Life of Edward Earl of Clarendon, vol 2 | Page 4

was told, would do it for him. He gave an involuntary assent.
On April 22nd the dissolution took place, and Richard found himself
virtually deposed. For another year there was little but anarchy in
England, and any semblance of a constitution was virtually in
abeyance.
As the creature of the army, the old Rump Parliament was restored on
May 7th. That was the name given to that section of the Long
Parliament which sat from 1648 (when "Pride's Purge," as it was called,
was applied) to 1653, when Cromwell ejected the remaining members
and summarily closed the doors of Parliament. Of 213 members of the
Long Parliament only ninety were thus permitted to sit, and of these
only seventy actually did sit. Those who were not pronounced

Republicans were excluded by the rough-and- ready method of a
military guard placed at the door of the House. Such an assembly could
have no respect from the nation, and was clearly only an instrument by
which the Council of the Army might exercise its power. "The name of
the Protector was no longer heard but in derision." [Footnote: Richard
Cromwell submitted himself, with abject and craven weakness, to the
will of this so-called Parliament. Nor did his younger brother, Henry,
the Lieutenant of Ireland, prove to have any larger share of his father's
courage.] But nothing was established to take the place of the authority
thus cast aside.
Once more, and in even greater degree, the hopes of the Royalists were
cast down. The restoration of the House which had destroyed the
monarchy seemed, in the words of Hyde, "to pull up all the hopes of the
King by the roots." In this despair the Duke of York was ready, at the
persuasion of those about him, to accept from the King of Spain the
post of Admiral of his Fleet. It offered, what there seemed but little
likelihood of his otherwise obtaining, a place of dignity and a means of
livelihood. That it necessarily involved a profession of the Roman
Catholic religion was sufficient to condemn it in the eyes of Hyde, as at
once unprincipled and impolitic. With the Duke's immediate advisers
such considerations counted for nothing.
Backed by the visible force of the army, of which Lambert, now
restored to his commission, was the virtual leader, the Rump
Parliament showed a temporary vigour. All Cavaliers were banished
from London. Monk, who commanded in Scotland, accepted the
Parliament's authority. The fleet gave in its allegiance, and the relations
with foreign powers were for a brief period renewed under the altered
administration. The name of Parliament sufficed for a time to carry
conviction to the people at large that this was the only means of
preserving the Republican institutions which seemed to embody all that
they had fought for.
But the real popular support to this fantastic substitute for Government
was very small. All over the country discontent was widely spread, and
had penetrated deeply into the hearts of the people. The Royalists,

detached and ill-organized as they were, yet found themselves able to
show some boldness and to appeal more openly for armed support.
John Mordaunt, a brother of the Earl of Mordaunt, was daunted by no
difficulties, and was able without great danger to carry on
correspondence with probable adherents, to pass backwards and
forwards between the exiled Court and England, and to concoct armed
risings in various parts of the kingdom. The King took up his residence
incognito at Calais, in readiness to sail for England and put himself at
the head of the levies whose gathering was confidently hoped for. The
Duke of York was close at hand at Boulogne. To the more cautious
counsellors like Hyde the schemes seemed hazardous and the time
unripe for them. But even he could not refuse some response to
affections so warm and efforts so courageous as those of Mordaunt. At
the beginning of August all, it was hoped, would be ready for a series
of successful risings in different parts of the country.
There was indeed abundance of enthusiasm. From all parts of the
country offers of risings came. Sir George Booth was to seize Chester;
Lord Newport, Shrewsbury; and in Gloucestershire, Devonshire,
Herefordshire, Worcestershire, and North Wales, the Royalists were
only too eager for the work. The ludicrous weakness of the Parliament
made it a matter of no great danger to defy what could hardly be
deemed an existing Government. But the Royalists had been too long
depressed and deprived of any share in administration to take a just
measure of the difficulties. They reckoned without the army that was at
the back of Parliament.
They reckoned also without that treachery which had only too ample
opportunity to work, amidst plans and associates so scattered and so
lamentably disorganized, A