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16] ANNUAL REGISTER
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favour. It has been publicly charged upon a most ambitious and rapacious monarch, who was himself one of the mediators, that the congress of Foczani, was rendered ineffectual by his machinations. As this prince has the peculiar fortune in his old age, to stand in a state of personal enmity with the greater part of the human species, every charge against him should therefore be received with that due caution, which is always necessary when charges come from enemies.
The present Grand Vizir Mousson Oglou, who was the bravest officer in the Turkish service, was also the most disposed to peace of any man in the empire. It may well be supposed, that the same abilities which gave him so manifest a superiority in the field, enabled him also more clearly to comprehend the fruitlessness, and fatal tendency of the war, under the present ruinous weakness of the Turkish government. This gentleman was the author of the late congress, to which he attended as closely as if he had been personally present; having removed to the borders of the Danube, in order to maintain an immediate correspondence with the ministers at Foczani. Upon the breaking up of the congress, before any act of hostility had been committed on either side, Mousson Oglou dispatched an officer to General Romanzow to propose a renewal of it.
The ready acquiescence of the Russian general in this measure, seemed to imply a disapprobation of the conduct of the late plenipotentiary. The Turk, as before, waved all forms, and left the nomination of a place for renewing the congress to Count Romanzow.
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The Austrian and Prussian ministers, as well as Osman Effendi, were already returned to Constantinople; the Reis Effendi, was now appointed plenipotentiary on the part of the Ottomans, and M.Obrescow on that of the Russians; and Bucharest, the capital of Walachia, the place for holding the congress. Upon the meeting of the ministers at Bucharest, the suspension of arms, which had been previously concluded for forty days, was now extended to the 20th     Oct. 29.
of the ensuing March, and was to continue in the remote countries for a month longer.
In the mean time, a great point seemed to be obtained by Russia, by a treaty concluded with the Tartars of Crimea, in which they are said totally to have renounced the Ottoman government, to have put themselves under the protection of the Empress, and to have yielded to her the two fortresses of Kertsch and Jenicala, which command the Streights of Caffa, together with the territories belonging to them. In return, the empress restores to them all she had conquered in the Crimea, and surrenders to them the fortresses which had been garrisoned by the Turks, upon condition that no Turkish garrison should ever again be received in them.
A treaty of this nature makes a figure upon paper, and affords those plausible pretences and appearances of justice, which, even conquerors, would wish to impose upon mankind; and may, when strength is opposed to weakness, have a certain weight in the negociations for a peace. In other respects, it is only a form of words without import. The Tartars were already, without any treaty, in the hands 
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For the YEAR 1772. [17
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of their most cruel and inveterate enemies, whom they equally abhorred and despised; and the very fortresses demanded by the Russians, were already in their possession. In such a situation, they must undoubtedly subscribe to any terms that were proposed; but they could not by any act of theirs, give any right or title to the Russians, but that which they were already in full possession of by conquest. The Tartar Khan, to whom they were inviolably bounden, both by their civil and religious laws, was out of the country; and the fortresses in the peninsula had never been their property, having been either built by the Turks, or taken by them from the Genoese. As to the ceding of these places to the Tartars, in consequence of this treaty, we shall undoubtedly hear no more of it; but if the Turks can be brought to submit to the nominal independency of the Crimea, by which they will totally resign the Tartars into the hands of their enemies, as an article of the treaty between the two nations, it is one of the great points which Russia is eager to obtain.
The affairs of the Porte, have in consequence of the negociations for a peace, been so interwoven this year with those of Russia, that except what relates to Ali Bey's rebellion, there remains but little to be said upon that subject. The late unfortunate Grand Vizir having been removed from his office towards the conclusion of the preceding year, the celebated Basha, Mousson Oglou, brother-in-law to the Grand Seignior, who had distinguished himself so much in Walachia, both by the taking of Giurgewo, and the defeat of General Essen, and was the only officer who
Vol. XV.
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supported the honour of the Turkish arms in the last campaign, was appointed his successor. This brave officer, instead of indulging his natural bias to war, at the risque or expence of his country, had, as we have already seen, used all his endeavours to bring about a peace between the hostile powers.
Whatever the success of the negociations may be, this conduct was founded upon true policy. The ruined condition of the Ottoman army at the close of that fatal campaign, the weakness of their marine, which could not yet in any degree have recovered the shock it had so lately received, the insufficiency of the fortifications upon the Dardanelles, together with the distractions in the government, the discontent of the people, and the open rebellions in Egypt and Syria, made the gaining of a year's breathing-time a matter of the utmost importance to the Porte. In that time, if the Vizir still supports the character which he has already acquired, the Turkish affairs may wear a very different aspect from that which they then exhibited. Besides the restoring of order in the government and police, and the providing for the security of the Dardanelles, and such a marine as would be sufficient to protect the coasts of the Black Sea, great changes might have been since made in the discipline and conduct of their licentious soldiery; who have also had time given them to recover and new-brace their courage, and to shake off that terror and consternation which, even among vetetran [[veteran]] troops, are the certain consequences of a rapid series of losses and disgraces. If such measures have been pursued,
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Offline date, was unsure on how to transcribe that in, please check for accuracy. ---------- Reopened for Editing 2023-05-11 06:53:15 ---------- Reopened for Editing 2023-05-11 12:12:43