a part of His Revenue you propose onely the Bishops Lands to be settled on His Majesty,( reserving a power to dispose even those Lands as you shall think fit) whereas all the Lands both of Bishops, deans and Chapters( if those Corporations must be dissolved) do undoubtedly belong to His Majesty in His own Right.  
In the business of the Militia, as it is proposed, His Majesty is so totally divested of the regal Power of the Sword, that He shall be no more able, either to assist any of His Allies with aid, though men were willing to engage themselves voluntarily in that Service, or to defend His own Dominions from Rebellion or Invasion, and consequently the whole power of Peace and war( the acknowledged and undoubted Right of the crown) is taken from Him.  
In the business of Ireland, the power of nominating His lieutenant, or Deputy, or other Officers there, of managing, directing, or in the least manner of meddling in that war, or of making a Peace, is proposed to be taken from Him; and to add to all these attempts upon His Kingly Rights, it is proposed to bereave Him of the power of a Father, Education and Marriage of His own Children, and of a Master in the rewarding His own Servants; And therefore we refer it to your Lordships, whether it be possible for us, with a good Conscience and discharge of the Trust reposed in us, to Consent to the Propositions made to us by your Lordships? Lastly, we must observe to your Lordships, That after a war of near four yeares, for which the Defence of the Protestant Religion, the Liberty and Property of the Subject, and the privileges of Parliament were made the cause and grounds, in a Treaty of Twenty dayes, nor indeed in the whole Propositions upon which the Treaty should be, there hath been nothing offered to be Treated concerning the breach of any Law, or of the Liberty or Property of the Subject, or privilege of Parliament: but onely Propositions for the altering a Government Established by Law, and for the making new laws by which almost all the old are, or may be canceled; and there hath been nothing insisted on of our part which was not Law, or denied by us, that you have demanded, as due by Law.  
All these things being considered, and being much afflicted that our great hope and expectation of a Peace, for the present frustrated by your Lordships Declaration, that no more time will be allowed for this Treaty, we are earnest Suitors to your Lordships, that you will interpose with the two Houses, to whom we believe, you have transmitted the Answers delivered by us to your Lordships upon Religion, the Militia and Ireland, That this Treaty, though for the present discontinued may be revived, and the whole matter of their Propositions, and those sent to them by His Majesty, which have not yet been Treated on, may be considered, and that depending that Treaty, to the end we may not Treat in blood, there may be a Cessation of arms, and that the poor People of this kingdom, now exposed to coverings, and spoils, and other direful effects of war, may have some earnest of a blessed Peace. And because this Treaty is now expiring, if your Lordships cannot give a present Resolution, we desire when you have represented this to the two Houses, His Majesty may speedily receive their Answer.  
FINIS.