32] 
Kosciusko, escaped to the Austrian 
territory, where the rights of hospi. 
tality being in their persons violat- 
ed, they were detained in capti. 
vity. Kosciusko himself, with Ig- 
natius Potocki Kapustas, and some 
others, were transported to Peters- 
burgh, and shut up in dungeons. 
Among these unfortunate men was 
the young poet Niemchevitch, the 
intimate friend and companion of 
Kosciusko,* wounded, and made 
prisoner with him. The blood he 
had lost for his country was not the 
only injury with. which Catharine 
reproached Niemchevitch. Hehad 
composed verses against her in all 
the boldness and energy of satire. 
Nor was this all; there appeared at 
Warsaw, not only pieces, ascribed 
to Niemchevitch, in verse and 
prose, but caricature prints also, in 
which the empress was very much 
insulted. Her majesty had him at 
first confined in the citadel of Pe- 
tersburgh, and, afterwards sent him 
to Schlusselburg, where he was 
treated with great severity. 
The empress, in a manifesto, un- 
der the name of UNIVERSAL, pub- 
lished after the partition of Poland, 
in 1793, guarantees to her new 
subjects the safety of their persons 
and propertics, and farther professes, 
an intention to indemnify them for 
the damagesthey might have sustain- 
ed, through the marching of troops 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 1795. 
especially in the last war.“ The: 
first act of our authority,’’ she adds,. 
“‘ being a testimony of benevolence, | 
in favour of subjects, that are new- 
ly come under our dominion, and 
of solicitude for the welfare of the 
country they inhabit, we are apt to 
think,that they willgratefully receive 
this mark of favour, and will know 
how to value, as they ought to do, 
the desire we announce here, of gain- 
ing their hearts by our favours, and 
to attach them to their ancient mo- 
ther country, by the hopes of the 
advantages we offer them, instead 
of subduing them by dint of arms. 
We hope that, answering our gene- 
rous views, they will send up te 
heaven their thanksgivings for their 
being returned into the bosom of 
‘their ancient mother country, that 
adopts them tor the second time ; 
that the objeéts of their zeal and of 
their endeavours will be,’ to conso-. 
lidate them in the faithfulness they 
owe us, and in a constant submis- 
sion to our laws; that they will 
unite themselves, with heart and 
soul, to our faithful subjects, the 
Russians ; that, inshort, they will 
form, as they did formerly, a re- 
spectable nation, always tractable, 
always faithful to their monarchs, , 
always valiant and invincible, 
whereby they will render themselves 
‘truly worthy of the solicitude we 
shew to them, as a tender mother, 
*® Kosciusko, like other celebrated heroes, is an admirer of poetry, and a friend to 
pore Having acquired a knowledge of the English language, in the course of his mie 
tary services in America, he was enabled to read the English poets; which he did 
with great taste and judgment. When he was released from his confinement, by the 
present emperor, and in London, on his way to’ America, he sent a present of Faler- 
nian wine (being part of a quantity he had himself received from an English gentle 
man, who is always ready to exercise hospitality to worthy strangers), to Peter Pin- 
dar, as asmall acknowledgment of the pleasure ‘hs derived from his works, and which 
had amused him, particularly during his voyage to this metropolis, from Petersburgh. 
Had the state of his health permitted, he would, he said, have waited in person on the 
poet. The readers of the best English poet of our times will readily recognise how 
natural it was for the admérer of Niemchevitch, to be the admirer also of Peter Pindar. 
who 
