man began a manufactory of fine glass, for mirrors; another set up a loom, for working curious tapestry, after the manner of the Gobelins; and the third succeeded in the making of gold and silver lace. Linen cloth was made at Moscow, equal in fineness to that of the Low-Countries; and the silks of Persia were manufactured at Petersburg in as great perfection, as at Ispahan.

But Peter, after all these noble institutions, and his liberal attempts to civilize his people, was himself no better than an enlightened barbarian. Inventive, bold, active, and indefatigable, he was formed for succeeding in the most difficult undertakings, and for conceiving the most magnificent designs; but unfeeling, impatient, furious under the influence of passion, and a slave to his own arbitrary, will he was shamefully prodigal of the lives of his subjects, and never endeavored to combine their ease and happiness with his glory and personal greatness. He seemed to consider them made solely for his, not he for their aggrandisement.

His savage ferocity and despotic severity, turned itself even against his own blood. Alexis, his only son by his first wife, having led an abandoned course of life, and discovered an inclination to obstruct his favorite plan of civilization, he made him sign, in 1718, a solemn renunciation of his right to the crown; and lest that deed should not prove sufficient to exclude the czar. owitz from the succession, he assembled an extraordinary court, consisting of the principal nobility and clergy, who condemned that unhappy, though seemingly weak and dissolute prince, to

suffer death, but without prescribing the manner in which it should be inflicted. The event, however, took place, and suddenly.

Alexis was seized with strong convulsions, and expired soon after the dreadful sentence was announced to him; but whether in consequence of the surprise, occasioned by such alarming intelligence, or by other means, is uncertain. We only know, that Peter then had, by his beloved Catherine, an infant son, who bore his own name, and whom he designed for his successor; and as the birth of this son had probably accelerated the prosecution, and increased the severity of the proceeding against Alexis, whom his father had before threatened to disinherit, it is not impossible, but that the friends of Catherine might hasten the death of the same prince, in order to save the court the odium of his public execution, and the emperor from the excruciating reflections which must have succeeded so awful a transaction.

After this event, Peter ordered his wife Catherine to be crowned, with the same magnificent ceremonies, as if she had been a Greek empress, and to be recognized as his successor, which she accordingly was, and mounted the Russian throne upon the decease of her husband. She died after a glorious reign, in 1727; and was succeeded by Peter II. a minor, son to the czarowitz.

CHAP. LXXVIII.

Of George the First, and the Rebellion in 1715.

a

UPON the death of queen Anne, pursuant to the act of succession, George I. son of Ernest Augustus, first elector of Brunswick, and Sophia, grand-daughter to James I. ascended the throne. His mature age, his sagacity and experience, his numerous alliances, the general peace of Europe, all contributed to his support, and promised a peaceable and happy reign. His virtues, though not shining, were solid. He was of à very different disposition from the Stuart family, whom he succeeded. They were known, to a proverb, for leaving their friends in distress. George, on the contrary, soon after his arrival in England, used to say, "My maxim is never to abandon my friends, to do justice to all the world, and to fear no man." To these qualifications he joined great application to business; but generally studied more the interests of those subjects he had left behind, than those he came to govern. George I. came over to Great Britain with strong prepossessions against the tory ministry, most of whom he displaced; but this did not make any great alteration to his prejudice in England. In Scotland, however, the discontent broke forth into the flames of rebellion. The earl of Mar, assembling three hundred of his own vassals, in the Highlands of Scotland, proclaimed the pretender at Castletown, and set up his standard at Braemar, on the sixth of September

1715; then assuming the title of lieutenantgeneral of the pretender's forces, he exhorted the people to take arms in defence of their law. ful sovereign. But these preparations were weak, and ill conducted. All the designs of the rebels were betrayed to the government, the beginning of every revolt repressed, the western counties prevented from rising, and the most prudent precautions taken, to keep all suspected in custody, or in awe.

The earl of Derwentwater and Mr Foster took the field near the borders of Scotland; and being joined by some gentlemen, proclaimed the pretender. The first attempt was to seize upon Newcastle, where they had many friends; but they found the gates shut upon them, and were obliged to retire to Hexham, while general Carpenter, having assembled a body of dragoons, resolved to attack them, before their numbers were increased. The rebels had two methods of acting with success; either marching immediately into the western parts of Scotland, and there joining general Gordon, who commanded a strong body of Highlanders: or of crossing the Tweed, and attacking general Carpenter, whose forces did not exceed nine hundred men. From their usual infatuation, neither of these schemes were put into execution; for, taking the route another way, they left general Carpenter on one side, and resolved to penetrate into England by the western border. They accordingly advanced, without either foresight or design, as far as Preston, where they first heard the news that general Wills was marching at

the head of six regiments of horse, and a battalion of foot, to attack them. They now therefore began to raise barricadoes, and to put the place in a posture of defence, repulsing at first the attack of the king's army with some success. Next day, however, general Wills was reinforced by the troops under Carpenter, and the rebels were invested on all sides. Foster, their general, sent colonel Oxburgh with a trumpet to the English commander, and proposed a capitulation. This, however, gengeneral Wills refused, alledging that he would not treat with rebels; and that all they could expect was, to be spared from immediate slaughter. These were hard terms; but they were obliged to submit. They accordingly laid down their arms, and were put under a strong guard. The leaders were secured, and led through London pinioned, and bound together, while the common people were confined at Chester and Liverpool.

While these unhappy circumstances attended the rebels in England, the earl of Mar's forces, in the mean time, increased to the number of ten thousand men, and he had made himself master of the whole county of Fife. Against him the duke of Argyle set out for Scotland, as commander in chief of the forces in North Britain; and assembling some troops at Lothian, returned to Stirling with all possible expedition. The earl of Mar being informed of this, at first retreated, but being soon after joined by some clans under the earl of Seaforth, and others under general Gordon, who had signalized him