ng order. The
country was divided into ten military governments, each with a
major-general at its head, who was empowered to disarm all Papists and
Royalists, and to arrest suspected persons. Funds for the support of
this military despotism were provided by an Ordinance of the Council of
State, which enacted that all who had at any time borne arms for the
king should pay every year a tenth part of their income, in spite of the
Act of Oblivion, as a fine for their royalist tendencies. The despotism
of the major-generals was seconded by the older expedients of tyranny.
The ejected clergy had been zealous in promoting the insurrection, and
they were forbidden in revenge to act as chaplains or as tutors. The
press was placed under a strict censorship. The payment of taxes levied
by the sole authority of the Protector was enforced by distraint; and
when a collector was sued in the courts for redress, the counsel for the
prosecution were sent to the Tower.

[Sidenote: Settlement of Scotland.]

If pardon indeed could ever be won for a tyranny, the wisdom and
grandeur with which he used the power he had usurped would win pardon
for the Protector. The greatest among the many great enterprises
undertaken by the Long Parliament had been the union of the three
Kingdoms: and that of Scotland with England had been brought about, at
the very end of its career, by the tact and vigour of Sir Harry Vane.
But its practical realization was left to Cromwell. In four months of
hard fighting General Monk brought the Highlands to a new tranquillity;
and the presence of an army of eight thousand men, backed by a line of
forts, kept the most restless of the clans in good order. The settlement
of the country was brought about by the temperance and sagacity of
Monk's successor, General Deane. No further interference with the
Presbyterian system was attempted beyond the suppression of the General
Assembly. But religious liberty was resolutely protected, and Deane
ventured even to interfere on behalf of the miserable victims whom
Scotch bigotry was torturing and burning on the charge of witchcraft.
Even steady Royalists acknowledged the justice of the Government and the
wonderful discipline of its troops. "We always reckon those eight years
of the usurpation," said Burnet afterwards, "a time of great peace and
prosperity."

[Sidenote: Settlement of Ireland.]

Sterner work had to be done before Ireland could be brought into real
union with its s