could give umbrage to the court of Vienna, but to pursue the moft conciliatory measures in all their tranfactions with the Austrian subjects; and particularly, to pay the moft marked perfonal attention to the emperor himself, when he approached the borders. This difpofition was fo prevalent, that in the height of the troubles, when nothing lefs than war and defolation feemed on all fides at hand, the Danube was, for the first time, opened to the imperial fhips; two of which, with their proper colours, were received in the most friendly manner at Belgrade, where they were furnished with paffports to enable them to pafs the other Turkish fortreffes in their voyage to the Black Sea.

In the mean time the troubles and enemies of the Ottomans were multiplying on all fides. The republic of Venice was clofely engaged with Ruffia, and her countenance and difpofitions, notwithstanding her pacific fyftem and character, fully indicated that fhe hoped to come in for a fhare of the expected fpoil; nor could it be fuppofed a small one, confidering the number and extent of her claims, along with the fingular benefits which that power would derive, from the ufe of her ports, and the affiftance of her naval force, in the prosecution of the war. New troubles were broken out on the fide of Egypt; where the turbulent beys were engaged in a civil war, and the whole country was thrown into a state of anarchy and confufion. Thus furrounded, involved, and diftreffed in Europe and Africa, their mortal and hereditary enemies the Perfians attacked them in the east, and had commenced a war on the fide of Baffora.

thefe embarraffments and difficulties, and, as it were, to complete the cycle of their troubles and dangers, the Prince Heraclius of Georgia was induced to invade Natolia; a diverfion, which if it produced no greater effect, might at any rate be fuppofed to prove a confiderable check to the Porte, with refpect to the forces which they intended farther to draw from Afia to Europe, Whether it proceeded from the fault of the defultory troops which he commanded, or from the effectual preparation made for his reception, however it was, Heraclius did nothing, in this expedition, at all anfwerable to his former reputation, Before he could even do any confiderable mifchief, the bafhaw of Natolia marched against him at the head of 18,000 men; and, though the Georgians were superior in number, obliged them to retire with precipitation to their own country, This, though not a great matter, if time, diftance, and circumftances are confidered, will ferve to fhew, that vigour and refource were not entirely defunct or exhausted in that empire; and the more especially, as the Georgians have ever been particularly diftinguished for their valour.

In the mean time the plague, which broke out at Cherfon, and other parts of the Ruffian frontier, and penetrated even to the borders of Poland, threw no fmail damp upon the military operations on that fide, and afforded time for the progrefs of the negociations at Con ftantinople, before matters precipitated to fuch an extremity as would not admit of stay or recal. It feemed fingular enough, that at the time the flames of war were ex

were

out

:

out in every quarter, that a new treaty of commerce between Ruffia and the Porte, fhould not only be in train, but actually concluded at Conftantinople. It will appear ftill more fingular, that the account of the abdication of the Tartar khan, with the feizure of the Crimea and Cuban by Ruffia, and the annexing them to her own dominion, was received juft before the treaty was figned, and yet the intelligence of this unexpected and extraordinary transaction did not prevent its execution a circumftance which fully fhews the consciousnefs of the Porte, of its being totally unequal to the fupport of a war. The mingled rage and anguish of the people upon this intelligence was never exceeded, nor perhaps equalled, upon any former occafion; they cried loudly for vengeance, for the fupport of the Ottoman dignity and glory, and for the refcue of their injured and oppreffed brethren; while their voice was rendered the more formidable, from its being fupported by all the chiefs and men of the law. Nothing could afford a more striking inftance of the firmness of government, than its being able to withstand the fhock.

An acquiefcence in fo important a revolution, and a fubmiffion under fo fevere a lofs, could leave no doubt that smaller matters would be much difputed. On the other fide, Ruffia had now attained as much new dominion as fhe was for the prefent, or could for fome time to come, be well able to manage. And befides the ill policy of too great an immediate extenfion of conqueft, there were other causes which operated strongly against her forcing a war. With refpect to the

lofs of men, foreign wars are (from various causes, fome of which could not eafily be removed) more deftructive to that country than to any other; at the fame time, that from the vastnefs of the empire, and the thin ftate of its population, that lofs is more peculiarly felt. With refpect to her finances alfo, foreign war, from the great quantities of cafh which it neceffarily draws out of the country, is exceedingly pernicious to Ruffia, which can by no means well fpare fuch a drain from her circulation; nor were the effects of the extraordinary expences incurred in the laft war yet entirely done away, and the accumulating of a new debt could not but be a matter of ferious confideration. The mediation of France had likewise its weight on all fides; and the part which the house of Bourbon, and perhaps other powers, might take in a war of conqueft, wantonly entered into, and rendered peculiarly odious, by a pertinacious rejection of all equitable terms of accommodation, was a matter that demanded attention.

January 9th 1784.

Under all thefe circumftances, the negociations at Conftantinople were carried on with great facility towards the clofe of the year; and early in the following a new treaty of accommodation was concluded and figned between the two empires. By this treaty Ruffia retains the fovereignty of her new acquifitions; and the only objec of confideration gained by the Porte, was the ascertaining of fixed limits to her claims in Afia; the river Cuban being made the boundary on that fide, and Ruffia renouncing all pretenfions upon the Tartar nations beyond it. All mat

full

[C] 4

ters

ters relative to trade, fhipping, tolls, and duties, had been fettled by the preceding treaty of commerce. The captain bashaw's fignature is the first, on the Ottoman fide, to this treaty of accommodation.

Thus had the emprefs Catherine the extraordinary fortune and glory, not only to fill up and realize all the plans and projects of Peter the Great, with respect to the Palus Mæotis, the Black Sea, and the Crimea, but even to enlarge the fcale, and carry his views to an extent, which seems to have furpaffed, fanguine as they were, that monarch's own hopes of attainment. A felicity the more peculiar, as the completion of the defigns, and the immortalizing the name of that great founder and legiflator of the Ruffian empire, feems to have been the leading object of her government, and wish of her life; and that as she has made his conduct, in all that was laudable, the constant model of her own, fo fhe feems to be the full inheritor of his spirit, with refpect to magnanimity, and to the defire of raising to the highest pitch the power and glory of her

country.

As the recovery and restoration of every thing Greek, is the predominant paffion of the court of Petersburgh, fo the Crimea, and its dependencies, are in future to be known by the name of Taurica; particular places are likewife reftored to their antient appellations; and the celebrated port and city of Caffa, has now refumed its long forgotten name of Theodofia. Since this acceffion of dominion, new towns, with Greek or Ruffian names, are rifing faft in the defarts, and are peopled moftly by colonies

It ftill remains to be feen, whether the late treaty of pacification will be more lafting in its effects than the two former, Numberless caufes of contention ftill remain : and if there were none other, what greater need there be, than those which are neceffarily produced by unrestrained neighbouring power, when opposed to weakness, and that weakness encumbered with the cuftody of the richest and most defirable poffeffions?

In fact, the equilibrium between the three great powers on the borders of Europe and Afia has been fo violently fhaken, that nothing less than fome very confiderable change in their comparative circumstances and fituation, can in any degree reftore the true balance,

nor

can any thing less afford a profpect of permanent peace and fecurity to the prefent weaker party. It was peculiarly unfortunate, if not fatally ominous, to the Ottoman empire, that the period of its degeneracy and decline should have been that in which its two ancient rivals and neighbours have risen to unexampled power and greatness, Their earlier rife would have prevented that decline.

A new face of affairs is, however, appearing in that empire.

Arts and

commerce in the Archipelago; befides great indulgences and advantages to the merchants, with respect to fearching their fhips, to tolls, duties, and custom-houses. A confiderable part of Walachia was likewife ceded; and it was evident, that the Porte was not in a humour, or more properly in condition, to refufe any thing..

and learning are encouraged, printing preffes are established by the emperor's order, and prejudices are wearing fast away. If, then, the prefent fultan and his minifters fhould be closely followed up by men of equal merit and ability, who fhould complete and carry into perfection thofe great fchemes of reform and improvement in their forces by fea and land, which are now in profecution, and that the future prince fhould inherit the warlike difpofition and military virtues of his ancestors, it would by no means be impoffible, that before many years were over, fuch a change might take place in the affairs of the Ottoman empire, as would not a little astonish the world. They have the means of accomplishing great things ftill in their hands; and they have now a clearer view of the dangers of their fituation, of the defects in their government and difcipline, and of the caufes of their declenfion and weakness, than they ever before had. They may poffibly afford a new and memorable inftance, that adverfity is the firft of all fchools for the inftruction of mankind,

This treaty with Ruffia was fucceeded by an accommodation of fome fort, for the prefent, with the emperor; but leaving numberless matters open for future difcuffion, as time might ferve, and occafion offer. The Imperial minifter demanded a participation of all the commercial advantages granted to Ruffia, by the late and by former treaties, and the Porte found it neceffary to comply. The Danube, and all the Turkish feas, were accordingly opened to the navigation of the Imperial fubjects, with free ingrefs and regrefs to and from the Mediterranean, and

Spain had no fooner got difengaged from the war with England, than fhe began to prepare for new military adventure. Neither the general ill-fuccefs which had long attended her expeditions to the coaft of Africa, nor the particular lofs and difgrace fuftained by the grand armament which fhe had dispatched against Algiers in the year 1775, were fuficient to deter her from another attack upon that piratical city. Her fhips being in fome degree ftill manned in confequence of the late war, and a great number of bomb-ketches, gun-boats, and other armed vessels, which had been deftined againft Gibraltar, ftill in readiness, were undoubtedly incentives to this enterprize.

The marine force intended for this service was confiderable,and from its nature extremely numerous; no difpofition, however, appeared, to hazard another army upon that inaufpicious coaft; the prefent defign being entirely confined to a fevere bombardment and cannonade by fea. The conduct of this enterprize was committed to Don Antonio Barcelo; who, after a formal difplay of fome pious or religious ceremonials, intended to obtain a bleffing upon the Chriftian arms in their conflict with Infidels, proceeded with his armament from Carthagena, on the 2d of July,

1783. Through an unfortunate difpofition of the winds and weather, the fleet, notwithstanding the fhortness of the paffage, was detained for 27 days at fea; a circumftance which, befides the lofs of a month peculiarly chofen as favourable to the defign, could not but be exceedingly untoward in many refpects, encumbered as he was with a multitude of fmall veffels, and these crowded with men, and overlayed with artillery. The fleet did not arrive in the bay of Algiers until the 29th of July; and the fea was then too rough to admit of immediate action.

He found the Algerines well prepared for his reception; and difcovered every indication of a bold and most determined enemy. On the first of Auguft the admiral formed his line of battle, and made the neceffary difpofitions for an attack; 18 bomb - ketches, with 13 gun-boats on their wings, compofed the van; these were fupported by a line of xebecks, bilanders, and other veffels of war, moftly peculiar to the Mediterranean; and these again intermixed with, or attended by, a number of boarding-boats ftrongly manned, and fome fmall fire-veffels, to prevent the approach of the Algerine gallies to the battering veffels; the whole being covered by the ships of the line, and frigates of war. The cannonade and bombardment were commenced at half past two o'clock, and were continued, without intermiffion, until funset: 380 fhells were thrown in that time, and about an equal number of fhot fent; the fire being fiercely returned by the Algerine batteries through the

whole time, with near 1100 cannon fhot, and about 30 bombs.

The attack was renewed on the following, and on every fucceeding day, except one, until the 9th of the month. On that morning, a council of war being held by the admiral, the exhaufture of ammunition, and the growing latenefs and danger of the feafon, were found fufficient reafons for an immediate return to Spain. In the course of these attacks, which were not unfrequently repeated on the fame day, 3,732 bombs, and 3,833 cannon-fhot, were discharged by the fleet against the town; and thefe were returned by the Algerines, with 399 fhells, and 11,284 cannon-fhot. This vaft expenditure of ammunition produced no correspondent effect on either fide; the town was indeed repeatedly fet on fire, but the measures of prefervation were fo well adapted, and fo vigorously purfued, that the flames were foon fubdued. The Algerines made feveral bold fallies with their gallies and fmall veffels upon the Spanish battering line; but the fuperiority of fire on that fide was fo great, and it played from fuch various directions, that they were constantly repulfed. The example of Gibraltar feemed to have operated upon them in the use of red-hot balls but they were not destined to produce a fimilar effect. On the other fide, the Spanish marine afforded evident proofs of the improvement it had received from the late war; fhewing infinitely more courage, alertnefs, and firmness, than in the attack of 1775.

3

The year 1783 was fatally marked by the defolation of fome of the moft celebrated, the most beau

tiful,