and commerce which he engaged to make more advantageous than the offers of Pruffia. But it was confidered by the Poles as a fnare, and on the firft mention rejected. Yet the propofal may have induced them to rate too highly the intrinfic value of their friendship; and the rejection, perhaps, made them too much expect, because they had fo well deferved, a pure and difinterefted return from Frederick-William.

They were however very shortly undeceived. The great object of his policy, the price of his protection, was now disclosed. During the recefs, while the committee for foreign affairs were occupied at Warfaw, in forming their project of the intended treaties, the marquis Lucchefini was called to Berlin, and on his return, when the diet reaffembled, propofed, as the basis of the new connection, that the republic fhould cede Dantzic and Thorn. As the defire of poffeffing thefe cities, and more especially the former, feems to have been the hinge on which turned all the future conduct of Frederick-William towards Poland, it is neceffary here to trace the fubject a little higher, from the time of the late partition under his predeceffor.

Frederick the Second at that period laid claim to Dantzic, as well as the rest of Pomerellia, of which it was the antient capital. He did not, however, infift on his

pretended rights, fuch as they were, but relinquifhed, or rather, as he fays himself, poftponed them, with an affected moderation, on + the remon ftrances of the two imperial courts, and the interference both of Great Britain and France. Yet by poffeffing the circumjacent territory, he was mafter of the port. For ‡ the natural mouth of the Vistula, called the Norder-gatt or Fahrwasfer, having in the last century been choaked up with fand, a new opening had been made by another channel, named the Wefter-gatt or Wefter Fahrwaffer, and fometimes New Fahrwaffer: and for the neceffary works a long leafe of the ground adjoining had been obtained from the abbey of Oliva, to which the property of the western bank of the Vistula, of the feafhore for a confiderable extent, and of the little ifle of Plate formed by the two Fahrwaffers, feems certainly to have belonged. Frederick, therefore, having now become territorial fovereign of all the abbeylands, exercifed his dominion, by erecting a cuftom-house, and exacting what dues he pleafed for the paffage of veffels to Dantzic.

His revenue was at this time under the management of a French œconomist, Mr. de Launay, with whom it was a leading maxim, that

whatever is done against foreigners, is done in favour of the nation! By this principle the financier fquared all his regulations re

VOL. XXXIV.

[B]

lative

Jative to the trade with Poland, and the navigation of the Viftula. In confequence his mafter was for ever involved in commercial hoftilities with Dantzic, which was conftantly patronized and fupported by the emprefs of Ruffia; for it was the policy of Catherine, as Frederick himself was fenfible *, "to leave "that thorn in the foot of her ally, rather than pluck it out; and to "keep in the difputes of Pruffia "with that city a perpetual subject "of chicane, ever ready in the event "of a breach with the king." Thus emboldened, and availing themselves of fome favourable circumftances, in the year 1783 the magiftrates of Dantzic endeavoured to appropriate to themselves and their fellow-citizens exclufively the whole trade of Poland. With this view they prohibited the paffage of Pruf. fan fhips through that part of the Viftula which is wholly within their jurifdiction. Reprisals followed, and Frederick might perhaps have proceeded to greater lengths, had not the court of Petersburgh interposed, and at laft prevailed upon him to recede from his threatened meafures. New jealoufies again arofe in 1785; but Frederick put an end to them by a fettlement, which his prime minifter confidered as "more than generous!" Diftruft, however, and animofity continued mutually to prevail. He ever reprefented Dantzic as turbulent and tricking: Dantzic faw in him only a robber

and oppreffor. The trade of Po land indeed feemed naturally to belong to a Polifh free city, but the fituation of that city itself was unnatural; infulated as it was, in the midst of a state of which it formerly was the capital, yet dependent on a foreign power: for fuch Poland was in effect become. The confequences of these relative circumstances, and of the reciprocal embarraffments arifing out of them, were, as is not uncommon, very injurious to both parties. The traffic of Dantzic §, which had employed a circulating capital of ten millions of crowns, had dwindled away to one-fourth, while the merchants of Elbing || and Koenigsberg, two Pruffian cities, into which it was the aim of Frederick's measures to force the Polish trade, were equally loud with thofe of Dantzic in complaints of their diftrefs and ruin.

Still, decreased as it was, the whole of the Pruffian trade with Poland was confiderable, and highly beneficial, fince it confifted, befides grain, in the raw materials of manufactures, and coarse fabricks fuited to many foreign markets. It drew, therefore, the attention of the Pruffian government, now afpiring to commercial importance; and, even **before the death of Frederick, it was laid down as a principle of policy to favour it in every poffible manner.

When his fucceffor afcended the throne, a committee was named

Ditto, for 1786, p. 23.

to inquire into an account of the finances prefented by M. de Launay to the king, and a report, which, among other things, ftrongly condemned the whole fyftem under the Polish commercial treaty, was made and printed with the approbation of the court. It was declared that to give facility and freedom was the only way of reftoring a trade once fo flourishing, but now in a rapid decay. With this ftrong confirmation of his own opinions, count Hertzberg, who ftill retained his fituation and influence, was fincere in wishing an intimate and liberal intercourse with Poland: and the terms in which he had spoken publicly of her political mifery, from the want of "liberty, property, and a good conftitution "of the kingdom," give us fufficient reason to believe, that he also faw the true interefts of his mafter in this refpect.

Indeed Frederick himself, though he had contributed to her debility and distractions, till he had gained his point of uniting and confolidating his own dominions at her expence, yet feems immediately after to have endeavoured, not wholly without effect, to cultivate her good opinion. He was ready on the first remonftrance to defift from new pretenfions, which he had advanced in imitation of the court of Vienna; and made it the fingle ftipulation of his own conceffion that the house of Auftria should in like manner retire from its re

cent ufurpations. He did actually furrender a part of the lake of Goplo in Cujavia, the left bank of the river Drevenza, and fome villages in the neighbourhood of Thorn; and§ in the latter years of his life terminated with the republic fome remaining difputes concerning their refpective limits, as he intended and believed, to the mutual fatisfaction of both parties. The fact is, at the very moment of his firft propofing the partition he was not ignorant of his danger from the nearer approximation of the two imperial powers. He has || owned his fenfe of the embarraffing fituation in which he stood, (and a king of Pruffia must always ftand) between two fuch neighbours. To the house of Auftria he was an enemy from habit and upon principle; and though against her he allied himself with Ruffia, yet he faw, that confulting his own interefts on that fide, he ought not to with any increase to the power of his ally, which he thought already too formidable. He could not therefore but have been defirous of preferving what remained to Poland in a respectable condition of independency and strength, as an useful and neceffary barrier.

The prefent juncture seemed to afford the most favourable opportunity for eftablishing the common interefts of the two ftates in concert, on a firm and permanent bafis. The war in which the two imperial courts were involved, the rifing spirit of Poland against Ruffia, and

+ Differt. Acad. 1786, p. 7.

the neceffity of her having fome other foreign protector; the participation of Great Britain and Holland in the views of the cabinet of Berlin; the co-operation of the Porte; and the temporary annihilation of France, who had long been anxious to regain her former afcendency in the affairs of that quarter; all feemed to concur in pointing out this as the moment for the Pruffian mini er to carry into effect all his plans on this fubject, fo important to the profperity of his own country in the first inftance, and of a tendency perhaps no less falutary to the permanent tranquillity of the North. But to make way for the introduction of an uniform, equal, and mild fyftem of fifcal regulation, to remove all future cause of discord with Poland, and to leave no pretence of perpetual interference to Ruffia, the acquifition of Dantzic and Thorn, or at leaft of Dantzic, seemed to be effential. The propofition therefore was made in a manner the most likely to invite acceptance. Not only a beneficial treaty of commerce, an alliance and a guarantee, but an equivalent in revenue to the royal treafury, and in territory to the ftate, was alfo mentioned, and a confiderable loan was added for the maintenance of the army."

Nothing, however, could induce the people and the diet of Poland to liften with patience to fuch an overture. Jealousy, alarm, refentment, agitated and divided their minds. They beheld in imagination a new partition. They cherished the two free cities as the last relics of their former rank in Europe; they held them doubly dear, from the memory of the other loffes which they had fuffered; and fhould

they furrender these, they saw that they must be in a manner secluded from the world, having no intercourfe but with their three powerful neighbours, in neither of whom they could in future have any cordial confidence. It was in vain to remind them that they poffeffed rather the name than the reality of a port in Dantzic, subject to innumerable vexations of the customhoufe in time of peace, and incapable of any ferious refiitance on the breaking out of war; that the exchange now offered was in itself a proof of the fair intentions entertained by the court of Berlin, fince the lands to be yielded and guaranteed to the republic, which were fituated about the lake of Goplo, were a part of the late diímemberment; and in a quarter where the king of Pruffia would be most likely to meditate an extenfion of his territories, had he any fuch purpose; that towards Ruffia there was no retreat open to them; and that the barren and litigious fovereignty of two cities was of little value, compared with the permanent liberty and fecurity of the whole ftate. But, vehement and haughty, they difdained to bow before the exigency of their fituation; they confulted only that generous fenfe of dignity, without which neither individuals nor nations can be truly great, yet which, in difficult circumftances, often precipitates the ruin both of one and the other.

The committee for foreign affairs declined giving their fanction, fo far as even to communicate the propofal to the diet. The king, in the debate on the ways 26th Feb. and means for the army estimates, glanced at the fubje&t. He delivered his opinion against

1790.