ness to accede to the line of policy projected by his majesty. And Frederic, who chose rather to deviate from the rules of justice than to suffer the two empresses to extend their dominions without such an acquisition of territory to himself as might keep him on a level with them, then expedited his plan of partition to the court of Petersburg. By this the king, to use his own words," Gave the empress a carte blanche, that she might choose, "according to her pleasure, that province in Poland which she thought proper to take possession of."d Such was the easy manner in which the division of that miserable country was brought forward by the Prussian monarch, which was carried into execution in the ensuing year; a transaction which no man can contemplate who has the feelings of pity for an oppressed people and an injured and afflicted monarch, or a regard for public justice and national rights, without exclaiming, "Where were the successors of those illustrious princes, states"men, and generals who harangued and fought in support of those rights, " and that balance of power, the preservation of which they deemed "essential to their own honour and the general welfare and liberties of Europe!" 1771 DENMARK. THE Danish kings continued to possess the same prerogatives to which they had been raised by the revolution which the government underwent in the last century. Yet, from a want of energy in the late king during the decline of strength in his last years, the nobles had made encroachments on the crown which were prejudicial to the power of his successor. This occasioned a struggle between the present king, a weak prince, who was a dupe to his favourites, and those ministers of his father's nomination who were grown old in power and confident from the long exercise of authority. Actuated by a desire to free himself from restraint, or stimulated by the counsels of his confidants, Christian now dismissed count Bernstorff and other ministers who had made themselves obnoxious to him, and · replaced d Mem. de Fred. II. 5. 65. Sheridan. 23. 1771 1771 replaced them with his favourites; who had an ascendant over him, whilst they appeared to be devoted to his will and to the interests of the crown. Among these were counts Struenzeé and Brandt, two Holstein adventurers, who owed their advancement to fortunate incidents and courtly accomplishments, not to any merit or attainments that could deservedly recommend them to state appointments. Men of agreeable manners and licentious morals easily gain an ascendency over a prince of a libertine disposition, who has not strength of understanding to penetrate their interested views, nor principles to guard him against their intended seduction. The prevalence of such men, under the auspices of such a monarch, could not, however, be expected to be of long continuance. They were carried in a few months to the highest honours, as if it were only to shew the futility of their claims to them, and to make their own disgrace, and their patron's want of judgment more conspicuous. b SWEDEN. 1771 / THE prince royal was at Paris when intelligence was brought him that his father, Frederic the First, had died suddenly,† and that the senate had caused him to be proclaimed by the name of GUSTAVUS THE THIRD. The young king did not set forward on his return to Sweden till he had settled his affairs with the French court respecting a large arrear due to him on account of his subsidy, and had negotiated a new treaty, which was intended by France to confirm its influence in Sweden, and by Gustavus to secure the assistance of that crown in the execution of his intended revolution. This was to remain a secret in his own breast: in the mean-time, in a declaration to the senate, sent from Paris, he solemnly assured that body that he would not only fulfil whatever the laws and constitution prescribed, conformably to the form of regency settled in 1720, but that he would look upon them as declared enemies to his person and kingdom, and as traitors to the country, who should seek to introduce again an unlimited authority, or what is called sovereignty." On February 12. † March 15. Idem. 87. b Ann. Reg. 1772. 72. On his arrival at Stockholm,|| he courted the affections of his people by his popular address; by a studious regard to whatever concerned the national welfare; by hearing the complaints of all who approached him with attention, and granting the deserving all the relief and redress in his power. The prepossession which this demeanour created in his favour was increased by his speech at the opening of the ensuing diet.† After adverting to some other matters, he thus proceeded in his harangue: "Born and "educated among you, I learned from my earliest youth to consider it as my greatest happiness to be a Swede, and as my greatest glory to be the * first citizen of a free country. All my desires will be fulfilled, if the reso"lutions you are going to pass contribute to the happiness, glory, and "independence of this nation: to see it prosperous is the first object of "my wishes, to govern it free and independent is the greatest object of my " ambition. Do not think, my dear Swedes, that these are empty pro❝fessions, belied, perhaps, by the secret motions of my heart: they are the "faithful expressions of what my heart feels; too upright not to be sincere, "too haughty to be ever false to its engagements.”—" Let this diet,” said he, "be distinguished in our annals by the sacrifice of every private view, "of all rancour and personal jealousy, to the public welfare. I shall, on my side, contribute to the utmost of my power to conciliate your "divided minds; to re-unite your hearts alienated from each other; that "this assembly may become, with the blessing of the Most High, the era "of permanent felicity to this kingdom."-The latter part of this specious address alludes to the two violent parties which divided the Swedish nation, distinguished by the appellation of hats and caps; the principles of one of which were professedly to extend the powers of the crown; those of the other to confine it within the limits prescribed by the capitulations which the Swedish king had been required to sign in conformity with the system. introduced in 1720: and it was evidently intended to pave the way to that revolution which Gustavus had in contemplation, by prepossessing the nation in general, and especially the advocates of freedom, in favour of their sovereign's political principles. 1771 RUSSIA. + June 25. May 30. b Annual Register. State Papers. 1772. : 1771 RUSSIA AND TURKEY. CATHARINE first opened her mind to prince Henry on the subject of the peace which his Prussian majesty and the emperor had undertaken to mediate between herself and the Porte, and made him acquainted with the conditions which she demanded of the sultan. These, as set forth in a letter to Frederic, were, "That the grand seignior should cede the two Cabardies " which compose the ancient Colchis, and also Asoph and its territory; the "sequestration of Moldavia and Walachia for twenty-five years, to compensate the expences of the war; the free navigation of the Euxine; an "island in the Archipelago, to serve as a depository for the trade of the two countries; a general amnesty for the Greeks who had embraced the "Russian cause; the independence of the khan of the Crimea; and the "immediate release of the Russian ambassador from the seven towers."". These terms were so exorbitant that it was with reluctance that Frederic communicated them to the Austrian court; knowing them to be as hostile to its interests as to those of the Porte. Agreeably with the king's apprehensions, such obstructions occurred as rendered the negotiation fruitless. In the mean-time, hostilities were carried on with renewed force in the different seats of war.-The conquest of the Crimea, a peninsula on the north side of the Euxine, had ever been deemed an object of great importance, not only on account of its natural fertility, but because it would give the empress an extensive coast on that sea and would cut her enemy off from his allies, the Crim Tartars. Therefore, as much difficulty and but little advantage could be expected to accrue from an active campaign on the Danube, and as it might provoke the German emperor to declare openly for the Turks whom he was secretly assisting, it was determined that Romanzow should act defensively in that quarter, whilst a vigorous attack should be made on the Crimea.-The peninsula is secured by strong lines across the Isthmus, five miles in extent, and by a ditch seventy-two feet wide and forty two а Memoires de Frederic II. 5. 56. two deep. These fortifications were guarded by an army of 50,000 Tartars and 7000 Turks. Yet prince Dolgorucki, who had succeeded Panin in his command, assailed them with such dauntless intrepidity, that the khan, Selim Guerai, after a resolute defence, was driven from them with great slaughter. After this, the prince reduced the fortress of Precop, and made himself master of the whole peninsula, with Caffa, the capital; from which the khan had escaped to Constantinople, where he died of grief." Active operations, mean-while, were begun by the seraskier, Mousson Oglou, on the Danube. In revenge of a predatory incursion made by general Weisman into Bulgaria, he crossed that river; and, laying siege to the fortress of Giurgewo, he, in three days, forced the commandant to capitulate. The Turks, after that, prepared for the recovery of Walachia; and, with that view, encamped an army of 30,000 men near its frontiers. They were in this position when general Essen attacked their intrenchments, || and was repulsed with the loss of 5000 men killed or disabled; after which he retired to Bucharest.-These successes, and the subsequent movements of the vizier, to establish himself on the Walachian side of the Danube, called forth all Romanzow's military talents; which were displayed with great effect by himself and his subordinate generals. Weisman, after forcing the Turkish intrenchments at Tulcza, attacked the vizier's camp at Babadagh, covered with a vast train of artillery; and, having defeated and routed him, he forced him to take refuge in the neighbouring mountains. 4-Nor did the successes of the Russian arms end here. General Essen, mortified by his late defeat, attacked Mousson Oglou near Bucharest, § and obtained so complete a victory that the seraskier was obliged to suffer Giurgewo to fall into his hands, and to retreat beyond the Danube.c When men reflect on the successes of the Russian fleet in the late year, on the powerful diversion which was made of the Turkish forces by the war in Moldavia and the Crimea, and on the extreme distress which the Ottoman empire suffered by the plague which raged at Constantinople, whilst several provinces were revolted from the sultan's dominion and had placed themselves under the banners of the rebel chieftain Ali Bey, they expected that another campaign, if not fatal to the Turkish empire, would have reduced its 1771 |