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 SPECIMENS OF PUBLIC VIRTUE. 1 



The political assemblies, whether they appear with the irregular 

 character of public meetings, or with uniform dignity of representa- 

 tive bodies, have been always considered as showing in true light the 

 spirit, the manners, and even the faults and the virtues of the nation 

 at large. 



This is more than exemplified by the annals of the Polish diet. A 

 historian may very easily trace those excellencies, that love of liberty, 

 frankness, disinterestedness, generosity, for which the Poles have 

 been always conspicuous. But at the same time he might read upon 

 its face the word RUIN, written in the glaring characters of those 

 fiery passions, of that pride and disorderly love of personal liberty, 

 from the history of which a Montesquieu or a Gibbon could extract 

 an useful lesson for humanity. 



Such is the interest attached to that representative body, that even 

 the task of a writer, who only intends to describe some of its conspi- 

 cuous occurrences, may derive some brightness from the vivid colours 

 of its scenes, and the picturesque effects of the groupings of those 

 men, whose acts deserve the notice of all friends of liberty. The 

 following scenes of the Polish diet are taken from the latter part of 

 its existence, namely, that when it strove either to prevent the 

 national ruin by patriotism and wisdom or at least to protest against 

 the injustice of its three rapacious neighbours ; and when freedom 

 was shackled by the worst of tyrannies, to show by some eloquent 

 martyrdom, by the " breaking of some indignant heart," that " still 

 she lived," in the bosom of patriots. 



I. THE PATRIOT'S PROTEST. 



Augustus the Third died in the latter part of the year 1763. The 

 announcement of his dissolution, although it was long expected, was 

 received by the Polish nation with dismay. For though he was a 

 prince whose incapacity and indolence was a misfortune to their 

 country, yet he was the last barrier to the fury of the contending 

 parties, sprung up and emboldened by a long and feeble reign. 



The Poles were divided at that time into two distinct camps. One 

 of them hoisted the old republican colours of the ancient constitution, 

 a powerful aristocracy and a mock royalty ; the other, more alive to 

 the spirit of the times, looked for a something like English form of 

 internal polity. They expected the formation of a middle class, 

 whose influence would destroy in time the offensive privileges of the 

 nobility. The latter, had the misfortune to be patronized by the 

 Russian empress, and even supported in the centre of their country 

 by the bayonets of her soldiers. Moreover, it cannot be denied that 

 the advocacy of those sound principles was tainted, at least in the 

 leaders of the party, by the views of pride and self-elevation. 



* Scenes from the Annals of the Polish Diet, from the MSS. of a Polish Re- 

 sident in P'.ng'and. 



