among his pupils, Boyle, Wren, Dr. Wallis and other members of the club and university. Matters in Gresham-college having resumed a more philosophical aspect than when Wren might have feared the fate of Archimedes, the lectures were recommenced, and he delivered a course on the nature and properties of light and refraction.

WREN, who now occupied himself with his experiments, studies and researches in his fellowship at All-Souls, in the learned discussions, of "the club" and in the preparation and delivery of his Gresham lectures, was, on the resignation of Dr. Seth Ward, afterwards Bishop of Salisbury, elected to the Chair of Savilian Professor of Astronomy in the University of Oxford, and was admitted to that distinguished office on the 15th May 1660, a few days before the unconditional restoration of Charles II. to the throne of his ancestors.

THE short Protectorate of Richard Cromwell, which was weak and doubtful from the first, terminated at the same time without civil war or bloodshed, by the restoration of monarchy, in the person of the selfish, sensual, ungrateful Charles the Second.

THE nation was now in extreme confusion, by the disturbances between the leaders of the armies and the sectaries; for as soon as the corpse of the stern Protector was deposited, by his drunken soldiery and vainglorious partisans, in its unquiet grave, among his royal predecessors in Westminster, than intrigue, trickery and anarchy revelled at large throughout the

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kingdom. The preceding letters to Christopher Wren, show the state of anarchy and military terror to which the metropolis was reduced.

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IN November 1659, Evelyn, a staunch and prudent royalist, published his bold* " Apology for the King," in a time of great danger, when it was a capital offence to write or speak in favour of their exiled monarch. About the same time, the Army turned out the Parliament, no government existed, no chief magistrate was either acknowledged or obeyed, except the military, and they at discord among themselves. In December, Evelyn began a private treaty+ with Colonel Herbert Morley, then Lieutenant of the Tower, a man in great trust and power, concerning surrendering that fortress to the King, as well as Portsmouth, of which arsenal, Mr. Fagg, the Colonel's brother-in-law, was governor. There is no doubt, that if Colonel Morley had taken his schoolfellow Evelyn's advice, he might have attained the honours that General Monk subsequently achieved, for he was one of the five commissioners for the command of the army; but he was disliked and viewed with much jealousy by Lambert and Fleetwood, who were playing their own under-plots with Richard the new Protector and General Monk, who underplotted and beat them all.

Reprinted in Evelyn's "Miscellaneous Writings," 4to. 1825, p.p. 169-192.

+ The details of this affair, are printed in the appendix to Evelyn's Diary, 8vo. 1850, p.p. 422-426,

On the 3rd February 1660, General Monk arrived in London with a large body of troops from Scotland, but he veiled his intentions with profound mystery. On the 10th, he broke down the city gates, which had been closed against him, marched in triumph through the streets, turned the fanatical soldiers out of their quarters, and sent them to a distance. The next day Monk marched to Whitehall, turned out the Rump* Parliament, and convened the former one. On the 3rd May, news arrived in London of the King's declaration and application to the Parliament, General Monk and the People of England. These were joyfully and unconditionally accepted, and on the 8th, King Charles the Second was proclaimed in London. Thus ended the English commonwealth.

WHILST these political intrigues were distracting the country, young Wren and his scientific friends were cultivating the arts of peace, in tranquil seclusion. The last lecture delivered in Gresham College, before the expulsion of its professors, by the fanatics, was by Wren, on the nature and properties of light and refraction. In January 1660, Dr. Seth Ward, afterwards Bishop of Salisbury, resigned the Savilian professor's chair of astronomy in the University of Oxford, and Wren was elected his successor. Cowley, the poet, added his contribution towards the establishment of a

Evelyn says in his diary, that, for joy at this event, thousands of rumps were roasted at bonfires in the streets, amidst ringing of bells, and universal jubilee.

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philosophic college, which Dr. Sprat, the historian of the Royal Society, admits, greatly assisted Wren, Boyle, Evelyn and other distinguished lovers and patrons of experimental Philosophy and Science in the formation of that eminent body.

CHAPTER II.

FROM THE RESTORATION OF CHARLES II. TO HIS DEATH.

A. D. 1660 To 1685.

"To gratify the good Andronicus

And gratulate his safe return to Rome,
The people will accept whom he admires."

SHAKSPEARE.

CHARLES II. was a refugee in Holland at the time of his father's death. He immediately assumed the title of King, and passed over to Scotland, where he was crowned at Scone. On the approach of Cromwell, the young King entered England, passed his republican opponents, and reached Worcester with his small band of royalists, where he was signally defeated. After undergoing many privations and dangers, he escaped his pursuers and reached France in safety. He passed some years in Paris, little regarded by the Court of Louis XIV. his maternal uncle, who was awed by the growing power and influence of the Protector and the Commonwealth of England. These indignities caused Charles to visit Holland, Spain and Germany; and resided a considerable time at Cologne, where he was hospitably received and kindly treated, as he acknowledged when he received an address from that city after his restoration.