ut he would not, from shame).--Iwan had
perished 5th August, 1764 (Catherine II. blamed for his death, but
without cause); Iwan's Mother, Princess Anne, (mercifully) 18th March,
1746. See Russian Histories, TOOKE, CASTERA, &c.,--none of which, except
MANNSTEIN, is good for much, or to be trusted without scrutiny.]

This is the Chetardie-L'Estoc conspiracy, of 5th December, 1741; the
pitching up of Princess Elizabeth, and the pitching down of Anton Ulrich
and his Munnichs, who had before pitched Bieren down. After which,
matters remained more stationary at Petersburg: Czarina Elizabeth, fat
indolent soul, floated with a certain native buoyancy, with something of
bulky steadiness, in the turbid plunge of things, and did not sink. On
the contrary, her reign, so called, was prosperous, though stupid; her
big dark Countries, kindled already into growth, went on growing rather.
And, for certain, she herself went on growing, in orthodox devotions of
spiritual type (and in strangely heterodox ditto of NONspiritual!); in
indolent mansuetudes (fell rages, if you cut on the RAWS at all!); in
perpetual incongruity; and, alas, at last, in brandy-and-water,--till,
as "INFAME CATIN DU NORD," she became terribly important to some
persons!

At her accession, and for two years following, Czarina Elizabeth, in
spite of real disinclination that way, had a War on her hands: the
Swedish War (August, 1741-August, 1743), which, after long threatening
on the Swedish side, had broken out into unwelcome actuality, in Anton
Ulrich's time; and which could not, with all the Czarina's industry, be
got rid of or staved off; Sweden being bent upon the thing, reason or
no reason. War not to be spoken of, except on compulsion, in the most
voluminous History! It was the unwisest of wars, we should say, and
in practice probably the contemptiblest; if there were not one other
Swedish War coming, which vies with it in these particulars, of which
we shall be obliged to speak, more or less, at a future stage. Of this
present Russian-Swedish war, having happily almost nothing to do
with it, we can, except in the way of transient chronology, refrain
altogether from speaking or thinking.

Poor Sweden, since it shot Karl XII. in the trenches at Fredericshall,
could not get a King again; and is very anarchic under its Phantasm
King and free National Palaver,--Senate with subaltern Houses;--which
generally has French gold in its pocket, and noise instead of wisdom