HISTORY OF ENGLAND, FROM THE DESCENT OF JULIUS CÆSAR, TO THE TREATY of AIX LA CHAPELLE, 1748. Containing the TRANSACTIONS of One Thousand Eight Hundred and Three Years. By T. SMOLLETT, M. D. THE THIRD EDITION. VOLUME THE EIGΗΤΗ. Non tamen pigebit vel incondita ac rudi voce memoriam prioris servitutis, ac teftimonium præsentium bonorum compofuiffe. TACIT. Agricola. LONDON Printed for JAMES RIVINGTON and JAMES ELETCHER, as the MDCCLIX. auchSEP 3190 THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND. BOOK SEVEΝΤΗ. From the Restoration of CHARLES II. to C 1660, HARLES II. was in the thirtieth year A. C. of his age when he took possession of the throne with those advantages. He had taken pains Promotions in cultivating his understanding. He understood mechanics and ship-building; was well acquainted with the history and politics of the most remarkable states in Europe; he possessed a natural fund of humour and vivacity, together with the most infinuating address, and the power of pleasing in conversation. He was a latitudinarian in religion, careless, indolent, and extremely addicted to pleafure. The people, partly in imitation of the king's jovial disposition, and partly from the nature of the human mind, so apt to be hurried from one extreme to another, gave a loose to intemperance, and the whole kingdom was filled with riot and excess. The first object that ingrossed the attention of Charles after his restoration, was the choice of B 2 his Transfer from Circ. Dep |