standing army could be maintained, and so many foreign wars carried on, without incurring extraordinary expenses. The protector therefore called his first and second parliaments, guards being placed at the door of the latter, that none might be admitted but such as produced a warrant from his council. The principal design of convening this assembly was, that they should offer him the crown. His creatures, therefore, took care to insinuate the confusion that arose in

legal proceedings without the name of a king; that no man was acquainted with the extent or limits of the present magistrate's authority, but those of a king had been well ascertained by the experience of ages. On the motion being at last formally made in the house, it was easily carried, and nothing was wanting but Cromwell's own consent to have his name enrolled among the sovereigns of England. This consent, however, he avoided to give. The conference carried on with the members, who made him the offer, seems to argue that he was desirous of being compelled to accept it, but it ended in his total refusal. With all these proffered honors, and all his real despotic power, the situation of Cromwell, we have seen, was far from being enviable. Conspiracies were formed against him, and it was finally taught upon principle, that not only was his death desirable, but his assassination would be meritorious. Cromwell is said to have read the celebrated pamphlet of colonel Titus, Killing no Murder, and never to have smiled afterwards. At last he was delivered from a life of horror and anxiety by a tertian aque, of which he died September 3rd, 1658, after having usurped the government nine years. for other particulars of the life and character of this extraordinary man, see CROMWELL.

Oliver Cromwell was nominally succeeded in his office of protector by his son Richard, who immediately called a parliament. To this as sembly the army presented a remonstrance, desiring some person for their general in whom they could confide. The house voted such meetings and remonstrances unlawful: upon which the officers, surrounding Richard's house, forced him to dissolve the parliament; and soon after he signed an abdication of the government. His younger brother Henry, who had been appointed to the command in Ireland, followed Richard's example, and resigned his commission also without striking a blow.

The officers, left at liberty, resolved to restore the Rump parliament, as it was called, consisting of that remnant of the commons which had condemned Charles. They were no sooner reinstated in their authority, however, than they began to humble the army by cashiering some of the officers, and appointing others on whom they could have more dependence. The officers at last resolved to dissolve the assembly. Lambert, one of the generals, drew up a body of troops, in the streets which led to Westminster Hall; and, when the speaker Lenthall proceeded in his carriage to the house, he ordered the horses to be turned, and very civilly conducted him home. The other members were likewise intercepted; and the army returned to their quarters to observe a solemn fast, which gene

rally either preceded or attended their outrages. A committee was then elected, of twenty-three persons, of whom seven were officers. These they pretended to invest with sovereign authority.

But a stronger influence was at work in the north. Upon hearing that the officers had by their own authority dissolved the parliament, general Monk, then in Scotland with 8000 veteran troops, protested against the measure, and resolved to defend the national privileges. As soon as he put his army in motion, he found himself eagerly sought after by all parties; but so cautious was he of declaring his mind, that, to the very last, it was impossible to know on which side he designed to appear. A remarkable instance of this was, that, when his own brother came to him, with a message from lord Granville in the name of the king, he refused all intercourse with him. On the other hand, hearing that the officers were preparing an army to oppose him, Monk amused them with negociations; and the people, finding themselves not entirely defenceless, began to declare for a free parliament. The Rump, now also finding themselves invited to sit by the navy and part of the army, again ventured to resume their seats, and to thunder votes against the officers, by whom they had been ejected. Without taking any notice of Lambert, they sent orders to the troops to repair immediately to the garrisons appointed for them. The soldiers obeyed; and Lambert found himself deserted by his whole army. Monk, in the mean time, proceeded with his troops to London; the gentry, on his march, flocked round him with addresses, and expressing their desire for a new parliament. At St. Albans, within a few miles of the capital, he sent the parliament a message, desiring them to remove such forces as remained in London to country quarters. Some of the regiments willingly obeyed this order; and such as did not Monk ejected by force: after which he quartered his army in Westminster. The house now voted him thanks for his services: when he desired them to call a free parliament; which soon led the citizens to refuse submission to the existing government. They resolved to pay no taxes until the members formerly excluded by colonel Pride should be replaced. On this Monk arrested eleven of the most obnoxious of the common council; broke the gates and portcullises; and, having exposed the city to contempt, returned in triumph to Westminster. The next day, however, he made an apology for this conduct, and promised for the future to cooperate with the mayor and common council. The commons were now greatly alarmed. They tried every method to draw off the general from his new alliance. Some of them even promised to invest him with the dignity of supreme magistrate. But Monk was too just, or too wise, to hearken to such wild proposals: he resolved to restore the secluded members, and by their means to bring about a new election. The restoration of the expelled members was eas ly effected; and their number was so much superior to that of the Rump, that the chiefs of this last party now thought proper in their turn to

withdraw. The restored members began with repealing all those orders by which they had been expelled. They renewed and enlarged the general's commission; fixed a proper stipend for the support of the fleet and army; and, having passed these votes, dissolved themselves, and gave orders for the immediate assembling a new parliament. Mean while, Monk newmodelled the army to his purposes. Some officers, by his direction, having presented him with an address, in which they promised to obey implicitly the orders of the ensuing parliament, he ordered it to be signed by all the different regiments; and this furnished him with a pretence for dismissing those by whom it was rejected. In the midst of these transactions, Lambert, who had been arrested, escaped from the Tower, and began to raise forces; Monk therefore despatched against him colonel Ingoldsby, with his own regiment; and, though Lambert had taken possession of Daventry with four troops of horse, the greater part of them Joined Ingoldsby; to whom he himself surrendered. Monk persisted all this time in his reserve; and referred all the communications of the king to one Morrice, a gentleman of Devonshire. At last however he disclosed his favorable intentions towards the exiled monarch to Sir John Granville, who held a commission from him. In consequence of this, the king left the Spanish territories, where he narrowly escaped being detained, and retired to Holland, to wait the issue of his overtures. The new parliament being assembled, Sir Harbottle Grimstone, a well-known royalist, was chosen speaker; and Monk gave directions to Annesly, president of the council, to inform them, that one Sir John Granville, a servant of the king's, had been sent over by his majesty, and was now at the door with a letter to the house. This message was received with the utmost joy. Granville was called in, the letter read, and the king's proposals immediately accepted. He of fered a general amnesty to al. persons, and without any exceptions, but what should be made by parliament. He promised to indulge scrupulous consciences with liberty in matters of religion; to leave to the examination of parliament the claims of all such as possessed lands with contested titles; to satisfy the army under general Monk with respect to their arrears, and to give the same rank to his officers when they should be enlisted in the king's army; and to confirm all these concessions by act of parliament. In consequence of this agreement between the king and parliament, Montague the English admiral waited on king Charles, to inform him that the fleet expected his orders at Scheveling. The duke of York immediately went on board, and took the command as lord high admiral. The king embarked, and, landing at Dover, was received by the general, whom he tenderly embraced. He entered London in 1660, on the 29th of May, which was his birth-day; and was attended by an innumerable multitude of people, who testified their joy by the loudest accla

mations.

3. Of the Stuart dynasty from the Restoration to the expulsion of James II.-Charles II. was

only thirty years of age at the Restoration. Being naturally of an engaging disposition, he soon became the favorite of all ranks, and his first measures were calculated to give universal satisfaction. He seemed desirous of losing the memory of past animosities, and of uniting every party in affection for their prince and country. In his council were found the most eminent men of the nation, without regard to former distinctions. The presbyterians shared this honor equally with the royalists. Calamy and Baxter, presbyterian clergymen, were even made chaplains to the king. Admiral Montague was created earl of Sandwich, and Monk duke of Albemarle. Morrice, the general's friend, was appointed a secretary of state. The parliament, having been summoned without the king's consent, received at first only the title of a convention; and it was not till after an act passed for that purpose, that they were acknowledged by the former title. Both houses now owned the guilt of the late rebellion, and gratefully received in their own name, and in that of all his subjects, his majesty's gracious pardon and indemnity. The king, as we have seen, had promised an indemnity to all criminals, but such as should be excepted by parliament: he now issued a proclamation, declaring, that such of the late king's judges as did not surrender themselves within fourteen days should receive no pardon. Nineteen surrendered; some were taken in their flight; others escaped beyond sea. The peers seemed inclined to great severity on this occasion; but were restrained by the king, who in the most earnest terms it is said pressed the act of general indemnity. After repeated solicitations, the act of indemnity passed both houses, with the exception of those who had an immediate hand in the king's death. Even Cromwell, Ireton, and Bradshaw, though dead, were considered as proper objects of resentment: their bodies were dug from their graves; dragged to the place of execution; and, after hanging some time, buried under the gallows. Of the rest who sat in judgment on the late monarch's trial, some were dead, and some thought worthy of pardon. Ten only, out of eighty, were adjudged to suffer death; and these were enthusiasts who had all along acted from principle, and who, in the general spirit of rage excited against them, showed a fortitude that would have done honor to any cause. The army was disbanded, that had for so many years governed the nation; at this time prelacy, tithes, and all the ceremonies of the church of England, were restored; the king at the same time endeavouring to preserve the air of moderation and neutrality. In fact, with regard to religion, Charles in his gayer hours was a professed deist; but in the latter part of his life he evidently inclined to the Catholic persuasion, and is known to have died a Catholic. On the 13th of September died the young duke of Gloucester, a prince of great hopes. The king was never so deeply affected by any incident in his life. The princess of Orange, having come to England to partake of the joy attending the restoration of her family, with whom she lived in great friendship, soon after also sickened and died. The queen mother now

paid a visit to her son, and obtained his consent to the marriage of the princess Henrietta with the duke of Orleans, brother to the French king.

Parliament having met on the 6th November, and carried on business with the greatest unanimity and dispatch, was dissolved by the king on the 29th of December, 1660. During the reign of this prince the spirit of the people took a direction totally opposite to that of the time of Charles I. The latter found his subjects animated with a ferocious though ignorant zeal for liberty. They knew not what it was to be free, and therefore imagined that liberty must at once result from throwing off the royal authority. They gained their point: the unhappy monarch was dethroned and murdered; but instead of liberty they found themselves oppressed by greater tyranny than ever. Being freed from this by the Restoration, nothing now prevailed but as unbounded a spirit of submission; and Charles rendered himself at last almost an absolute monarch. A revolution equally great took place with regard to religious matters. During the former reigns a spirit of the most gloomy enthusiasm had overspread the land, and men imagined the Deity was only to be pleased by their denying themselves every social pleasure. The extreme hypocrisy of Cromwell, and the absurd conduct of many of his associates, showed that this was not religion; but, in avoiding this error, they ran into one equally dangerous; and every thing religious or serious was discountenanced. Nothing but riot and dissipation succeeded. The court set the example; scenes of gallantry and festivity were the order of the day; the horrors of the late war became the subject of ridicule; the formality of the sectaries was displayed on the stage, and even laughed at from the pulpit. In short, the best mode of religion now was to have as little as possible; and to lay aside not only the enthusiasm of the sectaries, but even the common duties of morality. In the midst of this boundless licentiousness, the old and faithful adherents of the royal family were left unrewarded; and the act of indemnity was justly said to have been an act of forgiveness to the king's enemies, and of oblivion to his friends. In 1661 the Scottish and English parliaments seemed to vie with each other in their prostrations to the king. In England monarchy and episcopacy were raised to the greatest splendor. The bishops were permitted to resume their seats in the house of peers; all military authority was acknowledged to be vested in the king. He was empowered to appoint commissioners for regulating corporations, and expelling such members as had intruded themselves by violence, or professed principles dangerous to the constitution: and an act of uniformity was passed, by which it was required, that every clergyman should be re-ordained, if he had not before received episcopal ordination; that he should declare his assent to every thing contained in the book of Common Prayer, and should take the oath of canonical obedience. In consequence of this law, above 2000 of the presbyterian clergy resigned their cures at once. In Scotland the right of the king was asserted in the fullest and most positive terms to be here

His power

ditary, divine, and indefeasible. was extended to the lives and possessions of his subjects, and from his original grant was said to come all that they enjoyed. They voted him an additional revenue of £40,000; and all their former violences were spoken of with the utmost detestation. This intoxication of loyalty, however, at last began to wear off. The king's profusion and extravagance in his pleasures, together with his indolence in government, fernished opportunities of making very disadvantageous comparisons between him and Cromwell. These animosities were heightened by the ejected clergy, especially when they saw Dunkirk, which had been acquired during the usurper's vigorous administration, sold to the French, and that merely to supply the king's extravagance. From this time (August 17th 1662) Charles found himself perpetually opposed, and his parliaments granted supplies much more reluctantly than before. A few months previously the continual exigencies of the king had forced him to conclude a marriage with the Infanta of Portugal for the sake of her portion, which was £500,000 in money, together with the fortress of Tangier in Africa, and Bombay in the East Indies. The chancellor Clarendon, the dukes of Ormond and Southampton, urged many reasons against this match, particularly the likelihood of her never having any children; but all their objections could not prevail, and Clarendon, therefore, set himself to promote it. Still, however, the king's necessities were greater than his supplies. He therefore resolved to sacrifice his minister, the great Clarendon, to the resentment of the parliament, to whom he was become obnoxious, in order to procure more supplies. On the 12th June, 1663, he sent for the commons to Whitehall; complained of their inattention to him, and acquainted them with a conspiracy to seize the castle of Dublin. Four subsidies were immediately granted, and the clergy in convocation followed the example of the commons. On this occasion the earl of Bristol ventured to impeach the chancellor in the house of peers; but, as he did not support his charge, the affair was dropped for the present. With a view probably of having the money to be employed for that purpose in his hands, Charles was induced to declare war against the Dutch in 1664.

In this contest the English, under the command of Sir Robert Holmes, expelled the Dutch from Cape Corse Castle on the coast of Africa, and seized on their settlements of Cape Verd and the Isle of Goree. Sailing thence to America, the admiral possessed himself of Nova Belgia, since called New York; and which continued subject to Britain, till the American revolution. On the other hand, De Ruyter, the Dutch admiral, disposessed the English of all their settlements in Guinea except Cape Corse. He afterwards sailed to America, where he attacked Barbadoes and Long Island, but was repulsed. Soon after, the two most considerable fleets of each nation met; the one under the duke of York, to the number of 114 sail; the other commanded by Opdam, admiral of the Dutch navy, of nearly equal force. The engagement began at four in the morning, and both sides fought with

equal intrepidity. The duke was in the hottest part of the engagement, and behaved with great spirit, while many of his lords and attendants were killed around him. In the heat of the action the Dutch admiral's ship blew up; which so discouraged and disheartened the enemy, that they fled towards their own coast, having thirty ships sunk and taken, while the victors lost only one. This success so much excited the jealousy of the neighbouring states, that France and Denmark immediately resolved to protect the Dutch republic. Admiral De Ruyter, on his return from Guinea, was appointed, at the head of seventy-six sail, to join the duke of Beaufort the French admiral, who it was supposed was then entering the British Channel from Toulon. The duke of Albemarle and prince Rupert now commanded the British fleet, of seventy-four sail. Albemarle detached the prince with twenty ships to oppose the duke of Beaufort; against which piece of rashness Sir George Ayscue in vain protested. The fleets thus engaging, upon unequal terms, a memorable battle ensued, in which the Dutch admiral Evertzen was killed by a cannon ball, one of their ships was blown up, and three of the English ships taken. The combatants were parted by darkness. The next day they renewed the battle with incredible fury. Sixteen fresh ships joined the Dutch; and the English were so shattered, that their fighting ships were reduced to twenty-eight. Upon retreating towards their own coast the Dutch followed them; where another dreadful conflict was beginning, but closed by the darkness of the night. The morning of the third day the English continued their retreat, and Albemarle came to the desperate resolution of blowing up his own ship rather than submit to the enemy, when he found himself happily reinforced by prince Rupert with sixteen ships of the line. By this time it was night; the next day the fleets came once more to a close combat, which was continued with great violence, till they were parted by a mist. Both sides claimed the victory, but the Dutch certainly had the advantage. Another bloody engagement happened soon after, with larger fleets on both sides, commanded by the same admirals. In this the Dutch were vanquished; but they were soon in a condition to face their enemies, by the junction of Beaufort the French admiral. The Dutch fleet now appeared in the Thames, and the whole British nation was thrown into the utmost consternation: a chain had been drawn across the river Medway; and some fortifications added to the forts along the bank.

But all these were unequal to the present force: Sheerness. was soon taken; the Dutch passed forward and broke the chain, though fortified by some ships sunk by Albemarle's orders, destroying the shipping in their passage, and advanced, with six men of war and five fire-ships, As far as Upnore Castle, where they burned three men of war. It was now expected that the Dutch might sail up next tide to London bridge, and destroy not only the shipping, but even the buildings of the metropolis. The Dutch, however, were unable to effect this, from the failure of the French, who had promised them assistance.

Spreading, therefore, an alarm along the coast, and having insulted Norwich, they returned to their own shores. During these transactions the plague raged in London, and destroyed 100,000 of the inhabitants. This calamity was soon followed by another equally dreadful. A fire broke out in a baker's house in Pudding Lane, near the bridge, and spread with such rapidity that no efforts could extinguish it, till it laid in ashes the most considerable part of the city; but not a single life, it is said, was lost. These complicated misfortunes did not fail to excite many murmurs among the people: the blame of the fire was laid on the Papists: the Dutch war was exclaimed against as unsuccessful and unnecessary; .and Charles himself began to be sensible that all the ends for which he had undertaken the war were likely to be entirely frustrated. Instead of being able to lay up money for himself, the supplies of parliament had hitherto been so scanty that he found himself considerably in debt. A treaty, therefore, was set on foot, which was concluded at Breda on the 21st of July, 1667, by which the only advantage gained for the country was, the cession of the colony of New York. It was therefore judged disgraceful, and the blame of it thrown entirely upon the earl of Clarendon. Along with this, he was charged with the sale of Dunkirk; the bad payment of the seamen; the disgrace by the Dutch fleet; and his own ambition. His daughter, while yet in Paris, had commenced an amour with the duke of York; and, under a solemn promise of marriage,. had admitted him to her bed. Her lover, however, afterwards married her; but this act of virtue in the prince was imputed as a crime to Clarendon. Clarendon was soon therefore` deprived of the the seals, and impeached; and thought proper to withdraw into France. Soon after the king formed an alliance with Holland and Sweden, to prevent the French king from completing his conquest of the Netherlands. The king now began to act in a very arbitrary manner. He had long wished to extend his prerogative, and to be able to furnish himself with whatever sums he might want for his pleasures, and therefore was most likely to be pleased with those ministers who could flatter both his wishes. These he found in Clifford, Ashley, Buckingham, Arlington, and Lauderdale, a junto distinguished by the name of the Cabal; a word formed by the initials of their names. The first effect of their advice was, a secret alliance with France, and a rupture with Holland. Soon after this the duke of York declared himself a Papist; and liberty of conscience was proclaimed to all sectaries, whether dissenters or papists: a proclamation was also issued containing very rigorous orders for the impressment of seamen; and another full of menaces against those who should speak undutifully of his majesty's measures, &c. These measures, however, gave very great and just offence to the people; but they were especially alarmed at an alliance with France, and justly afraid of the treachery of that court. On the 28th of May, 1672, the English fleet under the duke of York was surprised by the Dutch in Southwold Bay. About 8 A. M. began a most furious engagement. The gallant Sandwich, who commanded the