of horse, and two troops of noblemen and gentlemen. At Whitehall Charles dismissed the lord mayor, and received in succession the two houses, whose speakers addressed him in strains of the most impassioned loyalty, and were answered by him with protestations of attachment to the interests and liberties of his subjects. It was late in the evening before the ceremonies of this important day were concluded; when Charles observed to some of his confidants "It must sorely have been my fault that I did not come before; for I have met with no one to-day who did not protest that he always wished for my restoration."[1]
That the re-establishment of royalty was a blessing to the country will hardly be denied. It presented the best, perhaps the only, means of restoring public tranquillity amidst the confusion and distrust, the animosities and hatreds, the parties and interests, which had been generated by the events of the civil war, and by a rapid succession of opposite and ephemeral governments. To Monk belongs the merit of having, by his foresight and caution, effected this desirable object without bloodshed or violence; but to his dispraise it must also be recorded, that he effected it without any previous stipulation on the part of the exiled monarch. Never had so fair an opportunity been offered of establishing a compact between the sovereign and the people, of determining, by mutual consent, the legal rights of the crown, and of securing from future encroachment the freedom of the people. That Charles would have consented to such conditions,
[Footnote 1: Whitelock, 702. Kennet's Reg. 163. Clarendon's Hist. iii. 772. Clarendon's Life by Himself, Continuation, p. 7, 8. Evelyn's Diary, ii. 148.]
we have sufficient evidence; but, when the measure was proposed, the lord-general declared himself its most determined opponent. It may have been, that his cautious mind figured to itself danger in delay; it is more probable that he sought to give additional value to his services in the eyes of the new sovereign. But, whatever were the motives of his conduct, the result was, that the king ascended the throne unfettered with conditions, and thence inferred that he was entitled to all the powers claimed by his father at the commencement of the civil war. In a few years the consequence became manifest. It was found that, by the negligence or perfidy of Monk, a door had been left open to the recurrence of dissension between the crown and the people; and that very circumstance which Charles had hailed as the consummation of his good fortune, served only to prepare the way for a second revolution, which ended in the permanent exclusion of his family from the government of these kingdoms.
* * * * *
APPENDIX.
NOTE A, p. 117.
Nothing more clearly shows the readiness of Charles to engage in intrigue, and the subtleties and falsehood to which he could occasionally descend, than the history of Glamorgan's mission to Ireland. In this note I purpose to lay before the reader the substance of the several documents relating to the transaction.
On the 1st of April, 1644, the king gave to him, by the name of Edward Somerset, alias Plantagenet, Lord Herbert, Baron Beaufort, &c., a commission under the great seal, appointing him commander-in-chief of three armies of Englishmen, Irishmen, and foreigners; authorizing him to raise moneys on the securities of the royal wardships, customs, woods, &c.; furnishing him with patents of nobility from the title of marquis to that of baronet, to be filled up with names at his discretion; promising to give the Princess Elizabeth to his son Plantagenet in marriage with a dower of three hundred thousand pounds, a sum which did not much exceed what Herbert and his father had already spent in the king's service, and in addition to confer on Herbert himself the title of duke of Somerset, with the George and blue ribbon.—From the Nuncio's Memoirs in Birch's Inquiry, p. 22.
This commission was granted in consequence of an understanding with the deputies from the confederate Catholics, who were then at Oxford, and its object is fully explained by Herbert himself in a letter to Clarendon, to be laid before Charles II., and dated June 11, 1660. "For his majesty's better information, through your favour, and by the channel of your lordship's understanding things rightly, give me leave to acquaint you with one chief key, wherewith to open the secret passages between his late majesty and myself, in order to his service; which was no other than a real exposing of myself to any expense or difficulty, rather than his just design should not take place; or, in taking effect, that his honour should suffer; an effect, you may justly say, relishing more of a passionate and blind affection to his majesty's service, than of discretion and care of myself. This made me take a resolution that he should have seemed angry with me at my return out of Ireland, until I had brought him into a posture and power to own his commands, to make good his instructions, and to reward my faithfulness and zeal therein.