of age, possessed of an agreeable person, an elegant address, and an engaging manner. His whole demeanour and behaviour were well calculated to support and increase popularity. Accustomed during his exile to live cheerfully among his courtiers, he carried the same endearing familiarities to the throne; and, from the levity of his temper, no injuries were dreaded from his former resentments. But it was soon found that all these advantages were merely superficial. His indolence and love of pleasure made him averse to all kinds of business; his familiarities were prostituted to the worst as well as the best of his subjects; and he took no care to reward his former friends, as he had taken no steps to be avenged of his former enemies.

It required some time before the several parts of the state, disfigured by war and faction, could come into proper form a council was composed, in which members of the church of England and presbyterians were indiscriminately admitted; and the king's choice of his principal ministers was universally pleasing to the people. Sir Edward Hyde, who had attended him in his exile, was now created a peer by the title of lord Clarendon, and appointed lord chancellor, and first minister of state. This excellent man is better known now by his merits as an historian than as a statesman; but his integrity and wisdom were equally excellent in both capacities. The marquis, afterwards created duke of Ormond, was appointed lord-steward of the household, the earl of Southampton high treasurer, and sir Edward Nicholas secretary of state. These men, combined by private friendship, and pursuing one common aim, laboured only for the public, and supported its interests with their own.

Notwithstanding the joy of the people was unbounded, yet something was thought to be due to justice, and

some vengeance was necessary to be taken upon those who had lately involved the nation in its calamities. Though an act of indemnity was passed, those who had an immediate hand in the king's death were excepted. Even Cromwell, Ireton, and Bradshaw, now dead, were considered as proper objects of resentment; their bodies were dug from their graves, dragged to the place of execution, and, after hanging some time, buried under the gallows. Of the rest, who sat in judgement on the late monarch's trial, some were dead, and some were thought worthy of pardon. Ten only, out of fourscore, were devoted to immediate destruction. These were enthusiasts, who had all along acted from principle, and who, in the general spirit of rage excited against them, showed a fortitude that might do honour. to a better cause.

General Harrison, who was first brought to his trial, pleaded his cause with that undaunted firmness which he had shown through life. What he had done, he said, was from the impulses of the Spirit of God. He would not, for any benefit to himself, hurt a hair of the poorest man or woman upon earth; and during the usurpation of Cromwell, when all the rest of the world acknowledged his right, or bowed down to his power, he had boldly upbraided the usurper to his face; and all the terrors of imprisonment, and all the allurements of ambition, had not been able to bend him to a compliance to that deceitful tyrant. Harrison's death was marked with the same admirable constancy which he showed at his trial; so that the greatness of some virtues which he possessed, in some measure counterbalanced the greatness of his guilt.

Carew, Coke, Peters, Scot, Clement, Scrope, Jones, Hacker, and Axtell, shared the same fate. They bore the scorn of the multitude, and the cruelty of the execu

tioner, not simply with fortitude, but with the spirit and confidence of martyrs, who suffered for having done their duty. Some circumstances of scandalous barbarity attended their execution. Harrison's entrails were torn out, and thrown in the fire before he expired. His head was fixed on the sledge that drew Coke and Peters to the place of execution, with the face turned towards them. The executioner, having mangled Coke, approached Peters, besmeared with the blood of his friend, and asked how he liked that work. Peters viewed him with an air of scorn: "You have butchered a servant of God in my sight; but I defy your cruelty."

This was all the blood that was shed in so great a restoration. The rest of the king's judges were repriev ed, and afterwards dispersed into several prisons. Charles, being directed in all things by Clarendon, gave universal satisfaction, as well by the lenity as the justice of his conduct. The army was disbanded that had for so many years governed the nation; prelacy, and all the ceremonies of the church of England, were restored; at the same time that the king pretended to preserve an air of moderation and neutrality. In fact, with regard to religion, Charles, in his gayer hours, was a professed deist, and attached to none; but in the latter part of his life, when he began to think more seriously, he showed an inclination to the catholic persuasion, which he had strongly imbibed in his exile.

But this toleration, in which all were equally included, was not able to remove the fears or quell the enthusiasm of a few determined men, who, by an unexampled combination, were impelled by one common phrensy. One Venner, a desperate enthusiast, who A. D. had often conspired against Cromwell, and had 1661. as often been pardoned, had by this time per

suaded his followers that, if they would take arms, Jesus would come to put himself at their head. With these expectations, to the number of sixty persons, they issued forth into the streets of London in complete armour, and proclaimed king Jesus wherever they went. They believed themselves invulnerable and invincible, and expected the same fortune which had attended Gideon, and the other heroes of the Old Testament. Every one at first fled before them; one unhappy man being asked whom he was for, and answering that he was for God and the king, they slew him on the spot. In this manner they went from street to street, and made a desperate resistance against a body of the trained bands that were sent to attack them. After killing many of the assailants, they made a regular retreat into Caenwood, near Hampstead. Being dislodged thence, the next morning they returned to London, and took pos▸ session of a house in which they defended themselves against a body of troops, until the majority were killed. At last the troops, who had untiled the house, and were tired of slaughter, rushed in, and seized the few that were left alive. They were tried, condemned, and executed; and to the last they declared, that if they were deceived, the Lord himself was their deceiver.

The absurdity, and even ridicule, which attended the professions and expectations of these poor deluded men, struck the people very strongly: and, from the gloomy moroseness of enthusiasm, they now went over into the opposite extreme of riot and debauchery. The court itself set them the example: nothing but scenes of gal lantry and festivity appeared; the horrors of the late war were become the subject of ridicule; the formality and ignorance of the sectaries were displayed upon the stage, and even laughed at from the pulpit. But,

while the king thus rioted, the old faithful friends and followers of his family were left unrewarded. Numbers who had fought for him and his father, and had lost their whole fortunes in his service, still continued to pine in want and oblivion; while, in the mean time, their persecutors, who had profited by the times, had acquired fortunes during the civil war, and were still permitted to enjoy them without molestation. The sufferers petitioned in vain; the family of the Stuarts were never remarkable for their gratitude; and the amusers, the flatterers, and the concubines of this monarch, enjoyed all his consideration. The wretched royalists murmured without redress; he fled from their gloomy expostulations to scenes of mirth, riot, and festivity.

Nevertheless his parliaments, both of England and Scotland, seemed willing to make reparation for their former disobedience, by their present concessions. In the English house, monarchy and episcopacy were carried to as great splendor as they had suffered misery and depression. The bishops were permitted to resume their seats in the house of peers; all military authority was acknowledged to be vested in the king; and he was empowered to appoint commissioners for regulating corporations, and expelling such members as had intruded themselves by violence, or professed principles dangerous to the constitution. An act of uniformity in A. D. religion was passed, by which it was required 1662. that every clergyman should be re-ordained, if he had not before received episcopal ordination; that he should declare his assent to every thing contained in the Book of Common Prayer, and should take the oath of canonical obedience. In consequence of this law, above two thousand of the presbyterian clergy re