Ch. 17. WHILE England was in a state of political 1772 repose, and engaged in the development of commercial prosperity, events of the gravest character were unfolding themselves both in the Old and in the New World. Already the portentous form of a confederated Republic was visible in the far West; while in the Eastern hemisphere, an iniquitous plot against the independence of an ancient and gallant people had nearly reached maturity. I shall soon have occasion to commemorate the successful assertion of American Freedom; I have now to record the Partition of Poland. The one has been described as an event the most glorious in the modern history of patriotism; the other an outrage unparalleled in the annals of national crime. The narrative of this transaction forms no part CONSTITUTION OF POLAND. of a history of England; but the Treaty of Partition, concluded in 1772, has always been considered a matter of interest to this country, inasmuch as it deranged the existing balance of power, and therefore exposed the peace of Europe to new perils. The importance of the Partition Treaties, however, as affecting the European balance, has been much overrated. The passive acquiescence of England in this transaction has, indeed, by many writers, been censured as a fatal and irremediable error of her foreign policy. Abhorrence of an act so iniquitous in itself, and aggravated by every circumstance of treachery and violence, combined with sympathy for an unoffending people gallantly maintaining to the last an unequal struggle, have mainly influenced public opinion in this country, leaving little room for the exercise of calm judgment on a subject so exciting. But at this distance of time, when the Partition Treaties have become part of the public law of Europe, and cannot be dissolved without such a reconstruction of the European system as a general revolution only could effect, we must pass a dispassionate judgment upon these transactions. During the middle ages, Poland had occupied a political position of great importance. Placed on the frontier of Christendom, she had been the principal obstacle to the progress of the Turks; while in the North and East, she had formed the barrier of Europe against the modern hive of military barbarians. But her internal condition 157 Ch. 17. 1772 158 Ch. 17. 1772 NOBLES AND SERFS. was hollow and unsound. While the other states of Europe were making rapid progress in civilization, as regarded the arts both of peace and war, Poland remained stationary. The institution of military aristocracy, which, in Central Europe, had given way as learning, commerce, and political knowledge advanced, here alone flourished in rank luxuriance. The nation consisted of nobles and commons, but the common people were depressed to a state of villanage; and its institutions left no room for that middle order which was growing up in almost every other European state, infusing energy and intelligence through the whole system of society. Admission to the ranks of nobility, in which there was no distinction of degrees, being purchasable at a low price, the ambition of an emancipated serf was to pass at once from a condition lower than that of a peasant in any civilized country to become the peer of the proudest and wealthiest noble in the land. Thus the place held in Poland by a needy, dissolute, and useless gentleman, was in Germany, Italy, France, and England, occupied by a merchant, trader, or yeoman. The narrow interval between the lowest class of the privileged order and the servile peasantry, was filled up by a motley crowd of Jews, schismatics, and adventurers of every denomination, whom policy or intolerance had expelled from the more regular governments of Europe. These people, for the most part the refuse of European society, were received into Poland not so much, I EVILS OF ELECTIVE MONARCHY. 1772 159 apprehend, from a humane and enlightened spirit Ch. 17. of toleration, which is the latest offspring of civilized and polished life, as from the recklessness and impotence of the Government. Efforts, indeed, were subsequently made to expel these unwelcome intruders; but there was never sufficient energy to effect the object. Anything so absurd and mischievous as the political constitution of Poland never was proposed by the most crazy theorist of ancient or modern times; and as the incurable disorder of her Government was the immediate cause of her lamentable fate, so it must infallibly have frustrated any effort that might have been made to avert her destruction. Of all the different species of governments which have tried the patience of mankind, the very worst is that of elective monarchy. Civil war on the one hand, or foreign interference on the other, are the only alternatives of this institution. It was, indeed, owing to the sinister suggestion of Russia, with the design which was consummated two centuries later, that on the failure of the ancient line of Jagellon in the sixteenth century, the Polish monarchy was declared elective. From that day the race of Casimirs and Sigismunds was at an end; and the Crown itself was stripped of all the prerogatives which can make monarchy respectable. Combined with this outward form of monarchy was an institution, which shadowed forth representative government in a shape still more hollow and impracticable. 160 Ch. 17. 1772 EVILS OF ELECTIVE MONARCHY. The whole of the legislative, and the greater part of the executive power, were vested in the entire nobility, who, while they sent delegates to the Diet, reserved, and on important occasions, exercised, their original rights. Each delegate, strictly bound by his instructions, was allowed no discretion; and as the unanimous vote of the Diet was required for every law, it followed that a single veto could suspend the functions of an assembly consisting of nearly four hundred members. A constitution in which the sovereign had no power, and the legislature could not work, was but a colorable form of Government-a feeble attempt to organize anarchy, and destined apparently to perish in its birth; but speculative calculations as to the course of human affairs, founded only on the plain dictates of reason and expediency, are, as often as not, quite at variance with the event. The elective monarchy, the mob legislature, the single veto, so far from being exploded on the first trial, were maintained with as much jealousy and pride as if they were the noblest and surest guarantees of law and liberty. It was to no purpose that the effect of the first was to make the head of the state a nominee and dependant of foreign potentates; that the functions neither of a deliberative nor of an administrative body, with both of which it was charged, could be carried on in a tumultuous Diet; that the solitary veto was incompatible with the proceedings of any assembly, however limited. All these things were adhered |