The House, having been constituted, entered at once on business, framing a Declaration for the public suitable for the occasion, and appointing several committees.

They set apart next day, Sunday the 8th, for special religious services, with a re-inauguration sermon by Dr.Owen.[1] [Footnote 1: Ludlow, 651-652; Commons Journals, May 7, 1659; Parl Hist.III.

1547-1550.] On Monday, May 9, the small new House had to re-encounter a difficulty which had troubled them somewhat at their first meeting on Saturday.

On that day, besides the forty-two members of the Rump who had answered the summons, there had come to the lobbies fourteen persons who had been members of the Long Parliament before it became the Rump, i.e.before that famous Pride's Purge of Dec.

6-7, 1648, which excluded 143 of the Presbyterians and other Royalists from their seats, and so converted the Long Parliament into the more compact body wanted for the King's Trial and the formation of the Republic (Vol.III.pp.