THE Volume now presented to the Public embraces the period from the Battle of Edge-hill, in October 1642, to the Meeting of the Parliament begun at Westminster, April the 25th, 1660, commonly called the CONVENTION PARLIAMENT, which was sitting at the return of Charles the Second, in the month of May following, and which voted his RESTORATION. As the Materials from which it has been compiled are drawn from the same sources as those of the preceding Volumes, it is almost unnecessary to say any thing by way of addition to what is therein stated: but, as the Editors of the Parliamentary or Constitutional History of England, in 24 volumes 8vo, published in 1751, conclude their labours with the Restoration, it may be proper again to state, that that masterly performance has, thus far, been made the ground-work of the present undertaking. The many Narratives of Battles Sieges, &c. with which the work just mentioned abounds, and which serve only as an incumbrance to the Reader, and a constantly intervening obstacle to his researches, have been purposely omitted; while, at the same time, every thing connected with the real Proceedings of Parliament, and that could, by possibility, be hereafter useful to the Historian or the Politician, has been most cautiously retained. The Journals of both Houses, those great fountains of authentic information, have, in every instance, been carefully consulted and followed: Many Notes, illustrating, from the Historians of the Times, the Characters of the principal Members of both Houses, and explaining, where necessary, the business before them, have been introduced: And, to the whole is subjoined, by way of Appendix, a very scarce and curious Tract, published in the Year 1660, almost immediately after the Dissolution of the Long Parliament, entitled, "The MYSTERY OF THE "GOOD OLD CAUSE briefly unfolded, in a Catalogue of such Members "of the late Long Parliament, that held Places, both Civil and Military, 66 contrary to the Self-Denying Ordinance: Together with the Sums of "Money and Lands which they divided amongst themselves during their "Sitting."