For the vaft fuperiority of power on the fide of Ruffia enabled her, in a few days, to carry away all the fruits of victory, and to weaken, if not to cancel, that praise, which, in defpite of fortune, and independent of circumftance, fhould ever be the meed of diftinguished valour, when illustriously exerted in the caufe or defence of its country. Admiral Greig, from the acceffion of fresh hips, and the nearness of the great naval magazines and arfenals, was enabled, in lefs time than feemed credible, to put again to fea with greater force than before. He came fuddenly upon the Swedes in the road of Sweaburg, in Finland, where they were as inapprehenfive of attack, as they were from fituation and circumitance incapable of defence. He attacked them furioufly in this moment of confternation and furprize, and during the diforder occafioned by their endeavours to get within the protection of the forts, the Guftavus Adolphus, of fixty guns, feemed a facrifice deftined to the fecurity of the reft; fhe was taken and burnt by the Ruffians. From this time to the end of the campaign, the late victors continued fhut up in harbour of Sweabourg, being precluded even from the means of re-quipment, while the Ruffian fleet rode the triumphant mistress of all the feas within the Sound; nor was it long before a numerous flotilla of fmall veffels, laden with provifions for the army in Finland, as well as for the fleet, through the fatal lack of protection, became a prey to the enemy. The joy which this fudden turn of affairs occafioned at Petersburgh, may be eftimated from the panic which had fo lately, for the first time, feized that capital; and the importance in which the fervice was confidered by the court, was fully fhewn by the favours which the emprefs conferred upon admiral Greig. A letter, written to him with her own hand, was filled with praise and acknowledgement; and this honour was fucceeded or accompanied by the fubftantial benefits of a confiderable fum of money, and of a good eftate in Livonia. This commander, who was fingularly fortunate in his life, feems to have been no less fo in its period, which took place before the clofe of the year, when he was loaded with all the honour and favour which he feemed well capable of receiving. For by this means he not only escaped the com. mon danger of a reverse of fortune, to which military character and ho→ nour are fo particularly liable; but he efcaped the more certain and fatal effects of that jealoufy, envy, and malevolence, which the various circumftances of his being a fɑreigner, without weight or natural intereft in the country, his fudden rife, and the greatness of his favour, all ferved eminently to expofe him to, and which long experience has fhewn to be either interwoven in the nature or confequences of the fyftem adopted in that court and fervice. The diftinction and honour paid paid to him did not end with his life. His funeral was, by the exprefs orders of the emprefs, celebrated with the greatest pomp, being decorated and adorned by all thofe appropriate naval and military honours, which the martial nations of Europe have affigned as the laft tribute to the memory of the brave. The wretched officers who had been fent in chains to Cronstadt were, without any form of trial, or public enquiry into their conduct, condemned to that deplorable ftate of existence, in which death would have been the first of mercies, of ferving in the gallies, and of wearing iron collars round their necks for life. So much attention was paid to their families, as not to publish their names. The king of Sweden's July 21ft. manifefto, which was published after his arrival in Finland, but fome time later than the Ruffian, was fraught with much fevere charge against the conduct and views of the court of Petersburgh, for a series of past years; and the effect heightened, where the charge is deficient, by the bitterness of implication, which leaves more to be conceived than directly meets the eye, but the fcolding of fovereigns affords no more pleasure or edification than that of common people; and most of the real caufes of complaint we have already gone over. The defigns and attempts of Ruffia upon the province of Finland, which are here delineated, being new ground, yet untouched upon, we fhall here lay open. That power is charged with having, almoft continually, ever fince the conclufion of the peace at Abo, endeavoured to debauch the Finlanders from their connection with Sweden, under the fpecious pretence of rendering that great dutchy independent, under which it would have experienced the fate which Courland already has done, of becoming a feudatory province to Ruffia. The failure of these projects, which is attributed only to the integrity and attachment of the people, feemed to damp the design for a time; but the defection of an officer of high rank, whom she found means to draw into her ferviee, and who had been long entrusted by the king in commands of importance in Finland, is faid again to have rouzed all the ambitious projects of that court. That he has accordingly laboured inceffantly fince to excite a spirit of diffention and revolt among that people, and had even fent a general officer privately into the country, to reconnoitre the pofts, and to found their difpofition. The king of Sweden was destined to meet with the greatest disappointments, and to experience the most grievous mortifications, in his endeavours to emancipate his country from foreign interference and controul, to redeem, in fome degree, her ancient glory, and to enable her once more to hold her former rank among nation. But the ftar of Ruffia was ftill predominent, while that of Sweden was not only obfcured for the prefent, but afforded too much room for apprehenfion, that it was upon the point of fetting to rife no more. Those machinations and intrigues, of which the king complained fo much in his manifefto, had taken much deeper root, and their effect was much more widely diffused, than he was yet aware of. A counter revolution, by which the ancient forms of government would be pre ferved, ferved, the ambition and venality of the nobility gratified, while the nation was in fact governed, as Cour land long has been, by a foreign minifter refident in its capital, was the grand and determined object of Ruffia; and her measures were fo laid, that fhe probably calculated to a certainty upon the event. For he was feconded in the open and avowed part of her views (which went no farther than the restoration of the former government) by much the greater part of the ancient nobility, with all the influence which fo numerous and eminent a body neceffarily poffeffed; to which were to be added the infinite number of others, who, from various caufes, were inimical to the late revolution, and confequently to the fyftem of government founded upon it. It was faid, and feems probable, that a counter-revolution was only part of the object, that no modification would be admitted, and that nothing less than abfolute dethronement could afford fatisfaction. That the king's croffing, at fo critical a period, the favourite views of his great adverfary, the contemplation of which had long afforded the most fublime gratification, had created a perfonal animofity beyond all bound and meafure, and which the moit fignal vengeance could fcarcely be fufficient to ally. It was even rumoured (and rumour is not always unfounded, particularly in defpotic governments) that, in the height of refentment, an idea was once entertained of reviving the title of the grand duke to the crown of Sweden, as fucceffor to the late unfortunate, emperor, Peter the Third, who had, unhappily for nimfelf, relinquifhed that quiet and fecure inheritance, VOL. XXX. for the delufive profpect of fucceeding to the unstable and bloody throne of a vaft, but disjointed and difordered, empire. However that was, the excellently constituted, difciplined, and wellappointed, army, which the king commanded in Finland, rendered. ftill more formidable, by the native unconquered courage of the troops, and the fingular intrepidity of their royal leader, would have been able, if nothing finifter intervened, and that no internal unfoundness vitiated its compofition, to carry difmay and terror to the gates of Petersburgh; nor could the wifeft, foresee what revolution in public affairs fuch an event might not have occafioned. But, inftead of the gratification of thefe flattering ideas, the king foon discovered that he could place no confidence in his army; that a general difaffection was spread among his officers, efpecially thofe in high commands, and of the most noble families; that they were not only determined to counteract all his defigned in the field, but that several of them carried on a traitorous correfpondence directly with the enemy, while a greater number (and undoubtedly the honefteft part) deciared openly, that they could not, without a violation of their confcience, and the oaths they had taken to their country, draw their fwords in a war, undertaken without the confent of the ftates of the kingdom, and of courfe contrary to the conftitution. This unexpected difgrace and miffortune, Caltavus was doomed to encounter at the feige of Fredericfham, where the officers, refufing to lead on the troops to the attack, and he appealing to the latter, on whom [F] he he fill relied, to his utter aftonishment and difmay, they generally laid down their arms. While the king feemed inextricably involved in thefe difficulties and dangers (for even the fafety of his perfon, in his own army, appeared to be fufficiently problematical) and that the feeds of diffention and difaffection were equally fhooting up in the capital and other places, the violent irruption of the Danes from the fide of Norway, into the richeft provinces of Sweden, feemed deftined to overwhelm him intirely. Under this additional preffure, he was obliged to abandon the army in Finland, in its prefent uncertain and disjointed ftate, to the care of his fecond brother the duke of Oftrogothia, while he undertook himself a perilous voyage by fea, expofed to the greatest or all dangers, that of being captured by a most cruel and implacable foe, from whom, deliverance could fcarcely be hoped; and, after a fevere circuitous journey by land, proceeded to the fouthern extremity of his dominions, to oppofe, without troops or means, a new and very formidable enemy. CHAP. CHA P. IV. army; Gaufes of the early meeting of parliament declared in the king's speech; difputes in the United Provinces; intended interference of France; declaration of the court of Great Britain; treaty with Heffe Caffel; fuccefs of the Pruffian forces; final accommodation; speech of lord Fielding upon the works of Cherburgh; of Mr. Fox upon continental alliances; upon the difpofitions of the French court; upon the fubfidiary treaty; the increase of the and the appointment of admiral Pigot. Mr. Pitt's reply to Mr. Fox on thofe fubjects. Speeches in the house of lords; of the bishop of Llandaff, upon our right of interference in Holland, and upon the balance of power; of lord Stormont, upon the fame jubject, and the negligence of minifters. Addrefes in both houses, nem. con. State papers laid before parliament. Mr. Fox complains of the retention of the French notification; answered by Mr. Pitt; motion for an address for that paper negativel. Debate on the fubfidiary treaty; objections of Mr. Fox; Mr. Pitt's defence. Opinion of Mr. Burke upon foreign alliances, and upon the merits of the treaty. Debate on the augmentation of the land forces; objected to by Mr. Fitzpatrick and Mr. Fox; defended by Mr. Pitt. Debate on the ordnance estimates; on the plan. of fortifying the Weft India islands; on the government manufacture of gunpowder; on the new corps of artificers. Account of the impeachment of Mr. Haftings and Sir Elijah Impey in the feventh chapter. Nov. 27th, THE interval be- teracting all forcible interference on the part of France-That, in conformity to this principle, when his molt Chriftian majefty, in confequence of an application for affiftance against the king of Pruffia, made by the party which had ulurped the government of Holland, had notified to him his intention of granting their requeft, he had declared that he should not remain a quiet fpeétator, and had given immediate orders for augmenting his forces both by fea and land—and that, in the courfe of thefe tranfactions, he had thought proper to conclude a fubfidiary treaty with the landgrave of Heffe Caffel-That the rapid fuccefs of the Pruffian troops having foon after enabled the provinces to re-establish their lawful government, and all fubjects of contelt being thus removed, an [F] 2 amicable |