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Rh whigs, among whom the subject of this memoir was a most efficient leader, the accession of the new dynasty was to all appearance easy and peaceable, the bailed faction very soon rallied their forces and returned to the charge with an energy and a perseverance worthy of a better cause. The cry of "Church in danger" was again raised, and for some weeks England was one scene of universal riot. Many places of worship belonging to dissenters were thrown down, and in several places most atrocious murders were committed. Through the energy of the government, however, open insurrection was for awhile prevented, and tranquillity in some measure restored. Still the activity of the Pretender at foreign courts, and the restlessness of his adherents at home, created strong suspicions that an invasion on his behalf was intended, and every preparation that could be thought of was taken to defeat it. A number of new regiments were raised, officers of doubtful character were displaced, suspected persons taken into custody, and lords-lieutenant, with the necessary powers, every where appointed. In the meantime Scotland, where the friends of the exiled family were proportionally much more numerous than in England, was by a strange fatality neglected. In the southern and western shires, through the influence of the Hanoverian club, at the head of which was the earl of Buchan, the attention of the people had been awakened, and right feeling to a considerable extent excited ; yet even there Jacobitism was not a rare thing, and in the north, through the influence of the earl of Mar, it was altogether triumphant. That nobleman, indeed, had cajoled into his views almost all the clans, at the head of whom, to the amount, of twelve thousand mm, he had taken possession of Perth, and was ready to seize upon the fords of the Forth before the government had observed his manœuvres, or taken any proper precautions to counteract them. Sensible at last of the clanger, they proclaimed the law for encouraging loyalty in Scotland, summoned a long list of suspected persons to deliver themselves up to the public functionaries, and, to call forth those supplies of men and money which they had hitherto shown a disposition to forbid rather than to encourage, sent down the duke of Argyle, who had already been constituted commander-in-chief of the forces, with all the necessary powers for that purpose. His grace arrived in Edinburgh on the 14th of September, 1715, where his first care was to inspect the garrison, the fortifications, and the magazines, from the last of which he ordered thirty cart loads of arms and ammunition to be sent to Glasgow and Stirling for the use of the inhabitants. He then proceeded to review the army which had been assembled at Stirling, general Wightman having there formed a camp of all the disposable forces in Scotland, which fell short of two thousand men, a number altogether inadequate to the arduous duties they had to perform. The first care of his grace was, of course, to augment the forces by every possible means; for which end he wrote to the magistrates of Glasgow, and through them to all the well affected in the west of Scotland, to forward such troops as they might have in readiness without loss of time, and to have as many more provided against a sudden emergency as possible. Glasgow, which had been in expectation of such a catastrophe for a considerable time, immediately forwarded to Stirling upwards of seven hundred men well equipped, under the command of provost Aird, with whom they joined colonel John Blackadder, governor of Stirling castle. These seven hundred were instantly replaced at Glasgow by detachments from Kilmarnock, Irvine, Greenock, and Paisley, where, with the exception of detachments sent out to garrison the houses of Drummakill, Gartartan, and Cardross, they were allowed to remain for the convenience of provisions, which were rather scarce at Stirling. He also ordered levies to fill up every company in the regular regiments to fifty men, and to add two fresh companies to each regiment. But though he offered