RUSSIA IN EUROPE. 133: 



**6V in an iron cage, and there beheaded and quartered on the 21st of 

 January, 1775. 



Tne peace of 1774 was then indispensably necessary to the imme- 

 diate preservation of the Turkish empire; but within so small a 

 space of time as five years a new war was on the point of breaking 

 out between the two empires, and was only prevented by a new trea- 

 ty of pacification, which took place on the 21st of March, 1779. But 

 the great source of discord still remained. The pretended indepen- 

 dency of the Crimea afforded such an opening to Russia into the 

 \ r ery heart of the Turkish empire, and such opportunities of interfer- 

 ence, that it was scarcely possible that any lasting tranquillity could 

 subsist between the two empires. A claim, made and insisted on by 

 Russia, of establishing consuls in the three provinces of Moldavia, 

 Wallachia, and Bessarabia, was exceedingly grievous to the Porte. 

 After long disputes, the Turkish -ministers, more from a sense of the 

 disability of the state for war, than from pacific dispositions, found it 

 necessary, towards the close of the year 1781, to give up the point in 

 debate with respect to the consuls. This concession, however mor- 

 tifying, produced but a short-lived effect. New troubles were conti- 

 nually breaking forth. The emperor of Germany having avowed his 

 determination of supporting all the claims of Russia as well as his 

 own, all the parties prepared, with the utmost vigour, for the most de- 

 termined hostility. The year 1783 accordingly exhibited the most 

 formidable apparatus of war on the northern and eastern borders of 

 Europe. However, in the midst of all these appearances of war, ne- 

 gociations for a peace continued to be carried on at Constantinople ; 

 which peace was at last signed, January 9th, 1784. 



By this treaty Russia retained the full sovereignty of her new ac- 

 quisitions, viz. the Crimea, the isle of Taman, and part of Cuban. 

 As the recovery and restoration of every thing Greek was the predo- 

 minant passion of the court of Petersburg, so the Crimea and its de- 

 pendencies were in future to be known by the name of Taurida ; par- 

 ticular places were likewise restored to their ancient appellations ; 

 and the celebrated port and city of Caffa resumed its long-forgotten 

 name of Theodosia. Since this accession of dominion, new towns, 

 with Greek or Russian names, are rising fast in the deserts, and are 

 peopled mostly by colonies of Greeks and Armenians. 



The year 1787 opened with the extraordinary spectacle of the jour- 

 ney of the empress of Russia to Cherson, where it seems to have 

 been her original intention to have been crowned with all possible 

 magnificence, and under the splendid titles of empress of the East, 

 liberator of Greece, and revivor of the series of Roman emperors, 

 who formerly swayed the sceptre over that division of the globe. 

 But this coronation, for reasons we are unable to assign, did not take 

 place. The splendor of the route of the czarina surpasses whatever 

 the imagination would spontaneously suggest. She was escorted by- 

 an army. Pioneers preceded her mai'ch, whose business it was to 

 render the r,oad as even and pleasant as it could possibly be made. 

 At the end of each day's journey she found a temporary palace 

 erected for her reception, together with all the accommodations and 

 luxuries that Petersburg could have afforded. In the list of her fol- 

 lowers were the ambassadors of London, Versailles, and Vienna ; and 

 her own ambassador, as well as the envoy of the emperor to the court 

 of Constantinople, were appointed to meet her at Cherson. The king 

 of Poland met her in her journey; and the emperor, not satisfied 



