for a peace are renewed, fhe will prove moderate in her demands. The marriage of the Great Duke, with a princefs of Heffe Darmstadt, and fifter to the Princess of Pruffia, is of no other political confequence, than as it may be fuppofed to operate in ftrengthening the connexion between the courts of Petersburg and Berlin. The confanguinity of princes is, however, only productive of effect, when their interefts happen to draw in the fame line.

The prefent year has been fortunate to the Ottoman empire; and though the events of the war have only afforded negative advantages, they are of fuch a nature as to be of the greatest importance. The abilities of a great minifter, and the enterprizing fpirit of a brave adventurer, have given a new colour to all their affairs. Egypt is recovered, Ali Bey no more, order restored in the coafts of the Leffer Afia, and their troops have fhaken off their panic, and are at length taught to behold an enemy with a feady countenance. And though the infurrection in Syria is ftill kept alive by the Chiek Daher, it can now be attended with no dangerous confequences; and the face of things is fo much changed for the better, in the capital, the provinces, and the army, that it may be fuppofed, it will not a little contribute to the re-establishment of peace.

No opinion can yet be formed, of the effect that the death of the Grand Signior (which took place foon after the close. of the year) may have upon public affairs. As little can be faid as to the character of his fucceffor. Princes are always exalted beyond the condition of humanity at their firft acceffion;

and wonderful things are reported, and expected from them. New reigns are generally vigorous in their beginning; and as it is not probable, that a prince at his first coming out of a feraglio, in which he had been confined for forty years, will have many opinions of his own upon public affairs; it may be imagined that he will for fome time be guided by those, whom he finds already in their poffeffion and management. By what has hitherto appeared, he is making fuch preparations, as indicate a profecution of the war with redoubled vigour.

It would be a matter of no little difficulty, to form even any conjecture, upon the conduct of the two great Germanic powers. Their inceffant preparations for war, and augmentation of their armies, without any apparent object, prefent us with a mystery, which can only be unfolded by its effects. The great encampments formed by the Emperor, and the movements of his troops on the Turkish frontiers, made it imagined that he intended to take an active part in the war upon the Danube; and it is not impoffible that this apprehenfion had fome influence upon the conduct of the Ottomans in the courfe of the campaign. As no hoftilities have taken place, it may not perhaps be unreafonable to imagine, that thefe motions were only intended to intimidate the Porte, and thereby induce it to enter into fuch terms of accommodation, as would have anfwered the views of the court of Petersburg. It must at the fame time be acknowledged, that it is far from being a certainty, that any fuch co-incidence of friendship and fentiment, actually

[44]

fubfits

fubfifts between any two of the partitioning 'powers, except in what immediately relates to their fhares

of Poland.

Among the evils engendered by the prefent age, there is no one perhaps more fatal in its tendency, or contagious in its example, than that which is now become fashionable in Germany and the North, of reviving or fetting up of obfolete and antiquated claims and titles. The dangerous fuccefs which has already attended this conduct, will extend the evil, if not timely and effectually checked, to the loofening of all fecurity, and the rendering all property precarious. A claim of this nature, upon the city of Hamburgh, has lately been flarted, and put in at Vienna, by Count Schomberg. As the title of the Hamburghers to their liberties, befides an original purchase several times acknowledged and confirm ed, and a public declaration by the diet of the empire in the year 1510, by which Hamburgh was acknowledged a free and imperial city, was ftrengthened by a prefcription of five hundred years ftanding, fuch an attempt at any other pe riod, would only have afforded matter for mirth or ridicule. The cafe is now however very different; and the Hamburghers having underfood, that a neighbouring monarch was in treaty to purchase the. Count's title, and had probably urged him to the fetting up of the claim, the fate of Dantzick, ftruck them in all its terrors, and has given them no infufficient caufe for the most grievous apprehenfions.

>

A claim in fome degree of the fame nature, though not attended with the fame terror, has been made by the King of Pruffia upon

the States of Holland. This claim confifts in a debt, of above a century ftanding, and amounting to more than four millions of florins, which is pretended to be owing from feveral of the cities belonging to the Republic, in the dutchy of Cleves, to the houfe of Brandenburgh. On the other fide it was faid, that this fuppofed debt, with the titles on which it was founded, had been exprefly abo lifhed by the treaty concluded in Auguft 1698, between the Elector of Brandenburgh, Frederic the First, and their High Mightineffes. As the demand for payment was however very preffing, it caused some alarm in Holland; memorials were prefented, and anfwers returned; but the affair does not yet feem to be determined.

Tho'

An exchange of territory has been much talked of, between the King of Pruffia and the Duke of Mecklenburgh Schwerin, by which the latter refigns his paincipality, and receives the King's part of the dutchy of Cleves in return. it may be highly eligible to a weak prince, to get out of the talons of an overgrown neighbour, who furrounds, oppreffes, and overwhelms him upon every occafion, and that the value of the equivalent is not fo much confidered in fuch a fitu-.ation, as the immediate eafe and fecurity that attend it; yet fuch an exchange, in the prefent ftate of affairs, would eftablish a moft dangerous precedent in Germany. Propofals would foon be made to other weaker princes, to induce them to accept of equivalents, and fuch means would be taken with thofe who were not compliable, to render their inheritances uneafy and of no use to them, that in a little

zime they would deem it a happinefs to obtain any exchange. Such measures are probably the firft that will be taken, to prepare the way for a total change of fyftem in Germany.

Indeed that empire feems to be in as precarious a fituation, as it has been at any time fince its foundation. The equilibrium is entirely overthrown; and it must be only by a series of the most extraordinary events, that it can be reftored. The fate of the venal and arbitrary Polish nobility, prefents a mirror to the German princes, which they could not too long nor too attentively study.

The total abolition of the Jefuits, after they had for above two hundred years made fo much noife, and by their intrigues created fo much confuñon in the world, though it has been fo long expected, is fo remarkable an event, that it will. ftamp the prefent year as a diftinguished æra. The reduction of the ecclefiaftical power, is now become fo general in all the Roman Catholic flates, that it is no longer a particularity in any one; and thofe encroachments which a few years ago, would have made the greatest noife, and have been confidered as matters of the moft alarming nature, are now paft over in filence as things of courfe. Even the ecclefiaftical princes are following the example of the fecular, and the Bishop of Liege having met with fome oppofition, in his attempts to fecularize a convent of monks in his own territories, has appealed to the Emperor, as Lord Paramount, upon that occafion. The event, with respect to the monks, is not doubted.

As there feems to be a fashion in all things, even in virtues and vices, fo it appears in nothing more remarkably, than in ecclefiaftical affairs. While it was the mode of the times, to confer honours, power, and poffeffions upon the church, the was overwhelmed with them; piety degenerated into a vice; and private men ruined their families, and kings their countries, only to make her too rich, and too potent. When this unnatural power and grandeur, had produced the diftempers incident to them, and it was thought neceffary to pluck off the adventitious plumage, the tide of fashion took the contrary course with equal rapidity, and feems now to proceed with an eagerness, that threatens to leave only the skeleton behind.

The great commercial failures, which threw fuch a damp last year upon all bufinefs in this country, arrived at their utmost extent, about the beginning of the prefent in Holland; and were of fo alarming a nature, and fo extensive in their influence, as to threaten a mortal blow to all public and private credit throughout Europe. Thefe failures were the effect of an artificial credit, and of great speculative dealings in trade, as well as in the public funds of different countries; and though attended with an immenfe lofs to individuals, of not lefs perhaps than ten millions fterling, took nothing out of the general stock, neither money nor goods being thereby leffened. They would however, by leffening the value of thofe commodities, have been as pernicious in their effects, as if the lofs had been real,

and

and nothing but the moft judicious and timely remedies, could prevent this fatal confequence.

It is not to be wondered at, that the Republic of Holland, fo long the emporium of trade, fhould have purfued the wifeft measures upon this occafion; and that in a country of merchants, a number of private men, from their long acquaintance in monied matters, and knowledge of the viciffitudes attending commerce, fhould have acted a manly, fpirited, and generous part, for the fupport of public and private credit. But it was particularly fortunate, that without any time for pre-concert, fimilar measures should have been adopted by most of the other trading nations; by which means the fatal confequences that were apprehended, were in a great degree prevented, and the mifchief reftrained from becoming fo general as it would otherwife have done. Of fome of these particulars we fhall take notice in their proper places.

The dearth, which has fo long afflicted different parts of Europe, has this year been grievously felt in feveral countries. Germany, Bohemia, and Sweden, have prefented scenes of the greatest calamity, and multitudes have perished in that miferable extremity, of

wanting the plaineft and moft common neceffaries of life. France, though in a leffer degree, has been a confiderable fharer in this miffortune; and the diftreffes of the people have occafioned riots and disturbances in feveral of the provinces. Nor has the taking off of the bounty on exportation in England, with all the other measures that have been adopted to answer the fame purpose, been fufficient to remedy the evils, proceeding from inclement skies, and unufual feafons.

have

No equal period of time, fince navigation and commerce brought diftant nations acquainted with the affairs of each other, has prefented fuch a number of earthquakes, in remote and different parts of the world, as the prefent year. From the arctic regions to the center of Africa, and from the extreme eaftern, to the western Indies, the globe was every where convulfed, and nature feemed ftruggling in fome doubtful crifis. It has however pleafed providence, that the mifchiefs have in no degree correfponded with the apparent danger, and have been infinitely greater at feasons, when the fhocks have been few in number, and confined in their extent.

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