XXIV. 1792. BOOK scale of power. The proposition of war was rejected; and a treaty of amity and defensive alliance concluded with Prussia, February 1790. By the 6th article of this treaty his Prussian majesty expressly stipulated, "that if any foreign power should assume the right of interfering in the internal affairs of the republic, he would first employ in its behalf his most efficacious good offices, and if these should fail of effect, and hostilities against Poland be the consequence, he would assist the republic with his forces, in the form and manner specified in the treaty." The misfortunes and consequent partition of Poland had convinced all the enlightened persons of that country of the defects of their anarchical government, the danger of an elective monarchy, and the necessity of reforming abuses, which, notwithstanding the valour of the Polish nation, rendered it at once the prey and the sport of its neighbours. At length was convened at Warsaw the famous and truly patriotic Diet of 1791, when that nation, worthy of a better fate, abandoned itself with enthusiasm to the hope that was presented to it. Never was there scen more concord in the wishes, more unanimity in the deliberations, more devotedness in the sacrifices of any public assembly. As the ultimate result of their labours was announced and promulgated (May 3), a new constitutional code, which, benefiting by the lights XXIV. 1792. of philosophy, without neglecting the calculations BOOK of policy, promised to ensure the glory and happi-m ness of posterity, without shedding either the blood or the tears of the existing generation. By the new formula the crown of Poland was declared to be hereditary after the decease of the present sovereign in the electoral house of Saxony, and the executive power vested solely in the monarch. The privileges of the aristocracy were circumscribed within narrower bounds, and the blessings of liberty in a considerable degree extended to the mass of the people. All the governments of Europe, Russia excepted, offered their felicitations on this extraordinary revolution. The king of Prussia in particular, by his ambassador at Warsaw, formally congratulated the king and republic of Poland on this happy event. "After the lively interest (says this monarch in his letter to the count de Goltz) which I have always taken in the happiness of the republic, and the confirmation of her new constitution, I perfectly applaud the decisive step which the nation has just taken, and which I regard as infinitely suited to the consolidation of her happiness. I charge you to testify, in the most expressive manner, my most sincere felicitations to the king and marshals of the Diet, and to all those who have contributed to this great work." The only opposition which the new constitution experi XXIV. 1792. BOOK enced was from some of the antient nobles, who, enraged to find themselves deprived of their proud pretensions to royalty, were resolved to sacrifice their country to their vanity. These were Felix Potocki, the two brothers Kossawouski, Braniski great general, and a few others who became disgracefully celebrated under the appellation of the confederates of Targovitz. An opposition so weak and wicked could not have been dangerous, had it not been secretly supported by Russia; against the power of which the credulous Poles deemed them. selves however sufficiently secure, in consequence of the recent and strict alliance with Prussia. Invasion of In the month of May 1792, the court of Berlin the Rus- being then deeply involved in the projects against Poland by sians. France, the empress Catherine, having no longer any thing to dread from Frederic William, marched a formidable army into Poland. On the intelligence of this atrocious invasion, all the antient military ardor of the Polish nation seemed to revive, and that ardor was invigorated by the most determined and inveterate animosity against the Russians. All flew to arms; but amidst the ge neral display of heroism the KING alone appeared cold and inert. Swayed by his inherent pusillanimity, and habitual dread of the power of Russia, he answered those who counselled him to vigorous measures, "that it was not against Poland that the empress was irritated, but against the king of 1792. 481 Prussia, whose destruction she had sworn; that BOOK she would renounce the war against the Poles as XXIV. soon as she saw the nation disposed to come to an amicable understanding with her; that it was, in fine, better to carry on the war with the pen than the sword." With these plausible assurances he arrested the impetuosity of the nation, and retarded the march of his troops, notwithstanding the urgent intreaties of his nephew Joseph Poniatowski, their general, and paralized the efforts of those who had already with success repulsed the attacks of the Russians. Favored therefore by this sudden torpor, the troops of the empress advanced almost without resistance to the gates of Warsaw. Catherine now began to throw off the mask; and wrote to Stanislaus that she required from him his immediate accession to the confederacy of Targovitz-on this condition only offering a suspension of arms. The wretched monarch, who chose rather to lead a life of reproach and ignominy, than to die in the bed of honor, having acceded to the confederacy, and accepted of the armistice, merited the misfortunes by which he was soon after overwhelmed. The emperor was too much engaged by his war against France to oppose the designs of Russia, although he had agreed at Pil nitz with the king of Prussia to guarantee the integrality of Poland. But Catherine, who had not VOL. VIII. I I 1792. BOOK acceded to this treaty, readily found means to XXIV. render its effect nugatory, by proposing to Frede ric William a partition as easy as it was beneficial. She had hitherto opposed the views of this prince on Dantzic and Thorne. She now recognized his claims, and the Prussian monarch saw the means pointed out of indemnifying himself for his expensive and unsuccessful expedition into Champagne. Second partition treaty. In these circumstances, far from interposing in favor of the Polish nation as a friend, and much less arming in their defence as an ally, that perfidious monarch, eagerly embracing the opportunity which offered itself of profiting by their distress, concluded with the empress a second partition treaty, by which the provinces of Volhinia, Podolia, and the Ukraine, with the half of Lithuania which remained to Poland on the former division, were assigned to Russia: and nearly the whole of Great Poland, with the cities of Dantzic and Thorne, was allotted to the king of Prussia, from whom this new acquisition of territory received the name of South Prussia. The court of Vienna could not see without dissatisfaction this unexpected aggrandisement of Prussia; but it was informed that Frederic William would quit the coalition if he was not enabled to continue the war by the acquirement of these new possessions.* * Count de Segur's "History of Frederic William II.” vol. III. p. 128–146. |