1772 may ever be sacrificed to the public interests; and that the ambition of no part of them should ever raise any such disturbances as might endanger the freedom and independency of the commonwealth."{ He was, in the mean-time, taking his preparatory steps with the most profound secrecy.-Thinking it unsafe to rely on the success of his machinations in the capital, he provided for a co-operation in the provinces: his brother, prince Charles, who was colonel of a regiment stationed in Schonen, one of the most important departments, made his commission a plea for repairing to that quarter. Prince Frederic Adolphus, under a simular pretence, was stationed in Smoland, about twenty miles from Stockholm. And it was contrived that the queen dowager, Louisa of Brandenburg, should be in Swedish Pomerania, on her return from a visit to her brother, his Prussian majesty. When the plan was ripe for execution, and the senate began to suspect their designs, prince Charles and Heilakius, an officer of the king's party at Christianstadt, began their operations, by making themselves master of that fortress with the magazines and arms, publishing a specious manifesto, complaining of the arbitrary conduct of the senate, and calling on the people to oppose an usurpation as injurious to the nation as it was to the sovereign. Then they dispatched a courier to inform his majesty of the state of things in that province. ‡-The senate, and secreta utshot, or secret committee, when informed of this revolt by colonel Rudbeck, who hastened from Schonen for that purpose, instantly prepared to subdue it. They also gave orders for the march of several regiments to Stockholm; requiring the king, at the same time, to recal his brother, prince Charles, whom they superseded by an officer of their own choice; and strengthening their interests, with the approbation of the diet, then convened. " h During these transactions of the senate, his majesty had been employed in secretly counterplotting them, by securing the guards, consisting of 2000 men, in his interests; and also four regiments formed by the merchants and other inhabitants of Stockholm. —On the day named for the meeting of the diet, Gustavus having ordered the guards to be drawn out before the palace, entered the hall of the assembly. Then placing himself on the throne throne, he addressed the dietines, amounting to 1700 persons, in a plausible harangue, displaying the evils, both public and private which had arisen from the present system of things; and, after commiserating the misery of those who suffered by the tyranny of an ambitious and intriguing aristocracy, under foreign influence, he concluded by laying a new constitution before the assembly. However averse many of the dietines might be to the subversion of a constitution to which they were attached by principle, or were interested in supporting, the present was not a time for resistance. The guards were at the door, and only waiting the king's commands to enter the hall, and enforce compliance. They were, therefore, constrained to give their sanction and signature to the instrument produced by his majesty; wherein the sovereign was effectually invested with absolute power by the ascendency which it gave him over the other members of the state: after which the diet was dismissed.'-Thus, for want of a party in the kingdom which had weight, spirit, and public virtue enough to replace the • monarchy on its proper basis by putting the people in possession of their due share of power, were the Swedes still destined to groan under oppression: and, after all the specious pretences of patriotic intentions which his majesty, with shameful hypocrisy, had made in the different stages of this revolution, they perceived, to their mortification, that they had only exchanged the tyranny of an aristocracy for that of a despot. 1772 RUSSIA AND TURKEY. NOTWITHSTANDING the victorious career of the Russian arms, Catharine had weighty reasons for being desirous of peace. War, carried on in so many different quarters brought an intolerable burthen on her revenue. And the loss of men by the sword, and by the mortality which the climate occasioned in her fleet, was rendered more grievous by the ravages which the plague made, this year, among her subjects.-Her enemy's prospects, on the other hand, were somewhat cheered by the circumstance of having men of talents at the head of the military and naval departments, and by the advantage which had already arisen from the labours of baron de Tott, whom the De la Croix. 1. 452. 1772 VOL. II. 1772 the sultan had employed as his chief engineer.-Thus situated respecting the war with the Porte, and being desirous to devote her attention to the affairs of Poland, the empress willingly concurred with the sultan's pacific disposition.-Negotiations for peace had been carried on for some time, under the mediation of the courts of Vienna and Berlin, without success. Some doubts were, indeed, entertained with respect to the sincerity of the mediators; some suspicion that, under cover of amity, they concealed a wish to keep the empress embroiled with the Porte, till their interested views in Poland should be accomplished: for these might be frustrated by a peace between the Russians and Turks; which would render Catharine less dependent on the support of his Prussian majesty and relieve her from her fears on the side of the Austrian court. We may, therefore, ascribe it rather to a mutual desire of peace in the belligerent powers, than to the exertions of the mediators, that an armistice was agreed on by general Romanzow and the grand vizier, Mousson Oglow, at the beginning of the campaign; † in consequence of which a congress was opened by count Gregory Orlof and Osman' Effendi, at Foczani.-Its success was defeated by the unreasonableness of the empress's requisitions; who, among other things, demanded an indemnification for the expences of the war. But even this did not discourage Mousson Oglow; who, although one of the bravest men and the ablest generals in the Turkish service, was led by patriotic motives to repeat his effort for the attainment of that much desired object. By his advice, in which general Romanzow readily concurred, the armistice was extended to the beginning of the ensuing year; and another congress was opened, between M. Obrescow and the Reis Effendi, at Bucharest, in the autumn. ‡ Thus did a whole campaign pass over without any warlike occurrences deserving of notice; and the belligerent powers only weakened each other by the expence of their armaments. But even this period of inaction brought an accession of strength to the empress, in a treaty now concluded with the new khan of the Crim Tartars. By this the Tartars, renouncing their subordination to the Ottoman empire, put themselves under the protection of Russia; and, in pursuance of it, they yielded to the empress the fortresses of Kertsch and Jenicala, which guarded the entrance of the peninsula, on condition of her restoring to them the conquests which her arms had had made in it.This event helped to destroy the balance of power between Russia and the Porte; while the partition of Poland had the same pernicious effect with regard to the powers of Europe. In the history of Catharine, attention to affairs of state which led to the most important revolutions was united with the intrigues of her court; and these together exhibit a striking portrait of her character. The ambition and enterprising spirit which acquired her the appellation of the northern Semiramis, far from superseding other passions, seemed to rival them in her breast. We have seen that count Gregory Orlof was nominated by his sovereign as her plenipotentiary at the first congress with the Turkish minister. By this appointment, which afforded the proud favourite an opportunity of indulging his taste for parade and splendour, he flattered himself that he should not only add lustre to his former honours, but that, should his negotiations succeed, it would so ingratiate him with the Russian nation as to smooth his way to the throne, which was the ultimate object of his ambition. His passion so blinded him that he did not see the precipice from which he was about to be hurled. nam qui nimios optabat honores, et nimias poscebat opes, numerosa parabat casus, et impulsæ præceps immane ruinæ. The empress's fondness for the count had ever been returned rather with the cold attention which a sense of her generous patronage commanded, than with the expressions of tender regard and affection which she wished to inspire. Yet there were powerful motives which induced her, for a long time, to repress her disgust; and Orlof maintained his station, till his rival, count Panin, was provided with the means of accomplishing his disgrace. That insidious courtier, knowing the grounds of Orlof's ascendency, did not hastily adopt any measures against him, lest he should fall a sacrifice to the attempt. But when he perceived the resentment which Catharine was endeavouring to conceal, he seized the opportunity which this presented to supplant him in her affections by introducing to her a young officer, named Vassiltschikof. a Tooke. 2. 94. Annual Register. 16. b Juv. Sat. 10. 107. 1772 1772 Vassiltschikof. And, that he might have more than one passion to assist him, he caused it to be signified to the empress that Orlof aspired to the sovereignty of Moldavia and Walachia, and meant to avail himself of the advantages which his appointment as plenipotentiary gave him to accomplish his views.c When the count was informed, at Foczani, of the success of Panin's intrigue, he gave way to all the warmth of his temper; and hastened from the place of congress with a perfect confidence that his presence would enable him to regain his former ascendency, and to revenge himself on his enemies. But he was now to experience the full effects of his presumption. Before he reached the capital, he received his sovereign's order by an officer on guard, not to enter the city. He then retired to one of his country seats; where he had the mortification to perceive that he was forsaken by all those who had paid court to him during his prosperity; that his rivals were triumphant; and that he was destined to breathe in solitude the sentiments of impotent resentment. Among the precautions which Catharine used to disarm her offended paramour, and disable him from revenging himself by means of his influence in the army, she sent to demand the demission of his employments: to which Orlof, haughty even in his fallen state, boldly refused compliance.-His enemies then hoped to be gratified with seeing more severe marks of their sovereign's displeasure. But Catharine, either moved by remaining affection and a sense of his services, or apprehensive of danger from so powerful a subject, chose rather to soften his resentment by marks of kindness.-On his consenting to retire from Petersburg, the empress settled on him a pension of 150,000 rubles and an estate which had on it six thousand peasants.-The count then took his departure from the scene of his grandeur; and travelling through various countries, he evinced, by his prodigious expence and the sumptuousness of his appearance, that he had been the favourite of the most bountiful as well as the most magnificent princess in the world.** POLAND. * "He appeared at Paris in a coat the buttons of which were large diamonds, and with a "sword which had its hilt set with diamonds. At the spa he quite eclipsed the duke de Chartres, "since known by the appellation of Egalité, and all the princes there, and played for such stakes as frightened the most intrepid gamesters."-Tooke's Catharine. 2. 90. 66 C Tooke. 2. 87. d Idem. 89. с Idem. 2. 90. |