Chapter II: Third Section (3)

Milton, does not deny that the vast majority of the nation desire the restoration of the King. He admits the fact and scouts it. He asserts that by "the trial of just battle" the larger part of the population of England long ago "lost the right of their election what the form of Government shall be," and that, if even a majority of the rest would now vote for Kingship, their wishes must go for nothing. "Is it just or reasonable that most voices, against the main end of Government, should enslave the less number that would be free? More just it is, doubtless, if it come to force, that a less number compel a greater to retain (which can be no wrong to them) their liberty than that a greater number, for the pleasure of their baseness, compel a less most injuriously to be their fellow-slaves." When he wrote this, he must have known well enough that he was writing in vain. He confesses as much in his peroration. He confesses it there even by that single modification of the language which might seem at first sight the only sign of prudential concession and anticipation of personal consequences throughout the whole pamphlet. In citing the prophecy of Jeremiah he omits the passage exulting in God's decree of exile against Coniah and his seed for ever (ante p. 654-655). But this is no prudential concession, no softening down in anticipation that the passage might be produced against him. Of that state of mind, of any fear of consequences whatever, there is not a trace throughout the recast of his pamphlet. He is defying and daring the worst, and has thrown in already every possible addition of matter of insult to the coming Charles. He omits the passage about Coniah precisely because its application to Charles is unfortunately no longer possible; and the peroration for the rest is modified by the sorrow that so it should be. He will exhort against the Restoration to his latest breath; but he is looking across the Restoration now, and sending his words on to an unknown posterity.

"What I have spoken is the language of that which is not called
amiss _The Good Old Cause_: if it seem strange to any, it will
not seem more strange, I hope, than convincing to backsliders. Thus
much I should perhaps have said though I were sure I should have
spoken only to trees and stones, and had none to cry to but, with
the Prophet, _O Earth, Earth, Earth!_, to tell the very soil
itself what her perverse inhabitants are deaf to. Nay, though what
I have spoken should happen (which Thou suffer not who didst create
Mankind free, nor Thou next who didst redeem us from being servants
of men!) to be the last words of our expiring Liberty. But I trust
I shall have spoken persuasion to abundance of sensible and
ingenuous men,--to some perhaps whom God may raise up of these
stones to become children of reviving Liberty, and may reclaim,
though they seem now choosing them a Captain back for Egypt, to
bethink themselves a little and consider whither they are rushing;
to exhort this torrent also of the people not to be so impetuous,
but to keep their due channel; and, at length recovering and
uniting their better resolutions, now that they see already how
open and unbounded the insolence and rage is of our common enemies,
to stay these ruinous proceedings, justly and timely fearing to
what a precipice of destruction the deluge of this epidemic madness
would hurry us, through the general defection of a misguided and
abused multitude."

To exhort a torrent! The very mixture and hurry of the metaphors In Milton's mind are a reflex of the facts around him. Current, torrent, rush, rapid, avalanche, deluge hurrying to a precipice: mix and jumble such figures as we may, we but express more accurately the mad haste which London and all England were making in the end of April 1660 to bring Charles over from the Continent. Of the only important relic of opposition, the Republicanism of the Army, and how that had been already managed by Monk, and was still being managed by him, we have taken account. Its dying effort, as we saw, took the form of Lambert's escape from the Tower on the 9th of April, and his thirteen days of wild wandering and skulking on the chance of bringing the dispersed remains of Republicanism to a rendezvous. That was over on Easter-Sunday, April 22, when Dick Ingoldsby, with flushed face, and pistol in hand, collared the fugitive Lambert on his horse in a field near Daventry, and brought him back, with others, to his prison in the Tower. Strange that it should have been Lambert after all that Milton found maintaining last by arms the cause which he was himself maintaining last by the pen. Lambert was the Republican he least liked, hardly indeed a genuine Republican at all, though driven to a desperate attempt for Republicanism as his final shift, So it had happened, however. Milton and Lambert may be remembered together as the last opponents of the avalanche. Lambert had fronted it with a small rapier; Milton had wrestled with it in a grand exhortation.[1]

[Footnote 1: As the date of the second edition of Milton's _Ready and Easy Way_ is a matter of real interest, it may be well to note here the evidence on the point furnished by the extracts that have been made. In the second extract the phrase "_What can this last Parliament expect, who, having revived lately and published the Covenant &c.?_" seems distinctly to certify that Milton was writing after the 16th of March, when the Parliament of the Secluded Members had dissolved itself. The first extract, giving the new and enlarged form of the opening paragraph, farther indicates that, while Milton was writing, the country was in the midst of the elections for the new "free and full" Parliament which had been called,--i.e. what is now known as The Convention Parliament. He thinks that his pamphlet, as modified, "_may now be of much more use and concernment to be freely published in the midst of our elections to a Free Parliament or their sitting to consider freely of the Government_." Now, the elections went on from the end of March to about the 20th of April, and Milton's words almost imply that he expected them to be pretty well advanced before his second edition was in circulation, so that the effect of that new edition, if it had any, would rather be on the Parliament itself after its meeting on April 25. The passages referring to Harrington, and which seem to imply that Milton had read the _Censure of the Rota_ on his first edition, would also bring the second edition into the month of April, inasmuch as the _Censure_ was not out till March 30. Finally, the whole tone of the added passages implies, as we have already said, that Milton was at least a month farther down the stream towards the Restoration than when the first edition appeared, and the fact that in this second edition he utterly cancels and withdraws the small lingering of faith in Monk which he had expressed in his _Notes to Dr. Griffith's Sermon_ seems more particularly to certify that those _Notes_ preceded the new edition of the _Ready and Easy Way_ by a week or more. On the whole, I do not think I am wrong in regarding the new edition as Milton's very last performance before the Restoration, and in dating it somewhere between April 9, the day of Lambert's escape from the Tower, and April 24, when Lambert was brought back a prisoner to London and the members of the Convention Parliament were already gathered in town. As Thomason's copy of the first edition is marked "March 3," this would make the interval between the two editions about a month and a half.]

The wrestlings now were ended. All that remained for the blind Samson was to listen, with bowed head, to the renewed burst of Philistine hissings, howlings, and execrations, against him, before they would let him retire. It came from all quarters; but at least two persons stepped out from the crowd to convert the mere inarticulate uproar into distinct invective and insult.

"_No Blinde Guides: in answer to a seditious Pamphlet of J. Milton's entituled 'Brief Notes on a late Sermon, &c.' Addressed to the Author_.--'If the Blinde lead the Blinde, both shall fall into the ditch.'--_London, Printed for Henry Brome, April_ 20, 1660." This was the title of a tract, of fourteen small quarto pages, which was out on April 25. The author does not give his name; but he was Roger L'Estrange, the Royalist pamphleteer.[1] The following specimen will represent the rest:--

[Footnote 1: Wood's Ath. III. 712. The date of the actual appearance of the tract is from the Thamason copy.]

"Mr. Milton,

"Although in your life and doctrine you have resolved one great
question, by evidencing that devils may indue human shapes and
proving yourself even to your own wife an incubus, you have yet
started another; and that is whether you are not of that regiment
which carried the herd of swine headlong into the sea, and moved
the people to beseech Jesus to depart out of their coasts.
(_This_ may be very well imagined from your suitable practices
_here_.) Is it possible to read your _Proposals of the
benefits of a Free State_ without reflecting upon your tutor's
'All this will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me'?
Come, come, Sir: lay the Devil aside; do not proceed with so much
malice and against knowledge. Act like a man, that a good Christian
may not be afraid to pray for you. Was it not you that scribbled a
justification of the murder of the King against Salmasius, and made
it good too thus: that murder was an action meritorious compared
with your superior wickedness? 'Tis there (as I remember) that you
commonplace yourself into set forms of railing, two pages thick;
and, lest your infamy should not extend itself enough within the
course and usage of your mother-tongue, the thing is dressed up in
a travelling garb and language, to blast the English nation to the
universe, and give every man a horror for mankind when he considers
_you_ are of the race. In this you are above all others; but
in your _Eikonoklastes_ you exceed yourself. There, not
content to see that sacred head divided from the body, your
piercing malice enters into the private agonies of his struggling
soul, with a blasphemous insolence invading the prerogative of God
himself (omniscience), and by deductions most unchristian and
illogical aspersing his last pieties (the almost certain
inspirations of the Holy Spirit) with juggle and prevarication. Nor
are the words ill-fitted to the matter, the bold design being
suited with a conform irreverence of language. But I do not love to
rake long in a puddle. To take a view in particular of all your
factious labours would cost more time than I am willing to afford
them. Wherefore I shall stride over all the rest and pass directly
to your _Brief Notes upon a late Sermon_ ... Any man that can
but read your title may understand your drift, and that you charge
the royal interest and party through the Doctor's sides. I am not
bold enough to be his champion in all particulars, nor yet so rude
as to take an office most properly to him belonging out of his
hand. Let him acquit himself in what concerns the divine; and I'll
adventure upon the most material parts of the rest." [Extracts from
Milton's _Notes on Dr. Griffith's Sermon_ follow, with brief
comments, of no interest, and showing no ability.]

Almost immediately there followed "_The Dignity of Kingship Asserted: in answer to Mr. Milton's 'Ready and Easie Way to establish a Free Commonwealth.' Proving that Kinqship is both in itself and in reference to these nations farre the most Excellent Government, and the returning to our former Loyalty or Obedience thereto is the only way under God to restore and settle these three once flourishing, now languishing, broken, and almost ruined nations. By G. S., a Lover of Loyalty. Humbly Dedicated and Presented to his most Excellent Majesty Charles the Second, of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland, true Hereditary King. London, Printed by E.C. for H. Seile, over against St. Dunstan's Church in Fleet-street, and for W. Palmer at the Palm-Tree over against Fetter-lane end in Fleet Street._ 1660." It is a duodecimo volume, the dedication to Charles occupying twenty-one pages, and the main body of the text 177 pages, with a peroration in thirty-nine additional pages addressed to Monk and his Officers and to the two Houses of Parliament about to meet, and then three pages more of concluding address to his Majesty. Though the author does not give his name, he hints in the course of the volume that he may "be inquired after and perhaps soon found out." He says also that his profession "much differs from politics." Hence it may be doubted whether the conjecture is right which assigns the book to a George Searle, who had been an original member of the Long Parliament for Taunton, and had been one of the Secluded. One might venture rather on the query whether the author may not have been Dr. Gilbert Sheldon, soon to be Bishop of London and Archbishop of Canterbury, but for the present waiting with anxiety for the certainty of Charles's recall, and doing all he could, with other divines, to hasten it.[1]

[Footnote 1: The Thomason copy gives "May," without any day, as the date of publication; but I find the book entered in the Stationers' Registers as early as March 31, 1660. The writing had been then begun, and the printing of the book had been going on through April. There is internal evidence that the new Parliament had not met, or at least that the Restoration was not positively resolved on, when the book was finished. Both in the dedication and in the peroration, the parts last written, the event is spoken of as only in near prospect.--Sheldon, though a man of public distinction in his time, has left hardly any writings by which his style could be ascertained. I think the guess worth risking that the present performance may have been his, if only because the offer of the guess may lead to its confutation. George Searle is the man proposed by the bibliographers (see Bohn's _Lowndes_, Art. Milton, and note p. 108 of Todd's Life of Milton, edit. 1852); but I know not on what authority except that his initials are "G.S." and that he was "a writer."--As far as I have observed, it was the first edition of Milton's pamphlet only that G.S. had before him as he wrote.]

Whoever wrote the book must have had a touch of scholarly candour in his nature. Though there is plenty of abuse of Milton, with the stereotyped allusions to his Divorce Doctrine and its effects, and with such occasional phrases as "your wind-mill brain," "the unpracticableness of these your fanatic state-whimsies," and though there is abuse also, in the coarse familiar strain, of the Rumpers and Commonwealths-men generally, and of "Oliver, the copper-nosed saint," we come upon such passages as the following, appreciative at least of Milton's literary power:--

"I am not ignorant of the ability of Mr. Milton, whom the Rump
(which was well-stored with men of pregnant though pernicious wits)
made choice of before others to write their _Defence against
Salmasius;_ one of the greatest learned men of this age, both for
reality and reputation."

"... made choice of Mr. Milton to be their champion to answer
Salmasius; who, as may be conceived, not vulgarly rewarded for this
service, undertakes it with as much learning and performance as
could be expected from the most able and acute scholar living:
concerning whose answer thus much must be confessed,--that nothing
could be therein desired which either a shrewd wit could prompt or
a fluent elegant style express. And, indeed, to give him his due,
in whatever he vomited out against his Majesty formerly, or now
declaims against Monarchy in behalf of a Republic, he then did, and
doth now, want nothing on his side but truth."

These are casual expressions in the course of the argumentation with Milton; and, as there is no need to exhibit the argumentation itself, a single quotation more will suffice. It is from the Dedication to Charles II. That, though coming first in the book, was probably written last, when the writer could exult in the idea that his Majesty was so soon to land on the British shores, and could have pleasure in being one of the first to address him ceremoniously and in public with all his royal titles. Let it be remembered that, by the introduction of Milton into this Dedication, not only prominently, but even singly and exclusively, it was as if pains were taken to remind Charles, just as he was preparing to step into the ship that was to convey him to England, of the name of that one man among his subjects who had done more to keep him out, and had attacked him and his more ferociously, more relentlessly, and more successfully, than any other living. Suppose that his Majesty, waiting at Breda, was curious to know already, for certain reasons, what person, not on the actual list of those who had signed his father's death-warrant, would be designated to him by universal opinion at home as the least pardonable traitor; and read this as the answer of G.S.:--

This detestable, execrable murder, committed by the worst of
parricides, accompanied with the disclaiming of your whole royal
stock, disinheriting your Majesty's self and the rest of the royal
branches, driving you and them into exile, with endeavouring to
expunge and obliterate your never-to-be-forgotten just title;
tearing up and pulling down the pillars of Majesty, the Nobles;
garbling and suspending from the place of power all of the Commons
House that had anything of honesty or relenting of spirit toward
the injured Father of three Nations and his royal posterity: acts
horrible to be imagined, and yet with high hand most villainously,
perfidiously, and perjuriously perpetrated by monsters of mankind,
yet blasphemously dishonourers of God in making use of His name and
usurping the title of Saints in their never-before-paralleled nor
ever-sufficiently-to-be-lamented-and-abhorred villanies:--this
Murder, I say, and these Villainies, were defended, nay extolled
and commended, by one MR. JOHN MILTON, in answer to the most
learned Salmasius, who declaimed against the same with most solid
arguments and pathetical expressions; in which Answer he did so
bespatter the white robes of your Royal Father's spotless life
(human infirmities excepted) with the dirty filth of his satirical
pen that to the vulgar, and those who read his book with prejudice,
he represented him a most debauched, vicious man (I tremble, Royal
Sir, to write it), an irreligious hater and persecutor of Religion
and religious men, an ambitious enslaver of the nation, a bloody
tyrant, and an implacable enemy to all his good subjects; and
thereupon calls that execrable and detestable horrible Murder a
just Execution, and commends it as an heroic action: and, in a
word, whatever was done in prosecution of their malice toward your
Royal Progenitor and his issue, or relations, or friends and
assistants, he calls Restoring of the nation to its Liberty. Yea!
to make your illustrious Father more odious in their eyes where he
by any means could fix his scandals, he would not spare that
incomparable piece of his writing, his _Eikon Basilike_, but
in a scurrilous reply thereto, which he entitled
_Eikonoklastes_, he would not spare his devout prayers (which
no doubt the Lord hath heard and will hear): in all which he
expressed, as his inveterate and causeless malice, so a great deal
of wicked, desperate wit and learning, most unworthily misbestowed,
abused, and misapplied, to the reviling of his Prince, God's
vice-gerent on Earth, and the speaking ill of the Ruler of the
People. Now, although your Majesty, nor your Royal Father, neither
of you, need vindication (much less that elaborate work of his),
nor doth anything he hath written in aspersion of his Sovereign
deserve answer (absolutely considered), yet, forasmuch as he hath
in both showed dangerous wit and wicked learning, which together
with elegance in expression is always (in some measure at least)
persuasive with some, and because in these last and worst days
those dangerous times are come in which many account Treason to be
Saintship, and the madness of the people, like the inundation of
waters, hath for many years overflowed all the bounds, &c ... [The
writer, in continuation, refers to the assiduity of the fanatical
enemies of Charles, still working, though at the end of their wits,
to keep him out.] Among many of whom MR. MILTON comes on the stage
in post haste and in this juncture of time, that he may, if
possible, overthrow the hopes of all good men, and endeavours what
he can to divert those that at present sit at the helm, and by fair
pretences and sophisticate arguments would, &c ... Which I taking
notice of, and meeting with this forementioned pamphlet of MR.
MILTON'S, and upon perusal of it finding it dangerously ensnaring,
the fallacy of the arguments being so cunningly hidden as not to be
discerned by any nor every eye,--observing also the language to be
smooth and tempting, the expressions pathetical and apt to move the
affections, ... I thought it my duty, &c.

Before this salutation of his returning Majesty was visible on the book-stalls the great event which it anticipated was as good as accomplished.

The two Houses of Parliament had met on Wednesday, the 25th of April. There was not only the "full and free" House of Commons for which writs had been issued, but a House of Lords also, assembled by its own will and motion. In the Commons, where Sir Harbottle Grimstone was elected Speaker, there were present over 400 out of the total of 500 and more that were actually due; in the Lords, where the Earl of Manchester was chosen Speaker _pro tem._, there were present on the first day only nine peers besides himself: viz. the Earls of Northumberland, Lincoln, Denbigh, and Suffolk, Viscount Say and Sele, and Lords Wharton, Hunsdon, Grey of Wark, and Maynard. It was for these two bodies to execute between them the task appointed.[1]

[Footnote 1: Commons Journals and Parl. Hist., for the opening of the Convention Parliament.]

The meetings of the first three days were but preliminary, and not a word passed in either House to signify what was coming. On Friday, the 27th of April, there was an adjournment of both Houses to Tuesday, the 1st of May. During that breathless interval it was as when a mine is ready, the gunpowder and other explosives all stored, the train laid, and what is waited for is the application of the lighted match. That duty fell to Sir John Greenville, and the mode in which it should be performed was settled privately between him and wary Old George.

On Saturday, April 28, the Council of State are met at Whitehall, Annesley in the chair as usual. Colonel Birch, one of the members, entering late, informs General Monk that there is a gentleman at the door who desires to speak with him. Monk goes to the door, finds Sir John Greenville there, and receives him as a perfect stranger, the guards looking on. Sir John delivers to him a letter, and tells him that he does so by command of his Majesty. Monk orders the guards to detain this gentleman, and returns to the Council-room with the letter. Having broken the seal, but not opened the letter, he hands it to the President, intimating from whom it has come. The superscription itself leaves no doubt on that point. The letter is one of the six, dated "_At our Court at Breda this 4/14th of April 1660, in the twelfth year of Our Reign_," which Sir John Greenville had brought over to be used by Monk at his discretion, and which Monk had given back into Greenville's custody till the proper moment for using them should arrive. It was that particular one of the six which was addressed to Monk himself, to be communicated by him to the Council of State and the Officers of the Army. There was much surprise in the Council, real or affected, Colonel Birch protesting that he knew nothing of the business, but had merely found a gentleman at the door inquiring for General Monk and had brought in his message to the General. That gentleman was sent for and asked how he came by the letter. "It was given to me by his Majesty with his own hand," said Sir John. Altogether the Council were at a loss how to act; but finally it was agreed that they dared not read the letter without leave from Parliament. There was some question of sending Greenville into custody meanwhile; but Monk said he was a kinsman of his and he would be answerable for his appearance. In short, this attempt to apply the match in the Council had not sufficiently succeeded, and Sir John knew that he must be forthcoming in the two Houses themselves.

Sir John was equal to the occasion. Early in the morning of Tuesday, the 1st of May, he was at the door of the House of Lords with that one of the six Letters from Breda which was addressed to their Lordships. There were now forty-two peers present. By one of these Greenville sent in his name to Speaker the Earl of Manchester, with an intimation of the nature of his message. The Earl had no sooner informed the House who and what were at the door than it was voted that the Earl should walk down the floor, all present attending him, to receive his Majesty's letter. Sir John having thus got rid of two of his documents, presented himself next at the door of the Commons, to try his chance with a third. He had already conveyed to Speaker Sir Harbottle Grimstone the fact that he was in attendance with a letter from his Majesty. He came now at the most fit moment, for the House had just received a report from the Council of State of what had happened at the sitting of the Council on the preceding Saturday. The scene will be best imagined from the record in the Journals of the House:--"_Tuesday, May the 1st_, 1660. PRAYERS. Mr. Annesley reports from the Council of State a Letter from the King, unopened, directed 'To our trusty and well-beloved General Monk, to be communicated to the President and Council of State, and to the Officers of the Armies under his command,' being received from the hands of Sir John Greenville. The House, being informed that Sir John Greenville, a messenger from the King, was at the door, _Resolved_, &c. That Sir John Greenville, a messenger from the King, be called in. He was called in accordingly, and, being at the bar, after obeisance made, said: 'Mr. Speaker, I am commanded by the King, my master, to deliver this Letter to You, and he desires that You will communicate it to the House.' The Letter was directed 'To Our trusty and well-beloved the Speaker of the House of Commons'; which, after the messenger was withdrawn, was read to the House by the Speaker." The bold Sir John had now got rid of three of his six documents. Nay, he had got rid of four; for in each of the three there had been enclosed a copy of his Majesty's general _Declaration_, or Letter to "all Our Loving Subjects of what degree or quality soever." It was for the Parliament to determine what should be done with this Declaration, as well as with the other two remaining Letters, one of them addressed to Generals Monk and Montague for communication to the Fleet, and the other to the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and Common Council of the City of London. The train had been sufficiently fired already by the delivery of four of the Breda documents.[1]

[Footnote 1: Lords and Commons Journals of dates; Parl. Hist. IV. 10-25; Phillips (continuation of Baker), 701-705; Skinner's Life of Monk, 297-302; Whitlocke, IV. 409-411.]

The explosion was over and the air cleared, and all pretence was at an end at last. In the Commons, a few minutes after Sir John Greenville had left the House, it was "RESOLVED, _nemine contradicente_, That an answer be prepared to his Majesty's Letter, expressing the great and joyful sense of this House of His gracious offers, and their humble and hearty thanks to his Majesty for the same, and with professions of their loyalty and duty to his Majesty." The Lords had already passed an equivalent resolution, and had recalled Sir John Greenville to receive their hearty thanks for his care in the discharge of his duty. The rest of that day was spent in a conference between the two Houses, and in farther resolutions and arrangements in each, subsidiary to those two resolutions of the forenoon which had virtually decreed the Restoration. Thus, in the Commons, still in the forenoon, "RESOLVED, _nemine contradicente_, that the sum of £50,000 be presented to the King's Majesty from this House," and "RESOLVED, _nemine contradicente_, that the Letters from His Majesty, both that to the House and that to the Lord General, and his Majesty's Declaration which came enclosed, be entered at large in the Journal Book of this House"; and, again, at an afternoon sitting, the conference with the Lords having meanwhile been held, "RESOLVED, That this House doth agree with the Lords, and do own and declare that, according to the ancient and fundamental laws of this kingdom, the Government is, and ought to be, by King, Lords, and Commons." The news of what was doing in Parliament was already rushing hither and thither among the Londoners; the day ended among _them_, of course, with bonfires and ringing of bells and the roar of rejoicing cannon; in the boom of the cannon, and in whatever form of rude telegraph or of horsemen at the gallop along the four great highways, London was shaking the message from itself in palpitations through all the land; nor among the galloping horsemen were those the least fleet that were spurring through Kent to the seaside to unmoor the packet-boats and convey the tidings to Charles. On the 1st of May, 1660, the English Commonwealth was no more.[1]

[Footnote 1: Commons Journals and Parl. Hist. of dates; Whitlocke, IV. 411.]

Yet another week for the formalities of its burial. A few of the leading incidents of that week may be presented in abstract:--

_May_ 2:--Ordered by the Lords "that the statues of the late
King's Majesty be set up again in all the places from whence they
were pulled down, and that the Arms of the Commonwealth be
demolished and taken away wherever they are, and the King's Arms be
put up in their stead." _Same day in the Commons_:--Leave
given to the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and Common Council of the City
of London, to return an answer to his Majesty's Letter addressed to
them. This was the fifth of the Breda documents. Also leave given
to Dr. Clarges, a member of the House, to go at once to Breda, with
Monk's answer to the letter _he_ had received.

_May_ 3:--Sir John Greenville brought into the House of
Commons to receive thanks, and the information that the House had
voted him £500 to buy a jewel. The Speaker, Sir Harbottle
Grimstone, addressed him as follows:--"Sir John Greenville, I need
not tell you with what grateful and thankful hearts the Commons now
assembled in Parliament have received his Majesty's gracious
Letter. _Res ipsa loquitur_: you yourself have been
_ocularis et auricularis testis de rei veritate_: our bells
and our bonfires have already proclaimed his Majesty's goodness and
our joys. We have told the people that our King, the glory of
England, is coming home again; and they have resounded it back
again in our ears that they are ready, and their hearts open, to
receive him. Both Parliament and People have cried aloud to the
King of Kings in their prayers _Long live King Charles the
Second_." The rest of the speech was compliment to Sir John
himself.

_Same day, in Montague's Fleet in the Downs_:--His Majesty's
letter to Monk and Montague, intended to be communicated to the
Fleet, having been sent by express from Monk, reached Montague that
morning on board his flagship the Naseby. His secretary Pepys
describes what followed: "My Lord summoned a Council of War, and in
the meantime did dictate to me how he would have the vote ordered
which he would have pass this Council. Which done, the Commanders
all came on board, and the Council sat in the coach [Council
cabin], the first Council of War that had been in my time; where I
read the Letter and Declaration; and, while they were discoursing
upon it, I seemed to draw up a vote, which, being offered, they
passed. Not one man seemed to say _No_ to it, though I am
confident many in their hearts were against it. After this was
done, I went up to the quarterdeck with my Lord and the Commanders,
and there read both the papers and the vote; which done, and
demanding their opinion, the seamen did all of them cry out _God
save King Charles_." Pepys then made a circuit of the other
ships with the same great news. "Which was a very brave sight, to
visit all the ships, and to be received with the respect and honour
that I was on board them all, and much more to see the great joy
that I brought to all men, not one through the whole fleet shewing
the least dislike of the business. In the evening, as I was going
on board the Vice-Admiral, the General began to fire his guns,
which he did, all that he had in his ship, and so did all the rest
of the Commanders; which was very gallant, and to hear the bullets
go hissing over our heads as we were in the boat! This done, and
finished my proclamation, I returned to the Naseby, where my Lord
was much pleased to hear how all the fleet took it in a transport
of joy, and shewed me a private letter of the King's to him, and
another from the Duke of York, in such familiar style as their
common friend, with all kindness imaginable. And I found by the
letters, and so my Lord told me too, that there had been many
letters passed between them for a great while, _and I perceive
unknown to Monk_."

_May_ 5. On report from the Council of State, a General
Proclamation adopted by the Commons, with concurrence of the Lords,
forbidding tumults, and instructing all in authority to continue in
their respective offices and exercise the same thenceforth in his
Majesty's name.

_May_ 7. Sir George Booth, Lord Falkland, Mr. Denzil Holles,
Sir John Holland, Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper, Lord Bruce, Sir
Horatio Townshend, Lord Herbert, Lord Castleton, Lord Fairfax, Sir
Henry Cholmley, and Lord Mandeville, chosen by the House of Commons
to be the persons to carry to his Majesty the answer of the House
to his Majesty's gracious Letter. The similar deputation from the
Lords' House was to consist of the Earl of Oxford, the Earl of
Warwick, the Earl of Middlesex, Viscount Hereford, Lord Berkley,
and Lord Brooke. Same day, on receipt from Montague of a copy of
his Majesty's letter addressed to Monk and himself, as Generals of
the Fleet, with news of the reception of the same by the Fleet on
the 3rd, Monk and Montague were authorized to answer that letter.
Thus the sixth and last of the Breda documents was finally disposed
of.--Resolved also that Thursday next should be a day of
thanksgiving in London and Westminster for the happy reconciliation
with his Majesty, and farther, "That all and every the ministers
throughout the Kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland, the
Dominion of Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, do, and are
hereby required and enjoined in their public prayers to, pray for
the King's most excellent Majesty by the name of Our Sovereign
Lord, Charles the Second, by the grace of God King of England,
Scotland, France, and Ireland, Defender of the Faith."--Resolved
also that the King be proclaimed to-morrow.

_Tuesday, May_ 8. Proclamation of Charles accordingly in
Westminster Hall, and at Whitehall, Temple Bar, Fleet Conduit, the
Exchange, and other places, his reign to date from the death of his
father. Copies of the Proclamation to be sent to all authorities
over Great Britain and Ireland, that it may be repeated everywhere.
Also "RESOLVED, _nemine contradicente_, that the King's
Majesty be desired to make his speedy return to his Parliament and
to the exercise of his Kingly Office."[1]

[Footnote 1: These Notes, except the extract from Pepys, are compiled from the Commons Journals and the Parliamentary History for the week between May 1 and May 8, with references to Whitlocke and Phillips.]

And so all was settled between Charles and his Three Kingdoms. By this time, indeed, not only in London, Edinburgh, and Dublin, but all over the main island from Land's End to Caithness and all over the lesser from Mizen Head to Malin Head, there was simply a universal impatience till it should be known that Montague's fleet had shot from the Downs towards the Dutch coasts, to bring his Majesty and his Court, on the decks of his own ships, within hail of the cheering from Dover cliffs. The delay was chiefly because of the necessity of certain upholstering and tailoring preparations on both sides. At home there had to be due preparations of a household for his Majesty, and of households for his two brothers, when they should arrive. There had to be got ready not only a new crown and sceptre, and new robes and ermines, but also the velvet bed, with the gold embroidery, the lining of satin or cloth of silver, the satin quilts, the fustian quilts to lie under the satin quilts, the down bolster, the fustian blankets, the Spanish blankets, the Holland sheets, with other accoutrements for his Majesty's own bedroom, besides similar furnishing for the bedrooms of the Dukes of York and Gloucester, a new coach for his Majesty, liveries for his coachmen, footmen, and other servants, and innumerable etceteras. Then, on the other side of the water, where his Majesty had meanwhile received with extraordinary satisfaction, through Sir John Greenville, the £50,000 voted him by the Commons, £10,000 of it in gold from England, and the rest in bank bills payable at sight in Amsterdam, and where the Duke of York had been promised another £10,000 and the Duke of Gloucester £5000, much of the money had to be converted into the apparel and other equipments required for the suitable appearance of the three royal personages and their retinues when they should present themselves in England. A great deal might be done at Breda, where already there was swarming round his Majesty a miscellany of private visitors, English, Scottish, and Irish, all anxious to be useful, and many of them with presents of money. But the final arrangements were to be at the Hague, the capital of the United Provinces, amid whatever stately ceremonial of congratulation and farewell the Dutch Government could now offer in atonement for previous neglect or indifference. There had been most pressing solicitations, indeed, from the Spanish authorities of Flanders, that Charles would return to Brussels and make his arrangements there; Mazarin too had sent a message at last, begging him to honour France by making Calais his port of departure; but Charles preferred the Hague. It was at the Hague, therefore, that the commissioners from the two Houses of Parliament, with deputations from the City of London and the London clergy, were to wait upon Charles; it was there that he was to confer his first large collective batch of English knighthoods, following the single knighthood conferred conspicuously already on Dr. Clarges at Breda; and it was thence that there was to be the great embarkation for Dover.[1]

[Footnote 1: Clarendon, 906-910; Pepys's Diary, from the 8th of May onwards.]

And what meanwhile of the chief Republican criminals at home, whether the Regicides or the scores of others that might count themselves in peril for more than mere place or property? Since the 1st of May, or before, such of them as could, such as were at liberty and had money, had absconded or been trying to abscond. Of the Regicides and some of the rest we shall hear enough in due course. For the present let us attend only to Needham and Milton.

Needham had absconded in good time. It had probably been in the very beginning of May, if not earlier; for on the 10th of May there was out in London, in the form of a printed squib, _An Hue and Cry after Mercurius Politicus_, giving a sketch of his career, and containing some doggrel verse about his escape, in this style:--

"But, if at Amsterdam you meet
With one that's purblind in the street,
Hawk-nosed, turn up his hair,
And in his ears two holes you'll find;
And, if they are, not pawned behind,
Two rings are hanging there.

"His visage meagre is and long,
His body slender," &c.[1]

[Footnote 1: "_O. Cromwell's Thankes to the Lord General faithfully presented by Hugh Peters in another Conference, together with an Hue and Cry after Mercurius Politicus: London, Printed by M.T._" ("1660, May 10" in the Thomason copy).]

Our latest glimpse of Milton is on the 7th of May, the day before the public proclamation of Charles in London. On that day "John Milton, of the City of Westminster," transferred to his friend "Cyriack Skinner, of Lincoln's Inn, Gentleman," a Bond for £400 given by the Commissioners of the Excise in part security for money which Milton had invested in their hands. In the deed of conveyance, still extant, under the words at the end, "_Witness my hand and seal thus_," there follows the signature "JOHN MILTON," not in his own hand, but recognisably in the fine and peculiar hand of that amanuensis to whom he had dictated the sonnet in memory of his second wife about two years before. In yet another hand is the date "7th May, 1660"; but attached, to verify all, is Milton's family-seal of the double-headed eagle. Milton, we can see, wanted some money for sudden and urgent occasions, and his friend Cyriack advanced it. Cyriack and others had, doubtless, been already about him for some days, imploring him to hide himself, and devising the means; and that very night, or the next, as we are to fancy, he is conveyed furtively out of his house in Petty France to some obscure but suitable shelter. The three children he has parted with, the eldest not yet fourteen years old, the second not twelve, and the third just eight, are left under what tendence there may be, hardly knowing what has happened, but uncertain whether they shall ever again see their strange blind father. All is dark, and we may drop the curtain.[1]

[Footnote 1: Sotheby's _Ramblings in Elucidation of Milton's Autograph_, p. 129, and plate after p. 124. The document mentioned was purchased in Aug. 1858, for £19, by Mr. Monckton Milnes (now Lord Houghton), apparently under the impression that the signature was Milton's own.]

CORRIGENDA AND ADDENDA IN VOLS. IV. AND V.

_Vol. IV. pp._ 272-273:--From Mrs. Everett Green's Calendar of Domestic State Papers for the Third Year of the Commonwealth I learn that the first meeting of the Council of State for that year was on Feb. 17, 1650-51, and not on Feb. 19. There had been two meetings before that of the 19th, and at the first of these Bradshaw had been re-appointed President.

_Vol. IV. pp._ 416-418 _and_ 423-424:--To Milton's Letter to the Oldenburg agent Hermann Mylius, translated and commented on pp. 416-418, and to the story, as told at pp. 423-424, of the Safeguard for the Count of Oldenburg's subjects obtained from the English Council of State by the joint exertions of Mylius and Milton, an interesting addition has turned up in the form of another Latin letter from Milton to Mylius, preserved "in a collection of autographs belonging to the Cardinal Bishop-Prince von Schwartzenberg." A copy was sent by Dr. Goll of Prague to Professor Alfred Stern of Bern, author of _Milton und Seine Zeit_; and Professor Stern communicated it to the _Academy_, where it appeared Oct. 13, 1877. It may be here translated:--"Yesterday, my most respected Hermann, after you had gone, there came to me a mandate of the Council, ordering me to compare the Latin copy [of the Safeguard] with the English, and to take care that they agreed with each other, and then to send both to Lord Whitlocke and Mr. Neville for revision; which I did, and at the same time wrote fully to Lord Whitlocke on the subject of the insertion you wanted made,--namely that there should be a clause in favour also of the successors and descendents of his Lordship the Count, and this in the formula which you yourself suggested: I added moreover the reasons you assigned why, unless that were done, the business would seem absolutely null. What happened in the Council in consequence I do not know for certain, for I was kept at home by yesterday's rain and was not present. If you write to the President of the Council [_Concilii_ only in the copy, but one guesses that the word for 'President' has to be inserted], or, better still, if you send one of your people to Mr. Frost, you may yourself, I believe, hear from them; or, at all events, you shall know in the evening from me,--your most devoted JOHN MILTON. Feb. 13, 1651 [i.e. 1651-2]." The letter accords in every particular with the extract we have given from the minutes of the Council of State of Feb. 11, and enables us to see how the Safeguard for the Count of Oldenburg did emerge, in the desired form at last, in Parliament on Feb. 17. Professor Stern, in his communication to the _Academy_, adds that the Safeguard is "printed by J.J. Winkelmann in his _Oldenburgische Friedens und der benachbarten Oerter Kriegshandlungen_, p. 390, with the annotation, '_Hoc diploma ex Anglico originali in Latinum verbatim versum est._ JOANNES MILTONIUS. _Westmonasterii, 17 Febr., anno_ 1651-2" ('This diploma is turned verbatim into Latin from the English original. JOHN MILTON. Westminster, 17 Febr., in the year 1651-2'), I assume, but am not certain, that it is the same as that mentioned as given in Thurloe, i, 385-6.

_Vol. IV. p._ 560:--For the Earl of Airly, mentioned as one of the delinquent Scottish noblemen who were fined by Oliver's ordinance for Scotland of April 12, 1654, substitute the Earl of Ethie. He was Sir John Carnegie of Ethie, co. Forfar, Lord Lour since 1639, and created Earl of Ethie in 1647,--which title he exchanged, after the Restoration, for that of Earl of Northesk.

_Vol. V. p. 227, in connexion with Vol. IV, pp._ 487-494:--A paper found very recently by Mrs. Everett Green in the Record Office, and kindly communicated by her to me, in continuation of those for which I have already acknowledged my obligations to her, enables me to throw some further light on Milton's friend and correspondent Andrew Sandelands, and on that scheme of his for utilising the fir-woods of Scotland in which he sought Milton's assistance. The paper, which is in the handwriting of Sandelands, is dated "30 June, 1653," i.e. two months and ten days after Cromwell had dissolved the Rump and begun his Interim Dictatorship; it is addressed "For the Honor'ble. Sir Gilbert Pickering"--Pickering being then, it would seem, President of Cromwell's Interim Council of Thirteen (see Vol. IV. pp, 498-499); and it is headed "_A Brief Narration of my Transactions concerning some Woods in Scotland_." From this statement of Sandelands it appears that he had first broached his scheme of obtaining masts and tar for the English navy from the woods of Scotland to Cromwell himself in August 1652, and that it was in consequence of Cromwell's recommendation of the scheme to the Council of State then in power that the business had been referred to the Commander-in-chief in Scotland and Sandelands had gone to Scotland ("at my own charge," he says) and had the conferences with Major-General Dean and Colonel Lilburne described at pp. 490-491 of Vol. IV. The result had been that detailed written explanation of his scheme to Lilburne the substance of which has been quoted in the same pages--"the copy whereof," adds Sandelands, "now remains in Mr. Thurloe's hands." He means, of course, the copy he had enclosed to Milton in his letter of Jan. 15, 1652-3, and which Milton had duly delivered to the Council of State. More had come of the matter than we knew at that date; for Sandelands proceeds thus in his statement:--"The Council of State, having received this information (recommended by the Commander-in-chief), gave order that Colonel Lilburne should prosecute the design effectually. Upon receipt of which order, Colonel Lilburne was pleased to employ me to try whether the Earl of Tullibardine (who had an interest of the third part of the woods of Abernethy and Glencalvie) would sell his share; which I did, and brought with me an agreement under his hand that for £221 he would yield up all his interest in the former woods and all other be-north Tay, upon condition that the money should be paid before the 25th of March last [1653]; which Colonel Lilburne certified to the Council of State. But, their greater affairs [the discussions with Cromwell just before his _coup d'état_] obstructing this design, neither money nor orders were sent. Therefore I did entreat Colonel Lilburne to do me that justice to certify my diligence; which he did; and [having come to London meanwhile] I delivered it to his Excellency [Cromwell] the 12th of June [a month and three weeks after the _coup d'état_]; who was pleased immediately after to revive this motion to the Council of State [Cromwell's Interim Council of Thirteen], and they to refer it to Mr. Carew [one of the Thirteen]. Since which time I have given my daily attendance at Whitehall, expecting the event of the business." He ends by soliciting Pickering, as he had solicited Milton some months before, to bring the matter to some such conclusion as might reimburse him for his journey to Scotland and all his care and pains there at his own charge. From a note appended to the Statement, it appears that the whole business was referred by Cromwell's Interim Council to a Committee; but, as we have found Sandelands still in distress and in want of employment as late as April 1654 (Vol. V. p. 227), his renewed application can have had but small success.

End of Volume V