Life and diary of Lieut. Col. J. Blackader

4>54 LIFE OF COL. BLACKADER.
CHAPTER XIX.
REBELLION IN SCOTLAND, 1715—1716.
Preliminary Remarks— Extracts— General Assembly— Rumour of In-
vasion— Death of Louis XIV.— Preparations to repel the Invasion
— Colonel Blackader commands the Glasgow Regiment— Rebels
seize Leith- Fort— Battle of Sheriff-muir— Flight of the Pretender,
and suppression of the Rebellion.
This year has been rendered memorable in British
history, by the unsuccessful attempt of the Jacobites
to replace the young Pretender on the throne of his
father. Negotiations for his restoration had been se-
cretly carried on between the Courts of England and
St. Germains, for some time prior to the Rebellion.
During the Tory administration, in the last years of
Queen Anne, his interest was warmly espoused by the
ruling faction, and even the Queen herself privately
declared her inclination to take measures in his favour,
on condition of his abjuring the Catholic religion,
which was now become an insuperable barrier to the
British throne. Could he have been induced to make
this sacrifice, which every maxim of policy and pru-
dence urged him to make, his friends professed their