he doth most exquisitely handle." Crofton is often referred to in these letters. He was prosecuted for writing inflammatory books with comical titles, and being imprisoned in the Tower when the election was over, and before the Coronation took place, he petitioned His Majesty for release, that he might enjoy the approaching festival in liberty, as well as with loyalty. This bustling Divine, like many others, pleaded the sufferings he had endured for his attachment to Monarchy; and attempted to excuse certain inconsiderate expressions employed by him on matters beyond his sphere, on the ground that they were not written with an evil intention. [Sidenote: 1661.] [Sidenote: NEW PARLIAMENT.] The citizens, talking over the great folk-mote of the morning, retired to their wainscoted parlours in the evening, and putting pen to paper, wrote to their friends in the country. Some deplored the election of the fanatics. Some jubilantly proclaimed the Liberal triumph. What they said, however, mattered little. The letters never reached their destination.[187] They were pilfered at the post office. In vain people in the country waited for the arrival of the post-boy in those windy March days; in vain the Londoners expected answers to their epistles. Those time-stained, yellowish-looking sheets, of all shapes and sizes, and of varied and often puzzling caligraphy, are still safe in the Public Record Office. The object of the interception was to find out if there were anything treasonable in the correspondence; or to prevent Liberal citizens from influencing country constituences. Whether, if the letters had been delivered, they would have altered the results of the general election, may be doubted. At all events, the elections were in favour of the Royalists.[188] Government influence was employed. Corporations returning members had been purged of disaffected elements;[189] and no doubt manifold tricks were played. Nor can we believe they were confined to one side. But, independently of unconstitutional interference, there were causes which will account for the success of the Cavaliers. Many old Presbyterian and Independent politicians had become ineligible through political offences. The zeal of the nobility and of the Episcopalian clergy told powerfully in favour of old Royalists. Great in many boroughs and counties was the popularity of candidates who had fought at Edgehill, at Marston Moor, or at Naseby, under the banner of Charles I. [Sidenote: 1661.] [Sidenote: NEW PARLIAMENT.]