sangfroid. I should easily believe it genuine; it is in the style of the age; there is an honest impudence in modern majesty that is delightful. Monarchs scorn plausibility; however, there is one comfort they level their crimes chiefly against one another. This Muscovite history, as I hear from very good authority, happened thus: The Czar, who was originally supposed impotent, and who, notwithstanding his mistress, seems to have had the modesty of thinking himself so, intended to return his two children upon his wife's hands, and had declared his rival John, his successor. The late Czarina had had the curiosity to see young John, though unknown to him: this had given Peter uneasiness; yet one of his first proceedings was to take the same step. The anecdotes of that Court, however, say, that John has had so many drugs given to him as to shatter his understanding extremely. Probably, as our Charles II. said' of a foolish popular parson, "John's nonsense suited Peter's nonsense." Peter, intoxicated with brandy and the King of Prussia, had thoughts of divorcing his Empress. She was at Peterhoff, two miles from Petersburgh; the Czar at another villa. An officer, arrived post with a led horse, told the Czarina there was a design against her life; that she had no time to lose; she must fly, or present herself to the army in the city. Pray, Sir Horace, what do ladies in a panic do? To be sure, run into the danger, not from it. Just so acted the Czarina. She trotted away to the capital, threw herself upon the gallantry of the Preobazinsky (or Prætorian) guards, who in Russia are the most polite and compassionate cavaliers in the world, and begged they would-not protect her-but give her the crown. One troop, who have been a little Prussianised, hesitated; the rest thought her request as reasonable as possible, and immediately proclaimed her. The rest of the people, who abhor innovations, and who, consequently, could not pardon the Czar for giving them their liberty, concurred unanimously. Not a word was said in favour of master Fitz-Catherine, who certainly has no right to the diadem, till his mother's no-right devolves to him by her death. The Czar, informed of the change of scene, fled to Cronstad, and embarked. All the royal galleys were sent after him, and he was overtaken. An act of abdication was presented to him. He signed it, and then made three requests,-for his own life, and for those of his mistress and of a Prussian adjutant who had accom

1 Walpole meditated publishing a collection of the sayings of Charles II. What he would have done so well has been attempted by a very inferior hand-the writer of bis note. See the Story of Nell Gwyn,' 12mo. 1852.-CUNNINGHAM.

panied him in his flight. Whether the first and last boons were granted, story is hitherto silent; but the next morning, Mademoiselle Woronzow flung herself on her knees before the Czarina, and begged to resign the order of St. Catherine, which she said the Czar had bestowed on her two months ago, and of which she owned herself unworthy, so, probably, knows the Czarina, who returned the cross and dismissed her. Bestuchef is recalled; somebody, I forgot who, and Schualow,' the late Empress's minion, are the chief ministers.

A civil message has been sent to Mr. Keith [the English Minister] -to the King of Prussia, that he, having thirty thousand Russians in his army, which her Majesty wants, she should be glad to have them return; however, as she knows his Majesty's occasions, she permits them to obey his orders till he can spare them. He replied, that by their assistance he had extricated himself from his greatest difficulty, and would send them back immediately. Here ends my first tome. One wants to know the fate of the Czar, of his predecessor and successor John; of Munich, Biron, and all those heroes. of former dramas, who had been recalled from Siberia. One does not want to know what the Empress-Queen feels. She, who devoutly hates every monarch who cannot or will not have children, must be transported. But what seeds are here for more revolutions! If John and Peter never come to light again, the blood-royal of Russia will be extinct, at least be extremely equivocal; and the title of a Princess of Anhalt Zerbst to the crown cannot fascinate the eyes of every good Muscovite. As they are compendious in their proceedings, I should think the malcontents would not waste a summer in writing Monitors and North-Russians.

The King of Prussia has certainly driven back Daun, and got between him and Schweidnitz. Prince Ferdinand, too, has obtained another advantage. The accounts came yesterday; no English were engaged; the affair lay between Hessians and Saxons, and Stainville is dislodged from his post. The advantage is reckoned considerable. The King of France is impatient to stop the effusion of blood. Choiseul is eager for peace, and the more so, as all his schemes are baffled. That we wish it all Europe knows, but that is not the best secret for obtaining it. Many people think it agreed. I dread this northern tempest.

1 Count Schualow, favourite of the Empress Elizabeth; but this did not prove true -he was not employed by Catherine II.- WALPOLE.

2 In allusion to North Britons, the famous weekly papers written by Wilkes against Lord Bute.-WALPOLE.

What a volume is here! and, perhaps, not a syllable of it new to you! You will, at least, excuse the intention. I wish you and I had any common acquaintance left, that we might chat of something else than kings and queens! Adieu!

P.S. The Russian minister here, I am told, has received credentials from the new government.

MY DEAR LORD:

801. TO THE EARL OF STRAFFORD.

Strawberry Hill, August 5, 1762. As you have correspondents of better authority in town, I don't pretend to send you great events, and I know no small ones. Nobody talks of anything under a revolution. That in Russia alarms me, lest Lady Mary should fall in love with the Czarina, who has deposed her Lord Coke, and set out for Petersburgh. We throw away a whole summer in writing Britons and North Britons; the Russians change sovereigns faster than Mr. Wilkes can choose a motto for a paper. What years were spent here in controversy on the abdication of King James, and the legitimacy of the Pretender! Commend me to the Czarina. They doubted, that is, her husband did, whether her children were of genuine blood-royal. She appealed to the Preobazinski guards, excellent casuists; and, to prove Duke Paul heir to the crown, assumed it herself. The proof was compendious and unanswerable.

I trust you know that Mr. Conway has made a figure by taking the castle of Waldeck. There has been another action to Prince Ferdinand's advantage, but no English were engaged.

You tantalise me by talking of the verdure of Yorkshire; we have not had a teacup full of rain till to-day for these six weeks. Corn has been reaped that never wet its lips; not a blade of grass; the leaves yellow and falling as in the end of October. In short, Twickenham is rueful; I don't believe Westphalia looks more barren. Nay, we are forced to fortify ourselves too. Hanworth was broken open last night, though the family was all there. Lord Vere lost a silver standish, an old watch, and his writing-box with fifty pounds in it. They broke it open in the park, but missed a diamond ring, which was found, and the telescope, which by the weight of the case they had fancied full of money. Another house in the middle of Sunbury has had the same fate. I am mounting cannon on my battlements.

Your chateau, I hope, proceeds faster than mine. The carpenters are all associated for increase of wages; I have had but two men at work these five weeks. You know, to be sure, that Lady Mary Wortley cannot live. Adieu, my dear Lord!

SIR:

802. TO THE REV. WILLIAM COLE.

Strawberry Hill, August 5, 1762.

As I had been dilatory in accepting your kind offer of coming hither, I proposed it as soon as I returned. As we are so burnt, and as my workmen have disappointed me, I am not quite sorry that I had not the pleasure of seeing you this week. Next week I am obliged to be in town on business. If you please, therefore, we will postpone our meeting till the first of September; by which time, I flatter myself we shall be green, and I shall be able to show you my additional apartment to more advantage. Unless you forbid me, I will expect you, Sir, the very beginning of next month. In the mean time, I will only thank you for the obliging and curious notes you have sent me, which will make a great figure in my second edition.

803. TO GEORGE MONTAGU, ESQ.

Strawberry Hill, August 10, 1762.

I HAVE received your letter from Greatworth since your return, but I do not find that you have got one, which I sent you to the Vine, enclosing one directed for you: Mr. Chute says you did not mention hearing from me there. I left your button too in town with old Richard to be transmitted to you. Our drought continues, . though we have had one handsome storm. I have been reading the story of Phaeton in the Metamorphoses; it is a picture of Twickenham. Ardet Athos, taurusque Cilix, &c.; mount Richmond burns, parched is Petersham: Parnassusque biceps, dry is Pope's grot, the nymphs of Clivden are burning to blackmoors, their faces are already as glowing as a cinder, Cycnus is changed into a swan: quodque suo Tagus amne vehit, fluit ignibus aurum; my gold fishes are almost molten. Yet this conflagration is nothing to that in Russia: what do you say to a Czarina mounting her horse, and marching at the head of fourteen thousand men, with a large train of artillery, to dethrone her husband? Yet she is not the only

virago in that country; the conspiracy was conducted by the sister of the Czar's mistress, a heroine under twenty! They have no fewer than two czars now in coops-that is, supposing these gentle damsels have murdered neither of them. Turkey will become a moderate government; one must travel to frozen climates if one chooses to see revolutions in perfection. "Here's room for meditation even to madness:" the deposed Emperor possessed Muscovy, was heir to Sweden, and the true heir of Denmark; all the northern crowns centered in his person; one hopes he is in a dungeon, that is, one hopes he is not assassinated. You cannot crowd more matter into a lecture of morality than is comprehended in those few words. This is the fourth Czarina that you and I have seen; to be sure, as historians, we have not passed our time ill. Mrs. Anne Pitt, who, I suspect, envies the heroine of twenty a little, says, "The Czarina has only robbed Peter to pay Paul;" and I do not believe that her brother, Mr. William Pitt, feels very happy, that he cannot immediately dispatch a squadron to the Baltic to reinstate the friend of the King of Prussia. I cannot afford to live less than fifty years more; for so long, I suppose, at least, it will be before the court of Petersburgh will cease to produce amusing scenes. Think of old Count Biren, formerly master of that empire, returning to Siberia, and bowing to Bestucheff, whom he may meet on the road from thence. I interest myself now about nothing but Russia; Lord Bute must be sent to the Orcades before I shall ask a question in English politics; at least I shall expect that Mr. Pitt, at the head of the Preobazinski guards, will seize the person of the prime minister for giving up our conquests to the chief enemy of this nation.

My pen is in such a sublime humour, that it can scarce condescend to tell you that Sir Edward Deering is going to marry Polly Hart, Danvers's old mistress; and three more baronets, whose names nobody knows, but Collins, are treading in the same steps.

My compliments to the house of Montagu-upon my word I congratulate the General and you, and your Viceroy [Earl of Halifax], that you escaped being deposed by the primate of Novogorod.