310° oration of Lomonofroff. Oct. 30. 
how far he succeeded. But all his'endeavours were 
extinguifhed with his life. Old irregularities re- 
turned ; and the strength of the Rufsian army con- _ 
sisted more in its numbers than in its fkill. How 
much it afterwards decayed is sufficiently fhown by 
uselefs campaigns against the Turks and Tartars ; 
but chiefly by the unbridled and destructive muti- 
nies of the Strelets, originating in want of discipline. 
In such circumstances who could have conceived 
that a boy of twelve years old, debarred from go- 
vernment, and only protected from malice by the 
prudent care ofa loving mother ; amid uninterrupted 
terrors, amid pikes, amid swords drawn on his rela- 
tions, on his friends, and on himself; fhould have 
begun to establifh a regular force, the power of which 
his enemies soon after felt ; felt and trembléd; and 
at which all nations now wonder*; who could have 
* Theodore, though a weak and effeminate prince, had the judge, 
ment to perceive that a vigorous mind was alone fitted to govern the 
kingdom of Rufsia in its then distracted state. _He perceived symp- 
toms of these active talents in the boy Peter, who was only his half 
brother, and therefore on his death bed recommended to his nobles to 
‘ choose him for their sovereign, in preference to Iwan his own full 
. brother. But his sister Sophia willing to exercise sovereign sway un~ 
der the name of the simple Iwan, fuund means to place him upon the 
throne, and put to death all who were related to Peter, whose power 
fhe dreaded. ‘The Strelitzes, a set of troops under no proper disci- 
pline, were the tools fhe employed on this occasion, whose power and 
insolence became so great as to throw the empire into the most dread- 
ful distrefses. To check these excefses, which exceeded her power, 
Sophia found it necefsary to admit Peter an equal fharer tothe throne 
with Iwan; but to strengthen her own power fhe determined to marry 
prince Gallitzin. Peter found means to counteract this plan, ba- 
nifhed Gallitzin to Siberia, and confined Sophia herself to a monastery. 
