Chelsea Hospital and Its Traditions Author:George Robert Gleig Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: 38 THE COMMONWEALTH, CHAPTER III. textit{Containing matter not more dependant on tradition than on official documents, Perhaps there is no portion of En... more »glish history over which the general reader is less willing to linger than that which is included between the restoration of Charles the Second and the expulsion of his brother from the throne of these realms. Many periods may doubtless be found that are marked by darker crime,? many during which the amount of public suffering was greater. Such, indeed, from the beginning to the end, was the epoch of the first Charles, as well as of the anomalous constitution that succeeded the monarchy,?more especially after the farce of a commonwealth had been played to its last act, and ended, as similar experiments always must, in a despotism. But neither the domestic sorrows that over- AND THE RESTORATION. 39 shadowed the reign of Charles the First, nor the systematised hypocrisy and tyranny that ensued, excite in our minds, however faithfully described, the sense of deep?I had almost said of personal shame, which never fails to accompany a perusal of our country's annals while its destinies were yet swayed by the son of the royal martyr. For, whatever might be the mistakes committed by the martyr in the cabinet,?in the field, and on the scaffold, he commands our admiration; which is likewise given, without reserve, to the gallantry and disinterestedness of his followers ; while even of the regicides we think as of men, ambitious?it may be, cruel, turbulent, and unjust,?but bold in their conceptions, and high-minded in their very guilt. We may therefore shudder as we peruse the tale of wars waged and murders committed under the pretext of zeal for religion, or to promote civil liberty ; but there is no blush brought into our che...« less