, that the latter expressed their willingness to support the secluded
members, on condition that they should pledge themselves to settle the
government of the army, to raise money to pay the arrears, to issue
writs for a new parliament to sit on the 20th of April, and to dissolve
themselves before that period. The general returned[b] to Whitehall;
the secluded members attended his summons; and, after a long speech,
declaratory of his persuasion that a republican form of government and a
moderate presbyterian kirk were necessary to secure and perpetuate the
tranquillity of the nation, he advised them to go and resume their seats.
Accompanied by a great number of officers, they walked to the house; the
guard, under the command of Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper, opened to let
them pass; and no opposition was made by the speaker or the members.[1]
Hazlerig, however, and the

[Footnote 1: Journals, Feb. 11, 13, 15, 17, 21. Price, 768-773. Ludlow, ii.
345, 351, 353. Skinner, 256-264. Clar. Pap. 663, 682, 688. Gumble, 260,
263. Philips, 600. The number of secluded members then living was one
hundred and ninety-four, of members sitting or allowed to sit by the orders
of the house, eighty-nine.--"A Declaration of the True State of the Matter
of Fact," 57.]

[Sideline a: A.D. 1660. Feb. 17.]
[Sideline b: A.D. 1660. Feb. 21.]

more devoted of his adherents, rose and withdrew--a fortunate secession for
the royalists; otherwise, with the addition of those among the restored
members who adhered to a commonwealth, the republicans might on many
questions have still commanded a majority.[1]

To the Cavaliers, the conduct of Monk on this occasion proved a source
of the most distressing perplexity. On the one hand, by introducing the
secluded members he had greatly advanced the cause of royalty. For though
Holles, Pierpoint, Popham, and their friends still professed the doctrines
which they had maintained during the treaty in the Isle of Wight, though
they manifested the same hatred of popery and prelacy, though they still
inculcated the necessity of limiting the prerogative in the choice of the
officers of state and in the command of the army, yet they were royalists
by principle, and had, several of them, made the most solemn promises to
the exiled king of labouring strenuously for his restoration. On the other
hand, that Monk at the very time when he gave the law without control,
should declare so loudly in favour of a republican governm