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النشر الإلكتروني

OF

JOHN MILTON:

NARRATED IN CONNEXION WITH

THE POLITICAL, ECCLESIASTICAL, AND LITERARY

HISTORY OF HIS TIME.

BY

DAVID MASSON, M.A., LL.D.,

PROFESSOR OF RHETORIC AND ENGLISH LITERATURE

IN THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH.

VOL. VI.

1660-1674.

London:

MACMILLAN AND CO.

1880.

[The Right of Translation is reserved.]

A. L. CROSS

2.6.41

PREFACE TO VOLUME VI.

Ir is naturally with some satisfaction that I complete at last a work begun so long ago. It is a satisfaction also, to myself at least, to have been able to persevere to the very end in the original plan, omitting nothing, slurring nothing, that the plan required. In the present volume, for example, I have done my best towards the conjunction of a sufficient History of the Restoration and its Consequences with the concluding Fourteen Years of Milton's Biography.

It is unnecessary, I hope, to repeat my assurance that the historical portions of the six volumes, even those that are most summary in appearance, are no mere compilations from any existing history, or from all existing histories together, but are the results of original and independent survey and inquiry, according to gradually formed notions of what English History ought to be and to include, with very deep digging, and much use of the pickaxe, in many tracts and spots of previously neglected ground. What may be more necessary is the repetition of an acknowledgment made, more than eight years ago, in the Preface to Volume II. "I never can pass a sheet of the historical kind for the press," I then wrote, "without a dread lest, from inadvertence or from sheer ignorance, some error, some blunder even, may escaped me." No sincere historical inquirer but will understand this confession and sympathise with it; but I would repeat it now expressly with reference to the entire work. The errors of fact that have yet been pointed out in the previous volumes are few and slight; but I am aware some that have not been pointed out. The gradual

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execution of the work and the publication of it in successive instalments have occasioned also some flaws of mechanical form, which revision might amend. As it stands, I can but offer it as, on the whole, a faithful fulfilment of a large design, and trust that it may not be without its uses in its professed character, as combining a more thorough and minute Life of Milton than had before been attempted with a new Political, Ecclesiastical, and Literary History of Milton's whole Time.

Though the dimensions of the book are somewhat unusual they are even moderate for such a combination of the Biography of Milton with a History of England, and of the connexions of England with Scotland and Ireland, and with foreign countries, through the Civil Wars, the Commonwealth, the Protectorates of Oliver and Richard, the Anarchy, and the first fourteen years of the Restoration. A copious Index is needed and is in preparation; and meanwhile there may be some convenience in the Tables of Contents prefixed to the several volumes and in the studied fulness of those for Volumes IV, V, and VI.

EDINBURGH: December, 1879.

CONTENTS.

Charles II. and his Retinue at the Hague: Deputations to him

from London: Procession from the Hague: Embarkation for

England: The Voyage Home: The landing at Dover and

meeting with Monk: Halt at Canterbury: Royal Progress

from Rochester and Triumphal Entry into London, May 29,

1660: Rejoicings in the Three Kingdoms, and Poetical Con-

gratulations: The Privy Council and Ministry of the Restored

Monarch, with Monk as Duke of Albemarle and Montague as

Earl of Sandwich: The Junto or Cabinet: Lord Chancellor

Hyde and his Premiership: Composition of the two Houses of

the Convention Parliament.-Question of Pardon or Revenge :

Charles's Indemnity Declaration from Breda, and the Indemnity

Bill in the Convention Parliament: Proceedings of the Com-

mons with the Bill before the arrival of Charles (May 9-29):

Order for the Arrest of all the Regicide Judges living, and

Resolutions for the Capital Exception of Seven of them and the

Attainder of Four of the dead Regicides.—Progress of the Bill

in the Commons after the arrival of Charles: Naming of the

Seven living Regicide Judges to be excepted Capitally, and of

five additional persons to be similarly excepted for their con-

nexion with the Regicide: Quest of the two masked Execu-

tioners of Charles I, and Order for the Arrest of Hugh Peters:

Royal Proclamation for the Surrender of the Absconding

Regicides: Resolution of the Commons for the Punishment of

Twenty Persons for General Political Delinquency: Additions

to the list of excepted Regicides, and Nomination of the

Twenty General Political Delinquents: William Hewlet and

Hugh Peters capitally excepted as special Supernumeraries :

Final Modifications of the Bill in the Commons, and Extension

of the list of Capital Exceptions by the addition of Eleven of

the Regicides still fugitive.-The Bill in the Lords: Deter-

mination of the Lords to except all the Regicides capitally,

and to make capital exceptions also of Vane, Hasilrig, and

Lambert Debates and Conferences: Hyde's devices for

Agreement: Analysis of the Bill as it passed the two Houses

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