i2| 
enslavement intended for it, num- 
bers of years would prcbably elapse 
before a fortunate concurrence of 
circumstances might enable their 
posterity to recover their freedom. 
On the thirty-first of May the 
diet was prorogued, after it had 
provided to the utmost of its power 
for the numerous demands made 
upon it by the necessities of the pub- 
lic. The parting of the king and of 
the members was sujtable to the se- 
riousness of their situation. Placing 
the utmost confidence in his pru- 
dence and patriotism, they chear- 
fuliy committed to him the defence 
of the kingdom ; and he fervently 
requested them to circulate a spirit 
of resistance to the enemy, and of 
unanimity among the people, and to 
sacrifice all considerations to that of 
saving their country, by serving it 
on this pressing occasion; every 
man to the full extent of his re- 
spective powers and abilities. His 
appeal to the military was remark- 
ably forcible and pathetic. He 
gecalled to their remembrance the 
many misfortunes, injuries, and 
humiliations, heaped upon Poland 
by Russia; and called upon their 
resentment and courage for ven- 
geance. They were selected by 
their country as the avengers of its 
‘wrongs, and the protectors of its 
honour and freedom against ambi- 
tious invaders, who could claim no 
other right totheir ysurpations than 
that of barbarous force and vio-~ 
Jence. The only superiority of the 
Russian troops over the Polish, was 
a longer practice of discipline ; but 
a brave people fighting for all that 
was dear to them, must shortly at 
tainanequality. By the laws they 
were called upon to maintain by 
their valour; they had been eman- 
cipated from an abject state of sla- 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 1795. 
very, to which, if conquered, they 
must again return. He was ready 
in their company to lay down inthe 
field of honour the few years he 
might have to live. And he con. 
cluded, by telling them, that as 
their father, their king, and their 
general, his last words of command 
would-be, to live free and respected, 
or to die with honour. 
From the warm and sincere affec- 
tion borne to the king, by all classes 
of his subjects, this admonition was 
received with the highest marks of 
approbation and respect. They 
considered him, what he was in re. 
ality, as unfeignedly interested in 
the common cause of his country ; 
with the prosperous or evil destiny 
of which his own fortune was inse- 
parably bound. The jealousy of a 
secret correspondence, and a lean- 
ing on the part of the king towards 
Russia, was entirely groundless, 
There was no bribe in the power of 
the empress to bestow, equal to the 
crown and the independence of Po. 
land ; nor can it be supposed that 
gratitude for the possession of a 
crown would incline him to lay it 
down. The king standing in this 
light, and his public and private 
charaéter being equally irreproach- 
able, his words never failed to make 
a profound impression. 
Pressed in the mean while by the 
continual irruptions of the Russian 
troops on every side of Poland, the 
king applied to the court of Berlin 
for the succours stipulated, by which 
it was specifically bound to assist 
Poland against all attempts on its 
independence, on whatever pre- 
tence they might be founded. The 
answer from the king of Prussia was 
a positive denial of any obligation 
on his part to fulfil the terms of that 
treaty ; which had been made with 
. Poland 
