1783

RUSSIA AND TURKEY.

a

AMONG other expedients adopted by the empress for the improvement of her dominions was the refuge afforded by her to the persecuted jesuits. When they were exiled from France, Spain, Portugal, and Naples, and their order was abolished by a formal process at Rome, they found a generous protectress in Catharine. She warmly maintained their cause at the court of Rome, in opposition to the Bourbon monarchs. She permitted them to establish seminaries, under the care of Gabriel Denkievitch, appointed vicar-general of the order. She requested the pope's sanction to the establishment; assigning, as a reason for the protection afforded them, "that of all the catholic societies, they were the best qualified to "instruct her subjects, and to inspire them with the sentiments of humanity " and the true principles of the christian religion." She finally obtained his holiness's consent to her measures respecting them: and their colleges at Mohilow and Polockzo were resorted to by young men of the most distinguished families in Russia and Lithuania.

During these transactions, which may be considered as a sort of triumph over the princes of the house of Bourbon, Catharine was gratified with more important successes in other quarters.-She saw the banks of the Dniper cultivated by the inhabitants which her bounty had drawn from other countries into the Ukraine.-Further schemes, mean-while, were formed by her for extending her power in these parts.-Under pretence of supporting Sahim Gueray, against a revolt raised by his brother, Bay Gueray, she dispatched Potemkin with an army into the peninsula. After an easy conquest over the revolted chief, she instigated her vassal to demand the cession of Oczakow of the Porte. This insolent demand, which was rejected with disdain, stimulated the divan to interest themselves again in the affairs of the Crimea: but their interposition was so faint that it only served to forward the empress's purposes. The Turkish partisans were overawed,

• Ecclesiastical History. 1780.

Tooke. 3. p. 5. 7.

e Life of Pius the Sixth. 1. 63.

overawed, and the peninsula was subjected to the empress with little resistance: and Catharine, to justify this violation of national rights in the eyes of the world, had the effrontery to publish a manifesto,† ascribing the measures which she had adopted to a breach of the treaty of Kainardgi on the part of the Turks. In this deed the Crimea, the isle of Taman, and all the Kuban, are declared to be reunited to the Russian empire, as a just indemnification for the losses sustained and the expences incurred in the maintenance of the peace and welfare of these territories: and, as a boon to the conquered Tartars, they are promised the same treatment with the empress's ancient subjects.—In this summary way did Catharine take possession of the Crimea: and, that nothing might be wanting to complete the political farce, Sahim Gueray, then a captain in her Præbazinski guards, abdicated his throne to her; thus transferring his supposed right to the sovereignty of his country.

It was not imagined that the Turks would tamely suffer such an invasion of the rights of a nation which had formerly been subordinate to the Porte. Vast warlike preparations were, therefore, made, in conjunction with the German emperor, to maintain the empress's conquests, and to extend her own dominions and those of her ally. Means were also taken to secure the concurrence of Heraclius prince of Georgia and the republic of Venice.— In the mean-time negotiations for a pacification were opened by the French ambassador at Constantinople, who took on him the friendly office of mediator: but these were retarded by the exorbitant demands made by the confederate powers; the empress empress demanding the full possession of the Crimea, the isle of Taman, the Kuban and Budziac Tartary, with the fortress of Oczakow; and the emperor demanding the full restitution of all that had been ceded by the treaty of Belgrade.'

1783

1783

EAST INDIES.

Ir was natural to suppose that the death of such a personage as Hyder Ali would have had an essential influence on the future fortune of the war; that a prince who was esteemed the ablest statesman and the most patriotic sovereign, as well as the most accomplished soldier, that the East ever produced, could not leave the stage on which he had displayed his talents without material detriment to the cause in which he was engaged. It was probably, upon that supposition that his son, now honoured with the title of Tippoo Sultan, concealed the event as long as possible; whence it arose that the precise time of his death, which happened about the close of the late year, was not generally known. However sensibly his subjects may have felt the loss of a sovereign whose comprehensive mind adapted itself to the minutest affairs of civil and judicial administration, whilst it was forming vast schemes of policy for driving the Europeans from Indostan and establishing a paramount power in himself and his successors, we do not find that it had any material effect on the foreign affairs of his realms. Tippoo Sultan, if he was not endowed with his father's exalted genius, inherited his martial talents, his spirit of enterprise, and his enmity to the English nation, as the most formidable rivals of his power.

It was now determined by the governor and council of Madras, as the most effectual mean for bringing the war to a conclusion, to make every possible advantage of the treaty concluded with the Marattas, by boldly adopting an offensive system of operations, and causing a diversion of the enemy's forces in favour of the Carnatic by carrying the war into his territories.-Agreeably with this plan, colonel Humberstone had been sent with a body of troops from Bombay in the late autumn, and soon made himself master of Calicut and Paniany. With the aid of a reinforcement which colonel Macleod brought from Madras, he had gained an advantage of the Mysoreans, when colonel Mathews arrived, with a second detachment from Bombay, to take the command in this quarter.-After they had reduced the fortress

fortress of Onore,† they passed the Ghauts into the Bednore, or Canara, country; where they reduced the fortress of Annampore, and disgraced themselves by their cruelties towards the garrison and inhabitants. – Advancing into the country, they forced Hyat Saib, who was intrusted with the government of Bednore, the capital, without a sufficient garrison for its defence, to surrender the place, as the only expedient to save it from the hard fate which had been experienced by other fortresses.-They then directed their whole force to the reduction of Mangalore; and in a few days they obliged the governor to surrender that maritime fortress,|| which Hyder Ali deemed of inestimable value, and over which he had ever watched with peculiar care.

Tippoo Sultan was engaged in the Carnatic when informed of these mortifying and disgraceful losses. Being resolved to sacrifice his views of conquest to the recovery of his most valuable territories and fortresses, he marched with all possible dispatch into the Canara country.-There being no force in it equal to a contest with the vast army that he brought with him, he easily recovered Bednore, 4 and revenged on the captured garrison the inhumanity practised on his own subjects.-After clearing the open country of his enemies and making himself master of other fortresses, he sat down before Mangalore, and kept it in a state of blockade during the remainder of the campaign.

+

In the mean-time, general Stuart, in whom the command was now vested, had been endeavouring to profit by the absence of the grand Mysorean army. In pursuance of that plan, and the resolution to prosecute vigorous offensive measures, colonel Fullarton was dispatched with a detachment into the southern provinces; where he possessed himself of Dindegul, Caroor, and other fortresses.-General Stuart, mean-while, had invested Cuddalore, on the Coromandel coast.-This strong fortress now became the grand object to the contending parties. A battle was fought before its walls,‡ in which the English and French forces behaved with exemplary bravery, but without any decisive effect.-An engagement took place, also, between the rival fleets, off the port: § but neither was this attended with any advantage

+ April 28.

on

1783

• Fullarton. 113.

on either side which could decide the fate of the fortress. It continued still to be invested, when intelligence arrived that a treaty of peace was concluded between Great Britain and France; an event which had an essential influence on the war, by contracting the sphere of warlike operations and depriving Tippoo Sultan of a most valuable ally.

1785

b

AMERICAN STATES.

A WAR of eight years was now brought to a conclusion by a treaty of peace with the crown of Great Britain, which acknowledged the independency of the United States of America.-General Washington, then, took an affectionate farewel* of the officers and troops who had shared with him the toils and dangers of war; and, having resigned a commission the duties of which he had so meritoriously discharged, he returned to private life with the heartfelt applauses of the people.-No monument was erected to him on this occasion: but the sense of his services, which was engraven in the minds of his countrymen, will remain his most honourable memorial. And, whilst he will be revered by them and their posterity as the defender of their rights, he will be respected even by those against whom he fought, for his patriotic and upright conduct, as well as for the military skill which he displayed throughout the contest.

The subsequent acknowledgment of their independency by most of the European states may be considered as a sort of ratification of it, which placed them completely on a level with established powers. -These political ceremonies were accompanied with measures more essentially beneficial. A commercial intercourse was immediately opened not only

with

he,

*

+ November 2.

After giving them his advice respecting their future conduct, "May ample justice," said "be done you here, and may the choicest of heaven's favours, both here and hereafter, "attend those who, under the divine auspices, have secured innumerable blessings for others. "With these wishes and this benediction the commander in chief is about to retire from service; "the curtain of separation will soon be drawn, and the military scene will, to him, be closed "for ever."-Ramsay. 2. 328.

Ann. Reg. 107. 113.

a

See the date in English History.

b Ramsay. 2. 329.