guard as a protection against their refentment.

We have frequently had occafion to obferve with regret, the unfriendly treatment which the English have for fome years met with, in the course of their commerce with this country; and which has been continually increafing, ever fince the defpotifm of the prefent minifter has been fully established. Great hopes had been formed at different times, upon the appointment of new minifters to that court, that they were endued with fuch powers, and would have purfued fuch measures, as by reinftating matters upon their natural bafis, and recurring to the spirit of the treaties fubfifting between the two nations, would have finally terminated all difputes, and have guarded effectually for the future, against thofe oppreffions and continued causes of complaint, under which the British merchants and factory had fo long laboured. The

public, befides being deeply inte refted, were the more fanguine in thefe expectations, as it feemed to require no great depth of argument, nor any very fpecious colouring, to convince the court of Portugal how conducive it was to its interest, and 'how neceffary even to its fafety, to cultivate the friendship of Great Britain, and to preferve inviolably thofe treaties, which had been founded upon the wifett policy, for the mutual benefit of both nations. Befides, no new claim was fet up, no right nor privilege demanded, but what had been established by mutual concurrence, and confirmed by the uninterrupted ufage of a long fucceffion of years and it could be eafily proved, that the advantages arifing from the alliance and friendship fubfifting between the two nations, were to the full as much in favour of Portugal as England.

HE new grand vizir Halil

camp near the Danube 'till the latter end of the year, though he had ufed the utmost expedition for that purpose, as the disorders committed by the Janizaries and other foldiers, became every day more alarming. The reftoring of any degree of order and fubordination, among fuch licentious and mutinous troops,

who had long indulged themselves

had already maffacred several of their principal officers, and were more difpofed to sheath their fwords in each others breafts, than to face an enemy, prefented fuch difficulties, as perhaps neither the courage, nor abilities of the vizir could have furmounted, if he had not taken the prudent precaution, of

being attended by fourfcore mules, loaded with gold and filver coin. A proper diftribution of this money, had however its effect, and enabled him, in fome degree, to bring about a reformation that was fo much wanted.

As the provinces of Moldavia and Walachia, were objects of the greatest importance to the Porte, the vizir determined, if poffible, to profit during the winter, of the diftance of General Romanzow's army, and however contrary to the genius of his troops, to triumph for once over the inclemency of the feafon. This project was the more capable of fuccefs, as the Turks were not only mafters of the Danube, but were still poffeffed of Ibrailow, and fome other fortreffes in Walachia. The defign was worthy of a commander, and if it fucceeded to its full extent, the vizir would have had the honour to have retrieved during the winter, the fatal miscarriages of Moldovangi Ali Pacha, and the campaign would again have been opened on the banks of the Niefter.

In confequence of this determination, the Ruffians, who were ftationed in the conquered provinces, found that neither the feafon, nor the fucceffes of the late campaign, were fufficient to procure them rest or fafety in their quarters. A continued and cruel war was carried on during the long enfuing winter and fpring, in which a number of fmall but bloody engagements were fought, of which we have but few particulars, and those that are given very imperfect, and contradictory in every circumftance of place, time, and event.

Upon the whole, thefe actions were not productive of any confe

quence of great moment; at the fame time that they were attended with the lofs of a great number of men, and the troops were harraffed and ruined on both fides. The Ruffians were in general fuccefsful in the field; which indeed may be concluded, as well from the fucceeding, as the preceding fortune and conduct of the war. Thus the grand vizir's design did not take place in its full extent, which was to drive the Ruffians beyond the Niefter, and make that river, fo far as the fortrefs of Choczim would admit, once more the line between the two armies at the opening of the campaign: it however fucceeded in part, and if every thing else had been equal between them, the confequences might have been very confiderable; having it in his power to throw fresh troops whenever he pleafed over the Danube, he not only removed the enemy totally from the borders of that river; but he by degrees fo ftreightened them in their quarters, and they were fo weakened by fatigue and the continued lofs of men, that he recovered the whole province of Walachia, and the lower part of Moldavia, and thereby opened the communication again by land, with Beffarabia and the Tartars.

In the mean time the country prefented a scene of the most dreadful defolation; every thing was deftroyed; fuch of the wretched inhabitants, as had not the fortune to escape to the neighbouring countries, naked and deftitute of every thing, became either flaves to the Tartars, or victims to the revenge and fury of the Turks. At length having compleated the reduction of the province, the Vizir appointed Monalechi, a Greek of great cou

rage

rage and ability, to be Hofpodar of it, in the room of Gregorio Giko, who was then at Petersburg, and was charged with betraying the country to the Ruffians. The Turkish revenge being alfo fated, it was too late confidered, that a country without inhabitants could be of little ufe to the poffeffor, and the vizir iffued an ineffectual proclamation, to affure the Greeks of protection, and to encourage the fugitives to return to their coun

try.

The Ruffian generals were not much more at ease, though in fervice of lefs danger, who were employed during the winter upon the long extended frontier of Poland and the Ukraine, than those who were ftationed in the Danubian provinces. Here the Tartars renewed their customary ravages, and though thefe incurfions were at tended with various fuccefs, and that they were fometimes feverely chaftifed, their route, whether victors or vanquished, is generally fatal to the inhabitants of the countries through which they pafs.

The Rufan troops difperfed in different parts of Poland, were as fully employed by the confederates, who feemed to increase in courage and boldness, if not in numbers, by their continued loffes. Thus the army under the command of general Romanzow on the banks of the Niefter, was the only part of the Ruffian forces, that could enjoy any reft during the winter, and that was exempt from the fatigues and dangers of the war.

Great preparations were made on both fides for the opening of the campaign; and the Porte feemed to train every nerve to retrieve its paft loffes. It was reported that

the grand vizir's army would have amounted to two hundred thousand men; and it is probable that if the Tartars are included as a part of it, and the different detachments taken in, it may not fall short of that number. It was however very fickly; malignant fevers of the most dangerous kind, which finally terminated in the plague, having through the whole courfe of the year made a dreadful havoc in it. The war in the Morea contributed to leffen its numbers confiderably, and its force much more, as the Albanians and Epirots, who were employed upon that fervice, are among the braveft foldiers in the Turkish empire.

We have feen no authentic lift of the Ruffian forces that were on actual fervice in this campaign. By the best accounts that have been published of the state of this empire, it appears that Ruffia cannot by any means fupport above 130,000 regular forces, for any confiderable length of time out of the country; and that the armies employed in her former wars, were generally much fhort of that number. As to the irregular troops, of which she can employ fuch amazing numbers, they are only of ufe in fuch wilds as are generally the fcene of their operations, and against such enemies as the Tartars; if they were to act against regular forces, and in an enclofed country, they would ruin their friends instead of their enemies. Whatever the numbers were, they were this campaign divided into many parts; the grand army was commanded by General Romanzow, another on the fide of Bender by Count Panin, General Proforowski advanced towards Oczacow, at the head of a confiderable body

of