hither." Here is a royal declaration, and yet all came to nothing. The reader will judge hereafter who were most to blame, the Episcopal party, for breaking through so many solemn vows and protestations; or the Presbyterians, for bringing in the king without a previous treaty, and trusting a set of men whom they knew to be their implacable enemies. I can think of no decent excuse to the former; and the best apology that can be made for the latter is, that most of them lived long enough to see their error and heartily repent it.

In the interval between the dissolution of the long-parliament, and the meeting of the convention which brought in the king, general Monk, seeing which way the tide ran, fell in with the stream, and ventured to correspond more freely with the king by sir J. Grenville, who brought the general a letter, and was sent back with an assurance that he would serve his majesty in the best manner he could. He desired the king to remove out of the Spanish dominions, and promised, that if his majesty wrote letters to the parliament, he would deliver them at the opening of the sessions. Bishop Burnet says, that he had like to have let the honour slip through his fingers, and that a very small share of it really belonged to him *.

The convention met April 25, the earl of Manchester being chosen speaker of the house of peers, and sir Harbottle Grimstone of the commons. At the opening the sessions Dr. Reynolds preached before the houses. April 30 was appointed for a fast, when Dr. Reynolds and Mr. Hardy preached before the lords, and Dr. Gauden, Mr. Calamy, and Baxter, before the commons; all except Gauden of the Presbyterian party. Lord Clarendon says, the Presbyterian party in the house were rather troublesome than powerful; but others with great probability affirm, that the body of the commons were at first of that party. Next day after the fast, the king by the advice of the general having removed privately to Breda, and addressed letters to both houses; the general stood up and acquainted the speaker, that one sir J. Grenville had brought him a letter from the king, but that he had not presumed to open it; and that the same gentleman attended at the door with another to the house. Sir John was immediately called in, and having delivered his letter at the bar, withdrew, and carried another to the lords +. The letter contained an earnest invitation to the commons to return to their duty, as the only way to a settled peace; his majesty promising an act of oblivion

Burnet, vol. 1. p. 123.

Two days after sir John Grenville received the thanks of the house, for delivering the king's letter, in a high strain of joy and adulation: and the house voted him 500l. to buy a jewel, as a badge of the honour due to the person whom "the king had honoured to be the messenger of his gracious message." The city of London also presented to him and lord Mordaunt, who brought them his majesty's letter, 3007. to buy them rings. Dr. Grey's Examination, vol. 3, p. 260, 261, and note (o).-ED.

for what was past, and all the security they could desire for their liberties and properties, and the rights of parliament, for the future.

Under the same cover was enclosed his majesty's declaration from Breda, granting "a general pardon to all his loving subjects who should lay hold of it within forty days, except such who should be excepted by parliament. Those only excepted (says he), let all our subjects, how faulty soever, rely upon the word of a king solemnly given, that no crime committed against us, or our royal father, shall ever be brought into question to the prejudice of their lives, estates, or reputation. We do also declare a liberty to tender consciences, and that no man shall be disquieted or called in question for differences of opinion in matters of religion, which do not disturb the peace of the kingdom. And we shall be ready to consent to such an act of parliament as upon mature deliberation shall be offered to us for the full granting that indulgence." Upon reading these letters, the commons voted, that according to the ancient constitution, the government of this kingdom is, and ought to be, by king, lords, and commons; and a committee was appointed to draw up a dutiful letter, inviting his majesty to return to his dominions: money was voted to defray his expenses; a deputation of lords and commons was sent to attend his majesty; and the fleet was ordered to convey him home. Sir Matthew Hale moved, that a committee might be appointed to review the propositions of the Isle of Wight, and was seconded in the motion; but Monk, who was prepared for such a motion, stood up and said, "the nation was now quiet, but there were many incendiaries upon the watch trying where they could first raise a flame; that he could not answer for the peace of the kingdom or army, if any delays were put to the sending for the king. What need is there of it (says he), when he is to bring neither arms nor treasure along with him?" He then added, "that he should lay the blame of all the blood and mischief that might follow on the heads of those who should insist upon any motion that might retard the present settlement of the nation. Which frightened the house into a compliance. And this was all the service general Monk did towards the king's restoration, for which he was rewarded with a garter, a dukedom, a great estate in land, and with one of the highest posts of honour and profit in the kingdom.

Thus was the king voted home in a hurry, which was owing to the flattering representations made by lord Clarendon in his letters of the king's good-nature, virtue, probity, and application to business; so that when the earl of Southampton saw afterward what the king was like to prove, he said once in great wrath to the chancellor," that it was to him they owed all they either felt or feared; for if he had not possessed them in all his letters with such an opinion of the king, they would have taken care to have + Clarendon, p. 88, 89.

Burnet, vol. 1. p. 123, 124, 12mo. VOL. III.

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put it out of his power either to do himself or them any mischief, which was like to be the effect of their trusting him so entirely." To which Hyde answered, that "he thought the king had so true a judgment, and so much good-nature, that when the age of pleasure should be over, and the idleness of his exile, which made him seek new diversions for want of other employment, was turned to an obligation to mind affairs, then he would have shaken off these entanglements." But here the chancellor was mistaken.

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When the lords and commons sent over a deputation to the king at Breda, the London ministers moved that a pass might be granted to some of their number, to wait upon his majesty with an address from their brethren; accordingly Dr. Reynolds, Dr. Spurstow, Mr. Calamy, Mr. Hall, Mr. Manton, and Mr. Case, were delegated, who went over with three or four attendants, and had an audience May 17, wherein, according to lord Clarendon, they magnified their own, and the affection of their friends, who had always wished his majesty's restoration, according to the covenant, and had lately informed the people of their duty to invite him home. They thanked God for his majesty's constancy to the Protestant religion, and declared themselves no enemies to moderate episcopacy, only they desired that such things might not be pressed upon them in God's worship, which in their judgments that used them were indifferent, but by others were held to be unlawful *." But the tables were now turned: the king spoke kindly to them, and acknowledged their services, but told them he would refer all to the wisdom of the parliament. At another audience (if we may believe the noble historian) they met with very different usage; for when they entreated his majesty at his first landing not to use the Book of Common Prayer entire and formally in his chapel, it having been long laid aside, the king replied with some warmth, " that while he gave them liberty he would not have his own taken away. That he had always used that form of service which he thought the best in the world, and had never discontinued it in places where it was more disliked than he hoped it was by them. That when he came into England he should not severely inquire how it was used in other churches, but he would have no other used in his own chapel +." They then besought him, with more importunity, that the use of the surplice might be discontinued by his chaplains, because it would give offence; but the king was as inexorable in that point as the other, and told them, that it was a decent habit, and had been long used in the church; that it had been still retained by him, and that he would never discountenance that good old practice of the church in which he had been bred. Mr. Baxter says, the king gave them such encouraging promises of peace, as raised some of them to high expectations. He never refused them a private audience when they desired it; and to amuse them farther,

* Kennet's Chron. p. 139. Compl. Hist. p. 247. + Kennet's Chron. p. 152.

while they were once waiting in an antechamber, his majesty said his prayers with such an audible voice in the room adjoining, that the ministers might hear him; "he thanked God that he was a covenanted king; that he hoped the Lord would give him an humble, meek, forgiving spirit; that he might have forbearance towards his offending subjects, as he expected forbearance from offended Heaven." Upon hearing which old Mr. Case lifted up his hands to heaven *, and blessed God who had given them a praying king.

Though the bishops held a private correspondence with chancellor Hyde, and by him were assured of the king's favour, they were not less forward than the Presbyterians in their application to his majesty himself; for while he remained at Breda, Mr. Barwick was sent over with the following instructions :

1. He was to wait upon the right honourable the lord-chancellor of England, and beg his lordship's assistance to present a most humble petition to his majesty in the name of the bishops, and then to deliver their lordships' letters to the chancellor, to the lord-lieutenant of Ireland, and to the secretary of state, wherein they returned those great men their most thankful acknowledgements, for their piety and affection to the church in the late most afflicted state.

2. He was then to give his majesty a distinct account of the present state of the church in all the particulars wherein his majesty desired to be informed; and to bring the bishops back his majesty's commands, with regard to all that should be thought proper for them, or any of them, to do.

3. He was humbly to ask his majesty's pleasure, with regard to some of the bishops waiting on the sea-coast to pay their duty to his majesty, when by God's blessing he should soon land in England; and whether it was his royal pleasure, that they should attend him there in their episcopal habits; and at what time and place, and how many, and which of them his majesty pleased should wait his arrival.

4. He was also to inquire concerning the number of his majesty's chaplains; whether any of them, besides those in waiting, should attend his arrival upon the coast; and to beg that his majesty would vouchsafe to appoint how many, and who.

5. He was most humbly to beseech his majesty, that if Dr. Lushington, formerly the king's chaplain, should offer to officiate

Mr. Daniel Dyke, who, soon after the Restoration, voluntarily resigned the living of Hadham-Magna in Hertfordshire, showed more discernment and judgment. For when Mr. Case, to induce him to continue in it, related the king's behaviour, and argued what a hopeful prospect it gave them, Mr. Dyke wisely answered," that they did but deceive and flatter themselves; that if the king was sincere in his show of piety and great respect for them and their religion, yet, when he came to be settled, the party that had formerly adhered to him, and the creatures that would come over with him, would have the management of public affairs, and would circumvent all their designs, and in all probability not only turn them out, but take away their liberty too." Crosby's History of the Baptists, vol. 1. p. 357; and Palmer's Nonconformists' Memorial, vol. 2. p. 43.-ED.

in that capacity, his majesty would be pleased not to indulge him in that favour, till inquiry should be made concerning his suspected faith and principles. [He was a Socinian.]

6. Since it has been customary for our kings to celebrate public thanksgivings in St. Paul's cathedral, he was humbly to beseech his majesty, to signify what was his royal pleasure in this behalf, considering the ruinous estate of that church.

7. His last instruction was to give a just and due account to his majesty, why the affair of filling up the vacant sees had met with no better success.

Mr. Barwick was most graciously received by the king and his ministers, and the Sunday after his arrival at Breda was appointed to preach before his majesty.* The court was as yet very much upon their guard with respect to the Presbyterians; but the flames began to kindle at home, the Episcopal clergy not observing any measures of prudence in their sermons; Dr. Griffith, having preached an angry sermon before the general at Mercers' Hall, March 25, on Prov. xxiv. 21; "My son, fear thou the Lord and the king, and meddle not with them that are given to change," was for a pretence confined to Newgate, but in a few days was released, and published his sermon with a dedication to the general. Others in their sermons took upon them to threaten those who had hitherto had the power in their hands; of which the king being advised, commanded chancellor Hyde to acquaint his correspondents, that he was extremely apprehensive of inconvenience and mischief to the church and himself, from offences of that kind, and ordered him to desire Mr. Barwick and Dr. Morley to use their credit and authority with such men, and to let them know from his majesty the tenderness of the conjuncture. The chancellor accordingly, in his letter from Breda, April 16, 1660, wrote the king's sense, and added, that if occasion required they were to speak to the bishops of Ely and Salisbury to interpose their authority to conjure these men to make a better judgment of the season, and not to awaken those jealousies and apprehensions which all men should endeavour to extinguish. "And truly I hope (says the chancellor), if faults of this kind are not committed, that both the church and the kingdom will be better dealt with than is imagined; and I am confident these good men will be more troubled that the church should undergo a new suffering by their indiscretion, than for all that they have suffered hitherto themselves."

The clouds gathering thus thick over the late managers, every one began to shift for himself. Richard Cromwell resigned his chancellorship of the university of Oxford the very day the king was invited home, and retired beyond sea: he had offered to relinquish it when he was divested of the protectorship, as appears by his letter on that occasion, which says, "You should have had fuller experience of my high esteem for learning and learned

* Life of Barwick, p. 519, note.