INTERNAL CONDITION OF POLAND. to, in spite of warnings amounting to practical demonstration, up to the very moment when this gallant and generous people, distracted by factions and plunged in anarchy, became an easy prey to foreign conquest and spoliation. A nation which can neither appreciate, nor will submit to regular and rational government is not merely miserable itself, but is a source of disquietude to neighbouring powers. The modern system of Europe does not endure a government the weakness and disorder of which menace the peace and security of neighbouring states. Sooner or later the position of Poland must have tempted the rapacity of her ambitious and powerful neighbours, and afforded them at the same time a plausible pretext for interference. 161 Ch. 17. 1772 dition. While the civil institutions of Poland were in Military conthis state of hopeless anarchy, her military condition was equally contemptible. With an extensive frontier open on every side, and a country easily traversed, without fortified towns or a regular army, Poland was, for all military purposes, defenceless. Infantry, which had long been established in European warfare as the main arm both for attack and defence, were all but unknown in Poland. The equestrian order, of whom the army was exclusively composed, in ignorant disdain of the dismounted soldier, still continued to place their reliance on the horse and lance of the middle ages. To invade such a country as this was to conquer it; and it is obvious that its con 162 Ch. 17. 1772 Russian interference. Death of CHARACTER OF THE tinued existence as an independent state rested entirely on the moderation, or the mutual jealousy of the neighbouring Powers. Poland had, in effect, ceased to be an independent State for many years before the Partition. So early as 1717, a disputed succession to the crown had been determined by the armed mediation of Russia; and, a few years later, when the throne again became vacant, the Court of Petersburgh, under the bare pretext of having guaranteed the Polish constitution, asserted and maintained by force of arms the right of naming the new sovereign. During thirty years after that event, Poland remained in a state of suspended animation, apparently resigned to her fate, under anarchical institutions, and a Russian Vicegerent. But on the death of Augustus the Third in 1764, an attempt was made to throw off the foreign yoke; and certainly if anything could have aroused the spirit of a people not wholly subjugated, it was the unparalleled insult offered to them on that occasion. A nation of gentlemen had been, up to a recent period, ruled by a line of native princes; and when the descendants of Casimir were extinct, no less a personage than an Elector of the Empire, himself a sovereign prince, was thought worthy, even by the Court of Petersburg to fill the throne of Poland. Yet that proud aristocracy, which could hardly tolerate a sovereign, whose ancestors had sat on the throne of the Cæsars, because he was not the object of their POLISH CONSTITUTION. free choice, had now to endure the deepest humiliation. The successor of Augustus of Saxony was a discarded paramour of the Czarina, a man without birth, or talents, or virtues, raised from obscurity by means which have been, in all ages, considered infamous-the wretched Stanislaus Poniatowski. But even under this extreme provocation, the irregular patriotism of the Poles proved incapable of making that vigorous and united effort which alone could have redeemed their liberties. All other nations, in the presence of the foreign foe, have laid aside their domestic differences. But this people, with a Russian army menacing their capital, continued their conflict about questions of constitutional and municipal law; and appeared to be more solicitous about excluding Dissenters from civil privileges, than about defending their common country against foreign conquest. Nay, such was the infatuated rage of party, that one faction was willing to purchase a momentary triumph by sacrificing the independence of their country. In the midst of these divisions, Russia of course obtained an easy victory. 163 Ch. 17. 1772 Europe. The state of Europe at that time favored the State of consummation of the design which had long been contemplated. With the exception of Russia herself, the great Powers were exhausted by the long war which had recently been brought to a close. France, which had competed with the Court of Petersburg for the direction of affairs at 164 Ch. 17. 1772 Compulsory election of ORIGIN OF THE PROPOSITIONS Warsaw, and had put forward a candidate for The extinction of the liberties of Poland may Poniatowski. be dated from the compulsory election of Poniatowski. I forbear to dwell on the convulsive struggles for freedom which this generous nation underwent during eight years of agony. It has been said, that the scheme of partition was first propounded by Catherine to the Prussian monarch. Whether this be the fact or not, is merely a point of historical curiosity; there can be little doubt that the ultimate disposition of the country, of which they had virtually made conquest, had long been pondered in both those sagacious and unscrupulous minds. Neither could hope to grasp the whole of this vast dominion; but each might T FOR PARTITIONING POLAND. have a share; and if Austria could be propitiated, a partition might be effected without difficulty. The proposal was made at Vienna; and no great doubt could be entertained of its reception by the Empress Queen, who had only two years before appropriated, without a semblance of right, a portion of the territory of Poland, the small but fertile county of Zipps, adjacent to her hereditary dominions. A letter from Maria Theresa to her minister Kaunitz has been quoted, for the purpose of shewing her abhorrence of the scheme to which she became a party. But if her mind had really been sensible of the enormous iniquity about to be perpetrated, she might have refused to be party to it; especially after having assured the Polish Government of her resolution to maintain the republic in all its rights, prerogatives and possessions'; at least, she would have shrunk from profiting by it, however much great and learned men would have it so.' I am at a loss to understand why professions so contrary to actions should have more credit attributed to them in the case of the Empress Queen, than in the case of the Czarina, or of the King of Prussia. Catherine, throughout all these transactions, solemnly protested that she had adopted as an invariable maxim, never to desire any aggrandizement of her States.' And 165 Ch. 17. 1772 • See Appendix to LORD MAHON's History of England, vol. v. |