THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND, FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES то THE DEATH OF GEORGE II. liver BY DR. GOLDSMITH. VOLUME III. THE EIGHTH EDITION, CORRECTED. LONDON: Printed for G. G. & J. ROBINSON; W. J. & J. RICHARDSON; & O. REES; T. CADELL, Jun. & BERY. 1800. English Thork 12-20-22 13897 Hall Joul CHAP. XXXIII. THE COMMONWEALTH. CROMWELL, who had secretly solicited A.D. 1649. VOL III. mons mons voted that the house of lords was useless and dangerous, and therefore was to be abolished. They voted it high-treason to acknowledge Charles Stuart, son of the late king, as successor to the throne. A great seal was made, on one side of which were engraven the arms of England and Ireland, which this inscription: "The great seal of England." On the reverse was represented the house of commons sitting, with this motto: "On the first year of freedom, by God's blessing restored, 1648." The forms of all public business were changed from the king's name to that of the keepers of the liberties of England. σε The next day they proceeded to try those gallant men, whose attachment to their late sovereign had been the most remarkable. The duke of Hamilton and lord Capel were condemned and executed; the earl of Holland lost his life by a like sentence; the earl of Norwich and sir John Owen were condemned, but afterwards pardoned by the commons. The Scots, who had in the beginning shown themselves so averse to the royal family, and having, by a long train of successes, totally suppressed all insurrections in its favour, now first began to relent from their various persecutions. Their loyalty began to return; and the insolence of the independents, with their victories, served to inflame them still more. The execution of their favourite duke Hamilton also, who was put to death not only contrary to the laws of war, but of nations, was no small vexation; they therefore determined determined to acknowledge prince Charles for their king. But their love of liberty was still predominant, and seemed to combat with their manifold resentments. At the same time time that they resolved upon raising him to the throne, they abridged his power with every limitation which they had attempted to impose on their late sovereign. Charles, after the death of his father, having passed some time at Paris, and finding no likelihood of assistance from that quarter, was glad to accept of any conditions. He possessed neither the virtues nor the constancy of his father; and being attached to no religion as yet, he agreed to all their proposals, being satisfied with even the formalities of royalty. It is remarkable, that while the Scots were thus inviting their king over, they were, nevertheless, cruelly punishing those who had adhered to his cause. Among others, the earl of Montrose, one of the bravest, politest, and most finished characters of that age, was taken prisoner, as he endeavoured to raise the Highlanders in the royal cause; and being brought to Edinburgh, was hanged on a gibbet thirty feet high, then quartered, and his limbs stuck up in the principal towns of the kingdom. Yet, notwithstanding all this severity to his followers, Charles ventured into Scotland, and had the mortification to enter the gate of Edinburgh, where the limbs of that faithful adherent were still exposed. Being now entirely at the mercy of the gloomy and austere zealots who had been the cause of his father's misfortunes, he soon found that he had only exchanged exile for imprisonment. He was surrounded and incessantly importuned by the fanatical clergy, who obtruded their religious instructions, and obliged him to listen to long sermons, in which they seldom failed to stigmatise the late king as a tyrant, to accuse |