fame foreign intereft which had been fo fatal to prince Poninski, the punishment of that nobleman was by a decree declared to be extended to all his accomplices and adherents. The purport of this meafure could not be misunderstood. It did not, however, seem to abate the courage and activity of thofe against whom the blow was fo manifeftly aimed. " nominating my fucceffor during a prince of my own blood, it " would give rife to a strong fufpi"cion that I had been clandeftinely "the author of the project. Be"fides, it is my opinion, that in "chufing for your future king, " a potentate whofe riches, rank, "and connections would give a Under thefe circumftances the di- "luftre to the choice, in addition etines met. In the circle" to the virtues and political taNov. 16. of Warfaw every thing "lents which diftinguish the elector went without obftruction in the " of Saxony, you would greatly manner most agreeable to the ruling" contribute to the dignity, power, party. But at a distance from the " and advantage of the republic." capital, the opinions of the voters Surely if this conduct be not pure were more divided. It was even and fplendid, there is no purity or reported (though a contradiction, fplendour in political virtue. or rather an explanation of the report, was afterwards circulated) that at Lublin prince Adam Czartoriski, the king's uncle, experienced fome ill treatment for having proposed an hereditary monarchy. In other places, burthenfome and offenfive conditions were annexed to the future throne of the elector of Saxony; and in fome of the dietines in Volhinia, where all the property and influence of the grand general Branicki lay, prince Potemkin, who was a native of Poland, and still poffeffed an estate and refidence in Polish Ukraine, was put in no mination as a candidate for the fucceffion. On the other hand, many members of the provincial affemblies applied to Stanislaus-Auguftus, and offered to vote for the nomination of a fucceffor, if that fucceffor might be one of his own nephews, and not the elector of Saxony. But in anfwer to all these applications, he perfifted in making the fame noble, difinterefted, and truly patriotic declaration: "Know gentlemen," faid he, "that I had no share in the design of Finding the king immoveable as The old diet adjourned for eight CHAP. CHA P. III. Cal State of affairs at the meeting of the double diet. Motion that all the members fhould take an oath to receive no gratuity from any foreign power, warmly debated, but rejected. Order of business taken into confideration. Violent difputes in the diet. Tranquillity restored by Stanislaus-Auguftus. Anfwer of the elector of Saxony. Diet proceeds to the regulation of future dietines. Motion for referring the fubject to a committee. Inconfiftent with a law of 1768. The whole code of 1768 repealed. Object of the allied porvers, England, Holland, and Pruffia, with respect to Poland. Commercial treaty propofed by the English envoy, and feconded by the Dutch. culated to give Poland a participation in the trade of naval flores. Obfervations on that trade. Official note of the English envoy to the committee of foreign affairs. Their answer. Confidential note, more explicit, from Mr. Hailes. Pamphlet attributed to him makes a great impreffion. Ceffion of Dantzic an effential part of the fyftem. Ruffian agents excite alarm on that fubje&t. Ridicule the idea of England attacking Ruffia. Try to intimidate Poland. Pamphlet in answer to Mr. Hailes, afcribed to M. Altefti, the Ruffian fecretary. Able reply of the former. Solemn warning from him to Poland. Different public conduct of the feveral powers concerned. Committee reports the propofitions of the allies to the diet. Violent debates on the queftion of ceding Dantzic. Refolution at laft not decifive. Proceedings at the fame time in the British parliament refpecting the affairs of the North. Immediate completion of the new Polish conftitution indifpenfably necessary. Favourable reception of a political drama, fhews the people difpofed to hereditary monarchy. Motion for impeaching the author laughed at by the diet. Subftanse of the law for regulating dietines. Of that for fettling the privileges of free towns. Univerfal joy on paffing these laws. Public thankf giving on the occafion, and address to the marshals and the king. Fifth of May fixed on for completing the revolution. Reasons for anticipating that event. Takes place on the third of May. Proceedings on that day variously reported. King's Speech to the diet. New constitution pafed. King takes the oath firft in the house of affembly, and afterwards in the church. Speech of prince Sapieha on taking the oath. Eighteen nuncios publish a protest. No bloodshed or tumult. Remarks upon the code, especially on the new powers of the crown, and the provifions in favour of the peasants. HE moment when the Dec. T double diet met was of victory; the Ottomans, broken and difpirited, foon after received a blow almoft irreparable, in the lofs of Ifmailow, and its brave garrison. The king of Sweden had not only made a feparate peace with Ruffia, but was giving direct admonitions * Refcript prefented by M. Hadenftein, the Swedish envoy at Conftantinople, on the 27th of Sept. 1790. to to the Porte not to place any truft in allies, who, he faid, " had made him many promifes, without performing any," and "who were feeking their own intereft, rather than that of the Porte." On the other hand, Leopold, having now gained the hearts of his Hungarian and Bohemian fubjects, and entertaining little doubt of his final fuccefs in the Netherlands, fhewed a difpofition to chicane with the allies. France, in the mean time, more and more fixed the attention of Europe. M. Necker and his friends had been exchanged for a miniftry, who (in their own language) were more on the level of the revolution; and the national affembly began to look to the early termination of their labours, in the completion of the conftitution. Under thefe circumftances, it was neceffary for the allies, on all accounts, to bring matters to a fpeedy iffue; and from the conduct of the king of Sweden on one hand, and the court of Vienna on the other, the decided co-operation of Poland became of more moment than ever. The increased number of the diet feemed only to bring an acceffion of energy and determination, which difplayed themselves in all their force, as foon as, having gone through the requifite formalities, fubfcribed the acts of confederation, and judged the double returns, the states proceeded to the confideration of the great work which lay before them. Many of the inftructions from the dietines required, that an oath fhould be taken by all members of the diet to maintain the future conftitution, and to accept no penfion or gratuity from any foreign power. The motion was accordVOL. XXXIV, It ingly made, and was popular. was refifted however, and by the king himself, as tending to hold up the whole of that illuftrious body to unjuft fufpicions in the eyes of the world; to fuppofe the neceffity of fuch a general teft, it was argued, would be to give no little colour to the charge of corruption, which had been fo often made against the nation. Thefe confiderations Dec. prevailed, and after a debate of fome length, the question 27th. was left by a fmall majority. But on a fubfequent day, the receiving of fuch a bribe was made a capital offence. The order of their future pro-. ceedings now came to be difcuffed. The king and the fenate wanted to refume the confideration of the cardinal laws; but it was infifted by the leaders among the nuncios, that they fhould inftantly go to the establifhment of the new form of government, and begin with the regu lation of the future dietines. The tumult towards midnight rofe to the highest pitch; and fome of the nuncios, it is faid, even talked of retiring to their own proper and feparate houfe, and thus diffolving the confederation. But at length the king, with his ufual prefence of mind and conciliation of address, reftored tranquillity; and it being determined by a fcrutiny, in the nature of a previous queftion, that the votes fhould be taken upon the main question at the next fitting, it was put to the vote accordingly, and a majority Jan. 7th. was found of three to two for the latter order of proceeding. Neither did this fpirit appear to be abated by the answer which fhortly after arrived from the elector of Saxony, to whom, as foon as [C] the the fenfe of the dietines had been ascertained in his favour, an application had been made on the fubject. His letter was highly flattering indeed, full of gratitude and affection to the republic, but it decided nothing. It contained only a conditional acceptance, provided fuch a step did not give umbrage to the neighbouring powers. committee of foreign affairs receiv ed from the diet their full powers to negociate with Pruffia, they were alfo provifionally authorized to treat with England, and this was regularly notified to Mr. Hailes at Warfaw, and again to the Court of London by M. Bukati, the Polish envoy in this country. But no ftep was taken, while the commercial treaty between Poland and Pruffia, which was to be the corner-ftone of the fyftem, was ftill in negociation. That now feemed in a manner to be at an end. Various propofitionson the part of Frederick-William had been made, and rejected with more or lefs ill-humour; and a counter-propofal, as we faw towards the conclufion of the laft chapter, had been for fome time under his examination. At length count Goltz, in an official note, beginning and ending with the strongeft profeffions of amity, and of a defire for a commercial connection on terms of mutual benefit, declared, that his fovereign could not fubfcribe to the propofed treaty without facrificing his own revenues, and fubverting from the very bottom the principal branches of the industry, agriculture, and commerce of his own fubjects. All the advantages, he remarked, were on the fide of Poland, and no compenfation was given to Pruffia. In pursuing the courfe which they had marked out to themselves, the states were for many different days occupied in difcuffing and fettling the privileges to be exercifed by their conftituents in dietines. But at length perceiving that much other important bufinefs was preffing upon them, and fearing that many parts of the detail then before them might give rife to mifreprefentation, and excite much embarraffing agitation in the public mind, M. Soltyk, a nuncio of Livonia, recommended that the whole matter fhould be referred to the confideration of a committee. The fuggeftion was approved, but a cardinal law in the conftitutional code of 1768 ftood in the way. Immediately the repeal of the whole code was moved. The independent fpirit of the nation was roufed at the mention of that laft-remaining badge Feb. of fervitude. No man dared 21ft. to undertake its defence or apology, and it was repealed without a diffenting voice. This was a favourable prognoftic for the allied powers, who were now making one final effort to unite Poland with themselves in a permanent fyftem, the bond of which was to be the mutual benefit expected to be derived to the commerce of Some measure of the kind had long been in contemplation. So early as the year 1789, when the all. 3 Under thefe circumftances, the British minifter at Warsaw took the lead, and was feconded by the Dutch minifter, in the project of a commercial treaty, of which the fundamental condition was to have been the ceffion of Dantzic; for to that fingle city the views of Frederick-William were now ultimately confined. The maritime powers were not only to have been guaran tees, tees, but to have had voices at a board of confuls, who were to have cognizance of all difputes arifing out of the treaty. A rate of duties was to have been established in perpetuity; under which the trade of Poland would have found eafy access to the fea through the whole extent of coaft fubject to the house of Brandenburgh, and over land to Germany through Silefia. This treaty was to have been followed by others of political alliance, to have fecured the liberty of Poland. Such a commercial fyftem was expected to break the monopoly of Ruffia in the fupply of naval ftores, for which we were wholly dependent on the policy or caprice of that domineering power, who not only refused to renew her expired treaty with us, but had granted to our great rival France the conditions which the denied to us. Stimulated by this conduct on her part*, we had fent agents to examine the interior of the Polish territories, and report on the products of the foil, and industry of the inhabitants. It was found in confequence that many of the articles, for which we had long been at the mercy of Ruffia, were to be obtained more advantageously from Poland through the ports of Pruffia. Flax of the finest quality grows in Lithuania, between the Niemen and the Duina +. The best forts, and the greatest quantities of hemp are produced in the palatinates of Polock, Wilna, Minsk, and Novogrodek. Mafts are cut in the greatest abundance between the Duina and the Prypecz, in Lithuania; and oak-timber to the fouth of Replique a l'Examen, p. 14. the 53d degree of latitude, principally in Volhinia, and on the borders of the Bog. From the geography of the country, the former commodities could arrive feveral weeks fooner at the Pruffian ports than at Petersburgh, or even Riga; and the difference of time with regard to the materials for fhipbuilding, would be ftill more confiderable. The oak, which is faid to be two years on the way to Riga, might get to Memel in three or four months; and the firs felled on the banks of the Berezyna, which defcend that river, and again mount the Dnieper as high up as Ortza in Ruffia, which are then carried over land the next year to Babinow, a place fituated on a branch of the Duina, and thence reach Riga only in the following June, might be tranfported a whole year earlier to Memel by a branch of the Niemen. It was not imagined that the trade of Ruffia in naval ftores would be totally transferred at once to these new channels, yet it was an object of the firft magnitude for the maritime powers to erect, if they could, a nearer and cheaper market, to which they might have recourse, and which being in the hands of ftates naturally hoftile to Ruffia, would leave England and Holland more at liberty to act on either fide in the affairs of the north as justice and policy might require. At the fame time, it is impoffible to cast an eye upon the map, and not perceive at the first glance, how boundless is the fpeculation of advantages, which time might have opened. from this system of commercial intercourfe. Poffeffing foils of every kind, and stretched out beneath Ibid. p. 12. and 13. |