mentioning the addresses he had received, he declared that he had maintained the same principles in his answers to the petitioners, and that it was sufficient for public security to be careful that neither the fanatical party, nor the royalists, should have a share in the civil or military power.

The majority of the common council was composed of such persons as were weary of the parliament, and would in no degree comply with any of their commands. They went so far as to declare, that they would never submit to any imposition that was not granted by a free and lawful parliament. On this, Monk received orders to march into the city, to seize ten or eleven members of the common council, who had been the principal leaders in the present circumstances; to remove the posts and chains from all the streets, to take down and break the portcullises and gates of the city; and very few hours were allowed him to deliberate upon the execution of these violent orders, which the parliament considered as the surest means to know how far they could rely on the courage and fidelity of their general. To the great surprise and consternation of all men, Monk readily executed these orders with the greatest punctuality, sent to the tower the persons he had arrested, and his army to their quarters.

The parliament still entertained apprehensions that Monk might be tempted to turn, sooner or later his army against them, and in order to lessen his power and authority, they resolved to join other officers with him in the command of his army. On that very day, they received with the greatest applause, a most fanatical petition, which they themselves had fomented. It was presented by the famous Praise-God-Barebone, at the head of a crowd of his sectaries, insisting earnestly, "That no person "whatsoever, might be admitted to the exercise

of any function or office, nor even so much as to teach a school, who did not first take the oath "of abjuration of the king and of all his family; "and that he would never submit to the govern"ment of any single person, and that whosoever "should presume so much as to propose or even "mention in parliament, or any other place "the restoration of the king, should be tried and "condemned for high treason." The thanks of the parliament were solemnly returned by the speaker to these petitions.

Monk received this information at Whitehall, when he returned from the city, attended by his chief officers, who unanimously inveighed with great indignation against the proceedings of the parliament, their manifest ingratitude towards the general, and the offence offered to him. Monk, awakened by the alarms of his officers, spent the whole night in consultation with them. In the morning, he called again his army, marched with it into the city, and took up his own quarters at an alderman's house. At the same time (February 11th) he sent a letter to the parliament, in which he roundly reproached them all, their proceedings against himself, their new cabals with Vane and Lambert, the encouragement they had scandalously given to the fanatical petition of Praise-God-Barebone, and he required them in the name of the citizens, soldiers, and the whole commonwealth, that before Friday next they might issue writs for the filling of their house, and that in such a time, which was equally fixed by his letter, their own sitting might be determined, and a new parliament assembled; which was the only way that could restore peace and happiness to the kingdom. This letter was no sooner delivered to the parliament, than it was printed, and carefully published throughout the city, in order that those who had been lately so much disappoint

ed, might entertain no further jealousies about his real intentions.

General Monk, after he had dined with the lord mayor, desired him and the aldermen, with the common council, to meet him at the Guildhall, where, after many apologies for all the mischief he had done the day before, they engaged so cordially to adhere to each other for the future, that the lord mayor attended the general to his lodgings, while all the bells of the town proclaimed that the army and the city were of one mind. In the evening there was a continual light of bon-fires throughout the city, with such universal acclamations of joy as had never been known, mixed with the most ridiculous signs of scorn and contempt of the parliament, who, though amazed and distracted at this threatening crisis, continued their sitting, and did not despair to recover the good will and assistance of their general. They sent a committee to treat with him, and to make him such offers as they thought the most likely to comply with his ambition. He received them with his usual civility; but he at the same time admitted another committee of the secluded members, that he might be satisfied by hearing how one part of the assembly could have right to sit there as a parliament, and the other be excluded. When he had heard them all, he declared, that in justice the secluded members ought to be admitted before the calling another parliament, and the dissolution of this. He then returned again to his quarters in Whitehall, and sent for a deputation of the parliament to come to him with many members of the secluded party. He then addressed them with a long speech, which he concluded, by still insisting upon their issuing writs for summoning a new parliament, to meet the 20th day of April next: "Which parliament," said he, may meet and act in freedom, for the more full

66

"establising of this commonwealth without a king, single person, or house of lords."

If Monk, as it is almost generally presumed, had set up his mind at that time for the king's restoration, it must be confessed, that he concealed it under the veil of the deepest dissimulation; as, far from discovering in the speech above mentioned, the least shadow of royalism, he positively declared that he considered the restoration of the monarchy as a work impossible. Thence it was conjectured that he wished to see a commonwealth established in England, on the model of that of Holland, where he had been bred, and that himself might enjoy in it the same power and dignity as the prince of Orange in the United Provinces.

As soon as the conference of the members of par liament of both parties was at an end, those who had been excluded repaired to the house, and took their places without any opposition. As they were superior in numbers, they immediately repealed ali orders or decisions issued against them, renewed and enlarged the general's commission, revoking all others, which had been lately granted with the only view of lessening Monk's authority. They likewise raised an assessment of one hundred thousand pounds per month, for the payment of the army, and defraying the public expences for six months. They then issued writs to call a parliament, to meet on the 20th of April next; and on the 17th of March, after having appointed a council of state, among whom were many honest and moderate members, not ill disposed towards the king, they dissolved themselves, to the unspeakable joy of the whole nation, the fanatic sectaries of the independents' faction only excepted.

From the time that the parliament was dissolved, the council of state behaved very civilly towards his majesty's friends, and released many of them

out of prison. The king, however, knew not what to think of the dispositions of Monk, and could not discover any thing in his speech to the members of parliament, but his violent affection to a commonwealth. But as it was believed by the royalists that he kept a secret correspondence with his majes ty, some of them applied to the king, asking that he would give them some means of access to the general, to receive his orders, that they might be sure of doing nothing that should thwart any of his purposes. The king, considering the bad effects that might arise by confessing that he had no communication with the general, prudently returned no other answer to such demands, but that they should have patience, and make no attempt of any kind, and that in due time they should receive all necessary information.

In the interval between the dissolution of the rump parliament and the convention of the new, those of the king's party who had sheltered themselves in obscurity, began to appear again, and conversed without controul. Sir George Booth was released from his imprisonment; Mordaunt, who was known to be entirely trusted by the king, walked freely into all places; many of the council of state and officers of the army made, through him, tender of their services to 'the king. In the mean time, an important reformation was made in the navy, which was full of fanatic anabaptists or independents, under the command of the most notorious republicans: General Monk and Edward Montague, who, after the overthrow of Cromwell's family, had embraced the king's interests, were appointed joint admirals of the fleet. Monk spent

much time in consultation with persons of every interest, the king's party only excepted; though in all conversations he had with the presbyterians and other persons of consideration, he found that