his great aim was to promote the views of his own ambition. The intervention of the Ruffians in the affairs of Poland alfo gave great disguft to all parties in the kingdom. The whole nation ran into confederacies formed in diftinct provinces; the popith clergy were active in oppofing the cause of the diffidents; and this unfortunate country became the theatre of the moft cruel and complicated of all wars, partly civil, partly religious, and partly foreign. The confufion, devaftation, and civil war, continued in Poland during the years 1769, 1770, and 1771, whereby the whole face of the country was almoft deftroyed; many of the principal popith families retired into foreign ftates with their effects; and had it not been for a body of Ruffian troops, which afted as guards to the king at Warfaw, that city had likewife exhibited a fcene of plunder and maffacre. To thefe complicated evils were added, in the year 1770, that moft dreadful fcourge, the peftilence, which spread from the frontiers of Turkey to the adjoining provinces of Podolia, Volhinia, and the Ukraine; and in thefe provinces, it is faid, fwept off 250,000 people. Meanwhile fome of the Polifh confederates interceded with the Turks to affift them against their powerful oppreffors; and a war enfued between the Ruffians and the Turks on account of Poland. The conduct of the grand fignior, and of the Ottoman Porte, towards the diftreffed Poles, was juft and honourable, and the very reverse of that of their Chriftian, catholic, and apoftolic neighbours..

On September 3, 1771, an attempt was made by Kozinski, an officer among the Polith confederates, and feveral others, to affaffinate the king of Poland, in the ftreets of Warfaw. His majefty received two wounds on the head, one from a ball, and the other from a fabre; notwithstanding which, he had the good fortune to escape with life, by Kozinski's relenting; for which his life was faved, and he was fuffered to retire to the papal territories, with an annual penfion from the king.

The following year, 1772, it appeared that the king of Pruffia, the emperor and emprefs-queen, and emprefs of Ruffia, had entered into an alliance to divide and difmember the kingdom of Poland: though Pruffia was formerly in a state of vaffalage to Poland, and the title of king of Pruffia was never acknowledged by the Poles till 1764. Ruffia alfo, in

In 1764, the empress of Ruffia tranfmitted to the court of Warsaw an act of renun. ciation, figned with her own hand, and fealed with the feal of the empire; in which the declares, "That he did by no means arrogate either to herself, her heirs, and fucceffors, or to her empire, any right or claim to the districts or territories which are actually in poffeffion, or fubject to the authority, of the kingdom of Poland, or great duchy of Lithuania; but that, on the contrary, her faid majefty would guaranty to faid kingdom of Poland and duchy of Lithuania all the immunities, lands, territories, and diftricts, which the faid kingdom and duchy ought by right to poffefs, or did now actually poffefs; and would at all times, and for ever, maintain them in the full and free enjoyment thereof, against the attempts of all and every one who should, at any time, or on any pretext, endeavour to difpoffefs them of the fame."-In the fame year did the king of Pruffia fign, with his own hand, an act, wherein he declared, "That he had no claims, formed no pretenfions on Poland, or any part thereof: that he renounced all claims on that kingdom, either as king of Pruffia, elector of Brandenburg, or duke of Pomerania." In the fame inftrument he guaranties, in the moft folemn manner, the territories and rights of Poland against every power whatever.-The emprefs-queen of Hungary, fo late as the month of January 1771, wrote a letter with her own hand to the king of Poland, in which the gave him the strongest affurances, "That her friendfhip for him and the republic was firm and unalterable; that the motions of her troops ought not to alarm him; that he had never entertained a thought of feizing any part of his dominions, nor would even fuffer any other power to do it." From which, according to the political creed of princes, we may infer, that to guaranty the rights, liberties, and revenues of a ftate, means to annihilate thofe liberties, feize upon thofe rights, and

the beginning of the 17th century, faw its captial and throne poffeffed by the Poles; while Auftria, in 1683, was indebted to a king of Poland for the prefervation of its metropolis, and almoft for its very exiftence. Thefe three allied powers, acting in concert, fet up their formal pretenfions to the refpective diftricts which they had allotted for and guarantied to each other:-Polifh or Weftern Pruffia, and fome districts bordering upon Brandenburg, for the king of Pruffia; almoft all the fouth eaft parts of the kingdom bordering upon Hungary, together with the rich falt works of the crown, for the empress queen of Hungary and Bohemia; and a large diftrict of country about Mohilow, upon the banks of the Dnieper, for the empress of Ruffia t. But though each of thefe powers pretended to have a legal title to the territories which were allotted them refpective. ly, and publifhed manifeftoes in juftification of the measures which they had taken; yet as they were conscious that the fallacies by which they fap ported their pretenfions were too grofs to impofe upon mankind, they forced the Poles to call a new diet; and threatened them, that if they did not confent unanimously to fign a treaty for the ceding of those provinces to them refpeétively, the whole kingdom would be laid under a military execution, and treated as a conquered ftate. In this extremity of diArefs, feveral of the Polish nobility protested against this violent act of tyranny, and retired into foreign ftates, chocfing rather to live in exile, and to have all their landed property confifcated, than to be inftruments of bringing their country to utter ruin; but the king, under the threat. ening of depofition and imprisonment, was prevailed upon to sign this aft, and his example was followed by many of his fubjects.

The king of Pruffia's conduct in Poland was the most tyrannical that can be conceived. In the year 1771, his troops entered into Great Poland, and carried off from that province and its neighbourhood, at a moderate computation, 12,000 families. On the 29th of October, in the fame year, he published an edict, commanding every perfon, under the feverest penalties, and even corporeal punishment, to take in payment, for forage, provifions, corn, horfes, &c. the money offered by his troops and commiffaries. This money was either filver, bearing the impreffion of Poland, and exactly worth one third of its nominal value, or ducats ftruck in imitation of Dutch ducats, seventeen per cent. inferior to the real ducats of Holland. With this bafe money he bought up corn and forage enough, not only to fupply his army for two whole years, but to flock magazines in the country itself, where the inhabitants were forced to come and re-purchafe corn for their daily fubfiftence, at an advanced Frice, and with good money, his commiffaries refufing to take the fame coin they had paid. At the loweft calculation, he gained, by this bone manœuvre, feven millions of dollars. Having ftripped the country of money and provifions, his next attempt was to thin it ftill more of its in

The district claimed by Auftria was "all that tract of land lying on the right fide of the Viftula, from Silefia above Sandomir, to the mouth of the San, and from thence by Franepole, Zamoife, and Rubieflow, to the Bog: from the Bog along the frontiers of Red Ruffia to Zabras, on the border of Volhinia and Podolia, and from Zebras in a ftraight line to the Nieper, where it receives the Sbrytz, taking in a part of Podolia, and then along the boundaries feparating Podolia and Moldavia." This country is now incorporated with Auftria, under the appellation of the kingdoms of Gallicia and Lodomeria.

The Ruffian claims comprife Polish Livonia, that part of the palatinate of Polorik to the eaft of the Duna-the palatinates of Vitepfk, Mic flaw, and the portions of the palatinate of Minsk. This tract of land (Polish Livonia excepted) is fituated in White Ruffia, and includes full one third of Lithuania. It is now divided into the two g vernments of Polofk and Mohilef.

ants. To people his own dominions at the expenfe of Poland had his great aim: for this purpose, he devised a new contribution; y town and village was obliged to furnish a certain number of marcable girls; the parents to give, as a portion, a feather bed, four ows, a cow, two hogs, and three ducats in gold. Some were bound d and foot, and carried off as criminals. His exactions from the beys, convents, cathedrals, and nobles, were fo heavy, and exceeded laft their abilities fo much, that the priests abandoned their churches, the nobles their lands. These exactions continued with unabated gour, from the year 1771 to the time the treaty of partition was clared, and poffeffion taken of the provinces ufurped. From thefe roceedings, it would appear that his Pruffian majefty knew of no rights at his own; no pretenfions but those of the house of Brandenburg; no ther rule of juffice but his own pride and ambition.

The violent difmemberment and partition of Poland has justly been nfidered as the firft great breach in the modern political fyltem of Eu pe. The furprife of a town, the invasion of an infignificant province, the election of a prince who had neither abilities to be feared nor irtues to be loved, would fome years ago have armed one half of Eupe, and called forth all the attention of the other. But the deftruction a great kingdom, with the confequent difarrangement of power, doninion, and commerce, has been beheld by the other nations of Eu ope with the moft aftonishing indifference and unconcern. The courts of London, Paris, Stockholm, and Copenhagen remonftrated against the ufurpations; but that was all. Poland was forced to fubmit, and the partition was ratified by their diet, held under the bribes and threats of the three powers. In the fenate there was a majority of six, but in the lower house, or affembly of nuncios, there was but one, in favour of the measure-fity-four against fifty-three. This is a very alarming circum. tance, and shows that a most important though not happy change has usken place in that general fyftem of policy, and arrangement of power and dominion, which had been for fome ages an object of unremitting tention with moft of the ftates of Europe. Our ancestors might pertaps, on fome occafions, difcover rather more anxiety about preferving the balance of power in Europe than was neceffary: but it has been well remarked, that the idea of confidering Europe as a vaft commonwealth, of the feveral parts being diftinct and feparate, though politically and commercially united, of keeping them independent, though unequal in power, and of preventing any one, by any means, from becoming too powerful for the rest, was great and liberal, and, though the refult to barbarifm, was founded upon the most enlarged principles of the wifeft policy. It appears to be owing to this fystem, that this fmall part of the western world has acquired fo aftonishing a fuperiority over the reft of the globe. The fortune and glory of Greece proceeded from a fimilar fytem of policy, though formed upon a smaller fcale. Both her fortune and glory expired with that fyftem.

The revolution which happened in this country on the third of May, 1791, defervedly engaged much of the public attention. The evils of elective monarchy were indeed the chiet caufe that Poland had almoft seased to be confidered as a nation. The dynasty of future kings of Po land was to commence in Frederick Auguftus, elector of Saxony, with the right of inheritance to his male defcendants: in cafe the prefent elector fhould have no male iffue, a husband chosen by him for his daughter, with the confent of the Polish reprefentatives, fhall begin the

vanced to that degree of civilifation which other European countries enjoyed in the thirteenth century. Her hundreds of citizens would have been free, her millions of peafants would have ftill continued flaves; at the utmost, not above five hundred thoufand out of fifteen millions would have been free.

After a fhort and unequal ftruggle with Ruffia, this unhappy country was forced to abandon the new conftitution. The manifefto of the Ruffian emprefs, replete with fentiments difgraceful to humanity, was followed by fome fkirmishes: but it is faid that a letter, written with her own hand to the Polish king, in which he declared her refolution to double or triple her troops, rather than abandon her pretenfions, in. duced that benignant monarch to prevent the farther effufion of blood.

On the 6th of January, 1793, the king of Pruffia iffued a declaration refpecting the march of his troops into Poland, in which he mentions the friendly interference of her imperial Majefty, the emprefs of Ruffia, in the affairs of Poland. In the fame ftrain his majefty adds, that he had entertained hopes that the troubles in that country would have fubfided without his own interference, especially as he was fo deeply occupied in another quarter. He laments that he has been difappointed, and that the propagation of French democracy, by means of clubs and jacobin emiffaries, efpecially in Great Poland, had already rifen to such a height as to require his moft ferious attention: his majefty, however, obferves, that he has determined to anticipate their defigns, by fending a fuffi. cient body of troops into the territories of the republic, after having concerted proper meafures with the friendly courts of Petersburgh and Vienna, who were equally interested with himself in the welfare of the republic.

The proteft published at Grodno, in the fitting of the general confederation, the 3d of February, against this violent invafion, fufficiently evinces the deteftation which the Poles themselves entertain of the meafures of their pretended friend. They affure his majefty that a continued correfpondence between the military commanders and the civil magiftrates had enabled the confederation to declare, that perfect tranquillity prevailed from one end of the kingdom to the other; that they were "altonifhed at the affertions of his majefty" in his last declaration; and conclude by entreating that his majefty would revoke the orders which he had given for troops to enter the republic. Notwithstanding, however, thefe folemn affurances-notwithstanding the evidence and the facts which were alledged in fupport of them, the Prufian army advanced, and one of its detachments appeared under the walls of Thora. The inhabitants refufing entrance to the troops, the gates were forced, the municipal guards diflodged from their poft, and the Pruffian regiments entered the defenceless city, as if it had been a place taken by affault. At the fame time different Polish detachments, difperfed through out Great Poland, were attacked and driven from their posts by fuperior force.

In March, the manifefto of her imperial majefty appeared, relative to the partition. Religion was, as ufual, called in to fanétion this atrocious act of rapine and injuftice, and the empress humanely lamented the fufferings of the people of Poland, among whom it had been, for thirty years, her inceffant endeavour to maintain tranquillity; and her grief was increased by confidering them as defcended from the fame race, and profeffing the holy Chriftian religion, which would be violated by the introduction of fuch dreadful doctrines as were propagated by fome unworthy Poles, who adopted the detestable and deftructive plans of the

rebels of France. As an indemnification, therefore, for her loffes, to provide for the future fafety of her empire, and the Polish dominions, and to prevent all future changes of government, fhe gracioufly made known her intention to take for ever under the fceptre of Ruffia thofe trafts of land, with their inhabitants, which lie between Druy on the river Dwina, to Neroch and Dubrova, and, following the border of the vaiwodfhip of Vilna, to Stolptfa, to Nefvig, and then to Pink: thence paffing Krenifh, between Vikero and Novogreble, near the frontier of Galicia, to the river Dniester, and terminating in the old border of Ruffia and Poland, at Jegertie. In this partition, the increase of the happiness of the inhabitants was avowed to be the fole object of her imperial majesty.

The declaration of the Pruffian monarch, which was dated March 25, echoed many of the fentiments contained in the Ruffian manifefto, and avowed, that in order to preferve the republic of Poland from the dreadful effects of its internal divifions, and to rescue it from utter rain, no means remained but to incorporate her frontier provinces into the ftates of Pruffia, which, therefore, had determined to take immediate poffeffion of the cities of Dantzic and Thorn, and the vaiwod. fhips of Pofen, Gnefen, Kalifh, and Siradia, the city and monastery of Czentochowa, the province of Wielun, the vaiwodfhip of Lentfchitz, the province of Cujavia and of Dobrzyn, the vaiwedfhips of Rawa and Plotzk, &c.

On the 2d of April the Pruffian troops took poffeffion of Dantzic; and, about the fame time, the emprefs of Ruffia commanded the king of Poland to remove to Grodno, under the efcort of Ruffian troops, for the exprefs purpofe of fanctioning the alienation and partition of his kingdom.

The means employed to effect the mock ratification of the partition of this unfortunate country were entirely characteristic of the baseness of the caufe. The diet, in the month of September, was affailed for three fucceffive days, with official notes from the Ruffian ambassador and the Pruffian minifter, full of threats, preffing the fignature of the treaty. The ftates, however, perfifted in their refufal. At laft M. de Sievers, the Ruffian ambaffador, fent his ultimatum in a note, which ended with the following remarkable expreffions: "The underwritten must besides inform the ftates of the republic affembled in the confederate diet, that he thought it of abfolute neceffity, in order to prevent every disorder, to order two battalions of grenadiers, with four pieces of canon, to furround the caftle, to fecure the tranquillity of their deliberations. The underwritten expects that the fitting will not terminate, until the demanded fignature of the treaty is decided." Conformably to this threat, the Ruffian foldiers fo clofely furrounded the castle, that no perfon was fuffered to go out: fome of the officers took their station in the fenate, pretending to guard his majefty's perfon againft confpirators. The king, on the contrary, fent a delegation to the Ruffian ambaffador. declaring that he would not open the feffion in the prefence of the Ruffian officers. In confequence, they were ordered to retire, except the general, who declared publicly, that no member should be permitted to quit the fenate before the confent to the treaty was given. The debates were long and violent; and it was not until three o'clock the next morning, after three fucceffive divifions, that the diet came to a refolution in which they declare, before all Europe, to whom they had frequently appealed, that, "Contrary to the faith of treaties mott facredly obferved on their