Page:The Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets, Volume 1.djvu/176

166 Council; and next year gratified his malevolence to the clergy, by a Treatise of Civil Power in Ecclesiastical Cases, and the Means of removing Hirelings out of the Church.

Oliver was now dead; Richard was constrained to resign: the system of extemporary government, which had been held together only by force, naturally fell into fragments when that force was taken away; and Milton saw himself and his cause in equal danger. But he had still hope of doing something. He wrote letters, which Toland has published, and such men as he thought friends to the new commonwealth: and even in the year of the Restoration he bated no jot of heart or hope, but was fantistical enough to think that the nation, agitated as it was, might be settled by a pamphlet, called A ready and easy Way to establish a Free Commonwealth; which was, however, enough considered to be both seriously and ludicrously answered.

The obstinate enthusiasm of the commonwealthmen was very remarkable. When the King was apparently returning, Härrington, with a few associates as fanatical as himself, used to meet, with all the Rh