Life and diary of Lieut. Col. J. Blackader

138 LIFE OF COL. BLACKADER. CHAP. VI.
began to make advances towards a peace, to which
the Princes of the Confederacy seemed equally dis-
posed. Accordingly the peace of Ryswick, which was
to suspend all hostilities in Europe, was concluded in
October this year, although, as it often happens, the
eeds of disco rd were planted in those very treaties
which were designed to secure the general tranquillity.
Thus ended one of the most ruinous and expensive
wars that this country had yet been engaged in. The
enormous levies had exhausted the public treasures, —
left the fields uncultivated for want of hands, and the
inhabitants in danger of starvation.* The military
operations of this period might have been passed over
in silence, but for the reasons mentioned in the be-
ginning of this chapter. The subsequent part of our
work, which is to be compiled from the Diary and
Letters of Colonel Blackader, will necessarily be of a
less general nature, and more restricted to his per-
sonal history.
* Burnet's History. Dalrymple's Memoirs, b. v. Ralph,