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never enjoy quiet or freedom. At length he returned; and,without having a single week to look about him, to mix with -society, to note the changes which fourteen eventful years hadproduced in the national character and feelings, he was atonce set to rule the state. In such circumstances, a ministerof the greatest tact and docility would probably have falleninto serious errors. But tact and docility made no part of thecharacter of Clarendon. To him England was still the Eng-land of his youth; and he sternly frowned down every theoryand every practice which had sprung up during his own exile.Though he was far from meditating any attackpn the ancientand undoubted power of the House of Commons, he saw withextreme uneasiness the growth of that power. The royal pre-rogative, for which he had long suffered, and by which he hadat length been raised to wealth and dignity, was sacred in hiseyes. The Roundheads he regarded both with political andwith personal aversion. To the Anglican Church he hadalways been strongly attached, and had repeatedly, whereher interests were concerned, separated himself with regretfrom his dearest friends. His zeal for Episcopacy and for theBook of Common Prayer was now more ardent than ever, andwas mingled with a vindictive hatred of the Puritans, whichdid him little honour either as a statesman or as a Christian.

While the House of Commons which had recalled the royalfamily was sitting, it was impossible to effect the reestablish-ment of the old ecclesiastical system. Not only were theintentions of the court strictly concealed, but assuranceswhich quieted the minds of the moderate Presbyterians weregiven by the King in the most solemn manner. He had pro-mised, before his restoration, that he would grant liberty ofconscience to his subjects. He now repeated that promise,and added a promise to use his best endeavours for the pur-pose of effecting a compromise between the contending sects.He wished, he said, to see the spiritual jurisdiction divided

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