XVII. allowing to the shipping of Russia a free navi- BOOK gation in all the Turkish seas, including the passage through the Dardanelles. The grand 1776. signior Mustapha III. did not live to the conclusion of this disastrous war. He ascended the throne of the Ottomans, A. D. 1757, on the death of his uncle Osman III. who had three years before succeeded his brother Mahomet V. The late sultan Mustapha, agreeably to the laws antiently established in Turkey, was succeeded, after an eventful reign of sixteen years, by his brother Abdul Hamet, or Achmet IV.; sultan Selim, eldest son of the late emperor, not having yet attained the age of majority. During the continuance of this war, a grand object was formed by the courts of Vienna, Petersburg, and Berlin, originally suggested by the inventive genius of the king of Prussia, for the partition of Poland. Different interviews had taken place between the king and the emperor at Neisse in Silesia, August 1769, and at Neustadt in Moravia the following year, in which mutual protestations of regard and inviolable friendship were exchanged with the usual sincerity of princes. The judgment passed by the unerring penetration of the Prussian monarch respecting the emperor, at this early period of his life, was, "that with a disposition to learn. he had not patience enough to be instructed." BOOK On the accession of the empress of Russia to this XVII. 1776. conspiracy of sovereigns, manifestoes were published A. D. 1772, by all these powers, stating their claims and pretensions to such provinces as happened to be most commodious for their purpose, and lying contiguous to their own territories. To Russia was allotted the whole country westward of the rivers Dwina and Nicper. The emperor scized upon a vast tract of land, extending from the frontiers of Moravia to the province of Volhynia, and situated in a direct course to the northward of Hungary and Transylvania, on which the pompous appellations were bestowed of the kingdoms of Gallicia and Ludomiria. The whole of royal Prussia, with some adjoining districts of Great Poland, fell to the share of the king of Prussia, all of which he claimed as his clear and indisputable right; it being, as this monarch was pleased to affirm in his manifesto, notorious, "that the kings of Poland did many ages ago violently disscise the dukes of Pomerania, the dukes of Stettin, and the dukes of Dantzick, his majesty's ancestors, of those dominions, which his majesty, as sole heir and universal successor of all these dukes, now so justly and equitably reclaimed." In vain did the king and diet of Poland protest against these unheard-of claims and extravagant pretensions. In vain did they appeal to all Europe, that the XVII. dominions of the republic were not only secured BOOK to them by the prescription of centuries, but 'were guaranteed by the most solemn treaties; 1776. and that, should an act of such enormous perfidy and injustice be permitted or connived at, every principle of public faith would be subverted, and nations must hereafter acknowledge no other law than that of force. The diet was in the end compelled to ratify these claims: and at the same time important alterations were made in the constitution of the republic, by which the power of the crown was still farther reduced, particularly in the establishment of a permanent executive council, in which the monarch presided with only a single voice. All these atrocious proceedings so nearly and deeply affecting the balance of power on the continent, were viewed with apparent indifference by the great potentates of Europe; particularly by England, then intent on her desperate projects of American subjugation; although in latter times the possession of a single town has been thought so materially to affect that balance, as to justify a war for the sole purpose of effecting its restoration. A grand alliance, projected by the cabinet of Versailles, between the courts of Versailles, London, Madrid, and Turin, in order to counterbalance that * OCZAKOW BOOK subsisting between the courts of Petersburg, XVII. Vienna, and Berlin, not meeting with encou 1776. ragement from England, perished in embryo*. The situation of the Scandinavian courts yet remains to be described. Frederick V. king of Denmark had departed this life in January 1766. He was a just, wise, and beneficent prince; the friend and father of his subjects, by whom he was beloved with unfeigned ardor, and who bedewed his monument with the tears of gratitude and affection. He was succeeded by his son Christian VII. who in a few months after his accession espoused the princess Carolina Matilda, youngest sister of the king of England. Soon after this marriage the young monarch left his kingdom, actuated by a restless and roving desire of visiting foreign countries. In the year 1768 he arrived in England, where he was en *This is a fact well known in France, and mentioned by several French writers. In Mr. Burke's Memorial on the state of affairs, A. D. 1791, he confirms their testimony in the following terms: To my certain knowledge, if Great Britain had at that time been willing to concur in preventing the execution of a project so dangerous in the example, even exhausted as France then was by the preceding war, she would at every risk have taken an active part in this business. But a languor with regard to so remote an interest, and the principles and passions which were then strongly at work at home, were the causes why Great Britain would not give France any encouragement in such an enterprise." XVII. 1776, tertained with great magnificence; whence he BOOK passed into France and Germany, and did not return to his dominions till the following year. The apparent weakness and incapacity of the king, on his assuming the reins of government, sufficiently demonstrated that he had gained no valuable accession of knowledge by his late travels. A certain German physician, of the name. of Struensee, who had attended the king abroad, had acquired the entire ascendancy over him, and being created a count, was placed at the head of affairs; the ministers of the late king, counts Bernstorf, Holke, &c. being previously disgraced. With the rash presumption incident to sudden and unmerited prosperity, this man attempted to introduce many innovations into the government and police of the kingdom, by which he made himself universally odious. The very high favor in which he evidently stood with the queen also gave rise to imputations little to the advantage of her majesty's character. At length, by an unexpected and extraordinary court-revolution, conducted by the queen dowager and her son prince Frederick, Struensee and his principal partisans were arrested under the sanction of a warrant compulsorily signed by the king. The queen herself was committed close prisoner to the castle of Cronenburg, January 1772. In the sequel, Struensee suffered on a |