COXE’s TRAVELS IN RUSSIA.

901

I have the honour likewife to tranfmit to you the manifefto publiffied by authority,with the tranflation, in which you will fee that great ftrefs is laid upon the ffiamefulpeace concluded with their enemy ■, notwithdanding which, as Baron Goltz, who at-tended the Emperor to the laft, was returning to town, he was met on the road byMonf AUfufiew, who, by order of the Emprels, allured him that he had nothing tofear, and that he might either return to Oraniebaum for a day or two, or proceed toPeterfbureh a proper efcort being appointed to attend him to either place; but he,chufing the town, is now at his houfe here, in perfect freedom ; but what is mod re-markable, Alfufiew affured him, that the Emprefs was perfectly well dupofed towardscultivating His Pruffian Majefty’s friend fhip. r „ . , ^ t >

The Hetman was, I hear, with General Villebois and Monf. Panin, the Great Duke so-overnor, the principal perfons in bringing about this revolution, and undei them thebrothers Orlov? were the mod trailed and the mod atfive; but the mod Angular cir-cumdance of the whole is, that the place of rendezvous was, the houfe of the PnncelsDafhkow, a young lady not above twenty years old, daughter to Count Roman Lan-wonits Woranzow, After to the late favourite Elizabeth, and niece to the Chancellor;it is certain that {he bore a principal (hare in contriving and carrying on the confpiracyfrom the beginning to the conclusion of it.

Of all men the Hetman feemed to poffefs the greated fhare m the unfortunate Em-peror ’s affeaion, and two days before his fall he dined at Mardial Rofamowlky’scountry houfe and was upon that occafion received and ferved with the greated marksof duty zeal, and attachment, on the part of both brothers, and when he returned toOraniebaum, the Hetman went ftraight to Peterhoff to concert matters with the Era-prefs It is a difpute what part the Chamberlain Schuwalow had m this affair.

On Friday evening before the Emprefs left the town, die difpatched an officer tobrinp- back Count Beftuchef to Peterfburgh, and it is thought he will have a confider-able (hare in the adminiftration; and in the mean time Monf. Panin is the perfon thattakes mod upon him, though both the Chancellor Count Woronzow, and the Vice-Chancellor Prince Galitzkin, continue in their places. The former came to town onFriday evening, and going direSly to court was tolerably well received, and promifedthe Emprefs’s protedion ; however, at his own defirc, he had two officers of the guardsput about him for the fed two days, but now they are taken oft, and he goes on mthe fundions of his office ; his lady was not at court till Sunday having continued withthe Emperor to the end, and having been even at Cronftadt with him ; and when ffiekiffed the Emprefs’s hand, ffie took off her ribbon of St. Catherine, and offering it toHer Imperial Majefty, fakl, ffie never afked for it, and now laid it at her feet j but theEmprefs mod obligingly took it, and with her own hand put it again over the CountefsWoronzov/s ffioulder. , . . . , . , , r .

With reeard to the motives of this revolution, it is plain that the taking away of thechurch lands was the principal, joined to the negled of the clergy ; the next was,the fevere difeipline which the Emperor endeavoured to introduce amongft the troops,especially the guards, who had been accudomed to great idlenefs and licence, and thedifeontent among them was heightened by the refolutiou His Imperial Ma,edy hadtaken, of carrying a great part of that corps into Germany with him m his expeditionao-aind Denmark ; which was a meafure difagreeable to the whole nation, who do-mached greatly their being drawn into new expences and new dangers for recoveringthe duchy of Schlefwick, which they confidered as a trifling objefl in ufel , and mtirelyindifferent to Ruffia •, and that after the Emperor had juft facrfficed the conquedsmade by the Ruffian arms, and which might have been of great importance to this3 empire,