A.D. 1660.]

CHARLES LANDS AT DOVER.

187

necessities, they sent him a present of 50,0002., with 10,000l. for his brother the duke of York, and 5,000%. for the duke of Gloucester. They ordered the arms and symbols of the commonwealth to be effaced, the name of the king to be introduced into the public worship, and his succession to be proclaimed as having commenced from the day of his father's death *. Hale, the cele- May brated lawyer, ventured, with Prynne, to call upon the 7. house of commons to pause in their enthusiasm, and attend to the interests of the nation. The first moved the appointment of a committee to inquire what propositions had been offered by the long parliament, and what concessions had been made by the last king in 1648; the latter urged the favourable opportunity of coming to a mutual and permanent understanding on all those claims, which had been hitherto subjects of controversy between the two houses and the crown. But Monk rose, and strongly objected to an inquiry which might revive the fears and jealousies, the animosities and bloodshed, of the years that were past. Let the king return while all was peace and harmony. He would come alone; he could bring no army with him; he would be as much at their mercy in Westminster as in Breda. Limitations, if limitations were necessary, might be prepared in the interval, and offered to him after his arrival. At the conclusion of this speech, the house resounded with the acclamations of the cavaliers; and the advocates of the inquiry, awed by the authority of the general, and the clamour of their opponents, deemed it prudent to desist †.

Charles was as eager to accept, as the houses had been to vote, the address of invitation. From Breda he had gone to the Hague, where the States, anxious to atone for their former neglect, entertained him with unusual magnificence. The fleet, under Montague, had 23.

Journals of both houses.

+ Burnet, i. 88. Ludlow, iii. 8, 9. + Montague had long been in correspondence with the king, and dis

May anchored in the bay of Scheveling; and Charles, as 23. soon as the weather permitted, set sail for Dover, where

Monk, at the head of the nobility and gentry from the neighbouring counties, waited to receive the new sove25. reign. Every eye was fixed on their meeting; and the cheerful, though dignified, condescension of the king, and the dutiful, respectful homage of the general, provoked the applause of the spectators. Charles embraced him as his benefactor, bade him walk by his side, and took him into the royal carriage. From Dover to the capital the king's progress bore the appearance of a triumphal procession. The roads were covered with crowds of people anxious to testify their loyalty, while 29. they gratified their curiosity. On Blackheath he was received by the army in battle array, and greeted with acclamations as he passed through the ranks; in St. George's fields the lord mayor and aldermen invited him to partake of a splendid collation in a tent prepared for the purpose; from London-bridge to Whitehall the houses were hung with tapestry, and the streets lined by the trained bands, the regulars, and the officers who had served under Charles I. The king was preceded by troops of horsemen, to the amount of three thousand persons, in splendid dresses, attended by trumpeters and footmen; then came the lord mayor, carrying the naked sword, after him the lord-general and the duke of Buckingham, and lastly the king himself, riding between his two brothers. The cavalcade was closed by the general's life-guard, five regiments of horse, and two troops of noblemen and gentlemen. At Whitehall Charles dismissed the lord mayor, and received in succession the two houses, whose speakers addressed him in strains of the most impassioned loyalty, and were answered by him with protestations of attachment to the approved of the dissimulation of Monk, so far as to call him in private a thick-sculled fool:" but thought it necessary to flatter him, as he could hinder the business. Pepys, i. 69.

A.D. 1660.]

66

RESTORATION OF THE KING.

189

interests and liberties of his subjects. It was late in the evening before the ceremonies of this important day were concluded; when Charles observed to some of his confidants, It must surely have been my fault that I "did not come before; for I have met with no one today who did not protest that he always wished for my "restoration *.

66

That the re-establishment of royalty was a blessing to the country will hardly be denied. It presented the best, perhaps the only, means of restoring public tranquillity amidst the confusion and distrust, the animosities and hatreds, the parties and interests, which had been generated by the events of the civil war, and by a rapid succession of opposite and ephemeral governments. To Monk belongs the merit of having, by his foresight and caution, effected this desirable object without bloodshed or violence; but to his dispraise it must also be recorded, that he effected it without any previous stipulation on the part of the exiled monarch. Never had so fair an opportunity been offered of establishing a compact between the sovereign and the people, of determining, by mutual consent, the legal rights of the crown, and of securing from future encroachment the freedom of the people. That Charles would have consented to such conditions, we have sufficient evidence: but, when the measure was proposed, the lord-general declared himself its most determined opponent. It may have been, that his cautious mind figured to itself danger in delay; it is more probable that he sought to give additional value to his services in the eyes of the new sovereign. But, whatever were the motives of his conduct, the result was, that the king ascended the throne unfettered with conditions, and thence inferred that he was entitled to all the powers claimed by his father at

*Whitelock, 702. Kennet's Reg. 163. Clarendon's Hist. iii. 772. Clarendon's Life by Himself, Continuation, p. 7, 8. Evelyn's Diary, ii. 148.

the commencement of the civil war. In a few years the consequence became manifest. It was found that, by the negligence or perfidy of Monk, a door had been left open to the recurrence of dissension between the crown and the people; and that very circumstance which Charles had hailed as the consummation of his good fortune, served only to prepare the way for a second revolution, which ended in the permanent exclusion of his family from the government of these kingdoms.

CHAPTER IV.

CHARLES II.

The New Council-Proceedings in the Convention Parliament-Trials and Execution of the Regicides-Ecclesiastical Arrangements-Conference at the Savoy-Rising of the Fifth-Monarchy Men-New Parlia ment-Execution of Vane-Corporation Act-Act of Uniformity-Parliament in Scotland-Execution of Argyle-Restoration of Episcopacy in Scotland-Also in Ireland-Act of Settlement-And Explanatory Act for Ireland.

NEVER, perhaps, did any event in the history of this 1660. nation produce such general and exuberant joy as the return of Charles to take possession of the throne of his fathers. To the abolition of monarchy men attributed all the evils which they had suffered; from its restoration they predicted the revival of peace and prosperity. The known enemies of the royal cause slunk away to hide themselves from the effects of popular excitation; its triumph was everywhere celebrated with the usual manifestations of public joy; and the arms of the commonwealth, with all the emblems of republicanism, were subjected to the foulest indignities, and reduced to ashes. To keep alive the flame of loyalty, the royalists circulated, in cheap publications, most flattering portraits of the new king. He was described as a prince of kindly disposition and engaging manners, of sound judgment, and becoming spirit, and, above all, of the most inflexible attachment to the doctrines of protestantism, an attachment which had stood the test of temptation in circumstances the most trying and seductive. That there was some truth in these representations cannot be denied; but one-half of the picture was concealed: it should have been added, that he was easy