✓ 
MUNIC. 
in 1712, he was dangeroufly wounded and taken prifoner 
by the French ; but, being liberated the year following, 
lie was promoted to the command of a regiment. In 1716 
he quitted the Helfian and entered into the Polifli fervice 
under Auguftus II. where he foon role to the rank of 
major-general j but, being infulted in 1721 by count Flem¬ 
ing, the king’s favourite, he repaired to Peterfburgh, by 
the advice of prince Dolgorucki the Ruffian minifier in 
Poland, and was received in the moll honourable manner 
by Peter the Great, who employed him in feveral impor¬ 
tant affairs, both civil and military, fo that he fucceffively ■ 
filled the highelt polls in the army and the hate. In 1723 
he was intruded with the conitruCtion of the famous 
canal of Ladoga, and this work he completed with fo 
much Ikill and expedition, that the czar, as a mark of his 
fatisfaClion, admitted him a member of his council. But 
his talents were more fuited to the field than the cabinet. 
By the imprudence of his conduCt he incurred the dif- 
pleal'ure, in particular, of count Oherman ; neverthelefs, 
the emprefs Catharine conferred on him the order of 
Alexander Newlki ; and, in 1727, Peter II. made him 
commander in chief, and in 1728 railed him to the rank 
of count. Fie was in no lefs favour with the emprefs 
Anne, who honoured him with various marks of her ap¬ 
probation ; fo that in the courfe of a few years he became 
prefident of the College of War, general field-marlhal, 
chief of the new corps of noble land-cadets, and knight 
of the order of St. Andrew. Count Olterman, however, 
was continually labouring to procure his fall; and, hav¬ 
ing at Jength gained over counts Lowensvolde and Biren 
to be of the fame party, the latter, to remove Munic 
from court, caufed him to be appointed commander of 
the Ruffian troops in Poland, with orders to reduce 
Dantzic, which had given fhelter to the fugitive king 
Stanillaus. Though his enemies threw every poffible ob- 
llacle in the way to impede his progrefs, he carried on his 
operations with fo much effeCt, that the place at length 
furrendered, after a long and clofe fiege. He was then 
ordered to rellore tranquillity in Poland, which he did 
with fo much fuccefs, that the whole kingdom fubmitted 
to king Auguftus; but, war having, in the mean time, 
broken out between Raffia and the Porte, he was again 
obliged to take the field, being appointed commander in 
chief of the Ruffian army fent into the Ukraine. The 
campaign was opened in the month of October 1735 ; and 
before the end of the next year Munic had defeated the 
Tartars of the Crimea in two Ikirmilhes, and made him- 
felf mailer of Perekop, Koflof, and Baktfchifari, but with 
the lofs of 30,000 men, and the difeontent of feveral of 
his officers, of whom the prince of Hefi'e-Homburg and a 
nephew of count Biren were the moll confiderable. The 
emprefs, however, was fo well fatisfied with his conduCt, 
that lhe rewarded him with the grant of a confiderable 
eftate in the Ukraine. In the year 1737 he took Ocza- 
cow by Itorm, and after an almoit uninterrupted feries of 
victories reduced Choczim in 1739, and ffubje&ed the 
greater part of Moldavia to the Ruffian dominion. But 
inoft of thefe conquefts were reftored to the Turks by 
the treaty of peace which followed foon after; and this 
gave confiderable umbrage to Munic, whofe difeontent 
was Hill further increafed in confequence of his not hav¬ 
ing been confulted in regard to that treaty. 
When Biren, after the death of the emprefs Anne in the 
year 1740, got the chief management of affairs during the 
minority of prince Ivan, Munic endeavoured, by every 
means in his power, to obtain his favour, with a view of 
being appointed generaliffimo of the naval and land 
forces ; but, being difappointed in his expectation, he 
refolved, if poffible, to effieCl the duke’s overthrow, a de- 
fign which he at length accomplilhed, Biren with two 
other perfons of diftinCtion being arrelled about the end 
of the year 1740, and conveyed to Siberia. Munic, how¬ 
ever, did not obtain that office of which he was fo ardently 
delirous; and, though the grand duchefs made him prime 
minifier, he was fo diffatisfied at not being appointed 
195 
generaliffimo, and his ambition began to excite the jea- 
loufy of the court fo much, that he requelled permiffion 
to refign his employments ; and this requell was granted 
with a readinefs which he little expedited. Inflead, how¬ 
ever, of repairing to the Pruffian court, to which he was 
ltrongly invited, he imprudently remained in Ruffia, flat¬ 
tering himfelf with the hopes of being reir.llated in his 
former dignity; and, when the emprefs Elizabeth af- 
cended the throne, in confequence of a new revolution, 
he was arrelled by order of that princefs on the 6th of 
December, 1741. The oltenfible reafon of this difgrace 
was, that he had perfuaded the emprefs Anne to nominate 
Ivan her fuccefl'or; but the real caufe, according to a late 
traveller in Ruffia, was, that by order of that emprefs he 
had taken into cullody one of Elizabeth’s favourites. 
Munic was brought before a committee appointed to 
examine ftate-prifoners; and, being haraffed with repeated 
queftions, and perceiving diat his judges were determined 
to find him guilty, he faid to them : “ Dictate the anfvvers 
which you wilh me to make, and I will fign them.” The 
judges immediately wrote down a conleffion of feveral 
charges, which being fubferibed by Munic, his mock- 
trial was concluded. Being thus conviCted of high trea- 
fon, he was condemned to be quartered ; but his fcntence 
was changed by Elizabeth to perpetual imprifonment. 
During the long period of twenty years he was confined 
at the fmall town of Pelirn in Siberia, in an ollrog or 
prilon, of which, according to Manllein, he had himfelf 
drawn the plan for the reception of Biren. It was an 
area inclofed by high palilades about 170 feet fquare, 
within which was a wooden houfe inhabited by himfelf 
and his wife, his chaplain Marten, and a few fervants, 
with a fmall garden which he cultivated with his own 
hands. He received a daily allowance of twelve fhillings 
for the maintenance of himfelf, his wife, and domeftics; 
which fmall lum he increafed by keeping cows and felling 
part of the milk, and occafionally inflruCting youth in. 
geometry and engineering. During his tedious con¬ 
finement he exhibited the utmoll refignation, tranquillity, 
and even cheerfulnefs. He was accullomed every day, 
at dinner, to drink to his wife, “ a happy return to Pe- 
terfburgh.” He had prayers twice a-day; from eleven to 
twelve in the morning, and from fix to feven in the 
evening: they were read, in German, by his chaplain, 
who dying in 1741, the count himfelf afterwards per¬ 
formed the fervice. Notwithllanding the time fpent in 
the cultivation of his garden, and in giving inftruCtion, 
he found fufficient leifure for compofing hymns, for tranf- 
lating feveral plalms and prayers into German verfe, and 
for writing a treatife on the art of war, which he pro- 
pofed, if releafed from his confinement, to prefent to the 
king of Pruifia. In the laft year of his confinement, a 
foldier, whom he had caufed to be arrelled on account 
of fome theft, having threatened to inform againlt his 
fervants for fupplying him with pens and paper, he was 
obliged, in order to prevent a dilcovery, to deftroy all 
his writings, the labour and amufement of fo many 
folitary hours. 
He had always flattered himfelf with the expectation 
of recovering his liberty at the acceffion of Peter III. but 
he was no fooner informed of that event, than, with the 
agitation natural to a perl'on in his Hate, he began to dread 
that his expectation was ill-founded. For feveral weeks 
he fullered the moll alarming anxiety, always fluctuating 
between hope and fear; and often declared that thefe few 
weeks appeared to him much longer than all the former 
years of his confinement. At length, on the morning of 
the nth of February, 1762, the long-expeCted meflenger 
arrived from Peterfburgh with the order for his releafe. 
Being informed of his recall, he was fo affeCted as to 
faint away; but foon recovering he fell down upon his 
knees, and in the molt fervent manner offered up his 
thanks for this change of fituation. On the 19th he de¬ 
parted from Pelim, and on the 24th of March arrived at 
Peterfburgh, in the fame fheep-fkin drefs which he had 
woni 
