He foresaw that the queen's concession to the Scots in an affair of such consequence, would furnish his enemies with a plausible pretence to arraign the conduct of her minister; but he chose to run that risk rather than see the army disbanded for want of a supply, and the kingdom left exposed to an invasion.

He therefore seconded the advice of the Scottish ministers; and the queen authorized the commissioner to pass the bill that was depending.

The act provided, that in case of the queen's dying without issue a parliament should immediately meet and declare the successor to the crown, different from the person possessing the throne of England, unless before that period a settlement should be made in parliament of the rights and liberties of the nation, independent of English councils; by another clause they were empowered to arm and train the subjects, so as to put them in a posture of defence.

The Scottish parliament having, by a laudable exertion of spirit, obtained this act of security, granted the supply without further hesitation; but not yet satisfied with this sacrifice, they engaged in debates about the conspiracy, and the proceedings of the house of lords in England, which they termed an officious intermeddling in their concerns, and an encroachment upon the sovereignty and independency of the nation, They drew up an address to the queen, desiring that the evidence and papers relating to the plot might be subjected to their examination in the next session.

Meanwhile, the commissioner, dreading the further progress of such an ungovernable ferocity, prorogued the parliament to the seventh day of October.
The act of security being transmitted to England, copies of it were circulated by the enemies of Godolphin, who represented it as a measure of that minister; and the kingdom was filled with murmurs and discontent.