tender in Scotland after the defeat at Culloden. If he comes to me, we will strive to polish him this winter; and, to take my revenge of him, I will make him dance, and he shall go to the French comedy." The Russians evidently made no little booty; for empress adds:" If we take another Kaffa or two, the war is paid for." the - The details of this easy triumph are recorded in one of the churches of Arabat on a slab of red marble ornamented at the top with a coat of arms. An inscription in gilt letters states: "In remembrance of the glorious victories of Prince Dolgorouki, who arrived on the 23rd of June, 1771, at Perekop, at the head of the second imperial army, and by six in the morning of the 25th of June forced the lines of the first attack. The garrison of Perekop, consisting of 879 men, viz., 99 officers and 780 men, laid down their arms, and were carried by sea to Varna. 35,000 Turks and Tatars, supporting the garrison, on seeing the same surrender, fled in great disorder towards the south. Prince Dolgorouki then marched across the Crimea, and took the fortress of Kaffa on the 5th of July. The Seraskier and 1300 men were made prisoners; while Abbas Pasha, at the head of 22,000 Turks escaped in 160 vessels lying off Kaffa. About 8000 Tatars returned to their habitations. In the same month did Prince Dolgorouki take and destroy the three fortresses of Yenikale, Balaklava, Beiby, and the strong castle of Kertch. Within their walls were found 278 cannons, 17 mortars, and 40,000 stands of arms of various descriptions." Thus weakly was the peninsula surrendered to the invader, by cowardly or treacherous desertion on the part of the Turkish commander, together with feuds and panic among the Tatars. Though probably the most vigorous opposition of the combined parties would have proved unavailing against the superior discipline and arms of the Russians, it is scarcely possible to doubt that the hopelessness of the contest did not determine events without bribes and guile. Dolgorouki, in accordance with ancient usage, acquired the surname of Crimsky, because he conquered the Crimea ; though the name of conquest is scarcely applicable to what was mastered without a blow of importance being struck in its defence. His memory is preserved at Simferopol by a quadrangular obelisk of greenstone, near the cathedral. On one side the portrait of the prince is carved; on another, his armorial bearings; on the third, the Russian eagle; and on the fourth, the victory of Christianity over Islamism is represented by a Tatar baptism. The victory has yet to be gained, and the baptism to be desired. In command of the country, it was not the policy of the dominant power to abolish the old form of government, or national prejudices would have been offended and passions exasperated, leading to harassing local rebellions. The more prudent step was adopted of permitting the machine to continue in action, and take the management of it. Hence a new khan was appointed by the conquerors, Saheb Gherai, who was content to purchase his dignity by formally ceding to them the forts of Kertch and Yenikale; and every effort was made to form a Russian party among the people. The year of triumph to Russia was also one of the sorest trouble. Her armies, by penetrating into the Ottoman territories, met with the contagion of the plague, and transferred it into the heart of the empire. The towns of the Ukraine were ravaged, and Moscow lost three-fourths of its inhabitants. The folly of the generals and commandants extended the disaster by dealing with it as if subject, like a file of soldiers, to military command. Stofeln, at Jassy, issued peremptory orders that the name should not be pronounced; and required the medical officers to sign a certificate that no plague existed, while thousands were falling victims to it around him. A ukase also assured the people that the pestilence was a false alarm raised by evil-minded men. Such measures only tended to throw the population off their guard, render them incautious, and widen the range of the calamity. At Moscow, the populace, driven frantic by distress and terror, rose even against the religious authorities, and murdered the archbishop in the Donskoi monastery. Hence in 1772, both parties, Russians and Turks, were equally in want of peace; and a congress was held at Fokshiani, near Bucharest, to endeavour to arrange the terms. The plenipotentiaries met in the open air, pitched their tents, and conferred in a kiosk erected for the occasion. No contrast could be greater than that afforded by the representatives of the belligerents in their outward appearance. Orloff, the base minion of the empress, blazed with jewels; while Osman Effendi, the ambassador of the sultan, was simply distinguished by a gold-headed cane. The latter, the first to break silence, remarked, "that the Grand Seignior, his master, had recommended him to serve God, and to love peace." But no arrangement could be effected; and the war raged wildly on till further reverses compelled a new sultan, Abdul Hamid, in 1774, to yield to the demands of his antagonist, signing the disastrous treaty of Kainardji in Bulgaria. By this celebrated treaty Russia retained possession of Azof and Taganrog, with the fortress of Kinburn; and the general boundary between the two powers was fixed at the river Bog. The Crimea was constituted a mock independent state. This was the most bitter part of the treaty to the Turks, as it terminated an alliance of three centuries; and they must have perceived, that, in detaching the peninsula from the Porte, the real object in view was its Russian incorporation. The czarina also obtained the free navigation of the Ottoman waters for her merchant flag, specially including the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles, subject to being visited. The "glorious treaty of Kainardji,” as the Emperor Nicholas styled it, had other articles, upon which he founded those demands upon the court of Constantinople which led to the present war. They supply a rich example of the old adage about giving an inch and taking an ell. "The Sublime Porte," says Article 7., " promises constantly to protect the Christian religion, and the churches belonging to it; and also it permits the ministers of the imperial court of Russia to make, on all occasions, representations as well in respect of the new church at Constanti |
