XIII. 1774. affairs. CHAP. XIII. Continental affairs.—Progress and conclusion of the war between Russia and Turkey-terms of peace-motives of Catharine. Poland. Views of Prussia and Austria. - France. - Death of Louis XV. - character, - tool of his favourites, he did not discern the commencing changes of public opinion.-Promising beginnings of Louis XVI.-Spain deprives the inquisition of its most terrible powers.-America.-Effects of the Boston port bill—ferment through the provinces-communicates to other colonies.-Resolutions of the provincial assemblies-general concert proposed-solemn league and covenant.—A general congress meets at Philadelphia-approves of the conduct of Massachusets, and promises support-declares principles and objects of association. -Declaration of rights-of grievances and proposed redress. -Petition to the king.— Address to the people of Britain. -Of Canada.-Remonstrance to general Gage.-Address to the colonies. Meeting breaks up.- General spirit of the colonial proceedings.-Military preparations.-Massachusets Bay the great hinge of peace and war-contention with the governor-forms a provincial congress, which assumes the supreme power. CHA P. IN continental Europe, the Russians and Turks still continuing their bloody war, occupied the chief attention of their neighbours. Vigorous preContinental parations were made on both sides; Catharine, from the superiority which she had manifested during the greater part of the war, expected that success must ultimately attend her armies when powerfully reinforced; while the Turks, elated with the advantage of the preceding campaign, and farther encouraged by the success of the rebellion in the eastern and southern provinces of Russia under Pugatcheff, hoped by military exertions to regain what they had lost. The Porte excited the Tartars to join the Rus XIII. conclusion Russia and sian rebels, in order to increase the disturbances of c H A P. Russia on that side, while the Turkish force should be concentrated against their main army on the Da- 1774. nube. In the beginning of this year, the death of Progress and the emperor Mustapha produced a change in the of the war disposition and conduct of the army. Considering between his son Selim, then in the thirteenth year of his Turkey. age, as too young to sustain the reins of government in so critical a situation of affairs, he appointed his brother Abdulhamet to succeed him on the throne. Some of the Janizaries were dissatisfied with the succession of the late sultan's brother, wishing Selim to be placed immediately on his father's throne; and, as these troops influenced the whole Turkish army, their dissensions created parties among the rest of the forces. A very great army, however, was levied, consisting (when they arrived at the Danube) of two hundred thousand men. Marshal Romanzow was posted on the other side of the river with about eighty thousand soldiers. After a considerable opposition, Romanzow crossed the river, and Bulgaria again became the scene of war. A severe engagement took place between general Satioff at the head of a detachment of Russians, and a body of Turks, in which the former with much difficulty kept the field. On the 20th of June, generals Kaminshi and Suwarrow encountered the Reis Effendi, who was at the head of forty thousand men; but both the cavalry and infantry of the Turks deserted their colours and camp, without striking a blow. From this time the Ottomans were in every quarter seized with a dismay that made them absolutely refuse to face the enemy; and, in fine, they mutinied against their own leaders. They plundered the baggage, robbed and murdered their officers, disbanded themselves, and pillaged their own country all the way to Constantinople. The grand camp under the vizier was deserted, and his immense army crumbled away to an inconsiderable number. XIII. 1774. Terms of peace. CHA P. number. Marshal Romanzoff, not failing to take advantage of this dreadful situation of the enemy, cut off all communication between them, their magazines, and the capital. The Turkish leaders had now no alternative, but to sue for peace on such terms as the conqueror should dictate. The conditions were, the cession of Asoph, Kinbrun, and Janikala, to the Russians; the free navigation of the Propontis, Euxine, and Archipelago; the independence of the Crimea; and the sum of 4,500,000 rubles, as an indemnification for the expence of the war. So moderate were these terms, that they were little more than what Russia had demanded while the Turkish armies were entire. Did we consider Russia merely in relation to her enemy, we might be surprised that she did not impose harder conditions on a foe that had given her great disturbance, had actually been the aggressor, and was now at her mercy; but, on viewing her situation, both internally and relatively to other powers, we must be convinced that she was guided by sound policy. There were two powerful parties at the court of Petersburg, one headed by count Panin, and the other by count Orloff: the former had recommended peace on moderate terms; the latter the continuance of the war, unless the enemy yielded to the Motives of conditions which Russia chose to dictate. CathaCatharine. rine, who found it her interest to observe a neutrality between the two parties, both of which she knew to be zealously attached to her own government, had now an opportunity of gratifying them both; the one by concluding peace, the other by imposing the terms. The rebel Pugatcheff, a man of great abilities, intrepid courage, and rapid enterprize, was becoming daily more formidable. Her treasure was nearly exhausted by the expences of the war, and the improvement of her extensive do * At 4s. 6d. minions XIII. 1774. minions was greatly interrupted. The Poles were CHA P. in many places in a state of insurrection, especially in her part of the divided territories; and combina tions were forming for a more general assertion of Poland. their rights. Austria, although she agreed in the Austria. partition of Poland, was not by her recent share of spoils lulled to a forgetfulness of the dangers which might accrue to her from her partners in the plunder. She still regarded with the most vigilant jea lousy the progress of the Russian arms so near her frontiers. The king of Prussia himself, closely con- Prussia nected as he was with the Czarina, by no means desired her aggrandizement where he could not come in for a share of the accession. The more southern powers she well knew to be very much inclined to oppose her and her advances; her ally, Great Britain, was fully occupied with her own internal and colonial affairs. For all these reasons, it was the interest of Catharine to conclude a peace on the terms which she proposed; and she soon reaped the advantage of her policy, by being enabled to vanquish the Polish insurgents, to crush intestine revolt, and bestow a less divided attention on improving her immense dominions in various constituents of national prosperity. Louis XV. In France, an event took place this year, which France. caused a great change in the internal policy of that country. On the 10th of May, Louis XV. died, in Death of the sixty-fifth year of his age, and the fifty-ninth of his reign. This king, who possessed very mode- Character. rate talents, was educated in the ignorance so general among arbitrary princes in long established governments, where little personal effort is necessary to maintain a slavery confirmed by prescription, and in that luxury which had so long prevailed at the court of France. Of a pleasing figure, he acquired those exterior accomplishments and light graces which the joint vivacity and frivolity of fashionable France were so well fitted for bestowing. He was in one sense a man of good dispositions, for he was mild VOL. II. I XIII. 1774. CHA P. mild and compassionate, unless driven to be otherwise by the impulse of his counsellors. He did not exercise tyranny from inclination and choice, but often permitted it from imbecility. Having neither vigour of understanding nor firmness of mind for governing himself, he was through life the pupil of others. Always in a state of intellectual minority, the administration of his affairs was wise or foolish, good or bad, according to the character of those who happened to be his guardians. Thus, during the ministry of cardinal Fleury, his policy was pacific; afterwards aggressively warlike and ambitious; and in the latter period of his life, he was again pacific. Under some ministers, he was moderate in his internal government; under others, he was despotic. When priests presided in his cabinet, he was the tool of clerical encroachment; when deists took the direction, he was the agent of irreligion, by weakening the veneration of his people for the institutions of the church. His violent proceedings against the parliaments arose not from the violence, but from the weakness, of his character; he was then under the tutelage of tyrannical ministers. A reign of near sixty years bears no stamp of uniformity of character. His principles, sentiments, and conduct, varied with the successive changes of his ministers and mistresses. Louis XV. was nomi nally, but not really, the sovereign of France: for civil, military, and political operations, for every department of government, we find the real sovereigns in the royal favourites. Louis was, however, sufficiently qualified for being a mere pageant of state, and going through the forms of sovereignty in the paralysed stillness of undisputed despotism; he was therefore very fit for sitting on a throne so much adored as it had been in the reign of his predecessor, discern the and as it was during a great part of his own. Tocommencing ward the close, a spirit manifested itself which republic opi- quired a prince of a different character to manage; and though its operations were checked, yet the The tool of his favourites, he did change of nion. repression |