They had reached that part where, bursting from a rocky bed, it covered conquered plains, or was sent sweeping even further by lofty islands. The Cossacks dismounted, entered a boat, and in three hours reached Hortitza Island, where was the setch. A lot of men were quarrelling with the boatmen on the shore. The Cossacks again mounted; Tarass looked proud, and drew in his belt, and curled his mustaches. The young men examined themselves with timid emotion, and then all entered the outskirt, which precedes the setch by half a verste. They were stunned by fifty hammers working away at half as many underground forges, covered by moss. Vigorous tauners were pressing bull-hides in their hands. Hucksters sold gunpowder and flints. An Armenian exposed rich stuffs. A'Tartar kneaded dough. A Jew drew brandy from a barrel. But what chiefly drew their attention was a Zaporog lying in the middle of the road, asleep. "How the fellow is developed," said Tarass; "what a fine man!" The tableau was complete. The Zaporog had spread himself out like a sleeping lion. His tuft of hair, thrown proudly back, covered two palms of ground round his head. His splendid red trousers had been soiled with pitch, out of recklessness. Boulba smiled, and continued his route through a narrow street filled by workers in the open air,and people of all nations who fed and clothed the setch, itself incapable of all but fighting and drinking. They soon passed the outskirt, and saw some scattered huts, covered, in the Tartar fashion, with turf or felt. Before some were cannon. There were no enclosures, no little wooden houses with columns, as in the outskirts. A parapet of earth, and a gate left unfastened, showed their carelessness. Some robust Zaporojies, lying on the ground, with pipes in their mouths, let. them pass without notice. Tarass moved with precaution amongst them. Good day, noble friends!" "And to you, good day!" Picturesque groups were seen. The pale features of the men showed service and sufferings. Such is the setch, from whence came those lion-hearted men who spread the Cossack power over all the Ukraine. They crossed an extensive space, where was held the council. On an upright tub sat a shirtless Zaporog, mending his garment with intense gravity; then their way was stopped by a troop of musicians, in the midst of whom was a young Zaporog, with his cap on his ear, dancing with phrensy, his hands above his head. "Quick! quicker!" cried he, "quicker! Thomas, spare not your brandy to true Christians." And Thomas, who had a black eye, gave pitchers freely to the assistants around the young dancer; and four old Zaporogs stamped their feet, then threw themselves like a cloud upon the very heads of the musicians, then bowed their knees, and touched the ground, to rise again and strike it with their silver heels. The soil resounded, and the air was filled with the sound of the hoppak and tropak dances. Among the Cossacks was one who cried and bellowed more than all. His tuft of hair flew about, his broad chest was naked; but on his arm was his winter pelisse, while perspiration poured down his face. "Take off your pelisse," said Tarass; "it is too warm." "Impossible!" “Why?” "Because it is impossible; I know myself. Every. thing I take off goes to the drinking-shop." The fellow had no cap, no belt, no embroidered handkerchief-all had gone. The crowd of dancers grew larger every instant; and one could not help fecling emotion at the sight of the whole setch rushing to dance the most characteristic dance in the world-the Kasatchok. "Oh, if I were not on horseback!" said old Boulba. But soon they began to see a number of aged and grave men, respected by the whole setch, and whom it had elected chiefs. Tarass knew many, and Andry and Ostap heard such expressions as these :"Ah! is that you, Petchéritza?" "Good day, Kosoloup!" "Whence come you, Tarass? And you, Doloto?" "Good day, Kirdiaga!" PRITHEE what hath snared thee, heart? Is it, say, a honied lip, O'er whose coral bloom thy thought, From its sweetness could not part? Prithee, what hath snared thee, heart? What hath caught thee, fancy mine? Is it, say, a laughing eye, Couldst not quit its charm'd sunshine? SONG. What hath witched thee, sober thought? That, as thon wast straying near, No! though lip and wit awhile, And the glory of an eye, You, perchance, had captive held; Soon their charms you back had spelled--Soon their witchery learn'd to fly. Prisoners to her smile ye be- What from that shall set you free? MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF SIR ROBERT MURRAY KEITH, K.B. EDITED BY MRS. GILLESPIE SMYTH.* Among other children of the marriage was the late wellknown diplomatist, Sir Robert Murray Keith, K.B., a gene in the army, and twenty years the representative of Great Britain at the court of Vienna; Sir Basil Keith, who died in 1777, governor of the Island of Jamaica; and my late excellent friend, Mrs. Anne Murray Keith, whose inte BIOGRAPHIES form the staple of our current literature. Their proportion in the list of new books is larger now than at any former period of which we recollect; and they are generally those of parties once connected with the grave political movements of the world-resting character in its leading points, I may now confess, the movements that have ripened and passed into decay, combinations that were formed, and are broken up by the new, and, in some respects, more energetic proceedings of the present times. lady termed Mrs. Bethune Baliol was designed to shadow out; and whose death, occurring in 1818, had saddened a wide circle much attached to her, as well for her genuine virtue and amiable qualities of disposition as for the extent of information which she possessed, and the delicate manner in which she used to communicate it. "If ever these endowments, and the kindred qualities of Sir Robert Murray Keith was descended from the great family who, at one period, wielded an influence unbending integrity and uprightness, in public and private in Scotland second to none of the aristocratic houses. life, were hereditary, their possession by Sir Robert Keith. A large part of their possessions were centred in Kin-and the sister thus worthily commemorated, may be traced to the precept and example of a father, who seems to have cardineshire, on the east of Scotland. The ruins of merited and enjoyed, in no ordinary degree, the affectionate their strong castle of Dunottar form, to this day, esteem of the generation among whom he lived. "Himself the son of a soldier, and of no unworthy one, the most prominent artificial object on the eastern he appears never to have filled a directly military situation; coast. Like many others of the ancient Scottish fa- though he passed several years of his life in familiar domesmilies, they preserved their allegiance, through various tication with one of the ablest captains of the age, as secre changes, to the house of Stuart; and their chief,tary to the forces, with the combined armies under the great Earl of Stair. Of the satisfactory manner in which Mr. the Earl Marischal, received James, in 1715, when Keith discharged the duties of that responsible office, numerhe made that unsuccessful effort for a crown, put ons confidential documents, showing the high esteem in which he was held by his noble principal, exist to bear down at the Sheriff Muir by the Duke of Argyle. At test mony; while one litt'e record of a transaction, unthat period James landed at Peterhead, and travelled | | known, probably, save to his own nearest and dearest, surfrom that port to the Castle of Dunottar. He remained vives to prove the nice sense of honour which could influence there for some time, and is said to have been crowned large and increasing family, to decline, as inconsistent with a gentleman of very small, though ancient estate, with a at Fetteresso, a neighbouring mansion, at the time his public character, a source of certain and almost unlimited belonging also to the Earl Marischal. Unlike some emolument; which some might have deemed not incomparible with a secure official situation, whose novelty (for it was of the other Scottish families, whose influence was then, it seems, for the first time filled), must have left its pretty equally divided between the houses of Guelph liabilities less accurately defined. The offer, couched in flattering terms, and with little doubt apparently of ready and of Stuart, the Keiths and the Erskines gave all to the family whom they favoured, and lost all in their acceptance, of sharing with him (without pecuniary ai vances, or even the use of his name) the contract for supplying overthrow. In their expulsion, Scotland lost, and the the allied armies, then about to enter Germany, is still extant in the writing of the liberal proposer, his friend Sir Abranorthern powers gained, the aid and services of great ham fiume. A slip of paper affixed to it, simply notes (for the military leaders. The family of Sir Robert Murray sole information of his own family) that it was declined Keith branched off from the elder house of the Keiths; by Mr. Keith as unsuitable to the position he occupied in the before those disputes regarding the succession to the public service." crown, and the civil and religious liberty of the country, Mr. Keith was long engaged in diplomatic missions; which terminated in so many forfeitures. This branch and his son, therefore, enjoyed an hereditary predilec of the family did not interfere, apparently, in the early tion for the sphere which he was subsequently to struggle of the eighteenth century; and at the date of occupy. The family of Mr. Keith acquired a high the later rebellion, Mr. Keith, the immediate ancestor standing in society, a permanent place and a "goodly" of Sir Robert Murray Keith, was engaged in diplo-fame in the records of their country. The diplomatic matic missions for the Government. The editress and military services of the sons, however able, ingives the following account of the family, which was teresting, and successful, have not secured for them for three centuries undistinguished amongst those of the degree of laudable notoriety that has been gained the Scottish squirearchy-the family of a Mearnsby the fortuitous acquaintance of Sir Walter Scott laird, with neither extensive nor favoured possessions: "The Keiths of Craig, in Kincardineshire, says that accurate antiquary and genealogist, Sir Walter Scott, (whose well known friendship for one gifted member of the family, led him, in one of the later editions of his novels, to give this sketch of its history,) descended from John Keith, fourth son of William, second Earl Marischal; who got from his father, about the year 1480, the lands of Craig, and part of Garvock, in that county. ،، Colonel Robert Keith, of Craig, the serenth in descent from John, had by his wife, Agnes, daughter of Robert Murray, of Murrayshall, one son, Robert Keith, ambassador to the Courts of Vienna and St. Petersburg, who died in Edinburgh in 1774. le married Margaret, second daughter of Sir William Cunningham, of Caprington, by Janet, only child and heiress of Sir James Dick, of Prestonfield; and with that "excellent lady," Mrs. Bethune Baliol-for their sister, Mrs. Aune Murray Keith; so fully does "the ideal" often overshadow "the real" in tradition. MARIA THERESA OF HUNGARY. The early part of the first volume is occupied with the correspondence of Mr. Keith, the father of Sir Robert Murray Keith, and our ambassador at Vienna in 1749. The correspondence is calculated to throw light upon many political events of that period, and upon the actors who, a hundred years since, occupied the political arena of Europe. The subjoined letter from Mr. Keith to the Duke of Newcastle gives a fair speci men of the nature of this correspondence : 2 vols. London: Henry Colburn. 1849. "Vienna, May 7, 1749. “My Lord-I yesterday delivered the King's letters of notification at the appartement, to their Imperial Majesties, who both received with satisfaction the news of the increase of his Majesty's family, and desired me to make their compliments of congratulation to the King upon this occasion. and to return their thanks for this mark of his attention. The delivery of these letters gave me the opportunity of s pretty long conversation with both the Emperor and En press, but separately. In that with her Majesty, I informed her that your Grace had received my dispatches, and had laid them before the King; and that the contents of them had given his Majesty great satisfaction in every respect. The Empress expressed great pleasure; she said she was very happy to find that the King approved their ideas, and was convinced of the sincerity of their intentions for maintaining the peace of the North, and the general tranquility of Europe. She said repose was absolutely necessary for them in their present circumstances; and her Majesty added, that it should always be her study to enltivate and improve the new friendship and correspondence with the King, and that she thought things were more happily in such a situation, and the interests of the two Courts so very much united, that she could foresee nothing that could happen to lessen that harmony which was so necessary for their mutual safety. After I had left the Empress, the Emperor did me the honour to desire that I would go with him into the garden: and, when we were there, his Majesty began a conversion in the most amicable manner in the world. He said, J might assure the King my mister, that however defective they might be now and then in forms, they were des hou veles gens au fond,' and that we should always find thein so; that they were very sensible of his Majesty's friendship last for the ornament of Scotland. When, or if ever, I shall Nineteen years later, Sir Robert Murray Keith, the son, was writing from the same city, to his sister Aune, reminding her of his anxiety for trees : "And now pray, my dear Anne, let me appoint you my substitute with G-,* to din into his ears, Trees, trees, trees, every time you meet him. I have not a twig of his planting at the hall, and I own I expected a forest. This is no joking matter; I would rather be master of a handsome plantation, and hedge-rows, than of a mine of gold; so you know you can, and will pursue it. You shall be the ranger of the new forest in Tweeddale, and your husband, when you get one, shall be Lord Warden of the Marches." "The Wood o' Mar” in these days was not the bonny hill o' heather that honest Andrew supposed; if by the name he meant to express the great forest of Braemar, then studded with trees stately as any in the noble forest of Compeigne; and now, thanks to extravagance and entails! studded as thickly with stumps, overgrown by cranberry-bushes. "The Wood o' Mar" supplied the finest pine timber in the kingdom of Scotland, not excepting the forest of Rothiemurcus; upon all occasions, and should never fail, on their side, in making suitable returns. The Emperor then talked of the but it is stripped, peeled, and bare, without a young present situation of the affairs of Europe, and said that it wassapling coming up to shelter the heather. The curse both their interest and inclination to hinder any new fe from breaking out which might endanger the public tranof principalities instead of estates is ruining Scotland, quility; that they would heartily concur with his Majesty in and, indeed, by a slower process, the other two leading every measure that could contribute to so desirable an end; portions of the empire. Interference with private proand that, he hoped, considering the present disposition of France, there was no immediate danger of any new dis-perty would be a still greater evil, and a yet quicker turbances. He said, however, he could not help having ruin; but it is unnecessary to remove this source of some apprehensions from the preparations the King of barren wretchedness. We have only to undo the Prussia had made, and the great expense he had put him-law of entail, to improve our soil, amend our self to; which, from the knowledge he had of that Priner's disposition, he could not imagine he would do without some climate, treble our trees, quadruple our produce, and, view of turning it to account." of course, double our population, reducing nothing but A considerable part of Mr. Keith's early correspond-pauperism, crime, and police rates. The good sense ence consists of anecdotes regarding the celebrated Maria Theresa, who swayed the interests of Germany and of Hungary. The British alliance with Prussia, and the repugnance of the Empress to the claims and the rapid acquisitions of Prussia, caused a temporary umbrage between the Courts of London and Vienna, which, without impairing the esteeem expressed by the Empress or her minister, the celebrated Count De Kaunitz, for Mr. Keith, led necessarily to his retirement from Vienna, on the formation of an alliance between Austria and France. TREES AND ENTAILS. displayed in the advice, "Plant, gentlemen; plant," has not been entirely cast away. It has been followed wherever it was available; but the owner of entailed estates has no interest except to cut down and destroy. Many gentlemen, in that position, fight against their own and their family's interests; but the conflict is unjust for them. The Duke of Richmond, for example, has planted more we believe than any proprietor in the north country, upon an entailed estate; and we now see it stated that he seeks, very properly, to break the entail which of necessity renders the owner of the * Sir R. M. Kit's banff, on his property t Tweeddale. + This alludes to an amusing anecdote, (just communicated to the editor), occurring in a letter from Sir R. M. Keith to his sister, when traveling in France in 1764. "Yes Both the elder and younger Keiths were excellent epistolary correspondents; and in their long absences from their native country, they never forgotterday afternoon, in passing through the noble forest of the friends it contained, or the prosperity which they desired for them and for it. The truth of Dr. Johnson's reproach, regarding the paucity of our trees, began to strike many Scotch gentlemen a century since; and to that fact we may attribute its removal from the lowland parts of the country, although to the present day fully more progress has been made in suppressing than in planting Highland forests. Writing to the Earl of Balcarres, from Vienna, in 1753, the elder Keith says: "I give you joy, with all my heart, on the rapid increase of your family; and I hope you will still live many years to beget children and plant trees-the first for the service, the Compeigne, I took the lioerty of questioning, as follows, my man Andrew, who is a gentleman of great sagacity. Pray Andrew, saw you ever so fine a forest as the one we have come through Sir,' quoth Andrew, the forest is a gay forest; but I se warrant I've seen other forests before now.' Where, Andrew ? Have you anything like this in Athol?' Ay, sir. I wish your honour had only seen the Duke of Perth's grit forest in our country? He has a hantie of fine deers in't, and Colonel Grame pays a hunder pun's sterling by the year, jist till keep the deers frae bein' destroyed intilt.' Well, Andrew, I'm glad to hear what you say; but are the trees in that forest as fine as those we saw to-day?' Trees, sir!' quoth Andrew, no, sir, there's no a stannin' stick in the Duke's grit forest; but it's a' bonny hill and heather, like the wood o' Mar. patriotism, patriotism, thy errors are beauti:ul! 1 embraced my man Andrew, and we pursued our journey." 0, extensive estates of the late Duke of Gordon, an abThe immediate results of entails are not sentee. their only evils. Absenteeism is greatly promoted, and often, indeed, rendered absolutely necessary by the successive accumulation of entails. Even if the laws were not entirely repealed, it would be well for Ireland and Scotland to enact that they should only operate in favour of heirs resident in the respective countries, or who proposed to make their habitual residence in them. THE RUSSIAN EMBASSY. Reverting to the Keiths, and diplomacy, we find that Mr. Keith was transferred from Vienna to St. Petersburgh; from attending on Maria Theresa to wait upon the future Catherine II. He disliked the change, as men of less experience in the world would have done; and when he arrived at St. Petersburg, March, 1758, he experienced a sad difference between the "stiff ceremonial of the Northern Court, and his occasional political quarrels" with "the accomplished Maria Theresa." He found the future Catherine II. in difficulties, and began to compassionate her position at He learned, subsequently, that she could take care of her own interests. The kind of correspondence in which diplomatists occasionally indulge, may be gathered from the following extract of a letter dated in May, 1758 : once. "The measures of this Court will, I believe, be determined by the good or bad success of the King of Prussia's arms against the Empress-Queen. I have reason to think they are weary of the war, and I know they have not a shilling to rub upon one another." We find nothing further of Mr. Keith until the month of May, 1760, when a letter from him to the Earl of Holdernesse is inserted, in which he requests permission to return home. We insert the letter as it stands, for several reasons: "MR. KEITH, TO THE EARL OF HOLDERNESSE. St. Petersburgh, May 2-13, 1760. "My Lord-The season of the year advancing very fast. and the summer being very short in this country, I must beg leave to put your Lordship in mind of what I formerly hinted to you, of my desire of returning home. Your Lordship knows that I' accepted of this commission merely in obedience to his Majesty's commands, and at the desire of the Duke of Newcastle and your Lordship, but upon the condition that it should not last above two or three years at most. That term will now be very soon elapsed, and, which is worse, without my having been of any use to his Majesty's service in this post, which, whatever defects I may otherwise have, has not been owing either to want of diligence or zeal.* "Probably the situation of affairs at this Court on my arrival, and since, would have made it difficult for a much older minister to succeed; but, however that may be, I see very little hopes of things mending here for some time, and cousequently there is no danger to the King's service in any respect by my being recalled, especially as your Lordship has a whole summer before you to choose one in my place. But, beside the above, your Lordship may easily think that at my age it is very natural to wish for a retreat, and to return to my family, which I have now been absent from near twenty years. The consideration of health is likewise of some weight, though I shall never hesitate to expose that, This must have been rendered apparent to his superiors (by whom his recall was happily refused, till opportunities of rendering to his country, and its ally the King of Prussia, very eminent services, were opened by a new reign) by the frequent though ineffectual arguments in favour of peace with the former, and remonstrances in behalf of the latter (whose kingdom it sounds strange to us to hear that Russia then seriously talked of "taking and retaining for herself") which all the previous dispatches of the British Minister contain. or my life itself, for the service of so gracious a master; and two attacks of fever which I had last winter make me dread the approach of that season. All these reasons, joined to your indulgence for me, will induce your Lordship, I hope, " to use your good offices with the King in my behalf, and to prevail upon His Majesty to condescend to grant my request, When your Lorship informed me some time ago that His Majesty had been plased to entrust me with credit for a large sum of money, you forgot to mention in whose hands know upon whom I may draw, if occasion should require: I the money was lodged. I must therefore beg the favour to mean only for such gratifications as I may judge it necessary to make, from time to time, to particular persons; for, as I said then, I see not the smallest appearance, at present, of laying out considerable sums to any advantage. I beg leave, before I end this letter, to recommend to your Lordship's What they wish for themselves is protection my two sons. the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel for the eldest, and a post-ship for the sailor; and I would fain hope that, by the assistance of your Lordship, they may attain their wishes before the war ends; for if they should not, they would have no hold |of anything, and have their fortune to begin again, as mucli as if they had never served.† "I have one reason which makes me hope for success in my request to retire, viz., that it is the first favour that ever I asked for myself; for I can venture to say, and I appeal for the truth of it to all the Secretaries of State, that in the course of twenty years that I have served the Crown, I never for any employment, nor ever refused any, when it was desired increase of honours or appointments, I never asked thought I could be of use to the service of my royal master. If your Lordship will be so good as use your credit with his Majesty for my obtaining this request, I shall consider it a most particular favour, and it will add to the respect with which I always am, &c., The passage regarding the large sum at Mr. Keith's credit somewhere, but where he was not informed, | shows how our ancestors' money went, and how carelessly it was circulated. The request in favour of his two sons was certainly not unreasonable, when preferred by a diplomatist who, after twenty years' ser-› vice, in the stations of distinction, could say in his appeal to the source of patronage that, he "never desired increase of honours or appointments" to himself. The statement is highly creditable to a poor Mearns laird, who had been successfully ambassador from Britain to Vienna and St. Petersburgh. Equally creditable to the minister is the following extract from one of his private letters, dated on the 9th of June, in the same year, and written under the fear that the Govern ment was to imitate "that ignominious campaign of 1757, which,” he says, “ I could wish blotted from the History of England"— "I have one solid comfort in the midst of my most distressful situation; which is, that I have done my duty honestly and freely, without consulting to please, or acquire friends. I have sacrificed my ambition to the public weat. I have, in some measure, regained the confidence of the hero, with whom I live; and he bears from me what, perhaps, he would not have patience to do from another. This is, in truth, the reason why I remain here. I do not think it impossible I may be recalled, though I have not asked it. I shall retire with pleasure, for I am well able to justify everything I have done. I heartily wish every man concerned in public business were in the same happy situation." that year. The subsidy to the King of Prussia was suspended The History of Prussia, by Leopold Ranke, would prove a great helpto understand the position of the King of Prussia in these affairs with Britain. A transla £100,000 had been placed at Mr. Keith's disposal. The letter addressed to Mr Keith, by Mr. Pitt, about this period, shows that the request regarding these promotions was most readily granted, (if not, indeed, anticipated by that great minister), and that on the ground of acknowledged desert on the part of the sons, as well as the parent. The denial, or at least evasion, of Mr Keith's request, to be recalled, so frequently renewed, opened to his talents the influential sphere which Russia had hitherto failed to present to his tried experience in negotiations. tion, in three volumes, by Sir Alexander and Lady Duff] All our expenditure and inconsistencies were caused Gordon, has been recently published,* forming a very || by the violent temper, the stubbornness, and the Gers readable work. The interference of Britain most unne- man leanings of George II., a prince in whom a strange cessarily in the continental affairs of the last century, intermingling of good and bad qualities-of great and creeps out in every chapter, and the excessive cost to small vices and virtues-failed to produce a great this country is often made manifest. monarch; although it gave Britain a German full of German tendencies, like his predecessor, for a king. The year 1745, probably, produced some change in Our Parliament was perpetually voting subsidies. In the year 1741, although harassed with events at home, and threatened by a formidable invasion, a sub-his character. The army was beaten, on the 11th of sidy of £150,000 was voted to Maria Theresa, for the May, at Fontenoy, by the French forces, strengthened by purpose of making a vigorous attack upon France, the Irish brigades; and the invasion of Charles Stuart through Alsatia; but no sooner had the money been compelled the King to fall back on an alliance with the paid, than the Queen withdrew her whole army from Northern German Protestant powers, whom we immethat province." [Duff's translation of Ranke, vol. 3, || diately commenced to subsidise at the rate of more than p. 247.] Maria Theresa was accused of looking entirely half a million annually, and which, at the time, was, perto her own interests; and merely desiring to have suffi-haps, little less than an equivalent for two and a-half milcient means for opposing Prussia while at the time the lions, or half the annual cost of our navy now. Sir policy of this country comprised the support and exten- Andrew Mitchell was, at that time, our envoy to Prussia, sion of Prussian influence. The House of Brunswick and he had passed so many years at the Prussian Court, should find its surest ally in the House of Brandenburgh, that he had formed a great attachment to the Prussian by whom, with few exceptions, the Prussian monarchy || monarch, and yet writes as we have quoted, regarding his and the increase of Prussian influence have been sup- own conduct; and the efforts made by him to discharge ported at a serious cost to the country. Lord Cat- his duty, "Fairly, honestly, and freely," to his country. tarel, who exercised a great influence over the English|| In 1762, a fit of economy seized our Ministry, and the councils, retired from office at this juncture, and was subsidy to Prussia was stopped, while Prussia was at succeeded by Lord Harrington, "who had uniformly war with Austria, and threatened-nay, invaded by endeavoured to conciliate the interests of Prussia Russia. At this juncture, Mr. Keith was enabled to with those of England." An immediate under- render great services to Prussia, and succeeded in perstanding with Prussia was not, however, completed || suading the Emperor to abandon the war-services and then, although Harrington greatly desired that step. their result for which Frederick expressed sincere On the other hand, subsidies were continued to gratitude. Maria Theresa; and, even in the eventful year 1745, when the country was threatened with civil war, which ultimately broke out, and when an undisciplined army, composed of Highland clans, twice defeated the regular forces in pitched battles, and made themselves masters of the North, marching to Derby, in the heart of the midland counties, and even threatening London, while the best part of the British army was employed in the Netherlands, the following sums had been voted as subsidies: A further subsidy, "to make good such other treaties as are or shall be made with his Majesty's allies, and for other services for the year 1745," £200,000 8,620 Mr. Keith appears to have had considerable influence with the Emperor, and to have greatly approved of his conduct, but the end was approaching. In the early part of 1762, the Emperor, Peter III., continued his reforms, but he was literally doing too much good to be safe; and Mr. Keith thus describes the rebellion of his wife, Catherine II., by whom he was overthrown : "About eight o'clock that same evening, the Empress, on horseback, marched out of town at the head of 10,000 or 12,000 men, with a great train of artillery, on the road to Peterhoff, in order to attack the Emperor, whether at Peterhoff or Oranienbaum; and the next day, in the afternoon, Iwe received the accounts of his Imperial Majesty having, without striking a stroke, surrendered his person, and resigned his crown. The few authentic circumstances of this great event which I have been able to pick up are, that this affair had been long contriving, but was hastened in the execution by one of the conspirators having been arrested the day before, upon some indignant words he had let drop; this alarmed the others, who, for fear of a total discovery, resolved to go to work immediately, and, in consequence, sent some of their number in the night-time to Peterhoff to 500,000 £1,232,919 Taking into account the value of money a century since, we consider this sum equivalent to a present vote of £4,000,000, and equal to the value of the king-apprise the Empress, and to represent the necessity of her dom of Hanover, at a fair market price. Even this immense expenditure was not undertaken for a purpose which was considered consistent with British interests, but one which the historian of Prussia supposed to be opposed to the views of our Ministry, for he says, page 251, vol. 3 :— "The English Ministers, while they wished the King of Prussia all possible success, nevertheless allowed the attack upon Silesia to take place without opposition or remonstrance. There can be no doubt that the armaments of Prince Charles and of the Duke of Weissenfels were mainly defrayed by English money, at a time when it was no longer the interest or the wish of England that the Austrian arms should be successful." * London: John Murray. VOL. XVI.-NO, CLXXXIX, repairing to town without loss of time. It was, I think, one Orlow, formerly an officer in the artillery, who was charged with this commission, and who, having got admission about four in the morning into her Imperial Majesty's bedchamber, informed her of her danger. Accordingly, as soon as she could get dressed, the Empress slipped out of the palace-some say by a back door, others by a windowwithout one single servant of either sex; and, after several little accidents, such as horses tiring, &c., arrived in town about six o'clock, and went herself to the caserne of the Ismaeloffskey Guards, which she found under arms, with their colonel, the Hetman Rasomorosky, at their head, ready to receive her. As for the Emperor, he had not the least suspicion or information of the affair till between eleven and twelve in the forenoon, when, being upon the road from Oranienbaum to Peterhoff, he was met by a servant of Leon Narishkin, who acquainted him with the situation of affairs in town. His Majesty had proceeded to Peterhoff, and he learned there the manner in which the Empress had left 3 A |