ent some
of them as already tired of the Commonwealth in any possible form,
and scheming afar off for the restoration of the Stuarts. This,
however, is quite a misconstruction.--Monk, who is chiefly suspected,
and who did now, from his separate station in the north, watch events
in an independent manner, had certainly as yet no thought of the kind
imagined. He had sent Richard a paper of advices showing a real
desire to assist him at the outset. He advised him, substantially, to
persevere in the later or very conservative policy of his father, but
with certain differences or additions, which would be now easy. He
ought, said Monk, at once to secure the affections of the great
Presbyterian body, by attaching to himself privately some of the most
eminent Presbyterian divines, and by publicly calling an Assembly of
Divines, in which Moderate Presbyterians and Moderate Independents
together might agree on a standard of orthodoxy, and so stop the
blasphemy and profaneness "too frequent in many places by the great
extent of Toleration." Then, when a Parliament should meet, he ought
to bring a number of the most prudent and trustworthy of the old
nobility and the wealthy country gentry into the House of Lords. For
retrenchment of expense the chief means would be a reduction of the
Armies in England, Scotland, and Ireland, by throwing two regiments
everywhere into one, and so getting rid of unnecessary officers; nor
let his Highness think this advice too bold, for Monk could assure
him "There is not an officer in the Army, upon any discontent, that
has interest enough to draw two men after him, if he be out of
place." On the other hand, the Navy ought to be strengthened, and
many of the ships re-officered[1]--Such were Monk's advices; and,
whatever may be thought of their value, they were certainly given in
good faith. And so with those others to whom, from their subsequent
conduct, similar suspicions have been attached. At our present date
there was no ground for these suspicions. To some in the list, either
ranking among the actual Regicides or otherwise deeply involved in
the transactions of the late reign and their immediate consequences,
the idea of a Restoration of the Stuarts may have been more horrible,
on personal grounds, than it need have been to others, conscious only
of later participation and lighter responsibility; but not a man in
the list yet dreamt of going over to the Royalist cause. The
dissensions were as t