could not surely be the case, that Mr. E. never thought it worth while to inquire further about the matter. To us, we confess, it appears extremely doubtful whether any of the party were sent to prison at all. There is a looseness in the whole narration, which shews how much the Writer suffered himself to # take for granted, as to that part of the affair which did not immediately involve himself. In any point of view, however, the disturbance created by the soldiers, was a very nefarious aggression. If it was dictated by the wish to intimidate, and the officers really acted in pursuance of state orders, it was one of those half-measures which tend to throw useless discredit on the Government that has recourse to them; and the affair would serve to shew the folly of enactments of which policy and humanity alike forbid the carrying into effect. Those who had the management of such matters in the reign of Charles II. knew better than to deal in half-measures: their pity of the ignorance they undertook to enlighten, demonstrated itself in a somewhat different way.

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The Annus Mirabilis was just at hand. On the 3rd of September of the ensuing year, died that arch rebell Oliver Cromwell, cal'd Protector.' Mr. Evelyn witnessed his superb funeral; the joyfullest,' he says, ' I ever saw, for there were none that cried but dogs, which the soldiers hooted away with 'a barbarous noise, drinking and taking tobacco in the streetes C as they went.' Had Cromwell been the most legitimate inheritor of royalty that ever wore a crown, the dogs, we suppose, would not have made less noise, nor the soldiers have made less merry with drink and tobacco on the occasion of the pageant. We transcribe the brief references which are made to the subsequent political changes, and to the part which Mr. Evelyn himself took in the Restoration.

• 10 Dec. I treated privately with Col. Morley, then Lieutenant of the Tower, and in greate trust and power, concerning delivering it to ye King and the bringing of him in, to the greate hazard of my life, but ye Col. had been my scholefellow, and I knew would not betray me.

• 12. I spent in publiq concerns for his Majesty, pursuing the point to bring over Coll. Morley, and his brother in law Fay, Governor of Portsmouth.

• ANNUS MIRABILIS 1660. Jan. 12. Wrote to Col. Morley againe to declare for his Majesty.

• 22. I went this afternoone to visit Coll. Morley. After dinner I discours’d with him, but he was very jealous, and would not believe Monk came in to do the King any service; I told him he might do it without him, and have all the honour. He was still doubtfull, and would resolve on nothing yet, so I tooke leave.'

* 3 Feb. Kept ye Fast. General Monk came now to London out of Scotland, but no man knew what he would do, or declare, yet he was met on all his way by the Gentlemen of all the Counties which he pass’d, with petitions that he would recall the old long interrupted Parliament, and settle the nation in some order, being at this time in most prodigious confusion and under no government, every body expecting what would be next and what he would do.

10. Now were the gates of the Citty broken down by Gen'. Monke, which exceedingly exasperated the Citty, the Souldiers marching up and down as triumphing over it, and all the old army of the phanatics put out of their posts, and sent out of towne.

• 11. A signal day. Monk, perceiving how infamous and wretched a pack of knaves would have still usurped the supreame power, and having intelligence that they intended to take away his commission, repenting of what he had don to ye Citty, and where he and his forces quartered, marches to White-hall, dissipates that nest of robbers, and convenes the old Parliament, the Rump Parliament (so calld as retaining some few rotten members of ye other) being dissolv'd; and for joy whereoff were many thousand of rumps roasted publiqly in ye streetes at the bonfires this night, with ringing of bells and universal jubilee. This was the first good omen.'

"3 May. Came the most happy tidings of his Majesty's gracious declaration and applications to the Parliament, Generall, and People, and their dutiful acceptance and acknowledgment, after a most bloudy and unreasonable rebellion of neere 20 years. Praised be for ever the Lord of Heaven, who onely doeth wondrous things, because His mercy endureth for ever!

• 8. This day was his Majestie proclaim'd in London, &c.

" 24. Came to me Col. Morley, about procuring his pardon, now too late seeing his error and neglect of the counsel I gave him, by which if he had taken it he had certainly done ye great work with ye same ease that Monk did it, who was then in Scotland, and Morley in a post to have done what he pleas'd, but his jealousie and feare kept

a him from that blessing and honor. I address'd him to Lord More

daunt, then in greate favour, for his pardon, wch he obtain'd at the cost of 10001. as I heard. O ye selfish omission of this gentleman! what did I not undergo of danger in this negotiation, to have brought him over to his Majesty's interest, when it was intirely in his hands.

"

The active part which Mr. Evelyn took in this business, is almost the only instance of his busying himself in political affairs. A detailed account of his communications with Col. Morley, is given in the Appendix, Morley had much in his power: as Lieutenant of the Tower, he was absolute master of the city; he was Lieutenant of the confederate counties of Sussex, Surrey, Hampshire, &c.; his brother-in-law was Governor of Portsmouth, and his own brother, Governor of Arundel castle. But his fatal diffidence' of Monk, who at that time was not suspected of having any design to bring in the King, if indeed he had conceived the project, is assigned as the reason of Morley's vacillating and temporizing conduct. The knowledge of Morley's sentiments, however, had no doubt some influence on Monk's decision, whose task was in fact one which required little cunning and involved little difficulty. Finding how the people and 'magistrates were disposed,' says the MSS. account drawn up by Sir Thomas Clarges, (whatever his general intentions were,

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or first seemed to be,) he boldly and fortunately brought to 'pass that noble Revolution, following it to his eternal honour by restoring a banished Prince and the People's freedom.' We again transcribe from Mr. Evelyn's diary.

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29 May. This day his Majestie Charles the Second came to London, after a sad and long exile and calamitous suffering both of the King and Church, being 17 yeares. This was also his birthday, and with a triumph of above 20,000 horse and foote, brandishing their swords and shouting with inexpressible joy; the wayes strew'd with flowers, the bells ringing, the streetes hung with tapissry, fountaines running with wine; the Maior, Aldermen, and all the Companies in their liveries; chaines of gold and banners; Lords and Nobles clad in cloth of silver, gold, and velvet; the windows and balconies all set with ladies; trumpets, music, and myriads of people flocking, even so far as from Rochester, so as they were seven houres in passing the Citty, even from 2 in ye afternoone till 9 at night.

I stood in the Strand and beheld it, and bless'd God. And all this was don without one drop of bloud shed, and by that very army which rebell'd against him; but it was ye Lord's doing, for such a Restauration was never mention'd in any history antient or modern, since the returne of the Jews from the Babylonish captivity; nor so joyfull a day and so bright ever scene in this Nation, this hapning when to expect or effect it was past all human policy.'

Mr. Evelyn's parallel is quite in the taste of the times; and some extravagance of expression may reasonably be allowed to the first paroxysms of joy which the re-establishment of a settled government, the anticipated gratitude and moderation of

Vol. XIV. N. S.

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the recalled monarch, the brilliant prospects of personal honour and advantage that opened to the faithful royalists, and the setting up again of all the high places of their intellectual idolatry, would excite in the minds of the church and king party. Mr. Evelyn was but two and twenty when the differences between Charles I. and the Parliament were ripened into a civil war; too young to appreciate the grounds of the quarrel, but just of an age to enter with enthusiasm into the royal cause. That cause bad acquired a sacredness in his imagination, from the tragical fate of one sovereign, and the adverse fortunes of another, the exiled heir. Charles the First, deposed and in exile, would in time have become an object of as little interest as James the Second was, after his abdication of the throne; but Charles the Martyr was at once exalted into the saint. Repugnant both to reason and to religion as is so gross a misapplication of the terms, (for Charles's reputed piety could no more constitute him a martyr, than his tyranny could make him a saint,) it is by a natural operation of feeling that we invest an illustrious sufferer with a character of sanctity: an illusion is thrown over the unearthly object of our reverence, when beheld in the shadowy light of the sepulchre, which at once heightens its stature, and softens down all the harsher traits of its character. Many a man has awakened simply by his death, emotions the very opposite of those which all the actions of his life conspired to perpetuate. This was signally the case with Charles I., who could in no other way have won the affections of the subjects he had oppressed; but the short-sighted politicians who condemned him to suffer, did an unintentional service to his fame, cancelling by that act, at least in the minds of a large proportion of his former subjects, all his political delinquencies. In the Blessed Martyr of Mr. Evelyn, we in vain attempt to trace any resemblance to the Charles the First of history. In place of the murdered king, a shadowy abstraction took possession of men's imaginations, the concrete idea of all that is venerable, captivating, or commanding in the attributes of royalty; and the title of king became itself a higher style in consequence of its association with this ideal object of adulation. That adulation went into the greater excess, because, as being paid to the deceased, it seemed to lose some of the essential meanness of flattery it had a shew of disinterestedness and sincerity, which disguised its true character, and thus favoured its most unbounded licence. But this was not all. The monarch was also regarded as invested with a sacerdotal character, as the head of the Anglican Episcopacy, which suffered an eclipse in his downfal, and the devoted loyalty of its members was ultimately blended, therefore, with their religious feelings. During the interregnum, when the use of the Common Prayer Book was

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prohibited, some of the papists and other sectaries, it seems, used to taunt the good churchmen with the non-visibility of that which, if a part of the true Church, must needs suffer no interruption of existence. Some of our readers may be tempted to smile at hearing the way in wbich this objection was repelled. Sir Richard Browne, Mr. Evelyn's father-in-law, during the whole of his nineteen years' exile,“ kept up in his chapel the • Liturgy and Offices of the Church of England, to his no small • bonour, and in a time wben it was so low, and, as many thought, utterly lost, that in various controversies both with

papists and sectaries, our divines used to argue for the visi.bility of the Church, from his chapel and congregation!! No wonder that they should have found in the restoration of the monarchy in the person of Charles II., a parallel to the return of the Jews from the Babylonish captivity.

But there were more rational grounds for rejoicing, or at least for acquiescing in that event. There were sober-minded men who regarded the King's return as the only means of re-establishing a constitutional, in place of a military government. Cromwell was no more, who alone could tame the violence of rival factions, and give bond, by his personal energy, for the security of men's social interests. The wizard was dead, whose spells the army, his demon servant, obeyed, which now threatened to turn against its masters, and would be exorcised only by the name of king. To escape from the evils of anarchy, or even from the uncertainties of an unsettled government, a very large portion of the nation would have been glad to submit to almost any arrangement that promised to be permanent; and they suffered themselves to be quietly made over by Monk to a Stuart, without taking a single precaution to secure their dearly purchased liberties. What it was that they had consented to have restored, and wbat they had parted with, it was not long before they were enabled very feelingly to ascertain. A few extracts from subsequent pages of Mr. Evelyn's diary, will place the matter in a sufficiently clear point of view.

• 6 July. [1660. About five weeks after the King's return] His Majestie began first to touch for ye evil, according to costome, thus ; his Ma’tie sitting under his State in ye Banquetting House, the Chirurgeons cause the sick to be brought or led up to the throne, where they kneeling, ye King strokes their faces or cheekes with both his hands at once, at which instant a Chaplaine in his formalities says, “ He put his hands upon them and he healed them.” This is sayd to every one in particular. When they have ben all touch'd they come up againe in the same order, and the other Chaplaine kneeling, and baving Angel gold strung on whitė ribbon on his arme, delivers them one by one to his Mrie, who puts them about the necks of the touched as they passe, whilst the first Chaplaine repeats, " That is y true