two kingdoms? So argued the Scots with the English Commissioners; and,
that the English Commissioners might see what was meant, Alexander
Henderson, who was probably the author of the idea, and to whom, at any
rate, the preparation of any extremely important document was always
entrusted, produced a draft of the proposed Covenant. The English
Commissioners did not altogether like this draft; but, after a good deal
of discussion, and apparently some suggestions from Vane tending to
vagueness in the religious part and greater prominence of the civil, the
draft was modified into a shape in which it was agreed to unanimously. On
the 17th of August it was reported by Henderson to the General Assembly,
and passed there not only unanimously and with applause, but with a most
unusual show of emotion among old and young; and on the same day it
passed the Scottish Convention. "This seems to be a new period and crise
of the most great affair," writes Baillie, recording these facts.
[Footnote: Acts of Scottish General Assembly of 1644; Baillie's Letters,
II. 81-90; Burnet's Hamiltons, 298-307.]

Baillie was right. THE SOLEMN LEAGUE AND COVENANT, as Henderson's amended
document of August 1643 was called (not the same thing at all, it is to
be remembered, as the SCOTTISH NATIONAL COVENANT of 1638, though
generally confounded therewith), became a most potent instrument in
England. This, however, could not be foreseen at first. It remained to be
seen whether the English Parliament would adopt the document which had
been agreed to by their Commissioners in Edinburgh. In the faith that
they would, or that they might be induced to do so, the Scottish General
Assembly, before its rising (Aug. 19), not only sent cordial and
sympathetic answers to the letters received from the Parliament and the
Westminster Divines, but also complied with that request of the
Parliament which desired the nomination of some Scottish ministers to be
members of the Westminster Assembly. The ministers nominated were