"This prince," fays the good Abbé de St. Pierre, "owed his extreme application to "the bufinefs of government to the confpi" racy that was formed against him in 1690. "As he was not willing to run the fame rifque again, he found that application to "bufinefs would render him in a fhort time ર more intelligent, more refpected by his “fubjects, and better ferved by his minifters. "The Czar had a great defire to have a port "in the Baltic fea; fo by means of his am"baffador he proposed to the King of Sweden "to yield him up Narva, or fome port in that

fea, in exchange for fome other territory of "his own, or for a fum of money; but he was "not prudent enough to offer either a territory

or a fum of money equivalent to the value "of this port; fo that the King of Sweden "might be tempted to fell him upon advan

tageous terms to himself what was of little "value to him. He was likewife imprudent "in another refpect; his ambassador had "orders to take by force what the King re"fufed to fell or to exchange; and this me tr nace indifpofed the King, who was as vio"lent and as bold as himself, against him. "The Czar, too, might have been sure that a war of two years only would have coft him "four times as much as any fale or voluntary "exchange

66

exchange could have done; and, befides, "he was not certain of being victorious in "the war. Obferve, then, how dearly it "cofts ill-advised and imprudent princes "when they make use of disgusting menaces "in negociations, where the point in difpute "fhould be fettled on a confideration of their "reciprocal interests.

"It is true," continues this honeft politician, "that it must have been a great pleasure "to the Czar to have travelled incognito and "at his ease in England and in Holland, and to have feen their different dock-yards, "veffels, troops, &c. It was the pleasure of

a young man who loves to fee a variety of "objects. These pleasures inay be allowed to "rich private perfons, who at a certain

age, for want of accuftoming themselves to "read and to think, have nothing better to do, 66 or at least will do nothing better; but in a "prince who has every day something to do, "and subjects to govern, it is a pleasure out "of its place. But what makes all this the "lefs allowable is, that the Czar undertook "these travels at a time when the confpiracy

was not entirely at an end, and when the "punishments in confequence of it merely "ferved to make perfons more difcontented

z3

"and

1

" and difaffected to government. So after he had been abfent fifteen months, and was

66

going to fet out for Italy, he was obliged "to return to Ruffia on account of the break

કંદ

ing out of a new confpiracy; and, after all, "the only advantage that he drew from hist "travels was to have occafioned a great "number of workmen of all kinds, of fhip

builders, and of land and fea officers, to come and fettle in Ruffia. But all these " he might have obtained by other and less "dangerous and expenfive methods, by means " of his ambaffadors at the different courts, "who might have engaged them by promifes "and by money to come and fettle in his "dominions; and he would not have been "continually risking his life in his disguise as

a fhip-builder or failor, in which he might "have been affaffinated any night at Sardam." Rêves d'un homme de bien,

CATHERINE THE SECOND,

EMPRESS OF RUSSIA.

THIS great Princess had the following fentence frequently in her mouth, "It is better to do "amifs than to be continually changing one's

❝ opinion.

"irrefolution."

"opinion. Nothing is fo contemptible as This power of decifion of mind enabled Catherine to add fo many dominions to her own, and to give laws to them *.

What excellent order this Empress preferved in her finances appears by the following letter to Voltaire, who was afraid that his tenants had fent her too many of the watches of their fabrication at Ferney:

"Do not fcold your good folks for having "fent me too many of their watches. The "coft of them will not ruin me. I fhould "be a very wretched being indeed if my fi66 nances were fo far reduced that I could not

* "After all," fays she in one of her letters to Voltaire, thofe laws about which there is fo much talk are not yet "made. It is pofterity and not ourselves that must judge "on the question. I beg you to confider that they are to "ferve for Europe and for Afia. What a difference of "climate, of perfons, of customs, and even of ideas! Behold

me now in Afia. I wifhed to fee all this with my own eyes. "There are in this city (Cafan) twenty different nations, "not in the leaft alike. I muft, however, make a dress "that will fuit them all. Some general principles for "them all may be found; but the details! and what de “ tails!—I was going to fay it is a whole world to "create, to unite, and to preferve!"

"have upon certain emergencies fuch small "fums as will pay for thefe watches. Judge "not, I befeech you, of our finances by those "of the ruined fovereigns of Europe. Though

we have now been engaged in a war for "three years, we proceed with our buildings, " and every thing elfe goes on as in time of "profound peace. We buy pictures *. It is "two years fince any new tax has been raised. "The prefent war has its fixed expence; that 66 once regulated, it never difturbs the course "of other affairs."

Catherine was in religious matters a pupil of Voltaire and the pretended French philofophers,

Cultrix Deorum Parca et infrequens ;

yet foon after the maffacre of the good Louis XVI. fhe went in folemn proceffion with her fect naked and her eyes uplifted to the monaftery of St. Alexander Newfky. She perceived but too late the connection between religion and good government, and that those

• The Houghton collection, which was fuffered to be fent out of England for less than thirty-fix thousand pounds. Not the expence of one day of the present war.-Credite, pofteri!

who