462 
genial in forme meafure to the foil, as it is 
fuppofed to have originated among the 
free nations that formerly inhabited the 
neighbourhood of the hyperborean _ re~ 
gions The number of jurymen, how- 
ever, was reftricted to two,. but then. 
each of the parties had a right to nomi- 
nate 2 perfon on whofe integrity, he couid 
rely ; and, in cafe of dilagreement as to 
the verdiét, an umpire was finally to de- 
termite. This council of conciliation nas 
fince been adopted, and; perhaps, im- 
proved in France, by an increafe of the 
members of the eihnnals in both cafes 
litigations have been prevented. expences 
faved, and fuits precluded (as in our 
court of Chancery ') from acquiring the 
claim of Ete hereditary, and even im- 
mortal. 
The next important objet that en- 
gaged the attention of the Danifh mi- 
nifter, cecurred in 37380 :—the Ameni- 
can war, like the prefent, enriched the 
fubjeéts of thofe powers which were 
wife enough to maintain a rtgorous and 
productive neutrality. The Dutch navi- 
gated the Baltick, under the Danifh flag, 
and a fingle merchan t = of Copenhagen, 
- was the jemned prope ter of between 
five and fix hundred fa:l of merchantmen. 
_ The neutrality of Denmark, however, 
"was at times but little retpedted, and 
that of the -petty free towns of Ham- 
Bare Bremen, and Lebeck, ftill Jefs. 
The emprefs, whe was applied to by the 
courts of Capenhagen and Stockholm, 
found her ambition flattered with the idea 
of becoming the protectrefs of the north. 
She accordingly placed herfelf at the 
head of an armed neutrality, ard, as the 
meafure proved fuccefsful, 
fe&ted to confider it as her own plan. 
Panin, her minifter, has fince- written 
and publifhed a long memoir, in order 
to prove that it originated wtth him. 
It is now well known that this fcheme 
was firft broached by the artful Vergen- 
nes; that the court of Denmark was 
interefted, and the king of Sweden + 
influenced to procure its fuccefs, and that 
fome artful objeétions, made purpofely 

* M. Konig. 
+ While Sweden was an ariftocracy, France 
was accnftomed to bribe the party of the HATS 
in the fenate: when that kingdom became 
~ an abfolute monarchy, her mimifters found a 
readier mode of accomplifhing their meafures, 
by ériting the King. This tranfaétion was 
rendered more pa‘acab!e, however, by being 
termed a fub/idy. Louis X1V was not fo deli- 
cate, as be confidered his bounty to our 
Ciatles IF in the light of a mere penfion. 
Original Anecdotes. Court de Bernptorff 
always eae 
-chifement. 
[Dee. 
by the latter, ended the emprefs more 
eager for its adoption. Pruffia, Auftria, 
Portugal, and moft of the. nations of 
Europe, acceded to a treaty, whieh ac- 
quired. popularity ‘by having the freedom 
of the Jeas for its av ‘owed obje&t. Den- 
mark alone, however, reaped any- folid 
advantave from it, and the minrfter of 
that country, read ly anticipating the con- 
fequen neces, preceded all the other powers, 
in ordering the plenipotentiary at the 
court of Ruffia to affix his fignature to it, 
te accordingly was accopiphiined on 
he xgth of July, 1780. 
No fooner had this objeat deen fully . 
than another of .far greater. 
confequence to the caufe of (offering ho- 
attained, 
manity was undertaken and achieved. 
The degrading flate of the wrllezas (a 
body that compoied the great me-jority of 
the people of Europe curing the middle 
ages) is known to.every one. They ex- 
ifted in a ftate of bondage, but a de- 
grée removed from, the fituation of do- 
meftic animals,,e:ther in condition . or 
talent; they did not poffefs any rights, 
for they were not copfidered as citizens ; 
they were not allowed to acquire any 
property, for they were flaves. This 
belotifm was not extirpated from England 
until the reign of Charles II; and in- 
deed, while the game-laws oh fuffered 
to exift, cannot yet be canidlered as 
wholly send. 
The countries on the borers f the 
Baltick were fill’retained by the nobility 
in this horrid thraldom, when a great 
princefs, wifhing to conceal am atrocious 
a€tion beneath a blaze of glory, con- 
voked deputies from al] the provinces of 
her extenfive empire in Mofcow, “its 
ancient capital, in the year 1757. The 
affranchifement of the peafants was one 
of the.fubjeéts debated on at this. novel 
affembly ; but the 4orars, or nobles, 
clothing the dread-of the diminution of 
their wealth, with the pretext. of an in- 
furrection of their /erfs, threatened to 
poinard the fir perfon who fhould make 
“ fo unjuftifiable a propofition ;’’ and this 
put an end to the fitting of the Ruffian 
States General*. This failure on the part 
ee 



* Itis but juftice here to obferve, that the 
Count de Scheremeloff, defpifing the threats 
of his own order, exclaimed, that he would 
mof willingly accede to the fcheme of affran~ 
Until Potemkin became the fa- 
wourité, this nobleman was confidered as the 
richeft fubje& in the Ruffian dominions. He 
is faid to have poffefled 170,000, fteriing per, 
annum in landed property, and he was pro= 
prietor of 350,000 pealants, or flaves ! P 
8) 
