ay were concluded; when Charles observed to some of his
confidants "It must sorely have been my fault that I did not come before;
for I have met with no one to-day who did not protest that he always wished
for my restoration."[1]

That the re-establishment of royalty was a blessing to the country will
hardly be denied. It presented the best, perhaps the only, means of
restoring public tranquillity amidst the confusion and distrust, the
animosities and hatreds, the parties and interests, which had been
generated by the events of the civil war, and by a rapid succession of
opposite and ephemeral governments. To Monk belongs the merit of having, by
his foresight and caution, effected this desirable object without bloodshed
or violence; but to his dispraise it must also be recorded, that he
effected it without any previous stipulation on the part of the exiled
monarch. Never had so fair an opportunity been offered of establishing a
compact between the sovereign and the people, of determining, by mutual
consent, the legal rights of the crown, and of securing from future
encroachment the freedom of the people. That Charles would have consented
to such conditions,

[Footnote 1: Whitelock, 702. Kennet's Reg. 163. Clarendon's Hist. iii. 772.
Clarendon's Life by Himself, Continuation, p. 7, 8. Evelyn's Diary, ii.
148.]

we have sufficient evidence; but, when the measure was proposed, the
lord-general declared himself its most determined opponent. It may have
been, that his cautious mind figured to itself danger in delay; it is more
probable that he sought to give additional value to his services in the
eyes of the new sovereign. But, whatever were the motives of his conduct,
the result was, that the king ascended the throne unfettered with
conditions, and thence inferred that he was entitled to all the powers
claimed by his father at the commencement of the civil war. In a few years
the consequence became manifest. It was found that, by the negligence or
perfidy of Monk, a door had been left open to the recurrence of dissension
between the crown and the people; and that very circumstance which Charles
had hailed as the consummation of his good fortune, served only to prepare
the way for a second revolution, which ended in the permanent exclusion of
his family from the government of these kingdoms.

* * * * *

APPENDIX.

NOTE A, p. 117.

Nothing more clearly shows the readiness of Charl