CHAP. VIII.

CHARLES II.'S RESTORATION-HIS NEW ARRANGE MENTS, AND EJECTION OF THE OLIVERIANS.

AT the Restoration, such of the royal party as were then alive, who had been ejected from their offices, were reinstated; those put in by the Parliament ejected; and Charles the Second, Feb. 6, 1660, at the beginning of his reign, sent his royal injunction to the Vicechancellor and heads of the University. August 3, 1661, he, also, ordered, that Magdalen, Emmanuel, and Sidney Colleges, should be received into the Cycle for proctors, taxors, and scrutators: he also, in succession, sent various other orders relative to the government of the University, the degrees of bachelors of arts, opponencies in divinity, disorders in the Regent House, preachers wearing long hair and perukes, against preaching from book, with other particulars; and to the various queries sent by his command to the University, were returned answers expressive of a ready obedience, as agreed on, in a meeting of the Heads and Presidents, August 9, 1675.

In general, Charles enjoined, that the business of subscriptions should be resumed, and continue as it was in his father's and grandfather's reign. Among his new regulations were, that Lady Margaret's preachers' sermons should be dispensed with; and that, in conferring honorary degrees, knights and baronets should be con

sidered as nobles. Charles's last communication with the University related to penalties for not performing bachelor of arts exercise.

Agreeably to the order of things now established, the University experienced another change. Charles was not favourable to either the theological or political opinions of the Puritans, who, under him, therefore, became subject to deprivations similar to what the royal party had under the Parliament; they who would not subscribe, nor conform, were obliged to abandon their University preferments. I shall not discuss the merits of the case now: there were men on each side of great abilities, equally excelling in the learning which distinguished those times; and the presumption is, that most, on each side, who chose to abide by their principles, and relinquish their preferments, were men of some worth; and by very many on both sides the latter was preferred.

Whoever wishes to inform himself relative to the royal party ejected, may consult Wood's Athenæ Oxonienses, and Mr. Walker's Sufferings of the Clergy, together with the Querela Cantabrigiensis, published in 1647. Dr. Calamy's Abridgment of Mr. Baxter's History of his Life and Times, Mr. Pierce's Vindiciæ Nonconformistarum, together with Neal's History of the Puritans, unfold the principles and characters of such as were ejected under Charles the Second.

For my own part, in the progress of this work I shall pursue the same line of conduct as was pursued by the learned and candid Thomas Baker, who, in his MS. History of St. John's College, Cambridge, frequently alluded to in this work as being now in the British Museum, gives to the liberal and eminent of each party a due portion of his respect. Happily for myself, if not satisfactorily to bigots of any party, I undertake to plead the cause of liberty and literature, not of party-politics, and domineering, denouncing controversies. I am writing a history circumscribed within facts, in which but little room will be left for panegyrics, none for invectives.

CHAP. IX.

DISSENTIENTS.

HERE seems a proper stop for our history: for we are now come to that period, when our University settles in its present form, encircled with privileges and statutes; producible, like the English constitution, as it now exists; but, like that, fluctuating, and depending, as we have hitherto seen it, on public opinion, for what it may hereafter become.

But, though this may be a proper stop, it would be a bad stand. Our University history admits of more variety than can be detailed in limits so circumscribed, or than I shall attempt to introduce. Its economy has never been realized, and some of its statutes, in the very moment of their novelty, became obsolete. It has been said, that Archbishop Abbot's, Yield, and they will be pleased at last, was a great miscarriage; and that Archbishop Laud's, Resolve, for there is no end of yielding, was great policy. But be the policy as great as it may, old customs, like old laws, must yield to natural feeling and public sentiment. From whatever the mind revolts, there must be a falling off; it cannot settle, like that eternal truth which cleaves to our hearts; it must either sink into disuse, or become matter of unmeaning

form.

History possesses its quiet description of facts, its distinct periods, its regular round of story. These we look for, of course: we like information, and are pleased to hear of things as they are. But what gives interest to history is, that, which sometimes disturbs our repose; the bold projecting points, which fix the attention, and command our admiration; its divisions, dissentions, revolutions, and wars: as in the natural world, we may expect what is orderly; are pleased with the gliding stream, with the spacious meadow, with gardens that are decorated with flowers, and fields standing thick with corn. But then there's the burst of elements! -we gaze with wonder at the storm; and are carried out of ourselves by the earthquake and volcano, which bears away all around it.

In nothing is there more formality than in accounts of the establishment and routine of public institutions; and the discipline of a university is almost proverbial: I have aimed to keep in the right-on, regular track: but universities are concerned with that mighty microcosm, the little world, of man; and what unfolds ampler varieties, what displays greater energies, than the human mind? Hence it is, that literature, which has its private pursuits, its calm studies, its enthusiastic dreams, its philosophic repose, has, also, its public disputes, its bold innovations, its religious dissentions, and its oppositions to established authorities. And the circumstances which seem to interrupt its order, and to break in on its quiet, are frequently those, which, by letting in a little variety, and by giving it something of a secular cast, render it more acceptable to the world, and give a character to its history.

And even those who are wedded to the retirement of academical life, like the occasional bustle, the busy operations, and the more tumultuous proceedings, as

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