b o o k e f f e £ t more an Afiatick than an European fovereign ; that
. Jy~ , Mofcow, lymg nearer to the center of his dominions, was-
better calculated for the imperial refidence; and that, by
removing his capital, he neglected the interior provinces,
and facrificed every other confideration to his predilection
for the fettlements upon the Baltick.
But it by no means appears,, that although Peterffiurgh
was thus fituated at the extremity of Ruffia, that therefore
he neglefted any other part of his vaft dominions-. On the
eontrary, he was no lefs attentive to his Afiatick than to his-
European provinces : his repeated negotiations with the
Chinefe: his campaigns againfi the Turks; and his conqueft
of the Perlian provinces which border upon the Cafpian -
prove the truth of this affertion:. It is no lefs obvious, that
Europe was the quarter from whence the greateft danger-
to his throne impended, that the Swedes were his moft formidable
enemies, and that from them the very exiftence
of his empire was threatened with annihilation. It was not:
by leading his troops againfi: the defultory bands of Turks-
orPerfians, that he was able to acquire a folid military
force; but by training them to endure the firm attack of
regular battalions, and to learn to conquer at laft by repeated'
defeats : with this defign, the nearer he fixed: his feat to the
borders of Sweden, whpfe veterans had long/, been jhe terror
of the north, the more readily his troops -would imbibe th'eir-
military fpirit, and learn, by encountering them, their well
regulated manoeuvres. Add to this, that the protection of
the pew commerce, which he opened through the Baltick,
depended upon the creation and maintenance of a naval'
force, which required his immediate and almoft continual
infpettion.
P E T E R S B U R G H.
To this circumftance alone is owing the rapid and re- CHA1V
fpeCtable rife of the Ruffian power, its preponderance in the - .
north, and its political importance in the fcale of Europe.
In a word, had not Peter I. transferred the feat of government
to the Ihores of the Baltick, the Ruffian navy had ne ver
rode triumphant in the Turkiffi feas ; and Catharine II. had
never Rood forth what ihe now is, the arbitrefs of. the.
north, and the mediatrix * of Europe..
Thus much with refpeCt to the political coniequence
which Ruffia derived from the pofition of the new metropolis
:. its internal improvement^ the great objeft of Peter’s
reign,.was confidepably advanced by approaching its capital
to the more civilized parts o f Europe; by this means he
drew the nobility, from their rude magnificence and feudal
dignity at Mofcow to a more immediate, dependence upon
the fovereign, to more poliihed manners, to a greater degree
o f focial intercourfe; Nor was thereany other caufe, perhaps-,
which fo much tended to promote his plans for the civilization
of his fubjects, as the removal of the imperial feat from
the inland provinces to the ihores of the Gulf of Finland.
For the nearer the refidence of the monarch is.brought to-
the more poliihed nations, the more frequent:will be the in-
fercourfe with them, and the more eafy the adoption of their
arts ; and in no other parts could the. influx o f foreigners be
lb great-as where they were, allured by commerce. .
In oppofition to the cenfurers of Peter, we cannot but efteem
this a£l one of the moft beneficial of his reign : and one might
even venture to afleit, that if, by any revolution of Europe,
this empire ffiould lofe its acquifitions on the Baltick ; i f
the court ffiould repair to Mofcow, and maintain a fainter.
* It muft be rememb- red, that Catharine II. mediated the peace o f Tefchen,'in 1779, .
between the emperor o f Germany and the king ,of Pruilia. "
Si . connecfiom