--

kept, of a yearly income of ten thousand pounds, Richard withdrew from the palace of Whitehall, to pass the rest of his many years as a private gentleman, He lived to be successively the subject of three tion. dynasties after his own.

His abdica

July.

Aug. 20.

Oct. 12.

Oct. 13.

The Parliament and the army were not long in getting up another quarrel. Lambert, who was the more feared for a victory which he had lately won over the Earl of Derby and other royalist insurgents, and Desborough, the late Protector's brother-in-law, with seven field-officers, were cashiered by a vote of Parliament, for signing what was accounted a seditious petition; and Fleetwood was degraded from the chief command to be one of seven commissioners invested with that trust. Parliament surrounded its place of meeting with a military guard. Lambert mustered a larger force, with which he turned the members back, as they were proceeding to their places. The soldiers of the contending parties fraternized; and, at a conference between the leaders, it was agreed that a council of officers should digest a new plan of government, to be submitted to the consideration of a new Parliament. Lambert believed the long dream of his ambition to be near its fulfilment. He was made MajorGeneral of the forces in Great Britain, though the titular dignity of Lieutenant-General was conferred on Fleetwood. A Committee of Safety, consisting of twenty-three persons, was provisionally invested with the civil authority.1

"Honest George Monk," as he was fancifully called, now commanded seven or eight thousand troops in Scotland. In the beginning of the civil war he fought George for the King; but, being made prisoner by Fair- Monk. fax at Nantwich, as the royal prospects grew dark, he

1 Here comes to an end the Journal of the Council of State, which fills twenty-four volumes. The last entry

is dated October 25th of this year, twelve days after the expulsion of the Rump by Lambert.

took service with the Parliament when he was discharged. Phlegmatic, taciturn, and with no pretension to religious fervors, he had raised himself to importance by courage and conduct in the field. From the North country he had been keeping a wakeful eye on Lambert.

Probably it will never be known how early he was in communication with the King. His mind was so far made up, and his provisional arrangements were so matured, that, immediately on receiving intelligence of the last dispersion of the Parliament, he moved southward, though by slow marches, with nearly all his force. Lambert led seven thousand men against him;1 but was cajoled into inaction by Monk's parade of entering into negotiations with the superiors of both in London. The tenor of Monk's operations at the capital was not disclosed to his military antagonist. He was in correspondence with numbers of friends of the late Parliament, and with officers and others hostile to the existing authority. The Committee of Safety saw the rising storm, and sought to allay it by proceedings for the immediate convocation of a Parliament. But a movement had been organized, too powerful for them to withstand. The soldiers in the city clamored for the old Parliament; and again, and for the last time, the remains of that body, commonly called the Rump, took possession of its house. Desborough fled to Lambert's camp. Fleetwood sought the Speaker, and surrendered his commission. A Council of State, and a Committee for the Gov

December.

1

Dec. 26.

99

Among the "Winslow papers belonging to the Massachusetts Historical Society is a letter of William Davis of Boston to Governor Prince of Plymouth, dated January 25, 1660, and communicating intelligence just received by Davis from a correspondent in England. Davis reports the anxiety that was felt there for the result of the expected conflict between Monk and

Lambert for the occupation of Newcastle, and adds: "Solicitous endeavors for a General Governor for New England were with the Parliament, which, Mr. Maverick writes, was voted affirmatively the Saturday before their dissolution, which is not believed.” I suppose this must have been a groundless rumor.

ernment of the Army, were appointed. The commissions of unfriendly officers were cancelled; and orders were sent to Lambert and the most considerable of his partisans in the camp, to withdraw to their homes,— orders which, after the recent transactions in London, they could not resolve to disobey.1

Monk's

of London.

1660.

Feb. 3.

The further devices of Monk need not be recounted. He blinded the Commonwealth's men, and kept the royalists in suspense, till he saw that the safe moment for action had come. He quartered his soldiers in Westminster, and himself in Whitehall. By a occupation recommendation, which in the circumstances was a command, he restored to their seats in the House the Presbyterian members who had been expelled. The Parliament, thus reinforced, named him commander-in-chief; again, as far as a vote could avail, made Presbytery the rule of the Church of England; and issued a summons for the meeting of a new Parliament. By its own vote, a session of less March 15.

than three months ended in its final dissolution.

Feb. 21.

April 25.

The Convention Parliament-as it has since been called, because it was not summoned by the King's writ-came together on the early day appointed. The course Convention which it would take was easily foreseen from the Parliament. result of the elections. Lambert escaped from the Tower, to which he had been committed by April 11. the Council, and collected some troops in Warwickshire. Against him, Monk despatched a force under Colonel Ingoldsby, who was desirous of atoning for his vote in the High Court of Justice for the death of the late King. Deserted by some of his soldiers, Lambert was taken prisoner, and with insult was led back to the Tower.

1 The Fairfax papers contain a very interesting account of communications, at this moment, between Monk and Lord Fairfax, who, since he had re

VOL. II.

36

signed the command of the army, nine years before, had been living in retirement. (Memorials of the Civil War, II. 151-171.)

The Parliament had scarcely been organized, when Sir John Grenville, who had before been a confidential messenger to Monk, presented himself to the two Houses with letters from the King, who, by Monk's advice, had come to Breda in Brabant.

The letters were accompanied with what was called the royal Declaration. In it the King promised a free pardon to all persons, except such as should be excepted by Parliament, for offences committed during the late disorderly times; indulgence to private consciences in matters of religion; an uncontrolled decision by Parliament of questions relating to property which had been alienated by confiscations or fines; and the payment of arrears due to the army, with its continuance upon the actual footing. A large majority of the Lower House consisted of persons who had acted with the popular party; and they did not fail to see the desirableness of obtaining some security for the fulfilment of these engagements, and of causing them to be expressed with more explicitness and precision. But such arrangements would require time; and it was thought that, at so critical a juncture, time could not by any means be afforded. While negotiations were pending, the soldiers might again come to an understanding together, and consolidate, under a single head, that power which, when not disunited, was irresistible. In adjusting the terms of an agreement with the King, Presbyterians and Episcopalians, now alike eager for his return, would be sure to quarrel. The precious moment of opportunity for an escape from the evils which were experienced and dreaded was not to be lost, even though, in profiting by it, serious hazard was incurred.1

The Houses resolved that the government of England was, and ought to be, by King, Lords, and Commons. They voted a present to Charles of fifty thousand pounds,

1 Baxter's account (Reliq. Baxterian., the Presbyterians were moved to proI. 216) of the considerations by which mote the Restoration is deeply touching.

May 25.

Entry of

Charles the

Second into

and ten thousand and five thousand pounds respectively to his brothers, the Dukes of York and Gloucester. Admiral Montague was despatched to Scheveling with a fleet. The Duke of York went on board, and hoisted his flag as Lord High Admiral. At Dover, in the presence of an immense throng, that covered the beach and the heights, the King was greeted by Monk. Crowds, lining the road to London, poured out their joyous acclamations. As he approached the capital, he passed between the ranks of the army, and met the view of eyes which had seen him last at Worcester. The dignitaries of the City came in procession across London Bridge to do him homage. Flags waved on the turrets. Tapestries hung on the walls of the houses. Young and old filled the windows, and covered the roofs. Flowers strewed the pavement. Bells, cannon, and trumpets uttered their noisy welcome. Fountains ran with wine. Regiments of horse and foot went before and followed. Shouts rent the air. On horseback, between his brothers, Charles passed to Whitehall; and Englishmen, after twenty years of costly struggle, were again vassals of the head of the house of Stuart.

London.

May 29.

It is a misery of human affairs, that sometimes they present only such a choice among evils as appears to require the elevation of unworthy men to the most exalted places. The justice of England has provided the workhouse and the treadmill for the use of persons of habits and tastes like his whom her sad necessity now raised to be the head of her Church, the master of her sages, the pattern of her gentlemen, the object of reverential loyalty to her divines and her magistrates, to her teachers and her youth, to her maids and matrons. With no honest purpose to direct his life; utterly without sense of responsibility for the right fulfilment of a vast trust; surrendered, with all his faculties, to a libertinism gross and shameless; unconscious even of dishonor in