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BRITISH AND FOREIGN

HISTORY

For the Year 1785.

CHAPTER I.

The Crimea acquired by the Ruffians. Defcription of the three Provinces of Catharinoflaw, Taurica, and Caucafus. Calamitous State of the Ottoman Empire. Claims of the Emperor on the Dutch. Their internal Difractions. Affair of the Schelde. Mediation of France. Exchange of Bavaria. Affair of Dantsic. Prince of Denmark.

HILE the kingdom of Great

fruitless contes between the different parties that divided her fenate, the powers of the continent were not idle. The various tranfactions which were carrying on at this pe riod, in the Eastern and the Western divifions of Europe, will claim a confiderable degree of attention from the liberal obferver. Among thefe the first in importance, as well as from its fituation the first in order, is the memorable revolution that took place refpecting the bounda ries of the Ruffian and the Ottoman empires.

Neither of thefe countries were ignorant of their true fituation. The Turkish government, confcious of degeneracy and internal weakness, were defirous, by a period of quiet and tranquillity, to meliorate their condition; and the views of Amed Halil, the grand vifier, for the reform of their eftablishments, and the introduction of civility and improvement, were dig.

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that he could not have a more favourable opportunity for preffing down the falling luftre of the Ottomans. The commotions of the Crimea, an! the favage and ungovernable fpirit of the Turkish viceroys, feconded her defigns. An intestine rebellion against the khan protected by Ruflia, was fucceeded by a barbarous execution upon the perfon of his envoy by the governor of Taman.

Nothing could be more contrary to the inclinations of the vifier than this violence. The interference of Vergennes, the prime minifter of France, was folicited; the offence was expiated in the blood of the criminal; and a treaty of commerce, extremely favourable to the fubjects of the czarina, was now negociated. In the mean time preparations for war were carried on with diligence on all fides. The treaty was concluded on the twenty-first of June 1783.

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Little did the court of the grand fignior fufpect the machinations that were at this moment carrying on against them. The khan of Tartary, whether from his own inclination, or compelled by the power that protected him, fignified a defire to refign his fovereignty. The emprefs prohibited the country from proceeding to elect a fucceffor, and prince Potemkin, a nobleman of great confequence and truft, was fent to take poffeffion of the country in the name of his/ mitrefs. The manifefto of Catherine, which he published upon his arrival in the peninfula, was dated on the eighth of April, and the news of this extraordinary tranfaction arrived at Conftantinople a few days after the ignature of the treaty.

It were tedious and uninterefting to enquire into all the fluctuations of the Porte, when advertised of fo unexpected a blow. Suffice it to fay, that no public notice was taken of the ufurpation till it was officially notified, on the twentieth of November, by the Ruffian ambaffador. It was doubtlefs with much fruggle and reluctance that the court of Conftantinople could be brought to a formal recognition of the proceedings of the emprefs: but her power was too great and irrefiftible. The emperor of Germany was at this time in the ftricteft concert with her government, and was ready to pour an effective and well difciplined army of two hundred thousand men upon the frontiers of Turkey, at a moment's warning. France, though fhe put a firm and decifive face upon the bufinefs, though the prepared a fleet in Toulon, and was about to garrifon the island of Candia, was too dilant to afford the most valuable fuccour. The king of Pruffia affected not to appear idle and uninterested in the bufinef; but age

had unnerved his vigour, and deprived him of that fpirit of fervency and adventure by which he had once been diftinguifhed. In fine, the fituation was defperate, and refiftance was hopeless. On the ninth of January 1784, the feal of government was fixed to the most ruinous and difgraceful defalcation of empire that, if we take along with us the circumftance of its being accomplished without the fmalleit bloodthed, was almost ever experienced by a falling ftate.

In the mean time, if we would form an accurate ellimate of the territories which were gained by the emprefs in purfuance of this treaty, it will be neceffary for us to have regard to three different periods in her history. If we compare the fouthern boundaries of the empire, as they are now defined, with the ftate in which the inherited them from her predeceffors, the contrast will be fuch as to require a fort of ftretch and energy of underftanding to take it in at one view. The provinces of Catharinoflaw, Crimea, and Cuban, which were at this time placed under the government of Potemkin, constitute a tract of country capable of much internal improvement, and of high value in refpect to navigation and commerce. But thefe were not all the acquifitions of 1783. By the peace of July 1774, which laid the foundation of the Ruffian confequence upon the Euxine fea, the Nieper and the Bog were declared to conflitute the fouth-western limits of the two empires. The difrict of Tartary lying between thefe rivers, is no other than the firit of the provinces we have enumerated. This is the feat of the celebrated port and city of Cherfon, a town fcarcely to be found in any of our Atlaffes, but which in celebrity, profperity, and import

ance,

ance, has not po haps been equalled, if we confider its recent ftanding, by any colony of modern times. Artifans, manufacturers, and merchants, pour into it from all quarters, and the time feems not to be diftant when it thall rank as the fecond port in this extenfive empire. The commerce of Cherfon was, if we may be allowed the expreffion, guaranteed and fecured to the emprefs by the ceffion of Kinburn, which lies oppofite to Oczacow, at the mouth of the Nieper.

The gains of Ruffia, on the weftern divifion of the Euxine, were fcarcely lefs important. The firaits of Cafa formed the outlet of the fea of Afoph, and the command of them is neceffary, in order to give value to the port of that name. Accordingly the emprefs obtained by the treaty of 1774, a district of the Crimea, which more properly conftitutes the traits than the city from which they have ufually been denominated. The chief towns of this diurict are Kerch and Jenifcala. Such were the acquifitions of 1774. The provinces added to the Ruffian dominions by the convention of 1783, were the Crimea, the province of Cuban Tartary, and the ifland of Taman. The Afiatic ditricts have ufually been comprehended under the general appellation of Circaffia. Their feparation from the rest of that country is recogrifed to be made by the river of Cuban. Their pretentions appear to be limited in refpect of population and improvement, and the emprefs has accordingly held out the greatest advantages to thofe who fhall be willing to fettle in this part

of her dominions.

The fate of the Crimea is fuppofed to exhibit a ftrong contrast to that of its neighbours on the other fide the traits. A celebrated tra

veller, whofe lucubrations feem to have been received with a particular degree of attention and refpect, the baron de Tott, is forward upon all occafions in drawing a contrast between the Turks and the Tartars, extremely to the advantage of the latter. The Turks, according to this writer, are dull and fluggish, the implicit flaves of abfolute power, incapable of inftruction and improvement, deftitute of liberal thinking, and making up for this deficiency by treacherous impofit on and intolerable arrogance. The Tartars, on the contrary, are brisk, lively, and ingenious, affable and courteous to firangers, and defirous of inftruction. Thofe that inhabit the peninfula are reprefented by him as arrived at a confiderable degree of civilization, and much fuperior to their late matters in every liberal accomplishment.

The views of the emprefs in acquiring this territory, have been magnificent and fublime. She has entered into the ideas which have been long cherished by the culti vated nations of Europe. We have been used to confider the Greeks as a race of men worthy of every honour. Their ingenuity, their acutenefs, their wit, their activity in every purfuit, the boundless degree of improvement of which they are capable, form a perfect contrait to the indolence of their lordly and imperious matters. We can fearcely look back to the more fplendid period of Athens, without feeling a fort of enthufiafm in their caufe. We are irrefiftibly led to imagine, that the country, which was the mother of all that is excellent in ftatuary, in painting, in poetry, in rhetoric, and in morals, muit be particularly fitted for unfolding the powers of the human mind. Animated by these confiderations, we A 3

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wish to fee revived among them their ancient freedom, and would be content that their conquerors fhould be driven back to their proper field, the emafculate and defpotic regions of Afia.

We fhould be apt to question the fincerity of the fovercign of a defpotic government, if fhe pretended to defire to revive the republicanifm along with the character of Athens. But her profeffions have not as yet gone to a length of this fort. Her immediate defign has been to invite the Greeks from every province of Turkey into her dominions, and to confolidate them in a manner with her new Tartarian fubjects. With this defign fhe has undertaken to abolish the barbarous, and revive the Grecian names of the regions and towns in the peninfula. The name of Crimea will probably henceforth be lost in the revived appellation of Taurica. At the fame time that the czarina has attended to the population and culture of her provinces, he has not loft fight of her favourite idea of commerce. In little more than a month from the fignature of the treaty, by which the Turks finally ceded their pretenfions to her, the declared three free ports in her newly acquired territories. The first of these was the capital of Catharinoflaw, which we have already defcribed. The other two belong to the Cherfonefus Taurica, one lying on the fouth-eaf, and the other on the western fide of the peninfula. The firft, formerly called Caffa, has now received the appellation of Theodofia, and the town of Actiar, near Baczifaria, is denominated Sebaftopolis. Thefe are her European acquifitions.

The map of country added to the empire of the cza ina is large and extenfive. Time and obfervation alone can enable us to form a judg

ment of its value. Meanwhile it is natural enough to exclaim, when we furvey the vaft and uncultivated country in various climates, and in different parts of the world, that already acknowledge her power, "What is the ufe that can refult to her from enlarging ftill more an empire that seems already encumbered by its boundlefs extent! The advantages of commerce had been fully fecured by the peace of 1774. To the peace of 1774 the Ruffians had been indebted for the port of Cherion, for their poffeffion of the ftraits of Theodofa, and for the free navigation of the Euxine and the Hellefpont. All that is folid in the convention of 1783, was fecured by the preceding treaty, and the rest is ufelefs incumbrance and parade. A refpect for the tribes of men that bear the denomination of Greek, is obvious and natural. But is it founded in obfervation and truth? The Greeks of ancient times were venerable and glorious; but thofe of the prefent age, do they not appear to be the dulleit and moft obfequious of flaves, without one grain of the activity, the liberality or the worth that distinguish their ancestors? If it were other wife, will any principles of religion or morality authorife us to expel from thefe provinces a nation of men who have been in peaceable poffeffion of many of them for more than three centuries?" To this it might indeed be answered, that the peninfula appears to be very far from a country depopulated and highly barbarous; and that if we have not a right to expel the Ottomans from their European poflef fions, we have at leaft a right to co-operate with any opprefied nas tion on earth for the recovery of their liberties. But the latter of thefe obfervations has little to do

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