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upon the death of the emperor lic proceedings, by his fingle ne Charles VI. without male iffue,' gative. or the previous election of a kiug of the Romans.

In reality, the German conftitution is as nearly perfect as can be expected in a commonwealth of fovereign princes, or federal union of feveral monarchies and republics under a common head. Such an union, confidered in itself, might, indeed, feem very ufelefs, or, in fome refpects, dangerous; but the extreme inequality of the fovereignties, which compofe the Germanic body, makes it abfolutely neceffary to the freedom of all the leffer members, that there should be a confiderable power vested in the chief of the union, acting by the authority of the whole, to prevent the violence and injuftice of the ftronger. This power is, perhaps, too, weak perfectly to accomplish its ends; but ftill it is of fome ufe.

Each noble Pole feems rather an independent fovereign than a ci tizen. He has a voice at the election of a king, and may himself be elected king. He is abfolute

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master of life and death on his own eftate, all his tenants being, in the ftricteft fenfe, his flaves. His houfe is a fanctuary, not only for himself, but for all others; civil juftice, and even criminal, can with great difficulty reach him in any cafe; in fhort, he enjoys privileges! fo incompatible with all regular government, that one of their own writers ufes it as a strong proof of the natural good difpofition of the Polish nobility, that, with fuch an unbounded licence, the moft horrid diforders are not more frequent amongst them.

The power of the king is extremely limited. He can do no thing of great importance, but with the confent of the diet; and fcarcely the moft minute act without the approbation of the fenate. The choice, indeed, of this fenate is in himfelf, but he can never revoke the choice when once made. The fenate is composed of a certain number of bishops, (whom he nominates) fenators by right of their fee, and of Palatines, or governors of provinces, of whom he has likewife the appointment! But they hold their places for life, and are, in general, a great check upon, though in fome inftances they have proved a fupport to, the authority of the crown. d „doldures

Poland feems to be a country formed to give the most difadvantageous idea of liberty, by the extreme to which it is carried, and the injuftice with which it is diftributed The conftitution of this 2. republic is defcribed in too many modern books to make it neceffary to enter in this place into a long detail concerning it. The only real power of the ftate is vefted in the gentry, or, as they call them, the Equestrian order; this power they exercife by their reprefentatives in their diets, or parliaments, which the king is obliged to call triennially, where all refolutions must be paffed unanimously, à tri- All the great offices of Poland bunitial power, as it is generally being as permanent as the royalty known, being vefted in each mem-itfelf, thofe, who are invefted with ber, who can put a ftop to all pub them, are invested with almost the

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whole fovereign power. They are the great general, the great chancellor, the great treafurer, and the great marihal. These four officers have amongst them the command of the ammy, the adminiftration of juftice, the diftribution of the public treasure, and the regulation of the police. They are no ways ac countable to the king for their conduct in their feveral departments, nor do they receive his orders in the exercife of any part of their duty.

Such important dignities, with little or no controul, being vefted in powerful fubjects, who are generally at the head of confiderable factions, it is the natural and almoft the neceffary confequence, that, in Poland, the public treasure should be ill difpofed; the army undisciplined, irregular, and incomplete; that the police fhould be out of order; and that juftice fhould be loofely and partially administered.

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tion below them, and from having only fo feeble and precarious an authority above them, flatters in the highest degree their pride and felf-importance. No people have ever taken greater precautions to fecure the poffeffion of a fober and well-regulated freedom, than the Poles have to preserve themfelves in their prefent anarchy. To this they facrifice all the fecurity and all the dignity of the ftate; and they are, in effect, governed in their most important concerns rather by their powerful and ambitious neighbours, than their own national councils. A late writer on their affairs gives a very ftriking and pathetic defcription of the mifchiefs they fuffer from this ill contrived plan of liberty. Speaking of the Polish gentleman,

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He forms (fays this author) a fort of intrenchment of his prefumption; and thinking himfelf fecure of every thing, it gives him no concern that the republic is weak, exhaufted, difarmed. Abfurdly blind, he ⚫ cannot fee that the preservation of particulars has a neceffary de pendence on that of the public, ⚫ and that no member can live, but when the whole body is kept up in vigour.

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Their military force confifts, chiefly, in the Pajpolite, that is, the whole body of the gentry, which, upon extraordinary occafions, the king and the national general can order into the field to ferve for a limited time. The inconvenience and inutility of this military inftitution, in the prefent ftate of the art of war, need not be infifted on. They have alfo a ftanding army, which, ought to amount to about forty thoufand men. But, from the reafons affigned above, it is a body altogether contemptible, efpecially the foot, as they confift almost wholly of their wretched peafants.⚫

Of this conftitution, with all its evils, the Poles are infinitely enamoured. The idea of perfonal dignity they entertain, from feeing fo many people in a fervile condi

• Who would not be moved with • the wretched fituation of our republic? If any of our neighbours thinks proper to make war upon us, he finds no barrier, which can check his progrefs for an hour; nothing prevents him from penetrating into the heart of the kingdom. He enters our provinces, he levies contributions, he deftroys, he ravages, he burns; the blood flows from every part; the citi

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zen groans and bends under the yoke. The conqueror commands defpotically, and every thing obeys him.

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It is reported, indeed, that prince Xavier, adminiftrator of Saxony during the minority of this young prince, has taken up the pretenfions of his brother the late elector.

In the mean time what measures do we take? What refources do. The interpofition of Auftria, in

we derive from thofe privileges which ought to defend us from thofe lofty ideas, which have infpired us with this fecurity? We have neither troops nor artillery, nor money, nor provifions, nor even the flighteft rampart about our towns. The alarm bell is rung ro affemble the nation; diets are held; confederacies are made; we declaim; we write, we make a ftir; we propofe remedies; but we propofe them when it is too late to use them; and when we have no refource left but a treaty of peace, in which, to fave our lives and our goods, we are com pelled to fubmit to whatever conditions they think proper to im pofe upon us.'*

To give an head to this extraordinary republic is cat prefent the first object in the active politics of Europe. Immediately on the death of the late king of Poland, his eldeft fon, and fucceffor to his hereditary, declared himself a candidate to fucceed him in his elective, dominions. His pretenfions were, probably, countenanced by the court of Vienna, as the only means they had of making him amends for all that his hereditary countries had fuffered in their caufe. But he did not live long enough to make a trial of his intereft. He was carried off by the 17th of fmall-pox in a few weeks Decem: after his father, leaving a fon too young to afpire to an elective crown, efpecially fuch a crown as that of Poland.

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favour of any prince of the house of Saxony, will ever be a fufficient motive to induce the court of Berlin to oppofe his election, even if that court had no other. But in reality, it is not the intereft of the king of Pruffia, that a family, whose dominions liefo near him, and which has no great reafon to be attached to him, fhould be ftrengthened (however little) by the acceffion of the crown of Poland. Befides that the influence, which he will always endeavour, for very good reafons, to keep up in that country, müft be obviously weakened by the election of fuch a perfon; and if the prince elected fhould prove able in the government, might be even wholly loft.

The empress of Ruffia, who has the fame ends in keeping up a party in Poland, and who has never fhewn a very marked attention to the court of Vienna, is faid to unite in this oppofition. Thefe confiderations will influence thefe two courts more or lefs, to oppofe any prince of that houfe, i

They have, however, both made profeffion of great fairness, and of a refolution to preferve the utmost freedom in the election. But have, at the fame time, plainly enough fignified their wishes, that the Poles would elect one of their own countrymen. And they are laid particularly to favour with all their intereft fome printe of the great houfes of Czartoriafky or -Poniatowsky

The Poles are very far from be

• La Voix libre d'un Citoyen. 1759. preface p. 23.

ing univerfally pleafed with this care of their interefts, about which these two great powers have condefcended to be fo anxious. Many amongst them love to encourage a number of foreign candidates, that they may profit of the money they fpend, and that the importance of their votes may be enhanced. Several are also of opinion, that they are likely to be better governed by a foreign prince, than by one of their own natives. They think they have taken fuch precautions, as muft prevent any foreign prince whom they may elect from infringing on their liberty; and in other particulars his government may be more juft and equal, as being lefs engaged in the family diffenfions and civil factions within the nation. Nay, they are not certain, that a great Polish lord, with a vast dependency and a large territory in the midst of the country, and able to raise and maintain an army even from his own private funds, might not, on the throne, prove more dangerous to their conftitution than any foreigner.

On the other hand, the pride of the Polish nobility is more flattered by being governed by one of their own body. A prince who commands defpotically in an hereditary country, where he maintains a large ftanding army, or any prince too closely connected with fuch a fovereign, may, they apprehend, prove much a more dangerous enemy to the Polish liberty, than one of their own citizens raised to be their fupreme magiftrate, who can never materially hurt them, unless the body of the nation fhould be inclined to cooperate with him.

this much concerning the conftitu tion of Poland, and the views of the feveral powers, who intereft themfelves in the affairs of that country, as the object of the greateft political importance, which is at prefent in agitation, and the moft likely, if any thing can do it, to difturb the tranquility of the north.

A calm and benign peace feems now to brood over the rest of Europe; and every nation is intent on healing the wounds it has received in the late war. To the north, Ruffia has amicably fettled with the king of Denmark, whatever was in difpute concerning the duchy of Holstein.

10th of

To the fouth, the king of Sardinia, who, by the quieteft and moft effectual methods, filently increases his power and confideration, has obtained a confirmation and guarantee of that part of the treaty of Aix la Cha- June. pelle, which establishes his reverfionary title to Placentia, on failure of the male line of the infant Don Philip; or in cafe that prince or his iffue fhould fucceed to the crowns of his family. In the mean time, the king of France has engaged to pay him an annuity equivalent to the revenues of the territory in queftion, and has ftipulated ro remit immediately the capital fum of thofe revenues, on condition of repayment, whenever the king of Sardinia enters into poffeffion of them. In this man

ner a fubject of difpute, which might otherwife embroil Italy, is happily fettled.

We cannot conclude our account of the events of this year without obferving that the CorfiWe thought it neceffary to fay cans till continue that struggle for

their liberties, which they have fo long and fo refolutely maintained, against all the efforts of their ancient mafters, who have fometimes been fupported by the moft powerful allies. They have poffeffed themfelves of much the greatest part of the island, and begin, at length, to affume the face of an established and independent commonwealth. They coin money; they have fettled councils and regular troops; and what, in an infant ftate, may be called a navy. Under their patriot leader, Paoli, they obtained a confiderable vic

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