Burnet agrees with Kirkton. “We always reckon,” he says, “those eight years of usurpation a time of great peace and prosperity.” Defoe took special pains to make himself acquainted with the affairs of Scotland, and the information which he received was to the same effect. “Scotland flourished, justice had its uninterrupted course, trade increased, money plentifully flowed in.”[89] Cromwell himself, in 1658, gave a favourable account of the state of things, on which Carlyle’s comment is, “Scotland is prospering; has fair play and ready-money;--prospering though sulky.”[90] In England the Union, if not unpopular, was regarded with indifference. In the Protector’s “House of Lords” there were three Scotsmen, Lord Casselis, Sir William Lockhart, and Johnston of Warriston, the last of whom seems to have wearied the House with long and frequent speeches. In the House of Commons the members from Scotland gave no trouble, and are said, indeed, never to have opened their lips. The commercial advantages, however, which Scotland had secured by the Union caused great jealousy among the English merchants; and on the English side of the border the establishment of free trade between the countries was viewed with disfavour. But, on the whole, the broad current of English life flowed on, undisturbed by the existence of the Union. FOOTNOTES: [70] Act. Parl. Scot. VI. ii. 771. [71] _Letters and Journals_, iii. 174. [72] _Calendar of State Papers, Domestic_, 1651-52, p. 485. [73] _Calendar_, 1653-54, p. 12. [74] _Calendar_, 1653-54, p. 258. [75] Order of Council, Whitehall, 12th April 1654. [76] Order of Council, 27th June 1654. [77] Baillie’s _Letters and Journals_, iii. 289, 318, 357; Thurloe, _State Papers_, v. 366. [78] Act. Parl. Scot. VII. ii. 784. [79] _Letters and Journals_, iii. 315. [80] Report by Thomas Tucker upon the revenue of Excise and Customs in Scotland, 1656, in the _Scottish Burgh Society’s Miscellany_. [81] Act of Classes for purging the Judicatories and other Places of Public Trust. Act. Parl. Scot. VI. ii. 143. [82] _Letters and Journals_, iii. 225. [83] Orme’s _Life of Owen_, p. 128; Whitelocke, July 1650. [84] Letter to the Council of State, 25th September 1650. [85] _Letters and Journals_, iii. 291. [86] _Calendar of State Papers, Domestic_, 1659-1660, p. 35; Act. Parl. Scot. VI. ii. 587. [87] _Letters and Journals_, iii. 249, 288, 357, 360, 387.