The third period lafts from 1742 to 1745. During the two first of these three years Frederick enjoyed a tranquillity from which his subjects reaped confiderable benefit. He employed it in making many falutary journies through his different ftates; and his new province of Silefia was the particular object of his care. He laboured alfo with the greateft affiduity to increase his military force, and to put himfelf in a condition to maintain his conquefts and poffeffions. In 1744 the laft Duke of Os Friesland died, and left a rich and important principality to the crown of Pruffia. This period alfo was memorable for a fresh campaign against the Queen of Hungary. By an article of the treaty of Breslaw, the king withdrew his affiftance from the enemies of Auftria; in confequence of which the army of France, which was in Bohemia under the command of the Prince of Conti, was obliged to make a speedy and hazardous retreat, which only wanted a Zenophon to make it as illuftrious as the retreat of the ten thousand. Thus was Bohemia exposed to the ambition of Maria-Therefa, who was crowned peaceably at Prague in 1743. Her troops made the conqueft of Bavaria and formed a junction with the English army. Alarmed at the rapid fuccefs of the Auftrian queen, Frederick again concluded an alliance with France and the emperor. The war broke out with confiderable fury on all fides; in which the profeffed object of the King of Pruffia was to reftore peace to Germany, to fupport its conftitution, and to maintain the imperial dignity, which had fo materially fuffered by this conqueft and feizure of Bohemia. The arms of Pruffia had greatly the advantage in the beginning of the war; Frederick befieged and took the city of Prague, and obliged the inhabitants to take an oath of fidelity to the emperor. But the vigour and perfeverance of the warlike queen preffed him fo fore in Bohemia, that he was in the end compelled to abandon that country, and to retire into his province of Silefia, which needed his protection against the troops of Auftria. Maria-Therefa was now feconded by the King of Poland, who foon had cause to repent of his interference. The fuccefs of the war began again to incline towards the Prussian arms, and the Saxons and Auftrians were defeated and repulfed in most of their enterprifes in Silefia. All the world, however, admired the courage and magnanimity of the Queen of Hungary, who, far from relinquishing the project of reconquering Silefia, prepared to attack the Pruffian monarch in his own hereditary dominions. One army fhe difpatched, under the conduct of the Prince of Loraine, to enter the Marche of Brandenbourg by Lufatia; another army to invade Silefia; and a third, commanded by General Grun, in conjunction with the Saxons, to take Magdebourg, and advance to Berlin. The queen's queen's own army amounted to two hundred thousand men, and that of her allies was not lefs confiderable; the opposite party was fupported by four hundred thousand, French, Pruffians, Bavarian, Spanish, Neapolitan, and other troops. The battle of Keffeldorf, which was fought on the 15th of December, between the Pruffian and Saxon armies, commanded on the one hand by Frederick, and on the other by Prince Charles, proved decifive in favour of Pruffia. The king entered the city of Drefden, and dictated the terms of peace to Auguftus from the centre of his capital. He fuffered, however, no ravages or diforders to take place in Saxony; and, by his great moderation, left Auguftus and Maria-Theresa no plausible pretext for rejecting the peace he offered them. Accordingly it took place by the interpofition of the king of England. Frederick was fatisfied with a million of crowns, and a fresh ceffion of Silefia, and figned the peace at Drefden. Thus ends the third period. The fourth period is continued from the peace of Drefden to the commencement of the feven years war, from 1745 to 1756. Thefe eleven years elapfed without a war, and Frederick employed this interval of leisure in ftrengthening himself against the feafon of danger and exertion, and erecting fresh barriers against a future enemy. All his thoughts were bent on thofe objects on which depend the fure and permanent prosperity of ftates. He was indefatigable in his attention to agriculture, population, finances, legiflation, and commerce. Nor were his faculties buried in these contemplations, his mind was ftill intent upon the conduct of other ftates; and his diligence and prudence were unwearied in negociations and treaties. ART. XIII. [To be continued. ] FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE. METEOROLOGY. An ACCOUNT of the SEVERE WINTER of 1788, 89, &c. [ Concluded from our Review of June. ] ARTICLE IV. Effects of the Froft on Men, Animals, and Vegetables. WE E can readily perfuade ourselves, continues our author, that fo hard and long a froft muft have influenced, in a fingular manner, every thing which refpires and vegetates. In Europe many persons, as the public prints announced, perished through cold, cold, and a still greater number had their limbs frozen. In the northern provinces of France, a fpecies of cold called grippe, was endemic, particularly at the beginning of the froft: this dif eafe was fimilar to that which raged in the hard winter of 177576. Those who enjoyed the best health, as well as those who were beft able to guard against the season, felt severely its effects. With us the lower order of people was reduced to extreme misery, owing not only to the feverity of the weather, but the dearness of bread, occafioned by the failure of the last year's crops; at one time we were threatened with a total want of flour; the mills could no longer work, each river and ftream being converted into a quarry of ice. Here the Pére Cotte might have remarked that, in countries where the mills are all worked by water, this circumftance, which had like to have produced fo ferious a difafter, fhould ferve as a caution to grind a large quantity of corn into flour, previously to the usual time of the froft fetting in. In this place our author digreffes to praise the benevolent inftitutions in France, in favour of the peasants, fo haraffed by the increase of taxes on the neceffary articles of life, and latterly fo diftreffed by hard winters. Although a churchman, he winds up his digreffion by obferving that the STATES GENERAL fhould caft an eye of pity upon the peafants, providing for their wants by the establishment of charitable funds, to be drawn from the rich abbies, which only ferve to nourish luxury, and to feed the paffions of the fwarm of fat beneficed clergymen who devour the fubftance of the poor, of whom they are notwithstanding, by profeffion, the fathers and tutors. The growing revolution in France will no doubt thin thefe pampered gentry, and tend to the charitable purpose the Pére Cotte has in view. Animals fuffered in proportion as they were more or less exposed to the action of the cold. The fowls had their feet frozen, and many died. Sheep pent up in unwholesome houses, became victims to a prejudice which ftill continues to fubfift in many places, that this method of keeping them in the winter is preferable to that of an exposure to the open air: many of these died, and almost all were fick and loft their wool. In Burgundy, on the contrary, where the useful example of M. Daubenton has been long followed, of keeping them throughout the year in the open air, the fheep were not fick, and preferved their wool. The cows, which could not leave the ftable for nearly two months, and which were confined to very poor dry nourishment, fell away, and gave but little milk. Of the domeftic animals the horses fuffered the least. The The game almost altogether perifhed through hunger; and this was but little regretted. Fishes deprived of air, or caught in the midft of an element element which became folid, died in the ponds. The small birds funk under the want of nourishment, which a vast carpet of fnow no longer permitted them to feek; and the few which efcaped deftruction, could not procure food after the thaw, fince the exceffive froft exterminated the profufion of worms which the Creator multiplies with fuch a prodigality, as a nourishment to them and other animals. Vegetables in general were hardly treated by the froft. The vines were, in a great measure, frozen; at leaft the buds, which afford the fole hope of an enfuing vintage. The pear-trees either were entirely frozen, or did not retain a fufficient quantity of fap to keep up the vegetation till the end of the season. The appletrees fared better, as did the peach and apricot-trees, and the kernel fruit trees in general. In the fouthern provinces the orange, olive, and pomegranate-trees, perifhed almoft wholly. The winter fruits, cautiously preferved, and likewife the vegetables, which ufually keep through the winter, fpinage excepted, all decayed. The foreft trees were very much damaged. The hoar froft, which faftened itself to the trees and buds, caused all the mifchief, the effects of which the fufferers will feel for many years. ARTICLE V. Refult of a Table of Obfervations of the greatest Cold, made ať. One Hundred and Ten Places. The Pére Cotte, in his table, begins at the places where the cold has been the moft confiderable, and follows the thermometer from the degree of extreme cold progreffively to the fmalleft degree. From this table the following confequences refult: I. That the intenseness of the cold did not follow the order of latitudes. For example: it was more intenfe in feveral cities in Germany, than at Petersbourg; as it was alfo at Paris, than in feveral more northerly places in France, fuch as Laon, Cambrai, and Bruxelles; and likewife than in Holland. II. That the cold was much more confiderable in Germany, than in the other parts of Europe where the observations were made the principal of these were England, Ruffia, Pruffia, Denmark, Hungary, Poland, Saxony, Norway, Switzerland, Bavaria, Franconia, and Suabia. III. That the epoch of the greateft cold was-in Ruffia, on the 12th of December; in a part of Germany and in Poland, on the 17th and 18th of December; in moft parts of France, on the 31st of December; and in Holland, on the 5th of January. IV. That when the cold was moft intenfe in France, generally speaking, it was confiderably diminished in several parts of Germany, and even in those provinces of France where as appears by the table, the greatest cold was felt on the 17th and 19th of December. V. That the mean cold, according to the obfervations made in France, was 15.3 degrees, in Germany 21.5 degrees, and in Holland only 14.9 degrees. ARTICLE VI. Comparison of the Winters of 1776, 1782, 1783-84, and 1788-89. In this comparison our author has employed tables made in each year, and containing obfervations of the greatest cold in a certain number of places in Europe, particularly in France. He has added together all these obfervations, and divided the fum by the number of places. What he has obtained by this calculation he calls the mean cold of the winter: In 1776 In 1783-84 In 1788-89 It appears, then, that the intenseness of the cold of 1776 was greater in Europe than that of the cold of 1788-89; but the longer duration of the froft, the last year, rendered its effects more fenfible and difaftrous. MONTHLY CATALOGUE For AUGUST MISCELLANEOUS. 1789. ART. 14. Characters of Kings and Queens of England, felected from different Hiftories; with Obfervations and Reflections, chiefly adapted to common Life; and particularly intended for the Inftruction of Youth. To which are added Notes historical. By J. Holt. Vol. III. 8vo. 3s. Robinfons. London, 1788. THIS HIS volume is a continuation of Mr. Holt's plan of extracting, from different hiftorians, the characters of the English fovereigns, and contains thofe of Edward the Sixth, Mary, Elizabeth, James the Firft, Charles the First, Cromwell, Charles the Second, James the Second, William the Third, Mary his Queen, and Anne. In the choice of authors from which the characters are selected, we muft admit impartiality and fome tafte. But the compiler has been lefs happy in the obfervations added by himself. Moral reflections fhould ENG. REV. VOL. XIV. Aug. 1789. K |