HISTORY OF EUROPE. . 
sions, But, in the beginning of 1793, 
the system of the partitioning powers 
began farther to unfold itself. A 
body of Prussian troops marched in- 
to Poland, where they seized upon 
Thorn and Dantzic, neither of 
which cities were in a state of de- 
fence, but relied for their security 
on the treaties subsisting between 
Prussia and Poland. The court of 
Berlin accompanied these hostile 
measures with a manifesto, purport- 
ing, that the king was induced to 
take them, by the apprehensions of 
the danger to which his own domi- 
nions were exposed, from the pro- 
ceedings of the jaccbinical party in 
Poland, and the seditious and revo- 
lutionary opinions they had infused 
into the inhabitants bordering on 
his own territories, Being on the 
eve of a campaign in France, the 
two imperial courts concurred with 
him in opinion, that he ought, in 
good policy, to secure himself from 
an attack by the factious party in 
Poland. é 
There is nothing more certain, 
than that ambitious governments 
have frequent recourse to little di- 
plomatic stratagems and intrigues ; 
nor was there any court more, if so 
much addicted to these, in the pre- 
sent period, as the court of Berlin. 
{tis an absolute faét, that emissaries, 
certain Italians, were sent from the 
court of Berlin, with the truly dia. 
bolical intent of forming jaeobin 
clubs in Poland, in order that the 
proceedings of those rascals or 
fanatics might furnish pretexts for 
_the introduction of new armies, and 
farther oppressions. A similar de- 
' vice, for a similar purpose, had been 
étised by the same court, in 1787, 
sn Holland, in the arrestation of 
‘the princess of Orange. 
The Prussian manifesto, which 
[2% 
was dated the sixthof January, 17933 
was answered on the third of Febru- 
ary, by the Polish confederation, as« 
sembled at Grodno, in Lithuania, 
They protested against the entrance 
of the Prussians into Poland, as 2 
violation. of treaties, and firmly 
declared, they would not submit to 
any farther dismemberment of their 
country. . They requested. count 
Seivers, the Russian ambassador, to 
inform the empress of the alarm they 
were under, by the report, that 2 
second partition of Poland was in- 
tended ; and trusted in her protec. 
tion from such an attempt. But 
these remonstrances were of no ef- 
feet. The determination was ta- 
ken to proceed to another division 
of Poland; and every preparation 
was in readiness for that purpose. 
A proclamation was issued on the 
fourteenth of February, by the 
emperor, prohibiting his subjects 
in Galicia, that part of Poland 
which fell to the share of Austria, 
in the dismemberment of 1778, 
and all the Poles resident in his do- 
minions, from obstructing the mea- 
sures of Russia, and of Piissia, in 
their country. On the twenty- 
ninth of March, the empress pub. 
lished a manifesto, wherein she 
complained of her fruitless endear 
vours, during thirty years, to main. 
tain peace and good order in Po. 
land, of the losses she had thereby 
sustained, and of the necessity to 
suppress the attempts against reli. | 
gion. and public tranquillity. For 
these, and other reasons of the like 
nature, she declared her intentions 
to seize, and annex to her Russian 
dominions, an immense extent of 
the Polish territories, contiguous to 
them, and which were particularly 
specified in the manifesto. The 
king of Prussia’s declaration, on the 
[C 3] twenty ~ 
