cognized by the army of Finland. She forthwith published
a general act of indemnity; she created the prince of Hesse-Hombourg
generalissimo of her armies; she restored the Dolgorucky family to their
honours and estates; she recalled and rewarded all those who had been
banished for favouring her pretensions; she mitigated the exile of the
duke of Courland, by indulging him with a maintenance more suitable to
his rank; she released general Wrangle, count Wasaburgh, and the other
Swedish officers who had been taken at the battle of Willmenstrand; and
the princess Anne of Mecklenburgh, with her consort and children, were
sent under a strong guard to Riga, the capital of Livonia.

Amidst these tempests of war and revolution, the states-general wisely
determined to preserve their own tranquillity. It was doubtless their
interest to avoid the dangers and expense of a war, and to profit by
that stagnation of commerce which would necessarily happen among their
neighbours that were at open enmity with each other; besides, they were
over-awed by the declarations of the French monarch on one side; by the
power, activity, and pretensions of his Prussian majesty on the other;
and they dreaded the prospect of a stadtholder at the head of their
army. These at least were the sentiments of many Dutch patriots,
reinforced by others that acted under French influence. But the prince
of Orange numbered among his partisans and adherents many persons of
dignity and credit in the commonwealth; he was adored by the populace,
who loudly exclaimed against their governors, and clamoured for a war
without ceasing. This national spirit, joined to the remonstrances and
requisitions made by the courts of Vienna and London, obliged the states
to issue orders for an augmentation of their forces; but these were
executed so slowly, that neither France nor Prussia had much cause
to take umbrage at their preparations. In Italy, the king of Sardinia
declared for the house of Austria; the republic of Genoa was deeply
engaged in the French interest; the pope, the Venetians, and the dukedom
of Tuscany were neutral; the king of Naples resolved to support the
claim of his family to the Austrian dominions in Italy, and began to
make preparations accordingly. His mother, the queen of Spain, had
formed a plan for erecting these dominions into a monarchy for her
second son Don Philip; and a body of fifteen thousand men being embarked
at Barcelona, were transported to O