BY

THE AUTHOR




PREFACE.

Historians have bestowed little attention to that important period in
our great commonwealth, just after the restoration in England. Though
one hundred years before liberty was actually obtained, the sleeping
goddess seemed to have opened her eyes on that occasion and yawned,
though she closed them the next moment for a sleep of a century longer.
Events produce such strange and lasting impressions on individuals as
well as on nations, that the historian may not be much out of the way,
who fancies that he sees in the reign of Cromwell the outgrowth of
republicanism, which culminated in the establishment of a free and
independent English-speaking people on the American continent. The two
principal classes of English colonists were the cavaliers and the
Puritans, though there were also Quakers, Catholics, and settlers of
other creeds. Generally the cavaliers were the "king's men," or
royalists, and the Puritans republicans. The different characteristics
of these two sects were quite marked. The Puritans were sober and
industrious, quiet, fanatically religious and strict, while the
cavaliers were polite, gallant, brave, good livers and quite fond of
display. They were nearly all of the Church of England, with rather
loose morals, fond of fox-hunting and gay society. During the time of
the Commonwealth of England, the Puritans were in power, and the king's