on whom the general land-tax fell, do themfelves lefs honour. Information having been given that fome lords had not only laid the new impofts on their vaffals, but had even made them continue the payment of the temporary taxes which had now expired; the affembly inftantly took fire at the intelligence. Many members expreffed in lively terms their horrour and deteftation of fuch oppreffion; and the king, who by an early act of his reign had firft placed the lives of the peafantry under the protection of the law, feized this occafion of impreffing the miseries of their condition with all his eloquence on the feelings of the nobles. The refult was, that the board of treasury was directed to circulate, in the name of the affembled ftates, a prohibitory edict requiring the lords to abstain from thefe and all other oppreffions on their vaffals, who were in no way to be charged with the new land-tax. To complete the whole, in this conteft of generofity, the king made the public treafury a prefent of 300,000 florins a year from the lands appropriated to the maintenance of his table. In the mean time the evacuation of Poland by the Ruffian troops went on flowly. Count Stackelberg, the Ruffian ambaffador, procraftinated and explained, in a tone of moderation not common to the diplomacy of his court, and ftill lefs fo in correfpondence with the court of Warfaw: while field-marshal Romanzow, to whom the emprefs had given the command in the Ukraine, remonftrated a little more in the ftyle of a general at the head of a victorious army. On the other hand, the Poles became more and more refolute, and menaces were thrown out in the diet of applying to the king of Pruffia, for fuccours to drive out the Ruffians by force. The negociation was ftill pending, when a plot to excite an infurrection among the peasants of the Greek religion was denounced to the diet, and imputed to the machinations of Ruffia. A prelate of that nation, who was also abbot of a Greek convent at Sluck in Lithuania, was seized and carried prifoner to Warfaw, charged with being an accomplice in the confpiracy. He was demanded by the Ruffian minifter,as an imperial fubject; but notwithstanding, proceedings were infti. tuted against him before the proper ecclefiaftical tribunal. This incident added new fuel to the flame, fufficiently hot before; and the opportunity was not neglected of bringing forward additional measures to eradicate the influence of the emprefs. The Greek priests, who used publicly to pray for her in their churches, were forbidden to continue the practice, as familiarizing their congregations to look up to a foreign power rather than to their own natural fovereign; and all members of that communion, who were not regularly domiciled in Poland, or who refufed to take the oath of allegiance, were ordered immediately to quit her territories. A pretext too was from hence taken by the diet, first for hefitating, and afterwards for declining to grant a free paffage, which the court of Peterfburg had now the condefcenfion to afk, for a large body of Ruffian troops, whofe direct road lay through Polish Ukraine. An offer was indeed made after a time to allow them a paffage, but under fuch reftrictions as plainly could not 1789. not be accepted. At length count Stackelberg, in the name 4th June, of his mistrefs, gave official notice, that all the military magazines fhould be tranf ported to the other fide of the Dniefter, and another line of march be given to the troops, fo as to avoid the frontiers of the republic. He made ftill further fubmiffion to juftice and neceffity; and promifed compenfation for the damages already done by the Ruffian armies. The neceffary confequence of the fituation which we have juft defcribed with regard to Ruffia, was daily to draw the king and diet into a clofer union with Frederick-William. His mediation with the court of Peterburg was formally requefted. Every difpatch was tranfmitted to him on its arrival, and no anfwer was fent without his privity and approbation; while at Warfaw his minifter, fupported by the minifter of Great Britain, held perpetual conferences of the molt confidential nature with the committee for foreign affairs, of which count Malachowski, the marihal of the diet, and head of the country party, was prefident. Of circumstances like these it is not to be imagined that the king of Pruffia did not avail himfelf; and he managed, the juncture with dexterity. He haftened on the first application to give every affurance calculated to confirm the influence which he had already obtained. He declared that, fetting the highest value on the friendship of the republic, he would ever make it one of the firft objects of his reign to perpetuate and ftrengthen a con * nection no lefs expedient than mutually neceflary for the two ftates, and originating in common interests of the most effential kind. Upon this principle he held forth a new treaty of alliance and guarantee to protect the independency and fovereignty of Poland, as well as a revifion of the commercial treaty; and inftantly upon his part propofed giving every reafonable facility in his power to the commerce of Lithuania with Eaftern Pruffia, on condition that fome late regulations of the custom-houses on the frontiers of the grand, dutchy fhould be repealed. Yet, although he took care to let it be known how much he approved the difpofition of Poland to vindicate her own independency, he nevertheless advised a temperate and circumspect addrefs, a conciliatory appeal to the equity and magnanimity of the emprefs. His ambaffador at Warfaw even found it neceffary to defend himself as against a charge, from the imputation of having too much foftened one of the official anfwers to count Stackelberg. But the mafter-stroke of Pruffian policy was the deference which the king and his minifters, in all their tranfactions, oftentatiously paid to the court of London. Nothing could be better conceived to give the Poles a firm faith in the fincerity and uprightnefs of his views. For England, it was remembered, had formerly interfered on occafion of the partition in 1773; and could not feel any of the little partial interefts which might be fuppofed liable fometimes to warp the integrity of a king of Pruffia. The cooperation of this country, therefore, Particularly in the note of the Pruffian miniftry to the Polish ambassador, dated Berlin, 7th March, 1789. was justly confidered as the strongest pledge of fair-dealing in the court of Berlin; and it was with the confidence, and to the fatisfaction of all, that about the time of which we are speaking Mr. Hailes in a manner directed the whole foreign fyftem of Poland. The Poles perhaps would have acted wifely in feeking an union among their own factions. They fhould have granted an amnefty to all concerned in the past partition, and the fanction finally given to it in 1775. Too many of their great nobles were more or less implicated; and all acted under an irresistible force. But prince Poninfki, the grand treasurer, who had been marfhal of the diet in 1775, and on that occafion had been notoriously favourable to the views of Ruffia, was upon this account now impeached, after a lapfe of fourteen years. The charges were fupported with particular eagerness by all the friends of the grand general count Branicki, who was the enemy of the treasurer. So vigorous were the proceedings against the accufed, that he was at once put under arreft, in violation, as he complained, of a cardinal law, which the Polifh nobility regarded with juft veneration, and which in words very fimilar to a paffage of our own Great Charter, fays" we will imprison "no man unlefs convicted by law." Yet in his cafe the irregularity (if indeed the law did extend to profecutions before the diet) was overlooked in the public indignation, which ran so high, that the prince was with difficulty faved from the fury of the multitude on the day when he was arrested. Still there were not wanting fome men of more temperate minds, who, anxious for that good fettlement of the country, which could only be procured by unanimity, faw this breach with a regret and alarm not to be concealed. Conciliatory negociations, therefore, were attempted, and it is faid, that the bishop of Smolensko fucceeded fo far as to effect a meeting between the chiefs of the parties: but they feparated without any nearer approach to each other. The trial was fixed to proceed. When the lift of judges chofen by ballot was declared, the grand treafurer found that from their known principles he had little to hope. He endeavoured in confequence to make his efcape, the opportunity of which was furnished by the filial piety of his fon; but he was intercepted in his flight, not far from the borders, and brought back to Warsaw. In this exigency another plan was tried by his brother, of working on the fears of a majority in the diet, by menacing with fimilar impeachments the grand general Branicki himself, and all others who had taken any fhare in the tranfactions now made the ground of charge. It is true, this management occafioned the propofal of a general amnefty; but Branicki, fecure of his present influence in the diet, rejected all compromife, and his party pushed on the profecution. Hitherto nothing had been done which could be confidered as a per * See the papers of the time, confirmed by Memoire fur les Affaires actuelles de la Pologne, and Replique a l'Examen, both faid to have been written by Mr. Hailes himfelf, or at least under his infpec.in, in 1791, manent manent reform in any part of the ftate. An accident now gave rife to a measure of this kind. The fee of Cracow, to which is annexed the dukedom of Severia, and which is said to have been the richest of all the fees, had become vacant, and M. Suchodolcki, the principal speaker on the popular fide, moved to reduce the income of that bishoprick; a regulation which was afterwards propofed to be made general. a The primate was to be alJuly, lowed 200,000 florins * 1789. year, the bishops half that fum, and the primate and bishops of the Greek non-united communion half the income allotted to the fame rank in the established church. In vain did the clergy remind the diet of the teftimony which their patriotic conduct had fo lately received in the appellations of" excellent citizens, and worthy children of their country;" in vain did they fupplicate, that, in the midst of the public happinefs, they alone might not have reafon to lament the labours of that affembly; and in vain did they point out the injuftice of the original inftance, by fhewing that the fee of Cracow had been enriched not from the coffers of the state, but by the private benefactions of thofe, who σε had enjoyed that high dignity. Neither did they profit more from the intervention of the pope's nuncio, upon whom they prevailed to prefent a memorial in their favour. The motion was finally carried againft them by a decided majority. But the principle which was adopted on this occafion, by fuch as went the greatest length among the reformers of Poland, is worthy of remark. The reductions were profpective. The property of every actual poffeffor was kept facred. The regulation was only to operate, as the feveral vacancies fhould occur. This is a principle, which is directly indicated by the nature of church property, and of all property, where an intereft has once been vested, for whatever term, by fome competent authority of the state. The moment, when that intereft expires of itfelf, is the precife point where regulation and juftice meet; and it was thus that our own parliament acted in the economical reforms of 1782, with respect to all patent places for life. It is impoffible to difmifs this fubject from the mind without adverting fpontaneoufly to the contrast foon after afforded by the vote of the national affembly of France, which swept *The Polish florin is variously calculated. The tranflator of the conftitution inferted among our State Papers of 1791, takes it in round figures, as worth 6 d. According to Mr. Coxe (vol. i. p. 92.) it is worth fomething less than 63 d. or 36 of them are equal to a pound fterling. The English edition of Bufching's Geography more than doubles this, and fays (vol. i. p. 601.) that a Polish florín, is equal to i s. 2 d. fterling, and with that account agrees the table at the end of Guthrie's Geographical Grammar. Though we believe Mr. Coxe to be most correct, we shall leave the reader to chufe his own authority. But whatever may be the positive value of the incomes here affigned to the Polish prelates, there is one fure mode of eftimating fairly their comparative value, by the falaries of great offices. The marflial of the equeftrian order, who as a member of the permanent council was allowed a guard of an officer and 15 men while he was in Warfaw, had only a falary of 30,000 fl. a year, in that capacity; and ordinary members of that council had only 14,000fl. all all the revenues of the church into the coffers of the state by one univerfal confifcation, At the period however of which we have been fpeaking, the florming of the Baftile, an event that decided the triumph of the French revolution, was not yet known in Poland. But now the fall of that antient and mighty monarchy refounded to the moft diftant regions of the north, and fhook all the nations of Europe. The concuffion was rongly felt in Poland. It was natural to expect that it fhould, from the prefent political fituation of the country; but ftill more fo from the long connection of the two kingdoms. For France had conftantly maintained a powerful influence in the diet till her treaty with the houfe of Auftria in 1756, and even afterwards, at the time of the difmemberment, had gone the length of privately counteracting the purpofes of her ally, by furnishing arms and money to the confederates of Bar, feveral of whofe chiefs now held principal fway in the public councils. Immediately a new eagerness for proceeding to the formation of their own conftitution was manifefted; and repeated inftances were made to the king for the nomination of a committee, which fhould be charged to draw up and report the project of a government to be fubmitted to the confideration of the diet. At length, on the anniversary of his 7th Sept. election to the throne, 1789. Stanillaus-Auguftus gave way to the reiterated defires of his people, and appointed a committee of eleven. Five of them were taken from among his own minifters, and the reft from other diftinguished members of the diet, in which number was the popular leader M. Suchodolcki. The chairman was the bishop of Kaminiec, a venerable prelate of very advanced years, who had long taken an active part in public affairs, and in particular had been one of the chiefs of the confederation of Bar. While this committee was employed on the great tafk entrufted to their care, and the diet was occupied fometimes with the trial of prince Poninski, and at other times with the regulation of their finances, and the augmentation of their army, the operation of the French revolution began to difplay itfelf more directly in another quarter. The victory of the third eftate in France, animated the citizens and burghers of Poland to attempt the recovery of their antient privileges, or to seek from the beneficence of the king, and the equity of the diet, fuch other franchises as might fecure to them their juft fhare of confideration in the flate. Accordingly they chose delegates, whom they fent to Warfaw; and that city now beheld with equal furprize and fatisfaction the new fight of an affembly of citizens and burghers convened from all parts of the kingdom and the grand dutchy, confulting on their common interefts, careffed by the great nobles of the diet, and ultimately received at court with most gracious marks of royal favour. That fome conceffions fhould be made to them was agreed on all fides; but what fhould be the exact meafure to be granted occafioned fome difference of opinion, though even the most cautious politicians profeffed to with that it might be liberal. Such however was the fermentation excited by their prefence, and by falfe reports of a plot against the popular party, that on the anniversary of the |