464

CONVENTION OF ST. PETERSBURG.

[BOOK VI

even offered to back an ultimatum which she had proposed to the Sultan. Yet at this very time he concluded with the Porte a secret treaty against Russia (July 6th 1771);36 not, however, with any real purpose of aiding either the Porte or the Polish Republic; but that he might be able, according to circumstances, to thwart the plans of Russia, and render more secure the participation of Austria in the spoils of Poland. He even assured Prince Galitzin that he was prepared to assist the policy of Russia and Prussia in Poland. And though he pretended that he would not hear of a partition, yet, by refusing to abandon Austria's pretensions to the county of Zips, he virtually challenged those two Powers to make proposals for such a measure.37

However secret was this treaty, it came to the knowledge of Catherine, and caused her to hasten the final settlement of Poland, though from motives of policy she dissembled her acquaintance with it. An attempt of the Confederate Poles in November 1771 to carry off King Stanislaus Augustus operated in the same direction. Catherine drew from this event a fresh pretext for hostility against the Republic, and the King of Poland was more than ever inclined to throw himself into the arms of Russia. The chief difficulties in the negociations between the Courts of St. Petersburg and Berlin regarded the towns of Thorn and Dantzic, and Catherine's demand that Frederick should assist her with all his forces in case she became involved in a war with Austria. To this Frederick at last consented, on the condition that, in her peace with the Porte, Russia should relinquish her conquests of Moldavia and Wallachia, and thus obviate all cause of quarrel with Austria. In return for this concession Frederick desisted from claiming Thorn and Dantzic, certain that when once master of the mouth of the Vistula, he should sooner or later obtain those important places. The Convention of St. Petersburg of February 17th 1772, between Russia and Prussia, is known only by what Frederick tells us of it.38 The limits of the partition were determined, the period for taking possession fixed for June, and the Empress-Queen was to be invited to join the two contracting parties and partake the spoil. Russia and Prussia reciprocally guaranteed their possessions, and agreed to assist each other against Austria in case of need.

The Court of Vienna, stimulated by the restless ambition of Joseph II., made the most extravagant demands. Maria Theresa

36 Wenck, t. iii. p. 820.

37 Galitzin's Letter to Panin, in Görtz, Mémoires et Actes Authentiques, p. 75.

38 Euvres Posth. t. vi. p. 42 (ed. Berlin, 1847).

afterwards told Baron Breteuil, the French ambassador at Vienna, that she had done so in order to break off the whole matter, but to her surprise her claims were granted by Frederick and Catherine.39 The sincerity of this declaration is somewhat suspicious; at all events these exaggerated demands were long obstinately insisted on; but this was probably owing to Joseph II. and Kaunitz, who appear to have overruled the more moderate counsels of the Empress-Queen. An armistice had been concluded between Russia and Turkey May 30th 1772, and early in August. a congress was opened at Forkschan to treat for a peace, so that the three Powers were at liberty to prosecute their designs on Poland. The Confederates of Bar had hitherto been able to make some resistance, as the Russian troops in Poland, under the command of Suvaroff, did not exceed 10,000 or 12,000 men; but after the armistice they were increased to 30,000. Pulawski, the principal leader of the Confederation, when he heard of the union of the three Powers, retired from a hopeless contest, and exhorted his followers to reserve themselves for better times.

After some further negociations between the three sovereigns, a triple treaty, assigning to each his respective share of Poland, was signed at St. Petersburg, August 5th 1772; namely, between Austria and Russia, Russia and Prussia, and Austria and Prussia. Of these the first two only have been published, and are of the same tenour.40

Russia obtained by this act Polish Livonia, the greater part of the Palatinates of Witepsk and Polozk, all the Palatinate of Mscislaw, and the two extremities of that of Minsk. These districts afterwards formed the governments of Polozk and Mohileff. They comprised an area of 2500 geographical square miles, and a population of about one and a half million souls.

To Austria were assigned the thirteen towns of the county of Zips, which King Sigismund of Hungary had hypothecated to Poland in 1412; about half the Palatinate of Cracovia, a part of that of Sandomir, the Palatinate of Red Russia, the greater part of that of Belz, Procutia, and a very small portion of Podolia. The towns of the county of Zips were again incorporated with Hungary; the other districts were erected into a separate state, with the title of kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria. They were estimated at

39 Flassan, Diplomatie Française, t. vii. p. 125 sq.

10 A summary of them will be found in Koch and Schöll, Hist. des Traités de Paix, t. xiv. p. 42 sqq. Maria Theresa gave her consent in these words: "Placet, VOL. III.

H H

because so many great and learned men will it; but when I am dead, the consequences will appear of this violation of all that has been hitherto held just and sacred." Mailath, Gesch. Oestreichs, B. v. S. 109.

466

DECLARATIONS OF THE THREE POWERS. [Book VI.

1300 square miles, with a population of about two and a half millions.

Prussia obtained all Pomerelia except Dantzic and its territory, together with the districts of Great Poland, extending from the New March to Fordon and Solitz on the Vistula, and along the Netze, which river was to form the boundary line. Also the rest of Polish Prussia, except the Palatinate of Marienberg, Elbing, the Bishopric of Warmia, and the Palatinate of Culm, except Thorn, which, like Dantzic, was to remain to the Republic of Poland. These provinces embraced 700 square miles, and had then a population of about 800,000 souls. Although the Prussian share was so much smaller than the others, yet it was very valuable to Frederick, because it joined his Prussian kingdom to the main body of the monarchy, from which it had hitherto been separated. The population, too, was richer and more commercial. The districts thus confiscated formed about a third part of Poland.

In the following month (September) the three Powers published Declarations proclaiming and justifying the steps which they had taken. The most odious of these Declarations was the Prussian. Frederick II. went back to the thirteenth century to find a colour for part of his usurpations, and claimed the remainder by way of compensation for rights so long withheld from his house. Maria Theresa, more prudently and more honestly, passed lightly over the question of right, and pleaded her engagements with her allies. Catherine II. chiefly insisted on the distracted state of Poland, the necessity of restoring peace, and of establishing a natural and more secure boundary between the possessions of the two States." Simultaneously with these Declarations, the combined Powers proceeded to occupy the districts respectively allotted to them. In this they found but little difficulty. The Confederates had been driven from their last strongholds in the spring; and the generals of the allies had declared that they should treat those who combined together, under whatever pretence, as bandits and murderers, 42

The memoirs of the three Courts were answered by the Polish Government in a counter-declaration, full of truth and force, in which they recalled the series of treaties which guaranteed to the Republic the integrity of its possessions; and they justly observed that if the titles drawn from remote antiquity, when revolutions were so common and so transient, were to be enforced against Poland, provinces possessed by those very Powers who now urged

"The Declarations are in Martens, 42 Ferrand, t. ii. liv. v. Recueil, t. i. p. 461 sqq.

them against her, might also be reunited to that kingdom; but the admission of such titles, they remarked, would shake the foundations of all the thrones in the world.43

The unfortunate King of Poland, abandoned by all the world, was compelled by the allied courts to convoke a Diet in order to confirm their usurpations by a Treaty of Cession, and to establish regulations for the pacification and future government of the country. At the same time each Power caused 10,000 men to enter the provinces which they had agreed to leave to Poland; and the three commanders were ordered to proceed to Warsaw and to act in concert, and with severity, towards those nobles who should cabal against the novelties introduced.44 The Diet, which was opened April 19th 1773, was very small, consisting only of 111 Nuncios. Those nobles whose possessions lay in the confiscated provinces were excluded from it. Nearly all the members accepted bribes. A sum of 200 or 300 ducats was the price of silence; they who took an active part in favour of the allies received more. The national character had, indeed, sunk to the lowest point of degradation. The ruin of Poland was consummated by its own children amidst every kind of luxury, frivolity, and profligacy; 45-balls, dinners, assemblies, and gaming tables. To avoid the Veto, the Diet was converted into a Confederation, which the King was forced to recognise by the threat that Russia, Austria, and Prussia would otherwise each send 50,000 men into Poland. After long and turbulent debates, treaties were signed with the three Powers, September 18th 1773. The whole business, however, was not concluded till March 1775, by the execution on the part of the Polish King and Republic of seven separate acts or treaties, namely, three with Russia, two with Austria, and two with Prussia.1 46 These acts included the cession of the confiscated provinces. A new constitution was established for Poland, which Russia guaranteed. The crown was to be perpetually elective, and none but a Piast noble was to be eligible, having possessions in the Kingdom. The son or grandson of a deceased king could not be elected till after an interval of two reigns. The Government was to be composed of the King and two estates, the Senate, and the equestrian order. A permanent executive Council was to be established, composed of an equal number of members of the two estates, without, however, either legislative or judicial

43 Martens, Recueil, t. i. p. 470. Euvres de Fred. II, t. vi. p. 58 (ed. 1847).

45 Essen's Bericht, ap. Hermann, B. v. S. 541. 46 Martens, Recueil, t. iv. p. 142 sqq.

HH 2

468

REFLECTIONS ON THE PARTITION.

[Book VI. power. Thus the seal was put to the vicious constitution of Poland, and the King reduced to a mere puppet.

The first partition of Poland is the most remarkable event of the eighteenth century, before the French Revolution. Breaches of national rights as gross as this have undoubtedly been perpetrated both before and since; but what rendered it particularly odious, and most revolted public opinion in Europe, was the circumstance that three great and powerful monarchs should combine together to commit such an act of spoliation. The Cabinets of Europe, however, were either silent or confined themselves to feeble remonstrances. The political effects of, the partition were not, indeed, so important as it has been sometimes supposed. Poland itself was of but little weight in the political balance of Europe, and the three great Powers that divided the spoils, by receiving pretty equal shares, remained much in the same position with respect to one another as they had occupied before. Great Britain, engaged in paying court to Catherine II., in order to separate her from the Prussian alliance, took no steps to prevent the partition, and contented itself, in the interest of its commerce, with inciting Catherine not to let Dantzic and Thorn fall into Frederick's hands. With regard to France, the Duc d'Aiguillon, who had succeeded Choiseul in the ministry, either through his own fault or that of the Cardinal de Rohan, the French ambassador at Vienna, seems not to have been acquainted with the partition till informed of it at Paris by the Imperial ambassador.47 To amend the fault of his improvidence, he tried to persuade Louis XV. to attack the Austrian Netherlands; but this proposition was rejected by the majority of the Council, on account of the state of the finances. It was also proposed to England to send a French and English fleet into the Baltic, to prevent the consummation of the dismemberment, but the proposal was coldly received.48

We now resume the history of the Russian and Turkish war, interrupted in order to bring to a conclusion the affairs of Poland. The Porte, as we have said, had in 1770 accepted the mediation of Austria and Prussia. But Russia rejected the interference of any Power, and put her terms so high, by insisting on occupying Moldavia and Wallachia for a term of twenty-five years, which, of course, meant permanently, that it was impossible to listen to them. Kaunitz, therefore, entered into the treaty with the Porte of July 6th 1771, already mentioned, by which Austria was to receive 20,000 purses (10,000,000 piasters, or 11,250,000 gulden), on the 47 Ségur, Politique de tous les Cabinets, t. i. p. 183.

48 Flassan, Diplomatie Franç., t. vii. p. 87; Coxe, House of Austria, vol. v.