peror held out until the following year, when he signed a treaty at Radstadt, less favorable than that which had been offered at Utrecht; and the king of Spain, with more reluctance, gave his adhesion to the general arrangements. Few subjects have been more fiercely contested than the conduct of the English ministers in relation to the treaty of Utrecht. The reason is perfectly obvious: both the political parties that divided the nation had acted wrong; the whigs continued the war after all its reasonable objects had been gained; the tories concluded a peace in which the advantages that England might have claimed, from the success of her arms, were wantonly sacrificed. The people of England generally disliked the peace, and the commercial treaty with France was rejected by a majority of nine votes in the house of commons. The whigs now began to pretend that the protestant succession was in danger, and the alarm spreading rapidly, brought back to their party a large share of its former popularity. Nor were these apprehensions groundless; through the influence of the jacobites, the earl of Oxford was removed from his office, and a new administration, more favorable to the house of Stuart, formed under the auspices of St. John, Lord Bolingbroke. But before the court of St. Germains could derive any advantage from this change, the queen, harassed by the intrigues and quarrels of her servants, sank into a lethargy, and her death disappointed the hopes of the Pretender and his adherents (August 1, 1714). Several whig lords, without being summoned, attended the council, which was of course held at the demise of the crown; and the tories, overawed, concurred in issuing an order for the proclamation of the elector of Hanover, as George I., king of Great Britain and Ireland.. SECTION VI.-Peter the Great of Russia.-Charles XII. of Sweden. In the last two sections, we have confined our attention to the wars which the ambition of Louis XIV. excited in the south and west of Europe. During this period, the northern and eastern divisions of Christendom were occupied by the rivalry of two of the most extraordinary men that ever appeared on the stage of human life-Peter the Great of Russia, and Charles XII. of Sweden. Before entering on their history, we must take a brief retrospect of the affairs of the north, after the accession of the Czar Alexis, and the resignation of Queen Christina. Under the administration of Alexis, Russia began rapidly to emerge from the barbarism into which it had been plunged by the Mongolian invasion and subsequent civil wars. He reformed the laws, encouraged commerce, and patronised the arts; he recovered Smolensko from the Poles, and prevented the Turks from establishing their dominion over the Cossack tribes. His son Theodore, though of a weak constitution, steadily pursued the same course of vigorous policy. “He lived,” says a native Russian historian, " the joy and delight of his people, and died amid their sighs and tears. On the day of his decease, Moscow was in the same state of distress which Rome felt at the death of Titus." John, the brother and successor of Theodore, was a prince of weak intellect; his ambitious sister, Sophia, seized for a time on the sovereign ty, excluding her young brother Peter, to whom Theodore had bequeathed the crown. During seven years of boyhood Peter endured Sophia's galling yoke; but when he reached his seventeenth year, he took advantage of the general indignation excited by the misconduct of the government, to shut that princess up in a nunnery, and banish her favorite into a distant part of the empire. Denmark was the scene of an extraordinary revolution (A. D. 1661). The tyranny of the aristocracy arose to such a height, that the clergy and commons voted for the surrender of their liberties to the king, and Ferdinand III., almost without any effort of his own, was thus invested with absolute power. On his death (A. D. 1670), his successor, Christian V., commenced war against Charles XI., king of Sweden, who, though assailed by a powerful league, defended himself with great ability and success. Charles XI., after the restoration of peace, tried to make himself as absolute as the kings of Denmark, but he died prematurely (A. D. 1697), leaving his crown to his son Charles XII., who has been deservedly styled the Alexander of the North. Peter the Great commenced his reign by defeating the Turks, from whom he wrested the advantageous port of Azof, which opened to his subjects the commerce of the Black sea. This acquisition enlarged his views; he resolved to make Russia the centre of trade between Europe and Asia, to connect the Dwina, the Volga, and the Don, by canals, thus opening a water communication between the northern seas and the Black and the Caspian seas. To complete this magnificent plan, he determined to build a city on the Baltic sea, which should be the emporium of northern commerce, and the capital of his dominions. A still greater proof of his wisdom, and of his anxiety to secure the prosperity of his subjects, was his undertaking a tour through Europe, for the purpose of acquiring instruction, and bringing back to his subjects the improvements of more civilized nations. In 1698, having established a regency to direct the government during his absence, he departed from his dominions as a private gentleman, in the train of the ambassadors that he had sent to the principal courts of Europe. Amsterdam, at that time one of the most flourishing commercial cities in Europe, was the first place that arrested his attention; he entered himself as a common carpenter in one of the principal dockyards, laboring and living exactly like the other workmen. Thence he went to England, where he examined and studied the principal naval arsenals. King William presented the czar with a beautiful yacht, and permitted him to engage several ingenious artificers in his service. After a year's absence, Peter returned home, greatly improved himself, and accompanied by a train of men well qualified to instruct his subjects. Anxious to extend his dominions on the eastern side of the Baltic, he entered into an alliance against Sweden with Frederick Augustus, elector of Saxony, who had succeeded John Sobieski on the throne of Poland, and Frederick IV., king of Denmark (A. D. 1700). The Danes commenced the war by invading the territories of the duke of HolsteinGottorp, brother-in-law and ally of the king of Sweden. Their progress was slower than they expected, and, in the midst of their career, they were arrested by intelligence of the dangers which menaced their own capital. Charles XII., undaunted by the power of the league, resolved to carry the war into the dominions of Denmark. While his fleet, strengthened by an English squadron, blockaded Copenhagen, he suddenly embarked his troops at Carlscrona, and having easily effected a passage, laid siege to the city, by land. Frederic, cut off from his dominions by the Swedish cruisers, and alarmed by the imminent danger of his fleet and capital, concluded a peace highly honorable to the Swedes, leaving his Russian and Polish allies to continue the contest. No sooner had Charles concluded the treaty, than he resolved to turn his arms against the Russians, who were besieging Narva with a force of eighty thousand men; though his own army did not exceed ten thousand, the heroic king of Sweden boldly resolved to attack his enemies in their intrenchments. As soon as his artillery had opened a small breach, he commanded his men to advance to the charge with fixed bayonets. A storm of snow, that blew full in their faces, added to the confusion into which the undisciplined Russians were thrown by this daring assault; the very superiority of their numbers added to their confusion; after a contest of three hours' duration they were totally routed; eighteen thousand of the besiegers fell in the battle or flight, thirty thousand remained prisoners, all their artillery, baggage, and ammunition, became the prey of the conquerors. The czar was not disheartened by this defeat, which he attributed to the right cause, the ignorance and barbarism of his subjects; "I knew," he said, "that the Swedes would beat us, but they will teach us to become conquerors in our turn." Though at the head of forty thousand men, he did not venture to encounter his rival, but evacuated the provinces that he had invaded. Having wintered at Narva, Charles marched against the Poles and Saxons, who were encamped in the neighborhood of Riga; he forced a passage across the Duna, and gained a complete victory. Thence he entered as a conqueror into Courland and Lithuania, scarcely encoun tering any opposition. Encouraged by this success, he formed the project of dethroning King Augustus, who had lost the affection of the Poles by the undisguised preference which he showed for his Saxon subjects. With this design he entered into a secret correspondence with Radzrewiski, the cardinal primate, by whose means such a spirit of opposition was raised in the diet and senate, that Augustus sought peace as his only means of safety. Charles refused to treat unless the Poles elected a new king; and Augustus, convinced that he could only protect his crown by the sword, led his army to meet the Swedes, in a spacious plain near Clissau (A. D. 1702). The Polish monarch had with him about twenty-four thousand men, the forces of Charles did not exceed half that number; but the Swedes, flushed by recent conquests, gained a complete vtctory; and Augustus, after having made in vain the most heroic efforts to rally his troops, was forced to fly, leaving the enemy in possession of all his artillery and baggage. A second triumph at Pultusk, in the following campaign, gave such encouragement to the enemies of Augustus, that he was formally deposed by the diet (A. D. 1704), and the vacant crown given to Stanislaus Leczinski, who had been nominated by the king of Sweden. Peter had not been in the meantime inactive; though he had not given much assistance to his ally Augustus, he had made a powerful diversion by invading Ingria, and taking Narva, so recently the scene of his misfortunes, by storm. At the same time he founded his projected capital in the heart of his new conquests, and by his judicious measures protected the rising city from the attacks of the Swedish generals. St. Petersburgh, founded on a marshy island in the river Neva, during a destructive war, and surrounded by countries recently subdued or still hostile, rose rapidly into importance, and remained in perfect security while all around was in confusion. Augustus had not yet resigned all hopes of recovering his crown; he concerted a scheme of operations with Peter, and sixty thousand Russians entered Poland to drive the Swedes from their recent acquisitions. Charles was not daunted by the numbers of his enemies; he routed the Russian divisions successively, and inspired such terror by the rapidity of his movements, which seemed almost miraculous, that the Russians retreated to their own country (A. D. 1706). In the meantime a victory obtained by a division of the Swedish army over the Saxons, opened to Charles a passage into the hereditary dominions of his rival, and crossing the Oder, he appeared in Saxony at the head of twenty-four thousand men. Augustus was forced to conclude peace on the most humiliating conditions. Charles wintered in Germany, where his presence created considerable alarm. He demanded from the emperor toleration for the protestants of Silesia, and the relinquishment of the quota which Sweden was bound to furnish for its German provinces. Involved in the war of the succession, Joseph submitted,* and the fears with which the presence of Charles filled the allied powers were soon dispersed by his departure in quest of new adventures.† From Saxony Charles marched back into Poland, where Peter was making some ineffectual efforts to revive the party of Augustus. Peter retired before his rival, who had, however, the satisfaction of defeating an army of twenty thousand Russians, strongly intrenched. Intoxicated by success, he rejected the czar's offers of peace, declaring that he would treat at Moscow; and without forming any systematic plan of operations, he crossed the frontiers, resolved on the destruction of that ancient city. Peter prevented the advance of the. Swedes, on the direct line, by destroying the roads and desolating the country; Charles, after having endured great privations, turned off toward the The pope was greatly displeased by the emperor's restoring the Silesian churches to the protestants; Joseph facetiously replied to his remonstrances: "Had the king of Sweden demanded that I should become a Lutheran myself, I do not know what might have been the consequence." †The duke of Marlborough went into Saxony to dissuade the Swedish monarch from accepting the offers of Louis XIV. Marlborough was too cautious a politician to enter immediately on the object of his mission. He complimented Charles on his victories, and even expressed his anxiety to derive instruction in the art of war from so eminent a commander. In the course of the conversation, Marlborough perceived that Charles had a rooted aversion to, and was not, therefore, likely to form an alliance with Louis. A map of Russia lying open before the king, and the anger with which Charles spoke of Peter, revealed to the duke the real intentions of the Swedish monarch. He, therefore, took his leave without making any proposals, convinced that the disputes of Charles with the emperor might easily be accommodated, as all his demands would be granted. When Peter was informed of this haughty answer, he coolly replied, "My brother Charles affects to play the part of Alexander, but I hope he will not find in me a Darius." Ukraine, whither he had been invited by Mazeppa, the chief of the Cossacks, who, disgusted by the conduct of the czar, had resolved to throw off his allegiance. In spite of all the obstacles that nature and the enemy could throw in his way, Charles reached the place of rendezvous; but he had the mortification to find Mazeppa appear in his camp as a fugitive rather than an ally, for the czar had discovered his treason, and disconcerted his schemes by the punishment of his associates. A still greater misfortune to the Swedes was the loss of the convoy and the ruin of the reinforcement they had expected from Livonia. General Lewenhaupt, to whose care it was intrusted, had been forced into three general engagements by the Russians; and though he had eminently distinguished himself by his courage and conduct, he was forced to set fire to his wagons to prevent their falling into the hands of the enemy. Undaunted by these misfortunes, Charles continued the campaign even in the depth of a winter so severe that two thousand men were at once frozen to death almost in his presence. At length. he laid siege to Pultowa, a fortified city on the frontiers of the Ukraine, which contained one of the czar's principal magazines. The garrison was numerous and the resistance obstinate; Charles himself was dan-gerously wounded in the heel while viewing the works; and while he was still confined to his tent he learned that Peter was advancing with a numerous army to raise the siege. Leaving seven thousand men to guard the works, Charles ordered his soldiers to march and meet the enemy, while he accompanied them in a litter (July 8, 1709). The desperate charge of the Swedes broke the Russian cavalry, but the infantry stood firm, and gave the horse an opportunity of rallying in the rear. In the meantime, the czar's artillery made dreadful havoc in the Swedish line; and Charles, who had been forced to abandon his cannon in his forced marches, in vain contended against this formidable disadvantage. After a dreadful combat of more than two hours' duration, the Swedish army was irretrievably ruined; eight thousand of their best troops were left dead on the field, six thousand were taken prisoners, and about twelve thousand of the fugitives were soon after forced to surrender on the banks of the Dnieper, from want of boats to cross the river. Charles, accompanied by about three hundred of his guards, escaped to Bender, a Turkish town in Bessarabia, abandoning all his treasures to his rival, including the rich spoils of Poland and Saxony. • This catastrophe is powerfully described by Campbell :— |