.

{1726}

On the twenty-fourth day of March, the king sent a message to the house
by sir Paul Methuen, desiring an extraordinary supply, that he might be
able to augment his maritime force, and concert such other measures as
should be necessary in the present conjuncture. A debate ensued, but
the majority complied with the demand. Some members in the upper house
complained that the message was not sent to both houses of parliament,
and this suggestion gave rise to another debate, in which lord
Bathurst and others made some melancholy reflections upon the state of
insignificance to which the peers of England were reduced. Such remarks,
however, were very little minded by the ministry, who had obtained
a complete victory over all opposition. The supplies, ordinary and
extraordinary, being granted, with every thing else which the court
thought proper to ask, and several bills passed for the regulation of
civil economy, the king dismissed the parliament on the twenty-fourth
day of May.

A SQUADRON SENT TO THE BALTIC.

By this time Peter the czar of Muscovy was dead, and his empress
Catharine had succeeded him on the Russian throne. This princess had
begun to assemble forces in the neighbourhood of Petersburgh, and to
prepare a formidable armament for a naval expedition. King George,
concluding that her design was against Sweden, sent a strong squadron
into the Baltic, under the command of sir Charles Wager, in order to
anticipate her views upon his allies. The English fleet being joined
at Copenhagen by a Danish squadron, alarmed the court of Russia, which
immediately issued orders for reinforcing the garrisons of Wilbourg,
Cronstadt, Revel, and Riga. The English admiral, having had an audience
with his Swedish majesty, steered towards Revel, and sent thither a
lieutenant, with a letter from the king of Great Britain to the czarina.
This was an expostulation, in which his majesty observed, that he and
his allies could not fail of being alarmed at her great preparations by
sea and land. He complained that measures had been taken at her court in
favour of the pretender; that his repeated instances for establishing
a lasting friendship with the crown of Russia had been treated with
neglect; and he gave her to understand, that he had ordered his admiral
to prevent her ships from coming out of her harbours, should she persist
in her resolution to execute the designs she had projected. The czarina,
in her answer to th