vice to the exiled prince", and to implore some reformers?) and by thus relapsing, to verify all the bitter predictions of our triumphing enemies, who will now think they wisely discerned, and justly censured, both us and all our actions as rash, rebellious, hypocritical, and impious; not only argues a strange degenerate contagion suddenly spread among us, fitted and prepared for new slavery, but will render us a scorn and derision to all our neighbours. And what will they at best say of us, and of the whole English name, but scoffingly, as of that foolish builder, mentioned by our Saviour, who began to build a tower, and was not able to finish it? Where is this goodly tower of a commonwealth, which the English boasted they would build to overshadow kings, and be another Rome in the west? The foundation, indeed, they laid gallantly; but fell into a worse confusion, not of tongues, but of factions, than those at the tower of Babel; and have left no memorial of their work behind them remaining, but in the common laughter of Europe! What must needs redound the more to our shame, if we but look on our neighbours, the United Provinces, to us inferior in all outward advantages, who, notwithstanding, in the midst of the greatest difficulties, couragiously, wisely, constantly went through with the same work, and are settled in all happy en, joyments of a potent and flourishing republic to this day 2 33 a 22 Many principal actors in the late governments offered their services to the exiled prince.] Men who aspire to, and take employment in the state, too frequently have no better motives thereunto than ambi • Milton's Prose Works, vol. I. p. 644. pardon for their former transactions. It tion and self-interest. A court is followed because of the loaves and fishes which are to be found there. When these fail, it is no more regarded. So that it is not the desire of profiting the public, the love of the sovereign, or any of those specious pretences which are made use of by these kinds of men, that, in fact, do actuate them in accepting and executing their various employments. Hence it comes to pass, that, generally speaking, it is very indifferent to them who is the master, what is his conduct, or how the people aré treated by him. So that it is nothing uncommon tò see such as have been favourites and counsellors under one prince, enjoy the same under another, who has ousted him of his dominions, and deprived him of his bread. We are not to wonder, therefore, that those who were preferred by Cromwell, on account of their abilities, and had reaped advantages in consequence thereof, should be disposed, when their interest seemed to lead that way, to reconcile themselves to Charles, in order to take care of themselves, in the full extent of the phrase. A republican government, in which laws alone ought at least to preside, is highly unsuitable to the disposi tion of those who have been used to liberties and indulgencies to which the law is a stranger. When Richard resigned, his and his father's friends almost immediately fell off from the party to which they had adhered, and did what in them lay to restore the old family and government. Howard and Falconberg were among the first of these; the latter of whom, after the suppression of Booth's insurrection, was sent to the Tower by the parliament. Mountague, though he con* Journal, 24 Sept. 1659. 1- need not be said they were, for the most tinued in the command of the fleet, was justly sus pected of being no friend to the parliament, and only waited an opportunity to join with the friends of Charles; as did Penn, and others, who had served the protector. To these we may add Clarges, Ashley Cowper, and many more, who arrived to honours, and wealth, and power, after the restoration. We have already seen the disposition of Fleetwood and Whitlock to the same cause; though they had not the wisdom, the luck, or the shall I say it?-dishonesty of the abovementioned. I would, I think, I must, call it dishonesty; as they bargained only for themselves, and left the nations of England, Scotland, and Ireland, in the lurch, without taking the least care of their laws and liberties, for which they with seeming zeal had engaged, and for which they had been well paid. Lord Broghill had been a zealous and active partizan for the family of Cromwell also; but about this time "he employed all his interest in making a party for the kings restoration and to that end sounded all his own officers, who were desirous and earnest for it; and then dealt with others, who were not immediately under his command. And his lordship having now secured all Munster, he sent trusty messengers. to sir Charles Coote, to engage him to do in the north, the same that his lordship had done in the south; which he readily undertook, and accomplished: with which good news, lord Broghill immediately dispatched a letter to the king, then at Brussels, by his lordships brother, the lord Shannon, inviting his majesty to come into his kingdom of Ireland, and land at Corke, assuring him that he would be there received; and that he had got all the army of the south, as sir Charles Coote had : part, successful.The friends of Charles a that of the north, in readiness to declare for his majesty " It is certain, Broghill and his officers published a declaration at Cork, dated Feb. 18, 1569, O.S. in which they insisted on "the admission of the members secluded, in 1648, to sit in parliament; and that vacant places might be speedily supplied by the free and due elections of the people; yet so as none of the persons to be admitted, or elected, be any of those who have been in arms, or otherwise aiding, abetting, or assisting the late king, or his son, in the late war against the parliament; and that the house so filled, may proceed unanimously to consult the best means for re-settling the peace of the nations, the re-establishment of true religion, the fundamental laws of the land, and the liberties and freedom of the people, which are supported by those laws." Broghill managed his matters as dextrously, however, as possible. For, well knowing the construction that would be put on this declaration, he continued to profess the utmost abhorrence of the royal cause. As late as Apr. 30th, he wrote as follows to Thurloe: "They have odd plots heere concerning the king; and all means used to win me; and, those failing, other things were thought on. But I can assure you, I have entirely secured Munster against any that shall be for the king, or not for the council of state or parliament. The like is done in most of Ulster, and some of Leinster.-I do monstrously dread the cavalier party; and if the parliament should be of such, God only knows what will be * Memoirs of the Earl of Orrery, prefixed to his State Papers, p. 31. fol. Lond. 1742. See also Ormonde's Papers, vol. II. p. 314. Thurloe, vol. VII. p. 819. availed themselves also of the general dis a" the evils. I am 'therefore heartily glad that the lords, I mean of 48, do resolve to sit; that may be hazardous but the other, I doubt, is certain ".". We may suppose Thurloe, who had like designs, was not much deceived by these professions.I will now give a specimen of the manner in which some of these gentlemen made way for their reconcilement with their aftersovereign. Downing, resident in Holland for the protectors and the parliament, having strictly executed his commission with respect to watching well the motions of Charles, thought himself in some danger in the present conjuncture. To prevent this, he applied himself to Mr. Thomas Howard, whom he had formerly employed as a spy on his master, and prevailed on him to endeavour to procure his pardon. Howard, notwithstanding the suspicions under which he laboured, undertook the matter; and in a letter to his majesty, dated Ap. 5, 1660, told him, "that yesterday Downing, the parliament resident, sent twice to speak with me so earnestly, that, notwithstanding the reasons I had to myself not to see him, I went to him. When I came, he told me, he had desired to speak with me upon something that, he believed, would not be disagreeable to me; and that he wished the promotion of your majesty's service, which he confessed he had endeavoured to obstruct, though he never had any malice to your majesty's person or family: alledging, to be engaged in a contrary party by his father, who was banished into New England, where he was brought up, and had sucked in principles that, since, his reason had made him see were erroneous, and that he never |