PRE FACE. the latenefs of its appearance, we must own something more than bare indulgence may appear neceffary to abfolve us from want of gratitude; but that too, we hope to obtain, when we have affured our readers, that in the delay we facrificed more to their gratification, than to our own convenience. However interesting the topics of the year 1765 may be, we hope those of the year 1766 will prove more agreeable: we fhall then, it is to be prefumed, in confequence of the measures taken in the last feffion, be able to view the ftorm from port; and our fear of danger will be fucceeded by the pleasing remembrance of it. Besides, there seems to have arisen a spirit of liberty in many parts of the world; and fuch an uncommon one in fome of the Spanish dominions in America, as is not, perhaps, to be equalled in any annals, fince it has engaged those whom it actuates to give up, in favour of the rights of mankind, a great deal more than they claim for themfelves under the fame title. THE THE ANNUAL REGISTER. For the YEAR 1765. THE HISTORY OF EUROPE. С НА Р. I. Peaceable afpect of the great powers of Europe towards each other. Refusal of the French and Spanish courts to comply with the demands of Great Britain, no fufficient caufe to apprehend a rupture between them; may in the end prove ferviceable to the latter. Emperor of Germany dies, after fettling his Tuscan do minions on bis fecond fon; and is fucceeded, as emperor of Germany, by his eldeft, elected in his life-time king of the Romans. Several treaties of marriage, and their probable effects. Sweden. Portugal, Poland. Corfica. N our laft volume, we had the fafisfaction to leave the neighbouring powers fo much on a balance with each other, or fo much taken up with their own internal concerns, as to afford little or no grounds to apprehend any fpeedy interruption in that repofe, which has fo lately fucceeded, if not one of the longeft, at least one of VOL, VIII. the fharpeft and most general wars, that Europe had been for a long time afflicted with. Happily, for the ease of mankind, this pleafing profpect ftill holds up. For, as to the points which yet remain in difpute, between the three moft potent of the late belligerent powers, Great Britain on the one fide, and France and Spain on the [B] other; other; though much it is to be, it. Nor does the progrefs of his Among the events which ferve able, than its beginning. The late emperor never appeared to take any fhare in the troubles of Germany, but fuch as his gratitude to his confort and her family for his elevation to the imperial dignity, his dependance upon her for the fupport of that dignity, and a very natural regard for his children, feemed to dictate; and which, in any other prince in the fame circumftances, might reafonably be expected to have operated in the famie manner. And the prefent emperor, heir to,no part of his father's patrimonial dominions, fmall and infignificant as they were in the political world, must be fatisfied to tread in his fteps, or at leaft intirely conform to the views and intentions of his mother the emprefs dowager, in whom, as queen of Hungary and Bohemia, and fovereign of Auftria and the Netherlands, all the power of the house of Auftria, notwithstanding the admillion of her fon to the co-regency of them, fubitantially refides; and who is now, in all appearance, more intent upon fettling her numerous iffue, and improving her territories, than upon adding to them, or even upon recovering thofe which fhe has loft. There have, indeed, been, fince the publication of our laft volume, feveral intermarriages, by which the heretofore fo fanguinely rival houfes of Auftria and Bourbon have been drawn nearer to each other, than even by their late political alliances. A little before the late emperor's death, a marriage was concluded between his fecond fon, and an infanta of Spain, on occafion of which he parted with his Tufcan dominions. But it is not probable that these alliances can affect the tranquility of Europe, till most of the princes who have made thefe contracts for their children are removed from the reins of government; events, confidering their ages, of no very near profpect. In time, no doubt, thefe marriages and ceffions will give rife to troubles, filial love and refpect giving way to the more powerful paffions of ambition and avarice; and mankind may again fmart for the honour, which fome fovereigns do their fubjects, of making them over to each other, without their concurrence, like beafts of the field. The fucceffor to the Auftrian dominions, in right of the prefent emprefs dowager, may look upon himself as equally intitled to thofe of Tufcany in right of the late emperor, efpecially as it does not appear, that, as legal heir, he has received any equivalent for them; whilft a king of Spain may think it his duty to protect a fifter, a coufin, or their iffue, in the enjoyment of dominions purchafed, perhaps, for them by no inconfiderable portion. And, after all, it must be owned, that this is but a fmall part of that trouble and confufion, which must probably attend thefe ineluctable events, confidering the complicated claims of Spain and Parma to the throne of the Two Sicilies, and that of a Don Lewis to Parma itself. But gloomy as this profpect may be in regard to the great Romancatholic nations of Europe, it can give no alarm to Great-Britain, or the other great Proteftant powers, whofe ftrength muft ever be in proportion to the weakness of thofe in the oppofite intereft. Befides, the chief of the latter have been of late equally attentive with the former, to preferve that com→ pactnefs fo neceffary to all political bodies by treaties of intermarriage; in the cementing of which, as no ceffions or transfers of territory have been made, fo no feeds have been fown of future difcontent and difcord. Not to fpeak of the late renewals of amity between the branches of the Brunswick family, by the nuptials of the Princefs Augufta, his majefty's eldeft fifter, with the hereditary prince of Brunswick Lunenburg, and of a fifter of that gallant prince with the prince royal of Pruflia, nephew to the reigning king; the treaty of intermarriage lately concluded between another of his majefty's fifiers, and the prince royal of Denmark, by drawing fill clofer the already very clofe bands of friendship between these two fo great and fo good monarchs, how much foever it may contribute to the fatisfaction and honour of their refpective families, and the happinefs and fecurity of their fubjects, cannot but contribute ftill more to the ftrengthening of the Proteftant interest. Thefe two fyftems, which we have been furveying, the Proteftant and the Roman-catholic, are not however, and, in all probability, never will be, either of them, fo much one, as to contain no devious, irregular bodies, politically tending to the other. For the prefent, thefe bodies are chiefly, on the Proteftant fide, Proteftant Sweden, and on the Roman-catholic, Portugal both, beyond all doubt, [B] 2 the the most intolerantly zealous members of the perfuafions they refpectively belong to, yet both ftrongly attached to fome powers of very different, and extremely jealous of other powers of the fame, creed with themselves. Sweden and France ftill perfift in their old friendship, and will, probably, long perfift in it, fince both find their intereft in fo doing. The mixt intercourse of trade and politics, which has fo long continued between them, and which their mutual neceffities feem in a great meafure to fupport, gives this connection the air of a natural alliance: France ftands in the greateft need of, and is the beft able to pay for, those commodities in trade, and those affiftances in war, which Sweden is best able to furnish; viz. metals; materials for building thips; fhips ready built; and fometimes men, whofe bravery and fidelity, as well as hardinefs and difcipline, may be fafely relied on. Portugal, from the defigns of her former masters, and the natural imbecillity of the country, ftands much more in need of foreign affiftance than Sweden. This affiftance, which Portugal ftands in need of, the wifely looks for at the hands of the two greatest maritime powers of Europe, Great Britain and Holland, but at the fame time the two warmeft fupporters of the proteftant intereft. As much as thefe powers may covet the gold of Portugal to accumulate it at home, or want it to purchase the commodities of other countries where thofe of their own may not readily find a vent, fo much does Portugal ftand in need of their affiftance against Spain, France, and other powers, to fecure to her a communication with, if not indeed the poffeffion of, the fources of that precious metal; fince France and Spain as far exceed Portugal in maritime ftrength, as they are themfelves exceeded in that particular by Great Britain. Add to this, that it is not fo much in the fpirit of the British and Dutch conftitutions to conquer countries, as fairly to gain, by the more agreeable, yet far more prevalent, arts of husbandry, manufacture, and commerce, a fhare of the riches with which thefe countries may happen to be peculiarly blessed. It is hardly requifite to fay any thing concerning the other Romancatholic or Proteftant powers of Europe; or at least a few words will be fufficient. The king of Poland, though not as yet formerly acknowledged by thofe powers who protefted against the diet that elected him, is likely to be foon fo. France has again fupplied the Genoele with troops for the garrifoning of the few places left them in Cortica; but there is very little probability of her endeavouring to recover for them any of thofe they have lott. It is not her intereft that the Corficans fhould be entirely free, or entirely flaves, fince, as long as they remain in the dubious fiate they now are in, fhe may expect to command in Genoa one of the best maritime keys to Italy, befides fhips and failors on an emergency, in return for a few land-forces, that the can raife and recruit with very little trouble or expence. CHA P. |