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with the proceedings of the emprefs, and neither of them have the fmallest tendency to justify a conduct lefs veiled with even the fhadow of right than any proceeding with which almost any fovereign has dared to infult the world.

But Catharinoflaw, Taurica, and Caucafus, are not the only provinces that have lately vested in the emprefs. Befide them she has alfo acquired a footing in the Grecian province of Georgia. Georgia is feparated from the region of Caucafus by the inhabitants of fouthern Circaffia. But as thefe Tartars are only partly under the dominion of the Turks, and partly independent, they are scarcely to be confidered as a barrier between the Ruffians and the Georgians. The latter nation has always been governed by its own fovereigns, among whom two are particularly diftinguifhed, the czar of Imiretta, and Heraclius, czar of Cartalinia, in whofe dominions is the city of Teflis. These princes had originally done homage, the latter to the fophi of Perfia, and the former to the monarch of Conftantinople. Their allegiance, however, had long fat loofe upon them, and during the late war between the Turks and the Ruffians, they had occafionally entered into connection with the northern potentate. It appears, that foon after the Ruffians had taken poffeffion of Taurica, Heraclius, the feudatory of Perfia, formally recognifed the emprefs in the character of paramount; and about twelve months after this, in the autumn of 1784, he fent a perfon commiffioned to reprefent him, accompanied by his two fons, one of them deftined for the amy, the other for the church, to refide at the court of Pe*terfburgh.

The revolutions in this country

were not unaccompanied with bloodfhed. On the fourteenth of Octo. ber an engagement took place between Heraclius, affifted by a Ruf fian general, and the irregular mountaineers of Caucafus, profeffing themselves the partifans of the Porte, in which a prince of Hetle Rhinfields was found among the flain. About the fame time a fimilar engagement took place on the fide of the czar of Imiretta, in which he loft the eldest of his fons. This prince had hitherto maintained a kind of neutrality between Ruffia and Turkey, but, foured by his recent calamity, he now began to alienate himself from the court of Conftantinople. The reigning czar died about the conclufion of the year, and on the ninth of January, 1785, his fucceffor imitated the example of Heraclius, and acknowledged the fovereignty of the court of Petersburgh.

of

The lofs of Taurica and Cauca fus, and the hoftile connexions that were formed by the princes of Georgia, were not the only calamities experienced during this period by the Ottoman Porte. The whole empire feemed to exhibit convulfions that foreboded a fudden and calamitous termination. During the year 1784, Baffora was befieged, though unfuccefsfully, by the Perfian arms; the governors Nicofia in the ifland of Cyprus, and of Bagdad, were affaffinated by their tumultuous citizens; an alarming infurrection took place at Aleppo; and the valuable province of Egypt was exhausted by inte ftine divifions and civil war. In the mean time the Ottoman Porte was called upon, first by the emperor, and afterwards by the Spaniard, to reftrain the pillages of their nominal fubjects in the states of Barbary. Various feeble and

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remporifing negociations took place upon the fubject; but the Turkish administration feem at length to have found the means of bringing them to a favourable conclufion.

This administration was poffeffed of prudence, fagacity and wi.dom, worthy of a more aufpicious theatre. In the midst of threats and denunciations from their neigh bours, and of diforders of the most alarming nature within the confines of the empire, their attention was turned to various means of improving and reforming the manners, and giving energy and veneration to the powers of their country. The capitan pacha, or great admiral of Conftantinople, made a circuitous voyage of fome months, with a confiderable fquadron, in order to collect the contributions, and infufe 'awe into the inhabitants of the different provinces. Meanwhile Amed Halil, the grand vifier, inftituted a reform in the corps of janiflaries, and made an attempt, but an unfucccfsful one, to introduce the European difcipline into the Turkish army. At the fame time he exhibited the novelty of a publie prefs in the capital, and fome volumes of a general hiftory of the Ottoman empire already appeared. But thefe proceedings, though fage and judicious, were infufficient to fuccour the critical ftate of the monarchy he had to govern. The Turkish hauteur could ill brook difgrace and humiliation, and the ceilion of their valuable provinces ankled at their heart. They were unwilling to afcribe this to its real fource, the imbecility of the nation, and their ill humour difcovered itfelf in difcontent and murmurs against the adminiftration of the vi

fier.

From the emprefs of Ruffia we turn to her illuftrious ally. Re

fpecting the character of this prince the world has been much divided. Some have described him as a model of policy, fagacity, and liberal thinking; while others have reprefented him as little elfe than a compound of whim and caprice, fantaftic in his fentiments, and variable in his decitions. The tranf actions of the period we are to relate will probably fuffice to fix our idea of his public character. The conduct and progrefs of his claims upon the Turks and on the Schelde, and his negociation, lefs notorious, but more memorable, with the elector of Bavaria, afford the moth copious field for our inveftigation. We will relate them impartially, and endeavour to point out the philofophical refult of the whole.

Among the various imaginations that have been started upon the subject, it is difficult to decide upon the extent of the monarch's views, in the combination that he formed with the Ruffians, for the purpose of humbling the pride of the Turkish empire. They have been ftated as going to the extent of adding Moldavia and Walachia to his exifing dominions, and rendering the Danube the fouthern boundary of his provincès. And they have been exaggerated to the romantic length of expelling the Ottomans from the climates of Europe, and feating himself and his illurious coadjutor upon the throne of Conftantinople. All that has ever been authenticaily acknowledged to the public, has been a claim upon the Turkish Croatia, on the other fide of the Unna, and the town and fortrefs of New and Old Orfowa, together with the free navigation of the Danube from Semlin to the Black Sea. It is not more eafy to decide upon the queftion in refpect of policy than in regard to au

thentic

thentic information. On the one hand, it would feem a poor and illjudged ambition to defire to add wide and favage deferts to his dominions, at the very time that Hungary and Tr nfylvania, and the reft of the Ultra-Germanic provinces, rank fo extremely low in point of fertility and civilization, and are capable of fo unbounded improve ments. On the other hand, to confider the emperor as aiming at nothing of this fort, is it not to regard him as the mean and paffive inftrument for the aggrandizement of the Ruian empire, a tool in the hands of the Amazon of the North?

The characteristic of the Auftrian fovercig a feems to be a refilets and atiable activity. At the very time that he was muftering his cps under the walls of Effek and rade, while at the fame time he was executing the most extentive plats of evil and ecclefiaflical reform, he cherified in his mind the import t claims he had formed upon the Belgic republic, and took fever: 1 teps in order to their being reduced into practice. To add to the complication and fingularity of his fituation, he fet out from Vienia towards the clife of the year, and made a tour of three or four months through the states of Italy. It was at this very time that the treaty was negociated that gave the czarina fo extenfive an accellion of dominion, and that about fix weeks atter, on the twenty-fourth of February, the Porte confented to add a tipulation for the free navigation of the Danube, as a fupplement to the treaty of Paffarowitz. The question, however, refpecting the demarcation of the limits, was drawn out into extreme length; and it is fcarcely to be doubted that the cmperor ffered the favourable mo

ment to escape him, in which he might have advanced and been indulged in the largest pretenfions.

It was the fuccefs which the Auftrian monarch had experienced in the year 1781, refpecting the demolition of the Dutch barrier, that encouraged him to look into the farther pretenfions he might form upon his mercantile neighbours. Without fpecifying a fingle claim of this fort, in the autumn of the year 1783 he demanded of the republic the appointment of a commiflion to meet at Bruffels, for the accurate afcertaining the boundaries of the Dutch and Auftrian Netherlands. While this demand was under the deliberation of the states, on the fourth of November a fmali detachment of Auftrian troops fuddenly advanced upon the territories of the republic. One party proceeded to Fort Saint Donat, where, they arrived at four o'clock in the morning, and immediately difpoffeffed the garrifon of the ftates, confifting of the fort-major, a corporal, a vice-corporal, and four priVates. At the fame time a fecond detachment arrived at Fort Saint Paul, and made themfelves mafters of it, fuffering a corporal, with his guard of two men, to retire to the garrifon of Sluys, in the vicinity of which were thefe fubordinate redoubts.

It were needlefs to enumerate all the memorials and counter memorials which paffed between the emperor and the Dutch during this period. Previoufly to the furprize of the forts we have mentioned, the Auftrian government had made a formal complaint refpecting the violation of the burying-ground of the village of Docl, and an infringement upon a claim of fifhing in a brook of that neighbourhood. At the time of the feifure of Saint

Donat,

Donat, a party of half a dozen Dutch recruits were arrefled by order of the emperor, and a formal demand was made of a free navigation beyond fort Lillo, as far as the land of Saftingen, fome miles up the Schelde. It was accordingly infifted, that the guardfhip, which had ufually been ftationed at fort Lillo, fhould be immediately withdrawn, as a preliminary to the enfuing conferences.

It is fcarcely to be imagined that the attention of a great monarch, howeyer minute and accurate its investigations might be fuppofed, could really have refted, and fixed an abfolute importance upon fo petty tranfactions.

In the mean

time it is not eafy to decide whether this momentary face of things were intended by the Auftrian monarch to delude the Dutch into a falfe fecurity, or whether his conduct is to be afcribed to the uncertainty in which he felt himfelf refpecting the grand object of his claims. The town and district of Maeftricht feem to have conflituted an object, which was regarded with fingular complacence by the emperor. At the fame time we cannot conceive that leading and comprehenfive confideration, which at this time filled the mouth of every coffee-houfe politician, could pafs unnoticed in the mind of the emperor. The opening of the Schelde towards the fea, might involve confequences in its operation, difficult to calculate, undefinable in their duration, but full of the most ineftimable benefits to the Auftrian poffeflions. What Tyre and Alex andria were in the commerce of ancient history, fuch were Venice and Antwerp about three centuries ago in the hiftory of modern Eu. rope. Though the commerce of Antwerp had been loft, its wealth

had been preferved and accumulated. Nor was the importance of this object a more obvious confideration than the appeal which the claim would make to the common fenfe and the principles of natural right inherent in the human mind. The noble ftream of the Schelde was a benefit which the great creator had beflowed upon the people of Antwerp. To demand and to refume his benefits could never be unjuft. They fuperfeded all confiderations of local policy and all the conceffions of momentary adverfity. The Schelde was a poffetion which could no more be fold or alienated by the people of Antwerp or their lord paramount, than their liberty or their lives.

No period could have been more favourable to the emperor's claims. The Dutch had but juft emerged from a most unfortunate war, and were torn and distracted by all the mifery of civil diffenfion. The late war had involved fome of the greatest powers in Europe, particularly France; and having obtaineda period of tranquillity they were little difpofed to engage in fresh hoftilities. The prefent period was even more aufpicious than that in which the war had been at its greatest height, fince, as it has been well obferved, it is lefs eafy to put a body in a state of reft into a ftate of motion, than to give a new direction to that motion that already exifts. As if providence had fought on the fide of the em→ peror, the archbishop elector of Cologne, bifhop of Munster, died a few days before, and the prince bifhop of Liege, a few days after the commencement of the confer ences of Bruffels, one on the fifteenth the other on the thirtieth day of April. Maximilian, third brother to the emperor, had been elected condjutor

coadjutor to the archbishop of Cologne a few years before, and entered upon the fucceffion immediately on the death of his principal. The fame prince had been mentioned as a candidate for the bishoprick of Liege. This however would have been too barefaced an engroffment of power on the part of the Auftrian, and accordingly, on the twenty-firft of July, the count of Hoenforoech, who was faid to be in habits of dependence upon the emperor, was appointed to that fec.

In a fituation fo favourable to his claims, the emperor did not however, advance the pretenfion, which had long fixed the expectations of Europe, and which perhaps was the only one qualified confiderably to meliorate his dominions, or was worthy the attention of a great prince. The lift of his demands was delivered in to the plenipotentiaries at Bruffels, on the fourth of May, and related chiefly to certain extenfions of the limits on the fide of Antwerp, of Breda, and of Bois le duc. The forts of Lillo and of Liefkenfhoek were to be brought within narrower bounds and thofe of Kruickshank and Frederic Henry, to be entirely demolifhed. The inland navigation of the Schelde was demanded beyond Lillo, as far as the land of Saftingen. Requifitions were made of various fmall fums of money, declared to be debts on the part of the republic, contracted from the beginning to the middle of the prefent century. The claim of the greateft importance feems to have been that upon the town of Maeftricht and the territory of Outre Meufe, a country disjoined from the reft of the Dutch poffeffions on the fide of Flanders. The claims of the emperor were little relished on the

part of the republic, and the states were extremely urgent to obtain the mediation of the court of Verfailles.

No fituation could bear a more inaufpicious afpect, upon the commencement of hoftilities against a great and powerful prince than that of the Dutch goverment. From the commencement of the war with Great Britain, their internal affairs had exhibited nothing but one continued fcene of difcord, controverfy, and confufion. That war had originally been brought on by the measures of the ariftocratical party, and had never been acceptable to the mafs of the people. On the other hand, the conduct of the war had been fpiritlefs, injudicious, and unfuccefsful; and the odium of the mifcarriage was laborioufly thrown by the ftates on the prince of Orange and his minifters. A contest had long fubfifted between the aristocratical party and Louis, prince of Brunfwic, the firft military fervant of the republic, exclufive of the fladtholder. To prince Louis of Brunfwic, Great Britain had originally offered the command of her armies in Germany during the laft continental war; and it was only upon his declining the propofal, that the command was conferred upon prince Ferdinand, his younger brother. He had been appointed governor of the reigning prince of Orange during his minority, and was fuppofed to have a confiderable influence over the mind of his pupil. To him many of the mifcarriages of the war of 1780 were publicly imputed.

One affair in particular, drew a very general and ferious attention. A fleet had been appointed, under the command of admiral count Byland, to join the allied fleet of

France

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