There were, it appears, 194 secluded members then alive, besides forty who had died since 1648.

If Monk was to do anything at all, was not Prynne's way the safest and most popular?
Practically, at all events, he could now see that the possible courses had reduced themselves to two,--( 1) The Rump's own way, or self-enlargement of the present House by new writs, issued with all Republican precautions; (2) The City's way, or Prynne's way, which proposed to re-insert the secluded members into the present House, so as to make it legally the Long Parliament over again, with its rights and engagements precisely as they had been at the time of the last negotiations with Charles I.in 1648.

For which of these two courses he should declare himself was the question Monk had to ponder.[1] [Footnote 1: Thomason Pamphlets, and Catalogue of the same; Wood's Ath.III.

870-871.] He nearly blundered.

The Rump, having him and his Army at hand, had become more firm in their determination to proceed in their own way.
On the 4th of February, the day after Monk's arrival, they resolved that the present House should be filled up to the number of 400 members in all for England and Wales, and that the returning constituencies should be as in 1653; and, having referred certain details to a Committee, they proceeded on subsequent days to settle some of the qualifications for voting or eligibility.