and two members were returned by the city of Edinburgh.  Between 1653 and 1655 Scotland was governed by parliamentary commissioners, and, from 1655 onwards, by a special council.  The Court of Session was abolished, and its place taken by a Commission of Justice.[90] The actual union dates from 1654, when it was ratified by the Supreme Council of the Commonwealth of England, but Scotland was under English rule from the battle of Worcester.  The wise policy of allowing freedom of trade, like the improvement in the administration of justice, failed to reconcile the Scots to the union, and, to the end, it required a military force to maintain the new government.

As Scotland had no share in the execution of Charles I, so it had none in the restoration of his son.  The “Committee of Estates”, which met after the 29th of May, was not lacking in loyalty.  All traces of the union were swept away, and the pressure of the new Navigation Act was severely felt in contrast to the freedom of trade that had been the great boon of the Commonwealth.  But worse evils were in store.  The “Covenanted monarch” was determined to restore Episcopacy in Scotland, and for this purpose he employed as a tool the notorious James Sharpe, who had been sent up to London to plead the cause of Presbytery with Monk.  Sharpe returned to Scotland in the spring of 1661 as Archbishop of St. Andrews.  Parliament met by royal authority and passed a General Act Rescissory, which rendered void all acts passed since 1638.  The episcopal form of church government was immediately established.  The Privy Council received enlarged powers, and was again completely subservient to the king.  The execution of Argyll atoned for the death of Montrose, in the eyes of Royalists, and two notable ecclesiastical politicians, Johnston of Warriston and James Guthrie, were also put to death.  An Indemnity Act was passed, but many men found that the king’s pardon had its price.  On October 1st, 1662, an act was passed ordering recusant ministers to leave their parishes, and the council improved on the English Five Mile Act, by ordering that no recusant minister should, on pain of treason, reside within twenty miles of his parish, within six miles of Edinburgh or any cathedral town, or within three miles of any royal burgh.  A Court of High Commission, which had been established by James VI in 1610, was again entrusted with all religious cases.  The effect of these harsh measures was to rouse the insurrections which are the most notable feature of the reign.  In 1666 the Covenanters were defeated at the battle of Pentland, or Rullion Green, and those who were suspected of a share in the rising were subjected to examination under torture, which now became one of the normal features of Charles’s brutal government.  Prisoners were hanged or sent as slaves to the plantations.  In 1669, an Indulgence was passed, permitting Presbyterian services under certain conditions, but in 1670, Parliament passed a Conventicle Act, making it a capital crime