CHA P. XVIII. SKETCH OF THE SITUATION OF AUSTRIA, TURKEY, FROM 1725 TO 1750. F Frederick of Pruffia, the statesman, the foldier, the philofopher, and the wit; faw fomething like what he calls an inftinctive rage in Europe, for the fupporting of fair Auftria's head, from which he meant to pluck a plume or two we who are neither historians, nor inventors, but fober Christians, engaged in a mere Retrospect of paft occurrences, will need fmall wit, and lefs philosophy, to see fomething very like a neceffary, if inftinctive impulfe, for fupporting that once majestick, and once holy Roman empire, dwindled indeed, fo low in this laft century, that empty pride, and hollow founding title, ferved them as folace for the lofs of power; while bigotry, burning concealed among a few forgotten individuals, was left alone, as a fort of internal evidence of that fanctity, which had at one time given reverence to the whole. As travellers who feek amusement, by rowing round that melancholy fpot, where funk the Royal George in Portsmouth harbour; we make our fea-marks from the wrecks of greatnefs, and fhew by heads of mafts yet unconfumed, where ftood. imperial thrones in other ages: ages which like those waters rolling. forward, will never more return. The first political phenomenon which fills our telescope in 1725, is a ftrict alliance formed between Charles the fixth, emperor of Germany, and Philip d'Anjou, long his hated foc. An alliance, hoftile in every every fenfe to every true intereft of Vienna's court, but beft worth our remarking, as a proof that the race is indeed not decreed to the fwift, nor the battle to the strong, when the Bourbon king of Spain, with two hundred thousand piftoles (Voltaire fays) purchased more of the Austrian territories than Marlborough or Eugene deemed in danger, when they were acting as its ftrenuous defenders. But money was become every thing to almost every body; and I read the other day, a fpeech in our own Houfe of Commons, fetting forth how Philippe d'Anjou ought to be confidered more in the light of a great merchant than of a fovereign prince. He was a great prince notwithstanding; and although from his mercantile majefty we did gain Gibraltar and Minorca by force of arms, he had the fkill, through bribery and negotiation, to hedge out the Auftrians from many an old family fief, and plant his own progeny firmly in their Italian dominions. 'Twas under them that the discovery of Herculaneum was perfected; fome traces had been difcerned in the year 1713, but Europe was then too bufy on the fuperficies of mother carth, to feel deeply interested about what the contained in her bowels. Gold, for purpose of carrying on wars with each other, was all they wished to find there, and it was the only thing almoft which was not to be found in Herculaneum. An early page of our first chapter mentions I think the great eruption of Vefuvius, when a vaft stream of lava overwhelmed this town, and others in its neighbourhood. A. D. 1730 witnessed the digging out its valuable ruin, adding certainty to the antiquarian's creed; and ending the fcholar's numerous conjectures in decifión. Theatres, temples, a fubterranean city in fact, began to excite curiofity among thofe now polished nations, which, when the hid her head, were hordes of favages alone, or tribes ferocious in fight. Yet were the Germans formidable then, and Tacitus bears teftimony to their valour, which, though foftened by fcience, had fo little degenerated fince, that when the peace of Utrecht gave refpite to innumerable combatants; Prince Eugene led his conquering troops, defirous of frefh fresh laurels to fignalize themfelves in the great battle of Belgrade, rewarded by the conclufion of a treaty advantageous to all Chriftian powers, and figned 1718. Achmet's repeated difgraces in the fubfequent difputes with Thamas Kouli Khan, ended at length in a revolt of thofe fierce Janiffaries, well known to Lady Mary Wortley, and by her defcribed with much pleafantry and fpirit. Reading about the Turks, in any author, one catches their contempt of unfuccefsful fovereigns; otherwife it is scarce fair to forget Achmet's behaviour, and that of his Vizier, to Charles XII: but on the last-named writer's pen, hangs fuch a fascinating fpell, our tendereft intereft goes all to Muftapha; the brother he had long before depofed, and the fays poisoned, while his afflicted widow, Sultana Hafiten, deprecating mercy, chains our mind to that branch of the Ottoman race, and makes us hear of Mahomet the fifth mounting the Turkish throne in 1730, with perfect unconcern for his predeceffor. It appears that this new emperor entertained fome idea of making a reform in his internal policy, by curbing the over-grown power of the Viziers, who till his time enjoyed fupreme authority under the fanction of a monarch ever cloistered up from knowledge of affairs, unlefs ambition called them out to war. The intended reformation, 'tis true, required more than Turkish fkill to manage it, and Mahomet feems to have brought but little to the work. He changed his firft minifters rapidly, confulting only with the Kiflar Aga, and hoping by that means to be lefs impofed upon; I guess not why. Princes have been compared to beauties now and then, they refemble them perhaps chiefly in this; that every difcarded lover, as every turned out minifter, makes it a rule to hate and thwart in future, that once-flattered fovereign, real or fictitious, whom he formerly profeffed even adoration of. The Viziers driven from court joined with the Janiffaries, whom in their short administrations they had found means of obliging; and perfuaded them to fet the town on fire, not once, but repeatedly; and always always on eve of a battle: so that the news might fright the Grand Signor, and call him from his camp whenever victory was likely to decide in his favour, ftrengthening his hands at home by reports of his fuccefs abroad. To these patriots then, however reluctantly, the nominal defpot of an immenfe empire was forced virtually to fubmit, or fee his unoffending fubjects made the facrifice of their difpleafure: rather than Conftantinople fhould be burned to ashes, he by advice of his Mufti threw them the Kiflar Aga to be killed, as having given hurtful counfels; and of that plunder which his wealth afforded, the church and state making an equal divifion, fecured the Sultan in his feat of eminence; we cannot call it power very properly; where the year 1750 finds him. From contest with our Christian armies, Prince Eugene had relieved his predeceffor by figning of the peace at Paflarowitz, after which day of triumph over Turkey, that great warrior had, with a verfatility of mind rarely found among the men of his profeffion, betaken himself to study; and cultivating in his retirement all manner of polite literature, rendered his mind a splendid repository of well-claffed knowledge-historick annals in particular, where his own character will one day fhine among the beft and braveft; for, although he once was baffled before Philipsbourg, he covered Mayence and Fribourg in a manner that made him not unworthy of our Harley's compliment, when in the year 1712, vifiting England, that minifter invited him to dinner, and faid at table while the glass went round, "How he might 66 now congratulate himself on entertaining the first general on carth.” "'Tis to your lordship then (replied the prince) that I owe such pre" eminence," alluding to the great Duke of Marlborough's difmiffion.. But as the Athenians, a day before the feaft of Thefeus, facrificed a ram to Conidas his tutor: a glance of Retrospect should be bestowed on Lefauveur, the famous engineer, who being dumb till feven years old, folved Euclid's problems then without a master. He taught Prince Eugene that confummate fkill and clofe acquaintance with the art of fortification,. fortification, fo neceffary to conducting German wars; and was fo much prized for his powers of calculation, that Louis quatorze, in his later days, made him fucceffor to Vauban with a penfion. 'Tis faid that Pere Rollin has this hero's education in his eye, when he extols Xenophon's Enfance de Cyrus; and this is greater praife to him than even La Varde's epitaph, when, after hic jacet, his titles, &c. comes In Pace Magnificus Mufarum Cultor : In Bello Miles Dux Heros Triumphator. Alter Annibal Labore, Hector Audacia, Fortuna His gallant pupil, we will own, confined not his tafte to mathematical employments, yet love for every branch of learning's tree, fo long inherent in his mother's house, seems fomehow to have preferved this great commander's intellects unhurt to the last moment of a long protracted life-as falt hinders the animal alkali from preying on itself, and keeps the body thus from turning putrid. The grandfon of Mazarin held not his faculties by leafe-tenure, as thofe of Churchill or Sobiefky feem to have been beftowed. God gave to this hero the fee-fimple of his own understanding, and he dropt down dead in the full poffeffion of it, replacing a book upon its fhelf in his own library, 1736. Five volumes octavo at this hour, contain his biographical anecdotes: two volumes folio, with a fupplement, fcarce hold the delineation and defcription of his battles. In four years after his death, while Britain was Preferved in Les Memoires de Monf. de Bruys. engaged |