CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE. 



was the passing of a bill of indemnity, by which 

 all persons concerned in the late popular move- 

 ments were pardoned, excepting a few who had 

 been prominently concerned in bringing the king 

 to the block. Harrison, Scrope, and a few other 

 regicides, were tried and executed ; and the 

 bodies of Cromwell, Ireton, and Bradshaw were 

 raised from the grave, and exhibited upon gibbets. 

 In Scotland, only three persons suffered the 

 Marquis of Argyll, Johnston of Warriston, and 

 Mr Guthrie, a clergyman : it was considered 

 remarkable, that the marquis had placed the 

 crown upon the king's head at Scone in the vear 

 1651. The parliament which called the king 

 home was constituted a legal one by his own 

 ratification of an act for that purpose. The Epis- 

 copal Church was established both in England 

 and Scotland, though not without about a third 

 of the clergy in both countries resigning their 

 charges. The stern and enthusiastic piety which 

 prevailed during the civil war, was now treated 

 with ridicule, and most of the people vied with 

 each other in profligacy of every description. 



Ireland, which, during the Protectorate, had 

 been managed by Henry, a younger son of Crom- 

 well, acceded to the Restoration with as much 

 readiness as any other part of the British do- 

 minions. An act' was passed for settling property, 

 by which the Catholics obtained some slight 

 benefits. 



Though Charles had been restored with the 

 approbation of a very large portion of his subjects, 

 his most zealous friends were the royalists and 

 Episcopalians ; hence he almost immediately sub- 

 sided into the character of a party ruler. He 

 caused several horse-regiments to be embodied 

 under the name of Life Guards, being chiefly com- 

 posed of royalist gentlemen upon whom a perfect 

 dependence could be placed ; and he afterwards 

 added two or three foot regiments, the whole 

 amounting to about five thousand men. The 

 king paid these troops chiefly out of the money 

 allowed for his own support, for parliament did 

 not sanction his keeping up such a force. This 

 was the commencement of a standing army in 

 England. 



A mere man of pleasure, Charles was not 

 qualified to retain the sincere respect of a people 

 whose habitual character is grave and virtuous. 

 His extravagant expenditure soon cooled the 

 affections of his parliament, and he began to find 

 difficulties in obtaining money. To relieve him- 

 self, he accepted ^40,000 from the French king 

 for Dunkirk, a French port which had been 

 acquired by CromwelL For the same purpose, he 

 married a Portuguese princess of the Catholic 

 religion, who possessed a dowry of half a million, 

 besides the fortress of Tangier in Africa, and the 

 island of Bombay in India. The former was 

 abandoned before the end of the year as worthless ; 

 while Bombay was, in a short time, made over to 

 the East India Company. He also commenced 

 (1664) a war against Holland, for apparently no 

 better reason than that, in applying the parlia- 

 mentary subsidies necessary for keeping up hostili- 

 ties, he might have an opportunity of converting 

 part of the money to his own personal use. 



This Dutch war was chiefly conducted by sea. 

 On the 3d of June 1665, an English fleet of 114 

 sail, under the command of the king's younger 

 brother, James, Duke of York, met and defeated 



150 



a Dutch one near Lowestoft ; and in subsequent 

 engagements the English were on the whole suc- 

 cessful. Owing, however, to a failure of the sup- 

 plies, the king was obliged to lay up his best 

 vessels, and to send only an inferior force to sea. 

 The Dutch took advantage of this occurrence 

 to sail up the Medway (June n, 1667), burn 

 twenty English vessels, and blockade the Thames. 

 This disgrace was much felt by the people, and 

 the king soon after concluded a peace. 



PLAGUE AND FIRE OF LONDON PERSECUTION 

 IN SCOTLAND. 



In the meantime, two extraordinary calamities 

 had befallen the metropolis. In the summer of 

 1665, London was visited by the Plague, which 

 swept off about 100,000 people, and did not ex- 

 perience any abatement till the approach of cold 

 weather. On this occasion, the city presented a 

 wide and heart-rending scene of misery and desola- 

 tion. Rows of houses stood tenantless, and open 

 to the winds ; and the chief thoroughfares were 

 overgrown with grass. Since 1665, tne Plague has 

 not again occurred in London, or in any other 

 part of the kingdom. The second calamity was a 

 conflagration, which commenced on the night of 

 Sunday, the 2d of September 1666, in Pudding 

 Lane, near Fish Street, in the eastern and more 

 crowded part of the city. Favoured by various 

 circumstances, the fire raged for three days, 

 and burnt all that part of the city which stretches 

 from the Tower to the Temple and Smithfield. 

 By this calamity, 13,200 houses and 89 churches, 

 covering in all 430 acres of ground, were destroyed. 

 It had one good effect in causing the streets to be 

 formed much wider than before, by which the city 

 was rendered more healthy. The column known 

 as the 'Monument' marks the spot near which 

 the fire originated. Among the buildings burnt 

 was Old St Paul's, which was replaced by the 

 existing structure, designed by Sir Christopher 

 Wren. 



In Scotland, the re-introduction of Episcopacy, 

 and the harshness of the measures required to 

 support it amongst an unwilling people, created 

 great dissatisfaction. Tired of suffering, a few 

 of the peasantry of Galloway rose in rebellion 

 (November 1666), and advancing through the dis- 

 affected districts of Ayrshire and Lanarkshire, 

 gradually assumed a threatening appearance. An 

 unfortunate movement towards Edinburgh, where 

 they expected accessions, thinned their numbers, 

 and they were overpowered by General Dalyell at 

 the Pentland Hills. Thirty-four of the prisoners 

 were executed as rebels, chiefly at the instigation 

 of Sharp, archbishop of St Andrews, who, with 

 the other prelates, was peculiarly zealous in behalf 

 of the government Besides these sufferers, fifty 

 persons, including fifteen clergymen, forfeited 

 lands and goods. 



Some attempts were now made, at the desire of 

 the king, to induce the ejected clergy to connect 

 themselves with the church ; but very few took 

 advantage of a leniency which they believed would 

 have been extended also to Catholics, and which 

 involved their acknowledgment of the king's 

 supremacy in spiritual affairs. About the year 

 1670, some divines began to hold conventicles in 

 secluded parts of the country, to which the 

 country people used to come with arms. At 



