業 &*3*3*3*&*3*<&*3*&*3*&**& PREFACE. T HE great changes which the tranfactions of the present year have introduced in the political fyftem of Europe, and those still greater, which they seem capable of producing in their confequences, are matters of serious confideration to individuals as well as to ftates. It would not require a long fucceffion of fuch events, to caufe a total difarrangement of the European commercial, political, and even religious establishments. No equal portion of time, in the most rapid period of conqueft, has been fo fatal to public liberty, and the rights of mankind, as that which comprehends the overthrow of the conftitution, in thofe great and extenfive countries, of France, Sweden, and Poland. The breach that has been now made, in those compacts that unite ftates for their mutual benefit, eftablishes a most dangerous precedent; it deprives, in a great measure, every separate power power in Europe, of that fecurity which was founded in treaties, alliances, common intereft, and public faith. It seems to throw nations collectively into that state of nature, in which it has been fuppofed, that mankind feparately at one time fubfifted, when the fecurity of the individual depended fingly upon his own ftrength, and no refource was left when it failed. To delineate these matters in their proper colours, to defcribe their immediate nature and tendency, and point out their more remote confequences, would have required the greatest historical and political abilities. Unequal to the task, as we are in every degree, it will afford us much fatisfaction, if we are the means of preferving a memorial of events, which may be of use to the future hiftorian in his researches, and if our readers are of opinion, that however we have failed in the execution, we have not been deficient in pains and industry. THE THE ANNUAL REGISTER, For the YEAR YEAR 1772. THE HISTORY O F EURO PE. ROPE. CHAP. I. Revolution in the political fyftem of Europe. Ballance of power. In what refpect other states may probably be affected by the dismemberment of Poland. Germanic body. The two northern crowns. France. Maritime powers. Revolutions in Sweden and Denmark. Myfterious appearance of the nor→ thern politicks. Troubles in different parts of America. Infurrection of the flaves in the Dutch colony of Surinam. Infurrection in the Brazils. Infurrection on the coaft of Chili. T HE year of which we are now to treat, though it adds but little to the fplendour of hiftory, abounds with thofe materials which form the most serious and important parts of it. It prefents us with a revolution as unexpected as important, in that general fyftem of policy, and arrangement of power and dominion, which had VOL. XV. been for fome ages an object of unremitting attention, with most of the ftates of Europe. It fhews us the ruin of one great and ancient ftate, and an, almoft, unparalleled revolution in the internal government of another. While the statefman may here behold, the ineffi cacy of treaties, guaranties, and fanctions, the philofopher and ci[4] tizen |