135 Poland. ly preserved. All public acts, the acts of magistracies, of any transgression of positive law, they are answerable Poland. and the coin of the kingdom, shall bear his name. with their persons and fortunes. Such impeachments being determined by a simple majority of votes, collected jointly from both houses, shall be tried immediately by the comitial tribunal, where the accused are to receive their final judgment and punishment, if found guilty; or to be honourably acquitted on sufficient proof of in lar powers. tion. The king, who ought to possess every power of doing His particu- good, shall have the right of pardoning those that are condemned to death, except the crimes be against the state. In time of war, he shall have the supreme command of the national forces: he may appoint the commanders of the army, however, by the will of the states. It shall be his province to patentee officers in the army, and other dignitaries, consonant to the regulations hereafter to be expressed, to appoint bishops, senators, and 136 ministers, as members of the executive power. Members of The king's council of inspection is to consist, 1. Of the council the primate, as the head of the clergy, and the president of inspec- of the commission of education, or the first bishop in ordine. 2. Of five ministers, viz. the minister of police, minister of justice, minister of war, minister of finances, and minister for the foreign affairs. 3. Of two secretaries to keep the protocols, one for the council, another for the foreign department; both, however, without decisive vote. The hereditary prince coming of age, and having taken the oath to preserve the constitution, may assist at all sessions of the council, but shall have no vote Powers of therein. The marshal of the diet, being chosen for two years, has also a right to sit in this council, without taking any share in its resolves; for the end only to call together the diet, always existing, in the following case: should he deem, from the emergencies hereunder specified, the convocation of the diet absolutely necessary, and the king refusing to do it, the marshal is bound to issue his circular letters to all nuncios and senators, adducing real motives for such meeting. 137 the mar. shal. The cases demanding such convocation of the diet are the following: 1. In a pressing necessity concerning the law of nations, and particularly in case of a neighbouring war. 2. In case of an internal commotion, menacing with the revolution of the country, or of a collision between magistrates. 3. In an evident danger of general famine. 4. In the orphan state of the country, by demise of the king, or in case of the king's dangerous illness. All the resolutions of the council of inspection are to be examined by the rules above mentioned. The king's opinion, after that of every member in the council has been heard, shall decisively prevail. Every resolution of this council shall be issued under the king's signature, countersigned by one of the ministers sitting therein; and thus signed, shall be obeyed by all executive departments, except in cases expressly exempted by the present constitution. nocence. 138 139 In order to form a necessary organization of the exe- Commiscutive power, we establish hereby separate commissions, sions of econnected with the above council, and subjected to obey ducation, its ordinations. These commissions are, 1. Of educa-police, &c. tion; 2. Of police; 3. Of war; 4. Of treasury. It is through the medium of these four departments that all the particular orderly commissions, as established by the present diet, in every palatinate and district, shall depend on, and receive all orders from, the council of inspection, in their respective duties and occurrences. The eighth article regulates the administration of jus- Adminitice, beginning with a very sensible declaration, that the station of judicial power is incompatible with the legislative, and justice. that it cannot be administered by the king. It therefore constitutes primary courts of justice for each palatinate or district, composed of judges chosen at the dietine; and appoints higher tribunals, erected one in each of the three provinces into which the kingdom is divided, with which appeals may be lodged from the primary courts. It appoints likewise for the trial of persons accused of crimes against the state, one supreme general tribunal for all classes, called a comitiul tribunal or court, composed of persons chosen at the opening of every diet. The ninth article provides a regency Regency on during the king's minority, in case of his settled alie- certain ocnation of reason, or upon the emergency of his being made a prisoner of war. This regency was to be composed of the council of inspection, with the queen at their head, or, in her absence, the primate of the kingdom. The tenth article enjoins, that the education of the king's sons shall be entrusted to the king with the council, and a tutor appointed by the states; and the eleventh regulates the army in such a manner, as to prevent it from being employed to overturn the constitution. 140 casions. 141 nuncios. The regulation of the dietines contains nothing that can be interesting to a British reader, except what relates to the election and duties of nuncios or representatives to the general diet. And here it is enacted, that The elec persons having a right to vote are all nobles of the tion and equestrian order; i. e. 1. All hereditary proprietors of duties of Should all the members refuse their countersign to landed property, or possessed of estates by adjudication any resolution, the king is obliged to forego his opinion; for a debt, paying territorial tax to government: sons but if he should persist in it, the marshal of the diet may also of such proprietors during the life of their parents, demand the convocation of the diet; and if the king before the ex-division of patrimony. 2. Brothers inhewill not, the marshal himself shall send his circular let-riting estates before they have shared their succession. ters as above. Ministers composing this council cannot be employed at the same time in any other commission or department. If it should happen that two-thirds of secret votes in both houses demand the changing of any person, either in the council, or any executive department, the king is bound to nominate another. Willing that the council of inspection should be responsible to the nation for their actions, we decree, that when these ministers are denounced and accused before the diet (by the special committee appointed for examining their proceedings) 3. All mortgages who pay 100 florins (50 shillings) of territorial tax per year from their possessions. 4. All life-holders of lands paying territorial tax to the same amount. 5. All nobles in the army possessed of such qualifying estates have a vote in their respective districts in time of peace, and properly furloughed by their com manders. 6. Legal possession is understood to be qualifying when it has been formerly acquired and actually enjoyed for twelve calendar months previously. Persons who have no right to vote are, 1. Those of the equestrian order that are not actually possessed of a property Poland. property, as described in the foregoing article. 2. Such as hold royal, ecclesiastical, or noble lands, even with right of inheritance, but on condition of some duty or payment to their principals, consequently dependent thereon. 3. Gentry possessing estates on feudal tenure, called ordynackie, as being bound to certain personal service thereby. 4. All renters of estates that have no other qualifying property. 5. Those that have not accomplished 18 years of age. 6. Crimine notati, and those that are under a decree passed in default, even in the first instance, for having disobeyed any judicial 142 Persons e ligible and not eligi ble. 143 Instructions to the nuncios, 144 court. Every person of the equestrian order that pays territorial tax to government for his freehold, let it be ever so small, is eligible to all elective offices in his respective district. Gentlemen actually serving in the army, even possessed of landed hereditary estate, must have served six complete years before they are eligible to the office of a nuncio only. But this condition is dispensed with in favour of those that have filled before some public function. Whoever is not personally present at the dietine; whoever has not completed 23 years of age; whoever has not been in any public function, nor passed the biennial office of a commissary in the orderly commission; those that are not exempted by law from obligations of scarta bellatus, which subjects all newly-nobilitated persons to certain civil restrictions until the next generation; and, lastly, all those against whom may be objected a decree in contumaciam in a civil cause; are not eligible. During the business of election, the president who opened the meeting, with the rest of the committee, except those who are assessors, shall prepare instructions for procedure; and in regard to the propositions sent by the king and the council of inspection, these instructions shall be worded thus: "Our nuncios shall vote affirmative to the article N," or, "Our nuncios shall vote negative to the article N," in case it is found contrary to the opinion of the dietine and should any amendment or addition be deemed necessary and agreed on, it may be inserted in the instructions at the end of the relative proposition. who are At the meeting of the dictines, after the diet has sat, accountable the nuncios are bound to appear before their constitu to their constitu ents, and to bring their report of the whole proceedings ents. of that assembly; first, respecting the acts of legislature; next, with respect to the particular projects of their palatinate or district recommended to them by the instruc tions. It is at these dietines that nuncios, after they have rendered to their constituents a clear account of their proceedings and of the diet, may be either confirmed or changed, and new ones elected in their stead till the general-election for the following ordinary diet.. New nuncios are chosen, 1. In the room of the deceased. 2. In the room of those that are become senators or ministers of state. 3. In case of resignation. 4. In the room of such as are disqualified by the diet. 5. When any of the assembly desires a new election, to substitute another nuncio in the room of one expressly pointed out; which request must be made in writing, signed by 12 members besides, and be delivered to the marshal of the dietine. In this last case, the marshal is to read the name of the nuncio objected to, and to make Poland. the following proposition: "Shall the nuncio N be confirmed in his function? or, shall there be a new election made in his stead?" The opinion of the meeting being taken by a division, the majority shall decide the question, and be declared by the marshal. If the majority approves the conduct of the nuncio, the mar shal and the assessors shall certify this confirmation on the diploma; and in case of disapprobation, the marshal shall declare the vacancy, and begin the form of a new election. 145 Such are the outlines of the Polish constitution esta-This conblished by the king and the confederates in 1791. It stitution will not bear a comparison with that under which Bri- though sutons have the happiness to live; but it is surely infinite-pelior to the former, ly superior to that motley form of government which, protested for a century past, rendered Poland a perpetual scene of against by war, tumult, tyranny, and rebellion. Many of the some corcorrupt nobles, however, perceiving that it would curb rupt nobles, their ambition, deprive them of the base means which they had long enjoyed of gratifying their avarice by setting the crown to sale, and render it impossible for them to continue with impunity their tyrannical oppression of the peasants, protested against it, and withdrew from the confederates. This was nothing more than what might have been expected, or than what the king and his friends undoubtedly did expect. But the malcontents were not satisfied with a simple protest; they preferred their complaints to the empress of Russia, who, ready on all occasions, and on the slightest pretence, to invade Poland, poured her armies into the republic, and surrounding the king and the diet with ferocious soldiers, compelled them, by the most furious and inde- and opposed cent menaces, to undo their glorious labour of love, and by the Rusto restore the constitution as settled after the partition sians. treaty. Of the progress of the Russians in this work of darkness, our readers will be pleased with the following manly and indignant narrative, taken from a periodical work of acknowledged merit. "It was on the 21st of April 1792, that the diet received the first notification from the king, of the inimi-" cal and unjust intentions of Russia. He informed them that, without the shadow of pretence, this avowed enemy of the rights of mankind had determined to invade the territory of the republic with an army of 60,000 men. This formidable banditti, commanded by generals Soltikow, Michelson, and Kosakowski, was afterwards to be supported by a corps of 20,000, and by the troops then acting in Moldavia, amounting to 70,000. The king, however, professed that he was not discouraged, and declared his readiness to put himself at the head of the national troops, and to terminate his existence in a glorious contest for the liberties of his country. Then, and not before, the diet decreed the organization of the army, and its augmentation to 100,000. king and the council of inspection were invested with unlimited authority in every thing that regarded the defence of the kingdom. Magazines were ordered to be constructed when it was too late, and quarters to be provided for the army. The 146 *New Annual Regi ster, 1792. 147 "The diet and the nation rose as one man to main- The nation tain their independence. All private animosities were rises to obliterated, all private interests were sacrificed; the maintain its greatest encouragements were held forth to volunteers ence. to independ "On the 18th of May, the Russian ambassador delivered a declaration, which was worthy of such a cause. It was a tissue of falsehood and hypocrisy. It asserted, that this wanton invasion, which was evidently against the sense of almost every individual Polander, was meant entirely for the good of the republic. It censured the precipitancy with which the new constitution was adopted, and ascribed the ready consent of the diet to the influence of the Warsaw mob. It represented the constitution as a violation of the principles on which the Polish republic was founded-complained of the licentiousness with which the sacred name of the empress was treated in some speeches of the members; and concluded by professing, that on these accounts, and in behalf of the emigrant Poles, her imperial majesty had ordered her troops to enter the territories of the republic. Poland. to enroll themselves under the national standard, and it invasion from any foreign power, they shall assist each Poland. was unanimously decreed by the diet, that all private other with their whole force, if necessary :-and by the losses should be compensated out of the public trea- sixth article, it is further stipulated, that if any fosury. reign power whatever shall presume to interfere in the internal affairs of Poland, his Prussian majesty shall consider this as a case falling within the meaning of the alliance, and shall assist the republic according to the tenor of the fourth article," that is, with his whole force. What then is the pretext for abandoning this treaty? It is, that the empress of Russia has shown a decided opposition to the order of things established in Poland on the third of May 1791, and is provoked by Poland presuming to put herself into a posture to defend it. It is known, however, by the most authentic documents, that nothing was effected on the 3d of May 1791, to which Prussia had not previously assented, and which she did not afterwards sanction; and that Prussia, according to the assertion of her own king, did not intimate a single doubt respecting the revolution till one month (and according to the Prussian minister till six months) after it had taken place; in short, to use the monarch's own words as fully explanatory of his double politics, not till the general tranquillity of Europe permitted him to explain himself.'Instead, therefore, of assisting Poland, Prussia insultingly recommended to Poland to retrace her steps; in which case, she said that she would be ready to attempt an accommodation in her favour. This attempt was never made, and probably never intended; for the empress pursued her measures. 148 "At the moment this declaration was delivered to the diet, the Russian troops, accompanied by Counts Potocki, Rzewuski, Branicki, and a few Polish apostates, appeared upon the frontiers, and entered the territories of the republic in several columns, before the close of the month. The spirit manifested by the nobility was Spirit of he nobles. truly honourable. Some of them delivered in their plate to the mint. Prince Radzvil engaged voluntarily to furnish 10,000 stand of arms, and another a train of artillery. The courage of the new and hastily embodied soldiers corresponded with the patriotism of their nobles. Prince Poniatowski, nephew to the king, was appointed commander in chief; and though his force was greatly inferior to the enemy, it must be confessed that he made a noble stand. On the 24th of May, the enemy's Cossacks were repulsed, and pursued by the patroles of the republic to the very entrenchments. On the 26th, about one o'clock, the piquets of the republic discovered a large body of Don Cossacks approaching the outposts; and a squadron of cavalry, commanded by Lieutenant Kwasniewski, supported by Lieutenant Golejowski with two squadrons more, in all about 300, marched out to meet them. They attacked the Cossacks with success, but pursued them with more valour than pru dence to the side of a wood, where they found themselves drawn into an ambuscade, and surrounded by 2000 horse, two battalions of chasseurs, and six pieces of cannon. The intrepid Poles bravely fought their way through the Russian line, and killed upwards of 200 of the enemy. The Poles in this engagement lost 100 men and two officers; one of whom, Lieutenant Kwasniewski, was wounded and made prisoner. The remainder of the detachment reached their quarters in safety. "Perhaps the history of man can scarcely furnish an e court of instance of perfidy, meanness, and duplicity, equal to that which was manifested by Prussia on this occasion. By the treaty of defensive alliance, solemnly contracted between the republic of Poland and the king of Prussia, and ratified on the 23d of April 1790, it is expressly stipulated, That the contracting parties shall do all in their power to guarantee and preserve to each other reciprocally the whole of the territories which they respectively possess: That, in case of menace or 149 onduct of erlin. 6 150 The duchy of Lithuania was the great scene of action War with in the beginning of the war; but the Russians had made Russia. little progress before the middle of the month of June. On the 10th of that month, Generai Judycki, who commanded a detachment of the Polish troops, between Mire and Swierzna, was attacked by the Russians; but, after a combat of some hours, he obliged them to retire with the loss of 500 men dead on the field.-The general was desirous of profiting by this advantage, by pursuing the enemy, but was prevented by a most violent fall of rain. On the succeeding day, the Russians rallied again to the attack; and it then too fatally appeared, that the Poles were too young and undisciplined to contend with an inferior force against experienced troops and able generals. By a masterly manœuvre, the Russians contrived to surround their antagonists, at a moment when the Polish general supposed that he had obliged the enemy to retreat; and though the field was contested with the utmost valour by the troops of the republic, they were at length compelled to give way, and to retire towards Nieswiesz. On the 14th another engagement took place near Lubar, on the banks of the river Sluez, between a detachment of the Russian grand army and a party of Polish cavalry dispatched by Prince Joseph Poniatowski, to intercept the enemy. The patriotic bravery of the Poles was victorious in this contest; but upon reconnoitring the force of the enemy, the prince found himself incapable of making a successful stand against such superior numbers. He therefore gave orders to strike the camp at Lubar, and commenced a precipitate retreat. During their march, the Polish rear was harassed by a body of 4000 Russians, till arriving at Boruskowee, the wooden bridge unfortunately gave way Poland. way, under the weight of the cavalry. The enemy, in the mean time, brought their artillery to play upon the rear of the fugitives, who lost upwards of 250 men. The Polish army next directed its course towards Zielime, where meeting, on the 17th, with a reinforcement from Zaslow, it halted to give battle to the enemy. The Russians were upwards of 17,000 strong, with 24 pieces of cannon, and the force of the republic much inferior. After a furious contest from seven in the morning till five in the afternoon, the Russians were at length obliged to retreat, and leave the field of battle in possession of the patriots. The Russians were computed to have lost 40co men in this engagement, and the Poles about 1100. 151 The king proposes submission. Notwithstanding these exertions, the Poles were obliged gradually to retire before their numerous and disciplined enemies. Nieswez, Wilna, Minsk, and several other places of less consequence, fell into their hands one after another. On a truce being proposed to the Russian general Kochowski, the proposal was haughtily rejected; while the desertion of Vice-brigadier Rudnicki and some others, who preferred dishonour to personal danger, proclaimed a tottering cause. The progress of the armies of Catharine was marked with devastation and cruelty, while, such was the aversion of the people both to the cause and the manner of conducting it, that, as they approached, the country all around became a wilderness, and scarcely a human being was to be seen. In the mean time, a series of little defeats, to which the inexperience of the commanders, and the intemperate valour of new raised troops appear to have greatly contributed, served at once to distress and to dispirit these defenders of their country. Prince Poniatowski continued to retreat, and on the 17th of July, his rear being attacked by a very superior force, it suffered a considerable loss, though the skill and courage of General Kosciusko enabled him to make a most respectable defence. On the 18th, a general engagement took place between the two armies. The Russian line extended opposite Dubienka, along the river Bog, as far as Opalin. The principal column, consisting of 14,000 men, was chiefly directed against the division of General Kosciusko, which consisted of 5000 men only. After a most vigorous resistance, in which the Russians lost upwards of 4000 men, and the troops of the republic only some hundreds, the latter was compelled to give way before the superior numbers of the enemy, and to retire further into the country. This unequal contest was at last prematurely terminated. The king, whose benevolent intentions were, perhaps, overpowered by his mental imbecility, and whose age and infirmities, probably, rendered him unequal to the difficulties and dangers which must attend a protracted war, instead of putting himself, according to his resolve, at the head of his army, determined at once to surrender at discretion. On the 23d of July, he summoned a council of all the deputies at that moment in Warsaw. He laid before them the last dispatches from the empress, which insisted upon total and unreserved submission. He pointed out the danger of a dismemberment of the republic, should they delay to throw themselves upon the clemency of the empress, and to entreat her protection. He mentioned the fatal union of Austria and Prussia with Russia; I and the disgraceful supineness manifested by every other Poland. court in Europe. Four citizens, the intrepid and patriotic Malachowski, the princes Sapieha, Radzvil, and Soltan, vehemently protested against these dastardly proceedings; and the following evening a company of gentlemen from the different provinces attended for the same purpose. The assembly waited immediately on these four distinguished patriots, and returned them their acknowledgements for the spirit and firmness with which they had resisted the usurpations of despotism. The submission of the king to the designs of Russia was no sooner made known, than Poland was bereft of all her best and most respectable citizens. Malachowski as marshal of the diet, and Prince Sapieha, grand marshal of Lithuania, entered strong protests on the journals of the diet against these hostile proceedings, and declared solemnly that the diet legally assembled in 1788 was not dissolved. 152 Warsaw o On the second of August a confederation was form- Confedera ed at Warsaw, of which the grand apostate, Potocki, tion at was chosen marshal. The acts of this confederation verawed by were evidently the despotic dictates of Russia, and were Russia, recalculated only to restore the ancient abuses, and to stores the place the country under the aggravated oppression of a former con foreign yoke. It is remarkable, that at the very moment when Poland was surrendering its liberties to its despotic invaders, the generous sympathy of Great Britain was evinced by a liberal subscription, supported by all the most respectable characters in the nation, of every party and of every sect, for the purpose of assisting the king and the republic to maintain their independence. Though the benevolent design was frustrated, the fact remains on record as a noble testimony of the spirit of Britons in the cause of freedom, of the indignation which fills every British heart at the commission of injustice, and of the liberality with which they are disposed to assist those who suffer from the oppression of tyrants. stitution 153 of the Po Not satisfied with restoring the old wretched consti- The em tution, the empress of Russia seized upon part of the press seizes territory which, at the last partition, she and her coad- upon part jutors had left to the republic; and her ambassador en-lish terri tering into the diet with a crowd of armed ruffians, com-tory. pelled the king and that assembly to grant the form of legality to her usurpations. The nation, however, did not submit. The In Februrary 1794 General Kosciusko appeared in the neighbourhood of Cracow with a small force of armed peasants. He beat some detachments of Russians and Prussians, compelled them to evacuate Cracow, and proclaimed there the constitution of 1791. Every where the people and the nobles flew to arms. Russians, who occupied Warsaw with 15,000 men, began to seize suspected persons, and demanded possession of the arsenal. But at that moment the news arrived of a defeat sustained by a corps of 6000 Russians, with the loss of 1000 killed, and their general Woronzow made prisoner. Encouraged by this event, the people rose on the garrison, and after 48 hours hard fighting, drove them out, with the loss of 6000 killed, 3000 prisoners, and 50 pieces of cannon. The whole country was now in arms. Russia and Prussia, however, sent 110,000 men into Poland. Kosciusko, pressed by superior forces, made an able retreat upon Warsaw. The king of Prussia, after besieging this city during three months, |