e
inquiry.

RUPTURE BETWEEN THE CZARINA AND THE OTTOMAN PORTE.

During this summer a rupture happened between the Turks and the
Russians, which last reduced the city of Azoph on the Black Sea, and
overrun the greatest part of Crim Tartary. The czarina declared war
against the Ottoman Porte, because the Tartars of the Crimea had
made incursions upon her frontiers; and, when she complained of these
disorders to the vizier, she received no satisfaction; besides, a large
body of Tartars had, by order of that minister, marched through the
Russian provinces in despite of the empress, and committed terrible
havoc in their route. The emperor was obliged to engage as a party in
this war, by a treaty offensive and defensive, which he had many years
before concluded with the czarina. Yet, before he declared himself, he
joined the maritime powers in offering his mediation to the sultan,
who was very well disposed to peace; but the czarina insisted upon her
retaining Azoph, which her forces had reduced; and this preliminary
article being rejected, as dishonourable to the Ottoman empire, the
court of Vienna began to make preparations for war. By this time all
the belligerent powers in Italy had agreed to the preliminaries of
peace concluded between the emperor and France. The duke of Lorraine had
espoused the emperor's eldest daughter, the archduchess Maria Theresa,
and ceded Lorraine to France, even before he succeeded to Tuscany. Don
Carlos was crowned king of Sicily; Stanislaus abdicated the crown of
Poland; and Augustus was universally acknowledged sovereign of that
kingdom. The preliminaries were approved and accepted by the diet of
the empire; the king of Spain sent orders for his troops to evacuate
Tuscany; and the provinces in Italy yielded to the house of Austria.
Prince Eugene, who had managed the interest of the emperor on this
occasion, did not live to see the happy fruits of this negotiation. He
died at Vienna, in April, at the age of seventy-three, leaving behind
him the character of an invincible hero and consummate politician. He
was not long survived by count Staremberg, another Imperial general who
ranked next to the prince in military reputation. About the same time
Great Britain sustained a national loss in the death of lord chancellor
Talbot, who, by his worth, probity, and acquired accomplishments,
had dignified the great office to which he had been raised. He died
universally lamented, in the month of F