50 Presidentship of the Earl of Macclesfield 1754 



welcome guest. 1 Moreover, he early showed a taste for 

 literature, which gave him an added attraction in cultivated 

 societj^. After having served for some years in the Russian 

 army he came into the possession of considerable wealth 

 in 1752, a good deal of which he dissipated in Paris and 

 London. The year after he dined with the Club at the 

 Mitre he was induced to go to St. Petersburg with the English 

 Envoy Extraordinary, Sir Charles Hanbury Williams, by 

 whom he was introduced at the Russian Court. His good 

 looks and pleasant address captivated the Princess Catharine, 

 who afterwards became Empress. Eventually, largely through 

 her potent influence and that of his mother's family, and with 

 a unanimity that was rare in the annals of Poland, he was 

 made King of that country, and ascended the throne on 

 7th September 1764, by the name and titles of Stanislaus 

 Augustus, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania. 

 The King of Prussia profited by the occasion to indite 

 with his own hand a letter to the new King, in which he 

 lectured him on his future, pointing out with patronising 

 insistence that "as he enjoyed a crown by election and 

 not by descent, the world would be more observant of his 

 actions than those of any other potentate in Europe. From 

 a man exalted, by the voice of his equals, from a subject 

 to a King, from a man voluntarily elected to reign over 

 those by whom he was chosen, everything is expected that 

 can possibly deserve and adorn a crown." Frederic seems to 

 have thought that some apology was required for the need- 

 less " warmth " of this moral discourse, which he declared 

 to be " the effusion of the sincerest regard." 2 



Poor Stanislaus Augustus was helped, neither by the 

 great potentates around him nor by the harmonious support 

 of his own people, to achieve what in more favourable 

 conditions he might have accomplished. During the earlier 

 years of his reign he strove to introduce reforms into the 



1 Horace Walpole, writing on May 14, 1754, asks " Have you seen young 

 Poniatowski ? He is very handsome." The young Pole kept up his 

 relations with friends whose acquaintance he made at the time in England. 



2 Annual Register, 1764, p. 14. 



