hastened northward to encounter the
army of Scotland, was abandoned by
his troops, and became a prisoner.
During thirteen years the civil power
had, in every conflict, been compelled
to yield to the military power. The
military power now humbled itself
before the civil power.
The Rump,

and was in the highest state of power, refused to acknowledge the efficiency. It had borne no part in usurped authority of the provisional the late revolutions, and had seen them government, and, at the head of seven with indignation resembling the indig- thousand veterans, marched into Engnation which the Roman legions posted land. on the Danube and the Euphrates This step was the signal for a general felt, when they learned that the empire explosion. The people everywhere had been put up to sale by the Præ- refused to pay taxes. The apprentices torian Guards. It was intolerable that of the City assembled by thousands certain regiments should, merely be- and clamoured for a free Parliament. cause they happened to be quartered The fleet sailed up the Thames, and near Westminster, take on themselves to declared against the tyranny of the make and unmake several governments soldiers. The soldiers, no longer under in the course of half a year. If it the control of one commanding mind, were fit that the state should be regu-separated into factions. Every regilated by the soldiers, those soldiers ment, afraid lest it should be left alone who upheld the English ascendency on a mark for the vengeance of the opthe north of the Tweed were as well pressed nation, hastened to make a entitled to a voice as those who garri- separate peace. Lambert, who had soned the Tower of London. There appears to have been less fanaticism among the troops stationed in Scotland than in any other part of the army; and their general, George Monk, was himself the very opposite of a zealot. He had, at the commencement of the civil war, borne arms for the King, had been made prisoner by the Round-generally hated and despised, but still heads, had then accepted a commission the only body in the country which had from the Parliament, and, with very any show of legal authority, returned slender pretensions to saintship, had again to the house from which it had raised himself to high commands by been twice ignominiously expelled. his courage and professional skill. He In the meantime Monk was advanchad been an useful servant to both the ing towards London. Wherever he Protectors, had quietly acquiesced came, the gentry flocked round him, when the officers at Westminster imploring him to use his power for the pulled down Richard and restored the purpose of restoring peace and liberty Long Parliament, and would perhaps to the distracted nation. The General, have acquiesced as quietly in the coldblooded, taciturn, zealous for no second expulsion of the Long Parlia-polity and for no religion, maintained ment, if the provisional government an impenetrable reserve. What were had abstained from giving him cause at this time his plans, and whether he of offence and apprehension. For his had any plan, may well be doubted. nature was cautious and somewhat His great object, apparently, was to sluggish; nor was he at all disposed keep himself, as long as possible, free to hazard sure and moderate advan- to choose between several lines of actages for the chance of obtaining even tion. Such, indeed, is commonly the the most splendid success. He seems policy of men who are, like him, disto have been impelled to attack the tinguished rather by wariness than by new rulers of the Commonwealth less farsightedness. It was probably not till by the hope that, if he overthrew them, he had been some days in the capital he should become great, than by the that he had made up his mind. The fear that, if he submitted to them, he cry of the whole people was for a free should not even be secure. Whatever Parliament; and there could be no were his motives, he declared himself doubt that a Parliament really free the champion of the oppressed civil would instantly restore the exiled family

clares for

The Rump and the soldiers were still | friendly to the royal family. The Preshostile to the House of Stuart. But byterians formed the majority. the Rump was universally detested and That there would be a restoration now despised. The power of the soldiers seemed almost certain; but whether was indeed still formidable, but had there would be a peaceable restorabeen greatly diminished by discord. tion was matter of painful doubt. The They had no head. They had recently soldiers were in a gloomy and savage been, in many parts of the country, mood. They hated the title of King. arrayed against each other. On the They hated the name of Stuart. They very day before Monk reached London, hated Presbyterianism much, and Prethere was a fight in the Strand between lacy more. They saw with bitter inthe cavalry and the infantry. An dignation that the close of their long united army had long kept down a domination was approaching, and that divided nation: but the nation was a life of inglorious toil and penury was now united, and the army was divided. before them. They attributed their ill During a short time, the dissimula- fortune to the weakness of some geneMonk de. tion or irresolution of Monk rals, and to the treason of others. One afree Par- kept all parties in a state of hour of their beloved Oliver might even liament. painful suspense. At length now restore the glory which had dehe broke silence, and declared for a free parted. Betrayed, disunited, and left Parliament. without any chief in whom they could As soon as his declaration was known, confide, they were yet to be dreaded. the whole nation was wild with delight. It was no light thing to encounter the Wherever he appeared thousands rage and despair of fifty thousand fightthronged round him, shouting and ing men, whose backs no enemy had blessing his name. The bells of all ever seen. Monk, and those with whom England rang joyously: the gutters he acted, were well aware that the crisis ran with ale; and, night after night, was most perilous. They employed the sky five miles round London was every art to sooth and to divide the reddened by innumerable bonfires. discontented warriors. At the same Those Presbyterian members of the time vigorous preparation was made for House of Commons who had many a conflict. The army of Scotland, now years before been expelled by the quartered in London, was kept in good army, returned to their seats, and were humour by bribes, praises, and prohailed with acclamations by great mises. The wealthy citizens grudged multitudes, which filled Westminster nothing to a red coat, and were indeed Hall and Palace Yard. The Indepen- so liberal of their best wine, that wardent leaders no longer dared to show like saints were sometimes seen in a their faces in the streets, and were condition not very honourable either scarcely safe within their own dwellings. Temporary provision was made for the government: writs were issued for a general election; and then that memorable Parliament, which had, in the course of twenty eventful years, experienced every variety of fortune, which had triumphed over its sovereign, which had been enslaved and degraded by its servants, which had been twice ejected and twice restored, solemnly decreed its own dissolution.

to their religious or to their military character. Some refractory regiments Monk ventured to disband. In the meantime the greatest exertions were made by the provisional government, with the strenuous aid of the whole body of the gentry and magistracy, to organise the militia. In every county the train bands were held ready to march; and this force cannot be estimated at less than a hundred and twenty thousand men. In Hyde Park twenty thousand citizens, well armed and accoutred, passed in review, and showed a spirit which justified the hope that, in case of need, they would fight manfully for their shops and firesides.

The fleet was heartily with the nation. | scarcely one could be found who was not It was a stirring time, a time of anxiety, weeping with delight. The journey to yet of hope. The prevailing opinion was London was a continued triumph. The that England would be delivered, but not whole road from Rochester was borderwithout a desperate and bloody struggle, ed by booths and tents, and looked like and that the class which had so long ruled an interminable fair. Everywhere flags by the sword would perish by the sword. were flying, bells and music sounding, Happily the dangers of a conflict wine and ale flowing in rivers to the were averted. There was indeed one health of him whose return was the remoment of extreme peril. Lambert turn of peace, of law, and of freedom. escaped from his confinement, and called But in the midst of the general joy, one his comrades to arms. The flame of spot presented a dark and threatening civil war was actually rekindled; but aspect. On Blackheath the army was by prompt and vigorous exertion it was drawn up to welcome the sovereign. trodden out before it had time to spread. He smiled, bowed, and extended his The luckless imitator of Cromwell was hand graciously to the lips of the coloagain a prisoner. The failure of his nels and majors. But all his courtesy enterprise damped the spirit of the sol- was vain. The countenances of the soldiers; and they sullenly resigned them- diers were sad and lowering; and, had selves to their fate. they given way to their feelings, the festive pageant of which they reluctantly made a part would have had a mournful and bloody end. But there was no concert among them. Discord and defection had left them no confidence in their chiefs or in each other. The whole array of the City of London was under arms. Numerous companies of militia had assembled from various parts of the realm, under the command of loyal noblemen and gentlemen, to welcome the King. That great day closed in peace; and the restored wanderer reposed safe in the palace of his ancestors.

The Re

The new Parliament, which, having been called without the royal storation. writ, is more accurately described as a Convention, met at Westminster. The Lords repaired to the hall, from which they had, during more than eleven years, been excluded by force. Both Houses instantly invited the King to return to his country. He was proclaimed with pomp never before known. A gallant fleet convoyed him from Holland to the coast of Kent. When he landed, the cliffs of Dover were covered by thousands of gazers, among whom

Conduct of those who restored the

Stuart un

CHAPTER II.

THE history of England, during the seventeenth century, is the history of the transformation of a limited monarchy, constituted House of after the fashion of the middle justly cen- ages, into a limited monarchy sured. suited to that more advanced state of society in which the public charges can no longer be borne by the estates of the crown, and in which the public defence can no longer be entrusted to a feudal militia. We have seen that the politicians who were at the head of the Long Parliament made, in 1642, a great effort to accomplish

this change by transferring, directly and formally, to the Estates of the realm the choice of ministers, the command of the army, and the superintendence of the whole executive administration. This scheme was, perhaps, the best that could then be contrived: but it was completely disconcerted by the course which the civil war took. The Houses triumphed, it is true; but not till after such a struggle as made it necessary for them to call into existence a power which they could not control, and which soon began to domineer over all orders and all parties. During a few years, the

evils inseparable from military govern- | principles of government, had they ment were, in some degree, mitigated drawn up a new constitution and sent by the wisdom and magnanimity of the it to Charles, had conferences been great man who held the supreme com- opened, had couriers been passing and mand. But, when the sword, which he repassing during some weeks between had wielded, with energy indeed, but Westminster and the Netherlands, with with energy always guided by good projects and counterprojects, replies by sense and generally tempered by good Hyde and rejoinders by Prynne, the nature, had passed to captains who coalition on which the public safety possessed neither his abilities nor his depended would have been dissolved: virtues, it seemed too probable that the Presbyterians and Royalists would order and liberty would perish in one certainly have quarrelled: the military ignominious ruin. factions might possibly have been reconciled: and the misjudging friends of liberty might long have regretted, under a rule worse than that of the worst Stuart, the golden opportunity which had been suffered to escape.

wish of every landed gentleman in the tinued to be inseparably associated kingdom. They were, therefore, so- in the imagination of Royalists and lemnly abolished by statute; and no relic Prelatists with regicide and field preachof the ancient tenures in chivalry was ing. A century after the death of suffered to remain, except those honorary Cromwell, the Tories still continued to services which are still, at a coronation, clamour against every augmentation of rendered to the person of the sovereign the regular soldiery, and to sound the by some lords of manors. praise of a national militia. So late as the year 1786, a minister who enjoyed no common measure of their confidence found it impossible to overcome their aversion to his scheme of fortifying the coast: nor did they ever look with entire complacency on the standing army, till the French Revolution gave a new direction to their apprehensions.

Disband

The coalition which had restored the

the Round

King terminated with the dan- Disputes ger from which it had sprung; between and two hostile parties again heads and appeared ready for conflict. Cavaliers Both indeed were agreed as

renewed.

The troops were now to be disbanded. Fifty thousand men, accusing of the tomed to the profession of arms, army. 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 that they would be driven by hunger to pillage. But no such result followed. In a few months there remained not a trace indicating that the most formidable army in the world had just been absorbed into the mass of the community. to the propriety of inflicting_punishThe Royalists themselves confessed ment on some unhappy men who were, that, in every department of honest at that moment, objects of almost industry, the discarded warriors pros- universal hatred. Cromwell was no pered beyond other men, that none was more; and those who had fled before charged with any theft or robbery, that him were forced to content themselves none was heard to ask an alms, and with the miserable satisfaction of that, if a baker, a mason, or a waggoner digging up, hanging, quartering, and attracted notice by his diligence and burning the remains of the greatest sobriety, he was in all probability one prince that has ever ruled England. of Oliver's old soldiers. Other objects of vengeance, few indeed, yet too many, were found among the republican chiefs. Soon, however, the conquerors, glutted with the blood of the regicides, turned against each other. The Roundheads, while admitting the virtues of the late King, and while condemning the sentence passed upon him by an illegal tribunal, yet maintained that his administration had been, in many things, unconstitutional, and that the Houses had taken arms against him from good motives and on strong grounds. The monarchy, these politicians conceived, had no worse enemy than the flatterer who exalted the prerogative above the law, who condemned all opposition to regal encroachments, and who reviled, not only Cromwell and Harrison, but Pym and Hampden, as traitors. If the King wished for a quiet and prosperous reign, he must confide in those who, though they had drawn the sword in

The military tyranny had passed away; but it had left deep and enduring traces in the public mind. The name of standing army was long held in abhorrence and it is remarkable that this feeling was even stronger among the Cavaliers than among the Roundheads. It ought to be considered as a most fortunate circumstance that, when our country was, for the first and last time, ruled by the sword, the sword was in the hands, not of her legitimate princes, but of those rebels who slew the King and demolished the Church. Had a prince, with a title as good as that of Charles, commanded an army as good as that of Cromwell, there would have been little hope indeed for the liberties of England. Happily that instrument by which alone the monarchy could be made absolute became an object of peculiar horror and disgust to the monarchical party, and long con