40] 
that must arise from the encroach- 
ments of any class of men, under 
whatever denomination, on the 
rights of humanity, on the one hand, 
or the prerogatives of the executive 
government on the other ; and how 
much the interest of every branch 
of government, and every order in 
society, is connected with senti- 
ments of moderation and justice. 
Had the Polish nobles understood 
their owninterest, they would nei- 
ther have weakened the natural 
strength of the country,’by oppress- 
ing and enslaving the peasants, on 
the one hand, nor the energy of 
government, by endless attacks on 
the powers of the crown on the 
other; but it seems unfortunate- 
iy to be incident, and almost inse- 
perable froma spirit of liberty, to 
push its claims beyond a just and 
reasonable degree of freedom. No 
sooner have men ceased to be slaves, 
than they aspire to be masters; li- 
berty is still the pretence; but 
power is the real objet. It has 
happened in our own country, that 
the privileges of the people have ge- 
nerally been only a popular cry, for 
the power of their leaders. The 
same thing has happened in the late 
struggles in France between con- 
tending factions; and perhaps it 
will always happen in all human so- 
cieties. To secure the liberty of 
the subjects, against the tyranny of 
the crown, was the pretence for 
the successive changes which took 
place in Poland ; but the real de- 
sign was, to throw the whole 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 1795. 
powec of the state into the hands of 
the aristocracy. While, with one 
hand, they seized almost every 
branch of the royal prerogative, 
with the other, they bound harder 
the fetters of the people. While 
they raised themselves above the 
controul of the law, they sunk the 
people below its proteétion. But 
in carrying on this double attack on 
both their king and country, they 
cut the ground under their own 
feet:, and king, nobles, and the 
whole Polish nation were involved 
in one common ruin, 
‘Lhe partitioning powers, in their 
successive attacks on the indepen. 
dence of Poland, have not been 
aGtuated by a spirit of greater’ @ 
liberality, or more profound politi. 
cal wisdom, than those of the Polish 
aristocracy on the rights of the 
crown, and those of the great mass 
of the people, the a¢tual cultivators 
of the soil. The partition of Po. 
land, which was the cement of 
temporary agreement, must one day 
be the source of contest. The world 
is taught -to reflect, that the same 
powers that were hostile to the 
French republic, were also hostile 
to the liberties of Poland; and the 
partitioning system, forming a de- 
plorable ra in the history of Eu- 
rope, supplanting public law, and 
sanctioning, through their example, 
a contempt at once of morality and 
sovereign authorities, prepares dis- 
respect and subversion to the thrones 
of kings, as well as to the rights of 
nations.* 
* There was greater wisdom, as well as justice, in the conduct of a Polish king, 
Badislaus Jaghello, who, when a powerful party in Bohemia, disgusted with their own 
king, made a tender of their crown to the Polish monarch, said, “ You are not your 
“ king’s judges; and by attempting to seize upon rights which do not belong to 
* you, you would introduce a confusion into your government, infinitely more fatal 
* than the evils you pretend toremedy. I am, therefore, less sensibly affected by this 
« mark of your esteem, than offended at your presumption, in proposing that I should 
“ commit an act of injustice so contrary to my character,” 
If 
