BEFORE THE RESTORATION.

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Commonwealth, and was in the highest state of efficiency. It CHAP -

had borne no part in the late revolutions, and had seen them-

with indignation resembling the indignation which the Romanlegions posted on the Danube and the Euphrates felt, whenthey learned that the empire had been put up to sale by thePraetorian Guards. It was intolerable that certain regimentsshould, merely because they happened to be quartered nearWestminster, take on themselves to make and unmake severalgovernments in the course of half a year. If it were fit thatthe state should be regulated by the soldiers, those soldierswho upheld the English ascendency on the north of the Tweedwere as well entitled to a voice as those who garrisoned theTower of London. There appears to have been less fanaticismamong the troops stationed in Scotland than in any other partof the army; and their general, George Monk, was himselfthe very opposite of a zfialot. He had, at the commencementof the civil war, borne arms for the King, had been madeprisoner by the Roundheads, had then accepted a commissionfrom the Parliament, and, with very slender pretensions tosaintship, had raised himself to high commands by his courageand professional skill. He had been an useful servant to boththe Protectors, had quietly acquiesced when the officers atWestminster pulled down Richard and restored the LongParliament, and would perhaps have acquiesced as quietly inthe second expulsion of the Long Parliament, if the pro-visional government had abstained from giving him cause ofoffence and apprehension. For his nature was cautious andsomewhat sluggish; nor was he at all disposed to hazard sureand moderate advantages for the chance of obtaining eventhe most splendid success. He seems to have been impelledto attack the new rulers of the Commonwealth less by the hopethat, if he overthrew them, he should become great, thanby the fear that, if he submitted to them, he should not evenbe secure. Whatever were his motives, he declared him-