r the territory of Sweden, and she would act up to
the spirit of her engagements. The Swedish ministry, alarmed at these
peremptory proceedings, had recourse to their allies; and in the
meantime, made repeated declarations to the court of Petersburgh, that
there was no design to make the least innovation in the nature of their
established government; but little or no regard being paid to these
representations, they began to put the kingdom in a posture of
defence; and the old king gave the czarina to understand, that if,
notwithstanding the satisfaction he had offered, her forces should pass
the frontiers of Finland, he would consider their march as an hostile
invasion, and employ the means which God had put in his power for the
defence of his dominions.

INTERPOSITION OF THE KING OF PRUSSIA.

This declaration, in all probability, did not produce such effect as the
interposition of his Prussian majesty, the most enterprising prince
of his time, at the head of one hundred and forty thousand of the best
troops that Germany ever trained. Perhaps he was not sorry that
the empress of Muscovy furnished him with a plausible pretence for
maintaining such a formidable army, after the peace of Europe had been
ascertained by a formal treaty, and all the surrounding states had
diminished the number of their forces. He now wrote a letter to his
uncle the king of Great Britain, complaining of the insults and menaces
which had been offered by the czarina to Sweden; declaring, that he was
bound by a defensive alliance, to which France had acceded, to defend
the government at present established in Sweden; and that he would not
sit still, and tamely see that kingdom attacked by any power whatsoever,
without acting up to his engagements; he therefore entreated his
Britannic majesty to interpose his good offices, in conjunction with
France and him, to compromise the disputes which threatened to embroil
the northern parts of Europe. By this time the Russian army had
approached the frontiers of Finland: the Swedes had assembled their
troops, replenished their magazines, and repaired their marine; and the
king of Denmark, jealous of the czarina's designs with regard to the
duchy of Sleswick, which was contested with him by the prince-successor
of Russia, kept his army and navy on the most respectable footing. At
this critical juncture the courts of London, Versailles, and Berlin,
co-operated so effectually by remonstrances and declara