XXXVI.

1786.

CHAP. would not be difficult to evince, that both the fub. _ jects thus forcibly acquired were bettered in their condition by this annexation; but shallow would be the moralist who, from eventual and contingent good, would defend injustice. It might be easily shewn that the greater number of victorious commanders, in proportion to their power, have been guilty of as ambitious ufurpations as Frederic, and that not many of them have by their victories done fo much good. In appreciating conduct we must consider the circumstances and opportunities of the agent, and the temptations which these produced; how very few men, it may be asked, having a very defirable object within their grasp, would abstain from possessing it, even though not conformable to strict justice. The perfpicacious and recollecting observer of mankind must recognise such conduct to be natural, but the just estimator of moral sentiments and actions will reprobate it as unjust. Frederic, with confiderable moral defects, possessed very high moral and the very highest intellectual excellencies; he raised a small poor territory to be a great, opulent, and powerful kingdom; and rendered ignorant and uncivilized inhabitants an enlightened and civilized people. To a very great portion of mankind most momentous benefits have accrued from the efforts of the renowned Frederic.

His provi fions for the fecurity of his fucceffor.

As the power of Prussia had arisen from the counsels and exertions of Frederic, many apprehended, that, resting on his character, its stability would be endangered by his death; and supposed, that the ambitious confederation of the imperial courts,

8

XXXVI.

1786,

courts, so recently thwarted by the vigilant sagacity CHAP. of Frederic, would take advantage of his death, and endeavour to reduce northern Germany to dependence. But the provisions of Frederic had not been temporary, to expire with his own life: he acquired and formed such strength and power as could be protected by mediocrity of talents, that he knew was to be generally expected in fovereigns as well as others, and which only he saw his immediate successor to possess. His counsellors had been trained by himself, and were likely to continue the plan of policy which the object of their adoration had delineated and conducted with so signal success. For the preservation of his dominions, Frederic bequeathed the most effectual securities to his fucceffor which human wisdom could provide or devise, by leaving him a full treasury, and a formidable army, wife and experienced counsellors, and a people enthusiastically attached to the government and memory of their illustrious king. The imperial powers thought it by no means expedient to interfere with a kingdom so powerfully protected, and were befides maturing their preparations for their own principal design, in the prosecution of which it was their obvious interests to win Pruffia to forbearance, instead of provoking her to war. Thus the death of Frederic made no immediate perceivable difference in the politics of Europe.

In Denmark a revolution had taken place in Revolution

1784, which proved very beneficial to that kingdom. Ever since 1772, the queen dowager having triumphed over the unfortunate and ill-used Matilda, from the imbecility of the king, retained the fupreme

14

in Den

mark.

1786,

CHAP. supreme power which she had acquired by fuch unjustifiable means. Her sway was indeed established beyond all control, and beyond the proba. bility of fubversion. She had filled the great offices of state with her adherents and favourites; the son of the unhappy Matilda was a child, and the chances against his life at that tender age being confiderable, Julia's fon, prince Frederic, (the king's half-brother,) was regarded as the prefumptive successor to the throne: all things seemed to concur in fecuring her influence and authority for life, The exercise of her dominion was far from dispelling the hatred which the dowager-queen so deservedly incurred by her means of elevation. Imperious and tyrannical, she sacrificed the national good to the interefts of her supporters and minions; and was hateful throughout the kingdom, except to her own creatures. Retribution though flow was not the less sure; as the prince royal approached to maturity, he indicated qualities that excited the hopes of the people in general, and especially of those, many in number, who were disgusted with the queen-dowager's government. In the seventeenth year of his age, the heir of the crown, by his manly abilities and character, was become the universal favourite of the nation, and in a few months acquired such influence and power as to overwhelm the usurpers of his father's authority. With fuch wisdom and fecrecy had he formed his measures, that, being declared of age at seventeen, he was placed at the head of the council-board; when he acquainted the junto that directed the affairs of the kingdom under the queen-dowager, that the king

XXXVI

1786. Queen

difgraced,

and the reins of go

vernment

affumed by royal.

his father had no farther occafion for their services, CHAP. before they had conceived the most distant idea of their approaching downfal. Having dismissed these ministers, he published an ordinance, that dowager no orders from the council of state were in future to be received, or confidered valid, which had not been previously reported to the king, figned by him, and counter-figned by the prince royal. Having accomplished so defirable and beneficial a change, the prince conducted himself with temperate, wife, and magnanimous policy toward the junto and its head. He abstained from punishing the planners and most active inftruments of the revolution 1772, any farther than by the lofs of their offices. On the queen herself he bestowed a fuperb castle and extensive demesnes in Holstein, whence it was understood she was not to return to court. Prince Frederic had never taken any share in his mother's cabals; to him his nephew presented great poffeffions, and made him second to himself in the cabinet-council. His subsequent conduct confirmed and increased the opinion of his countrymen; he bestowed the closest attention on public business, and studied the political and commercial interests of Denmark. His highness planned and executed a very great and royal work, which was finished in 1786, the formation of a short and direct junction between the Baltic and the German ocean. This was effected by drawing a navigable canal from west to east across the penin. sula of Jutland. Besides his attention to official duty, the prince manifested a difpofition to litera

CHAP. ture, and became the patron of learning and

XXXVI.

1786. Physical caJamities in various parts of the continent.

learned men.

During this year and the two former, various parts of the world fuffered dreadful calamities from physical causes. Earthquakes, which had so desolated Calabria and other parts of Europe, raged both in Afia and America. In Europe and the adjacent parts of Africa and Afia, there was a fuccession of severe and irregular seasons; violent storms of rain spread inundations over the richest parts of Poland, Lithuania, Germany, Hungary, Italy, and France. Rigorous cold destroyed the crops of Norway and Sweden; and the fame causes prevented Livonia from affording them the usual supplies: even the fisheries of the north did not yield their wonted stores; the consequences were, that Norway, notwithstanding every effort of government, laboured under an absolute famine. In Iceland a new kind of calamity ravaged the country; mount Hecla, and the other volcanos which so much diftinguish that island, although perhaps they promote the purposes of vegetation by communicating a genial warmth to its frozen bosom, have at all times been the terror, and at particular periods the scourge and destroyers, of the inhabitants. The present calamity, however, was totally new: the country with its products were now confumed by fubterraneous fire. This destroyer of nature made its first appearance in June 1784, reduced to cinders every thing which it met, and continued burning until the month of May in the following year, having in that time extended its de