1754 The last King of Poland 5 1 



government of the country, but his efforts were thwarted 

 by the machinations of the surrounding greater powers. 

 Slice after slice was cut away from his territory. When 

 at last the Poles rose in resistance under Joseph Poniatowski 

 and Kosciusko, the King, though he had sworn to defend 

 the constitution even to the death, refused to join the 

 patriots who raised the standard of independence. He was 

 ignominiously compelled to denounce Kosciusko as a 

 criminal, while he himself remained in Warsaw, where, 

 surrounded with Polish traitors and Russian agents, he 

 continued to retain the regal state which he had so greatly 

 enjoyed for thirty years. When the final partition of Poland 

 was determined on, Stanislaus Augustus received from 

 Catharine in January 1795 an order to leave his capital 

 and betake himself to Grodno, where on the following St. 

 Catherine's Day (25th November) he was compelled to 

 sign his abdication. After a stay of about two years in 

 Grodno he was summoned to St. Petersburg by Catharine's 

 successor. But he did not long enjoy the pension of 200,000 

 ducats assigned to him by the robber powers. He was cut 

 off by an attack of apoplexy on I2th February 1798 at the 

 age of sixty-six. 



To the end Stanislaus Augustus retained his liking for 

 England and the English. The Royal Society, soon after 

 he came to the throne, had elected him a Fellow, partly 

 no doubt in remembrance of his visit to London, and pro- 

 bably in part also out of sympathy with his unfortunate 

 country amid the troubles out of which it was hoped that 

 he might help to deliver her. Among his plans for the 

 improvement of his native country he designed to form an 

 art gallery in Warsaw, and many pictures for it were pur- 

 chased in England. But, as will be narrated on a later 

 page, the design fell to the ground and the pictures 

 still remain in England. With them is preserved at the 

 picture gallery of Dulwich College a touching letter from 

 King Stanislaus written only a month before he had to 

 sign his abdication. It is addressed to the Envoy of Eng- 

 land at Grodno who was about to leave a country which 



