The Rump hastened its own fall. In consequence of the attitude of the Common Council it declared that body dissolved; it also ordered the gates and chains of the City to be removed, and troops to be quartered there in order to reduce the City to obedience.
Monk, in order to carry out these instructions, removed into the City, where he conferred with the Aldermen. They would do nothing; the Common Council being dissolved, there was no body which had the power of speaking for the City.
Monk met them again on the following day. He read them a letter which he had sent to the House. He demanded that writs for every seat should be ready for issue within a week.
Great was the joy of the City; bonfires were lighted; bells were set ringing, and the soldiers were feasted by the people.
The next day, being Sunday, Monk attended service at St. Paul’s.
On the 13th, Monday, he conferred with the Mayor and Aldermen in Drapers’ Hall.
On the 15th he informed the Mayor that he was about to return to Whitehall, but that he should take care of the safety of the City. However, he did not go back; he remained in the City.
Meantime his order about the writs had been obeyed; many of the old members were taking their places, including those ejected for various reasons. The order dissolving the Common Council was rescinded and the gates were allowed to be repaired. It does not appear that much damage had been done to them. The House also allowed the City to place its militia in the hands of Commissioners of its own choice. On March 16 the Parliament—the old Long Parliament which had done so much, suffered so much, and gone through so many vicissitudes—dissolved. Writs were issued for a new Parliament to meet on April 25. Meantime the Government was in the hands of the Council of State.
And now people began to talk openly and freely of the Restoration. One man boldly set a ladder against the wall of the Royal Exchange and brushed out the inscription, “Exit Tyrannus Regum Ultimus,” which had been set up in August 1650. The Skinners’ Company set up the Royal Arms once more in their Hall. The Common Council issued a Declaration in which they set forth their disavowal of many acts committed by themselves during the last twenty years on the ground that they were the work of “men of loose and dangerous” principles who had got into the Council “in the general deluge of disorder introduced into these kingdoms.” They also expressed satisfaction at the thought of an end having been put to the destructions of the country and of a return to the old order of King, Lords, and Commons.