Vienna and the King of Pruffia were renewed and confirmed; and the right of the king to fucceed to the margraviates in the remote younger branches of his own family, upon the failure of iffue in the immediate poffeffors (a right which had been only called in queftion through the vexation of the late conteft) was now fully acknowledged and eftablished. The ducal houfe of Mecklenburgh was put off without any other advantage in lieu of its claims, than the promife of fome new privilege with refpect to appeals. Upon the whole, few treaties of peace have been conducted upon more equitable principles, than thofe which feem to have prevailed in the prefent. The territory acquired by the house of Auftria is not inconfiderable; being about 70 English miles in length, and fomething from about half to a third of that extent in breadth. This acquifition lies between the Danube, the river Inn, the Saltza, and the borders of Auftria; including the towns of Scharding, Ried, Altheim, Braunau, Burghaufen, Fryburg, and fome others; forming, all together, a ftrong barrier, and a fixed unequivocal boundary, the limits of which are decifively marked out by thofe great rivers, between that archduchy, and the prefent dominions of Bavaria. This acceffion of territory, the court of Vienna feems, however, to have purchafed at fomething about a fair price; partly to be paid in money, and partly by a renunciation of old, vexatious, and otherwife inextinguishable claims, which however, in general, unproductive, would for ever have kept open a fource of litigation, trouble, mifchief, and war. To which may be added, that the establishment of a fixed and permanent barrier and boundary between the two ftates, seems to be a measure fraught with greater advantage to the Elector of Bavaria, as the weaker prince, than to the Arch Duke of Auftria, who is fo abundantly his fuperior in ftrength. It may likewife be farther obferved, that feveral parts of the ceded territory, were, what may be called, debateable land; the titles being difputed, oppofite claims laid, and they having been heretofore, at different times, objects of great conteft. Such was the early and happy termination of the German war. A war of the greatcft expectation; not. more from the great power, than from the great abilities of the principal parties. Many circumftances attending the late war and peace between Ruffia and the Porte, could not fail to fow the feeds of future difcontent, jealoufy, ill-will, and litigation, between the parties. Extraordinary fuccefs and triumph on the one fide, with an equal degree of lofs and difgrace on the other, are little calculated to promote any intercourfe of friendfhip, or cordiality of fentiment, among men; nor will a recollection of the hard neceffity under which a 4 peace was fubscribed, ferve at all to render palateable the bitterness of its conditions. On the other hand, the victors are fure to confider the vanquished as owing them too much. They are apt to think, that they have always a right to claim thofe advantages, which they omitted to fe cure cure in the moment of their fortune; and which they look upon as rights exifting though neglected, as they could not at that time have been refufed if demanded. The navigation of the Black Sea, the opening the gates of the Dardanelles and Bofphorus, fo as to admit a free intercourfe from the White Sea to the Black, the affairs of the Crimea, with thofe of the Greek dependent provinces of Moldavia and Walachia, afforded the grounds of thofe difputes between the two empires, which were now rifen to fuch a height, as feemed to render a new war inevitable. It may commerce on that fea. That The fecond ground of difpute, feemed ftill more difficult and delicate. The Porte had unwillingly confented by the late treaty, to admit or acknowledge the independence of the Crimea. independence muft be confidered only as nominal. Between fuch as Turkey and Ruffia, powers fuch a power as the Khân of the Crim Tartars, cannot be really The Turks were independent. in hopes, as that prince and his fubjects are Mahometans, to weaken the force of that article, by their natural inclination to the Porte: otherwife they would have confi With respect to the firft of thefe articles, we have formerly had occafion to obferve, that nothing less than the most urgent neceffity, under the preffure of immediate and imminent danger, could have induced the Porte to admit Ruffia to the navigation of the Black Sea. It might be compared in but under circumprivate life, ftances of infinitely greater danger and lofs, to a furrender of the benefits, navigation and fisheries of a fine lake, lying in the cen-,dered their conceflion in a fill tre of an eftate, into the hands of a powerful and litigious neighbour, who was watching only for means and opportunities to grafp at every part of the whole manor. It is not then to be doubted, that the Porte ufed every poffible evafion to avoid a compliance with, and threw every obftacle in the way which could tend to render ineffective, that article of the late treaty. It feems, however, that the Ruffians had notwithflanding, with wonderful spirit and induftry, very speedily advanced large capitals, and opened a confiderable worse light. To have thrown that whole country, fituated as it is, with its own and the adjoining nations of Tartars, together with the reigning family, the immediate defcendants of. Tamerlane, and in direct fucceffion to the Ottoman throne, entirely into the were circum hands of Ruffia, fents fents amongst the Tartars, and by artfully fomenting fome divifions which had originated within themfelves, with refpect to the fucceffion, had been able (as we have formerly fhewn) to defeat and depofe the reigning khân, and to place a creature of her own, although a prince of the royal blood, in poffeffion of the nominal fovereignty; whilft the government was now in effect more dependent upon Ruffia, than it had even for merly been upon the Porte; the dependance being doubly fecured, as well by a predominant faction among the people, as by the difpofition or attachment of the prince. By thefe, and by other means, the Crimea, with Little Tartary, and the Budziac, were become fcarcely any thing less than provinces to Ruffia; or at least, they were as dependent on that empire, as the nature of that fingular people will admit of their being, while they retain any confiderable degree of inherent ftrength. This conduct, and these circumftances, which certainly mili tated, at least, with the fpirit of the late treaty, could not but give great umbrage to the Porte; and afforded, if not a clear juftification, a tolerable ground of controversy, with refpect to any flacknefs or non-compliance on her fide, in fulfilling its conditions. But they alfo afforded caufe of the moft ferious concern and alarm, For that peninfula, furrounded as it is by the Black Sea, and the Palus Mootis, and commanding the communication between both, would afford fuch a claim of right to Ruffia, with fuch an intereft in, and such a strength upon, thofe feas, as nothing could afterwards be capable of oppofing. The difputes relative to the Greek nominal princes, but in effect governors, of Moldavia and Walachia, though not of a nature fo immediately alarming and dan. gerous as the foregoing, yet were founded on claims, and on an interference, which tended ultimately to the fame point; to the depreciation of the Ottoman power and government, the narrowing of its European dominion, and the finally throwing every thing on that fide of the Danube into the hands of Ruffia. The attachment which the Greek Chrif tians, who inhabit thefe provinces, had fhewn to Ruffia in the late war, had, along with other motives, induced her to obtain very confiderable conceffions in their favour at the conclufion of the peace. The effect of the partial advantages granted to these two provinces was foon apparent, by the emigration of Chriftian inhabitants, from thofe on the other fide of the Danube which it naturally occafioned; who, as well as the natives, looked up to another power, than that to which they avowed allegiance, for favour and protection. In order to fecure their independence on the Porte, Ruffia made a demand, that those princes fhould not be depofed or punished (misfortunes to which they were particularly liable) on any pretence or account whatever. In fo unhappy a flate of weaknefs and diforder was that vaft and unwieldy empire, that it might be a queftion of doubt, whether to admire the fpirit, or to con demn war. demn the rafhnefs, which induced On the other hand, though, therefore very willing to receive an accommodation. And his me- It was, in the first inftance more efpecially, a matter of no small general aftonishment, that Great Britain, which had been fo long and fo clofely united, in the ftriat eft bands of friendship, and ap parent political communion of views and interefts, with Ruffia, and which had even gone fome extraordinary length in the late war in her favour, fhould not have undertaken the friendly office of mediator; by which means the would likewife have had an opportunity of wearing off that, not unfounded, jealoufy,, which the Porte could not but entertain of her late conduct. On the other hand, a ftrong jealoufy had for feveral years fubfifted between France and Ruffia; and their political interefts and regards fo much clashed with refpect to that war, that all the world knew, it was in a good measure the apprehenfion of Eng. land, which prevented the houfe of Bourbon from taking a decided part against the latter, upon her fending a fleet to the Mediterranean. Whether it was that we were too feeble in the Mediterranean to appear with any luftre in fuch a negociation, negociation, the effect feemed to be, that France, for fome time at leaft, feemed to attain the afcendant at St. Petersburgh, and the credit of Great Britain in that court proportionably to decline. of difplaying her authority, by becoming an arbiter in the public affairs of Europe; although, perhaps, the means of her becoming the greatest monarchy in the universe (if she be not already fuch) do not lie on the fide of Europe. With regard to other powers, Spain, in conformity to the new, and, to us, dangerous fyftem, adopted by the houfe of Bourbon, directed her whole attention to her navy; whilft her land force continued in its ufual form. As her refcript to the court of London, on the 16th of June, avowed the part fhe would take, fo the fiege of Gibraltar, which speedily followed, pointed out the first and immediate object of her defigns. We are not enMarch 21st. tirely malters of the conditions of the new convention which was now figned. Conceffions were made on both fides; and matters of claim, interference, and litigation, amicably adjusted. Some conceffions were made by the Porte with refpect to commerce, and fome new regulations made in favour of its Chriftian fubjects. On the other hand, Ruffia relaxed in fome matters with refpect to the Crimea, and the provinces of Moldavia and Walachia, and obtained fatisfaction in others. The new Khân of the Tartars was acknowledged by the Porte, and the apparent independency of the Crimea confirmed on both fides. The Empress of Ruffia had an opportunity of difplaying her ufual magnificence, by the fplendid prefents which he made to the French and Turkish minifters, as well as to M. de Stachief, her own refi dent at Conftantinople; who received the valuable, but in other countries unheard of gift, of a Maurepas was a thoufand peafants; a kind of gift, perfon long laid afide, and now which alfo includes the land which much advanced in years; but he they cultivate and inhabit. Upon preferved, in that great age, confithe whole, this convention feems derable vigour of mind. He is to have afforded confiderable fatis- at prefent, without any office, the faction to both parties; nor has most prevalent in the French counany matter of complaint or dif- cils. St. Germain, whofe conpute fince arifen on either fide. duct in the late war had entitled By this arrangement, the Porte him to univerfal esteem, was in a has had time to breathe, and like manner drawn from the botto settle its affairs. With re- tom of his province, and placed fpect to Ruffia, it has afforded her leifure to direct her attention to her conftant object; that France, under a new king, and who was not originally fufpected of great defigns, experienced a wonderful change in her circumstances. That prince very foon appeared to follow better maxims than thofe of his predeceffors. His firft ftep was to reconcile all differences between the crown and the body of the law. He drew from neglect and obfcurity men without intrigue, who were rendered refpectable to the public by a general opinion of their probity. in the office of fecretary of state; in which, if he had lived, there is no doubt he would have done great |