treated in prifon. Under pretence that they intended to make away with themfelves, they were removed from the neighbourhood of the walls of their respective dungeons, and chained down to the middle of the floor. Brandt, in the beginning, had amused himself with playing upon the flute; but upon a fuppofition that he intended to choak himself with it, it was taken away; and they were both deprived of the ufe of tobacco upon fome funilar pretence. Several of their adherents were banished the kingdom, and oshers to their native provinces for life. Struenfee's brother was difcharged, and received money to carry him out of the kingdom, as nothing appeared against him, which feems to have been the cafe of the others. General Gahler's lady was permitted to withdraw from the citadel to her own houfe; General Gude, and the two cabinet fecretaries, were fet at liberty, and Baron Bulow, the master of the horfe, was enlarged upon parole, that he would not go without his own houfe. would willingly fubmit to all thofe accufations, provided his doing fo could be of fervice to the colonel. If this circumftance be true, it is far from indicating a heart totally depraved and abandoned. After more than two months examination, the grand commiffion at length paffed fentence of death, forfeiture of eftate, and degradation from their rank, upon the two counts, Struenfee and Brandt. Among the crimes with which the former was charged, were the affuming of an extraordinary and unconftitutional power; his having been guilty of high treafon, in expediting feveral orders from the privy council without the King's confent or knowledge; his having made ufelefs and dangerous changes in the government, and fufpicious arrangements in the capital and palace; his having difcharged the guards; and his having been guilty of peculation in his office, and embezzling large fums of the public money. Brandt, was charged in general, with having been his confident, and privy to all his crimes; and in particular, with fome difrefpectful familiarity, with the King's perfon, which was brought within the conftruction of the law, that makes it death to lay violent hands on him. Struenfee at his firft examination before the commiflioners, was hewn the inftruments of torture, which were brought into the room on purpofe to intimidate him; we do not find. however, that either he or Brandt were put to the question. They both underwent frequent and long examinations, and were once confronted. Upon that trying occafion, they both behaved with digmity and refolution; they neither accufed, nor blamed each other, nor lamented their fituation. It is faid that the whole number of questions proposed to Struenfee in the courfe of his examinations amounted to 637. It is alfo faid, that he and Colonel Falkenfchiold were confronted at one of thefe examinations, and that the latter having made very heavy charges upon him in his evidence, Struenfee replied, that he The King figned the fentence, which contained the order for cutting off their right arms, and then their heads, for difmembering and disembowelling their bodies, for fixing their heads and hands upon iron fpikes, and expofing their quarters upon the wheel, with great unconcern, and went immediately after to the Italian opera. The unfortunate criminals behav ed with great intrepidity, and were publickly executed three days after the fentence Apr. 28th, was paft, furrounded by great bodies of foot and dragoons, and by an infinite number of ipectators. They ૨૧ 223 did not fee each other, and Brandt was first executed. He was attended by a clergyman, and behaved with decency upon the scaffold, but fhewed an unconcern and indifference, which feemed to the populace in fome degree a confirmation of the report that had been spread of his being an Atheist. Struenfee, fhewed equal firmness; but inore devotion, and a more awful fenfe of the change which he was to undergo. It is faid, that he read the fentence in the prifon, with a compofure that furprized every body prefent, until he came to the part which related to Brandt, when he feemed to be greatly affected, at finding that his punishment was to be equal in degree with his own. There were no other capital executions exhibited; a Count Wolinfky, is faid to have had his tongue cut out, for having faid fame things that reflected upon the King, and upon the Queen Julia, and to have been banished the Danish dominions for ever. Orders were given to the commiffion to ftop proceedings against Colonel Heffelburgh, Admiral Hanfen, Lieutenant Aboe, the Privy Counsellor Willebrandt, Counfellor Sturtz, and Profeffor Berger, and they were all fet at liberty, without any declaration either of their guilt or innocence. Willebrandt, and Sturtz, were however obliged to retire to the island of Zealand, and had penfions bestowed on them, and Berger was banished to Aalberg; Colonel Heffelburg, was ordered to retire to Holftein, and promifed a regiment. Falkenfchiold, General Gahler, and fome others, were continued in prison. It seems pretty evident, by the difcharge of fo many members of the late adminiftration, and of the particular friends and adherents of the late favourites, that the charge of their intending to force the King to fign an act of renunciation, and to the appointment of a regency. was not founded in fact, and was only calculated to answer the prefent purposes of the ruling faction: as fuch a scheme must have couprehended a confiderable number of thofe perfons, and could not fail of being brought to light in the courfe of this enquiry. The grand commiffion, carried on a procefs against the Queen, as well as the favourites, and the Attorney General Uldahl, was appointed to act as her advocate. It is reported, that the fenate and the privy council, had at first intended to proceed to the utmost extremities and even to strike at her life; but that fome apprehenfions of the refentment of another court put a stop to their violence. This indeed feems very probable, as moderation is not one of the qualities that are to be expected in a faction, which is either ftruggling for power, or newly arrived at it; when independent of their own paffions, acts of refentment, and appearances even of fury, are neceffary to keep up that fever in the people, which is requifite for their purpofes. As no authorized nor authentic accounts has been published, either of the charges made against the Queen, or of the nature of her defence, we cannot prefume to enter upon that fubject, on the foundation of vague or fufpicious reports. The following questions are faid to have occafioned great debate among the commiffioners, whether the Queen, as a fovereign, could be legally tried by her fubjects? And whether, as a foreign princefs the was amenable to the laws of Denmark? Whatever the original defigns of the court might have been, his Britannic Majefty feems, in fome degree, to have concurred in, and probably influenced their final determinations with refpect to that unfortu nate princefs, by his fending a finall iquadro fquadron of fhips to convoy her to Germany, and appointing the city of Zell, in his electoral dominions, for the place of her future refidence. Commodore M Bride having arrived in the Sound with three English frigates, the Queen, attended by the Count de Halftein and his lady, and the Lord Chamberlain Raben, all of her late houshold, together with Lady Mollyn, and the British minifter, embarked for Stade, where he was received with great hoMay 30th. nours, and feveral of the Hanoverian nobility of both fexes were waiting to attend her. The Quen has fince formed a fmall court, and is as agreeably circum#lanced, as the nature of her fituation will admit. thofe of the most defpotic of the Afiatic governments. The war which the Danes carried on with the Algerines, is terminated by a peace, as little to their advantage, as that was to their glory. They confented to pay that piratical ftate, 50,000 Algerine fequins, which amount to near 25,000 pounds fterling, befides a large quantity of military and naval ftores. It undoubtedly will be a matter of aftonishment to future ages, that at a time when the naval force and commerce of Europe, are arrived at an extent of greatnefs, unknown in any other period, or part of the world, fo many powerful ftates, who are watchful of every opportunity of advantage to go to war with each other, fhould fubmit to the ignominy of paying a fhameful tribute, to the paltry nefts of pirates, who rather infeft than inhabit the Barbary coafts. It has, perhaps, been too haftily, and too generally received an opinion with the most eminent writers, and from them too carelessly receiv ed by the world, that the northern nations have at all times, and without exception, been paffionate admirers of liberty, and tenacious to an extreme of their rights. A little attention will fhew, that this opinion ought to be received with many restrictions. Sweden and Denmark, have within little more than a century, give an abfolute demonftrati ons to the contrary, and the vast nation of the Ruffes, who overfpread fo great a part of the north, have at all times fo long as their name has been known, or their acts remembered by history, been incapable of any other than a defpotic form of government. And notwithstanding the contempt in which we hold the eastern nations, and the flavish difpofition we attribute to them, it may be found, if we make a due allowance for the figurative ftile and manner of the Orientals, that the official papers, public acts, and fpeeches, at the courts of Petersburgh, Copenhagen, and Stockholm, are in as unmanly a ftrain of fervility and adulation, as The fate of the French parliaments feems to be finally decided, and the few remains of public liberty that were preferved in those illuftrious bodies, are now no more. The people laughed and pafquinaded, and were fent to the Bastile, and fo the affair paffed off. The ftand made by the princes of the blood in behalf of their country, and in oppofition to the arbitrary power of the crown, did them great honour: but oppofition cannot be long-lived in a country, where honours, emoluments, and even fecurity, are wholly derived from the King, and the national vanity has made perfonal weight and importance to center folely in him. The princes accordingly became tired of fruitless oppofition to the King, who feemed greatly diftreffed by it, accepted with infinite pleasure the overtures they made for an accommodation. In a word, if we ferioufly confider the mode of fupporting great flanding armies, which be comes comes daily more prevalent, it will appear evidently, that nothing lefs than a convulfion, that will Thake the globe to its centre, can ever reftore the European nations to that liberty, by which they were once fo much diftinguished. The western world was the feat of freedom, until another, more western, was difcovered; and that other will probably be its afylum, when it is hunted down in every other part. Happy it is, that the worst of times, may have one refuge ftill left for huma nity. dreadful diftempers, as fatal, though perhaps not fo contagious, as the plague, and which feem to have been the offspring of famine, Pofterity will be at a lofs which to admire moft, the great power of Ruffia, or the magnificence of its Emprefs, when they are informed that in the courfe of fo long, so expenfive, and fo widely extended a war, her expences, whether in rewards to her generals and officers, in prefents to learned men, in the encouragement of arts, or in the purchase of libraries, ftatues, pictures, antiques, and jewels infinitely exceed thofe of any late or prefent European prince, except Lewis the Fourteenth. Among many inftances of this nature which might be given, a diamond of an enormous fize which fhe purchased this year may be fufficient. This diamond which weighs 779 carats, was brought fome years ago by a Greek gentleman from Ifpahan to Holland, and depofited for fecurity in the Bank, till he could meet with a purchaser; the greatnefs of the price would have made this difficult, if the Emprefs of Ruffia had not exifted. She has paid upwards of 100,000l. fterling for it, befides fettling a penfion for life of 4000 rubles upon the gentleman, which amounts to little less than a thousand pounds fterling a year. [To be continued.] Such have been, in general, the public tranfactions in Europe during the year of which we treat. The great fcarcity of provifions which has been fo deplorably felt in many parts of it during a fucceffion of years, has fill continued; and the diftreffes of the poor were in many places intolerable. In Norway, and feveral of the Swedish provinces, their calamities were fo great that they were reduced to the fad neceffity, of eating bread which was principally compofed of ground bark, with a fcanty proportion of meal. That other dreadful fcourge of providence, the peftilence, has happily ceafed in the Ruffian dominions, af ter having fwept away above 60,000 of the inhabitants. Bohemia, has ftill fuffered a greater lofs, from fome G A remarkable Infance of FIDELITY in a Servant. Ondibert King of the Lombards, being attacked by his brother Partharis, invited Grimoaldus, Duke of Benevento, to his affiftance. He accordingly joined Gon. dibert, and Partharis was totally defeated. Fired with the profpect of greatnefs, Grimoaldus now turned his arms against his friend Gondibert, flew him in battle, and feated himfelf on the throne of Lombardy. Partharis after his defeat retired to the Court of Cacanus, Duke February, 1774 of Bavaria, and craved the pro tection of that Prince. Grimoaldus, whofe jealoufy was enereafed with his power, infifted that Cacanus fhould not fuffer Partharis to refide in his dominions. The Duke of Bavaria, who feared the power of Grimoaldus, was obliged to fubmit, and the wretched Partharis, not knowing whither to fly for fafety, determined to throw himself at the feet of Gris moaldus, and fubmit to his clemency. He accordingly repaired to the M court of Lombardy, and was receive, the door of his apartment was ftric ed with all the external appearances of refpect and esteem. But, the Monarch perceiving vast numbers of Lombards to flock about him daily, he feared he would foon attempt to recover the kingdom. Regardlefs therefore of the rights of hofpitality, and the affurances he had given Partharis of protection, he determined to take away his life; and, in order to perform the work of darkness without exciting any tumult, he propofed to make him drunk, and in that condi-, tion put an end to his life. Partharis, informed of the defign, drank only water at the feaft prepared for this diabolical purpofe. But, in order to deceive the King of Lombardy, he caufed his fervants to carry him to his chamber as in a state of inebriation. Being now free from all reftraint, he confulted his faithful fervant Hunnulphus, what method ought to be purfued in this dangerous crifis; he knew A ly guarded, fo that it would be impoffible for him to efcape, as he was well known to the foldiers. Hunnulphus therefore dreffed his mafter in the habit of a peafant, laid a large bear's fkin over his head and shoulders, and upon that a mattrafs, fo that he appeared to be a porter. In this difguife Hunnulphus drove him out of the chamber with a cudgel, giving him feveral finart blows. The foldiers, deceived by this artifice, fuffered him to pafs; and, attended only by one fervant, he fled into France. Some hours after Grimoaldus entered to fee the horrid deed performed, but found the victim of his jealoufy was fled. Hunnulphus told him the truth, and offered his own bofom to his poniard. But Grimoaldus, ftruck with so remarkable an inftance of fidelity, not only pardoned him, but heaped upon him rewards equal to his virtue. Amazing Inftances of INTREPIDITY in a Body of Irish. FTER the Battle of Clontarf, the Irish army feparated; the forces of Connaught departing by the nearest road to their own country, whilst the Momonians returned, under the command of Donogh, one of the furviving fons of Brian; but as they were proceeding on their march, the difpute concerning the alternate fucceffion ordained by Olliol Olum, was again revived between the tribe of Dalgais and the Eugenians. The princes of the latter race now separated their forces from thofe of the former, and fent a meffage to Donogh (who till then had led all the troops of Munster) laying claim to the crown of that province on the principle above-mentioned, which they thought, reafon fufficient for them to demand of the fon of Brian, at this critical time, a formal renunciation of his right of fucceffion in that province, for which they expected hostages to be given, alledging that his father and uncle had violated the ordinance of their great anceftor, by fucceeding each other, inftead of obferving the alternate claim of the Eugenian family, To this meffage Donogh replied with great firmnefs, That the fubmiffion paid to his uncle and father was only extorted by force, and that they had attained the fovereignty of their province rather by their va lour in taking it out of the hands of the Danes, than by any established law. And he farther added with great contempt, That they might be fure he would keep what came to him by defcent, and what they never durft have difputed his claim to, if they had not taken a mean advantage of the fituation of hisaffairs; for that if the brave tribe See an account of the Battle in the Mag. for Jan. p. 50, & feq. he |