the honours due to their rank, and the affection borne to them by the Empress.

The latter, though a wife and a great Princefs, had her weakneffes; and her chief one was, an unmeafurable affection the bore towards one Biren, a man of mean original, whom the had preferred to be Duke of Courland. This ridiculous partiality was by her carried to fuch a height, that it influenced all her actions; and it was thought, that could he have done it with, any degree of decency, or profpect of fuccefs, fhe would have made him her fucceffor in the empire. She, however, ftretched, or rather overftrained, her power to ferve him; and thereby undid all that he had been fo long labouring to effect. The Dutchess of Mecklenburgh had the uncommon fatisfaction of seeing her daughter treated as the prefumptive heir of a mighty, empire for three years before her death. Her husband, the Duke, though fenfible how unwelcome his prefence must be in Ruffia, could not refift the impulfes of curiofity, and, it is faid, that he put himself in the train of an embafly which he fent to Petersburgh, that he might have the fatisfaction of beholding the high marks of diftinétion paid by the emprefs to his daughter. In 1739, the Czarina gave her niece in marriage to Antony Ul-. ric, Prince of Brunfwic-Wolfenbuttle. This match was far from being agreeable to fome of the greateft fubjects of the RufGan empire, who oppofed it, as tending to introduce a German government into their country; but the power of the Emprefs was by this time fo well established, that their oppofition was fatal only to themselves. In the event, the match itself was found to be a political contrivance between the Emprefs and Biren; for the Princefs of Brunfwic, who was in her own perfon, in the course of defcent, preferable to her iffue in the fucceffion, being brought to bed of a fon, whofe name was Iwan, or John, the Empreis Anne, who furvived the marriage but about twelve months, appointed Biren to be Regent of the empire during the minority of the young Prince, whofe father and mother had no ether share in the government, than the charge of his education, and that of the other children who might be born of the marriage; and who, in cafe of John's death, were to fucceed in course to the empire.,

This deftination, though unjust and abfurd in itself, was trengthened with all the precautions that human policy could fuggeft to render it permanent. Baron Offerman, High Chancellor of Ruffia, was appointed to be firft Minifter; Count Munich, one of the greateft Generals of his time, was to command the army; and a council, the members of which were entirely in Biren's intereft, was appointed during the minority. Thofe arrangements were far from being pleafing to the Princefs of Mecklenburgh;

X 4

Mecklenburgh; but her fituation was very delicate. The va lidity of her fon's nomination to the empire, refted entirely upon the will of the late Emprefs, which the could not pretend to fet afide, without endangering her own fucceffion. Though fhe was entirely fenfible of the injury that had been done to her, yet fhe was forced to diffemble. The right of the Duke of Holftein, grandfon to Czar Peter the Great, was fecretly abetted by many of the most powerful of the Ruffian Grandees. The Princess Elizabeth, daughter of the fame Czar and the Empress Catharine, was ftill alive; nor was there in all the civil conftitution of Ruffia, a fundamental rule for fucceffion, excepting" the nomination of their feveral Sovereigns, which had been again and again broken into. All that the Princefs of Mecklenburgh, under fuch circumftances, could do, was to form a party to countermine Biren, who had no family-intereft in the empire, and who was hated by the great Nobility. To counterbalance this unpopularity, he made ufe of his powers as Regent, to fill the most important pofts in the empire with his own creatures; and this ferved only to haften his ruin. They became eafily fenfible, that having no fupport but the will of the late Emprefs, which was growing every day more and more contemptible, they could have no fure dependence upon him ;1 and therefore they privately connected themselves with the Princefs of Mecklenburgh, who behaved with great prudence on this trying occafion.

Upon the death of the Emprefs Anne, the young Iwan, though but two months old, was proclaimed Emperor; and Biren's conduct foon gave the Princess advantages which she could not otherwise have hoped for. His upftart quality rendered him. odious to many of the chief Nobility, who, because they difdained his favours, were by him fentenced to banishment in Siberia. Even fuch of the Nobility as accepted them, were fhocked at the thoughts of being obliged for their promotion to one who was fo much inferior to themfelves. The Princess of Mecklenburgh omitted no opportunity of fomenting this general difcontent; and Biren thought himself so fecure, that he gave himself little trouble in prying into her conduct, by which The had an opportunity of ftrengthening her party, till her meafures being fettled, the great Nobility of Ruffia, in the night preceding the 17th of November, 1740, affembled in the palace of the Princefs of Mecklenburgh, who then bore the title of Grand-dutchefs, and not only declared her Regent of the empire, but gave orders for arrefting Biren as an ufurper and a tytant; which was done accordingly. Soon after, he was legally tried, and fentenced to lofe his head; but his fentence was by

the

the Grand-dutchefs commuted into that of banishment to Siberia, together with all his family and adherents.

• The exaltation of the Grand-dutchefs to the regency of the Ruffian empire, gave her father fome weight in the affairs of the North; though it does not appear that the interested herself much in the re-establishment of his fortunes. When fentence paffed against Biren, he was declared to have forfeited the dutchy of Courland; a proceeding which, however, was afterwards judged to be irregular; and a new election being held, it went in favour of Prince Antony of Brunswic, husband to the Granddutchefs, whofe power was far from being fo well fecured as fhe imagined. The Swedes were particularly interefted in refenting the injury that had been done to the Duke of Holftein, and had likewife fome territorial difputes with the Ruffians, upon which a war broke out in 1741, in Finland. This war was but poorly managed on the part of Sweden. Lafcy, the Ruffian General, took Wilmanftra, and gained many fignal advantages over the Swedes. The Great dutchefs, at the fame time, fhewed a moderation with which Ruffia was feldom acquainted. She gave orders, not only that the Swedish prifoners fhould be treated with all kind of humanity, but that all the fubjects of that kingdom refiding in Ruffia, fhould have fecurity for their perfons and effects, and be permitted to refide in, or depart out of, the empire as they should think proper; but the Great-dutchefs herself was now on the eve of a revolution that was to strip her and her family of all their power.

Though her fon was Emperor by a priority of descent from the elder brother of Czar Peter the Great, yet it was well known, that he filled the throne of Ruffia in direct violation of the teftamentary difpofitions of that Prince, whofe memory was adored by the Ruffians. The Princefs of Mecklenburgh and her aunt the Empress Anne were aware of this difficulty, and therefore they had a strict eye over the Princess Elizabeth, the only furviving child of Peter the Great. This Princess resembled her father in his perfon, was graceful, majestic, affable, and prudent; and fhe had, through all the revolutions of government, behaved with fo much wifdom and decency, that nothing could be laid to her charge. Notwithstanding this, fhe was fully fen-. fible of the wrong that had been done her, by being fet afide from the fucceffion; and the lived in the palace as a ftate-prifoner furrounded by fpies. This circumftance of confinement awakened the compaffion of the Ruffians; nor could all the precautions of the Court prevent her from having fecret interviews with many Noblemen and Officers, who promised to stand by her, and affift her in mounting the throne. The difficulties, however,

however, that she had to encounter were fo various, and feemingly fo unfurmountable, that after the scheme of a confpiracy. was far advanced, her refolution was ftaggered at the thoughts of the danger to which the expofed her friends. As explanations, by difcourfe or writings, were dangerous, one of the Confpirators, who understood drawing, fketched her figure, with the head taken off by an executioner, himself lying stretch-. ed on the rack, and her other friends fuffering the most horrible deaths. She comprehended the meaning of the drawing, and that it was far more fafe for her and her party to advance than to recede. Matters, however, were not carried on with fuch impenetrable fecrecy, but that the Great-dutchefs had an intimation of the confpiracy going forward, and repaired in perfon to the apartments of the Princefs, who received her with fo much ferenity and compofure, that her fufpicions vanished, after queftioning her upon the fubject of her vifit, which the Princess Elizabeth ftrongly difavowed.

Upon the departure of the Grand-dutchefs, in the night, between the 5th and 6th of December, the Confpirators, perceiving their defigns could be kept no longer fecret, refolved to proceed to immediate execution, and repaired to the apartments of the Princess Elizabeth, who had already concerted the plan of the Revolution. She was favoured by the univerfal defection of the Ruffian army from the German government as it was called; and their Officers repairing to her lodging, the gave orders for fecuring all the German guards, and for preventing any alarm or noife from reaching the ear of the GreatDutchefs. She then put herself at the head of a favourite regiment of guards, and marched to the principal apartments of the palace, where fhe placed centinels over the Great-Dutchefs and all her chief domeftics, and fet guards upon the houses of all her Minifters and Officers of State. All this was done with fo much fecrecy and regularity, that the Great-dutchess had no. fufpicion of what had happened, till, awakening in the morning, the found herself a prifoner; and in a few minutes the underitood that the Princess Elizabeth had been proclaimed Emprefs of the Ruffias. Soon after, the new Emprefs, who had by this time affumed all the fpirit of her father, and who feemed to have loft all her timidity with her private ftation, entered the apartment of the Great-dutchefs, and in perfon acquainted her with the catastrophe that had happened; exhorting her at the fame time, to fubmit to her fate, which was, that the and her fon fhould remove out of the palace to another houfe, from whence they were to be conducted to Germany.

It is to this day uncertain whether the new Empress was fincere in this declaration; it is most probable that he was,

but

but that she was afterwards perfuaded of the danger that must attend the leaving fuch powerful competitors for her crown at lis berty. The Great-dutchefs and her fon, however, fet out under a guard; and it was remarked, that the behaved with great equanimity. During her government, the Princess Elizabeth had been treated with lefs feverity than under the preceding, and the had fuffered her to keep all the valuable jewels that had been prefented or left her by the late Emprefs. The Great-dutchefs had philofophy enough not to repine at her reverse of fortune. She had for fome time been reconciled to her father, who had ferved her faithfully at the northern Courts, and whofe experience had now rendered him a valuable friend; fo that the comforted herself with the prospect of paffing the remainder of her days with him and her fon. But fhe was difappointed in those pleafing hopes: the new Emprefs of the Ruffias had iffued a commiffion for trying the heads of the late administration; and it was pretended that fuch difcoveries had been made as rendered it unfafe to truft the Great-dutchefs or her husband with their liberty. Accordingly, in January 1742, in their journey to Dantzic, they were arrefted and carried to Riga, where they were put under confinement. All Europe, efpecially the Courts of Germany, were furprised at this proceeding, as no crime or act of delinquency could be charged against the Great-dutchess, who had done no more than fubmitted to the will of others, and that too in her own prejudice. The courts of Vienna and Berlin prefented memorials on this head; but all the answer they received from the Empress Elizabeth was, that the Princefs of Mecklenburgh fhould be treated in her confinement with the regard due to her rank, till the state of affairs could admit of her enlargement.

In the mean while, the fame defect in the fucceffion took place now as had done in the time of the Emprefs Anne, and the fame remedy was applied for as that Empress reigned in prejudice of her elder fifter and her daughter, fo the Empress Elizabeth reigned in prejudice of her elder fifter's fon, the Duke of Holftein, who was at the fame time next in blood to the crown of Sweden. To prevent any bad confequences from this prepofterous order of fucceffion, the new Emprefs fent for the young Duke of Holftein, adopted him as her fucceffor in the empire, and married him in 1745 to the Princess Catharine of Anhalt-Zerbft. His melancholy fate is well known; and his wife, who by birth is in no manner of degree related to the imperial blood of Ruffia, is now the fole Sovereign of that empire. As to the Princess of Mecklenburgh, fhe died, after be ing about three years in her confinement; and it is uncertain whether