pretty equally balanced. But then it was obvious, that the feafon was the immediate cause which compelled the enemy to retreat from Bohemia ; however, the good difpofitions made by the emperor, which equally baffled all the efforts made by the King of Pruffia, for gaining his favourite point of a general action, and defeated his views of obtaining any fure hold in the country, tended more remotely to that effect. Such a view of the circumstances of the campaign, could afford no great encouragement to an obilinate perfeverance in the conteft. A defenfive war, however ably conducted, or however abounding with negative fuccefs, could by no means, whether in point of honour or effect, anfwer the purposes for which it was undertaken; and the profpects of changing its nature were confined indeed. However numerous or cogent the causes and motives we have affigned, or others of a fimilar nature, might have been on either fide, for the difcontinuance of an unprofitable war, they would have been found unable to fubdue the ftrong paffions by which they were opposed, if another, of greater power than the whole taken together, had not, happily for Germany, and perhaps for no fmall part of the reft of Europe, fupervened in reftoring the public tranquility. The late illuftrious Maria Therefa, along with her other eminent virtues and great qualities, poffeffed at all times, however counteracted by the operation of a high and powerful ambition, a mind ftrongly impreffed with an aweful The event of the late ftruggle with the King of Pruffia, notwithstanding the immenfe affiftance fhe then received, and which he could not hope now to receive, muft have added great force to thefe motives. She could not wish to end her life in the midst of fuch a war. It was, accordingly, much against the inclination of that great princefs that the prefent war was undertaken; and fhe is faid to have fubmitted with the greateft reluctance to the opinion of her council, and the defire of the emperor on that point. For, although that prince could only derive his means of action through the power of his mother; yet it would have been a matter of exceeding difficulty to her, direct ly to thwart the opinion and inclinations of a fon, who was in the highest degree defervedly dear to her, who was to be her fole and immediate fucceffor, and who fcarcely flood higher in her affection than in her esteem. probably this reluctance to the war, on the fide of the EmpressQueen, which produced thofe various appearances, of fluctuation in the councils, or of irrefolution and indecifion in the conduct of the court of Vienna, of [A] 2 It was which which we have formerly taken upon by the court of Vienna to notice. The ineffectiveness of the campaign, the equal fortune of the war, and the ceffation of action occafioned by the winter, ferved, all together, to produce a state of temper and difpofition, which was far more favourable to the pacific views and wishes of the emprefs, than that which had hitherto prevailed. She perceived, and feized the opportunity; and immediately applying her powerful influence to remove the obftacles which stood in the way of an accommodation on the one fide, had foon the fatisfaction of difcovering that her views were well feconded, by the temperate difpofition which prevailed on the other. It is however to be obferved, that the mediation of the court of Verfailles, and the powerful interpofition of the court of Peterfburg, contributed effentially to further the work of peace. France was bound by the treaty of 1756, to affift the court of Vienna with a confiderable body of forces, in cafe of a war in Germany, and fhe had been called upon early in the prefent conteft to fulfil that engagement. The court of Verfailles was likewife difpofed to with well to the houfe of Auftria from private motives; as well as to cultivate and cement the new friendship and alliance from public. But France being likewife a guarantee of the treaty of Weftphalia, her old engagements militated totally with her new in the prefent inftance; fhe being thereby bound to refift all fuch infractions and invafions of the rights of the Germanic body, as thofe which he was now called fupport. She must therefore, in any fituation, in which fhe was not difpofed to become an abfolute party in the conteft, wish to be relieved from this dilemma. But her war with England, and her views with refpect to America, operated more forcibly upon her conduct on this occafion, than any German treaties or connections. In the contemplation and pursuit of these grand and capital objects, the neceffity of keeping her force whole, her attention undivided, and of reftoring peace upon the continent, were all equally obvious, and were all mutually dependent. No wifdom could foresee, or venture to prefcribe, what unexpected connections and alliances might fpring up, and what new collifions of interefts might take place, under a further progrefs of the war. France could not recollect the ruin brought upon her in the late war, without fhuddering at the thoughts of Germany. It is not then to be wondered, that he was equally. fincere and zealous in her endeavours to restore tranquility on the continent. The court of Petersburg had from the beginning fhewn and expreffed the ftrongeft difapprobation of the conduct, and paid no favourable attention to the claims, of that of Vienna; and had early avowed a full intention of effectually fupporting the rights of the Germanic body; at the fame time that preparations were actually made, for the march of a large body of Ruffian troops. Her powerful interpofition, through the medium of her minifter Prince Repnin, had no fmall effect in peace. facilitating the negociations for place, the garrifon being previously withdrawn, the Imperial and Pruffian minifters, with those of all the princes engaged or interefted in the prefent contest, as well as of the two mediating powers, were affembled, immediately after the publication of the armistice. And fo happy were the difpofitions which now prevailed among the contending parties, and fo efficacious the endeavours of the mediators, that the peace May 13th was finally concluded in two months. Under fuch circumftances, and the offices of fuch mediators, little doubt was to be entertained of the Whether it proceeded from a view of giving weight to their claims in the expected treaty, or from any jealoufy in point of arms or honour, which might have lain behind from the preceding campaign, however it was, the Autrians attacked with extraordinary vigour, and with no fmall degree of fuccefs, feveral of the Pruffian pofts on the fide of Silefia and the County of Glatz, foon after the commencement of the year. The liveliness of these infults did not induce the king to any eagerness of retaliation. Points of honour of that nature weighed but little with him. He forefaw that an accommodation would take place; and he knew that no advantages which could now be gained would tell in the account upon that fettlement; whilft a number of brave men would be idly loft without object or equivalent. March 10th. An armistice on all 1779. fides was, however, published, before the feafon could have admitted the doing of any thing effential, if fuch had even been the intention. The Congress which was to preferve Germany, from the moft alarming and dangerous war to which it could have been expofed, was held at Tefchen in Auftrian Silefia; a town and diftrict, which the emperor had generously confented to conftitute into a Duchy, under the title of Saxe-Tefchen, in favour of Prince Albert of Saxony, upon his marriage with an Arch-Duchefs in 1765. At that By this treaty, the late convention between the court of Vienna and the Elector Palatine was totally annulled; and the former restored all the places and districts which had been feized in Bavaria, excepting only the territory appertaining to the regency of Burghaufen, which was ceded to the houfe of Auftria, as an equivalent or indemnification for her claims and pretenfions. That court likewife gave up to the Elector Palatine, all the Fiefs which had been poffeffed by the late Elector of Bavaria; and agreed alfo to pay to the court of Saxony, as an indemnification for the allodial eftates, and other claims on that fide, the fum of fix millions of florins; (amounting to fomething near 600,000 pounds fterling) to be paid in the courfe of twelve years, without interest, by ftipulated half-yearly payments. Some ceffions were likewife made by the elector, in favour of the houfe of Saxony; and fome equi. valent fatisfaction promifed by the emperor to the Duke of Deux Ponts, on his fucceffion to the double electorate. All former treaties between the court of [4] 3 Vienna 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 question through the vexation of the late conteft) was now fully acknowledged and established. The ducal houfe of Mecklenburgh was put off without any other advantage in lieu of its claims, than the promise of fome new privilege with respect to appeals. for ever have kept open a fource Such was the early and happy termination of the German war. A war of the greatest expectation ; not (more from the great power, than from the great abilities of the principal parties. Upon the whole, few treaties of peace have been conducted upon more equitable principles, than those 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 Many circumstances attending third of that extent in breadth. the late war and peace between This acquifition lies between the Ruffia and the Porte, could not Danube, the river Inn, the Saltza, fail to fow the feeds of future and the borders of Auftria; in- difcontent, jealoufy, ill-will, and cluding the towns of Scharding, litigation, between the parties. Ried, Altheim, Braunau, Burg- Extraordinary fuccefs and triumph haufen, Fryburg, and fome others; on the one fide, with an equal deforming, all together, a ftrong gree of lofs and difgrace on the barrier, and a fixed unequivocal other, are little calculated to pro boundary, the limits of which are mote any intercourfe of frienddecifively marked out by thofe fhip, or cordiality of fentiment, great rivers, between that arch. among men; nor will a recollecduchy, and the prefent domi- tion of the hard neceflity under nions of Bavaria. This acceflion which a peace was fubfcribed, of territory, the court of Vienna ferve at all to render palateable the feems, however, to have purchaf- bitterness of its conditions. ed at fomething about a fair price; the other hand, the victors partly to be paid in money, and fure to confider the vanquished as partly by a renunciation of old, owing them too much. They are vexatious, and otherwife inextin- apt to think, that they have alguishable claims, which however, ways a right to claim those advanin general, unproductive, would tages, which they omitted to fe On are cure cure in the moment of their fortune; and which they look upon as rights existing though neglected, as they could not at that time have been refused if demanded. The navigation of the Black Sea, the opening the gates of the Dardanelles and Bofphorus, fo as to admit a free intercourse from the White Sea to the Black, the affairs of the Crimea, with those of the Greek dependent provinces of Moldávia 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. With respect to the first of these 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 private life, but under circumftances of infinitely greater danger and lofs, to a furrender of the benefits, navigation and fisheries of a fine lake, lying in the center 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 used every poffible eva, fion 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 seems however, that the Ruffians had notwithstanding, with wonderful fpirit and induftry, very speedily advanced large capitals, and opened a confiderable commerce on that fea. It may then be fairly prefumed, without an abfolute poffeffion of facts, that commercial avidity was continually increased, in proportion to the number, magnitude, novelty, and value, of the objects which were gradually opened to its view; and that thus, new, and perhaps unreasonable claims, were as frequently started on the one fide, as an indifpofition to comply with the fair and literal terms of the treaty, was prevalent on the other. 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. That independence must be confidered only as nominal. Between fuch powers as Turkey and Ruffia, fuch a power as the Khân of the Crim Tartars, cannot be really independent. The Turks were 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 confidered their conceffion in a ftill worfe 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 imme. diate defcendants of Tamerlane, and in direct fucceffion to the Ottoman throne, entirely into the hands of Ruffia, were circumftances exceedingly grievous to a power, which used to give and not to receive the law. Yet this was already the difagreeable and alarming confequence of that conceffion. For Ruffia, by a judicious but unfparing diftribution of pre [4] 4 fents |