government is in king, lords, and commons, and that therefore their prince should be invited to come and receive the crown." Some prudent men, such as Sir Matthew Hale, remembering the character of the Stuarts, desired that some conditions should be made for the security of the national religion and liberties, before the recall of Charles; but their voices were drowned in the almost universal delight with which the nation hailed the restoration of their king. A fleet was sent to convey Charles from Holland, and he landed on the 29th of May, his birthday. The cliffs of Dover were covered by thousands of gazers, among whom scarcely one could be found who was not weeping with delight. The journey to London was a continued triumph. The whole road from Rochester was bordered by booths and tents, and looked like an interminable fair. Every where flags were flying, bells and music sounding; wine and ale flowed in rivers to the health of him whose return was thought to be the return of peace, of law, and of freedom. So universal was the joy that Charles said, "Surely it must have been my own fault that I did not come before; for I have met with no one to-day who did not protest that he had always wished for my restoration."

CHAP. XXX.

CHARLES II. 1660-1685.

ON the accession of Charles, the government returned naturally to the state in which it was before 1642. Charles was declared to have been king from the

moment of his father's death, and thus, in 1660, was already in the twelfth year of his reign. All the acts which had received the royal assent previous to the breaking out of the civil war were confirmed. Every one agreed that the Star Chamber and High Commission were gone for ever. The splendid army that for fourteen years had been the real governor of England was disbanded. "Fifty thousand men, accustomed to the profession of arms, were at once thrown on the world; and experience seemed to warrant the belief that this change would produce much misery and crime, that the discharged veterans would be seen begging in every street, or would be driven by hunger to pillage. But no such result followed. In a few months there remained not a trace that the most formidable army in the world had just been absorbed into the mass of the community. The royalists themselves confessed that, in every department of honest industry, the discarded warriors prospered beyond other men; that none was charged with any theft or robbery; that none was heard to ask an alms; and that, if a baker, a mason, or a waggoner attracted notice by his diligence and sobriety, he was in all probability one of Oliver's old soldiers." * But the remembrance of the military tyranny of the preceding period long lingered in England, and the very name of a standing army was hateful to the nation.

Considerable difficulty was felt in adjusting the claims of the restored cavaliers and courtiers to the lands confiscated by the late government; and many royalists, who had sold all they possessed to supply the king, and

* Macaulay's History of England, vol. i. p. 154.

equip his troops, were disappointed and discontented, because the purchasers from the Parliament were not ejected from what they considered their ill-gotten estates.

The Church of England had suffered much for the king. The royalists thought it ought to be restored to its original form and possessions; but the Convention Parliament, being composed in great measure of Presbyterians, wished several modifications to be introduced, which would allow the Puritans conscientiously to join its communion. These modifications Charles had consented to, in the declaration issued by him at Breda before his recall.

One measure of this Parliament gave satisfaction to both parties this was the abolition by law of all the oppressive feudal incidents, the relics of a barbarous age, which weighed so heavily on the possessors of land. These abuses had perished with the monarchy. They were now solemnly abolished by statute, and no relic of the ancient tenures in chivalry was suffered to remain, except those honorary services which are still at a coronation rendered to the person of the sovereign by some lords of manors. From this time every landed proprietor was able to devise the whole of his lands by his will, which he could not do before.

As the king had been recalled by many of the members of the Long Parliament, he had promised to give an indemnity for all past offences, except only to such as had been personally engaged in the death of his father. Ten of the regicides were excepted from the king's mercy, and executed, glorying at death in the act they had done, and regarding themselves as the martyrs of liberty. A more unworthy revenge

was taken on the dead. Cromwell was no more; and those who had fled before him were forced to content themselves with the miserable satisfaction of digging up, hanging, quartering, and burning the remains of the greatest prince that has ever ruled England. The same dishonour was done to the remains of his son-inlaw Ireton, and to Blake, the great admiral of the Commonwealth.

A new Parliament was called in 1661. At the elections, the people, enthusiastic in their recovered loyalty, returned as their representatives men who had fought for the Crown and the Church, and whose minds had been exasperated by many insults and injuries suffered at the hands of the Roundheads. This Parliament, and nearly the whole people, now detested the name and manners of the party which had lately ruled England. They were determined that no concessions should be made to the Puritans; for they associated their religion with gloomy bigotry, and hatred of sports and amusements of every kind.

The character of Charles corresponded with the present temper of the nation. He had lived much abroad at immoral foreign courts, and had acquired licentious habits, and a love of frivolous amusements. He was without the slightest religious principle; and, having no virtue himself, was without faith in that of others. He thought every man had his price, and was to be bought. His social qualities, good humour, and affability pleased the populace, who are delighted when they see the great unbend.

His notions of government were different from those of his father and grandfather. He did not believe in

the divine right of kings; but he was anxious to be as absolute a ruler as Louis of France; not that he cared for power, but that he might have an unlimited command of wealth to supply his pleasures, and reward his unworthy favourites.

His chief adviser during the first five years of his reign was Lord Clarendon, who had been his fellow exile. Clarendon was an able man, a good lawyer, with exalted notions of the royal prerogative, and a firm adherent of the Church of England. The first acts passed by his influence in the Parliament of 1661 acknowledged the supremacy of the king, and declared that in no extremity whatever could the Parliament be justified in withstanding him by force; and it was further enacted, that all officers of corporations should swear that they held resistance to the king's authority to be in all cases unlawful.

То

The same Parliament ordered the Solemn League and Covenant to be burned by the common hangman. The bishops were restored to their seats in the House of Lords, and the old ecclesiastical polity and the old Liturgy were restored, without any modification. these acts Charles, in direct violation of his word, gave his consent. On St. Bartholomew's Day, 1662, more than two thousand of the most pious and learned ministers in England, whose consciences did not suffer them to conform to the Church by law established, were driven from their benefices, and left destitute of any means of subsistence. They were even persecuted after their resignation. It was made a crime by the Conventicle Act to attend a dissenting meetinghouse. A justice of the peace, without a jury, might