A discourse addressed by his Polish majesty to the prince primate and the marshal of the diet, in the cathedral of Warsaw, when he received the diploma of his election, and took the oath usual on that occasion.

I

T was not my defign to fpeak in public at this time; but, in prefenting me with the diploma of my election, that folemn token of the nation's love, you, Mr. Marechal, have exhorted the fovereign to speak to his people. Thefe words of your difcourfe oblige me to fpeak and to discover the feelings that paffed within me, when the moment approached of taking the oath, by which I have now bound myself in your prefence. Nay, I am even rejoiced that I have now an occafion of fhewing you, Mr. Marechal, together with the fenators and states of the republic, my real fentiments, that thus ye may judge whether my views, principles, and actions, will in any wife tend to fatisfy your defires, and to accomplish your hopes.

When, by united acclamations, the refpectable citizens of this vaft kingdom deigned to confer upon their equal the dignity of monarch, I bowed my head with the moft profound refpect in receiving this precious mark of the favour, liberty, and unanimity of this great people.

After my election, the impulfe of gratitude led me to the fanctuary to pay my homage to the King of kings, because it is there that he is more peculiarly pleased with the tribute of mortals. And, now that I am again called to the fame

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fanctuary, it appeared to me, while I was approaching to it, that I was called before the throne of him who governs the universe, and prefides over the course of the revolving ages. At this thought I was filled with awe; my veins alfo trembled when I was obliged to pronounce that irrevocable gagement, in confequence of which the honour and profperity of the Polish nation, and the fafety and happiness of the individuals that compofe it, are committed to the truft of one man; and I feel fo much the more the weight of this important truft, that I have long fhared with you the calamities that flow from that want of order, union, and vigour, that has clouded the luftre of this once glorious and flourishing kingdom. I acknowledge, that in that folemn moment, a difcouraging view of the obligations I was going to contract, and a consciousness of my own infufficiency and weakness, made the deepeft impreffion upon me; I was feized with a fort of terror; my voice loft its ufual tone, my tongue faltered, and the words of the regal oath, though dear to my heart, which acquiefces in them perfectly, could not find an utterance; but when I turned my eyes to you, Mr. Primate, when I heard you repeat the words of the oath, I could not behold you in any other light than as the minister of the Moft High, and therefore thought it my duty to fubmit to your guidance. Since the clamours of difcord and party-hatred have been reduced to filence by your venerable prefence: fince a multitude of tongues, which spoke each a different language, have become all [N]4

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of a fudden, as it were by a miracle, the unanimous echoes of your's, you must certainly be filled with the Holy Spirit, that Spirit of power, wisdom, and truth. Hitherto you have been my guide.Be ftill my kind affiftant and counfellor. Continue to cherish and keep alive the zeal and attachment of thofe loyal hearts, which your goodness and humanity gained over to my caufe. Let your wifdom and refolution concur with my best endeavour to hold with dignity, and manage with prudence, the helm of government, at which you have been charged by the nation to place me. As the marshal, of the diet has been joined with you in this commiffion, both inclination and duty oblige me to address myself to him alfo on this occafiion.

You defire me to speak, Sir, and it is with the utmoft pleasure that I comply with this defire. I thereby have an opportunity of declaring that I love and honour your perfon, your virtues, and your talents. This declaration is not the effect of that warm gratitude that impels me to fpeak to you at this time; it is the effect of a long obfervation of those qualities, which have produced one fruit-and may that fruit always prove agreeable to our dear country! You, Sir, are called to appear before the throne, as the reprefentative of that fpirited and refpectable nobility, which commands me to govern the republic according to the laws; and it is natural, that I fhould be defirous of employing the good offices of one whofe perfon is fo agreeable, and whofe teftimony is fo weighty, as yours, to affure that nobility of the fincerity of my refolutions and intentions

with refpect to that important object. Tell that nobility, that it is my fixed purpose to employ the remainder of my days, and all the means and opportunities that it fhall please the Divine Providence to place within the extent of my power, in anfwering the expectations of my dear countrymen. But at the fame time exhort them, conjure them, to lend their zealous fuccours to a fovereign, who has their happiness and profperity deeply at heart, and who will never aim at any other object than the public good. Where is the perfon, that does not fee, and alfo feel, the disorders and calamities under which the nation labours? A difmal experience points out too plainly the pernicious fource from whence thefe calamities flow. Selfintereft and envy have produced difcord, and thus thrown all things into confufion. A fpirit of faction has perplexed our councils, and thus rendered impotent the natural inftruments of our fafety and of our glory; and thofe treasures, that ought to have been employed in maintaining the vigour and fplendor of this republic, are become the prey of that fatal luxury, whofe pernicious effects increase from day to day. Let our union then heal thofe calamities which all other means will be infufficient to remove! You know by experi ence, that a few tools of faction can destroy with more facility than the majority can build. Let emu lation, that useful virtue, that feems to border upon envy, from which nevertheless it differs extremely, animate our efforts. Let us all run the noble race of patriotifm, and endeavour to furpass one another, in aiming at true

merit, and propofing to ourselves no other glory but that which is acquired by ferving our country. But to what will amount the defires and the projects of feeble mortals, if they are not feconded by Him whofe word commands nations and empires to rife or fall? Great God! whose hand has raised me to the high station I now fill, thou doeft nothing in vain. Thou haft given me the crown; and thou haft given me, with it, an ardent defire to reftore this kingdom to its former profperity and grandeur. Finish, therefore, thy own work! Let my prayer arife to the throne of Thee, by whom kings reign! Infpire the hearts of this people with that zeal for the public, that fills mine!

Manifesto published by the court of Petersburgh, on occasion of the death of prince Ivan.

NATHARINE the fecond, by

and fovereign of all Ruffia, &c. &c. to all whom these presents may

concern.

When, by the Divine will, and in compliance with the ardent and unanimous defires of our faithful fubjects, we afcended the throne of Ruffia, we were not ignorant that Ivan, fon of Anthony, prince of Brunfwic Wolfenbuttle and the princess Anne of Mecklenburgh, was ftill alive. This prince, as is well known, was immediately after his birth unlawfully declared heir to the imperial crown of Ruffia; but, by the decrees of Providence, he was foon after irrevocably excluded from that high dignity, and the

fcepter placed in the hands of the lawful heirefs, Elizabeth, daughter of Peter the Great, our beloved aunt of glorious memory. After we had afcended the throne, and offered up to heaven our juft thanksgivings, the firft object that employed our thoughts in confequence of that humanity that is natural to us, was the unhappy fituation of that prince, who was dethroned by the Divine Providence, and had been unfortunate ever fince his birth, and we formed the refolution of alleviating his misfortunes, as far as was poffible. We immediately made a visit to him, in order to judge of his understanding and talents, and in confequence thereof, to procure him an agreeable and quiet fituation, fuitable to his character and the education he had received; but how great was our furprize, when, befides a defect in his utterance, that was uneafy to himself, and rendered his difcourfe almost unintelligible to others, we obferved in him a total

Those who accompanied us during this interview, faw how much our heart fuffered at the view of an object fo proper to excite compaffion; they were also convinced that the only measure we could take to fuccour the unfortunate prince, was to leave him where we found him, and to procure him all the comforts and conveniences that his fituation would admit of. We accordingly gave our orders for this purpofe, though the ftate he was in prevented his perceiv ing the marks of our humanity, or being fenfible of our attention. and care; for he knew nobody, could not distinguish between good

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and evil, nor did he know the ufe that might be made of reading, to pafs the time with lefs wearinefs and difguft: on the contrary, he fought after pleasure in objects that difcovered, with fufficient evidence, the disorder of his imagination.

To prevent, therefore, ill-intentioned perfons from giving him any trouble, or from making ufe of his name or orders to disturb the public tranquillity, we gave him a guard, and placed about his perfon two officers of the garrifon, in whofe fidelity and integrity we could confide. Thefe officers were captain Wlaffeiff and lieutenant Tfchekin, who, by their long military fervices, which had confiderably impaired their health, deferved a fuitable recompence, and a ftation in which they might pafs quietly the rest of their days; they were accordingly charged with the care of the prince, and were ftrictly enjoined to let none approach him. Yet all these cautions were not fufficient to prevent an abandoned profligate from committing at Schluffelburgh, with unparalleled wickedness, and at the rifk of his own life, an outrage, whofe enormity inspires hor

ror.

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A fecond lieutenant of the regiment of Smolensko, a native of the Ukraine, named Bafil Mirowitz, grandfon of the first rebel that followed Mazeppa, and a man in whom the perjury of his ancestors feems to have been infufed with their blood; this profligate, having paffed his days in debauchery and diffipation, and being thus deprived of all honourable means of advancing his fortune; having alfo loft fight of what he owed to the law of God

and of the oath of allegiance he had taken to us, and knowing prince Ivan only by name, without any knowledge either of his bodily or mental qualities, took it into his head to make use of this. prince to advance his fortune at all events, without being reftrained by a confideration of the bloody fcene that fuch an attempt was adapted to occafion. In order to execute this deteftable, dangerous, and defperate project, he defired, during our abfcence in Livonia, to be upon guard, out of his turn, in the fortrefs of Schluffelburgh, where the guard is relieved every eight days; and the 15th of last month, about two o'clock in the morning, he, all of a fudden, called up the main guard, formed it into a line, and ordered the foldiers to load with ball. Berenikoff, governor of the fortrefs, having heard a noife, came out of his apartment, and afked Mirowitz the reason of this disturbance ; but received no other anfwer from this rebel than a blow on the head with the butt-end of his musket. Mirowitz, having wounded and arrested the governor, led on his troop with fury, and attacked, with firearms, the handful of foldiers that guarded prince Ivan. But he was fo warmly received by thofe foldiers under the command of the two officers mentioned above, that he was obliged to retire. By a particular direction of that Providence that watches over the life of man, there was that night a thick mift, which, together with the inward form and fituation of the fortress, had this happy effect, that not one individual was either killed or wounded. The bad fuccefs of this first attempt could not engage this

enemy

enemy of the public peace to defift from his rebellious purpose. Driven on by rage and defpair, he ordered a piece of cannon to be brought from one of the bastions, which order was immediately executed. Captain Wlaffeiff, and his lieutenant Tschekin, feeing that it was impoffible to refift fuch a fuperior force, and confidering the unhappy confequences that muft enfue from the deliverance of a perfon that was committed to their care, and the effufion of innocent blood that muft follow from the tumults it was adapted to excite, took, after deliberating together, the only step that they thought proper to maintain the public tranquillity, which was to cut fhort the days of the unfortunate prince. Confidering alfo, that if they fet at liberty a prifoner, whom this defperate party endeavoured to force with fuch violence out of their hands, they ran the rifk of being punished according to the rigour of the laws, they affaffinated the prince, without being reftrained by the apprehenfion of being put to death by a villain reduced to defpair. The monfter (Mirowitz), feeing the dead body of the prince, was fo confounded and ftruck at a fight he fo little expected, that he acknowledged, that very inftant, his temerity and ́his guilt, and discovered his repentance to the troop, which about an hour before he had feduced from their duty, and rendered the accomplices of his crime.

Then it was, that the two officers, who had nipt this rebellion in the bud, joined with the governor of the fortrefs in fecuring the perfon of this rebel, and in bringing back the foldiers to their duty.

They alfo fent to our privy counfellor Panin, under whofe orders they acted, a relation of this event, which, though unhappy, has nevertheless, under the protection of Heaven, been the occafion of preventing ftill greater calamities. This fenator difpatched immediately lieutenant colonel Cafchkin, with fufficient instructions to main tain the public tranquillity, to prevent diforder on the fpot (i. e. where the affaflination was committed), and sent us, at the fame time, a courier with a circumftantial account of the whole affair. In confequence of this, we ordered lieutenant general Weymarn, of the divifion of St. Petersburgh, to take the neceffary informations upon the fpot; this he has done, and has fent us, accordingly, the interrogatories, defpofitions, and the confeffion of the villain himfelf, who has acknowledged his crime.

Senfible of the enormity of his crime, and of its confequences with regard to the peace of our country, we have referred the whole affair to the confideration of our fenate, which we have ordered, jointly with the fynod, to invite the three firft claffes, and the prefidents of all the colleges, to hear the verbal relation of general Weymarn, who has taken the proper informations, to pronounce fentence in confequence thereof, and, after that fentence has been figned, to prefent it to us for our confirmation of the fame.

The original is figned by her imperial majesty's own hand.

CATHARINE.

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