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juftice, that the very imperfect accounts which have been published of foreign tranactions of great importance, delayed, in hopes of being able to acquire better information, our entering upon a fubject which could not be treated with any degree of precifion, from the continued contradictions in matters of fact, which at tended every part

every part of it. In this, however, as in every thing elfe, we rather chufe to rely upon the indulgence, than pretend to appeal to the candour, of our readers,

The only effectual acknowledgment in our power to make, we have already adopted, by taking fuch measures as will prevent, for the future, fo well-founded a complaint from being laid against us. Whatever charges of inability, may with juftice be brought against the compilers of this work, that cenfure, which of all others they would most dread, is that only, which they are incapable of incurring, an inattention to the duties they owe, or a forgetfulness of the great obligations they are under to the Public.

THE

ANNUAL REGISTER,

For the YEAR 1769.

茶茶茶

THE

HISTORY

OF

EUROPE.

CHAP. I.

State of the belligerent powers. Expedition to the Mediterranean. Turky. Critical State of that empire. State of Poland Conduct. of the neigh bouring powers in regard to the war. Auftria. Prufia. Denmark. Difputes between the king and the fenate in Sweden. Diet degrades and punishes the fenate. Treaty of fubfidy concluded with France. France. Bankruptcy and fufpenfion of the French East India company. Spain. Portugal. Mazagan taken by the Moors,

WE

E faw at the clofe of the laft year, the difpofitions that were making by the great rival powers of the North and Eaft, to plunge Europe and Afia into the calamities of war. The, conteft between these powers has been cruel and bloody. If it has not been attended with great and fhinVOL. XII.

ing actions, it has abounded with thofe, which fhew war under its moft difgufting and hideous afpect; in the ruin and devastation of countries in ravage, and in maífacres. Happily, as the neigh bouring ftates have not hitherto interfered in the quarrel, its confequences have been restrained to [B]

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the parties who were originally engaged or immediately interested in it.

The fuccefs of the Ruffian arms in the latter part of the campaign, feems to put it in the power of the court of Petersburg, either to profecute the war to great advantage, or nearly to prefcribe the terms of peace. In the former cafe, the large frontier provinces of Moldavia and Walachia, which feem now to be added to its dominion, as well by the inclination of the inhabitants as by conquefts, will be of infinite use. Without entering into the prospects that may thereby be opened to the Ruffians, of extending their conquefts on the other fide of the Danube, it seems at leaft to be in their power to make themselves masters of the lower courfe of that river, which, if they mean to hold this conqueft, will be a natural barrier and defence to thefe provinces.

In this fituation the intercourfe between Turky and Crim Tartary is in a manner deftroyed. By land it feems wholly interrupted; and the communication by the Black Sea is tedious and dangerous, at leaft in the weak ftate of naval ftrength and naval refources among the Turks. In the mean time the Ruffians might reduce the city of Bender, and afterwards employ the greater part of their forces, in chaftifing the Tartars, and in to tally crushing the remainder of the Polish confederates.

While the Porte is thus ftreightned on the fide of Europe, measures are taken on that of Afia, which will ferve further to distract its attention, and to divide its forces. Ruffian troops fent into Georgia, and the infurrection they have ex

cited in that country, would feem fufficient to anfwer thefe purposes. Endeavours are however used to raise a more formidable enemy. A Tartar, named Kerim Kan, is faid to have obtained the principal. command in Perfia, and to have united at length that country, fo long and fo miferably harraffed and distracted. Perfia, when at peace within itself, has always been a formidable neighbour to the Turks. The politics of Ruffia have stirred up Kerim Kan, to lay claim to fome of the frontier provinces, which have been formerly difputed between the two empires. If we may give entire credit to this report, it is not difficult to appreciate the dangers which menace that extended, proud, ferocious, ignorant, and feeble nation. If the empress of Ruffia finds no evocation from difturbances at home, or is not appeafed by speedy and reafon. able conceffions from abroad, the Turkish empire may at length fall by the hands of a woman.

That great and enterprifing woman, has not however confined her views merely to the operations of a land war; they are much more extenfive; and to the aftonishment of Europe, from the bottom of the Baltic, a Ruffian fleet is iffued to shake the remoteft parts of the Mediterranean; to excite and fupport the infurrections of the Greek Chriftians, and to leave nothing in any part of the vaft empire of enemies, free from alarm and confufion. This naval expedition of Ruffia, ftands particularly diftinguished amongst the events of this year, and is indeed a remarkable era in naval history.

This however has been thought a rash and dangerous experiment.

It has been faid, that the knowledge in their profeffion, which the Ruffian failors could acquire, by their fhort fummer navigations in the gulphs of Finland and Bothnia, was not to be fuppofed equal to the dangers which they muft encounter, in unknown and boisterous feas. The condition in which both fhips and men arrived in England, the length of time they took in making their voyage, and the accidents they met with, notwithstanding the affiftance of fome Englith officers and pilots, feemed ftrongly to countenance this opinion. It was alfo faid, that the fea of the Archipelago, fo famous for its numberless islands, fhoals, and currents, as well as for its fudden, shifting, and violent winds, feemed to be an ill chofen and perilous fchool of probation.

The attempt, however, is great, bold, and manly; and it fhould be obferved, that neither great defigns are to be defined, nor great fucceffes to be obtained by the precife rules of vulgar calculation.

Nor is this to be regarded as a matter totally novel, and which only fprung up from the prefent contingency. A defign of a fimilar nature, or which at least led to the fame end, has been for many years in contemplation, and a favourite object at the court of Peterfburg. Indeed it is not to be ima gined, that Peter the Great and his fucceffors, would have built fuch a number of vaft fhips, only to have them dragged about once a year between the rocks and fhoals of the Baltic.

It is now known, that the great point which Ruffia had in view, in the war of the year 1736, against the Turks, was to gain a port and

free right of trade upon the Black Sea, with liberty for her fhips to pafs through the Dardanelles, in their way to and from the Archipelago and Mediterranean. The great fuccefs of the Turks against the late emperor, (who was "hen the Ruffian ally), and the dihonourable peace which they forced him into, fruftrated the fcheme for that time; but there can be no reafon to doubt that it had its full effect in producing the prefent war. How far its fuccefs, and the establishment of a new naval power in thofe feas, may be confiftent with the intereft of the other European ftates, it is not our business here to difcufs; however, it may be easily feen, that if it took place in its fullest extent, Ruffia must become one of the greatest maritime powers in the world.

A long war is not however at prefent defirable to Ruffia. Thofe who are acquainted with the state of population in that vaft empire know, that the want of inhabitants, is its great and principal want. If we may credit fome late French writers, the race of man is in danger of becoming extinct in its northern provinces, from internal, and perhaps irremediable. caufes, The lofs of men which, notwithstanding its fuccefs, it has already fuffered in the field during the progrefs of this short war, must have been very great. We know that the two great generals, Lacy and Munich, loft above half their armies in two fucceffive fummer campaigns against the Tartars only, though they had no enemy that could engage them in the field; and that war coft Ruffia confiderably more than 100,000 men. The lofs fuftained this year by the ra[B 2]

vages

vages of the Tartars, may probably equal if not exceed that in the field; befides their ruining the infant colony of New Servia, and fpoiling the noble province of the Ukraine; a province by much the finest and most fertile that Ruffia is poffeft of, the cultivation of which has always been regarded as an object of the greateft importance.

Thefe are loffes that touch Ruffia in the most fenfible and tender part. It may also be observed, that though this empire, from the cheapnefs of provifions, and the eafy method of providing for the troops, can fupport an infinite number of them at home; yet that the fate of its finances is but ill adapted to the vaft expences which attend the employment of fleets and armies at a great diftance. For thefe and many other reasons, particularly the jealousy of the other European powers, it is not probable that Ruffia will be too implacable in its profecution of the war, nor that it will refuse advanageous, though at the fame time equitable terms of peace, when they are propofed.

The affairs of the Turkish empire, are at present in a very critical fituation. Founded by the fword, and established totally upon military principles, nothing lefs than a continued exercife in war, and the confequent bbfervance of a fevere difcipline, could preferve it in its original vigour. The late long reft of thirty years, was not only contrary to the genius and temper of the people, but fubver five of the conftitution; the laws and maxims of which are repugnant to peace and the arts that depend on it. As fyftem and theory

have alfo found but little admittance in the Turkish military inftitutions, the power of habit, and that knowledge acquired by actual experience, could alone fupport the force and goodness of their armies; being in this refpect much inferior to their European neighbours; who having brought the art of war into a regular fyftem, keep large bodies of troops in the conftant exercife of that difcipline to which they are fubject in the field.

To this long peace may also be attributed that difpofition to revolt which feems at prefent fo prevalent among the Greeks. The terror with which they first regarded their fierce and haughty conquerors, was kept up by feeing them continually in arms, and by being witneffes that the fame courage which first made them irrefiftible, ftill made them terrible to their most warlike neighbours. Thefe ideas being worn off, by a long knowledge and acquaintance in the foftnefs and weakness of peace; they now dare to reflect upon the wretchedness of their own condition, and to repine at the op preffions which they fuffer.

This mal-content temper of the Grecian Chriftians, and the ftrong attachment which from religious and political principles they bear to the Ruffians, are circumstances much more alarming to the Ottoman empire, than any confe quences that could result from the ill conduct of the laft campaign, or the military prowess of their enemies. The Greeks are not only numerous, but most of the provincials are fierce and warlike; fo that the Turks are indebted to the bigotry and oppreffive difpofition, which fo uniformly difgraced the

councils,

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