plishing a peace: and those powers immediately entered on negotiations for that purpose. When affairs were in this auspicious train, the Austrian troops, by order of the emperor, who wished to frustrate the pacific measures, attacked the Prussian posts in Silesia and the county of Glatz with some success, and were afterwards repulsed in an assault on the fortress of Neustadt."-Had Frederic been actuated by the martial ardour with which he entered Saxony in 1756, this attack would probably have had the desired effect. But no object either of ambition or interest now presented itself adequate to the expence and trouble that must attend the prolongation of the war.-He, therefore, readily consented to the negotiations for peace; which had been brought forward, early in the year, by a plan of pacification proposed by baron Breteuil, the French plenipotentiary, to prince Repnin, the Russian ambassador. A congress was forthwith opened at Teschen by the ministers of Austria, Prussia, the elector palatine, the dukes of Deux Ponts and Saxony, attended by those of France and Russia, as mediators. And the result was a treaty of peace, by which the convention between the court of Vienna and the elector palatine was annulled; and the latter was restored to all the places and districts which had been seized in Bavaria, excepting only the territory of Berghausen, which was ceded to the house of Austria, as an equivalent for her claims and pretensions. That court, likewise, ceded to the elector palatine all the fiefs which had been possessed by the late elector of Bavaria; and agreed, also, to pay the elector of Saxony, as an indemnification for the allodial estates claimed by him, the sum of 6,000,000 of florins. Some cessions were, moreover, made by the elector of Bavaria in favour of the house of Saxony; and some equivalent satisfaction was promised by the emperor to the duke of Deux Ponts, on his succession to the double electorate. The former treaties between the courts of Vienna and Berlin were confirmed; and the king's right of succession to the margraviates of Anspach and Bareuth, on failure of issue in the immediate possessors, was now fully acknowledged. —Such were the chief articles of a treaty which restored peace to Germany; which prevented the aggrandizement of the house of Austria; and provided for the independency of the Germanic body. With 1779 1779 With this achievement, which, although so easily performed, redounded more to the Prussian monarch's honour than the most splendid of his victories, he closed his martial career: and he may now be said to have bid adieu to the royal banner, and all quality, pride, pomp, and circumstance of glorious war. 1779 RUSSIA AND TURKEY. In this disposition of the courts of Petersburg and Constantinople, the French ambassador, monsieur de St. Priest, easily effected an accommodation between them upon terms very advantageous to the empress.+ On her desisting from her requisitions respecting Moldavia and Walachia, the Porte consented to surrender the Russian vessels which had been detained at the Dardanelles; and, whilst the independency of the Crimea was professedly acknowledged by both parties, the sultan acquiesced in Catharine's demand of having Sahim Gueray confirmed in the sovereignty of that country. By this transaction the bands of friendship between Russia and Great Britain were loosed, and the empress was disposed to favour the Bourbon allies in the war now commenced by them in support of the revolted Americans. By this, moreover, she was enabled to afford that support to the Prussian monarch in the Bavarian war, which he demanded at her hands by virtue of the treaties subsisting between them, and in return for that friendship which she had experienced from him. In compliance with these obligations, Catharine immediately interposed in the affairs between him and the court of Vienna, and was one of the chief instruments in accomplishing the treaty of peace which ensued. Amidst these political transactions, a domestic event happened which deserves our attention because it was attended with circumstances declarative of the empress's grand design of driving the Turks from Europe, and restoring restoring the Greek empire in the person of some one of her own familythat was the birth of her second grandson. The empress not only named him Constantine, but we are informed on good authority, "that Greek "women were given him for nurses, he sucked in with his milk the << Greek language, in which he afterwards was perfected by learned Greek "teachers, and his whole education was such as to fit him for the throne of Constantinople." "*b 1779 TURKEY. VIDE supra. PERSIA. 1779 THIS year is memorable for the death of Kerim Khan,† who had borne a distinguished part in the transactions of this kingdom during more than twenty years. His eldest son, Abol-Ful-Khan, then twenty-four years of age, concealing his father's death, which happened at Schiras, drew the chief + March 15. The making Turkey part of the Russian empire, or subordinate to it, had ever been Catharine's favourite object, and is said to have entered into that vast scheme of conquest which Peter the Great formed for himself and his successors. "The empress of Russia has been accused of "inconstancy in her alliances, of inconsistency in her politics, and of only having had in view "to profit by the circumstances of the day. It must, however, now be obvious, that though she "used different means to accomplish her ends, she never deviated from the system she adopted the "first year of her reign, and that, if she changed her friends, it was because she thought that she "could no longer depend on them. "In every political connexion she formed, she had constantly in view the expulsion of the "Turks from Europe, and the restoration of the Greek empire. As long as the power she had "allied herself with seemed to favour these projects, she was steady in her attachment to it; the "instant it discovered jealousy of, or opposition to them, she sacrificed every other consideration, " and became its secret enemy. Nor has the present empress alone had in view the accomplishing "this vast design; Peter the Great first conceived the idea of its being some day practicable, and "the cabinet of St. Petersburg have never lost sight of it during the succeeding reigns, to this day." -Eton's Survey. 420. b Eton's Survey. 423. 1779 1779 -- chief men of the kingdom, who were adverse to his interests, to his palace under various. pretences, and caused them to be massacred. He then made his father's death known, and caused himself to be proclaimed king of Persia. This event plunged the kingdom again into civil war; each province having its favourite chief, whom it was desirous to invest with the sovereignty. 1779 EAST INDIES. WHILST the Bengal army was stationed on the frontier of the Berar country, and general Goddard who commanded it was employed in unsuccessful negotiations with the rajah, colonel Egerton, with the Bombay forces, in conformity with the orders given him by the presidency, had penetrated into the Maratta territories.-This rash step, into which they were precipitated by a desire to engross the whole honour of an enterprise of whose success they entertained the most flattering expectations, immediately evinced how erroneously they had speculated, or how grossly they had been deceived by the representations made to them respecting the disposition of the Maratta chiefs. The forces which were expected to join them in support of Ragonaut's cause, as soon as they had entered the Maratta frontier, did not make their appearance.-Scindia and Holkar, the most powerful of the malecontent chiefs, were gained by the money or jaghires secured to them. And they unanimously agreed, "not to receive Ragonaut Row, since he came with an English army, who were of a "different nation from them, and whose conduct in Sujah ul Doula's country, the Rohilla country, Bengal and the Carnatic, they were well acquainted with. Otherwise, in the end, they should be obliged to for"sake their religion, and become the slaves of Europeans.""It is even asserted that the perfidious, the profligate Ragonaut himself would willingly have made his peace with the government by betraying his allies to them, and uniting in their intended attack.-How incredulous are mankind to these truths, though confirmed by uniform experience-that men who 66 are a Des Odouards. 2. 142. aa Belsham. 3. 108. are disunited among themselves are generally ready to unite against a foreign enemy; and that no man is to be depended on who engages to fight against his own countrymen !-Of these truths the English company had, at this time, fatal experience. When colonel Egerton perceived his perilous situation, that he was surrounded with none but enemies or traitors, he thought only of regaining the Bour Ghaut. But notwithstanding he decamped with all possible secrecy by night, the enemy, who were apprized of his movements, made a furious attack on him before the dawn. Nothing could exceed the valour and firmness with which his troops, with the assistance of their artillery, repelled the assaults of a greatly superior force, which were continued above twelve hours. All their efforts, however, could not enable them to accomplish their object. They were completely intercepted.-A flag of truce was then sent to the Maratta camp. This being accepted, a conference was held, and a convention was signed at Wargaum,‡ by which the English engaged to deliver up Ragonaut, and all their late conquests "on that side of India: that the former treaty with Balajee Row should supply the place of the Poorunder: and that the Bengal army should "return. The committee, however, declared their incompetence to bind, by any deed of theirs, the supreme council in disposing of their forces." -Messieurs Farmer and Stuart were left as hostages for the performance of this treaty. The friends of peace now flattered themselves that the obligations of public faith would concur with motives of policy in bringing about a perfect reconciliation with a government which had demeaned itself with so much liberality towards an enemy which was entirely at their mercy. They were, however, destined to be disappointed in their expectations, and mortified at seeing the dishonourable conduct of the two presidencies.—Ill success did not intimidate them. The Bombay presidency instantly disavowed the treaty, and was supported by the supreme council. General Goddard refused to conform to it; and, instead of returning to Bengal, he pursued his march towards Surat. Ragonaut, having escaped from the Marattas, was protected in the British army. A new scheme was devised for effect ing 1779 |