ined bands, the volunteers, and the auxiliaries raised in the
city, passed in review before the general in Hyde Park. The auxiliaries
drank the king's health on their knees; Lambert was at the moment driven
under Tyburn

[Footnote 1: Clar. Pap. iii. 715.]

[Sidenote a: A.D. 1660. April 11.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1660. April 13.]
[Sidenote c: A.D. 1660. April 21.]
[Sidenote d: A.D. 1660. April 24.]

and the spectators hailed with shouts and exclamations the disgrace of the
prisoner.[1]

The Convention parliament (so it was called, because it had not been
legally summoned) met[a] on the appointed day, the 25th of April. The
Presbyterians, by artful management, placed Sir Harbottle Grimstone, one of
their party, in the chair; but the Cavaliers, with their adherents, formed
a powerful majority, and the new speaker, instead of undertaking to stem,
had the prudence to go along with, the stream. Monk sat as representative
of Devonshire, his native county.

To neutralize the influence of the Cavaliers among the Commons, the
Presbyterian peers who sat in 1648, assembled in the House of Lords, and
chose the earl of Manchester for their speaker. But what right had they
exclusively to constitute a house of parliament? They had not been summoned
in the usual manner by writ; they could not sit as a part of the long
parliament, which was now at least defunct; and, if they founded their
pretensions on their birthright, as consiliarii nati, other peers were
in possession of the same privilege. The question was propounded to the
lord-general, who replied that he had no authority to determine the claims
of any individual. Encouraged by this answer, a few of the excluded peers
attempted to take their seats, and met with no opposition; the example was
imitated by others, and in a few days the Presbyterian lords did not amount
to more than one-fifth of the house. Still, however, to avoid cavil, the
peers who sat in the king's parliament at Oxford, as well as those whose
patents bore date after the

[Footnote 1: Kennet's Reg. 120. Price, 792, 794. Ludlow, 379. Philips, 607.
Clar. Pap. iii. 735.]

[Sidenote a: A.D. 1660. April 25.]

commencement of the civil war, abstained for the present from demanding
admission.[1]

Monk continued to dissemble. By his direction Grenville applied to a
member, who was entering the council-chamber, for an opportunity of
speaking to the lord-general. Monk came to the door, received from him a
letter, an