dingly, and, being at the
bar, after obeisance made, said: 'Mr. Speaker, I am commanded by the
King, my master, to deliver this Letter to You, and he desires that
You will communicate it to the House.' The Letter was directed 'To
Our trusty and well-beloved the Speaker of the House of Commons';
which, after the messenger was withdrawn, was read to the House by
the Speaker." The bold Sir John had now got rid of three of his six
documents. Nay, he had got rid of four; for in each of the three
there had been enclosed a copy of his Majesty's general
_Declaration_, or Letter to "all Our Loving Subjects of what
degree or quality soever." It was for the Parliament to determine
what should be done with this Declaration, as well as with the other
two remaining Letters, one of them addressed to Generals Monk and
Montague for communication to the Fleet, and the other to the Lord
Mayor, Aldermen, and Common Council of the City of London. The train
had been sufficiently fired already by the delivery of four of the
Breda documents.[1]

[Footnote 1: Lords and Commons Journals of dates; Parl. Hist. IV.
10-25; Phillips (continuation of Baker), 701-705; Skinner's Life of
Monk, 297-302; Whitlocke, IV. 409-411.]

The explosion was over and the air cleared, and all pretence was at
an end at last. In the Commons, a few minutes after Sir John
Greenville had left the House, it was "RESOLVED, _nemine
contradicente_, That an answer be prepared to his Majesty's
Letter, expressing the great and joyful sense of this House of His
gracious offers, and their humble and hearty thanks to his Majesty
for the same, and with professions of their loyalty and duty to his
Majesty." The Lords had already passed an equivalent resolution, and
had recalled Sir John Greenville to receive their hearty thanks for
his care in the discharge of his duty. The rest of that day was spent
in a conference between the two Houses, and in farther resolutions
and arrangements in each, subsidiary to those two resolutions of the
forenoon which had virtually decreed the Restoration. Thus, in the
Commons, still in the forenoon, "RESOLVED, _nemine
contradicente_, that the sum of L50,000 be presented to the King's
Majesty from this House," and "RESOLVED, _nemine
contradicente_, that the Letters from His Majesty, both that to
the House and that to the Lord General, and his Majesty's Declaration
which came enclosed, be entered at large in the Journal Book of this
House"; and, again