eat object to
procure his return to England before limitations could be put on the
prerogative. From the Lords, so numerous were the Cavaliers in the upper
house, no opposition could be feared; and the temper already displayed
by the Commons was calculated to satisfy the wishes of the most ardent
champions of royalty. The two houses voted, that by the ancient and
fundamental laws of the realm the government was and ought to be by king,
lords, and commons; they invited Charles to come and receive the crown to
which he was born; and, to relieve his more urgent necessities, they sent
him a present of fifty thousand pounds, with ten thousand pounds for his
brother the duke of York, and five

[Footnote 1: Lords' Journ. xi. 7, 10.]

thousand pounds for the duke of Gloucester. They ordered the arms and
symbols of the commonwealth to be effaced, the name of the king to be
introduced into the public worship, and his succession to be proclaimed
as having commenced from the day of his father's death.[1] Hale, the
celebrated lawyer, ventured, with Prynne, to call[a] upon the House of
Commons to pause in their enthusiasm, and attend to the interests of the
nation. The first moved the appointment of a committee to inquire what
propositions had been offered by the long parliament, and what concessions
had been made by the last king in 1648; the latter urged the favourable
opportunity of coming to a mutual and permanent understanding on all those
claims which had been hitherto subjects of controversy between the two
houses and the crown. But Monk rose, and strongly objected to an inquiry
which might revive the fears and jealousies, the animosities and bloodshed,
of the years that were past. Let the king return while all was peace and
harmony. He would come alone; he could bring no army with him; he would
be as much at their mercy in Westminster as in Breda. Limitations, if
limitations were necessary, might be prepared in the interval, and offered
to him after his arrival. At the conclusion of this speech, the house
resounded with the acclamations of the Cavaliers; and the advocates of the
inquiry, awed by the authority of the general and the clamour of their
opponents, deemed it prudent to desist.[2]

Charles was as eager to accept, as the houses had been to vote, the address
of invitation. From Breda he had gone to the Hague, where the States,
anxious to atone for their former neglect, entertained him with

[Footnote 1: Journals of