PROGRESS OF RESTORATION.
In places where Presbyterianism prevailed the ceremony differed. At Sherborne the Proclamation followed "solemn prayers, praises, and seasonable premonition in the Church." At Manchester, Henry Newcome went into the pulpit and prayed about half an hour. At Northampton "Mr. Ford, the minister, went with several others to a great bonfire in the Market-place, when, after a suitable exhortation, he joined them in singing the twenty-first Psalm." At Northenbury, Philip Henry preached a discourse, congratulatory and thanksgiving, from the words, "The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord" (Proverbs xxi. 1); but, many years afterwards, he dated a letter 29th of May, as a day in which the bitter was mingled with the sweet.[82]
Every lover of peace will rejoice that the Restoration was a bloodless change; but the mode of deciding upon it suggests grave reflections. After a long period of strife spent in order to bring within limits the prerogatives of the Crown; after the desperate remedies which had been adopted for the cure of evils brought on by Royal aggression; after all which had been done to resist and overcome the intolerance of the High Church party,—the nation invited Charles Stuart back without any condition, and opened the way for the re-establishment of the old order of things, without any provision against the recurrence of mischief. Such a proceeding, to say the least, exposed the country to imminent hazard; and the history of the next eight and twenty years proves that the fears which were entertained by a few were but too well founded. The old Stuart disposition and habits reappeared, the old ecclesiastical intolerance returned, and the Revolution of 1688 was found necessary to supply the defects of the Restoration of 1660.
1660.
PROGRESS OF RESTORATION.
Yet, after all, the mode of the Restoration excites less surprise than lamentation. For it is easy to understand how natural it was for the Royalist party, even the more moderate portion of it, to feel extremely anxious to accomplish the one thing which at that critical juncture seemed to them so necessary. As in private affairs, as in the exigencies of domestic and social life, people are apt precipitately to adopt a certain course, at the moment appearing indispensable—flattering themselves that afterwards, with proper care, any seriously unpleasant results may be prevented or cured, that matters can be made all right in the end: so the leaders of the English people, at that moment, felt the question to be Restoration or Ruin; and that, the grand prerequisite for renewed prosperity being secured, other desirable things could be afterwards shaped according to pleasure or circumstances. Besides, the Presbyterians clung to the Breda Declaration as a sheet anchor of hope. It was thought then, and is still so thought by some, that however theoretically desirable stipulations might have been, it was practically unwise to insist upon them at the time; that delay in negotiation with the exiled Prince tended to involve the country in fresh confusions, and exposed it to the risk of a military despotism; and that what Parliament could not then safely wait to do might be subsequently effected. After all reasonable excuses and palliations for the course adopted, that course is now seen to have been an enormous mistake. The dangers of a little delay have been assumed, not proved; there could be no probability of losing the chance of restoring Charles, had Parliament determined beforehand to bind him to terms. He would gladly have accepted the Royalty of England, with such guarantees for public liberty as were accorded by William III. And as to the Army, from which chiefly alarm arose, it does not appear how the difficulty of keeping Republican soldiers quiet for a month or so, whilst pacific men were engaged in laying foundations for the stability of their liberties, could be greater than the difficulty of keeping those same soldiers quiet between the decision for the King's return and his actual arrival. Possible evils, in the form of political intrigues, the conflict of parties, the further unsettlement of the country, and the postponement of the Restoration, might be imagined as the result of delay; but over against them we are justified in placing the evil which did come as the consequence of haste. And with regard to expectations resting on a future Parliament—the Parliament now sitting could not calculate upon what the character and proceedings of its successor might be. That which really prevented any conditions from being imposed on the returning Prince, was the want of a few wise heads and a few stout hearts. Who can believe that if Pym or Hampden, or even Falkland, had been members of the Convention, matters would have been managed as they were? We cannot but think that during the infinitely momentous weeks which made up that month of May, such men would have little heeded the voting of jewels to Royal messengers, and decisions respecting State beds and State coaches—things which occupied the Houses for some time—but would rather have thrown themselves heart and soul into the work of building up some safe and sure defence against the return of arbitrary government and ecclesiastical intolerance. But England was wanting in great Statesmen. There remained one wise, good man who proposed a pause for the arrangement of conditions: but another man, selfish and unprincipled, put him down. It is deplorable to think of a Parliament in which Monk silenced Hale.[83]
1660.
Certain Presbyterian ministers—Reynolds, Calamy, Manton, and Case—accompanied a deputation from London to express the loyalty of the citizens. Pepys gives the amusing information, that, as he was posting in a coach to Scheveling, the wind being very high, he "saw two boats overset, and the gallants forced to be pulled on shore by the heels, while their trunks, portmanteaus, hats, and feathers were swimming in the sea;" the ministers that came with the Commissioners—Mr. Case amongst the rest—were "sadly dripped."[84]
The King resided at the Hague, and to that pleasant Dutch town the reverend brethren proceeded without delay; they were graciously received. They assured Charles, that in obedience to the Covenant, they had urged upon the people the duty of restoring him; and, after thanking God for His Majesty's constancy to the Protestant religion, they declared themselves by no means inimical to moderate Episcopacy; they only desired that in religion, things held indifferent by those who used them, should not be imposed upon the consciences of others to whom they appeared unlawful. The first interview seems to have passed off pleasantly; another audience was sought by the clergymen for closer conversation.
PROGRESS OF RESTORATION.