F R O M M A N N 15 M A Y 1773
479
the 6th past/ and attacked a large body of Turks, took all their
baggage, tents, cattle, and their military chest, and then advanced to
Silistria. Should they take this place, R o m a n z o w m a y be tempted to
cross the D a n u b e with his whole army/ but prudent people say he
should avoid a pitched battle. This campaign, if the Turks permit it
to go on, m a y be very fertile of great events, and they will probably
be greatly disheartened w h e n they hear that their friends, the French,
have been intimidated from sending a fleet to devour that of Count
Orlow, which probably would have m a d e his Empress more tractable.
I expect to hear that the Grand Signor has shut u p M r Murray 6 in
the Seven Towers.? H e was near quarrelling with us for letting the
Russian fleet pass the Channel,8 which he thought was as easy to do
as to defend the pass at the Dardanelles.
There is still a hitch in the affair of the Jesuits, though not advantageous to the Society. Something remains still to be settled with the
foreign princes in whose states they exist, w h o will probably be
obliged to appropriate their revenues? and to allow the incumbents
or succumbents a pension for life out of them. T h e rage both for and
4. A report from 'Vienna, M a y 1' speaks
of 'a smart skirmish between a body of
Turks and some Russians that passed
the Danube under Gen. Weissman, in
which the former lost 600 men' (Daily
Adv. 22 May).
5. See ante 30 March 1773, n. 11. 'Warsaw, April 28. . . . Field-Marshal Count
de Romanzow had received orders from
Petersburgh to recommence operations
against the Turks, and to pass the Danube at the head of his army; but that
general hath represented to that Court that
it was impossible . . . but that in the
mean time he will send some detachments to the other side of the Danube' (Daily Adv. 19 May). 'According to
advices from Moldavia, dated the 14th
instant [June], the Grand Russian A r m y
under Count Romanzow, of between
80,000 and 90,000 men, was on the point
of passing the Danube' (ibid. 17 July).
H e 'passed the Danube near Hirschoff 22
June (ibid. 6 Aug.), but was forced to
repass it 8 July 'for want of subsistence,
the Turks having destroyed everything on
that side of the river' (ibid. 16 Aug., sub
Warsaw, 29 July).
6. John Murray, the English ambassador to Turkey.
7. T h e prison at Constantinople (ante
6, 24 Feb. 1769).
8. In Oct. i76g (Daily Adv. g, 11, 12,
13 Oct. i76g). A year later, when John
Murray pressed England's readiness to
mediate between Russia and Turkey, the
Reis-Effendi told Murray 'qu'il ne pouvait
m e m e pas lui cacher que l'Angleterre,
bien loin d'observer une exacte neutrality
dans cette guerre, avait manifeste plutot
dans differentes occasions trop de partiality
pour la Russie, de sorte que la Porte
balancait d'autant plus d'accepter ses
offres' (Zegelin to Frederick II, Constantinople, 17 Aug. 1770, Politische Correspondenz xxx. 155). Frederick II commented to Kaunitz that the Porte was
'tres aigrie contre . . . [l'Angleterre] a
cause des secours qu'elle avait donnes aux
escadres russes' (Kaunitz to Maria Theresa
4 Sept. 1770, ibid. xxx. 113). T h e Turkish
protest is mentioned by D. B. Horn,
British Diplomatic Service 1689-1789, 1961,
P- 349. Clement X I V desired 'to be informed
of the intentions of the foreign princes
with regard to . . . the disposal of the
revenues of that society in the respective
states, and particularly of those of the
Court of Vienna, in whose dominions