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COXE’S TRAVELS IN RUSSIA: 723
tivity*. When the fortune of the houfe of Vala declined, and Ruffia gained the af.
cendancy, Courland became almoft a province of Ruflia; the Dukes were elected and
depofed by the influence of the court of Peterfburgh, and its dependence on Poland was
a mere formality. But as Ruffia has lately loft her influence in Poland, the Duke of
Courland has emancipated himfelf from his abfolute dependence on the court of Peterf-
burgh. Whether this emancipation is temporary or permanent muft depend on the fate
of the prefent war, and the iffue of the pending negotiations f.
The prevailing religion is the Lutheran, but all other perfuafions are tolerated ; and
the Roman catholics are capable of holding all military and civil offices, that of chan-
cellor and a few others excepted.
The language is a diale&t of the Livonian or Lettifh, the fame which is fpoken, with a
little variation, by the Livonians and Efthonians, and is probably derived from the Fin-
nifh. The nobles and gentry, being defcended from German fettlers, fpeak German,
and that tongue is always ufed in the debates of the diet.
From Mittau we traverfed the duchy of Courland, a country fwelling into gentle hills,
and fertile in corn, hemp, and flax. The inhabitants export thofe commodities from the
port of Libau on the Baltic, the only commercial town of Courland, and import in
return coffee, tea, wines, cloth, falt, and other foreign merchandize, which fupply the
interior confumption. The country is moftly open; but in fome parts clothed with
forefts of pine and fir, dotted with occafional groves of fine oak, and fprinkled with
much under-wood. ‘The villages are neat, the {cattered cottages and gentlemen’s feats
prettily fituated amid clumps of trees, and the inns provided with beds, a great luxury
to travellers juft come from Ruffia. The roads are extremely indifferent, and in this
feafon of the year fcarcely paflable.
Cuap. XI.—Of Catharine.—Her Origin and early Adventures.— Married to a Swedifh
Dragoon.—Captured by the Ruffians.— Becomes the Miftrefs, Confort, and Succeffor of
Peter the Great.—Hiftory of her Elevation to the Throne.—Death and Charaéter.
MANY authors have expreffed great furprize at the contradictory reports relative to
the origin of Catharine I. But to expect that the hiftory of a perfon of low extraction,
who gradually rofe to the moft exalted {tation, fhould contain no uncertain and difcor-
dant accounts, is to expect impoflibilities. All that remains, therefore, is, without pre-
* James Duke of Courland, taken prifoner in 1458, by Charles X. King of Sweden.
+ Courland is now a province of the Ruffian empire. Soon after the conqueft and final divifion of Po-
land, Peter, Duke of Courland, repaired to Peterfourgh; he had an audience of Catharine the Second, on
the 12th of March 1795, and was received with the higheft honours. About the fame time, the diet of
Courland affembled, and after fome trifling oppofition, but much violent altercation, declared the two
duchies of Courland and Semigallia feparated. from their feudal dependance on Poland, and fubmitted
themfelyes to the dominion of Ruffia. (March 18, 1795.)
On the 28th, the Duke iffued an a& of renunciation, and Courland was ereéted into a government, di-
vided into nine cireles, under a Ruffian governor, refident at Mittau. The falaries were continued to the
officers of ftate, and perfons holding places under the former government; and the Duke himfelf was amply
gratified for the refignation of his dignity, He had been long at variance with his fubje&ts, and fearcely
ever refided at Mittau; he had alfo forefeen the lofs of his dominions, and had fecured large {ums of money,
with which he purchafed the duchy of Sagau, and the counties of Wartenberg, Belin, and Gofchutz, in
Silefia, and eftatesin Brandenburgh. He ftillretains the title of Duke of Courland and Semigallia, Peter
was born in 1724, and has by his wife, Anne Charlotte Dorothea, daughter of John Frederick Count of
Medem, feveral daughters. His brother Prince Charles was born in 1728,-and hae by the Princefs Appol-
lonia Poninfka feveral fons. ‘
422 afarh judice
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