company with his brother, to make The unfortunate Struenfee, who The government seemed now to Frederick prefided, and a commif- The city was illuminated on the breathed none of that tenderness In the mean time, amufements and melancholy air of folemnity, which the prefent ftate of affairs demanded, the court prefented a round of balls, operas, entertainments, and concerts; two birthdays, which immediately fucceeded the revolution, were celebrated with extraordinary magnificence, and every thing bore the marks of diffipation and levity. Moft of the ladies of the Queen's household were permitted to follow her to Cronenburgh; it does not appear that her confinement in that place was at any time very ftrict; The was permitted to walk upon the ramparts, and to take the air in a coach, under a guard. Her fon, the prince royal, who was entered into his fifth year, was put into the care of a lady of quality, who was appointed governefs, under the fuperintendency of the Queen Dow ager. Struenfee and Brandt were hardly treated in prifon. Under pretence that they intended to make away with themselves, they were removed from the neighbourhood of the walls in their respective dungeons, and chained down to the middle of the floor. Brandt, in the beginning, had amufed himself with playing upon the flute; but upon a fuppofition that he intended to choak himself with it, it was taken away, and they were both deprived of the ufe of tobacco upon fome fimilar pretence. Several of their adherents were banished the kingdom, and others to their native provinces for life. Strucnfee's brother was difcharged, and received money to carry him out of the kingdom, as nothing appeared against him, which feems to have been the cafe of the others. General Gahler's lady was permitted to withdraw from the citadel to her own house. General Gude, and the two cabinet fecretaries, were fet at liberty, and Baron Bulow, the mafter of the horfe, was enlarged upon parole, that he would not go without his own houfe. Struenfee, at his first examination before the commiffioners, was fhewn the inftruments of torture, which were brought into the room on purpofe to intimidate him; we do not find, however, that either he or Brandt were put to the queftion. They both underwent frequent and long examinations, and were once confronted. Upon that trying occafion, they both behaved with dignity and refolution; they neither accuted nor blamed each other, nor lamented their fituation. It is faid that the whole number of queftions proposed to Struenfee in the course of his examinations, amounted to 637. It is alfo faid, that he and Colonel Falkenfchiold were confronted at one of these examinations, and that the latter having made very heavy charges upon him in his evidence, Struenfee replied, that he would willingly submit to all thofe accufations, provided his doing fo could be of fervice to the colonel. If this circumftance be true, it is far from indicating a heart totally depraved, and abandoned. After more than two months examination, the grand commiflion at length paffed fentence of death, forfeiture of eftate, and degradation from their rank, upon the two counts, Struenfee and Brandt.-/ Among the crimes with which the former was charged, were the affuming of an extraordinary and unconftitutional power; his having been guilty of high treafon, in ex pediting pediting feveral orders from, the privy-council, without the King's confent or knowledge; his having made ufelefs and dangerous changes in the government, and fufpicious arrangements in the capital and palace; his having difcharged the guards; and his having been guilty of peculation in his office, and embezzling large fums of the public money. Brandt was charged in general with having been his confident, and privy to all his crimes; and, in particular, with fome difrefpectful familiarity with the King's perfon, which was brought within the conftruction of a law, that makes it death to lay violent hands on him. The King figned the fentence, which contained the order for cutting off their right arms, and then their heads, for difmembering and difembowelling their bodies, for fixing their heads and hands upon iron fpikes, and expofing their quarters upon the wheel, with great unconcern, and went immediately after to the Italian opera. The unfortunate criminals behaved with great intrepidity, and were publicly executApr. 28th. ed three days after the fentence was paft, furrounded by great bodies of foot and dragoons, and by an infinite number of fpectators. They did not fee each other, and Brandt was firft executed. He was attended by a clergyman, and behaved with decency upon the fcaffold, but fhewed an unconcern and indifference, which feemed to the populace in fome degree a confirmation of the report that had been fpread of his being an Atheift. Struenfee fhewed equal firmness; but more devotion, and a more awful fenfe of the change which he was to undergo. It is faid, that he read the sentence in the prifon with a compoture that furprized every body prefent, until he came to the part which related to Brandt, when he seemed to be greatly affected, at finding that his punishment was to be equal in degree with his own. There were no other capital executions exhibited; a Count Woolinfky is faid to have had his tongue cut out, for having faid fome things that reflected upon the King, and upon the Queen Julia, and to have been banished the Danish dominions for ever. Orders were given to the commiffion to ftop all proceedings againft Colonel Heffelburgh, Admiral Hanfen, Lieutenant Aboe, the Privy Counsellor Willebrandt, Counsellor Sturtz, and Profeffor Berger, and they were all fet at liberty, without any declaration either of their guilt or innocence. Willebrandt and Sturtz were however obliged to retire from the island of Zealand, and had pensions bestowed on them, and Berger was banifhed to Aalberg; Colonel Heffelburg was ordered to retire to Holftein, and promised a regiment, Falkenfchiold, General Gahler, and fome others, were continued in prifon. It feems pretty evident, by the difcharge of fo many members of the late adminiftration, and of the particular friends and adherents of the late favourites, that the charge of their intending to force the King to sign an act of renunciation, and to the appointment of a regency, was not founded in fact, and was only calculated to answer the pre Tent probably influenced, their final determinations with respect to that unfortunate princess, by his fend fent purposes of the ruling faction; as fach a scheme maft have comprehended a confiderable number of thofe perfons, and could not failing a small fquadron of ships to of being brought to light in the convoy her to Germany, and apcourfe of this enquiry. pointing the city of Zell, in his electoral dominions, for the place of her future refidence. Commodore M'Bride having arrived in the Sound with three English frigates, the Queen, attended by the Count de Halftein and his lady, and the Lord Chamberlain Raben, all of her late Houthold, together with Lady Moftyn and the Britifh minister, embarked for Stade, where he was received May 30th. with great honours, and feveral of the Hanoverian nobi-lity of both fexes were waiting to attend her. The Queen has fince formed a fmall court, and is as agreeably circumstanced, as the nature of her fituation will ad- ' mit. The grand commiffion carried on a procefs against the Queen, as well as the favourites, and the Attorney General Uldahl was appointed to act as her advocate. It is reported, that the fenate and the privy-council had at firft intended to proceed to the utmost extremities, and even to strike at her life; but that fome apprehenfion of the refentment of another court put a ftop to their violence. This indeed feems very probable, as moderation is not one of the qualities that are to be expected in a faction, which is eitherftruggling for power, or newly arrived at it; when, inde pendent of their own pathons, acts of refentment, and appearances even of fury, are necefiary to keep up that fever in the people, which is requifite for their purposes." As no authorized nor authentic account has been published, either of the charges made against the Queen, or of the nature of her defence, we cannot prefume to enter upon that fubject, on the founda tion of vague or fufpicious reports. The following questions are faid to have occafioned great debates among the commiffioners, whether the Queen, as a fovereign, conld be legally tried by her fubjects? And whether, as a foreign princefs, fhe was amenable to the laws of Denmark? Whatever the original defigns of the court might have been, his Britannic Majefty feems, in fome degree, to have concurred in, and It has, perhaps, been too haftily, and too generally received an opinion with the most eminent writers, and from them too carelessly received by the world, that the northern nations have at all times, and without exception, been patlionate admirers of liberty, and tenacious to an extreme of their rights. A little attention will fhew, that this opinion ought to be received with many reftrictions. Sweden and Denmark have, within little more than a century, given abfolute demonftrations to the contrary; and the vast nation of the Ruffes, who overspread fo great a part of the north, have at all times, fo long as their name has been known, or their acts remembered by history, been incapable of any other than a defpotic form of government. And not notwithstanding the contempt in which we hold the eastern nations, and the flavish difpofition we attribute to them, it may be found, If we make a due allowance for the figurative ftile and manner of the orientals, that the official papers, public acts and fpeeches, at the courts of Petersburg, Copenhagen, and Stockholm, are in as unmanly a ftrain of fervility and adulation, as thofe of the most defpotic of the Afiatic governments. The war which the Danes carried on with the Algerines is terminated by a peace, as little to their advantage, as that was to their glory. They confented to pay that piratical fate, 50,000 Algenine fequins, which amount to near 25,000 pounds fterling, befides a large quantity of military and naval ftores. It undoubtedly will be a matter of astonishment to future ages, that at a time when the naval force and commerce of Europe are arrived at an extent of greatnefs, unknown in any other period, or part of the world, to many powerful ftates,. who are watchful of every opportunity of advantage to go to war with each other, fhould fubmit to the ignominy of paying a fhameful tribute to the paltry nefts of pirates, who rather infeft than inhabit the Barbary coafts. The fate of the French parliament feems to be finally decided, and the few remains of public liberty that were preferved in those illustrious bodies, are now no more. The people, laughed and pafquinaded, and were fent to the Battile, and fo the affair paffed off. The ftand made by the princes of the blood in behalf of their country, and in oppofition to the arbitrary power of the crown, did them great honour; but oppofition cannot be long-lived in a country, where honours, emoluments, and even fecurity, are wholly derived from the King, and the national vanity has made perfonal weight and importance to center folely in him. The princes accordingly became tired of a fruitless oppofi. tion, and the King, who feemned greatly diffretled by it, accepted with infinite pleasure the overtures they made for an accommodation In a word, if we ferioully confider the mode of fupporting great standi ing armies, which becomes daily more prevalent, it will appear evi. dently that nothing less than a convulfion that will thake the globe to its center, can ever reftore the European nations to that li berty, by which they were once fo much diftinguished. The western world was the feat of freedom, until another, more weitern, was difcovered: and that other will probably be its afylum, when it is hunted down in every other part. Happy it is, that the worst of times may have one refuge still left for humanity. Such have been, in general, the public tranfactions in Europe during the year of which we treat. The great fcarcity of provifions which has been fo deplorably felt in many parts of it during a fucceffion of years, has still continued; and the diftrefles of the poor were in many places intolerable. In Norway, and feveral of the Swedish provinces, their calamities were fo great that they were reduced to the fad neceffity of eating bread which was principally compofed of ground bark, with a feanty proportion of meal. That other dreadful fcourge of |