the personal resentment of the House, and required that every vacancy in the House should be filled up, preparatory to its dissolution and the calling of a new parliament. Monk then marched his forces into the city, and a common council being called, he explained his determination to unite his fortune with theirs. The city thereupon went mad with joy. The bells rung, the soldiers were feasted, rumps were roasted or burnt in bonfires in every street, and the king's health publicly drank. And yet Monk's conduct was a puzzle to everybody. At a meeting at Whitehall, in addressing the members excluded in 1648, he again declared his persuasion that a republican form of government was necessary, to secure and perpetuate the tranquillity of the nation.

SECTION IX.-THE RESTORATION, 1660.

He was

1. The Long Parliament sits again and then dissolves itself, 1660. The secluded members took their seats, Feb. 21; the presbyterian interest being now in the ascendant, all the votes relative to their expulsion in 1648, were annulled. The activity of the House is apparent from the number of changes made in a few days. A new council of state was appointed, in which the royalists possessed most influence; Monk was made commander-in-chief of all the forces of the Commonwealth, and joint commander of the fleet with admiral Montague; Sir George Booth, a number of cavaliers, and the Scottish lords taken after the battle of Worcester were ordered to be discharged; the Presbyterian faith was declared to be that of the Church of England; and copies of the League and Covenant ordered to be hung up in all churches. Monk's game was still a perilous one. compelled to place guards at the doors to prevent the peers from sitting; in the country several ministers prayed for the king in the churches, and the people proclaimed Charles without restraint; the common council declared themselves not averse to the Restoration; and the parliament repealed the "Engagement" which bound them to a Commonwealth, without a single person and House of Peers. All persons concerned in the death of the late king, and the holders of forfeited property, were alarmed; they tried first to tempt the ambition of Monk, and finding him firm, turned to the army with greater success. The officers held councils, and drew up an engagement to oppose the attempts to set up a single person; this was to be signed by Monk and presented to parliament, and it was with the greatest difficulty that the general was able to suppress this paper, which would probably have

ruined all.

The Long Parliament having fixed a day for the meeting of a

new assembly, dissolved itself after an existence, in whole or in part, during nineteen years and a half. Lingard thus remarks on its character:-"For the glorious stand which it made against the encroachments of the crown, it deserves both admiration and gratitude; its subsequent proceedings assumed a more ambiguous character; ultimately they led to anarchy and military despotism. But whatever were its merits or demerits, of both posterity has reaped the benefit. To the first, we are indebted for many of the rights which we now enjoy; by the second, we are warned of the evils which result from political changes effected by violence, and in opposition to the habits and predilections of the people."

2. The Convention Parliament meets and recalls Charles, 1660. It was during the interval between the parliaments that Monk began to throw off the mask. Several efforts had been made before to obtain from him a declaration in favor of Charles, but none succeeded till now, when a common friend brought together Monk and Grenville, the latter having with him a flattering letter from the king. The general admitted his devotion to Charles, pointed out the difficulties of his position, and suggested that the king should forward a conciliatory letter, which, when a proper season presented itself, he would lay before the parliament. In the country, the electors went mostly in favor of the Presbyterians, the greater part of whom were favorable to the restoration of the king, under the limitations proposed in the Treaty of the Isle of Wight. The republicans finding the elections against them, stirred up a spirit of discontent in the army, but Monk had already embodied fourteen thousand of the London militia, and with a commission of lord-general from Charles, was prepared to proclaim the king, if circumstances made it necessary. Lambert, then a prisoner in the Tower, managed to escape, and put himself at the head of the discontented soldiers; in little more than a week he was defeated at Daventry, and again a prisoner.

The Convention Parliament met April 25. The peers, notwithstanding the defect of summons by writ, took their seats, with the exception of those who sat in Charles's parliament at Oxford. On the 1st of May, Grenville applied at the parliament house to see Monk, the general went to the door and received from him a letter, with the royal arms on it. The bearer was ordered in, interrogated, and when they would have committed him to custody, Monk said it was unnecessary, as he would be security for his appearance. There was no further difficulty, both Houses received the letters addressed to them by Charles, aud voted Grenville a present of £500. Three other letters from Charles were received and read publicly; that to the army by Monk, that for the navy by Montague, and that for the city by the lord-mayor; each of

these bodies voted an address of thanks to the king. The stream had now fully turned. The Convention voted, that by the ancient and fundamental laws of the realm, the government was and ought to be, by king, lords, and commons; and that Charles be invited to come and receive the crown. By order of the Convention, the arms of the Commonwealth were ordered to be effaced, the king's name to be introduced into the public worship, and his succession to be dated from the day of his father's death. Attempts were made by Hales, the celebrated chief-justice, and by Prynne, to stay the House in its proceedings, till some limitations should be imposed on the royal power, before the king's accession; to this Monk objected, on the plea that it would open up a fruitful source of discord and delay the settlement of the nation.

On the 8th of May, Charles was proclaimed by order of the parliament, and a deputation of lords and commons sent to the Hague to wait on him. Charles lost no time, but embarked with his followers in the fleet under Montague, and arrived at Dover on the 25th, where he was received by Monk, at the head of the nobility and gentry. Thence his journey to London was one continued triumph, everywhere the people crowded in to show their loyalty, or gratify their curiosity. The king entered the capital on the 29th, and at the close of the day observed to his friends, "It must surely have been my fault that I did not come before; for I have met with no one to-day, who did not protest that he always wished for my restoration"."

3. The Declaration of Breda. April 14, 1660. When Charles despatched the several conciliatory letters to the parliament, the army, and others, he inclosed in those addressed to the two Houses, a paper declaratory of his intentions. This paper, subsequently known as the Declaration of Breda, being dated from that place, was really a royal charter, on the faith of which, Charles was permitted to ascend the throne of his father. With the omission of the preamble, the Declaration runs thus :

:

"We do by these presents declare, That we do grant a free and general Pardon, which we are ready, upon demand, to pass under our Great Seal of England, to all our subjects, of what degree or quality soever, who, within forty days after the publishing hereof, shall lay hold upon this our grace and favor, and shall, by any public act, declare their doing so, and that they return to the loyalty and obedience of good subjects; excepting only such persons as shall hereafter be excepted by parliament, those only to be excepted. Let all our subjects, how faulty soever, rely upon the word of a king, solemnly given by this present Declaration, That no crime whatsoever, committed against us or our royal father before the publication of this, shall ever rise in judgment, or be brought in question, against any of them, to the least endamagement of them, either in their laws, liber

ties, or estates, or (as far as lies in our power) so much as to the prejudice of their reputations, by any reproach or term of distinction from the rest of our best subjects; we desiring and ordaining, that henceforth all notes of discord, separation, and difference of parties be utterly abolished among all our subjects, whom we invite and conjure to a perfect union among themselves, under our protection, for the resettlement of our just Rights and theirs, in a Free Parliament, by which, upon the word of a king, we will be advised.

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And because the passion and uncharitableness of the times have produced several opinions in Religion, by which men are engaged in parties and animosities against each other (which, when they shall hereafter unite in a freedom of conversation, will be composed, or better understood), we do declare a Liberty to tender consciences, and that no man shall be disquieted, or called in question, for differences of opinion in matters of Religion, which do not disturb the peace of the Kingdom; and that we shall be ready to consent to such an act of parliament as, upon mature deliberation, shall be offered to us, for the full granting that indulgence.

"And because, in the continued distractions of so many years, and so many and great revolutions, many grants and purchases of estates have been made to, and by, many officers, soldiers, and others, who are now possessed of the same, and who may be liable to actions at law upon several titles, we are likewise willing that all such differences, and all things relating to such grants, sales, and purchases, shall be determined in parliament; which can best provide for the just satisfaction of all men who are concerned.

"And we do further declare, That we will be ready to consent to any act or acts of parliament to the purposes aforesaid, and for the full satisfaction of all arrears due to the officers and soldiers of the army under the command of general Monk, and that they shall be received into our service upon as good pay and conditions as they now enjoy".

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES.

OLIVER CROMWELL. 1599-1658. Oliver, the Protector, came of an ancient Welsh family, the representative of which was in the service of Henry VII.; a son of this person married the sister of Thomas Cromwell, Earl of Essex, and took the name of Cromwell, alias Williams, the old family name. This brother-in-law of Essex was knighted by Henry VIII, at a tournament, and made one of the visitors of religious houses, receiving for his reward considerable church lands, in and near Cambridge. Henry his son was knighted by Elizabeth, and for his riches called the Golden Knight. A younger son of Henry's named Robert Cromwell was the father of Oliver; his mother was distantly related to the royal House of Stuart. The father of the Protector was evidently a man in respectable circumstances, for he was a member for Huntingdon in the reign of Elizabeth, and a magistrate; later in life he did business as a large brewer. Little is known of the youth of Oliver, except that after obtaining the elements of education at the grammar school of Huntingdon, his native town, he removed at the age of seventeen to Sydney College, Cambridge. Here he remained but a year, for the death of his fa

ther induced his remaining parent to remove him to Lincoln's Inn, with the intention of making law his profession. When he came of age, he married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir James Bourchier of Essex, and about the same time was acknowledged by the Puritans, a professor of religion." It is some proof of his possessing the confidence of his neighbours, that he was a member for Huntingdon, in the third parliament of Charles I.

Quitting the church of England, he sold his property at Huntingdon, and took a grazing farm at St. Ives, where he became a leading man among the Puritans. In 1636, the death of his uncle Sir Thomas Stuart, put him in possession of property in the Isle of Ely, to the amount of five hundred pounds a year. Here he was known as the "Lord of the Fens," on account of the resistance he made to certain persons draining the fens on unreasonable terms. So great did Cromwell's influence become, that in opposition to the court candidate, he was returned in 1610, to the Short and Long Parlia ments, for Cambridge. His presence was not dignified or courtly, neither was his speech ready or polished, yet his great earnestness and sagacious counsels, soon obtained for him a marked position in the House. He was associated in the councils of Hampden, Pym, and the other popular leaders, and the first to contribute in pocket and person to active resistance against the measures of the king. In 1642, he received a captain's commission, and raised a troop of horse in his own country; the efficient condition of the parliamentary forces owed much to him, more particularly the cavalry, known after the battle of Marston Moor as Cromwell's Ironsides. From this point, Cromwell's history need not be narrated here. His death, by a remarkable coincidence, took place on his fortunate day, the 3rd of September. After lying in state at Somerset House, his body was interred in Henry VII's. Chapel, Westminster. By order of Charles II. it was disinterred and hung on the gallows at Tyburn; the head afterwards was fixed upon a pole at Westminster, and the trunk buried at the foot of the gallows.

The character of Cromwell has been variously drawn; by his friends as a saint, by his foes as a monster-"the crafty and insidious traitor wading through bloodshed to exalt himself to a throne". That he was a great man, even his enemies have acknowledged; that he was a good man is open to discussion. His talents for war and government have been allowed by Clarendon and others unfriendly to him, they admit further that he filled the office of Protector with vigor, and re-established the influence of England abroad. But they also charge him with hypocrisy and violence, and it is difficult to disprove it, for his false position made craft and despotism necessary to its support. Lingard sufficiently severe on Cromwell in some points, nevertheless objects to the decision of those writers who maintain that he dissembled in religion as well as in politics. "This supposition is contradicted by the uniform tenor of his life. Long before he turned his attention to the disputes between the king and the parliament, religious enthusiasm had made a deep impression on his mind; it continually manifested itself during his long career, both in the senate and the field; and it was strikingly displayed in his speeches and prayers on the last evening of his life." As party feeling has cooled by the lapse of time, Cromwell's character is better