the officers of the army and the houses of parliament and the
city, the declaration of an amnesty for all except those specially
excluded afterwards by parliament, which referred to parliament the
settlement of estates and promised a liberty to tender consciences in
matters of religion not contrary to the peace of the kingdom.

On the 8th of May Charles II. was proclaimed king in Westminster Hall
and elsewhere in London. On the 24th he sailed from the Hague, landing
on the 26th at Dover, where he was met by Monk, whom he saluted as
father, and by the mayor, from whom he accepted a "very rich bible,"
"the thing that he loved above all things in the world." He reached
London on the 29th, his thirtieth birthday, arriving with the
procession, amidst general rejoicings and "through a lane of happy
faces," at seven in the evening at Whitehall, where the houses of
parliament awaited his coming, to offer in the name of the nation their
congratulations and allegiance.

No event in the history of England had been attended with more lively
and general rejoicing than Charles's restoration, and none was destined
to cause greater subsequent disappointment and disillusion. Indolent,
sensual and dissipated by nature, Charles's vices had greatly increased
during his exile abroad, and were now, with the great turn of fortune
which gave him full opportunity to indulge them, to surpass all the
bounds of decency and control. A long residence till the age of thirty
abroad, together with his French blood, had made him politically more of
a foreigner than an Englishman, and he returned to England ignorant of
the English constitution, a Roman Catholic and a secret adversary of the
national religion, and untouched by the sentiment of England's greatness
or of patriotism. Pure selfishness was the basis of his policy both in
domestic and foreign affairs. Abroad the great national interests were
eagerly sacrificed for the sake of a pension, and at home his personal
ease and pleasure alone decided every measure, and the fate of every
minister and subject. During his exile he had surrounded himself with
young men of the same spirit as himself, such as Buckingham and Bennet,
who, without having any claim to statesmanship, inattentive to business,
neglectful of the national interests and national prejudices, became
Charles's chief advisers. With them, as with their master, public office
was only desirable as a means of procuring enjoyment, for which a