[473] Richard advised with Broghill, Fiennes, Thurloe, and others of his council, all of whom, except Whitelock, who informs us of this, were in favour of the dissolution. This caused, he says, much trouble to honest men; the cavaliers and republicans rejoiced at it; many of Richard's council were his enemies. P. 177. The army at first intended to raise money by their own authority; but this was deemed impossible, and it was resolved to recall the Long Parliament. Lambert and Haslerig accordingly met Lenthall, who was persuaded to act again as speaker; though, if Ludlow is right, against his will, being now connected with the court, and in the pretended House of Lords. The parliament now consisted of 91 members. Parl. Hist. 1547. Harris quotes a manuscript journal of Montagu, afterwards Earl of Sandwich, wherein it is said that Richard's great error was to dissolve the parliament, and that he might have over-ruled the army, if he would have employed himself, Ingoldsby, Lord Fauconberg, and others, who were suspected to be for the king. Life of Charles II. 194. He afterwards (p. 203) quotes Calamy's Life of Howe for the assertion that Richard stood out against his council, with Thurloe alone, that the parliament should not be dissolved. This is very unlikely.

[474] This was carried against the previous question by 163 to 87. Journals Abr. III. Some of the protector's friends were alarmed at so high a vote against the army, which did in fact bring the matter to a crisis. Thurloe, vii. 659 et post.

[475] The army according to Ludlow, had not made up their minds how to act after the dissolution of the parliament, and some were inclined to go on with Richard; but the republican party, who had coalesced with that faction of officers who took their denomination from Wallingford House, their place of meeting, insisted on the restoration of the old parliament; though they agreed to make some provision for Richard. Memoirs, pp. 635-646. Accordingly it was voted to give him an income of £10,000 per annum. Journals, July 16.

[476] Journals, Sept. 23 et post; Whitelock, 683; Parl. Hist. 1562; Thurloe, vii. 703 et post. Ludlow's account of this period is the most interesting part of his Memoirs. The chief officers, it appears from his narrative, were soon disgusted with their republican allies, and "behaved with all imaginable perverseness and insolence" in the council of state, whenever they came there, which was but seldom, scrupling the oath to be true to the commonwealth against Charles Stuart or any other person. P. 657. He censures, however, the violence of Haslerig, "a man of a disobliging temper, sour and morose of temper, liable to be transported with passion, and in whom liberality seemed to be a vice. Yet to do him justice, I must acknowledge that I am under no manner of doubt concerning the rectitude and sincerity of his intentions."—P. 718. Ludlow gave some offence to the hot-headed republicans by his half compliance with the army; and much disapproved the proceedings they adopted after their second restoration in December 1659, against Vane and others. P. 800. Yet, though nominated on the committee of safety, on the expulsion of the parliament in October, he never sat on it, as Vane and Whitelock did.

[477] Journals, and other authorities above cited.

[478] The Rota Club, as it was called, was composed, chiefly at least, of these dealers in new constitutions, which were debated in due form. Harrington was one of the most conspicuous.

[479] Thurloe, vi. 579; Clarendon State Papers, 391, 395.

[480] Carte's Letters, ii. 118. In a letter of Ormond to Hyde about this time, he seems to have seen into the king's character, and speaks of him severely: "I fear his immoderate delight in empty, effeminate, and vulgar conversations, is become an irresistible part of his nature," etc. Clarendon State Papers, iii. 387.

[481] Clarendon Papers, 391, 418, 460 et post. Townshend, a young man who seems to have been much looked up to, was not, in fact, a presbyterian, but is reckoned among them as not being a cavalier, having come of age since the wars, and his family neutral.

[482] This curious fact appears for the first time, I believe, in the Clarendon State Papers, unless it is anywhere intimated in Carte's collection of the Ormond letters. In the former collection we find several allusions to it; the first is in a letter from Rumbold, a royalist emissary, to Hyde, dated Dec. 2, 1658, p. 421; from which I collect Lord Fauconberg's share in this intrigue; which is also confirmed by a letter of Mordaunt to the king, in p. 423. "The Lord Falconbridge protests that Cromwell is so remiss a person that he cannot play his own game, much less another man's, and is thereby discouraged from acting in business, having also many enemies who oppose his gaining either power or interest in the army or civil government, because they conceive his principles contrary to theirs. He says, Thurloe governs Cromwell, and St. John and Pierrepont govern Thurloe; and therefore is not likely he will think himself in danger till these tell him so, nor seek a diversion of it but by their councils." Feb. 10, 1659. These ill-grounded hopes of Richard's accession to their cause appear in several other letters, and even Hyde seems to have given in to them. 434, 454, etc. Broderick, another active emissary of the royalists, fancied that the three above-mentioned would restore the king if they dared (477); but this is quite unlikely.

[483] P. 469. This was carried on through Colonel Henry Cromwell, his cousin. It is said that Richard had not courage to sign the letters to Monk and his other friends, which he afterwards repented. 491. The intrigues still went on with him for a little longer. This was in May 1659.

[484] Clarendon State Papers, 434, 500 et post; Thurloe, vi. 686. See also an enigmatical letter to Henry Cromwell, 629, which certainly hints at his union with the king; and Carte's Letters, ii. 293.

[485] Clarendon State Papers, 552, 556, etc.

[486] Clarendon confesses (Life, p. 20) that the cavaliers disliked this whole intrigue with the presbyterians, which was planned by Mordaunt, the most active and intelligent agent that the king possessed in England. The former, doubtless, perceived that by extending the basis of the coalition, they should lose all chance of indemnity for their own sufferings: besides which, their timidity and irresolution are manifest in all the Clarendon correspondence at this period. See particularly 491, 520.

[487] Willis had done all in his power to obstruct the rising. Clarendon was very slow in believing this treachery, of which he had at length conclusive proofs. 552, 562.

[488] Id. 514, 530, 536, 543.

[489] Clarendon Papers, 425, 427, 458, 462, 475, 526, 579. It is evident that the catholics had greater hopes from the duke than from the king, and considered the former as already their own. A remarkable letter of Morley to Hyde, April 24, 1659, p. 458, shows the suspicions already entertained of him by the writer in point of religion; and Hyde is plainly not free from apprehension that he might favour the scheme of supplanting his brother. The intrigue might have gone a great way, though we may now think it probable that their alarm magnified the danger. "Let me tell you," says Sir Antony Ashley Cooper in a letter to Hyde, "that Wildman is as much an enemy now to the king as he was before a seeming friend; yet not upon the account of a commonwealth, for his ambition meets with every day repulses and affronts from that party; but upon a finer spun design of setting up the interest of the Duke of York against the king; in which design I fear you will find confederated the Duke of Bucks, who perhaps may draw away with him Lord Fairfax, the presbyterians, levellers, and many catholics. I am apt to think these things are not transacted without the privity of the queen; and I pray God that they have not an ill influence upon your affairs in France."—475. Buckingham was surmised to have been formally reconciled to the church of Rome. 427. Some supposed that he, with his friend Wildman, were for a republic. But such men are for nothing but the intrigue of the moment. These projects of Buckingham to set up the Duke of York are hinted at in a pamphlet by Shaftesbury or one of his party, written about 1680. Somers Tracts, viii. 342.

[490] Hyde writes to the Duke of Ormond: "I pray inform the king that Fleetwood makes great professions of being converted, and of a resolution to serve the king upon the first opportunity." Oct. 11, 1659. Carte's Letters, ii. 231. See Clarendon State Papers, 551 (Sept. 2) and 577. But it is said afterwards, that he had "not courage enough to follow the honest thoughts which some time possess him" (592, Oct. 31), and that Manchester, Popham, and others, tried what they could do with Fleetwood; but "though they left him with good resolutions, they were so weak as not to continue longer than the next temptation."—635 (Dec. 27).

[491] Id. 588; Carte's Letters, ii. 225.

[492] Lord Hatton, an old royalist, suggested this humiliating proposition in terms scarcely less so to the heir of Cerdic and Fergus. "The race is a very good gentleman's family, and kings have condescended to marry subjects. The lady is pretty, of an extraordinary sweetness of disposition, and very virtuously and ingenuously disposed; the father is a person, set aside of his unhappy engagement, of very great parts and noble inclinations."—Clarendon State Papers, 592. Yet, after all, Miss Lambert was hardly more a mis-alliance than Hortense Mancini, whom Charles had asked for in vain.

[493] Biogr. Brit. art. Monk. The royalists continued to entertain hopes of him, especially after Oliver's death. Clarendon Papers, iii. 393, 395, 396. In a sensible letter of Colepepper to Hyde, Sept. 20, 1658, he points out Monk as able alone to restore the king, and not absolutely averse to it, either in his principles or affections; kept hitherto by the vanity of adhering to his professions, and by his affection to Cromwell, the latter whereof is dissolved both by the jealousies he entertained of him, and by his death, etc. Id. 412.

[494] Thurloe, vii. 387. Monk wrote about the same time against the Earl of Argyle, as not a friend to the government. 584. Two years afterwards he took away his life as being too much so.

[495] If the account of his chaplain, Dr. Price, republished in Maseres' Tracts, vol. ii., be worthy of trust, Monk gave so much encouragement to his brother, a clergyman, secretly despatched to Scotland by Sir John Grenvil, his relation, in June 1659, as to have approved Sir George Booth's insurrection, and to have been on the point of publishing a declaration in favour of it. P. 718. But this is flatly in contradiction of what Clarendon asserts, that the general not only sent away his brother with no hopes, but threatened to hang him if he came again on such an errand. And, in fact, if anything so favourable as what Price tells us had occurred, the king could not fail to have known it. See Clarendon State Papers, iii. 543. This throws some suspicion on Price's subsequent narrative (so far as it professes to relate the general's intentions); so that I rely far less on it than on Monk's own behaviour, which seems irreconcilable with his professions of republican principles. It is, however, an obscure point of history, which will easily admit of different opinions.

The story told by Locke, on Lord Shaftesbury's authority, that Monk had agreed with the French ambassador to take on himself the government, wherein he was to have the support of Mazarin, and that his wife, having overheard what was going forward, sent notice to Shaftesbury, who was thus enabled to frustrate the intrigue (Locke's Works, iii. 456), seems to have been confirmed lately by Mr. D'Israeli, in an extract from the manuscript memoirs of Sir Thomas Browne (Curiosities of Literature, N. S. vol. ii.), but in terms so nearly resembling those of Locke, that it seems to be an echo. It is certain, as we find by Phillips's continuation of Baker's Chronicle (said to be assisted, in this part, by Sir Thomas Clarges, Monk's brother-in-law), that Bourdeaux, the French ambassador, did make such overtures to the general, who absolutely refused to enter upon them; but, as the writer admits, received a visit from the ambassador on condition that he should propose nothing in relation to public matters. I quote from Kennet's Register, 85. But, according to my present impression, this is more likely to have been the foundation of Shaftesbury's story, who might have heard from Mrs. Monk the circumstance of the visit, and conceived suspicions upon it, which he afterwards turned into proofs. It was evidently not in Monk's power to have usurped the government, after he had let the royalist inclinations of the people show themselves; and he was by no means of a rash character. He must have taken his resolution when the secluded members were restored to the house (Feb. 21); and this alleged intrigue with Mazarin could hardly have been so early.

It may be added that in one of the pamphlets about the time of the exclusion bill, written by Shaftesbury himself or one of his party (Somers Tracts, viii. 338), he is hinted to have principally brought about the restoration; "without whose courage and dexterity some men, the most highly rewarded, had done otherwise than they did." But this still depends on his veracity.

[496] Whitelock, 690.

[497] The engagement was repeated March 13. This was of itself tantamount to a declaration in favour of the king; though perhaps the previous order of March 5, that the solemn league and covenant should be read in churches, was still more so. Prynne was the first who had the boldness to speak for the king, declaring his opinion that the parliament was dissolved by the death of Charles the First; he was supported by one or two more. Clar. Papers, 696; Thurloe, vii. 854; Carte's Letters, ii. 312. Prynne wrote a pamphlet advising the peers to meet and issue writs for a new parliament, according to the provisions of the triennial act; which in fact was no bad expedient. Somers Tracts, vi. 534.

A speech of Sir Harbottle Grimston before the close of the parliament, March 1660, is more explicit for the king's restoration than anything which I have seen elsewhere; and as I do not know that it has been printed, I will give an extract from the Harleian MS. 1576.

He urges it as necessary to be done by them, and not left for the next parliament, who all men believed would restore him. "This is so true and so well understood, that we all believe that whatsoever our thoughts are, this will be the opinion of the succeeding parliament, whose concerns as well as affections will make them active for his introduction. And I appeal then to your own judgments whether it is likely that those persons, as to their particular interest more unconcerned, and probably less knowing in the affairs of the nation, can or would obtain for any those terms or articles as we are yet in a capacity to procure both for them and us. I must confess sincerely that it would be as strange to me as a miracle, did I not know that God infatuates whom he designs to destroy, that we can see the king's return so unavoidable, and yet be no more studious of serving him, or at least ourselves, in the managing of his recall.

"The general, that noble personage to whom under God we do and must owe all the advantages of our past and future changes, will be as far from opposing us in the design, as the design is removed from the disadvantage of the nation. He himself is, I am confident, of the same opinion; and if he has not yet given notice of it to the house, it is not that he does not look upon it as the best expedient; but he only forbears to oppose it, that he might not seem to necessitate us, and by an over early discovery of his own judgment be thought to take from us the freedom of ours."

In another place he says, "That the recalling of our king is this only way (for composure of affairs), is already grown almost as visible as true; and, were it but confessed of all of whom it is believed, I should quickly hear from the greatest part of this house what now it hears alone from me. Had we as little reason to fear as we have too much, that, if we bring not in the king, he either already is, or shortly may be, in a capacity of coming in unsent for; methinks the very knowledge of this right were enough to keep just persons, such as we would be conceived to be, from being accessary to his longer absence. We are already, and but justly, reported to have been the occasion of our prince's banishment; we may then, with reason and equal truth, for ought I know, be thought to have been the contrivers of it; unless we endeavour the contrary, by not suffering the mischief to continue longer which is in our power to remove."

Such passages as these, and the general tenor of public speeches, sermons, and pamphlets in the spring of 1660, show how little Monk can be justly said to have restored Charles II.; except so far that he did not persist in preventing it so long as he might have done.

[498] Clarendon State Papers, 711.

[499] Id. 696.

[500] Id. 678 et post. He wrote a letter (Jan. 21) to the gentry of Devon, who had petitioned the speaker for the re-admission of the secluded members, objecting to that measure as likely to bring in monarchy, very judicious, and with an air of sincerity that might deceive any one; and after the restoration of these secluded members, he made a speech to them (Feb. 21), strongly against monarchy; and that so ingenuously, upon such good reasons, so much without invective or fanaticism, that the professional hypocrites, who were used to their own tone of imposture, were deceived by his. Cromwell was a mere bungler to him. See these in Harris's Charles II. 296, or Somers Tracts, vi. 551. It cannot be wondered at that the royalists were exasperated at Monk's behaviour. They published abusive pamphlets against him in February, from which Kennet, in his Register, p. 53, gives quotations. "Whereas he was the common hopes of all men, he is now the common hatred of all men, as a traitor more detestable than Oliver himself, who, though he manacled the citizens' hands, yet never took away the doors of the city," and so forth. It appears by the letters of Mordaunt and Broderick to Hyde, and by those of Hyde himself in the Clarendon Papers, that they had no sort of confidence in Monk till near the end of March; though Barwick, another of his correspondents, seems to have had more insight into the general's designs (Thurloe, 852, 860, 870), who had expressed himself to a friend of the writer, probably Clobery, fully in favour of the king, before March 19.

[501] Clar. 699, 705; Thurloe, vii. 860, 870.

[502] A correspondent of Ormond writes, March 16: "This night the fatal long parliament hath dissolved itself. All this appears well; but I believe we shall not be settled upon our ancient foundations without a war, for which all prepare vigorously and openly."—Carte's Letters, ii. 513. It appears also from a letter of Massey to Hyde, that a rising in different counties was intended. Thurloe, 854.

[503] After giving the substance of Monk's speech to the house, recommending a new parliament, but insisting on commonwealth principles, Clarendon goes on; "There was no dissimulation in this, in order to cover and conceal his good intentions to the king; for without doubt he had not to this hour entertained any purpose or thought to serve him, but was really of the opinion he expressed in his paper, that it was a work impossible; and desired nothing but that he might see a commonwealth established on such a model as Holland was, where he had been bred, and that himself might enjoy the authority and place which the Prince of Orange possessed in that government."

[504] The Clarendon and Thurloe Papers are full of more proofs of this than can be quoted, and are very amusing to read, as a perpetually shifting picture of hopes and fears, and conjectures right or wrong. Pepys's Diary also, in these two months, strikingly shows the prevailing uncertainty as to Monk's intentions, as well as the general desire of having the king brought in. It seems plain that, if he had delayed a very little longer, he would have lost the whole credit of the restoration. All parties began to crowd in with addresses to the king in the first part of April, before Monk was known to have declared himself. Thurloe, among others, was full of his offers, though evidently anxious to find out whether the king had an interest with Monk. P. 898. The royalists had long entertained hopes, from time to time, of this deep politician; but it is certain he never wished well to their cause, and with St. John and Pierrepont, had been most zealous, to the last moment that it seemed practicable, against the restoration. There had been, so late as February 1660, or even afterwards, a strange plan of setting up again Richard Cromwell, wherein not only these three, but Montagu, Jones, and others were thought to be concerned, erroneously no doubt as to Montagu. Clarendon State Papers, 693; Carte's Letters, ii. 310, 330. "One of the greatest reasons they alledged was, that the king's party, consisting altogether of indigent men, will become powerful by little and little to force the king, whatever be his own disposition, to break any engagement he can now make; and, since the nation is bent on a single person, none will combine all interests so well as Richard." This made Monk, it is said, jealous of St. John, and he was chosen at Cambridge to exclude him. In a letter of Thurloe to Downing at the Hague, April 6, he says, "that many of the presbyterians are alarmed at the prospect, and thinking how to keep the king out without joining the sectaries."—vii. 887. This could hardly be achieved but by setting up Richard. Yet that, as is truly said in one of the letters quoted, was ridiculous. None were so conspicuous and intrepid on the king's side as the presbyterian ministers. Reynolds preached before the lord mayor, Feb. 28, with manifest allusion to the restoration; Gauden (who may be reckoned on that side, as conforming to it), on the same day much more explicitly. Kennet's Register, 69. Sharp says, in a letter to a correspondent in Scotland, that he, Ash, and Calamy had a long conversation with Monk, March 11, "and convinced him a commonwealth was impracticable, and to our sense sent him off that sense he hath hitherto maintained, and came from him as being satisfied of the necessity of dissolving this house, and calling a new parliament."—Id. p. 81. Baxter thinks the presbyterian ministers, together with Clarges and Morrice, turned Monk's resolution, and induced him to declare for the king. Life, p. 2. This is a very plausible conjecture, though I incline to think Monk more disposed that way by his own judgment or his wife's. But she was influenced by the presbyterian clergy. They evidently deserved of Charles what they did not meet with.

[505] The royalists began too soon with threatening speeches, which well nigh frustrated their object. Id. 721, 722, 727; Carte's Letters, 318; Thurloe, 887. One Dr. Griffith published a little book vindicating the late king in his war against the parliament, for which the ruling party were by no means ripe; and, having justified it before the council, was committed to the Gate-house early in April. Id. ibid. These imprudences occasioned the king's declaration from Breda. Somers Tracts, vi. 562. Another also was published, April 25, 1660, signed by several peers, knights, divines, etc., of the royalist party, disclaiming all private passions and resentments. Kennet's Register, 120; Clar. vii. 471. But these public professions were weak disguises, when belied by their current language. See Baxter, 217. Marchmont Needham, in a tract entitled, "Interest will not lye" (written in answer to an artful pamphlet ascribed to Fell, afterwards Bishop of Oxford, and reprinted in Maseres's Tracts, "The Interest of England stated"), endeavoured to alarm all other parties, especially the presbyterians, with representations of the violence they had to expect from that of the king. See Harris's Charles II. 268.

[506] Proofs of the disposition among this party to revive the treaty of the Isle of Wight occur perpetually in the Thurloe and Clarendon Papers, and in those published by Carte. The king's agents in England evidently expected nothing better; and were, generally speaking, much for his accepting the propositions. "The presbyterian lords," says Sir Allen Broderic to Hyde, "with many of whom I have spoken, pretend that, should the king come in upon any such insurrection, abetted by those of his own party, he would be more absolute than his father was in the height of his prerogative. Stay therefore, say they, till we are ready; our numbers so added will abundantly recompense the delay, rendering what is now extremely doubtful morally certain, and establishing his throne upon the true basis, liberty and property." July 16, 1659. Clar. State Papers, 527.

[507] Clarendon, Hist. of Rebellion, vii. 440; State Papers, 705, 729. "There is so insolent a spirit among some of the nobility," says Clarendon, about the middle of February, "that I really fear it will turn to an aristocracy; Monk inclining that way too. My opinion is clear, that the king ought not to part with the church, crown, or friends' lands, lest he make my lord of Northumberland his equal, nay, perhaps his superior."—P. 680.

[508] Downing, the minister at the Hague, was one of these. His overtures to the king were as early as Monk's, at the beginning of April; he declared his wish to see his majesty restored on good terms, though many were desirous to make him a doge of Venice. Carte's Letters, ii. 320. See also a remarkable letter of the king to Monk (dated May 21; but I suspect he used the new style, therefore read May 11), intimating what a service it would be to prevent the imposition of any terms. Clar. 745. And another from him to Morrice of the same tenor, May 20 (N. S.), 1660, and hinting that his majesty's friends in the house had complied with the general in all things, according to the king's directions, departing from their own sense, and restraining themselves from pursuing what they thought most for his service. Thurloe, vii. 912. This perhaps referred to the indemnity and other provisions then pending in the Commons, or rather to the delay of a few days before the delivery of Sir John Grenvil's message.

[509] "Monk came this day (about the first week of April) to the council, and assured them that, notwithstanding all the appearance of a general desire of kingly government, yet it was in nowise his sense, and that he would spend the last drop of his blood to maintain the contrary."—Extract of a letter from Thurloe to Downing. Carte's Letters, ii. 322. "The council of state are utterly ignorant of Monk's treating with the king; and surely, as the present temper of the council of state is now, and may possibly be also of the parliament, by reason of the presbyterian influence upon both, I should think the first chapman will not be the worst, who perhaps will not offer so good a rate in conjunction with the company, as may give to engross the commodity." Clar. 722, April 6. This sentence is a clue to all the intrigue. It is said soon afterwards (p. 726, April 11) that the presbyterians were much troubled at the course of the elections, which made some of the council of state again address themselves to Monk for his consent to propositions they would send to the king; but he absolutely refused, and said he would leave all to a free parliament, as he had promised the nation. Yet, though the elections went as well as the royalists could reasonably expect, Hyde was dissatisfied that the king was not restored without the intervention of the new parliament; and this may have been one reason of his spleen against Monk. Pp. 726, 731.

[510] A proposed resolution, that those who had been on the king's side, or their sons, should be disabled from voting at elections, was lost by 93 to 56, the last effort of the expiring Rump. Journals, 13 March. The electors did not think themselves bound by this arbitrary exclusion of the cavaliers from parliament; several of whom (though not perhaps a great number within the terms of the resolution) were returned. Massey, however, having gone down to stand for Glocester, was put under arrest by order of the council of state. Thurloe, 887. Clarendon, who was himself not insensible to that kind of superstition, had fancied that anything done at Glocester by Massey for the king's service would make a powerful impression on the people.

[511] It is a curious proof of the state of public sentiment that, though Monk himself wrote a letter to the electors of Bridgenorth, recommending Thurloe, the cavalier party was so powerful, that his friends did not even produce the letter, lest it should be treated with neglect. Thurloe, vii. 895.

[512] "To the king's coming in without conditions may be well imputed all the errors of his reign." Thus says Burnet. The great political error, if so it should be termed, of his reign, was a conspiracy with the king of France, and some wicked advisers at home, to subvert the religion and liberty of his subjects; and it is difficult to perceive by what conditions this secret intrigue could have been prevented.

[513] Clarendon Papers, p. 729. They resolved to send the articles of that treaty to the king, leaving out the preface. This was about the middle of April.

[514] Life of Clarendon, p. 10.

[515] "This," says Burnet somewhat invidiously, "was the great service that Monk did; for as to the restoration itself, the tide ran so strong, that he only went into it dexterously enough to get much praise and great rewards."—P. 123.

[516] Grimston was proposed by Pierrepont, and conducted to the chair by him, Monk, and Hollis. Journals; Parl. Hist. The cavaliers complained that this was done before they came into the house, and that he was partial. Mordaunt to Hyde, April 27. Clarendon State Papers, 734.

[517] These were the Earls of Manchester, Northumberland, Lincoln, Denbigh, and Suffolk; Lords Say, Wharton, Hunsdon, Grey, Maynard. Lords' Journals, April 25.

[518] Id. Lords' Journals.

[519] "It was this day (April 27) moved in the House of Commons to call in the king; but it was deferred till Tuesday next by the king's friends' consent, and then it is generally believed something will be done in it. The calling in of the king is now not doubted; but there is a party among the old secluded members, that would have the treaty grounded upon the Isle of Wight propositions; and the old lords are thought generally of that design. But it is believed the House of Commons will use the king more gently. The general hath been highly complimented by both houses, and, without doubt, the giving the king easy or hard conditions dependeth totally upon him; for, if he appear for the king, the affections of the people are so high for him, that no other authority can oppose him." H. Coventry to Marquis of Ormond. Carte's Letters, ii. 328. Mordaunt confirms this. Those who moved for the king were Colonel King and Mr. Finch, both decided cavaliers. It must have been postponed by the policy of Monk. What could Clarendon mean by saying (History of Rebellion, vii. 478) that "none had the courage, how loyal soever their wishes were, to mention his majesty?" This strange way of speaking has misled Hume, who copies it. The king was as generally talked of as if he were on the throne.

[520] Lords' and Commons' Journals. Parl. Hist. iv. 24.

[521] Commons' Journals.

[522] Lords' Journals, May 2. Upon the same day, the house went into consideration how to settle the militia of this kingdom. A committee of twelve lords was appointed for this purpose, and the Commons were requested to appoint a proportionate number to join therein. But no bill was brought in till after the king's return.

[523] Life of Clarendon, p. 69.

[524] Clar. State Papers, iii. 427, 529. In fact, very few of them were likely to be of use; and the exception made his general offers appear more sincere.

[525] Clar. Hist. of Rebellion, vii. 447. Ludlow says that Fairfax and Northumberland were positively against the punishment of the regicides (vol. iii. p. 10); and that Monk vehemently declared at first against any exceptions, and afterwards prevailed on the house to limit them to seven. P. 16. Though Ludlow was not in England, this seems very probable, and is confirmed by other authority as to Monk. Fairfax, who had sat one day himself on the king's trial, could hardly with decency concur in the punishment of those who went on.

[526] Journals, May 14.

[527] June 5, 6, 7. The first seven were Scott, Holland, Lisle, Barkstead, Harrison, Say, Jones. They went on to add Coke, Broughton, Dendy.

[528] These were Lenthall, Vane, Burton, Keble, St. John, Ireton, Haslerig, Sydenham, Desborough, Axtell, Lambert, Pack, Blackwell, Fleetwood, Pyne, Dean, Creed, Nye, Goodwin, and Cobbet; some of them rather insignificant names. Upon the words that "twenty and no more" be so excepted, two divisions took place, 160 to 131, and 153 to 135; the presbyterians being the majority. June 8. Two other divisions took place on the names of Lenthall, carried by 215 to 126, and of Whitelock, lost by 175 to 134. Another motion was made afterwards against Whitelock by Prynne. Milton was ordered to be prosecuted separately from the twenty; so that they already broke their resolution. He was put in custody of the serjeant-at-arms, and released, December 17. Andrew Marvell, his friend, soon afterwards complained that fees to the amount of 150 pounds had been extorted from him; but Finch answered that Milton had been Cromwell's secretary, and deserved hanging. Parl. Hist. p. 162. Lenthall had taken some share in the restoration, and entered into correspondence with the king's advisers a little before. Clar. State Papers, iii. 711, 720. Kennet's Register, 762. But the royalists never could forgive his having put the question to the vote on the ordinance for trying the late king.

[529] June 30. This was carried without a division. Eleven were afterwards excepted by name, as not having rendered themselves. July 9.

[530] July 11.

[531] The worst and most odious of their proceedings, quite unworthy of a christian and civilised assembly, was to give the next relations of the four peers who had been executed under the commonwealth, Hamilton, Holland, Capel, and Derby, the privilege of naming each one person (among the regicides) to be executed. This was done in the three last instances; but Lord Denbigh, as Hamilton's kinsman, nominated one who was dead; and, on this being pointed out to him, refused to fix on another. Journal, Aug. 7; Ludlow, iii. 34.

[532] Lord Southampton, according to Ludlow, actually moved this in the House of Lords, but was opposed by Finch, iii. 43.

[533] Clarendon uses some shameful chicanery about this (Life, p. 69); and with that inaccuracy, to say the least, so habitual to him, says, "the parliament had published a proclamation, that all who did not render themselves by a day named should be judged as guilty, and attainted of treason." The proclamation was published by the king, on the suggestion indeed of the Lords and Commons, and the expressions were what I have stated in the text. State Trials, v. 959; Somers Tracts, vii. 437. It is obvious that by this mis-representation he not only throws the blame of ill faith off the king's shoulders, but puts the case of those who obeyed the proclamation on a very different footing. The king, it seems, had always expected that none of the regicides should be spared. But why did he publish such a proclamation? Clarendon, however, seems to have been against the other exceptions from the bill of indemnity, as contrary to some expressions in the declaration from Breda, which had been inserted by Monk's advice; and thus wisely and honourably got rid of the twenty exceptions, which had been sent up from the Commons. P. 133. The lower house resolved to agree with the Lords as to those twenty persons, or rather sixteen of them, by 197 to 102, Hollis and Morrice telling the Ayes.

[534] Stat. 12 Car. II. c. 11.

[535] These were, in the first instance, Harrison, Scott, Scrope, Jones, Clement, Carew, all of whom had signed the warrant, Cook, the solicitor at the high court of justice, Hacker and Axtell, who commanded the guard on that occasion, and Peters. Two years afterwards, Downing, ambassador in Holland, prevailed on the states to give up Barkstead, Corbet, and Okey. They all died with great constancy, and an enthusiastic persuasion of the righteousness of their cause. State Trials.

Pepys says in his Diary, 13th October 1660, of Harrison, whose execution he witnessed, that "he looked as cheerful as any man could do in that condition."

[536] It is remarkable, that Scrope had been so particularly favoured by the convention parliament, as to be exempted, together with Hutchinson and Lascelles, from any penalty or forfeiture by a special resolution. June 9. But the Lords put in his name again, though they pointedly excepted Hutchinson; and the Commons, after first resolving that he should only pay a fine of one year's value of his estate, came at last to agree in excepting him from the indemnity as to life. It appears that some private conversation of Scrope had been betrayed, wherein he spoke of the king's death as he thought.

As to Hutchinson, he had certainly concurred in the restoration, having an extreme dislike to the party who had turned out the parliament in Oct. 1659, especially Lambert. This may be inferred from his conduct, as well as by what Ludlow says, and Kennet in his Register, p. 169. His wife puts a speech into his mouth as to his share in the king's death, not absolutely justifying it, but, I suspect, stronger than he ventured to use. At least, the Commons voted that he should not be excepted from the indemnity, "on account of his signal repentance," which could hardly be predicated of the language she ascribes to him. Compare Mrs. Hutchinson's Memoirs, p. 367, with Commons' Journals, June 9.

[537] Horace Walpole, in his Catalogue of Noble Authors, has thought fit to censure both these persons for their pretended inconsistency. The case is, however, different as to Monk and Cooper; and perhaps it may be thought, that men of more delicate sentiments than either of these possessed, would not have sat upon the trial of those with whom they had long professed to act in concert, though innocent of their crime.

[538] Commons' Journals, May 12, 1660.

[539] Parl. Hist. iv. 80.

[540] Id. iv. 129.

[541] Memoirs, p. 229. It appears by some passages in the Clarendon Papers, that the church had not expected to come off so brilliantly; and, while the restoration was yet unsettled, would have been content to give leases of their lands. Pp. 620, 723. Hyde, however, was convinced that the church would be either totally ruined, or restored to a great lustre; and herein he was right, as it turned out. P. 614.

[542] Life of Clarendon, 99. L'Estrange, in a pamphlet printed before the end of 1660, complains that the cavaliers were neglected, the king betrayed, the creatures of Cromwell, Bradshaw, and St. John laden with offices and honours. Of the indemnity he says, "That act made the enemies to the constitution masters in effect of the booty of three nations, bating the Crown and church lands, all which they might now call their own; while those who stood up for the laws were abandoned to the comfort of an irreparable but honourable ruin." He reviles the presbyterian ministers still in possession; and tells the king that misplaced lenity was his father's ruin. Kennet's Register, p. 233. See too, in Somers Tracts, vii. 517, "The Humble Representation of the Sad Condition of the King's Party." Also p. 557.

[543] Commons' Journals, 4 September 1660. Sir Philip Warwick, chancellor of the exchequer, assured Pepys that the revenue fell short by a fourth of the £1,200,000 voted by parliament. See his Diary, March 1, 1664. Ralph, however, says, the income in 1662 was £1,120,593, though the expenditure was £1,439,000. P. 88. It appears probable that the hereditary excise did not yet produce much beyond its estimate. Id. p. 20.

[544] 21 Nov. 1660, 151 to 149. Parl. Hist.

[545] The troops disbanded were fourteen regiments of horse and eighteen of foot in England: one of horse and four of foot in Scotland, besides garrisons. Journals, Nov. 7.

[546] Ralph, 35; Life of James, 447; Grose's Military Antiquities, i. 61.

[547] Neal, 429, 444.

[548] Id. 471; Pepy's Diary, ad init. Even in Oxford, about 300 episcopalians used to meet every Sunday with the connivance of Dr. Owen, dean of Christ Church. Orme's Life of Owen, 188. It is somewhat bold in Anglican writers to complain, as they now and then do, of the persecution they suffered at this period, when we consider what had been the conduct of the bishops before, and what it was afterwards. I do not know that any member of the church of England was imprisoned under the commonwealth, except for some political reason; certain it is that the gaols were not filled with them.

[549] The penal laws were comparatively dormant, though two priests suffered death, one of them before the protectorate. Butler's Mem. of Catholics, ii. 13. But in 1655 Cromwell issued a proclamation for the execution of these statutes; which seems to have been provoked by the persecution of the Vaudois. Whitelocke tells us he opposed it. 625. It was not acted upon.

[550] Several of these appear in Somers Tracts, vol. vii. The king's nearest friends were of course not backward in praising him, though a little at the expense of their consciences. "In a word," says Hyde to a correspondent in 1659, "if being the best protestant and the best Englishman of the nation can do the king good at home, he must prosper with and by his own subjects." Clar. State Papers, 541. Morley says he had been to see Judge Hale, who asked him questions about the king's character and firmness in the protestant religion. Id. 736. Morley's exertions to dispossess men of the notion that the king and his brother were inclined to popery, are also mentioned by Kennet in his Register, 818: a book containing very copious information as to this particular period. Yet Morley could hardly have been without strong suspicions as to both of them.

[551] He had written in cipher to Secretary Nicholas, from St. Johnston's, Sept. 3, 1650, the day of the battle of Dunbar, "Nothing could have confirmed me more to the church of England than being here, seeing their hypocrisy." Supplement to Evelyn's Diary, 133. The whole letter shows that he was on the point of giving his new friends the slip; as indeed he attempted soon after, in what was called the Start. Laing, iii. 463.

[552] 12 Car. II. c. 17. It is quite clear that an usurped possession was confirmed by this act, where the lawful incumbent was dead; though Burnet intimates the contrary.

[553] Parl. Hist. 94. The chancellor, in his speech to the houses at their adjournment in September, gave them to understand that this bill was not quite satisfactory to the court, who preferred the confirmation of ministers by particular letters patent under the great seal; that the king's prerogative of dispensing with acts of parliament might not grow into disuse. Many got the additional security of such patents; which proved of service to them, when the next parliament did not think fit to confirm this important statute. Baxter says (p. 241), some got letters patent to turn out the possessors, where the former incumbents were dead. These must have been to benefices in the gift of the Crown; in other cases, letters patent could have been of no effect. I have found this confirmed by the Journals, Aug. 27, 1660.

[554] Upon Venner's insurrection, though the sectaries, and especially the independents, published a declaration of their abhorrence of it, a pretext was found for issuing a proclamation to shut up the conventicles of the anabaptists and quakers, and so worded as to reach all others. Kennet's Register, 357.

[555] Collier, 869, 871; Baxter, 232, 238. The bishops said, in their answer to the presbyterians' proposals, that the objections against a single person's administration in the church were equally applicable to the state. Collier, 872. But this was false, as they well knew, and designed only to produce an effect at court; for the objections were not grounded on reasoning, but on a presumed positive institution. Besides which, the argument cut against themselves: for, if the English constitution, or something analogous to it, had been established in the church, their adversaries would have had all they now asked.

[556] Stillingfleet's Irenicum; King's Inquiry into the Constitution of the Primitive Church. The former work was published at this time, with a view to moderate the pretensions of the Anglican party, to which the author belonged, by showing: 1. That there are no sufficient data for determining with certainty the form of church-government in the apostolical age, or that which immediately followed it. 2. That, as far as we may probably conjecture, the primitive church was framed on the model of the synagogue; that is, a synod of priests in every congregation having one of their own number for a chief or president. 3. That there is no reason to consider any part of the apostolical discipline as an invariable model for future ages, and that much of our own ecclesiastical polity cannot any way pretend to primitive authority. 4. That this has been the opinion of all the most eminent theologians at home and abroad. 5. That it would be expedient to introduce various modifications, not on the whole much different from the scheme of Usher. Stillingfleet, whose work is a remarkable instance of extensive learning and mature judgment at the age of about twenty-three, thought fit afterwards to retract it in a certain degree; and towards the latter part of his life, gave into more high-church politics. It is true that the Irenicum must have been composed with almost unparalleled rapidity for such a work; but it shows, as far as I can judge, no marks of precipitancy. The biographical writers put its publication in 1659; but this must be a mistake; no one can avoid perceiving that it could not have passed the press on the 24th of March 1660, the latest day which could, according to the old style, have admitted the date of 1659, as it contains allusions to the king's restoration.

[557] Baxter's Life; Neal.

[558] They addressed the king to call such divines as he should think fit, to advise with concerning matters of religion. July 20, 1660. Journals and Parl. Hist.

[559] Parl. Hist.; Neal, Baxter, Collier, etc. Burnet says that Clarendon had made the king publish this declaration; "but the bishops did not approve of this; and, after the service they did that lord in the Duke of York's marriage, he would not put any hardship on those who had so signally obliged him." This is very invidious. I know no evidence that the declaration was published at Clarendon's suggestion, except indeed that he was the great adviser of the Crown; yet in some things, especially of this nature, the king seems to have acted without his concurrence. He certainly speaks of the declaration as if he did not wholly relish it (Life, 75), and does not state it fairly. In State Trials, vi. 11, it is said to have been drawn up by Morley and Henchman for the church, Reynolds and Calamy for the dissenters; if they disagreed, Lords Anglesea and Hollis to decide.

[560] The chief objection made by the presbyterians, as far as we learn from Baxter, was, that the consent of presbyters to the bishops' acts was not promised by the declaration, but only their advice; a distinction apparently not very material in practice, but bearing perhaps on the great point of controversy, whether the difference between the two were in order or in degree. The king would not come into the scheme of consent; though they pressed him with a passage out of the Icon Basilike, where his father allowed of it. Life of Baxter, 276. Some alterations, however, were made in consequence of their suggestions.

[561] Parl. Hist. 141, 152. Clarendon, 76, most strangely observes on this: "Some of the leaders brought a bill into the house for the making that declaration a law, which was suitable to their other acts of ingenuity to keep the church for ever under the same indulgence and without any settlement; which being quickly perceived, there was no further progress in it." The bill was brought in by Sir Matthew Hale.

[562] Collier, who of course thinks this declaration an encroachment on the church, as well as on the legislative power, says, "For this reason it was overlooked at the assizes and sessions in several places in the country, where the dissenting ministers were indicted for not conforming pursuant to the laws in force." P. 876. Neal confirms this, 586, and Kennet's Register, 374.

[563] Life of Clarendon, 74. A plausible and somewhat dangerous attack had been made on the authority of this parliament from an opposite quarter, in a pamphlet written by one Drake, under the name of Thomas Philips, entitled "The Long Parliament Revived," and intended to prove that by the act of the late king, providing that they should not be dissolved but by the concurrence of the whole legislature, they were still in existence; and that the king's demise, which legally puts an end to a parliament, could not affect one that was declared permanent by so direct an enactment. This argument seems by no means inconsiderable; but the times were not such as to admit of technical reasoning. The convention parliament, after questioning Drake, finally sent up articles of impeachment against him; but the Lords, after hearing him in his defence, when he confessed his fault, left him to be prosecuted by the attorney-general. Nothing more, probably, took place. Parl. Hist. 145, 157. This was in November and December 1660: but Drake's book seems still to have been in considerable circulation; at least I have two editions of it, both bearing the date of 1661. The argument it contains is purely legal; but the aim must have been to serve the presbyterian or parliamentarian cause.

[564] Complaints of insults on the presbyterian clergy were made to the late parliament. Parl. Hist. 160. The Anglicans inveighed grossly against them on the score of their past conduct, notwithstanding the act of indemnity. Kennet's Register, 616. See, as a specimen, South's sermons, passim.

[565] Journals, 17th of May 1661. The previous question was moved on this vote, but lost by 228 to 103; Morice, the secretary of state, being one of the tellers for the minority. Monk, I believe, to whom Morice owed his elevation, did what he could to prevent violent measures against the presbyterians. Alderman Love was suspended from sitting in the house July 3, for not having taken the sacrament. I suppose that he afterwards conformed; for he became an active member of the opposition.

[566] Journals, June 14, etc.; Parl. Hist. 209; Life of Clarendon, 71; Burnet, 230. A bill discharging the loyalists from all interest exceeding three per cent. on debts contracted before the wars passed the Commons; but was dropped in the other house. The great discontent of this party at the indemnity continued to show itself in subsequent sessions. Clarendon mentions, with much censure, that many private bills passed about 1662, annulling conveyances of lands made during the troubles. Pp. 162, 163. One remarkable instance ought to be noticed, as having been greatly misrepresented. At the Earl of Derby's seat of Knowsley in Lancashire a tablet is placed to commemorate the ingratitude of Charles II. in having refused the royal assent to a bill which had passed both houses for restoring the son of the Earl of Derby, who had lost his life in the royal cause, to his family estate. This has been so often reprinted by tourists and novelists, that it passes currently for a just reproach on the king's memory. It was, however, in fact one of his most honourable actions. The truth is, that the cavalier faction carried through parliament a bill to make void the conveyances of some manors which Lord Derby had voluntarily sold before the restoration, in the very face of the act of indemnity, and against all law and justice. Clarendon, who, together with some very respectable peers, had protested against this measure in the upper house, thought it his duty to recommend the king to refuse his assent. Lords' Journals, Feb. 6 and May 14, 1662. There is so much to blame in both the minister and his master, that it is but fair to give them credit for that which the pardonable prejudices of the family interested have led it to mis-state.

[567] Commons' Journals, 1st July 1661. A division took place, November 26, on a motion to lay this bill aside, in consideration of the king's proclamation, which was lost by 124 to 109: Lord Cornbury (Clarendon's son) being a teller for the Noes. The bill was sent up to the Lords Jan. 27, 1662. See also Parl. Hist. 217, 225. Some of their proceedings trespassed upon the executive power, and infringed the prerogative they laboured to exalt. But long interruption of the due course of the constitution had made its boundaries indistinct. Thus, in the convention parliament, the bodies of Cromwell, Bradshaw, Ireton, and others, were ordered, Dec 4, on the motion of Colonel Titus, to be disinterred, and hanged on a gibbet. The Lords concurred in this order; but the mode of address to the king would have been more regular. Parl. Hist. 151.

[568] 3 Inst. 7. This appears to have been held in Bagot's case, 9 Edw. 4. See also Higden's View of the English Constitution, 1709.

[569] Foster, in his Discourse on High Treason, evidently intimates that he thought the conviction of Vane unjustifiable.

[570] "The relation that has been made to me of Sir H. Vane's carriage yesterday in the Hall is the occasion of this letter, which, if I am rightly informed, was so insolent, as to justify all he had done; acknowledging no supreme power in England but a parliament, and many things to that purpose. You have had a true account of all; and if he has given new occasion to be hanged, certainly he is too dangerous a man to let live, if we can honestly put him out of the way. Think of this, and give me some account of it to-morrow, till when I have no more to say to you. C." Indorsed in Lord Clarendon's hand, "The king, June 7, 1662." Vane was beheaded June 14. Burnet (note in Oxford edition), p. 164; Harris's Lives, v. 32.

[571] Vane gave up the profits of his place as treasurer of the navy, which, according to his patent, would have amounted to £30,000 per ann. if we may rely on Harris's Life of Cromwell, p. 260.

[572] 13 Car. 2, c. 1 and 6. A bill for settling the militia had been much opposed in the convention parliament, as tending to bring in martial law. Parl. Hist. iv. 145. It seems to have dropped.

[573] C. 1.

[574] C. 2. The only opposition made to this was in the House of Lords by the Earl of Bristol and some of the Roman catholic party, who thought the bishops would not be brought into a toleration of their religion. Life of Clarendon, p. 138.

[575] C. 5.

[576] 13 Car. 2, sess. 2, c. i. This bill did not pass without a strong opposition in the Commons. It was carried at last by 182 to 77 (Journals, July 5); but, on a previous division for its commitment the numbers were 135 to 136. June 20. Prynne was afterwards reprimanded by the speaker for publishing a pamphlet against this act (July 15); but his courage had now forsaken him; and he made a submissive apology, though the censure was pronounced in a very harsh manner.

[577] Journals, 3rd April 1662; 10th March 1663.

[578] Parl. Hist. 289. Clarendon speaks very unjustly of the triennial act, forgetting that he had himself concurred in it. P. 221.

[579] 16 Car. 2, c. 1. We find by the Journals that some divisions took place during the passage of this bill, and though, as far as appears, on subordinate points, yet probably springing from an opposition to its principle. March 28, 1664. There was by this time a regular party formed against the court.