The reader will recollect that, on a former occasion, in the year 1648, the Presbyterian members of the long parliament had been excluded by the army.  Of these, one hundred and ninety-four were still alive, eighty of whom actually resided in the capital.  That they had as good a right to resume their seats as the members who had been expelled by Cromwell could hardly be doubted; but they were royalists, still adhering to the principles which they professed during the treaty in the Isle of Wight, and from their number, had they been admitted, would have instantly outvoted the advocates of republicanism.  They assembled in Westminster Hall;[b] and a deputation of fourteen, with Sir George Booth, Prynne, and Annesley at their head, proceeded to the house.  The doors were closed in their faces; a company of soldiers, the keepers, as they were sarcastically called, of the liberties of England, filled the lobby; and a resolution was passed that no former member, who had not subscribed the engagement, should sit till further order of parliament.[c] The attempt, however, though it failed of success, produced its effect.  It served to countenance a belief that the sitting members were mere tools of the military, and supplied the royalists with the means of masking their

[Footnote 1:  Ludlow, 179-186.  Whitelock, 677.  England’s Confusion, 9.]

[Sidenote a:  A.D. 1659.  May 7.] [Sidenote b:  A.D. 1659.  May 7.] [Sidenote c:  A.D. 1659.  May 9.]

real designs under the popular pretence of vindicating the freedom of parliament.[1]

By gradual additions, the house at last amounted to seventy members, who, while they were ridiculed by their adversaries with the appellation of the “Rump,” constituted themselves the supreme authority in the three kingdoms.  They appointed, first, a committee of safety, and then a council of state, notified to the foreign ministers their restoration to power, and, to satisfy the people, promised by a printed declaration[a] to establish a form of government, which should secure civil and religious liberty without a single person, or kingship, or house of lords.  The farce of addresses was renewed; the “children of Zion,” the asserters of the good old cause, clamorously displayed their joy; and Heaven was fatigued with prayers for the prosperity and permanence of the new government.[2]

That government at first depended for its existence on the good-will of the military in the neighbourhood of London; gradually it obtained[b] promises of support from the forces at a distance. 1.  Monk, with his

[Footnote 1:  Journ.  May 9.  Loyalty Banished, 3.  England’s Confusion, 12.  On the 9th, Prynne found his way into the house, and maintained his right against his opponents till dinner-time.  After dinner he returned, but was excluded by the military.  He was careful, however, to inform the public of the particulars, and moreover undertook to prove that the long parliament expired at the death