gilature, of which the wifdom Lood in the highest degree of repute in all Europe. But this meafure was combated by numbers of the warmest republicans, as overturning the very foundations of public liberty. The nation, they afferted, was full of the most determined friends to the conftitutional freedom now established, and it was not to be doubted, but they would exert themfelves in its protection against all domeftic machination, the authors of which were well known and would not dare to fhew themselves, when once they found that the friends to the conftitution were in readiness to oppose them. It was owing to their want of celerity in coming forwards, that its enemies had been able to gain any advantages. There were ample methods to fruftrate the attempts of thefe, without recurring to fuch odious measures as were induftrioully recommended. The best models to be copied from, in affembling the people, would be thofe that took place after the tenth of Auguft, 1792. Therein not a royalift had ventured to fhew himfelf: here, the conftituted authorities cleared from treasonable intruders, and the laws against emigrants and recufant priefts put in force, none but republicans would appear at elections. The conftitution having ordained annual renovations of a third of the legiflature, to omit them would be to violate it in the most effential point; but it had alfo, for its own prefervation, empowered the legiflative body to judge of the lawfulness of elections. This was not a matter of difficulty: the conditions of admiffibility, to the primary affemblies, were fo perfpicuous, that they could not be mistaken; and, while they were duly obfer yed, royalifts could be excluded from them with all facility. Such were the reafonings of numerous republicans. Incellant and indefatigable were the opponents to the directory, in ftriving to counteract their endeavours to fecure a majority in the approaching elections. What principally embarraffed the ruling party, the third to be replaced confifted of the last members remaining of the convention that had preceded the prefent legiflature and framed the exifting conftitution. Thefe members were undoubted republicans and firmly attached to the directory, who, notwithstanding their irregular firetches of power, were no lefs warm in that caufe and had committed thofe very irregularities to fupport it. A committee was, in the mean time, appointed to confider of the means, to prevent the approaching elections from falling into improper hands, and to guard the conftitution against thofe enemies who were endeavouring, by fecret practices, to undermine it. Under this denomination were claffed, it feems, feveral meetings, held, about this time, at Paris, and in fome of the cities of principal note in the republic. Thefe became fo fufpicious to the ruling powers that they were every where, on divers pretences, fhut up. They had affumed the name of conftitutional circles, and fome of them were compofed of individuals of the first confideration. The friends to thefe circles condemned their enemies with unqualified afperity, and reprefented them as men refolved to engrofs, exclufively, the power of the ftate, and who ftigmatized, as foes to the [G4] republic, The zeal of the emperor Paul, in the common caufe of crowned heads, was alfo manifefted in a declaration of war against Spain, in a manifefto, dated the fifteenth of July, 1799; in which, as well as in the manifefto to the German empire, the mind and views of the emperor, at that time, appear to be difplayed unequivocally and with fincerity. Among the fmall number of European powers (faid he) who, in external appearance, feemed to be attached to the French monarchy, but who, in reality, are only repreffed by the dread of those rulers whom God hath abandoned, none has more evidently betrayed that dread, or that pufillanimous fubmiffion, than Spain: not, indeel, by affording them, hitherto, any effectual fuccours or co-operation, but by the actual preparations which he is now making. Fruitlefs have been all our efforts, and they were as forcible as it was poffible to make, to reconduct that power into the true path of honour and glory, and to unite with us. We declare war against the king of Spain; and we confequently give orders for fequeftrating and confifcating all the Spanish merchant-fhips which are at prefent in our ports; and we likewife charge all our commanders, both by fea and land, to treat as enemies the fubjects of his Spanish majefty, wherever they may meet with them." His imperial majefty, in the fame temper and tone, laid an embargo on the Hamburgh fhips in the Ruffian ports; and, in a menacing attitude, attempted to draw off not only that fmall, yet important, republic, but Sweden, Denmark, and even Pruffia, from their fyftem of neutrality to the fide of coalition. While his Ruffian majefty exert❤ ed his whole authority and influence to rouze a general attack on the French republic, he received into his friendfhip and protection those who had fuffered from its tyranny and oppreffion. To Lewis XVIII. as he was called by his adherents and his court, he gave an afylum in the capital of Courland. He received a number of emigrant French nobles into his military fervice: and, above all, he extended his protection and munificent patronage to the difperfed and ejected knights of Malta. The grand bailiff, the grand crofs, and other diftinguished members of this order, affembled at St. Petersburgh, in October, 1798, elected the empe ror grand mafter of their order. His majefly, who is faid to have folicited, accepted this dignity, and excrcifed its prerogatives, in conferring, with great pomp and folemnity, the order itfelf, as well as its different degrees, titles, and of fices, on various perfons of diftinction. Count Litta, envoy-extraordinary from the pope, and the prince Serra Capriola, envoy from Naples, were honoured with the grand crofs. A new inftitution, under the name of a grand priory, was eftablished at Petersburgh, in favour of the knights of Malta, and endowed with an annual revenue of 216,000 rubles. This was to ferve as a refidence and rallying place for all the knights. The motives, affigned by his imperial majefty for this act of munificence, were a regard to the common caufe of Chriftianity and Chriftendom, to which the illuftrious knights of Malta had been fo eminently fubservient, to preferve that order, and to enable them to recover the pof feflions feffions that had been ravished from them by injuftice and violence; and to add a new incitement to the loyalty and bravery of the Ruffian nobles, by the hope of being admitted, in confequence of fignalized merit, into the illuftrious fraternity of the knights of St. John of Jerufalem. But, from this order no perfon of noble defcent, and otherwife properly qualified, according to the rules of the order, of any country in Chriftendom, was to be interdicted. To the ancient and ftanding laws of the order, his majefty added a number of regulations refpecting his own new founda tion. The ukafe for this establishment was accompanied by a proclamation, declaring that any gentleman, of any Chriftian country, duly qualified, might be received as a knight of St. John, in the imperial refidence of St. Petersburgh, and refide there in that character, and enjoy the emperor's particular favour and protection. "We flatter ourfelves (fays his majefty) that, having through Divine Providence and hereditary right come to the imperial throne of our ancestors, we have it in our power to protect, maintain, and even increase and extend, the fplendour of an order fo ancient and renowned among the orders of chivalry, convinced that, by fuch a conduct, we shall render an important service to the univerfe! The laws and regulations of this order infpire a love of virtue, form good morals, ftrengthen the bonds of fubordination, and prefent a powerful remedy against the prefent mania for innovation, and the unbridled licentioufnefs of thinking. In fine, this order is an engine for aug menting the power, fecurity, and glory, of ftates." The emperor, in February, 1799, fent a note to all the foreign minifters refident at Petersburgh, requesting them to make known, to their refpective courts, that he had ac- cepted the title of "Grand mafter of the fovereign order of St. John of Jerufalem," of which St. Peterfburgh was henceforth to be the feat and chief refidence. Orders were also iffued to the minifters of Ruffia, not to receive any letters, addreffed to his imperial majefty, in which the title of "Grand mafter of the fovereign order of St. John of Jerufalem" fhould be omitted. › On this new inftitution, for the prefervation of an ancient order, though its patron and head was neither unmarried nor a catholic, the aged, infirm, and unfortunate pope, Pius VI. in the monastery of Caffien, near Florence, beftowed his approbation, fanction, and paternal and apoftolical benediction, on the fifth of November, 1798. This account of the new grand priory at St. Petersburgh, would have been altogether difproportionate to the fcale of this narrative, if fubfequent events and pretenfions, recently brought forth, had not given them much importance. The emperor of Ruffia, with the difpofitions, and under the engagements, above mentioned, made war on France by fea and land. A Ruffian fquadron, of twelve fail of the line, was fent to co-operate with the British fleets, in the German Ocean, off the coaft of Britain; and another, on the twenty-fifth of Auguft, 1799, appeared in the canal of Conftantinople, where it was joined by a Turkish fquadron. The combined fleet, confifting of the imperial courts, which were its ancient and conftant enemies. It is probable that Talleyrand, when he gave the folemn affurances just mentioned, to Aly-Effendi, had, in the multiplicity of bufinefs in which he was engaged, forgotten the contents of his letter to Ruffin. From the difcordancy between that letter and thofe affurances, it was manifeft that his defign was, in his converfation with the Turkish amballador, to deceive and amufe the divan, until certain intelligence fhould be received of the fate of the expedition. But, after Buonaparte had landed, and made very confiderable progrefs, though in a very short time, towards the eftabliment of the French colony in Egypt, the French envoy at Conftantinople, the Spanish, and the Dutch, or, as he was called, the Batavian ambaffador, reprefented, to the Turkish government, that the poffeffion of that country, by the French, under the authority and accustomed tribute to the Porte, would be the very best thing that could happen, for the intereft and prefervation of the Ottoman empire; a partition of whofe Turkifh dominions was certainly in the contemplation of the Ruffians and Auftrians, as the occupancy of the coafts of the Arabian Gulph, by the erection of forts, was in that of the English. The excitement that would be given to commerce, and the improvements that would be extended by the French in Egypt to other parts of the Turkish dominions, would ultimately regound to the wealth, power, and glory, of the fovereign Sublime Porte. Its French fubjects, at the fame time that they promoted the internal profperity of the Ottoman empire, would be a powerful defence againft both internal revolt and external aggreffion. In a word, the grand feignior ought not to take umbrage at the appearance of the French in Egypt, fince it was manifeftly for his good. The Turkish government was neither fo much paralyfed by internal weakness, nor fo much overawed by a dread of the two imperial courts, as to bear fuch treatment and language, without expreffing and giving proofs of their refentment. To the Spanish ambaffador, the reis-effendi, with equal dignity, propriety, and feverity, replied, "I am forry to find the king of Spain become the tool of men who murdered his family, and shake a fabre over his own head!" An embargo was laid on the French fhips at Conftantinople, and in other Turkish ports. The French merchants, as well as confuls, were imprifoned, and their goods fequeftered. The French envoy, Ruffin, with his domeftics, was fent as a hoftage to the Seven Towers, and the arms of the French republic torn down from the French ambaffador's palace. The Spanish ambaffador received an order to quit Conftantinople within a few days. The Dutch ambaflador was ordered away, likewife, bat, on his repre-. fenting that, in a few months, there might very probably be a change. in his government, he was fuffered to remain. On the fecond day of September, the following memorial was delivered, by the Porte, to all the foreign minifters: "The Porte, as all Europe knows, has long continued at peace with France, and on terms of the ftricteft amity and good understand Ing; which good understanding it has done every thing in its power to maintain. With the utmoft furprize, therefore, has it feen the Turkith territories abruptly, and in a most extraordinary manner, attacked by the French arms. A man of the name of Buonaparte, giving himself out to be a French general, has made war on the Turkish province of Egypt. It is impoffible for the Porte to believe that fuch a proceeding, fo contrary to the rights of all nations, can ever be countenanced, much lefs commanded, by the French executive directory. A confiderable force, however, has been fent to Egypt, to ftop the progrefs of the invaders. Some of the emiffaries of Buonaparte have pretended to perfuade the people of Egypt, that they have been fent by Mahomet to give them perfect liberty and happiness, and render their religion the fovereign religion on earth; but the people have anfwered, that Mahomet authorizes no injuftice, and that they can place no faith in fuch promifes, from thofe who have denied their God, and renounced their own prophet." The dignified brevity and fimplicity, and the plain and manly fenfe, of this little piece, was generally and juftly admired. A manifefto, conceived also in the fimple majesty of truth, was communicated, on the eleventh of September, 1798, by the Sublime Porte; "To their efteemed friend, the minifter-plenipotentiary of the court of Great Britain, at Conftantinople." In this piece, the duplicity, artifice, treachery, and injuftice, of the French republic, are contrafted with the plain-dealing, the good faith, and the pacific and juft difpofitions and principles, of the Porte. Though the divan had perfevered in their fyftem of neutrality, they were neither unacquainted with their political principles, nor unalarmed at their progrefs. After enumerating the extenfive advantages which the French had reaped from the Sublime Porte's remaining neutral, during the courfe of the war, and that they, on their fide, ought alfo to have been fteady in preferving peace, the manifefto ftates, 66 That thofe among them, who found the means of affuming to themfelves the reins of government, by favour of the revolution, began to devise various pretences, and under an illufive idea of libertya liberty fo called in word, but which, in reality, knows no other laws than the fubverfion of every eftablished government (after the example of France), the abolishment of all religions, the deftruction of every country, the plunder of property, and the diffolution of all human fociety · to occupy themselves in nothing but in mifleading and impofing upon the ig norant, amongst the people, pretending to reduce markind to the flate of the brute creation, and render the government permanent in their own hands. Actuated by fuch principles, they made it their max. im to ftir up and corrupt, indifer minately, the fubjes of every power, whether diftant or near, either in peace or war, and to excite them to revolt against their natural fovereigns and government. Whilft, on one hand, their minifter at Conftantinople, purfuant to that fyftem of duplicity and deceit which is their custom every where, made profeffions of friendship for the · [F4] Ottoman |