iting conditions offered him by the king, as well as
by every party in the kingdom, he freely restored his injured master to
the vacant throne. The king entered London on the twenty-ninth of May,
which was also his birthday. The fond imaginations of men interpreted as
a happy omen the concurrence of two such joyful periods.

At this era, it may be proper to stop a moment, and take a general
survey of the age, so far as regards manners, finances, arms, commerce,
arts, and sciences. The chief use of history is, that it affords
materials for disquisitions of this nature; and it seems the duty of an
historian to point out the proper inferences and conclusions.

No people could undergo a change more sudden and entire in their
manners, than did the English nation during this period. From
tranquillity, concord, submission, sobriety, they passed in an instant
to a state of faction, fanaticism, rebellion, and almost frenzy. The
violence of the English parties exceeded any thing which we can now
imagine: had they continued but a little longer, there was just reason
to dread all the horrors of the ancient massacres and proscriptions. The
military usurpers, whose authority was founded on palpable injustice,
and was supported by no national party, would have been impelled by
rage and despair into such sanguinary measures; and if these furious
expedients had been employed on one side, revenge would naturally have
pushed the other party, after a return of power, to retaliate upon their
enemies. No social intercourse was maintained between the parties; no
marriages or alliances contracted. The royalists, though oppressed,
harassed, persecuted, disdained all affinity with their masters. The
more they were reduced to subjection, the greater superiority did
they affect above those usurpers, who, by violence and injustice, had
acquired an ascendant over them.

The manners of the two factions were as opposite as those of the most
distant nations. "Your friends, the cavaliers," said a parliamentarian
to a royalist, "are very dissolute and debauched." "True," replied
the royalist, "they have the infirmities of men; but your friends, the
roundheads, have the vices of devils--tyranny, rebellion, and spiritual
pride."[*] Riot and disorder, it is certain, notwithstanding the good
example set them by Charles I., prevailed very much among his partisans.
Being commonly men of birth and fortune, to whom excesses are less
pernicious than to the vulg