THE INTERREGNUM.

Inn Fields and Covent Garden, -whose villa among the Surreyhills was described as a garden of Eden, whose banquets viedwith those of Kings, and whose judicious munificence, stillattested by numerous public monuments, had obtained forhim in the annals of the City a place second only to that ofGresham. In the Parliament which met at Oxford in 1681,Clayton had, as member for the capital, and at the requestof his constituents, moved for leave to bring in the Bill ofExclusion, and had been seconded by Lord Russell. In 1685the City, deprived of its franchises and governed by thecreatures of the court, had returned four Tory repre-sentatives. But the old charter had now been restored; andClayton had been again chosen by acclamation. * Nor mustJohn Birch be passed over. He had begun life as a carter,but had, in the civil wars, left his team, had turned soldier,had risen to the rank of Colonel in the army of the Common-wealth, had, in high fiscal offices, shown great talents forbusiness, had sate many years in Parliament, and, thoughretaining to the last the rough manners and plebeian dialectof his youth, had, by strong sense and mother wit, gainedthe ear of the Commons, and was regarded as a formidableopponent by the most accomplished debaters of his time.**These were the most conspicuous among the veterans whonow, after a long seclusion, returned to public life. Butthey were all speedily thrown into the shade by two youngerWhigs, who, on this great day, took their seats for the firsttime, who soon rose to the highest honours of the state, whoweathered together the fiercest storms of faction, and who,having been long and widely renowned as statesmen, asorators, and as munificent patrons of genius and learning,died, within a few months of each other, soon after the acces-sion of the House of Brunswick. These were Charles Mon-tague and John Somers.

One other name must be mentioned, a name then knownonly to a small circle of philosophers, but now pronounced

* Evelyn’s Diary, Sept. 26. 1612, Oct. 12. 1619, July 13. 1100; Sey-mour's Survey of London.

** Burnet, i. 388.; and Speaker Onslow’s note.