Life and diary of Lieut. Col. J. Blackader

CHAP. XVIII. DOMESTIC SKETCHES. 449
these nations. We hear comfortable accounts from
all places of peace and quietness ; and that there ap-
pears not a dog to move his tongue against the Pro-
testant succession. This is the Lord's doings, and
wonderful in our eyes, as what we did not expect.
May the goodness of God lead us to repentance, else
he can soon turn our hopeful beginnings into a sad
end. He has many arrows in his quiver.
The intestine jealousies and divisions to which the
writer of the Diary slightly alludes, had risen at this
time to an almost unprecedented height. A very ge-
neral discontent had been engendered in Scotland, by
some late unpopular acts of the legislature ; and as
both parties were equally ready to put the worst con-
struction on the sentiments and actions of each other,
every measure was interpreted and regarded as bear-
ing directly upon the grand subject of alarm, the
Presbyterian religion, and the succession of the House
of Hanover. The minds of the people were exaspe-
rated at the toleration granted to Episcopacy, and the
permission to use the English Liturgy. This, with
the restoration of patronage, against which the coun-
try had always entertained an inveterate prejudice,
were looked upon as a pre-concerted scheme to over-
turn the whole establishment. Patrons, many of
whom were disaffected, were invested with their an-
cient rights, on purpose, as was supposed, to fill up
vacancies in the church with such presentees as were
favourable to the interests of the Pretender.
Another, and a more solid ground of discontent
was, the act obliging the Established Clergy to take
the oath of Abjuration, which, in some parts of it,
breathed a spirit directly at variance with Presbyte-
t3