opening of the campaign. The treaty of peace between Austria and the 1790 Porte throwing a damp on the war, nothing memorable occurred during several months. After the Russians had possessed themselves of Oczakow, Bielgorod, and Kylia Nova, on the Euxine, Ismael, esteemed the key of the Lower Danube, was the only fortress remaining to the Turks in that quarter. The possession of this place, which would open the Russians a passage into the country between the Danube and Constantinople, was, therefore, of the utmost importance.-The autumn was far advanced when Suworow received orders from prince Potemkin to invest the fortress, by sea and land, with the division of the Russian forces under his command, assisted by a fleet of galley's under admiral Ribas.-The place was well fortified, strongly garrisoned, and guarded by two hundred and thirty-two pieces of artillery. -Suworow, having prepared for the siege, sent a letter from prince Potemkin to the governor, summoning him to surrender; which was answered by a defiance.-A general assault was then resolved on; it not being a season for a regular siege.t-The orders were instantly executed by an army of 23,000 men; the galleys, on board of which were 567 pieces of artillery, advancing at the same time. Under cover of a tremendous fire from these and from the surrounding batteries, a furious assault was given, and was received by the Turks with a firmness and valour that did them signal honour; the citizens, who mortally hated the Russians, supporting the troops, and the women, armed with poignards, taking part in the sally." In the result, the assailants were repulsed: but Suworow, undaunted by ill success, came again to the assault with redoubled intrepidity; and, having possessed himself of the enemy's works, forced his way into the fortress. The Turks still defending themselves with desperate courage, the battle was continued some time within the walls.-At length, the serasquier who commanded the place, thinking further defence useless, consented to capitulate. Unfortunately, a fray ensued, in the event of which the serasquier and the Turkish prisoners fell the first victims to the savage ferocity of the conquerors. A dreadful scene of slaughter then + December 25. Suworow's Memoirs. 2. 134. 171. and Annual Register. 1791. 197. took 1790 i took place, and was continued throughout the night:* " Armati per urbem "victores implacabili odio victos consectabantur. Plenæ cædibus viæ, "cruenta fora templaque, passim trucidatis, ut quemque sors obtulerat.” — The tragic scene described with so much force by the Roman historian was realized on this occasion. When the veil of darkness was withdrawn, under which the carnage had been committed, the streets, squares, mosques, houses, and fortifications were seen strewed with heaps of dead bodies of above 15,000 persons of all ages and descriptions, who had fallen in the siege and consequent massacre.***-Beside the artillery and stores, 10,000 horses, and effects to the amount of 10,000,000 of piastres, fell into the hands of the victors. This acquisition, great as it was, must be considered as dearly made by Russia, with the loss of 13,000 of her best troops.A reflection on this circumstance, and on the bloodshed with which the siege was attended, would, it might be supposed, have excited remorse in a monarch to whose ambition so many lives had been sacrificed. But this passion, when ill-directed, steels the heart to tender feelings.-Catharine, not content with conferring honours on general Suworow, caused the conquest to be celebrated at Petersburg, and the bloody trophies which he had won to be ostentatiously displayed!!-And Suworow and his companions, we are informed, "attributed it to the peculiar favour of Providence, that they had escaped so many dangers!!""-To sanction his remorseless barbarity, * "As he (the serasquier) wore a rich poignard in his girdle, a chasseur, eager for plunder, "endeavoured to seize it; when a janissary stood forth as the protector of his master. The "Russians immediately fell upon the prisoners, massacred the greatest part, and the serasquier "among them."-Such was the occasion of the fray, as related by the writer of Suworow's Campaigns. v. 2. 156. ** The writer of Suworow's Campaigns, speaking of the Russian officers who had been at the siege of Oczakow, says, "all agree that the taking of Ismailow was the most illustrious monument of Russian glory."-Let us now observe what the glory consisted in which was to immortalize these heroes. "These same warriors, who, ten hours before, were waiting in "silence for the signal of an uncertain and formidable contest, now saw the bodies of their "enemies heaped at their feet, and their arms bathed in a deluge of blood, that filled the streets " and public squares. The calm of victory soon succeeded to the fury of the battle; and order "was restored at the voice of their commanders, who remained. Several battalions of grena"diers and cossacks, who had lost half their officers, were commanded by those of the fusileers "and chasseurs."-Suworow's Campaigns, 163. v. 2. i Taciti Hist. L. 4. 11. 123 * Segur. 2. 176. Suworow. 2. 166. 1 Suworow. 2. 173. barity, the fidelity of the Turkish governor, and the firmness and valour of 1790 the garrison and citizens of Ismael, were converted by the ruffian conqueror into stubbornness. "The haughty Ismael," said Suworow in a letter to his sovereign, is at your feet.""It is thus that the passions of men, while their consciences are laid asleep, find a salvo for themselves. " POLAND. THE proceedings of the diet in the two last years relate chiefly to defensive measures. But we have, at this time, evidences of a disposition in the Poles, not only to reclaim their independency, but to make such reforms in their constitution as might place them on a level with other states.—The national pride was flattered with the privilege of electing their sovereign: and it is with reluctance that men in general relinquish such rights. But men of benevolent and enlightened minds, reflecting on the civil dissensions and tumults occasioned by every vacancy of the throne, had long been desirous to apply some remedy to this radical evil in their constitution. As a palliative for it, which might be applied without offending the strenuous assertors of national rights, count Potocki now proposed a plan, the main drift of which was to preserve the right of electing, but to prevent the peace of the kingdom from being disturbed by any future election. The bishop of Kaminiec, about the same time, brought forward a plan of a more general nature, in eight articles, for the regulation of matters relative to elections, to the proceedings of the diet, to the powers of the executive government, and the judicial authority of the diet. Whilst these plans rested as matters of deliberation, the bands of friendship between the republic and his Prussian majesty were drawn still closer by a treaty of defence and alliance, which was ratified and exchanged the twenty-ninth day of march.b 1790 1790 EAST INDIES. EARLY in this year, some attempts were made by the government of Madras to effect an accommodation between Tippoo sultan and the rajah of Travancore. But they were attended with the ill success which might reasonably be expected from negotiations with a prince, who consented to them merely with a view of preserving the fair shew of a pacific disposition in the eyes of the world, whilst he was meditating schemes of conquest, which would have been frustrated by a pacification.-These having proved fruitless, each party prepared for hostilities with the confidence which arose from a persuasion that they were better prepared for them than they had been at the conclusion of the late war. Tippoo, knowing the ardent desire of France to establish its power in India, and enlarge its trade to this country, relied on the assistance of that crown. The English company, on the contrary, had not only strengthened itself by treaties with the Marattas and the nizam of the Decan, but they had the greater security derived from the jealousy and enmity of these powers toward the sultan: moreover their own growing prosperity afforded them a rational source of confidence. Actuated by a persuasion that he should be supported by a powerful ally, the rajah, when he saw that Tippoo sultan did not cease to threaten him with a second irruption, boldly attacked the camp which he had formed on his frontier. His courage, however, was not rewarded with success.The Travancoreans were repulsed with great slaughter; and the Mysoreans, pursuing their victory, stormed the rajah's lines; and, having forced their enemy to retire, they poured like a torrent into his dominions, and, in a short time, made themselves master of Cranganore, Jacottah, Paroor, and Curiapilly. " b The sultan justified his warlike measures on the ground of his paramount sovereignty of the forts which the rajah had purchased without his concurrence. The company, on the other hand, said that the treaty of Mangalore - · Mackenzie's Sketch of the War. 1. 22. b Idem. 1. 37. had had rendered it incumbent on them to support the rajah in the defence of his territories, which were guaranteed by it.-Justified by policy, if not by the obligations of the treaty, the company determined to make a vigorous resistance to a prince who threatened destruction to their existence. Warlike counsels being resolved on, the several presidencies prepared to perform their parts in the prosecution of them, and the plan of a campaign was settled. By this it was agreed that general Abercrombie, with the Bombay army, of about 7000 men, should act against the sultan's dominions on the west of the Ghauts: that general Meadows, with the grand army, of 15,000 men, should penetrate into the Coimbatore country; which would open them a passage to Mysore: and that the defence of the Carnatic should be committed to a body of troops under colonel Kelly.The Marattas and the nizam, in the mean-time, were to make a diversion of Tippoo's forces by an invasion of his northern frontier. vancore. When the sultan observed the resolute and formidable aspect of his enemy, he made submissive overtures to the commander in chief. But Meadows, with much dignity, replied, "that the English, equally incapable "of offering an insult as of submitting to one, had looked upon war as "declared from the moment that he attacked their ally, the king of TraGod," said he," does not give the battle to the strong, nor the race to the swift, but he generally gives success to those whose cause is just: on that we depend."-Each party, then, prepared for action: and, in the operations of the campaign, we shall not, as in former wars, have before us the comparatively uninteresting spectacle of innumerable hordes of Indians first desolating the countries destined to suffer under their ravages, and afterwards constrained to yield to the discipline and firmness of a small army of Europeans, but the well-digested plans of able generals, rivalling each other in the sagacity with which they penetrated each other's. designs, and their address in counteracting them. General Meadows, having joined the army assembled early in the year on the plains of Trichinopoli, which are at the extremity of the Carnatic and bordering on the kingdom of Mysore, began his operations with movements intended, if possible, to make himself master of a fruitful country on the south-east of the Ghauts, † by that means to deprive his enemy of the resources 1790 C Mackenzie. 1, 60. + In June. |