the new favourite insupportable. He had passed in travelling the latter years of his life. In 1782 he lost his wife at Lausanne, and on her death sunk into deep melancholy. On his return to court, he presented to his friends a sad spectacle of insanity: at one moment he gave himself up to an extravagant gaiety; the next, bursting into reproaches against the empress, he struck horror into those who heard him, and filled Cathérine with terror and grief. Having at length retired to Mos, cow, remorse revived with tenfold force: the bleeding shade of the murdered Peter incessantly haunted his imagination, and pursued him in every retreat: night and day, in his distracted fancy, it appeared to aim at him an avenging dart. Death at last relieved him; he expired in the agonies of frenzy and despair.

In the former periods of his favour he had received from the empress a medallion surrounded with brilliants, on which was her portrait, which he constantly wore. After his death, the miniature was presented to Catherine, who returned it to Alexy Orloff, the brother of the deceased, and the actual murderer of Peter III. An affecting present!*

About 1780 it happened that, after presenting some gentlemen at court, the English minister and his countryman were favoured by a conversation with the empress. Prince Bara

The sequel to the revolution of 1762 was performed in 1797, after the death of the empress, when Alexy Orloff resided at Moscow. The emperor Paul, on coming to the crown, caused the corpse of his father Peter III., interred in the church of St. Alexander Nefsky, to be taken up and brought to the palace, to receive there similar honours with that of the empress his wife. In the printed ceremonial, prince Baratinsky† and count Alexy Orloff were ordered to officiate as chief mourners. The ceremony of coronation having been omitted by Peter during his life, the imperial crown was placed on his coffin, as it lay beside that of his consort. Over both was a kind of true-love knot, with the following inscription in Russ: "Divided in life, united in death..", The chief mourners took their station in presence of the assembled court; amidst sable hangings, lighted tapers, and all the solemnity of imperial woe. The strong nerves of Orloff endured the scene, unshaken: his companion, 'with a heart less inaccessible, fainted beneath his emotions, and could scarcely support his station, during the three hours ordanied by the ceremo nial, with the aid of volatile salts and other stimulative applications. Alexy, without requesting it, received afterwards permission to travel in foreign parts, while Baratinsky was spared the trouble of a future attendance at

court.

The assistant of Alexy Orloff in the murder of Peter.

tinsky standing near her, she exclaimed in her lively manner*, • Voilà un homme qui m'a rendu le plus grand service dans le moment le plus critique de ma vie.' Every one present heard this expression with astonishment, as the particulars of the revolution were one of those secrets which are known to all the world. Catherine immediately added, perhaps on recollection, that in stepping from her carriage her foot had twisted at the ancle, when Baratinsky catching her at the instant prevent❤ ed her from falling upon her face to the ground.

This anecdote is thought by many to afford a presumption of the ignorance of the empress respecting the manner of her husband's death: otherwise, say they, it could scarcely be expected, from her acknowledged prudence, that she would have hazarded an expression thus equivocal.

The vicinity of the Caspian invites the Russians to trade with Persia; and by Persia a commerce with India can easily be prosecuted. They had accordingly long profited by these advantages. The fleet maintained in the Caspian by Catherine cruised along the Persian coasts, burning all the vessels and even floats of timber which they happened to meet. The commanders received orders to sow discord between the several khans, and to support the weak against the strong; a method found but too successful in Poland and in the Krimea. In 1782, the empress determined on executing the project formed by Peter I. against Persia, of extending the Russian dominion on the western shores of the Caspian sea. The dissensions which laid waste those fertile regions appeared to favour her design, which unforseen obstacles nevertheless opposed.

The trade carried on by the Russians in China, not less beneficial than that of the Caspian, had received a check by their arrogance and ill conduct. Catherine found means to appease the Chinese, and to revive the spirit of commerce: an archimandrite, with several young Russians, was at the same time sent to study the language of China. Maritime expeditions to Kamtschatka were also set on foot.

There was yet another country with which the empress was desirous of a commercial connexion, when an incident Occurred that favoured her purpose. Some shipwrecked Japa

'Behold a man who rendered me the greatest service in one of the most critical moments of my life.'

nese, sixteen sailors and the master of the vessel, had saved themselves on the northern coasts of Russia, which approximated to Japan. The master was, in 1792, brought by professor Laxmann to Petersburgh. Catherine received him graciously, and gave him instructors, who, while they taught him the Russian and Tartarian languages, learnt enough of the Japanese to enable them to form some commercial arrangements. If no great success has hitherto attended this enterprise, there is no reason to doubt that, at some future period, Russia may share in the profits made by the Dutch at Japan.

While Catherine was in every quarter extending her dominions, and grasping all the territory on which she could seize with impunity, every accession of power to her rivals alarmed her fears and awakened her jealousy. The increasing fame of Frederic II. and his preponderance in Europe, more particularly disquieted her. From the first partition of Poland, Frederic had been daily encroaching on the privileges of Dantzick, which, pressed by his power, was nearly compelled to surrender itself or relinquish its commerce. Catherine, who had herself coveted Dantzick, was the more exasperated at this conduct. Its magistrates were, by her minister, artfully invited to implore her protection. Her mediation was in consequence offered to the king of Prussia, which retarded for a while the fate of the city.

A disturbance of a different nature agitated, at the same time, another quarter of Europe. A design of opening the Scheldt had been formed by Joseph II. This measure was opposed by the Dutch, who left no means unessayed to engage Frederic to support by force their pretensions. Catherine having declared on the side of Germany, Holland, dreading to be excluded from the ports of the Baltic, wisely forebore hostilities, and had recourse to negotiation. The attention of Europe became interested in a question which, however apparently simple and limited, gave rise to various conclusions. Nature and justice appeared to be on the side of the emperor, whose arguments were forcible, open, and plausible. The states opposed facts and existing circumstances to the reasoning of their adversaries. What an extraordinary scene,' said they, would Europe exhibit, if compelled to recur to original principles, and to acknowledge the law of Nature! What

would be the fate of its different powers, when obliged to relinquish those possessions and privileges which fraud or force, war or treaty, through the revolution of ages, have enabled them to acquire?' Arguments like these, however they might affect the philosopher, must to the spoilers of Poland be allowed unanswerable.

The Dutch had for their tenacity a better motive than these ostensible pleadings. The Scheldt, by its different branches, intersected their dominions, and communicated with their rivers: many of their principal cities, their harbours, docks, and naval arsenals, even the whole interior of their country, would lie open and exposed to the possessor of the Scheldt. Their very existence therefore as a nation, was concerned in this dispute.

The history of this contention, however interesting in itself, belongs not to the present memoir. Let it suffice to say, that in the summer of the following year, the negotiations between the emperor and Holland were resumed at Paris. Towards the end of June, a deputation from the republic set out from the Hague to the court of Vienna, whose object seems to have been merely to make such concessions on the part of Holland as might accord with the emperor's ideas of dignity, and open the way to accommodation.

While Catherine was securing the external peace of the empire, cabals and intrigues were reviving in her court. No means were unessayed to incite the grand-duke against his mother, and irritate the mother against her son. Paul was accustomed to pass the autumn at Gatshina, a seat eighteen versts from Tzar-sko-seio. A report suddenly arose, that he designed to build there a town, and to give liberty to all who should make it their residence. The peasants flocked in crowds to partake of these benefits, from all parts of the empire. Paul beheld them with surprise, and with great prudence kindly dismissed them. An incipient revolt was thus stifled, from which great effects had been anticipated.

Bezborodko, who succeeded to Panin, and who seemed to have inherited his sentiments, became, by his perspicacity and zeal, necessary to the empress. Connected with the family of Vorontzoff, he was the secret opponent of Potemkin, who, disVOL. II. E

daining his enemies, openly braved them, or made them his sport with peculiar address.

Lanskoï the favourite, attached to Potemkin, by whom he was affectionately regarded, grew daily more dear to Catherine. His education having been neglected, she took on herself the improvement of his mind, which she enriched with useful knowledge. Through his capacity and docility, he soon became not less distinguished for his acquirements and manners, than for the graces of his person. The affection of the empress for this youth appears to have been tender and sincere: she admired in him her own creation; but her satisfaction, however genuine, proved to be transient. A fever seized her beloved pupil, who, in the flower of his age, expired in the arms of his friend and sovereign. Catherine, till the last moment of his existence, continued to lavish on him the most passionate attentions. She abandoned herself on his decease to grief and regret: shutting herself up in her chamber for several days, she refused all sustenance, and remained three months, without going out, in her palace of Tzar-sko-selo. She erected, in the gardens of the palace, a superb mausoleum to the memory of Lanskoï, which appeared through the trees from the windows of her private apartments. Two years after this event, while accidentally walking near this monument of her tenderness, she was observed by the courtiers to shed a flood of tears. The fortune of Lanskoï, which was estimated at 3,000,000 rubles, and which he had bequeathed to the empres, she returned to his sisters, reserving to herself only the right of purchasing the pictures, the medals, the library, the plate, and one landed estate, valued at 400,000 rubles, of which she had made him a present.

Potemkin took upon himself the care of consoling the empress for the loss of her favourite: he only could presume to penetrate the retirement in which she passed her hours. His influence over her mind appeared daily to increase, and, whether from gratitude or from attachment, she determined, it is said, to unite him to herself by secret but indissoluble ties. The obligations of marriage, if indeed they existed, appeared to impose but little restraint on the future conduct of either party.

The place of favourite, vacated by the death of Lanskoï,