THE LIFE OF JOHN MILTON,

WITH THE

HISTORY OF HIS TIME.

CHAPTER I.

THE YEAR OF THE RESTORATION: MAY 1660-MAY 1661.

Ar the Hague, whither Charles and his retinue had removed from Breda, and where their reception by the States-General was "incredibly noble and splendid," there duly arrived, on the 15th of May, 1660, the Commissioners from the two Houses of the Convention Parliament, sent to congratulate his Majesty and implore his immediate presence in his dominions. In the audiences they had with him next day the chief spokesman was Denzil Holles, one of the twelve Commissioners for the Commons. He informed his Majesty of the boundless joy of the Parliament in the prospect of his return, and of their alacrity in adopting means for manifesting that joy. "In so doing," proceeded Holles, "they are, "according to the nature of Parliaments, the true representa"tives of the whole nation; for they but do that in a more “contracted and regular way which the generality of the "people of the land, from one end of it to the other, do in "a more confused and disorderly manner, yet as heartily and "as affectionately. All degrees and ages and sexes,-rich poor, as I may say, and men, women, and children,—

"and

"join in sending up this prayer to Heaven, God bless King "Charles! Long live King Charles!, so as our English air is "not susceptible of any other sound, and echoes out nothing "else. Our bells, bonfires, peals of ordnance, volleys of shot, "the shouts and acclamations of the people, bear no other "moral, have no other signification, but to triumph in the "triumph of our King in the hearts of his people. Your Majesty cannot imagine, nor can any man conceive it but "he who was present to see and hear it, with what joy, what "cheerfulness, what lettings out of the soul, what expressions "of transported minds, a stupendous concourse of people "attended the proclaiming of your Majesty, in your cities "of London and Westminster, to be our most potent, mighty, "and undoubted King. The oldest man living never saw the "like before; nor is it probable, scarce possible, that he who "has longest to live will ever see the like again." With this and the other speeches, copies of the Proclamation, the letters of the Parliament, and other documents, were delivered to Charles, and acknowledged most graciously. Then, for yet another week, the crowded Hague was still festive round the departing Royalty of the British Islands, the States maintaining their hospitalities magnificently to the last. The only inconvenience to Charles and his brothers was that they had some difficulty in obtaining cash for the bills on Amsterdam merchants which had been sent them by Parliament in payment of the main portion of the sums voted them for their first expenses. Or, if there was any other inconvenience, it arose from the necessity of granting interviews to Messrs. Reynolds, Calamy, Manton, Case, and the other eminent Presbyterian ministers who had come from London to bespeak the King's fidelity to Presbytery and the Solemn League and Covenant, or at least to obtain his assurance that he would not show sudden favour to Episcopacy by requiring the use of the Book of Common Prayer and the surplice by his own chaplains. In the particular of his own practice the King told the reverend gentlemen distinctly that he reserved the same liberty for himself that he meant to allow to others; but on the general question he was sufficiently polite.

There was then with his Majesty another representative of British Presbyterianism, who had preceded the English clergymen. This was the Scottish Mr. James Sharp. Monk, with whom he had been in close intimacy in London for the last three months, had dispatched him to Breda in a frigate, with express and very private letters of introduction to the King and to Hyde. It was thought that Sharp, while his main business would be to secure the Kirk and Covenant in Scotland, might be able to do something also for the cause of Presbytery in England; and, when it was known in Scotland that he had gone to Breda, his friends among the Scottish Resolutioner clergy, and especially Mr. Douglas in Edinburgh and Mr. Baillie in Glasgow, were intensely interested. By the wild haste of the Convention Parliament at Westminster, Charles was coming in absolutely without conditions; and might not Mr. Sharp's dexterity, even at the last moment, remedy that fatal blunder as it might affect Scotland? What passed between Sharp and his Majesty, or between Sharp and Hyde, no one really knows. "The King, "at my first address in Breda, was pleased to ask very kindly "about you," Baillie was afterwards informed by Sharp, if that could be any gratification; and to Douglas it was explained at the time by a letter from Sharp: "I shall not be accessory to anything prejudicial to the Presbyterian govern"ment; but to appear for it in any other way than is within my sphere is inconvenient, and may do harm and not good." This referred only to interference in behalf of Presbytery in England; in the business of his dear native Kirk he would, of course, remain indefatigable. On receipt of the letter, Mr. Douglas could only sigh, and hope the best. Amid all that vast jubilation in the three kingdoms which Holles reported to his Majesty there were, here and there, some heavy hearts1.

66

For some days Montague's fleet had been in the Bay of

1 Clarendon, 907-909; Lords and Commons Journals, May 23; Parl. Hist. IV. 35-40 (Holles's Speech); Phillips (continuation of Baker's Chronicle, edit.

1679), 710 Pepys's Diary, May 4-16; Baillie, III. 410; Memoir of Sharp in Chambers's Biog. Dict. of Scotsmen (containing extracts from Sharp's letters).