All authority
derived from any other source than the parliament of England was
abolished[a] by proclamation; the different sheriffs, and civil officers of
doubtful fidelity, were removed for others attached to the commonwealth; a
yearly tax of one hundred and thirty thousand pounds was imposed in lieu of
free quarters for the support of the army; and English judges, assisted by
three or four natives, were appointed to go the circuits, and to supersede
the courts of session.[3] It was with grief

[Footnote 1: Balfour, iv. 315. Heath, 304, 308, 310, 313. Whitelock, 514,
534, 543.]

[Footnote 2: Journals, Dec. 2, 1652.]

[Footnote 3: Ludlow, 345. Heath, 313, 326. Whitelock, 528, 542. Journals,
Nov. 19. Leicester's Journal, 129. The English judges were astonished at
the spirit of litigation and revenge which the Scots displayed during the
circuit. More than one thousand individuals were accused before them of
adultery, incest, and other offences, which they had been obliged to
confess in the kirk during the last twenty or thirty years. When no other
proof was brought, the charge was dismissed. In like manner sixty persons
were charged with witchcraft. These were also acquitted; for, though they
had confessed the offence, the confession had been drawn from them by
torture. It was usual to tie up the supposed witch by the thumbs, and to
whip her till she confessed; or to put the flame of a candle to the soles
of the feet, between the toes, or to parts of the head, or to make the
accused wear a shirt of hair steeped in vinegar &c.--See Whitelock, 543,
544, 545, 547, 548.]

[Sidenote a: A.D. 1651. Jan. 22.]

and shame that the Scots yielded to these innovations; though they were
attended with one redeeming benefit, the prevention of that anarchy and
bloodshed which must have followed, had the Cavaliers and Covenanters, with
forces nearly balanced, and passions equally excited, been left to wreck
their vengeance on each other. But they were soon threatened with what in
their eyes was a still greater evil. The parliament resolved to incorporate
the two countries into one commonwealth, without kingly government or the
aristocratical influence of a house of peers. This was thought to fill up
the measure of Scottish misery. There is a pride in the independence of his
country, of which even the peasant is conscious; but in this case not only
national but religious feelings were outraged. With the civil consequences
of an union