become irreparable. The chancellor had not only inveighed againft the favourite measure of the premier in a manner the most perfonally offenfive, and going far beyond the hoftility of the avowed oppofition in both Houses, but he had in the other inftance publicly denounced all his colleagues as having deceived and betrayed their fovereign. Mr. Pitt, therefore, was faid to have infifted, that either himfelf or lord Thurlow fhould be difmiffed from the king's fervice. The great feal was accordingly demanded the very day that parliament rofe, and put into the cuftody of three commiffioners, the principal of whom was chief baron Eyre.

Two cabinet offices being now, in effect, vacant, the minifter, it was reported, fignified an inclination for a junction with that branch of the oppofition, which had concurred in the important meafure of the proclamation. It was likewife added, that, feriously alarmed at the ftate of the nation and of Europe, and anxious to combine all the abi lities of the country for the general fafety, he did not object to include Mr. Fox in the arrangement, which was understood to have been particularly preffed by Mr. Burke, who, fince the concert that had been established between government and the old leaders of the whig party on the fubject of the proclamation, was known to have had more frequent and free intercourfe with the minifters. In confequence of this overture, negociations were reprefented to have taken place, but finally to have proved abortive, from the obstacles, to an arrangement which were started on the part of Mr. Fox, who would only confent to the proposed union, on the con

dition that Mr. Pitt fhould relinquish the high fituation he then held, to be more on a level with him in office, while the duke of Portland, or, at least, fome neutral person, fhould be appointed to the treafury; a condition, which was rejected on the part of the minifter.

The friends of Mr. Fox, in talking of this unprofperous iffue, afferted, that what he had demanded was no more than was indispensably neceffary to his confiftency, as being the fame terms for which he had contended in the beginning of the year 1784: but the friends of Mr. Pitt answered, that he was as much entitled as Mr. Fox could be, to confult his own character; that admitting him to have been wrong (which they did not really mean to admit) in ftanding upon the prerogative of the crown, against the fense of the house of commons, and in refufing to be bound by that sense, as fpeaking the true voice of the people, in 1784; yet he had then, by a diffolution, made a regular appeal to the people, and the decifion was mott clearly in his favour; that he had lately in a ftriking manner fhewn himfelf to retain the public confidence of the king, and of parliament, including even many of the most respectable members of Mr. Fox's party; and as to the people at large, it was afked, if Mr. Fox would abide by the refult of any new appeal to them; if not, what was the juftice or equity of requiring, that Mr. Pitt fhould voluntarily forego all thofe advantages. The former, in reply, treating Mr. Pitt's pretenfions with great haughtinefs, acculed him of inordinate ambition, and the latter retorted the charge, obferving that what Mr. Fox meant by his claim of perfect equality, was, in

truth,

Poles, in their efforts to affert and maintain their independence; and thefe fubfcriptions were promoted with equal earneftnefs, by perfons who decidedly differed in their political opinions. Those who had manifested their dislike of the proceedings in France, wished to prove, by their liberality on this occafion, that they were not in the least adverfe to the principles of juft and well regulated freedom, while thofe who held up the French revolution to applause and imitation, though they confidered that of Poland as by no means perfect, gave it their fanction and fupport, as being a ftep made by that country in its " progrefs towards * "general liberty." But this intended fuccour was rendered useless by the speedy termination of the ftruggle which the Poles ineffectually endeavoured to fuftain against the fuperior ftrength of Ruffia, and of which a fhort account remains to be given, before we turn our view again to the more interesting affairs of the South.

Although the Ruffian declaration which has been mentioned in the former part of this hiftory, could not be received by the diet without emotion, a calm and difpaffionate anfwer to it was given, which, while it breathed the moft refpectful language towards the empress (terming her not only a wife and magnanimous, but an enlightened and patriotic fovereign) expreffed a determined refolution to fupport with arms the conftitution recently established. The revolution was warmly defended against the foul afperfions caft upon it, and asserted on strong grounds to have been ftrictly confonant with the wishes of the people

* Appendix to the Chronicle, p. *133.

fairly and fully declared. Nor were the other caufes of offence, enumerated in the declaration, allowed to afford any thing like rational proofs of a hoftile difpofition in Poland towards the emprefs. The order for the evacuation of the country by the Ruffian troops in 1789, the feizure and condemnation of perfons, who were fubjects of the emprefs, and the arreft of the abbot of Sluck, were maintained to have been unavoidable measures on the part of Poland at a most alarming crifis, when Ruffians of different denominations were actively employed in exciting infurrections among the Polish peafantry. The violation, indeed, of the Greek chapel in the suburbs of Warsaw was acknowledged, at the fame time that it was imputed to the inadvertence of an officer and fome idle foldiers, who had been severely punished for their misconduct. But fo far were the negociations at Conftantinople from being confidered as just causes of complaint, that they were rather alledged to have been real proofs of regard towards Ruffia, as they evinced the unwillingness of the republic to embrace the hoftile plans of the Ottoman ministry. The mifreprefentations, however, which ran through the whole compofition, were not imputed to the emprefs herself, but treated folely originating in the malevolence of a few Polish emigrants, who were faid to have impofed a false statement on her imperial majefty.

as

An addrefs from the king and diet to the Polish nation was at the fame time prepared and made public, which loudly proclaimed the

+ See above pp. 63 and 64.

infult offered by Ruffia, and after animating to refiftance in the most energetic language, concluded with the following fervent petition to heaven: "Thou God of armies, "God of our forefathers, who feeft "the innocence and juftice of our "caufe, who knoweft the purity of << our intentions, infufe and main"tain the spirit of union and con❝ cord in the Polish nation; grant "fuccefs to those arms, the object "of which is not to fhed blood for the fake of ambition, of unjust fpoil, or dominion over others, "but folely to defend our national "laws and liberty, to defend that "country, which thy almighty power has fo often protected, and "which even now thou haft refcued "from the brink of destruction, by "the fpirit of thy wisdom and "counfels. A faithful king and "nation implore thy affiftance, and "will praife, in hymns of gratitude, "thy providence and mercy."

But of human means, it was not to the internal ftrength of Poland alone that Stanislaus Auguftus trufted on this trying occafion. Paft experience had taught him the weakness of fuch a truft. On the alliance of the neighbouring potentates his hope of effectual refiftance feems principally to have been founded. His firft and moft preffing application was made to the court of Berlin. Pruffia, in the year 1790, had entered into a treaty of defenfive alliance with Poland, in which each of the contracting parties mutually ftipulated to affift the other, in cafe of an attack, with a powerful force, and if neceffary with all her troops. Notwithstanding this apparently conclufive engagement, Frederick Wil

VOL. XXXIV.

liam refused to comply with the request made to him, obferving, that fince the year of his alliance with Poland, the ftate of things was entirely changed; and that as the difpleasure of Ruffia had been juftly incurred by the establishment of the. new conftitution, an event which took place at a period pofterior to his treaty, exifting circumstances were not applicable to the ftipu lations, by which he held himself bound. Inftead therefore of fending an army to the affiftance of the republic, he gave her much cool advice; and propofed, on the condition of her retracing the rash steps which he had taken, to negociate with the Emprefs in her favour. The motives which feem to have directed the policy of the Pruffian monarch on this occafion *, we have already hinted.

A fimilar application was made to the court of Vienna, and, as might have been expected from the fituation in which the houfe of Auftria flood with refpect to France, with fimilar ill fuccefs. Inftead of granting the aid requested of him, the king of Hungary declined all interference, recommending the reftoration of the old conftitution as the fureft means of averting the miferies with which the republic was threatened.

Immediately on the delivery of the Empress's declaration to the diet, her armies invaded the Polish territory. The plan of the Ruffians feems to have been, to enter the kingdom in different directions on the fides of Lithuania and the Ukraine, and to prefs forwards from both fides towards the capital.

To difpute the entrance of the