(Oct.-Dec. 1659):—­Milton’s Thoughts on Lambert’s coup d’etat in his Letter to a Friend concerning the Ruptures of the Commonwealth:  The Letter in the main against Lambert and in Defence of the Rump:  Its extraordinary practical Proposal of a Government by two Permanent Central Bodies:  The Proposal compared with the actual Administration by the Committee of Safety and the Wallingford-House Council of Officers:  Milton still nominally in the Latin Secretaryship:  Money Warrant of Oct. 25, 1659, relating to Milton, Marvell, and Eighty-four other Officials:  No Trace of actual Service by Milton for the new Committee of Safety:  His Meditations through the Treaty between the Wallingford-House Government and Monk in Scotland:  His Meditations through the Committee-Discussions as to the future Model of Government; His Interest in this as now the Paramount Question, and his Cognisance of the Models of Harrirgton and the Rota Club:  Whitlocke’s new Constitution disappointing to Milton:  Two more Letters to Oldenburg and Young Ranelagh:  Gossip from abroad in connection with these Letters:  Morns again, and the Council of French Protestants at Londun:  End of the Wallingford-House Interruption.—­Third Stage of ike Anarchy, or The Second Restoration of the Rump (Dec. 1659-Feb. 1659-60):—­Milton’s Despondency at this Period:  Abatement of his Faith in the Rump:  His Thoughts during the March of Monk from Scotland and after Monk’s Arrival in London:  His Study of Monk near at hand and Mistrust of the Omens:  His Interest for a while in the Question of the Preconstitution of the new Parliament promised by the Rump:  His Anxiety that it should be a Republican Parliament by mere Self-enlargement of the Rump:  His Preparation of a new Republican Pamphlet:  The Publication postponed by Monk’s sudden Defection from the Rump, the Roasting of the Rump in the City, and the Restoration of the Secluded Members to their places in the Parliament:  Milton’s Despondency complete.

CHAP.  II.  THIRD SECTION.  Milton through Monk’s Dictatorship:  Feb. 1659-60—­May 1660.—­First Edition of Milton’s Ready and Easy Way to Establish a Free Commonwealth:  Account of the Pamphlet, with Extracts:  Vehement Republicanism of the Pamphlet, with its Prophetic Warnings:  Peculiar Central Idea of the Pamphlet, viz. the Project of a Grand Council or Parliament to sit in Perpetuity, with a Council of State for its Executive:  Passages expounding this Idea:  Additional Suggestion of Local and County Councils or Committees:  Daring Peroration of the Pamphlet:  Milton’s Recapitulation of the Substance of it in a short Private Letter to Monk entitled Present Means and Brief Delineation of a Free Commonwealth:  Wide Circulation of Milton’s Pamphlet:  The Response by Monk and the Parliament of the Secluded Members in their Proceedings of the next fortnight:  Dissolution of the Parliament after Arrangements for its Successor:  Royalist Squib predicting Milton’s