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CHAP. alive the flame of loyalty, the royalists circulated, in A.D. 1660. cheap publications, most flattering portraits of the new king. He was described as a prince of kindly disposition and engaging manners, of sound judgment and becoming spirit, and, above all, of the most inflexible attachment to the doctrines of Protestantism, an attachment which had stood the test of temptation in circumstances the most trying and seductive. That there was some truth in these representations cannot be denied; but one-half of the picture was concealed; it should have been added, that he was easy and indolent, the votary of dissipation and pleasure, and always ready to postpone the calls of business for the attraction of the ball-room or the company of his mistresses. His advisers had persuaded themselves that the follies of the youth would be redeemed by the virtues of the man. But he had now reached his thirtieth year without amendment. He had, indeed, made promises; had more than once torn himself from the unworthy connections to which he was enslaved; and had, on emergencies, displayed an energy deserving of that splendid prize to which he aspired. But these were transient efforts; he quickly relapsed into his former habits, and resumed with new relish the pursuit of enjoyment.

Charles, however, on his arrival, did not suffer himself to be dazzled by the splendid prospect around him. He was aware that his throne still rested on a very insecure foundation; he saw the dangers which he had to avert, and the difficulties which he had to overcome; and he formed a strong, and, as he fancied, unalterable resolution, to devote his chief attention to the business of government, and to suffer no pleasure, no amour, to seduce him from the duties of

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his high office. His ministers congratulated each CHAP. other on the change wrought in the habits of their A.D. 166a Sovereign. But he soon began to feel uneasy under the restraint; he was so beset with difficulties from the never-ceasing claims of the old royalists and of his more recent adherents; he found himself so perplexed with the increasing multitude of affairs submitted to his consideration, that he gradually emancipated himself from the trammels, and sought relaxation in the company of the gay, the witty, and the dissolute. The consequence was, that he not only neglected his duties, but often suffered his mind to be prejudiced against the advice of his council by the sallies and sarcasms of his profligate companions.'

To an observant eye that council presented a singular assemblage of men devoted to different parties, and professing opposite principles. In the first place were seen the royal brothers, James and Henry, who owed the distinction to their birth, with Hyde the chancellor, Ormond the lord-steward, Lord Culpepper, master of the rolls, and secretary Nicholas, the four counsellors who had possessed the confidence of the king during his exile. Then came the lord-general, now created duke of Albemarle, who, by his recent conduct, had indissolubly bound up his own lot with the fortunes of the house of Stuart; Morrice, the friend and confidant of the general, and two or three others, whose chief merit was the recommendation of Monk, grounded on the promises which he had made to them during the late revolution. With these two classes Charles was advised to associate all the sur

1 Continuation of Clarendon's Life, written by himself, 21, 49, 167. Oxford, 1759. In the subsequent pages I shall refer to this work under the name of Clarendon alone. Pepys, Diary, 37, 8vo.

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CHAP. viving counsellors of his late father before the war; a A.D. 1660. measure which, with a few who had faithfully adhered to the royal interests, introduced several who had maintained the cause of the parliament against that of the crown. It is evident that, on a council thus constituted, the king would look partly with distrust, partly with aversion. A remedy was discovered by the ingenuity of the chancellor, at whose suggestion the council appointed a committee of foreign affairs, consisting of himself, Ormond, Southampton, the lordtreasurer, Monk, Nicholas, and Morrice. These met for the purpose of considering the relations of the English with the other crowns of Europe; but they employed the opportunity of meeting to debate and decide, without the knowledge of their colleagues, every question concerning the internal administration of the kingdom. The same subjects were, indeed, afterwards submitted to the consideration of the whole council; but Charles had already adopted the opinion of the secret cabinet; and the dissenters were either silenced by the reasoning of the favourite ministers, or overawed by the presence and authority of the sovereign.'

With respect to the two houses, the king had only to speak, and his wishes were gratified. As they had recalled him without conditions, so they appeared willing to lay the liberties of the nation at his feet. The Cavaliers identified their own triumph with the exaltation of the throne; the Presbyterians stood before it as repentant sinners anxious to efface the remembrance of their past delinquency; and the few who were sincerely attached to republican principles deemed it prudent to shelter themselves from notice amidst the crowd, and to echo the more courtly opi1 Clarendon, 2, 27.

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nions of their colleagues. Fortunately the royal advi- CHAP. sers were not disposed, perhaps were afraid, to take A.D. 1660. the utmost advantage of the general enthusiasm; and, on some occasions, Charles himself condescended to read to the two houses lessons of moderation and prudence. The most important of their proceedings may conveniently be classed under the following heads :

1. The objection which had been raised before their convocation was renewed after the return of the king. They had not been called by the royal writ; they were therefore illegal assemblies, and their acts might hereafter be disputed in the courts of law. The obvious remedy was to dissolve them, and to summon a parliament after the usual manner, which might legalize by its authority the irregular proceedings of the convention. But this, to the king's advisers, appeared in the existing circumstances a dangerous experiment; they were not disposed to part with a house of commons so obsequious to their wishes; and they preferred to pass an act, declaring that the parliament summoned in the 16th Charles I. was determined, and that the two houses then sitting at Westminster constituted the two houses of parliament. It might, indeed, be asked, whence an assembly, illegal in its origin, could derive the power of giving to itself a legal existence; but it was hoped that, as long as the convention sat, no man would venture to moot the question; and on its dissolution every defect might be supplied by the authority of the succeeding parliament.'

1 Clarendon, 8, 9. Burnet, Hist. of his Own Times, i. 270. Oxford, 1823.

2 Stat. of Realm, v. 179. The question, however, was brought forward by Drake, a royalist, under the name of Philips, in a tract called "The Long Parliament Revived." He founded his opinion chiefly on the act of 17th of Charles I., which provided that the parliament should not be dissolved but by an express act of parlia

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2. The experience of former years had shown that A.D. 1660. to restrain within due limits the pretensions of the crown, it was necessary to keep it dependent on the bounty of the subject; but now both houses seemed to have adopted the contrary doctrine; they attributed the calamities which for so many years had afflicted the nation to the scanty provision made for the support of royalty; they found, on inquiry, that the annual expenditure of the last king greatly exSept. 4. ceeded his income; and, to prevent the recurrence of the wants which he experienced, and of the illegal expedients to which he had recourse, they raised the yearly revenue of the crown to the unprecedented amount of one million two hundred thousand pounds.

3. But while they provided for the sovereign, they were not unmindful of their own interests. In the preceding reigns, the proprietors of lands had frequently and zealously sought to abolish tenures by knights' service, confessedly the most onerous of the existing feudal burthens; but their attempts were constantly defeated by the monarch and his courment, and that everything otherwise done, or to be done, for the dissolving of it, should be of none effect. Hence it followed that the parliament could never be dissolved but by its own act; and that the arguments of Prynne, which have been already noticed, were of no force; because though true of an ordinary parliament, they did not apply to one secured from dissolution in this extraordinary manner. Drake was impeached by the Commons; but the Lords had the prudence to remit the case to the attorney-general to be proceeded with in the ordinary courts of law. (See Parl. Hist. iv. 145, 147; and App. i.) The court wisely allowed the prosecution to be dropped. If the act of 17th of Charles were construed strictly according to the letter, the long parliament could never be dissolved by any other parliament, because before its dissolution no other meeting could be a legal parliament. It was, therefore, maintained that, by the separation of the houses from the king, and the secession or exclusion of so many members, it had fallen to pieces of itself. It had died a natural death. See the tract, "The Long Parliament is "not Revived."-Ibid. xviii.