Page:A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country (1804).djvu/260

246 success, through the medium of intrigue, to dictate to the cabinets of Stockholm and Copenhagen. But her principal attempts were on the falling empire of the Turks. By the war of 1768, she acquired the provinces of Catherinienslaw, the site of Cherson, and the navigation of the Black Sea. By an uninterrupted series of arbitrary proceedings and cabal, she subjugated the inestimable and beautiful peninsula of Crim Tartary, acquired various districts in the province of Schiraz, and rendered the princes of Georgia her feudatories and vassals. Nothing in the north or east could resist her despotic sway; and, to complete her designs, she was enabled to gain over the restless and capricious mind of the Emperor Joseph to her side, and negociate with him a sort of indefinite project for the conquest of Constantinople, and the partition of Greece.

Perhaps CatherineCatharine [sic] found her safety alone in war—the factious spirits were thus employed, and the splendour of victories threw a lustre upon her character which endeared her to her subjects, and made them forget the darker shades.

To describe her numberless institutions for the benefit of her subjects, her wise regulations, or the internal commotions which she overcame, would exceed the limits of this work. To trace her list of favourites, or lovers, would be a useless task. As an author, CatherineCatharine [sic] has some claims: she wrote three works for the entertainment and instruction of her grand-children, comedies for the amusement of the court, and different memorials, which, at the most eventful periods of her life, were necessary to explain, to move, and conciliate the people. Her letters also to Voltaire are interesting and lively. She