Marvell's first Parliament was both short and inglorious. One only of
its resolutions is worth quoting:--

"That a very considerable navy be forthwith provided, and put to sea
for the safety of the Commonwealth and the preservation of the trade
and commerce thereof."

It was, however, the army and not the navy that had to be reckoned
with--an army unpaid, angry, suspicious, and happily divided. I must not
trace the history of faction. There is no less exalted page in English
history since the days of Stephen. Monk is its fitting hero, and Charles
the Second its expensive saviour of society. The story how the
Restoration was engineered by General Monk, who, if vulgar, was adroit,
both on land and sea, is best told from Monk's point of view in the
concluding chapter of _Baker's Chronicle_ (Sir Roger de Coverley's
favourite Sunday reading), whilst that old-fashioned remnant, who still
love to read history for fun, may not object to be told that they will
find printed in the Report of the Leyborne-Popham Papers (_Historical
Manuscripts Commission_, 1899, p. 204) a _Narrative of the Restoration_,
by Mr. John Collins, the Chief Butler of the Inner Temple, proving in
great and highly diverting detail how this remarkable event was really
the work not so much of Monk as of the Chief Butler.

Richard Cromwell having slipped the collar, the officers assumed
command, as they were only too ready to do, and recalled the old,
dishonoured, but pertinacious Rump Parliament, which, though mustering
at first but forty-two members, at once began to talk and keep journals
as if nothing had happened since the day ten years before, when it was
sent about its business. Old Speaker Lenthall was routed out of