We find that the capital city of Warfaw, notwithstanding the prefence of the king and prince Repnin, and the protection of the Ruffian garrifon, was more than once in imminent danger from the confederates: who poffeffed the adjoining countries in fuch a manner, that the posts have not arrived for weeks together. That the king, a helpless fpectator of the miferies of his country, has been obliged to iffue proclamations, in which he requests of the confederates not to destroy the falt works, a measure which would be fo fatal to the nation in general. The king has also fent minifters lately to the courts of Ruffia, Great Britain and Holland, as guarantees to the treaty of Carlowits, and to thofe of France, Spain, Austria, Pruffia and Sweden, as guarantees of that of Oliva, for their friendly intervention. It has also been talked of, that a general confederacy under the king's immediate aufpices is to be formed, for the calling and protection of a new diet, in which cafe the Ruffians will be requested to withdraw their troops from the kingdom.

The celebrated chiefs of the confederacy of Bar, the counts Potocki and Krafinski, who drew fo much of our former attention, and were fo principally concerned in the troubles of this country, have had no immediate fhare in the interior tranfactions of it during the prefent year. As they were obliged to retire with the body of confederates which they commanded, under the Turkish protection, they accordingly became a part of that army which acted upon the frontiers, where they probably bore a full fhare in all the actions of the

campaign. It is evident that they behaved with great bravery, as the grand fignior, fo late as the month of October, fent his own felictar, or fword bearer, from Conftantinople to the camp, to invest count Potocki with a furred robe, and to present him with a fabre and three hundred purfes, as a reward for the fervices performed by him in the Ottoman army. This is the greateft military honour in that fervice, and was new to a Chriftian; it also fufficienly refutes the accounts that had been fo often published, that these noblemen had at different times been either killed by the Ruffians, or maffacred by the Turks.

Since the retreat of the Ottoman army from the borders, as the Ruffians were thereby enabled to pay a greater attention to the affairs in Poland, and to employ more troops upon that service, fo the confederates have been continually harraffed, and have met with a great number of very fevere loffes. It fcarcely feems poffible, in the prefent fituation of affairs, that, without the intervention of fome other powers, or fome very extraordinary change of fortune in favour of the Turks, a fingle confederacy can exift much longer in Poland: a confummation of their calamities, moft fincerely to be wished for by all who are partakers of them; as any fubmiffion to power is better, than fo fatal and ineffectual a resistance.

Such is the glimmering profpect we are afforded, of the fituation of affairs in this unhappy country. A nearer view would reprefent a picture more difgraceful to human nature; fullied with the most dreadful exorbitances, and stained with

2

the

the most horrid cruelties. Thefe charges are reciprocally made: and it is to be feard with too much truth, on both fides. One inftance however deferves to be particularly marked, in hopes it may stand in fome more lafting work than this, a perpetual record of the infamy of the perpetrator.

Nine Polish gentlemen, whofe arms had been cut off at the wrifts, prefented in the capital city of their native country, this new and fhocking spectacle. A fpectacle that would difgrace a nation of favages, and that even amongst them, would excite every latent feed of pity, indignation, and horror, into action. The Ruffian general Drewits, was the detefted author of this inhuman and execrable act; and fome accounts make him the immediate operator in it.

If we turn our eyes from this difgufting scene, we fhall behold Germany, so often the theatre of war, now happily flourishing in all the arts and bleffings of peace. We have already taken notice of the conduct hitherto obferved by the two great powers of this empire, in regard of the war that rages fo violently on their borders. In other refpects, the violent jealoufy and animofity, that fo long and fo fatally prevailed between the courts of Vienna and Berlin, feem, under the auspices of the prefent emperor, greatly to leffen, if not totally wear off.

Thefe powers have had fufficient trials of each others firength; they know what each is equal to. Silefia, that was the great object of contention, feems through length of time, and the hopelessnefs of recovery, to be as much refigned on one fide, as it is fecured to the VOL. XII.

other by prescription, and the ftrength of poffeffion. If the king of Prùffia is arrived at a time of life, when he need neither wish to hazard his own reputation, nor to run the rifque of leaving his fucceffor involved in a dangerous war, by engaging in a quarrel with a young, enterprifing and powerful prince, the emperor has as little reafon to be eager to venture himfelf, on his firft effay, in a conteft with fo redoubted and dangerous an antagonist.

The fame active difpofition, which we have before taken notice of in the emperor, the fame inquifitive defire to inquire into and become thoroughly acquainted with the griefs and complaints of his fubjects, and the fame benevolent inclination to redress their grievances or relieve their wants, continue ftill ftrongly to mark every part of his conduct. Upon the death of the late pope, notwithstanding the feverity of the feafon, the roughness of the country through which he was to pafs, and the badness of the roads, which at that time of the year March 3. are almoft impaffable, he fet out privately for Rome with a fmall retinue, under the title of count Namur. This journey was fo fecretly concerted, that nobody except the emprefs queen knew. any thing of it within a few hours of his departure.

At Rome the emperor met the great duke of Tufcany, who had been there for fome days before him. The illuftrious brothers continued together in that celebrated capital for feveral days. The couclave was then fitting, and as the emperor remained incognito during his itay, he thereby avoided [D]

all

all the honours that were defigned to be paid, and to which he was entitled. He afterwards vifited Naples, Florence, Leghorn, Turin, and his own Italian dominions.

He continued a confiderable time at Milan, where he liftened to every complaint that was brought before him, and redreffed every grievance with which he was acquainted. From many peculiar circumftances attending this dutchy, the adminiftration of government in it was liable to numberless evils and abufes. The emperor applied himfelf with the greatest attention to remedy thefe. Advertisements were pofted up, that all perfons, to the meaneft of the people, fhould have free access to him upon any caufe of bufinefs, or any complaint of grievance. The effects correfponded with his patriotic intentions, and the people already experience the happy difference, between the most defpotic and the mildest of adminiftrations. To fecure this happiness for the future, he has appointed a council, compofed chiefly of natives, of the greatest worth and honour, who are to ferve as a check upon the governors, and to act as mediators and judges between them and the people.

The travels of great monarchs to other countries, and their mutual vifits, are among the peculiarities that diftinguith the prefent age. The emperor upon his return home having immediately gone to infpect into the ftate of the camps which were formed upon the borders of Bohemia and Hungary, took that opportunity to pay a vifit to the king of Aug. 25. Prufia, who was then at Neifs, a frong city of Silefia. Nothing could be more cordial or

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friendly than the behaviour of thefe great princes, who spent two nights and a day together, and had more than one private interview. The fubject of their conferences may poffibly be hereafter known by the effects which they produce; but probably will not tranfpire otherwife. It is certain they parted with the ftrongest marks of mutual confidence, friendship, and esteem.

In the midst of the peace and tranquility that prevailed in the empire, the world was furprized to hear, that the imperial and peaceable city of Aix-la-Chapelle, fo noted for lending its friendly aid to compromife the differences of others, was itself fuddenly invefted by a strong body Feb.9. of the elector Palatine's forces, under the command of general Horft, attended by a confiderable train of artillery and fome bombs. The peaceable citizens kept their gates fhut for two days, and fometimes ventured to appear upon the ramparts. The Palatine troops, by rifing early, got in the third morning, without wafting their ammunition, and happily without fhedding any blood. As their fpleen was principally directed to the magiftrates, they quartered themselves by fifty or fixty a-piece in their houses; but the burghers met not with the fmalleft inconveniency, and were generoufly paid for what they took from them."

This odd tranfaction took its rife, as many others much more ferious, and mifchievous in their confequences have done, from a very trifling caufe. The elector Palatine has the appointment of an officer called the grand major of Aix, and has a place in the city

called

called Malfweyer, where there is a house with the neceffary conveniences fitted up, for carrying on the dying bufinefs, which the grand major lets to whom he pleafes for the elector's benefit. He happened lately to let it to a proteftant, who carried on the bufinefs in all its branches, and in all colours. The magiftrates maintained, that he had no right to dye any colour but fcarlet, and that to dye other colours he must be free of the

dyer's company, which no proteftant can be at Aix. The dyer, upon this obftruction to his bufinefs, applied to the elector, as his lord, for redrefs. The Palatine court, finding its repeated follicitations to the magiftrates were of no effect, took the method we have defcribed of procuring juftice.

The Palatine troops did not however continue long in poffeffion; a mandate was prefented from the emperor, by which they were commanded to quit the city in a limited time, under pain of incurring the ban of the empire. at the fame time the magiftrates were ordered, that if any expences were incurred, they fhould pay them out of their own pockets, and not charge them upon the people in general.

If the repeated alliances by marriage, which had before taken place between the houses of Auftria and Bourbon, was an object of jealoufy to thofe, who did not with that the accidental temporary alliance between these families fhould become permanent, it is now much increased by the marriage concluded upon, between the arch

dutchefs Maria-Antonia and the dauphin of France. A negociation that was fet on foot, in the courfe and in confequence of this treaty of marriage, between the emprefs-queen and France, for the forming of a new barrier in the Low Countries, whereby fome territories were to be exchanged, and others ceded, gave, with reafon, great umbrage to the ftates of Holland.

Some former differences had fub

fifted between the courts of Vienna and the Hague. A very large debt is owing to the latter, on account of the barrier; the importunity for which, and the confequent altercations, probably induced the emprefs-queen to declare Oftend a free port, and to make feveral other regulations in the Low Countries relative to commerce, which are highly prejudicial to the subjects of the ftates. The latter however exerted themselves with fo much fpirit, upon the defign of making a new partition of territory, that it is now wholly laid afide. The other differences are alfo faid to be in a fair train of being concluded to mutual fatisfaction. As the new fcheme of the barrier would have been very alarming to Great Britain as well as to the ftates, there is no doubt but that court would have taken proper measures to prevent it, if it had proceeded any farther. It is alfo to be hoped that the courts of London and Berlin, will ufe their endeavours to reftore that confidence and harmony, which had fo long and fo ufefully fubfifted between Vienna and the Hague.

T HE troubles in which the late pope found himself fo unhappily involved, with most of the princes of his own communion, Feb. 2. were only terminated by his death. Loaded with years and infirmities, it is no wonder that he fhould fink under a weight of misfortunes, which the moft vigorous youth and firmeft mind, would find it difficult to en

counter.

This event procured a temporary refpite to the court of Rome, from the dangers with which it was more immediately furrounded. It restrained, at least for a time, that epidemical avidity with which the Italian princes feemed to grafp at the temporal poffeffions of the church; though it could have no effect upon the general difpofition which is now fo prevalent among the Roman Catholic princes, to circumfcribe, within the narroweft limits, its power and operation in their respective dominions.

The election of a new pontiff was fingularly marked, by the appearance in Rome of the emperor, during the fitting of the conclave, a circumftance not known before for fome ages. His brother the grand duke of Tufcany, who ap

peared in his proper character, was accordingly treated by the cardinals with the greatest honours, and received fome very rich and magnificent prefents from them. The emperor, by appearing only in the character of a private perfon, avoided the troublesome ceremonials, by which his prefence must otherwife have been particularly diftinguished. What effect the prefence of these princes had upon the tranfactions in the conclave, cannot be determined; they however departed from Rome before the election was ended,

At length, after the conclave had continued fitting for fomething more than three months, cardinal Ganganelli was declared pope, and af- May 19. fumed the name of Clement the XIVth. This cardinal was born in the ecclefiaftical territories; was a monk of a branch of the Francifcan order, and was then fixtyfour years of age. He had been created cardinal by the late pope in 1759, and had ever fince lived in the cell belonging to his order in Rome, in the most private and reclufe manner. The apparent moderation of this unambitious conduct, had probably a confider

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