164

HISTORY OP ENGLAND,

CHAP.

II.

virtuous when compared with some of those who, while they•talked about sweet experiences and comfortable scriptures,lived in the constant practice of fraud, rapacity, and secretdebauchery. The people, with a rashness which we mayjustly regret, but at which we cannot wonder, formed theirestimate of the whole body from these hypocrites. Thetheology, the manners, the dialect of the Puritan were thusassociated in the public mind with the darkest and meanestvices. As soon as the Restoration had made it safe to avowenmity to the party which had so long been predominant inthe state, a general outcry against Puritanism rose from everycorner of the kingdom, and was often swollen by the voicesof those very dissemblers whose villany had brought disgraceon the Puritan name.

Thus the two great parties, which, after a long contest,had for a moment concurred in restoring monarchy, were,both in politics and in religion, again opposed to each other.The great body of the nation leaned to the Royalists. Thecrimes of Strafford and Laud, the excesses of the StarChamber and of the High Commission, the great serviceswhich the Long Parliament had, during the first year of itsexistence, rendered to the state, had faded from the mindsof men. The execution of Charles the First, the sullentyranny of the Rump, the violence of the army, were re-membered with loathing; and the multitude was inclined tohold all who had withstood the late King responsible for hisdeath and for the subsequent disasters.

The House of Commons, having been elected while thePresbyterians were dominant, by no means represented thegeneral sense of the people, and showed a strong dispositionto check the intolerant loyalty of the Cavaliers. One member,who ventured to declare that all who had drawn the swordagainst Charles the First were as much traitors as those whocut off his head, was called to order, placed at the bar, and