478 GALLICIA AND LODOMERIA. 



criminals. His exactions from the abbeys, convents, cathedrals, and 

 nobles, were so heavy, and exceeded at last their abilities so much, 

 that the priests abandoned their churches, and the nobles their lands. 

 These exactions continued with unabated rigour, from the year 1771 

 to the time the treaty of partition was declared, and possession taken 

 of the provinces usurped. From these proceedings, it would appear 

 that his Prussian majesty knew of no rights but his own ; no preten- 

 sions but those of the house of Brandenburg ; no other rule of justice 

 but his own pride and ambition 



In the year 1788, the Poles made some endeavours to assert their 

 independence. The diet met, and the king proposed a confederation, 

 which was agreed to, and the army ordered to be reinforced to 100,000 

 men. As the evils of an elective monarchy had been the chief cause 

 that Poland had almost ceased to be considered as a nation, a new con- 

 stitution was framed, and approved by the diet and the king, on the 3d 

 of May 1791. By this constitution the line of the future kings of Po- 

 land was to commence in Frederic- Augustus, elector of Saxony; and, 

 in case he should have no male issue, a husband chosen by him for his 

 daughter was to commence the dynasty. But this constitution was 

 opposed by the partitioning powers; and, after a short and unequal 

 struggle with Russia, this unhappy country was forced to abandon it. 

 The manifesto of the Russian Empress, replete with sentiments dis- 

 graceful to humanity, was followed by some skirmishes; but it is 

 said that a letter, written with her own hand to the Polish king, in 

 which she declared her resolution to double or triple her troops, rather 

 than abandon her pretensions, induced that benignant monarch to pre- 

 vent the further effusion of blood 



On the 6th of January 1793, the king of Prussia issued a declaration 

 respecting the march of his troops into Poland, and soon after the 

 Prussian army advanced, and one of its detachments appeared under 

 the walls of Thorn. The inhabitants refusing entrance to the troops, 

 the gates were forced, the municipal guard dislodged from their post, 

 and the Prussian regiments entered the defenceless city, as if it had 

 been a place taken by assault. At the same time different Polish de- 

 tachments, dispersed throughout Great Poland, were attacked and dri- 

 ven from their posts by superior force. 



On the 2d of April the Prussian troops took possession of Dantzic ; 

 and, about the same time, the empress of Russia commanded the king 

 of Poland to remove to Grodno, under the escort of Russian troops, 

 for the express purpose of sanctioning the alienation and partition of 

 his kingdom. 



The means employed to effect the mock ratification of the partition 

 of this unfortunate country were entirely characteristic of the baseness 

 of the cause. The diet in the month of September, was assailed for 

 three successive days with official notes from the Russian ambassador 

 and the Prussian minister, full of threats, pressing the signature of the 

 treaty. The states, however, persisted in their refusal. At last M. 

 de Sievers, the Russian ambassador, sent his ultimatum in a note, 

 which ended with the following remarkable expressions : " The un- 

 derwritten must besides inform the states of the republic assembled 

 in the confederate diet, that he thought it of absolute necessity, in or- 

 der to prevent every disorder, to order two battalions of grenadiers, 

 with four pieces of cannon, to surround the castle, to secure the tran- 

 quility of their deliberations The underwritten expects that the sit- 

 ting will not terminate until the demanded signature of the tueatyis 



