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tent himself with a dimited and dependant fway, must depend upon contingencies that perhaps no one can as yet perfectly forefee, o milw errabi

In the mean time, the court of Petersburgh gives all the effect it can to promote his military operations ; and though their fuccefs against the Turks during the laft campaign has not been fuch as to give them that decided advantage over the Porte they have aimed at, yet the Ruffian arms have been upon the whole fuccessful, and the Turks have fuffered fome confiderable loffes.

Sweden.

To the northward, Ruffia has had the good fortune, last feafon, to difembarrass herself from a very troublesome opponent, which would otherwise have proved exceedingly diftreffing to her. The king of Sweden, having formed a strict alliance with the Porte, made a fudden and powerful diverfion in their favours into Ruffian Finland, and on the Baltic; but having been obliged to act with greater promptitude than the state of his kingdom could properly admit of, his fubjects at first were fubjected to great inconveniences by it, which excited private difcontents that gave him great annoyance; and being attacked at the fame time by Denmark, his affairs were for fome time in as ticklish a fit:ation as can easily be conceived. And had it not been for the critical intervention of Great Britain and Pruffia, he had great reason to fear that he would have been driven from his throne. This difficulty furmounted, the Swedish monarch, with an active alacrity that is rarely to be found, procured fupplies; recruited his forces by fea and by land: and having quieted by his address the internal disturbances that threatened to break out, he began the campaign with. that active intrepidity which has diftinguished all his civil and military operations. But having by an unlucky accident fuftained a great lofs at fea in an engagement with the Ruffian fleet on the roth of July laft, he, by a moft extraor dinary exertion, on a fucceeding day, recovered the laurels that fortune had torn from his brow. But being by this time fatisfied of the futility of his attempts at conquest, and both he and his opponent heartily tired of the war, a peace was fuddenly concluded between Ruffia and Sweden, with out the intervention of any other power, and without men

tion of allies on either fide. Thus did thefe two potentates, as ufual, contentedly fit down with their refpectiveloffes, without having obtained any other benefit by the contest, except a few empty laurels, which both monarchs were willing to claim as a small indemnification for the great loffes their fubjects had fuftained by the fruitless conteft.

Germany.

THE late Emperor, who was rafh in all his enterprizes, defpotic in counfel, fickle in his temper, and mean in the conduct of his private affairs, was continually projecting new enterprises, and ever unfuccefsful in executing them, had brought himself into embarrassments, from which death alone could happily have extricated him. At a time when his conduct had alienated the affections of his Belgic fubjects, with the hope, no doubt, of extending his empire on that fide, he had been induced by the court of Ruffia to engage in a war against the Turks; but having taken it into his head to command his army in perfon, he had the mortification to fee his baneful influence extended to the army, and the fuccefs that might have been expected from fuch mighty preparations retarded.

The ignorance, obftinacy, and inhumanity of this man, canot be better exemplified than by the following anecdote, which I had from the best authority. When in the campaign of 1788, the Danube formed the boundary between the two armies, the Emperor took poffeffion of a small inland in it, very near the northern fhore, on which he placed a picquet guard of thirty men. The Turks, with that rafh bravery which characterised most of their enterprises, at that time attacked this fmall party from boats. They were obferved approaching; and though nothing would have been more eafy than for the Auftrians to have repulfed them, by fending a fuperior force to fupport the picquet ; and though all the generals folicited permiffion to do it, the Emperor food unmoved, and faw the Turks deliberately cut off the heads of his thirty men, without making an attempt to fave them.

After he thought proper to withdraw from the fcene of action, the general, in fome measure, retrieved his affairs in that quarter, though at the time of the emperor's death, he had

1791.

LITERARY INTELLIGENCER.

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no reason to boast of his conquefts. The prefent emperor, though he did not entirely abandon the military enterprises of his brother, has profecuted them with lefs ardour, and more caution than formerly. He feems to be anxious to keep up his connections with Ruffia, not fo much with the capricious view of extending his dominions beyond the Danube, as of forming a balance to check the preponderating power of Pruffia, which he feems to dread. Hitherto his conduct has been rather more cautious than might have been expected from the general tenor of his political fyftem in Tufcany, and he has had the addrefs, not only to favour the views of his ally in Poland, without giving umbrage to Pruffia; but alfo to gain over that power to acquiefce in the plan he had adopted for recovering his former influence in the Belgic provinces, which must now again submit to be governed by the court of Vienna.

The court of Dresden, and the fmaller ftates in Germa ny, enjoy at prefent a profound tranquillity, the Bishop of Liege alone excepted. There, the people have afferted their claim to certain privileges to which the Prince Bishop does not think they have ajust title. Popular commotions were likely to enfue; and the Bishop thought it prudent to withdraw himself from a storm, that he imagined threatened his perfon, had he remained among them: by this means bloodhed has been avoided. The other powers of Germany are now preparing to interfere in this difpute; and there is little room to doubt that the prince will be reinstated, and the people protected in their just claims by the powerful mediation of princes, whofe award must be accepted as a law to both the parties in this difpute.

Pruffia.

FREDERIC the Second, after a long life fpent in a perpetu. al ftruggle to augment his power, and extend his dominions, by a prudence of conduct which nothing but a vigorous mind could inspire, not only extended the limits of his empire, but augmented the profperity of his people by every mean that was confiftent with a defpotic power in government a power which even this great man had not fortitude of mind to relinquish. At the time of his death, his dominions were at peace, his army in the best order, and his coffers full. He was then bufied in endeavouring, by

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THE BEE OR,

Jan. 12. peaceful mediation, to establish his kinfman the Prince of Orange in the full enjoyment of his rights as stadtholder in the united Provinces, from which he had been driven by the machinations of a party supported by the court of France, who aimed at getting thus a direction in the councils of Holland. The prefent king of Pruffia, on his fucceeding to the throne, adopted the fame general line of conduct which, his illuftrious predeceffor had chalked out : but finding pacific negociation vain, he proceeded, by force of arms, to replace the ftadtholder in his former authority, to humble the party that had driven him from the country, and to confer the power on that party which fupported his interest: But though the prefent ftate of France prevents her from taking any active concern in this business, the friends of that party in Holland are rather fuppreffed than extinguished; and there is reafon to fufpect, that were not the powers of Pruffia and of England to overawe them, and the French unable to fupport them, the peace of these provinces would not be long preferved; for the Prince of Orange himself feems not to poffefs either that firmness of mind, or those talents, which laid the foundation of the power of his ancestors, or fecured their influence over thefe ftates.

To be continued.

On account of a prefs of business, and the interruption that neceffarily attends a new publication, the printer has been fo much hurried with this number, that the arrangement of the parts was not altogether agreeable. There was not time to make the alterations that would have been eligible. In future, it is hoped, things of this nature will be avoided.

There has not yet been time to obtain any account of the publications of this year.

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I MOST heartily with fuccefs to the excellent plan you have formed of a new periodical publication and if time permitted, I fhould be happy to fend you fome communications. Perhaps a few hafty thoughts on taxes (a very interefting fubject at prefent,) which I wrote fome time ago, may be acceptable: if fo, they are at your service. It is one of the advantages of a mifcellany, fuch as yours, that it admits of papers in a lefs finifhed ftile than would be proper in a fet work. Hence a man of bufinefs may communicate his thoughts to the public; and if the matter contain any thing ufeful, the manner will be excufed. I am, &c.

Hints on Taxes.

The philofophy of man has generally been cultivated, either by theologians, who were ignorant of body, or by phyficians, who were ignorant of mind. The ancients, more efpecially Ariftotle, faw the neceffity of joining the knowledge of both, in order more completely to comprehend human nature. But the phenomena VOL. I.

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