239 1660.] THE KING ENTERS LONDON. of that might through which the liberties of England had been won; through whose misdirection they were now imperilled. Charles went on in the sight of all London to Whitehall,-a wearisome procession, which lasted till nine at night, amidst streets strewed with flowers, past tapestried houses and wine-spouting fountains; with civic authorities wearing chains of gold, and nobles covered with embroidered velvets; trumpets braying, mobs huzzaing. In this delirium of joy there was something beyond the idle shouts of popular intoxication. It was the expression of the nation's opinion that the government of England had at length a solid foundation upon which peace and security, liberty and religion, might be established. NOTE. HIS MAJESTY'S DECLARATION FROM BREDA, TO ALL HIS LOVING SUBJECTS. C. R. CHARLES, by the Grace of God, King of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, &c. To all our loving subjects, of what degree or quality soever, greeting: If the general distraction and confusion which is spread over the whole kingdom, doth not awaken all men to a desire and longing that those wounds, which have so many years together been kept bleeding, may be bound up, all we can say will be to no purpose; however, after this long silence, we have thought it our duty to declare how much we desire to contribute thereunto; and that as we can never give over the hope, in good time, to obtain the possession of that right which God and nature hath made our due; so we do make it our daily suit to the Divine Providence, that he will, in compassion to us and our subjects, after so long misery and sufferings, remit, and put us into a quiet and peaceable possession of that our right, with as little blood and damage to our people as is possible; nor do we desire more to enjoy what is ours, than that all our subjects may enjoy what by law is theirs, by a full and entire administration of justice throughout the land, and by extending our mercy where it is wanted and deserved. And to the end that the fear of punishment may not engage any, conscious to themselves of what is past, to a perseverance in guilt for the future, by opposing the quiet and happiness of their country, in the Restoration both of king, peers, and people, to their just, ancient, and fundamental rights, we do, by these presents, declare, That we do grant a free and general Pardon, which we are ready, upon demand, to pass under our Great Seal of England, to all our subjects, of what degree or quality soever, who, within forty days after the publishing hereof, shall lay hold upon this our grace and favour, and shall, by any public act, declare their doing so, and that they return to the loyalty and obedience of good subjects; excepting only such persons as shall hereafter be excepted by parliament, those only to be excepted. Let all our subjects, how faulty soever, rely upon the word of a king, solemnly given by this present Declaration, That no crime whatsoever, committed against us or our royal father before the publication of this, shall ever rise in judgment, or be brought in question, against any of them, to the least endamagement of them, either in their lives, liberties, or estates, or (as far forth as lies in our power) so much as to the prejudice of their reputations, by any reproach or term of distinction from the rest of our best subjects; we desiring and ordaining, that henceforth all notes of discord, separation, and difference of parties be utterly abolished among all our subjects, whom we invite and conjure to a perfect union among themselves, under our protection, for the Resettlement of our just Rights and theirs, in a Free Parliament, by which, upon the word of a king, we will be advised. And because the passion and uncharitableness of the times have produced several opinions in Religion, by which men are engaged in parties and animosities against each other, (which, when they shall hereafter unite in a freedom of conversation, will be composed, or better understood) we do declare a Liberty to tender Consciences, and that no man shall be disquieted, or called in question, for differences of opinion in matters of Religion, which do not disturb the peace of the Kingdom; and that we shall be ready to consent to such an act of parliament as, upon mature deliberation, shall be offered to us, for the full granting that indulgence. -And because, in the continued distractions of so many years, and so many and great revolutions, many grants and purchases of estates have been made to, and by, many officers, soldiers, and others, who are now possessed of the same, and who may be liable to actions at law upon several titles, we are likewise willing that all such differences, and all things relating to such grants, sales, and purchases, shall be determined in parliament; which can best provide for the just satisfaction of all men who are concerned.-And we do further declare, That we will be ready to consent to any act or acts of parliament to the purposes aforesaid, and for the full satisfaction of all arrears due to the officers and soldiers of the army under the command of general Monk, and that they shall be received into our service upon as good pay and conditions as they now enjoy. Given under Our Sign Manual and Privy-Signet, at our Court at Breda, this 14th day of April, 1660, in the 12th year of our reign. Statutes again present materials for history-Long Parliament declared to be dissolvedTonnage and Poundage-Excise-Knight service and Purveyance abolished-The Army disbanded-Church Livings-Church Lands and Crown Lands-Act of IndemnityExceptions of the regicides, and of others-Executions-Insults to the dead-Episcopacy -King's Declaration - Convention Parliament dissolved - Anabaptist Insurrection Conferences at the Savoy-New Parliament-Marriage of the Duke of York-Prerogatives of the Crown-Corporation Act-Act of Uniformity. WE can once more open the ponderous "Statutes of the Realm," and therein find the most important materials for the history of the State and the history of the People. The last Statute of Charles I. bears the date of 1640. The first Statute of Charles II. bears the date of 1660. During these twenty years of Civil War, and of the Commonwealth, there were Ordinances and Acts of Parliament which had the force of Laws-many directed to temporary objects, but many, also, of permanent utility. Some of the Statutes of the Restored Monarchy were founded upon these,-often without the slightest reference to them. But occasionally, when a wise law of the Long Parliament, or of the Protectorate, had become an established principle, it recognised in a new Statute, in which it was called "a pretended Act." The royalist theory of the Constitution was, that there was no vitality in any legislative body not called into being by the Crown-that all laws were a dead letter that had not received the assent of the Crown. royalists maintained that from the 30th of January, 1649, Charles the Second was VOL. IV. IV. R The had been king de facto as well as king de jure; that although kept out of the exercise of his authority by traitors and rebels, he had been for twelve years the sole governor of England; that 1660 was the twelfth year of his reign, as the dates of Acts of Parliament, and of other instruments, set forth.* The Parliament of the Restoration, which was begun to be holden on the 25th of April, 1660-the Convention Parliament, as it is called—in their first Statute declared the Long Parliament to be dissolved, and enacted that the Lords and Commons then sitting at Westminster were the two Houses of Parliament "notwithstanding any want of the King's Majesty's Writ or Writs of Summons." They had recalled the legitimate heir of the Crown; but this their first Act virtually acknowledged that they had no constitutional power to do so. The next Parliament, which was duly summoned by the King's writ, always termed this Convention Parliament "the last Assembly;"‡ for the second Parliament was far more servile in its royalist fervour than the first; and many of its members regarded Charles Stuart simply as the heir who had come to take possession of his estate of England, together with five millions of people, his lawful chattels. In a few years this so-called loyalty put on more offensive shapes; and the people began to see that the old battle against arbitrary power had to be renewed, with the full benefit of a bitter experience. The Parliament of 1660, in the exuberance of its devotion, but not altogether unwisely, resolved to make such an ample provision for the executive power as should place it beyond the pretended necessity of raising money by unlawful means. They settled the yearly revenue of the Crown at an amount considerably beyond the supplies voted to Charles I., and they voted the subsidy of tonnage and poundage, for the term of the king's life.§ One stipulation, of great importance to the owners of landed property, was associated with this liberality of the Commons. When the king and the Parliament came to the fatal issue of Civil War in 1641, the feudal revenues of the Crown were necessarily set aside. There was an end to the ancient claims of the Crown upon tenures by Knight-Service, with all their oppressive conditions of fines for alienation, of forfeitures, and of wardship. There was an end, also, of the more generally obnoxious demands of purveyance. These relics of prerogative would have revived with the re-establishment of the monarchy. The Parliament made a bargain to relieve the landed proprietors; but this bargain was completed at the expense of the Com monalty. Charles surrendered the Court of Wards, and Purveyance, and "This had not been the usage of former times. Edward IV., Richard III., Henry VII., had dated their instruments either from their proclamation, or at least from some act of possession."-HALLAM. +12 Car. II. c. i. The reader is requested to correct an absurd typographical error in p. 236, where the Convention Parliament is printed Convocation Parliament. § 12 Car. II. c. 4. The duties of Tonnage and Poundage, or, as we now term them, Customs, as settled by the Schedule of Rates of Merchandise in this Statute, continued, with little variation, through the reigns of Charles II., James II., William III., and part of the reign of Anne. Reduced to one-half, they continued till George III. had reigned twenty-seven years. This Statute of the Convention Parliament was thus the foundation of that system of taxing at a separate rate the smallest as well as the largest article of merchandise-a system which embarrassed all com mercial operations almost up to the present day. In the Table of Rates of 1660, there are about fourteen hundred articles of import upon which there is a varying duty. Looking at the value of money at that time, the duties were enormous, and their effect in retarding all manufacturing and commercial progress for half a century cannot be over-estimated. 2 1660.] REVENUE OF THE CROWN 243 the Commons granted him and his successors the Excise of beer and other liquors, a tax first introduced during the Civil War. It was originally a temporary tax. The two great sources of modern revenue were thus placed absolutely in the king's hands. Charles was rendered more independent of Parliament for the ordinary expenditure of the Crown than his father, or grandfather, or Elizabeth, had been. No one seems to have dreaded that the money destined in great part for the proper dignity of the sovereign, and The Custom-House, London, as it appeared before the Great Fire. (From a Print by Hollar.) the due administration of all executive authority, was likely to be wasted in 12 Car. II. c. 24. + "Parl. Hist." vol. iv. p. 122. |