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afluredly Beftuchef must have believ- lities of his government were juftice ed it, or he never would have en- and clemency- and his magnanimity countered her refiftance. Elizabeth, to fome Pruffian officers, whom the doubtful at first, refumed a more dig- fortune of war had deprived of libernified conduct, and fupported her ne- ty, and who groaned in extreme ferphew against the chancellor; and an vitude, is too well known to be reincautious expreffion of the emprefs corded. Elizabeth is ftill cited, I know my nephew,' faid the one day, to the flanderers of the prince, I have nothing to fear from a good heart, I am not fo well acquainted with my niece.

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Beftuchef, afterwards difgraced by Elizabeth, was excepted out of the amnefty; upon the acceffion of the third Peter; but upon the indulgence of Catharine, he was recalled from exile.

The preceding facts, which repofe upon the authority of authentic hiftorians, describe the first clouds of that tempeft, in which the third Peter was involved; prudence could alone preferve him from the rocks and breakers through which he paffed ;-but amongft his other virtues, he found one, namely, confidence, which caufed his deftruction.

Notwithstanding the reproaches justly caft upon that monarch, from the excefs of his good qualities, fpite

of the blame with which he is attacked, upon the unfortunate career of his debaucheries, and of the flanders which hatred and remorse have attached to his memory, few princes have began to reign with more wifdom; his first public actions expiated the defects of many preceding years, and they had only fix months dura

tion.

Siberia, and the ftate prifons, were filled with diftinguifhed captives, victims of the favourites, and minifters of Elizabeth-the emperor redreffed their wrongs-the illuftrious Munich was recalled, and reinflated-Biron, Leftock, and fome of those who had of fended him in the late reign, were reftored to liberty, by a prince who extended his clemency to the infolent favourites of his aunt-the firft quaGg 2

The commencement of his reign promifed zeal for promoting order, and difcovered application, vigilance, and activity-he was early at the fenate, at the different offices, and fet an example of induftry, by his fuperintendance in various departments: the firft Peter was his model, and his plans formed the chart of his legiflation-to him Ruffia owes the wifeft ordinances which have decorated that

government.

Not fatisfied with limiting the defpotifm of his officers, he abridged his own power, by abolishing the secret council of chancery, a ftate inquifition, which, upon the leaft fufpicion, imprifoned, tortured, or executed, natives and ftrangers. He was a warm friend to toleration; and he framed that memorable decree which enfranchifed the nobles from compulfive fervice, and permitted them to travel, without the royal permiffion.

Thefe traits exhibit the character of Peter III. in a new point of view, and afford a very ftriking example of the light that is ufually thrown on truth by time.

Precipitation, however, the king of Sweden obferves, accompanied fome of his falutary innovations; particu larly thofe relating to the clergy; which, though juft, reafonable, and political in themselves, fhocked the cuftoms and manners of the country, and furnished pretexts for rendering his government unpopular.

The regiments of Ifmailoff and Pieobrazinski, formed a body of guards, in barracks in Petersburg, licentious and ill difciplined, their want of fubordination enervated their loyalty; and in former revolutions they were fold to the highest purchaser. Peter

the

the Third conceiving, that a rigorous difcipline would fecure their obedience, and prevent the disorders of a body fo badly organized, he introduced the Pruflian difcipline, modelled them after his Holftein guards, and fecured order by feverity: had this dife line been firmly established, their fidelity would have been fecured; corruption is difficult in a corps inured to the daily detail of their duty; but the reformation was of neceffity entrufted to German, in preference to Ruffian, officers. Thefe ftrangers were confidered as ufurpers; their favour became the object of ridicule, and the national troops were inftigated to revolt, by the ignorant pride of being offended at foreign inftruction.

When we reflect, that many of thefe wife regulations were in that short period of fix months, which put a period to the reign of their author, we are affected by pity, and with horror."

Some of thefe innovations deferve public gratitude, others, the reproach of precipitation-though a fovereign defpot, this prince excelled in acts of bounty, and of justice. His enterprizes against Denmark were more natural, and lefs pernicious, than the war against Pruffia, foftered by the perfonal hatred of Elizabeth, and her minifter. The private life of Peter, it is true, was disfigured by the exceffes of the table, which ultimately might have rendered him contemptible;

but where is the king, or the individual, whofe infirmities are not relieved by fome good qualities? Does not equity hold the balance of good, and of bad qualities?If the virtues and defects of the Emperor were weighed, who is there could juftify his dethronement, and his death? Is the leat equality vifible, between the difcontents he produced, and his unfortunate exit? A warm friend, a good father, an indulgent husband, but too eafy, too confident, and too open to thofe traitors, upon whom his

favours were lavifhed; at the end of fix months, he experienced a fate, which ten years ftained with crimes, and with tyranny, could have icarcely justified.

Our author having detailed the intrigues that led to the death of the Czar, fays,

"To his last day, even to his last hour, Peter preferved his magnanimous, fatal fecurity, and confidence; his Ruffian guards were corrupted by Orlof, and Rozamousky; Catherine was miftrefs of the Capital, and his officers were feduced by flanders against their fovereign. Already had the confpirators impioufly counteracted their fidelity, by fwearing and binding themselves in the moft folemn manner, to commit high treafon-and the archbishop of Novogorod, that fanatic incendiary, whom the clemency of Peter had pardoned, prefided in the folemnization of this ceremony, under the aufpices of the Emprefs. At length the Emperor's friends were arrefted, and the people were deceived by the artful reports, that the Prince had died by a fail from his horfe, before Peter fufpended the enterprize at Petersburg.

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"He was then at the Orienabaum. Spite of the bafeness and servile infidelity of many nobles, of military and civil officers, he had ftill fome refolute friends, the chancellor of Woronzof, the various mareschal Munich, and his faithful Holflein troops;-affairs were not yet defperate-the intrepid Munich counfelled Peter to march directly to Peterfburgh, at the head of the German troops :-"I fhall precede you," said the generous veteran," and my dead body fhall be a rampart to your facred perfon." Poffibly fuch a refolution would have crushed the confpirators;

the fame fervile fpirit which had proftrated the nobles, the people, and the foldiery, would have reduced them to their lawful fovereign, marching to

vindicate

vindicate his crown with his fword, and with the abilities of Munich. "But, alas irrefolution fuperceded courage; not that Peter wanted fpirit, but he was distracted by difcordant councils-in his train were emiffaries of the Emprefs, bathing the hands of this prince with deceitful tears, affecting to reprefent the dangers he incurred, and inviting him to the Emprefs, and deprecating refiftance. This perfidy accomplished what treachery had commenced; and thas Peter, furrounded by trators, was entangled in their snares, and a prey to uncertainty, when every moment was precious, and called for decifion.

"Europe, and pofterity, will never forget the cruel fate of this monarch, in the flower of his age-dragged into captivity, and expiring in the ferocious bands of his wife, and his own confidents. The humane compaffionated his misfortunes; and none were infenfible of his fufferings, fave only those from whom he had a claim to fuccour and to confolation.

"On the contrary, outrages of every kind were offered to him: by delivering himself up voluntarily to her, who, during fourteen years, had the honour to be the partner of his bed, it feemed he was protected by all that is most facred amongst men. His perfon, committed to the difcretion of the Emprefs, became a depofit, upon which it was no longer permitted to form attacks--it neither belonged to his enemies, by the rights of war, nor by that of the laws; and from the moment Peter had furrendered, without compulfion, every abode of Catherine fhould have been an inviolable afylum for him:-alas! this illufion, by which he had been dazzled, was of a fhort duration.

"He had been defamed by a manifefto of June the twenty eighth ;bardly arrived at Peterhor, he became a prifoner, and felt the humiliation of being fecretly vifited by count

Panin, that frivolous and versatile minifter, loaded with praifes by hireling gazetteers-that Panin, who had dared to dictate to his master, and benefactor, to a favereign, who was a prifoner, an act of abdication, and of difhonour; an act conceived in the moft humiliating expreflionsthat Parin, in fine, who forced the defcendant of Peter the First to take his oath in the prefence of the Almighty, and renounce his crown, to fign with his own hand fuch a monument of audacioufness, and in famy.

"Notwithstanding this abdication, which ferved as a new title for preferving his life, and liberty, the em peror, that very night, was confined in the caftle of Robfcha. Whilft her hufband entered this tomb, the emprefs furprised Petersburgh with the noife and buftle of a triumphal entry.

"But this pegeant was not fufficient to flife the fenfibility of the multitude; disloyalty, in a vaft number of them, was rapidly fucceeded by remorse, and by compaffion. The people, who are always good, when left to their natural impulfe, were fhocked at hearing that their fovereign had just paffed from a throne, into the horrors of an eternal prifon. The foldiery manifefted their emotions, every one was affected by the remembrance of Peter's virtues, and his faults were forgotten, as the difpleafure hourly increafed; the Emprefs was threatened with a frightful reverfe...... But let us draw a veil over this melancholy fcene, which put an end to his inquietudes; let us not repeat, that the feventh day of his captivity, Peter the Third was no more; that he contended for his unhappy life, with the ferocious courtiers who penetrated into the fortrefs; that the fereams of his convulfive agonies were r.. that two days after, fonce ftrangers faw the walls ftained with the Emperor's blood;

and

and that one of the principal perfor- piring fovereign, and exhibited fhocking fpectacle in Petersburgh, of remorfe, and of infanity."

mers in this tragedy had been purfued for years, by the idea of his ex

T1

Account of the

HE Baftille was built in 1370, under the reign of Charles V. It then confifted only of two feparate towers, one on each fide of the road leading into Paris, intended to defend its entrance. Since that time it had received confiderable alterasions: fix more towers were added, and united to each other by lofty walls. Thefe were again furrounded by ramparts, and a wide and deep ditch. Horrible the prifon must have been, though its horrors have been exaggerated. Not the least trace of thofe cages of wood, covered with iron, was to be found, or of the cubliettes mentioned by feveral authors; though they both may perhaps have exifted formerly. Each of the rowers confifted of five ftories. All, except the uppermoft, were irregular polygons of fixteen or feventeen feet diameter, and as many high. Some had feveral windows, but the walls were enormously thick. Thofe of the upper flory were more than fix feet, and this increased in proportion as they were nearer the ground. A kind of wooden capes were occafionally adapted to the windows to obfruct the view of the country. Each prifon was clofed with two doors, fastened each with three locks, and fome had wickets. The rooms of the upper ftory were the worst of all, ex cept the dungeons. In winter ex cellively cold, in fummer infupporta bly hot, they admitted no light, no air, but through a chink two or three inches wide externally, where it was croffed by strong bars of iron. Al

La Baftille devoillee. &c.

Bastille *.

most all the apartments had two floors, one of fir the other of oak. The dungeons were twenty feet below the level of the earth, and about five above that of the ditch: their only opening was a narrow barbican looking into this ditch. The wretch condemned to one of these could not live in it long, furrounded by ras and fpiders, plunged into a damp and noifome atmosphere, and in the midst of a mud filled with the spawn of toads. Their fole furniture was a large stone covered with ftraw for a bed. All the prifons except thefe, had stoves, or fire-places. The chimnies were very narrow, and closed at the bottom, at top, and fometimes at intermediate fpaces with bars of iron. Their com mon furniture was a bed-ftead with curtains of green ferge, a paillaffe[mattrafs ftuffed with ftraw,] and mattrafs, one or two tables, two pitchers, a candlestick, a pewter fork, fpoon, and cup, two or three chairs, a tinderbox, flint, and fteel, fometimes as a matter of favour, a fmall pair of tongs, and an old fire-fhovel, and two large ftones by way of dogs. After almost all the prifoners were deprived of the walk of the bastion, and that of the top of the tower was permitted to few, they were reduced to that of the court. This was about 110 feet by 77: the air in it, however, could be but little renewed, and it must have concer trated the heat exceffively in fummer, the buildings with which it was furrounded being nearly eighty feet high. Even this was not permitted to all; and to no one for more than an hour

at

+ Dungeons concealed by trap-doors, into which perfons to be made away with secrety were made to fall, and there configned to oblivion.

at a time, in order to make room for others, as no two were permitted to walk together. There was alfo a fmall nich in which the prifener was obliged to fhut himself up, when informed by the fentinel that any one was paffing. The food of the prifoners was in general fcanty, and of the worst quality, though fome had fufficient influence to have their table well fupplied.

When we confider a fellow creature, deprived of liberty, at a tyrant's rod, condemned to folitude in fuch a place, and kept in the profoundeft ignorance of his fate, and of the fituation of those most dear to him, perhaps for years, we cannot bnt execrate his oppreffor. How much then muft our indignation rife, when we find that his fole crime was the having dared to fatyrize the flagrant vices of fome petty minifter, or fome courtier's mistress, who, though not afhamed to act them in the face of day, yet would not permit them to be talked of! nay, perhaps, even this he had not done; he was condemned to a punishment fufficiently fevere for the most atrocious crime, on the lighteft fufpicion. On looking over the long lift of victims of depotifm, (about 2000 are faid to have been confined in a series of only 46 years) few appear to have been really guilty of crimes, and far the greater part fuch as were fufpected of having written or published accounts of the diffolute lives of men in power, or difcovered to have done fo, by the moft bafe and infidious means. To detect the writers of fuch pieces, or fapprefs their publication, no expence was fpared, and no artifice that the vileft treachery could fuggeft unemployed. The grand fpy of Mr. Lenoir, in this department, Jaquet de la Douai, confeffed, that he annually coft the government 30,000 liv. [1250 1.] and made it expend 100,000 liv. [4,1661. 13s. 4d.] One or two thouand guineas would be fquandered in

kidnapping an author, who had taken refuge in England or Holland, whilft a few pounds were denied to furnish conveniencies for the prifoners, and while the governor of the Baftille pocketed twopence-halfpenny a-day out of the fifteen pence allowed a foldier, fhut up with a prifoner as a guard, or rather as a fpy, though under the pretext of attending and confoling him. If any thing could heighten the nefarioufnefs of those who thus wantonly and arbitrarily punished men for actions that claimed applaufe, it would be, that the fame inftrument was employed to protect the guilty from the hand of juftice. Not to mention those who procured themselves in the Baftille an afylum to fecure them from the demands of their creditors, JeanClaude Fini, calling himfelf Hypolite Chamoran, and Mary Barbara Mackay, ftyling herself his wife, were conducted to this prifon, under pretence of being concerned in libels, but in fact to evade giving them up to our government, by which they were claimed, in order that they might be delivered over to juftice for that atrocious villainy perpetrated by Mr. Mackay, in a lone houfe at Newington, in the year 1785, which our readers must no doubt will remember. Thefe wretch. ches were fet at liberty, as foon as the affair was fuppofed to be blown over. If a minilter of fome foreign power were offended, the cafe was different. An officer, in the service of the king of Sardinia, of the name of Caffe, had a quarrel with the minifter at war, whom he accused of having done him an injuftice. Full of refentment, he came to France, threatening to avenge himself, by publishing the minifter's conduct. No fooner were his departure and menaces known at Turin, than the Sardinian ambassador was directed to folicit an order for his being arrefted. This was eafily obtained: Caffe was conveyed to the Baftille; all his papers were feized, and put into a bag, with

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