670 



POTEM KIN VOTH 1 E K 



tained, from 1776 until his death, a space of sixteei 

 yenrs, a boundless sway over the empress, in spit 

 of his enemies. From 1778 till his death, he exer 

 cised almost the whole direction of foreign affairs 

 which he conducted in a daring and reckless spirit 

 He caused a proposal to be made to Frederic II., i 

 1782, through count Gorz, for a new division o 

 what remained of Poland. " The first division," h 

 said, " was only child's play ; had the whole been 

 divided at that time, the cry would have been n 

 louder." When the king rejected this proposal on 

 grounds of right, prince Potemkin was so astonishe 

 that, after a third perusal of the answer, he return 

 ed it to the minister with the words, " I shoulc 

 never have imagined that king Frederic was capabl 

 of romantic notions." In 1783, when the Tartars 

 of the Crimea refused to acknowledge the authorit;, 

 of the empress, the generals had orders to cut dowi 

 the refractory. One general refused to comply 

 saying that he was no executioneer ; but Paul Pot- 

 emkin, a relation of the prince, executed the com 

 mission, and caused 30,000 men, women, am 

 children, to be seized and put to death. While go 

 vernor-general of Taurida, Potemkin treated the 

 Tartars with the greatest cruelty, and thus depopu 

 lated the province. He was jealous of all which 

 interfered with his vanity or ambition. Every man 

 distinguished by merit, birth, or riches, was treatec 

 with indignity. The representatives of foreign 

 powers were treated as his subjects. His arrogance 

 towards the empress was such that he was even 

 said to have struck her. Certain it is, that he often 

 opposed her wishes, and purposely acted contrary 

 to them. On the other hand, he deluded her by the 

 boldest flattery, accommodated to her character, as 

 for example, in 1787, on her journey to Taurida 

 (See Catharine II.) Another time, he reviewed 

 before the empress, the same regiments on different 

 days, in different uniforms, in order to convince her 

 that the numbers of the army were complete. The 

 Prussian ambassador, count Gorz, says of him, 

 " He is a man who has genius and talents, but his 

 character does not attract love or esteem." Potem- 

 kin, however, directed his attention to some useful 

 objects. He proposed to the empress to take pos- 

 session of the Crimea, and to lay the foundation of 

 the city of Cherson, on the Dnieper, about seven 

 leagues from Oczakow, in 1778. He introduced 

 fruit-trees into Taurida. Petersburg is also indebted 

 to him for a manufactory of glass and looking- 

 glasses, which equals, in the size and beauty of its 

 productions, those of Venice and Paris. Potemkin 

 paid particular attention to the arts, was passionate- 

 ly fond of music, and had eighty musicians in his 

 train. In 1776, he was made a prince of the German 

 empire. Afterwards he wished to become duke of 

 Courland. In 1787, Catharine gave him the name 

 of the Taurian (Tawritscheskoi). The riband of 

 the order of St George, which could be bestowed 

 only on a commander-in-chief after a victory, was 

 wanting to complete his honours. Hence, in 1787, 

 he enticed the Porte to a declaration of war. The 

 (so called) Greek system, and the expulsion of the 

 Turks from Europe, was his favourite plan, the exe- 

 cution of which seemed to him at hand after 

 Catharine's above-mentioned journey to Taurida, 

 and her connexion with Joseph II. In case of its 

 success he expected to hold Moldavia and Walachia, 

 as an independent principality, under the 1 protection 

 of Russia. At the commencement of the war, 

 Potemkin was placed, with unlimited power, at the 

 head of an army of 150,000 men, and distinguished 

 generals served under him. The war was carried 

 on with fury on the plains of Oczakow, Cuban and 

 Little Tartary. Hunger and pestilence increased 



the universal distress. Nevertheless, Potemkin mi 

 dertook the siege of Oczakow, which lasted from 

 July to the 17th of December, 1788. Potemkin, at 

 last, ventured a decisive blow, in order that he 

 might not be compelled to raise the siege. In the 

 night of December 17th, he took the works by 

 storm, though they had received hardly any iirjury, 

 but a small breach. The attempt, however, would 

 have failed but for the blowing up of a powder 

 magazine. The slaughter was terrible ; the city 

 was plundered for three days; more than 30,000 

 men perished on both sides ; but Potemkin received 

 the ereat riband of St George, a present of J 00,000 

 roubles, the title of hetman of the Cossacks, and a 

 baton set with diamonds and encircled with branches 

 of laurel. When he returned to Petersburg, in 

 March, 1791, the empress caused splendid festivals 

 to be prepared in honour of him, gave him the 

 Taurian palace and a dress set with diamonds. The 

 author of the war, however, was seized with the 

 sickness which raged in the camp. Without regard- 

 ing the advice of the most celebrated physicians of 

 Petersburg, who attended him, he continued his 

 excesses. As the air of Jassy was prejudicial to 

 him, he set out for Nicolajeff ; but, on the second 

 day of his journey, be became so unwell that he 

 descended from the carriage and expired in the 

 arms of his niece, the countess Branicka, under a 

 tree, on the 16th of October, 1791. His body was 

 carried to Cherson, where the empress appropriated 

 100,000 roubles for the erection of a monument to 

 him, which was never completed. Afterwards, the 

 emperor Paul caused the corpse of his mother's 

 favourite to be taken from its coffin, and thrown 

 into the ditch of the fortification, and neither the 

 coffin nor body is now to be found. Satiated even 

 to disgust with sensual pleasure, Potemkin denied 

 himself nothing, and satisfied every passing whim 

 by a prodigal waste of the money of the state, and 

 a wanton sacrifice of the lives of others. Though 

 the empress denied him nothing, and the sums of 

 money which she expended on him exceeded all 

 belief, still he was mean enough to appropriate to 

 himself the money intrusted to him for other pur- 

 poses, and even to forge orders on the treasury, in 

 the name of the empress, in order to obtain for him- 

 self the money which was necessary for supplying 

 the wants of the state. Potemkin also suffered 

 himself to be purchased by foreign powers. While 

 possessed of incredible wealth, and throwing away 

 the largest sums at the gaming table, or in the 

 gratification of his whims, he did not pay the bills 

 af those who furnished his ordinary supplies. Those 

 tradesmen considered themselves ruined who receiv- 

 ed orders to furnish goods to Potemkin. 



POTHIER, ROBERT JOSEPH, a celebrated French 

 jurist, born 1699, died 1772. His digest of the 

 maxims and principles of the Roman law, contained 

 n Justinian's pandects, under the title of Pandectee 

 Justinianeae in novum Ordinem digeste, was more 

 u'ghly esteemed in foreign countries than at home. 

 Of his profound knowledge of the droit couiumier, 

 we have a proof in his Introduction a la Coutitme 

 d'Orleans, arid the commentary which accompanies 

 t. His different treatises on various points of legal 

 science are in the highest esteem. The first, which 

 s a sort of foundation for the others, is his Traitt 

 des Obligations, which, as is also the case with the 

 rest, displays a methodical mind, and is distinguish- 

 ed for clearness, profundity and precision, and for 

 ts high tone of morality, which was in accordance 

 with the character of his life. Pothier was ap- 

 pointed professor of French law at the university of 

 Orleans, and appropriated the salary attached to 

 his office for premiums to his most industrious 



