PREFACE. IN the course of a somewhat minute investigation, continued for a good many years, of the records of English history during the 17th century, I found when I reached the period immediately succeeding the death of Charles I., that, while the printed sources of information were scanty, there existed in the State Paper Office a vast number of MSS. relating to the period of English history called, in the State Paper Office classification, "The Interregnum." Among others are the MS. volumes which contain the original minutes of all the proceedings of the Council of State as long as the government called the Commonwealth lasted. On a careful perusal of some of the volumes, and a more cursory examination of others, I resolved to attempt to write, by their aid, a history of England during the period extending from the death of Charles I. to the restoration of Charles II. Of this history I now offer to the public the first volume, bringing the narrative down to the battle of Dunbar towards the end of the 2nd year of the Interregnum, or of the Commonwealth, according to the prevalent, and, in my opinion, inaccurate designation of the government of England after the death of Charles I. b |