PROGRESS OF THE WAR BETWEEN RUSSIA AND SWEDEN.

The states-general had made a considerable augmentation of their forces by sea and land; but, notwithstanding the repeated instances of the earl of Stair, they resolved to adhere to their neutrality; they dreaded the neighbourhood of the French; and they were far from being pleased to see the English get footing in the Netherlands. The friends of the house of Orange began to exert themselves; the states of Groningen and West Friesland protested, in favour of the prince, against the promotion of foreign generals which had lately been made; but his interest was powerfully opposed by the provinces of Zealand and Holland, which had the greatest weight in the republic. The revolution in Russia did not put an end to the war with Sweden. These two powers had agreed to an armistice of three months, during which the czarina augmented her forces in Finland.

She likewise ordered the counts Osterman and Munich, with their adherents, to be tried; they were condemned to death, but pardoned on the scaffold, and sent in exile to Siberia. The Swedes, still encouraged by the intrigues of France, refused to listen to any terms of accommodation, unless Carelia, and the other conquests of the czar Peter, should be restored. The French court had expected to bring over the new empress to their measures; but they found her as well disposed as her predecessor to assist the house of Austria. She remitted a considerable sum of money to the queen of Hungary; and at the same time congratulated the elector of Bavaria on his elevation to the Imperial throne. The ceremony of her coronation was performed in May, with great solemnity, at Moscow; and in November she declared her nephew, the duke of Holstein-Gottorp, her successor, by the title of grand prince of all the Russias. The cessation of arms being expired, general Lasci reduced Fredericksheim, and obliged the Swedish army, commanded by count Lewenhaupt, to retire before him, from one place to another, until at length they were quite surrounded near Helsingsors. In this emergency the Swedish general submitted to a capitulation, by which his infantry were transported by sea to Sweden; his cavalry marched by land to Abo; and his artillery and magazines remained in the hands of the Russians. The king of Sweden being of an advanced age, the diet assembled in order to settle the succession; and the duke of Holstein-Gottorp, as grandson to the eldest sister of Charles XII., was declared next heir to the crown. A courier was immediately despatched to Moscow, to notify to the duke this determination of the diet; and this message was followed by a deputation; but when they understood that he had embraced the religion of the Greek church, and been acknowledged successor to the throne of Russia, they annulled his election for Sweden, and resolved that the succession should not be re-established until a peace should be concluded with the czarina. Conferences were opened at Abo for this purpose. In the meantime, the events of war had been so long unfortunate for Sweden, that it was absolutely necessary to appease the indignation of the people with some sacrifice. The generals Lewenhaupt and Bodenbrock were tried by a court-martial for misconduct; being found guilty and condemned to death, they applied to the diet, by which the sentence was confirmed. The term of the subsidy-treaty between Great Britain and Denmark expiring, his Danish majesty refused to renew it; nor would he accede to the peace of Breslau. On the other hand, he became subsidiary to France, with which also he concluded a new treaty of commerce.