1660.] CHARLES II. RESTORED. 91 The declaration from Breda contained a promise of pardon to all except those who should be hereafter excepted by parliament; a promise to consent to any act of parliament that should be passed for the indulgence of tender consciences; a promise to allow the parliament to regulate all differences respecting the rights and titles to lands, and a similar promise respecting the military arrears. How illusory all this was is plain to be seen; the king in effect was bound to nothing, and what the complexion of the next parliament was likely to be, no one could have a doubt. The upright sir Matthew Hale, therefore, with Prynne and others, called on the house to pause, and now, while they had the power, to make a final settlement of the claims which had hitherto caused collision between the crown and parliament. But Monk opposed the revival of these disputed questions at this time, when every moment was precious. Let the king, he said, but come, it would be always in their power to impose limitations. The house rang with acclamations, and the king was restored without any restriction *. A sum of 50,000. was voted to the king, 10,000. to the duke of York, and 5000. to the duke of Gloucester. The arms of the commonwealth were every where taken down, and the royal arms put in their place. Charles was proclaimed with great solemnity (8th); and the ministers were ordered to pray for him and the duke of York. Commissioners were sent to invite the king to come and receive his crown. Charles lost no time in proceeding from Breda to the Hague. The States, who had hitherto neglected him, now treated him with the utmost respect and magnificence. strength, opposed the tide of the discontented tumultuous people, partly by the detestable treachery of those who had sold themselves to do mischief, but chiefly by the general stream of the people, who were as eager for their own destruction as the Israelites of old for their quails." * Hallam, however, (ii. 397) shows that limitations would have been perfectly useless. Montague being arrived with the English fleet in the bay of Schevelin, he got on board (23rd). At Dover (25th) Monk, at the head of the nobility and gentry of Kent, received him as he landed. He kissed and embraced the general, made him walk by his side and ride in the coach with himself and his brothers. As he proceeded, the people crowded from all parts to see and welcome him. On the 29th, his birth-day, he approached the capital. The army, which was drawn out on Blackheath to receive him, greeted him with joyful acclamations as he passed. In St. George's-fields the lord mayor and aldermen invited him to partake of a cold collation in a tent. The houses from London-bridge to Whitehall were covered with tapestry; the streets were lined to Temple-bar by the militia on one side, the city companies in their liveries on the other; thence, to Whitehall, by militia and regiments of the army. Troops of gentlemen richly clad, with their footmen and trumpeters, the city companies, the sheriffs, mayor, and aldermen, rode along; the lord-general and the duke of Buckingham followed; the king, riding between his two brothers, succeeded; the cavalcade was closed by the general's guards, and five regiments of horse, and two troops of noblemen and gentlemen. Such was the general joy displayed, that the king, in his agreeable manner, observed, "It must surely have been my fault that I did not come before, for I have met with no one to-day who did not protest that he always wished for my restoration." Thus at length terminated the experiment of a commonwealth in England. It had never been popular, for it was in opposition to all the habits, feelings, and prejudices of the people, and was associated with ideas of military rule and excessive taxation. It had given no taste of real liberty, having been from the commencement the despotism of an oligarchy or of an individual. Yet it was not quite barren of benefit to the nation, for it swept away RELIGIOUS SECTS. 93 much of the rubbish of the feudal times which now only served to encumber and render foul the social edifice; and we shall find the rights and liberties of the nation much less trampled on under the restored monarchy than had been the case in the times antecedent to the commonwealth, partly as the result of positive law, still more of the spirit which had been infused into the nation by the long conflict between the crown and parliament. The calm and philosophic student of history will therefore feel disposed to regard the civil war and commonwealth as among the means necessary for the final establishment of rational and bounded liberty in England, and not hastily to look on them as pure and unmitigated evils. It has been observed that democracy has not yet been tried in this country. This remark is perfectly just: nothing could have been further from the thoughts of the Vanes, the Ludlows, and the Haselrigs, than the idea of giving political power to the lower classes of society*. In fact, we only find this notion in the wild projects of the Levellers. It was reserved for our own age to see that most galling of tyrannies, a pure democracy, advocated even by members of the aristocracy in the great council of the nation. It is self-evident that it can only be established on the ruins of the throne, the church, and the aristocracy; and none but those on whom the lessons of experience are lost, or who hope for personal gain in the change, can desire such a consummation. Numerous religious sects, differing only in the degrees of absurdity and fanaticism, sprang up during this period of commotion. Of these the only one that took permanent root is that of the Friends or Quakers, founded by an en *The following lines of Milton (Par. Reg. iii. 49) are not of a very democratic character: And what the people but a herd confused, A miscellaneous rabble, who extol Things vulgar, and well-weigh'd scarce worth the praise? And know not whom, but as one leads the other. thusiast named George Fox, the son of a weaver, and originally a shepherd-boy. It rested on a literal interpretation of some parts of Scripture and a rejection of all ordinances in religion: hence it drew on itself a cruel persecution both from the commonwealth and the restored monarchy. The gaols in those days of intolerance were filled with Quakers, who endured with all the heroism of martyrs rather than conform to the language, habit, manners, and religious observances of the rest of the nation. In politics this sect has at all times been decidedly republican, but it has generally abstained from political agitation. CHAPTER XIII. CHARLES II.* 1660-1667. First measures of the crown.-Trials and executions of the regicides.-Crownand church-lands.-Duke of York's marriage.-Savoy conference.-Trial and execution of sir Henry Vane.-Affairs of Scotland;-of Ireland.— King's marriage.-Sale of Dunkirk.-Act of Uniformity.-Dutch war.Great plague.-Five-mile act.-Fire of London.-End of the Dutch war. -Fall of Clarendon. ENGLAND, after nearly twenty years of anarchy and confusion, now resumed her original form. The clouds seemed to be all dissipated, and a bright sun of royalty about to shed peace and happiness all over the land. But this appearance was fallacious; Charles, bland and courteous, easy and negligent as he was, had adopted principles and formed habits which soon dispelled the flattering hopes in which men were led at first to indulge. Historians have remarked with a kind of astonishment, the sudden change which took place in the conduct of the people; flinging away, as it seemed, the rigour of religion, they rushed madly into excess and licentiousness. It is, however, an error to suppose that the people were changed; the only change was in the ruling power. Those who had been really religious, remained so still; but such has never been the character of the great body of a people. During the whole time of the suspension of royalty, the power had been in the hands of men who, though fanatics, were religious; the same was the character of the army t. All the * Authorities :-Clarendon, Burnet, Pepys, Evelyn, Life of James II., Temple, &c. † Whitelock and others will furnish proofs of this. Burnet, speaking of some regiments that he saw at Aberdeen, says, "There was an order and dis |