Note 505 — Chapter X · (continued 3)

The royalists began too soon with threatening speeches, which well nigh frustrated their object. Id. 721, 722, 727; Carte's Letters, 318; Thurloe, 887. One Dr. Griffith published a little book vindicating the late king in his war against the parliament, for which the ruling party were by no means ripe; and, having justified it before the council, was committed to the Gate-house early in April. Id. ibid. These imprudences occasioned the king's declaration from Breda. Somers Tracts, vi. 562. Another also was published, April 25, 1660, signed by several peers, knights, divines, etc., of the royalist party, disclaiming all private passions and resentments. Kennet's Register, 120; Clar. vii. 471. But these public professions were weak disguises, when belied by their current language. See Baxter, 217. Marchmont Needham, in a tract entitled, "Interest will not lye" (written in answer to an artful pamphlet ascribed to Fell, afterwards Bishop of Oxford, and reprinted in Maseres's Tracts, "The Interest of England stated"), endeavoured to alarm all other parties, especially the presbyterians, with representations of the violence they had to expect from that of the king. See Harris's Charles II. 268.