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PREF

PR E F A C E.

WE are this year under a neceffity of

particularly claiming that indulgence which we have fo long experienced from the Public. It may probably be thought that a bare apology is far from being sufficient, and that fome reasonable caufe fhould at leaft be affigned, for the lateness of our' prefent publication. This would certainly be a duty incumbent on us, and with which we fhould readily comply, if we could fuppofe, that a detail of the private and particular circumftances, or the unforeseen and unavoidable accidents, which contributed to this delay, could be in any degree interefting or entertaining to our Readers; and if we did not apprehend that fuch a recital would rather appear at prefumption, and argue a degree of felfimportance which we are incapable of entertaining. It might be alledged in our defence, and with a confiderable degree of

J

juftice,

justice, that the very imperfect accounts which have been published of foreign tranactions of great importance, delayed, in hopes of being able to acquire better information, our entering upon a fubject which could not be treated with any degree of precision, from the continued contradictions in matters of fact, which attended every part of it. In this, however, as in every thing elfe, we rather chufe to rely upon the indulgence, than pretend to appeal to the candour, of our readers.

The only effectual acknowledgment in our power to make, we have already adopted, by taking fuch measures as will prevent, for the future, so well-founded a complaint from being laid against us. Whatever charges of inability, may with, justice be brought against the compilers of this work, that cenfure, which of all others they would most dread, is that only, which they are incapable of incurring, an inattention to the duties they owe, or a forgetfulness of the great obligations they are under to the Public.

THE

THE

ANNUAL REGISTER,

For the YEAR 1769.

*******

THE

HISTORY

OF

EUROPE.

CHAP. I.

State of the belligerent powers. Expedition to the Mediterranean. Turky. Critical fate of that empire. State of Poland Conduct. of the neighbouring powers in regard to the war. Auftria. Pruffia. Denmark. Difputes between the king and the fenate in Sweden. Diet degrades and punishes the fenate. Treaty of fubfidy concluded with France. France. Bankruptcy and fufpenfion of the French East India company. Spain. Portugal. Mazagan taken by the Moors.

WE

E faw at the clofe of the last year, the difpofitions that were making by the great rival powers of the North and Eaft, to plunge Europe and Afia into the calamities of war. The conteft between these powers has been cruel and bloody. If it has not been attended with great and fhin

VOL. XII.

ing actions, it has abounded with thofe, which fhew war under its moft difgufting and hideous afpect; in the ruin and devaftation of countries: in ravage, and in maffacres. Happily, as the neighbouring ftates have not hitherto interfered in the quarrel, its confequences have been restrained to [B]

the

the parties who were originally engaged or immediately interefted in it.

The fuccefs of the Ruffian arms in the latter part of the campaign, feems to put it in the power of the court of Petersburg, either to profecute the war to great advantage, or nearly to prescribe the terms of peace. In the former cafe, the large frontier provinces of Moldavia and Walachia, which feem now to be added to its dominion, as well by the inclination of the inhabitants as by conquefts, will be of infinite ufe. Without entering into the prospects that may thereby be opened to the Ruffians, of extending their conquefts on the other fide of the Danube, it feems at leaft to be in their power to make themselves mafters of the lower course of that river, which, if they mean to hold this conqueft, will be a natural barrier and defence to these provinces.

In this fituation the intercourfe between Turky and Crim Tartary is in a manner deftroyed. By land it seems wholly interrupted; and the communication by the Black Sea is tedious and dangerous, at leaft in the weak state of naval ftrength and naval resources among the Turks. In the mean time the Ruffians might reduce the city of Bender, and afterwards employ the greater part of their forces, in chaftifing the Tartars, and in totally crushing the remainder of the Polish confederates.

While the Porte is thus ftreightned on the fide of Europe, measures are taken on that of Afia, which will ferve further to distract its at tention, and to divide its forces. Ruffian troops fent into Georgia, and the infurrection they have ex

cited in that country, would feem fufficient to anfwer thefe purposes. Endeavours are however used to raise a more formidable enemy. A Tartar, named Kerim Kan, is faid to have obtained the principal command in Perfia, and to have united at length that country, fo long and fo miferably harraffed and diftracted. Perfia, when at peace within itself, has always been a formidable neighbour to the Turks. The politics of Ruffia have ftirred up Kerim Kan, to lay claim to fome of the frontier provinces, which have been formerly difputed between the two empires. If we may give entire credit to this report, it

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not difficult to appreciate the dangers which menace that extended, proud, ferocious, ignorant, and feeble nation. If the emprefs of Ruffia finds no evocation from disturbances at home, or is not appeased by speedy and reasonable conceffions from abroad, the Turkish empire may at length fall by the hands of a woman.

That great and enterprifing woman, has not however confined her views merely to the operations of a land war; they are much more extenfive; and to the astonishment of Europe, from the bottom of the Baltic, a Ruffian fleet is iffued to shake the remoteft parts of the Mediterranean; to excite and fupport the infurrections of the Greek Chriftians, and to leave nothing in any part of the vast empire of enemies, free from alarm and confufion. This naval expedition of Ruffia, ftands particularly diftinguished amongst the events of this year, and is indeed a remarkable æra in naval history.

This however has been thought a rash and dangerous experiment.

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