RUSSIA IN EUROPE. 135 



the two powers might erect on the shores of that river what fortresses 

 they should think proper ; and that Russia should engage to grant a 

 free navigation on the river Dniester. 



The final treaty with the Turks was concluded at Jassy, the 9th of 

 January, 1792. Catharine then applied herself to the improvement 

 of Oczakow, and rendered it a place of great strength, importance, 

 and commerce. At the same time sne was not inattentive to Euro- 

 pean politics. When the coalition of sovereign powers was formed 

 against France, Gustavus III, the late king of Sweden, was to have 

 conducted that expedition which was afterwards made against France 

 by the king of Prussia and the prince of Brunswick. Catharine, on 

 Uiis occasion, promised to assist him and the alliance with twelve 

 thousand Russian troops, and an annual subsidy of three hundred 

 thousand rubles. She assured the pope that she would support him 

 in the resumption of Avignon, and published a strong manifesto 

 against the French revolution and the progress of the new principles 

 of liberty ; but the only active part she took against that revolution 

 was sending twelve ships of the line and eight frigates to join the 

 English fleet, which were paid for by a subsidy, victualled and repair- 

 ed in the British ports, and then returned home without rendering 

 any effectual service. But her attention was principally directed to 

 Poland, and the efforts Avhich that people made in the cause of liber- 

 ty. Whilst she amused the world with manifestoes against France 3 

 she beheld, with pleasure, the greatest powers of Europe wasting 

 their strength and treasure ; and, undisturbed by any foreign interfer- 

 ence, made a second partition of Poland, the circumstances of which 

 the reader will find briefly narrated in our account of that unfortunate 

 country. 



By her intrigues, she in like manner annexed to the crown of Rus- 

 sia the fertile and populous country of Courland. She invited the 

 duke of Courland to her court under the pretext that she wished to 

 confer with him oh some affairs of importance ; and during his ab- 

 sence the states of Courland assembled, and the nobles proposed to 

 renounce the sovereignty of Poland, and annex the country to the 

 empire of Russia. The principal members of the great council op- 

 posed this change ; but the Russian general Pahlen appeared in the 

 assembly, and his presence silenced all objections. The next day, 

 March 18, 1795, an act was drawn up, by which Courland, Semigal- 

 lia, and the circle of Pilten, were surrendered to the empress of 

 Russia. The act was sent to Petersburg, and the submission of the 

 states accepted by the empress. The duke of Courland was in no 

 condition to refuse his acquiescence : he received very considerable 

 presents from the empress, in compensation, and retired to live on 

 some extensive estates he had purchased in Prussia. 



But the acquisition, by intrigue and artifice, of countries incapa- 

 ble of resistance, was not sufficient to satisfy the ambition of Catha- 

 rine. Incessantly anxious to extend her dominions, she turned her 

 arms against Persia, under the pretext of defending Lolf Ali Khan, 

 a descendant of the race of the Sophis ; but in reality to seize on the 

 Persian provinces which border on the Caspian Sea. Her general 

 Valerian Soubow penetrated, at the head of a numerous army, into 

 the province of Daghestan, and laid siege to Derbent. Having car- 

 ried a high tower which defended the place, he put all the garrison 

 to the sword, and prepared to storm the city. The Persians, terrified 

 at the barbarous fury of the Russians, demanded quarter; and the 



