sioners should proceed to London to negotiate with the army there. Contrary to Monk's instructions, these commissioners concluded a treaty with the Committee of Safety, by which the government was left in the administration of a Council of Officers, no provision was made for the recall of the parliament, and Monk's own appointment of officers was to be revised. Great indignation was excited in Monk's army, and it was resolved that the treaty should not be ratified. Nine members of the old Council of State that had been thrust from office by the army now resolved to make common cause with Monk. He had marched to Berwick, with six thousand infantry, and four regiments of cavalry. He now fixed his head-quarters at Coldstream, where he could easily cross the Tweed. The people of England were universally discontented, refusing to pay taxes, and shouting for a free parliament. The fleet declared that they would obey no authority, but that of the parliament. The various leaders, civil and military, were fiercely quarrelling. Some even of the republicans talked of the restoration of the king. At last it was resolved to call a new parliament. On the 15th of December, a proclamation was issued, summoning a parliament to meet on the 24th of January. But the necessity for some immediate authority, beyond that of the Council of Officers, becoming manifest, it was resolved to restore the expelled parliament. On the 26th of December, forty members, with the Speaker at their head, again entered the House. A contest took place the instant Lenthall had taken the chair. Twenty-three of the members who had been excluded in 1648, demanded admittance, as they had previously demanded on the 7th of May. The House resolved to take the business of the absent members into consideration on the 5th of January. They withdrew to abide their time. Lambert was at Newcastle, and Monk at Coldstream. But Fairfax, who had been in correspondence with Monk, assembled his friends and dependents; and some of Lambert's officers joined him with their men. He entered York, and was welcomed by the cavaliers of that city. Lambert marched to attack Fairfax, and Monk crossed the Tweed to support him. When Monk reached Newcastle he found Lambert's army disbanded. He went on to York, and saw Fairfax. But he maintained a strict reserve as to his future plans. He had now taken his determination to march to London. With four regiments of foot and three of horse he went on amidst popular acclamations. But he would enter into no promises or make any special demonstration. On the 3rd of February, he reached London, and was lodged in Whitehall. For two days the capital had been in uproar. The regiments that had been ordered to march, had refused to obey. The apprentices were parading the city in formidable bands, crying out for "a free parliament." The lord mayor, aldermen, and common council of London, had voted that they would pay no taxes, but such as were imposed by a free parliament. The Council of State sent for Monk, and proposed that the common council should be forbidden to sit, the gates of the city broken down, the portcullises wedged up, and the chains across the streets removed. All the material means of resistance were to be destroyed. Monk said that he would do these things if they would give the order. The order was given, and executed amidst the indignation of the people. The same evening, the 10th, Monk

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OVERTURES TO CHARLES II.

381

called a council of his officers; and they agreed upon a letter to parliament, expressing the public grievances, and requiring them to satisfy the nation's just demands before a certain day. This letter, which was of the boldest character, threw the Parliament into consternation. When Monk told the common council what he had done, Guildhall resounded with cries of "God bless your Excellency." Monk had determined that the secluded members, who were chiefly of the Presbyterian party, should now be admitted to parliament. On the 21st of February, he sent an escort of his soldiers to accompany a body of them to the House of Commons, having previously read them a speech, in which he formally declared for a Commonwealth. When they took their seats the greatest heats were exhibited; and some of the Republicans withdrew from the House. The restored members immediately became a majority in parliament; appointed Monk general-in-chief; formed a new Council of State; and superseded sheriffs, justices of the peace, and militia officers, who were supporters of republican institutions. The Covenant was again to be promulgated; the Confession of Faith of the Assembly of Divines to be adopted; the penal laws against Catholics, which Cromwell rarely put into force, were to be called into full vigour.

There was now a growing confidence that the Commonwealth was fast coming to an end. The Long Parliament was to terminate its sittings on the 16th of March. On the 13th, that once formidable republican assembly voted that the oath of a member of parliament to be "true and faithful to the Commonwealth of England, as the same is now established, without a King or House of Lords, "-should be abolished. On the 16th they voted their own dissolution. Monk's intentions were now becoming more decided. He consented to receive a letter from the king, and authorised the bearer of it, his cousin sir John Grenville, to promise Charles that he would be his devoted servant. Grenville repaired to the king at Brussels, where they met in secret. A more formal body of envoys from England now presented themselves to the king-a deputation of Presbyterians, who came to offer the same terms which had been proposed to his father in the Isle of Wight. The Parliament was to have the control of the army; the Civil War was to be declared lawful; new patents of nobility were to be annulled. The king suffered matters to proceed without committing himself to any party, or making any engagements for his future conduct. He left the Spanish Netherlands, and established himself at Breda. Lambert had been committed to the Tower, when Monk's interest became predominant. He escaped on the 9th of April, and was speedily at the head of some soldiers, who had revolted; and, marching through the midland counties, he called upon all to join him who would preserve the Commonwealth. Monk sent Ingoldsby to encounter Lambert, whom he met at Daventry. A parley was proposed; but Ingoldsby refused any accommodation. The two armies had advanced close to each other, and the conflict seemed imminent, when Lambert's cavalry threw away their pistols; and their leader was quickly a prisoner.

The elections took place. A few of the old republicans were returned, but the greater number were either men who were led away by a fever of loyalty, or were indifferent to any reaction which would end the struggles

and uncertainties of twenty years. Five hundred and fifty-six members had been elected to the House of Commons, the greater number of whom took their seats on the 26th of April. Ten peers only met in the House of Lords on that day. The Presbyterians manoeuvred that one of their party should be elected Speaker. On the 1st of May, Grenville appeared at the door of the Lower House, and being called to the bar presented a letter addressed "To our trusty and well-beloved the Speaker of the House of Commons." He then went through the same formality at the House of Lords. With each letter was enclosed a document addressed to the whole nation-the Declaration from Breda. Grenville then proceeded to the city, and presented a letter from the king addressed to the lord mayor, aldermen, and common council, which also contained the Declaration. In all these papers, the composition of Hyde, there was little to alarm, and much to propitiate, the prudent and peaceful. The Commons were assured 'upon our royal word,—that none of our predecessors have had a greater esteem for parliaments than we have." The Declaration professed the king's desire "that all our subjects may enjoy what by law is theirs, by a full and entire administration of justice throughout the land." It declared “a free and general pardon to all our subjects,"-excepting only such persons "as shall hereafter be excepted by Act of Parliament." Deploring the existence of religious animosities, "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." All matters relating to the possession of estates "shall be determined in parliament." Commissioners from both Houses were chosen to convey their answers to the king. Grenville preceded them with the best proof of loyalty and affection-four thousand five hundred pounds in gold, and a bill of exchange for twenty-five thousand pounds.

On the 8th of May the two Houses of Parliament proclaimed Charles the Second, King of England, Scotland, and Ireland, at Westminster, at Whitehall, and in the City. In a fever of loyalty, Parliament never thought of making conditions for the liberties of the country. It rested the conservancy of all that the nation had won since the opening of the Long Parliament upon the flimsy foundation of the Declaration from Breda. On the 9th of May, the debate on the Amnesty Bill came on in both Houses. After warm discussion, the House at last voted as to the number of regicides to be excluded from the Amnesty, and decided that seven should be excepted. But it also resolved that every one should be arrested who had sat upon the king's trial, and their property seized. Other arrests took place. Some who had laboured best with Cromwell to uphold the honour of England, such as Thurloe, were impeached. The titles bestowed by the two protectors were annulled.

The foreign courts who had looked adversely or coldly upon Charles in his exile, now embarrassed him with their rival professions of friendship. The States of Holland invited him to take his departure from the Hague; and he arrived there from Breda on the 15th of May. Thither came the commissioners of the parliament; the town-clerk of London, with aldermen and lesser dignitaries; deputations of the Presbyterian clergy; and

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ENTRY OF CHARLES II. INTO LONDON.

383

a swarm of Englishmen of every variety of opinion, who wanted to prostrate themselves at the feet of power. The king, with the dukes of York and Gloucester, embarked on the 23rd, and landed at Dover on the 25th. The royal train proceeded by Canterbury and Rochester, to Blackheath, where the army of the Commonwealth, thirty thousand men-were marshalled. Charles went on in the sight of all London to Whitehall, amidst streets strewed with flowers, past tapestried houses, and winespouting fountains; with civic authorities wearing chains of gold, and nobles covered with embroidered velvets; trumpets braying, mobs huzzaing.

CHAPTER XXIX.

THE Parliament of 1660 settled the yearly revenue of the Crown at an amount considerably beyond the supplies voted to Charles I., and they voted the subsidy of tonnage and poundage for the term of the king's life. The ancient claims of the Crown upon tenures by Knight-service, with all their oppressive conditions of fines for alienation, of forfeitures, and of wardship, and also the more generally obnoxious demands of purveyance, would naturally have revived with the re-establishment of the monarchy. The Parliament, however, made a bargain to relieve the landed proprietors. Charles surrendered the Court of Wards, and Purveyance, and the Commons granted him and his successors the Excise of beer and other liquors, a tax first introduced during the Civil War. It was originally a temporary tax. The two great sources of modern revenue were thus placed absolutely in the king's hands.

At the period of the Restoration, the army consisted of fifteen regiments of horse, and twenty-two regiments of foot, besides garrisons. That army was supported by monthly assessments of seventy thousand pounds. In the first parliament of Charles II., an Act was passed for the speedy disbanding of the army and garrisons, and also for paying off twenty-five ships; followed by "an Act for enabling the soldiers of the army now to be disbanded, to exercise Trades." The revenue assigned to the Crown did not contemplate the continuance of any standing army; but Charles retained two regiments of horse in his pay, who were called his guards.

The great question of the Church Establishment was not brought forward in the Convention Parliament. The Presbyterian members were too strong in that assembly to render it safe to make any attempt to contravene the spirit of the Declaration from Breda, "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." The parliament of 1660 enacted that as many as survived of the ministers ejected through the imposition of the Covenant should be restored to their benefices, but without the right of claiming any past emoluments. By the same statute

those who were in actual possession of those livings for which there was no claimant as previous possessor, were confirmed in their titles. Many of the Crown lands and the Church lands had been sold under the authority of the Long Parliament. A Bill was brought in to determine this matter. It was strenuously debated in the Commons, and it was at last agreed that the Crown lands should be left out of the proposal for sales to be confirmed or indemnity to be given. The House was disinclined to such an unconditional restoration of Church property. But the discussion was at length cut short by the dissolution of the parliament; and the purchasers had no protection against the due course of law, under which their titles were defective. Unconditional restitution was the necessary result. The complaints of the dispossessed purchasers were neutralised by the louder murmurings of the cavaliers, who were deprived of any compensation for their losses during the Long Parliament by the Act of Indemnity. For three months this Bill was debated in both Houses. The Commons went on adding name after name to those of the seven who were originally excepted from the proposed Amnesty. The Lords voted that all who had signed the death-warrant of Charles I., as well as five others, should be excepted, either as regarded life or estate. The king, shortly after his landing, had issued a proclamation, in which he commanded those who had sat as judges of his father to render themselves up within fourteen days, on pain of being excepted from any pardon or indemnity as to their lives or estates." The honour of the king was unquestionably committed to the most favourable construction of the proclamation, but Hyde, now earl of Clarendon and chancellor, shuffled odiously about this document, whose ambiguity was doubtless well studied by him. The Commons debated this point of the proclamation with a more moderate and honester feeling than the majority of the Lords. The matter was at last compromised between the Lords and Commons by a proviso in the Bill, that if the nineteen persons therein named should be legally attainted, then nevertheless the execution of the persons so attainted should be suspended until execution should be ordered by Act of Parliament. The most remarkable exceptions to the Statute of Indemnity, in addition to all the regicides with few omissions, were sir Henry Vane and General Lambert; but the Houses concurred in an address to the king that if these two leading men of the revolution were tried and attainted, their lives should be spared. The king assented. In October twenty-nine persons were brought to trial as traitors, before a Court of thirty-four commissioners; and they were all convicted. Of these, the nineteen who had surrendered under the proclamation were imprisoned for life. Ten were executed. These were Harrison, and five others, who had subscribed the death-warrant of Charles; Cook, who acted as leading counsel upon the trial; Axtell and Hacker, two officers who commanded the guard over the royal prisoner; and the famous Hugh Peters.

On the 12th of September, by a special order of the king to the dean of Westminster, the bodies of Cromwell, Bradshaw, and Ireton had been taken out of their vaults, and thrown into a pit. On the 30th of January, 1661, these bodies were dragged "to Tyburn, and hanged on the gallows there from nine in the morning till six at night, and then buried under