he aforesaid duty than by
contributing to the public good." As he was still obdurate, the
deputations told him they would do without him. The list of members
was divided among such clerks as were at hand, and the circulars were
duly sent out.[1]

[Footnote 1: Ludlow, 649-650.]

Next morning, Saturday May 7, 1659, about thirty of the members of
the old Rump were shaking hands with each other in the House of
Lords, waiting anxiously till as many more should drop in as would
make the necessary quorum of forty, before marching into the Commons.
Army officers and other spectators were in the lobbies, equally
anxious. Time passed, and a few more did drop in, including Henry
Marten, luckily remembered as in jail for debt near at hand, and
fetched thence in triumph. At length, about thirty-seven having
mustered, old Lenthall, who had spies on the spot, thought it best to
come in; and, about twelve o'clock, he led a procession of exactly
forty-two persons into the Commons House, the officers and other
spectators attending them to the doors with congratulations. The
House, having been constituted, entered at once on business, framing
a Declaration for the public suitable for the occasion, and
appointing several committees. They set apart next day, Sunday the
8th, for special religious services, with a re-inauguration sermon by
Dr. Owen.[1]

[Footnote 1: Ludlow, 651-652; Commons Journals, May 7, 1659; Parl
Hist. III. 1547-1550.]

On Monday, May 9, the small new House had to re-encounter a
difficulty which had troubled them somewhat at their first meeting on
Saturday. On that day, besides the forty-two members of the Rump who
had answered the summons, there had come to the lobbies fourteen
persons who had been members of the Long Parliament before it became
the Rump, i.e. before that famous Pride's Purge of Dec. 6-7, 1648,
which excluded 143 of the Presbyterians and other Royalists from
their seats, and so converted the Long Parliament into the more
compact body wanted for the King's Trial and the formation of the
Republic (Vol. III. pp. 696-698). The fourteen, among whom were the
Presbyterians Sir George Booth and William Prynne, had insisted on
being admitted, but had been kept out by the officers after some
altercation. But now, on Monday, several of them were back, to see
the issue of a protest that had been meanwhile sent to the Speaker on
behalf of 213 members of the Long Parliament who were in the same
general predica