1718.

tion to the repreffing the Infolence of those who have dared to abuse the Power which I gave them to govern the Provinces of my Empire, and their Inhabitants, in the Quality of my Lieutenants; feveral of whom, in Violation of their Oaths, have fet their Feet on the Necks of my poor People, and have enriched themselves at the Expence of their Sweat, and of their Blood. Now as the People have, in my Opinion, too well deferved, (by all they have been obliged to furnish in Recruits, in Horfes, in Money, and in Provifions, to fupport my just Cause against the Enemy with whom I have been eighteen Years at War, and to fupply my other preffing Occafions) that I fhould interpofe for their Relief against those Blood-fuckers; I have refolved to establish a Tribunal, of which my General of Foot, Adam Adamewitz Weide, whom I have never yet found faulty in any Thing, fhall be Prefident; the Lieutenant-Generals Butterlin and Schlippenbach, the Major-Generals Galliczin and Fagofchinsky, and the Brigadiers Wolkoff and Uffaffold, fhall be Affeffors. This Tribunal fhall examine ftrictly the Management and Behaviour of the Perfons whofe Names I fhall give them, in the Administration of their Offices, and fhall pronounce Sentence against those who fhall be found Criminals. I hope the eftablishing this Tribunal will prove a Means to restrain every one for the future within the Duties of his Employment, and to induce them to execute in the beft Manner, the Powers with which they fhall be intrufted."

Prince Menzikoff being accufed before this new Council, or Chamber of Justice, 1. Of having preferred his own Advantage to that of his Mafter, in the Government of Ingria; 2. Of having connived at the Commerce, in contraband Goods, carried on by the Brothers Soloffiof; and 3. Of having maintained for fome Time a fecret Correfpondence with a Minister of Sweden; that Prince was found guilty, and, having fubmitted to the Sentence of the Court, delivered up his Sword, and went to his own House, to be there under Confinement, till his Majesty's Pleasure should be known.

Prince Dolgoruki was the next that was called; but this old Knees pleaded his own Caufe with fo much Eloquence, that the Judges thought fit to make Report to the Czar before they gave Sentence.

The Grand Admiral, Count Apraxin, was found guilty of Frauds and Embezzlements in victualling and paying the Fleet; and as, after he was feized, the Czar took from him the Order of St. Andrew, it was believed he would have been capitally punished.

The Senator Apraxin, Brother of the Admiral, and formerly Director-General of the Saltworks, was accused of concealing, and converting to his own Profit, a hundred thousand Crowns a Year of their Produce.

Several others were likewife called to Account, and found guilty, and when every Body expected that fevere Punishments would be inflicted on them, the Czar was prevailed upon by the Remembrance of their former Merits and faithful Services, to restore them to

1718.

1718.

Dr. Arefkin

dies.

his Favour; but on Condition of being largely mulcted.

About this Time died Dr. Arefkin, the Czar's firft Physician, who has been mentioned before. The English Jacobites were fupposed to have loft a good Friend in this Gentleman; but it was faid, that his Relation, Sir Harry Stirling, under Pretence of claiming the Doctor's Effects, was well received at the Court of Russia, and had the Care of the Pretender's Affairs in his Stead. The Doctor, by his last Will, bequeathed all his ready Money to his Brothers and Sifters; and all his Eftate in Land and Boors to the Princess, eldest Daughter of the Czar; and to the Hofpital of Edinburgh the Money that fhould arife from the Sale of his Moveables. He was interred with great Funeral Pomp, the Czar himself affifting in the Proceffion, and, according to the Cuftom of the Country, carried a lighted Torch in his Hand, as did two hundred more, to the new Monaftery of St. Alexander Newsky, seven Werfts from Petersburgh, where the Body was depofited on the Fourth of January, 1719.

On the 15th Day of the fame Month, Mr. Jefferyes, the British Refident, arrived at Petersburgh, and a few Days after had an Audience of the Czar, to whom he made a Speech in the German Tongue, to this Effect:

"That the King of Great-Britain had ordered him to make his Majefty the most fincere and friendly Compliments on his Part, and to acquaint him how entirely the King his Master was fatisfied with the Representations, which M. Weffelowski, his Czarish Majesty's Resident at the Court of Great-Britain, had from Time

to

to Time made in his Name. That nothing could be more acceptable to the King his Master, than the Affurances his Czarish Majefty had given him by his faid Minifter, that he would explain himself in fuch a Manner as fhould demonftrate his fincere Intentions to maintain a perfect Friendship and good Underftanding with him. That, for that Reafon, his Britannick Majefty had refolved to fend Sir John Norris, with the Character of Envoy Extraordinary, to his Czarish Majefty; but that he [Mr. Jefferyes] had been detained fo long by contrary Winds, that Sir John Norris was failed from the Sound fome Days before his Arrival at Copenhagen. That the King his Mafter, being informed of this Difappointment, and being unwilling to let flip any of the Advances made by his Czarish Majefty, had fent Orders to him to continue his Journey, and to open the Inftructions defigned for Sir John Norris; pursuant to which Inftructions, he was not only to return his Czarish Majefty Thanks, for the obliging Declaration he had been pleased to make by his before-mentioned Refident at the British Court; but likewise to affure his Czarish Majefty of the perfect Efteem the King his Mafter had for his Perfon; and that his Majesty had nothing more at Heart than to establish an entire Confidence, and to enter into Engagements of the moft fincere and lasting Friendship with his Czarish Majefty."

The Czar anfwered in the Russian Language, That he thanked his British Majefty for the Affurances he gave him of his Friendship; and that he would endeavour to cultivate it on his Part, to the utmost of his Power.

1719.

1719.

In the Beginning of February his Czarish Majefty ordered Counsellor Osterman to come to Petersburgh for new Inftructions, and the Conferences went on between M. Bruce and Count Gyllembourg; but Ofterman was not fent back to Aland till the Beginning of April, when the Queen of Sweden was come to a Refolution of naming Baron Lilienfted to fupply the Place of Baron Gortz, at the Congrefs, where he arrived in the Month of June.

In the mean Time his Czarish Majefty, having been at Olonitz, to drink the Waters of that Place, by which he found much Benefit, went to Ladoga, fituated on the Mouth of the River Wolkofa, which he had rebuilt, and made a very large City from an inconfiderable Village; his Defign in which was to have a Caftle there, and a Magazine of Provifions, for the Ufe and Convenience of a prodigious Multitude of People, which he had drawn from feveral Parts of his Empire, to cut a Canal as A new Canal far as Slutelbourg, and make a Communication of Communi- between the River Wolkofa and the Neva, and cation cut be thereby prevent the dangerous Paffage of the Lake Ladoga, in croffing which above a hundred Ships were loft every Year one with another. In this Undertaking there were employed, at this Time, about twelve thoufand Men, and a great many more afterwards; by which we may fee how continually, and in how extenfive a Manner, his Thoughts were employed for the Improvement of his Country.

tween the Wolkofa and the Neva.

His Czarish Majefty, upon his Return to Petersburgh, in the Beginning of March, being informed of a Treaty concluded between the Emperor, the King of Great-Britain, as

Elector